Go

Contact Us

  • Phone: (509) 747-3007
  • Email:
  • Mosaic Address:
    606 West 3rd Ave., Spokane, WA 99201

Service Times

  • Sunday:  8:30 am, 10 am, 11:30 am
  • Infant through 5th grade Sunday School classes available
  • FREE Parking!

Sermons

FILTER BY:

Back To List

Jan 19, 2025

False Advertising or Fruitful Praying?

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Mark

Keywords: prayer, faith, evangelism, belief, witness, hypocrisy, promises, fruitfulness, fig tree

Summary:

This passage deals with how God's people can be engaging in false advertising of the Gospel of Christ while God's call is to fruitfulness. Bold, biblical praying is what God wants to bring us much of that fruitfulness. See what it is that leads to truly fruitful praying.

Detail:

False Advertising or Fruitful Praying

Mark 11:20-26

January 19, 2025

 

Fellowship Question:  Share one humanly impossible thing you are asking God to do…or just a prayer need you would like someone else to pray about. 

INTRO:

Over the past few years, a whole new professional field of people has emerged in the “news” industry.  They are called “fact-checkers”, “content moderators,” or “dis/misinformation flaggers”.  The problem is, as is so often the case, too many of the “experts” have turned out to be even more deceptive and untruthful than the people and events they purport to check! 

            This is not a new problem.  Deceptive advertising has always been an issue in the communication industry.  The problem now is that it applies in spades to an industry (“news) whose prior reputation was completely dependent upon actual objectivity and truthfulness in reporting.  When those most basic criteria became disconnected from those who claimed to be giving us “news”, the term “fake news” found a new place in American vocabulary. 

            So, what does that have to do with today’s Scripture?  Actually quite a bit.  Today’s text reminds us that nature itself, not just human beings, can engage in some pretty deceptive advertising.  Scientists actually break down animal’s “deceptions” into 4 levels:

  • Level 1: mimicry and camouflage.  EX:  Among fireflies, males are lured toward what seems to be a sexually receptive female, only to be eaten!  Snow leopards.
  • Level 2: programmed behaviors.  EX:  feigning death by predators so the prey doesn’t think it’s a danger (snakes).
  • Level 3: learned behaviors such as distraction.  EX:  birds that pretend to be injured, hoping along on the ground to get a prey away from their nest.
  • Level 4: tactical deception.  When an animal recognizes another animal’s thought process and intentionally deceives.  EX:  chimpanzees that deceive other chimps about the location of food.  On the other hand, this level of deception is rarely observed among the animal kingdom but is the most frequent kind of deception used by human beings. 

In today’s passage of Scripture,

 

Mark 11

12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

Mark then records Jesus’ cleansing of the temple in vss. 15-19 that we studied last week when talking about the primacy of worship.  So let’s skip now to Mark’s follow-up of this fig-tree event in vss. 20-26.

20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 

            This incident and the teaching Jesus is going to give with it really has two themes.  They are both reflected in the title of today’s message:  False Advertising or Fruitful Praying. Jesus is going to address both of these issues in the same story.  Hopefully, by the time we’re done today, you will see how they relate to each other and how they connect to our own lives. 

            What seems perplexing about this story?  [That Jesus curses the fig tree for being barren when it isn’t the season for figs.]  By this time in the narrative of Jesus’ life, nobody should be surprised that he has this kind of power over nature—the power to cause storms to cease on command…or blind eyes to see…or paralyzed people to walk…or trees to wither. What seems out of character is that Jesus a.) kills a living tree and, b.) does so for what seems like an unjust reason—fruitlessness in a season that doesn’t expect a harvest.  It feels like Jesus was having a bad day and just took it out on a poor, defenseless fig tree. 

            This is the only place in all the Gospels where we have Jesus curing anything.  The term literally means “to pray against” or “to pronounce judgment/doom” on something.  Jesus didn’t come to curse people or things.  But he did pronounce judgment when absolutely necessary.  In fact, the only other place where the Gospels indicate Jesus pronouncing judgment or doom on people is in Matt. 25: 31-46 in the parable of the sheep and goats.  Jesus blesses those who engage in kindness to those in need but he curses/pronounces judgments of hell on those who do not. 

