The Dry Christian (13 views)
From:  Minister Falcon (OSMFalcon)     6/10/2003 10:38 pm  
To:  ALL    
 
  619.1  
 
The story of the fig tree in Mark 11:12-14 and 19-21 is a remarkable story; for it illustrates the dry Christian perfectly.  Lets read Mark 11:12-14: 

12     Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 

13     And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 

14    In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again." And His disciples heard it. 

A fig tree with leaves must have young fruits already, or it will be barren for the season. The first figs ripen in late May or early June.  The tree should have had fruit, unripe indeed, but existing.  In some lands fig trees bear the early fruit under the leaves and the later fruit above the leaves. In that case the leaves were a sign that there should have been fruit, unseen from a distance, underneath the leaves.  The condemnation of this fig tree lay in the absence of any sign of fruit.  Jesus cursed the tree to give over to its destruction.  This is its meaning here.  It does not in this place imply blame, but simply that it should be destroyed.

The fruit of the fig tree comes before the leaves, naturally when Jesus saw if from afar, it caught His eye because He was hungry.  He might have expected figs from a tree with such a precocious show of leaf, even though the season of figs was not yet come.  It was the unseasonable display of leaves which led Him to come and see what He might find.  This is a parable or an analogy of a dry or fruitless Christian.  The Christian or Jew can have a show of religion with religious privileges, but that is all they have.  The fruit of real love is absent.  This tree should have had fruit because of the display of the leaves.  Christ cursed it, not because it was fruitless, but because it was false to its high pretensions.

The Jews' sin was, they were singled out by God from all nations (Amos 3:2), and had the Tower to bring forth the leaves of precocious profession but not the will to bring forth the fruit of faith and love.  The sheltering hillside of Olivet had protected it, the sunlight had cherished it, and the dews of heaven watered it; but precocious leaves were the only result.  God's care of Israel only resulted in unfruitfulness and deceptiveness.  It was the rustling leaves of a religious profession, barren traditions of the Pharisees, and vain exuberance of words without the good fruit of works; showy promise of the early Gentile church in fruit, without performance; pretentious show and hypocrisy.

As Christians, we ought to be questioning ourselves daily as to the fruit we bare.  If we are not producing any kind of fruit, but show ourselves as pious and religious, we are like that fig tree, cursed by Jesus.  Are you still in the same church, sitting in the pew, not participating much in services?  Are you still looking to the other Christian to help out with church needs?  Are you still where you were in your walk with Christ 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago or last year?  Then you are cursed for bearing no fruit.  Everything goes dryyou are fruitless and barren like the fig tree.  You will be dried up from the roots, cursed and withered away as Peter stated in Mark 20-21.  Pious Christians will marvel too, because what they may see is your show of piety and religiosity and believe that you are alright.  But indeed you are not, you are dry and without fruit. 

Christ was willing to make an example of this fig tree, not to the trees, but to men of that generation.  He cursed it with a curse which reversed the first blessing to be fruitful.  Sweetness and good fruit are serviceable to man; however, now it was to be deprived of that by this grievous curse.  This was intended to be a type and figure of the doom passed upon the Jewish church, to which He came, seeking fruit, but found none; and though it was not, according to the doom in the parable, immediately cut down, yet, according to this in the history, blindness and hardness befell them (Romans 11:8, 25), so that they were good for nothing.  The disciples heard what sentence Christ passed on this tree, and took notice of it.  Woes from Christ's mouth are to be observed and kept in mind, as well as blessings.  The curse was no more than that it should never bear fruit again, but the effect goes further, it is dried up from the roots; no longer fit for food, but for fuel only.  If it bears no fruit, it shall bear no leaves to cheat people.  

This represented the character and state of the Jewish church.  The first establishment of the Levitical priesthood was ratified and confirmed by the miracle of a dry rod, which in one night budded, and blossomed, and brought forth almonds (Numbers 17:8), a happy omen of the fruitlessness and flourishing of that priesthood. And now, by a contrary miracle, the expiration of that priesthood was signified by a flourishing tree dried up in a night; the just punishment of those priests that had abused it.  And this seemed very strange to the disciples, and scarcely credible, that the Jews, who had been so long God's own, His only professing people in the world, should be abandoned; they could not imagine how that fig-tree should so soon wither away: but this comes of rejecting Christ, and being rejected by Him. ~Minister Falcon
 
From:  Wings47   6/13/2003 6:37 am  
To:  Minister Falcon (OSMFalcon)    (2 of 2)  
 
  619.2 in reply to 619.1  
 
I am a once dry Christian, now being perfectly watered and fed through the Lord and His word. You know I love this lesson, or I should say lessons, because there were many new insights in this for me. Thank you. 
  
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