Let's turn to Mark chapter 11, and we'll study this morning verses 20 through 25. Mark chapter 11, in the passage this morning, we will consider the lesson of the withered fig tree, as you see in the heading there. That lesson is to have faith in God. Have faith in God. Before we consider this paragraph in Mark's gospel, Let's look at the previous paragraphs, where we saw a very disappointing day. That was Mark 11, verses 12 through 19. That was on Monday of the Passion Week, where Jesus went back to Jerusalem. And on his way to Jerusalem, he saw a fig tree in leaf. Therefore, he expected that tree to have figs on it, and he didn't find any. And then in Jerusalem, he expected there to be worship in the temple, but instead he found commerce and shortcuts. The worship there wasn't what he had prescribed. That place was supposed to be the house of prayer, is what he said. He found something else that he hadn't prescribed. Now as we looked at the fig tree, we saw that the fig tree wasn't producing figs. And given all that information on Monday of the Passion Week, we can see that it was a very disappointing day. I had folks tell me last week after I preached the message that I got really excited last week. Well, it seems in the passage that Jesus got really excited, so I was trying to communicate a little of that to you last week from the text. Why were they so excited? in the wrong way, in a disappointing way? Well, from the fig tree, we learn that God expects us to fulfill our purpose in life, that we're supposed to glorify him, just like a fig tree is supposed to produce figs. And we learn from the temple experience that in our worship, God expects us to please him by doing what he prescribes instead of what makes us happy. Our worship time right now is not about having a good time. I can post about in Facebook when I get home, or even in the moment. This is about the worship of God. And even outside of the corporate worship of God, our lives, since our bodies are the temple of God, all of our lives are supposed to be given to pleasing God. And on that Monday, that wasn't what Jesus was seeing, whether it was the fig tree or in the temple. But God desires that he would see in each of his blood-brought people fruit for his namesake, that they would bring him glory, that they would please him, whether they're in corporate worship or away from brothers and sisters in the Lord and simply serving the Lord from day to day. That's what we considered last week. Now today, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, let's consider faith in God, faith in God. Let's ask for God's help and let's depend on him right now together as we open his word and seek to understand it. Father, it is by your spirit that indwells our heart that we are able to understand what you've said to us in your word. Apart from your work in our life, we won't understand your word. So, Father, we admit that we have to depend on you, and we ask you now to help us understand, help us be hearers of your word, and then, Lord, help us to be doers of your word. We ask for that in Jesus' name. Amen. The kids were home this last week because it was winter break. And because of that, we thought it was a good idea to make a list of things that they enjoyed doing. And then throughout the week, we checked off those things as we did them together. Now, the kids also got a chance to be in the woodshop with Dad. Why? Because I enjoy woodworking. That's something that I like doing, so they got to do that with me. Now, as a disclaimer, I didn't allow my kids anywhere close to the power tools, all right? They're not allowed to use them. They did observe me using them, but from a very good distance away, all right? See, I love that my kids are able to observe their dad take raw materials like a piece of wood and make something useful. But I must say, every single time I get into the woodshop and I use a tool, it reminds me that I need to be careful, because that tool is very powerful. With that tool, I can create great designs and teach my children to create great things. But with that kind of tool, There can also be great damage that comes from it. As we look at Mark chapter 11, we see in this text a contrast. On the one hand, there is the withered tree. On the other hand, there is mountain-moving faith. Such extremes which God has the power to affect. He can do both of those things. Now, if you were to Google this text and listen to a sermon from popular people online, you would find very quickly that a lot of people slaughter this passage. They manipulate this passage to be a blank check for whatever their hearts desire. Have faith in God. Believe it and you can have it. Well, that's not any good. Why? The reason why that is not good is because of a rule of interpretation. And the rule of thumb in interpretation is this, that we are to preach a text within its context. We cannot preach a text outside of its context because a text without its context is a pretext. A text without its context is a pretext. So there would be some today who preach a prosperity gospel like Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, or Joyce Myers, and they would use this kind of passage to teach that God will overcome what is keeping you from your dreams. God can help you to have your best life now. Put action into your faith. Feel that you have it, and then you will experience it. Step out in faith. God has got this. You can, not just survive, God wants you to thrive. That's what they say. And that is preaching this passage without its context, which is preaching this text as a pretext. Not good. Now there are others who are well within conservative