Lessons from the Fig Tree (Part 4 of 4)

Jesus encourages us as his followers to pray with boldness. He says, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you've received it and it will be yours. So does this mean Jesus is like a wish-granting genie?

Of course not. And today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg shows us how to rightly understand Jesus' words in Mark chapter 11. We're looking today at verses 23 through 25. Do you understand why it's so important that in seeking to be true to the Bible, we don't try to be truer to the Bible than the Bible is to itself, or truer to the Bible than is Christ to the Scriptures? It is important that when we read the Bible, we say, what is the language, what is the genre in which this is being expressed? And as I suggested to you, this is a figurative, proverbial kind of statement akin to a camel going through the eye of a needle. What we're actually doing is we're saying, to understand this allows us then to have the Scriptures say exactly what they're saying, and not in any way to detract from the audacious way in which Jesus says to his followers, God wants to do things for you that are incredible and that are apparently impossible.

That's what he's saying. We've just come from the temple. It's defunct. We've come from the place that used to be the house of prayer.

There's no prayer going on. It's been turned into a market. Now, you are my man. You've seen what has happened to this tree. That is a model of what you will do one day when you take me at my word and when you do what God designs for you. Now, we could illustrate this in so many ways, but the man that came to mind is probably the man that's in your mind right now as a wonderful illustration of the deep-seated conviction that God is able to do what seems totally impossible. Now, we could go all kinds of places, couldn't we? We could go to Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. We could go to little David going up against big Goliath.

There's a lot of places we could go, but that's not who I have in mind. I have Abraham in mind. Abraham, the old man. Abraham, the old man with the old wife. Abraham, the increasingly old man with the increasingly old wife, who's been hanging on to a promise about becoming a father, and every day that he lives, it is increasingly incredible that he could ever become a father. In fact, frankly, from a human perspective, it is no way that he is going to become a father. So he has a promise, you are going to become the father of many nations. Through your seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This is not just, you're gonna have a boy.

This is, you're gonna have a family that is as vast as the sands on the seashore. And every day that passes, when they're having their breakfast, they must have said to one another, This is totally unbelievable. This is incredible.

Frankly, this is impossible. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith, and he gave glory to God—here we go—being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. That is faith. That is faith. And Jesus now takes these fellows, who are on this side of the cross, and he directs them in this way. And if you read the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the Apostles are there in part as vibrant proof of what Jesus is actually teaching.

Because it is impossible to go into the Acts of the Apostles and not find some of the fulfillment of this. The beggar says to Peter and John, You got anything for me? Did Peter swallow before he then said to them, did he go, I want to try this? I don't know.

I mean, what did he do? Did he just go? I don't know.

What do you got for me? Well, silver and gold, have I none? Here we go. Hold my hand. But such as I have, I give to you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, just stand up and walk. That's faith. That's faith. Did he remember when the man said, Give me something, what Jesus had said to him? You see this fig tree?

You see that mess? Now, let me tell you guys, this is what you need to understand. God is able to do beyond all of your capacity to even imagine. You could even say, as it were, to this mountain, Throw yourself in the sea, and it would actually be accomplished.

It is a picture of the doing of the impossible. And he then builds on that in verse 24. Therefore, he says—building on his own argument—"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it."

That sounds like that sounds like Abram in the little section in Romans 4, doesn't it? Fully persuaded that God could do what he said he would do. Fully persuaded. He was banking on it.

Because God said it. Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whatever you ask.

Now, once again, don't let's set this aside by a hundred qualifications. Just let it sit there for a minute and enjoy it, whatever you ask. Jesus has taught elsewhere, if you, being earthly, or you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more—the argument is from the lesser to the greater—how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him? You can go and ask him for good things. In one of the old hymns we used to sing in Sunday school in Scotland, Thou Art Coming to a King, Large Petitions with Thee Bring, Since His Grace and Power is Such, You Can Never Ask Too Much. You can never out-ask God.

He owns everything. It doesn't mean you're gonna get everything. But you can ask him whatever you ask. In fact, James, who seems to have paid very close attention to this, says in chapter 4 of his letter, he says, the reason that many of you don't have anything is because you don't ask.

That's the very phraseology he uses. You do not have because you do not ask. And when you ask, you ask wrongly to serve it to please yourselves.

You don't have the courage to ask, and then if you do pluck up the courage to ask, you ask, and your motives are all wrong. Jesus is addressing this here. In other words, he's encouraging his disciples to trust God with all that they need for doing God's Word. Because it is in that context that he is speaking to them, isn't it? So that they might be sure that God will accomplish what they ask.

