Fruit Trees and Tubas

We are actually in the book of Mark, and today we're looking at the story of the fig tree and Jesus flipping tables in the temple. And hopefully we can bring it all together here with some tuba talk as well. So if you have your Bibles, we're opening them up to Mark 11. We're right in the middle of Mark 11, and we're going to take a little bit of time here to walk through some passage together and be reminded of the Gospel, this good news, reminded of who we are and what we were made for and why that is so important before we worship together some more. Wonderful. We are in a passage. I'm going to just keep moving in here, friends. We're in a passage that we've been looking at this throughout the book of Mark, a passage that we've been calling the Mark and Sandwiches, which is passages where Mark specifically. And I think it's actually been really helpful because there's passages in the Gospels that sometimes we don't know. Today specifically is one of those passages. Oh, no, got the wrong stand up here today. Today we have a passage that is on the fig tree. You guys might know this passage because it's kind of a famous passage where Jesus walks by a fig tree and the fig tree dies. And in some of the Gospels, this passage is not connected or not tied to other passages. It almost seems like its own account. And so there's been a lot of different interpretations of this passage. There's people who have written about this passage and saying this seems like the one time where Jesus seems really upset or maybe he loses control of his emotions and kills a fig tree, like kind of out of character, out of his character. And so this is a moment in Mark where Mark actually helps us out because Mark does one of his sandwiches where he shares a story, and then the story pauses and we get another moment of Jesus, of something Jesus really does. And then the story finishes. And actually what it does is it frames the story for us. And so really what Mark is doing here is saying Jesus is acting out an illustration for us. And so the story of the fig tree isn't. Is really Jesus acting out the story and understanding what's happening when he's flipping the tables. Another very famous story that if we. If we understand out of context, we might guess Jesus doesn't like tables at church or something. Right. And so this is really helpful today to be able to read these stories together. So I show all of it kind of together to see. We're going to look at this. These three parts so he was going to walk by a fig tree and curse that tree. Then he's going to go into the temple. And then the next day, as they walk by that tree again, that tree is going to be withered. And there's a reason those are together, the reason Mark did those together. And it's going to really help us understand what's going on with this fig tree. It's not just random. Jesus didn't just get upset. He didn't have an issue with fig trees when he was a kid. Someone didn't, like, hurt him with a fig branch. And now he's out for fig trees. There's a picture here. Jesus wants us to understand a bigger, realer truth. And that's the sandwich that we're gonna see today. So let's just get right into it. We're gonna try to quickly here just understand what's going on with this. So let me read these to us. This is the first part as Jesus curses this. Now, if you remember, Jesus has now just entered Jerusalem. He came in on the donkey. He stayed in Bethany with his friends there. And they're gonna come into Jerusalem. It's Passover time. There's tons and tons of people here right now in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. It's a busy, busy time. And each day they're going to come into the city for all the festivities, all the celebration of Passover. And here is like the real first day kind of that they're coming in to Bethany on the following day when they came from Bethany, which is a town. We'll look at a map here in a moment. He was hungry. I love. I even love just that. Jesus was hungry. He was hungry and seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, meaning there was green leaves on it. 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. So some helpful things here to know. They're walking in to Jerusalem. They see a fig tree where with leaves, which means it's season where the leaves do come out. It should have these tiny little things on it that are gonna become figs. And he probably doesn't see those. The things maybe we don't know because we're not used to fig trees, is there should be these tiny little things. And actually they may have even plucked those off and eaten them kind of as little candies almost. He doesn't See those? So he's aware what we assume here is he sees and goes, you're not gonna produce figs. I see you look, you appear like a tree that has green leaves that will produce fruit, but you're appearing like it, but you won't. He knows that fruit isn't gonna come from you. You're not gonna do what you were made to do. And so he says to it, you're never gonna have fruit again. You're not doing what you were made to do. And Mark tells us the disciples actually heard him say that. Those are all really helpful because later we're going to want to know. The disciples heard that. They knew it happened. They're going to see this fig tree again. It's going to be helpful that they heard all of these things. So Jesus essentially, as he