Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
HAVE YOU ANY FIGS?
Mark 11:11-14, "And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: 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. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it."
Mark 11:20-21, "And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away."
God’s Kingdom is often described in terms of being a vineyard which is expected to bear fruit.
In Matthew chapter 20 Jesus uses the vineyard as an example of how God will reward every man according to his obedience and faithfulness. In Matthew chapter 21 he again uses a vineyard to teach us concerning the attitudes of both the obedient and disobedient servants. In Mark chapter 12 Jesus again uses the example of a vineyard to teach us concerning the fact that he has gone on a long journey leaving his vineyard in the hands of “husbandmen” or appointed farmers and then sent his servant to gather his portion of the fruit that was produced. Those husbandmen killed the servant and would give no fruit to the owner of the vineyard. It’s a picture of God allowing each of us the privilege of working for him but expecting fruit when he returns or we will face his wrath.
The vineyards around Israel weren’t filled with only grapevines. There were also olive trees and many types of fruit trees. Among those fruit trees were the fig trees.
There were several varieties of fig trees in the land during the time that Jesus walked upon the earth. One of these was a white fig tree that did not ripen until the third year. This tree put forth its fruit the first year, which hung on it the second, and were brought to perfection on the third, so that when it was three years old, it had figs from all three years upon it and was usually full of leaves, when other fig trees had no leaves yet.
There was also a second variety of fig tree that brought forth fruit twice a year and therefore would be filled with leaves and fruit at a time when the ordinary trees were not expected to be bearing fruit.
Then there was the common variety that most of us see each year that bring forth new leaves in early spring but take up to 5 months for the figs to ripen so that they would ripen in late summer or early fall in the land of Israel. According to the materials that I have studied it was unlikely that the fig tree that Jesus saw was one of these common varieties because he was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover in the month Nisan.
Nisan was the first month of the sacred year of the Jewish calendar, and is nearly the same as the month of March on our calendar. It was originally called Abibi, but began to be called Nisan after the captivity in Egypt.
As we begin to examine this event we must remember that Jesus has now entered Jerusalem for the last few days of his life. Before this week would end he would be crucified. He has already entered the gates of the city riding upon the donkey. He has just entered into the temple and overthrown the tables of the moneychangers who were selling doves and other animals for sacrifice within the temple walls. (That’s another sermon for another time.)
Then Jesus leaves the temple and journeys to Bethany, (according to Easton’s Bible Dictionary this name means “a house of dates” or fruit) about two miles away on the slopes of the Mount of Olives and there he and the disciples spend the night.
The next morning they arose early and began the two mile walk back to Jerusalem. (This was the day that he was to face the Herodians, Pharisees and Sadducees that we spoke about last week. With each passing day and with each incident, the religious leaders were growing more angry and more determined to kill Jesus to rid the land of this heretic that threatened their leadership and ignored their authority.)
As Jesus was walking down the dusty road to Jerusalem he passed a number of vineyards that were just beginning to put forth their leaves. There was no ripe fruit to eat on most of the trees but he was getting hungry.
Just ahead, on the side of the road, outside the fences of the vineyard was a fig tree that looked promising. Most likely it was one of the varieties that bore fruit twice a year or one that would bear figs for three years as they ripened. It was filled with beautiful green leaves. This fig tree just looked so beautiful and inviting. It was full of promise, full of beauty, and stood out among all the others. It was also a tree that was easily accessible to anyone who walked this road because it belonged to no one in particular and thus it was not illegal for anyone to pick it’s figs to eat.
Jesus walked up to this gorgeous fig tree to pick a few figs but there were no figs on it. It was beautiful but it failed to fulfill its primary purpose of bearing fruit.
Now, I don’t think that this was a surprise to our Lord. His actions concerning this fig tree were predetermined so that he could teach us great lessons. Nevertheless he pronounced a curse upon that fig tree that it should never bear fruit again and it immediately began to die.
