Sermonette: All Leaves, No Fruit

Cleaning Our Temple Through Prayer
#1597s

Given 15-May-21; 18 minutes

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summary: The fig tree symbolizes Israel and her relationship with God. The Scriptures repeatedly identify national Israel as a fig tree, yielding either good figs (spiritual fruit) or rotten figs (diseased fruit of the flesh) (Jeremiah 24:3; 29:17). Micah 7:1 refers to the Creator's desire to harvest some early, ripe first fruits (Hebrew: bikrua), symbolic of God's called-out ones. Jesus Christ cursed the fig tree because it lacked the bikrua and produced only leaves; this fig tree symbolized the pharisaical hypocrisy, where works and talk are not in alignment. God judges a person by the fruit he bears. The temple of the Pharisees (which Christ labeled a den of thieves) had born no fruit. God asks His called-out ones to pray for the capacity to bear fruit, allowing Him to prune, fertilize, and cultivate them, believing that they will receive whatever they ask. God's people must always remember that true, first fruit figs come only through focused prayer and continued attachment to the Vine (John 15).






 


 
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