walks in, sees this tree. Now, here's our map from last week. You see Bethany off to the right. We think maybe the dotted line or the other line is maybe one of the ways Jesus walks into there. They walk by the Mount of Olives again, and he sees these fig. These fig trees would have been all over the place. And he sees this fig tree that has. Looks like a tree that should bear fruit but is actually not bearing fruit there. So there's a little fruitless tree out there that he sees that looks green, but he goes, I don't see the little. They're called pigums, these little things. And actually some would kind of pick them off and eat them. Go, oh, yeah, the. The figs are going to come in. And he sees they're not going to come in. And so he says, this is a tree that will be fruitless, although it looks maybe like it is going to produce fruit. Just a moment, right, that Mark records. If that is the only thing that happened, you go, it's kind of random. Why is it happening? We're getting the first part of essentially an illustration. It's really important because the next thing that happens as they walk in from the Mount Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, he says, there's a tree that looks like it but is not going to be fruitful. You will never actually produce fruit. As Jesus then walks into the Temple, he then came to Jerusalem. So now on his walk in, he sees the tree. Now he walks in Jerusalem, 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, it is not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. Is it not written? 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. So we get this short passages in the other Gospels too. This is a story you may have heard. This is a story that is known even outside of, like the church. Right. People have heard the story where Jesus comes in and he flips tables, or he overturns the tables and he kicks out the money exchangers. This is one people might use to say, hey, this is obvious. Jesus doesn't like money in the church. He doesn't want people. They shouldn't be collecting money. Weird week for Aaron to share about us needing money to do this passage. What is really going on here? Right. Well, to understand the context, this is many, many, many people are in town. Many, many people are there for Passover. This is the time where people are coming into the temple area. And in the temple area, here's like, what a picture might look like. They're coming into these large areas in the side. These are the courts of where the Gentiles would be allowed to come, even non Jewish people. And in those areas, they've become kind of marketplaces for the temple in the sense that people can go there and they sell lambs, like perfect lambs, because you need to come and buy a lamb and have it sacrificed to atone for your sins, to pay for your sins. You come and you buy a lamb and then they slaughter that lamb. And the death of that lamb is kind of in the place of your sin, is the process. It's to remind us actually just that death is what comes to those who sin, is what that process is. There's actually also pigeons. You might have saw that in the passage. Pigeons were given, were allowed to be bought by people who didn't have enough money to buy a lamb. And so there's people there who are selling the things, kind of the things in order to do the ceremonies there. There's also money exchangers because you had to come and pay temple tax, but you had to only use the certain money that was there, only, like the local money. And so you had to use. You had to exchange your money because you're coming from all over the world to Jerusalem. You had to exchange your money for the right currency. So that you could then give it to the temple. And so people knew they have to come and buy these animals. They're not going to bring them with them. And they knew they had to exchange for the right coins. And what had happened was what you could imagine, it had become its own economy, a temple economy. People had started raising the prices. They had been selling the lambs for so much more because you were in the temple, and pigeons for so much more because they're in the temple. They said there was people having to buy pigeons that were like weeks and weeks wages, and they already had like no money. And then they were also exchanging money for crazy amounts of money. You could probably imagine this, right? We've all been places where maybe you're kind of stuck in a place and so you pay a lot of money because you're there. So the temple, a place that's the center of Jerusalem, should be the place of we come to worship God. We come for this opportunity to celebrate when God freed us from slavery, has become a place used to make a whole lot of money by a certain group of people. It's. And Jesus came and went, this is not what this is for. Josephus, in the year 66. So about 60 years, 66 years after this, records the happenings at Passover. And he said, that year, about 255,000 lambs were sold in the temple courts. So when we say, like, they're selling lambs, they're selling a quarter of a million lambs to people. It is a business where they sell. There are people who. That is their annual income is that season. They raise lambs, sell them there and then they hang out, right? They're state fair. It's a state fair economy, right? It makes me think this week I just read this article about Coachella, the music