PRETTY LEAVES
Pastor Jim May
Matthew 21:18-22, "Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
A teacher was grading a science test at home that she had given to her elementary school class and was reading some of the answers to her husband as they sat in the study. The subject of the test was "The Human Body," and the first question the students had to answer was, "Name one of the major functions of the skin." One child wrote: "To keep people who look at you from throwing up."
I want us to look at this story of the fig tree tonight and wonder if God feels like throwing us up, or like Jesus says in Revelation 3:16, "…I will spue thee out of my mouth."
On the next morning, after the day of the Triumphal Entry, Jesus was on his way back into Jerusalem from Bethany. He had already cast out the moneychangers from the temple, healed the blind and the lame that came to Him, and had shut the mouths of the Scribes and the Chief Priest.
It had been a busy day because Jesus was all about business. He wasn’t here, in this earth, in the form of a man, to play games with the devil. He was here to defeat the devil and redeem the souls of men who were lost without God.
Don’t let us ever forget that Jesus’ number one passion is that lost souls will be saved. Too many churches today have lost sight of that all-important mission and have gone off on tangents to build huge social clubs and grand buildings as monuments to the men that build them, but they forget God’s first love – lost souls.
My friends, we can give people all the social interaction we want to but that won’t save them.
We can have “Wednesday night Live” dinners like one church I know of, who comes together in their midweek services, not to hear a Word from the Lord, or to see souls saved, but for a church social dinner and dancing in the gym. We can build a “sanctuary” that will seat 20,000 people and we can fill those seats if we just bring in some dazzling entertainment and big name starts that will come just to get the offering that is collected - but most of the people in that setting will still be sitting there after the Rapture of the church because they are leaning on a false belief that just being a part of the church will save them in the end.
That’s what Jesus saw when he looked at the people and nation that He had chosen to be a people separated unto Him. Israel wasn’t even close to living by the law and standards that God had placed upon them. They were pretty to look at with all their religiosity and priestly robes. They had every outward appearance of being a nation that was blessed; a nation after God’s own heart - but that was only on the outside.
Once you got past their priestly robes, their religious festivals and their religious traditions, you would find that they were a nation that was spiritually bankrupt and morally destitute.
I believe that’s what Jesus is pointing to when we read about His encounter with a single little fig tree by the side of the road.
On the way back into Jerusalem the very next morning, Jesus was hungry. His body longed for something to fill that void that he felt in his being. He needed something that would bring new strength, new vitality to his body, so that He could continue the work that was set before Him. The man, Jesus Christ, was hungry. His flesh needed nourishment.
But I believe it went much deeper than that. It wasn’t just the man, Jesus Christ, who was hungry – it was also the God, Jesus Christ, who was searching for something that would add to His glory and His majesty. God was looking for some fruit that He could call His own.
Luke 19:10, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus wasn’t just looking for figs – that was an object lesson in what He was really looking for – a people who were bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God.
I wonder how many of us, right here in the Louisiana District of the PCG, are what we appear to be? Are we bearing fruit or are we just covered by a bunch of pretty leaves that hides our nakedness and barrenness from the eyes of the world? Are we trying to hide from God and hope that He can’t see us for what we really are? Are we what we should be? Are we bearing the fruit that Jesus is looking for?
Matthew 21:19 says that, "…when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away."
Now I’m no Greek scholar, and I certainly can’t translate from the original Greek on the spot like Dr. Hunt, but in my studies for this message I ran across a tasty little tidbit from some of the materials that I studied.
It seems that there is a difference of opinion on what this verse says in that first line. Some translators tell us that it says, “when he say “one fig tree” in the way – one very special looking little fig tree that stood out among all the others.
I think that this is significant, simply because of the context of what Jesus saw as he walked the road between Bethany and Jerusalem. The very name of Bethany meant “house of early figs”.
