Christ Presbyterian Church is a local congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Visit us for morning or evening worship in Mobile, Alabama or on the web at cpcmobile.com. Turning your Bibles to Matthew chapter 21. If you can please stand in honor of the reading of God's word for this morning. We'll read 18 through 27, but we're only gonna be focusing on 18 through 22. In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. Should ring a bell by right about now. And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, how did the fig tree wither at once? And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority? Jesus answered them, I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from whence did it come? From heaven or from man? And as they were discussing it amongst themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he'll say to us, then why did you not believe in him? But if we say from man, we're afraid of the crowd, for they hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we don't know. And he said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Lessons, the reading of God's word for this morning. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, May we, as your bride, graciously—that is, by your grace— Submit to the loveliness, to the beauties, to the power, to the authority of the King of kings and Lord of lords who exercises authority not only over his Old Testament church, but here over the new. Hear us, we pray. We pray this all in Jesus' name and all God's people said. Amen. You may be seated. Our topic this morning is Jesus' authority. Now, as I said earlier, I'm not going to actually get into all parts of everything here. We're going to primarily look at verses 18 to 22. But Jesus has finally arrived and come to Jerusalem. Most of his ministry has been amongst the northern tribes. He has even given us snapshots of the inclusion of the Gentiles into the covenant people of God. That's you and me. Unless you're ethnically Jewish, that's you and me. But at the end of chapter 16, Peter declared that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah. We hadn't seen all that much faith even from the apostles until that moment. And then at the beginning of 17, Jesus briefly revealed his future messianic glory in a resplendent display. Now that's all in contrast to what happens next. to the gory, brutal reality that he's about to endure. Because ever since the Mount of Transfiguration, his face has been pointed towards Jerusalem. He's going to suffer. He's going to atone. He's going, and he said it three different times, and it's always, it's like they respond, the disciples respond to it as though he didn't say it at all, but he will be resurrected. Now last week we saw his humble, triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. And immediately what he did was he went to the temple in fulfillment of Malachi 3 and cleansed the temple. He cleansed the sons of Levi. In a very real sense though, that act was just the start of the actual cleansing. And Israel's leaders response was hardly mild. They were indignant at him. They hated their Messiah for doing it. How could he do such things to us? In fact, maybe more than any other situational reason, I'm not talking about his coming to die. I'm not talking about the world's hatred of his holiness or the claims of salvation. But the immediate situation as to why he is put to death might very well be because of what he just did in the temple, because of their offense. And they're applying their own rules, their own made up rules, to the Messiah, who has full rights of his temple. How dare he? And our text this morning draws on how, under what authority, he could cleanse the temple. He's no Levitical priest, that's true, he's not a Levitical priest. He's of the priestly order of Melchizedek, a higher priesthood. He's no Judahite king, they would say to themselves, which is not true, yes he is. He's a mere northern tribes prophet of Nazareth, of all places. Does anything good come out of Nazareth that Daniel would say? In fact, you cannot understand either this section that we're gonna look at this morning or next week's section without understanding that Jesus just cleansed the temple, towards which act the leaders of Israel are furious. Because in our text, Jesus uses his authority to respond to their hatred of him in cleansing the temple, in removing the impurity of marred worship, in removing those things which muddied the Old Testament gospel, which is what the sacrifices were. What right does he have? His right is on display in our text this morning. Therefore, our main topic this morning is that Jesus, the Messiah, declares, using his authority, declares national Israel's spiritual hardening and removal. Their removal. If that's not earth-shaking, tectonic, cataclysmic news, nothing will be. He is, by his authority, removing national Israel from being his people. So we're gonna look at this under two headings over the next two weeks, removal and hardening. We're gonna look at removal this morning. The Messiah declares, authoritatively