Foliage or Fruit

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 2 APRIL 2023 pm

MARK 11 VERSES 1 - 14

FOLIAGE OR FRUIT?

On this Palm Sunday, the opening day of this special week known as Holy Week or Passion Week let us think of the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem on a colt prophesied in Zechariah 9 verse 9.  On the day after his arrival into Jerusalem, Jesus came back and was hungry.  He sees the fig tree with plenty of foliage but no fruit.  A curse is brought on the tree.  In this tree we see a picture of Israel, has a profession without possession.  How do we stand in the light of God before eternity?

The display that attracted the Lord.  Plenty of foliage but no fruit whatsoever.  Jesus was hungry.  We can have a great outward show.  Remember the story of the church in Laodicea - it was rich, increased in goods and in need of nothing.  That is how people feel about themselves but not how the Lord sees them.  Do we see things that need to be changed? When we read God's word do we see it as a mirror?  We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.  There is none righteous.  If we were to take our righteousness before God they would be as filthy rags.  Why?  Because he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.  Laodicea thought they were in need of nothing.  Inwardly so different from the outside.  So attractive to many.  As people passed it they probably thought it was a beautiful building, had a great big congregation, the greatest of preachers and a great bank balance.  Outwardly everything looked so well but didn't realise they were blind, poor, wretched.  Why?  Because the Lord was outside that door.  He was knocking at the door - "behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him."  Just like the sinner who is lost and cannot find their way - Jesus is standing waiting, knocking at the door.  Yet they have never opened that door.  Jesus was angry with the tree.  Hebrews 4 verse 15 "for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin."  He had to be fully man and fully God.  To be fully man he suffered alongside you and me.  He can be touched with our feelings of sinfulness.  As a man he was hungry, he felt and bore the pangs of hunger.  On Calvary he said "I thirst".  He knew what it was like to be hungry.  He was tempted in every way yet without sin.  He was fully man.  He knows all about us.  Jesus knew all about loneliness - in the Garden of Gethsemane.  On the cross he cried out "my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?"  He was separated from God because of our sin.  Jesus was attracted to this outward display.  What have we got tonight?  An outward display but no inward reality?  Do we know anything of Jesus washing away our sins?  Isaiah 29 verse 13 "wherefore the Lord saith forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men."  Our lives can look very attractive, we can go to church, be involved in everything in the church, going through the motions but never experienced saving faith for ourselves, never recognised we are sinners.  Christ is the only means of salvation.  We need to take Jesus as Saviour and Lord.  Nicodemus had an attractive life.  People thought he was a good man, knew his bible, preached a good sermon, led the people, knew the bible from beginning to end.  Jesus said to him "except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."  We need to be born again.  In Acts 8 Philip the evangelist had to flee to Samaria.  He preached the word of God and many became new creatures in Christ.  There was a man named Simon in that city who began following after Philip.  He was taken up with religiosity too.  Acts 8 verse 21 Peter saw right through it.  He said "thy heart is not right in the sight of God."  Those who are clinging onto the Lord are those saved by his grace.

The discovery that appeared.  In verse 13 Jesus sees the fig tree having leaves but when he came to it he found nothing but leaves.  When it came under the scrutiny of the Lord there was nothing there.  It promised so much.  It looked so healthy but no fruit.  Plenty of foliage but no figs.  The church at Laodicea had so much going for it.  It was increased in wealth.  Whenever God looked on it saw it as poor and wretched and blind.  Whenever Jesus looked on Nicodemus how did he see him?  As a sinner.  He didn't look on him as others did.  He had many many things going for him but Jesus looked into his heart.  Just like Peter on the day of Pentecost.  He was preaching about Jesus who was sinless and perfect in his ways.  When he grew up evil men took him and killed him.  On the third day he rose again and is now seated at the Father's right hand.  As he preached the Spirit of God came down and their hearts were pricked.  Today God's Spirit comes during the preaching of God's word.  He convicts you of your sin, shows you your need to be saved.  In Luke 7 Simon a Pharisee asked the Lord to come and dine with him.  While Jesus was sitting at the table a sinful woman from the street came in and began to wash Jesus' feet with her tears and then dried them with her hair.  The Pharisees looking at this woman condemned her - Luke 7 verse 39.  Jesus knew their thoughts, even those never expressed.  He said to him "Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.  My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment."  This man had plenty of leaves - the leaves of religiosity but no salvation.  It is good to come to that place of the Pharisees eating at the table.  Jesus looks into our heart.  Jesus said "ye must be born again." We might try to do better, live a better life, read our bible more often, pray but until we come to Jesus we will never know real peace.

The disappointment that is acknowledged.  Jesus came to it and saw no fruit.  He was disappointed, turns to that tree and says "no man eat fruit of thee here after for ever."  Such was the disappointment in what he found.  it was cursed because they said I have fruit and yet there was nothing.  Remember the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  When Jesus told him he went away sorrowful.  Have you counted the cost of salvation should that soul of yours be lost?  What it would be to be saved.  This young man asked the question "what must I do?"  Then he turned away, he couldn't go through with it.  Jesus was disappointed because he loved him.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem knowing the judgment was coming on that city.  "How often I have gathered you as a hen would gather its brood but you would not."  I see Jesus with his hands outstretched, nailed to that tree, on his head a crown of thorns, his back lacerated with the whip and he is disappointed.  For he says "this is the only way".  Perhaps you will walk away yet again.  You will say "I will get to heaven my way, do it in my own strength."