Come Out from Under That Fig Tree 1985

Listening to the choir sing that anthem, it is a precious thing when the heart is fixed. That's just a tremendous message right there, taken, I believe, from an early American anthem, isn't it? And to see the difference between a heart that's fixed and a heart that's really nothing but a blob. You know, sometimes we think our heart is fixed, and we're just, you know, and we're in a rut, and we think our heart is fixed.

A heart is not fixed. To have a heart that's fixed means that we're going to be aggressive. We're moving towards something.

Now, when we first meet Nathaniel in scripture, when we meet him, his heart is not fixed. His heart is really like a piece of jelly. He's sitting under a fig tree.

He's watching the crowds come and go. And you can tell by one glance two things about this man. He's bored, and he's cynical.

And it's very easy to see when people are bored and cynical. I see it every Sunday here and there. Just an easy.

But it's easy. Now, the reason Nathaniel is bored is because, for years, he was looking for people with true faith, trying to find people who, in their living, manifested the life of God. And it seemed like all he ever found were over here the holey roley types who were full of emotion, but were utterly unreliable, undependable.

And over here we have the legalists, the whitewashed sepulchers, who were self-righteous snobs. They have all the answers for everything, but they're shells with nothing inside. So here we have life with no genuine purpose, and over here we have legalism with no life.

And so these people come and go. Nathaniel is also cynical because he's been disappointed so many times. Time after time, he went after something to see maybe this will be the real thing, only to be disappointed.

So he tries one more time. He has come down to the Jordan River with his friend Philip to check out John the Baptist. And he can tell that John the Baptist is a burning and a shining light.

But Nathaniel is convinced that these multitudes who are coming down to get baptized are not going to change. Two weeks from now, they're going to be back in their same old rut. And so he sits under his fig tree, expecting less and less to ever find even one changed life.

Philip comes up to him and says, we found the Messiah. And Nathaniel answers, sure, sure. Really, we found him.

We found a man that Moses and the prophets wrote about in scripture. It's Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nazareth, says Nathaniel, in any case, anything good come out of Nazareth, come and see.

And so Nathaniel gets up from his seat beneath the fig tree and follows Philip to Jesus. Reading from John chapter 1, verse 47, Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said to him, behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no God. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

Nathaniel answered him, rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.

And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. Nathaniel's journey from death to life was as simple as coming up and out from underneath that fig tree. You could say that Nathaniel had spent his whole life beneath the fig tree.

That fig tree represented his security. He could sit there and criticize everybody else. He could sit there and watch as a spectator as a judge, while his own life was rotting and dying.

But what Nathaniel did not realize at that moment was that while he was watching everybody else, there was somebody watching him. He was being watched and he was being judged, even as he judged others. And the one who was watching him now decides that it's time for Nathaniel to get out from underneath that fig tree and start living a life that makes some sense.

Arise, shine, Nathaniel, for your life has come. And to blast this man out from beneath his comfortable fig tree, Jesus sends into his life three gifts, a word of hope, a sign of hope, and a promise of hope. First comes a word of hope.

Philip comes up to him and says, we've found the Messiah. And even though Nathaniel is skeptical about anything good ever coming out of Nazareth, he leaves his fig tree and follows Philip to Jesus. As he gets near to Jesus, comes the second gift, a sign of hope.

Jesus sees him approaching and says, behold an Israelite in whom is no guile, no lies, an honest man. How do you know me? Before Philip called you while you were still under your fig tree, I saw you. Now, Nathaniel's eyes somehow open, and he begins to realize that he has been and is being watched by a holy eye.

Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. And now comes the third gift, a promise of hope.

Because I said I saw you while you were still under the fig tree, do you believe you will see greater things than these? You will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. And from that moment, Nathaniel followed Jesus with a pure heart and with a single eye, with a burning spirit. He saw heaven open.

He saw the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. His eyes opened, and this man had vision. And he continued with Jesus all the way to the end.

We see him still among the disciples on that final breakfast by the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection. And you can be sure at this very moment, in worlds beyond our comprehension, Nathaniel walks with Jesus. But it all began when he came out from under his fig tree.

Many of us are still sitting under our fig tree. And we even want to minister from beneath our fig tree. We want people to come and fit into our program.

And we can't understand why things just don't seem to fit together. Nothing seems to happen. No life is flowing.

We want to be able to pray. We want to worship God from our fig tree. We don't want to move or change anything.

And we can't figure out why nothing changes, why this thing seems so shallow and weak and sick. And it will remain that way as long as we stay under our fig tree. And here we sit.

