FAILED
PURPOSES, FAITHFUL PRAYERS
Matthew
21:18-22
Looking back over your life, what would
you say was your greatest failure? Mine
would have to be college physics, as far as having an objective—passing the
course—and a verifiable result—test scores that proved I had no idea what was
going on! But God’s grace prevailed and
I was able to drop the course before any permanent damage was done to my grade
point average.
But there are
other areas in our lives that matter more than that, where our failure to
achieve our purpose, to fulfill our objective, had significant
consequences. If you feel like a
failure as a parent, that hurts! If
your purposes in marriage are not being realized, the pain is sometimes
overwhelming. If you have not kept your
priorities straight between work and the relationships in your life and are
suffering the consequences in both areas, you understand what it is like to
feel like a failure.
When that
happens, we usually try to overcompensate in another area to make up for the
deficit in the area of our failure. For example, some who are not doing well at
home try to make up for it by succeeding at work, or at church, or somewhere
else in the community. Subconsciously
we operate on the assumption that our failed purpose will not matter so much if
we find some way to succeed elsewhere.
In our spiritual
lives, when we understand God’s purpose for our lives and realize how far short
we are in fulfilling that purpose, we have a tendency to overcompensate, to try
to make up for the absence of success in what we know God wants us to be.
That is one of
the primary reasons for the problem Jesus is addressing in this passage: plenty of leaves, but no figs. We have failed to bear genuine, legitimate,
purposeful spiritual fruit in our lives so we try to compensate by trying for
another kind of success, a more visible, measurable kind of success we can
point to and feel good about. The problem is that we cannot make up for
failing at the purpose for which we were created!
Jesus addresses
the issue here and elsewhere—not to load us down with guilt and shame for our
failure, but to offer us hope that in faith, believing, we can in fact fulfill
God’s purposes in our lives.
THESIS: As we learn to live each day in prayerful
dependence upon Christ and His Word, we will no longer fail to fulfill God’s
purposes in our lives!
As we saw last
week, when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem that morning, He was hungry and looked
for figs on a tree that gave every appearance of being in fruit-bearing
season. He found no fruit, cursed the
tree and it withered. On the tree were plenty of leaves, but no fruit. The day before He had exposed the truth that
the worship in the Temple had plenty of
ceremony, but no faith.
Today we continue
in our look at this section of Matthew’s gospel to understand more about God’s
purpose and what happens when we compromise on His design.
I. WHAT WAS
HE LOOKING FOR?
--In His humanity, Jesus got hungry just like
everyone else and so as He saw the lone fig tree by the road, He went to it
looking for breakfast.
--He had a desire and looked to the tree to satisfy that
desire, in this case a desire for food.
A. GOD’S
DESIRE
--God also has a desire and looks to find it in each of us.
--He desires to be glorified by us since all things were
created for His glory and He rightly looks to us for what he expects to be
there.
God does not have any needs being the all-sufficient, or
self-sufficient God. However, He does
desire, and rightfully so, that what He intends to be does in fact come to be.
B. GOD’S
DESIGN
--Furthermore, by design we were created specifically for
His glory, to live for Him and through Him in everything about us.
--Just as He created fig trees to bear figs, so He designed
and created us to bear the fruit of His glory in our lives.
--In this “acted parable” Jesus communicates a message that
we cannot afford to miss, a warning that no one dares to ignore—a time comes
and a season arrives when God will cultivate His harvest no more.
God’s desire is for fruit to
be born in the lives of those called by His name:
·
Lost people reached
·
Christ-likeness produced
·
Worshipers discovered
God’s design is for building
the Body of Christ up to maturity in Christ and all His resources have been
made available to us toward that end.
When He comes to us and finds no
such fruit, what does He do? What if
all the resources have been squandered on unnecessary things, unprofitable
things?
II. WHAT DID
HE FIND?
--When he reached the tree, as we have seen, He
found plenty of leaves, but no figs…no fruit!
A. PROMISE
THAT PROVED TO BE DECEPTIVE
--When lots of leaves are on the branches, one should be
able to assume that the tree is bearing fruit.
--Instead the promise brought by the leaves proved to be
deceptive…there were no figs, just leaves only!
From the look of many churches, you would have to
believe that the people would be replicas of Christ since there are so many
leaves on the tree…so much activity and busy-ness among the members. But that is only so much “window dressing”
if there is little or no fruit of holiness, no fruit of genuine righteousness,
no fruit of the Spirit, growing in abundance among us.
If all our façade of religious sound and light does
not produce the character of Christ, the promise is not backed up by the
reality.
