Mark 11:22-26. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 19, 2020.
Last week, we talked about the situation where Jesus had cursed a fig tree and within 24-hours it was dead down to the roots. There, we talked about the symbolic importance of what Jesus did.
Today, we are going to look at what Jesus told his disciples immediately after Peter expressed amazement that the bush was so dead only one day after Jesus spoke to it. Peter’s amazement is itself a demonstration of his ignorance at how powerful prayer truly is. Thus, Jesus takes advantage of the opportunity to hammer home just how powerful prayer is to the person who has faith.
We should have faith
Jesus does emphasize the faith of the person praying, but even more critical is his emphasis on whom our faith is based. My faith must be based upon God alone. God is the foundation of our faith, and prayer is a dependence upon the power of God.
People who do not pray do not believe that they need God’s help. It is also possible that they may think they are too spiritual to ask God for things, but the prior reason is the most typical. Such people will attempt to gain the goal or target that they desire by their own abilities.
Here is where we should recognize that it is unbiblical not to pray, and yet just as unbiblical to sit back and do nothing while asking God to do everything. Instead, we are to do what we can while praying for God’s help in those things we can’t.
To emphasize the critical nature of having our faith based solely on God, here are some examples in Scripture. When Jesus tells us that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, he follows it up with the statement that with God all things are possible. Thus, he is not impressing on us that rich people cannot be saved, but that it can only happen with God’s help- this is actually true of all of us. This is the same message that the angel Gabriel gave to Mary when she questioned how she would have a baby- she was still a virgin. The angel tells her that with God nothing will be impossible (Luke 1:37).
The same God who created the universe is the Heavenly Father who watches over us. His possibilities go far beyond our impossibilities. He did not intend us to do life without Him. Prayer is our ultimate birthright, to cry out to our Father for help, the one to whom all things are possible (that conform to his character, of course).
In case the teaching hasn’t sunk in, Jesus gives his disciples an illustration that is much greater than praying that no one will ever eat fruit from a particular fig tree ever again. Praying that a mountain be removed and cast into the sea represents an extreme fantastic prayer that seems impossible. There is an added symbol to this prayer because mountains are used as metaphors for political powers and empires, such as the Roman Empire. It is the extreme nature of the request that highlights how unable we are, and yet how able God is. By definition, God has the power to literally cast a mountain into the sea. Yet, why would I ever need a real mountain thrown into the sea, and who will the resulting tsunami imperil? A literal mountain is not the “impossible thing” that we typically need removed from our way, or life. Instead, it represents an impossibility of any nature for which we would need God’s help. This extreme example is intended to stretch our faith to the point that we stop limiting God just because we are limited. Did not God literally move the waters of the Red Sea aside so that millions of Israelites could escape Pharaoh’s army? So, can He not take care of my problem? Of course, He can!
It is here that Jesus adds the issue of doubt. We must not doubt God’s power, but neither should we doubt His care and concern for us. It is one thing to have enough faith to pray a prayer, but we should not doubt that God will do it. Granted, doubt is not the only issue here, but it is a critical one. It might be better for us to ask the question, “Why do I doubt that God would answer this prayer?” We will come back to this, but doubt is a huge reason why many people have quit praying, or never started in the first place. We start doubting that God will do anything about our request. He may help others, we tell ourselves, but I doubt that He is willing to help me.
In verse 24, Jesus gives us a summation of what he is saying. When you pray asking for something, you should believe that you are receiving it, and it will be yours. Another way to say this is that we should believe that God is taking care of it and that we will experience His answer to our prayer. There is a certain load and burden in life that we all need to learn to carry, but there are things that are too heavy of any of us. Prayer is intended by God to be the place where these overly heavy burdens are moved off of our shoulders and onto God’s O, what joy we will experience when we learn to put those things we can’t change onto the shoulders of the one who cares for us (1 Peter 5:6-7).
This is not an exhaustive summation on prayer, but we need to let it sink in on its own merits. Once that is done, we can move on to the other lessons concerning prayer. This summation does beg two questions. First, what impossible things should I be praying for that actually need removed from my life? Second, what is the source of my doubt about it?
