Mark 11:12-14, 20-26
Making Faith Work
This miracle, like all of the others, was done to teach something. In
trying to learn that lesson, we might note that it is a unique
miracle in several ways.
It is unique in that it is the only miracle of judgment that Jesus
ever did. By that I mean that the rest of Jesus’ miracles were
healing miracles. This one destroyed a fig tree. That in itself is
very unusual.
\\#13\\ It is also unusual in that Jesus cursed the tree for
something that it was not capable of doing at that time, producing
figs. says that it was not time for the figs to be producing; yet,
when Jesus found no figs on the tree, He cursed it.
While I cannot go into detail this morning, these two oddities, along
with some other facts, give me cause to think that the fig tree is a
picture of the nation of Israel. Jesus knew that Israel was going to
reject Him before He ever came to this earth. It was not their time
to bear fruit. They will be saved and they will serve the Lord, but
not right now. Yet, even though Jesus knew they would reject Him, He
came to them. He came to inspect their fruit for although He knew
they WOULD not have any, they SHOULD have. And then, seeing they
lacked fruit, Jesus held them accountable for that sin. Hence, they
have been and will remain cursed until they turn to the Lord they
have rejected.
There is a third oddity, all though it is not as unique as the other
two. This miracle was done only in the presence of the disciples.
There does not seem to be anyone else around when Jesus looked for
the figs and cursed the tree. No doubt others would see it in its
withered condition, but they would not know that it withered
because Jesus cursed it.
That means this miracle was to teach THEM something and US, the
saved, by the written Word of God. What was God teaching? He was
teaching about faith and how to get it to work. It makes sense.
Jesus’ crucifixion was not upon Him yet, but still these apostles had
to learn some lessons now if they were going to be of use to God in
the future.
Just like they had some lessons to learn. So do we. How does faith
work?
I. For faith to work, we must be saved.
A. I do not want to sound prejudice but there are certain
privileges that God only gives to His children.
1. These are rewards or gifts to God’s kids.
2.
B. What are some of them?
1. forgiveness
2. salvation
3. heaven
4. the indwelling Holy Ghost
5. understanding Scripture
6. worship and fellowship with God
7. peace
8. purpose
9. power
C. You might say, "Well, God did something for me or for someone
I know."
1. I do not doubt that.
2. God is God and God can do whatever God wants to do.
3. God bends the rules to give blessings all the time.
4. However, those are God’s exceptions.
5. If you want faith to work in your life, you must trust Him
as your Savior and make Him your Lord.
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name:
II. For faith to work, we must be selfless.
A. Probably, the number one reason that our faith does not work
is our selfishness.
1. Selfishness is just another word for sinfulness.
2. As a matter of fact, selfishness is the root for most of
our sinfulness.
Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
B. Faith cannot be used to serve oneself.
1. In fact, NO spiritual gift can be used to serve oneself.
2. Take note that of all the miracles that Jesus performed,
the only one that He might have benefited from in any way
was the payment of His taxes with the coin Peter pulled
out of the fishes mouth.
a. However, even that miracle was not one of His own
making.
b. It was done because Jesus was asked about paying
taxes. That was the conversation around which the
miracle was given.
c. Even then, Jesus was teaching us that we are to pay
our taxes with the miracle.
3. In fact, Jesus refused to do a miracle for His own gain
when tempted by the devil to turn stones into bread after
a forty-day fast.
4. There are a lot of frustrated name-it-and-claim-it folk
who turned from God because they claimed something of
their choosing and God did not give it to them.
a. They wanted one of their bills paid (most often a bill
they made by foolish and wasteful spending).
b. Or they wanted some loved one healed (most often
someone whom THEY think ought to live longer for
THEIR benefit).
c. Or they wanted some large payoff (lottery or a
sweepstakes).
5. As I have said many times, there are no magic wands.
a. There is no secret hand shake that gets you a miracle.
b. No magic Bible verses, prayers, prayer cloths, holy
water, ministries that you can give to.
c. All of that is built on the foundation of selfishness,
both of those who perpetrate the hoax and many times
of those who give to the hoax.