In fact, they may be so sure that it will appear almost as if they have already received it. Now, here I need to introduce one of the principles of interpretation from this morning, so as to allay the fears of some and to just set the framework for others. Remember what we said this morning in part, that we must always interpret Scripture with Scripture, and that our interpretation of Scripture must be adjudicated upon by the totality of Scripture. So in other words, we can't come to this verse and take it in its bold simplicity and make application of it in a way that would set it in opposition to other places in the Bible or to other truths in the Bible which are corollaries or are necessities that are, if you like, inherent in the thinking of Christ, even when he urges this audacious approach.

Now, if we had time which we don't, we could work our way through a whole list of these. But there are characteristics of prayer that are present and need to be present always when we think of a verse like this. So, for example, when he says, Whatever you ask in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours. First of all, our prayers must emerge from the humility, the humility which says, Lord, I don't know always what to ask. It also has to be framed by the sincerity, which is different from the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Do not be like the hypocrites when you pray.

In other words, sincerity. Also, it is framed in the context of consistency, so that in Matthew 7 you ask and you keep on asking, you knock and you keep on knocking. So in other words, this safeguards us from a notion that what we have in this verse is a kind of press-button-A approach, and whoops-a-daisy, out, everything falls in line.

Also, our prayers are framed by charity—in other words, by love for all who are concerned—and also that our prayers are framed ultimately by the sovereignty of God and by submission to God's will. Oh, you say, now here we go. You just made me get all excited about the way in which we can approach God, and now you seem to be having given it with one hand and you're taking it back with the other hand.

No, no, I'm not in doing that at all. Here's how I wrestle with these things in my own mind. When I come up against naughty problems like these, I always ask one question, and that is, how does this idea work for Jesus? Or how did this idea work for Jesus? This idea of his own statement here, I'm gonna tell you that whatever you ask for in prayer, if you believe you've received it, it will be yours.

That seems pretty categorical, doesn't it? Okay, well then, let's try it with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Turn over a couple of pages, chapter 14, verse 36. 35, going a little further, Jesus fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "'Abba, Father,' he said, "'everything is possible for you.'"

There's not any doubt about that. "'Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.'" Now, if you kept your finger in the verse, go back to verse 24, "'Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it and it will be yours.

Take this cup from me.'" What's up, Jesus? Didn't you believe you would receive it?

Could Jesus possibly be unbelieving here? No. No. "'Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.'" Do you see the balance? Absolute confidence in God's power. "'Father, everything is possible for you. I am absolutely confident in your power.

Secondly, I am completely submitted to your will.'" Total confidence in his power. Complete submission to his will. So that the very boldness, the very childlikeness, the very enthusiasm, the vastness of asking God to do impossible things is not mitigated by his sovereignty.

It is controlled mercifully by his sovereignty. In fact, I came across a quote. I wrote it down, and I don't know where I got it from. It just comes to mind now. See if I can find it for a moment.

Yeah, here it is. "'When prayer is the source of faith's power and the means of its strength, God's sovereignty is its only restriction.'" That is really good.

I need to find out where I got that. "'When prayer is the source of faith's power and the means of its strength, God's sovereignty is its only restriction. And it is only the sovereign purpose of God that restricts the answer of the prayer of Christ. It is not because he didn't believe enough to make it happen.'"

And let me say before I just finish up that if you are tempted to come out with that nonsense, have somebody staple your lips together. For seldom have I been as righteously stirred in pastoral ministry as when I have listened to individuals tell well-meaning, believing, trusting Christians that the only reason that their prayer has not been answered according to their design is because of their inadequate faith. The reason that you haven't been healed, the reason that this hasn't happened, is all because of the inadequacy of your faith. We had a girl who was a missionary in West Africa. She took cancer. She came home. The cancer was through her entire abdomen. Well-meaning people who wanted to take mountains and throw them into the sea went over to the house to ask God for the impossible, which his sovereignty chose not to give. Despite that, they got her out of her bed, and they marched around the bed so that they could come back to the prayer time and tell everybody, yes, that God is beginning to work. She's out of her bed.

She was walking around. It was fatuous. It was unhelpful.

It was a disaster. And worse still, that after I conducted her funeral, they went to the home of her mom and dad and told her mom and dad, you know, she would still be here if it were not for your inadequate faith. Is that what this verse is saying? No, you see, if you take the Scriptures and squeeze them like plasticine to fit your own agenda, you can make them do and say just about anything you choose. But if we are going to allow the Scriptures to adjudicate on themselves and our interpretation of the Scriptures to be guided by the Scriptures, then we will be prevented from such things.

