#121 Lu. 13:6-9  THE BARREN FIG TREE

Introduction:

    In our previous text Jesus said, "Except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish."  That was in verse three.  Then in verse
five He repeated the exact same thing for emphasis.  He said,
"Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."  In our text
today Jesus gave The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.  In this
parable He shows not only that God wants men to repent and be
saved, but also shows that men have only a limited time in which
to repent.

I.  The parable

    V. 6, "He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig
tree planted in his vineyard..."  A vineyard is a field in which
grapevines are planted.  In this particular vineyard there was
also a fig tree.  It was not common for the people of Israel to
have a fig tree in a vineyard, but this vineyard had a fig tree.
There is no explanation given as to why the fig tree was there.
It could have been that the fig tree was already there when the
vineyard was planted and they just planted the vineyard around it.
It could have been that the fig tree was planted at the same time
the vineyard was planted.  Or perhaps it was planted later after
the vineyard was planted.  At any rate, a fig tree was there in
the vineyard.
    (V. 6), "...and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found
none."  When you have a fig tree, you expect to get figs.  So at
the proper season the owner of the vineyard came looking for figs.
The problem was that he found none.  There was not one fig on the
tree.
    V. 7, "Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold,
these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find
none..."  This was not his first trip to the fig tree looking for
figs.  This was the third year in a row that he had found the tree
barren.
    (V. 7), "...cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?"  The
owner of the tree instructed his vinedresser to cut the fig tree
down.  The reason he gave was that it cumbered the ground.  That
is, it took up space in the vineyard that could be used for
something productive.  In addition to that, it very likely was
sapping nutrients from the vines that were close around making
them less productive.  Perhaps it made some of the vines totally
unproductive.  His vineyard would be more productive by just
cutting the fig tree down and getting it out of the way.
    V. 8, "And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this
year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it."  The
vinedresser made a request of the owner.  He asked that the owner
leave the tree for one more year.  During that year he would dig
around it and loosen up the dirt.  He would dig out the rocks and
grasses and weeds which might hinder its growth.  He would
fertilize it.  Jesus doesn't say so in the parable, but perhaps he
would also haul in water during the hot dry season of the summer.
He might also put leaves around the roots of the tree to protect
it from the extreme cold of the winter.  In other words, he would
do all he could to give the tree a boost and help it to become
productive.
    V. 9, "And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that
thou shalt cut it down."  If by the end of this next year the tree
has become productive, the owner would be happy that he has kept
it and would continue to keep it.  But if at the end of this next
year the tree is still barren, the vinedresser said, "Go ahead and
cut it down.  Get it out of the way and put something else in its
stead."  He would no longer plead for the fig tree if at the end
of this next year it should continue to bring forth no fruit.

