Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all,
would you pray for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like
yourself? The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,
they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will
do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you are a
non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't
hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the
types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Just remaining standing, I invite you just to bow your heads in prayer. Father, we are in your
presence. We might not feel your presence, but Father, we have gathered together in the name of
Jesus to be in your presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit
would fall with gentle but mighty power upon each one of us, so that Jesus might minister grace to us,
and that we might respond to that gift of grace that is freely given yet again today, that we might
respond to that in a worthy manner, Father, that is good for us and brings glory to you. So Father,
pour out the Holy Spirit gently but deeply upon us, and we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son,
and the only Savior. Amen. Please be seated.
So some of you know that, I mean, I don't just go to coffee shops. I also read books,
and I like reading mysteries or thrillers or something like that, and it's a very common feature
in books like this to have a type of tragic anti-hero, somebody who's going to end up being
the hero of the book, but is deeply wounded. And often, the wound is that they have done something
terrible in their life that has caused tragedy, and they've never been able to come to terms with it.
And the constant sort of ongoing theme within the book from other characters is that they need to
learn to forgive themselves. It's a very, very common thing. In fact, actually, it's one of those things
that doesn't matter if you vote for Trump or Biden, it doesn't matter if you vote for McKinney or Sutcliffe
or Shirely, that that would probably be a very common type of North American advice is that we need to learn
to forgive ourselves. The text that we're going to look at today speaks directly to this particular
piece of advice and actually points us in a way that is vastly better, that accomplishes what we desire,
because I actually think forgiving yourself doesn't actually ever work, but this points us in the
direction of something that does work. And so for those of us who are troubled in our conscience with
things that we have done or failed to do in the past that has caused harm, this is very important and
very good news for us. So I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 11, and we're going to
begin at the first verse, Mark chapter 11, verse 1, and if you're using this version, it's on page 68.
And some of you are familiar with this, some of you might not be, but we're going through this
ancient biography of Jesus written by one who was an eyewitness of some of the things, but it's based on
eyewitness testimony written when eyewitnesses were still alive. And one of the ways that we,
one of the things in the story is that Jesus has predicted since chapter 8 that he's going to go to
Jerusalem, and he's going to go to Jerusalem, he's going to die. And one of the things which is,
when you're telling a story like this, it's not that you necessarily have the same number of words
for every part of a person's life. A third of the gospel of Mark is taken up with this last week
of Jesus's life. And so now he's been saying he's going to Jerusalem, now he arrives,
and this is how he arrives. It goes like this, verse 1 of chapter 11.
Now when, sorry, yeah, never mind. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage and Bethany,
at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them,
go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which
no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say,
the Lord has need of it, and we'll send it back here immediately. And they, that is the two disciples,
went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those
standing there said to them, what are you doing untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said,
and they let them go. Now just sort of pause here for a second. This is a very, very odd story
in lots of ways. In fact, actually, often what happens in Bible studies and in commentaries,
in fact, is there's a bit of a discussion about how this came to be. Had Jesus secretly arranged it
in advance? Like what was just going on? And I think one of the things that we are to take it from this,
just as it's an important aside, is, well, here's the thing. I can tell you of a couple of times
that I've had answered prayer that is just miraculous. There's no naturalistic account for it.
A couple of years ago, I was with a couple of doctors, and one of the doctors who was a Christian
said, you know, anybody who's been a doctor for a very long time, or any length of time at all,
they will tell you, if you're very honest, it comes to that point in the night, you know,
they're all having the red wine or the white wine or whatever, and it comes to that point in the night,
they'll all say that there have been medical cases they've dealt with that don't make any sense.
Now, because they're non-Christians, they wouldn't say that it was because of a miracle or answered
prayer. They would just say, I know of a case where it just, you know, the x-ray showed this,
the x-ray showed this, the x-ray showed this, and then the next day showed that there was nothing.
