Mankind has an intellectual problem, a moral problem. It's this, we expect God to act the way that we would act if we were in charge. We think that if God were truly wise, he would do what we would do. But God doesn't, he doesn't do what we would do if we were in charge. God is always doing things his way and not ours, including when God sent a savior His Savior did things His way and not the way that we would have done it. For centuries, the Jews were waiting for a Savior, but when He arrived, He wasn't the Messiah that they were expecting. Jesus surprised the Jews in almost every way. And so by and large, the Jewish people refused to follow Him. Question for each one of us today is, will you follow a Savior who surprises you? Will you follow a Jesus who doesn't do the things you would have done? We're continuing our studies in the book of Matthew. If you're visiting with us today, we started at Matthew 1. We're just going through the book and studying whatever passage comes up next. And as we do that today, we're going to see five ways in which Jesus is surprising. The first one is this. Jesus has surprising compassion. Jesus has surprising compassion for the weak, the lowly, and the hurting who trust in him. Look at Matthew 20, verse 29. As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die for our sins. We've been tracking him. He left Galilee, which has been his home base for ministry, much of his public ministry. He's at Jericho, headed towards Jerusalem now. knowing that he's going there to die for us and then to rise from the dead. As Jesus travels on this road, it's time for the Passover. And so Jesus is not alone on the road to Jerusalem. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews packing the roads into Jerusalem as they gather for this yearly festival. Jesus is a big deal by now, right? He's had three years of public ministry. And so especially the people that are coming down the road with him from Galilee, they have heard Jesus teach with authority like no one else ever teaches. They have seen Jesus heal. They've seen Jesus drive out demons, feed huge crowds. Some of them have even seen Jesus control the weather. And so there's this huge crowd traveling to Jerusalem up out of Jericho with Jesus. Look at verse 30. And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. These two men, blind men, have heard tales of Jesus, and they've probably thought hundreds of times, if only Jesus were to come by here. And today, Jesus is going right by where they're sitting alongside the road asking for money. These two blind men, they have come to believe in Jesus through the things that they have heard. They cry out here, Lord. And in the book of Matthew, no one but true believers ever calls Jesus Lord. Others who are exploring his claims but aren't committed to him, in Matthew, they address him with different words. The rich young ruler, the Pharisees, when they come up to Jesus, they say, teacher. But these blind men believe in him. They cry out, Lord. They call out, Son of David. See, the thousand years before Jesus, the Lord had made a promise to David, the king at the time, and the Jews are hanging onto it for a thousand years. The promise is this. To David, the Lord said, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Initially, this promise was fulfilled in Solomon, but it points ahead to Jesus, right? His kingdom forever. The son of David. These two blind men, they believe that Jesus is this promised son of David. So when they hear that their Lord Jesus is passing by on the road, they start yelling. Because they can't go to him. They're blind. They can't find him in the crowd. Somebody says to him, it's just Jesus. This is why it's so noisy now. And so many people are walking by. And so they do the only thing they could do to try to get his attention. They just, over the noise of the crowd, they start making as much noise as they can. They're just yelling, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. They believe in him. Now, during Passover, there's beggars everywhere. Everyone's going down, hundreds of thousands of people to Jerusalem, and so the beggars take advantage of this, and the people that are hurting, they sit along the roads and they ask for money. This is Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah. He's headed to his capital city. Everyone's thinking, this is the time. Jesus is going to take his rightful throne. After a thousand years, the son of David is going to come. He's going to overthrow our oppressors. Like, Jesus has got big things, important things going on right now. And so the crowd shushes these two beggars. Matthew 20, verse 31, you see it? The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but They cried out all the more. Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. The crowd exerts a lot of pressure, but the crowd is almost always wrong. On this day, the crowd says to the beggars, don't bother Jesus. He has more important things to do than to deal with lowly beggars like you. To you today, the crowd might say, oh, Jesus can't help you. You have modern problems, complex problems. Your problems are too much for Jesus. Don't listen to the crowd. Don't listen to the crowd. Keep on calling out to Jesus until he comes to your rescue. They cried out all the more, these blind men. They cried out, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. They can't see where he is. They can't go to him. All they can do is yell. And so they do. Verse 32. And Jesus stopped and called them and said, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened. Friend, call out to Jesus. He will stop and listen to you. What do you want Jesus to do for you? Are you weak today? Are you hurting in some way? Do you have problems that you can't solve and that nobody else around you can solve? Have you asked Jesus to help you? As he says to you, what do you want me to do for you? Look at verse 34, moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. a Christian blogger that I love. I've been reading his blog for, I don't know, a decade. His name is Tim Chalice. Just in the last couple of weeks, Tim's college-age son, who was going to seminary to study for ministry, died suddenly. And so, I feel like I know him because I've been reading his blog. And so, over the last couple of weeks, he's just been blogging through his grief over losing his son. Monday, Tim Chalice wrote these words. He said there are tough decisions to be made. At a few points through the last weeks, I've had to make a decision, run to the bathroom to be sick, then settle down to make the next decision, only to be sick again. I feel my stomach churning as I consider the next ones on the list. What wording would we like on Nick's gravestone? Should Aileen and I buy the plot next to him so that when our time comes, we can be with him? Some of you know this kind of grief and have been through it. There's times in our life when our hurt is so deep that it churns our stomachs. Verse 34, that word that describes Jesus, moved with compassion. The idea of the Greek original is that Jesus's stomach churned for these men. Don't ever believe that the Lord doesn't care for you in your hurt. He is compassionate. That's who Jesus is and he is powerful. Do you notice how Jesus heals these two men? Verse 34, moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. One commentator notes here, Jesus had no problem with curing with a word from a distance when the situation called for it. But whenever the disease is particularly loathsome, leprosy or blindness with his running sores, Jesus touches it. Jesus moves in where others usually move out or move away or move on. You know, in the Bible, no one else ever heals a blind person but Jesus. The great prophets of the Old Testament didn't heal blind people. The apostles in the New Testament didn't heal blind people. Today, the sham faith healers don't even try to heal blind people because they know they can't do it. But Jesus can do whatever he wants. Jesus can cure anything. And so there in verse 34, moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight and followed him. Would you follow a savior who surprises you? Jesus has surprising compassion for the weak, the lowly, and the hurting who trust in him. Now, the next passage, as we're walking through this text, the next passage, chapter 21, is the triumphal entry. We think of this as the Palm Sunday passage, and I actually am holding on to this passage for Palm Sunday, Matthew 21. We're going to go over it quickly today so we can do it then. The way this is working out, and I'm excited about it, if we keep going through Matthew at the pace we've been, we'll be to Easter, right when Jesus is rising from the dead. So I'm super pumped about that direction we're headed. So we're holding off on this passage, but we do need, by seeing that it's here, it gives us a sense of where we are in Jesus's life, right? Because Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry, that's passion week. Like we have one week left in Jesus's life. So the whole first 20 chapters of Matthew, we've looked at Jesus's first 36 years of life. And now the last eight chapters of the book, all the way from here to the end, we have eight chapters on Seven days. And it's because these last days of Jesus' life are so important that the Gospel writers slow down and teach us about it. Here's an outline of the Passion Week. Palm Sunday. I actually think I'm following Harold Horner in this. I think that that triumphal entry actually happened on a Monday. But, so this is what would be happening, we're at Monday of Palm Sunday, Jesus is going to die on Friday, right? Here, as he rides into the city on a donkey. What happens here, as we go through the Passion Week, as you read through the Gospels, Jesus will go into Jerusalem and do something public, and then in the evening he goes back up to Bethany. See, in the evenings? Because Bethany is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus, Jesus' friends, live. There's so many people coming into Jerusalem for the Passover that they what they had to do the hundreds of thousands of visitors They had to just camp all around the city. Well, Jesus has got friends. So he stays with his friends every night He'll go back up to Bethany. Here's a drawing of the city in those days So Jesus is staying in Bethany and every morning he would walk down the Mount of Olives enter the city of Jerusalem and So this is where we're at, to get a sense for Jesus's entry into the city. Remember when Jesus healed two blind men earlier in Matthew? He told them, now don't tell anybody. Well, the time for Jesus saying don't tell anybody is past. Now, Jesus is intentionally making a stir. Actually, Jesus is gonna, he's gonna head down into Jerusalem with, some people say he's like he's throwing down the gauntlet. Jesus is just gonna walk, walk in there like he's in charge of the place. So he does that on Palm Sunday