Have faith that moves mountains! (Mark 11:12-26)

[Stephan Choe]

June 11, 2025

Verse 24: “Therefore I say to you: All things whatsoever ye shall ask in your prayers, believing ye shall receive them, it shall be done unto you.”

Dead fish cannot swim against the current. But living fish can. Living Christians can swim against the current of the world and win the victory of faith. How can we become such living Christians?

For this we need a living faith in God.

Today we want to get to know this living faith in God so that we can be Christians of living faith.

1 The cursing of the fig tree (12-14)

Verse 12 reads: “And the next day, as they were leaving Bethany, he was hungry.”

Jesus spent the night in Bethany after the day of his entry, i.e. on Sunday. The next day, i.e. on Monday, he went back to Jerusalem with his disciples (cf. v. 15). He took the approximately 3 km long route to Jerusalem, with an ascent to the top of the Mount of Olives and then back down again. On the way he was hungry because he had had no breakfast. He saw a fig tree on the way and wanted some figs to eat.

This account first deals with the actual fruit of the fig tree. It then discusses the figurative meaning of the fruit of people.

Figuratively speaking, there are two types of fruit: inner fruits and outward fruits.

Inner fruits are the change of character. The best-known list of these fruits is found in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Outward fruits are, for example, that we help other people to be saved from sin and become God's children.

We need to bear the two kinds of fruits to glorify God. God wants us to bear much fruit. That is why we should examine ourselves to see what fruit we have borne.

We should first accept Jesus as God's Son and our Savior so that we can experience God's love, joy, and peace and radiate them. We should radiate our joy and peace so that we can meet other people with joy, peace and love. In this way, our surroundings are transformed into a little paradise.

When I came to faith in Jesus Christ during my student days, I experienced great joy and the university seemed like a paradise to me. So I began to invite students to Jesus.

We should warmly invite others to believe in Jesus Christ so that they can also experience forgiveness of sins and eternal life and taste great joy.

Jesus wants us to bear such inner fruit as well as outer fruit so that we can share great joy with others. He wants us to transform our surroundings into a little paradise through Jesus Christ.

When Jesus looked at the fig tree, he found that the tree had numerous leaves but no fruit, because it was not yet the time for figs.

Jesus said to the fig tree: “Now no one will eat any fruit from you forever!” (14).

Why did Jesus curse this tree?

By cursing it, Jesus wanted to teach his disciples the consequences of a fruitless life. God wants every person to bear inner fruit and outer fruit. But Jesus saw that the people in Jerusalem, especially the rulers of the Jews, did not bring God any fruit such as faith, love and righteousness, but only bad fruit such as unbelief, injustice, hatred, and so on. Jesus therefore became very angry and symbolically cursed the fig tree because of their corruption.

2. The cleansing of the temple (15-19)

Jesus and his disciples came to Jerusalem. Verses 15b-17 record the following:

“And Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out the sellers and buyers in the temple; and the tables of the moneychangers and the stalls of the dove dealers he overturned, not allowing anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he taught and said to them, <My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations>? But you have made it a den of thieves!”

The sale of sacrificial animals and the exchange of foreign currency were originally intended to save pilgrims the laborious effort of bringing the sacrificial animals from far away. However, the high priests saw this business as a source of great profit. If the pilgrims brought their sacrificial animals themselves, supervising priests would inspect them and declare that the animals were unsuitable for sacrifice. They then directed the pilgrims to the authorized traders. The pilgrims first had to change their money and then buy the sacrificial animals from the authorized traders. There, however, the animals cost about four times their actual value.

The pilgrims had come to repent to God for their sins, to ask God for forgiveness and his blessing. They wanted to listen to God's voice and worship God. But they experienced ugly practices in the temple and were very angry. They began to doubt God's love so that they could neither repent nor pray properly.

Money-grubbing practices in the church are like the actions of the priests in the temple in Jerusalem. In contrast, there are people who devote themselves to the work of God. Andreas and Renate in our church, for example, devote their hearts and their money to the salvation of young people. They are a great blessing for God's people in Bochum and Germany.

3. Have faith in God! (20-25)

The next day in the morning, Jesus, and his disciples passed by the fig tree that Jesus had cursed. The disciples saw that the tree had withered to the root. If at least the root of the tree was still alive, it would still have had a chance to sprout new shoots, grow and bear fruit. But the tree was completely withered down to the root.

Peter remembered Jesus' words and said to Jesus: “Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered away.”

Peter was amazed because he had not believed that Jesus' word would come true. But now he saw that the tree was completely withered to the root, so that Jesus' curse was fulfilled one hundred percent.