As the disciples walked away they could not see what was already happening to that fig tree. It still looked beautiful but it was already dying. It was as though the connection of its roots to the ground was already broken. No life giving nutrients or water entered its root system any longer. From the ground up it was dead. Even though it would take a little longer for the appearance of death to reach all the way to the leaves, it was dead. It still looked beautiful. There were probably other travelers who stopped by to see if it had any figs, but it was already dead. Even as they disciples passed again that evening returning to Bethany, it was still appealing to the eye, but it was already dead.
All throughout that day, through the effects of the wind, the hot sun and the cold of the desert night, it withered away and died.
When the disciples came by again the next morning the fig tree was totally withered and dried up and they were surprised at how quickly it had died.
You might be saying to yourself right now, “What is your point? What are you trying to say and what does this fig tree incident have to do with me right here and right now?
This story of the fig tree is a parable of sorts that explains God’s expectations and judgments upon Israel and the Jews. They were the “Apple of God’s Eye”. Israel is spoken of all through the Bible as being as an “earthly wife” to God.
Oh how Jesus loved Jerusalem and his own people. He had stood on the hill overlooking the city only a few days before and literally cried for them saying, “how often would I have gathered you under my wings, but you would not let me.” I love you; I want to bless you; I want to give you the best that Heaven can give; I want to give you honor and glory among all nations; I want to give you blessings you cannot contain; but you won’t let me. Your disobedience, your hard hearts and your rejection of my Lordship over your lives has forced my to bring judgment upon you.
Jerusalem my beloved city, Israel the land that I have chosen, and my people whom I love so very much – you are going to be cut off from the life giving power of God. Your blessings are turned to a curse and you will be a nation no longer until your trespasses are finished. I will soon be gone and God’s wrath will fall upon you. Your temple will be destroyed and the people scattered for many generations. Oh, Israel, this is not what I wanted for you but you leave me no choice.
Israel had been chosen to bring forth fruit. They had been a place of prominence among nations. They had been given the best that God had to offer and yet they had borne no fruit. They were a beautiful people to look at but they were already a dying nation because God had lifted his blessing and his protection from them and they were doomed to experience the wrath of God.
Now before you pass judgment upon Israel let us examine what all of this means to you and I right now!
Jesus said these words while was teaching the disciples one day, John 15:1-8, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."
Can you see that Jesus is coming to each of us this morning expecting to find some fruit just as he did that fig tree on the road to Bethany?
We are not represented by the common fig trees for we are not commanded to bear fruit only at certain times of our lives.
We are not represented by the fig trees that only bore fruit twice a year at a given time and with limited ability to produce.
We are represented by those fig trees who were in a constant, never ending, state of producing and bearing fruit.
Can you believe that God is hungry for us to bear the fruit of lost souls into his Kingdom that men can be saved and his Kingdom will grow?
How often does God come by to see if you have any fruit to offer to him? How often does he actually find and fruit and how often does he turn away with an empty hand?
If we are represented by that constant bearing fig tree then there should always be fruit in our lives that is in various stages of ripening. What do I mean by that?
There should always be those who we are attempting to reach for Christ. There should always be an ongoing work for the Lord in the place where he has called us to work. There should be a constant change taking place within each of us as we are growing and ripening on the vine of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will never “arrive” until we reach our eternal home, but we will be changed into his image like Isaiah 28:10 says, "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:"
Perhaps there are those with whom you have just begun to build a relationship so that you can eventually bring the message of the gospel to them. Then there may be others who you are now doing your best to reach on a regular basis, trying to drive the message of the gospel home and get them to understand now that they will listen and trust you. Then there are those that you have already witnessed to and who are making up their own mind as to what they will do about Jesus. Then there are those who have already made that decision and are a part of the fruit that you bear to offer to the Lord when he comes by.
In the realm of working in ministry, we find ourselves in many stages of ripening also. We may be just beginning to learn to work in the vocation where God has placed us. We may be past the beginning stage and now we are feeling somewhat competent and we know that God is really beginning to use us. Then there are those who have been working for God long enough that they have learned that it’s all God anyway and so you just relax and go about doing what God has called you to do to the best of your ability while depending upon God for the results and for the fruit of your labor.
