Mountain Moving Faith Controversy

The Danger of Reading Modern Assumptions into Matthew 21

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel. What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. God bless you. Matthew chapter 21. We are in verse 18 through 22. Hear now the words of the living and the true God. 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 this fig tree, 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. As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as a church. Lord, we come before you, Lord, with this amazing gift of your word, Lord, I am so grateful.

God, I'm so grateful. Your word is from your mouth, breathed out by you, given to us as a gift. Lord, we recognize the people around the world that have no access to your word, this tremendous blessing, this grace.

We recognize even the believers, those who know you that don't even have a copy of this to hold in their hands. And here we are with it in our hands, on our phones, our devices. Lord, we're grateful, Lord, you've given us so many blessings.

God, thank you for your word. I pray, Lord, today, as I open your word and I try to unpack it for your people, that you'd allow me to be faithful. Lord, guard my tongue, my heart, my mind. Keep me from error and sin.

I pray that I would decrease, Christ would increase. Let everybody forget me and remember what they've learned from you. We pray, God, you help us to understand your word today in the context of your whole beautiful.

Story.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So, Matthew chapter 21, it is a powerful section of scripture, and I want to say, hopefully, as I read the text, many of you already recognize it. How many of you guys have heard a sermon on mountain-moving faith?

How many of you guys have heard that, yeah? Popular sermons, man, they are popular. As I was looking around this week just to see maybe some examples, I did find some examples of mountain-moving faith sermons.

There were so many, and I went through a couple of them, but I found one in particular I thought, well, I'll share this with them, and since we don't have, actually, our stuff fully set up because we're all new here today, I'm actually going to play this for you guys through my phone into the microphone, so it's worthwhile.

So one in particular, I think, really does express the typical mountain-moving faith sermon, in particular given by those who would call themselves charismatic or word of faith, and so here is an example of a mountain-moving faith sermon.

About having mountain-moving faith. In life, we all face mountains. Maybe a mountain in your marriage, you don't see how you'll stay together. A mountain in your finances, doesn't look like you'll ever get out of debt or ever accomplish your dreams.

Maybe it's a mountain in your health. The experts have said that you're never going to get well. A lot of times, we're praying about our mountains, God please help me, God please make my child straighten up, God please take away this fear, and yes, it's good to pray, it's good to ask God to help us, but when you face a mountain, it's not enough to just pray, it's not enough to just believe, it's not enough to just think good thoughts.

Here's the key, you have to speak to your mountains. Jesus said in Mark 11, whoever will say to this mountain, be removed, and does not doubt in his heart, he will have whatever he says. Some of you today are praying about things you should be speaking to.

You don't need to pray about that fear anymore. You need to say, fear, I command you to leave.

That's good.

So there's a good example, I wanted to give that so we have some context in terms of how we often approach this, or at least hear it approached in our culture and our day, and I want to say it is vitally important for us as Christians to recognize that we do not have the right as Christians to go to the word of God with unbiblical presuppositions or ideas and force those ideas into the text and put those words into Jesus' mouth for him.

It's a dangerous practice. There are two words that are very, very important for us to understand as Christians, and these aren't words to be afraid of. There is the word exegesis, exegesis means to draw out of the text.

What is God saying? What is he saying? So you go to the text of the word of God, use proper principles of interpretation, letting God do the talking, and you want the word of God to do the speaking. Christians believe in something called sola scriptura, particularly Reformed Christians.

That's the principle that it is the word of God that is the ground and pillar of our faith. It's the word of God that is the reference point. It is the principia, it is the principium, it is the part that we stand on.

It is the reference point, everything comes from there. We let the word of God be the reference point, not me, not my traditions, not my emotions, none of those things. It is the word of God that's the standard, it is the sole and fallible rule of faith and practice for the church.

However, during the time of the Reformation, there was the principle of sola scriptura, but there was also the principle of tota scriptura, and that is that all of scripture interprets.

Scripture.

We go to the word of God, and we say, what does God say about this symbol? What did God say when he gave us this symbol? What does God say throughout the word of God? What is the context ahead and before?

Who wrote this passage, and to whom did they write the passage? What was the historical context? What was going on around it? What are the words here? What do those words mean? What do they mean to the original audience?

What were their original words that they received? So we want to go to the word of God as the reference point, amen, yes? And we want the word of God to interpret the word of God. There is another word that's important for us to understand, and that's eisegesis.

