Matthew 21: 18 – 22
All Show, no substance
18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Now for your personal biblical development regarding the Gospels I want to give you the same situation given in the other Gospels. When we put them together we get a fuller understanding of what went on.
Mark 11, “12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.
20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” 22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Our Lord Jesus referenced Psalm 8 in answering religious leaders, which we just learned about in this chapter, “and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” So, this statement takes on more meat. After attending church one Sunday morning, a little boy knelt at his bedside that night and prayed, “Dear God, we had a good time at church today. I wish you had been there!”
We laugh because we know the truth behind the little boy’s innocence. Ask yourself the following questions:
. what is worship?
. Does what we do at church really make a difference?
. How would my Sundays be different if I did not come to church?
. What are my expectations of worship every week?
. Do I have any expectations?
. What should worship be like?
. Is our worship pleasing to God?
. Is what happening on Sunday all show and no substance?
Churches spend an incredible amount of time, money, and human resources to make one hour a week meaningful. Even our church exhorts a lot of energy for one service. I struggle with that! While corporate worship is extremely important, church is far more then what takes place on Sundays.
This past summer we had a group from a church out of Columbus Ohio come and observe the way we conduct our ministry. After a few days we had a lunch meeting where they expressed their gratitude for our openness but added their confusion as to what they observed. They said that they were amazed that our Lord had added so many people (close to 9,000 adults). They added that we do not do anything special. We only teach through the bible, worshiped our Holy God with contemporary music, prayed and had communion and fellowship. Our answer to them was that we just wanted to follow what the early church did. In the book of Acts chapter two our Precious Holy Spirit said, “40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
In truth God’s people have always struggled with proper worship practices. We learn about this fact from the book of Malachi. Some of his harshest words to God’s people was about their worship of God. In one sentence you could say their worship was all show and no substance.
Malachi’s prophecies are really a series of seven short sermons. They are not so much predictions as they are exhortations. Today’s text is the second of those seven sermons. The sermon begins, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master” (Malachi 1:6). This should go without saying. Children look up to their parents, and most people respect those who have authority over them. But this was not the case for the nation of Israel toward God! “If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty” (Malachi 1:6). God is not mincing words here. His first sermon (Malachi 1:2-5) started with a proclamation of His love for His people. This sermon begins with the people’s refusal to honor and respect the God who loves them.
I bet if you were to ask the people if they honor and respect God as their Father and Master, they would have said, “Yes. Of course, we do.” They may even be offended if you were to ask them such questions. I bet these opening statements caught everyone off guard. And if they didn’t, the next sentence certainly would, “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name” (Malachi 1:6). Wow! As we shall see, God wasn’t as upset with the people as He was the priests. God was saying it was the priests who were not showing Him honor and respect, and if the priests weren’t doing so, then why should the people?
The word, “contempt,” refers to an attitude of ongoing disrespect. They were treating God as insignificant and worship was a meaningless exercise. God was no longer important to them. God had lost His wonder in their eyes. All the while they were worshiping Him and offering Him sacrifices. During this whole time, they were leading the people in worship, but it was all show and no substance.
We show contempt for God when we come to worship with no desire to really worship Him. When we act like saints on Sundays but sinners throughout the rest of the week, we show contempt for God. When we refuse to repent of our sins, but gather for worship anyway, we are acting as if God is insignificant and worship is meaningless. When God is no longer the top priority in our lives, and when church is no longer important, we show God contempt.
The people of Israel could not imagine that they were showing contempt for God, and so they asked, “How have we shown contempt for your name?” (Malachi 1:6). God answered, “You place defiled food on my altar” (Malachi 1:7). The people then asked, “How have we defiled you?” (Malachi 1:7).
What follows is a conversation about the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. Something that is foreign to our understanding. The point Malachi is making is that people (starting with the priests) were offering sacrifices that did not really cost them anything. Instead of giving God their best, they were giving Him their leftovers. If you truly honor and respect God as your Father and Master, you will always give Him your best, not your leftovers.
Malachi continues: “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
“By saying that the Lord’s Table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.
“Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty” (Malachi 1:7-9).
Let me take some liberties and put these verses in language that we speak today: “How have we defiled God? By saying that worship is a waste of time. When you show up late and have conversations with your friends as the congregation are trying to worship, is that not wrong? When you give a meager amount to the church, but spend your last dime on a lottery ticket, is that not wrong? Our you living the life of an unrepentant sinner and then show up to church as though everything is going well? Have you spent any time during the week with the Lord, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer? If any of these points hit a nerve then I suggest that you now, plead with God to forgive you. Don’t give Him less than your best.
If we are not going to take worship seriously, God says He would rather us just shut our church doors. God will receive His glory either with us or without us. God says, “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty” (Malachi 1:10-11).
