Video
Service Sheet Outline & Questions
Accountability to Truth (Matthew 21:18–27
The Kingdom’s Values (Matthew 19–23) #7
King Jesus exposes fruitless religion and evasive unbelief, and calls us to respond to God’s truth with trusting, honest obedience.
Introduction
Jesus sees beneath respectable appearances and careful words to whether we are truly responding to God.
1. Jesus judges leaves without fruit (vv. 18–19)
Religious appearance cannot replace the repentance, prayer, love, obedience and witness that flow from real spiritual life.
2. Jesus teaches faith that prays under God’s will (vv. 20–22)
Faith does not try to control God but trusts him enough to pray and obey when his purposes seem impossible.
3. Jesus exposes leaders who will not tell the truth (vv. 23–27)
The leaders hide behind “We don’t know” because acknowledging the truth would require repentance and submission to Jesus.
Conclusion
Because Jesus is God’s authorised King who goes to the cross for sinners, we need not hide: we can repent, trust him and ask God to produce the fruit of honest obedience in us.
Questions to think about...
1. Read verses 18–19. What does the fig tree show us about the difference between religious appearance and genuine spiritual fruit? Where might Jesus find “leaves without fruit” in our lives or in our life together as a church?
2. How do verses 20–22 correct the idea that faith and prayer are ways of getting whatever we want? What would it look like for us to trust God by praying for repentance, courage, fruitfulness and gospel advance?
3. Why do the religious leaders answer, “We don’t know,” in verses 23–27? Where are we tempted to hide behind uncertainty or careful words when Jesus is calling us to repent, trust and obey him?
(Optional — Whole Series Reflection) As we have followed Jesus through Matthew 19–21, what has he shown us about grace, greatness, worship and his authority as King? What truth from the series most needs to shape our obedience now?
Manuscript
Accountability to Truth | Matthew 21:18-27 | Richmond Church | 12 July 2026
Introduction
Many of us know how to look fine from a distance. And many of us also know how to keep our language careful when the truth feels costly. We know how to look all right in the room while things are not all right underneath. We know how to keep the conversation tidy and give the answer that protects us. We know how to maintain the appearance of health while the reality is thinner than it looks. That is exactly the kind of pressure this passage exposes. Jesus is now in Jerusalem in the last week before the cross. He has entered the city as king. He has cleansed the temple. So these verses are not detached sayings about prayer or just an awkward argument with difficult leaders. This is one public reckoning. Jesus is showing what his kingdom does when it meets empty religion. Last week we used the footnotes to understand Matthew’s temple scene. This week there are fewer obvious footnotes to lean on. So we need the cross references and wider fig-tree imagery in Scripture to understand what Jesus is doing. The real contrast in this passage is not between ordinary people and very bad leaders, or between weak faith and strong faith. It is between visible religion and real response to God. It is between leaves and fruit. It is between careful words and honest submission. Jesus judges leaves without fruit, teaches faith that prays under God’s will, and exposes leaders who will not tell the truth.
Kingdom value: Accountability to the truth This passage searches more than one level of life. It searches personal discipleship, church culture, leadership, and the habits and phrases we use to keep ourselves looking respectable while resisting the searching voice of Jesus. This is one of those passages where the Lord does not let us stay at the level of interest. He presses for response. And if you would not call yourself a Christian, or if you are still exploring all this, one of the useful things about Jesus is that he never flatters empty religion. He is not impressed by appearance for appearance’s sake. He goes straight for what is real.
1. Jesus judges leaves without fruit (18-19)
Look down at Matthew 21:18-19 (NIV84) [18] Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. [19] Seeing a fig-tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. On first reading, that can feel severe. It can even feel jarring. Why curse a tree? Why does Jesus do this? The answer is that this is not random irritation. Jesus doesn’t have a grudge with gardening. This is an acted verdict. It is a judgment sign.
