"Fig Tree in Jesus" Luke 11:6-9 Sunday Evening Worship Service

I recently returned from Israel, as I mentioned this morning, and people often ask, what was the highlight of your trip?

You know, I've been a few times.

Thank you for the time there, by the way.

And I have no excuse.

I've been to Israel a few times, and uh something different I did this time.

You know, any group to Israel, you kind of walk from Beth Page, Mount of Olives, down the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane in through Stephen's Gate to you know Pilate's area where Jesus uh you know was tried and his clothes were bargained for.

Uh and then from there, the way of the cross of Vidal Rosa, where he would have carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem and all the way to the garden tomb or the church of the Holy Sepulchre, wherever you end up.

And when you're with the group, that takes all day because you know the pastor's with the group and he stops and teaches at every location and uh drags it out.

We stopped for lunch halfway through and all this.

It's an all-day affair.

And so it's very easy to lose sight of the scale of things and the scope of things.

And so one evening, Madison, my oldest daughter and I, we went out together and we did that walk just by ourselves, and really without stopping.

We walked from uh that the whole track and it took about 30 minutes.

Um, and that really got a hold of my mind, thinking, like, this everything is so close together.

Jesus's walk on uh, you know, to the cross from where he was put on trial at Pilate's place all the way to where he was crucified was probably about a 20 to 30 minute walk.

And we weren't exactly running through it, it's just so close together, it really brings it into perspective.

Now that walk starts up at Beth Page and then the Mount of Olives, which are on top of the hill.

From up there, you're overlooking the Temple Mount.

And when I say overlooking, you really are overlooking.

You're taller than the Temple Mount.

And maybe in Jesus' lifetime, the temple itself was another 11 stories or whatever on top of that.

So that would have towered over G over you.

But from the Mount of Olives, you're really looking down on the temple.

Now there is no temple on top of the temple mount.

Now there's the uh Islamic Dome of the Rock and the mosque up there.

But even those aren't that tall.

You're really eyeball with the Dome of the Rock, looking down on the Temple Mount from up there.

And this is the walk that Jesus did every day, his final week of life.

He did it on Palm Sunday.

It's the road down the Mount of Olives where the crowd was with the palm branches.

He did it again on Monday when he he cleansed the temple.

He did it on Tuesday when the the religious leaders tried to ambush him on the temple.

They did it again on Wednesday, where he taught again with the Olivet discourse about the end of times from the Mount of Olives there.

He did that every day.

Uh, even on Thursday, he would have done that to get to the upper room and then go back to the Garden of Gethsemane to be betrayed.

And that reminded me of something that happened about halfway through, or at the year number two of Jesus' ministry.

And that's in Luke chapter 13.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

And I want to share that uh with you tonight.

Jesus tells a parable in Luke chapter uh 13 in verse 6.

He told this parable A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard.

He came seeking fruit on it and didn't find any.

And he said to the vineyard keeper, and we can just pause here before we read the rest of it.

Uh just the characters in this is the man who owns the vineyard and the vineyard keeper.

And the man had a fig tree planted there.

Uh this is a guy who owns the land, of course.

You're not planting a fig tree in somebody else's land, and he's not, he's the kind of landowner who's not doing the work himself.

He's got a gardener or a landscaper who's the one who's actually tending the plants there.

And what's interesting is that this landscaper has a relationship with the fig tree.

He loves the fig tree.

I consider myself right now somewhat of an expert on fig trees.

Um that's because my wife has decided that we need to have fig trees at our house.

And I have responded by saying fig trees do not grow in Virginia.

Like this is not the right land for them.

They don't belong here.

Uh they belong like in Israel.

That's a great place for a fig tree.

But Northern Virginia is not.

However, some of you have betrayed me because she has many friends at the church that have these like robust fig trees in their yard that feed like the birds of the nations in your yard.

And so she's positive they work.

And so we bought a fig tree from uh Mount Vernon sells them because George Washington had them, which is not an argument on my side, I grant.

Uh my response was that George Washington had 400 fig trees because he had 400 slaves.

You know, that can give you the fig trees.

And Didier's response was, she has one, so we can have a fig tree.

That's not exactly what she said.

And anyway, moving on.

Uh so a fig tree is like a very aggressive root system.

I mean, the fig tree, if a fig tree takes, it takes.

It goes to town, it takes over the whole area where it is.

That's why if you look at a fig tree, nothing else grows underneath it.

You know, you can have massive trees, like you look at the oak trees and the poplar trees, all kinds of other stuff grows underneath it.

Not a fig tree.

A fig tree, it's barren under there because of how aggressive the roots are.

