Well, today's our message is
going to be on trees. And quite a while ago, I don't know,
I just remember what caused me to delve into this, but I started
this outline back in June, I think, and so occasionally Norm asked
me to fill in for him, so today we're Originally, it was called
Three Trees, but it turned into more than that. But we're only
going to look at one because, and even then, we won't be able
to fully cover all the significance of everything involved in that. But our text is going to be found
in John Chapter 1 today, and that'll be our guide to our
theme of metaphorical examples of the gospel that are represented
in trees, of all things, in the Bible. And, you know, John, I've
taught through the book of John a couple times over 20-some years,
and John was written with a specific purpose. It tells about Jesus
is the sovereign Lord God. And John wrote, he was with him
from the beginning of his ministry, and we'll find that out in John
chapter one today. And so he wrote these things, and
when he wrote his gospel narrative here in chapter 20, He was talking
about all the things that Jesus did. And he said, these are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you might have life through his name. And
we always find that whatever the Lord requires, He supplies. And even belief, it tells us
in Ephesians 1, verse 19, that we believe according to the working
of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead. So even that, we can't muster
up on our own. And even the faith that we talk
about so often in Ephesians, it says that You're saved by
grace through faith and that, not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So he supplies
everything. And when we think about the Lord,
as it's recorded here in John, John takes us right back to Genesis,
the beginning, the book of beginnings. And in John chapter one, if we'll
turn over there, And remember, John was a, he
was a fisherman, smelly old fisherman. And he was from Galilee, and
Galilee was a region that was kind of held in derision by other
folks in that biblical region. And when they were trying to
identify Peter, they said, oh, you're one of those Galileans,
your speech betrayeth you. They could tell by his dialect
where he was from, and they didn't have much use for those. And
even one of the, Just one of the apostles here that we find
in John chapter one, even he talks about nothing good coming
out of Nazareth from that Galilee region. So we find that John, he was
one of the two disciples with John the Baptist at the beginning,
and you can find that recorded in John chapter three, verse
26. Although, John, he never refers
to himself really by name. He just, the few times he talks
about himself, he says, that disciple that Jesus loved, or
that disciple whose head was on the Lord's breast. He had
a very humble opinion of himself, and not boastful at all. So we go to John chapter 1, and
he records this. In the beginning was the Word,
Jesus. The Word was with God, and the
Word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God. And
all things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made. even the trees. We go back to
Genesis chapter two and it says, and he created all the trees
and the herbs bearing the seed after themselves. So whatever
he created then reproduced itself over time and became the trees
that we're looking at here in the modern day and in the time
of the scripture that was written. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men. You find that in Genesis chapter
1. And the light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
So he introduces to John the Baptist here. The same came for
a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through
him might believe. He was not that light, but he
was sent to bear witness of that light. And that was the true
light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And
he was in the world. The world was made by him. the
world knew him not." You know, and we just stop and consider
that one sentence there, the world was made by him, everything
that's in it, every atom, every molecule, every single thing
was created by him and for him, the scripture said, and for his
pleasure were all things created. And he He created them with a
purpose. As we go through the Scriptures,
we learn that every single thing in the Scriptures has a purpose.
There was nothing there just for, oh, I'm bored, I'll just
create this or that. a camel or a kangaroo or whatever,
everything he created was with a purpose. And as we delve into
it and the Lord feels pleased to reveal things to us, we find
out, as he told those two on the road to Emmaus, he told them
in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And I think
that means all the scriptures, not just the ones that maybe
your Bible has a little star by him and it says Messianic.
