Fruit Or Foliage

For example:

-We can travel by car, boat, airplane, or bus. One of the most exciting and fastest ways of travel is by airplane. We can be here today and be literally thousands of miles away in only a matter of a few short hours.

It may be a different matter when it comes to our luggage.

Illus: One businessman said, “In my work last year, I traveled over 50,000 air miles--which really is not so much when you consider that my luggage traveled over 100,000.”

Illus: Thinking of traveling by air reminds us of the story of the dirt farmer whose travel time had been zero hours. Then he went on a trip on a four prop plane. His wife, who was hard of hearing, was with him.

-As they were traveling, the pilot announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you will notice, one of our engines on the left side is no longer running. That means we will be thirty minutes late.”

-In a few minutes, the pilot came on the intercom again, saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you will notice, one of our engines on the left side is no longer running. That means we will be an hour late.”

-Soon the inevitable happened. The third engine went out. As before, the pilot came on the intercom. He announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you will notice, a third engine, on the left side, is no longer running. That means we will be an hour and a half late.”

The old dirt farmer’s wife asked, “What is that pilot talking about?” He told her, “Ma, don’t worry. We have four engines on the plane. He was just telling us three out of four have quit running and that is going to make us an hour and a half late.” She said, “Oh no! I hope the fourth one does not go out. We will be up here all day!”

Since we have become more and more mobile, there are MOTELS spaced out along the highways so we can find a place of lodging and get a good night’s sleep.

We have RESTAURANTS spaced along the highways so we can stop and have three meals a day.

We have SERVICE STATIONS spaced along the highways so we can gas and maintain our cars.

We have ROAD-SIDE PARKS spaced along the highways so we can stop and have a picnic if we so choose.

We have INFORMATION CENTERS spaced along the highways so we can obtain pertinent information we may need for our trip.

Yes, we live in an age when we can travel as no generation before us has been able to travel!

As we read our text we can imagine Jesus, walking along with His disciples, on their way from Bethany to Jerusalem.

When we travel today and get hungry we stop at a road-side restaurant. Well, in Jesus’ day they did not have all these cafeterias and fast-food restaurants. Instead they stopped and ate berries, or fruit, along the way.

Illus: Only one who has experienced being a HUNGRY TRAVELER could begin to imagine what the scene in our text may have been like. Jesus spotted a large, beautiful fig tree ahead. The tree caught His attention. Verse 12 says, “And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, HE WAS HUNGRY.” The tree had a fine covering of leaves.

When they got to the tree they could not have been any more disappointed than we would be if we had been traveling all day and got to a McDonalds only to find no food there.

Christ and the disciples were disappointed because no fruit was on that tree.

We have no record of any conversation when they arrived at that tree, but I believe we can rest assured that something took place because Christ cursed that fig tree. Look at verse 14, “...No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.”

Why did Jesus curse the tree? He cursed it because that fig tree had DECEIVED the hungry travelers as they passed that way. To enable us to see what the Lord is trying to teach us, let us look at TWO things.

I. THE FOLIAGE.

Look at verse 13. We read, “And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.”

Jesus knew it was not time for the fig tree to be bearing figs. Verse 13, “...for the time of figs was not yet.” The fig tree is supposed to have fruit when it has leaves.

Illus: The teaching of the tree was emblematic of the Jewish people. They were hypocrites. They claimed to have God’s love, but did not display it, nor would they produce it. Like many Christians today, they were ALL FOLIAGE, BUT NO FRUIT.