Its time to be ready, the King is coming.
Its about 30 AD. The place is Jerusalem. It is the month of Nissan and the sun is sweltering overhead. There is a large crowd gathering along the dusty highway and your peer over the heads of the people in front of you. The crowd is shouting Hallelujah and waving palm branches in the air. Appearing in the distance you can see the sight of a man riding on a colt. You suddenly realise is it the prophet Jesus that they have all been talking about.
This of course is the scene were Jesus enters the place he has been heading towards his entire ministry. This is Jerusalem. As Christians we know that Jesus has met us individually and he continues to do so, as we grow closer to him. But we also long to see Jesus come to our town and our church, just as he entered Jerusalem that day. We want to see him move in this church and this town in such a way that no person is left untouched. We are desperate to see revival and lost souls saved, just as has happened in the revivals of the past. I truly believe that Jesus is going to do just that and we will see a move of Gods Spirit in this church that we have not seen before.
Mark 11:1
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of
Olives. Jesus sent two of his disciples,
2:saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no-one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
3: If anyone asks you,’ Why are you doing this?’ tell him. The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’"
4:They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it,
5:some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?"
6:They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.
7:When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.
8:Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.
9:Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
10:"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest!"
11:Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve,
12:The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
13:Seeing in the distance a fig-tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.
14:Then he said to the tree, "May no-one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
15:On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
16:and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
17:And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers’."
18:The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19:When evening came, they went out of the city,
20:In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig-tree withered from the roots.
21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig-tree you cursed has
withered!"
22:"Have faith in God," Jesus answered.
23:"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ’Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
The chapter is reciprocated in Matthew chapter 21 and the end of Luke chapter 19. I am not talking today about the return of Jesus, although that does apply, what I want to talk about is the exiting prospect of a revival coming to our town and our church. We tend to think that revival comes easy. You only have to look at what happened to saints in previous revivals, and the trouble they went through, to know that this is not the case. When God gave me this message I had a sense of excitement, that God is ready and willing to do a mighty move in our church, but also a sense of warning and trepidation at the consequences that that would entail. God has given me two warnings from this chapter that we need to heed.
The lesson of the fig tree.
The fig tree is a low deciduous tree that is native to Southwest Asia. It is an important plant mentioned several times in the Old Testament and associated with Gods promises of prosperity and also with prophetic warnings. The failure of these slow growing trees which demand years of patient labour was a national calamity, and there productiveness was a sign of divine favour. You can see that Jesus using a fig tree as an illustration was no accident.
In the Old Testament you will rarely see a fig tree mentioned without the vine being mentioned in the same verse. The fig tree was planted with the vine and its branches and the vines foliage would entwine. This led to a well used expression in the Old Testament, "to sit down under ones own vine and fig tree" which was a symbol of long continued well being and prosperity. The vine and the fig-tree are never mentioned together in the New Testament, but it is Jesus himself who call himself the true vine (John 15:1). Here in this chapter we have a picture of the vine and the fig tree once again coming together, which should have brought prosperity.
In verse 12 of Mark chapter 11 we read that Jesus was hungry. The word hungry in the Greek literally means to seek with eager desire, or to suffer need for. When God moves in a church the first thing that he looks for are the fruits.
Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23.gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Jesus can demand to see these fruits as he displayed them himself. It is quite fitting that he calls himself the true Vine, as from the fruit of the vine, when it is crushed, we get wine. This is the very thing that Jesus, at the Last Supper, used to symbolise his death and his spilt blood upon the cross. If we look at the fruits of the spirit we can see that Jesus demonstrated each one of these to the uttermost while he was hanging on the cross. It takes a lot of kindness to take the penalty of sin, for the very people who are crucifying you. It takes a lot of self control to hang on the cross in agony when you have the power to call all of heavens angels to your rescue. It is because Jesus sets the standard when it comes to displaying the fruits of the spirit that he expects us to do the same.
The fig tree gave all the allusion that it was a fruitful and fertile tree by displaying its green luscious leaves. In the same way we can find ourselves in the church, displaying all the appearance of a strong Christian, while the fruits we should display remain bad, poor or non existent. If we spend more time developing a ministry than we do praying, reading his word and having fellowship with him, then our leaves will grow but our fruits will remain undeveloped. On the inner side of a fig tree is something called a receptacle which small flowers grow from. It is further development of this receptacle that causes growth of the fruits, but it can’t develop unless the tree has first been fertilised. If we are to see growth in the fruits of the spirit in our lives then we have to be daily fertilised by the Holy Spirit.