            Paul, in Romans 9:3 uses this same word when he says, “For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race….”  He’s expressing the heart of Jesus who did just that for us:  he became a curse for us on the cross so that we do not have to ever face the judgment of God against our sin.

Galatians 3:13--Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

Jesus himself absorbed the judgment of God in his own body on the cross for us. 

            So why would Jesus curse this green, verdant fig tree? 

Ancient narrative Jewish history is often different from how we write history today.  We’ll take a historical event, tell all the facts we can about it, and often provide some sort of commentary about it.  Gospel narrative often doesn’t provide the “commentary” or “editorializing” component we’re used to, at least in the WAY we’re used to, i.e. overtly.  Instead, it does so more through the surrounding context of the narrative. 

            That is very evident in this passage in Mark, even more so than in the parallel passage of Matthew 21.  Mark divides this fig tree story in two by the cleansing of the temple story.  As such, he is telling us what Jesus was trying to teach with this.  The fig tree and the situation in the temple were connected.  How so?

Fig Tree: even though it wasn’t the harvest time for figs, this tree should have been loaded with figs.  Fig trees in Israel normally blossom first and then produce leaves.  It’s the same with most of our fruit trees:  you get the apple or peach or pear or plumb blossoms before the leaves come out in full.  At best, little leaves appear during the blossoming time. 

            If something happens and none of those blossoms produce young fruit, that tree is “barren” for that year.  This is what was the case with this fig tree.  The tree had already blossomed.  It was well past the time when the fruit should have been evident, young and immature though it may have been.  But this tree was all leaves and no figs. 

It was like the previous parable Jesus had told in Luke 13:1-9 about the barren fruit tree that the owner of the orchard told his gardener to cut down.  The gardener pleaded with him to give it a little more time to let him dig around it and fertilize it more and then see if next season it wouldn’t produce.  If not, then he agreed it should become firewood. 

ILL:  I had a similar situation with one of my favorite pear trees.  There were a couple of years when it was not healthy at all.  Its leaves had some sort of reoccurring blight.  As a result, it dropped its fruit for two years running.  We didn’t get a single pear off this tree that had been bearing hundreds of pounds of Bartlett pears every year.  Some of my extended family wanted to cut it down.  I had enjoyed too many delicious, juicy pears from this tree to do that without being a better gardener. 

            So I pruned it rather radically the next year, letting the sunlight into its branches.  I sprayed it for rust and mildew.  Guess what happened?  Lo and behold, it’s been bearing hundreds of pounds of fruit ever since.  But had I done my best and still seen no fruit from that tree, I would have willingly (thought sadly) cut it down to make room for a new, fruitful tree. 

            According to Mark’s narrative here, Jesus pronounced judgment on this tree on Monday on the way into Jerusalem that day.  The judgment apparently began “from the roots up” (vs. 21) and wasn’t noticed by Peter until the next day, Tuesday.  In the meantime, they had gone to Jerusalem, encountered the moneychangers and merchants in the Court of the Gentiles, and had a very direct run-in with the priests and leaders in the Temple who were profiteering from the little franchise operation they were running in the very place that was designed to be fruitful with lots of prayer.  There was plenty of activity, just the wrong kind.

            So, this fig tree was a living…and soon to be dying… parable of exactly what they encountered in the Temple.  Lots of “leaves” of religious activity but no “fruit” for which the Temple was in existence.  And Jesus had actually been that Gardener who had three years earlier and every year since been pruning and fertilizing these religious leaders who were fruitless, but to no avail.  As we saw last week, though he had confronted them in an identical manner at the beginning of his ministry, here at the end, nothing had changed. The Temple was not a place for people from all nations of the world to come and encounter God.  It looked very active and alive, but it was utterly fruitless in terms of the present practice and leadership. 