festival this year. They said 60% of people financed their ticket to Coachella. So they wanted to go to the music festival. And. And because of how much the prices are, they allowed you to finance. You can pay payments on your ticket. And then people were posting how much all the food was. There was a comment on one that said, like, could you imagine ever going to an event where you paid $10 for ice cream? And I was like, you can if you live in Minnesota. Cause you pay $12 for fried black olives on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair? It's anything, right? A Twins game, you wanna get anything at Twins game, you're like, well, that's just what happens when you're there. It's the same thing that's been happening, right? They found a way to say, I'm gonna use this opportunity to make a lot of money. And we go to the fair and you go, that seems crazy, twins game. But I guess I'm here. And they're using the opportunity and they're making money. But Jesus is going. They're doing it in the temple, in the place that is not for that. It's a place for to come and worship God. And then he says, is it not written my house? This place is supposed to be a place of prayer for all nations. So he's not just saying you shouldn't be taking advantage of people. He's saying, isn't this supposed to be a place for people to come to worship the Lord and all people can come and do that? It seems like you're making it really hard for all people. And it seems like you're really making it not about worshiping the Lord. And in fact, he then calls them robbers. So he says, instead of being people who encourage people and all people, let's all gather and worship the Lord, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, in this place. We built this for this purpose. In fact, this has changed. It's actually become a place where people just get things taken from them rather than things given to the Lord. Obviously, the chief priests and the scribes, it says, get pretty upset with him because of what he's done in this place. Jesus here is quoting to get, maybe understand even more. He's quoting, this house will be called the house of prayer. He's quoting Isaiah 56. I want to actually read you the first eight verses to get a feel for it, because I think when he says that verse, when he says that thing, it should kind of remind us this. It zooms us Back to Isaiah 56. Just hear what Isaiah 56 is making, this declaration of what will be. One day the Lord will come and make things right, and this is what it'll look like. The Lord says, keep justice and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come and my righteousness be revealed. It's hard. It's hard for us. We get to read Isaiah 56 and go, he's right there with him. He's just entered in on a donkey. He's standing in the temple with him. Blessed is the man who does this, and the Son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord, say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people. And let not the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. For thus the Lord says the Lord to the eunuch who keep my Sabbaths, who chose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant. I'll give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I'll give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. So this passage is great. We looked at this passage. We were in the book of Acts when Philip goes to the eunuch. And eunuchs were people who were known for being cut off physically, but also cut off from the people of God. You could not be part of them because of your physically cut off. And here in Isaiah, God says, there's going to be a time away, things will be made right. You will not be cut off. In fact, you'll be called better than sons and daughters. You'll be part of my family. There's going to be a place where all of you can come together. I'm making a way so that all can come into my family, into my place. And the foreigners who join them in verse six themselves to the Lord and to minister to them, to love in the name of the Lord and to the servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not prevent it and holds fast my covenant. These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer, their burnt offerings or sacrifices on my altar. For my house shall not be called a house of prayer. For. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered. So he's quoting. Jesus is quoting a part of Isaiah which is saying, I want to gather all those who have not been gathered yet to worship me, to join my family. Those who are the outsiders, which is what we just saw Jesus do for 10 chapters of Mark is gather those who People were saying, no, you have to be cut off. You don't get to be in. And he goes, and actually through me, all can be welcomed in. And then he goes to the temple and he sees you're making more ways so more people can't get in. In the place that physically is a picture should be the picture of the place where people come together. And so he's now seeing what we just saw on the outside of town. We're seeing on the inside of town. We're seeing a tree that looks green, like it should be fruitful, and it is not. Fruitful. We're now seeing. He's flipping tables and he's saying, the house that is. I walk in, it looks, you got green leaves here, but there's no fruit. What I'm seeing is stealing from people and not serving a people. I'm seeing fruitless, a fruitless temple, a fruitless people, a fruitless leaders. He's. He's seeing a fig tree that he curses. And then they. We get the second. The end of the story. So they go. They go back to Bethany, and in the morning they pass by again to come back in. As they pass by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said, 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, does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says has 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, and when. 