From Fig Leaves to the Fruit of Faith: Mark 11:12-25

Well, we're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark this morning.

Mark 11, 12 through 25.

You can find that passage, 796 in your cheer Bible there, if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles.

But it's also printed on the bulletin for you this morning.

Hear now the reading of God's holy word.

On the following day, when they came, that is Jesus and his disciples came from Bethany, he was hungry, and seeing in the distance a fig tree and 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.

And 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.

And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believe that 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 pra praying, forgive.

If you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also, who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are our teacher, and we ask and pray now that you would teach us, instruct us, feed us with your truth and grace, we pray.

Holy Spirit, may you take these words and drive them into our hearts this morning, that they may find a lodging place, that we would bear much fruit.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So as I mentioned, we continue back in from what we read last week, where Jesus, uh, what is called the triumphal entry, Jesus had gone up in very anticlimactic fashion up to the temple with all this celebration, these palm branches being laid out before him as he ascended, being an ascent up to Jerusalem on the road, into Jerusalem, and then onto the temple.

And you remember that when he got to the temple, all he did was look around, and then being late, he left again.

And the purpose and plan for all this was that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy made many years earlier by the prophet Zechariah, and because his intention was to go to the cross.

And so we pick up here again where Jesus is outside the city this following day, and we read of this very interesting encounter that Jesus has with a fig tree.

And it might seem a little strange to us that that Mark records an interaction with Jesus and a fig tree like this.

The situation has uh puzzled uh scholars from time to time because the question has been asked: why would Jesus seem to condemn a fig tree for not bearing fruit, given the fact that we're told it was not the season for bearing figs?

And so it seems to some that Jesus is just being vindictive here.

And it's used to discredit his deity.

But there are good reasons for to explain why this is not the case, and one of which is that although it wasn't the season for bearing figs, this tree was showing and displaying uh leaves on it.

And given the fact that it was showing leaves, it was showing the signs of life.

And so this was something that ought to have had the beginnings of what was called pagem.

And pagim was the buds that are visible uh but yet to ripen on a fig tree.

And so if you're hungry, you could come and you could eat of these uh pagim, which was certainly, yes, not ripe.

But if you're looking for some nutriment, you could get some from these buds that were emerging.

And so Jesus has walked over to this tree and it's outwardly shown some signs of life, and he's hungry, and it's I think even that, just to take a moment, is a good reminder to us once again, to remind us of Jesus' humanity.

Jesus himself knows what it's like to have been hungry.

Yes, although he is ascended, he's in heaven now, reigning, he knows what it's like to have been hungry.

He knows what it's like to have been in need, to be dependent on the things in this world.

And even for those desires not to be fulfilled, as it is in this case.

And so here he is addressing this fig tree, knowing that there ought to be pagem from it.

And if we consider this for a moment, we're reminded that fruitfulness is God's intention for his creation.

God intended for our lives to be fruitful.

The words of Genesis in the Genesis to Adam and Eve remind us of his intent.

He said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Likewise, he produced trees in the garden that produced fruits of many kinds and flavors and shapes and sizes.

And it was said, it was good.

His creation was bearing fruit.

But also, as his followers were meant to bear fruit, Jesus said, My Father is glorified by this, that you produce much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

And so God's intention for all of this is for all his creation is for fruitfulness.

And such was the case here.

And so this fig tree is an object lesson for us because Jesus is intending for this to teach, to use this fig tree to teach us something, and it involves what happens next as he goes into the temple.

Jesus enters back into Jerusalem and he goes into the temple and he sees this barren wasteland.

Now, why was it barren?

Well, it wasn't barren because there was tumbleweed blowing through it and no activity taking place.

In fact, there was a lot of activity taking place.

But the activity that was going on was corrupt, and God's name by association was being pulled into that.

And so it may help to just visualize what it would have been like to have been a Gentile at this time.

You likely would have had made the long journey, given that this was uh the season of the feasts in Israel, the Passover was coming.

And so you'd made the long journey to Jerusalem, to the temple, perhaps days of travel.

And after a long pilgrimage, you found yourself entering into the temple courtyard.

And it was a courtyard called the courtyard of the Gentiles.

And no doubt it's crowded there, and you see a lot of people as you begin to take a look and survey what's there.

But this is an expansive area.

This is this is 35 acres, just to get a sense of the scale of how big this court was, which, if you're trying to grasp the sense of size, could fit about 26 football fields in that space.

And so it was a huge area that you were coming in on.

And it also had a barrier, it had a fence, as it were, that went around the outside, and it was about four and a half feet high.

