Father, we do offer this service to you.
And we pray that we might be conscious
of your presence and your nearness.
Speak to us, Lord, and make everything very
meaningful.
We ask that our praise may be glorious.
Give to us an understanding of your word
as we come around it and explain it.
And then make this table and its message
meaningful to us all, for the Saviour's sake.
Amen.
Mark chapter 11, beginning to read at verse
12.
The next day, as they, that's Jesus and
his disciples, were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
Seeing in the distance a fig tree in
leaf, he went to find out if it
had any fruit.
When he reached it, he found nothing but
leaves, because it was not the season for
figs.
Then he said to the tree, May no
one ever eat fruit from you again.
And his disciples heard him say it.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area
and began driving out those who were buying
and selling there.
He overturned the tables of the money changers
and the benches of those selling doves and
would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through
the temple courts.
And as he taught them, he said, Is
it not written, My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations, but
you have made it a den of robbers.
The chief priests and the teachers of the
law heard this and began looking for a
way to kill him, for they feared him,
because the whole crowd was amazed at his
teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the
city.
In the morning, as they went along, they
saw the fig tree withered from its roots.
Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look,
the fig tree you cursed has withered.
Have faith in God, Jesus answered.
I'll tell you the truth.
If anyone says to this mountain, Go, throw
yourself into the sea, and does not doubt
in his heart, but believes that what he
says will happen, it will be done for
him.
Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for
in prayer, believe that you have already received
it and it will be yours.
And when you stand praying, if you hold
anything against anyone, forgive him so that your
father in heaven may forgive you your sins.
May the Lord add his blessing to that
word.
I'd be glad if you had your Bibles
open at the Gospel of Mark and the
eleventh chapter.
In one sense, what we're looking at this
evening is not a parable inasmuch as it
has a literal act that is behind what
is read here.
It's part of the ministry of our Lord
Jesus, and it's most important that you and
I understand what he has to say when
he, in an incredible fashion, curses a tree.
And then, in a sort of second stage,
goes into Jerusalem and then returns to the
scene of where he has spoken against the
tree and causes the disciples, if not immediately,
ultimately to appreciate what is the significance of
that parabolic, dramatic action.
I don't suppose there's been anything that Jesus
did that has brought more criticism to him
than this incident.
Here he is in Bethany.
He leaves Bethany where his friends Mary and
Martha are, and he sets off early in
the morning, and he approaches Jerusalem, and he's
hungry, and so he goes over to a
tree, a fig tree.
There's no fruit on the fig tree at
all, so he spins around, and in a
way that seems to be quite uncharacteristic of
him, he says, "'May no one ever eat
from you again.'" And we're told that his
disciples heard what he had to say.
And then he makes his journey onwards to
Jerusalem, and when he's in Jerusalem, again, he
does something that's out of character, apart from
some related incident right at the beginning of
his ministry.
He goes into the temple, and there's, if
you like, a violence about him, about his
activity, as he finds the temple filled with
money changers and a hive of commercial activity,
and he's infuriated by this, and so he
sends them all out.
He handles them in a rough fashion, and
as he concludes his stay in Jerusalem that
day, having engaged in some teaching, he comes
back to the point where he'd been the
following day, and then later on he goes
back to Bethlehem, and then later on in
the morning, the following morning, they go back
to the fig tree, and Peter recalls all
that Jesus has said, and he points out
that the fig tree has withered.
Well, that in sort of compressed fashion is
what we're looking at.
I tell it in my own words, having
already got you to listen to it from
Colin, because I want you to follow just
the scenario as to what's happened.
In one sense, there's an A and a
B and an A in this story.
What do you mean?
Well, A is the fig tree, our Lord
Jesus with it, standing by it with his
disciples.
The B, the Saviour and the disciples in
Jerusalem at the temple, and then you go
back to A, the fig tree again, as
though what is in the center is actually
a commentary on what is on either side.
What I'm arguing is this, that you'll never
understand our Lord's dramatic parable in cursing the
fig tree if you don't also grasp what
happened in Jerusalem.
Someone, as I have said, more than someone,
quite a number of scholars have rejected this
in terms of just a little legend that's
found its way into the Scripture.
Listen to T.
W.
Manson, a learned theologian, he says, it is
a tale of miraculous power wasted in the
service of ill temper.
And none other than William Barclay seems to
suggest that it is such an extraordinary thing
that, well, maybe it's questionable whether it actually
happened.
In fact, the problem becomes a little bit
more when you look into the thirteenth verse
and you discover that the Lord Jesus, when
He goes to the fig tree to discover
if it has any fruit, finds nothing but
leaves, and the evangelist says, it wasn't the
season for figs in any case.
So, what do you accuse the Lord Jesus
of?
An outburst of childish temperament, this is an
act of spite, this is something that is
utterly unbelievable.
And that's what many people say as they
look upon our Lord Jesus acting in this
dramatic and violent fashion.
This is the only occasion when you could
argue our Lord exercises miraculous power in a
destructive way.
Did you hear that?
The only time when the Lord Jesus exercises
miraculous power in a destructive way.