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. There's also if, depending on the version you have, There's a verse 26 here. This is like the other parts of Mark we've had. We don't have a verse 26 in the ESV version. It's similar to the other passages. We've just found that verse 26, we think historically, was maybe added a few. Maybe centuries after the original text. We found earlier texts of Mark that didn't have verse 26. 26 is actually the same verse. It's saying the same thing again. It's saying, and if you don't forgive, the Lord will not forgive, which we see in Matthew, I think. But if you're wondering, if you're like, hey, mine has one more verse, it's the same in other parts of Mark. We're learning that we have older versions of Mark in the original. So what happens here? They see the tree, and the tree is withered, it's dead. And so what Jesus here has shown us and Mark has shown us is there's a tree that looks like it's going to be fruitful and isn't. And Jesus says, you're not going to be fruitful. And then he walks into the temple and he sees people who go, I'm going to use this as an opportunity to make a bunch of money, to control a lot of people, to control who's in or out. And he says that is the opposite of what the purpose of this place is. This place is a place to find a way for people to enter into the presence of God, to find a way for salvation and righteousness in the Lord. And instead you found a way to take from and to use people to gain your own power. And you're even missing it yourself. And so this passage, sometimes you can feel like, man, that's pretty harsh on the tree. I think Jesus is actually just showing the reality. If you are choosing to not be who you were created to be, which is a worshiper, as Rowan told us, a worshiper of God, then eventually you wither and die. You're on your way to a withering, dying life. And Jesus shows this in the picture of the fig tree, and he is living it out in the temple that day. This passage does show us three things that encouraging things that look what it looks like if we do decide to turn to God and follow God here as we end in our passage, three things that, that encouraged me today. At the end of our passage here, as Jesus looks to what it looks like to have faith, he tells us three things. He tells us that God can, that God listens, and that God forgives. First, he tells us this interesting way to pray in 24. Therefore, I tell you whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. That might your first response and that might be, well, that feels like, well, I want a bunch of money. That would actually maybe be an indication of your heart position and be indication of where your faith is at. This is actually a cool picture of a Jewish prayer, a prayer where we know who God was in the past, which means we know who God is in the future, which means it affects how we pray in the present. That actually can pray for present realities as if they are already happened. Because I know who the God is who's already there. And that prayer isn't about me, it's about the God who I have faith in. They're praying these prayers at Passover, which means they're praying to a God who rescued them from slavery, did the impossible to get them through the Red Sea, did the impossible and kept them alive in the wilderness, and over and over got them to the promised land, and still they survive. And so they're praying to a God they know who can. And so to have faith in God to be a tree who is fruitful is one who believes God can not One that thinks, I don't know if God can, so I need to. So if we were someone who believed that God can't, we might be someone who says, well, I need to maybe use people or my situation. Or I need to find a way to get enough to earn enough to make sure I can make all these things happen. Because I don't know if God can, because I will. But if I believe God can, He's got it. Then maybe I don't need to steal money from people in the temple. I can believe a God. It's so. It's ironic. They're standing in the temple where they worship a God who created the universe, who's about to rescue them from sin and death. And they are as fast as they can trying to gather money which gets them what? I can ask for anything I want from a God, because that God can do anything, because God can. Secondly, we hear here that God listens multiple times. It tells us here that we can ask in prayer. We don't want to miss that we have a God who isn't a God, that I have to go sacrifice things or give money or do certain things. And then God might respond if I offer things first. It's a God who first listens. And even when I'm a sinner who doesn't deserve it, still listens. That's a really big deal, I think, one that I often take for granted. There's no money exchange. In Isaiah 55, right before the passage in 56 is where we hear this great passage about, come