II.  The interpretation of the parable as it concerns Israel

    In the parable the owner of the vineyard represents God the
Heavenly Father.  God is the Creator and owner of all things.  He
owns all the universe.  He owns heaven and earth.  He owns this
whole great big wide wide world.
    The vineyard represents the world.  This is similar to another
parable in which the field represents the world.  in that parable
the field represents the world.  A vineyard is a field.  The
vineyard in this parable is also the world.
    The vinedresser represents the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus
Christ is the very Son of God.  He is one of the Holy Trinity and
was sent to this world to be born in human flesh.  He is both
human being and Deity God dwelling in one fleshly body.
    The fig tree in the parable represents the nation of Israel.
Some Bible interpreters would have us to believe that in every
place where the fig tree is mentioned in the Bible it represents
the nation Israel and that is simply not so.  It represents the
nation Israel only when the context indicates that it represents
Israel.  If you try to make it represent Israel in every instance,
you will misinterpret Scripture.  Yet is does represent Israel in
some instances and this is one of those instances.  It represents
the nation of Israel in this parable.
    Israel was God's chosen nation.  As His chosen nation, Israel
was to represent God to the world.  She was to represent the
truths of God and the ways of God to the world.  To put it another
way, she was to reach out to the world and seek to convert the
Gentile nations of the world to the truth of God.
    The interpretation of the parable is that Israel had become
spiritually unproductive for God.  God had made the Law Covenant
with Israel and Israel had long ago forsaken the law.  The people
had polluted the law with their traditions which they added to the
law.  They placed greater importance on their own traditions than
they did upon the law itself.  In effect, they had substituted
their own traditions for the law of God.
    God had sent the prophets to Israel to call upon the people to
straighten up their ways before Him, but they had failed to heed
the prophets' message.  Many times they arrested the prophets.
They beat the prophets unmercifully.  They imprisoned them in
dungeons and in some instances they stoned them to death.
    John the Baptist was a special prophet of God sent to prepare
the way for the coming of the Christ.  The masses of common people
flocked out to hear John and proclaimed him as a prophet.  They
especially thrilled at John's message that the Christ would soon
follow him on the scene.  But when the Christ did come on the
scene the masses of people rejected Him.  They rallied to Him as a
miracle worker, but the majority of them rejected Him as the
Christ.  The scribes and Pharisees especially rejected Him.  They
rejected Him from the very start of His ministry and their
opposition to Him became stronger and stronger.
    By the time this parable was given the Jewish leaders
considered Jesus their bitter enemy and had already decided that
some way somehow they would put Him to death.  The masses of
common people still flocked to Him as a miracle worker, but for
the most part even the common people rejected Him as the Christ.
At the very least, they had failed to turn to Him and trust in Him
as the Savior of their souls.  They welcomed Him as one who would
heal their sicknesses and feed their bellies, but they still
refused to trust in Him to save their souls.  Only a relative few
had acknowledged Him as the Christ and trusted in Him as their
Savior.  Israel had become a barren fig tree.  She was producing
no fruit for God.  She was producing no spiritual fruit for God.
    So God the Heavenly Father said, "Cut Israel down."  He would
cut Israel down and substitute in its place local New Testament
church to represent Him in the world.
    In the parable it is the vinedresser who appeals on behalf of
the fig tree.  In real life it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
who appealed to God the Father for another chance for Israel.
This is in keeping with the Bible description of the work of
Jesus.  He is portrayed in Scripture as the one intercedes on
behalf of guilty sinners.  So He intercedes on behalf of the
nation Israel at the time when God the Father would cut it down.
    In the parable the owner said that for three years straight he
had come to the fig tree looking for figs and had found none.  I
am not at all sure that those three years represent the work of
Christ in the three years of His ministry, but they certainly do
make our minds turn in that direction.  I personally think that
the three years represent many years that God had been dealing
with this nation trying to get them to fulfill the mission that He
had given to them in the world, but they had failed to fulfill
that mission.
    In the parable the vinedresser pled for the fig tree that the
owner would give it just one more chance.  He pledged that he
would do what he could to make it become productive.  This
represents the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ as He
pled for God to extend the time for Israel for just a little
longer.  The parable said just one more year, but the one more
year of the parable stretched out to be several years in real
life of Israel.  In other words, the one year in the parable
represented a relative few brief years in real life.
    In the parable, the vinedresser said that if after he had done
all he could to make the fig tree become productive and if it was
still unproductive, he would not ask the owner to keep it any
longer.  He would agree that it should be cut down.  This informs
us that if after Jesus had done all He could to get Israel to
repent and be spiritually productive for God, if the nation still
refused to do the will of God, He would agree that it was time to
cut that nation down.
    That is just exactly what happened.  Jesus most certainly did
all that He could to make Israel productive for God.  He performed
the miracles that should most certainly have convinced them that
He is the Christ.  He fulfilled the prophecies that were made
about Him by allowing them to carry Him to the cross and crucify
Him.  He fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament by arising
from the grave.  After His resurrection, He moved His church from
Galilee to Jerusalem right in the midst of the Jewish leaders.  He
gave those leaders every opportunity to hear the gospel message,
to repent of their sin and be saved, but to no avail.  Instead,
the Jewish leaders persecuted His apostles as they had persecuted
Him.  So after God waited and waited and waited and still there
was no spiritual fruit from Israel, God sent the Roman general,
Titus, and destroyed the nation of Israel.  Jerusalem was
destroyed.  The temple at Jerusalem was destroyed.  Great numbers
of the people of Israel were killed and mass numbers of them were
scattered among the Gentile nations of the world.  But God already
had a local New Testament church there at Jerusalem to take up the
work of God and to carry His message of truth throughout the
world.  They were already preaching the gospel and proclaiming
God's ways to the world.  The nation of Israel would not rise
again until l948 BC when Israel was once again recognized as a
nation in the world.