            The fact that Jesus goes on to teach about prayer off of the fruitlessness and withering of the fig tree only served to cement this connection in the minds of Mark’s readers.  Even though it may not have been the “season” for full-grown figs to be harvested, there should have been growing figs on this tree. 

ILL:  As a kid, I spent summers on an old apple orchard on Coeur d’Alene Lake.  Trust me, even though I knew it wasn’t fall harvest time for apples, I would still eat some green apples.  But had those old trees not had any apples year after year, I’m sure we would have made firewood out of them much sooner. 

APP:  This part of the passage is all about false advertising in our faith.  It’s a warning against adopting the heart, mindset and practice of the most religious people in Israel of Jesus’ day.  It’s a harsh warning particularly to those of us who have responsibility to set the standard in church or home or business or community for what spiritual fruitfulness looks like. 

ILL: 

  • Churches that have lots of programs, lots of activity, but little to no new believers, little to no love and compassion of Jesus, little to no real discipleship growth of members. APP: Spokane is where it is because WE, the church, haven’t shared and preached the Gospel like we should and could have over the past 40 years.  We’ve taken a “come and see” approach to the Great Commission rather than a “go and tell” approach Jesus commanded.  And, when people have “come to see,” too often they have seen just what they are seeing in the world every day rather than the transforming work of the Spirit in us. 
  • Parents who say-and-play one thing about being Christians but their kids see something very different behind closed doors. But, oh, the difference when you have parents who are genuinely humble in the Lord and growing in their faith right before their children’s eyes. 
  • Pastors who preach against whatever sin it might be—materialism, sexual immorality, gambling, unforgiveness, judgmentalism—only to be exposed as hypocrites a few years later.

This is why we must welcome the convicting work of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis in our walk with Jesus.  And it’s not just being open to conviction; it’s taking the steps of repentance that must accompany conviction if we are to actually move from fruitlessness to fruitfulness. A great question to ask ourselves when we experience conviction is, “What should my repentance look like when I really repent of this?” 

ILL:  my struggle with obedience to be bold with the Gospel towards unbelievers.  It’s relatively easy to feel bad about not witnessing to my neighbors or not bringing the Gospel into casual or passing conversations I may have.  But true repentance will be when I actually talk with my neighbors about Christ, actually pray with strangers and acquaintances, actually preaching the Gospel at funerals and weddings and speaking engagements I might have.

ILL:  my preference to be a people-pleaser in the moment rather than speak the hard truth that needs to be said.  What does repentance look like for me from that mindset?  Not dodging or avoiding tough conversations.  Saying what people need to hear to grow rather than what I would prefer to tell them to be liked.   

 

Now let’s move to the real meat of this “living object lesson of the withered tree.”  What did Jesus want his disciples to learn in their last week with him from this withered tree?  Not surprisingly, it was all about PRAYER, the very thing he had also chastised the Temple leaders about. 

20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” 

This part of the passage is all about FRUITFUL PRAYING.  There is SO much in Scripture about prayer.  It’s not all contained here.  Other things Jesus said about prayer need to inform how we interpret what he promised here.  Let’s just focus today on 4 clear things Jesus talks about here that are required for fruitful praying. 

#1.  Fruitful praying demands a faith-walk with God.

Vs. 22--“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 

Jesus’ teaching on fruitful praying that day began where all meaningful prayer must begin:  with my relationship with God. 

Hebrews 11:6 reaffirms this truth when the writer says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

            Prayer itself is an actual demonstration of some measure of faith in God.  Nobody prays, no matter how weakly, unless you think to some degree that God might be listening and able to answer.  True atheists will not pray…just as true believers in God cannot help but pray. 

            If you want to see God answer your prayers, you must exercise the kind of faith that we can all have to a.) believe that God exists, and b.) believe that he will meet you when you earnestly seek Him.  That doesn’t mean you don’t have doubts.  It doesn’t mean your faith is even that strong.  But if you don’t recognize that God exists and that He responds to people who really want to know Him, then you are wasting your time praying.  Prayer demands a faith-walk with God.  Not a perfect one.  Not a question-less one.  But a faith-growing one. 