circles, evangelical circles, who do the same thing, but because they actually have an orthodox framework for their faith, they're not preaching heresy. You say, well, that's good that they're not preaching heresy, but it's not sufficient because we're supposed to preach a text in its context. Now, there are other interpreters who will neglect the immediate context of a passage in favor of a different layer of context or a different hermeneutical principle. Let me explain what I'm trying to say. This morning, actually, in Sunday school, we taught the kids this principle, that we interpret Scripture with Scripture. The principle is you use Scripture to interpret Scripture. So people look at this passage, and then they run to a passage like Luke chapter 13, and they say that this fig tree refers to unbelieving Israel, and therefore Israel needed to believe in Jesus, therefore we do too. So they would apply this passage to say that have faith in God means that you need to get saved. Israel needed to get saved, and you need to get saved. Have faith in God. Other people are gonna impose what's called a theological system upon the text, and they're gonna say that Jesus is doing away with the whole temple system, and therefore what we find here in the withering of the fig tree is Jesus is saying no more to this temple system, and we like Israel need to instead of trusting in empty religious ritual, we need to have faith in God. We need to get saved by believing in him because there's a new economy that's come. Other people are gonna preach this passage in its historical context, like a narrative, a timeline, and they're going to show that Jesus is about to die, he's about to be raised and returned to heaven. Therefore, his disciples need to learn to pray. That's a good point. They've been living with Jesus for three years now. If they had a question, they could ask him immediately and get an answer. And he's going to be gone. So they need to learn how to pray. And obviously in the Garden of Gethsemane, they weren't very good at praying. They were really good at sleeping. So that is true. There is truth to the layers of context, to hermeneutical principles. But what about the immediate context? What about the details of the passage right there in front of us which are supposed to dominate our thinking when it comes to interpretation? They're supposed to guide us. This passage is about the lesson of the fig tree. Many interpreters and preachers do not connect the withering of the fig tree with what Jesus says to his disciples who are standing right there. They make them completely separate. We can't do that. We need to connect them. We need to look at the passage, see the extremes on the one hand of a withered fig tree and mountain moving faith and figure out how those things work together. Because that's where we're going to come to the actual point of this text. And as we look at this text, we will observe that there are twin truths. First, that God is able to make a fig tree wither. That's one truth. The second truth is that God is able to make you into his workmanship. He can make one thing wither, he can make the other thing into his workmanship. On the one hand, he can condemn a fig tree, and on the other hand, he can remove your mountain that is keeping you from producing spiritual fruit for his glory. We need to trust Him as we see these two truths about Him. The first truth we find in verses 20 and 21 is that God judges fruitlessness. We know that as we look at Peter and how he responded to Jesus and His power to punish fruitlessness. And as we look at verses 21 and 22, we're gonna see very clearly that the consequences for fruitlessness are serious. We know that because the tree died just as Jesus said. Look at verse 20. And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. We know because we studied this last week, but Jesus and his disciples saw this fig tree the day before, chapter 11, verse 13. You see in verse 13, it says a fig tree. In verse 20, it says the fig tree, meaning that we already know which one this is. The day before, this tree is described as being in leaf, and in 24 hours, it has withered. That doesn't just happen. Well, why does it happen? Well, Jesus cursed the tree when he didn't find what he was looking for on the tree. He was looking for figs, and it didn't produce figs. So he cursed the tree, and now this tree is withered. It's simply a ghost of its former self, which shows us that the consequences of fruitlessness are very serious. It's withered. Secondly, the consequences of fruitlessness are sobering. We know that from what Peter said in verse 21. Peter, he takes the judgment upon the fig tree to heart. Verse 21 says, and Peter remembered. He remembered. And he said to him, that's to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed is withered. Let's take careful note that Peter is not simply making an observation as he's going these two miles from Bethany to Jerusalem on Tuesday morning of the Passion Week. He's doing more than just observing. He's actually taking what he sees and putting it together with what Jesus said. Think back of what Peter's observed Jesus doing. In chapter one of Mark's gospel, we see that Jesus casts out demons. And then, in the successive chapters, he cleanses a leper. He heals a paralytic. He restores a man's withered hand. He stills the storm. He brings Jairus' daughter back to life. He feeds 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, and 4,000 men with seven loaves and a few fish. He walks on water. Jesus causes the deaf to hear and he causes the blind to see. And now Peter hears Jesus utter a curse and he saw