A
few years ago, a friend spoke of playing golf with a man who made a point of
telling him early in the round which church he went to, how involved he was and
how much he loved that church and the Lord.
Unfortunately, as the game went on, the man’s language and behavior did
little to confirm any true godliness in his life and the promise of his words
proved to be a cover for an unchanged heart.
B. EFFORT
THAT PROVED TO BE WORTHLESS
--Like the vineyard of Isaiah 5, the Lord has cultivated
well and His design is perfect, but when we get involved and our effort leaves
Him out, we could be consumed in activity that is worthless if we devote
ourselves to things that do not matter.
If you are attending every Bible study you can, volunteering for every
activity available, coming every time the church building is open, but have not
yielded your heart to Christ and surrendered your will to His, all your effort
will be worthless in that it will not, it cannot bear the fruit of
righteousness only Christ can produce.
C. GROWTH
THAT PROVED TO BE FUTILE
--The vast number of leaves on the tree cannot be the
measure of the health of the tree—not when there are plenty of leaves but no
fruit to be found.
--To our shame, in the church in the west we tend to be
impressed with numbers, how many people show up and in some ways “keep score”
as a measure of our spiritual health.
--It does not matter how many show up if there is no
corresponding change in the lives of those who come, no appropriate evidence of
transformation in those who join the “other leaves” on an otherwise barren
tree!
If large numbers establish worth, then it must be
that the garbage dump is a great place to eat…a million flies can’t be wrong!
When you see multiplied thousands
flocking to the cults, rushing to be identified with the latest fad religion
embraced by their favorite entertainer, even casting their lot with whatever
church is the most popular place to be—all with the result that the numbers
grow, but God gets no glory because no fruit is produced.
III. WHAT
DID HE DO?
--Rather than take a passive approach, Jesus takes
the opportunity to reinforce the lesson He has just taught in the Temple
courts—that the day of external religion and the outward display of
“duty-masquerading-as-righteousness” cannot continue any longer.
--As in the Temple, He takes action, this time by “cursing”
the fig tree and sealing its doom!
A. HE CONDEMNED THE KIND OF FAILURE IN A COMPROMISED PURPOSE
--If the purpose of the fig tree is to bear fruit, and it is
not doing that, no amount of leaves will be sufficient to make up for the lack
of what it was created to do.
--In this situation, Jesus makes it clear that a compromised
purpose is nothing less than an absolute failure undeserving of another
second chance.
Temple worship had once pointed forward to the one
perfect sacrifice who would die in the place of those who put their trust in
Him. As it deviated from that purpose
and became an end in itself, Jesus made it clear that it would no longer
exist. In fact, in the coming sections
in Matthew, He makes that point ever more decisively and speaks of the day to
come when the Temple will be destroyed and not one stone will be left on
another—an event that actually took place less than forty years later when the
Romans did just as He had said.
Even the veil of the Temple
was torn from top to bottom when the ultimate sacrifice was made at the cross
and the true holy of holies now took the place of the one made by human hands.
The call to be God’s people
was then also extended to those beyond the Chosen Ones, the Jewish nation, and
offered by grace to all who would believe in the Messiah.
--Because of God’s perfect plan, the old was destroyed so
that the new could come, a plan that embraces you and me as we come with the
“nations” to know and worship the Lord God through the grace of His Son, our
Savior, Jesus Christ!
B. HE COMMENDED THE KIND OF FAITH BEHIND AUTHENTIC PRAYER
--The disciples were amazed and intrigued by how the fig
tree had withered and asked Jesus about it.
Matthew 21:21-22
And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith,
and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even
if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall
happen. 22 “And all things
you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”
--As they left the city of Jerusalem, and went out across
the Mount of Olives back to Bethany, Jesus illustrated His point by speaking of
the mountain upon which they stood being cast into the Dead Sea just across the
way—obviously a feat that no human could in fact achieve.
--His point was simple, one that He had made before back in
Matthew 17…
Matthew 17:20b
...If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this
mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
--Faith in Christ must always be growing, never relying on
today’s portion for tomorrow’s need but trusting, believing more each day as we
learn more of the sufficiency of Christ for all things.
--The religion of Israel had lost its capacity to grow, to
respond, to approach God as if it mattered!
--So Jesus takes this opportunity to remind the disciples of
the value of their relationship with the Lord God in prayer, a relationship
that must never be reduced to repetitions of pious words, rehashing of empty
ceremonies—but must approach Him with the confidence that their faith in Him
lives and must grow!
