It's an honor for me to be counted among you, saints of God.
And my great privilege and honor to preach God's word to you this morning.
!
After taking a brief break from our series in Matthew, we are today coming back to our series.
We're in chapter 21, verses 18 to 32.
Let me pray before the reading and preaching of God's word.
Heavenly Father, it is a privilege beyond our deserts to be adopted as your sons and daughters.
To be able to call upon you, the almighty creator of the universe, as our Father.
And we do that boldly because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, this morning.
Won't you speak to us today in your word so that we live more in light of that wondrous reality?
Won't you, in the preaching, in the reading of your word, exalt your son, Jesus Christ?
And help us to submit to him, to his will, more and more in every aspect of our lives.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
If you are able to honor God, please stand with me as I read from Matthew, chapter 21, verses 18 to 32.
Amen.
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.
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith.
And when he entered the temple,
the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him
as he was teaching and said,
By what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority?
Jesus answered them,
I also will ask you one question.
And if you tell me the answer,
then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John, from where did it come?
From heaven or from man?
And they discussed it among themselves, saying,
If we say from heaven, he will say to us,
Why then did you not believe him?
But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd,
for they all hold that John was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus,
We do not know.
And he said to them,
Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
What do you think?
A man had two sons,
and he went to the first and said,
Son, go and work in the vineyard today.
And he answered, I will not.
But afterward he changed his mind and went.
And he went to the other son and said the same.
And he answered, I go, sir, but did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?
They said, The first.
Jesus said to them,
Truly I say to you,
The tax collectors and the prostitutes
go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came to you in the way of righteousness,
and you did not believe him,
but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him.
And even when you saw it,
you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
You may be seated.
John Kenneth Galbraith,
an economist who taught at Harvard for half a century or so,
once observed that,
quote,
faced with the choice between changing one's mind
and proving that there is no need to do so,
almost everyone opts for the latter.
Leo Tolstoy,
the influential author of War and Peace fame,
concurred.
He said,
The most difficult subjects
can be explained to the most slow-witted man
if he has not formed any idea of them already.
But the simplest thing
cannot be made clear
to the most intelligent man
if he is firmly persuaded
that he knows already,
without a shadow of doubt,
what is laid before him.
Change is scary.
Especially when people's egos,
their identities,
are closely tied with their pre-existing beliefs,
it's very hard for them to change
those pre-existing beliefs.
But when we are confronted
with the reality of Jesus,
as we talked about last week,
with his death
and with his resurrection,
when we are confronted
by the unchanging,
infallible,
inerrant word of God,
going about life,
business as usual,
is not an option.
Change we must.
C.S. Lewis famously wrote
that when he converted to Christianity,
he was perhaps
the most dejected,
reluctant convert
in all of England.
But convert he did
and became one of the most able
and ardent defenders
of Christianity
that history has seen.
Some of you here
are not yet Christians
and you face that same decision.
The rest of us
are already Christians,
but we also face
various choices
every single day
and every single week
when the word of God
and the spirit of God
challenge the way we think
and the way we act.
And then we have to decide,
will we change
and will we conform our ways
to fit,
to be aligned with
the ways of God
or will we insist
on our own way?
And our passage this morning
teaches us
that we must change.
And the main point of the passage
can be summarized this way,
change your mind
and believe in the Son of Heaven.
And first,
we're going to see
the fruitless fig tree
and then secondly,
we're going to see
the faithless Israel
which parallel each other
and they explain each other.
It says in verse 18,
in the morning,
as Jesus was returning
to the city,
he became hungry.
Having spent the night
in Bethany,
as we were told in verse 17,
Jesus now returns
in the morning
to the city of Jerusalem
and he says
that he became hungry.
This is the same word
that was used to describe
how Jesus felt
after a 40-day fast
in Matthew chapter 4.
It's the same word
that was used to describe
the disciples of Jesus
in Matthew 12
when they were so hungry
that they couldn't wait
that they start plucking
heads of grain
and then eating them
on the Sabbath,
getting themselves
into trouble
with the Pharisees
who thought that
that was an illegal act
because it constituted
work in their mind
on the Sabbath day of rest.