And so, and maybe some of us here, if we had a conversation, we could talk about something that
really did, like, really miracle is the only way to explain it, but most of our prayers are answered
in a way that there can be a naturalistic explanation. That, you know, it just happened this,
and just happened like this, and just happened like this, and in some ways, I think what is really
neat about this is that it shows that, like, that you could have a miraculous, I mean, Jesus wanted it,
and it happened that way, but maybe there was some other naturalistic explanation of it, but that's
just part of the life of faith for us as Christians. I mean, the heart of the text is going to be talking
about what it means to have faith, and part of it for us is in faith is we pray to Jesus who knows all
things, and sometimes when he says yes, it won't be clear whether it was, in a sense, just a coincidence
that nature would have produced, or some other thing happened, or whether it's a miracle, but we
don't have to care about that. Here we see Jesus sovereignly handling events so that he would enter
as he sovereignly desires to enter in. That's what happens here in verse 7. If you look at it, verse 7,
and they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and Jesus sat on it, and many spread
their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields,
and those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed. Now just sort of pause. You know, this week I was thinking about it. If this was organized
by Hollywood, this is how the gospel would end. Isn't this how a Hollywood movie ends? With a big
crowd cheering, and all that's missing is Jesus kissing a pretty woman, and if Jesus was to kiss a
pretty woman after this big crowd, that would be a Hollywood ending. The producers and the directors
would say, that's a wrap. Let's get it out, and we're going to make lots of money with this particular story.
But in this case, it's not the end of the story. It's in fact getting to the very point of the story.
And one of the things, those of you who are very familiar with the Bible, you'll know that all four
of the ancient eyewitness biographies of Jesus include this incident. All four of them.
And some of you will remember bits and pieces of the stories which are a bit different. I think what
Mark is doing in his telling is very significant and very important, but not...
I really love those songs that we were singing, and it's made me hoarse. I had to stop singing the last verse.
Because I was singing it too much. Can you... Where's Deborah? Can you sing too much? I don't know. I guess you can, if it hurts your voice.
But what's happening is this. Jesus didn't die on the cross in a cathedral between two candles.
Jesus did not die on the cross and rise from the dead in the way that often, like in Mormonism,
nobody sees the angels except Joseph Smith, and nobody sees the gold tablets.
And it's not that Jesus' death and resurrection happened in some secret type of way that only one person saw or nobody saw.
There were three times in the year when the city of Jerusalem increased threefold, fivefold, sixfold,
because people came from all over.
And this is one of those times. It's the Passover is about to be celebrated.
And so the population of Jerusalem is swollen immensely.
And Jesus just made it that everybody knew he was there.
Everybody knows he's there. That's what he's done.
He's orchestrated it.
So it's not... If you go back and read some of the other ancient biographies,
there's sometimes that Jesus just sort of slips into the temple.
He maybe has just a couple of interactions and he slips out or slips into Jerusalem and then leaves.
But this time, everybody knows he's there.
And when everybody would have been talking about this entrance,
some of them probably will have stains of donkey poop on their clothes that they have to get rid of.
It's going to be talked about all week.
And when he dies, everybody knows it.
You see, this is the exact opposite of a secret type of mystery religion.
The Christian faith is a public faith.
It's a public revelation that can be tested.
And Jesus is just guaranteed that everybody knows he's there.
And when he dies, everybody will know that he dies by crucifixion.
And in verse 11, remember I said that in some ways that earlier part of the story talks about Jesus,
in a sense, being sovereign, that he sovereignly wants...
It's actually really interesting.
One of the things which is sort of cool about this text is that it shows both...
The stories that we're looking at today, it throws together both the godness of Jesus and the sovereignty of Jesus and the humanity of Jesus in a very powerful way.
Jesus is so poor he doesn't own a donkey.
He has to borrow a donkey.
And a little bit later, we're going to see that Jesus is hungry.
Yet, the same one who is poor and can't even afford a donkey, he sovereignly organizes a donkey for him to come in.
And in verse 11, it doesn't look as much in English, like it's there, but it's more powerful in the original language.
And verse 11,
And Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.
And when he had looked around at everything, as was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Now, in the original language, this phrase, looked around, he's not looking around like a tourist.
