Where do answered prayers come from?

“By What Authority”

(Matthew 21:18-27, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 9, 2008)

Matthew 21:18-27 ¹⁸ In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" ²¹ 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. ²² And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." ²³ 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?" ²⁴ 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. ²⁵ 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?' ²⁶ But if we say, 'From man,' we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet." ²⁷ 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.

Introduction – The Rulers of This World

There is no Kingdom of God for you except through the power and authority of Jesus Christ. When you ask for healing of body and soul, when you ask for God’s provision for your daily bread and for the defeat of evil all around you, you are ultimately asking for the new heavens and the new earth (see Revelation 21), that final answer to all your prayers. The Kingdom of God in its fullness is a good thing for you to want. Only Christ, through His power and authority, can give that to you. That is why we offer up our prayers in Jesus’ Name. If it were not for his merit and mediation, if it were not for His life and death, there could be no answer to prayer for us. When a child is healed, when a marriage is brought back to life, when people return to faith, you get a slice of the Kingdom. When even the littlest bit of that happens, it is always because of the power and authority of Jesus Christ. The rulers of this world have their place. They have a certain amount of delegated power and authority, and they can do some good things, but they cannot bring us the new heavens and the new earth. You need to ask yourself this question: “Do I have any sense of the Kingdom of God today?” If you do, it is not something that came from powerful people. If you have no sense of the Kingdom, you need to come to Christ. The gift that you need only comes through Him.

A fig tree (18-19)

God’s plan has always been bigger than the little expressions of it we have on earth. The Old Testament nation of Israel was not a small sign of the Kingdom of God, but it was not nearly enough, and the time of all of its ceremonial practices and special civil laws had to come to an end in order to make way for a bigger expression of the kingdom through the worldwide Christian church. Israel was often symbolized in the Old Testament as a plant, a vine, or a tree (See Jeremiah 8:13 for a good example of this). God demanded fruit from His tree. The time came for her testing, and she was found wanting.

It is not enough for Israel to be a fig tree with leaves that are suggestive of fruit. She must really have fruit to be useful. This idea of fruit is used throughout the Old and New Testaments as a symbol representing good spiritual gifts. For example, true spiritual joy is a fruit that comes from God. It is not anything spiritual to be happy about getting unexpected money. Spiritual joy is being happy about God, His Kingdom, and all the things that are connected to God and His Kingdom. Without spiritual fruit, there is no point in keeping a church going. For the fig tree to have plenty of leaves but no fruit is like a church having plenty of professed faith, but no faith being lived out. Religious hypocrisy is not the Kingdom at all. That kind of organization is already dead in the roots.

If you have faith (20-22)

So that’s what Jesus was doing with the fig tree, and with Israel. The time of the Old Testament was coming to an end. He makes a symbolic point by speaking a word of judgment against a tree, and the tree withers. The disciples seem to miss or forget the point that Jesus is making about Israel since they are completely amazed by what Jesus has just done. He spoke to a tree and it was destroyed – just like that. How did He do that?

Jesus is showing us something here about Kingdom life, the kind that is more than mere leaves, the kind that brings godly fruit. True religion is expressed through the power of faithful prayer. We may want to do all kinds of things for God’s kingdom, but we have to remember that the source of Kingdom power is from above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The reason why we commit ourselves to prayer, and believe that our prayers are answered is that we believe that Christ is the source of all kingdom power. Praying powerful kingdom prayers is more than believing that God can do things. Of course He can do things, but we need to believe that He will do things, and that He has done and will continue to do things through us. He is with us and He loves us.