III.  The parable as it pictures our nation

    The fig tree does not specifically represent the United States
like it did Israel, but, never-the-less, it does picture the
United States.  The United States was once a very spiritually
productive nation for God.  Many souls were saved and, to a great
degree, the people of the nation tried to live on a high moral
plane.
    But this nation is growing more and more corrupt and it is
producing less and less fruit for God.  The nation has turned to
violence, drunkenness, dope, immorality, robbery, murder, crime,
homo-sexuality and abortion.  There is something wrong in a nation
when there are more people killed by abortion than there are on
the battle field.  There is something wrong when more are killed
by abortion than there are in highway accidents.  It makes one
wonder just how long it will be before God says, "Cut it down!"
    There is no question in my mind but what Jesus Christ, the
Mediator, has pled for this country.  I think it would have
already been cut down if He had not pled that God would give it
little more time in which to repent and become productive again.
There is no doubt that the Lord, through the work of the Holy
Spirit, is doing all He can to make America spiritually productive
again.
    Yet if our nation will not respond to Him and become
productive for God again, there is no reason for God not to cut it
down.

IV.  The parable as it pictures our world

    In real life, not only the nation of Israel and the United
States of America have become unproductive for God, but the whole
vineyard has become unproductive.  The vineyard, you will
remember, represents the whole world.  The whole world represents
the world.  Virtually the whole world has become unproductive for
God.
    There are very few nations in the world that are an exception
to that.  In Europe, which was once a fertile land for
Christianity, true Christianity is hardly found there at all.
Instead, it is a mission field and the mission effort there is
very unproductive.
    Only a very few nations of the world have been truly open to
mission work by true New Testament churches.  It makes one wonder
just how long it will be before God say, "Cut it down.  Cut the
whole wide world down."

V.  The parable as it pictures the unsaved

    God loves every lost sinner in the world and wants all to come
to repentance and saving faith.  There is no question:  God has
been very patient in dealing with the unsaved.  God has waited
long for unsaved men and women to be saved.  He waited sixteen
years for me to be saved.  He has waited twenty, thirty, forty,
fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty and ninety years for some to repent
and trust in Jesus and be saved.
    But if one will not repent the time will come when God will
say, "Cut him down" or "Cut her down."  "Why cumber up the world
with that person any longer?"
    The Rich Farmer, better known as The Rich Fool, is a classic
example.  He was a prosperous farmer.  He had such great harvests
that his barns would not hold it all.  He said, "I will tear down
my barns and build greater."  But he would not repent of his sin
and he would not trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior.  So in the
very night that he make his plans for bigger barns God said, "Thou
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee."
    Then when an unsaved person is cut down, it is forever too
late for him to try to get saved.  Once a person is dead, it is
too late for him to try to get saved.  Once he is in the fires of
hell it is too late for him to try to get saved.

VI.  The parable as it pictures some who are saved

    Just as the fig tree had become unproductive for God, there
are some who are saved who have become unproductive for God.
There was once a time when they were very active in the work of
the Lord, but not any more.  They have fallen by the wayside.
They have not lost their salvation, but they have lost their
productiveness.  They are barren fig trees.
    The Lord still loves them and will do all within His power to
get them to turn and be fruitful for God once again.  If they will
turn to Him they will find open arms.  He will welcome them back
and He will embrace them in His love.
    But if they will not turn to Him, the time will come when the
Lord will say, "Cut them down.  I have given them time enough to
turn back to me.  Cut them down."

Conclusion:

1.  If your are unsaved, please do not delay.  Come to Christ now
    and be saved.
2.  If you are saved and fruitful, stay that way.  Please do not
    fall by the wayside.  Do not let anything stop you from
    serving God.
3.  If you are saved and you have already become unfruitful,
    please turn back to God.  Give your life to the Lord while you
    have still have the time.