And exegesis is drawing out of the text what does it say. Eisegesis is where you actually go to the text, and you read foreign concepts, principles, ideas, into the text itself. So we want to avoid that as Christians and check ourselves constantly, where we're actually taking human traditions, presuppositions that are actually contrary to the word of God or the principles we find or the words we find, and we take those traditions and read them into the text of God's word.

One of the things that I've repeated across this pulpit, didn't belong to me, but I repeated it many times, is that the person who says they have no traditions is the one who is enslaved to the most of them.

If you don't recognize that you have traditions, you're enslaved to them. You're not checking for them, you're not looking, you're assuming very pridefully that you wouldn't do that. You have no traditions.

You don't do that to the word of God. We need to always be on guard with our traditions and ask the question, not that traditions are bad, but are my traditions actually consistent with the word of God?

Nothing wrong with tradition. What's wrong is foreign, unbiblical traditions we squeeze into the word of God, and oftentimes on this particular text, you see that it is rampant. Mountain moving faith.

You need to speak to the mountains in your life. Where's your mountains? What kind of mountains do you have? Financial mountains, health mountains, marriage mountains. What kind of mountains? Literal mountains behind your home.

Where are they?

Right?

In Arizona, that works for us, right? And so what Joel and people of his ilk would like to tell us is that all we need to do, what Jesus is saying here, is we have the power within ourselves to create realities.

It's good maybe to trust in God. You catch how he said that. It's good maybe to pray and ask God, but that's not really where it's at. Where it's at is where you begin to speak to your mountains and you say, be moved and cast into the sea.

And that's what Jesus was doing there. You see, he was talking to you, right? 21st century evangelical Christians. He's talking to you. So this passage in Matthew 21 is Jesus speaking directly to you.

He's talking about your mountains. He's telling you what you must do to speak to your mountains, to move those mountains in your life. We have to ask ourselves the question, is that what Jesus' audience, his disciples, would have understood when they heard him telling this truth?

Would they have understood it to be about financial mountains, marriage mountains, health mountains? Or was there actually a background? Was there actually words here being used by Jesus that they understood precisely what he was saying?

Was there a context to this particular moment in the ministry of Jesus where he had just departed towards Jerusalem? He tells his disciples in Matthew 20, starting in verse 17, that he's going now to Jerusalem.

They're going to kill him. And then he enters into Jerusalem and you have all of these amazing moments of the hosanna and they're welcoming Jesus in and you have the palm branches and you have all this context.

Is there a context to Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem and a discussion about a mountain being cast into the sea that would have been understood by Jesus' early disciples, the ones who heard these words?

Now don't get me wrong. This is very important. I want to say this as a pastor. When I say that we need to ask, what did the original audience understand when they heard these words? What did these words mean to them?

That this wasn't written in these words, so I should say this, it wasn't spoken to you. I'm not saying that the word of God doesn't have application to us, that this doesn't teach us something for us today.

But we have to ask ourselves the question, if we want to be faithful, what did these words mean to them when Jesus spoke it? Not first, what does it mean to me? What does it mean, what did it mean to them?

In order to do that, I think we have to first build a foundation, stand on a solid foundation. So I hope you have your Bibles ready. I hope you have your pens ready and paper ready. This is being recorded so you can go back.

I want to apologize ahead of time for blitzing you today with a lot of scripture, but I assure you I'm not really sorry. The first thing we have to do is build a foundation. We have to stand somewhere.

This didn't happen in a vacuum. We don't have Jesus simply appearing in history and shocking people, like coming in as the Savior, the Redeemer, God come in the flesh, walking among us to come and die for our sins and rise from the dead.

This was not a plan B in the plan of God. It says in the scriptures that Jesus was a lamb slain when? Before the foundation of the world. Jesus' ministry isn't a novelty in history in terms of this is something dropped out of nowhere.

They did not understand what's coming. There is an entire story to the life and ministry and message of Jesus that these Jewish followers of Jesus would have understood. One of the things we try to do as part of our liturgy at church is always bring in the Psalms, every service.

We have the Psalms brought into service. We want to do that as a church because we want to give you the same foundation that the early followers of Jesus would have had. They would have been singing the Psalms in church.

They were singing these Psalms, for example, at the foot of the cross. Remember the scene? Jesus, our Lord, is on that cross dying for our sins as prophesied, as God had planned. Here's this moment on the cross where Jesus is enduring these insults, reviling the Son of God on the tree.