Looking around.
The churches, which had now become museums.
He's not looking around as if one of you finally gets an opportunity to buy a house and you go sort of looking around to see if you want to buy the house.
The word looking around implies that he's the owner who's come to what he owns after being gone for a while to do an inspection.
That's what's being implied in the original language.
The owner of the temple has come.
And he's looking around to see if it's as he intended.
Now, one of the things which is so brilliant about the Gospel of Mark, and it's one of the reasons, even from a human point of view, people still read it,
is the way that Mark often will tell things without using, like, clearly explaining it, but allowing the story to unfold, to communicate at the level of a story.
And stories communicated at a deep level for us as human beings.
And so, Jesus is going to be saying something about how he is doing a new thing.
In a sense that everything that the Old Testament had been promising is about to be fulfilled.
And that God is about to do a new thing in terms of how he relates to human beings.
And that he communicates by these very clever little stories.
And then this odd aside about prayer that talks about forgiveness.
Look what happens in verse 12.
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.
Remember I said to you one of the things about, you know, in our day and age, we have a hard time believing that Jesus was God.
But for the first several centuries, Christians and others had a hard time believing that he was human.
And so, texts like this were very important in the forming of the early creeds and doctrinal definitions
to remind people that Jesus is fully human and fully God, but one person.
And he's hungry.
In verse 13,
And seen in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.
Note it doesn't say necessarily food, just find anything on it.
And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
And Jesus said to it,
May no one ever eat fruit from you again.
And his disciples heard it.
Now,
this has been a,
this part and the part that's going to come in a few verses has
troubled lots of Christians off and on throughout the years.
And lots of people from outside
who look in at the text.
And it's a very puzzling text.
Like,
it seems as if,
in fact, actually,
in some ways, this text touches at one of the deep fears
that even we Christians have.
But it especially touches on a deep fear that those outside the Christian faith,
when they look at it,
they have.
And that deep fear is that,
you know, good grief,
God is just unreasonable.
He's just unfair and unreasonable.
And this story perfectly illustrates his unfairness and his unreasonableness.
that here it is.
It isn't even the season for figs.
And he still goes ahead and curses it.
Like, how unfair is that?
And for many people outside the faith,
one of the barriers to them coming in
is they have this sense that the God that they'll meet is an unfair God
who makes impossible demands
and then blames you for not being able to meet it.
Now,
the fear is real.
But the text actually doesn't illustrate it.
And part of it is,
has to do with translation issues.
That little bit for it was not the season for figs
in the original language can go in different places in the sentence.
So here's what's really going on.
It wasn't the season for figs.
And yet,
and for a fig tree,
when it's not the season for figs,
the tree has no leaves.
So it would be the same for us
in the spring
when all the trees are bare
and there's still snow on the ground
and it's not spring yet
because it's February or whatever
and all of a sudden you see a tree,
a maple tree,
with green leaves.
Or a better example,
an apple tree with green leaves.
And you go,
oh, wow,
there's an apple tree with green leaves.
Like, it draws your attention.
And so he goes to see if there's anything on it.
And I only know this
because obviously I don't know anything about fig trees.
I've depended upon commentaries for this.
And what happens is
at the very same time
in a healthy fig tree,
as soon as the figs are being produced,
the figs are also being produced.
The leaves and the figs grow at the exact same time.
So,
we're going to see more about this in a moment.
What Jesus is doing here is
one commentator called it a portent,
an old-fashioned word.
One of those little things,
a harbinger.
Sorry,
that's another old-fashioned word
that some of you won't know what it means.
It's something,
it's sending a bit of a signal
about something that's going to happen.
And the signal about what's going to happen
is that
out of all the nations on the earth,
how odd of God to choose the Jews.
And he chose them.
If you go back,
those of you who remember the stories of Abraham,
he chose Abraham and then his descendants
to be a blessing for the nations,
to be the means by which
his glory is made known to the world.
And out of all the nations,
they're the only one.