prophecy or something. All the scriptures relate to
Christ. The word was made flesh. Oh,
I skipped a verse here. Let's back up to verse 12. But as many as received him,
to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor
the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but God." Pretty straightforward
there. And the word was made flesh and
dwelled among us. And that's where we're at here
in our scripture in John today. He dwelled among us and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. And John, bear witness of him,
cried saying, this is he of whom I spake. He that cometh after
me is preferred before me, for he was before me and of his fullness. have all we received, and grace
for grace. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." And this
is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites
from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And he confessed and
denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. He was baptizing
and we find here in the Scriptures, he was up in the south of the
Sea of Galilee, there some 60-70 miles north of Jerusalem. And so, they sent these priests
up there, quite a little walk to go up to where he was. And they asked him, what then,
are you Elias? And he said, no, I'm not. Art
thou that prophet? And he said, no. Then they said
unto him, who art thou that we may give an answer to them that
sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? And he said, I am the
voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaias. And he's quoting from the Old
Testament there. And they which were sent were
of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said,
Why baptizest thou then, if you are not that Christ, nor Elias,
neither that prophet? And John answered them, saying,
I baptize with water. But there standeth one among
you whom you know not. He it is who cometh after me,
as preferred before me, whose shoelatch that I am not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Beth
Arbara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. And again,
that's if you take the tail end of the Sea of Galilee, where
the Jordan River comes out of it, then he was probably, I don't
know, 12, 15 miles south of that end of the Sea of Galilee. Nazareth
would have been kind of to the northwest and all of that Galilee
region there that went up all the way around the Sea of Galilee.
And these ones that we have to do with in this block of scripture
here today in John were from that region. They were from that
Galilee region. The next day, John sees Jesus
coming unto him and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After
me cometh the man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest unto Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bear record saying,
I saw the spirit of descending from heaven like a dove, and
it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
as he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God. And again the next day,
after John stood and two of his disciples, the other John, the
John the Apostle, And Andrew said, looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God. So he's pointing
them to Jesus. And the two disciples heard him
speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them
following and saith unto them, what seek ye? And they said unto
him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where
dwellest thou? And he saith unto them, Come
and see. And they came and saw where he
dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was the tenth hour.
And one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he first findeth his own
brother Simon, and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah,
which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to
Jesus. When Jesus beheld him, he said,
thou art Simon, the son of Jonah, Simon bar Jonah, and thou shall
be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. And
the day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee and findeth
Philip, and saith unto him, follow me. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida,
a city of Andrew and Peter. And Bethsaida was at the north
tip of the Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida means house of fishing.
Beth as in house, and saida means smelly old fish. So, Philip finds Nathanael and
saith unto him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
I always thought that was interesting. Jesus found them, but they always
said, hey, we found him. Isn't that how we look at things? We found him of whom Moses in
the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph and Nathanael, said unto him, Can there any
good thing come out of Nazareth? That's funny, this rivalry. The
people of Bethsaida said that Nazareth, those folks aren't
that good. Nothing good comes out of there.
Philip said unto him, Come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to him and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. And Nathaniel, this is interesting
part here, he was taken aback. And he said unto Jesus, he said,
whence knowest thou me? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, before Philip called thee, when you were under that fig
tree, I saw thee. And can you imagine Nathaniel
going, I thought I was all alone. I was underneath my tree. I didn't see anybody. When you
were under that fig tree, I saw thee. And Nathanael answered
and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art
the King of Israel. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things
than these. And he said unto him, verily,
verily, I say unto you, hereafter, you shall see heaven open and
the angels of God descending and ascending upon the Son of
Man." Boy, what an interesting, detailed accounting we have here. And so our lesson today is on
this fig tree and the events surrounding it. And as we look
back, we find that Nathan or Nathaniel, that's kind of an
anglization of his name in Hebrew. And later on, you'll find him
in Luke and in the book of Acts. His last name was Bartholomew,
anglicization of Bar Ptolemy is what is son of Ptolemy, his
dad's name. And he goes by that, the rest
of the scriptures, they don't refer to him as Nathan anymore.