or Monday of the week. Look at Matthew 21, verses 9 and 11. You get a sense for this. Mike read it. The crowd's going ahead of him and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. When he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, who is this? And the crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. Okay, that's Monday. Monday night, Jesus goes back to Bethany, spends the night. Now it's gonna be Tuesday. We're gonna pick up the story in verse 12. On Tuesday, Jesus is gonna walk down to Jerusalem and stir the pot some more. See Matthew 21, 12, and Jesus entered the temple. Would you follow a Savior who surprises you? Jesus has surprising compassion. Secondly, we'll see Jesus has a surprising strategy for saving the world. Jesus has a surprising strategy for saving the world. Letter A on your sheets there. Jesus totally ignored the powerful unjust government. Jesus is walking into Jerusalem here. He's gonna totally ignore the powerful unjust government and all human levers of power. Okay, so as Jesus is on Monday, he rides down into the city on a donkey. The people are saying Hosanna to the son of David. They're thinking Jesus is now going to assert his authority. Everyone is expecting Jesus to conquer Rome and set up his eternal kingdom there in Jerusalem. Rome was oppressive. Rome was violent. Rome ruled their conquered nations with a cruel, bloody iron fist, and they were chafing under it. We would not want to be Jews under Roman rule. It was horrible, oppressive. So if Jesus is here to save the Jews, everybody assumes Jesus is here to save us from the oppressive Romans, from the government. Jesus comes down the road from Bethany into Jerusalem, where he would have entered the city. Right here you can see there's the Temple Mount. It's a large area around the temple. And then kind of up in the corner you can see this, it's called the Antonia Fortress. The Antonia Fortress is where the Romans would have been. And in Passover, they would have had a lot of soldiers in charge. Because the Romans, if they knew how to do anything, it was to use power to keep people under control, right? So they've got soldiers patrolling the streets, they've got their fortress stacked. Here's a zoom in, so the Temple Mount, Antonia Fortress was right there. The Romans would sit there and they could watch what was happening on, just in case the Jews get any ideas about revolt, they can put it down right now, right with their soldiers. Here's a zooming in a little bit more, the Antonia Fortress. There's a scale model of Jerusalem you can go see over in Israel. Dave's probably been there, right? And so here's the fortress where the Roman soldiers were hanging out. So Jesus is coming into the city on Tuesday. This is where the Roman troops are. Everyone's just wondering how Jesus is going to defeat these Romans. I mean, Jesus has supernatural powers. So, some people are probably thinking He's just gonna walk into that Roman garrison by Himself like a Jedi Knight and take Him down, right? I mean, Jesus can do what He wants. Or, some people are thinking, okay, well, how is He? Passover's the perfect time, because we've got hundreds of thousands of Jews here, and they would have followed Jesus. Jesus said the word, now's the time, boys, let's go. He would have had an army, right? Or is Jesus going to use political levers to try to gain power? I mean, he's a great teacher. I mean, at least there ought to be a peaceful demonstration or something, right? I mean, but Jesus, as he comes into the city, doesn't go to the Antonia Fortress at all. Jesus never even mentions all the gross injustices of the Roman government. It's absolutely shocking. It's so surprising. One of Jesus's 12 disciples abandons him. Like, Jesus, what are you doing? It'd be like showing up in Hong Kong right now and saying, I'm the savior. I'm here to deliver you, people. And then not even addressing the communist government that's taking away all their freedoms. Doesn't Jesus know who the enemy is? Jesus has a surprising strategy. for saving the world, he totally ignores the powerful unjust government and all the human levers of power. What he does instead, letter B on your sheets, he focused all his attention on restoring proper worship of God. As Jesus comes into the city, he focuses his attention on restoring proper worship of God. Jesus does not address the sins of the government. He addresses the broken relationship between the people and their God. The leaders that Jesus takes issue with are not Romans. The people he takes issue with are the worship leaders in the temple. Look there, Matthew 21, verse 11. Here's a drawing of the temple mount. It's a huge area. During Passover, it was probably busier than this, but you're standing underneath one of the porticos, looking at the temple there. This is what it would have looked like a little bit in Jesus' day. Matthew 21, look at verse 12. As Jesus entered the temple, he drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but you are making it a robber's den. Okay, it's busy in the temple grounds, but what's happening in the temple grounds as Jesus walks in on this day is not prayer. It's not worship. It's corrupt, noisy business. Now, some of the business is necessary to worship God. The Jews are coming from all over. They're going to have to buy sacrificial animals that they can offer. And the Jews are coming from all over and there's all these different currencies. And so they do need to