If we want God to move in our church then when He does come, we have to be prepared. The fig tree was not ready when Jesus passed by and when he spoke the word, the fig tree withered. This was no magical curse that the word curse seems to represent today. Jesus was simply exposing the fig tree for what it really was, worthless. He saying that if it wasn’t ready now, then it never would be, because it was already pretending that it was. Therefore when Jesus moves in our church he is going to be looking for those who are bearing fruit. Those who aren’t, but have the pretence that the are, will be exposed for all to see.
We can not use the excuse, as in verse 13, that it is not the right season for us to bear fruit. Blaming our lack of kindness on our own lack of finances, blaming our lack of love on the lack of love shown to us, if we are displaying any form of Christianity then we should also be bearing the fruit.
The lesson of the Temple.
Sandwiched in-between Marks account of the fig tree, is the time of Jesus’ cleansing the Temple. I believe that it is no accident that Mark has placed it there. The temple that Jesus entered is the third Temple and the one that was built by Herod. The original Temple was built by Solomon in around 960 BC.
1 Kings 5:5
I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said,’ Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.’
The Temple was always meant as a place for God to be worshiped This worship had been defiled many times over the years and it was the Good Kings of Judah, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, who would then cleanse the temple and rededicate it to God. All forms of revolting things had been allowed to happen in the Temple, including the worship of Baal (2 Chronicles 24:7). It is quite significant that it is Jesus, ’The Son of David’, who would be the one who would cleanse the Temple. The Lord said to David, it is your son who I will put on your throne, who will build the temple in my name. He was, of course, in the short term, referring to Solomon; but in the future, He was preparing the way for Jesus to come and be the true, lasting Temple of the Lord. Jesus therefore, had to demonstrate the importance of true worship in the Temple.
The first place that Jesus was going to head for was always going to be the Temple. The moneychangers in the temple courts were, in some way, only offering what was an essential service. After all when people came to the temple to put in their offerings, they couldn’t put in coins with the pictures of Roman Gods on them. They had to have them changed into something that would be acceptable. Yet this activity, that in its self was amoral, had actually begun to squeeze out me true worship of God. Amongst the hustle and bustle of this activity, people were unable to worship. How many times do we find that this is true in our own lives and in our own church? That what appears to be wholesome works actually prevent us from spending time in worshipping God. We underestimate how much this grieves God. We only have to look at Jesus’ actions in Mark chapter 11, and we can see the true significance of this sin.
When Revival comes to any church the first thing that will be affected is the temple of the Lord. God will come and he will cleanse it at whatever cost, and sometimes this can be a painful experience. When this occurs, only the humble will survive, because it will mean destroying our pride and admitting we were wrong on how we have treated God. When this happens, there can only be two kinds of reactions. Firstly you have that of Jesus’ followers, who were initially shocked by His outrageous actions, but then realised that He is God and revered him even more. The second reaction is that of the Pharisees, they hated Jesus even more because he had revealed their false righteousness and exposed them to the people. It was their jealousy that blinded their eyes and made them unable to realise that it was God working and not just a mad man.
They had seen plenty of people come before claiming to be the Messiah and so were caught in a false sense of security. They should however have recognised Jesus by his actions and his passion for the temple of God. In Malachi chapter 3 and verses 1 to 4, the prophet clearly states the Messiah will enter the temple and purify it. When God moves in a church, there are those who will despise the event, stating that it is only hype. They have seen the destruction brought by false moves of the spirit and refuse to accept anything that it is out of the ordinary. These are the people who are not in daily contact with the Lord, and their stubbornness will result in their emptiness being exposed. When God moves in a church we will recognise him by the cleansing of the temple. He will rid us of our empty practises and refocus our attention on the one true God. We need to make sure that when God moves in our church we recognise him for who is.
Conclusion.
From this chapter there is two main things that we need in order to be ready when the King visits our church in power. Firstly we need to be prepared. We need to make sure that when Jesus comes by looking hungrily for our fruits, that we are displaying more than just green leaves. Secondly, we need to recognise him when he comes. When he starts to rid us of things in our lives, and in our church, we need to accept it and turn back to true worship rather than resenting it. We seem to want always to be in control of our own lives and our church. When God moves we have to be willing to submit completely to His authority.
Let me encourage you, as well as warnings, there are also great reward for those who are prepared, and do recognise the move of God. It was only after the fig tree had withered that Jesus was able to teach the disciples a lesson on faith. When those who are unfruitful have been removed there will be an upsurge of faith that will allow us to see things that we have never seen before. We will be able to see the sick healed and the miraculous happen. When the temple has been cleansed, both in the church and in our own lives, then we will be able to come into the presence of God further than we have ever been before. It is through the power of true miracles, (Romans 15: 18-19) and most of all, through the genuine worship of God in our church that we will be able to offer the world something different and people in this town will come to know Christ. When God brings revival to a town it always comes through individuals and then the church first before unbelievers come to know Christ.
