Well, as we turn our attention now to the worship of God, I'd like you to please turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew. This morning we'll be looking at chapter 21, verses 18 through 22. Matthew 21, verses 18 through 22. And you should find this on page 1050, if you're using our Pew Bibles this morning. Here's Matthew, chapter 21, verses 18 through 22. Hear now the word of God. In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How did the fig tree wither at once? And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Let us once again seek the Lord's blessing. our gracious God and our heavenly Father. Lord, we do pray that you would guide and direct our hearts and minds this morning as we look at these verses that you have given us in Matthew chapter 21. We do pray, Lord, that by your spirit you would inscribe your truth upon our innermost being and may you cause it to take root and may we see its fruit in our lives. And Lord, we do pray that you would bless my mind and my mouth that I may think and speak clearly this morning. It is in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we do pray. Amen. We like to see growth in our society. Whether it's a company that we're invested in, we like to see its growth and fulfillment. In our own personal lives, we like to maybe see growth in our career or other areas. We like to see in our children certain milestones met and seeing them grow and develop and be healthy. Growth is emphasized quite a bit in our society and we like to look for growth in various areas. I think one area that we tend to kind of ignore, maybe unintentionally or even sometimes outright shy away from it, is the idea of growing in holiness. growing in holiness and in the ways of God and our Christ-likeness. It's something that tends to be pushed to the outer periphery of, well, if I have time for that, I'll fit that in. But these things really need to get done, and this is really important. And I'm sure, you know, that'll be there to work on eventually. Well, as we look at this really graphic example and teaching of Christ and really an illustration of a truth in how the Lord deals with the fig tree that doesn't have fruit, the theme that I want us to focus on and that I hope you all take home today is for us to be praying for and asking in faith that we would see growth and holiness in our lives. that we would be praying for and asking in faith that we would see growth and holiness in our lives. Now, as we look at this text this morning in verses 18 through 19, Matthew, just to remind you of what we looked at last week, that's where Jesus cleanses the temple. And then at the end of that situation, he goes off to Bethany to spend the night. What the authorities did in Jerusalem at this time, because this is the Passover season, and you were supposed to come and dwell in Jerusalem and present your sacrifices and all this, they kind of, for the holiday, kind of extended the boundaries of Jerusalem. Because so many people had come in, there wasn't enough room in the city for everybody. And so Bethany was outside, you know, the city of Jerusalem proper, but for this week it was within the outer limits. And that's where Jesus and his disciples went and spent the night. So as he went and lodged there in Bethany the next day, he's returning with his disciples. And there's a brief phrase here that I want to point out briefly is the fact that he became hungry. And it's just a little phrase, but it's important for us to remember that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, although he is 100% God, he's also 100% man. He was a human being and he needed food. He wasn't, he didn't just go on and not eat, you know, throughout his life because he was a supernatural being. He just sustained himself that way. I mean, being God, he could have, but he was also a hundred percent human and he needed to eat. It's a simple phrase, but Jesus's humanity must be not lost sight of here. as we are setting the stage for what he's going to go through and what he's going to suffer through for us. He had a real human physical body, which he still has today that is glorified in the presence of God. Now as he continues on, he became hungry, and so seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. He said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. and the fig tree withered at once." Now just briefly, if you read through the account that Mark gives us in Mark chapter 11, you'll notice some slight differences in the account, and that is that Jesus sees this tree and he curses it, and then they go on to Jerusalem, and then the next day when they're also going back, the disciples see it and notice that it's withered. So there's kind of a day's delay. Matthew is simply condensing the story And the word here that is translated as withered at once, or when the disciples in verse 20 ask, how did the fig tree wither at once? It has the idea it began immediately. So as we consider this story, it was probably that Jesus cursed it and it began withering, but then when they went by this road again the next day, it was completely just withered and gone. They both are saying the exact same thing, just Mark is giving us a little bit more detail. But a question comes to mind is why curse a tree? Why did Jesus do this? In some sense it seems a little bit out of character. We like to think of him as gentle and meek and mild, but yet he finds no fruit in this tree and he curses it. Mark even gives us an explanation or points out that It wasn't yet the season for figs. And so, not only did this fig tree not have fruit, it really wasn't supposed to have fruit. It wasn't the season for figs. So why did Jesus react this way? Why did he curse it so that it withered away and died? Well, it kind of comes alive as Matthew has