Out of all the trees in February,
there's only that one tree that has leaves.
And unlike an apple tree,
where you can have the leaves
without the beginning of the apple
and the fig tree,
you have to have both at the same time.
And he goes.
And it has the appearance of life,
the appearance of what it should have,
but it has absolutely no fruit.
It's barren.
Now, it's beyond the scope of this sermon
because one of the things
which those outside the Christian faith
have as a great dislike
about the Christian faith
is the idea of God's judgment.
It's a very peculiar fear
because, gosh,
if there's one thing about our age
we live in an un...
We live in a hyperjudgmental age.
You say the wrong word in a tweet
and the internet explodes.
You say...
There's one fellow that I watch on YouTube
called John Campbell.
It's a very interesting source
of sort of just main actual data
on COVID and other types of issues.
He's had a couple of warnings
and it's just a little aside that he made
that brought the censors down on him
and now it's almost painful to watch him
because he's worried about saying one wrong word
that will cancel him.
And it's a very puzzling thing
that we live in an age
where people feel completely and utterly free
to judge others
and condemn them to cancellation
and destruction,
but don't like a God that might judge them.
In fact, it's actually usually a feature
of being judgmental.
Ourselves.
That we don't like the idea
of someone else,
especially God, judging us.
And except as we'll see,
Jesus giving this parable
of God's judgment
on the Jewish people.
This is not a text
about God replacing the Jewish people.
It is a text about the fact
that the temple and the priesthood
will come to an end.
And in fact, it does come to an end.
In the year 70, it's come to an end.
It's never been returned.
God's not finished with the Jewish people.
But the temple
and that phase
has come to an end.
But I'm getting a little bit ahead.
You'd expect maybe to see,
just look,
remember I said how Mark
sort of tells things
by using the story to unfold it?
Look what happens in verse 15.
It's page 70 if you're using this.
And they came to Jerusalem
so that he says this to the fig tree
and then they walk away.
The fig tree is just there,
has all the leaves and everything.
And they came to Jerusalem
and he entered the temple
and began to drive out
those who sold
and those who bought in the temple.
And he overturned the tables
of the money changers
and the seats of those
who sold pigeons.
And he would not allow anyone
to carry anything through the temple.
And he was teaching them
and saying to them,
Is it not written,
My house shall be called
a house of prayer
for all the nations?
But you have made it
a den of robbers.
And the chief priests
and the scribes heard it
and were seeking a way
to destroy him
for they feared him
because all the crowd
was astonished at his teaching.
And when evening came,
they went into the city,
out of the city.
Now, this is not
an anti-capitalist text.
It's not that Jesus
has something against markets.
It's not that he has something
against selling pigeons.
It's not like that at all.
If you ever have a chance
to go to Jerusalem,
it's very interesting.
One of the things
I really recommend you do
is you go into a church
like Christ Church
in the old city of Jerusalem.
And it's a very,
very interesting place.
Not only is it
the very first Protestant,
in fact, evangelical church
that was ever set
in the Holy Land
in Jerusalem.
But it has sort of
like a bit of a,
like a lot of places there.
There's a wall around it
and everything.
There's a variety of buildings.
It's a bit of a complex.
And you're going through
the old city of Jerusalem,
which is filled with tourists
and pilgrims.
And it's noisy.
And it's, if you like crowds
and you like excitement,
it's like a very,
it's just really amazing.
The old buildings,
the stores,
the smell of the food,
which is delicious.
And you pass through this gate
into a courtyard.
And then you pass through
some other place
and then you finally get
into the church.
And if you go into the church,
the church building
is like what you would
expect it to be.
It's very still and quiet.
It's very simple.
Very simple with a lot
of Jewish symbolism in it,
obviously,
because it's a Christian,
but using Old Testament symbolism.
And it's very quiet and still.
And you can just tell
when you're in there
that this is a place
that people have prayed in.
You know,
many of you have gone
into old places.
You can have this powerful sense.
This is a place where people
have come to pray
for more than a century.
