The Life of Faith

When your world is about to be turned upside down, but do you need to hear?

Right before the doctor tells you what he found on the scan. Right before your child comes home with the heart-wrenching news. Right before you find something out you wished you never knew. Right before the phone call you’ve dreaded comes.

When your world is about to be turned upside down, what truths do you need embedded deeply into your heart? What convictions do you need established like rebar in your soul?

We’ve seen people face suffering with grace, poise, confidence - people who were sorrowful but always rejoicing. And we’ve seen people face suffering like a wild, untamed horse, kicking and wailing and inconsolable.

In our text this morning, the disciples are about to have their worlds turned upside down. For several chapters now, Jesus has been telling them that he will soon die. He first made it clear in 8:31, again in 9:31, then again in 10:32, shocking accuracy. They never get it.

Part of the reason they didn’t get it is because they were building their entire worldview upon the coming of their Messiah and his establishment of the kingdom in Jerusalem. The apostles were Jews. They were raised in an era of Messianic hope. They left their jobs and livelihood to entrust themselves fully to this man, Jesus. Jesus, for three years, had been indicating that they were correct: he was the messiah. He could heal the sick, raise the dead, multiply the loaves, and even forgive sins. He is most certainly the true king.

The disciples had banked their lives on this - and they simply could not grasp the idea of a dying messiah. They didn’t get it. They couldn’t grasp it. Every single time Jesus brought up his death, they were baffled. If they left their jobs, if they invested three years of their lives to follow this man, and if after all this promises miraculous activity, he dies - they would be utterly crushed. They would have their worlds turned upside down.

And this is the last week they have with him before he dies. He will teach them a lot of things, but I believe he starts here with the basics.

In my experience, when people are going through tragic, confusing, or exhausting times, the things they need to hear most are the things they already know. Sometimes we feel in our suffering if there was some silver bullet truth, some epiphany moment, some profound and new insight I’d never heard before - that would get me through it. I actually think that’s rarely, if ever, the case. More often, it is in times of trial that the basics become urgent.

It’s the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. He will teach them the basics of the Life of Faith.

We’re in Mark 11:20-26. But let’s get the immediate context. We’re in the last week of Jesus' life. Sunday was the triumphal entry, where he returns to Jerusalem as the Davidic king. Monday, on his way into Jerusalem, he passes a fig tree, sees that it appears to be fruitful but isn’t, and he curses it. Israel is often represented by a fig tree in the Old Testament, and this is the live-action parable - Israel which appears fruitful is barren, Israel is hypocritical, and God examines the heart and curses them.

He comes in and shuts down the temple, cursing it and pronouncing judgment on the apostate Judaism that had overrun it. That’s his workday Monday. It’s a foreshadowing of the destruction of the temple that will happen in 70 AD by the Romans, which is God’s judgment upon Israel. They return to Bethany in the evening.

Now what happens in our text is Tuesday morning. Verse 20: “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.” The fig tree immediately died when Jesus cursed it, but only the next morning did they realize it. It was withered to the roots. The leaves were gone, the branches bare. It was a dead tree.

This is the only destructive miracle Jesus does. And it was another shocking reminder of Jesus’ power. And Jesus uses this moment, where the disciples are sitting there in awe, to teach them. He needs to teach them what they need to know to face the coming week, which might be the hardest week of their lives up to this point. The Basics of the Life of Faith.

They’re about to see their best friend tortured, their hopes of glory dashed, their life expectations are going to crumble in front of them, they’re going to be confronted with their own personal failure, sacked by shame and guilt, while facing the reality that just as their leader was killed, so they are going to be hated. Everything is about to go rotten for them.

But right now at this moment, they’re amazed at his power. He will teach them three basics. 1) You must have faith in God, 2) You must pray without doubt, and 3) You must forgive. Let’s read Mark 11:22-26.

Life of Faith Basics: # 1) You must have faith in God. What does this have to do with the cursed fig tree? Here: the cursing and death of the fig tree was a demonstration of God’s power. And he’s now making that power personal. You need to trust the God who wields that power.

It’s important to note here that the emphasis here is not on “have faith.” It’s on “in God.” God is the one who is omnipotent. God is the one who is sovereign. God is the one who rules over all. God is the one who grows and withers trees. God alone has the power. Put your faith in him.

