Let the Miracle of the Fig Tree Grow Your Faith
Matthew 21:17-22
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Jan. 3, 2010
*How much faith do you want? More! -- I want more faith! The good news is that God wants you to have more faith too. That is a big part of what is going on here in Matthew 21.
*The Lord knew that He was about to go to the cross. Jesus knew that those three days in the grave would be miserably long for His scattered sheep. Jesus also knew that 40 days after He rose from the dead He was going to return to Heaven. The Lord knew that His disciples would need more faith for these times. And the Lord wanted to grow their faith in God. So, first Jesus demonstrated His power with a miracle. And then He used this miracle to speak to His followers about faith. The Lord wanted to grow their faith, and through this story, He wants to grow ours.
1. So grow your faith on the Lord’s humility.
*We see a great display of the Lord’s humility in His hunger. This is in vs. 17-18:
17. Then He (Jesus) left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.
18. Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
*It is a mind-boggling thing that the God of all creation was hungry. We have seen Him feed thousands with next to nothing. And He has provided every bite we have ever eaten. But here we see the Lord in hunger. I want to remind you tonight that He was hungry for me, and He was hungry for you. John 19 tells us that one of the last things Jesus said on the cross was “I thirst.”
*The great preacher Charles Spurgeon took note of that and asked: “Who was this that said, ‘I Thirst?’ It was he who balanced the clouds and filled the channels of the mighty deep. He said, ‘I thirst,’ and yet in him was a well of water springing up to eternal life! Yes, he who guided every river in its course and watered all the fields with grateful showers. He it was, the King of kings and Lord of lords, before whom hell trembles and the earth is filled with dismay. He whom heaven adores and all eternity worships. He it was who said, ‘I thirst!’
*Matchless condescension! -- from the infinity of God to the weakness of a thirsting, dying man! -- And this was for you.” (1)
*God humbled Himself to become a man like us. So in Phil 2:5-11, the Apostle Paul would later write:
5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6. who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7. but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
*Grow your faith tonight on the Lord’s humility.
2. And grow your faith on the Lord’s ability.
*We see Christ’s infinite ability in vs. 19, where “seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, ‘Let no fruit grow on you ever again.’ And immediately the fig tree withered away.”
*The disciples saw the Hand of God at work in a miraculous way. That fig tree completely withered away. Maybe we have never seen anything like that. But as believers, we have seen the Hand of God. How many of you could raise your hand to say that you have definitely seen the Lord work in your life? We have seen the Hand of God at work many times. And Matt 19:26 tells us that all things are possible with God.
*One of the neat gifts I got for Christmas was a book called “Godwinks” by Squire Rushnell. Squire defines a Godwink as what some would call a coincidence. It’s an answered prayer or simply an experience where you’d say, "Wow, what are the odds of that!"
*The Godwink for Christmas week this year was based in this passage of Scripture. It was the story of a late-40s couple who live in deep-south McAllen, Texas, down on the border with Mexico. The story started with the diagnosis that Toni Espinoza’s husband David would die within three years unless he received a heart transplant. In the spring of 2004, three cardiologists told David that his damaged heart was only working at 10% capacity.
*Toni cried out to God to save her husband. But she was terribly conflicted by the thought that in order for David to live, someone else would have to die. So, she began to ask God for a miraculous healing. By early December both Toni and David were feeling a strange peace about it. But Toni wanted more assurance that God’s miracle was on the way, so she prayed: “Lord, I will know David’s okay, if you make it snow on Christmas Day, in McAllen, Texas.”
*Now in the middle of winter, “cold” weather in McAllen is 70 degrees. And when Toni told several close people about her prayer, close friend Crawford Higgins replied, “Toni, if you’re expecting it to snow here, where we’ve lived all our lives, and never seen snow. -- And specifically on Christmas Day? -- You might as well start making the burial arrangements.”
*But it did snow on Christmas Eve, starting around 11:30 that night. For the first time in recorded history, McAllen, Texas had a white Christmas! It was their first measurable snow in 109 years. Three weeks later Toni and David drove back to Houston for tests at DeBakey Institute. There, Dr. Guillermo Torre’s jaw dropped in wonder at the report. “I can’t explain this!” he said with surprise in his voice. “You’re not sick anymore!” (2)
*Of course, God doesn’t always heal us like that, because this world is not our home. But you can be sure that every day He answers prayers in amazing ways, because all things are possible with God. Grow your faith on the Lord’s ability.
3. And grow your faith for the Lord’s priority.
*What is the Lord’s priority for our lives? -- It is fruitfulness. And we are reminded of this priority in vs. 19, “Seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, ‘Let no fruit grow on you ever again.’ And immediately the fig tree withered away.”
