#8 The “IF Series”
“IF ONLY YOU HAVE
FAITH!”
TEXT: Matthew 21:18-22; 1 John 3:21-22;
5:14-15
INTRO: The understanding of faith
is not well understood, and is often misused in concept by many Christians and
Christian leaders. Some people
think they can simply “confess” anything in faith and expect it to come. This kind of “faith” is
presumptuous and offensive. It
makes God our servant, we simply “believe” and God has to honor whatever we put
faith in. On the other hand, some
people have lost the power of faith by thinking they can’t ask or do anything
unless God first makes it clear what they can ask for.
There is a middle ground on faith that when properly
understood gives great power to a believer, and great confidence that we can
come to God in faith and expect the Lord to honor our faith. It is not a formula that pronounced just
right makes God jump to our desire, faith is not a currency either that we can
simply use to gain whatever we want.
ILLUS: Faith in God
will not get for you everything you may want, but it will get for you what God
wants you to have. The unbeliever does not need what he wants: the Christian
should want only what he needs. -- Vance Havner in By the Still Waters. Christianity Today,
Vol. 41, no. 7.
However, faith that is active in a Biblical sense will
see great things happen, and bring great joy to both God and us as His
followers. Jesus in these passages
give us a clearer understanding on how faith is supposed to
work.
PROP.
SENT: The Biblical
concept of faith is that those who are fruitful spiritually have a relationship
with God that allows them to have confidence is making requests to God, and
seeing their faith honored. It does
this because when we are in right relationship with God, our requests by faith
will be the right things, not just what we
want.
I. FRUIT! Matt.
21:18-19
A. Craving! Matt.
21:18
1.
The opening scene here is the last few days of Jesus’ earthly life, this
incident happens only days before the crucifixion takes
place.
a.
Jesus has just cleansed the Temple area, having driven out those who have
corrupted the sacrificial system and gotten rich off the very people who are
seeking God.
b.
Jesus had boldly acted to reassert the purpose of the Temple, for people
to come and connect with God.
c.
Jesus demonstrated His authority in a very bold way, must have surprised
even His disciples!
2.
Faith is something that is passionate, it moves
us!
ILLUS: I prayed for
Faith, and thought that some day Faith would come down and strike me like
lightening. But Faith did not seem
to come. One day I read in the
tenth chapter of Romans, "Now Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God." I had closed my Bible, and
prayed for Faith. I now opened my
Bible, and began to study, and Faith has been growing ever
since.
-- Dwight L.
Moody, Leadership, Vol.
10,
3. Jesus was now tired and hungry – as
a man he still had natural needs.
a. So
in the morning as He and the disciples were returning to
b.
Even as the Son of God He had needs while being human as well as
deity.
c.
His hunger was valid, and His expectation for refreshment was legitimate
as well.
4. As
such, Jesus is expecting to receive from what God had made on this earth, a fig
from a fig tree which was common in
B. Cancelled! Matt.
21:19
1.
While fig trees do have seasons of abundant fruit, they also have some
fruit in off-season periods. Fig
trees always have some fruit on them, no matter what time of the year it is,
this is normal and could be expected.
a.
Jesus finds a local fig tree, but to His amazement, it is totally barren
of ANY fruit, in spite of the fact that the tree looked quite healthy, with
abundance leaves on it.
b.
Jesus’ reaction seems a bit odd here, but He is making a point that is
likely a connection to the spiritual leaders in
c.
Those the tree looked amazing, it was barren upon deep inspection of any
real fruit, it only looked good on the outside.
d.
This was a likely reference to what He had just experienced in the
Temple; things looked spiritual as to what was going on, but there was no real
fruit spiritually to what all those money changers and leaders were
doing.
e.
They all missed the importance of having faith in Christ – the promise of
God to send a Messiah, they only believed in their own ability to look
good!
ILLUS: It is a great
thing to be a believer, but easy to misunderstand what the New Testament means
by it. It is not that we believe Jesus Christ can do things, or that we believe
in a plan of salvation. It is that we believe him; whatever happens we will hang
on to the fact that he is true. If we say, "I am going to believe he will put
things right," we shall lose our confidence when we see things go
wrong.
-- Oswald
Chambers (1874-1917) - Edythe Draper, Draper's Book of Quotations for the
Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992). Entry
589.
2.
Jesus thus pronounces what is already true about this tree, and will
continue to be true, it will not bear fruit
anymore.
a.
The tree immediately withered, which even surprised His
disciples!
b.
This strong pronouncement against a seemingly innocent tree was meant to
be an indictment against the fruitless spiritual leadership in
3.
