2019-04-03 Mark 11
Notes
Transcript
12 The next day when they went out from Bethany, he was hungry.
13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to find out if there was anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.
14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples heard it.
20 Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.
21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God.
23 Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
24 Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
I. God will expose and condemn fruitlessness.
I. God will expose and condemn fruitlessness.
12 The next day when they went out from Bethany, he was hungry.
13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to find out if there was anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.
14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples heard it.
The fig tree was a visual representative of what Jesus was about to do.
The fig tree was a visual representative of what Jesus was about to do.
12 The next day when they went out from Bethany, he was hungry.
13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to find out if there was anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.
14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples heard it.
Illus: To be clear, God never called Israel to be a self righteous people, he called them to be a God led and dependent people.
Think through what we have been talking about on Sunday mornings...
Over and over God judges in numbers because they say “lets raise up our own ruler to take us back to egypt.”
God judges the people by giving them Saul, a man strong in their eyes, but not in heart.
The simple point… spiritual deadness is not always immorality as we see it, but can look like moral faithfulness all the while bankrupt of God’s presence.
Our context in this passage: In the midst of moral bankruptcy, God called the people to return to him, but instead they turned to self righteous men who use morals as a means of enslaving people to a system and not God.
This formed a dead righteousness like the tree where from outward appearance looked like faithfulness, but upon a closer look was empty of genuine fruit.
15 They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,
16 and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.
17 He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”
Which fulfilled prophecy
20 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place, on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”
11 They have treated the brokenness of my dear people superficially, claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation. Therefore, they will fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.
13 I will gather them and bring them to an end. This is the Lord’s declaration. There will be no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and even the leaf will wither. Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.
The fig tree is a warning for us today.
The fig tree is a warning for us today.
12 The next day when they went out from Bethany, he was hungry.
13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to find out if there was anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.
14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples heard it.
Illus: There is a tendency to embrace the same sin as the pharisees: where WE drive our morals, seek change through our morals, and embrace a Christianity devoid of Christ.
Where we drive our morals, seek change through our morals, and embrace a christianity devoid of Christ.
We have learned to live in a christian culture where it is possible to go to church, be a respected member of the community, all the while never knowing Christ.
The tree looks real, it is decorated with leaves, and from the outside looks right.
Friends, the greatest mission field we have might very well attend our churches: people who have grown up in church, christianized by culture, but not knowing Christ through faith in the gospel.
Without gospel change, we are just as dead as the fig tree, and hopeless like the pharisees.
(john the baptist)
7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.
9 And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.
10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
II. God brings the dead back to life.
II. God brings the dead back to life.
20 Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.
21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God.
23 Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
God brings life to dead self righteous men.
God brings life to dead self righteous men.
20 Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.
21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God.
23 Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
Illus: As we read a passage like ours today, there is a temptation to say, oh no, I am different. I am not like the fig tree.
The starting place for every believers life is to see the dead tree, deserving of God’s curse and say, that is me.
Without the gospel, and without Christ, I might be moral and religious, but I am dead.
Thanks be to God that our God is a dead man resurrecter. He calls the spiritually dead from the grave and gives them life.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
God’s life is found through faith in him.
God’s life is found through faith in him.
22 Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God.
23 Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
Illus: What God asks is counter intuitive to what comes natural to us.
We say try harder, God says trust me.
We say live better, God says yield to my presence.
We say do more, God says trust more.
Why? Scripture says that nothing good dwells in us, so as we work harder, live “better”, and do more all we are doing is furthering the nothing good that brings death to others.
Instead, as we submit, God changes us. He brings his life into our death.
As we submit, God transforms our dead works into the fruit of the spirit.
Where our work produces death, the work of God’s Spirit brings life.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
III. We are changed people.
III. We are changed people.
24 Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
The mark of God’s life will be that the fruit of his presence will be seen in you.
The mark of God’s life will be that the fruit of his presence will be seen in you.
Illus: How do you produce the fruit of God’s presence? Simple… embrace God.
Trust God whole heartedly.
Embrace God’s word and read it as the sustance of life.
Seek God’s face through prayer.
Worship God with his church.
God will change you. He will change your affections. He will produce the fruit of his presence. Yield yourself to him and see what He will do!
8 For God is my witness, how deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment,
10 so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.