The Key to Effective Prayer
Notes
Transcript
Mark 11:20-26
Mark 11:20-26
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 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. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Pray
If you haven’t been following along, this is a strange place to pick up and start. It’s like sitting down in the middle of a movie and then you become that annoying friend that says, “Who’s that?” “Why are they doing that?” “Where are they going?”
Let me pause and catch you up so you don’t badger your neighbor through this whole sermon.
This is the Passion Week, the week of Jesus’ crucifixion. He comes in on Monday showing that He is the new King coming to deliver His people. The Kingdom of Heaven has come and the people cheer Him on as He rides up to Jerusalem. That evening He goes to the temple in the city. This is the place where God dwelt among His people in the Holy of Holies. This is supposed to be the place of worship and prayer. The text says that Jesus went and looked around and went home because it was late. The next morning He woke up, probably early to have prayer time with the Father, and on the way back into the city he was hungry and saw a fig tree that had leaves on it. The tree had all of the signs that it should produce fruit, but when our Lord went to eat of the tree, there was no fruit to be found. In response to this Jesus curses the fig tree. Jesus uses this as a teaching tool to his disciples. It was a real life example of what was going to happen to the temple. It should have been the place that most represented God and the people of God and from the outside it was beautiful but on the inside there was no fruit. Because the Israelite people had hardened their hearts, in 70AD the Lord would send the Romans to destroy this temple. Not just take it over and vandalize it, but Jesus says that there will not be one stone remaining of this temple. As we approach the text this morning Peter points out that the tree that Jesus cursed was withered away to its roots.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
My job as a preacher is to do three things: 1 is to tell you what the Scripture says, 2 help you understand what it means and 3 how to apply it to your life. In this particular example, the fig tree is cursed by Jesus because it didn’t bare any fruit, that is what the text says. This points to what God will do to the temple because the Jews had hardened their hearts to God and no longer did they worship how God wanted them to worship but they had set up a system of rules by which their salvation came instead of by faith in God through His grace, that is what the text means. The application is that God is looking for fruit in our lives. Without the fruit or the works coming from a changed heart in Christ, we are showing that the truth is not really in us and we are not doing what we were created to do. The fruit is a sign of whose you are and who you serve. You might say, “How does this apply to the text for today about prayer?”
That is a great question and I am glad that you asked. Let’s look at the text. Jesus responds to Peter’s reaction to seeing the fig tree withered with what may seem like a strange response.
And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
I believe this text is making at least two points. The first point is Jesus is responding to the meaning behind the cursing of fig tree which was the Jews lack of faith in God. His answer of “Have faith in God.” could be a warning explaining to the disciples, don’t be like those Jews that think that their righteousness comes by their works and not by the One who can truly save. This is a plausible explanation because Jesus tells the disciples in Matthew 6:5 not to be like the hypocrites.
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
We spoke a few weeks ago that we are all hypocrites to an extent, that we know what we need to do but do not always do it. In our hypocrisy we reach out to Jesus to help us. What Jesus is addressing here are the Jews that said their prayers for show, their actions were for their own glory and their worship and prayer in public was for them to lord their piety over everyone else. Their faith was far from God.
This nature is not something that is foreign to us. People say that they are Christ followers that run for political office and their profession of faith is nothing other than to gain the evangelical voting block. Closer to home we have people that just want a get out of hell free card that say, “Well I said a prayer and got baptized, so I’m good” and live their lives as a mirror of the culture with no sign of heart change. They did and said a few things to be in the club, which is a form of self righteousness that does nothing for your relationship with God or your eternal security. Jesus’ words, “Have faith in God.” Is calling the disciples to trust in nothing but God. Don’t put your faith in your actions but in the one who has the power to save. We cannot trust ourselves for our own salvation.
The second point Jesus is making is to teach the disciples to trust in God for everything. Jesus is teaching the disciples and us how to pray. Peter is saying to Jesus, “Did you see what happened after you cursed the fig tree?” Jesus’ response to have faith in God could be telling Peter, if you ask God to do something, believe He will do it. If we think about what the disciples life would have been like for the past three years, did they need to pray for anything? They had the author of creation with them. If they needed anything they asked Jesus for it. If you remember our first few weeks in Mark 2, the pharisees ask Jesus why his disciples do not fast, prayer is tied to fasting, Jesus says, “Can the wedding guest fast while the bridegroom is with them?” He’s telling them that the man of importance is here. Jesus is teaching them what to do when he is no longer physically present with them. Which leads to the next text.