that the tree has withered. He has seen God's power work both ways, but this is the very first time that he saw God's power used destructively. Oh, he took note. It hit home. We should not wonder in any way why it says in Matthew's gospel that the disciples marveled at what they saw. They all took the withered tree to heart, and they personally reflected on what they saw. You say, what's that like? Well, I think as a church, in a very small way, we felt what this is like. Remember how you felt And remember what you said to me some time ago when we exercised church discipline? When we exercised church discipline, we saw the church excommunicate a member. That is to say, we removed our public affirmation of their faith. Why? Because the church saw the person's sin, yet they refused to repent of their sin. And when we saw that, it was very sobering. So why? Because you said to me, I've sinned in the same way. Am I gonna experience the same kind of judgment? We took what we saw to heart personally. And there's actually biblical jargon for that experience. According to what Paul says in 1 Timothy 5, that is what we call standing in fear. That's exactly what's supposed to happen. So in a very small way, that church discipline is similar to what the disciples experienced on that day. They took what happened to heart personally, Let's walk through the passage very briefly so I make sure that we all get this, okay? Going back to verse 12. The disciples heard that Jesus cursed the fig tree that day because it was not fulfilling its created purpose. The disciples then see Jesus clear out the temple. Why? Because the people there set aside what God had prescribed. God had prescribed his house to be a place of prayer, and instead they did what made them happy. And to make their worship more convenient, they sold sacrifices and they exchanged currency in the court of the Gentiles. They even allowed folks to use the temple complex as a shortcut through town. They were the prototype for today's market-driven church that does all it can just to please people. That worship was supposed to be about God, about pleasing him, but it was instead about making people happy. And the disciples saw that the fig tree has now withered at Jesus's word. And they recognize that Jesus not only has the power to heal and to restore, Jesus has the power to destroy, and he actually used it. So they're not feeling very comfortable at this point. Let's just take Peter for an example. Let's review a couple chapters worth of what we know about Peter and how he's been doing in his walk with the Lord. Chapter eight, we see that marvelous statement where Peter affirms that Jesus is the Christ, and then moments later, Jesus says to Peter, get behind me, Satan, because Peter didn't agree with Jesus' statement about the Christ suffering and dying. And Jesus actually said that Peter was setting his mind on the things of man. Chapter nine, Peter witnesses the glorious transfiguration of Jesus Christ, and then he makes the suggestion to the group on that holy mount. He starts talking and says, this is what we ought to do. Let's make some booths. We can stay here for a while. That's the wrong thing to say, Peter. We know that because God the Father speaks from heaven. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Turn to chapter 10, and we find that Peter is among the 10 disciples who got mad at James and John. Why? Because James and John had got to Jesus first about asking for the chief seats in the kingdom, and they wanted those seats. So Peter's had his mind on the things of man. He has spoken when he should have been listening, and he sought to be first. He has a habit of looking out for number one. So I believe that the withered fig tree made Peter pause and reflect. Is there any hope for me or am I going to end up like the tree? And the good news, and this is the connection, and this is the good news, there is hope because the God who judges fruitlessness can actually ensure fruitfulness. God can make you fruitful, verses 22 through 24 teach us that, because we see in these verses that Jesus directs his disciples to depend upon God for fruitfulness. We know that there is this theme of dependence upon God because of the vocabulary in these verses. We see references to the word faith and prayer come up again and again. Let's look at the text, verses 22 and following. It says, have faith in God. Verse 23, it says, believe what he says will come to pass. Verse 24, believe that you will receive it. Belief is a word of dependence upon God. But also we see these references to prayer. In verse 23 it says, whoever says, what is that talking about? It says in verse 24 that you ask in prayer. That saying in verse 23 is a reference to speaking to the Lord, asking in prayer. Verse 25, when you stand praying. All of these things are expressions of how we show dependence upon God. So verse 22 teaches us that fruitfulness comes by relying upon God. And I would say that even at this point, given all the noise around us, we really need to rely on God to get His point. Jesus in verse 22 is commanding his disciples to trust him. Let's look at the text. Verse 22 says, and Jesus answered him, have faith in God. That's a command to Jesus's fearful disciples who have witnessed God's power to wither the unfruitful fig tree. He gives them the key to fruitfulness. And the key is faith. You need to have faith. Take careful note of this point. Everyone has faith. Everyone has faith. People don't float through life in unbelief. Most people are standing on their own two feet. That's why Solomon wrote in Proverbs chapter three, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding because that's what most people do. They rely on themselves. Or they rely on something else that's theirs. For example, the psalmist says, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, that's they trust in their stuff. But we trust in the name of the Lord our God. So you see the issue? It's not that there's a lack of faith. It's that there's a problem of who you're putting your faith in. The object of faith. It's not have faith. It's that the disciples needed to rely upon God. It's not faith in yourself, it's not faith in faith, it's not faith in your religion, that's not faith in your self-discipline or faith in anything else. It's faith in God. And faith in God means that you trust his word instead of depending and relying on your own thoughts or your own abilities or the lack thereof. As John would tell us in his gospel, if Jesus' words abide in you, you have faith in what God says. You will bear much fruit and thereby glorify God. So the good news here is that you can be fruitful if you rely upon God in the face of your tendency to please yourself, because that's the context. You aren't doomed to be unfruitful and thereby incur the wrath of God if you will look to God for help. Now, perhaps we look at verse 22 and we say, I know that I need to depend on God, but we despair. Because we struggle with entrenched sin, the entrenched sin of pleasing ourselves. It's like a mountain that seems to us too high for us to surmount. The good news in verse 23 and 24 is that God can overcome any obstacle to your fruitfulness. That's why Jesus encouraged his disciples to depend upon him. First he gives them a general truth to teach them that they mustn't think that the obstacles to fruitfulness are immovable. They're unsurmountable. Let's look at verse 23. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. More than likely, Jesus and his disciples are at or on the Mount of Olives, and from the Mount of Olives, they could see the Dead Sea. So perhaps you could think of the idea that take this mountain, you could toss it to the Dead Sea right there. Now, to say that, let's make careful note, Jesus is actually not talking about moving literal mountains, okay? You say, why is that? Because topography maps have been pretty consistent. And if there were lots of people of faith who could move mountains, those things would be changing all the time. I jokingly thought when I came to New York, you know, it'd be nice to have certain settings here and there. I grew up around Lake Michigan. Rachel grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And I think it's beautiful around here. But Rachel's like, you know, I enjoy living where there are mountains. And you may think from a text like this, if you have mountain-moving faith, you say, honey, it's fine. Just move a mountain here. No problem. That's not what this is about. It's not a literal mountain. Jesus is speaking figuratively. He's referring to a hindrance or a barrier between you and God's purpose of spiritual fruit in your life. That's the mountain. And his disciples need to depend upon God to remove that obstacle from their fruitfulness. Verse 24, therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. This is not a blank check for anything you want. It is a promise from God that He is able to move the mountains of sin in your life of pleasing yourself that are keeping you from fruitfulness for His glory. We need to depend upon Him. How do we do that? Well, very practically, we do that in prayer. That's how we show our dependence on Him. We bring our sin struggles and our hesitations to God, seeking Him to intervene. And when we come to Him in prayer, depending upon His grace, By His grace, He answers us favorably, removing those impassable, seemingly, mountains of sin. It will happen, the text says, for you, for your advantage. So this is good news for those of us who eat too much, for those of us who sleep too much, for those of us who say too much, for those of us who witness too little, for those of us who pray too little. This is good news for any who indulge in their own lusts. This is good news for any who have and often give in to their covetous hearts. This is hope that he is giving those people, people like us. And he promises to answer the prayer for the one who asks for God's help to overcome such self-serving sins. He is gonna give his grace to the humble. The good news is that God can make you fruitful by removing those mountains in your life where you seek to please yourself instead of bringing glory to God. But there is a catch that he informs us of in verse 25. And that is that fruitfulness can be thwarted by an unforgiving spirit. Fruitfulness can be thwarted by an unforgiving spirit. And we see that because Jesus made forgiveness a prerequisite to an answer for this prayer. We see that spiritual success can be stymied. Growth in godliness can be upset. How? By holding grudges, by harboring bitterness, So verse 25 teaches that we should give our grudges to God in prayer. We see Jesus command forgiveness. Verse 25 says, and whenever you stand praying, forgive if any, if you have anything against anyone. Now will you please carefully note the details of what Jesus has just said. First, the setting is you and God. See it? When you stand praying. The situation is that you have a grudge. If you have anything against anyone, that's a grudge. The standard procedure for you in that case is to release that grudge to God in prayer. Jesus says, forgive. Now take note. You are not to forgive the person for his offense. That's not what it's saying. You don't forgive him because he is not in the passage. His offense