Not Getting Figgy With It

PRAY

read 11:12-25

Jesus, in his authority, judges hypocrisy and blesses the prayer of faith for his people.

give some background; headed to Jerusalem for Passover, lots of people, staying in Bethany, triumphal entry

Hypocrites Can Take a Hike

Jesus will not ignore people who appear to be his but produce no fruit.

It stinks when something turns out to not be what it was supposed to be. When it says it’s one way, but it’s another. It can happen when you’re shopping online a lot… I recently bought a chair off of TikTok shop. It looked like it was going to be this great chair I could use at ball games… when it came it, it was not quite what I thought I was getting!…

People can be the same way, including people who say they follow God. That’s what Jesus is dealing with here.

work through 12-25

The appearance of following Jesus with no fruit of following Jesus is no good!

1 John 2:6 ESV

whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

John 15:5 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

When we say we abide in Christ but we don’t really, we just put on a show when we want to, we may be able to fool people for a little while, but not forever. And we can’t fool God at all.

Matthew 23:27 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

If you are trying to appear like you are following Jesus, living a godly life, around certain people and in some places, but there’s no truth to it, no depth behind it, you might as well stop! The only reward you’ll receive for it will be empty praise on earth.

Follow him completely! Have faith in Him, that’s the next lesson He teaches. Faith that He is better, that He will accomplish his will, that he will save. That all this is better than man’s empty praise.

Have Faith in God

Jesus tells us to pray by faith in God, but it’s not just praying by it. It’s living by it, trusting that He’ll care for us, providing all we need. Including things we may be looking for from other people meant to come from Him! He is the source of all we need!

They’re on their way back to Jerusalem the next day and Peter sees something…

20-21

I’m not sure, but I think what may be happening here, what some of what I studied said, is that Peter is putting this whole scene together and may be getting nervous about the Temple…

Imagine some one is going around with their phone always plugged in to the wall. I mean you don’t necessarily have to imagine it, it seems like there are some people who do that. And you want to say, “Hey, it has a battery inside of it. You don’t have to keep it connected.” I think that’s kind of what Jesus is wanting Peter, and us, to understand here.

The Temple is not the power source for God’s people, look at vs 22…

God is, and He’s powered every believer. We don’t have to get plugged up because we are the Temple and He’s in us.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Then Jesus teaches Him what this means for prayer…

22-25

“whatever you ask”

1 John 5:14 ESV

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

And when we pray in his will…

Ephesians 3:20 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

If you have trouble forgiving others, you probably don’t understand God’s forgiveness…

Gospel presentation