Perhaps you have learned to be like a constant producing fig tree because you have learned to be like Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."
We are to be ever-producing trees for the Lord. The fruit should be always ripening and God should always find us with satisfying results for his Kingdom.
The problem is that I see a lot of beautiful trees out there who have no fruit and are living in danger of the curse.
There are a lot of Christians who attend church every time the doors are opened, who love God (or at least claim to), but they are like that tree full of leaves. They are beautiful to look at. They might have a good attitude. They may put forth a beautiful appearance. But there is no real fruit.
You don’t see a change taking place in their lives at all. They are the same spiritually as they were 5 years ago. They haven’t grown in the Lord at all. They aren’t involved in any kind of ministry. Instead they are focused totally on living life after their own desires. They come to the church, support the church, love the church, but they don’t get involved in any ministry of the church. These are the fig trees with no fruit. They haven’t won a soul to the Lord in many years, if ever. They are afraid to talk to anyone outside of their circle of friends. They don’t try to build new relationships in an effort to win the lost. They just go along hoping that one day God will dump someone in their lap who wants to be led to the Lord.
How many of you have ever had anyone come beating down your door, begging you to lead them to Christ? I never have and I doubt that many of you have either. We have to go to them, they aren’t going to come to us? God can bring people to us but he mostly expects us to go to them.
Jesus said, “Go Ye into all the world”. He didn’t say, “Stay where you are and I will send them to you.”
Bearing fruit isn’t always easy. That fig tree had to be rooted and grounded in good soil. It had to endure the hot, burning sun. It had to endure the cold of the night. It had to endure the sand storms and wind and rain. It had to endure the birds that would come and steal its figs. It had to endure people who would try to climb up and break a branch or those who would break off a leaf here and there. It had to worry about insects and worms and anything else that could ruin its power to produce. But it stayed where it was and just produced fruit.
It didn’t uproot itself and decide that this road, this field, this church wasn’t good enough. It stayed put and trusted in God to bring the growth necessary to produce.
What do you think would have happened if that fig tree had decided to be replanted elsewhere? It would have gone into shock, lost all of its leaves, failed to bring forth fruit at the right time and perhaps even died.
How many Christians are in ruins today for the same reason? They uproot themselves from the place where God has planted them because the fields look greener somewhere else. They say that God is moving them, but most of the time it isn’t God doing the moving, it’s their own desires.
How many times have I seen people who were flourishing in their work for the Lord who suddenly decide to make a change and then their whole ministry dies for a while and sometimes never returns to its original productivity? It’s like their ministry goes into shock. All the things that they were accomplishing for Christ fall away and disappear. They seem to be barren and you wonder if they are even going to make it or not.
Somehow God helps a lot of us to come back from making such mistakes but most of the time we fall victim to placing the curse of death on ourselves and we never recover to become the fruitful tree or vine that God intended for us to be.
There are also some who fall away from the Lord and never come back to church again. It is those who will bear the curse of death. They will wither and die because they are cut off from the life that comes only through staying connected to Christ. It is truly amazing how quickly people fall away from serving God and go back into their old ways of sin and death.
Do you have any figs in your life right now? Are you bearing any fruit for the Lord or are you just a pretty tree to look at? Have you lost your purpose for serving the Lord and bearing fruit?
Maybe you are already dying and you need to get reconnected to Christ by rededicating your life to Jesus right now.
Maybe there are those of you who have never even been planted into God’s kingdom yet. If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you aren’t even a tree yet. You can’t produce fruit for the Kingdom of God until you become a part of his vineyard.
Let’s make sure that we are more than just pretty trees. Let’s bear some fruit. That’s the only way we can expect to receive the blessings of God in our church and in our lives. Get connected to the Spirit of the Lord and start bearing fruit right now!
