Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Vital Signs of a Christian | New Testament | Mark 11

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

How do you know if a Christian is healthy? By the fruit they bear? In today's episode, Tanya shares three vital signs of a healthy Christian from Mark 11. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 11

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. In the Ozark Mountains, and no, don't make fun of us if you're from a state with actual mountains. There's a beautiful canyon with trails and trees and babbling brooks and trickling streams and roaring waterfalls. Visitors flock in by the hordes and ride on trams or trek through on foot for the best scenery. It's stunning in the fall when the trees are turning. tucked just to the north is a beautiful lake. You can get lost in nature while you're there,

so lost that you might even think it's real. I mean, yes, most of it is real, but the waterfalls, not so much. Somewhere behind that manufactured rock custom made to fit in with the Ozark Mountains natural rock, there are pumps that take the water up to the top over and over and over, while trams of tourists drive by and marvel at the wonders of nature. Maybe this doesn't bother you.

Maybe it shouldn't bother me. Many things can look real on the outside, but look behind the rocks or behind the curtain and the truth shines through. Jesus deals with this mismatch of perception versus reality in a shocking episode in the Gospels where he curses a fig tree. It's one of those accounts that we read and ask, why? From Mark 11 versus 12 to 14 goes like this. The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went out to find if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves because it was not the season for figs.

Then he said to the tree, may no one ever eat from you again, and his disciples heard him say it. Well, this is confusing to us because we think if it's not the season for figs, why was the tree cursed for not having figs? Well, the problem was with the tree. It didn't only fail to produce fruit, but it gave a fruitful impression, and it failed to back it up. But why did that matter so much? Just the day before, Jesus wrote into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the crowd waved palm branches and cried Hosanna, Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David. Now, here we are in the morning after.

Jesus and the disciples are on the road to Bethany. It's early spring. It's before the Passover. And the leaves, well, they weren't even. supposed to be in full bloom yet, except on this tree they were. If the tree had early leaves, then that should mean early fruit. But Jesus walks up to it and he finds it fruitless. The tree had given the impression that it was healthy, active, fruitful, early, but it was a facade. And as we just heard, Jesus cursed the tree and then not 24 hours later, the disciples

walked by the tree again and saw it withered and dead. Now, both the Old Testament and the the New Testament talk about the importance of bearing fruit. In Psalm 1, the righteous person is described like a tree, planted by the water that yields its fruit in season. And Isaiah talks about a time that is coming where God's people must bear fruit. And in Jesus' early ministry, the first followers must have had those images in mind when they were also called to bear fruit. The lesson for us today is that fruit is still an outward sign that reveals something important. It's like vital signs showing life within. So what are the vital signs of being a Christian? Well, first, love for Jesus. In our current chapter Mark 11, those people waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna,

they had a feeling toward Jesus, but it would soon be marred by their presence at his crucifixion. What was that feeling? Was it lust, want? Did they want a king who would save them in material ways and make this life easier or better? Love for Jesus can only come from the source of love, Jesus himself. We can't accumulate more love for Jesus out of will or strife. Jesus is love, and when we are with him, we also have love. Just like water is essential for the life of a tree, love is so essential that we are nothing without it.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says we can have the gift of prophecy and we can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and we can have a faith that moves mountains. But without love, we are nothing. So love for Jesus is a vital sign of being a Christian. Number two, another vital sign of being a Christian is understanding Christ's glory. At the end of this chapter, there's a description of Jesus walking in the temple courts, and then he's questioned about his authority to be there by the chief priest and elders. I mean, Jesus is in his father's house, but they say, by what authority are you doing these things?

These spiritual teachers thought they were religious, but they couldn't see the glory of Christ. A person who is in Christ looks back of the Old Testament and sees Christ's glory shine through. It keeps us from being hypocritical and moralistic because only Christ is perfectly sinless. Only Christ is perfectly righteous. Only Christ perfectly fulfilled the law. It's not on us to be those things by living a moral life because Jesus did that. It's on us to draw near to Christ. Third, a vital sign of being a Christian is a life changed or in the process of changing?

We think we need to look like the tree ready for harvest with our plump, ripe fruit on full display, a super mom, a busy professional, a social media following, a perfect family. but our leaves can fool us. Intimacy with Jesus produces fruit in season, not just pretty leaves. But this is not a story without hope. Psalm 1 says, Blessed is the one who does not walk and step with the wicked,

or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yield its fruit in season. and whose leaf does not wither, whatever they do prospers. Okay, heads up, this is not talking about us. We are inclined towards self-gratification and self-survival.

We are inclined to mock God and live for ourselves because that is the way to fit in and look like a tree with pretty leaves. That's the way towards the world's definition of prosperity. There is only one man who fulfills Psalm 1. There is only one man who fulfills the description of their fruitful tree. Jesus as the fulfillment of the perfect tree frees us from seeing this as a moralistic or a try-hearted lesson, and it fills us with hope. Because Jesus is the perfect tree, we need only to come to him with our sin, with our weakness, with our concerns. In him, we submit our need, our dry roots,

our lackluster attempts to make fruit on our own, and because he is the blessed one, and because all God's blessing is lavished on him, and because we are in him, what is his, is applied to us. So we have hope. And move by that hope, combined with His spirit, our lives provide evidence of fruit, that his love is in us and we are His. I was just talking about this tree in Mark 11 and Psalm 1 with my friend, and she said, I'm so glad it says that we bear our fruit in season. because with three little kids at home, I don't feel like my fruit is very evident right now. But from my angle, her fruit is on full display. I see God stirring her heart to love and teach her kids.

I see God stirring her heart to encourage other moms without trying to look perfect. And another friend, in the middle of cancer treatment, her life is bearing huge fruit. From my view, her dependence and faithfulness on Jesus is such a clear picture of God's presence. I doubt that she has the energy to even think about bearing fruit right now, but it is happening because she is in Jesus. Friends, the good news is we don't have to think so much about the fruit that will come. We just need to think more about Jesus.