The idea here is not “faith can do anything.” The idea is “God can do anything.” And the word “faith” conveys the idea of trust, reliance, confidence. God is powerful, so put your trust, your confidence in him. Rely on him completely.

Isn’t this what a Christian is? A Christian is a person who does not trust in himself. We believe we are fundamentally broken. We do think as we ought. We do not feel as we ought. We do not act as we ought. And much of this brokenness the Bible calls sin. A Christian is someone who has stopped looking within for the solutions to our problems, but we look to God.

We believe God is a more reliable source of help than our own wisdom. We trust in his character - that he will always be good and do good. We trust in his Word - that everything he says is true, enabling us to know him truly and worship him. We trust in his purposes - that everything he does in our lives is for our good and his glory. That’s what it means to have faith in God: we trust his character, we trust his Word, and we trust his purposes.

Notice this is a command: “Have faith in God.” Let me ask: Do you have faith in God?

Some of you are battling hopelessness, others joblessness, others singleness, others loneliness. Some are struggling with vexing sins, others with anxiety, worry, and panic. Some of you are facing dysfunctional marriages, wayward children, insecurity at work. Others are facing bodily pain - disease, disablement. And perhaps you’re dealing with the sins of others: betrayal, backstabbing, gossip, slander, rejection.

I ask you: is God trustworthy? Can you trust him with what you’re facing? The disciples are about to face the whirlwind of Christ’s death and the following events. Basic: Trust God.

Let me tell you: there are some seasoned saints who can tell you: “Yes, he is trustworthy. I’ve been trusting him. I had to trust him when my child turned away from Jesus, and he was trustworthy. I had to trust him when I lost my job, and he was trustworthy. I had to trust him when I was overwhelmed and overloaded and on the brink of despair - and he has always been trustworthy.” Those of you who have suffered, has he been trustworthy?

Christian, God has never done you any harm. He never will.

Jesus’ words to you: Have faith in God. Don’t put faith in yourself to fix this. Look to God. Trust his character. Trust his Word. Trust his purposes. Be like a little child, and take his hand in the darkness, and walk with him. He doesn’t always give you answers, but he gives himself.

Now when we set our faith in God, it leads to prayer. You cannot separate the two. Prayer is the inhaling and exhaling of faith. This means, of course, that prayer is the measure of our faith. Weak prayer indicates weak faith. Strong prayer indicates strong faith.

Also, in keeping with the theme of last week, your prayer life - particularly your private prayer life - is either evidence that your religion is false and external, or real and from the heart.

Look at how Jesus connects faith in prayer: “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.”

Life of Faith Basic # 2) You must pray without doubt. Faith and prayer are related the same way life is related to your pulse. How can you check if someone’s alive? Do they have a pulse? How can you check if someone has faith? Do they pray?

To illustrate this praying faith he speaks of speaking to a mountain and telling it to be thrown into the sea. To understand this rightly, we need to know that hyperboles are often a form of good communication. Hyperbole is overstating something on purpose to make a point. It’s like saying, “We hit a million red lights on the way to church this morning.” You didn’t actually hit a million, you hit more than usual.

Moving a mountain is an impossible thing. Jesus is using hyperbole. He is not inviting his disciples to start trying to speak to the mountain. He is not telling them they should expect to throw it into the sea with their own words. He’s not. We know this because no disciple tried it, no disciple did it, and no mountain has ever been moved.

He’s actually using a common metaphor that the Jews of their day were used to hearing. Particularly wise rabbis, who were able to provide counsel and help solve tricky, difficult problems, were sometimes called “movers of mountains” or “rooters of mountains.” A mountainous problem would be presented to them, and they would, by their wisdom, move that mountain. The problems they were facing would be removed.

He says that we ought to be able to face menacing mountains - great tangles of problems and quandaries - and remove them. But the key, he says, is that we must not doubt. He must believe that the mountainous problem can be removed, and it will be done. He then, in verse 24, directly speaks of prayer: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Now, this passage has taken a beating from false teachers. And this passage has been used to deceive thousands. Much of the “name it and claim it” theology arises from these verses.