declares, the removal of national Israel. And you might be thinking, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait Wait, wait, I thought Israel was God's people. I mean, everyone, there's plenty of people who seem to think that today. The answer is they were. They won't be after our text today. No, no, no, no, no. The nation of Israel is still God's people today. We have a nation called Israel. It's the same thing. No, no, no, no, no, no. That is not the same thing. They are not the people of God. You are. You are God's people. What does disobedience to Jesus the Messiah get you? When you're furious at him for clarifying the gospel and cleansing the temple of our idols, it gets you a sign. And that sign is a sign of judgment. Remember, this isn't to unbelievers who never heard of Jesus. This is to those in the church who hate the Messiah of the church. What happens next is the day after the triumphal entry, the day after the cleansing of the temple. Verse 18. Matthew 21 verse 18, in the morning, that is the next morning, after he entered humbly on a donkley and cleansed the temple, remember he retired to Bethany after that, that's right outside Jerusalem, but now, as Jesus is returning back up to the city, that is back up to Jerusalem, so he left the previous day, now he's on his way back up, with yesterday's events fresh in his mind and everyone's mind, he became hungry. Remember, Jesus, the 100% God, has a 100% human nature. Great theology, bad mathematics, we get it. Okay, don't worry about it. He is a holy God and a holy man, and therefore he suffers the common affirmities of this world. He hungered. Verse 19. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it. This was allowed according to the Mosaic law. Yahweh would have travelers and the poor fed. No one was to go hungry in Israel. Farmers were to leave the edges of their crops so that anyone who wanted some could just pluck and eat. And that's what Jesus does here. He saw a fig tree. It was in season for figs, but he found nothing on it but leaves. No, no, no, no. That couldn't be the case. It's a fig tree, and it's the season for figs. Therefore, you would expect figs. The one thing you should be doing, O Tree, is producing figs. Why? to feed people, to glorify God by your fruit, by your nature. The tree is not doing what it was made for. It's not being fulfilled in its God installed normal role. It's God and Messiah comes to it and it has no fruit to bear to give to him what is his own due. It has nothing to give to its maker. And at this moment, this action of picking a fruit seemed completely normal, until, and Jesus said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait. What? Just like that? You walk up to a piece of, you walk up to a tree, no fruit on the tree? You declare forever that it can never bear fruit again? Does that not seem a bit harsh? I mean, come on, Jesus, trees are kind of hit or miss. We all know that. Why is he being so judgmental to a tree? This should make you stop and think, is this really about Jesus getting mad at a tree? Maybe he's going to join next week the anti-fruit, anti-tree league. I don't know. Maybe all of you who use lumber are finally feeling justified by Jesus for his anti-tree stance, no? Or all you gardeners, are you upset? Are you in shock that he would dare, dare not have a green thumb in this moment? Boy, after all those lessons on just being good stewards of creation, then this happens, unless it's not about the tree. If it's not about the fig tree, then it's reasonable to conclude that the fig tree is being used metaphorically by Jesus. What is it being used as a metaphor for? Now it's reasonable to remember that fig trees have been used as a sign both in prophecy and in temple imagery. Further, we saw weeks ago in the evening worship service that the garden was very temple-like and the temple was very garden-like. There's all sorts of garden imagery all throughout the temple, even in the garments of the priests. There were all sorts of fruits and flowers and trees in the temple. And I just made the connection that Ashton's name is a reference to a tree. Look at how everything's coming together in the worship service today. This is great. But in the New Testament, the church is the temple and the Holy Spirit bears fruit in and through us. So is it really unreasonable to consider that Israel God's people in the Old Testament are being likened to a fig tree. Isaiah 5 likens them to a garden. Psalm 1 likens a godly person to a fruitful tree. Is it really a stretch? How could the metaphor work? Their God installed redemptive function was to bear fruit to the Messiah. He was to obey him. The Messiah has come. He's into Jerusalem. They misidentify him when he does, and they hate him for his reforming his own temple. They don't own it. They don't own the temple. God does. They are its stewards. They are the ones who have marred the message of the gospel of the Old Testament sacrifices. They are the ones acting in unbelief. So, Israel, where is the fruit? Where's the repentance? Where's the faith? Where's the fruit? Where's the obedience? Where's the humble walking with their Messiah and God? Where's the fruit? The answer is, regarding national Israel and all of its institutions and its leadership, the answer is there is none. Its God, its Messiah has come to it to take of its, what is rightfully his, to taste of its fruit, and there is none. What good is a fruitless tree? A fruitless tree has more in common with a dying tree than an alive and flourishing tree. Jesus has already made this point to us on an individual level in Matthew 7, verses 17 through 19. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now, though, he is applying it on a corporate level to the national ethnic people of God. So then, what shall be done about the tree that is national Israel, the corporate people of God organized as a nation under God? It's not just producing bad fruit, it's producing no fruit. Jesus doesn't just cut it down. Jesus curses it. May no fruit ever come from you again. He's declaring that over national Israel. Once you are a blessed people. I used to pronounce my benediction upon you. Now you are a cursed people. And now I pronounce my malediction on you. You're now cut off. You will not bear fruit again. You are no longer my people. Yes, God will expand his people to include the Gentiles, but not before one whole section of the tree is lopped off. Paul makes this point in Romans 9-11. Paul says in Romans 9 verses 1-3, I'm speaking the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers. ethnic, national Israel is what he's referring to here. My kinsmen in the flesh. He's talking about national, ethnic Israel. What happened to them? In accordance with the sign from Jesus, Paul mentions in 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 14 through 16, for you brothers became imitators of the churches of God and Jesus Christ that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews. Seems like the exact same reference here. who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displeased God, and oppose all mankind, how? By hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins, but, Wrath has come upon them at last. Is that how you talk about national Israel, if it is in good standing with God? Wrath has come upon them at last? Well, we need to be clear. Just because he is talking about the nation as a whole doesn't mean he's talking about all individual Jews. He's not. That's why, even after this, plenty of individual Jews come to Christ. You can think of Paul himself. In fact, you see this in the book of Acts. There's quite a bit of individual Jews who come and convert to him, convert to Christ. Paul proclaims in Romans 11, verses 19 through 25, writing how Gentiles are to see themselves in light of national Israel being cut off. He says this, the new Gentiles will say branches were broken off. What's that a reference to? He's talking about the Jews. So that I, the Gentile, might be grafted in. Grafted into what? The tree metaphor. Paul uses the exact same image of the tree. That is true, verse 20. They, the branches of the Jews, were broken off because of their unbelief. But you, Gentiles, stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, that is, national Israel, neither will he spare you, that is, Gentiles. Note, then, the kindness and the severity of God. Severity towards those who have fallen, namely, unbelieving Judaism, but God's kindness to you, believing Gentiledom. I just made up a word, I think, but Gentiledom. Provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. And even they, National Israel, if they do not continue in their unbelief, that is, if they walk by faith in the Messiah, will be grafted back in. For God has the power to graft them in again. That's pretty amazing. That's a big wow. Behold the power of your God and Messiah. Behold His extensive mercy. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? So when does all of this start, though? When did this happen? Now, in our text, in Matthew chapter 21, Jesus curses the fig tree. If God's blessings look like a fruit tree, then God's cursings look like a withered, desertous tree. And the fig tree withered at once. I don't know about you. I've seen plenty of trees or plants die in my age, in my experience. If anyone has a black thumb, it's this guy, okay? I can kill anything you put in front of me, arboreally, okay? But immediately, I mean, think about how trees are used within metaphors. Strong as an oak. Think about how trees are even talked about in songs, that they are old, that they've been there for a long time, longer than us oftentimes. Withered at once? That would be one of the most terrifying things to see in person. One of the main lessons about trees is that they take a long time to grow, and they can be quite old, but to shrivel immediately? I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine this? Walking alongside with Jesus, he goes up to a tree, he just speaks to a tree, and it just withers and dies immediately. This ranks up there with one of the scariest things I think you could talk about. It's a scary display of his power and