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MARK’S GOSPEL…THE POWER OF WORDS – 28

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Mark 11:12-14, 20-23 NIV

“The next day as they 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…In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.”

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What puzzling behaviour! What had the fig tree done to deserve being cursed? In the course of nature, it was not the time for fruit, so why destroy it for that?

Jesus had other ideas. Always alert to opportunities to teach His followers spiritual truth, He did a symbolic act as a visual aid for them to remember. 

The first mention of the fig in Scripture was in Genesis…after Adam and Eve’s defection. They tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, but they could not hide their sin from God.

So, not only was the effort of Adam and Eve to cover their sin with fig leaves futile, but the story of the whole nation of Israel was also that of a barren fig tree. 

“When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.”

‭‭Hosea‬ ‭9‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

As a healthy fig tree, God had expected Israel to bear the luscious fruit of obedience to His covenant but, instead, their “fruit” was disobedience and idolatry. 

Therefore, just as the fig tree Jesus cursed was barren, so, the first pairs’ self-effort to cover their unrighteousness was useless and Israel’s disobedience left them spiritually barren. 

In a vivid demonstration in nature, Jesus showed His disciples the fate of those who bore no fruit for God. Israel’s religion bore no righteousness and must die. 

 We must understand Jesus’ next words in the context of His action. 

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭11‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬

The disciples were astonished that Jesus’ words had produced such a radical result. Not only had the tree died at His word, but it had died so quickly. Overnight, it had dried up from the roots!

“Why are you so surprised?” Jesus responded. “Don’t you understand the power of words?” In context, Jesus’ words to the tree had produced death. Their words, spoken in faith, could also produce miraculous results. Look at the scope of believing prayer…if anyone says…whatever you ask for… can prayer be more all-encompassing than that?

Now, before we go off at a tangent by speaking words that fall outside the context of Biblical prayer, we must understand that prayer has definite and specific boundaries, which we can glean from many other parts of Scripture. 

…”In my Name”…”according to His will”…”in the Spirit”…are some protections, as well as the motives and attitudes prescribed in the Word. However, in this context, the prerequisite is “faith in God”.  These three words open up a whole new window on prayer too big to deal with here.

However, to summarise, words spoken from God’s mouth, under God’s authority, have the power to achieve what God says. 

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Believing prayer, then, is not merely about blurting out anything that comes to mind. Believing prayer is about speaking what God has already spoken. These words carry the weight of His authority, if we speak them from hearts that are fully submitted to Him. God acts when we relay to earth what has been spoken in heaven.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – BELIEVE AND FORGIVE

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BELIEVE AND FORGIVE

20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:20-25

Were the disciples surprised to find the fig tree dead after Jesus’ words the day before? Of course, they were! As usual, Peter was the first one to open his mouth. “Look, Rabbi,” he burst out, “the tree you cursed is dead.”  Jesus’ response is typical. “What did you expect, Peter? When I speak, stuff happens. Now you can anticipate the same. Your words have just as much power as mine if you have confidence in God.”

He touched on the nerve centre of His life of the kingdom – a God-awareness so strong that the whole of life is lived in a faith-union with Him. Absolutely everything must flow out of this God-awareness so that even our words are energised by the power that flows out of this union. That was the secret of Jesus’ life as the Son of God which He was painstakingly trying to build into His disciples

God-awareness links us with the overriding characteristic of God’s nature in dealing with human beings – His generosity. This quality is the outflow of God’s love and is manifested primarily in the way He treats us as sons. God-awareness opens us to all of His resources. He freely releases whatever we need as we set our hearts on valuing and appreciating who He is. These resources are released through the spoken word just as He released power to bring the visible universe into being out of the invisible through His word.

The second evidence of His generosity is the way He deals with our sin – He freely forgives because He can. Jesus Himself saw to that. He took on Himself our un-payable debt, paid it in full, released us from its penalty and power and said, “Now go and do the same.” Operating from the same principle and in the same power we, as God’s sons, can expect the same results. It all flows from a God-awareness that allows us to live in the environment of God’s presence, bringing everything His presence embodies in the heavenly realm down here into the very domain of the enemy, allowing His people to exhibit the disposition of our Messiah in occupied territory.

Jesus Did Not Curse The Fig Tree Because He Was In A Bad Mood

Apologetics, , , ,

JESUS DID NOT CURSE THE FIG TREE BECAUSE HE WAS IN A BAD MOOD

The next day as they 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 fruit. Then He said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And His disciples heard Him say it. (Mark 11:12-14)

Well, Jesus, I didn’t know that you were also given to bad moods! But wait a minute. Had He ever given evidence of being in a bad mood before? No-o-o-o. So what’s this all about, then? Surely He knew that a fig tree in leaf was an indication that it was not time for fruit. What a capricious action! Was it just an outburst of frustration because He did not get what He wanted or was there something deeper in His action?