And so,
this means he was
really hungry.
It's not a,
it's kind of a hankering
for dessert or ice cream.
I just had a full meal
but man,
I could really use
some ice cream.
No, he's hungry
because that's his lifestyle.
He's living with his disciples
hand to mouth
as an itinerant preacher.
But,
that reality does highlight
the humiliation
of the Son of God
in his incarnation.
I'm sorry,
I think it might be
a motion detector thing
sometimes.
You guys are
too attentive
and calm
and listening to me.
It's a,
it,
Jesus is the Son of God
who has taken on
human flesh.
how can the Lord
of creation,
the word of God
by whom the entire
cosmos came to exist,
how can
he go hungry?
So,
in verse 19,
it says,
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.
Fig trees
usually put out
their full leaves
first
and then they start
to produce fruit.
But this one
has only leaves
and no fruit
yet.
And we know
that this is during
the week of Passover
which falls between
March and April
and we know
that in this region
historically
as the fig trees
would only bear fruit
mid-May
or later on.
So,
it's not quite
fruit-bearing season.
In fact,
in the parallel account
of this exact
incident
in Mark 11,
13,
Mark explicitly notes
that Jesus found
nothing but leaves
for it was not
the season for figs.
Well,
then isn't it
quite unreasonable
for Jesus
to expect
to find figs
when it's not
the season for figs?
What did the fig tree
do wrong?
This might seem
to you like
an unwarranted
drastic reaction.
for something
so small
but I think
not for two
reasons.
One
is because
of who Jesus
is.
Jesus is the
Son of God.
As I said,
He is the Lord
of all creation.
He is the Word
by whom all
creation came to be.
He silences
tempests
and calms
the raging sea
by the Word
of His mouth.
When the owner
of all creation
is visiting,
creation should
bend and bow
its knee
before Him.
Every valley
shall be lifted up,
it said in Isaiah
40 verse 4.
Every mountain
hill be made low.
The uneven ground
shall become level
and the rough
places a plain.
The very stones
underneath Jesus'
feet should sing
His praise.
As He walks by,
flowers should bloom
for Him.
And when He is hungry
and He reaches
for a fig tree,
a fig tree
should bear fruit
for Him.
that's what
the King deserves.
But He doesn't
get it
because He comes
in His humiliation
of the incarnation
to save sinners
like you and me.
He experiences
the same earth
that we experience,
the same
ups and downs
of life
because,
and He couldn't
get a fig
because it wasn't
in season.
That's one reason.
Two,
Jesus cursing
the fig tree
and making it
wither
is an active
parable.
It's a symbol.
People conversing
with the Old Testament
would have recognized
that a fig tree
is a familiar
metaphor
for the people
of God.
In Jeremiah 24,
God describes
the people
as figs.
He says there are
good figs
and there are
bad figs.
In Hosea 9,
in its first,
in Hosea 9,
God says,
like grapes
in the wilderness
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit
on the fig tree
in its first season
I saw your fathers.
But,
they came
to Baal Peor
and consecrated
themselves
to the thing
of shame
and became
detestable
like the thing
they loved.
Ephraim
is stricken.
Their root
is dried up.
They shall bear
no fruit.
God delighted
in His people
like the first fruit
on the fig tree
in its first season.
And yet,
His people
forsook God
and went
after idols
and because of this,
God pronounces
that they shall
bear no fruit.
God similarly
laments
in Jeremiah 8,
13,
when I would
gather them,
there are no
grapes on the vine
nor figs
on the fig tree.
The nation
of Israel
was not
bearing fruit
like they should
have been.
So,
prophet Micah
says in Micah
7,
1-2,
Woe is me
for I 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.
The phrase
no first ripe fig
parallels
no one
upright.
No upright
man.
God's people
should have been
holy and set
apart and living
upright and
righteous lives
for him,
but instead
they rebelled
against him
and sinned
against him
and worshipped
these idols.
