Lessons From the Fig Tree
by Rev. Kirby Williams
Jesus uses a simple analogy of a budding fig tree to help illustrate the complex future of God's Redemptive Plan.
Text: Luke 21:29-33
Date: 06/15/2025, the Combined service.
Series: "Luke: Thy Kingdom Come" Part 197
Occasion: Father's Day
Description:
As Jesus continues with His "discourse on the things to come", He uses a simple parable about a budding fig tree to illustrate how the signs He has been describing relate to the arrival of the Kingdom of God in fullness. Although the analogy is simple, the way it should be interpreted can be confusing. We will carefully analyze the words Jesus uses, and put them in the context of "prophetic foreshortening" to help determine which of the time frames that have dominated this discourse Jesus is referring to. Ultimately we will realize that the next great event in God's Redemptive Plan is the Second Coming of Jesus, of which the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD was a "type". And all of the signs that need to be in place for His return are already in place. And so, the true lesson of the fig tree is that Jesus could return at any moment and therefore, you need to be ready.
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I. Introduction
II. Exposition of the text, Luke 21:29-33.
A. Context
1. The discourse on things to come.
2. Topics of discussion.
3. Anticipating the interpretation.
B. The parable of the fig tree.
1. The parable, vs. 29-30.
a. Considering the fig tree, vs. 29.
i. What the fig tree does not represent, Isa. 34:4.
ii. What the fig tree represents.
b. The lesson of the fig tree, vs. 30.
2. The principle of the parable, vs. 31.
a. Looking at the words.
i. An emphatic address, John 17:20.
ii. Identifying "these things".
1) An age of deception, Luke 21:8.
2) The persecution of the church, Luke 21:12,16,17.
3) Natural and supernatural calamities, Luke 21:9-11, 25-26.
iii. The Kingdom is near.
1) The Jewish concept of the Kingdom of God, Luke 14:15, 13:27-29.
2) The Christian concept of the Kingdom of God, Luke 11:20, 10:9,11.
3) Pinpointing the arrival of the Kingdom of God, Luke 2:11,14, 4:43, 13:18, 17:20-21.
4) The "not yet" Kingdom, Luke 19:11, 21:9; Matt. 24:8.
b. Interpretation
i. The importance of prophetic foreshortening.
ii. Learning from the fig tree.
iii. On birth pains and giving birth, Mark 13:8.
iv. A type of the Eschaton.
3. The crucial meaning of "generation", vs 32.
a. Looking at the words.
i. The full truth formula.
ii. Defining "this generation".
1) People exhibiting common characteristics, Deut. 32:5; Luke 9:41.
2) A broad and undefined time frame, Luke 1:48.
3) People born in the same time frame, Luke 7:31.
iii. Adding emphasis to the statement.
1) An emphatic negative.
2) To pass from existence.
iv. The time qualification.
b. Interpretation
i. The clear choice of the Holy Spirit.
ii. At the gate, Matt. 24:33.
4. Words of eternal worth, vs. 33.
a. The destruction of the physical universe, Luke 21:25-26, 2Pet. 3:7.
b. The eternal nature of Jesus' words, Isa. 40:8.
III. Application, John 10:35
IV. Conclusion