The difference between there
and a two-minute walk out
is the difference between,
as the English used to say,
chalk and cheese.
It's a huge difference.
And so here we have
a temple compound.
And it'd be no problem
if those places were all out,
people selling all that stuff
were outside.
But in fact,
not only were they not outside,
but right inside.
So there is no sense
of prayer there
with the bartering
and the haggling
and the complaints
and the yelling
and the screaming
and the baying of animals.
It's as if the busy street,
it's as if...
Actually, one other thing,
if you really want to...
An even bigger contrast,
if you go to Jerusalem,
to go to Christchurch,
but before that,
go to the Old Market,
which is just...
You crowd it.
Everybody's pushing you.
It's noisy.
It's really just...
It's quite an experience.
It's overwhelming
if you're not...
If you're from somewhere
like Ottawa,
and it's overwhelming
to be in this crowded
outdoor market.
But that outdoor market,
right in the temple,
how is that a place of prayer?
And it's taking over
the place of the courtyard
of the Gentiles,
the courtyard which is
specifically for pagans
to come to pray
to the God of Israel,
which is what God had wanted
in Genesis 12,
and all the way through
what our Jewish friends
called the Tanakh
and we call the Old Testament,
is that God wanted
the nations to come to Him.
You know, read Psalm 67.
What...
Steve, in a couple of weeks,
is going to preach
and challenge us
to have a sense
of the worldwide nature
of the church
and the missionary expansion.
And Psalm 67,
you know,
why is it that we should pray
that the gospel
goes to the ends of the earth?
Because God wants
more people to praise Him.
He wants more people
to praise Him.
That's Psalm 67.
And they're stopping it.
And He drives them all out.
My house shall be called
a house of prayer
for all nations.
It's not what I wanted.
You've just made it a place
where there's crooked
and non-crooked business people.
And there's no prayer at all.
Now the miracle of destruction.
I have a couple of different people
who when they see me
working on my sermon now,
they ask me
what I'm going to preach on
on Sunday.
And I said to one of them,
I said,
oh, I have the most popular topic
in Canada.
I'm going to talk about
the destruction.
I'm going to talk about
the judgment of God.
And I said,
you know,
that's just one of those topics.
If I was to advertise that,
it would just bring in the crowds
because everybody wants
to hear about it.
And he laughed.
He's not a Christian.
He laughed.
Look what happened.
Verse 20.
As they passed by in the morning,
they saw the fig tree
withered away to its roots.
And Peter remembered
and said to him,
Rabbi,
look,
the fig tree that you cursed
has withered.
Now just sort of pause here.
There's a very funny thing
which is happening.
But the first thing is this.
This has caused
lots of people trouble.
Now,
it shouldn't cause trouble.
If we're going to see in a moment,
it is in fact an enacted,
it's the only miracle
of destruction
in the Gospels.
Not the only miracle
of destruction
in the New Testament,
but it's the only one
in the Gospel.
And on one hand,
it's a solemn warning
that every single human being
will one day appear
before the judgment seat of God.
We don't get a pass
because we're cute
or because we're Canadian
or because we're a victim.
And the other thing about it
in terms of the death of fig tree,
it's just one of those weird things.
It's like,
okay, really?
You have a problem with that?
Like you've never once
had a cut flower in your house?
You do realize that
cutting the flower
kills the flower?
Or like,
like,
you know,
we don't think about stuff like that.
You know,
those little fall decorations,
like trees had to die
for that to happen, right?
You do realize that.
Like it's a false problem.
It's being overly sensitive
about what doesn't matter.
But now you would expect
that Jesus is going to say
more about it.
But Jesus goes
in a very different direction,
but it's an important direction
for us to understand
because he's going to go
in the direction of
what does it mean
to have fruit?
And how do we have fruit?
You see,
Jesus is going to call us
not to have a Facebook life
or an Instagram life
or a TikTok life,
but a real life.
Not all about appearances,
not about the fact
that shortly after
this picture was taken,
you and your girlfriend
had an unbelievably
terrible fight
where you said
horrible things
to each other
and you didn't speak
to each other for a month.
