Mark 11:22-26 Faith, Prayer and Forgiveness

Joel and Mary Nadel, Covenant Church

From J.C. Ryle’s “Expository Comments on the Gospels - Mark”

House Rules: Phones, Respect, Stay on the Text

Pray

Background

Approaching the end of Jesus earthly ministry

First part was Him establishing His purpose for God’s people - that He/the Son of God, has come to save His people from their sins

Next, He is focused on the work He must do at the Cross

He continues to teach God’s will

He continues to address the cost of discipleship

He continues to explain His mission to save His people

He continues to prepare His followers for what will happen in Jerusalem

Now in Jerusalem, He is now engaged in the work that will inevitably lead Him to His death

Today: The Lord teaches us about the relationship of faith, prayer, and forgiveness

Mark 11:22–26 ESV

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.”

Introduction

Last week we studied Jesus visit to the Temple

Cursed a fig tree

Purged the Temple

Talked of the meaning of this “parable” for the Jewish church, the Christian church, and for nominal Christians

Peter’s surprised exclamation: Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered!

Peter’s surprise shows a continued lack of faith - if true faith, Peter would not have been surprised

The immense importance of faith

Proverbial saying: Faith will enable a man to accomplish works and overcome difficulties as great or difficult as the removing a mountain and casting into the sea.

This is not to be taken literally, but figuratively. Faith built the Christian faith though into a worldwide movement

Confirmed with: Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Qualification: we will ask for things not sinful and are consistent with God’s will

When we ask these things, we can expect the prayer to be answered

James 1:6 “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

This kind of faith is a bit different from that which is necessary for justification/salvation

The sense of it is the same - its about trust and belief

There are different kinds of faith though and this is helpful to understand

Justifying/saving faith is that act of the soul by which we embrace Christ and have peace with God - Its about believing that Jesus died for our sins

The faith in this passage is more general than that - it grows out of saving faith but should not be confused with it

This kind of faith is a faith in God’s power, wisdom and good will toward His children - it is faith in His promises, the Word, and the character of God in Christ

Confidence in God’s power will help every believer

it is a belief in the truth of every word God has spoken, and it is the reason for the greatness of our religion

It is really the root of genuine Christianity

Hebrews 11:1-3 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Hebrews 11 is a brilliant chapter, it defines faith for us

Do we want to grow in grace and in the knowledge and understanding of our Lord?

Do we wish to make progress in our faith and become strong Christians?

We need to pray daily for the Lord to increase our faith and to pay attention to our faith

Weak faith makes the whole man or woman weak

Faith will increase our peace, hope, joy, decisions for serving Christ, boldness in our witness, strength in our work, patience when we are in trouble, our comfort in prayer

All that will depend on our faith

Those are happy who know how to depend completely on God, to walk by faith and not by sight

The absolute necessity of a forgiving spirit

Its hard to see a direct connection between the importance of faith and the importance of forgiveness, so Jesus makes that connection here.

Prayer is essential to faith, and forgiveness is essential to prayer.

Faith is essential to our prayers but prayers cannot be heard if they don’t come from a forgiving heart

Mark 11:25 “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 value of our prayers depends completely on the state of mind we are in when we offer them

Prayers must be earnest, fervent, sincere and in the name of Christ, but they must also come from a forgiving heart

We have no right for God’s mercy, if we can’t extend mercy ourselves

We cannot really feal the seriousness of our own sins that we ask God to pardon, if we won’t forgive the sins of others

We need to have the heart of a brother/sister toward our neighbors on earth, if we want God to be our Father in heaven

We can’t fool ourselves into thinking we have the Spirit of adoption if we cannot overlook sins ourselves

This is a topic that requires us to really search our hearts

the amount of meanness and pettiness among Christians is really great

No wonder so many prayers seem to be unheard

This is a topic that applies to all kinds of Christians

Not all of us have the same knowledge about the Lord, but we can all forgive our fellow Christians

Jesus was genuinely concerned about it, so much so that He put it in the Lord’s prayer: Matthew 6:12 “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

So many are familiar with these words, it would be good if we all considered what those words mean.

Bringing it home

With the end of this lesson, let’s ask some questions

Do we know what it is to be a forgiving spirit?

Can we overlook the injuries we get from time to time in this evil world?

Can we pass over a transgression and pardon an offense?

If not, where is our faith?

If not, why should we wonder if prayers go unanswered?

We have to decide, by God’s grace, to forgive, just as we expect by that grace to be forgiven

We are incredibly blessed by God’s free forgiveness, in fact it is the key to eternal life for us

Surely we can be forgiving during the few years we are on this earth

The Gospel

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 ESV

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Romans 10:9 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Pray

Prayer requests/Lord’s Prayer

Questions