Why You Should be CONCERNED that Jesus KILLED a Tree | Beyond the Words | Mark 11

in mark chapter 11 jesus goes to pick fruit from a tree and finds nothing so he kills it this should concern you greatly for centuries people have tried to figure out why jesus kills this tree was there something wrong with the tree was he just really hangry or is there some deeper meaning well in this episode of beyond the words i'm going to show you how this one moment is part of a much bigger story that mark is trying to tell in chapter 11 that impacts you and me in significant ways want to find out what it is then grab your bible and a notebook and let's get started now before we can understand why jesus kills this tree and why this matters so much we first have to understand why jesus encounters this tree in the first place as we begin chapter 11 jesus is entering jerusalem just a few days before his death this is a day christians refer to as palm sunday and this is a huge moment in jesus ministry so much of what has been happening in the last 10 chapters of mark's gospel has been leading up to this moment in chapter one jesus announced the time has come the kingdom of god has come near repent and believe the good news and here jesus is writing into jerusalem like a king but there are a few critical things about this moment that i don't want you to miss for instance jesus begins this journey into jerusalem on the mount of olives a place that is the source of prophecy zechariah wrote a day of the lord is coming on that day his feet will stand on the mount of olives east of jerusalem the lord will be king over the whole earth on that day there will be one lord and his name the only name for everyone witnessing this moment they know this verse and they realize that jesus is intentionally entering as the promised king who would free the israelite people he has come to usher in god's kingdom god's reign upon the earth caesar isn't lord herod isn't king jesus is all of those things and just so that there is no doubt jesus rides in on a cult something else that zechariah prophesied when he said your king comes to you righteous and victorious lowly and riding on a donkey on a cult the foal of a donkey but jesus isn't just living out prophetic promises he's also doing something very modern very familiar to this crowd he's riding in like a general like an emperor you see in roman society whenever an emperor would enter into a town or a military official would return from a victorious campaign he would enter the city much like jesus is doing here there would be crowds and fanfare he would ride high aloft a horse or an elephant symbolizing his power and greatness and there would be an atmosphere of praise this is the man who saved the people and people would have recognized this as jesus entered the city but they would have also noticed that there was something quite different about jesus's entrance his transportation was smaller his crowds were humbler his entourage was simpler jesus didn't enter with swords and splendor he wasn't surrounded by politicians and nobility and wealth he was a different kind of king a king for every person a king who would usher in a different type of salvation and here's why it's so important to understand this why this is so critical to understanding the situation with the fig tree everything about this scene proclaims who jesus truly is the laying down of branches and clothing the quoting of psalm 118 as people say hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord everything that we've talked about so far highlights one important fact jesus is the messiah he's the promised son of david he's the king that people have been waiting for and the crowd gets this they're ready for it but there's one thing we've seen in mark's gospel that makes jesus matter than almost anything else something that has made him furious with religious leaders and even his own disciples and that is anytime someone tries to get in the way of that kingdom who prevents people like the crowds in this scene from being able to follow jesus and that's exactly what's about to happen next in quick succession two events occur that we often treat separately but are in fact very much connected first on the following day after jesus's triumphant entry jesus leaves the place where he's staying in a town called bethany and begins walking back to jerusalem and as he's walking he gets hungry and when he sees a fig tree he decides to satiate his hunger but when he gets to the fig tree there's no fruit on it and in what appears to us to be a superfluous detail mark adds that the fig tree not only has no fruit but has nothing but leaves because this was not the season for figs pay attention to those details they will matter in a minute so after jesus sees the situation with this fig tree it appears that he's so frustrated that he curses the tree declaring that it should never again bear fruit and in a brief piece of sad commentary mark lets us know that the disciples heard jesus say this because again this detail will matter now after jesus leaves this fig tree mark then shares with us the second important event that occurs on this morning jesus enters the temple and when he does jesus immediately starts driving out those who are buying and selling things in the temple courts he overturns tables and chairs he he keeps people from carrying objects through the temple courts he tells them that they've turned the temple into a den of thieves and as we're reading this all we can think is that this doesn't sound like jesus at all i mean never before in mark's gospel has jesus been so angry never has he once done anything like this is he just really mad about the figs does he just really need a snickers right now or is there