Um, but it takes some work to get the fig tree to happen.

So, you know, I dug the hole for a fig tree, I planted the fig tree, I've dug a trench around it to keep the water in there, I fertilized it, I did the whole thing, and now I'm just I'm hoping.

And so far it's holding on, I guess.

I play it classical music at night, I put my radio out there, and I don't actually do that.

I've thought about it.

Well, this guy has a fig tree planted on his property, and because of how aggressive it is, it's taking over land.

This fig tree is taking, and he's had it for three years, it says.

And so for three years, he comes and he looks at the fig tree, and it's not actually growing any figs.

A fig tree, normally the figs come first and then the leaves.

Fig trees are really incredible trees.

They they give you two cycles of fruit a season.

Um that's what's remarkable about them.

They don't just blossom once, but they'll blossom twice.

And the fruit will often grow before the leaves do, and the leaves come in after the fruit.

So you'll see the fruit growing, and then you have to go behind the leaves when the fruit is ripe.

And so that's what's uh, in a sense, happening here.

And the guy comes and he looks at the tree in verse 7, and he says, for three, or in verse six, and he says, There's no fruit on it.

He's looking under the leaves, he's investigating, doesn't find any, so he tells the vineyard keeper in verse seven, for three years I've been looking for fruit in this fig tree, and I haven't found any.

Cut it down, he says.

Why would it use up the ground?

And remember how aggressive the root system is in this.

If you're owning your land, you're not just gonna have a decorative fig tree.

It's not there for bragging rights, like it's costing you money.

They're so thirsty.

They will suck in whatever water you give them, and they dominate other trees.

And so this owner is looking at it saying, I can't plant anything else around it, and it's not giving me fruit.

Cut it down.

Get rid of it.

Why should it even use up the ground?

He asks at the end of verse 7.

But the vineyard keeper, look at what he says.

Leave it alone, sir, for one more year.

Let me dig around it, let me fertilize it, let me put manure on it.

And if it bears fruit next year, great.

So this vineyard worker, he loves the tree.

And if you've planted trees, or if you have a garden, maybe you have a your favorite plant that you play classical music to, I don't know.

But this vineyard worker loves the fig tree.

And so the owner says, cut it down, and the worker says, please no, give me one more year.

You can dig a trench around it, so when you water it, the fig tree, the base of it is a little bit elevated.

So you might dig a trench around the outside to keep the water pooling there.

Put fertilizer in there.

The guy's working at it.

This is one way, that's all I want.

And if it doesn't bear fruit next year, then we'll be done with it.

Like I said, this is year two of Jesus' ministry where he teaches this lesson.

Two years into his ministry.

In retrospect, this is more than a parable, isn't it?

In retrospect, the vineyard, the fig tree represents Israel.

And this is an Old Testament analogy.

Israel's often compared to an olive tree, and maybe one night I'll talk about why.

But it's also often compared to a fig tree.

It was the land of fig trees.

And so when the Israelites entered the land back in Deuteronomy, they looked at it and they said, This is a land flowing with milk and honey and fig trees.

It's a blessing the prophet Micah says, that when they have peace, everybody will get to go home and sit under their own fig tree.

It's a sign of curse when God withholds water and the fig tree withers, Habakkuk says.

I mean, it is a constant uh influx in Israel's life.

That when they are prosperous, their figs are ripe.

And when God is cursing them, their figs don't produce anything.

The fig tree is withered.

And so that's the repetition through Israel's history.

Two years into Jesus' ministry, he tells a story about the owner looking for fruit on the tree, and it's not there.

And the owner says, Be done with it.

Why is it taking up the ground?

But the vineyard worker says, just one more year, please.

Let's check back in a year later.

I don't think the disciples understood the full significance of that parable at the time.

I don't know if they related it to Israel and Jesus to the vineyard keeper and God to the landowner.

Maybe they made those connections, maybe not.

But one year later, three years into Jesus' ministry, it's no longer subtle.

Jesus has his entrance on Palm Sunday into the temple.

From the Mount of Olives, he goes down.

He goes back the next day and cleanses the temple and teaches in the temple.

And he goes back again on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, he looks at the fig tree that's on the top of the Mount of Olives there, a massive fig tree.

He looks at it and it doesn't have any fruit.

He peels back the leaves and there's no fruit.

Mark's gospel says the disciples say, Why it's not the season for fruit.

This is the week of Passover.

This is way too early for.

I mean, maybe the fig trees in Jericho might have fruit in them, but not those in Jerusalem.

And the disciples say it's not the right season.

Jesus is from Galilee.