an interesting way of telling us that it has no fruit. He emphasized the fact that it had leaves. It had a lot of leaves. He says he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. He's emphasizing that fact. And one of the things that I learned this week about fig trees is that they start showing their fruit before the leaves come on. And so a fig tree that has lots of leaves The natural assumption would be, well, there's got to be some fruit on that tree. It should be ready to bear fruit. So although it wasn't the season for figs, this tree may have been a little abnormal and just a little bit early. And so Jesus, seeing it and thinking, well, there should be fruit there because it's got all these leaves on it, he comes and he then curses it. Well, what are we supposed to learn from this in this first section? Well, what we have here is a fig tree that was full of foliage. It looked appealing. It looked great. It looked really good. Yet, it had nothing to show for it. There was absolutely no fruit on it. It did not satisfy at all. It was all for show. Now, when you consider Jerusalem at this time, when Jesus arrives in the history of the Israelite nation. Really, Jerusalem here was at the height of what we might call its religiousness. I mean, it had Herod's temple there. And a little bit later, the disciples are going to point out to Jesus, look at these buildings, Jesus. Isn't this beautiful? I mean, it was a beautiful spectacle. It was a magnificent, glorious temple that had been built. You had there the sacrifices going on day and night. People were gathered here to celebrate Passover. You basically had all of the trappings of Judaism and the faith and the Old Testament way in which God had directed and given his people to worship him. You had all of that. on clear display for all to see. Yet it was dead. There was nothing there. It was cold. That is what Jesus is showing us in this illustration with the fig tree. It had nothing to show for it. It had all the trappings of the true religion. but had nothing to show for it, no fruit. Some Old Testament scripture passages which kind of show us this and bring this to mind is there's also a connection that Old Testament prophecy used between Jerusalem and a fig tree. And these Old Testament passages relate to the judgment that is brought upon Jerusalem. So in Isaiah 34.4, all the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, as leaves falling from the fig tree. Jeremiah 8.13, when I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree. Even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them. Hosea 2.12, And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, These are my wages, which my lovers have given me. I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. Joel 1.7 It has laid waste my vine, and splintered my fig tree. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it down. Their branches are made white. Micah 7.1-6 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned. There is no cluster to eat, no first ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind. They all lie and wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil to do it well. The prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desires of his soul. thus they have weaved it together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright of them, a thorn hedge. The day of your watchman, of your punishment, has come. Now their confusion is at hand. Put no trust in a neighbor, have no confidence in a friend. Guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms. For the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother. the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house." So in those Old Testament prophecies of the judgment of Jerusalem, we have this connection of a fig tree. And Jesus, as he is going to Jerusalem, sees this fig tree with all its beautiful foliage, but no fruit, and he curses it, and it withers away. Simply going through the motions in essence, is useless. Elsewhere, Jesus interacts with the scribes and the Pharisees in his earthly ministry. When they bring accusations against the disciples for not following some of their practices, Jesus reminds them that they tithe the mint and the cumin, but have forgotten the weightier matters of the law, of mercy, of grace, of justice. And he says to them, in that instance, the former you should not neglect, meaning that tithing that he was talking about, without doing the latter. The latter are the more important things, but it doesn't mean you forget and you don't do what God has said to do in its outward appearance. It's just going through the motions and doing what God has required outwardly, while internally our lives are apart from Him and our hearts are far from Him, does not gain us any standing before God. It's as if we weren't doing anything at all. It is a bright, foliage-covered fig tree that's not bearing any fruit. So what do we learn from this? Well, it's a question that we all have to ask ourselves daily, really, but regularly. Are we bearing fruit? Are we bearing fruit in our lives? Are we bearing the fruit that God desires, that He's looking for? Are we bearing fruit? That brings us to the second point. The disciples, when they see that the fig tree has withered, and again, this was most likely the next day, but regardless, a tree that has withered and died in less than 24 hours is pretty remarkable. And so they marvel at it and like, how did this happen? And so Jesus responds by saying, truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea will happen. Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Now as we begin to look at these verses, the first thing that we need to remember here is that as Jesus says, if you say to this mountain, be lifted up and cast into the sea, this is not literal language that Jesus is using. He's using figurative speech, hyperbole. This is the exact same thing as he said is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved, or enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, when the disciples then ask in that situation, well then, Lord, who can be saved? Jesus says, well, what's impossible for man is not impossible for God. And in both instances, what Jesus is doing is he is highlighting the impossibility of the action. It is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And it is impossible for a mountain to be lifted up and thrown into the sea. I mean, imagine if you, all of a sudden, one day Mount Rainier just kind of, there was a big earthquake and it kind of lifted off the foundation and slowly moved over to Puget Sound and was dumped. It's impossible. That can't happen. What Jesus is drawing our attention to is the impossible nature of these actions. So what he teaches here is what we ask for in faith, although it's impossible, God can do it. Now, it doesn't mean that God will literally move a mountain. If you were to say to Mount Rainier, I command you to get up and go off into the Pacific Ocean. I believe God is telling us that that will happen. What he's saying is that we What is impossible for us or what are mountains in our lives? That when we pray to him and we seek his direction we seek his strength and we ask him Lord Remove these mountains crumble them into the sea So that I may seek your face all the more clearly Believe that is what Jesus is directing us to you see as this theme that we're considering, let us ask in faith for growth and holiness. As we consider our mountains and what stands in our, that we might be facing in our various lives and circumstances. I think a common mountain that we all have is growth in holiness. Now as I say that phrase, even that phrase, I can use it, growth in holiness, and sometimes we might want to shy away from that. That seems like, well, I'm just kind of doing things just for the sake of it, or I'm just doing things for the outward appearance to look like I'm religious and I'm holy. Well, when God calls us to growth in holiness, it is the same thing as we would say growth in Christ-likeness. Maybe that's the way we should say it. I think that's something we can all grab onto and stand firm in. Growth in holiness is synonymous. It's the exact same thing identical to growth in Christ-likeness. And so what we're called to by God is to grow in our Christ-likeness. Now this is a mountain in that it is impossible. We cannot do it. We cannot do it on our own strength. We will fall and we will fail. It will not happen on our own. It is impossible for us. But what Jesus says here, you know, basically he says, you know, you're impressed with the fig tree and what happened there. Well, not only would you be able to do that, but you'll be able to move mountains in a sense. Meaning that what is impossible for us is possible in Christ, in God. So how do we grow in holiness? How do we grow in Christlikeness? What does this look like? Well, as with the first set of verses here, it's not simply going through the motions. The Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, all looked holy. They all looked righteous on the outside. But Jesus uses very strong language in saying, You are nothing more than whitewashed tombs. You look beautiful on the outside, but inside you are full of dead men's bones. They are like a fig tree with all its foliage without fruit. So it's not simply going through the motions. It's important that we do do what God says, but I want you to consider 1 Corinthians 13. the great chapter which Paul expounds the necessity and the beauty of love. To make sure that at our core what we are doing and how we are behaving and how we are acting before God and with one another stems from a core and a heart of love. The Apostle Paul says that I could speak with the tongues of angels but it's meaningless if I don't have love. He could do all these great and wondrous things for God, but it's not out of love. What's the point? We are called, as Jesus elsewhere was asked, what is the greatest commandment? What does he do? He takes the entire Law and Prophets, the entire Old Testament, and he hangs it upon two commands, as a summary of everything that God has written from Genesis to Malachi. He says, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Love, brothers and sisters. How do we grow in holiness. We need to grow and do that which God has commanded out of a heart that loves Him and loves one another. Also consider the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, and so on. These things are the fruit that the Spirit bears in us. It is something that we ask for, that we need as a Holy Spirit is at work within us, molding us more into the image of Christ. The fruit that we bear is His fruit, is the fruit of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so all that fruit in the core of love is what we are called to. Now, as Jesus says to pray without doubting, I want to remind you of an interaction that Jesus had with a father in a desperate situation in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, verse 24. This father had a child that was possessed by a devil or a demon. And he cries out to Jesus to help his son. But when he cries out to Jesus, he says, If you are able, Lord. And Jesus responds by saying, If I am able. And the Father's response here is something that we need to keep in mind as Jesus commands us to ask in faith without doubting. This Father cries out to Jesus, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. And Jesus heals his child. And there will be times in our life where we wane in our assurance of our salvation. There'll be times in our life