Gospel of LUKE chapter 13 v 6-9

The Gospel reading is the parable of the fig tree. 

The fig tree occupied a favorite position.  In Palestine it is possible to see fig trees, apple trees and thorn tress in vineyards

The soil is very shallow, and the poor trees grew wherever there was soil for trees to grow, but the fig trees had more chance  to grow, but had not proved worthy of it.  Repeatedly Jesus reminded men, that they would be judged according to the opportunities they had.

Clearly, the parable teaches us uselessness is a disaster.  The whole process of evolution in this world is to produce useful things, and that which is useful will grow in strength in the economy, while that which is useless will be eliminated. 

The parable teaches that nothing which only takes, will not survive.  The fig trees were taking strength and sustenance from the soil, and in return giving nothing. 

In the last analysis, there are two kinds of people in the world, those who take but put nothing  in, and those put in more than  they take out.

In one sense we are all in debt to life.  We all came into this world at the peril of someone else who loved us.  We have inherited a Christian civilization and a freedom we did not create.  There is the duty laid on us of handing on even better than we found.  Abraham Lincoln, the great American President once said, ‘die I may. I want it said of me I plucked a weed and planted a flower wherever I thought a flower would grow.

  This parable tells us of the gospel of second chance.  A fig tree takes three years to grow and reach maturity.  If it is not fruiting in that time, it will not fruit.  But the fig tree was given a second chance.  Jesus gives us chance after chance.  Paul, Peter and Mark all gladly have witnessed that God is infinitely kind to the one who falls and rises again.

The parable makes it clear that there is a final chance.  If we refuse chances of God’s appeal and challenge in vain, the day will come when God has shut us out, but when we in deliberate choice have shut ourselves out from  God, we can only say

God save us.

     

                             *******************

Whilst I was reflecting on this parable of the fig tree, and all Jesus was meaning, it seems as if we have drifted so far away from all that God gave us, to live in a wonderful world, full of beauty and goodness, with the opportunity of being able to live a fruitful life.  As we look at how a minority of people have forced a standard of behavior that is contrary to all decency and respect, and we realize the task before us.

In this parable the Christian who can hear, and not feel shame and sorrow at the state of Christianity must be someone who takes their faith lightly.  God gave us privileges, and He expects proportionate returns. 

We must never forget the countries in the world, where other faiths operate in opposition to the Christian gospel, and the Christian people who face such challenges. They suffer mentally, spiritually, and physically in places. We tolerate other faiths, and accept their right to hold different beliefs, but this tolerance is not always reciprocated.

This is a warning to Christian Churches. If sound doctrine is not being taught, if people do not live holy lives, they are in peril of destruction.  God is always observing and taking notice of our ways.  Some Churches have much ceremonial practices, to which they give much attention to the cost of  Bible teaching. This puts in line for destruction. This happened to the Jewish Church, forty years after the ascension of Jesus.

If anyone doubts this could happen to us in dear old England, just consider how many Anglican and Methodist Churches have closed in recent years, when all the liberal influences took over. 

The Bible states, there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one BAPTISM.  So why has the Church of England created a second baptism for the benefit of those who have changed their gender from how God made them?  Why has the Methodist Church taken up same sex marriage without seeking approval from ALL members before doing so?  The fig tree in such circumstances has withered without producing fruit.  The axe is ready to fall the tree.

The parable has a warning for all who are partly Christians, and there are many in the Church who are, let it be impressed on them that they come,, and are meant to give attention.

I preached at a  Church on the theme ‘all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness’.  After the service a lady came to me and referred to the American President at that time, calling for capital punishment for men who had gunned down Jewish worshippers. She asked me if I agreed with him, and I replied I did fully, and told her the Bible authorized it should be so.  She said but that was in the Old Testament. I had to remind her the verse I preached upon said ALL Scripture, and the Old Testament was included.   Yet another example of part reference to the Bible, and hearing what one wanted to hear.  The New Testament does not differ.

But we must look beyond the Jewish Church if we mean to get the full benefit of the parable.  We must look at Christian Churches.  They have light, truth, and doctrines and precepts which the heathen never hear. There is great responsibility, and it is only right that God shall expect fruit from them.

We must look to our hearts, we live in a land of Bibles, to a certain amount of liberty, some element of Gospel teaching. There are solemn truths; few things are forgotten as the close connection between privileges and responsibility  We learn what a dangerous things to be untruthful  under such privileges.

We live in what was once a Christian country, and many people want it still to become, rather than the godless nation it has become where all absolutes have been abandoned.  The spiritual and natural way of life God created, is being turned over and discarded.

We belong to Churches which have set aside the guidance God, set out in His Word, and His means of grace, and ignored the call for repentance and failed to ask for forgiveness.

The parable should make every Christian feel sorry and ashamed, as they consider how the teaching of the Christian faith, with sound doctrine, has been abandoned with Churches openly adopting services contrary to the Bible, and calls to disregard Scripture are led by the leaders of the Church.

We have Bibles, with the liberty for the gospel to be preached, although we have a government at present debating whether we will be allowed to give sound doctrine. The country which at one time took the gospel to the world, is betraying the legacy of men and women who gave their lives to live in primitive conditions as they taught people who otherwise would never have heard of Jesus Christ.  Now, peoples living in Africa and Asia, are making every effort themselves to spread the Gospel, in lands with very limited resources, and no funds or means to acquire them.

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray that your Word may spread   and be glorified and triumph, and that I and every other preacher of the Gospel may be delivered from perverse and unrighteous doctrine I pray that you protect everyone who is being persecuted for their faith, but even more, I pray that in the face of persecution, the Word of Christ gains strength and delivers the lost from the bondage of sin, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

May God be Glorified