We must deal with our sins
In verse 25, it may appear that Jesus is switching the subject, but in reality, he is still teaching on prayer. The sentence is introduced with the connective word “and,” and it involves a particular thing that affects our prayers, sin.
Jesus brings up the heart issues of what other people have done to me. It can be hard for me to forgive those who sin against me and this becomes a source of problems for our prayers. It is in the heart that I am to believe without doubting. Yet, this very heart is often full of hurts and wounds that I have received from others. Many people stop praying because they are angry that God has allowed other people to hurt them. Technically, these are the sins of others, but they have intersected with my life and infected my heart. We could say that they are other people’s sins that are now stuck in my heart. Believers must learn to deal properly with those sins. Harboring a grudge, hurt, or anger towards another person, and refusing to forgive them, becomes an obstacle to answered prayer. Why is this? It may be because it affects my faith and causes doubts, leading me to doubt that God really cares about me. However, it may be because God is not pleased and wants me to deal with my lack of forgiveness first. Scripture does not detail the nuts and bolts behind how this affects our prayers, but that it surely does. Jesus teaches more about this in Matthew 18:15 and the following verses. This would be good homework for us in the area of dealing with the sins of others against me and forgiving them.
Yet, notice that Jesus does not end up on whether or not our prayer is answered. A lack of forgiveness for those who sin against me can even become a hindrance to me having my sins forgiven by God. This is the exact situation that Jesus describes in the parable of The Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:22-34. The question ceases to be about answered prayer and becomes about my own salvation. A lack of forgiveness is far more serious for the believer (note the irony in that term) than just having our prayers answered.
Jesus leaves the teaching there. Perhaps, he felt that it was a sufficient amount for them to contemplate. However, I want to look at two more areas that God’s Word tells us can be a problem for our prayers.
The first is when we sin against others. Jesus taught on this in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:23. When we approach God in prayer and worship, He may bring to our remembrance some way in which we have sinned against others. We are told to go and make things right with them, and then come back to God. We may be avoiding things that we don’t want to deal with, or we may be obstinately clinging to our own righteousness in the situation. Regardless, we are called to be at peace with all people, as much as is possible with us. Being right is not an excuse to treat someone harshly, in short, to sin against them. Such, lack of repentance in our heart will cause our prayers to be hindered. The Apostle Peter gives us a picture of this in 1 Peter 3:7. There, he cautions husbands to dwell in wisdom with their wives, recognizing that, though they have different constitutions and roles, they have the same inheritance as them before God. Husbands who mistreat their wives (i.e. sin against them) will find that their prayers are hindered by God. Such hindering is God’s way of getting our attention and challenging us to deal with our sins against others.
James also gives us some more instructions on prayer. In the first chapter, he too focuses on praying without doubting.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But, let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;” (James 1:5-7 NKJV).
Yet, in chapter 4:1-3, James gives us more teaching about prayer. Prayers that are focused on our desires for pleasure in this life will also be hindered.
James says that he is writing to people who are relying on clawing their way over others to get what they want instead of praying and believing God. Their problem is that they are not asking God for help. They are prayerless. Yet, in the rare times that they did pray to God, there was a second problem. Their prayers were focused on their own fleshly pleasures. James literally says that such prayers are bad or wicked. God is not our Golden Willy Wonka Ticket to chocolate pleasures, or any others. A heart that is only filled with the desires and pleasures of this life will also find that its prayers are hindered by God. Why? We will find them hindered because we are still pursuing the flesh instead of following the Spirit to become like Jesus. It is not that God doesn’t want us to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. He made them. Yet, our flesh hijacks the purpose of our life and makes it all about obtaining as much pleasure as possible. God in His grace will not answer such prayers. However, let me give one caution. Scripture does say that, if we persist in seeking wickedness, God may give us what we seek as a judgment against us. We must not be deceived. God will not be mocked. If you sow to your flesh then from your flesh you will reap destruction, but if you sow to the Spirit of God then you will reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:7-8).
We need to be a people of prayer for our sakes, and for the sake of the lost around us. Yet, to do so means to be a person who deals with the sin that is in their life on a daily basis. Then, our hearts can be clean before God and our prayers will not be hindered, but answered. Amen!
Prayer audio
Pastor Marty