If you hold anything against anyone...
Mark 11:12-21
Wow! The fig tree withered – Peter is seriously impressed!
When a person does something amazing and someone recognises it there are two responses that the amazing person can give – maintain the mystery or say, “You can do this too”
Jesus always took the “You can do this too” approach
He could have said “Yes Peter – well I am the Son of God you know”
Instead he tells Peter that this is pretty basic stuff…
V22-24 Fig trees are nothing – mountains are possible!
Mountains are just about the biggest physical thing in the world besides oceans (By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea – Isaiah 50:2) – Jesus was saying here that there are no limits to the physical possibilities of God’s power
Digibox – quick start guide – replace instruction books these days – disk with lots of useful extra info on but the bare essentials are on one piece of paper in the hope that even men might stop and read it
To produce a quick start guide you just take the most important points and put them together – need to be selective rather than comprehensive – enough to get you going
There is much that can be found elsewhere in the Bible that pertains to the miraculous – prayer, fasting, obedience, humility, boldness etc but here in Mark 11 we have some key things…
V25 If you hold anything against anyone, forgive him
Is this a necessary ingredient?
Yes, it follows straight on from the verse before. May be a new verse in your Bible but the only thing that separates it from the verse before is the word “and”!
Quick start guide – connect aerial to box – connect box to TV – connect power cable to mains – switch on
Miss any of these out and nothing is going to happen! Three out of four won’t do!
You can have perfect unshakeable faith, but if you don’t forgive then annoying fig trees are going to stay green and mountains aren’t going to move!
For some here today this is the big issue – this is the barrier that stands between you and your miracle
Imagine you were told that our water supply was contaminated by a chemical that caused a variety of sicknesses including heart disease, cancers, infertility, premature aging and mental health problems
You would want every effort to be made to deal with the problem and remove the contamination!
Of course you would! Wouldn’t everybody?
But…many people…including many Christians live with unforgiveness!
They carry around in themselves this faith weakening, energy sapping, hope destroying, miracle robbing, body and mind sickening poison
Jesus says a very simple thing – if you hold anything against anyone forgive him
It is so easily understood – and yet so hard for many to do
One big problem with forgiveness is that it is so unfair – after all the reason you need to forgive is not your fault in the first place – someone else started it!
You don’t need to forgive the people who are nice to you – it’s the ones who do you harm that you need to forgive
A lot of people think that forgiveness is an optional extra – something you can choose to do when you feel like it – what does the Bible say though?
Col. 3:12-13 forgive as the Lord forgave you
A direct command here – as with the words of Jesus our receiving and giving of forgiveness is linked – need to receive and need to give
Eph. 4:31-32
Again the command is clear – and it is a command – this is the Bible we are reading!
If forgiveness is a command – what does that make failure to forgive?
The answer is disobedience!
2 Tim. 3:1-5
Right in the middle of this terrible list is unforgiving!
This thing really does matter!
The Bible doesn’t appear to give us any slack here – there is no “forgive so long as you were not too badly hurt” or “forgive when you have had time to get over the offence” or “forgive when you feel led to do so”
At this point you might be saying, “But I can’t! It’s too hard! It’s impossible!”
You are probably right!
It often is too hard – but we have a God who does the impossible and who enables us to do the impossible!
Being born again is a miracle – God opening the eyes of a person dead in sin – giving you the faith to receive his gift of life – giving you a new heart that will love him and obey him – none of this is possible without God doing something amazing and miraculous
When you are faced with the need to forgive it is not always going to be an easy thing – unless the offence was small it will require you to cry to God for the ability to forgive
You may need to wrestle in prayer until you come through to the place of forgiveness
Not fair – you didn’t start it – why should you need to wrestle in prayer?
Because Jesus said so!
Because you will not see the power of God released in your life until you obey the Word of God!
Walking down the road – a car slides on some ice and mounts the pavement – you jump out of the way but in doing so you fall with a nasty twist and break your ankle
When you leave hospital you are given a programme of exercise to complete – 6 weeks of exercises
Not fair! Why should I do these exercises when the accident wasn’t my fault?
The alternative is walking with crutches for the rest of your life!
Unforgiveness will cripple you if you allow it to do so
You don’t really have a choice – you need to press into God until you can do this thing!
Mark 11:25 If you hold anything
Greek word echo – to have, hold or possess something
You need to let go – you need to release it – you need to be free of it
No more excuses, no more putting it off – now is the time!