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Faith and Figs

Matthew 21:18-22
Sunday, 10th April, 2011

18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

 

 Figs are most ancient. They are recorded in the garden of Eden!, at least the leaves are! We don’t see much of them but they are grown in this country. This was taken last week at Hughendon Manor. If it looks dead, look closer!  

 Two crops of figs are potentially produced each year. The first or breva crop develops in the spring on last year's shoot growth. In contrast, the main fig crop develops on the current year's shoot growth and ripens in the late summer or fall. The main crop is generally superior in both quantity and quality than the breva crop.

 Figs are ready for harvesting when they become soft and hang downwards. Small splits develop in the skin and a drop of nectar may be exuded from the eye of the fruit. Inspect them regularly, as ripe figs will soon rot on the tree or be eaten by birds!

 

. The fig does not produce visible flowers; they are enclosed within the centre of the fruit.

 

Matthew is making particular note of the fact that Jesus was hungry. He only mentioned it once before, that was when he was tempted by the devil. (4:2–4), but on that occasion he refused to make use of his power to perform miracles; In fact these are the only times Matthew refers to Jesus as hungry.

 

So what is going on here? Is Jesus giving in to a basic temptation ? Is the curse because he was angry with the fig tree? I don’t think so.

 

 This is the introduction to a much longer argument about the people of Israel. Drop down to verse 43 and you see that the fig tree is the people of Israel who reject Jesus.

 

  43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

 

Read  the whole of chap. 23 to get the full force of this.

 



 

This theme of the fruitless tree cursed is a thread through the gospel.

3:10;

10 The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

 

 7:19

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

 

 

 In a sense it follows from Jesus teaching in Luke 13:6-9

 6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

   8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

 

We live in an age when deadlines are no longer understood. We think that the day after is good enough, but Jesus is saying here, loud and clear,

 

Now has arrived.

 So you can worry about how upset the fig tree was, or how fair it was for Jesus to condemn it out of season, but you would be missing the point. The point is that in spite of repeated warnings, the chosen nation had failed to produce fruit.

 

We can trace this metaphor used in this way in the prophets:

Isa 5:1–7

1 I will sing for the one I love
   a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
   on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
   and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
   and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
   but it yielded only bad fruit.

3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
   judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
   than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
   why did it yield only bad?
5 Now I will tell you
   what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
   and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
   and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland,
   neither pruned nor cultivated,
   and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
   not to rain on it.”

7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
   is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
   are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
   for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

 

 Jer 8:13;

13 “‘I will take away their harvest,
            declares the LORD.
   There will be no grapes on the vine.
There will be no figs on the tree,
   and their leaves will wither.
What I have given them
   will be taken from them.’”

Hos 9:10

10 “When I found Israel,
   it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
   it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.

Which is very positive but that is all that is positive, later in verse 16 we read:

16 Ephraim is blighted,
   their root is withered,
   they yield no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
   I will slay their cherished offspring.”

17 My God will reject them
   because they have not obeyed him;
   they will be wanderers among the nations.

 

Mic 7:1

1 What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
   at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
   none of the early figs that I crave.
2 The faithful have been swept from the land;
   not one upright person remains.

 

So the question today is not about Israel. They are no different to you and me. The question is quite simple: Are you fruitful? If Jesus comes today to find sustenance, will he find it in you? Time to panic! What fruit is he looking for?

Although the disciples are more interested in the fig-tree than their fruitfulness, Jesus continues teaching, knowing that the Holy Spirit will remind them about this incident so it would be recorded, understood and acted on.

 The fruit Jesus is looking for is faith.

 

 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

This is one if the most staggering statements in the Bible. The disciples were inspecting the fig tree, that had died overnight (if you read the other gospels you will discover that the ‘immediately’ means by the next day) Jesus says you can do this ‘if you have faith and do not doubt’; he then goes on to add to the extreme by adding

but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.

 Which mountain is he referring to? Well think , he is walking into Jerusalem from Bethany, so you have a choice – the mount of Olives or Zion itself. That is a minor question. A bigger one is what does your faith move or change?