The bottom line I wrote was this. Those who trust God for the right things in the right way may have confidence that God will always make the right response. Those who trust God for the right things in the right way may have confidence that from God they will always get the right response. Well, can I say just a word about forgiveness?

Just take a moment, because otherwise we'll just have this little verse hanging out here all by itself, and I wouldn't know what to do with it. Verse 25, and Jesus says, and while we're talking about praying, if you're standing praying, make sure that you're not having an unforgiving spirit in your heart. Unless we forgive one another, it becomes clear that we have no sense of the grace of God that has forgiven us. This is cross-referenced elsewhere in the teaching of Jesus, not least of all in our routine stating of the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. This is not a quid pro quo. This is not a prayer that is a prayer that is not a quod pro quo.

This is not tit for tat. It's not that our forgiveness of others earns us the right to be forgiven. Some people think that's what's being said.

If we do this, then you'll do that for us. It may even appear that that's what's being said in verse 25. But once again, if you allow the Scriptures to speak and to push us and mold us in the right direction, then it becomes clear that God forgives only the penitent. And one of the chief evidences of being penitent is that I have a forgiving spirit. It is inconceivable, in terms of the parable that we read at the very beginning of this in Matthew 18, it's inconceivable that we who have been forgiven so much should refuse to forgive the small debts of others against us. And yet, we're tempted to do it, aren't we? And people say, well, I'm prepared to forgive, but not to forget.

And someone says, the person who says, I'll forgive you, but I won't forget, is like somebody who buries the hatchet but leaves the handle sticking out. I would guess that if it's not number one, it's definitely in the top three, that an unforgiving spirit may be the number one killer of genuine spiritual life. Don't tell me that you're a prayer. Don't tell me that you're seeking God. But if you harbor enmity in your heart against your brothers and your sisters, three things will destroy it—immorality, anger, and an unforgiving spirit.

The exact same three things that will make it impossible for you to listen to the Bible being taught and benefiting from it. When people tell me, you say, well, I used to come and listen, I don't get anything out of it now. Well, I may be getting worse. I'm prepared to admit that. But I tell you, you better check three things. You better check if you're an angry sucker. And you better check if you're filling your mind with filth. And you better check if you're harboring bitterness and enmity in your heart against other people, because those three things will kill you, and they will kill a congregation.

And it is no surprise then that Jesus says, What I did to the fig tree is all about the question of fruit. Check your life for it. What I'm now saying to you about being bold and audacious with God is all about faith. Check your life for it. And what I'm saying to you about a forgiving spirit is a fundamental of believing prayer.

Check your life for it. We're learning about faith and forgiveness on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Alistair returns shortly to close today's program. If you'd like to hear a story of great faith and incredible forgiveness, download a free copy of Alistair's ebook, The Hand of God. In this ebook, Alistair explores the story of Joseph, as found in the book of Genesis, and shows us how even in desperate circumstances, God is providentially at work, orchestrating every detail of our lives.

He's always fully in command. So if you find yourself looking around at the chaos in our world or the personal turmoil in your own life, and you're wondering if God has somehow lost control of things, you'll want to read this book. It will assure you that although unseen, God is shaping human history and our own lives for his purposes, for the good of his people, and for his glory. Download The Hand of God ebook today. Again, it's free. Tell your friends about this limited time offer.

It's only free during the month of July. You'll find the ebook at truthforlife.org slash hand. At Truth for Life, we love offering low cost and free resources like the Hand of God ebook. We strive to provide clear, relevant Bible teaching to anyone who is hungry for God's word. In fact, that's our mission to open Scripture daily to help you better understand and apply God's word to your life. And keep in mind, every time you pray for Truth for Life or you donate to this ministry, that's the mission you're supporting.

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Again, you can give a gift online at truthforlife.org slash donate. Now here's Alistair with prayer. Forgive our sins. As we forgive, you taught us, Lord, to pray, but you alone can grant us grace to live the words we say. How can your pardon reach and bless the unforgiving heart that broods on wrong and will not let old bitterness depart? In blazing light, your cross reveals the truth we dimly knew. How small the debts men owe to us.

How great our debt to you. Lord, cleanse the depths within our souls and bid resentment cease. Then, reconciled to God and man, our lives will spread your peace. Father, teach us that it is in our forgiveness of other people's sins against us that we reveal the fact that we have been truly forgiven by you. Amen. As we are discovering, the parables of Jesus can be unsettling, and Monday we'll examine a parable that casts scrutiny on the religious leaders in Jesus' day, a group more accustomed to convicting others than being convicted themselves. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.