Take a few deep breaths to center your heart and your mind as you prepare to meet with God.

Meditation

It has brought me much pleasure visualizing our prayers rising up and surrounding our Father with sweet aromas from this type of offering. These prayers bear much fruit when in line with Our perfect Father’s will: people come to know our savior, marriages are saved, victories over sin, minds are renewed, deliverance is discovered. Jesus reminds us with authority and zeal that “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Mark 11:17 

Take a moment and meditate on the miracle that our prayers actually rise as a fragrance to heaven, release God’s power, and bring Him joy!

Teaching

The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it. When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.

That evening Jesus and the disciples left the city. The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!” Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” (Mark 11:12-25)

Jesus’s heart and what he zealously desired was true worship to our Father God from the hearts of his temple. But instead, when he overlooked the activities of the temple he saw internal sin and fruitless leaders. It is unusual for Jesus to act in judgment, but we cannot overlook that it was Jesus’s very first action after being hailed Hosanna. Jesus shows the importance of bearing His fruit, so much that he curses the fruitless fig tree. It doesn’t matter what season the fig tree was in or what position you hold…if you are portraying beautiful leaves that beacons people to come, but offer no fruit to feed the hungry, that hypocrisy frustrates our Jesus. Jesus is seeking good fruit and for us to be fruitless is sin. Jewish religious leaders saw the temple as a place of sacrifice, but Jesus saw the temple as a place of prayer; which is the truest and sweetest smelling sacrifice. Psalm 141:1-2

“I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me;

    hear me when I call you.

May my prayer be set before you like incense;

    may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” 

All Jesus wanted from the Jewish religious leaders were their hearts to be involved in the temple, that their sacrifice be selfless love, and true worship of prayer, not hypocritical sacrifices that came from the  sellers of money changers in our Father’s court

Jesus desires deeply that we abide and stay fixed on Him ”If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Let us trust our Jesus’s words. Let us stay in His Word. Let us be a fig tree full of fruit; ready and prepared to nourish this hungry world and give God all the glory.

He says:

Abide in me. 

Stay with me. 

I have chosen you. 

I have appointed you. 

Go and bear fruit. 

Examination 

Before we quickly condemn the Jewish religious leaders for their sins, we should examine our own practices to see if perhaps we have been settling for leaves instead of fruit. Take a moment and ask yourself this question: If Jesus showed up in our house of prayer, King’s Way, or His temple in our hearts, what would he change?

Memory Verse

John 15:5-6 says,

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:5-6)

Church, let us remain in His Word this day, united and challenged to bear His fruit, encouraging ourselves toward this end with His words:

“If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”