21st June 2023

21st June 2023


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 11:20-33


Message Alan Burke 


A surprised Peter exclaimed “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”(21) and to this Jesus said “Have faith in God.” What does faith have to do with the cursing of the fig tree, in a sense it has everything to do with the cursing of the fig tree because the faith is necessary for bearing fruit in the life of the believer, it is necessary in our lives to live a life that is pleasing to God. While the fact that the fig tree was now withered may have surprised Peter it shouldn’t have. And by telling the disciples to have faith Jesus is exhorting them, commanding them, telling them to have a faith that is not just some notion of the existence of God but to have a faith that impacts our thoughts, our actions and what we believe is possible. 


Their faith should have been grounded upon the very character of God as well as what they had seen and heard in the person and the work of Jesus Christ whom they had journeyed with for some three years. Our faith should be founded upon the revealed will of God, his word, how he has acted in history and that salvation that he has brought us. 


Then Jesus goes on to tell them about moving a mountain. We can take this literally and of course God can move mountains for he is the Lord the creator of all, or we can take it as a hyperbole. A hyperbole is an exaggerated statement to make a point. I think Jesus here is not giving a hyperbole, rather he was directing the disciples as well as us to something else.


Here’s why. 


The route they would have taken from Bethphage came through the mount of olives. From where they were and the vantage point that they would have had, they would have been able to see the fortress of Herodiaon that had been built by Herod the Great which was just over seven miles away. Herod the Great built it as a stronghold incase there was war or rebellion in Isreal, especially aware of how things in Isreal were often like a tinderbox. It was a safe place incase anything kicked off, a place of retreat, a place of safety.


If Jesus and the disciples had been standing there in that same spot a hundred years prior, the vista that they looked upon there would have bene very different. There was no fortress and in its place there would have been two small hills and not the fortress. What had happened was that when building the fortress Herod literally removed the adjacent hill and built this fortress on top of the other. The point Jesus was making to the disciples is that those who believe in God who have faith in him can expect to see God work, to see change, to see amazing things all through faith. 


For those who have faith, who believe in God they can expect God to move, Jesus goes on to clarify that if the person asking from God to move the mountain does not doubt in his heart but alive that what he says will happen it will be done for him. For what is impossible with man is possible with God. 


The thrust of what we are being taught here is not to start praying for the literal moving of mountains but it does teach us that mountains can be moved. Jesus is addressing is our attitude in faith as we come before the Lord God. What is that attitude, well we are to believe that God can certainly do these things, be in no doubt that the God who created the universe and all that is in it can move the Mourne’s if he so decreed it to be. Jesus was here teaching the disciples to believe, to believe in God and not to doubt that he can achieve what he will. While Herod moved a small mountain God can do even greater things. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q 78 What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?
The ninth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own or our neighbour’ s good name. (1 Sam. 17:28, Lev. 19:16, Ps. 15:3)
​