My husband used to sing a corruption of an old song, “I talk to the trees, that’s why they put me away.” And here’s Jesus talking to a tree! Perhaps He needed to be put away. After all, He often did very strange things like spitting on the ground and making a mud ball to smear on a blind man’s eyes. Wasn’t he blind enough already without getting mud in his eyes?

But Jesus never said or did anything without a purpose. What could His purpose possibly by speaking to a tree?

One of the rules of interpreting the Bible is called “the law of first mention.” The meaning of something that is mentioned for the first time in Scripture governs its interpretation every other time it is mentioned thereafter. Where, in the Bible, are fig leaves first mentioned? Way back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. We often joke about it, but it was their puny attempt to cover up their disobedience. It did not work and God was not impressed. He had to sacrifice a lamb to provide His own covering for their nakedness.

The fig tree was often used in Scripture as a symbol for Israel. Was God saying that, like the leaves that offered no covering for the first pair, their puny efforts at trying to make right by their rules and rituals offered no solution to their sin. Just as God had provided a lamb for Adam and Eve’s nakedness, so He would provide His Lamb to cover the sin of His people.

Jesus used a perfectly natural situation to drive home the point for His disciples. They, of course, didn’t get the message at first. They were astonished when they saw the dead tree the next day. What on earth happened to it? It had shrivelled up and died for no other reason than that Jesus had spoken to it.

In the morning, as they went along, they found the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” ‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. (Mark 11: 20-22).

The plot thickens, as they say. What had Jesus’ reply to do with a dead tree? What was the connection? The fig-leaf covering the first pair used to try to obliterate their sin did not work. They could not fool God with their self-effort. Union with God by faith was the only answer to their plight.

How did Jesus connect the response of the fig tree to His words about prayer? Adam and Eve had destroyed their union with God by their disobedience. They tried to cover it up and pretend it didn’t happen but they could not fool God. What would have happened had they confessed their sin and come clean with God? Instead they played the blame game and were driven from the presence of God to go it alone in the world. They made their own rules and thoroughly messed up their lives and the lives of their descendants.

Was Jesus implying that, once again God would provide a Lamb, Himself, as a covering for the sin of His people? This time His blood, not the skin of the lamb, would not only cover but remove their sin forever, reconnecting them with God and re-establishing their union with the Father. Out of this oneness with God they would be able to fulfil their mandate to rule over the earth. Whatever got in the way of God’s purposes would dry up and disappear as surely as the tree dried up in response to Jesus’ command.

This is the kind of “authority” Jesus intended His people to have – not the “name it and claim it” kind of faith so that we can get everything we want to make our lives cushy and comfortable, but the faith partnership with God which gets rid of the obstacles that hinder the doing of God’s will on earth.

Jesus’ instruction to “speak to the mountain” implies that our union and intimacy with Him will produce such confidence in Him that we allow nothing to interfere with the His desire to reveal His glory through us to the world, not even, or should I say, especially the notion that somehow our pathetic efforts to gain His approval will contribute to His purpose.

The “fig tree” approach to our lives as believers in Jesus will just not work. Self-effort must die just as the fig tree died and give way to the only way in which the life of Jesus in us will make any impression on a rebellious world – the “vine” image.

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. (John 15: 5)

Only intimate union with Him will produce the kind of faith that can remove obstacles with a word. No, Jesus was not having a “bad hair day” when He cursed the fig tree. He was using a spur-of-the-moment opportunity to teach His disciples a profound lesson. Did you get it?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Fruitfulness Is The Test

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FRUITFULNESS IS THE TEST

Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful for those for whom it is farmed, receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case – the things that have to do with salvation. God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help Him (Heb. 6: 7-10).

To the Hebrew people, intellectual assent to a doctrine was of no value if it did not issue in action. If one’s beliefs did not produce the fruit of faith. Faith was as barren as a piece of land that bore thorns and thistles instead of a crop that was valuable to the farmer. Rain falling on unproductive land was a waste and the land deserved the curse of God on it.

People who once trusted Jesus for salvation and then turned their back on Him, going back to their unrighteous ways, was as useless as a field of weeds. Like the weeds, they were destined for the fire.

What is the writer saying? A person who does not produce the fruit of salvation is like a piece of land that receives the blessing of God’s rain and then grows only thorns and thistles. What is the fruit of salvation? A life given to God to serve Him by loving and serving His people. Just as the fruit on a tree reveals the nature of the tree, so the fruit of a life reveals the nature of that life.