And, this meant quick death, a new reality was coming. Even as Jesus was about to die and rise
again, the Old Covenant was about to wither away practiced as it was by
II. FAITH! Matt. 21:20-22; 1 John 3:21-22;
5:14-15
A. Connection! Matt.
21:20
1.
This quick death of the tree right before their eyes amazed
them!
a.
Jesus was about to make a new
b.
When God is at work, things can happen
quickly.
c.
The old order of the sacrificial system was about to come to an end,
Jesus would be creating a New Covenant!
2.
This change would occur quickly, in just days the “new” would be in
place.
3.
These same disciples that saw this tree wither instantly will be
present to see the miracle of Jesus’ new
reality.
4.
This is the connection between what they were witnessing, and what
meaning Jesus was trying to set forth.
5. In
a sense, Jesus was acting out a living parable with this tree, as He often
taught in parables.
a. It
wasn’t just anger at a tree, but what it
represented.
b. It
was meant to make a point to what they had just witnessed in the
c.
Only in Jesus does faith have any saving power, only with our eyes fixed
on Him can there be fruit.
ILLUS: On day six of
the ill-fated mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts needed to make a critical
course correction. If they failed, they might never return to
Earth.
To
conserve power, they shut down the onboard computer that steered the craft. Yet
the astronauts needed to conduct a thirty-nine-second burn of the main engines.
How to steer? Astronaut Jim Lovell determined that if they could keep a fixed
point in space in view through their tiny window, they could steer the craft
manually. That focal point turned out to be their
destination--Earth.
As
shown in 1995's hit movie, Apollo 13, for thirty-nine agonizing seconds, Lovell
focused on keeping the earth in view. By not losing sight of that reference
point, the three astronauts avoided disaster.
Scripture reminds us that to
finish your life mission successfully, "Fix your
eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Heb.
12:2).
-- Stephen
Nordbye in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the
editors of Leadership.
B. Confidence! Matt. 21:21-22; 1 John 3:21-22;
5:14-15
1. Jesus now completes the
“connection” to the tree incident with teaching them how faith
works!
a.
Faith has always been the foundation for a relationship with God, not
just rules and laws.
b.
Abraham was a man of faith before even the Law had been delivered to
c.
Faith can destroy man’s false spirituality, as well as help a believer
move forward in this world under a New
Covenant.
2. It
is through Jesus that we can have confidence in this world; if we are in a right
relationship with God through Christ our faith has great
power!
a.
But it isn’t an invitation to ask anything in faith and expecting
anything we want!
b.
When we realize John’s comment in 1 John 3:21-22; and 5:14-15 it is clear
that faith works when we are so in love with Jesus, and we are faithful to walk
with Him, that we will not ask for things in faith just to get what we want in
this world, but that we will want what God
wants.
c.
So, when we ask, it isn’t for things like wealth, or big houses, or fancy
cars, but those things that allow us to bring others to
Christ!
3. Notice John’s explanation on how
faith should work:
1 Jn. 3:21-22
“Dear friends, if our hearts do no condemn us, we have confidence before God
and receive from Him anything we ask, because we keep His commands and do
what pleases Him.”
a.
Notice the obvious connection here to doing what pleases God and keeping
His commandments and then asking!
b.
There is nothing here that suggests we can simply walk around confessing
wealth and others personal blessings just to show off our power in
faith.
c.
Those who teach this kind of “faith” that focuses just on personal
prosperity is false teaching.
4. Notice John’s similar explanation
about faith in: 1 Jn. 5:14-15
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us –
whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of
Him.”
a.
Notice the obvious connection here to asking only those things which are
according to His will, then God hears us!
ILLUS: Some people
think the prayer of faith is crawling out on a limb and then begging God to keep
someone from sawing it off. But that is not real prayer, that is presumption. If
God makes it clear that he wants you out on a limb, fine--you will be perfectly
safe there. If not, it is presumptuous to crawl out on that limb, expecting God
to keep you there.
-- Ray C.
Stedman in Man of Faith.
Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 7.
b.
And in these cases where it is according to His will, not only does He
hear us, we can full confidence that He will give us what we asked
for!
5. By
the way, so many times in the Bible the will of God is described not in terms of
what we do. And when are the right
kinds of follower, our requests about what to do will be not selfish, but God
directed.
6.
This was the failure of the spiritual leaders in Jesus’ day, they were
only concerned with their status with the people, not the people’s need to
connect to God, they were trees that looked healthy, but had no
fruit.
CONCLUSION: “IF ONLY”
we
asked in faith, out of an abundant healthy relationship with God is there power
in asking in faith. When we are
right with God, our requests will be the right things to ask for. This being so, we can be confident
before God that He not only will hear us, but grant those things we ask in
faith.