Almost every other miracle of Jesus is clothed in compassion, mercy, healing, rescue, or provision. Here, the miracle does not restore. It judges. This is Jesus’ judgement miracle. * He is not being petty. * He is making something visible. Look at the leaves. In this setting, leaves suggest promise. They raise the expectation that there will be early fruit. On a fig tree like this, the early leaves are not empty decoration. They normally come with the first edible buds. So when Jesus finds “nothing on it except leaves,” the problem is not merely absence. The problem is false advertisement. The problem is not that the tree looks dead, but that it looks alive. It advertises life. It promises nourishment. But on inspection there is nothing there. Why would Jesus go looking for fruit at all? The point is not that he has made an unfair demand of a healthy tree. The point is that the tree is giving every outward sign that something should be there. The leaves are making a claim. The appearance is offering a promise. And Jesus’ inspection exposes that the promise is false. This sign belongs with the temple cleansing the day before. where Jesus had just judged worship in Jerusalem that had become hollow and self-serving. Now, on the road back in, he gives the disciples a living picture of the same reality. The fig tree is a sign of fruitless religion. It stands especially for Jerusalem’s leadership in the temple context, though the warning reaches more widely than that. Leaves everywhere. No fruit. And once you see that, the Old Testament background starts to matter. And the Bible has prepared us for this image. Trace the fig tree through the Old Testament, and you get the pattern. Follow the fig / fig tree trail in your cross references or concordance, and sort what you find into two themes: * peace / blessing * fruitlessness / judgment At times the fig tree is a picture of peace, blessing, covenant health. But later, the prophets use the same image the other way. No figs. Withered figs. Fruitless figs. So when Jesus comes to a leafy tree with no fruit, he is not reacting like a frustrated gardener. He is speaking in a prophetic language the Bible has already taught us how to hear. That is how we are meant to hear the sign. Leaves are not fruit. Appearance is not the same as life. The tree looks healthy from a distance, but it leaves a hungry traveller empty-handed. That is what false religion does. It can look full, busy, and well-established. It can have structure and visibility. But where is the fruit? Where is repentance? Where is prayer? Where is honest obedience? Where is welcome for the king? And we should not leave that in first-century Jerusalem. It is possible to have leaves without fruit in Richmond as well. A church can have * sound words, * full diaries, * active people, * regular meetings and still be thin in * prayer, * repentance, * love, * welcome, and * witness. A Christian can know how to look stable and say the right things and still be spiritually barren. Jesus is not fooled by leaves. So before we rush on, the first question is personal. * Where would Jesus find leaves only in me? * Where have I treated visible activity as proof of spiritual health? * Where am I content with shape, routine, and impression, while fruit is missing? And the second question is corporate. What would Jesus inspect in us as a church? Not just whether the rota is covered, the service runs, the diary is full, and the words are orthodox, but whether there is real fruit. * Are people praying? * Are sins being confessed? * Are hurting people being welcomed? * Are we becoming more truthful, more gentle, more obedient, and more ready to bring others to Christ? Or are we content that the leaves look healthy from the road? And even there, the warning is not given so that we hide better. Jesus exposes what is false because he means to lead people into what is real. But he will not do that by flattering our appearance. So do not leave this point in the abstract. * Name one place where your leaves look healthier than the fruit * and bring that honestly before the Lord. And do not imagine that spiritual drift is neutral. We sometimes speak about an old friendship and say, “When we meet, it is as though we were never apart.” But often that just means we have stepped back into old jokes, old stories, and old versions of ourselves. The old feeling may return, but recovering the old feeling is not the same as real closeness. Distance does not preserve a relationship unchanged. It means the changes happen without being shared. And it is similar with the Lord. If we stop paying attention to Christ, we should not assume our spiritual life is being kept safely where we left it. Other voices are speaking. Other loves are growing. Other habits are forming. We do not drift into prayerfulness, repentance, love, or fruitfulness by accident. You can step back from a programme. You may genuinely need rest. But you cannot stop seeking Christ and expect spiritual health to remain unchanged. The question is not simply, “Do I still feel some affection for Jesus?” It is: “Am I sharing my present life with him? Am I listening to him, responding to him, and allowing him to shape the person I am becoming?” Jesus judges leaves without fruit.
2. Jesus teaches faith that prays under God’s will (20-22)
Watch the disciples’ question.
They do not ask first, “What does this sign mean?” Look down at Matthew 21:20 (NIV84) [20] When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig-tree wither so quickly?” they asked.
And Jesus answers at the level of their amazement. Look down at Matthew 21:21-22 (NIV84) [21] Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig-tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. [22] If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” So do not hear these verses as prayer magic. Do not hear positive thinking. Do not hear Jesus handing you a technique for getting whatever you fancy. What is he doing then? Keep this inside the scene - the judgment frame. Jesus has just exposed fruitless religion. Now he teaches his disciples the positive opposite. Not empty appearance. Real dependence. Not self-confident religion. Trusting prayer under the king’s authority. What does Jesus mean by “do not doubt”? Some hear that line and collapse inward at once. As if Jesus were saying, * “If you ever feel fear, you have failed.” * “If you ever tremble, you do not really believe.” He is not saying that.