is in the passage. Don't include him in the passage if he's not there. His offense is there. If you wonder what you're supposed to do about a person who's offended you, it's very clear according to Luke chapter 17, verse three, Jesus says, if your brother sins, rebuke him. That's what you're supposed to do. If he repents, forgive him. So the truth is, you forgive someone when they repent of what they do, what they've done. The prescription given here is not about forgiving other people. We talked about this on Wednesday, told you about the book that we were reading together and how after 9-11 there were those who said and publicly proclaimed, we forgive Osama bin Laden for what he did to United States of America. You don't forgive him because he didn't ask for forgiveness. Come. Forgiveness is granted to those who seek it. This passage is about two people, you and God, in prayer. So make sure we stick to the details or we can get into some very bad theology. This passage is about holding grudges and harboring bitterness. We can describe these kinds of things and grudges by the word former. Former. I'm talking about a former spouse, a former friend, a former church member, a former coworker, et cetera. Former. This whole idea of former communicates that when we get around these people, it seems like everything around us just freezes and is ice cold. But within us is this burning up. That's a grudge. That's a grudge. And since we have time, it is very clear from the Old Testament that we can't hold grudges. That's what we're taught in the law. We're taught in the law to love other people. We're taught to love in a book like Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. God says, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people. Don't bear a grudge. Why? To love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. If you're loving, you won't bear grudges. Why do I have to be loving? Because you love God by loving other people. That's the teaching of scripture. We need to give our grudges to God in prayer. Why? Because forgiveness is actually a prerequisite to your prayer for fruitfulness being answered. Let's look at verse 25. Jesus says, you are to forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father, who also is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. You see, I'm not reading verse 26 because it's not in the earliest manuscripts that we have, and therefore it's not included in our modern translations of the text. Principles clearly taught in Matthew 6 and the Sermon on the Mount, so we know it's valid, but for the passage in front of us, verse 25, is what we have Mark saying we believe. The truth in Mark 25 here is that we need forgiveness from God for our trespasses. You see that at the end of the verse, that our Father may forgive you your trespasses. We sin, we need God to grant us forgiveness. That should be clear to us. Why? Because there are times when we please ourselves instead of being fruitful for God's glory. So we need his forgiveness. But if we hold a grudge, this verse is gonna teach us that God won't grant us forgiveness if we hold a grudge. That's the sobering truth, and we know that is asserted in Matthew chapter six. And by implication then, if God doesn't grant you forgiveness for your sin, he won't grant you the grace you need to overcome your mountains of sin in your life. You see, you won't grow in godliness without God's grace. And you won't grow in godliness if you hold a grudge. So one of the fastest ways to become unfruitful and stymie any growth in the Lord is to harbor bitterness against someone, to hold onto it. Because the passage teaches us that the God who grants forgiveness is the one who can make you fruitful. If you hold a grudge, he won't give you either, but you need to grow in grace. So give your grudges to God in prayer and trust in Him that He can make you fruitful. That's what we ought to do. And as we close, I told you at the beginning that I enjoyed my time with the kids in the workshop because you get to use a lot of tools. I can take something, like a pallet board, and make something funner. But you can also take a tool, like a saw, and make a pile of firewood for something to be destroyed. You see, God has the power to make a tree wither, and he has the power to make us into his workmanship. We have to be able to look at both of those, respect that power for both of those, and seeing both of those, we need to trust God. to overcome those things in our life that are keeping us from fruitfulness for His glory, overcome those mountains of sin. How do we do that? We do that by depending upon Him, asking for His help. Because I promise you, you will never get over it in your own strength. You have to depend on Him. Have faith in God. Let's pray. Father, we acknowledge that We are weak and we often do the things that we don't want to do. We often even do the things we know are wrong and really desire to do that are utterly against what you desire for us and have created us for. We need your help. We need your help even to seek your help on a daily basis. We need you to remind us that we need you each day for each decision and each moment. So Lord, I pray that we would all be humble today so that we could be recipients of your grace, that we would be giving any kind of grudge that we have to you, releasing it to you, not exacting it for our own ends, not holding onto things, but loving our neighbor as you've asked us to. Father, help us to depend on you, knowing that you can bring about fruit in our lives for your glory. If we'll depend on you and not lean on our understanding, we pray for that in Jesus' name, amen.