The Barren Fig Tree Luke 13:1-9 Jesus frequently used parables in communicating truth. Jesus often used the power of story,

Transcription

1 The Barren Fig Tree Luke 13:1-9 Jesus frequently used parables in communicating truth. Jesus often used the power of story, The gospel of Luke is filled with parables from Jesus. In fact, two- thirds of all of Jesus parables are in Luke. Eighteen parables of Jesus are unique to Luke, meaning they re not recorded anywhere else. And Jesus uses these stories to help to shape our life. Parables are small, brief stories that pack in big, life- changing meaning - if we have ears to hear and a heart to obey. They are not just about information, They are about transformation. It s not just about what we believe, it s about how we behave. Jesus, what do you want me to do? My family, my community group, my neighbours, my church? What do you want us to do? What s the call to action? Now, that being said, let s look at the parable of the barren fig tree. Luke 13:6 9, Then he, Jesus, told this parable: A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, For three years now I ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil? 8 Sir, the man replied, leave it alone for one more year, and I ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down. That s the simple story. That s the whole story. Last week we looked at verses 1-5 from this text, and we saw that the existence of evil and suffering as far as scripture is concerned is the result of living in a broken world. Life was not meant to be this way! Full of evil and suffering! but in a world where humanity had been given the extraordinary gift of freewill, that this ultimately led to us throwing off God s claim on our lives, and going our own way, bringing about disastrous consequences for this world and the whole of the human species. And we finished with the chilling words in verse 5 Unless you repent, you too will perish. 1

2 The parable of the barren fig tree that follows Jesus warning is all part and parcel of the same message, so the context of this parable is to do with the urgent need for repentance in the light of the prospect of judgement. Jesus challenged his listeners in the first 5 verses, that in the light of the suddenness of evil and suffering, and death as shown by those who had been executed under Pilate, and those who had been killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed, that we need to give our attention to consider our own condition before God because one day we will die and face a holy and just God, who will call us to account, and we will either face God forgiven in Christ or guilty in our sin. Some of those who were listening to Jesus would have believed that some people were more deserving of God s judgement than themselves. And, the reason you are still around to hear me speak says Jesus is not because you are better people, more moral people, more spiritual people than the Galileans, not because you are any better than the people who died when the tower fell on them, but it is because of God s goodness that he allows you the opportunity to be alive at this moment in order that you might hear what Jesus has to say. And, for those of us who are quick to judge and condemn others the Bible has a warning in 1 Cor.10:12 if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don t fall! Jesus said do not concern yourself about why this happened or why that happened to them, or whether he s a bad person or she s a bad person, or whether those people who suffer are worse than you! Look out for yourself!!! Unless you repent, you too will perish. He said this once in verse 3, again in verse 5 And then, he told them a story! Jesus listeners would have been able to identify themselves very quickly with his story of the barren fig tree. According to Jewish historians, figs could hang on fig trees for 10 months of the year. The two barren months were probably April and May, before the first of 3 crops would arrive. The first figs ripened toward the end of June, the second crop ripened in August and the third crop came in September, these tended to be small, of little value and hang around through the winter. 2

3 But, this fig tree seemed like a lost cause and that s exactly what the man said who owned the vineyard. I ve been coming here three years, no fruit whatsoever in all that time it s a lost cause, cut it down, its taking up valuable space and also ruining the ground. Fruitless taking up space and causing the soil around it to deteriorate. Who is this referring to? This fits perfectly people who have religion but have never repented, that is they will attend a place of worship, they might adhere to certain laws and commands within their religion, they will even pray and read the scriptures and be involved in good works, but their hearts have not changed, they have no real faith, it is all works based, that is the things they do. And today, we can have people who hang around church, they sing the songs, pray the prayers, stay for coffee, do all the religious things expected of them, but they are fruitless, barren, there s been no change of heart, no firm decision to follow Christ 100%. In Jesus day, both the vineyard (Psalm 80) and the fig tree were symbols of the Jewish nation. The Jewish people and the nation of Israel had lots of leaves, but no real fruit. They were religious but no real relationship with God. A nation that God had cherished and cared for over centuries in the hope that one day it would be spiritually fruitful. But its special relationship with him had, by and large, turned into a barren religion. Outwardly, they had all the hallmarks of being very spiritual and religious, but inwardly they were dead to God, barren and fruitless! However, there is an intervention from the vinedresser the gardener in verse 8 let s leave it, I ll dig around it, fertilise it, and if it bears fruit next year, then excellent, but if not then we will cut it down. 3

