A dried up tree and a mountain under the sea!

I used to read the passage where Jesus cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:12-14) and would wonder to myself, "now why did He? I mean why the fig tree? What did it do?" Just imagine people imitating Jesus here and cursing local apple and orange trees cause they don't have apples or oranges yet (when it isn't even the season for it)! That might sound obsurd, but you have to wonder why did Jesus do it here? Is there something deeper to it? Over the years, I have heard different preachers opinions on this. It usually comes out something like this: "Jesus was merely trying to prove a point to His disciples" or "if you aren't fruitful, Jesus might curse you too!" Yet those answers never satisfied me. I still felt there was something there I was either missing or overlooking.

As baffling as the fig tree seemed, there was also another portion following which was just as amazing, that was verse 23 where Jesus said "you will say unto 'this' mountain..." I was always left thinking to myself, "which mountain? Which one is He speaking of?" Now it might not seem like a big deal to you, but this always left me wondering. Coming from a Pentacostal upbringing, I have always understood this passage mainly as refering to "the mountain in your life" etc and (just to clarify) if you understand it that way, then that is all good and dandy. I have no problem with that at all. However, I am not going into that aspect of it right now. Just rest assure, however, that when Jesus was with His disciples and said "you will say unto 'this' mountain," there was an actual, literal mountain there that He was speaking of. Yes, I will be explaining this to you shortly! First, lets begin with the fig tree.

12 The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus became hungry. 13Seeing in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing except leaves because it wasn’t the season for figs. 14So he told it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” Now his disciples were listening to this.

Just for the fun of it, I want to ask you if you can think of another place in the Bible where a "fig tree" is mentioned? In fact, if you start searching at the beginning of the Bible it will not take you long as you will find it early on in Genesis 3! More on this later, for now just note here that Jesus told a fig tree "no one will eat 'fruit from you' again." At this point in time, they are right outside the city at the foot of Jerusalem.

15When they came to Jerusalem, he went into the Temple and began to throw out those who were selling and those who were buying in the Temple. He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold doves. 16He wouldn’t even let anyone carry a vessel through the Temple. 17Then he began to teach them: “It is written, is it not, ‘My house is to be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you’ve turned it into a hideout for bandits!” 18When the high priests and elders heard this, they began to look for a way to kill him, because they were afraid of him, since the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. 19When evening came, Jesus and his disciples would leave the city.

Jesus and the disciples came into Jerusalem and went to the temple. If you do some research behind the the layout of the city, you will discover something very fascinating. There is a 'mountain' in the middle of the city and on top of this mountain...is where the temple itself rests! To the Jews, this same mountain is suppose to represent Mount Sinai (the mountain where the law of Moses was given). Now try and picture what is happening here. Jesus arrives and here's what He finds: people are bringing in perfectly good animals to the priest for their sacrifice. The priest looks at the perfectly good animal and says "nope, this one isn't good enough. Go over there and purchase another one (one of ours)." So they are (1) cheating people out of their animals and (2) getting rich off of it. Now imagine me going to the Dome of Rock today (which is a muslim mosque, by the way) and driving out the leaders there with a whip! What do you think would be their reaction? They would want to kill me! You just don't do stuff like that. Now this is close to the senario here. Jesus and His disciples didn't sleep inside the city that night (good idea if people want to kill you). Instead, they slept outside the city walls.

20While they were walking along early the next morning, they saw the fig tree dried up to its roots. 21Remembering what Jesus had said, Peter pointed out to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has dried up!”

22Jesus told his disciples, “Have faith in God! 23I tell all of you with certainty, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ if he doesn’t doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

The next morning, they back-pace themselves on the same route once again. While doing so, they come across the fig tree Jesus had cursed the day before, and the disciples notice it is now whithered! In amazement, they ask Jesus how He got it right the first time that it whithered so quickly? Jesus tells them, "if you have faith, you will not only do what was done to the 'fig tree' but you will also say to 'this mountain' be removed and be cast into the sea and it will obey you." Now here is where this gets interesting!

Remember in Genesis where Adam and Eve exchanged the glory of God and instead clothed themselves with the leaves of something else? What was it? It was the leaves of...the fig tree! The fig tree speaks of "self-efforts/self-righteousness." Now we are here some thousand years later, and Jesus comes to the "fig tree" again. He tells that fig tree that no one will eat of your fruit ever again! In other words, no one will partake of the fruit of self-efforts/self-righteousness any more! That works-righteousness/law way of relating to God has dried up. Those leaves (those 613 leaves you want to clothe yourself with) are WHITHERED AWAY! There is no more sowing them on to try and cover your nakedness. Have you ever tried to sow dead, dried up leaves together? It doesn't work. They crumble and fall apart.

