The Power of Prayer. (Matthew 21: 18-22)

I.             Introduction.

Have you ever prayed and didn’t get an answer. Some people say to me they feel that maybe they pray and don’t get an answer more than they prayed and do get one. Some people pray and don’t get an answer so much so that you can begin to doubt the benefit of prayer. 

Once in his ministry Jesus spoke to that very issue and he did it in a very dramatic way because he wanted to communicate to the disciples the power of prayer and he did it in a most amazing and for some a rather confusing way, because how he chose to illustrate it was by cursing a fig tree. Now this passage has given people problems since the day it was written, one commentator I read said that it’s the most uncomfortably difficult passage in all of the New Testament, Another I read said, that he was embarrassed by the account of the curse the fig tree, he felt it seems petty and vindictive. I think that position is ridiculous, but I do think it is fair to ask what is the point of this passage? Because I believe this passage is clearly meant to teach us something about the power of prayer. So, with that in mind would you turn with me to Matthew chapter 21 and I’m going to begin reading with verse .

II.            The Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree.

Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And 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.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” 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. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  (Matthew 18-22)

This whole passage really comes down to one simple thing.

I think sometimes passages communicate many truths and some passages communicate one truth, that has many facets. But this one I think just set out to communicate one clear powerful truth.

So, what I’d like to do I’d like to go through these verses and explain them and show you what I believe that one main truth is, and then try and apply it in several different areas of our life. With that in mind would you look with me again at Matthew chapter, and the opening verse 18. Remember they have been in the city of Jerusalem where Jesus has made his triumphal entry and apparently if you put Mark and Matthew together, we can strongly imply that those events happened on Monday and that means this passage before us is happening on Tuesday.  At any rate it says beginning in verse 18.

Now in the morning as he returned to the city, he (Jesus) was hungry and seeing a fig tree by the road he came to it found nothing on it but leaves and said to it let no fruit grow on you ever again. Immediately the Fig tree withered away now.  (Matthew 21: 18-19)

One little thing I need to explain to you, notice he said it had leaves but no fruit. Our response to that piece of information might be to assume that maybe it wasn’t time for it to produce fruit, it had leaves it’s alive and the fruit would come later.

But Bible experts tell us that in Palestine at this time the kind of figs crown there was one where the fig tree actually produced buds of fruit before it produced leaves so the fact that the tree had leaves but didn’t have fruit indicates that it was a barren tree, fruitless and wasn’t going to produce any fruit, at any time.

So, Jesus curses the fig tree, and that is action is what makes some people uncomfortable, asking why did he take it out on a fig tree. We see that it immediately just withers up and dies.

III.           The Meaning of the Curse on the Fig Tree.

Let me pause and ask what does that mean? 

Let me tell you that when Bible teachers come to explaining this passage, they shall we see have a wide range of opinions. Some say, he cursed the fig tree so that means it represents judgment.

This is where the others come in, they try to figure out who this curse represented. In other words who does the fig tree represent and those who god down that route come up with one of two basic answers.

One is that it represents Israel, that he is really symbolically saying that Israel has not produced fruit, so he is going to put a curse on them. Others say, that’s not true because God never permanently cursed Israel, and the Bible tells us that Israel will produce fruit again. It’s very clear that God still has his program for Israel, the book of Romans Chapter 11 makes that clear. 

The other point of view is that he’s talking about putting a curse on Jerusalem, on that generation of Jews, now if that is the case what does that say about the judgment of God.

My response to all of that there is not the slightest hint in this passage that says that, because he cursed the fig tree and judged it so to speak so I don’t think that is  the point he was making.

Now there may be some truth in the fact that he judges unfruitful people, or groups of people, but I don’t believe that is the point here at all.

How do I arrive at that conclusion, just keep reading he says.

And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” So, Jesus answered and said to them surely, I say to you if you have faith and do not doubt you will not only do what was done to the victory, but you will say to this mountain be moved and cast into the sea and it will be done.   (Matthew 21: 20-21)

So, this whole passage when read in context has nothing to do with judgment. That isn’t the point that Jesus makes at all. The point he wanted to make and teach on was about the power of faith.

He elaborates by saying, let me tell you something about the power of prayer.

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.  (Matthew 21: 22)

This is about the power of prayer and he’s saying I did this is a symbol of the power you can have when you pray and then he goes one step further and says the power is demonstrated in the cursing of the fig tree.