Here’s the idea. God has essentially said anything you want, you can have, so long as you have enough faith when asking for it. You want healing? It’s yours if you have enough faith. You want a raise? Yours if you have enough faith. You want a nicer car? More faith. This is taught by false teachers like Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer. Joyce Meyer urged her followers to speak to their checkbooks and rise up and live. Creflo Dollar said, and I quote: “If I want to believe God for a $65 million dollar plane, you cannot stop me.”

Nominal Christians love this junk: I saw this meme on Facebook: “Next 4 Days, God will fix your bill$! If you believe, Like, Type Amen, and Share.” This way of thinking makes God into a genie.

We are called to have faith in God. We are called to pray without doubting God’s ability to provide for our every need. But this does not mean that you will get whatever you want.

This is why the principle of the Analogy of Faith is so crucial. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Let lesser clear passages be clarified by more clear passages.

There are actually several biblical reasons why God might not answer our prayers. First, if we are cherishing sin in our heart, our prayers will not be answered. That’s what Psalm 66:18 says. When husbands are not living with their wives in an understanding way, their prayers are hindered, 1 Peter 3:7. Don’t expect this promise to apply if you love your sin.

Second, God won’t answer our prayers when our motives are selfish. James 4:3: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your own passions.” In other words, the reason why your prayers are not being answered is because you're asking for God to finance your lusts. You're asking God to polish your idols. Verse 4: “You adulterous people” - it’s actually in the feminine form: “You adulteresses.” James says that people who pray selfishly, asking for God to fulfill their selfish desires, are like adulteresses. They like a woman who asks her husband for money only to go spend it on her prostitution.

Third, God often doesn’t answer prayers that lack earnestness. Some of us pray prayers that we could care less about. We float them up into the sky like party balloons and forget about them. We don’t know if they’re answered, and frankly, we don’t actually care. God can be gracious and answer our prayers anyway. But Luke 11 describes effective prayer as persevering: the man who visits his friend at midnight and begs for loaves of bread will eventually get it. Earnest and persistent prayer is more likely to be answered than careless prayer.

Fourth, what we see in our text is that sometimes doubt is the reason why our prayers are unanswered. We actually don’t trust God. Our prayers are not the expression of deep faith in God, they’re ritualistic, routine, empty of any confidence, just an outward religious activity.

And fifth, and this is critical, sometimes our prayers don’t get answered because, quite simply, it’s not according to God’s perfect, sovereign will. This is why whenever we pray, no matter what we pray for, we should be confident in God’s character and purpose, but we should also say, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

The key to interpreting Mark 11:24 regarding prayer is understanding what it means to have faith in God. To have faith in God means to submit yourself to his will, his word, his plans, his purposes, his desires, his goals. That’s what faith is.

If you're harboring sin, this promise doesn’t apply to you. If you’re selfishly motivated, this promise doesn’t apply to you. If your prayers are perfunctory and external only, this promise doesn’t apply to you. God doesn’t promise to answer the prayers of the thief who is asking for safe travels while he’s on his way to rob the bank.

The same idea is conveyed in John 15:7 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” There are two conditions we must meet if we want to be able to ask whatever we wish and receive it. Condition one if we must abide in Christ, and condition two is Christ’s words must abide in us. That means we are trusting in Christ and filled with his truth and wisdom. So that means our prayers are shaped by his purposes, his will, his promises.

What Jesus is teaching is that as our selfish ambitions melt away in the sun of God’s glory, and we are increasingly captivated by him and his purposes, our prayers begin to sound more God-centered, more biblical. And those are the prayers God answers.

We ask for God’s name to be glorified. We ask for his kingdom to come. We ask for his will to be done. We ask for daily provision. We ask for opportunities for gospel witness. We ask for sinners to be saved. We can ask for healing - but we are more concerned that God gets glorified in the healing. We do ask for deliverance and open doors. And have faith in God. Believe that he will move mountains.

We abide in him, his words abide in us, and we ask according to his will, and he gives us our desires.

Friends, God has been answering so many prayers! I wonder how many of you got saved because someone who loves you was praying for you?

Kyle, Felix and I are praying through the directory every month. Many others of you are doing the same. I think that God is at work in your life because we’ve been praying for you.

We are praying through all the nations. I don’t think we’ll know how those prayers are answered in this life. But I can’t wait to see what mountains were thrown into the sea because God answered our prayers!