I’ve heard it preached on a number of occasions that Jesus was unfair to this fig tree because they say that it was not the time of ripened figs. Well you can believe that Jesus was unfair if you want to but I prefer to believe that Jesus was without sin and without partiality, even when it comes to fig trees. Whatever Jesus was expecting should have been there and when it wasn’t, then that tree deserved the curse that was put upon it by our Lord.
Along the road from Bethany to Jerusalem there were a lot of fig trees. This road leads over the Mount of Olives where there were orchards of Olive Trees and Fig Trees. It was the time of the year when all of the fig trees are budding and putting forth leaves. But this little fig tree had better leaves than all the rest of the trees did. It seemed to stand out, stand alone, among all the trees in the orchard.
The Bible says that this tree was “in the way”. It was growing wild, by the side of the road, just doing its thing. It didn’t receive any real attention from those who tended the orchards because it was on the side of the road, not in the vineyard. It somehow managed to get its green leaves all on its own. It was putting forth a real showing of its outward appearance, but under the leaves, when Jesus pulled them back and exposed what it really was – it was nothing more than a fruitless tree, good for nothing but to look at.
I know a lot of people who are “in the way”. I know of churches that are “in the way”. I know people who won’t get out of the way, so Jesus can have His way, because they want their way. I know churches that attempt to build by doing things their way and not letting God have His way, because they are steeped in traditional ways. The fact is that all of them look pretty on the outside, but like that fig tree on the road, they only appear to be fruitful from “afar off”. When you get down close and examine them, peeling away the façade, you find that they are dead, dry and fruitless – lukewarm and waiting for Jesus to spit them out.
That’s the same crowd who will stand before the Judgment one day and say, Matthew 7:22-23, "… Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Did they commit some great, heinous crime to deserve rejection from God? Did those who were cast away murder, steal, commit adultery, or some other terrible deed? The answer is “NO” - all they did was fail to bear fruit. Their outward appearance was green and beautiful. Their works were wonderful, but they did not bear the fruit of the Spirit unto salvation. They needed no only the profession of faith, but the possession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does Jesus see when He looks at us? When He casts an eye upon Victory Temple, Live Oak, Faith Fellowship, Trinity Fellowship, or Faith Tabernacle, what does He see? Does Jesus see some fig trees with so much beauty from afar off? Are we putting forth some pretty leaves for Jesus and for the world to see?
I think that all of us need to have some pretty leaves! We should look good from afar off, but we should also have some fruit behind those leaves too.
It’s always good to have some pretty green leaves showing the world that we are here. A special singing is a green leaf. Dinners and fellowship are green leaves. Nicely painted, well-kept churches are a green leaf. Nice pews, good music, good singing, preaching the Word and attractive sanctuaries are green leaves. There’s nothing wrong with the leaves.
Jesus didn’t curse the tree because of the pretty leaves. In fact, that’s what drew his attention. What he cursed was the lack of fruit. Because it bore no fruit, then it was forever denied the gift of life. It withered and died very quickly and what was left was nothing more than dead branches where life once flowed.
That’s what happened to Israel, God’s chosen people, and that’s what will happen to any church, or any Christian, who does not bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
The problem is that too many people use the pretty leaves to cover up the ugly that lies beneath.
In Genesis 3:7, after Adam and Eve had sinned, "… the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Is that what we are still trying to do – hide our shame of being fruitless behind the pretty leaves?
We can appear holy to those who look upon us, but if our hearts are filled with anger and bitterness, the pretty leaves won’t make a difference when we stand before the Lord.
We can wear all the right clothes, say all the right words, but if there is hatred, if there is envy, if there is strife in the heart, the pretty leaves will not stop God’s rejection.
Our churches can look nice on the outside, be clean on the inside, but if we have a judgmental spirit and a self-righteous attitude, the pretty leaves will soon fall away to expose what we really are.
We can come together, shake hands, hug necks and put on pretty leaves like we really love one another, but if it isn’t real, it won’t be long until the truth shines forth.
After the fig tree was “found out and cursed”, the disciples were amazed at how fast it died.