change their currency from what they usually have back at home to what the temple will accept. Only one kind of currency the temple accepted then. And so there's these things that are happening are necessary, but there's a couple of problems. One, the Jews are doing all of this business in the temple. where the focus is supposed to be on prayer and the worship of God. God's idea was that when you would come for Passover, you could go there and have a place for quiet meditation and repentance and drawing near to this God who has delivered you. This business should be taking place outside the temple so that when people could enter the temple, they could focus on God. And yet it's crazy in there. It's like a county fair. Just animals, busyness, Also bad, the business that's happening in the temple courts is unjust, it's dishonest. Jesus calls it out there. You see in verse 13, he says, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a robber's den. One Christian and Jewish historian, Edersheim, he says that in these days, You go to the temple, they would only let you sacrifice animals that you purchased in the temple. They had to be authorized animals. You're supposed to be able to bring them from home if you live close. But you had to buy it in the temple. And what they did is they raised the prices of everything you could buy in the temple 10 times. So you're paying 10 times the right amount. They're ripping the people off, but it's the only way to worship and they're taking advantage of them. And so Jesus said, this is a den of robbers here. Well, Jesus is angry. God is not being worshiped. And so Jesus goes in there and he drives them all out. And this is a huge place. I mean, there's hundreds of traders that have got their places set up all throughout this temple of course, hundreds of them. And they have all paid good money to be authorized dealers like for this spot, they bought it. And yet Jesus goes in there and he is angry and he's abrupt. And he starts, he goes to the tables and he starts turning them over and the coins are rolling across the floor and he drives them out. Jesus is angry because they're not They're all getting in the way of people worshiping God. And when Jesus is angry, even in his life as a human, people are afraid. Jesus is powerful, right? And so they're afraid. The people that bought these licenses to sell here, they are getting out of there. They leave. The Jewish rulers are too afraid to stop him. Part of the thing is they know he's right. In their heart, they know what they've been doing is wrong and Jesus is right. And so Jesus clears the place out And it would have, I mean, there's a lot of tables to turn over, right? But it says in Mark, I think, that they couldn't, Jesus wouldn't even allow them to carry goods through there, right? So he clears the whole place out. And now it's eerily quiet in the temple courts. Still a lot of people, but who's left in the temple courts? Nobody doing business. Well, there's, the beggars are still all here. Matthew 21, look at verse 14. and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. Jesus is angry with those who won't worship God rightly, but with the weak and the lowly and the hurting, he has compassion. Jesus has a surprising strategy for saving the world. I think that this is instructive for us as an evangelical church right now. What? Because I don't think that Jesus's strategy for changing the world has changed from that time that he showed up and went to the temple instead of to Antonia's fortress. But I'm afraid, brothers and sisters, that the evangelical church today is on the verge of abandoning Jesus's strategy. Somewhere, the evangelical church today has gotten the idea that our mission from God is to transform the culture. Nowhere in the New Testament are we ever instructed to go out and change the culture. But somehow we've gotten the idea that the key to bringing about God's good plan is to get our people into human places of power, into human government. But that strategy doesn't come from Jesus. When Jesus came, he ignored human government and all the levels of human power until they came and arrested him. He was busy with something else. Jesus was clearing the way for sinners to be able to worship God rightly. And that's the mission that Jesus has given to us. He hasn't called us, church, go out and transform society. The mission that he's given to us is to go find sinners who don't know God and to bring them to Jesus so that they can become true worshipers. And it doesn't seem like a good strategy. It doesn't seem like you're going to make an impact going one at a time and focusing on worship instead of using the power that's in place. And yet that's Jesus's strategy and that's a strategy he's given to us. We need to embrace it. Politics is not the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Let's be about the gospel. We're Jesus's people. He's a surprising savior. Would you follow a Savior who surprises you? Jesus has a surprising strategy for saving the world. Also, Jesus makes surprising claims about who He is. Jesus makes surprising claims about who He is. Look at verse 14 again, Matthew 21, 14. The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, And the children who were shouting in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they became indignant and said to him, do you hear what these children are saying? Jesus is in the temple, he's healing the blind and the lame, and it is awesome. It's