Then he says expand their horizons by saying, “see that mountain”, and remember they’re entering Jerusalem and they are likely now at a point in the road where they could see the city and the mount of olives,  and he says, “look if you have enough faith, you can move that mountain and have it cast into the sea”. The sea wasprobably the Mediterranean Sea which was a few miles away.

So, he’s saying you cannot only curse big trees you can do much bigger things than that.

Now, I believe that moving a mountain was a proverbial expression to illustrate something that would be impossible in human terms.

So, Jesus focuses on the fig tree, and he says this is a parable, this is a picture if you will of the power you can have in prayer. Prayer is powerful enough for you to do something exceedingly difficult like cursing a fig tree or seemingly impossible like moving a mountain and having it tossed into the sea.

So, what do we have to do to get in on that power, sounds too good to be true, well thankfully he tells us. He says, if you have faith and do not doubt, so we’re not just talking about any prayer by anybody we’re talking about a believers prayer and the faith is underscored by the addition of that little phrase and you do not doubt, that’s what will do it.

“Faith without doubt” means unwavering trust is the very nature of this Greek word doubt. In that you would not be double minded or hesitate even for a moment. Unwavering is a good word that captures what’s being said here.

Jesus is talking about is a faith that does not waver. I’m going to trust in God. 

He concludes by saying and whatever things you ask in prayer believing you will receive. That’s appears to be a pretty dogmatic statement, but it seems to me what Jesus is saying in this passage is that believing prayer that has unwavering trust within it accomplishes amazing things, amazingly difficult things, things that you thought impossible and will amaze you.

Of course, there are people that don’t believe in prayer at all. Some critics say, it just appears that you get answers but those are just coincidences. If that is true, then I am amazed at how often those “coincidences” have happened to me.

I said there was one simple single point in this passage, and it is this believing prayer can accomplish such difficult things that it will astound you and amaze you. 

That’s the point, I know it sounds simple enough doesn’t it, but what I want to do is take that little statement and I want to break it down into its points and I want to apply that in some areas of our life.

The first thing that strikes me about this passage is that it deals with prayer at all. If you’ve been following me as we’ve been going through the Gospel of Matthew, you know that in the passage prior to this Jesus walked into the temple and drove out the money changers and then he said my father’s house should be a House of prayer.

I want us to put the last week of the life of Christ in order as we go through these remaining chapters, so keep in mind that that happened on Sunday.

On the Sunday Jesus preaches a sermon and he says my father’s house should be a House of prayer, then on Monday morning he curses a fig tree and apparently, by Tuesday the disciples pass by on the return trip and they are amazed that it has withered so quickly and he says, let me use that as an illustration of what I want to tell you about prayer.

So, I just want you to see that in the flow of this message earlier he talked about the fact that his father’s house should be a House of prayer and now he comes back and gives us and them a dramatic demonstration of what he means by that.

In verse 21 he said you must believe and do not doubt, you must have faith, and then in verse 22 says the thing you ask for in prayer believing will come to pass. 

That’s the real key, to get the kind of answers Jesus is talking about it has to be believing prayer and a faithful prayer, that’s the rub so to speak.

So, if that is the key to getting an answer to prayer, we need to talk about that for a minute, that is because I think that there are people who read this and even preachers and Pastors who read this and they conclude that you can just ask God for anything you want and he’ll give it to you, but that is not what this is saying at all. Nor is it what the Bible is teaching anywhere. As a matter of fact, that’s about as far from what this is really teaching bout seeing our prayers answered.

Let me illustrate, what I’m trying to say. For example if you were going to believe something about me, as a person, as an individual, what has to happen first is I have to say something . If you decided that you were going to trust me to offer you a something valuable, you’re might just be putting words in my mouth if I never said I would give you such a gift, right. 

So, you need to know me and know my character and what I have said and what I have promised and then you can believe in the sort of things I might give you.

So, before you can believe somebody, they must you must have faith embedded in the relationship based on knowledge of the character of the person who has it within their power to bless you.

God has made a promise, so that now sense with that knowledge and relationship you can now come to the Lord and say, Lord this is what you said in your word and I’m going to believe you and ask you to do what you said you promised you would do in your word.