6. What is interesting is that most of us never see how
selfish we are.
a. The bills God did not miraculously pay were bills
accrued by us spending money on our toys, our
hobbies, our luxuries, our lifestyles.
b. Most of the people praying for the miraculous
influx of money do not obey the principals of
financial stewardship given in the Bible.
c. They don’t tithe; they don’t save; they don’t
participate in missions or help the poor.
d. And if God paid off all of their debts, they
would start the next week maxing out their
credit on the same selfish expenditures.
7. Then there is the fellow who says, "God if you would let
me win the lottery, I would do so and so with it."
a. Why should God give us something extra to do right
with when we don’t do right with what He has given
us?
b. You say IF God gave you $100,000, you would give Him
10%?
(1) His cut should be a lot more than 10%. After
all, He has it all right now. What is the
profit of Him giving it to you for a measly
10%?
(2) Let’s just look at what you did with your last
paycheck? How much of that did you give to God?
(a) But that’s different!
(b) If you are not faithful with the little, you
will not be faithful with the much.
III. \\#24\\ For faith to work, we must believe.
A. There are various levels of disbelief.
1. Some refuse to believe God can.
a. These are the atheists and agonistics.
b. These never get saved.
2. Some believe God can but they never come to believe that
God will.
a. Quite often these sit in church pews and are
Christians.
b. These hid behind theological walls.
c. The biggest wall is the wall of God’s will.
d. They say, "You can not know if it’s God’s will to
grant this request or not."
e. If we cannot know, why did God tell us to believe?
B. The truth is that Christians CAN know the will of God. We
just don’t want to live the kind of live necessary to have
that privilege.
C. What kind of life?
1. That is what I am preaching about right now.
2. See points #1 and #2.
3. He takes a sold out life like most of us don’t know about.
IV. \\#25-26\\ For faith to work, we must forgive.
A. Without doubt, this was the lesson Jesus wanted to get across
to the disciples on this day.
1. That is the unique truth being taught at this time.
2.
B. Notice that Jesus was plainly stating the fact that if we do
not forgive, it will affect our ability to move mountains.
1. That is the context and He even told us why.
2. If we do not forgive, God cannot forgive us.
3. If God cannot remove the sin between us and Him, our
fellowship is broken.
4. If our fellowship is broken, He cannot move the mountains
out of way.
C. Notice that Jesus was not speaking in parables or symbols.
1. He is plainly stating facts.
2. Why?
a. Because He does not want there to be any
misunderstanding on this. If you do not forgive,
faith is not going to work!
b. Probably because the lack of forgiveness will be one
of the biggest reasons our faith doesn’t work.
c. Perhaps because we would not naturally see the
connection on our own.
D. Let’s drop this truth into play for the disciples. Jesus was
teaching THEM this truth.
1. Why? Because they were going to have to forgive.
a. We might think of the apostles as super-Christians.
b. They may have had super gifts, but they were people
just like us who had to learn lessons just like us.
2. They each had to forgive themselves and each other for
their actions in Christ’s crucifixion.
a. Peter may have been the one who denied Jesus that
night, but they were all just as guilty.
b. They all ran and if asked, they all would have denied
Jesus that night.
3. Even harder, they had to forgive Judas for what he did.
a. Judas did not just betray Jesus.
b. He betrayed them all.
V. For faith to work, we must pray.
A. Prayer and faith are Siamese twins. You can not have one
without the other.
1. Faith is the fuel that makes prayer work.
2. Prayer is the spokesman for faith.
B. Prayer is actually many things:
1. Prayer is discipline.
a. It is one of our spiritual exercises.
b. If we want a strong spiritual life, we have to
exercise our spiritual muscles.
c. Faith is the spiritual muscle and prayer one of the
weights exercises our faith.
d. Others are
(1) Bible reading;
(2) worship (private and public);
(3) giving (tithe, offering)
(4) witnessing
(5) forgiving
(6) serving
2. Prayer is a display.
a. Prayer is how faith expresses itself.
(1) We don’t just talk to God to build our faith.
(2) We talk to God because we have faith.
b. You say you believe. If you believe, you will pray.
c. If you don’t pray, you don’t really believe.