awesome. There's young people, they're running around in the courts, and they're just crying out, Hosanna to the son of David. The word Hosanna, it's interesting to study, when it first was being used, Hosanna, it means, save me, I pray. And it had messianic connotations. But by the time we get to this point in the New Testament, the word Hosanna, they basically just use it in everyday speech to mean praise. It's just, it's a simple word for praise. And so children are running here and there throughout the temple shouting, have you seen what Jesus is doing? Some of them would be like, he healed my dad. He healed my mom. Praise the son of David. And Jesus is being praised in the temple. But wait, the leaders think, wait, wait, wait. Only Yahweh should be praised in the temple of Yahweh. I mean, if Jesus is just a man, then this is blasphemous what's going on. If Jesus is just a man, he should stop these kids. No, don't praise me, only praise God. So the furious religious leaders, they go up to Jesus and they say, do you hear what these children are saying? They're praising you. And calling him the Messiah. And look at verse 16. How does Jesus answer this question? The first thing he says, Do you hear what these children are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes. They're like, yeah, I hear them praising me. You guys have a problem with that? And then Jesus, he's gonna quote a verse from the Old Testament to justify not stopping the children from praising him. And as he does so, Jesus is going to put himself on the same level as God the Father. Look at verse 16. Okay, so did you hear what the children are saying? They're praising you. And Jesus said to them, yes. Have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself? Jesus here quotes Psalm 8. Psalm 8 is a psalm of praise to God. It starts, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have displayed your splendor above the heavens from the mouth of infants and nursing babes. You have established praise for yourself. The Jewish leaders come to Jesus and say, hey, Jesus, the kids are praising you. And Jesus' answer is, yes, God has always been pleased to receive the praises of His children. And the Jewish leaders are like, wait, what? Is Jesus claiming that He has, that it's right for Jews to come from all over the world to come to the temple and praise Jesus? Yes, Jesus deserves worship alongside the Father because He is absolutely the Father's equal. And so he's like, yeah, yeah, the kids are praising me. Isn't it great? It quotes the Old Testament. Kids have always praised God. Would you follow a savior who surprises you? Jesus makes surprising claims about who he is. Fourthly, Jesus shows surprising anger toward religion or morality that's only external. Next, we're going to be surprised by Jesus's anger. Jesus shows surprising anger by toward religion or morality that's just external. Okay, look there at Matthew 21 verse 17. And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany to spend the night there. Now in the morning when he was returning to the city, he became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only. And he said to it, no longer shall there ever be any fruit from you. And then once the fig tree withered. Okay, now, Matthew, when he's telling these stories, he's not super tied to chronology and getting everything exactly in order. To get it all exactly in order, if you look at the other Gospels, you can see how it does piece together. Matthew just kind of compresses it into one account. If you want to be specific about it, okay, so Jesus comes down, the triumphal entry, He cleanses the temple. Actually, the cursing of the fig tree happens in the morning before he goes and drives the people out of the temple. So the cursing of that fig tree happens on Tuesday morning. Then Jesus drives out the temple. And then Wednesday morning, he and his disciples are going to walk by that cursed fig tree again, and they're going to have a discussion about it. Matthew just kind of compresses it all together. So verse 18, this is happening Tuesday morning. Jesus is fully human. He got hungry. Mark tells us in his account that it's not the season for figs yet. But Jesus looks at this particular fig tree, and it's all leafed out. It may be that it's early, that it's one of the earliest fig trees around, that it's already got all its leaves. And everybody knew that if a fig tree had all its leaves, then it ought to have fruit already. The fruit came actually before the leaves. Now, it wasn't ripe and delicious yet this early, but there would have been something you could have picked off there and eaten. And Jesus is hungry, so he sees a fig tree along the side of the road, and it's got all its leaves, and so he walks over to it expecting fruit, and there isn't fruit, there's only leaves. And so Jesus says, no longer shall there ever be any fruit from you, and at once the fig tree withers. Well, that's the morning of Tuesday, the disciples go, they come back again Wednesday morning, and they walk by this tree that was beautiful the one day, and on Wednesday, it's dead. And so the disciples asked Jesus about it. Verse 20, seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, how did the fig tree wither all at once? Now, modern Bible readers, when we come across this passage, we tend to think, Boy, why is Jesus so grumpy? Like, does he need a Snickers or something? You know, that's hangry going on here, because he, because it's like