Maybe he doesn't, you know, know the seasons here.

And Jesus curses the fig tree if you remember that Tuesday morning, he says, May you wither and die and never bear fruit again.

And then he goes into the temple.

And what happens in the temple that day?

All the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Herodians, ambush him.

They try to trap him in his words.

It's a hostile environment there.

He leaves.

The next day he goes back to the fig tree.

Wednesday morning, checks in on it again.

No fruit.

And he curses it again.

He goes back by it on Wednesday evening.

And the disciples were astonished.

Because it had died from the ground up.

It was healthy yesterday, and now it's dead.

From the roots up.

Matthew lets you know in Matthew's gospel, it dried from the roots up.

This thing is over.

Now obviously, this is Jesus wasn't angry, it wasn't an anger fitted a fig tree here.

This whole thing is representative of the nation Israel.

That God had given them all they needed.

He sent prophet after prophet that they killed.

He sent his spirit to them in the form of the prophets and the kings who who served under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

They had everything they needed.

And yet when it came time for them to be producing fruit, there wasn't any fruit.

Jesus says from the top of the Mount of Olives, remember when he wept earlier in the week, looking over the city of Jerusalem, and you can see all of Jerusalem from up there.

He weeps over it and he says, How often I would have gathered you.

You are the city that kills the prophets.

You know someone's a real prophet if they were killed by those in Israel, in Jerusalem, he says.

Every prophet dies in Jerusalem.

Can someone be a real prophet unless they're killed in Jerusalem?

It's a sad situation.

You know, the sign of spiritual salvation is always fruit.

That's true in the Old Testament, that's true in the New Testament.

The sign of true conversion is spiritual fruit.

You will know them by your fruit.

You're not saved by your fruit, but you are validated by your fruit.

How do you know it's a fig tree?

It's growing figs.

Growing figs doesn't make it a fig tree, it proves it's a fig tree.

When Jesus looks at Israel, they don't have any fruit.

So two years into his ministry, he tells a parable.

They get one more year, one more year, and then it's over.

One year later, he looks at them and curses the fig tree because it has no fruit.

In so many ways, the nation Israel stands under that curse to this very moment.

As part of this trip, we went to something called the Temple Institute.

I'd never been to that before either.

It's this group of people that are gathering and making all of the utensils for a future temple.

So the Temple Mount is there, and they're getting everything in order to put it on the on, you know, if they ever get rid of the Dome of the Rock or maybe put the temple next to the Dome of the Rock.

They got a big plan and they're going to put a temple up there one day.

I'm not saying that'll happen.

I know there will be a temple up there one day for sure.

I'm not saying this group is going to do it, but they got plans.

And you can go on a tour of their museum and you can see all of the implements that they've made according to Levitical law for the temple.

All of the things prescribed, the basins and the bulls and the all the implements for the offerings and the sacrifices.

They've got it all there, and so it's kind of cool you're looking at it.

It's not a model, that's what they're going to actually put in the temple.

That's kind of cool.

But part of it is you're looking at it and going, this is a cursed religion.

This is a religion that is cursed by God because they won't recognize the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

They won't come to him in faith.

And what do you think happened to the first temple?

Why isn't the first temple there?

Because Manasseh filled it with idols.

The king of Jerusalem filled it with idols.

What happened to the second temple?

It's not there because Jesus looked at it from the Mount of Olives and said, This whole thing is going down because you won't receive your Savior.

Building it back up is not a substitute for faith in Jesus Christ.

And so it is a very sad place to know the curse the Lord gave them, but that's not the end of the fig tree.

Jesus returns to the fig tree in Luke chapter 21.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

You can flip over a few pages.

Luke chapter 21 is the Olivet discourse.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

Jesus is teaching from the Mount of Olives again.

This is after he's cursed the fig tree, after he said the temple is going to be torn down.

He already said that.

He tells them in verse 27, the Son of Man will return in a cloud with power and with great glory.

He talks about the tribulation that will take place.

We know from the Old Testament that Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives.

When he he's going to return in the air for the rapture to bring his church with him, but when he returns to set his foot down on the earth, when he returns to the earth and re-establishes himself, it will be on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the temple.

The Mount of Olives, it says, will be split, the river will be flowing through it.

And Jesus will reorient the topography of the earth around the temple.

That's what happens when he returns.

How do you know when that's going to happen?

Well, he says in verse 29, a parable.

Behold the fig tree, and all the trees.

As soon as they put forth leaves and you see it for yourselves, you know that summer is now near.

And you know this, you look out your window, and especially in Northern Virginia, all the trees start to grow green around the same period of time.

