When I was in the insurance industry, I constantly had to deal with people seeking to maintain their policies perpetually in what they referred to as the policy’s grace period. A grace period is defined as the additional period of time a lender or an insurance policy issuer provides for a borrower to make passed due payment on a debt without penalty. I believe that there are a number of Christians living in their spiritual grace period. The question I want you to ask yourself this morning as we look at the parable of the fig tree is “Am I living in my grace period?” If you are, I hope that you will see your need and be motivated by God’s Spirit to allow Him work in you making you what you ought to be. As we study the parable of the fig tree, we want to consider the fig tree’s place, its purpose, its performance, and its probation or grace period.
I. Its Place
A. Luke 13:6 "He spoke also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard..."
B. The vineyard keeper planted it. It was not just a wild fig tree.
C. It was planted in the vineyard along with similar fruit trees.
1. It enjoyed all the same privileges as the other trees in the vineyard.
2. It had the same nourishment, rain, and sun.
D. Believers in Jesus Christ have planted by Jesus Christ into the body of Christ and as such share in the same nurturing from God.
1. Jeremiah 17:7-8a "Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh. But her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."
2. I Corinthians 12:13 "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."
II. Its Purpose
A. Luke 13:6-7 "... he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree..."
B. The purpose of the fig tree was to produce fruit. It had no other purpose for existing. It was planted to bear fruit. It was a fruit tree.
C. John 15:8 "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."
D. John 15:16 "Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."
E. So Great Salvation, Charles Ryrie, Victor Books, 1989, pp. 45-46. “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit. Somewhere, sometime, somehow. Otherwise, that person is not a believer. Every born-again individual will be fruitful. Not to be fruitful is to be faithless, without faith, and therefore without salvation. Having said that, some caveats are in order. 1. This does not mean that a believer will always be fruitful. Certainly we can admit that if there can be hours and days when a believer can be unfruitful, then why may there not also be months and even years when he can be in that same condition? Paul exhorted believers to engage in good works so they would not be unfruitful (Titus 3:14). Peter also exhorted believers to add the qualities of Christian character to their faith lest they be unfruitful (2 Peter 1:8). Obviously, both of those passages indicate that a true believer might be unfruitful. And the simple fact that both Paul and Peter exhort believers to be fruitful shows that believers are not always fruitful. 2. This does not mean that a certain person’s fruit will necessarily be outwardly evident. Even if I know the person and have some regular contact with him, I still may not see his fruit. Indeed, I might even have legitimate grounds for wondering if he is a believer because I have not seen fruit. His fruit may be very private or erratic, but the fact that I do not see it does not mean it is not there. 3. My understanding of what fruit is and therefore what I expect others to bear may be faulty and/or incomplete. It is all too easy to have a mental list of spiritual fruits and to conclude if someone does not produce what is on my list that he or she is not a believer. But the reality is that most lists that we humans devise are too short, too selective, too prejudiced, and often extrabiblical. God likely has a much more accurate and longer list than most of us do. Nevertheless, every Christian will bear fruit; otherwise, he or she is not a true believer.”
III. Its Performance
A. Luke 13:7 " ... three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?
B. The owner came looking for fruit.
C. The tree was barren – fruitless!
D. The owner had patiently waited to find fruit.
1. II Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
2. Psalms 1:1-3 "Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper."
E. If the tree was not going to bear fruit it was wasting space and should be cut down.
1. Luke 13:7 “...why cumbers it the ground” – cumber = reduce to idleness,
2. Temporarily absent from home, Captain Webster left Daniel and his brother Ezekiel with specific instructions as to the work they were to do that day. On his return, he found the task still unperformed, and questioned them about their idleness. "What have you been doing, Ezekiel?" he asked. "Nothing, sir." "Well, Daniel, what have you been doing?” "Helping Zeke, sir."
3. John 15:1-2 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit."
4. Take away – lifted – removed from its place to another place.
5. 1 John 5:16 "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it."
6. The Christian life is like an airplane -- when you stop you drop.
7. Better to be pruned to be fruitful than to be cut off.
8. Psalms 92:13-14 "Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;"
IV. Its Probation or Grace Period
A. Luke 13:8-9 "And he (the dresser of his vineyard) answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it. And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down."
B. The vinedresser interceded asking for another year, one last chance, a grace period for the tree.
C. Hebrews 7:25 "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
D. Romans 8:34 "Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
E. The parable does not tell us the result of the one-year grace period given to the fig tree. But we know the alternatives it faced.