Now, just before we proceed, you have to
know this, that our Lord comes onto the
surge of history not just with the potentiality
of a king and that of a priest,
He's also a prophet.
Now, prophets are very interesting people.
I sometimes think that if some of the
Old Testament prophets had applied for membership of
the respectable, worthy tabernacle, we wouldn't have had
them in.
Occasionally, they will do the most outrageous things.
Sometimes their teaching will be through dramatic activity.
Sometimes they will engage in actions which seem
to be utterly extraordinary.
Read through the life of Ezekiel if you
want some examples of this.
Now, our Lord is in the prophetic tradition
He wants to make an impact upon His
disciples.
He's got a little entourage of eleven good
men and one dud who are with Him
on this occasion, and He wants to do
something that's going to hit them in their
minds that they will never forget because of
the astonishing fashion in which He behaves.
The second thing that you need to bear
in mind is this, that sometimes in the
Old Testament the Jewish nation and God's relationship
with her is likened to a fig tree.
You say, well, that's extraordinary.
Indeed it is, but nonetheless that is the
case.
Let me give you an example.
There are several that I could quote, but
here is one from the prophecy of Hosea
in the ninth chapter and the tenth verse.
Here is the Lord God, and He's remembering
the time when He came across the children
of Israel with all the needs that they
had as a pilgrim people in Sinai.
And He says in the tenth verse of
Hosea 9, when I found Israel it was
like finding grapes in the desert.
When I saw your fathers it was like
seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.
Did you hear that?
It was like seeing the early fruit on
the fig tree.
I could give you several other references of
a similar nature that emphasize the point that
I'm making, that often in the Old Testament
Scriptures the Jewish people are likened to a
fruitful fig tree.
There are however other occasions in the Old
Testament Scriptures when the fig tree and its
withering is an illustration of judgment.
For example, if you go to Isaiah in
chapter 34, you read of God's judgment against
the nations.
Come you nations, near and listen.
Pay attention you peoples.
And then as God indicates something of the
consequence of human sinfulness, He says verse 4,
all the stars of the heavens will be
dissolved, and the sky rolled up like a
scroll, and the starry hosts will fall like
withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs
from the fig tree.
You get it?
I found Israel like a fig tree in
Sinai.
Here are withered figs that indicate that God
is against a people.
Alright, if you're liking categories, that is A.
Now let's go on to B.
The disciples have heard our Lord Jesus as
He pronounces against this fig tree.
Now they find Him, now they're with Him
in Jerusalem.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus enters the temple.
Magnificent building was that temple.
It was a sort of epitome of religious
extravaganza.
There were courts that sort of encircled the
main part, the holy place of the temple.
There were courts for the Orthodox Jew.
There were courts for the women.
There were courts for the Gentiles.
And even as far as the eye can
see on the Mount of Olives, the land
is controlled by the temple authorities.
Some people wrongly think that the Old Testament
is directed exclusively to the Jews.
It's not.
The Old Testament is directed primarily to the
Jews, but then to the Gentiles, as the
gospel is primarily to the Jews and to
the Gentiles.
Now there's a remarkable statement in the prophecy
of Isaiah, the fifty-sixth chapter and the
seventh verse, which speaks of the temple and
it says, my house will be called a
house of prayer for all nations.
All right?
Let's imagine that you were a Gentile, that
is a non-Jew in our Lord's day,
and you've moved out of paganism from worshipping
many gods because you realize that the Jews
have got a significant knowledge as to who
God is.
They uniquely possess it, and you want to
enter into some of the benefits.
Now you could have done that as a
Gentile, because Judaism has a place for Gentiles.
And there's a part of the court of
the temple that is reserved for you.
You remember the fellow Caiaphas who becomes very
prominent in the narratives that deal with the
arrest and the ultimate slaying of our Lord
Jesus?
Some forty years before the death of Jesus,
he determined that he'd make a quick shackle
or two.
And the way he did it was by
bringing the markets of which there were four
on the Mount of Olives in the Olivet
area, he brought the commercial activity into the
temple area reserved for the Gentile who wanted
to come to the God of Abraham and
Isaac and to pray to Him in one
of the most holy shrines that Judaism affords,
found that the area allocated to the Gentiles
was a center of activity, a sort of
stock market.
And Jesus comes and he's disgusted.
He's seen a fig tree that gives all
the appearance of having fruit, but actually it's
nature's extravaganza.
There are no figs.
He goes into the temple, which is to
be the house of prayer, which is to
stand for fruitfulness.
And he finds that as he pushes the
foliage back, there's really nothing left for which
the temple originally stood.
And thus with righteous indignation, he overturns the
tables of the money changers and the benches
of those selling doves.
And he will not allow anyone to carry
their goods and chattels through the temple courts.
He will no longer allow the quiet time
of the Gentiles to be disturbed by insensitive
people who want to engage in commercial activity.
Now listen further, or else you'll misunderstand our
Lord Jesus and make some wrong conclusions as
alas the church has done off and down
its history.
The finger of accusation that Jesus pointed on
this occasion was not against the Jewish nation
as a whole, but the leaders that prostituted
Judaism.
It was the priestly caste, the Sadducees, those
who were in the escalons of religious authority
that Jesus was gunning for.
