The Divine Crash

Today’s sermon went well.  I had my youth leaders from when I was a youth surprise me at church.  That was awesome.  As always you can listen to the sermon at the bottom of this post or just click here to open iTunes. Today’s sermon was based on Matthew 21:18-22, when Jesus curses a fig tree.

On the surface this is just a story about people who pretend to be religious but underneath there is nothing going on and what happens when we have enough faith.

However, just beneath the surface it is a story of Jesus sending a message to Jerusalem that their rituals and repeated responses do not bring life, only Jesus brings life.

This event, just like us has a back story. First we need to realize that the fig tree is ancient Israel’s symbol of pride, strength and hope.  Similar to the Bald Eagle in the U.S. it is our national symbol of pride and strength.  To hurt one is a crime but also a way to show disgust to the country.  Same with the fig tree, cursing it will get a person killed.

When Jesus curses the fig tree all his disciples say “how did you do this”  He Hebrew the word “How” and “why” are the same.  So they were not only asking how but why did Jesus commit treason.

Jesus ignores the question and tell them that if they have enough faith they can throw mountains into the sea.

I’ve never seen a mountain get thrown into the sea and quite frankly I live on a mountain and I don’t want anyone throwing my mountain into the sea.

So maybe Jesus meant something different.

Ever chase something that didn’t bring you life? That didn’t satisfy you? Religion? Pornography? Money? Work? Drugs? Relationships?

when we chase after that it looks like life, it has leaves if you will, but really it is dead inside and leaves us feeling lonely, tired, and disgusted.

When we chase these things it also creates mountains, mountains that we can’t climb on our own.

Jesus says that if we have faith in him our mountains get thrown into the sea.  What happens if there is no mountain?  It is a plain.  We may still have to cross through whatever it is but it is a little easier because of our faith.

So then having faith isn’t about saying a prayer, it is about making a clear decision that Jesus is the only one who can give real life and to do what Jesus did no matter the cost.  Sometimes that drives to our knees in prayer and sometimes it will make us jump for joy over what just happened but it doesn’t start with prayer it starts with what Jesus did on the cross.

Sermon Audio

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Sermon by RevBT