We know that there are reasons why we can end up being powerless in prayer, since we are told that there are things that hinder prayer. If He seems like He is not with you in the power of prayer, you need to ask yourself if there is any reason why this is the case. Is there something that needs to be addressed? If you are not aware of some devotion to sin in your life or some meanness of heart that is in you, and if you believe that you are asking for those things that seem to be agreeable with His Word, then You should truly believe that God has heard and answered Your prayer. What are you asking for? You have asked Him for a slice of the new heavens and the new earth. Though you do not seem to have received what you wanted immediately, surely the Lord has this and more reserved for You, and He has just sent it ahead of you. There is a storehouse above, where your answered prayers are being kept for you. Keep a good conscience before the Lord so that your prayers will not be hindered, and keep on praying. From the overflow of that storehouse there will be many things given to you even now. Do not be faithless. Some of your deepest grief over seemingly unanswered prayer is surely not accurate. What you have asked for is already in safe-keeping above in the house of the Lord, and you may even get to see some of what you are seeking very shortly. Which would you prefer, to have everything now and nothing sent ahead, or to have some measure of suffering in faith, and so many good things waiting for you with the Lord?

As He was teaching in the temple (23)

The fact is that there are many religious people who have no sense of this at all. They will always prefer temporary blessing now and choose to avoid every suffering today, no matter what the spiritual cost of that kind of unfaithfulness might end up being. They do this because they have no sense of anything spiritual. They are full of hate and judgment and they are sure that they are God’s favorite people, but there is almost nothing of gospel humility about them. Very often people like this seem to be religious leaders. Remember that Jesus has just recently overturned some tables and sent some people flying away from the temple who thought that they were pretty special. When they saw Him teaching again in the temple, they came out to confront Him.

Here He was teaching in the temple. That probably was not what upset them the most, but it really should have. He was surely teaching a different religion than they were. They had a deeply flawed understanding of the Law of God and were very confused about every spiritual topic, talking about all kinds of things that they did not really understand. People who do religious teaching claim to speak for God, and Jesus was teaching everyone something different than they taught people. But when they said, “By what authority are you doing these things?” they were surely referring to His symbolic actions of judgment recently performed in the cleansing of the temple.

What were they expecting Him to say in answer to this question? Did they expect Him to overreach and to claim divine authority for His ministry? That might cause some in the crowd to abandon Him as a deluded and extreme teacher. Or did they think that He might admit that He was in over His head – that He did not have the authority to do those sort of things within the temple courts, because He had no position of authority in the hierarchy of temple officials. Didn’t He realize that they had the highest authority in the land concerning the temple and these kind of religious matters? They forgot the ultimate Source of Kingdom authority, and He was there in person in front of them. God came to His temple, and people with no spiritual understanding at all wanted to rebuke Him.

The baptism of John (24-26)

Jesus answers their challenge with a question about John’s baptism. Was it from heaven or men? John had also done some amazing things. He was another one who seemed to claim a higher authority for His actions, and they certainly did not follow him. They considered him nothing but a nuisance, but the crowds thought that He was from God. What did the crowds see in John and in Jesus that these officials had no sense of? They saw Kingdom power and authority from God Himself. The leaders could neither affirm nor deny this, so Jesus would not answer them.

Neither will I tell you (27)

Why is it that some very weak people like Zaccheus, Matthew, Mary Magdelene, and many unnamed prostitutes and blind men see something of the truth about Jesus and His Kingdom, while so many prominent religious leaders seem to be so spiritually useless? When we willfully sin, we damage our souls so that we become insensible to the real God. Our souls become sick. Only the Lord can heal a soul. And He does. He does this many times in our lives, and especially when we go to be with Him. That day is a day of great soul healing. But we will be of little use for the Lord’s kingdom here now if we have no sense of the ways of God.

It is by God’s power and authority that sinners are condemned, and by His power and authority that Christ saves sinners, of whom I am the foremost. This is the key insight granted to the humble soul that is healed. Christ has taken the mountain of your sin and has cast it into the depths of the sea. Believe Him and be healed in your souls.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the point of the Lord’s words and actions concerning the fig tree?

2. What is Jesus teaching His disciples about prayer, and why does He teach it in this context?

3. Why is there such a significant conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders? Is there relevance for us today?

4. What do you make of the restraint of Christ in limiting further dialogue with those who challenged Him?