#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 Jerusalem He was hungry!

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 Israel at the time.

 

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 Israel.

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 Israel.

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 Israel at the time.

 

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 Israel with His upcoming death and resurrection.

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 Temple area.

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 Israel through Moses!

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.