It’s amazing church, how much God answers prayer. Since we moved our family out here a few years ago, it’s been answered prayer after answered prayer. Praying for God to build his church. Check. Praying for God to raise up elders. Check. Praying for God to raise up funds. Check. Praying for God to save sinners. Check, check, check. Praying for unity. Check. Praying for church health. Check.

Friends, this is one of the reasons why Sunday evenings are such an incredible time together. We pray corporately and specifically about many things. It’s hard. I know - it makes Sunday a long day. But how enrichening to my faith! And parents - that’s the kind of stuff you want your kids to see and hear. God is real! God heard us! He is the Living God!

Now, church, let me be honest. There are some prayers I’ve been praying for years. There are some prayers that I think are according to his will, and they haven’t been answered. They remind me of Paul’s thorn in 2 Corinthians 12. Three times he asked that it’d be removed. But God didn’t answer his prayer. God knew that there was something more valuable than removing his thorn; it was keeping Paul weak. Jesus said to him, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” I don’t know why God doesn’t always answer good prayers the way we’d like. But that’s where we go back to the beginning: “Have Faith in God.” Not my will, but yours be done.

The disciples’ worlds will soon be turned upside down. They must have faith in God, and they must pray. Now, flowing from faith is prayer, and flowing from prayer is forgiveness. Verse 25: “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.”

The disciples need also to learn how to forgive.

Life of Faith Basics # 3) You must forgive. Here we are called to forgive. Those who have faith in God are forgiving people. We have entrusted ourselves to God, relying upon his mercy. We are not in a position to withhold forgiveness from those who need it.

I think of my own need of forgiveness. Can you think of yours? From childhood, I was taught the truths about God. I learned about Christ’s death on the cross as a kid. I knew about his resurrection. I went to church. And yet, even for so many years knowing the truth, I lived for myself. How proud and selfish I was! And even after becoming a Christian, being saved, how often have I been proud, self-reliant, stubborn, impatient, or angry. And how has God treated me? He’s treated my like royalty. He’s treated me like his own son. He’s forgiven my every sin. He loved me so deeply that his sent his son to die for me, to pay the penalty I deserved. He adopted me into his family. The Father loves me, the Son died for me, lives for me, prays for me, the Spirit helps me. I am totally and utterly forgiven.

How could I turn toward another sinner - just like myself - and treat them as if they need to earn their forgiveness?

Do you hold grudges? Do you have a list of grievances of what people have done against you?

Look again at the verse: “if you have anything against anyone.” That’s pretty comprehensive, isn’t it? There is no sin committed against me that I have the right to refuse forgiveness.

Look: “so that your Father also who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.” Forgive so that your father will forgive you. In other words, your willingness to forgive is an expression of your repentance. If you are not a forgiving person, you are not a repentant person, and you are therefore, not a forgiven person.

If you are knowingly continuing to hold a grudge against someone else, you have no right to expect that God will forgive you on the day you stand before him. There is no such thing as a Christian who refuses to forgive.

We live in a fallen world. You will be hurt. You will be sinned against. You will be betrayed, belittled, underappreciated, mistreated, marginalized, or maligned. This is not a question of “if” but of when and how.

When you pray, and in your heart you are holding something against someone - you’re jealous, you’re angry, you’re growing bitter, you’re growing resentful - you need to forgive that person.

Offering forgiveness is imitating God, and demonstrating what he’s like. God has forgiven us. We, as his children, forgive others.

You see, God forgives sin. God freely forgives. Your sins are many. Your guilt is great. Your punishment is eternal death. But God is willing to forgive sins. Freely. No payment. That’s why he sent Jesus, his own son, to die on the cross. He died as a substitute - making payment for sins that he did not commit. He rose from the dead. And God has promised to forgive everyone who turns from their sin and trusts in Jesus. God is so freely willing to forgive! Come - and all your sins are thrown into the ocean of God’s love.

And one of the most God-like things you can do is forgive an undeserving sinner. If you only forgive someone who deserves forgiveness, you are not imitating God. But when you do, you are making the gospel tangible.

This is a hard world. We sin. We are sinned against. We respond to people’s sins in sinful ways. And we suffer. And we respond to suffering sinfully. And our sinful response to suffering can tempt others to sin.

We need the basics, and these are the things that will sustain us in any situation we face. This is what will set us apart from the world: Faith in God. Prayer without doubt. And Forgiveness for those who offend us.