True Fruit

God can use you to bear fruit for His glory.

Mark 11:1-26 

Transcript

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them,
Go into the village in front of you and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.
If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? Say, The Lord has need of it and we'll send it back here immediately.
And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them,
What are you doing untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said and they let them go.
And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David, Hosanna in the highest. And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.
And when he had looked around at everything, it was already late, and he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
On the following day when they came from Bethany, he was hungry and seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.
When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard it.
And they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple.
And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
And he was teaching them and saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.
And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
And when evening came, they went out of the city. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.
And Peter remembered and said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered.
Jesus said to them, Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea and is not doubt in his heart, but believes what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
So let's start this morning with a direct question that I want you all to think about.
What is keeping you from bearing fruit for God?
I'll just say it one more time. What is keeping you from bearing fruit for God?
Galatians 5 tells us that the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life brings about fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
And Jesus told his disciples, You did not choose me, but I chose you that you should go and bear fruit.
And Ephesians tells us that we're God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
So if you know Jesus and you have a relationship with him, your life is meant to bear fruit, both in holy character and in good works.
So what is keeping you from bearing fruit?
God is able and God can use you to bear fruit for his glory.
Now, you might wonder, based on the text that Tom just read, why am I even asking that question?
The passage begins with Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It's a passage that we typically read on Palm Sunday, the week before Easter.
In Mark 11, where we're at, this is Passover week.
Jesus has very carefully timed his arrival into Jerusalem right at the time of the festival.
And as he enters Jerusalem, Jesus has foretold his death three times already, once in Mark 8, once in Mark 9, once in Mark 10.
Three times he said that he's going to be crucified.
But now as he enters the city, he's receiving a hero's welcome.
He does not look like a person who's about to die.
As Jesus is entering Jerusalem, he's coming from the east, from Bethany, about two miles away, where he's probably staying with his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
And think about all the times in Mark, if you've been following with us, where Jesus hides or disguises his identity as the Messiah.
When crowds want to make a big fuss, when they want to anoint him, when they want to make him a king.
How many times does he subdue the people, or tell someone not to say anything, or disappear?
But now it's the week of the Passover, and Jesus is going public.
So let's read Mark's description of this scene, starting in verse 1.
When they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them,
Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? Say, The Lord has need of it, and will send it back here immediately.
And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it.
Some of those standing there said to them, What are you doing? Untie the colt.
And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.
And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and they sat on it.
Many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest.
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.
And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
The triumphal entry, which is what this scene is called, is that entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is the rare event that gets described by all four gospel writers.
It had to be an unforgettable scene.
This is the week of the Passover, and remember, Passover dates back to Exodus.
It's the remembrance of how the Israelites were liberated from their captors.
It goes all the way back to Egypt.
So Jerusalem at this time is occupied by the Romans.
So there are great hopes that Jesus is the new liberator and that he's coming now to Jerusalem at this critical week.
And the city is teeming with excitement.
The account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is not in Mark, but that happened only shortly beforehand.
When Jesus heals blind Bartimaeus in Mark chapter 10, we hear there were great crowds following Jesus.
There is tremendous enthusiasm and anticipation surrounding Jesus and what now he's entering into the major city.
People are wondering what's going to happen.
The crowds are spreading their cloaks on the road to honor Jesus.
They're waving palm branches as a sign of victory.
The palm branches are like a nationalistic political symbol.
That's the symbol of the second Maccabean revolt.
And the crowds are shouting Hosanna, which means save us.
They're shouting, blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.
This gives us an idea of what they were expecting.
They're looking for a new leader and a new kingdom and a political savior who will free them from Rome.
And these people, they're on many of them are on holiday.
Many of them have come a long way.
They have long been anticipating Jesus coming to Jerusalem.
Now he's here. Now they're here. They've made it. They're hyped.
It's the type of greeting that would go to a conquering king or a visiting dignitary.
But the irony is that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem on this animal that would be fit for a child.
It's a self-identification with a prophecy that Zechariah had made almost about 500 years earlier.
Zechariah 9 9 says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, your king is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is he.
Humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Jesus's arrival on a donkey is a sign to us that he is this humble savior, that he is gentle.
And how different would this arrival be from some other great hero or king of the ancient world?
Like think about this. Would Alexander the Great have come to Jerusalem on a donkey?
It's deliberate fulfillment of prophecy.
And also furthermore, even though the donkey is not a royal animal in this context, it was going back to the time of David.
So Jesus is identifying himself as a king in the line of David, and he is the one that Zechariah prophesied about.
After he gets into town, after the crowd seemed to die down, Mark tells us that Jesus went to the temple.
Mark 11 says, and he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.
And when he looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12.
Now the temple at this point in Jerusalem was magnificent. It was by far the most impressive structure in Jerusalem, in the city.
If you have a study Bible or an atlas, you might have a visual and it will show you just the scope of this thing, how massive this was.
If you were visiting Jerusalem, there was no way that you would go without stopping to visit or look at the temple.
And the text says that Jesus looked around at everything. But he is not looking at the temple as a pilgrim, as a religious pilgrim or as a tourist.
He is looking at it as the sovereign Lord of the temple.
Again, another prophecy for you, Malachi 3.
Malachi says, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.
And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.
And he will purify the sons of Levi and will refine them like gold and silver.
And they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord.
So Malachi prophesies that the Lord will suddenly come to his temple.
And he will come for judgment and purification.
The temple is meant to be a place of worship for God.
And the question is, is that actually happening? Is that actually functioning?
That's what's being evaluated. The scene where Jesus looks around at everything is foreshadowing of what's about to come.
Well, Mark says it's already late, so Jesus heads back to Bethany, to the outskirts of the town where he's staying.
In the following morning, the narrative resumes in Mark 11 12 and Jesus and his disciples come up to a fig tree as they walk back into town.
This is a mark 11 12 through 14. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.
And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything in it.
And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
And he said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And the disciples heard it.
Now, we read that and think that's a strange episode.
It seems like Jesus is using his power maybe the way that we would.
If we had supernatural powers, if we had them, it seems almost immature to come to a tree when you're hungry and just curse it because it doesn't have the fruit that you want.
It's not providing you with what you want. It seems like something that maybe a child with a poor temper would do.
And some scholars have even said there's no way that this is true. It doesn't seem worthy of Jesus.
But that's not it at all. First, look at the structure of Mark. There's the cursing of the fig tree, then the cleansing of the temple, then the explanation of the cursing of the fig tree.
So clearly, Mark wants us to connect the fig tree cursing with what goes on in the temple.
But still, the cursing of the fig tree seems almost childish to us.
So let me try to explain. If you're like me, the last fig that you had was inside a fig Newton.
But in the Middle East, there are fig trees. And people who were traveling, walking along the road to Jerusalem, would see these trees.
These trees had a type of fruit in it, not a full-grown fig tree or not a full-grown fig, but when the leaves came out, there would be these smaller figs the size of a little knot or a knob.
And they were good to eat. And people traveling would pull these off and eat them by hand.
But if there were leaves, but none of those little nodules, none of those little fruits, that would be an indication that something was wrong with the tree.
That would be a sign that the tree was diseased or decaying or even dead if it was abundant in leaves, but there was no actual fruit.
And that's the case of this fig tree. There's foliage. It's green, but it's barren.
And what Jesus is doing is giving his disciples a visual parable.
Multiple times in the Old Testament, the fig tree is a metaphor or a visual for the nation of Israel.
And what we're about to see is that this barren fig tree symbolizes Israel yet again.
The spiritual health of the nation looks robust and healthy on the outside, but it's inwardly barren.
And Jesus takes a tree, looks at it, that looks impressive outwardly, but it has no actual fruitfulness.
So you have to connect the cursing of the fig tree with the cleansing of the temple that's about to take place.
So after this, Jesus comes into the temple.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple.
And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you've made it a den of robbers.
And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and they were seeking a way to destroy him,
for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city.
So after cursing the fig tree, Jesus comes to the temple.
And like the fig tree, the temple is very impressive on the outside.
This was one of the most magnificent temples in the world at this time.