Let me tell you that I have seen this happen in the church and so have you. Once the pretty leaves are pushed back and we see the emptiness on the inside, it doesn’t take long for us to “cast aside” those who are not what they appear to be. No one likes a liar. No one wants to hang around someone who pretends to be something he is not.
It’s no wonder that so many of our churches aren’t filled and growing. When was the last time a soul was saved because we went out and evangelized the world? Most of our Pentecostal churches are growing, not from adding new fruit, but from trading figs from one tree to the next. That gives us a false belief that we are bearing the fruit that Jesus is looking for. I’m not talking about pruning the branches that are there already, or dressing them to make them grow better, or fertilizing the figs that are growing. I’m talking about getting a new fig on the branch that has never been a fig before -a New Convert, saved and born again.
Our problem is that we have become comfortable with just having the pretty leaves. In fact, I sometimes wonder if we really believe that there are lost souls out there who we can win to the Lord. Would we be in this nice setting called a “Fellowship Meeting"? If we really believed that Jesus was coming tomorrow, where would we be and what would we be doing right now? Meeting” among other Christians, looking like a bunch of pretty leaves, or would we be knocking down the door of our unsaved loved ones and friends, begging them to accept Jesus? What do we really believe? Do we really have the faith we claim to have, or is that too, just another pretty leaf? Are we filled with Holy Ghost and fire, or are those just pretty leaves too?
I don’t think its wrong to have Fellowship Meetings or any other kind of meetings. We need to come together and exhort one another. My point is – Where is the fruit? Where are the new figs that we should be bearing? Forget the pretty leaves – let’s bear some fruit!
Look at what Jesus says next in Matthew 21:21-22, "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
I believe that one of the greatest mountains that all of us must overcome is that mountain of fear and doubt when it comes to winning the lost for Jesus.
We doubt that we can do a good job at witnessing.
We doubt that anyone will hear.
We doubt that they will come to OUR CHURCH, even if we do win them to Christ – as if that part mattered at all!
We become comfortable with the faithful few, and then we try to make it all sound so righteous by saying, “Well, if God wants people in this church – He will send them.”
What happened to the command in Luke 14:23 to, "… Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."
What’s even worse is when we say to ourselves, in our super-spiritual smug attitudes, “Well, we don’t want any lost people coming here. I’d rather have a church filled with Spirit-filled Christians than to have to tell them to put on some clothes, or put out the cigarette, or go get cleaned up before they come in.” If we think like that, then we have become more like the cursed, dead tree than pretty fig leaves!
We look at the mountain in front of us, that mountain that has stood there for a long time, that mountain of no growth, of slow growth, of negative growth, of stagnation in growth, and we wonder how we can overcome it!
Jesus said that if you will just have faith, and believe God at His Word, that you could curse that mountain, overcome the doubt and fear, and see you wildest dreams come true.
It’s all about bearing fruit, not the pretty leaves. The pretty leaves will come automatically as we bear the fruit. Let’s get busy making the church ready for the coming of the Lord. The best way to do that is to win souls that we may fill the yearning of the Lord’s heart to see His house full.
There is a story of one woman who was given a beautiful plant for a birthday gift from the local florist. She loved plants and the house was filled with them, but the one that she received this day was just beautiful. It was so green, and vibrant. It was a “Bird of Paradise” plant with gorgeous flowers already in bloom. She took that plant, and placed in just the right spot so that it would get the right amount of light. She watered it with care, and kept it fertilized with just the right amount, keeping watch over it like a mother hen. But there was a little problem. It never seemed to get any bigger, no matter how much she tried. It was only after fretting over that plant for several weeks that she realized it was made of silk. It was mighty pretty, but it wasn’t real. She became so frustrated and angry over being taken in, that she cast the plant into the wastebasket and never looked back.
That’s they way Jesus will be on the day that we must stand before Him if all we have is pretty leaves. It’s not about the pretty leaves – it’s all about bearing fruit for the Lord!