And it had a warning inscribed on this into this wall in indivals.

And it was written in Greek and Latin and Aramaic.

And the warning read in this wall no foreigner may enter within the railing and enclosure that surround the temple.

Anyone apprehended shall have himself to blame for his consequent death.

And so, in other words, this was the only area that Gentiles could enter into in the temple in order to have access and draw near to.

Well, it was God's provision for Gentiles to be able to draw near to him.

And so as you get into this large courtyard, you would see masses of animals being slaughtered there and burnt as sacrifices.

And believing that you needed to offer one yourself to be right with God, you would have a problem.

Because it wouldn't have been plausible for you to bring an animal with you all that way.

But that could have been solved because there are plenty of people who are willing to sell you one.

And uh either lambs or pigeons in this court.

Um but you'd have a problem because the problem would be that you need the right currency.

Uh, just like you and I, if we were to go overseas, and one of the first things we need to do, oftentimes, when you land on your plane and on your flight, is to go to a currency conversion exchange where you exchange, you know, US dollars into euros or whatever the currency is that you need.

And likewise, that was the case here.

The religious leaders had set up these booths so people could come and they could convert their currency into uh the right currency in order to be able to buy these animals.

The problem was it was at a grossly overinflated price.

And so you would be taken advantage of in your need to convert money.

But once we had the right currency, then you would need to purchase the actual animal.

And so uh, lo and behold, you would be met with someone who was willing to sell one to you.

But again, you would be hit by these greatly overinflated prices to take advantage of you.

And so you consider the impression that you would have as you came on to all of this.

What would have been the impression that you surveyed in this court?

At the root of this was money, profiteering from people.

And to get a sense of the scale of this operation, the historian Josephus commented that in AD 66, the year that the temple was completed, 255,600 lambs were sacrificed for Passover alone.

And so you get a sense that this was pretty lucrative for these religious leaders.

And so your impression then would have had to have been that the focus was on money and the gain to both religious leaders and therefore the God in whom they worshiped.

It's probably like somewhat of the sense, I don't know the economics behind this, but it's perhaps the sense that one gets when a gas station riot you know raises the prices during a hurricane.

A company hoarding and reselling hard-to-find hand sanitizer during the pandemic.

Uh, companies working together to fix prices of some kind of service that just drives up prices for basic needs.

These religious leaders were clearly taxing people of their livelihoods, robbing those who were coming into the temple.

And so they were fulfilling the words of Isaiah 56.11 that had been spoken centuries before.

Isaiah 56, 11, speaking to such people, said, The dogs have a mighty appetite.

They never have enough.

But they are shepherds who have no understanding.

They have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain.

One and all.

In other words, they were doing the exact opposite of what Jesus Himself had come to do as the good shepherd, who was making the Father's heart known.

Jesus said, He said, My sheep know my voice, and I have come that they might have life, and they might have it abundantly.

And so Jesus enters into the middle of this temple, into the middle of the scene.

And what does he do when he sees all of this?

Well, we read that he clears it out.

He overturns the tables.

He doesn't allow anyone to bring through things through the temple.

But notice that he doesn't clear the way of Gentiles, he clears the way for the Gentiles.

You see the difference?

He doesn't say, Gentiles, get out of here.

No, he clears the way for the Gentiles, removing the hypocrisy that obscured the Father's intention for his own house.

Because here's the thing about sin.

Sin always tells a lie about who God is.

Nothing could have been more false than what was being portrayed here.

Given that the Father's heart so loved the world that he gave.

What did he give?

Well, he gave his only son, who was about to lay down his life on a cross, whose heart was displayed in the face of Jesus Christ, whose entire life and ministry was full of grace, who willingly faced opposition and dishonor to himself in order to see us given gifts that we could never attain on our own.

His entire life was the generous ministry of a loving God who sought that people be reconciled to him and for his sheep to know true life in his presence by faith and one day by sight.

Jesus was clearing the way for Gentiles to see the heart of God in a different light than when they arrived.

And it's often been the case that one of the objections to Christianity has been that the church is full of hypocrites.

Right?

One of the objections to Christianity that's often spoken of lies in the sense, well, yeah, but you Christians are just hypocrites.

You don't practice what you preach.

And to address that objection, we must admit there are and certainly can be and have been times within the church where those who have acted in great hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy has at times colored the church in scandal, sometimes even great scandal.

We've got to admit that.

That can be verified.

However, it's important to distinguish between legitimate cases of hypocrisy and the church as a people who, in order to be a member, readily acknowledge and confess that they are sinners.