But the world doesn't see that.
They just see that
cool place you went to eat
and the cool food you have, right?
That's the Instagram,
Facebook life.
All appearances.
Jesus says,
there's nothing wrong
with appearances.
You know,
George,
you should wash your face
before you come
and try to comb your hair
before you come to church.
There's nothing wrong
with appearances.
But if all you have
is appearances,
that's like,
in a sense,
even in our culture,
we understand that
we don't,
like,
if you were to say
that any Canadian,
you're shallow,
they would be deeply wounded.
It wouldn't matter
whether who they vote for,
they would be deeply wounded.
We all,
whether or not we're shallow,
we actually don't want
to be shallow.
We want to have some depth.
And Jesus says,
we've seen the fig tree
and all it has is leaves
but no fruit.
And now,
I'm going to talk to you
very briefly
and it's a whole other
series of sermons
that could be done
and I'll just try to pick up
the highlights.
Is what,
how do you,
how do you be real?
What's reality?
The very first thing
he says
is
verse
22.
and Jesus answered them
and he gives a command,
have faith
in the triune God.
Have faith
in the triune God.
That's where it begins.
Now,
faith
is one of those words
that we have trouble with.
I have to take a moment
to try to help you,
help us all
to understand it.
For many of us,
faith is an emotion.
We feel
like we have faith.
but emotion
is empty.
Emotion
is just appearances.
And,
and for others
of us,
faith is like a power.
I,
I talked to several people
who watched
power,
positive thinking stuff
and,
and having better control
of your life
and,
and it's talked,
faith will often be talked about
in those types of things
and believing it
as a type of power,
something that
allows you
to accomplish things.
But that's not what
the Bible here
is talking about
in terms of faith.
Faith is not,
it's an odd
type of power.
You see,
when you talk about faith
as like a power
to accomplish things,
they're talking about faith
as if it's like a muscle.
And,
you know,
you want to get
really strong,
so you take up
the three classic
deadlifting exercises,
exercises,
squats,
deadlifts,
and,
and bench press.
And,
and you,
you eat the right way
to get your muscles bigger
and you get a coach
and you,
you,
you work on all three
of these different things
and,
and your muscles get bigger
and bigger and bigger
and you can lift more
and more and more things.
And,
and for many people
in our culture,
we either think of faith
as something like muscles
or something like an emotion,
but it's neither.
In fact,
if I could come up
to the simplest analogy
for what faith is,
it's like listening.
It's like listening.
It's receptive.
I could,
I could go to a dinner party
and I could be all ready
to listen,
but that doesn't make
the other person speak.
And all of us
have had the experience
of talking to people
who don't listen.
So there is something there.
There's something
that comes from us,
but at the end of the day,
the heart of it
is reset,
receiving
and connecting.
And so what he's saying is,
you need to have
this receiving of God,
this connecting of God,
this opening to God,
the triune God,
not just any God.
And one of the things
which is so significant
about these whole series
of stories is,
you see,
the fact of the matter is,
as you think about listening,
there's lots of problems
with listening,
because one of the things
you can do is you can listen
to people who lie.
You can listen to people
who are untrustworthy.
You can listen to things
which are just illusions,
which are delusions.
You know,
you can listen to all
of these things
and you can receive them
and take them in.
And Jesus,
part of the whole point
of Jesus' life
and coming within
after all these centuries
of prophecies
in his life
and his death
and his resurrection,
that there have been
rumors of God,
there have been idols of God,
there have been false gods,
and Jesus reveals
the true God
because we need to listen
and receive the truth.
And what did Mark
just do with chapter 11
with the triumphal entry
is that everybody
and their dog
now knows that Jesus
came into the community.
And when Jesus dies
on the cross,
everybody knows
that he dies on the cross.
And when his disciples
say the grave is empty
and we have seen him,
everybody in Jerusalem
can go and look
at the tomb
and look for the body
and the body
is never found.
Receive, listen,
connect to that
which is true,
the true and living God,
the triune God.