We've come down to the Jordan, like Nathaniel. We're listening for some prophetic word. We're bored with our own life.

And we're cynical about everybody else's life. And we're aware of the fact that we are really producing relatively little. And while we sit under our fig tree, there is one who watches us, and who decides that it's now time for us to start to move.

And in order to get us out from our rut and out from beneath that fig tree and moving into life and purpose of the kingdom of God, he sends three gifts into our lives. A word of hope, a sign of hope, and a promise of hope. Now, that won't automatically do the job.

But if we respond to it, it will. The purpose of these gifts of hope is to get us out from beneath our fig tree and moving in the purpose of the kingdom of God before our fig tree withers and we wither with it. First comes a word of hope.

The same word, really, that came to Nathanael. We have found a Messiah, meaning that Jesus, the Lamb of God who was crucified for our sins and is alive from the dead, is moving among his people and speaking to them and empowering them and anointing them and teaching them and manifesting the kingdom in their midst, even in Detroit. Did anything good happen in Detroit? Come and see.

And what's happening in Detroit, for those who have the eyes to see, is also happening in Cleveland, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Calcutta, Rio, Montreal. The Lord is moving among his people all over the earth today, manifesting himself and speaking. Anybody who is seriously looking for evidence of the kingdom of God and truly wants to hear from Jesus can.

Anybody who cries out in earnestness, who seeks with an aggressive, serious will, will find himself, herself, looking into the face of the Son of God. Come and see. Come and see.

But you can only come and see if you get out from under your fig tree. The second gift he wants to give us is a sign of hope. If we come out from under our fig tree, it can't happen any other way.

But if we come out from under our fig tree, even today, and draw near to him in prayer, in worship, and really seek him as we come and eat his flesh and drink his blood, Jesus begins to speak to us, a personal word. He says to us, in effect, while you were still sitting under your fig tree, I saw you. Meaning, I know you.

I care about you. I've loved you. And now I'm calling you to something much higher and much holier and much more fulfilling and glorious than anything you've ever known.

From Psalm number 139. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising.

Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me. And when we begin to see this, we come out from under our fig tree and respond to this, we begin to know that we have been known and are known and watched over and loved by the Lord for a long time. And the only thing to do when we begin to see that, the only thing to do is worship Him.

And as we worship Him, comes the third gift. A promise, of course. Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. You will see heaven open. You will see, just like Jacob, when he saw that ladder going up, those stairs going up, with the angels of God coming and going on that stairway, you will see the angels of God, the messengers of God, coming and going from the Son of Man.

Simply meaning, you will have your eyes open and you will begin to have vision. You will have vision. You will begin to see God.

You will begin to see things you never saw before. But, there's one thing you have to do. You have to get out from under that fig tree.

You have to reach a place where you say, I'm no longer going to just sit here and watch and criticize. I'm going to come out from under my fig tree and I'm going to now aggressively pursue the things of the kingdom of God. Today, this day, I'm going to make one decision that will move me in God's direction.

I've got to do something. For instance, even the decision that now I'm going to take some time every day to pray. Or the decision that I'm going to take Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount, and I'm going to make them the rule of my life.

I'm going to soak this up and soak it up until I begin to understand it and I'm going to conform my life to it by the power of God's Spirit. Or, a decision which many of us need still to make. I'm going to commit myself to Jesus and to His body so that I will no longer sit under my fig tree and watch these other people from a distance, but I will join them with my heart.

And I will see them as my brothers and sisters, flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone in the body. No longer from my fig tree, I will be one of them. But in each case, God will help us by His Spirit to know specifically what to do, what that decision is for each of us today.

And as we do, as we move, our eyes open. Things begin to happen in our lives. Expect it today.

Then what we need to do, along with Nathaniel and Mary Magdalene and Peter and Paul and all the rest, we need to keep coming out from under our fig tree every day. All the time. If we will do this, if we will act by the light that God gives us to come out from beneath our fig tree today, the way Nathaniel did when Philip called him, we will see heaven open.

And we will see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. We will begin to see Jesus more clearly than we ever have. And in the light of that vision, we will change into aggressive, committed, wise, holy, consistent, fruitful sons and daughters of the kingdom.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Come out from under your fig tree and come and see. Let's just take some time in silence before God. Let's just wait upon Him in silence for a moment, okay? How about if we rise and sing together hymn number 448? And while we sing this, let's make our commitments to God in whatever way we need to.