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.
If you take this text alone without the proper context, you will be confused or you will go out and start seeing if you can move large loads of dirt in Jesus’ name. Is Jesus really saying that you can take actual mountains and move them into the ocean? We have to look at this in light of all the Scripture. Again, my job is to tell you what the text says, what it means and how to apply it to your life. There have been certain people that have taken this verse and used it to say that you can ask God for anything and He will give it to you. In fact, if you pray and He doesn’t give it to you, it is because you lacked faith.
Have you ever heard anyone say this. There are few things that make me mad, but there is a righteous indignation that swells up in me when I hear people tell Christ following people that God didn’t answer a prayer or someone is sick because of their lack of faith.
If this text is saying that it is required of you to have enough faith to move a physical mountain then no one has enough faith. When we look at these passages we have to think, how would moving physical mounds of dirt glorify Jesus? Did Jesus do these things while he was on earth? We still have a problem, what does the text mean? For that, we have to do some research on if anyone ever mentioned moving mountains in early rabbinic writings. When you do that you find that there were certain rabbis because of their great learning and wisdom, were known as “movers of mountains” because of how they handled difficult problems or doctrines. It was a common saying that if there was a major difficulty in someones life in Jesus day that there was a mountain in their way. We have similar sayings in our day. The application of this text is within the following text.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
The preachers that say that if you aren’t healed it is because of your lack of faith are often the ones that say God should make you healthy and wealthy too. They take scripture out of context and say that Christians should be rich because our Father is the owner of all things, He should give us all that we ask for. Maybe you prayed for monetary gain or more resources and God didn’t come through. Sometimes we pray for selfish reasons and God does not give them to us. James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Sometimes the best thing for us is to not give us what we ask for because it would ruin us. I’m sure every week there are thousands, if not, millions of prayers from people asking God to help them win the lottery. Can God use the lottery? Sure, but does it draw people closer to Him in times of need to drop hundreds of millions of dollars in someone’s lap or, because He knows all things, is it better for that person to be reliant on the blessings of God for his daily needs? God provides for His people in His way and often thwarts our selfish desires.
When we pray, we have to know that God is listening and He will come through if it is in His will. I heard a pastor say that the only limit to your prayers is God’s sovereignty. We have to pray in the will of God and He will give those things to us. Sometimes we pray for a loved one to be cured, but that is not in God’s will to heal that person. Sometimes we have mountains in our path that God doesn’t want to move because that mountain is part of God’s perfect plan for our life. Our prayers are only hindered by God’s plan, but this should never hinder us from praying. We know He hears so we petition God. We do not know what lies ahead but we pray anyway expecting Him to answer because He is a good Father that loves His children and we know that even if His answer is “No” He will give us the comfort to endure whatever calamity may be before us and if He moves the mountain then we praise Him for it.
Sometimes as one quote said, “Other duties become pressing and absorbing and crowd out prayer. ‘Choked to death’ would be the coroner’s verdict in many cases of dead praying.” We get busy, we put God to the side and tell Him that we can drive the train now and we get to the place with the tracks split and we have no idea what to do so we stress and worry and crunch numbers as to which direction we should go and James hits us right between the eyes with this truth in James 4:2, “You do not have because you do not ask.” God will allow us to go rogue and not rely on Him, but He is kind to untangle the knots when we finally give up the control that we think we have. Not praying at all or not having a knowledge of God that is in complete control of everything makes you god. You are the one that moves your mountains. You are the one that helps you. You are the one where blessings come from. That is a lonely place to be. That is akin to the idea that you can do open heart surgery on yourself. We need God for help and He has given us this way to reach out that is so simple, we speak. We talk to Him. When we talk we believe that He is listening. Charles Spurgeon said, “The goal of prayer is the ear of God.” That is what you are getting when you call out to Him. He is always there.
We have to remember that we only get this opportunity to be made right with God because of the sacrifice of Jesus so that His blood covers our sins. That is the only way that we are able to approach the throne with confidence is through God forgiving us through Christ. That is why Jesus ends this part of this text as He does.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
There is a further illustration of this in Matthew 18:21-35
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
What a blessing we have been given that while we were shaking our fist at God, He changed our hearts and called us to himself. We cannot walk in a spirit of unforgiveness if we truly know what God has forgiven us from.
Forgiveness is not a cheap thing; it cost Jesus Christ His life.
Warren W. Wiersbe