PLENTY OF
LEAVES, BUT NO FRUIT
Matthew
21:18-22
If you have seen the news this week, you are well aware of the football frenzy around us as the SuperBowl will be played tonight. I remember my first professional sports event, the GGO in Greensboro. When we got there, I was amazed to see all the golfers…or so I thought. They were dressed like the professionals—down to the gloves and shoes in some cases! But there was little chance they could actually play!
Tonight the
stadium in Houston will be filled with fans wearing their team jerseys, some
even wearing helmets! But we all know
that the only ones doing anything will be the guys producing down on the field.
Dressing up does
not mean we can produce! Jesus made
that clear when He came upon this fig tree with plenty of leaves but no fruit!
It looked great and showed promise…but nothing substantial was there!
THESIS: God is not looking for people who put on a good show
but for those who are committed to bearing the fruit of the Spirit in the way
they live their lives!
As Jesus entered the city, he saw the fig tree with all of its leaves
and from the time of year (spring, early April or late March) knew that the
first of three fig crops should be ready.
Although the larger figs would not come until fall, the arrival of the
leaves signaled that fruit would be on the tree. They would not be fully ripe until May or June but would be
sufficiently mature for Him to eat if the tree were healthy. If a tree had no fruit at this point, it
would bear none for the entire season. Therefore, when He found no figs on the
tree, He declared, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” The fig tree withered and once more the
disciples were astonished by the power and authority of Jesus.
I. TRACING THE CONNECTION OF TWO RELATED EVENTS: CLEARING THE TEMPLE AND CURSING THE TREE
A. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE’S PLACE IN WORSHIP
--By His actions in the Temple courts, Jesus denounced the
perverse and twisted practices of the religious systems of Israel.
--Before the clearing of the Temple, He had already spoken
to His disciples of the coming destruction of the Temple and the end of its
place in God’s plan for true worship.
Luke 19:43-44 “For the days shall come upon you when your
enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on
every side, 44 and will level you to the ground and your
children within you, and they will not
leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time
of your visitation.”
--After the events at the Temple and the cursing
of the fig tree, He again speaks of the eminent destruction of the place of
worship which had been contaminated by the ungodly actions of the leaders.
--In Matthew’s account, Jesus had just spoken of the desolation
that would sweep down upon Jerusalem as the temple would be destroyed:
Matt. 23:38 “Behold, your house is being left to you
desolate!
--His disciples heard what He had to say, but
could not help but entertain doubts that such magnificent structures could
actually be destroyed:
Mark 13:1-2 And as He was going out of the temple, one
of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what
wonderful buildings!” 2 And
Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be
left upon another which will not be torn down.”
--A new way to worship was about to be
instituted and the old way cast aside.
All this actually did take
place less than forty years later in 70 A.D. when Titus, son of the emperor
Vespasian, laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and utterly destroyed it and
burned the Temple to the ground.
Josephus, a Jewish historian and eye-witness to these things wrote, “The
emperor gave orders that they should now demolish the whole city and temple, except
the three towers…but all the rest was laid so completely even with the ground,
by those who dug it up from the foundation, that there was nothing left to make
those who came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.”
When God was done with the Temple, He was done!!
--Even the veil maintaining the separation of
the holy of holies from everyone but the High Priest was destroyed at the time
the Lamb of God was slain on the cross.
Matt. 27:50-51 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice,
and yielded up His spirit. 51
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the
earth shook; and the rocks were split,
--The old ways of the Temple had only been a
copy of what was to come, and even the copy had been polluted, so Christ came
to take all that away!
Heb. 10:19-20 Since therefore, brethren, we have
confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which
He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
--All that was going on as a part of the actions Jesus took
to throw the moneychangers and “pretenders at worship” out of the courts of the
Lord!
B. THE
DOWNFALL OF ISRAEL’S PRIDE BEFORE GOD
--Now Jesus comes back to Jerusalem the next day and finds
the fig tree of which this passage speaks.
--Here was another parable in action as Jesus comes to the
tree and finds plenty of leaves, but no fruit!
--Just as He came to His own and they received Him not, now
He finds that the covenant people of Abraham have learned how to fill the tree
of Jewish worship with leaves but have failed to produce even one solitary fig
worthy of the name ‘fruit.’
--They had become so proud that they were God’s chosen
people that they had developed elaborate schemes for dressing up the tree with
leaves of religious ceremonies and rituals, but had abandoned the purpose of a
fruit tree—to bear fruit…of which they had none!
--Their corruption of His garden resulted in the removal of
their unique place and the cultivation and protection they had once enjoyed.