He is not rebuking every passing weakness of feeling. He is exposing divided unbelief: a heart that refuses to lean on God.
And then there is the mountain. Do not turn the mountain into spectacle. What looks impossible is not impossible to God. There may even be local vividness in the picture. The temple mount itself may be standing there in view. That may add force to the picture, but the line is not mainly about geography. It is about the power of God meeting the impossible through believing prayer. So when God purposes something, his people are not to answer with hedging unbelief. They are to answer with trusting prayer.
And what about verse 22? Look down at Matthew 21:22 (NIV84) [22] If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Do not hear “whatever you ask” as a blank cheque for whatever you fancy. Scripture will not let us hear it that way. Jesus teaches elsewhere that asking is tied to abiding in him and having his words remain in us. John later says that confidence in prayer means asking according to God’s will. So the line here is not, “believe harder so you can get more.” The line is, “trust God enough to ask and act where obedience looks impossible.” And that fits the passage. In the next scene the leaders will not trust heaven’s verdict because it will cost them too much. The disciples must not become like them. They must learn to depend on God for what God purposes to do.
So what should they ask for? What should we ask for? Not spectacle. Not leverage. Not private wishes dressed up as prayer. Pray for… * fruitfulness * repentance * courage * truthfulness * gospel advance * obstacles to real worship to be removed * the kind of obedience that cannot be sustained by your own resources. In ordinary life, that means we do not use prayer to get God to rubber-stamp our preferences. We pray for the grace to tell the truth. We pray for the courage to repent. We pray for homes where Christ is honoured. We pray for gospel opportunities. We pray for stubborn sins to be broken. We pray for deadness to give way to life. We pray for Christ to make us fruitful. And that lands quite close to the season we are in as a church. We have been praying about the shape of our week, the pressures on ministries, the need for workers, and whether some things are truly fruitful as they stand. That means this is not only a passage about private prayer. It also teaches us how to pray as a church when the way forward is not obvious. Not, “Lord, bless whatever we are already attached to.” Not, “Lord, help us keep everything exactly as it is.” But: Lord, show us where there is real fruit. Lord, make us willing to change what is familiar if that better serves your purposes. Lord, give us courage to seek faithful fruitfulness rather than preserve appearances. That is not restlessness or harshness. It is bringing the life of the church under the will of God in prayer. That is mountain-moving prayer in the sense Jesus means it here. And if you are weary, hear this carefully. Jesus is not mocking small people with heavy burdens. He is not saying, “If you were better, you would never struggle,” or, “Believe hard enough and you can control outcomes.” He is teaching needy disciples to depend on God for what God purposes to do. Jesus teaches faith that prays under God’s will. So pray this passage. Pray for fruit where there has only been appearance. Pray for courage where obedience feels costly. Pray for the Lord to move what you cannot move.
3. Jesus exposes leaders who will not tell the truth (23-27)
Look down at Matthew 21:23 (NIV84) [23] Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?” On one level, that can sound like a fair question. “By what authority are you doing these things?” Jesus has disrupted the temple. He has confronted the system. He is teaching publicly in their own territory.
But Jesus knows what this is. This is not an honest search for truth. They are not trying to understand him. They are trying to trap him.
So he answers with a question of his own: Look down at Matthew 21:24-25a (NIV84) [24] Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. [25] John’s baptism–where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?” That is not a dodge. And it exposes everything. Look down at Matthew 21:25b-26 (NIV84) [25] … They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ [26] But if we say, ‘From men’–we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” Why John? Because John’s ministry and Jesus’ authority stand together. John was God’s prophetic forerunner. He called Israel to repentance. If John’s baptism was from heaven, then the leaders should have believed him, repented, and received the one John announced. He stood at the hinge of the story: calling Israel to repentance because the kingdom of heaven was near, and publicly identifying Jesus. If they had answered John’s question honestly, they would already have their answer about Jesus. So when Jesus brings John into this temple confrontation, he is not changing the subject. He is forcing the leaders back to evidence they already refused.