And he says of these, you've turned this
temple into a den of robbers.
Now Jesus is engaged in this activity because
of his concern for Gentiles.
Now it's important that you understand that as
you come to the eighteenth verse, because here
you get the confederacy of the chief priests
and the teachers of the law listening to
what Jesus has been doing, as they've heard
report, and they begin to look for a
way to kill him.
So one of the contributory factors to Jesus
being pinned to the cross of Calvary was
his defense of Gentiles coming to the Father
to worship him.
Our Lord does not condemn his nation.
He condemns the leadership that have misled the
people.
And you understand from this very story, if
you feel its fabric, that the ordinary people
are spellbound when they hear of what Jesus
has not only done, but they're mesmerized by
his teaching.
When evening comes, the disciples go out of
the city, probably back to Bethany.
Now listen, those of you who are skilled
in the Word of God, who lives at
Bethany?
I gave you some hint on that, didn't
I, a little while ago.
There's that loving family, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
Now I think that Jesus often went to
Bethany for hospitality when he was in Jerusalem.
There's scriptural proof for that.
Can you imagine Mary and Martha letting Jesus
go to Jerusalem without breakfast?
I meet with Tim and Hugh and sometimes
some of the leaders of churches in Worthing
on a fairly frequent basis, and often we
take breakfast together at McDonald's.
You'll see us there occasionally, this little religious
bunch having the benefits of McDonald's at eight
o'clock in the morning.
I reckon that Jesus would have had far
more sumptuous fare than McDonald's could ever have
given.
But he came the previous day hungry from
Bethany.
Maybe he'd skipped breakfast, or maybe he'd spent
one of those long, sleepless nights in prayer
and fasting, and he goes as a man
with a double hunger, a hunger in his
stomach and a hunger in his spirit as
he approaches Jerusalem.
And he wants to show to his disciples
once and forever the bankruptcy of a so
-called developed faith which has at its helm
irreligious men.
And Jesus, having passed condemnation on the fig
tree, then engages in this violent activity in
the temple.
And the following day, verse twenty-one, Peter
remembers.
Remembers as he sees this withered fig tree,
what had happened twenty-four hours earlier, and
he says to the silent Christ, look, the
fig tree you cursed has withered.
And Jesus makes no further comment apart from
to enforce their faith in God and to
teach them about the power of prayer.
Jesus always loved his own nation.
When he died on the cross of Calvary,
it was not the Jews who can be
held as responsible as a whole.
It was those who had corrupted the headquarters
of Judaism.
But even for them, Jesus prayed, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do.
Jesus is on the cross to bring the
salvation of Jews about and to bring about
the salvation of Gentiles.
For all that the temple stood for, approach
to God, is now encapsuled in our Lord
Jesus, and he declares a faith which is
to the children of Israel and to the
children of Ishmael and to the overall family
of Adam.
And our Lord sets up this principle that
when he examines individuals as well as when
he examines communities, he wants to see reality.
He wants to see the true thing, not
some church masquerading as a vibrant center of
spiritual life, not a place where there's necessarily
religiosity and smells and bells, oh, I've got
nothing against liturgy in and of itself.
Nor does he want to come into a
church where the Bible is preached but people
are not affected by the message of the
proclamation of the Bible.
Our Lord looks for reality.
He looks for life.
And it's the gentle Jesus who will, ninety
-nine percent of using his miraculous power, use
it for the benefit of humankind, who will
reserve for himself one miracle in which he
will show the power of destruction.
And he will warn people who are sensitive
that not to respond to the hand of
grace that he extends is in effect to
embrace the only other hand of justice and
law.
Now, Jesus offers Jew and Gentile either his
forgiveness or his justice.
And he will discover which hand you have
embraced as he looks into your life and
finds there the fruit of salvation and a
sensitivity towards helping others into a faith relationship
with God.
That, my friends, as I understand it, is
the teaching of our Lord behind this dramatic
parable which finds its own commentary in what
he does in Jerusalem.
Let's turn in our supplement and sing a
song that is a good response to what
we have learned about the feelingfulness of our
Lord Jesus Christ and the way that we
ourselves ought to love him for all that
he has done for us and for Jewish
people.
Jesus Christ,
Son of God, Lifted up, Willingly to die.
He will reign over us, Still freely flowing,
Still blessing, Still living.
Some while ago now, Mary was contacted by
the Mormons.
She had just come through a very difficult
spell.
And in some ways, I suppose you would
say you were rather easy prey for them.
They came along just at the right time.
How long ago was that?
About 14 months.
About 14 months ago.
And since then, you've come to know the
Lord Jesus as your own savior and Lord
and your God.
How long ago is that, more or less?
March.
Tremendous.
So we do rejoice with Mary and all
that God has done for her.
Now, Mary did express a desire to just
renounce publicly the baptism which she had into
the Mormon Church a year and a half
ago now.
And we feel this is right.
The Lord Jesus Christ has set her free.
And just as he raised Lazarus from the
tomb, all the power is his and all
the glory will go to him.
And nothing that we're going to be doing
tonight will in any sense add to that
deliverance that he has given you, Mary.