When we don’t take worship seriously, we show contempt for God, we defile God, and third, we profane God. Through Malachi, God says, “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty.
“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations” (Malachi 1:12-14).
Why would God be so upset with these improper sacrifices? It’s because the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to Christ, Who Is God’s Precious Holy Lamb that was slain for us. Thus, a defiled sacrifice was a defilement towards Jesus Himself; and that is blasphemy! Not taking worship seriously is a dangerous thing.
We don’t live in Old Testament times, and we don’t worship with animal sacrifices. What does all this have to do with us today? If we are not careful, our worship to God can be all show and no substance. Thus, here is the big question: How do we make sure there is substance to our show? How do we make sure our worship does not defile God, nor show Him contempt?
First, prepare yourself for worship each week. How do you do this? Worship God during the week. Listen to praise music. Read your Bible. Pray. Count your blessings. Tell other people how good God has been to you. Go to bed early on Saturday night instead of staying up watching TV or doing something else. Get to church on time Sunday morning. Come to church anticipating what God is going to do. You can’t expect God to speak to you on Sunday if you have ignored Him all week.
Second, participate in worship. Once you are at church, determine to engage yourself. Talk to people. Grab a cup of coffee. Share prayer requests. Fellowship. Stand up when we sing (even though we say you don’t have to). Lift your hands. Clap your hands. Close your eyes. Meditate. Contemplate. Receive communion. Give an offering. Take notes during the sermon. Encourage one another. Pray for one another. Worship is not a spectator sport, it’s a full-body contact workout. If worship on Sundays is boring, it’s not my fault, but yours.
Third, apply what you hear in worship to your everyday life. Maybe He is telling you to give a sacrificial gift to someone else. Maybe He is telling you to get back to having your regular quiet time, or to serve your neighbor or co-worker or spouse. If you will listen, every Sunday God will give you directions for what He would like for you to do over the next seven days. Apply what you hear. Sunday worship becomes relevant when you allow it to change your life, not just your schedule once a week.
Having made clear by His actions that the old unbelieving Israel in the person of its leaders will not receive Him, Jesus now makes clear what the result will be by bringing about the withering of a fig tree, and by describing a mountain which will be cast into the sea. These demonstrate the state of the people generally and the future that awaits them. This old unbelieving Israel is the same as that which rejected the prophets and was continually described as subject to judgment so that after intense purification from it would come a holy seed (Malachi 4.1-2).
Matthew’s treatment of the story of the fig tree illustrates his abbreviating tendencies. He leaves out everything that is not essential to the message that he wants to get over, including an indication of the length of time between the ‘cursing’ of the fig tree and its withering. In the Old Testament the fruit of a fig tree illustrates the moral and spiritual condition of people in Israel. For example, in Jeremiah 24.2 good and bad figs depicted on the one hand blessing on the captives in Babylon who were rethinking their attitudes, and on the other punishment on those who remained in the land who were carrying on as they were. While the application is not quite the same it illustrates the use of the product of a fig tree to denote judgment or otherwise on ‘Israel’.
Furthermore, The Lord Jesus probably intended them by His action to remember His own parable of the fig tree which indicated that His people were on probation (Luke 13.6-9). There a man who had planted a fig tree came looking for fruit on it and found none. At that stage it was to be given another chance to see if it would produce figs. What Jesus therefore appears to be indicating here is that for many of them it was now too late. Both the individuals in Israel and Israel had been given abundant opportunity. Now, however, their probation was over. They had failed to produce figs
Here it is the consequences of their failure that are in mind. Those who have not produced fruit will ‘be withered’, and this is not simply a result of natural processes but will be brought about by the word of Jesus acting in judgment. Some have questioned whether our Master and King Jesus would have acted in this way. We must not read our reactions into the way our Lord Jesus days and does things. Remember, His ways are not our ways and His thoughts not our thoughts. There is no cynicism here. It is a case of Adoni Jesus seizing an opportunity to vividly illustrate a point to His disciples, and a visible outworking of the principle, ‘from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away’ (13.12). His aim therefore is to indicate to His disciples that this is precisely what He will do to any who put on a false show. For the fact is that no lesson is more deeply appreciated than one that is vividly illustrated by some remarkable and intriguing observed event, and at this point in their lives our Lord Jesus clearly considered that this lesson did need to be well and truly learned. He would not therefore hesitate in speeding up the demise of a fig tree in accomplishing such a purpose, just as He once smote the fig trees of Egypt (Psalm 105.33) and will one day, as the Judge of the world, wither up the whole of unbelieving mankind because they too have put on a false showing. Every time that the disciples in the future passed that particular fig tree it would bring home to them those greater realities and remind them of the consequences of being a sham.
