🌿 Leaves Without Fruit: When Faith Comes Alive
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By Pastor Gary Boyd
(Mark 11:12–26)
🌳 A Tree That Looked Alive
Have you ever reached for something that looked great from a distance, only to find out it wasn’t what it seemed?
🍎 Maybe it was a shiny piece of fruit that turned out dry and tasteless.
⚙️ Maybe it was a new gadget that promised power but fizzled when you turned it on.
🙏 Or maybe it’s been someone’s spiritual life… busy, polished, and public, but hollow on the inside.
That’s exactly what happens in Mark 11.
Jesus is walking from Bethany to Jerusalem on a Monday morning. He’s hungry and sees a fig tree covered in leaves, which should mean it has fruit. But when He gets close, there’s nothing there. It looks alive, but it’s empty.
Later that same day, Jesus enters Jerusalem and finds another place full of leaves — the Temple. There’s activity, noise, and religion everywhere, but no real fruit of worship, prayer, or repentance.
That day, Jesus used a tree and a temple to teach a lesson that still speaks to us today:
💡 God isn’t impressed by leaves without fruit. He wants faith that’s alive, not religion that’s hollow.
This story isn’t about gardening. It’s about the heart.
It’s not about a tree. It’s about a kind of faith that looks alive on the outside but is empty on the inside.
So here’s the question to think about today:
👉 When Jesus looks at your life, does He find fruit… or just leaves?
🍃 1. God Exposes Fruitless Religion (Mark 11:12–14)
As Jesus and His disciples walked toward Jerusalem, He saw a fig tree full of leaves. In that region, a leafy fig tree should also have had early figs. But this one didn’t. It made a show of life, but produced nothing of substance.
Jesus cursed the tree, not out of frustration, but as a living parable. It was a picture of Israel’s spiritual emptiness. The people were full of ritual but empty of righteousness.
A bowl of plastic fruit looks great from a distance, but you can’t eat it.
Some believers spend their time polishing their leaves instead of growing fruit that pleases God.
🍇 People are impressed by leaves. God is looking for fruit.
Think about it:
Are your habits of faith showing real growth or just activity?
God desires transformation, not performance.
🕍 2. God Condemns Fruitless Worship (Mark 11:15–19)
When Jesus entered the Temple, He found the same problem He saw at the fig tree — outward activity with no inward devotion.
The Court of the Gentiles was designed as a place of prayer and outreach. But instead, it had become a noisy marketplace. The religious leaders were profiting off of worship instead of helping people meet God.
Jesus overturned tables and quoted Scripture:
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves.” (Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11)
The temple was full of motion but empty of meaning.
And Jesus, with full authority, cleared it out to restore what God intended — a place where all people could pray and find Him.
Modern picture:
🏢 A church can be bustling with programs, lights, and people but still lack compassion, prayer, and repentance.
Ask yourself:
🪞 What tables would Jesus overturn in my life?
Does my worship invite God’s presence or distract from it?
❤️ God isn’t after motion. He’s after meaning.
🙌 3. God Calls for Living Faith (Mark 11:20–26)
The next morning, the disciples walked by that same fig tree, now completely withered from the roots. Judgment had fallen. But Jesus used this as a moment to teach what real, living faith looks like.
He said simply, “Have faith in God.”
Then He described what that kind of faith looks like in action:
- Faith trusts God’s power.
- “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed,’ and does not doubt in his heart…”
- 🌋 True faith believes God can do what seems impossible.
- Faith prays with confidence.
- “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it…”
- 🙏 Living faith turns to God first, not last, and expects Him to work.
- Faith forgives freely.
- “When you stand praying, forgive…”
- 💞 Forgiveness is one of the surest fruits of faith because it trusts God to handle justice and healing.
A true story of faith in action:
In 1956, missionary Jim Elliot and four others were killed by the Huaorani tribe in Ecuador. Instead of leaving in anger, Elisabeth Elliot, Jim’s young widow, returned to live among that same tribe. She learned their language, shared the gospel, and forgave them. Over time, many of those men came to know Jesus.
That kind of forgiveness doesn’t come from human strength.
💡 It’s the fruit of a heart that truly trusts God.
🌱 When Faith Comes Alive
The message of this story couldn’t be clearer.
God isn’t looking for religious performance. He’s looking for spiritual life.
He doesn’t want fake fruit. He wants real fruit that grows from faith, prayer, and forgiveness.
Maybe your life looks full of leaves right now — ministry involvement, moral behavior, the right vocabulary, even regular church attendance. But deep down, there’s little joy, little prayer, little power.
Jesus isn’t condemning you. He’s inviting you.
He’s inviting you to trade lifeless religion for living faith.
So here’s your challenge for this week 👇
🌿 Stop polishing your leaves and start nurturing your roots.
✨ Spend time with God.
✨ Pray about something that feels impossible.
✨ Forgive someone you’ve been holding back from.
Because when faith comes alive, fruit always follows. 🍇
📖 Key Verse
“Have faith in God.” — Mark 11:22
