Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Luke 13:1-9, NASB
- Series: Luke (2025-2027), no. 47
- Date: Sunday, February 15, 2026 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
Listen Online
Watch Online
Text
Quick to Judge
You’ve probably heard somebody say or make a comment along the lines of church is the most judgmental place you can go. People who say things like that have not paid attention to social media. I forget just what a cesspool that can be because I hop on, I hop off, I try not to spend too much time on there. It can be informative, but it can also make you feel worse about the world.
But I had an opportunity a couple of times recently to look at posts that kind of drove this home for me my kids were on a field trip this week for a science and technology thing and they happened to meet a candidate for lieutenant governor there and that candidate posted some of the pictures to their to their social media accounts and people were on there oh, you should stay away from the children. That’s creepy. Candidates have been kissing babies for, you know, as far back as you can remember. And around the same time, I was at a meeting listening to a candidate for governor speak, and that candidate posted pictures to their social media account, and somebody got on there and said, you can only attract people in their 60s.
It’s pathetic. Well, my first thought was, ouch, because I’m 40, but you can call me 60 if you’ll give me the senior discount. That’s fine. I was like, okay, within one week, you need to stay away from the kids.
Oh, you’re only with old people. And I thought, oh yeah, people just like to complain. That’s all this is. They just look for something to complain about.
And that’s human nature, but it shows up on social media like no place else. You look at news stories sometimes, and I’m not talking about the stories themselves, but KSWO will post something about a wreck or the Constitution will post something about a house fire, and here they come to tell you how they would have done something different. You know, it’s your fault your house burned down, because if you stayed up every night like I do with a fire extinguisher in my hand to make sure my house doesn’t burn, if you were as good as I am, it’s almost that bad. If you’re as good as I am, oh, I’m sorry you were hit by a drunk driver, but if you were paying better attention and if you had moves like I do, go look for it.
You’ll see it. People want to assign blame. They want to look for some way that somebody is bad or wrong or deficient to point out how good they are. And it’s human nature to want to do those things.
Sometimes we do it as a coping mechanism. I cannot for the life of me remember what it’s called, but something I was taught about in college, there’s a bias that takes place in our mind that when we see a tragedy, here’s something wrong that’s happened, we find some way to try to differentiate ourselves from that person to calm us that, oh, it can’t happen to me. Oh, that’s such a sad story. Oh, but, you know, that happens in the big city.
Oh, it’s devastating, those wildfires. Thank God I don’t live in California. We think of ways to differentiate ourselves from the people that something happened to. And people tried this with Jesus in Jesus’ day.
We’re going to be in Luke chapter 13 today where people tried this approach with Jesus to try to make themselves feel better, to try to make themselves look more godly. And how Jesus responds to this and points out there’s really no difference. We’re all in the same boat. And Luke chapter 13, a message I’ve been, well, I won’t say eager to preach, but I’ve been prepared to preach for a couple of weeks and wondering if God was ever going to let it happen.
But here we are. Luke chapter 13, verses 1 through 9. It says, now on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no.
Each of Us Must Repent
But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower fell in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? Them. I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
The Fruitless Fig Tree
And he began telling this parable. A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard keeper, behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down. Why does it even use up the ground. And he answered and said to him, let it alone, sir, for this year too until I dig around it and put in fertilizer.
The Question Behind the Tragedies
And if it bears fruit next year, fine, but if not, cut it down So these people come to Jesus and they come to him complaining about, did you hear those people in the news? Did you hear that story about what happened to them?
Sin Is a Universal Problem
And there’s a reason why they do that, but they come to Jesus with this complaint or this story or just pointing out these people who suffered, and Jesus turns it right back around to show them that the problems that these people were facing, the tragedies that were occurring to them were not unique to them, that there’s suffering that is universal to humanity because sin is a universal problem. Sin is a universal problem. These people, they came to Jesus and they were trying to make a point. They wanted him to condemn someone publicly.
They’re telling him the stories about these people. That it says the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Isn’t that a shame? Isn’t that awful what happened to those Galileans?
Well, you know, if they had acted like this, if they hadn’t done that, if they had not been at the temple at that time, things would have been different. You know, what I would have done, that’s what we do, isn’t it? What I would have done differently so it wouldn’t happen to me. They come to Jesus with these kinds of stories, and they’re wanting Jesus to condemn somebody here.
