What does First B Jackson teach about fig tree?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the fig tree has been taught as a sign that belongs alongside the temple cleansing, not as a separate curiosity. In the Palm Sunday message, the cursed fig tree appears at the close of the triumphal entry account, marking the turn from the crowd's expectations to what Jesus actually came to do. In the message covering Holy Monday, the tree is the opening act: Jesus approaches it hungry, finds leaves but no fruit, and curses it. The preacher drew a straight line between that tree and the temple court Jesus walks into next, because both made the same false promise. Leaves without fruit, and a bustling religious operation with no room left for the outsider to reach God.
The message on Mark 11:20-33 returns to the tree on Tuesday morning, when the disciples pass it and find it withered to the roots. There the preacher pressed the comparison again: the fig tree and the temple were meant to be read together, both looked fruitful from the outside and both were not. That observation is what sets up everything Jesus goes on to say about genuine faith, prayer, and forgiveness. The tree is not an aside; it is the frame for the whole week's teaching on what real responsiveness to God looks like versus what merely performs it.
Across all three messages, the fig tree functions less as a nature miracle and more as a lived parable. Jesus uses it to expose the gap between appearance and reality in religious life, and the teaching presses the congregation to ask honestly whether their own habits of faith are bearing fruit or only leaves.
Taught from Mark 11:12-13 · Mark 11:20-33 · Malachi 3:1-3 · Isaiah 56:7 · Luke 19:28-44
The passage taught · Isaiah 56:1-8
1 Yahweh says, “Maintain justice, and do what is right; for my salvation is near, and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3 Let no foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4 For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant:
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- October 29, 2023 Jesus Purifies Jesus clears the temple, curses a fig tree, and calls his people to be a house of prayer for all nations, not a barrier between the world and God.
- April 3, 2023 The Symbol He Chose Palm Sunday sermon exploring the symbols of the triumphal entry: the crowd's palm branches, Jesus riding a donkey, and the cursed fig tree, all pointing to a humble Messiah.
- June 13, 2022 Have Faith in God Mark 11 shows Jesus teaching his disciples about prayer, faith, and forgiveness while religious leaders demand to know who gave Him authority.