Jerusalem was a major city of the ancient world.
And the temple had been reconstructed, rebuilt, renovated by Herod the Great.
And it was spectacular. It's a spectacular structure.
So as non-natives, it's hard for us to totally get this.
But when people entered the temple, they did not go into the sanctuary.
It's not like here you go through double doors and enter into a sanctuary.
The temple, they went into a large outer court.
The temple was supposed to be this sacred space of worship.
But that's not what it had become.
People would come from far and wide to visit Jerusalem, especially at Passover.
And the outer court is full of these people.
And what Jesus observes when he comes to the temple is there are great crowds of people,
multiple ethnicities, they're selling animals, and they're exchanging currencies there in the outer court.
So there are tables set up for the religious pilgrims so that they can exchange their money and pay the temple tax.
Then they could go on and pay for their sacrifice, a bird, an animal of some kind.
So according to Exodus 30, if you were 20 years old or above, you were required to pay the temple tax,
which was half a shekel.
But if you were coming from another nation, your coinage was considered unclean or inappropriate.
So it needed to be exchanged into the proper currency.
So those foreign coins needed to be exchanged, and the Gentile visitors are all getting upcharged on the exchange.
So maybe one way we could think about it is if you've ever crossed the George Washington Bridge,
you want to go into New York City.
It probably crossed, I don't know, about $20 at this point to get across the bridge.
But imagine if you were coming from Maine or New Hampshire or Vermont or New Jersey,
and you could see every single person that was out of state was being charged even more than that,
and the state was just collecting it.
That's essentially what's going on.
The temple has become a place of commerce, and everyone is paying the temple tax,
but they're getting upcharged on the exchange, and then they're paying for animals.
And if you want an idea of the scope of this, the Jewish historian Josephus lived in the first century,
and he reported there was one Passover week where 255,000 lambs were bought and sold and sacrificed in the temple courts.
So what we have that Jesus is observing is this chaotic mass of humanity,
and the focus of the religious leaders has now become on making money.
If we wanted to think about this in a local sense, think about the Broadway Market and the Erie County Fair coming together.
That's kind of what's going on.
People, crowds are teeming. There are animals everywhere.
A couple years ago, our family, we were on vacation in Montreal,
and we got to visit the Basilica of Notre Dame in old Montreal in the city.
One of the most amazing buildings I've ever been inside.
It's this unbelievable hundreds of years old work of architecture.
If you've been to, like, Our Lady of Victory in Lackawanna, think about that on a much larger scale.
And the place was packed with tourists, and everyone had bought a ticket to get inside.
The amount of money being generated was tremendous.
And when we walked in, there were a few people in that cathedral who were trying to pray or meditate in that space.
But honestly, it would have been too hard. There were too many people, too many conversations, way too many cameras,
and we were not even dealing with livestock.
Imagine the commotion that Jesus encounters in this place that is meant for the worship of God.
And Jesus looks at the temple, and he's Lord of the temple, and he surveys the scene, and here's what he sees.
There's a lot of activity, there's a lot of busyness, there's a lot of money changing hands,
but what he does not see is the true worship of God.
And when he sees all this chaos and misuse of what this space is actually designed for, how does Jesus respond?
It's shocking. He becomes very forceful and aggressive. He drives people out. He flips over tables and chairs.
These are forceful, like even violent acts. If you've ever seen someone flip over a table, even if it was in a movie,
you know it's a real act of aggression. It's an outburst of anger.
And Jesus draws from both Isaiah and Jeremiah in the Old Testament to say that the temple's become defiled.
It's meant to be a house of prayer for all nations. It's become a den of robbers.
And Jesus is coming as Lord of the temple, and he's acting with holy and intense energy to purify the temple.
So only the day before, he was hailed as king. And now, we could call it his first day in office,
he is passing judgment on the religious life of Jerusalem.
With full authority, he's passing judgment. And just one day earlier, we see the humility of Jesus on his trip into town.
Here he is, humble, meek, mild, riding on a donkey. Then we see his power, his zeal, his intensity as he throws out the money changers.
What's interesting is some of us, personality-wise, we probably resonate with Jesus' humility and with his gentleness.