Watch what happens next. They do not weigh truth neutrally. They calculate fallout. * If they say, “From heaven,” * Jesus will ask why they did not believe him. * If they say, “From men,” * they fear the crowd. Look down at Matthew 21:27a (NIV84) [27] So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” They do what evasive people do: * They calculate. * They huddle. * They weigh the social cost. * And finally they say, “We don’t know.” It is the ancient equivalent of “no comment.”
Now that can sound modest, cautious, even responsible. But here it is none of those things. This is not humble uncertainty but evasive dishonesty. The leaders do not fail because they lack information. They fail because they fear the implications of the truth. They have seen and heard enough. Their problem is not intellectual shortage. Their problem is moral refusal. They will not say what they know because saying it would cost them too much.
And that is why this passage is so searching for respectable religious people. * It is possible to look thoughtful while being dishonest. * It is possible to sound cautious while resisting the truth. * It is possible to use the language of balance, process, and discernment while the real issue is simply that obedience is too costly. And that means the fig tree and the leaders belong together. The tree had leaves without fruit. The leaders have office without honesty, status without submission, and the language of discernment governed by self-protection and fear of people. So when Jesus says… Look down at Matthew 21:27b (NIV84) [27] … “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” He is not being evasive. He is judging them. He is showing that those who refuse revealed truth are in no position to sit in judgment on him.
This lands very close to us. We may not stand in the temple in priestly robes, but we know the same instinct. We know how to keep our options open, use careful language, sound balanced while refusing to yield, and hide behind uncertainty when obedience would be costly. And if we apply this to our church life, telling the truth means admitting where there are real concerns. * Weakness in corporate prayer is a real concern. * It is deeply concerning when many are not truly woven into the fellowship of the church, remaining regular attenders without moving towards committed belonging. We must not cover those things with polite words. We must not distract ourselves with, “But Sunday morning feels busy.” We need to bring such things into the light before the Lord. If those things are true, then saying, “We’re doing fine,” is not caution. It is evasion. * Sometimes “I don’t know” really does mean, “I am still learning.” * But sometimes “I don’t know” or “I’m still working it out” means, “I do not want to say what Scripture requires because it will cost me socially, relationally, or professionally.” That may happen in public witness: someone asks what Christians believe, and we blur what we know because we do not want the room to go cold. It may happen in church life: we know we need to apologise, confess, or reconcile, but we delay because the conversation feels costly. It may happen in private discipleship: we keep serving and sounding engaged while prayer has dried up and repentance has stalled. And if you are exploring Christianity, this may be one of the points where the passage helps you most. Jesus is saying that the real barrier is not always lack of evidence. Sometimes the barrier is that truth may require a change we do not want. That is the searching power of the passage. Jesus judges self-protective non-answers. So the question here is not only what the chief priests and elders did. The question is: * Where am I hiding behind uncertainty? * What truth feels too costly to say? * What obedience feels too costly to embrace? Jesus exposes leaders who will not tell the truth. So do not only admire this exposure in other people…. * Tell the truth where you have been evasive. * Have the conversation you have delayed. * Say the thing Scripture already requires you to say. * Obey where you already know the Lord is right.
Conclusion
Put the whole passage together and you can feel its force.
- There is a tree with leaves but no fruit.
- There are disciples being taught to trust God under his will.
- There are leaders with authority on paper, but no integrity before heaven. And the one standing at the centre of it all is Jesus himself, heaven’s authorised king. Jesus shows what is hollow. He shows what real faith looks like. He shows how easily religious people can hide behind appearance and evasion. And he does all of this on the way to the cross. The one whose authority is challenged here is the one who will bear judgment in the place of sinners. The one who exposes leaves without fruit is also the one who can forgive, renew, and make fruitful. He is not exposing what is false in order to discard us, but to bring us into what is real. That means even this severe passage carries hope. The disciples are not discarded. They are taught. Sinners are not invited to hide better. They are invited to come honestly. He does not want a tidier outward performance. He wants truth in the inward parts and real fruit in the life. So the right response is not to defend ourselves, tidy the leaves, or craft a better excuse. It is to come honestly into the light. This week, name one place where you have been living on appearance. This week, name one truth you have been dodging. And then bring both honestly to Christ in prayer. Ask him to forgive what is false and produce what is real. Ask him to make you truthful .where you have been evasive, and prayerful .where you have only been impressive. Because the king who judges empty appearance also teaches needy disciples and receives sinners who come truthfully to him.