It's Bartholomew, the anglicized version of it. The Lord saw him, had his eye
on him underneath a tree that was existing then, but the works
were finished from before the foundation of the world. Every
tree, he created every tree before it existed. bearing its seed
after itself. And so the Lord created the fig
tree back there at the beginning of his creation. And that fig
tree bore little fig fruits and they had seeds in them. And one
of those seeds made its way up here to where Bethsaida, I imagine it was,
where Nathaniel was, and where he was under that fig tree. And
fig trees were kind of big, lush. shady trees, and it was a custom
in the East, people would plant those in their garden area, and
they would be a shady spot for meditation, for retreat, for
peacefulness, for a place to pray and think about God. And so we see Nathaniel was under
this tree, and he'd been listening to John the Baptist declare the
gospel of the one who's before it had been someone's coming,
as Norman always says. And John is saying, he's here.
He's here. When we see him, go follow him.
And not only that, but he declared, I'm sure, all of the gospel of
the substitutionary death of the Lord and the purpose of incoming
and all those things that were revealed to him. He's quoting
from the book of Isaiah there, and it's quite literal in its
description of all those gospel details. So this tree that was
created before the foundation of the world, the Lord purposed
that that tree would be created and that it would be planted
where it was planted and that he would intersect his gospel
with Nathanael and that gospel would be made effectual by the
Spirit of God. And he knew it. I saw you under that tree. It's interesting that we consider that and we look back at Nathanael. We're struck at once with the
fact that Jesus is the sovereign, the son of God, the Lord God
Almighty. And You know, John, a couple
of chapters later in chapter 10, he records, I'm the good
shepherd and know my sheep and have known of mine. And a couple
of verses later in verse 27 of chapter 10, he says, my sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. So as we go through this
calling of these disciples, these original disciples together,
he just says, follow me. And that's what they do. Their
heart has been adjusted by the Lord, by God to want to follow
Him and believe Him and to have Him revealed in them. And so,
this is just another example that He had His eye on him. He knew him from before the foundation
of the world. His name was written in the Lamb's
book of life from before the foundation of the world. He's
one of those ones that John writes about later that said in this
prayer in chapter 17 and in John chapter six, where he says, all
the father giveth me shall come to me. And so he identifies him
as one that he knew from before the world. And he knew he was under that
fig tree. Now that fig tree is interesting because it's also
mentioned in Genesis. We find that fig tree in the
garden with Adam and Eve, because when they fell, when Adam fell,
what did they do? They looked at themselves and
they said, oh, we've lost our covering, we're naked. So what do they do? They tried
to cover themselves by sewing fig leaves. I always thought
that was like good. Fig leaves are kind of scratchy
and not very durable. But that's kind of a picture
of self-righteousness, you know. It's uncomfortable and it's not
durable. It doesn't last long. You'd have
to probably make a new apron like three times a day. or more,
depending how modest you are, I suppose. But a fig leaf does
not make a very good covering. So it's, in that sense, it kind
of becomes an element or a symbol of trying to cover yourself,
a symbol of self-righteousness. And As Nathan was sitting under that
tree, that fig tree, whose leaves were represented as kind of this
beginning of self-righteousness, he was delivered from all that. The Lord saw him and he was He
was probably, you know, it was a custom back then that they
would go out under those fig trees. And as it's recorded later
in the New Testament, when Jesus says, when you pray, don't go
down to the street corner and do the big out loud prayer and
call attention to yourself and announce to everybody your prayer
and all those kinds of things. He says, when you're really praying,
When you really want to communicate with God, you get alone. You get a quiet place. And the
New Testament calls it your closet. Go to your closet, a private
place that's secluded. And this shade tree in this case
was probably a secluded little shady nook where you could meditate
on those things that John had been preaching to him. And all
that time that he was doing that, Jesus was looking at him, just
as he looks at all of his people. Before Philip called you, when
you were under that tree, I saw thee. He knew his sheep. He knew their circumstances.