He is pierced in his hands and his feet, surrounded by dogs, barking at him, throwing insults at him. The amazing thing about that moment, Jesus saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken.

Me?

If the Jews at the foot of the cross had merely finished singing the Psalm, they would have understood what was happening right in front of them. I challenge you to go look at that later, Psalm 22. That Psalm they would have sung in church was the Psalm taking place right in front of them at that moment, that very thing.

There was a foundation for these Jews, the word of God given to them. And the amazing thing about the Jews in the first century is they didn't have the gift that you and I have right in front of us, the entire word of God just placed in your.

Lap.

You can just move through pages and circle and highlight. It was a very difficult process to actually copy down the scriptures and then pass that along, an expensive process. You didn't necessarily have a scroll of Isaiah in your home.

If you wanted to hear the word of God, you often went to synagogue to hear the word of God and you memorized the word of God. You passed it down. It wasn't sitting on your shelf necessarily. That would have been a real gift, a huge blessing.

So these early Jews had to take this word into their hearts, treasure it up within them so they might not sin against God. Hold it together in their morning and evening prayers. They were reciting the word of God.

Deuteronomy 6, 4, Shema.

Let's do it together.

Ready?

Shema.

Okay, let's do it.

I'll say Shema. And you say Shema.

Okay, here we go.

Ready?

Shema.

Shema.

Israel.

Yahweh.

Yahweh.

Eloheinu.

Eloheinu.

Yahweh.

Eloheinu.

Ehud.

Very good.

Okay. We're in a new space. It'll take some time.

Okay, we'll figure it out.

So they had this in their morning and evening prayers, the word of God. Here's the point I'm making. These early followers of Jesus understood the symbolism of the Old Testament in a way that we often don't today as Christians.

Very much so. The symbolism was meaningful to them. They understood it. They saw it happening in the temple. I think one of the tragedies, of course, of losing the temple, though God intended it and it needed to go away, is there was so much symbolism around the temple and its services and all of the amazing rituals that the Jews were connected to.

That symbolism was constantly before them. The law of God not only gave them ethical standards in terms of this but not that, but the law of God also gave them ceremonial standards, ways they were supposed to live, how they were supposed to dress and be separate from the pagan nations, not to engage in syncretism, not to adopt the pagan practices of the surrounding nations.

But they had ceremonial law. They had law that actually kept them distinct. They had actually incense going on in the temple that symbolized something. Prayers going up to God. This symbolism and the ritual, they were connected to the symbolism and they were connected, here it is finally, to the story.

They were connected to the story of the Messiah. So now, put that together in terms of the early Jewish followers of Jesus were not only expecting Jesus to arrive at that time, but they were expecting to see certain things about this Messiah.

There were truths about the Messiah laid down in the Old Testament that they expected. And this is really important because, I want to say this really as an aside, the modern Jewish rejection of Jesus.

You have people like, say, Ben Shapiro, popular guy. I've done a TV show with Ben Shapiro talking about the issue of abortion. Love the man. It's my goal to lead him to Jesus. Pray about the possibility of him and I sitting down together to discuss this issue.

But one of the issues in the Jewish rejection of Jesus today is they'll often say, well, the Jewish Messiah was supposed to come and bring a kingdom. He was supposed to come and rule on David's throne.

Because that is precisely what God promised in the Torah, the Tanakh, the Old Testament.

Scriptures.

God did promise the Messiah was coming to bring salvation, redemption, forgiveness of sins, but also a kingdom, a rule in the world. He would sit on David's throne and he would rule. The most popular verse in the New Testament quoted from the Old Testament is Psalm 110 .1.

The early followers of Jesus, Jews, quoted from that the most in the New Testament. And that text, of course, is the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your, what, enemies a footstool for your feet.

Yes, it's true. When Jews today talk to Christians who deny that Christ actually brought his kingdom in history and that he's ruling and reigning today, when Christians today say that Jesus is bringing that kingdom later, they give reasons to modern Jews to reject Jesus as the Messiah, because the Jews know the Old Testament says this Messiah must rule on David's.

Throne.

He must rule over the world, all the nations. He has to bring the nations to Yahweh. That was the promise of the Messiah. So what I want to say is we need to pay attention to what the Old Testament said about Jesus as Messiah.

What was underneath these Jews as they're standing there with Jesus, we have this scene now where he comes into Jerusalem and then we have the cleansing of the temple and all this taking place. And now they hear about a fig tree being cursed because there's no fruit.

