SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/16/2012
7:44:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Servant-Judge PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
11:12-14, 20-26
Message of
the verses: In Today’s Spiritual Diary we will look at a
portion of the book of Mark, chapter eleven.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles this section “The Servant-Judge and this entire
section covers verses 12-26, but in this SD we will look at a sub-point under
this main point entitled “Cursing the Fig Tree,” from the verses that we have
listed above.
“12 ¶ On the next day, when they had left Bethany,
He became hungry. 13 Seeing at a
distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything
on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the
season for figs. 14 He said to it,
"May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" And His disciples were
listening.”
“20 As they were passing by in the morning, they
saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. 21
Being reminded, Peter *said to Him, "Rabbi, look, the fig tree
which You cursed has withered." 22
And Jesus *answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. 23 "Truly I say to you, whoever says to
this mountain, ’Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his
heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted
him. 24 "Therefore I say to you,
all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and
they will be granted you. 25
"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against
anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your
transgressions. 26 [["But if you do
not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your
transgressions."]]” (The bracket
section means that it is not in all of the original text.)
As we look at the title of
the main point and the verses that it covers (12-26) we will see that Jesus was
judging the nation of Israel here for two reasons. As we look at the judgment of the tree we can
see that the nation of Israel was outwardly fruitless, as the tree had no fruit
on it neither did the nation of Israel produce any fruit for the Lord. In the fifteenth chapter we see Jesus speaking
about producing fruit and the way to produce fruit for the Lord is to be
connected to the vine which is Jesus Christ, and as we look at the timing of
the eleventh chapter of Mark we know that within less than a week the fruitless
Jews will crucify the Lord of Glory. In
the next section that is under this main point we will talk about Jesus
cleansing the temple and this speaks of the inward corruption of the Jewish
people. We will look at that more fully
in the next SD.
As we begin to examine this
section we see that it was unusual for Jesus to act as judge, “’For God did not
send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be
saved through Him.’” However we know
that there comes a time when the Lord does have to Judge and this is one of
those times. There is another thing in
this section that we rarely see Jesus do and that is to destroy something in
nature like the tree. He did allow the
demons to go into the pigs so that they would be drowned in Mark 5:13. Why was this done? Dr. Wiersbe states that “He did it because He
wanted to teach us two important lessons.”
First Lesson: The Lesson of Failure. I think that the first thing we should do
here is to understand from different passages from the Old Testament that the
Fig Tree was a symbol of the nation of Israel.
“I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as
the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season. But they came to
Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame, And they became as detestable as
that which they loved.” (Hosea 9:10) “All your fortifications are fig trees with
ripe fruit- When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth.” (Nahum 3:12)
“"I will surely snatch them away," declares the LORD; "There
will be no grapes on the vine And no figs on the fig tree, And the leaf will
wither; And what I have given them will pass away.’” (Jer. 8:13)
It is interesting that in
this passage from Mark that the tree died from the roots up and that three
years before that we read the following from the lips of John the Baptist, “’The
axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’” (Matthew 3:10) Dr. Wiersbe states “that whenever an
individual or a group ‘dries up’ spiritually, it is usually from the roots.”
One of the things that we
can learn from this section is that as believers we are to very carefully cultivate
our spiritual roots so that we produce fruit and not just leaves. There is one phrase in this section from verse
thirteen that seemed to jump out at me the other day when I was listening to
this chapter and that is that “it was not the season for figs.” I remember listening to a sermon that
included this story in it many years ago and the one giving the message stated
that if the fig tree had leaves on it then it should have had some figs on
it. Dr. Wiersbe states “The fig tree
produces leaves in March or April and then starts to bear fruit in June, with
another crop in August and possibility a third crop in December. The presence of leaves could mean the
presence of fruit, even though that fruit was ‘left over’ from the previous
season. It is significant that in this
instance Jesus did not have special knowledge to guide Him; He had to go to the
tree and examine things for Himself.” By
understanding these facts we can have a better idea of what Jesus is teaching
here.
Second Lesson: A lesson on faith.
We see this lesson taught
in verses twenty-twenty-six. If we were
not careful we may have missed the first lesson as it may seem that the lesson
on faith is the only lesson that Jesus is teaching us here.
The next morning the
disciples ask Jesus about the tree and His statement was “have faith in God,”
or constantly be trusting the Lord; continue to live in an attitude of dependence
on God.
In order to understand the
mindset of Israel when it comes to mountains we will look at Zechariah 4:7, “’What
are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he
will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!’” This mountain was a problem in the way, but
Zechariah says that it will become a plain, it will be moved and this is what
the Lord is using to teach in this lesson on faith.
Don’t we all have mountains
to be moved in our lives? I think that
the answer to that is yes, and Jesus teaches us here that we are to be
constantly connected to the Lord and to pray.
There is a similar lesson taught in John chapter fifteen and that
section also speaks about fruit, and it also speaks about prayer. Dr. Wiersbe states that “Prayer must be in
the will of God (1John 5:14-15), and the one praying must be abiding in the
love of God (John 15:7-14). Prayer is
not an emergency measure that we turn to when we have a problem. Real prayer is a part of our constant
communion with God and worship of God.
“Nor should we interpret
Mark 11:24 to mean ‘If you pray hard enough and really believe, God is obligated to answer your prayer, not matter
what you ask.’ That kind of faith is not
faith in God; rather, it is nothing but faith in faith, or faith in
feelings. True faith in God is based on
His Word (John 15:7; Romans 10:17), and His Word reveals His will to us. It has well been said that the purpose of
prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on
earth.
“True prayer involves
forgiveness as well as faith. I must be
in fellowship with both my Father in heaven and my brethren on earth if God is
to answer my prayers (See Matt. 5:21-26; 6:14-15; 18:15-35). The first word in ‘The Lord’s prayer’ is our---Our Father which art in heaven.’ Though Christians may pray in private, no
Christian every prays alone; for all of God’s people are part of a worldwide family
that unites to seek God’s blessing (Eph. 3:14-15). Prayer draws us together.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Staying in
fellowship with God and other believers is something I desire to do, although
at times it is hard. “To live above with
the saints we love, ah that will be glory, but to live below with the saints we
know, now that’s another story.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to remain in the vine, and continue to
learn contentment.
Memory verses for the
week: 1Cornthians 13:8-11
8 Love never fails; but if
there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they
will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophecy in
part, 10 but when the perfect comes the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child I use to speak like a
child, think like a child, reason like a child, when I became a man, I did away
with childish things.
10/16/2012 9:21:41 AM
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