18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
The fact that even while cutting down the story drastically Matthew still mentions The Holy Son of God Jesus’ hunger. It demonstrates that he intends it to indicate some kind of lesson. In his Gospel hunger refers to a longing to see the establishment of righteousness (5.6). This may suggest therefore that here our Lord Jesus Is depicted as not only feeling famished for food, but also as being hungry to discover righteousness in Israel. He wants to find figs.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
Matthew now describes how on seeing a fig tree by the side of the road He came up to it and found that it had nothing but leaves, and at this He says, “Let there be no fruit from you from now on forever.”
We should first of all note that the idea is not said to be that He did not find figs, (indeed Mark says that it was not the season for figs), but that He found ‘nothing but leaves. The tree gave an indication of fruitfulness but was totally barren. Thus, the point is that He found no indication of fruitfulness at all. But as it was ‘not the season for figs’ why did He expect to find some sign of them?
. One suggestion is that He did hope to find on the fig tree some remnant of tough old figs. But that would not explain the reference to leafiness.
. More likely is the suggestion that it was His hope that because of its leafiness He would find something edible on the tree, such as the barely edible green knops that come before the actual figs arrive. Seeing leaves on a fig tree is usually an indication of fig growth.
. But equally likely is the suggestion that this was a special type of fig tree, the early fig tree that produces green figs, and would normally be expected to produce fruit of a kind early on. Thus, once the leaves began to grow, figs would be expected. Such trees have been known to produce figs in April, as is evidenced from several sources.
Isaiah 28.4 mentions ‘the first ripe fig before the summer, which when he who looks on it sees, he eats it up while it is in his hand’. That may have referred to something similar to what we have described. Whichever way it is the point is that the tree evidenced a total lack of fruitfulness. This would not in fact be surprising. Unless a fig tree is carefully tended it is quite common for it to grow to be an unfruitful tree, and this tree seemingly just grew by the wayside.
Thus, our Holy Lord Jesus used the fact that it was a fruitless tree to make it into a living example, and simply speeded up its expected demise. It is not suggested that He is angry, (we read that into it because we get like that), and His words should be noted. No fruit from it from now on ‘forever’. This would appear to confirm that it is old unbelieving Israel as such that He has in mind. For no fruit acceptable to the Holy God Yeshua can result from such an Israel. The indication was that the final opportunity for those in old Israel who will not become fruitful by responding to Him and become part of the true vine (John 15.1-6) has gone forever.
20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”
The fact that its speedy withering was an unusual occurrence is brought out by the disciples’ question. They marveled that the fig tree had already withered away.
21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.
Our Holy God Jesus Christ replies cryptically. He primarily uses what He has done as an illustration of what true faith can do, and even expands on it. He will leave the deeper lesson to be understood later. So, He points out that nothing is impossible to faith, even the withering of fig trees and the moving of mountains and casting of them into the sea.
We must not read into that that faith can produce anything that we wish (it did not produce figs for our Holy Lord Jesus to eat), for it would be no more moral for us to use faith for our own selfish purposes as it would have been for God’s Son Jesus. The point is that we can only use faith in this way if there are grounds for such faith. The Lord Jesus Is not saying to His disciples that they can do anything ridiculous that they decide that they want to do (like moving a mountain simply in order to avoid having to climb over it). He is saying that this is true for anything that they have good grounds for thinking is in the will of God.
He then goes on to add a further spiritual lesson. For ‘this mountain’ must mean either the Temple mount, or the Mount of Olives, or one of the mountains on which Jerusalem was built, probably the first (this is clearer in Mark), while being cast into the sea regularly elsewhere indicates judgment. Thus He Is not only indicating the future fate of old unbelieving Israel, but also the future fate of Jerusalem, both of which are coming, and both of which will take place because of the prayers of faith of the disciples, not so much as a result of praying for such results specifically, but because their prayers for the establishment of the new congregation will inevitably result in it (Acts 4.29-30). An Israel denuded of believers will be a withered Israel indeed.
22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Our Holy Master Jesus then caps off His words by underlining the importance of taking God at His word. His point is that when they are praying for something, praying through to a position of faith will result in their receiving it. Take note of the connection with prayer. The idea is not of some outlandish ‘faith’ used outside the purposes of God to obtain anything that we want, but on the importance of faith in seeking the will of God. Full confidence in God and true prayer is required if they are to accomplish His will and achieve great spiritual things. For then the glory will go to God.
This emphasis on prayer reminds us that that was precisely where our Holy Lord Jesus had seen unbelieving Israel as lacking in verse 13. Had their thoughts been more on true prayer, and less on making money, they would not have needed Him to do what He did, and their way would have prospered. But for many prayers had become just a formality (Luke 18.11-12). Thus, they were already partly withered.