Jesus' answer to Peter is found in verse 22: “And Jesus answered and said to them: Have faith in God!”

Why did Jesus suddenly talk about faith? - Because he wanted to teach his disciples to believe in God. He wanted to teach them that faith in God means life and blessing, while unbelief in God means curse and death.

The fruitlessness and corruption of the spiritual leaders of the Jews was caused by their unbelief in God. For example, if the high priests had believed in the living God and his promises of blessing, they would not have done unrighteous business in the temple, but would have served God wholeheartedly and created a good environment for the worship of God.

But because they did not believe in God and his promise, they wanted to get rich unjustly by abusing their office and turning the temple square into a marketplace.

The disciples of Jesus should be different from the spiritual leaders of the Jews. They should grow up as Jesus' apostles and bear much fruit, both inner and outer fruit. In order to bear fruit, they absolutely need faith in the living God. If you do not have faith in God, you become vulnerable to doubts, temptations, and trials. As a result, you become spiritually ill and sin. But if someone has faith in God, he has deep peace and great joy in his heart. He can therefore bear much good fruit. He can also help other people well so that they are saved from sin and become children of God.

Jesus wanted to raise his disciples as fruitful servants of God. That is why he taught faith in God at every opportunity.

What does it mean to believe in God?

Believing in God has many important meanings. However, I would like to mention only four essential meanings:

To believe in God means first to believe that God lives and rules over everything. Anyone who believes in the existence of God and his living rule lives before God and acts according to God's will.

Secondly, believing in God means believing that God is faithful, loving, just, holy and almighty. Our God is not a capricious God or a tyrant. He is like a good father. He cares for us personally. He is also almighty and just.

Thirdly, believing in God means believing in God's word and his promise. There are many promises of God written in the Bible. The central promise is that God will redeem us from sin and the power of death through his Son Jesus Christ and give us the kingdom of heaven. This is a wonderful promise.

The fourth thing that believing in God means is that we believe that God has come to us humans in Jesus. Believing in God means that God is with us in Jesus Christ. That is why believing in God means believing in Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus said in John 14:1: “Believe in God and believe in me!”

Jesus then says in verse 23: “Truly I tell you: Whoever says to this mountain, 'Lift yourself up and throw yourself into the sea! And did not doubt in his heart, but believed that whatever he said would happen, it would happen to him.”

A mountain is a symbol of impossible immobility. Here Jesus teaches his disciples and us the divine power of faith.

Jesus teaches us here that we can make the impossible possible through faith in God. So there is no impossibility in faith if it pleases God. We are to fulfill the divine task through faith in God.

Through faith, we can both solve our difficult problems and do something impossible for God. Therefore, we should dare to overcome all adversities through faith and save many souls from perdition. Despite all difficulties, we should not despair, but challenge them and reveal God's glory.

Each of us has our own personal problems that look like immovable mountains. But we should not only look at these problems negatively. Rather, we should look at them from the perspective of faith in God and challenge them through faith in Jesus Christ. This is how we can overcome problems, be victorious and glorify God.

We pray for 50,000 students in Bochum and Germany Mission. That looks like an immovable mountain. But we are to challenge this mountain through faith in God. And this mountain will certainly be moved. Many students and people will repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

In verse 24, Jesus continued to say to us: “Therefore I say to you: Whatever you ask in your prayer, only believe that you receive it, and it will be granted to you.”

So Jesus encourages us to pray by faith in God. After praying, we should firmly believe that God will certainly fulfill our prayer. It often happens to us that we pray but do not believe that our prayers will be answered. But Jesus encourages us to believe that our prayers will be answered. So we should pray to God by faith and firmly believe that our prayers will be answered. God will surely fulfill our prayer.

I pray that God will lead many people to faith in Jesus Christ through Andreas' sermon and through my sermon on the Internet.

I also believe that God will lead and encourage many people in Korea, Germany, and the world to believe through the publication of our autobiography. That is why I am publishing our autobiography in Korean, German and English, even though it costs something to publish.

I also pray that God will send many students and young people to worship, Bible study and lead them to faith and raise them up as good disciples. God will awaken our church and do His marvelous work.

Jesus concluded in verse 25: “And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”

Forgiving others is the prerequisite for God's answer to prayer. We are sinners before God. God is happy to forgive us. That is why we should forgive others their trespasses if we have something against someone in our hearts. Then God will gladly answer our prayer. Today I repented of my anger against a dear brother. That made me happy again, and I was able to finish writing this sermon. God will certainly fulfill my prayer.

Let's read verse 22 together again: “And Jesus answered and said to them: Have faith in God!” Amen!