VISION 2024 – REACH UP TO YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

VISIONS AND FIG TREES

OVERVIEW OF OUR VISION FOR 2024

God wants the very best for you. God wants you to reach your full potential – in all that you are, and in all that you do. God loves you so much that He is longing for you to allow Him to be active in helping you become everything that you can be. He is always with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is Almighty God, able to do all things for you. He is awesome! He has placed in you Himself – Ruach – the Holy Spirit and calls you this year to walk with the Spirit.

This can be the year of Shanar for you – the year of change. Be bold, and, in the words that I heard spoken by Ruth O’Reilly-Smith on UCB2, “step into the new” this year.

And when you, like the Apostle Peter before you, look down at the wind and the waves of life that threaten to overwhelm you (see Matthew 14), and when like Gideon you ask “who am I to do great things for God? I am nothing, I am no-one!” (see Judges 6), then remember the promise “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4: 13).

So, our Vision 2024 is this: reach up to your full potential, grasp hold of all that God has for you, and step into the new. How exciting this will be!

Today is a message of warnings – from powerful visions from the present day that I recognise as being from God, and from powerful images from Jesus given 2000 years ago that I know are as relevant for today as they were then…

VISIONS OF TODAY

1. THE CIRCLE

I saw a circle of people. They were holding hands and all facing inwards – all looking at one another. There was strength here. Each one was supporting the other, each one was caring for the other. This is good and is a picture of how we should be in the church. However, I was conscious that this was not how we were meant to remain. In the vision I saw the people turning the circle inside out. Now, they were still holding hands, but they were facing outwards – looking towards those who were not yet in the circle. This is the church as-should-be. Each one of us supporting one another and standing by one another but our outlook being outwards – towards those who need God. As long as our circle is inward-looking, we remain introspective. When the circle becomes outward-looking we become the Good News to the world that we are called to be.

Let us begin our look at visions of today with reflecting on this as being the foundation of all the others.

• THE AIRLINER

This is an increasingly well-known vision of what, I believe, God is saying to His church. In this vision our life is likened to a long airline flight to a better place. But we – and those around us – the church – are wanting to act as passengers – we are happy to sit quietly and contentedly in our seats, watching movies on the in-flight entertainment, enjoying the food and drinks served by the stewards and happily allowing the pilots and engineers to do all the work up front in the cockpit. And the challenge rings out: “you are not called to be passive passengers” on a long-haul airliner, but you are called to be fighting crew on a bomber – each one of you at the guns and the bomb sights and the navigation equipment and the radios. You are not called to a luxury 747 but to a serving Lancaster.

• THE SHIP

For me, this is the most powerful vision of all. I am not a man who receives many visions. But this one came to me with incredible impact. You might remember me sharing it with you back in 2018. This vision has never departed from me. In the vision that I saw, one of those old sailing ships was being driven towards me by a strong wind. The waves were high and battering the sides of the ship. And as I looked, I saw myself on the poop deck, at the wheel, trying to steer the ship along while the waves buffeted the ship. But I was alone on the deck. The crew were all below. This was not good. But as I reflected on this, the call to the deck rang out and the crew came up and began to play their part – to do their jobs – climbing the rigging, baling out the water that was being shipped on board, scrubbing the decks, manning the guns, even taking over the steering from me. This, I knew, was how it should be. Everyone stepping up to the mark. The ship was our church. The wind was the Holy Spirit, the sails was our longingness to be guided by God, the waves were the troubles of this world. And all had a part to play. Without all playing their part the ship would founder.

• THE SEEDS

And now, a recent picture which was very powerful – that of seeds. We see sowing of seeds in the Bible as symbolising Christ’s Word coming to us (as in the Parable of the Sower). And indeed this is a challenge to us all today as we seek to walk with the Spirit and grow into the fullness of what God has for us as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3: 6-9 –

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour. ⁹ For we are fellow workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

But the real vision that I had of the seeds was rather different – it was more like that of Galatians 6: 7-8 –

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

In what I saw, our lives were like a seed – full of potential, but that potential being locked away until they were planted, watered, fertilised, pruned. Our lives are nothing until we allow the Holy Spirit to take us and break us and mould us and fill us and make us all that we were meant to be. This day allow your life to fall into the hands of the Father and be planted in His Word and in His Spirit.

VISIONS OF THE PAST

Jesus loves us so much that He is constantly speaking to us, encouraging us, warning us, so that we might be the best that we can possibly be, and avoid missing out on all the good things that He has for us.

And the lesson, the image, that I feel strongly that He would like us to bear in mind now is that of the fig tree…

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. ¹³ Seeing in the distance a fig-tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard him say it.

¹⁵ On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷ And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers”.’

¹⁸ The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

¹⁹ When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

²⁰ In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig-tree withered from the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig-tree you cursed has withered!’

²² ‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ²³ ‘Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’ (Mark 11: 12-25)

Mark describes this event as taking place on the Monday of “Holy Week” (the day after Palm Sunday and a few days before His crucifixion).

Let us take note of the power of this event. Jesus appears to be totally out of character here! This is not the “gentle Jesus meek and mild” who will not break a bruised reed, who will take little children in His arms to bless them, who will weep over the sick and the nation. This is a very different Jesus. He rounds on a seemingly innocent tree and curses it and destroys it! He rounds on those doing what was considered to be a very necessary job of changing the money to that of the Temple coin. He must feel VERY passionate about the message of it all…

The message for us is this: Jesus is hungry, finds a fig tree in leaf but with no fruit and curses it so that it withers. When a fig tree is in leaf it should bear fruit or, at least as Pliny the Elder noted, the fruit of the fig tree begins to develop BEFORE it comes into leaf. Maybe Jesus was looking for the evidence that this tree was going to produce good, ripe fruit (hence we are told that it was not the season for figs – ripe figs) – but that there was no evidence that fruit was even developing. Jesus is always looking for our latent fruitfulness. We might not “be there yet” but Jesus can see that we are growing – our vision 24 is a call to begin to grow fruitfully. Let us not have the appearance of life (in leaf) but not bear fruit. He then goes into the Temple courts and clears out those buying and selling. This is a time of purifying the church – if it is not purified then that church will be overturned and like the fig tree it will wither.

Jesus is making a very graphic statement on spiritual health. And we must learn from this very visible lesson. Outwardly we might appear to be very religious and holy through our speech and our sacrifices and ceremonies – what we give and what we give up, when we go to church and how we appear to worship in our singing and praying and listening; but inwardly, in our relationship with Father God, are we really bearing the fruit that proves we are really walking with Him, living for Him, serving Him?

Jesus, in John 15: 5-8, declares that only if we are “in Him” will be bear much fruit. And Paul, in Galatians 5: 22-23 informs us what this fruit will look like:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.

I believe, and this is our stated “Vision 2024”, that God is calling us to make the change this year (the Shanar), to walk with the Spirit this year (the Ruach), to make every day count this year (the Manar) –  no matter how hard the climb (the Aliyah), to step up to the mark this year, to reach up to our full potential in our service for God in the church and in the world. If we do, then we shall bear much fruit. But if we do not then we are in danger of withering from the roots upwards.

Let us learn the lesson of the fig tree.

APPENDIX 1: THE CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEM

In Matthew 21: 18-22 Jesus clears the Temple the day BEFORE the cursing of the fig tree (on Palm Sunday) and describes the cursing and the discussion with the disciples at the same time on the Monday of “Holy Week”.

Mark 11: 12-25 describes the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the Temple on probably the Monday of “Holy Week” and waits for the discussion with the disciples on the Tuesday of “Holy Week”.

Scholars, seeking to explain the apparent differences speak of Matthew being more interested in a thematic approach – and sees that the cursing and the discussion of this as needing to be put together. They also declare that Mark is more interested in a chronological approach and also speak of the so-called “Markan Sandwich” often used whereby he shows Jesus coming back to a subject after something else has intervened in time.

Phew! Whatever the explanation is I am not sure, but the symbolism of the two showing a purifying of the church is the same.

APPENDIX 2: THE HERMENEUTICAL APPROACH

In understanding the relevance of what happened at the fig tree, we have focused on the relevance to us as individual and the church as a whole TODAY.

But it is seen that the lessons of the Bible often (if not always) can be seen to have three fulfilments: immediately, soon, in the future.

Here we can see that the immediate fulfilment is that the fig tree withered under the judgement of Christ and that the disciples are told that they can do all things if they have the faith to do so.

The “soon” fulfilment was seen in what happened to the Temple which was destroyed in AD 70. Jesus is therefore declaring that the Temple worship is like a fig tree that does not bear any fruit – hence he goes into the Temple to clear it out. Throughout the Old Testament the Jews are described as God’s vineyard that He has planted and cares for (eg Jeremiah 12: 10) and figs are specifically noted as symbolic of the fruitfulness of the nation (as we have already seen in Jeremiah 24: 1). Jesus is therefore here commenting on the spiritual health of the nation at that time – that they appear to be spiritually healthy but in fact are not. There are those who say that this story is only referring to the destruction of the Temple – a theme Jesus returns to in Mark 13: 1 when He states plainly that the Temple will be destroyed and not one stone will be left standing. However, there must be more to this story that this “soon” fulfilment because Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56: 7 where the Temple is described thus: “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”. Isaiah speaks of “foreigners” who worship God. This is us! Jesus is showing that what He is doing has a relevance to us and not just to the Jews of that time.

The “future” fulfilment is what we have been looking at in this message – the “what this means for us today”…