Some of us connect more with that righteous anger, that indignant passion. We think there's someone I could follow.
And on our own, what we're attracted to tends to be one way or the other, and what we're like tends to be one way or the other.
We're lopsided, our personality is the type of people that we're drawn to. But in Jesus, we see this perfectly balanced personality.
The Puritan pastor, Jonathan Edwards, said it like this, he said,
He said,
And what has happened is all this has become non-ignorable. Jesus eliminates the possibility of neutrality.
You see right, verse 18,
Jesus is non-ignorable. He's creating a reaction. He doesn't allow for neutrality, and he doesn't avoid the conflict now with the religious leaders.
He actually escalates it by condemning their financial source of gain, essentially pointing the finger at their own corruption.
And they're seeking to destroy him. The crowds who observed are completely astonished.
And Mark says again, after that eventful day, Jesus and his followers retreat from the city.
And then it's on this following day that this lesson of the fig tree fully comes into view.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree, withered away to its roots.
And Peter remembered and said to him,
And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
The fig tree is withered because it's been cursed. It has leaves, but it has no fruit. It's a metaphor for Israel.
True fruit looks like worship, prayer, righteous living, love for others.
Leaves without fruit means there's a big temple, there's religious formalism, there's a lot of external activity, but it's all hypocrisy.
It's all dead inside.
So Peter comments on the fig tree. And then Jesus responds in a way that we would not expect.
And he makes it very personal for these 12.
And this is powerful for us as listeners. Because now it's no longer about the culture or the Israelite religious life or Jerusalem.
Jesus basically says, yeah, there's the fig tree. Now let's talk about you.
And that's significant for us. It's easy for us to read about this account of religious formalism and corruption.
And then we can start opining about the prosperity gospel or mega churches or American evangelicalism or spiritual life in the 21st century or what's wrong with society.
And Jesus says, let's talk about you.
And he says something that seems out of place. He says, have faith in God.
And we think, have faith in God? I thought you were going to explain the fig tree.
But it needs to be understood in context.
Again, let me ask that question. What is keeping you from bearing fruit for God?
Trust God with that. Because he can remove it. And he can overcome that fruitfulness.
That unfruitfulness. That idea of when Jesus says have faith in God, that idea of moving mountains that Jesus describes,
that does not have to do with winning the lottery or achieving your dreams or accomplishing the impossible in that sense.
It means that God in his power is more than capable of removing the seeming impossible barriers to fruitfulness in your life and in mine.
We certainly see that come to pass with these men whom Jesus is talking to, who have been so selfish, so ineffective,
and so consistently missing the point and who become the apostles of the early church.
So let me ask you again, what is keeping you from bearing fruit?
And to answer that, we can look at the categories of the people in this passage.
There are some people who are enthusiastic about Jesus, but really it's because they think he can give them what they're looking for.
Those are the crowds on the way to Jerusalem. They're excited about Jesus, but not so much about following him, more about what he can accomplish for them.
There are some people who are very busy with religious activity.
They can attend and be very active. That does not mean real heart change.
They're active, but without real prayer, real compassion, without any personal transformation.
And Jesus also points out here, if we want our prayers for fruitfulness and usefulness to be heard, we need to be willing to forgive others.
The greatest miracle of all, when Jesus says that nothing is impossible with God, have faith in God,
the greatest miracle of all is that Jesus moved the mountain of our sins against him.
He took those in his own body and he paid the atoning price so that we might be restored to God the Father.
Now we are in relationship with him. And he says, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be done for you.
Now we know that our motives need to be right. And we know that we need to bring our desires in line with his will.
But we can pray with confidence and faith that God will use us to bear fruit for his glory.
Sometimes I think we think we're too weak or not gifted enough or we don't have the ability or the obstacles towards or we're stuck in the same sin patterns.
And we think those obstacles are too insurmountable for us to do anything of actual fruit or value in serving God.
God can use you to bear fruit with your giftings, your personality, your sphere of influence.
As he has determined, God can use you to bear fruit for his glory.
So have faith in God and ask him to remove whatever those obstacles might be. Let's pray.