He knew Nathan's circumstance as a sinner, and he was come,
as John declared, to save his people from their sins. And you know, apparently, Nathan's
prayers under that fig tree were honest and without pretense of
self-righteousness. A sinner in need of a savior
is kind of like that example of the Pharisee and the publican
that we find in Luke chapter 18, where the Pharisee gets up
and says, Oh, Lord God, I tithe of all everything. And I, I'm
not like those other icky people, especially those ones from Galilee
or even this publican. I keep the law and I do this
and I do that. Therefore, I'm kind of worthy
to come to you. But that icky old publican guy,
yeah. And the publican just smote on
his breast and said, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. He
saw it had been revealed to him. And we learned that from Ezekiel. After you get a new heart and
all those things that's listed there in that chapter in Ezekiel,
after he washes you from all your sins and reveals himself
to you, then you're gonna look at yourself and loathe yourself. But at the same time, you're
gonna say, as Lauren read, you're delivered from all of that. You've
been saved from all of that. But you certainly have a different
view of yourself than you did prior to that happening. So Jesus says, he recognized
that he's coming in his prayers, he's coming honestly and sincerely,
and he's probably saying the same thing that publican said.
after hearing the gospel preach from John, he's saying, Lord,
be merciful to me, a sinner. And the Lord says, behold, an Israelite
in whom is no guile. Guile would be referencing that
Pharisee guy. those same ones that came to
John and say, hey, why are you baptizing? And what are you doing
out here? We didn't authorize this. And
the chief priests and the elders sent us down here to find out
what you're doing and potentially maybe stop it because you're
unauthorized. You're off the reservation here. You're not doing what we said. But he was declaring the gospel.
So he was an Israelite with whom was no guile. He came to God
sincerely and knew his condition and knew what he needed. And
when Jesus revealed himself to him, it was kind of like Paul
said, you know, when in the fullness of time, he said, when it pleased
God to reveal his son in me. At that time, when Jesus says,
I saw thee, he was certainly revealed to him. And he says,
Lord, God of Israel. As we read through that book
in John chapter one there, These first couple of disciples
that Jesus called out, Andrew, and Simon, and Philip, and then Nathaniel, later called
Bartholomew, in Luke chapter 6, I believe, that we find out
that those are He chose them and named them
apostles, and they would be instrumental in spreading the gospel. that would bear much fruit. And
that's another thing that the fig tree is kind of a symbol
of in the Bible, in the New Testaments, kind of a symbol of fruitfulness
or not fruitfulness. In the case of not fruitfulness,
which represented kind of national Israel at the time because they
were off on this religious keeping the law, not profitable venture. When
he came across that fig tree and it was barren, he kind of
cursed it and it withered away just almost before their very
eyes. But he said to these disciples,
you've not chosen me. but I have chosen you and ordained
you that you should go forth and bring forth fruit." Isn't
that interesting? And one of them was discovered underneath that fig
tree. The fig tree is kind of also
used as a metaphor for the sureness of the coming of the Son of God.
And in Luke chapter 21, we'll read a couple verses from Luke
21, starting in verse 27. And Jesus is speaking. And then
shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power
and great glory. And when these things begin to
come to pass, look up and lift up your heads for your redemption
draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable.