They hear about a mountain going into the sea. What else was underneath them in their understanding of the Old Testament? We need to talk about one, they understood the rule of the Messiah. They understood that he was bringing salvation into the world, forgiveness.

But they also understood, and this is very, very important, that the Messiah was coming to bring judgment. Now this, listen closely here, this is very, very important. This is, I think, a very powerful way to point today to Orthodox Jews, to show them that Jesus is in fact the promised Messiah.

And it is an often neglected part of our witness to modern Jews who reject Jesus as Messiah. Not just that the Messiah would come to rule, not just that he would bring salvation, but that he was coming to bring judgment on the covenant breakers.

And I'm going to point you to those texts so that you know them, you can go to refer to them later. We're in Matthew 21 now, just move back to the last book of the Old Testament. So don't go too far, just move back past that middle page there and move back to Malachi chapter 3.

Malachi chapter 3. I want to show you this text in terms of the promises of God concerning the Messiah. Now, in a timeline of history, please hear this, what you're going to read from here in Malachi was written long before Jesus came.

So in terms of history, this was written down before Jesus comes in his earthly ministry. This was expectation, they were waiting on Messiah. And this was word from God about what to expect about the Messiah and his ministry.

Malachi chapter 3. I'm not going to spend a lot of time today unpacking this passage. I'm just going to reference it so you can go and you can dig into it later. Malachi 3. Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the Lord, listen closely to that, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.

Yes.

And they'll bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. Hey, that sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Isn't that awesome? It says in a timeline here, first, the messenger comes first. And then after that messenger comes, the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. So what should you expect before Messiah has come?

A messenger first to represent the Messiah, to herald the Messiah. And then the Lord whom you seek will come to what? His temple. There is going to be a visitation from the Lord you seek to his temple.

And the glory of this moment is something we always talk about as Christians, as followers of Jesus. And the glory is refining offerings and righteousness to God. There's going to be something in the Messiah's ministry where now the people of God come and they bring offerings and righteousness to Yahweh.

It's a new day. It's a beautiful thing. Messiah has come and there's purification. That's salvation. Amen? But there's more. And I believe this is what we miss in our witness today to Jews who reject Jesus as Messiah.

We emphasize the salvation and the redemption, but we do not often use the important texts that show God kept his promise in terms of his judgment upon the covenant breakers. Next part of this text is verse 5.

After salvation, then I will draw near to you for judgment. I'll be a swift witness against sorcerers, against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner.

And do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. So what do you see from this text in particular? And believe me, there are more. One, the Messiah's coming brings salvation. Next, the Messiah's coming brings judgment upon the covenant breakers.

Same language used here. I challenge you just to go read the first two chapters of Isaiah. And you'll see God having the same discussion with the people of God. He tells them, learn to do good, cease to do evil.

He says, correct oppression. And he tells them that they're being condemned by him because they do not care for the plight of the widow and the fatherless. Same language God uses to his covenant people and their covenant breaking.

God says there is going to be salvation. Everyone say salvation. And judgment. And judgment. Now move over a chapter now. Same book, chapter 4. More context about Messiah. The coming of Messiah. Chapter 4.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. And here we go. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

So what do we see in terms of the messianic ministry that's coming? You are going to have salvation and judgment, and the warning is, one, Elijah is going to come, and he's going to turn people's hearts back to God.

What was the ministry of John the Baptist? A call to what? Repentance. John the Baptist's first words, Matthew chapter 3, you can read it, Matthew 3. The very first words recorded from John the Baptist in Matthew is, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He was the forerunner, Jesus tells us, and if you'll receive it, he was the Elijah who was to come, the one who comes like Elijah, the ministry of repentance. He is the messenger before the Lord whom you seek suddenly comes to his temple.

But what do you see behind this? Salvation and what? Judgment. That is the foundation, that's what's underneath them, that's what they're expecting. Another text for you to read later, Isaiah chapter 65.

Go read that, there's a lot of beautiful imagery and symbolism there, but what do you see in Isaiah 65? Same message. Isaiah 65, same message. God is going to judge the covenant breakers, and he's going to give his people a new name.

They will go hungry, his people will eat. They will be thirsty, his people will drink. God promised that the Messiah's ministry would come with salvation for the people of God, and judgment upon the covenant breakers.

That was the expectation from the Old Testament. Also point you to Deuteronomy chapter 28. It's good to understand that passage as you read the next few chapters in Matthew. Deuteronomy chapter 28 is the well-known passage that talks about the blessings and the curses of the old covenant.