You know, if you go away for a week and you come back, you miss it.

There's that one week though where it's like just little buds, and you're like, oh, spring is here, guaranteed.

The trees are going back.

And Jesus says, that's true of all the trees, also the fig tree.

Why does he call out the fig tree?

If it's true of all the trees, why does he specifically mention the fig tree?

And there's lots of reasons why.

One of them is the fig tree, you know, if you if you cut it back when it goes dormant, it will grow bigger, and Jesus is aware of that.

And the same thing would be true of Israel.

It's been cut back through its curse, and it will come back even more vibrant when people return to the Lord and Savior in the future.

But that's going to happen at the return, at the second coming, at the final battle of this age, the battle of Armageddon, where the nations will rise up against Israel, and Israel, uh, under the leadership of the Antichrist will fight back, and the Antichrist will betray them.

And it's a global battle that takes place in the Valley of Armageddon.

And it's not a battle with the good side and a bad side.

It's a battle where everybody's on the bad side.

And the Lord returns and brings it to an end, and salvation will come through Israel as the nation of Israel turns to faith in the Lord.

They return to faith one at a time.

This is Zechariah chapters 12 through 14 describe this.

Zechariah 12 · chapter mention

They get saved one at a time, and the families then get saved, and whole villages and whole tribes get saved.

As the twelve tribes come to faith.

You know when the fig tree starts to bear leaves, at the end is at hand.

Verse 31 also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

And I don't know the there's a couple ways to understand that this generation, when you see the fig tree producing leaves, that generation that sees the abomination of desolation, that generation that sees the Antichrist and veil himself in the new temple, that generation will be there when Jesus returns.

It'll happen in that very generation.

We look at the nation of Israel now and it stands cursed by God.

It's reoriented back in the land.

Of course it is.

It's there.

There's people speaking Hebrew.

They, you know, got the Temple Institute making the implements.

They're doing stuff over there.

You can buy stuff in shekels at this very moment.

It's incredible.

I don't know if that's the leaves getting ripe.

You know, the nations of the world could turn against Israel tomorrow, and it seems as likely as not, and push them back into the ocean.

And that's not going to thwart God's plan.

God can re-establish them again in two days.

He can do, he can bring them out of the rocks if he wants to, but he will re-establish his people in the land.

He will put the temple back there, and he will return there in the future.

For now, though, it stands as a group of people cursed by God, apart from faith in Christ.

And the Lord then brings us to faith in Christ.

He builds his church among Gentiles.

He builds his church globally.

He cares for the Old Testament through the Bible Museum and Christian scholars that guard the Old Testament in a more fastidious way than even the Jews had in many ways through the years.

It's remarkable and it provokes them to jealousy, which is exactly what Paul said in the book of Romans, that they being the natural branches are broken off and the Gentiles are grafted in, and that provokes the natural branches to eventually repent as they look at the world now in a relationship with their God, which they rejected.

What's the application of this for you?

Check for fruit on yourself.

Do you think He'll spare the branches grafted in?

Nothing is more natural as a Christian than to bear fruit.

I know there are so many that hover around church that take the resources of the land, so to speak, but have never given their life to Christ.

And you come week in and week out, maybe your friends are here, your family makes you come, or who knows why.

You just have relationships there.

You've grown up in the church, and so you come week in and week out.

But you keep living your life for you.

It's a pretty basic question.

How long do you think the Lord will allow that?

How long until it looks at this unnatural branch and says it's not bearing fruit.

Why should it take up the land?

And of course your parents or your friends that you have would say, Oh Lord, give it one more year.

One more year, please.

Maybe this will be the year this person comes to faith.

Maybe one more year.

One more year.

How long will it be?

You don't have forever.

God, we're grateful that you have given the fig tree as an illustration of fruit and the fruitfulness of a tree that continually bears fruit repeatedly throughout the year.

A tree that is aggressive, that does take root in the land.

A tree that represents your people in Israel.

A blessing from you.

Lord, we take it as a mirror to us.

We look at it and we want to bear fruit for you because we love you.

We don't want to bear fruit in order to be loved by you.

We want to bear fruit because we are loved by you.

And we know that there are those around our church that have never given their lives to you, and you will not abide with that forever.

So we do pray for the salvation of our friends that are in the church, of our family that's in the church that has never come to you.

We pray that you would save them.

And we do pray for the people of Israel.

We do pray that their hearts would grow soft towards you.

There is such a profound gospel testimony there, and we pray that their hearts would be opened to the truth of Christ the Savior, crucified and resurrected, the true King of the world, ascended to heaven and returning in glory.

It's in his name we pray.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.