And from that
flows other things.
What flows?
What type of fruit
is going to come
from being connected
to the triune God,
to opening yourself
to the triune God
and receiving
the triune God?
Well, the first thing
is going to be prayer.
Look at what he says
in verses 23 and following.
Truly,
if those of you
who are familiar
with the old
King James Version,
that would be translated
is verily.
And it means amen.
Like this is a solemn,
true statement.
I say to you,
whoever says
to this mountain,
be taken up
and thrown into the sea
and does not doubt
in his heart
but believes
that what he says
will come to pass,
it will be done for him.
Therefore,
I tell you,
whatever you ask
in prayer,
believe that you have
received it
and it will be yours.
Now, as I said,
you could do a whole book
trying to unpack that
just very, very briefly.
I'm already sort of
come up to the end
of my time
but I need to just say
a couple of things
here about this.
A couple of things.
First of all,
is that when you've put
your faith and trust
and as you're putting
your faith and trust
in the triune God,
one of the things
he'll tell you to do
is to pray big.
You know what?
We should be praying
for the end
of certain systemic evils
in Canada
and the devil will tell you,
you can't pray against that.
Good grief, George.
The Supreme Court
says it's a right.
Apple likes it.
Microsoft likes it.
Amazon likes it.
Hollywood likes it.
The universities all like it.
Pray anyway.
Pray for a day.
Pray for a week.
Pray for a month.
Pray for decades.
And in heaven,
we'll find out
that one of the reasons
some of those great evils
have passed
like the evil of slavery
was that because
insignificant people
like you and me
have prayed for decades.
The second thing
about this prayer thing
is remember
what I said about
that whole thing
in the beginning
about you could explain
the donkey
in naturalistic ways.
I think one of the things
that God is going to do
for us in heaven
is play nights
where we'll have
other movie nights.
I think I shared
about movie nights
for George's dumb things
he prayed for
and then, you know,
after there's been
a season in heaven,
there'll be
things which George
sort of felt grumpy
with me about.
This is how God will happen.
Things that George
was grumpy with me about
for not answering.
And they'll show me
praying for something
and then me sort of
being upset that God
doesn't answer it
because I had to,
you know,
five years later
or ten years later
or twenty years later
it happened.
And I'd completely
forgotten that I prayed
about it.
I was grumpy in the moment
I just forgot about it.
And it could be
that it's a miraculous thing,
pray big,
but it could be that,
you know,
so to speak,
there's a bomb
that knocks that part
of the mountain
off into the sea.
And George doesn't
remember that George
was praying for that.
Or it could be,
and this is another
part of prayer,
is that God says,
yes,
I want that mountain
taken down
and thrown into the sea
because I want,
you know,
this church
or this ministry
to the poor there.
So,
George,
I'm going to answer
your prayers.
George,
roll up your sleeves.
Get to work.
We're going to answer
that prayer.
Get to work.
Get the shovels.
Raise the funds.
Get the architect's plans.
Let's get it done.
But the main thing
is that it comes
out of our prayer.
And then this final thing,
just really final,
look at this next
particular,
and the other thing
about doubt,
sorry,
you just think about
the analogy of listening
for a second.
One of the things
I do when I go out
with my wife
is I try to sit
with my back
to the television
because it's hard
to listen to your wife
and watch the television
at the same time.
If this was a different
type of church,
there'd be,
I'd say,
do I have an amen?
And all the women
would say amen
and the men
would look sheepish
because it's hard
to listen to two things
at the same time.
And doubt just means
being in two minds.
And the same thing
about believe in your heart,
it means commit to it.
It means if I'm going
to listen to you,
I commit to listening to you.
And I'm not listening
to three things.
I'm not listening
to the radio
and watching the TV
and listening to it
at the same time.
It doesn't work.
You're not open to it
if that's happening.
And just finally,
the final thing
about forgiveness.
Look at verse 25.
And whenever you stand praying,
forgive.
If you have anything
against anyone,
so that your Father also
who is in heaven
may forgive you
your trespasses.