That is why the Bible says that we are to pray according to his will. So, in order to practice believing prayer you’ve got to know the scripture and you’ve got to hear what God promised you’ve got to pray along those lines and those are the prayers that he promises to answer, and those are the answers that will bless you and even amaze you.

Some people think that prayer is like having a personal slot machine you pop in a coin pull out pull a lever and get out what you are hoping for.

That is not what prayer is about. Prayer is not to get my will confirmed in heaven, it’s to get God’s will done on earth. “Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. 

We often get it backwards, but the good news is if we’ve got God’s word on it, then if we pray according to his will and believe that is what he promised, then he will do what he said, and we will also be able to recognise when he has done it and see amazing things happen.

Next time you pray think what promises has he made that you can grab and hold on too and say I’m going to ask you to do what you promised.

How about this for a first bang on the bullseye prayer. First John 19 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That should do for a starting point because that means that if as a Christian I’ve sinned and I come to the Lord and say “I’ve sinned”, then he has promised to forgive us. How is that for a believing prayer.

But there is a second part to this prayer for forgiveness that we can offer.  Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of others.

It never just about us being forgiven it about us forgiving other people also.

Have you ever had trouble for giving somebody? 

Have you had trouble forgiving somebody? I think that’s a direct application of what Jesus is talking in the Lord’s prayer is being taught here.

The power of prayer is such is that you can trust God to forgive you and to enable you to forgive somebody else. That’s one application of this teaching but I think there is a second.

Let me ask you a question do you have any problem controlling your tongue, listen to what the text says in James chapter 3:7

“Every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind but no man can tame the tongue it is unruly, evil full of deadly poison.

James just said that if you could control the tongue you’re a perfect man, but then he comes back and reminds us that no one can do that completely.

So, what’s the point, well if you have trouble controlling your tongue then this passage is what you need to hear in that you can call upon the Lord to help you control your tongue and anything else in you life you should not be doing.

That is the power of prayer, it is so powerful that Jesus said you can kill a tree, throw a mountain into the sea, and oh yeah even control that little weapon you have between your teeth called the tounge, all through the power of prayer.

That is what prayer can do. 

Let me ask you a final question. What’s the classic prayer what’s the model the framework, what’s the pattern of prayer that Jesus himself gave us.

Listen to it .

Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day Our Daily Bread. And what’s .? Forgive us our sins as we forgive  those who sinned against us. What’s next? And lead us not into temptation.

You want to hear about the power of prayer, prayer that can move a mountain, prayer that can take you over the mountain of resentment and allow you to express forgiveness to other people, just as you have been forgiven.

But prayer also has the power to help us stop sinning against other by allowing it us to control our tongues. And can also stop you being led into temptation. 

Maybe the reason we don’t control our tongues more is that we only think about controlling it after it got out of control. Maybe what we need to do is pray before that the Lord will not allow ourselves to step towards those things that tempt, to not allow us to be led that way.

We can pray for the Lord to help us control ourselves before we say or do something, rather than just asking for forgiveness when we have done it already.

We can move a mountain and we usually think of something like somebody getting healed of some terminal disease, and I do not doubt that God sometimes works in that way, but I think the daily thing Jesus was trying to teach is that some of the most difficult things that we struggle with are the mountains in our personal lives and it is those he can remove.

Remember God promised that he would forgive, claim that promise. God promised that he would give me grace to do things like control your tongue and any other damaging behaviours or addictions in your life. That is the kind of extraordinary things that prayer can do. Things that will amaze us. We will be able to to stand in astonishment of what God is doing in our lives simply because we have a faith that believes.

Ever see or heard the statement “Prayer changes things”, maybe you’ve seen it on a posters or adorned the walls of a Sunday school or church, maybe you have heard it from the pulpit, many times. But do you believe it? Do you really honestly believe that prayer changes things? Have you ever had prayer change anything for you. Is it about the big stuff, the miraculous stuff? Yes, but is also about the everyday stuff.

Has prayer ever changed your attitude, your circumstances, removed an obstacle, do you really believe, more importantly do you understand that if you have accepted Christ as you personal saviour then  God has already moved a mountain in your life.

Those are the kinds of mountains God promises to move if we will just let him.

Please friend, remember and remain thankful always that when we pray God can remove mountains and by believing in the power of prayer you, we are given this opportunity and privilege to see God do amazing things in our life.