authority. Such power, such authority to affect his will. He can do that to a tree, he can do that to his own nation, simply by the word of his power. His salvation, therefore, is effective, but also that means his judgment is effective. And just like that, after a thousand years, day in and day out with patience towards National Israel, since its inception under Saul and David, and throughout all of its years of rebellion with faint times of obedience, every once in a while you get a sprinkling of obedience, just like that, a simple word, National Israel is by Messianic fiat cursed, withered, and dead. Do you not think that he can't easily take out the elders and pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church with a less word? That he can't make CPC wither immediately? Do you not think that? That with one declarative word, the PCA would shrivel and die? that the light of the church in the West can't be snuffed out immediately? Do any of us really think that God owes us any of the privileges that he gives us? If he can take out Ananias and Sapphira for lying, what can he do to you? They were cursed, very clearly, the application of the curse on their lives, withered and died, and fear came upon the whole church. Here's a question. Does the authority and power of your Messiah cause you to rightly fear him? Let's ask this question. What does it mean about you if you don't fear him? What does that mean? My Jesus would never do that to me or to my church. I'm pro-local church. God loves my church. Do you worship the biblical Jesus? Because it doesn't really sound like it. If at the same time God can take out any one of our churches and still be righteous and receive all the glory for it, doesn't sound like the Jesus that we're worshiping in our imaginations is the Jesus of the Bible. National Israel appears to be worshiping their imaginations, their own imaginations of the Messiah, not the actual Messiah. Question for us is, are we doing the exact same thing? All the patience, all the callings, all the working in, with, and for Israel, they finally reject their Messiah, and their Messiah rejects them back, and immediately curses them. You know, it's pretty amazing, because we have six more chapters. This is not over. We've got six more chapters of this. After this, we'd expect only hatred towards Jesus to grow from national Israel. Hmm, I wonder, is that what we see? Think about it, the only thing that they end up doing is falsely accusing, perverting justice for, killing, murdering, and burying their own God and Messiah. Under the pronouncement of curse. But wait, what about the leaders of the church? What about the 12 apostles? They're Jewish, how did they respond? Verse 20. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how did the fig tree wither at once? Whoa, y'all were right there. Is there really any doubt who caused its withering? I mean, this is the same Messiah who rebuked the storm on the sea. You were all there, you all saw it, it happened immediately. There's no question as to who did this. Faith though isn't about using your eyes. It is not about using your ears. However, the word marveled is not a good word here. Typically marveled means an unbelieving surprise. I think that's what it means here too. Not that the disciples are unbelievers, that's not what we're saying, but they are disbelieving in this moment. So they are not responding in belief per se. Now, this is concerning because national Israel is not responding in faith, per se, as a matter of constitution. We have to be very careful, apostles, as to whether or not you receive this on faith or not. The apostles need to be careful. Otherwise, they may be rooted in the very same rebellion, because we know that one of them is Judas. And this is precisely why Jesus addresses the priority of faith in the church, in his people. Walking by faith does not lead to removal from God's people or removal of God's people. Instead, it leads to fruit. It leads to fruitfulness. Fruitfulness, character is evidence of faith. It's not the cause of faith, that's legalism. It is the evidence of faith. Faith in Christ and God was how the tree, Israel, was supposed to bear fruit. But they refused. Hence, no fruit. Hence, judgment. But that reality is no less true for the church today. Remember, the church is not set up to be just converts. It's set up by Jesus as containing wheat and tares, believers and unbelievers. Therefore, Jesus warns the church, verse 21, Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, dot, dot, dot. Now, we have to wait, what does that mean? Does that mean Christians never doubt? No, we just made a distinction between unbelief and disbelief. Unbelief is the corrupt state of the soul that is intentionally rejecting God and Jesus as Messiah. Christians may not and cannot be in unbelief. Disbelief, though, is the sinful response of a believer to God, Jesus, and the Word. Disbelief is not what we ought to do, but it is how we poorly respond to God at times. So Jesus is not saying Christians will never have doubts. He is talking about the permanent state