he's, he's got, he's hungry, and there's no food, and so curse that tree, it'll never bear fruit again, and it's dead the next day. It's like, it's just, it seems kind of childish. All right, but there's more going on than you can see if you're just looking at the tree. Actually, Jesus is using this tree as a picture for Israel. Hold your finger here in Matthew, go back with me to Luke chapter 13. So we're in Matthew, if you go over to Mark and then Luke, we're going to Luke 13.6. Luke 13.6, Jesus is going to tell a parable about a fig tree that doesn't bear fruit. This actually happened a little bit before this in Jesus' life. Luke 13.6, look, Jesus began telling this parable. A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard keeper, behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down. Why does it even use up the ground? And he answered and said to him, let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer. And if it bears fruit next year, fine. But if not, cut it down. The fig tree in this parable stands for the people of Israel. About a year ago when Jesus was telling the story, saying, listen, I came to the Jews and I was preaching to them that they needed to turn their hearts to God. but they wouldn't. He's looking for fruit. But Jesus, at that time, when he told the parable in Luke 13, he's like, I'm going to give them a little bit more time. I'm going to keep preaching. I'm going to show them myself. I'm going to do these miracles. I'm going to give them a little bit more time to receive me and to give their hearts to God and to turn away from their sin. But if they won't, I'm going to judge them. OK, that was Luke 13. Now we've skipped ahead to the last week of Jesus's life. And Jesus knows that in two days, They're going to kill him. And the Son of God came to the Jews to call them back to the Father, to let go of their sins and to be right with God. And they wouldn't. And so what Jesus is doing with this fig tree, the fig tree stands for Israel. He's looking for fruit on it. On the outside, it looks nice. There's religion. There's a temple. Everyone's going for Passover and offering sacrifices. It looks nice. But when you look for fruit of like a heart that loves God, that's not there. And so, since Israel isn't responding with their hearts to God, Israel is about to be judged. And so, Jesus curses this fig tree as a picture of judgment is coming on Israel, the people of God, very soon. And so, there's something more going on with this fig tree than just that Jesus is hungry, right? Look here at 1 Samuel 16, 7. God sees, not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. This peril of the fig tree, it's put there as a warning to people of all ages. God is looking at our heart. He's looking for fruit, not just external things. So many people, their religion is, I go to church, I do nice things. So that when someone would look from afar, maybe your neighbor or other people in your church, they look and they see, okay, well, he looks nice, but God looks deeper, right? He's looking, do you love me from your heart? Do you turn from your sin and embrace me? Is this a real thing from your heart? God looks for fruit. And there's a warning to us here. If your relationship with God is just something external and things you do, but it's not who you love, then you're on your way to judgment. And there's a warning for you, like, before it's too late, before the judgment comes, give your heart to Him. He's looking for fruit. Jesus is a surprising Savior. One more surprise we want to see as we walk through this passage. Go back to Matthew 21. Would you follow a Savior who surprises you? Number five, Jesus gives His people a surprising promise. Jesus gives his people a surprising promise. Matthew chapter 21, verse 21. Okay, so the disciples ask, how did the fig tree wither all at once? And Jesus answered and said to them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will 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 will happen. And All things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. Man, this is a huge promise. Did you see it, verse 22? All things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. Now, before you try to take advantage of that promise, I want you first to ask yourself, does this promise apply to me? The promise only applies to those who have surrendered their hearts and lives to Jesus. If you haven't given your heart to Jesus and said, Jesus, I'm yours, forgive me. If you haven't surrendered your heart and life to Jesus, then you don't have a relationship with him to be able to go and ask and have him to promise to give you things. If your heart's not his, this promise is not for you. But if it is for you, look at what Jesus says. I'll try to rephrase it, although he says it better, but letter B on your sheets, The promise is, ask Him and trust Him, and He will give you the good things you ask for. The promise to those who know Christ, ask Him and trust Him, and Jesus will give you the things, the good things you ask for. I'm going to give three quick explanations of this. Number one, if you ask selfishly, you void the promise. If you ask selfishly, you void the promise. You can go look up James 4, 3. If I'm asking for something but it's just for me, then the promise doesn't apply. Jesus isn't necessarily gonna give me that. But secondly, whatever God has promised you, be asking Him for it and believe that He'll give it to you. Okay, so if God has