They were like
a fig tree
that had
no figs.
So,
this symbolic
action of Jesus,
this connection
is connected
by the geographic
note that Matthew
provided for us
earlier in chapter 21
in verse 1
when it says
that Jesus
came to
Bethphage
to the
Mount of Olives.
The town
named Bethphage
in Aramaic
means the town,
the house
of early figs.
It's the house
of first ripe figs
which highlights
the irony
of the scene.
Jesus has come
to God's people
and to the city
of God
that should have
been the house
of early figs,
the house
of first ripe figs,
but instead
he has only found
the fig tree
with nothing
on it
but only leaves.
The idea
of bearing fruit
has been a constant
theme throughout
the Gospel of Matthew.
John the Baptist
preached this
in Matthew 3.8,
bear fruit
in keeping
with repentance.
Jesus said
in Matthew 7.16-20,
you will recognize
them by their fruits.
Are grapes
gathered from
thorn bushes
or figs
from thistles?
So,
every healthy tree
bears good fruit
but the diseased
tree bears
bad fruit.
A healthy tree
cannot bear
bad fruit
nor can a diseased
tree bear
good fruit.
Every tree
that does not
bear good fruit
is cut down
and thrown
into the fire.
Thus,
you will recognize
them by their
fruits.
And then,
in the following
parable,
in verses 33-46,
the parable of tenants
that Ed will preach
on next week,
Jesus will compare
God to a master
who hires servants
to work in his
vineyard,
and yet,
they refuse
to give the master
the fruit,
the produce
of the vineyard.
And then,
Jesus concludes
at the end
of that parable,
therefore,
I tell you,
the kingdom of God
will be taken
away from you
and given to a
people producing
its fruits.
So,
the withered fig tree
is an acted
parable.
Jesus is pronouncing
divine judgment
over a fruitless
people
in the symbolic
act.
When the disciples
marvel,
it is pretty amazing,
right?
I mean,
imagine a fig tree
that just was full
of leaves
withering
in a moment
after Jesus
pronounces that.
How did the fig tree
wither at once?
And Jesus uses
this opportunity
to teach them
a lesson on faith
in verses 21-22,
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.
And whatever you
ask in prayer,
you will receive
if you have faith.
These verses
closely parallel
Matthew 17-20
where Jesus says,
truly I say to you,
if you have faith
like a grain
of mustard seed,
you will say
to this mountain,
move from here
to there
and it will move
and nothing
will be impossible
for you.
When I preached
on that passage
in Matthew
in February,
I mentioned to you
that faith
like a grain
of mustard seed
does not refer
to a weak faith
or to a small faith
or a faith
riddled with doubt.
Rather,
it's a strong
childlike faith
of the little ones
of God
that Matthew
repeatedly speaks of.
A mustard seed
is the proverbially
smallest seed,
but a faith
like a grain
of mustard seed
is not a small seed,
but it's the faith
of small ones.
It's a childlike faith.
And I think
this passage
confirms that interpretation
because there,
the faith that moves
mountains
was a mustard seed.
Mustard seed faith.
But here,
the faith that moves
mountains
is a faith
that does not doubt.
Moving mountains
is not literal,
but a figurative speech
for doing the impossible.
And a childlike faith
that depends on God
can do the impossible
with the power of God.
The best way
to illustrate
childlike faith
is by using
the example of
children.
Let me give you
just a couple examples.
One time,
I showed my girls,
I'm sorry,
this is kind of embarrassing,
showed my girls
a video of the
English Greyhound Derby.
Anybody seen that?
Nobody's seen that?
Not even the Brits
in our church?
Yeah.
It's like the
Kentucky Derby,
except it's not with horses,
it's with dogs.
Yeah, more specifically,
it's with the greyhounds.
And the greyhound,
if you didn't know already,
is the fastest
dog breed in the world,
and their top speed
reaches up to
45 miles per hour,
73 kilometers per hour,
which is about the same
as the top speed
of a horse.
It's crazy.
And they actually
accelerate faster
than the horse does,
so if you do
pit them against each other
in a short distance race,
the greyhounds
dominate the horses.