 

We tend to think that great faith is shown in big things like withering fig trees or moving mountains or spectacular healings or grand demonstrations of power. That however is a worldly view of greatness.

 

 

 

 

But God is a creator God. He is love. So his greater acts are both creative and loving. Therefore true faith acts in that environment. So what is God’s greatest act? What stands out as the single most momentous event of history? The death and resurrection of Jesus. And with it forgiveness of sin and eternal life. God is a creator. So giving eternal life is mountain moving compared with withering fig trees. Dying on a cross for your sins and thereby making forgiveness complete is the most amazing act of history. That is why we celebrated it this morning. That is why we celebrate it every week. We might make a bit more of it at Easter but it is the theme that runs through our lives as Christians. We express that by celebrating communion every week.

 

 So how does faith work? How do we get into being part of this loving creative action of God?

 

You exercise faith by what you do. We are going to find out some of the steps that Jesus encouraged various people to take in the coming months. But first and foremost we live by faith by living by faith. That means that we live as forgiven people. We live as people with hope. We live as temporary residents, our home is in heaven, and we are merely here for a few years compared with the eternal life. We live as those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us in holiness and righteousness.

 

But Jesus goes further, he says

22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

 

Last week we were told the Kingdom of heaven is for children. This week, the word of the Lord is that we act child-like in prayer.  We ask, believing and we receive. Now I suspect we ought to put in all sorts of caveats because it is easy to see this to be some sort of ‘gene out of a bottle’ God. But actually I believe we need to ask a different question this morning. Do you believe Jesus? He says,

 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

 

God does answer prayer. He has no reason to, but he chooses to respond to our prayers. But it is about faith, not doubting and believing.

 

God answered prayers this week. People in this church will testify to specific answers to specific prayer.

 

Some look at the surge called Arab Spring and recall the massive prayer that has in recent years been concentrated on the Arab world. Is God answering the prayers of many for the opening up and salvation of the Arabs in the Arab world?

 

So where are your prayers directed today? And where is your faith founded?  We must understand that the two questions are closely linked.

Faith is demonstrated in prayer.

If you believe in Jesus, you pray because he teaches us that prayer is good.

 

Faith is exercised in prayer.

If you believe Jesus then you will pray because you believe that prayer makes a difference.

 

I want to encourage you this morning in prayer. Jesus says

22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

 

So that member of the family you have been praying for years to come to salvation in Christ. You can move the mountain!

 

That neighbour who you get on well with but have yet to lead to Christ, You can move the mountain!  Get praying!

 

These are the big events that we want to see. But we also want to see Christelyn healed; families reconciled; so get praying!

Your prayer time is your daily step of faith. If you can live without it, you can live without faith! But the Christian can’t live without faith because faith is the fruit Jesus is looking for in our lives. Without it we are judged like the fig tree. So get praying. There is no formula for this. There is no ‘how many times a day; how many hours; how much fasting; even how much faith – Jesus says you only need mustard seed faith to move mountains! Turn back to Matthew 17:20 The disciples were confused about their inability to cast out a demon and Jesus says this:

20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

 Jesus did go on about moving mountains! Because we have so little faith! Like the disciples, we think small, because we think in terms of our experience instead of thinking in terms of who God is and what he can do.

 

So be encouraged in your prayer life this morning. Live the faith, ask and be amazed what God wants to do.

 

 Finally, how do you move a mountain? When I was studying near Liverpool the Ministry of transport was building the M57 through the grounds of the college. From the top of the cutting I could see way below a digging machine. As each lorry turned up it filled the lorry with a single bucket load. Against the size of the mountain it seemed a puny effort.

 How do you move a mountain? One lorry load at a time.

 This is that cutting now.

How do you move a mountain? One prayer at a time. Don’t give up on prayer. Pray for people to be saved; pray for people to be baptised; pray for people to be discipled.

 

 

Rejoice! Rejoice, Christ is in you, the hope of glory in our hearts.

 

God is at work in us

His purpose to perform,

Building a kingdom

Of power not of words,

Where things impossible

By faith shall be made possible;

Let's give the glory to him now.

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