God promises people, I will bless you if you obey. I will bless you if you do this, and I will curse you if you disobey. As an aside, just for your own study later, if you read Josephus and his works, he was somebody that survived the Roman-Jewish war and the destruction of Jerusalem when God destroyed the temple, and he sent his armies to destroy the city and the sanctuary and the temple.

Josephus was a general in the Jewish army. He was a Pharisee. He survived it. He wrote the history of what happened. And when you read Josephus, some parts, it's like you're reading a commentary on Deuteronomy chapter 28, the curses of the covenant.

A couple of things in terms of context. Very important. Go back to Matthew chapter 21. Have a finger there. A couple of things in terms of context surrounding. As we've been going through Matthew, the Gospel according to Matthew, I've been pointing out the whole time as we unpack particular passages that we are moving to a climax peak, a pitch, a fever pitch, where Jesus does throughout the Gospel of Matthew, according to Matthew, he does actually have moments where he's warning about the judgment which is to come.

For example, early on in Matthew, we talked about the fact that Jesus told his early disciples, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. What's that mean? Comes in judgment.

Those messages are throughout. You see those building up. Jesus' first words as he comes out of the wilderness after being tested, after the Holy Spirit drives him into the wilderness and he defeats Satan, he does what Adam didn't do.

He does what Israel didn't do. He obeys the Father in the wilderness. And as he comes out of the wilderness, his first words are, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And note also in Matthew 4, Jesus is talking about the gospel of the kingdom.

Oh, I wish the Jews today would know that. I wish that Orthodox Jews today would know that. When they talk about the Messiah, he must come and bring a kingdom and rule on David's throne and shepherd God's people and draw the nations to God.

I want to say to them, don't you see what he's doing? Don't you see that he's on his throne now? Look at this room today, filled with different colors and peoples and smells. It's interesting, right? This is the Messiah ruling in the world today.

Most of us, our ancestors were pagans, right? And if you can hear the message of the Messiah, the true Messiah, the expected Messiah, this Messiah is doing what was foretold, preaching the good news of the kingdom, the kingdom of God.

But note, as you're moving through Matthew, getting to this section about a mountain being cast into the sea, about a fig tree with no leaves on it being cursed, there's more context to this moment. For example, in Matthew chapter 27, verse 25, I'll read it to you.

You have the reference. You know this reference, by the way. When Jesus is now being brought to this awful and unjust trial, as people are lying about Jesus, and they can't get their stories together, and as Pilate, in history, as a matter of historic record, washes his hands of the death of Jesus as a matter of record, saying, I find no fault in him.

That's the judgment in history from a pagan ruler at the trial of Jesus. Washes his hands and says, on historic record, he's not guilty. What does he say? He says, well, then it's on you. And they say, listen closely, to the people of Jesus' day.

His blood be upon us and our children. They asked for the judgment of God. They asked for the curse of God. They asked God, judge us for this wickedness. His blood be upon us and our children. On the way to the cross, Luke 23, I want you to go there to see this, because this is going to come up later.

We are going to be opening the book of Revelation today. I will not. I'm sorry to disappoint. We will not be unpacking the book of Revelation today, but you will notice some common themes and some, I believe, fulfillment.

In Luke 23, verse 28. Luke 23, verse 28. You know the scene. Jesus is doing the death march. He is now making his way to his death for you and for me, for the people of God. He's going to receive in his own body the penalty due to us.

He is on the way to the cross to pour out his life for the people of God. And he can't make it. He's been beaten, he's been bruised, he's been crushed, crown of thorns into his head, his face smashed, his beard pulled from his face.

He can't make it. And so, of course, we know the story. They give the cross to Simon of Cyrene. He's carrying the cross now, and then there's this moment. Listen closely to it and remember these words.

But turning to them, verse 28. Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.

And then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? And you're seeing a theme here surrounding the people of Jesus' day, these covenant breakers, those who were turned away from Jesus and persecuting him.

His blood be upon us and our children. And I find this moment fascinating. I gotta tell you, I always have. I find this so fascinating. Jesus says very few things, actually. In his trial, on the way to the cross, on the cross, there's limited things that our Savior says as he's going to do this for us.

But this is actually a significant section, where Jesus, as he's going to be killed for his people, he stops to talk to the people of Jerusalem, and he says this as he's going to die. It's powerful. Don't weep for me.