All that to say,
they're extremely fast.
And my girls
watched this amazing clip
in Wide-Eyed Wonder,
and then afterward,
they turned to me,
and with earnest curiosity,
asked me a very important question.
Dad,
do you think
a greyhound
is even faster than you?
It's a very cute question.
Of course,
I told them the truth.
It's hard to say,
girls.
I think it would be
pretty competitive.
I'm just kidding.
That's not what I did.
I didn't tell them.
Yeah.
Of course,
I wouldn't stand a chance.
I remember
when a $100 bill
was like the largest
denomination of money
that my girls
were aware of,
and Hannah and I
somehow had lost
$30 or something,
and we were talking
about it in the car
and lamenting
that we lost these $30,
and I forget exactly
how we lost this
and what happened.
Something happened,
and then one of the girls
overheard the conversation
in the back of the car
and then asked
a very concerned question.
Mommy, Daddy,
are we going to have
enough money?
Thankfully,
we're not in that
kind of poverty.
I chuckled
and explained to them,
you don't have
to worry about money.
That's Mommy and Daddy's
job to worry about money,
so you don't have
to worry about money.
Just to dispel
their lingering doubts,
I told them
how much our house costs
in Cambridge,
and that seemed
to put them at ease
because that's
an unimaginable
amount of money
for a child
who only knows
a $100 bill.
In the world
of small children,
parents are like
giants
and superheroes.
I had this line
in the sermon
before Lauren
shared that prophecy
about superheroes.
They can lift things
that children
can't lift.
They can reach things
that children
can't reach.
They can solve things
that children
can't solve.
They can buy things
that children
cannot buy.
And isn't it
infinitely more so
the case
in our relationship
with God,
our Heavenly Father?
Do you believe
that nothing
will be impossible
with God?
God,
what are the mountains
in your life
that you feel
that can never
be moved?
Do you believe
that God really
can deliver you
from that besetting
sin that has been
plaguing you
for a decade?
Do you believe
that God really
can bring that
stubborn family member
to repentance
and faith
in Jesus Christ?
Do you really
believe that God
can bring peace
and contentment
in your life
even as you
wrestle with loneliness
in your singleness?
Do you believe
that God really
can change
your tumultuous
marriage?
Do you believe
that God really
can forgive you
of all of your
heinous and hidden sins?
Do you believe
that God really
can take your
disorder and
messed up life
and put it
right back
into order?
Believe him
as a child
does to his father.
You are weak
so ask your
heavenly father
who is mighty
to intervene
on your behalf.
And as you do
that be
importunate
be impudent
and to be
persistent
in your prayers
because I can
assure you
that's what
children are like.
It's really
hard to turn
them down
or to turn
them away.
They just
keep coming
right back.
I was trying
to talk to
somebody yesterday
and my youngest
was like
daddy can I
have a snack?
Daddy can I
have a snack?
Daddy can I
have a snack?
Yeah yeah you
could have a
snack.
It's our
heavenly father's
prerogative to
say no of
course if we're
asking for
things that are
not to his
glory and which
is not to our
good he can
say no of
course.
But unless
you've heard a
firm no from
him persist in
your prayers
to God
cling to him
as a child
does to his
or her
father.
This concept
of faith is a
central one in
this passage and
the same Greek
words repeated
twice more in
verse 25 and
verse 32.
Why then did
you not believe
him?
That's just a
verbal form of
the word
faith.
The tax
collectors and
the processors
believed him
and even when
you saw it you
did not afterward
change your
minds and
believe him.
It's the main
point of this
passage.
Whatever it is
that we are
not currently
believing God
in, trusting our
heavenly father
in, we must
change our
minds and
believe in
him.
After the
active parable
of the fig
tree, Jesus
encounters the
fig tree in
the flesh, the
fig tree in
real life which
is faithless
Israel.
In verse
23 he says,
when he
entered the
temple the
chief priests
and the
elders of the
people came
up to him
as he was
teaching and
said, by
what authority
are you doing
these things?