And he said, behold, a fig tree and all the trees. When they
now shoot forth, you see and you know of your own selves that
summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise, when you see these
things come to pass, the things that were recorded previous to
where we started reading today, he says, know ye that the kingdom
of God is nigh at hand. And so it's used to, as sure
as the, right now we've all got stuff that summer brings on,
just sure as anything. Somebody in here has a bunch
of tomatoes that they don't know what to do with, or cucumbers,
or zucchini, or they always say this time of year, lock your
car doors because somebody's got zucchini. So, you know that those things
are harbingers that summer is here because we've got all the
produce and everything that we know comes this time of year. So, this fig tree is kind of
an emblem of that in relationship to these other things. When you see them, just as surely
as that fig tree puts on its fruit, Just surely as that, you know,
when you see these other things that the kingdom of God is nigh
at hand. So, you know, the fig tree is
mentioned in the Old Testament again in Micah chapter four,
verse four. But they shall sit every man
under his vine and under his fig tree. And none shall make
them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken
it." They're sitting underneath their vine, underneath their
fig tree, praising the Lord and giving Him glory. And as Lauren
brought out in the lesson this morning from that prayer, and
as it's recorded in our bulletin, They sit under their vine and
under their fig tree. Our pastor, he's got a, on the
back of his garage, he built a little porch thing. Little
miniature deck with a little roof over it. And he put some
chairs out there. And then he made a, I don't know
if he made it or Jennifer or somebody made this sign up there,
a big wooden sign that says the vine. And I'd call him up and say,
hey Norm, what are you doing? He says, I'm sitting under my vine, studying
for my next message. And so that's what he always,
he always called it whenever he was, wherever he was, whatever
he was studying, he always said, I'm under my vine, under my fig
tree. So as we look at everything that
transpired as recorded by John, The Lord knew his people, called
them out, gave them a heart to believe. And others he didn't
do that with. In John chapter six, he said,
no man can come unto me except the father which sent me. Draw
him and I will raise him up at the last day. And he says, you
believe not because you're not my sheep. It's not given unto
you to believe. So, these ones that we have to
do with here in John Chapter 1, Philip, Andrew, Simon, Bartholomew,
Nathanael, son of Ptolemy, known from before the foundation of
the world, known to Christ, their names written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. How amazing and beyond calculation that in time, he
tracks them down and calls them out. He went out of his way to
get Matthew to the public. And they went way up where he
was taking taxes and said, follow me. And then he went to Zacchaeus
and said, hey, today I must dwell in your house. And I must need
to go through Samaria. I have a little mission over
there and all those places it's recorded that he purposed to
go. Because in Jeremiah it says, I've loved you with an everlasting
love, and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Ephesians, Lauren was reading
from Ephesians a little bit this morning, but in chapter one,
it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the pleasure of his goodwill. And so we consider all the elements
which are recorded for us here in John written so that we might
believe that Jesus is the son of God and believing we might
have life. And I saw the end of the fig tree that was created
from the foundation of the world. I saw the whom God the Father
had given me from before the foundation of the world. And
I set my love on you and I predestined that you and I intersected you
with the gospel at the right time. And you learned of the
death, burial and resurrection as a substitute for all whom
the Father gave me. I saw thee under that fig tree. You know, those guys went on
and Philip was sent down to that Ethiopian eunuch there on the
trail out of Gaza, who was reading that scripture
in Isaiah. And he said, do you understand
what you're reading? And he says, well, how can I? And he started
that same scripture and preached unto him Christ. So in Luke it says, When it was
day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose 12, and
whom he also named apostles. Simon, whom he also named Peter,
and Andrew his brother, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
chosen and ordained to bring forth fruit. He says, you've
not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you
should go forth and bring forth fruit. So that fig tree turned
out to be a symbol of fruitfulness, a symbol that God set in motion
from before the foundation of the world. Isn't that interesting?
So that'll be the conclusion of today's message. Next time,
Lord willing, if Norm asks me to bring another thing, I think
we'll look at the acacia tree. And we find the acacia in Exodus. It's called shitum wood. in your
Bible, but when you look that up, it says, it's a bunch of
sticks, the acacia, or it's called the thorn tree. And it's got,
it's like being down in Arizona, everything there will stick you,
stab you, make you bleed. It's got thorns on it like that.
But it was real prevalent down in that area. And so, it was
easily obtainable. And it had certain properties
that made it, it was resistant to decay and was a kind of a
hardwood and lasts a long time. So, if you made something out
of it, it lasts a long time. But you know, they made the Ark
of the Covenant out of that thornwood. And then on top of that, they
put the mercy seat. So, something to contemplate
there. So, Lord willing, next time,
maybe we'll look at that one. So, with that, Lord, if you would
dismiss us with the hymn, you may be free.