Believe and Bear Fruit

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.

Matthew 21:18–32

Amen.

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.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

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

Isaiah 40:4

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

Psalms 8:2

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

Matthew 3:2

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,

Matthew 4:17

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,

Isaiah 53:2

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.