And who gave
you this
authority?
Keep the
narrative context
in mind, what
we looked at a
couple weeks
ago.
On the
previous day
before this,
Jesus cleansed
the temple,
driving out all
the money
changers and
the pigeon
sellers who
were turning
the house of
prayer, what
ought to be a
house of
prayer, into
a den of
robbers.
And in
doing so he
infuriated the
Jewish religious
establishment.
And having
cleansed the
temple the
previous day,
Jesus returns
to the temple
in the morning
and then he
begins to
teach the
people that
are there.
And the
chief priests
and the
elders cannot
believe this
man's shameless
boldness.
Imagine if you
were a teacher
at a school and
then someone
comes into your
classroom, gets
rid of all the
stuff and the
furnishings that
you use to do
whatever you do
there, and then
starts teaching
your students.
Excuse me?
What are you
doing here?
Can I see your
badge?
Can I see your
license?
Who gave you the
authority to do
this?
By what authority
are you doing
these things and
who gave you
this authority?
Because we are
the chief priests
and the elders
and we did not
authorize you to
do this.
The chief priests
and the elders I
think intended to
trap Jesus with
this question.
On the one
hand, if Jesus
says that his
authority comes
from God, that
he's working and
teaching with divine
authority, then they
could accuse him of
blasphemy, which is
exactly what they
will do in a few
short days in Matthew
26, 64, 66, when
they condemn Jesus, the
Jewish council
condemns Jesus to
death.
And remember in
verse 16 of this
chapter, Jesus
quoted Psalm 8, verse
2, which speaks of
the children crying out
the praises of God,
and Jesus applied
that passage to
himself.
Oh, they could use
that against him.
On the other hand,
if Jesus says that
his authority comes
from man, then they
can point out that
they are the
legitimate human
authorities.
And they never
authorized him.
They can discredit
him in one fell
swoop.
And that, of course,
was their massive
theological mistake.
They think that the
temple of God belongs
to them, that they're
the custodians of the
temple, not realizing
that they're speaking
with the only begotten
Son of God, begotten of
the Father before all
worlds, God of God and
light of light, very God
of very God, begotten,
not made, being of one
substance with the
Father by whom all
things were made.
Jesus perceives the
Jewish leaders'
intentions, their
duplicity, and he
asks them a question
about John the
Baptist, which catches
them in their own
trap.
He says in verses 24
to 25, I also will
ask you one question,
and if you tell me
the answer, then I
also will tell you by
what authority I do
these things.
The baptism of John,
from where did it
come?
From heaven or from
man?
John the Baptist was
earlier described in
Matthew 3 as the one
who prepared the way for
the Lord God and for
the Lord Jesus.
He did this by
preaching in Matthew
3 verse 2, repent for
the kingdom of God, or
the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.
And then when Jesus
arrived on the scene,
Jesus preached the
exact same message in
Matthew 4 verse 17,
repent for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand.
So Jesus' ministry has
been along the same
vein as the ministry of
John the Baptist, because
John was Jesus'
precursor.
And the people
understood this.
And this is why Jesus
asked the religious
leaders the question
about John the Baptist.
You question my
authority, well, what do
you make of John the
Baptist?
How did you regard my
precursor?
And notice that Jesus
specifically singles out
the baptism of John,
which is probably to the
Jewish leaders the most
odious aspect, the most,
the aspect of John's
ministry that they
despise the most.
We saw in chapter 3
that John took the
concept of Jewish
proselyte baptism, which
they reserved for
Gentiles who were
converting to Judaism,
they would baptize
them.
And then John took that
idea and he started
baptizing Jews, conveying
the radical idea, even
if you are among the
ethnic people of God, the
chosen people of God in
Israel, you cannot take
that for granted.
You must not repent of
your sins and trust in
the Messiah in order to
be saved.
And that was unthinkable
to the Jewish
establishment.
How dare you suggest
that we need to be
baptized?
But they can't give Jesus
a straight answer.
They don't tell them
what they actually
think.
Why?