something much bigger going on here and this is where we all really need to start paying attention this is where we begin to realize why the killing of this fig tree matters so much because all of this is connected and in order to see those connections you need to know something about temples and something about figs before that though if you're liking this video please take a moment to click the thumbs up and the subscribe buttons to show that you like the video this tells youtube to promote this video and allows us to reach even more people around the world so thank you for your help now let's get back to why we need to be so concerned about this fig tree and we'll start by learning something important about the jerusalem temple this is a simplified version of what the temple in jerusalem looked like at the time of jesus and if you look closely what you can see is that it is designed as a series of spaces that take you closer and closer to god the most intimate and holy space in this building was called the holy of holies and this is where the presence of god rested outside of that you have the priest's court the court of israel and various other courts where jewish people could go but outside of all of that you had the court of the gentiles and if you weren't jewish this was the only place where you could go now judging by the size of this picture you'd think that this was a really large space and it was large but when religious festivals came around it was packed you see during religious festivals this outer section the court of the gentiles this was where all of the vendors set up their tables where they sold livestock and other things that could be used for sacrifices it's where money changers would sit to exchange other currencies for this temple's special currency and just to give you an idea of how packed it was a historian named josephus tells us that one passover week 255 000 lambs were bought sold and sacrificed in this area a quarter of a million this is what jesus and his disciples see when they enter the temple grounds and this is where jesus turns over the tables now the first question we should be asking here is why and our natural inclination is to ask why did he flip all of the tables but before that we have to ask another question we have to ask why did he turn the tables over here and it's actually the answer to that question that helps us to understand everything else going on you see like we said this space the cord of the gentiles this was the one place where gentiles could go this is as close as they could get to the presence of god this is the only place where they can worship not only are they clearly not part of this community of faith just based on the restrictions surrounding where they can go in the temple but even in the place where they are allowed they're kept from worshipping this place of worship has been turned into a market of chaos and this makes jesus furious one of the things that we have seen throughout mark's gospel is that jesus is consistently reaching out to gentiles and opening the door for them to be part of god's kingdom the demon-possessed man the syrophoenician woman the countless people he has reached in ijumaya tyre sidon perea and so on these have all been gentiles and jesus has offered them salvation in many cases jesus traveled to them in order to reach them jesus didn't believe that god's kingdom was only open to the people of israel his kingdom is much bigger than that so when he sees what's going on in the temple how overtly and obnoxiously gentiles are being excluded jesus flips out literally he starts destroying the things that are keeping the gentiles from worshiping and then something really interesting happens then jesus returns to the fig tree now remember what happened the first time jesus passed this tree it says that he was hungry and he saw that it had no fruit it only had leaves now to us those are tiny details but to the people listening back then to people who lived around fig trees grew fig trees relied upon fig trees they see what's happening you see middle eastern fig trees bore two kinds of fruit nodules came in the spring and were abundant and good to eat and if you had lots of nodules then you'd have a large harvest of the second fruit the fig but remember what mark told us he said it wasn't the season for figs and the branches had nothing but leaves in other words there were leaves but no nodules which meant that there would be no fig harvest something was wrong with the fig tree which is why jesus curses the tree but there's more when jesus and the disciples leave the temple they notice that the tree is now dead and if you were one of jesus's disciples all of a sudden pieces are rapidly starting to come together in your mind you'd remember that the fig tree bore no fruit you'd be thinking about what you just encountered in the temple with the leaders of the israelite people but then there's this other part of you that remembers that scripture refers to israel as a fig tree and then and then the final piece lands a scripture you heard growing up that you realize is coming true before your very eyes literally in front of you because suddenly jeremiah 8 13 pops into your head and you remember what god said i will take away their harvest declares the lord there will be no grapes on the vine there will be no figs on the tree and their leaves will wither what i have given them will be taken from them and you realize that that's this jesus didn't just randomly kill a tree this whole thing the fig tree then the temple then the fig tree again all of this connects to something much bigger you see what they're realizing is that the fig tree represents the israelite people specifically the religious leaders they're