Now if you thought the fig tree was shocking, don't stop yet. There is more to this! Jesus goes on to say "'not only' will you do what was done to the fig tree here, but you will also say to this mountain..." Now pause a second. Here's that mountain thing again. So what mountain is this? Which one is He speaking of? Remember, they were just at the temple...which was built on what? A mountain! They had just come down this mountain the night before, and were now outside the gates which is built at the base of the mountain. He was talking about that same one when He said "you will say unto 'this' mountain!" You will say unto the one with the temple on top of it. The one that represents where the law of Moses was given, which is the one that brought condemnation, where thousands died without mercy, etc. He says it will be what? Removed and cast into the sea!

Now it gets even deeper yet! Why will that mountain with the temple be cast into the sea? Because in the Old Testament, the prophet Micah says God will remove their sins/transgressions and cast them into the sea of forgetfulness! He says they will be remembered no more! Amen?! That system that is designed to strengthen sin, revive sin in you and stir up ungodliness, will be put away/cast into the sea. Remember, where there is no law, there is no transgression. The Bible says the law was given to "increase sin" not to stop it. More then ever, people need to understand that. Thank God, Jesus saved us from living in a system like that! He dissolved the commandments in His body on the cross and that record of debt that was against us was nailed to it. When Jesus cried out "IT IS FINISHED," the literal language says it like this: "the debt has been paid IN FULL!" Jesus paid it ALL folks! You are not in debt to God any longer. He does not desire our sacrifices and attempts to try and please Him in the flesh. Trying to ADD to His work is like adding water to a fire. It doesn't help it grow, it only helps put the fire out. No wonder why so many people are weary today. They go to religious circles who keep pouring buckets of water down and putting their fires out!

I wonder why such an amazing gospel is so little spoken of in our churches today? It is sad that so many born-again people today hear the verse "guard your heart, for out of it flow the issuses of life," and then listen to messages about how your heart is deceitfully wicked, beyond repair, sin infested, and full of all ungodliness. Listening to that garbage is not 'guarding' your heart. As a man thinks in His heart, so is he. If that is the way you are told to view yourself...then that is pretty dangerous if you ask me. I remember the day the light dawned on me and for the first time in my life, I realized I really was what the Bible says I am. A NEW creation, made blameless, perfect forever, holy, set apart, the temple of the living God, created with a NEW heart, born of the incoruptable seed, complete in Him, lacking nothing! Yes, you used to have a wicked heart...BUT Jesus took that heart out and put a NEW one inside you! That OLD heart of stone is GONE. You have a new heart with new desires, bless God! True freedom is not you really wanting to do something bad on the inside but using willpower to try and do the opposite. True freedom is when you now love people because you desire to love people on the inside. You help because you want to help people on the inside. It is an overflow!

In Roman times, when a war was won, they would send a footman to go running back into the city to tell the people. He would run in and shout, "it is finished, the war is over, we have won!" You want to know something? That is where our word for "gospel" comes from. It means "good news" and not only that but "such good news that it is almost too-good-to-be-true! It is such news that it causes a person to leap for joy!" I have not been to many churches and heard news like that. Makes me wonder if we really are preaching the gospel? Something else amazing about this good news, is that the footman was declaring something that had ALREADY happened. The war was over. They won...and guess what? The people inside the city hearing this news were NOT the ones fighting! They weren't out there in the battle field but they still won! The army got the victory FOR THEM. In the same way, the gospel is good news that has already been accomplished for you! Jesus got the victory FOR YOU! That is something to rejoice about it my friends!

I hope this helped shine a little light for you. I know there is so much more depth to this that I did not touch on. However, I want to use this as an intro to something else I will be posting soon. There is more to the city of Jerusalem and the Temple then the above passages I had refered to above. In the next several posts, I will be digging into something even crazier that Jesus talked about this. It is one of the most controversial subjects I may have ever gone into: that is end-time theology. When I first studied into this, I nearly had tears streaming down my face.

I want to recommend a couple resources (which cover what I will be sharing next probably much better then I will be able to). I believe you will benefit from them greatly and both have helped me tremedously. Jonathon Welton has a free book you can read online called Raptureless. In it he answers many of the questions usually asked regarding the end times. It is scriptural and packed full of historical content. You can find it at here at: http://raptureless.com/  Secondly, Dave N with Pure Unadulterated Grace also has over a hundred free articles you can read. Dave put out several blogs a few months back regarding some of this end-time/hell-fire/judgement stuff you may have been taught all your life. He does a good job putting many misused verses into there proper context. You can find this at http://pureunadulteratedgrace.blogspot.com under the August section. With all the "end-of-the-world" and "judgement-is-coming" fear and chaos going on in the world right now, I believe this to be very appropriate and help a lot of people get free. Until then, I love each and every one of you! Thanks for taking the time to read this and stay tuned!