when we might begin to wane of, is this really true? And in those instances, we still need to cry out, as this father cried out in Mark, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Come to me, Lord, and grant me that assurance that I once had. Uphold me in these doubts that I may be having. I believe in you, Lord. Help my unbelief." And so Jesus calls us to pray without doubting. Even if we, brothers and sisters, begin to have a shadow of doubt, we are called to call upon Him to help us in that instance. and then so ask him to continue to work within us his fruit that we may bear to be more like him. But effective prayer also has a couple other attributes that are mentioned elsewhere in the scriptures. It's not simply, it's not a blank check, and we shouldn't read what Jesus is saying here as a blank check that God has given us. It's a just fill in your amount and whatever you want, I mean, here it is. In the book of James, in chapter 4, verse 3, there James says that you fight and quarrel because you don't ask, but you ask and you don't receive because you're asking with wrong motives. It's asking for selfishness, selfish reasons, selfish motives that the Lord will not bring an answer to that prayer. If it's done out of a heart of love and seeking the Lord who can build us up and mold us more into the image of Christ, it is for His glory. It is for His sake that we are praying and wanting Him to be glorified in us. It's also a prayer according to His will as we learn in 1 John 5, verse 14. As we consider the main and chief mountain that we all deal with, of becoming more Christ-like. Is this not something that God wants for all of His children? All of His sons and daughters. He wants us, He has clearly stated, He wants us to be more like Christ. He wants us to be more holy. He wants us to be renewed in His image every day. And so if we pray, knowing that this is exactly what God wills and wants for me, He wants me to be this way, we can pray confidently knowing that He will accomplish this. Now, we all might have various mountains that we can think of. And all I've tried to do in this point is to focus on the common mountain that we all have, that really is a mountain, an impossible thing that we must do. And we need to keep in mind the words of Christ that as he teaches us of not being anxious for what we might eat or drink or what we might wear. He says, to pursue first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. So that is why I have focused on this one mountain. As God commands us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Again, it's the same thing as saying to grow in holiness. The same thing as saying to grow in Christ's likeness. To seek these things. Then what we need, we will be confident. It's not that God won't provide it if we don't follow it. He'll take care of us. But as we pursue first His kingdom, His righteousness, growth in holiness, growth in Christlikeness, out of a heart of love for Him and our neighbor, we will grow in a contentment and a confidence that the Lord will, in fact, provide the physical things that we need. And so as we draw this point to a close, brothers and sisters, Let us not forget to beseech God daily to do the impossible in our lives, to cause us to bear His fruit of Christlikeness, to bear His fruit of holiness, to grow more in His image. And so, bringing this message to a close, again, in our society we like to see growth We like to see a business that we're involved in prosper. We like to see our children grow and flourish. We like to see our families flourish. We like to see our church flourish. We like to see things growing. A garden that we've planted or plants that we've planted. We like to see them grow and not turn brown and die. We like growth. We like seeing growth in our lives. And the challenge for us in these verses is to not slight Christ-likeness, or growth and holiness. It is an easy temptation for us all, as everything else crowds up in our lives, to put that on the side as, I'll get to that when I can. But what Jesus desires here, He desires a beautiful foliage tree that is actually bearing fruit. Is bearing the fruit that is expected. growth in holiness, growth in Christ-likeness. It must be our chief focus, our chief pursuit, out of a heart of love for our God and a heart of love for one another. And as we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the fruit of God will be born in our lives. And you will see the fruit that He desires. overflowing in us. So, brothers and sisters, remember to ask in faith, knowing that it is the Lord alone who can cultivate you and cultivate me and cause us to grow and to produce His fruit. Amen. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray that we would not be like this fig tree you came across on your way to Jerusalem, that we would not have the trappings of the true religion in the outward display of all that is good and that you command, but yet not have the actual fruit that you desire, stemming from love of You with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and a love of our neighbor as Yourself, and obeying, Lord, these commands that You have given to us, which are a summary of all that You have commanded in the Old Testament. We pray, Lord, that we would see that love flow out of us, that we would see the fruit of the Spirit being born in our lives, and that we would see this growth in holiness, this growth in Christlikeness, as worthy of being our chief pursuit. Because as we pursue the kingdom of heaven and your righteousness, first of all, you, Lord, will more than meet our every need and bring any other mountain in our way, crumbling down to make a level path. May you, Father, cause us to grow in our holiness and in our Christlikeness. In the name of Jesus Christ we do pray, Amen.