4 Again, this was common practice in Jesus day and culture to dig around and fertilise with dung, manure. So, then, to briefly recap, the story highlights a number of things 1. It highlights the sterility of the tree it s barren, sterile, fruitless 2. It highlights the leniency and patience of the gardener let s give it another chance! There s a possibility that fruit may come! Somebody, I am sure would have replied You are joking if nothing has come in three years, do you think that we are going to get fruit now. It s the kind of thing that people could say Do you think if he or she hasn t come to faith by this time that they re going to come to faith, after all this time, after all the sermons they have heard??? Don t think so!!! cut them off, forget them, take them off the list No says the gardener, let s go one more year, one more time, dig around, fertilise the ground The gardener is lenient and compassionate. But, judgement still awaits, for if the tree bears no fruit next year, then we will cut it down. So, here we have again, a warning of inevitable judgement, but there is still yet hope, a possibility that judgement can be averted. Repentance is yet possible! God cares about fruit in our lives. God cares about effectiveness. God cares about performance. God cares about fruitfulness. So, what is this fruit? Fruitfulness here is good works. Good works, obedience, a changed life, living a kind of life that makes a difference, that when your life on the earth is done, 4

5 people miss you because you were a gift to them. You were a channel of God s grace to them. You provided wisdom or generosity or help or service or rebuke or encouragement. That you were giving. That you were fruitful. That your life counted. That you weren t just a consumer, you were a producer. You didn t just take from everyone and everything, but you gave and others were blessed by you. And this is different than religion. Religion teaches that we re saved by our fruit, that we re saved by our good works, that if you live a moral life and you re a good decent person that you will stand before God and he ll find you pleasing in his sight in the end. Essentially the essence of all religion is the same: that you work hard, bear much fruit, God then judges on a scale and if you were better than most he finds you pleasing in his sight. We don t believe that at all. It is not what the Bible teaches! We don t believe that we re saved by our fruit, but rather we re the fruit of the work of Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life, not us. Jesus paid the penalty for sin on the cross so that we don t have to. Jesus rose from the dead to give us the gift we don t deserve: salvation, eternal life, citizenship, and adoption into the family of God. But some of us have misunderstood Christianity. Some of us, particularly who were brought up in the church or maybe gave your life to Jesus when you were young, you misunderstood the gospel. And you thought, 5

6 Belong to Jesus, give your life to Jesus, give your heart to Jesus, and when you die you get to go to heaven. That s almost true but it s missing something called life. It s not about just belonging to Jesus and going to heaven. It s about belonging to Jesus, living a fruitful life, and then going to heaven for an eternal reward. Your life counts, your life counts, your life matters. God has fruit for you to bear. He has good works for you to do. He has things for you to accomplish. Not so that you can become a Christian, but because you are already a Christian through faith in Christ. Not so that you ll become pleasing in his sight, but because through Christ you already are. Ephesians 2:8 10 says it this way, We re saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. It s a gift, we didn t earn it, there s nothing for us to boast about. That s Ephesians 2:8 9, and it goes on then in Ephesians 2:10 to say, To do the good works he prepared in advance for us to do. So we re not saved by good works, or to use the parable, by our fruit, but we re saved to do good works, to be fruitful. Once you meet Jesus, you re supposed to become increasingly fruitful, a little more fruitful every year throughout the course of your life, demonstrating the character, the love, affection, and generosity of God because you re in Christ. And Jesus says in John 15, If you abide in me, I ll abide in you and you ll bear much Fruit! Fruit that will last. And so then we need to look at our own life and ask the question Am I bearing fruit? Some of us would say, Well, there are areas of my life that are very fruitful. And we can rejoice in those, praise God for every fig. 6

7 But I am guessing that because we re all sinners in a fallen world, there are some branches on our tree that are not very fruitful. This whole perspective of God trying to reach us, giving us more time, making conditions more favourable so that we bear fruit, and more fruit is also found in the gospel of John ch. 15:1/2 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes [a] so that it will be even more fruitful. God will dig around our lives, throw some manure around it, even prune branches that bear no fruit Why??? to make us even more fruitful than we already are! So, what might this look like in our lives? Well, it could be a number of things. There may still be sins that we are holding on to, and God will at some point challenge us about that issue. It does not happen all at once. God does not deal with everything so that we will never sin again, but what the Holy Spirit does, more often than not, is to move from issue to issue, areas of sin in our lives they may not be super- devastating, where our lives are in danger, but areas in which some sort of behaviour is not fitting for a Christian to be involved in. Lateness!! It s time to let that go now! It s a stumbling block, it s hurting you! And so, at different times he moves from one area to the other in our lives, pruning the dead branches, that are preventing spiritual growth and fruitfulness. That could be in the guise of a personal relationship with someone, it may not be technically sinful, and yet it is destructive and spiritually debilitating. Some of us have some sort of obsession, something we are so focussed on such as entertainment habits that are engrossing huge quantities of our time and leave us more or less unavailable to our families, to our Christian friends and to The Lord. Our minds are constantly focussed on this, 7

8 and a certain point God will move in on some of these things. He s done that with me to a point, when I have been distracted by certain things which have been unhelpful, and I need to get the whole thing into a healthier perspective. It could be eating habits or something like that, not super- moral things but they do have an impact on our spiritual life. So, where do you want to see more fruit? Is it more fruit in your marriage? Is it more fruit in your studies in school? Is it more fruit in your employment? More fruit in your finances? More fruit in your ministry? More fruit in your Bible reading? More fruit in your difficult relationships that are perhaps even strained with friends? Your health, your weight, your wellness, what is it? I don t know. But I do know that God is good and he looks at some of you who maybe in whole areas of your life, it s really been fruitless, You really haven t accomplished what you were supposed to. God wants to encourage you today. God wants to love you today. God wants to serve you today. God wants to help you today. God wants you to hear the voice of Jesus saying, No, we re not going to cut it down. I m going to put more effort in. Isn t that amazing? Jesus has a vested interest in producing more fruit in your life, In John 15 Jesus says This is to my Father s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. So then how do we become more fruitful Jesus says in John 15 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. It is remaining in the vine, remaining in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We need to cultivate our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22 speaks of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit. 8

9 How do you get fruit? Fruit good works, A changed character, a new life, helpfulness to other people??? It comes out of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Fruitfulness is not what we do for God. It s what God does for us. It s what he does in us and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it s what he does through us. Christians are meant to live a supernatural life not by their own power but by the power of the Holy Spirit, through God at work in us, So, we need to cultivate our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Get to know and love and enjoy the Holy Spirit. After all it s not our fruit that is most important, we are talking about the fruit of the Spirit, and so we focus on the Spirit s activity in our lives. Romans 8:5-6 says Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. A lot of this is to do with our mindset have your mind set on what the Spirit desires to abide in the vine. That means we need to invest, to interact, to listen to God he wants to speak into your life! That s why we need both to pray and read the Bible Get into fellowship, especially get into one of our community groups. Apart from God, apart from the vine, apart from the Spirit of God, you can do nothing! That is nothing that is of importance to God, no fruit even good works apart from God is a problem with God. 9

10 Every good work without God says I can be good on my own, I do not need God, and that aspect bothers God. We were never intended to live independently of God, whatever we are doing, good or bad! But we should be drawing our life from the vine, from the Holy Spirit to bear fruit that He has empowered and motivated. God wants to put some manure in your life! There s something you need to know about manure we all know where manure comes from and it stinks!!! And some of you say, You have no idea how much manure I have in my life right now! Well then you have no idea how many figs are going to come. God apparently has a big harvest for you in fruitfulness and righteousness and ministry and testimony and service. He does. He does! He does! He s not angry and looking at you today saying, I m here to cut you down. He s here to say, I have great hope for that little tree, and what stinks today will be joy tomorrow and fruitfulness if you will use it. So, be reading your Bible, praying. Get connected to a community group I don t want you to lose hope because you ve not been fruitful in the past and I don t want you to lose hope because right now it just smells like manure on your roots. Amen 10