The writer has warned his readers that it is dangerous to go back to the old way because it would lead them to sterility and death. On the other hand, however, the fruit that they bore showed him that they had not abandoned their faith. They were showing their love to God by supporting and helping God’s people. This was surely the evidence that they were still rooted in Jesus and had not gone back in the old life of selfish pursuits.

‘Keep going,’ he urged them. ‘Don’t give up on your faith. God will not forget the way you have lovingly served Him by your kindness to His people. This is the fruit of your faith in Jesus, showing that you have His nature in you.’

We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realised. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised (Heb. 6: 11-12).

These readers has made a good start, indicating by their fruitful lives, that they were on the way of the Lord. ‘But,’ said the writer, ‘it’s not only about a good start. It’s about a good finish.’ The secret of the way of the Lord is to keep going until you reach your destination. When they turned from their own way and returned to the Lord, they began a journey that would take them to God. He had promised them an inheritance as His sons and daughters – His very own nature which He had given to Adam before he fell into sin. Trouble and persecution should never cause them to want to go back, as the Israelites had done.

God’s salvation plan was to restore His nature in man so that His human family would once again enjoy oneness with Him. The journey back to Him demands both faith and patience because we have an enemy without and an enemy within. How do we overcome so that we can be replicas of Jesus, God’s Son who is the model of perfect sonship?

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that, through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1: 3-4).

God has promised us His power to overcome our enemies, the devil who deceives us and our old nature that pulls us towards selfishness and greed. He enables us to submit to Him as our Lord. As we yield our lives to Him, His Spirit gives us the power to say no to ourselves and yes to God.

How do we know that we are being transformed into the image of Jesus? Not that we have an elaborated superstructure of right doctrines but that we are kind to those in need. When we are rooted into Jesus, His life in us through our union with Him will produce the fruit of right living to His glory.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

A Privileged People

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A PRIVILEGED PEOPLE

“I speak the truth in Christ – I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:1-5.

What an illustrious pedigree the Jewish people have! Is it any wonder that they are so hated by the rest of the world! The devil has made sure that God and anyone or anything that has to do with Him is thoroughly vilified.

Since the call of Abraham, the Jews have been the most blessed and privileged people on earth. From the first family, they have been surrounded by God’s protection and provision. Abraham was called from his idolatrous environment in Ur to a journey of raw faith in a God who was unseen but real to him. He heard Him speak and learned to follow His instructions with amazing results.

Who else, at the age of one hundred years, when his wife was old and barren, became a father because God said he would? Who else was so blessed that he became so rich and famous in a foreign land that he was respected wherever he went, although he was a nomad?

Abraham’s descendants became so numerous in Egypt that they were a threat to the Pharaoh of a new dynasty who disregarded Joseph’s contribution to his nation? Who else was delivered from slavery in such a dramatic way that it became their signature? God, Israel and deliverance were tied together as their unforgettable identity. “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Who else received a constitution for their nation, written on stone by His own finger, that has never been surpassed? God’s covenant with His people, if faithfully obeyed, would have elevated them above all other nations in their care for one another and for the foreigners who found shelter among them. It bound them to God in an indestructible union in which He pledged to live among them and be their God. What a God to worship! To belong to Him was the safest relationship in the entire universe.

What other nation had the glorious presence of their God in a visible representation within the very building in which they worshipped Him? Other nations had gods of wood and stone but they were as dead as the material that represented them. Only the God of Israel was among them, symbolised by the unearthly light that radiated His glory from the mercy seat between the golden cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant.

No other temple on earth was as beautiful or lavishly adorned as the temple that Solomon built as a place of worship for his God. It was David’s dream to honour the God he adored with the best he could give – a dream carried out by his son – as a permanent and visible reminder of the glory of their God who was among them.

What other God wanted a family of sons and daughters who would live in harmony with Him and with each other in an eternal bond of love? What other God came in person to His people to tell them and show them how much He loved them – so much, in fact, that He paid the debt of their sin by giving His own life for them?

Is it any wonder that Paul grieved for his people, so much so that, if possible, he would have forfeited his own place in the family of God for them, if only they would believe? But Paul knew, just as it had taken a mind-blowing encounter with the living Christ to convince him of the truth, so his people needed the power of the gospel through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, to bring them to faith in their Messiah.

It had happened in Jerusalem fifty days after the resurrection, when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers and the church was born, Jewish to the core. But, once again, the stubborn hearts of his people turned them from the Messiah and drove many of them into becoming bullying persecutors.

And Paul grieved for their loss.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.