And the first question that we ask, do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure, and without hope, except through his sovereign mercy?

That's one of the questions.

That's the first question that people are asked in order to be a member.

And what we're acknowledging, too, when we confess to that is to say, yes, I am a sinner, and by acknowledging that qualifies me to be part of his people since Christ came to save sinners.

So yes, a church is full of sinners, but we are sinners who are looking to Jesus Christ and are looking to be transformed, knowing that sanctification is a lifelong process and that it's not an even playing field.

Right?

People are fighting sin.

You all, myself, we are all fighting sin in ways that is not the same, always.

It's not always with the same degree or the same struggle as our neighbor.

That's just the truth and the reality that not all struggle in the same ways in the same degree.

And that, yes, we must seek to discipline gross sin that dishonors the name of Christ, but at the same time to acknowledge that we are not ex-beggars needing bread, but that we are beggars in need of leading others to find that same bread that we ourselves need.

The difference between acknowledging that we are sinners and hypocrisy lies in a posture towards sin.

True change requires that we don't overinflate ourselves, it requires dealing with where we are at.

So that in dealing with where we are at, the Spirit would get us to who he would have us become.

And that right there is an honest walk with Jesus.

That's not hypocrisy.

Christianity is a heart religion, it requires an engaged heart.

You can come into worship, or you can be playing songs in the car, right?

And they may be Christian songs, it might be spiritual songs.

And that may be playing in the background, and yet you might be bickering in conflict with someone next to you.

Now, how can that happen?

Well, it's because your heart is not engaged.

Christianity requires an engaged heart, otherwise, all that we do is just forms that have no power.

And we see that throughout the Gospels, right?

There is no sugar coating the need for the disciples to grow in grace and truth in the presence of Jesus.

We see their faults, we see their failures, right?

But it's to be honest with these things so as to deal with them.

And that's not hypocrisy, that is authentic Christian living.

That fully admits I'm in need of Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

I'm in need of this ongoing repair and renovation from our heart.

And so Jesus is concerned for the Temple of your heart.

The temple of my heart.

That's what true worship is about.

So, what about the temple of your heart this morning?

Is there buying and selling in the courts of your heart this morning or this past week?

Meaning, are you distracted or have you been distracted by pursuing some kind of self-gain?

Increasing competition, increasing comfort, your own pleasures.

Have you been seeking your own interests rather than a regard for God and others?

The reason I ask that is because Jesus, by his spirit, does us a favor by clearing all of that out and driving that fire from our hearts.

All of that needs to be cleared out, overturned.

Why is it gracious for the Spirit to drive that away, you ask?

Well, because all of that clutter obscures our hearts from seeing who God really is.

All of that clutter gets in the way of seeing a God whose heart is full of grace towards us.

A God who's not concerned to tax us or to compete with us or to keep score, but is full of unmerited kindness toward us.

And so any clearing that Jesus does in your heart by his spirit is not in order to clear the way of you, it's to clear the way for you for more grace.

And so Jesus leaves the temple, saying this house should be a house of prayer for all nations.

And he goes back to the fig tree, and we see that he uses that once again as an object lesson to the disciples to teach them something about prayer and their need for him.

Jesus says, All you need in the Father's house is a heart of faith.

That is to enter his presence, believing that he hears you and he listens to you.

That's what you need in order to be able to come into his house.

He says, My heart, my house is a house of prayer.

Meaning I listen to you.

That's what he would have his house to be known for.

Think about it.

What does prayer require other than faith that asks in his name?

You bring nothing else to the table.

All it requires is faith.

It's amazing what a humble cry can fetch from God.

And so we go on to read here, Jesus teaching his disciples, verse 20.

Peter notices this fig tree that Jesus is cursed, withered to the root, and Jesus tells them, he says, Have faith in God.

Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Now, this is not a name it and claim it theology.

This is a call for faith.

This is a call for confidence in who God has revealed himself to be.

And so Jesus tells us that.

No, life consists most deeply in a conscious dependence on Jesus Christ.

So therefore, to pray and to know that he listens to us is an invitation to a more fruitful life.

You might say, well, yeah, but I don't struggle so much with prayer as I do with priorities.

Well, me too.

Join the club.

But the reason why we don't prioritize prayer is because deep down we we doubt that life is truly found there.

And that God actually does listen to us and do something with that.

Tim Keller once stated it this way: whatever captures the heart's trust and love also controls the feelings and behavior.

What the heart wants, the mind finds most reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable.

Your loves show what you actually believe in, not what you say you do.

People therefore change not by merely changing their thinking, but by changing what they love more.