You can see their
internal deliberations in
verses 25 to 26.
If we say from heaven, he
will say to us, why then
did you not believe him?
But if we say from man, we
are afraid of the crowd for
they all hold that John was
a prophet.
Their opinion was at
odds with the popular
sentiment and so they
can't voice it.
Most of the crowd
revered John the Baptist
and considered him a true
prophet of the Lord because
he was.
If they dismissed John's
baptism as merely man's
invention, then they would
find themselves sidelined by
the crowd as out-of-touch
elites.
But if they concede that
John's baptism indeed came
from God, then they
themselves make, they make
themselves liable to Jesus'
accusation.
Why then did you not believe
him?
Neither option is
acceptable to them, so
they answer, we do not
know.
Which then allows Jesus to
say, neither will I tell
you by what authority I do
these things.
Jesus will, in a few short
days, openly claim that he
is the divine son of God
while he's on trial.
However, now is not the
time of his death, but even
now, his implicit claim is
obvious.
John's ministry was
authorized by heaven, by
God himself.
How much more than the
ministry of Jesus, the
messianic king that John
was merely preparing the
way for?
If John himself, as Jesus
said in Matthew 11, 9, was
more than a prophet, how
much more so Jesus, of whom
John said in Matthew 3, 11,
I baptize you with water for
repentance, but he who is
coming after me is mightier
than I, whose sandals I am
not worthy to carry.
He will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit and fire.
The chief priests and the
elders held their positions
at the behest of Rome, but
Jesus and John the Baptist
before him derived their
authority from heaven, from
God himself.
But why couldn't the chief
priests and the elders not
recognize Jesus' superior
heavenly authority?
I think the reason can be
inferred.
They had too much to lose.
Imagine the chief priests
and the elders who are the
leaders and teachers of the
Jewish people having to admit
they themselves are sinners
who must repent and be
baptized.
Imagine them sitting under the
teaching of this upstart
preacher from Nazareth who was
not authorized by any reputable
human institution.
Jesus has challenged up to
this point in the gospel many
of the teachings and
traditions held by the chief
priests and the elders.
Imagine having to own up to
the fact that they were wrong
about so many things.
The fear, the humiliation.
When people have a vested
interest in the status quo, they
are very resistant to change.
They resort to confirmation
bias and ignore the
contradictory evidence.
They resort to tribalism and
they close ranks to protect
their own, their tribe, in this
case the Jewish establishment.
They were too entrenched in
their positions of power.
How many people in positions of
power have failed to admit
their disqualifying failures
because they love their
positions too much?
Several members of our church
were previously part of churches
where very sadly pastors
committed adultery.
It's grievous that they
committed adultery at all.
But what's even more grievous to
me is that they do that for years
and then only confessed after
they're caught?
Were they not bothered in their
conscience before that point?
I know the Holy Spirit does not
wait years to convict us of sin.
But that's the danger and
seduction of power and
reputation.
The ministry exists for Christ,
not Christ for the ministry.
Shouldn't we rather step down
from our positions and bring
disrepute to Christ and to his
church rather than stay in our
positions because we don't want
to bring disrepute to our own
name?
God help us.
In 1 Timothy 6, 5, Paul denounces
those who are depraved in mind and
deprived of the truth, imagining that
godliness is a means of gain.
Godliness is not a means of gain.
We pursue godliness because it
pleases God as an end in and of
itself, not because it brings us some
profit or position or power.
The higher up you go, the further you
have to fall.
And I think success and fame for
these reasons are dangerous
temptations.
We become more fearful of falling.
What are your positions and stations
and relations in life that would
jeopardize, that you would jeopardize
by submitting to Christ?
Do you stand to lose your sterling
academic reputation by admitting that
you are a church-going, Bible-believing
Christian?
Are you willing to admit that you
were wrong about something when
confronted by the truth of God's
word?
Are you willing to confess your sins to
others, even if it's really
embarrassing?
Rosaria Butterfield was a tenured
associate professor of English,
women's studies, and queer theory at
Syracuse University.