Now,
there's a couple of people here
who are very good
with grammar.
And one of the problems
we have with understanding
this text
is that we read it
as a conditional,
sorry,
grammar geek moment.
In the original language,
it's not a conditional
but the subjunctive.
And it makes all the difference
in the world for the text.
You see,
what this text is saying
is that,
you know what,
faith is being open to God,
receptive to God,
attentive to God,
allowing of God
to come in
and coming into God,
it's that type of receptivity.
And when we do that,
it changes us.
Like when we do that
with another person,
it changes us.
Both of us change.
In the case of God,
it's not that God changes
but that we change.
You see,
this is pointing
to the fact
that what's going to happen
on the cross,
the reason we can have faith
in God
is that what we see
when Jesus dies
on the cross
is that God
has taken the means
so by you and I
can be forgiven
by God.
Because of Christ's death
on the cross,
when I have faith in that,
when I receive it,
when I allow it
to enter into my life,
when I enter into it,
one of the things
about Jesus' death
on the cross
is we are seeing
that God
has forgiven
you
of everything
in Christ.
You see,
the fact of the matter
is that you and I
don't need,
if you are here
or if you're watching
and you're troubled
by not being able
to forgive yourself,
what is happening
is that God
is knocking
on the door
of your heart
and saying to you,
you need to accept
my son.
You are longing
to know Jesus
without recognizing him.
Because we can't
forgive ourselves,
we can't pay our debt
to ourselves,
but we have a longing
to be forgiven,
to be forgiven
by God.
And when we put
our faith and trust
in him,
we are entering
entering into
his forgiving us
of everything
that we have ever
done that is wronged.
And when we open
ourselves to the
triune God,
he shapes us
to be ones
who forgive.
And all I can say
to this,
I've really gone
over my time.
if you think
of someone
who's wronged you
and you want
to hurt them
or you want to,
you feel embarrassed,
you feel ashamed,
you have to fight
the temptation
and want others
to know how bad
they really are,
then that shows
that you have not
forgiven them.
And sometimes
when we pray
that we can
forgive another
person,
God does a miracle
and it goes away
right away.
And for others
of us,
it's a journey
of forgiveness
that we need
to pray
day in and day out
that we can forgive
that other person
until we come
to that point
where we are
free
of the hurt,
that we are
absolutely,
genuinely free,
no longer the desire
for vengeance
or to hurt
the other person
or reveal
the other person,
no longer feeling
fight or flight
or tower or cower,
that we are free.
And one of the things
our world needs
in a world
of hyper-judgment,
one of the profound
fruit that the
Christian community
can begin
to show
in our day
and age
is the truth
and the power
of forgiveness.
I invite you
to stand.
Bow our heads
in prayer.
Father,
we confess
that most of the time
we don't even think
we have to forgive people.
And,
Father,
we think that
there's nothing
in our lives
that need forgiveness,
not recognizing
those resentments
that we still carry,
those desires
to wound
that we still carry,
those times
that we get
red in the face
with embarrassment
or shame,
those things
that make us
still so angry,
Father,
and we are,
Father,
constantly inundated
by experiences
that show
our desperate need
to forgive
and do not recognize
that we ask,
Lord,
that your Holy Spirit
would do a gentle
but healing work
within us,
that your Holy Spirit
would,
Father,
help us to trust
Jesus in his death
on the cross
more and more
and more.
There would be more
real to our heart
and that that
becoming real to our heart,
that it would form us
to recognize
our profound
ongoing need
to forgive
and that you would
help us to pray
that we can forgive
and make us people
who pray,
pray,
and pray
into that profound
need for us
to forgive others
and that we might
know that wonderful
fruit that you bring
into our lives,
that that time
comes when we
can forgive
and then we can say
free at last,
praise God Almighty,
thank God Almighty,
I am free at last.
We thank you,
Father,
that you have
forgiven us in Jesus
and may that form us
in terms of how we think
and how we pray
and how we live.
And we ask all these
things in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.