            Additionally, fruitful praying starts with the focus on God, not on the situation or the impossibility or the people.  Focus on God!  Because the more we see God as He really is, the less impossible our problems become.  The greater our prayers become.  The more frequent and fervent our prayers get the more our view of life passes through the lens of a clear vision of God. 

            This is why knowing Christ is the best thing we can do for our prayer life.  The more I genuinely know Jesus the more that knowledge will call prayer out of me.  The less I actually know Jesus, the less I’ll pray, the less I’ll ask for what is on His heart, the fewer answers to prayer I’ll receive, the more I’ll ask things that God can’t or won’t answer.  Walking by faith with Jesus…ever growing and maturing faith…is the first demand if my prayers are to be fruitful. 

APP:  That is why one of the best questions we can ask whenever we are reading or studying the Bible is, “What does this passage teach me about GOD?” 

 

#2.  Fruitful praying requires humanly difficult-to-impossible situations. 

Vs. 23--“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’….

Having just given the visual of a fig tree dying, Jesus now uses hyperbole or hyperbolic language to talk about things that seem impossible, insurmountable, beyond human ability.  If you want another biblical example of this, read Zechariah 4:6-7--6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

7 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’”

            Zerubbabel was the Governor of Judah who was sent back to Jerusalem (by King Cyrus II) to rebuild the Temple after the Babylonian exile.  He, of course, encountered all kinds of opposition and difficulties in rebuilding which is why God gave him this promise, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.”  God was promising that the “mountain” of ruins that were now the city of Jerusalem would “become level ground” upon which God would bring out the foundation capstone to shouts of blessing. 

            Prayer is not always about human impossibilities.  But part of prayer IS about humanly difficult-to-impossible things.  Lots of prayer should be simply praise and thanksgiving.  But when it comes to things we lack or need, prayer is about bringing to God what we may find difficult-to-impossible to do ourselves.  And that may be different for different people. 

  • Illness: chronic or even temporary physical needs may shape my prayers.
  • Married vs. single person challenges.
  • Youth vs. old-age

But the common denominator is challenges…needs… impossibilities.  In fact, the greater the level of need or impossibility, the greater the potential for fruitful praying.

ILL:  Remember in Mark 9:14-29 where the Disciples couldn’t cast out the demon from the possessed boy? The disciples had been casting out demons and healing people no problem…until this kid.  Something was different about this one.  They couldn’t figure it out so when they asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out this demon the normal way they had been doing it, Jesus said, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”  There was obviously an increased level of demonic opposition that called for an increased level of prayer which the Apostles were not yet familiar with but Jesus was. 

APP:  Our prayers should be filled with thanksgiving and praise to God for the things he’s given us the ability to do—go to school, have a job, raise a family, minister to people in need.  But another big part of prayer is to fill our prayers with petitions and appeals about things that are either difficult or impossible for us—change in other people’s lives, provisions beyond our resources, spiritual hunger and responsiveness in ourselves and others, etc. 

            Jesus says that even the impossible-looking mountains in our way can be made smooth as a level plain when God moves.  And God most often waits for us to pray before He moves.

PRAY:  silent prayer for something God needs to do in/around you that is beyond your ability/resources/power to change.

Fruitful praying requires humanly difficult-to-impossible situations.  That’s great news for anybody!

 

#3.  Fruitful praying calls for bold, biblical appeals.

Vss. 23-24--23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Okay, this point is perhaps the most important and needs the most clarification.  There are several words in this paragraph that sound like a ‘blank check’ of a promise.

“…if anyone says to this mountain….”

“…whatever you ask for in prayer… 

Do the words “anyone” and “whatever” really mean “anyone” and “whatever”? 

  • “Anyone”…like Kim Jon Ung, dictator of N. Korea, who is murdering and torturing thousands of Christians? Or a pedophile in our city who has marred the lives of hundreds of children who then asks God to not let him get caught? Or maybe not someone that extreme.  Maybe just Joe church-goer who wants God to help him get a better, higher-paying job so he can move to a bigger house…or to win the lottery, etc. 