She was in a lesbian relationship with
a woman who was an adjunct professor
of sociology or psychology at a
nearby university, and she had been in
and out of serially monogamous lesbian
relationships for a decade and had been
a gay rights activist for two years.
By her own admission, she hated the
Bible and teaching and taught thousands
of college students to do the same.
And she writes, I did all of this
because I believed with my whole heart
that I was gay and that gay was good.
Imagine her giving her life to Christ.
How inconvenient and disruptive that
would be to her entire life, her career,
her social life, her family.
But that's precisely what God did in her
life.
A pastor and his wife lovingly and
patiently shared the gospel with her
over hundreds of meals at their house.
And after two years of meeting with
them and reading the Bible and learning
to sing the Psalms, she finally gave her
life to Jesus.
And then consequently, she says, she broke
up with her lesbian partner, grew out her
butch haircut, and then tried to remove
all of her piercings.
I think the key word is try.
She couldn't get it all out.
And she writes this.
The gospel, a singular clarion call,
a cleft of light in a cavern of darkness,
shattered and beckoned me all at once.
The truth of Christ's death and
resurrection was a truth over which I
had no interpretive authority.
It was going to be true whether I
believed it or not.
She continues, my conversion was messy
and dangerous.
I lost friends and cultural capital.
I did not lose my job because I was
tenured, but I did have to go before my
tenure board and explain what happened to
me.
That was fun.
I was now despised by the people I
loved, but one thing was clear.
I was once God's enemy, but now I was
God's friend.
I learned, and I'm still learning how to
repent of my sin and its roots.
I learned that repentance was the
threshold to a holy God and a lifeline
of Christian fruits.
Jesus.
Are you willing to change your mind and
believe in the Son of Heaven, even if it
means that you lose your position and
your power?
Jesus' parable of the two sons in verses
28 to 31 make the same point from
another angle.
What do you think?
A man had two sons, and he went to the
first and said, Son, go and work in the
vineyard today.
And he answered, I will not.
But afterward, he changed his mind and
went.
And he went to the other son and said the
same.
And he answered, I will, sir, but did not
go.
Which of the two did the will of his
father?
They said, the first.
Like the fig tree, a son is also an
important metaphor for the people of God
in the Old Testament.
For example, in Exodus 4, 22 to 23, God
tells Moses to tell Pharaoh, thus says
the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I
say to you, let my son go that he may
serve me.
And this is what precedes the judgment of
the Passover, the slaying of the firstborn
males in Egypt.
So Jesus is once again making a pointed
comment about the Jewish people and about
the Jewish leaders in particular.
Israel had made a covenant with Yahweh,
with the Lord.
They had insisted in Joshua, Joshua 24, 16,
far be it from us that we should forsake
the Lord to serve other gods.
For it is the Lord our God who brought us
out and our fathers up from the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who
did those great signs in our sight and
preserved us in all the way that we went.
And among all the peoples through whom we
passed, and the Lord drove out before us all
the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the
land.
Therefore, we also will serve the Lord, for
he is our God.
But they did forsake the Lord and serve
other gods.
They were like the son who told the father,
I will, sir.
I'll do what you ask me to do.
And then didn't go to the vineyard to do the
work.
But God says it would have been better for
them to have answered, I will not.
And then afterward, change their mind and
go.
The phrase, doing the will of the father, is
one that Jesus has used a couple times
already in the Gospel of Matthew.
In chapter 7, verse 21, Jesus said, not
everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one
who does the will of my father who is in
heaven.
Likewise, in chapter 12, verse 50, Jesus
said, whoever does the will of my father
in heaven is my brother and sister and
mother.
You might say one thing with your mouth,
but do your actions betray your words?
You might say Jesus is Lord, but is your
life actually submitted to him?
What are the areas of your life that are in
conflict with the word of God?
Jesus says to them in verses 31 to 32,
truly I say to you, the tax collectors and
the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God
before you.
For John came to you in the way of
righteousness, and you did not believe him,
but the tax collectors and the prostitutes
believed him.