Jesus’ statement regarding prayer is not intended to
offer His disciples ‘magical powers to do
whatever they please or to perform extraordinary feats for their own sake, such
as the withering of a fig tree. All
must be related to the purpose of God that is in the process of being
realized.’ (Donald Hagner, Fuller Seminary)
The growth of Christ-centered faith—living and spiritually
dynamic faith, as opposed to the stagnant religion of the Temple system and the
formalism of the Jewish traditions—is anchored in patient waiting, persistent
prayer and continued faithfulness
1. Patient Waiting: The results of faith are not always immediate.
--Faith waits without wavering, without wandering into
unbelief.
--They needed to learn how to wait while still believing,
how to see no immediate results and yet still trust Him to be at work to honor
His word.
We tend to be ‘little picture’ people trying to understand a ‘big
picture’ God and we get impatient and try to do things our way when He seems to
be slow. Sometimes we jump ahead and do
what we think we would like without even praying. When things don't work out right, we then conclude that we cannot
trust God and move further away from Him in the way we try to get things done.
God wants us to learn the hard lesson...faith usually involves waiting!
2. Persistent Prayer: Answers to prayer are not always obvious.
--Therefore, stick with it...don’t give up or give in, but
keep on praying until something happens!
--Jesus tells His disciples that the key to growing a
healthy, vibrant faith is persistent prayer that refused to give up when the
answers do not appear as quickly or clearly as we would like.
When we have prayed and nothing appears to be
happening, a natural, human tendency is to try to justify our actions. So when no obvious answers to prayer appear,
we begin to make the act of praying an end in itself and formalize the
process…structure it…define how it must be done…set out orderly steps…and
eventually once we have stripped it of its purpose in conversing with God, we
make it a ritual of our religious duty instead of a time of precious and
powerful intercourse with the Lord God Almighty!
3. Continued Faithfulness: The benefits of faithfulness are not always
clear.
--Doing what God wants may in fact lead to some confusion before there is any clarity.
--In the meantime, we wait with contentment and confidence
while we continue to do things God’s way, resisting the temptation to improvise!
--Faithfulness is always pleasing to the Lord but not always
the way that makes the most sense to us.
--Even when you cannot make out the design behind what God
says is the right way, in order for your faith to grow stronger and your
relationship with Jesus Christ to grow deeper, continue in faithfulness!
--The empty rituals and corrupt practices of the Temple,
along with the external show and fruitless efforts of Israel’s religious
identity served as a platform for Jesus to build a fresh model of meaningful,
significant, dynamic faith to which His followers could aspire!
IV. WHAT DID
ALL THIS MEAN?
A. THE DAY HAS PASSED TO TOLERATE WHAT IS USELESS
--God is not impressed with “plenty of leaves, but no fruit”
in our spiritual lives.
--If we ever thought that maintaining a good and respectable
appearance in the way we handle the things of God, He makes it clear that He
will not tolerate forms without reality.
--Paul calls this kind of religion a matter of “holding to a
form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).
B. THE DAY HAS COME TO EMBRACE WHAT IS PROFITABLE
--Christ shows the emptiness of form, and the
ineffectiveness of tradition with His actions with the Temple and the fig tree.
--The message is clear in what He says next that the time
has come to accept nothing less than a life of faith and a commitment to
believe.
--Reality, integrity,
authenticity, veracity—these are found only in a personal relationship with
God through Jesus Christ.
1. A
Personal Relationship with God—“to know
Him…”
2. A New
Place of Worship—“you are the temple of HS”
3. A Growing Confidence in Prayer—“believing…you shall receive”
Take a moment and consider the question posed by these two events in
the life of Christ: Of all that makes
up what I call my spiritual life, am I merely going through the motions or am I
pursuing a genuine, fruitful relationship with the Lord?
Then the follow-up question, is the path I am pursuing bearing
authentic fruit for the glory of God, or just generating leaves on a fruitless
tree?
Do you sometimes feel like a failure in
your spiritual life? Have you almost
given up the idea that you can ever meet God’s expectations? Is the primary focus of your spiritual life
invested in overcompensating with outward evidences of spiritual health when in
all honesty you know that you are failing to make up for what is really
missing?
Christ calls
each of us to come to Him, to bear much fruit by abiding in Him—even when we
feel like failures! What He does not
accept and will not endure is an endless display of trees with plenty of
leaves, but with no evidence of genuine fruit.
God would rather
have folks who are struggling and admit it, than folks who are faking it and
content with only the appearance of godliness.
All of us are good at putting up a good front, dressing up the
façade—God wants us to step it up and get honest and real with Him so that He
can actually bear His fruit in our lives.
Will you let Him do that in you today?
Providence Baptist Church
© David Horner 2004
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