Such a shift requires nothing less than changing our thinking, but it entails much more.

So how do we apply what he's saying in this context?

It means that the reason why we don't pray more is actually owing to our loves.

If I doubt that God is available to me and that he responds to me in a loving way, in a gracious way, then prayer will become a formality.

It will dry up.

It'll fail to capture our hearts' loves.

You won't prioritize it.

However, if you believe that there is life in going to Him, and it's to be found in God whose heart is abundance in grace, who does listen to us, even going so far as to tell us that when we ask that we are to believe that we have received it, then prayer becomes something joyful.

It becomes something encouraging, thrilling, a wonderful gift that we will prioritize.

Think about some of the prayers that you might have prayed.

Have you asked God to acquit all of your sin?

If we're to believe what this passage is saying here, what Jesus is saying here, if we have asked God to acquit all our sin and believe, then we are to consider that that is already done.

That we have already received it.

Have you asked God to treat you like a father would treat his child?

If we're to believe what Jesus is saying here, then consider that you have received it.

He's already treating you as such.

Have you asked God to work through one of his promises?

Then if we're to believe what Jesus is saying here, consider that you have already then received it and that it's already at work in you.

This is a promise that's spoken into many of my own doubts and seasons where prayer has just been dry.

And has encouraged me even to pray large prayers.

There's a story told of a man who asked Alexander the Great to give him a huge sum of money in exchange for his daughter's hand in marriage.

Alexander agreed, and he told the man to request Alexander's treasurer to give him whatever he wanted.

And so the father of the bride went and asked this treasurer for a ridiculous crazy amount.

And the treasurer, when he presented this request to him, was startled and he was like, I can't give out that kind of money without a direct order.

And so going to Alexander, the treasurer argued that even a small fraction of the money requested would more than serve the purpose of having this man's daughter.

No, replied Alexander.

Let him have it all.

I like that fellow.

He does me honor.

He treats me like a king and proves by what he asks that he believes me to be both rich and generous.

Friends, isn't that what Jesus is saying here?

For you to come and present large requests to me, for you to come and bring your requests and the things on your heart to me, that does me honor.

It treats me like the king that I am and proves that you believe me to be both rich and generous.

Are you seeing the Father's heart more clearly revealed this morning?

Life is in the believing and the receiving.

Where is your heart in need of being touched by his grace this morning?

What does your heart feel?

It's important to ask him.

There's nowhere in the scriptures, so far as I know, that place a limit on asking for these things.

Why?

Because these are the things that lead us to bear much fruit.

Prayer also includes an honest heart to ask for and extend forgiveness of sin.

God's free forgiveness of sin, as you know, as many of you know, is our only entire only title to eternal life in the world to come.

And because of that, it is a precious gift that He would forgive us our sins.

If you are currently, or if you've ever been in debt, student loans, right, mortgages, credit cards, or the requirement to pay a debt to society, perhaps, you know that debts weigh on people.

And the prospect of a clean slate, I mean, that has a gut level allure to it, doesn't it?

Right?

I mean, if you and I were to imagine right now that you could be free from being out from underneath that burden, that has a great appeal, doesn't it?

You jump at that.

That's the kind of freedom that we are to extend to others.

Right?

To unburden others of what you have against them.

That's our charter.

But the mercy of God is our motivation.

Does forgiveness cost something to us?

Yes.

It does.

But the mercy that we seek from God is far more costly, is it not?

Why would we think that we can draw from his limitless line of credit toward us for our many sins and not extend a smaller line of credit to others who have grieved us?

To forgive others is evidence of a fruitful heart that is leaning, that is drawing from the mercy of God.

And so we need to pray through our grievances and bring them to the only one who can listen to us and to help us to work through these things.

How gracious He is to listen to us and all of these things.

So I want to finish with a hymn that reminds us so well of this invitation.

What a friend we have in Jesus.

All our sins and griefs to bear.

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit.

Oh, what needless pain we bear.

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged.

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness.

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

And are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge.

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

May that be true of us all, and so bear much fruit for his glory.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Gracious Father, we praise you and thank you for the true gift of seeing how large and capacious, how wide, how deep your love is, how generous your grace is to us, your children.

Father, we thank you for giving us a clearer glimpse of who you are.

Father, we ask and we pray that you would enable us to be those who hold frequent conversation with you, that draw upon you, knowing that, Lord, you desire your house to be a house of prayer.

Thank you, Lord, for being a God who listens to us and who answers us in all the ways that is wise and good and right.

And so, Father, we ask and pray.

Give us many promptings in which to come to you in prayer through your spirit.

We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.