And even when you saw it, you did not
afterward change your minds and believe
him.
Once again, Jesus invokes how the Jewish
leaders rejected John the Baptist.
The Jewish leaders said that they would do
God's will, but they didn't.
But the tax collectors and prostitutes
who said that they wouldn't do God's
will are now turning away from their sins
and believing in Jesus and doing the
will of God and going into the kingdom of
God before them.
The chief priests and the elders of the
people are, they're the teachers of God's
law.
They're the exemplars that are held up for
society to say there are the people who
follow God's law.
You should follow their example.
And the tax collectors and the prostitutes
are the scum of Jewish society as the
people would think of it.
The tax collectors were the Jews who
betrayed their own people and are in
cahoots with the Romans, the occupiers, to
tax, to oppress, to extort money from
their own people so they can enrich themselves.
They're traitors.
The prostitutes are those who are literally
whoring after all kinds of people being
used and abused.
And these are the people that the chief
elders, the chief priests and the elders
would have looked at and said, God, thank you
that I am not like these people.
But how can it be that prostitutes and
tax collectors are going into the kingdom
of God before these Jewish leaders?
How can it be that thorn bushes and
thistles like prostitutes and tax collectors
can bear fruit?
If you have really wrestled with this
question in your mind, I think you know.
We can't, no matter how hard we work,
produce fruit in our own lives, in our
own strength.
Just trying to be a little harder on
ourselves and a little bit more disciplined
and beating ourselves up for our failures
and trying to pick ourselves up by our own
bootstraps never work.
As Paul Tripp once said, it's like taking
a dead tree and then taking some, picking
up some fruit from some other places and
then stapling them onto the tree.
Look at my life.
Here, here's a fruit.
Look at my life.
Here's a fruit.
It doesn't work because there's no life,
no life giving coming into the fruit.
So the fruit just falls and rots because
the tree itself is dead.
What can sinners like you and me who have
messed it all up and have ruined our lives
with sin and rebelling against God,
whose very roots are rotten up with sin,
what hope do we have to ever bear fruit for
the kingdom of God?
That's why it is prophesied in Isaiah 11.
There shall come forth a shoot from the
stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots
shall bear fruit and the spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon him.
Isaiah 53 verse 2 says the same thing,
speaks of the same plant, the root that
comes out of dry ground.
Jeremiah 23 5 says, behold, the days are
coming, declares the Lord, when I'll raise
up for David a righteous branch and he shall
reign as king and deal wisely and shall
execute justice and righteousness in the
land.
Zechariah 6 12.
And in the New Testament, Jesus himself says
in Revelation 22 16, I am the root and the
descendant of David from the bare.
He is the root, the branch that the prophets prophesied
of.
He is the live root that is propagated from this
barren fig tree that was not bearing fruit.
And Jesus came and lived a life of perfect obedience
and then he died as a perfect blameless sacrifice on the
cross so that all who trust in him are forgiven of their sins
and are grafted onto that root.
That is our only hope for deriving true spiritual life and
bearing real spiritual fruit.
So he says in, Jesus says in John 15 5 to 6, I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much
fruit.
For apart from me, you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a
branch and withers.
So where is your hope this morning?
How do you intend to bear fruit in your life?
The only way is to cling to Christ, to change your mind,
and to believe in him, trust him, and follow him in every
aspect of your life.
I pray that God will help you do that.
Let's pray.
Father, we do confess of our own sinfulness and rottenness apart
from Christ.
But we thank you for your promise that even prostitutes and tax
collectors can go into the kingdom of heaven.
If only we'd put our trust in Jesus Christ.
So won't you help everyone here, Lord?
Those who are not yet grafted into the branch, the vine, the root of
Jesus Christ.
Give them faith so that they can be grafted on.
And Lord, for all those of us who struggle in various ways
throughout our daily lives to conform our will to yours,
to obey you when it's hard, when it means loss and sacrifice.
Help us to do it.
Grant us, help us to derive that life from Jesus Christ,
which leads to obedience.
We pray all of this in Jesus' name.
Amen.