getting in the way of the kingdom this triumphant entry that jesus had the day before they're undermining that they think that they're the only ones who can and will be saved they think that salvation is exclusive to them because they follow the law and observe the oral traditions they think that just being part of the israelite people makes them more worthy than others but jesus says that there is something wrong with them they look good on the outside but they aren't producing fruit something is wrong with them on the inside and god is extending the promise beyond the israelite people god's promise something the israelite people believed belonged to just them is being extended beyond the israelites and here's why we should still be concerned about this message today the reason that jesus is so frustrated with the people he sees in the temple is because they were god's hope for the world god looked at abraham and said through your offspring all nations will be blessed in isaiah god says you are my servant israel in whom i will show my glory their purpose as the people of god was to be wholly devoted to revealing god's glory to the world not just believing in it themselves but revealing it to everyone this was to be their identity their whole life told the story of who god is and god's plan for the world but they stopped they closed off the community rather than revealing god to the world so that all might worship god they focus simply on their own worship instead of focusing on reaching others they focused on their own relationship with god on building relationships with one another and never looking out here we are two thousand years later and we have to keep asking ourselves the same question have we become dead fig trees as a church have we become so focused on ourselves our squabbles our traditions our struggles that we've forgotten who we were called to be we've forgotten that the very first word of jesus great commission is go i mean let me ask you personally do you personally struggle with this you get lost focusing on your own relationship with jesus on your own church community and you forget that the responsibility of all disciples is to make more disciples you see jesus wants to be sure that this never happens to us that we are never fig trees who forget our purpose that we don't just focus on what's going on within our churches and our christian relationships and forget that god is calling us to move beyond the walls that we don't just let christian be a name we call ourselves but that we realize that jesus is giving us the opportunity to be transformed so that our whole lives speak to god's glory so that our every action is seen through the lens of how we can share the good news of jesus with others so that when people see us they can't help but want to worship god this is who jesus is giving us the opportunity to be and so today i want to invite you to rise up and seize this opportunity don't allow yourself to become a dead fig tree don't allow the church to become a dead fig tree move beyond the walls of church be on the walls of your computer screen or your phone screen and spread the good news let the whole world know that the time has come the kingdom of god has come near repent and believe the good news let them know that our salvation is here our king has come and his name is jesus and here are two ways that i want to challenge you to do it first re-watch this episode of beyond the words with your church let's spread this challenge to all of god's people and then second share the good news of jesus with someone in your life perhaps you know someone who's hurting who needs hope perhaps you know someone who is curious about jesus and god has opened that door or maybe if you don't know any unchurched people this is god's invitation to meet some but that's it just two steps and just imagine if we took those steps together just imagine the kingdom impact now as always i want to pray for you before we leave but stick around after because i'll share with you another video at the end of this that will help you to find even more ways to apply this message to your life but for right now let's pray oh jesus we thank you so much that you are our king and that your kingdom is at hand and we pray god that we can be part of spreading that kingdom don't allow us to be dead fig trees help us to be full of life bearing fruit help us not to get lost in a christian bubble or get lost in our own lives and forget the mission the responsibility that you've given us and so i pray lord that you will open doors for each and every one of us this week show us the places where we can proclaim your gospel and prepare the way through your holy spirit that through us your kingdom might grow and the whole world will worship you as savior and lord it's in your name we pray amen now before you go click this link right here that will take you to another video in this beyond the word series that will reveal to you who jesus is and how we can be a part of the work that he is doing right now thank you so much for watching have a great week and god bless

Channel: Brandon Robbins

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Keywords: bible study, the chosen, the chosen tv, the chosen season 1, the chosen season 2, gospel of mark, mark 5, mark 6, mark 11, read the bible, understand the bible, how to read the bible, how to understand the bible, bible study with me, bible study tips, bible study lessons, Mark 5 Bible tudy, beyond the word, brandon robbins the chosen, the chosen bible study, beyond the words bible study, brandon robbins bible study, stephen colbert, stephen colbert is a christian

Id: oja6HDre2k8

Length: 19min 50sec (1190 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 09 2022