*What was the problem with the fig tree? -- no fruit. Now this was a most unusual miracle. It was the only judgment miracle that Jesus performed while He was on the earth.
*There was important symbolism in this fig tree. John Phillips explains that the fig tree was one of the symbols of the nation of Israel. The fig tree represents Israel from the time the nation rejects Christ to the time when Israel as a nation accepts Christ. The cursing of the literal fig tree by Israel’s rejected King was a symbolic act. It was a parable as well as a miracle. The symbolic cursing of Matthew 21 was followed in by the actual cursing of the nation that the tree symbolized. (3)
*This took place in Matt 23, where Jesus ended His righteous judgment of the scribes and Pharisees with these words:
33. "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
34. Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
35. that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
38. See! Your house is left to you desolate;
39. for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
*There was important symbolism in the miracle of the withered fig tree. And in this tree we see the vital importance of fruitfulness in our own lives. Only hours before the cross, Jesus spoke about this in John 15, where He said:
1. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
*We need to be fruitful. This is the Lord’s priority for our lives. And as we go through the New Testament, we can see at least 4 different types of fruit:
1-The first kind of fruit is holiness, righteousness and goodness. -- The character of Jesus Christ.
-(Rom 6:22) But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
-(Gal 5:22-23) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
-(Eph 5:9) For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth.
2-The second kind of fruit is financial gifts.
-In Phil 4:15-17, Paul said:
15. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only.
16. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities.
17. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.
3-The third kind of fruit is praise to God.
-Heb 13:15 says, “Therefore by Him (Jesus) let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
4-And the fourth kind of fruit is reaching people for Jesus, connecting people with the love of Jesus Christ.
-Hear the Lord in John 4:35-36:
35. “Do you not say, `There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
36. And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.”
-Then in Rom 1:13, Paul said, “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you . . . that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.”
*We need to be fruitful. This is the Lord’s priority for our lives. And we need faith in order to be fruitful. So grow your faith for the Lord’s priority.
4. And grow your faith on the Lord’s integrity.
*We must trust the Lord’s integrity as He speaks to us in vs. 20-22:
20. Now when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?’’
21. So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.
22. And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.’’
*Now we have to put these words in context. James 4:3 tells us: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” In 1 John 5, the Apostle John tells us:
13. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
14. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
*Therefore, the Lord’s words in Matt 21 are not a blank check to get any selfish thing we would ever want. But Jesus does make an amazing promise to us here:
21. "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.
22. And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.’’
*We must trust the Lord’s integrity as He speaks to us. And we certainly can trust in the Lord’s integrity, because He would never lie to us. In fact, Titus 1:2 tells us that God cannot lie! Jesus Christ overflows with so much integrity that He could actually say, “I am the truth.” In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
*We can certainly trust in the word of the Lord, especially since He proved it by dying on the cross for us.
*Mark Adams explains, “When Jesus was finally arrested and beaten and spit on for claiming to be the Son of God. And then threatened with death for this claim to be God, I mean, if He was pulling everyone’s leg about the deity thing, don’t you think that about the time they were holding the hammer and the nail, putting the sharp end of the nail into the tender palm of His hand, don’t you think right about then a con artist or liar would say, ‘Time out. Just kidding. Can’t you people take a joke!? Hold everything! I mean the truth of the matter is, I was a carpenter who got tired of the construction trade and all I really wanted to do was make a buck a better way. So, I’m sorry that you all took this so seriously, but this is not my idea of a good way to spend a Friday afternoon. Let’s stop the whole crucifixion thing right here. I am so sorry. Lock me up. Tell Me I was a bad guy -- but put away the hammer and nails because I was just fooling!’” (4)
*We can certainly trust in the word of the Lord, especially since He proved it by dying on the cross for us. And when we do, we will see amazing answers to our prayers. So grow your faith on the Lord’s integrity.
*Grow your faith on the Lord’s humility, His ability and His integrity.
-And grow your faith for the Lord’s priority. -- Be fruitful for the Lord.
1. Tom Carter, Spurgeon at His Best, (Baker Book House, 1988), page 306. (Found in: The Last Seven Words of the Cross - FIFTH WORD FROM THE CROSS: "I THIRST" by Eric Ritz - John 19:28-29 - www.sermons.com)
2. When God Winks - Wink of the Week - The White Christmas Godwinks - http://www.whengodwinks.com/wow/wow_12232009.php
3. “Exploring the Gospel of Matthew” by John Phillips - pp. 455-456
4. “Jesus Christ is the Son of God” by Mark Adams - Matt 26:57-68 - March 21, 2004 - From the series “True or False - http://www.redlandbaptist.org/sermons/sermon20040321.php