Isaiah 5:1-7
…My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 And He dug it all around, removed its
stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the
middle of it, And hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce
good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. 3 “And now, O
inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 “What
more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I
expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? 5 “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I
will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and
it will become trampled ground. 6 “And I will lay it waste; It will not be
pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the
clouds to rain no rain on it.” 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of
hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus
He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a
cry of distress.
--In cursing the fig tree, as in the rejection of His
vineyard in Isaiah 5, Jesus announces in yet another way that God is on the
move to take His message of hope and salvation to another level—He is taking it
away from Israel and giving it to the nations!
The Temple will no longer be there…Israel will no longer
bear the seed of salvation…Jesus Christ announces that the eternal purposes of
the Father now meet together in Him alone!
II. TAKING THE MESSAGE OF TWO RELATED LESSONS: THE MESSAGE OF FORGIVENESS AND THE MESSAGE
OF RECONCILIATION
A. ACCESS TO GOD WOULD NO LONGER BE THROUGH THE TEMPLE’S WORSHIP
PRACTICES, BUT WOULD NOW BE THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.
Heb. 9:24-25, 28 For Christ did not enter a holy place made
with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us; 25
nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the
holy place year by year with blood not his own…28 so Christ also,
having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time
for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
--Now, in Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice for sin was
made once for all so that there would never again be a need for the sacrifices
of temple worship…He died once for all.
I remember years ago a young man arguing that the
Bible was not reliable and was not even practiced by those who claimed to
believe it. He proudly announced his
proof: “Why I never see any of you who
claim to believe the Bible offering sacrifices anymore!”
Praise the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ that the young man was right…but for all the wrong reasons. We don’t have to make sacrifices anymore
because God did it for us…one last time…once for all when Jesus gave His life
on the cross, shedding His blood for our forgiveness, thereby reconciling us to
God!
B. RECONCILIATION TO GOD WOULD NOT LONGER BE LIMITED TO THE NATION
OF ISRAEL, BUT WOULD NOW BE AVAILABLE BY GRACE TO THE NATIONS.
--After making it clear that the Temple would no longer be
the center of worship since it was about to be destroyed, Jesus goes on the
announce that message is ready to be announced to the nations!
Matt. 24:2, 14 And He answered and said to them, “Do you
not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left
upon another, which will not be torn down.” …14 “And this gospel of
the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the
nations, and then the end shall come.
--As harsh as this may have sounded to the Jews of Jesus’
day, and later on as the gospel began to spread to the nations, the Gentile
people, even the Jewish believers in Jerusalem criticized Paul for his failure
to keep separate from the goyim of the ethnos, the Gentiles of the nations.
--We no longer have to go to the Temple to worship…and we
are no longer to keep the treasure of our hope to ourselves.
--We have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and
now have been given a ministry of reconciliation to proclaim to every ethnos,
to every tongue, every people group, that Jesus has come to break down the
dividing walls that separated us from God and from each other!
2 Cor. 5:18-20 Now all these things are from God, who
reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation, 19 namely,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were
entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
--The fig tree has been cursed…no longer can those who have
been charged with bearing fruit for Christ expect to produce the leaves of
pretty religious talk and window-dressing.
--When He comes to us, He expects to find us moving out from
the safety and comfort of the vineyard and take the message of hope and
reconciliation out to the highways and byways, to the nations and anyone we
consider to be “others.”
God does not put up with those who
corrupt His worship and contend against His purposes. Temples are destroyed…trees are cursed…nations are
exiled…lampstands of churches are removed!
How long will we ignore His will and be consumed by our own?
Did you know that the nation that is targeted for sending missionaries
second only to China is the USA? The
world around us sees that we are not producing figs and allowing the “huddled
masses” who have come to our shores to walk blindly in the darkness of unbelief
because we are busy keeping the leaves of our trees pretty instead of bearing
the fruit that God will produce when we are willing to embrace our calling to
the nations—beginning right here at home with our African-American neighbors,
our Hispanic neighbors, our Asian neighbors, and so on.
We continue to ignore our calling and we will find that the fig tree of
American Christianity will wither and God will pour out His favor elsewhere!
Throughout the
ages, God has endured many who put a good face on their religion, but who in
fact were laboring in vain! What God
wanted did not matter to them in the way they lived…as long as their tree had
plenty of leaves! What about you? What is real about your faith? What does Jesus Christ find when He gets
close? We are called to be ministers of
Christ, agents of reconciliation…and our calling is to do so among all the
people, not just among those we consider worthy.
Jesus has now
made us both His Temple and branches on His Tree. How does He find you this morning? Plenty of leaves, but no fruit?
Or Ambassadors for Christ and Agents of Reconciliation?
Providence Baptist Church
© David Horner 2004
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