promised you something as a Christian, you should ask God for it and believe that He's gonna give it to you. This week I was going through my week and there was a day where I was just inexplicably discouraged. My emotions go up and down and there wasn't anything going on. Is it that way for you? Sometimes it's like, okay, this day, what I'm doing, I do the thing and then I do the next thing and hopefully I'll get the end of these tasks and then I can go to bed. the hope for the day. And then I got up the next morning, I'm still feeling the same way. So I was doing my devotions and I was reading this passage and some other things in scripture. And it was like the Lord said to me, hey, Mike, I promised you joy. And I wasn't walking in joy. And so I was like, well, Lord, you said you'll give me whatever I ask. And so, Lord, you promised joy. Will you give me joy? And it was almost like the Lord was like, yeah, I was waiting for you to ask, right? And so very quickly, the Lord gave me back the joy that I normally experience from Him. And I just thought, well, this is how it is for us. God has promised us all of these things. But sometimes for me to experience the blessing that He's promised to me, I just have to go and ask Him for it and then believe. Well, He said He's going to do it, and so He will. Is there something that God has promised to you? Like, it's just, as a believer, God's promised you this peace, or comfort, or joy, or strength, like all these things He's promised to us in His Word, but you're not experiencing it? What Jesus asks you to do is just come and ask and believe that He's gonna give it to you, and He will. Sometimes you have to you have to go and keep asking, right? He might be holding it back from you for a time just because he's got something he wants to teach you There's something special he's doing in your life right now But the idea is he's gonna the promise is ask for it and he'll give it to you. You just got to believe him an awesome thing And we say well, I'm talking about things that they're under letter B that God has promised us The Jesus is Promise goes a little bit more than just that right verse 22. It says all things you ask in prayer believing you will receive Well, what about what about things that God hasn't exactly specifically promised me? Can I can I go to God and ask him for things? He hasn't specifically promised and the answer is yes In fact, he wants you to do that. He wants you to come and ask him for things. Number three, if something seems good to you, like it's going to bring glory to God and it just seems good and right. If something seems good to you, but God hasn't promised it, you should still go ask. It's good. He likes it when his children come and ask him. Now, again, you might have to ask over and over again. He wants us to be persistent in asking for good things. And it very well may be that you're asking for this thing from him that you think is good, and what he's actually gonna do is show you, actually, that's not best, I got something else. Right, if he hasn't promised it, sometimes he's gonna hold that back, he's gonna give you something else good. But we have this promise to God that if we will believe him and we'll ask him, he's gonna give us the good things we ask for. And it's just, maybe that's kind of my take away from this sermon. Like, I just gotta go ask God for good things and He's promised He's gonna give them. And then just trust, just trust that He's gonna come through. This is a surprising promise. This is where we close this passage. I just wanna invite you to trust this Jesus. He is a surprising Jesus. He doesn't do things the way that we expect, right? He's surprising in His compassion for the weak. He's surprising in his focus on internal heart things. He's angry with religion that's just external. Many are surprised by that. Surprised in his strategy for how he's going to go about changing people's lives. He's doing it one heart at a time. He's surprising in what he promises for those who walk with him. Do you know this, Jesus? Will you follow him even though he does things his own way? I just want to invite you, like if you never said, Jesus, I am yours, what you need to do to be Jesus is you have to understand that you're a sinner and that he died in your place on that cross. He took your full penalty. And then once you know that he's died and he's risen again, if you'll just come to him and say, Jesus, I am yours. Save me. He'll take you as his own forever. Right? Do that today if you haven't ever given your heart to Christ. Just call out to Him this morning and He'll receive you. And then, as a Christian, once He has saved you, He's surprising, He won't do everything the way you expect. But this Jesus is surprisingly good. Following Him is surprisingly good. Trust Him, He's the only Savior that there is and He loves and He has compassion for you. Come to Him. Let's pray. Lord, will you give us confidence in your word? You said we're supposed to ask believing. Will you give us that confidence to know that the things that you say will come true? Help us not to second guess you or to hold you at arm's length, but to be like the beggars and just say, Jesus, Lord, son of David, save me. Whatever it is we're facing, Lord, you want us to run to you. I pray that we do that and that then we'd be able to see your power at work and the truthfulness of your promises to us as your children. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.