of the soul, having faith and not doubting as a general disposition of the soul. Not perfect faith every moment. Jesus is saying, if you have faith, if you have that faith, there's the condition, what's the result? Then, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. Is this getting weirder and weirder than anybody else? I'm sorry, what? How did we end up there? How did we end up talking about mountains? Is he saying, if you really faith hard enough, you can make trees wither too? We saw the same basic misinterpretation back when we looked at Jesus calling Peter out onto the water. Somehow, by bad teaching and preaching, modern evangelicalism, and certainly charismatic evangelicalism, has determined that walking on the water and uprooting mountains, and maybe even scaring trees back into the earth, is a litmus test for whether or not you have faith. Good luck, is all I'm gonna say. Just good luck. As a Calvinist, maybe I shouldn't say luck, but whatever. There are those who believe that. And it is spiritually, I'm just gonna say this, stupid. Jesus isn't running around telling us that if we had enough faith, you could have functional magic powers. That's not what this is. He is telling the apostles that they will accomplish bigger miracles and more profuse miracles than what he has done. As he was calling the church to faith, he isn't telling the apostles that they'll accomplish, he's telling the apostles that his cultivating faith through them, through the outward call and the ministry of the gospel, rebuking and calling men to saving faith, will lead to more and more profuse applications of his power upon sinners. That is awesome. That is cool. One day soon, Peter will be preaching. and thousands will convert. Jesus never saw that, but Jesus' power is extended through Peter. One day soon, Paul will be standing before the great Caesar, calling him to repent of his sin. Jesus didn't do that, but Jesus is powerfully working through Paul. One day after this, the Messiah's power will see pagan nations wilt and convert. One day after this, the Messiah's power will see impossible to kill sin and idols, mountains, porn, adultery, unbelief, legalism, pride, self-love forcefully and irrevocably removed from the hearts of men. It isn't that the apostles will do greater works than Jesus. Jesus is saying that the church will see his power applied in unimaginable contexts. That's what he's saying. And we have, and we do see them. Marriage is restored. Children walking away brought back. The arrogant softened. The downcast strengthened. The manipulated freed from satanic bonds. Every single one of you have a redemption story that God has worked in your lives that is absolutely impossible if left just to you. You all have it. Take a look, you can even take a look around you at your neighbors, in your own lives, at the gas station, the grocery store, see who, what, and where in our society and in our relationships needs the redemptive power of Christ. And as we are conformed more and more into his image, desiring as his co-laborers and as his ambassadors to think his thoughts after him, we actually want what he wants. And then notice what happens. Whatever you ask in prayer, You will see that if you have faith. This isn't because I tried really, really hard and I prayed really, really hard for a Ferrari and he gave me a Ferrari. That's not what this is talking about. This is talking about a person, a man, a woman who's been conformed and made malleable, putty across the word to desire what God wants for his own life and he prays for it and the Lord gives it to him because it's exactly what Christ wants him to have. That's what he's talking about here. Jesus isn't instituting name it, claim it theology. Jesus is establishing, is not establishing word of faith doctrine. He is talking about the sanctified heart conformed by faith and obedience to want what his own Lord and Savior wants. That's the miracle here. The fact that a rebel, a rebel who never wanted that, would only want his own glory and his own selfishness would actually be conformed by God's grace and word and by the atonement of Christ to actually want what the kingdom actually legislates is a miracle. And that is all of you if you know him. If you are walking by faith. That heart Because it is conforming by God's grace and power to Jesus' agenda, that heart will be given by God whatever it asks for. That, beloved, is fruit. That is fruitfulness. That is Christian character. And that is walking by faith, by faith under the authority and the power of our Messiah. So Israel as a nation will be removed, but not so the people of God. There's only one question left. Do you know him? Do you really know him? Stop playing around. He's not playing around with you. He literally just said, if you're playing around with me, I will throw you into the fire. Stop playing around. Do you really know him? Does he really know you? Are you walking by faith? Are you experiencing a greater freedom from sin? Freedom to fruitfulness? freedom to look like your God and to obey the authority of your Messiah. Amen.