without money or without anything, and I will give you food. It's the foundation of the Gospel. We have a God who listens to us, not because we have come with the right sacrifice that we paid too much money for in the temple courts. But we have a God who listens to us because of his deep love for us, his care for us, and ultimately because of what His Son has done to make a way for us. He hears us. And lastly, we have a God who forgives us. I can forgive others. I can have the fruit of forgiveness in my life. Not even just for others, but for myself. I get the joy of forgiveness in my life. I don't have to live with the weight of holding on to forgive, holding on to. Of not forgiving in my life, right of holding grudges in my life. How much weight is that that we carry with us? I can forgive and bear that fruit because I have been forgiven. And we have a God who forgives us. And it's not because I Went and paid a bunch for a lamb, or because maybe I didn't have enough money and I paid for a. For a pigeon. It's not because I exchanged my money and I was able to show up at Passover and give the right tithe. It's because that Jesus who flipped those tables just a few days later, went back there, and then he went right outside of that city, on the other side of the city, up on a hill, and was crucified on a cross like a lamb. He was slain. He was put in the ground, and he came out of the ground alive. And he did that for every single person in that court. He did it for the person buying that lamb. He did it for that thieving merchant who has taken advantage of those people. He did it for me. He did it for you. He did it for his disciples. He did it for every person he walked by on the way in there. He did it for the half a million people in there celebrating Passover. He did it for all people, all time. He made a way, this perfect lamb sacrificed so all people for all time could say, yes, I'm forgiven. He sacrificed for us, a gift to us. He made the impossible happen. When he says, you can say to that mountain, stand up and be thrown into the sea, that seems impossible. You know, it seems impossible that. That somehow my sin could be taken care of. That somehow death could be stopped. And our God took that immovable thing we call sin and death, and he moved it far, far away from us. He took that thing, that sin that seems so hard to be forgiven of, and he took it so, so far from us so that we could be forgiven and bear the fruit of forgiveness as well. I'm going to invite our worship team up so we can keep worshiping as we end here. Just consider ourselves tubas, fig trees, whatever picture you want to picture. We don't want to leave here with this picture. I don't want to leave you going, Okay, I got to leave here. I got to be a better tuba today. Drew said, be a better tuba, be a fig tree. Neither one of those things work unless something makes them work. Whether you're a tuba or a fig tree, you cannot just be better and produce fruit or just be better and make music. That tuba would have sat right here if Becca hadn't grabbed a hold of it and played that thing. That fig tree would not have grown unless God had rained on it and the soil had given it nutrients. We need someone else to play us, to tend to us. We need a gardener and a musician. And we have a gardener and a musician. So let us put faith in God, who transforms us as instruments, as his wonderful gardens, that we too could bear fruit, we could make music. And that not only that, that we get to then share that with our neighbors and worship him. As our friend. Rowan said, we were created to worship God and share with others the good word. And we get to do that today. Let me ask us a few questions here as we move to a time of gospel response together. And worship together is one of the ways we get to worship. Do you have faith in Jesus, the Lamb of God, the one who was slain, so that for free, it's free, he's offered you life? When is it hard to believe God can? And he listens and he forgives. Maybe consider, who do you get to play music with that he doesn't just do this on our own, but we get to do this with others. And maybe consider who do you get to invite to play some music with you, to invite into a life where God could help others be who they were created to be. We also love to respond with communion. It's out in the hallways, both sides of our hall. Always have communion. Are there stickers out there, Sadie, this week? Yeah, usually fifth Sundays we got some stickers. So even if little ones are not taking communion, we encourage you to go with slap on a sticker and pray together. Be reminded that Christ did die, that the lamb did come and was slain, but rose from the dead so that we could have life. We'll sing together. We'd love to pray for you. There's people who'd love to pray for you in the back of the room. Please take them up on that. They'll have yellow lanyards on. And we always can give as a response to the gospel as well. Let me pray for us as we continue here. Lord, thank you for your goodness, your kindness, your love for us. Thank you that you made us yours. You call us your sons and daughters and do not just leave us, Lord, that you did not leave us. Withered trees left to die, but you gave us life. I pray that you would use us and you bear fruit in us, that you would help us make great music, that others would know your name. Pray this in your good name. Amen.