Obviously “anyone” doesn’t mean “anyone.”  We know this intuitively. 

EX:  If I were to tell you, “I’ve got room in my car for anyone today,” does that mean anyone in this city?  Anyone in jail today?  Or anyone in this room who needs a ride after church? 

            The same applies to the “whatever” of the content of our prayers.  We know that there are limits to that “whatever” because we understand WHO is giving the promise. 

EX:  If we’re in a restaurant and I say to the waiter today, “I’ll have whatever you have today,” everyone knows that I’m not talking about the shoes he’s wearing or the wooden spoons they are using in the kitchen.  I’m talking about the FOOD they are serving, right?  The context makes it clear. 

            Similarly, if you were to ask God for something that is just plain selfish, that would bring damage to you or others, or that would lead you further into sin, is God going to do that?  Of course not.  Jesus made that really clear in John 14:14 & 16:24 when he said, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”  That means, “You may ask for anything that is in agreement with me and my will and I will do it.”  But that cannot mean that God promises to give us anything that is outside His will for us. 

            This is THE most critical component of fruitful praying:  what we seek from God must be His will for us. 

How do we know what His will for us is?  I would contend that we can only know with certainty what God’s will for us is when He tells us clearly in His Word.  In other words, if I have a promise in God’s word that is clearly for all of God’s people, I can pray from and into that promise with bold confidence because it is clearly a biblical appeal. 

ILL:  Phil. 4:6-7--Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

1 Thess. 4:3-4--It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable….

The level of our boldness in prayer should match the level of the biblical-ness of our prayer.  It’s not the level of my wishfulness or my voice or my longing.  It’s the level of how conformed to the will of God my prayer is. 

            That doesn’t mean we can’t ask for things that we’re not sure about or don’t have specific statements in the Bible about.  But we can’t have the same level of confidence, faith and belief in God about those requests as we do about that which God has explicitly promised to grant according to His word. 

Fruitful praying calls for bold, biblical appeals to God.

Lastly…

#4.  Fruitful praying demands offense-free hearts.

Mark concludes Jesus teaching from this event with these words:  5 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” 

These words directly echo the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” 

Jesus knows that offenses are a regular and often frequent occurrence in life.  The nature of relationships between sinful human beings is such that darkness hates the light.  Evil hates righteousness.  Hurt people hurt people. 

            Very shortly, in a matter of a few days, these disciples would have plenty of reason to feel offended.  The entire leadership of the nation and most of the people in this city would torture and kill the man they had grown to know and love and the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world.  One of their own would betray him and thus them. When they would need prayer the most, they would find offenses at their greatest. 

Prayer is meant to draw us closer to Christ and make us more like Him.  And Jesus knows that offenses, bitterness, hurt and resentment become concrete walls that keep us from the grace of Christ we need in order to be conformed to Him. 

            Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the chains of offense.  Which is why Jesus also told us to “Pray for those who persecute you,” (Mt. 5:44).  And then he modeled it from the cross.  “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

We’re all learning how to pray…our whole life.  We can all grow in prayer that really bears fruit—not just the fruit of answers to our prayers but the fruit of the Spirit of Christ in our own character. 

CLOSE: 

I like us to end today by all talking this last point over with the Father.  Clearly, God’s will for us is that when we pray, we be honest enough with ourselves to admit when we are holding anything against anyone. 

  • Ask God to bring to mind anyone who has offended you, hurt you, sinned against you, whom you still want to pay for what they’ve done in some way.
  • Whomever comes to mind, ask God for the grace to forgive…
  • and then ask God to forgive them for what they’ve done to you or someone you love.

[SILENT PRAYER]

Ask God to make us fruitful in our praying:

  • By making us people of faith in Him.
  • By using the difficult to impossible situations of our lives to move us to prayer.
  • By teaching us what His will is for us so that we can pray confidently, boldly and biblically.
  • By showing us how and who we need to forgive every time we pray.

BENEDICTION:

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer