The Lesson of the Fig Tree – Mark 11:12-25

Sermon Text: Mark 11:12-25

Sermon Video

Outline

Jesus curses fruitless faith (12-14)

Jesus condemns fruitless faith (15-19)

Jesus calls us to living, fruitful faith (20-25)

Sermon Notes

Last week, we saw Jesus, God’s Messiah King, enter Jerusalem in judgment and salvation on Palm Sunday. He also looked around in the temple (Mark 11:11).

Today we see Jesus’ conflict with the religious leaders beginning to come to a head. What is the real issue behind the conflict?

Jesus curses fruitless faith (12-14)

¹² On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. ¹³ And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

The presence of the leaves indicated that the tree would have fruit on it. Jesus saw the leaves from a distance and he came to the tree hoping to find the small figs that would ripen with the leaves before the main figs appeared a couple months later. However, when Jesus got close to the tree, there were no fruits to be found.

By its outward appearance, the fig tree was inviting because of its leaves. But, upon further examination, the tree was all show and no substance.

This is what Israel had become, especially the temple and those who oversaw it. They gave an outward appearance of spirituality and devotion to God but they were hypocrites. Gentiles were restricted to worship in the outer court. The religious elites had made the temple a place of fake religion and commerce instead of a place for authentic prayer and worship.

Thus, the cursing of the fig tree was an acted parable and not a petty loss of temper. In the OT, the fig tree was a symbol of faithless Israel (Jer 8:13; 29:17; Hos 9:10, 16–17; Joel 1:6–7; Mic 7:1). One verse that illustrates this is Jer 8:13. In fact, Jesus may have had this verse in mind when He cursed the fig tree.

Jer 8:13

When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are no grapes on the vine,
    nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them.” 

The chosen people had rejected the chosen one.

The Jews, who were called to be a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6) to display God’s glory to the nations had failed to offer true worship and they had failed to trust in the Messiah.

The state of worship in Jerusalem and the temple was as useless as a tree that doesn’t produce fruits.

A fig tree with no good fruit is worthless. Likewise, a faith with no good fruit is worthless.

Charles Spurgeon said, “The great majority of persons who have any sort of religion at all bear leaves, but they produce no fruit.”

If you are a professing Christian, is your faith bearing fruit?

• In your life, is the Holy Spirit at work within you producing Christlike character and the fruits of the Spirit?
• Are you seeking to further God’s kingdom?
• Or, are you like the do you come to church hoping to feel better about yourself, receive a blessing, and check your box for the week?

There is no such thing as a fruitless Christian.

• If you are not producing the fruits of the Spirit…
• If you do not have Christlike character…
• If you are not seeking to please God with your life…
• If you are not loving your neighbor as yourself…
• If you have no desire to help others to know Christ…

Then Jesus will curse you like he did the fig tree.

Like this fig tree, we can put on a show, but Jesus knows the true spiritual condition of our hearts. We should ask him to make us useful and fruitful for his kingdom work.

Jesus curses fruitless faith and he also condemns it.

Jesus condemns fruitless faith (15-19)

The acted out parable of the fig tree comes to life in vv. 15-19.

¹⁵ And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. ¹⁶ And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. ¹⁷ And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” ¹⁸ And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. ¹⁹ And when evening came they went out of the city.

Throughout his ministry Jesus has angered the Pharisees, but during his Passion week, Jesus angered his most powerful enemies – the chief priests and the nobility of the Sadducees, which made up the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was a powerful ruling council that controlled and administered the temple affairs. It was this group that Jesus angered during his temple cleansing.

When Jesus went into the temple complex and looked around (11:11), he saw a lot of religious activity but very little spiritual fruit.

Those celebrating Passover had to bring an acceptable sacrifice that had to pass a rigorous inspection. Most chose to buy an approved animal that had been approved by the temple priests that were backed by the religious leaders.

This business was conducted in the court of the Gentiles.

In v. 15, Mark mentions the moneychangers and those who sold pigeons. The moneychangers were in charge of the exchange of currency. They would take the foreign currencies of Jewish pilgrims in exchange for Jewish currency (which was acceptable for temple transactions). They would often extort people with the exchange rate and then the merchants would mark up the prices on the animals. Mark mentions those who sold pigeons. Pigeons were the sacrificial animal for the poor and the price for pigeons was outrageous. One commentator suggested the price may have been 16x the normal price.

This irreverence and corruption in the temple courts is what angered Jesus. The temple had been transformed into a place of corruption. Commerce and convenience in the temple court was a sign of hearts that had moved away from worship. The money changers represented a worship where sacrifices were available but did not come with the proper preparation of the heart.

In v. 17, Jesus quoteed from Isa 56:7 and Jer 7:11.

Isa 56:6-7

⁶ “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    and holds fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.”

The prophecy from Isaiah concerns the true purpose of the temple – the temple was to be a place of true and sincere worship of God for Israel and all the nations.

In the Old Testament the only separation in the temple was between priests and people. In Jesus’ day, however, the temple was also segregated by race (Jew and Gentile) and gender (male and female). By quoting Isa 56:7, Jesus showed his concern for the Gentiles. They were not to be second class citizens in God’s kingdom.^[1]Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Mk 11:17.

Most Jews hated the Gentiles and hoped that when the Messiah came, he would cleanse the temple of all Gentiles and get rid of them once and for all.

Ironically, instead of cleansing the temple of the Gentiles, Jesus cleansed the temple for the Gentiles. It was to be a house of prayer for all the nations, not a building to be admired and praised. There should have been no racial or gender segregation.

The prophecy from Jer 7:11, which was Jeremiah’s famous temple sermon, is a warning that false religion is worthless in God’s eyes. This false religion was exactly what Jesus witnessed in the temple.

Jeremiah 7:8-11

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

In Jeremiah, God’s people were worshiping Baal and other false gods and believed that God would preserve them because of the temple. They thought that because they oversaw God’s temple that he would not destroy them. In Jesus’ day, just like in the time of Jeremiah, the temple had become a place for criminals to hide. The temple had become a refuge for rebels against God. Jesus is saying that the temple will not protect them—it too will be destroyed. Jesus is condemning the belief that empty rituals would cover the people’s crimes and spare them from the coming judgment.

Sacrifices without a heart for God are meaningless. God desires faithfulness and not just sacrifice (Hos 6:6).

The despicable practices of the religious leaders and those who ran the temple business were robbing God of true worship. All wickedness is an abomination to our Lord, but especially religious wickedness that is done in His name.

This is why Jesus burned with righteous rage and cleaned house (vv. 15-16).

Jesus was purifying the building and restoring its original purpose as a house of prayer and worship.

As we see Jesus’ response to false worship, it is worth asking: What is our attitude towards worship and prayer?

• Is it a box you check or a privilege you enjoy?
• Do you prepare yourself for Sunday worship? Some ways to do this would be by getting enough sleep, praying for the service, listening to worship music, confessing your sin, and reading the sermon text beforehand.
• Is the worship of God important enough to you to show up on time?
• Do you love your fellow church members enough to get here before the service and stay late to hear how they’re doing and love on them?

Do you think you can live however we want during the week and that if you come to church and look good in front of everyone else that God will spare you? Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, it is entirely possible to live a life of rebellion against God and to still convince yourself that you’re okay with God because of some religious activities in a building once a week.

We must realize that:

• Going through the motions of religious rituals is not sufficient to please God.
• God is not impressed by outward actions that are accompanied by a calloused heart.
• God is looking for those who worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).
• We are to honor God with our lives every moment, not just with occasional activities.

In vv. 18-19, Jesus’ cleansing of the temple caused the chief priests and scribes to commit to destroying Jesus (economic interests).

The rulers were angered when Jesus upset the status quo. Friends, there are a lot of professing Christians that don’t want their church to be biblical. They don’t want a church that holds people accountable. Rather, they want a religious social club that hands out blessings but doesn’t reflect the holiness of God. There are pastors fired every week because they tried to get churches to be more biblical. This angers God.

We must seek to be a church that seeks to conform to God’s Word in every way.

Jesus curses and condemns fruitless faith. Instead, he calls us to a living, fruitful faith.

Jesus calls us to a living, fruitful faith (20-25)

²⁰ As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. ²¹ And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” ²² And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. ²³ Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Mark sandwiches the account of the temple cleansing between the account of the fig tree to show the relationship between the temple scene and the state of the Jewish people as pictured by the fig tree. The temple situation is symptomatic of a larger national problem.

The cursing and withering of the fig tree is a metaphor for God’s judgment on the dead, fruitless religion of the Jewish people that opposed him. Jesus did not just cleanse the temple – he cursed it. The temple and the religious leaders had failed in their assignment and it would be destroyed less than 40 years later.

In vv. 22-25, Jesus concludes the lesson of the fig tree and temple cleansing with lessons on faith, prayer, and forgiveness. These are the very things people should have found in the temple.

What is true faith?

1. True faith is in God (v. 22) – “Have faith in God”
2. True faith believes that God can do the impossible (v. 23) – move mountains
3. True faith is believing without doubt (v. 23) – “does not doubt”
4. True faith believes that what we pray will come to pass, as long as we are seeking God’s purposes and not our own (v. 24, cf. Matt 6:9-10; John 15:7) – “believe that you have received it, and it will be yours…”

True faith manifests itself in prayer that trusts in God’s power to give us what we ask but also trusts in God’s wisdom to give us what we need. When God says no to a prayer request, we should trust him enough to know that he knows what’s best. We have confidence in God’s power but are willing to submit to his will. True faith desires what’s best for God’s kingdom and not our own personal comfort.

True faith allows you to forgive others (v. 25). We are able to forgive others because we have been forgiven.

In the lesson of the fig tree, Jesus teaches about true faith, which is expressed in dependent and believing prayer. This kind of faith is willing to forgive and can accomplish great things.

Conclusion

John 15:5-8

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

There are only two options. You can be a fruitful disciple of Jesus that bears fruit or a tree that withers and is thrown into the fire and burned.

I don’t want our church to be barren like a fig tree or a temple that was condemned by Jesus and later destroyed. I want our church to be fruitful for the kingdom of God.

To do so, we must be people that truly worship God by having a living and fruitful faith.

We must be people that go to God regularly in believing prayer.

We must be willing to forgive others because of the forgiveness we have experienced through Christ.

We must love and welcome all kinds of people – we must be a church that is a place of prayer for all nations.

These are the things Jesus demands of us as his followers.

Do you worship God with your whole life or are you putting on a show like those in the temple?

Do you have faith that trusts that God can move mountains?

Are you able to forgive others including those you once hated because of the grace you have experienced through Jesus Christ?

In closing, I want to ask you, which picture best describes you? A barren fig tree that withers and dies or a branch, like John 15:8, that bears much fruit? What is the spiritual fruit of your life?