They’re wanting him to condemn these people for their choices. They’re wanting him to condemn Pilate, maybe, for his involvement in this. Some of these people may very well have been zealots, kind of like Simon was, that they wanted Jesus on the record as criticizing the Romans. Or maybe they’re doing that because they want to see Jesus in trouble with the Romans so that Jesus gets taken out.
But they want him to condemn somebody publicly. And he points out that the problem for all of these people in the stories that he’s talking about, the tower and the sacrifices, is a problem of sin. And it doesn’t mean necessarily that they did something that contributed directly to them being in that situation, but there was a problem called sin that led to them being there. These Galileans we’re talking about, these are people that had gone to the temple.
They had traveled down from Galilee to Jerusalem. They had gone to the temple. They were there for the sacrifices. And evidently, history suggests to us that Pilate mistook them for people who were involved in seditious activities, that they were maybe not rebels, but they were a little bit rebellious toward Rome.
And so while they were there making their sacrifices in the temple, Pilate went in and had them executed right there. That’s why it says mingled their blood with the blood of the sacrifices. And everybody else looks around and says, oh, what a shame. And there was this idea in their day that if you suffered some great tragedy, it was a sign that God was displeased with you, that God was particularly displeased with you.
It was this idea that sometimes we still carry with us today that if something happens to us, it’s because God was displeased with something we did and decided He was going to zap us. And there are times that God will punish us directly for something we did and not delay that punishment. But usually He makes it pretty clear to us that’s what He’s doing. In Scripture, judgment was usually announced way ahead of time.
There’s also just the reality that we live in a fallen sinful world where bad things happen. And they’re a result of sin, but they don’t necessarily mean that they are the direct result of some sin that person committed. For example, if somebody is in a car wreck and they are injured by the actions of a drunk driver that they had nothing to do with, is that suffering a result of sin? Yes.
Just the fact that there’s sin in the world, the sinful choice of that driver to go get drunk and get behind the wheel. It’s the result of sin. Is it the result necessarily of sin from the person who was injured? No.
It’s just the result of sin. When we get sick. Now, every time somebody gets the flu, does it mean it’s God’s judgment on their sin? No.
There’s a lot of us in this room been passing it around lately. And we apparently have a lot to answer for. But it’s just the fact that there is sickness in the world because of sin. And there’s death in the world because of sin.
It’s not a quid pro quo situation where God says, oh, you messed up one time too many. And so now I’m going to take you out. That’s not generally what we’re talking about. That was their theology.
But Jesus points out that sin here is a universal problem. And just to be very clear before we go on when we say sin when the bible talks about sin we’re not just talking about bad choices we’re not just talking about different choices we’re talking about things that displease god the best definition i have ever heard to explain sin is what they teach our kids at cross timbers that sin is anything we think say, do, or don’t do that displeases God. It’s any choice we make that displeases God because it rejects Him and it falls short of His standards. So when we look at sin that way, we think of sin as, oh, murder, adultery, robbery.
We think of the big things. But sin is anything we think, say, do, or don’t do that displeases God. And when we think about sin in those terms, suddenly we are all guilty. I would ask, have you ever done anything that displeases God?
But I don’t have to ask because we all have. The scriptures say we have. Well, I haven’t done anything. Well, God says you have.
Doesn’t matter whether I think I’ve displeased Him or not. He told me I have, so He would know. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And this is what this passage echoes.
In verses 1 through 5, Jesus says, Do you suppose that those Galileans were greater sinners than anyone else? Do you think they were bigger sinners than anybody else in Galilee because they suffered this fate? He says, No, they’re not bigger sinners. And I’m here to tell you that unless you repent, you’re going to perish as well.
That was probably a shocking realization to them, Or a shocking declaration because here they’ve come to Jesus and we must be good with God because, look, we didn’t perish like those people. We would have done this. We would have done this differently. This is why we’re not like them.
And Jesus says, no, you’re going to be in the same boat unless you repent. And then Jesus brings up the story of the tower in Siloam there in Jerusalem that it fell and it killed 18 people. And he says, do you think they were the biggest sinners in Jerusalem? And Jesus answers his own question and says, no.
You’re in the same boat. These religious people, and there’s nothing, that word gets a bad press. There’s nothing wrong with being religious if it means you’re dedicated to the truth and you’re dedicated to Jesus Christ. Maybe it’s not the most, maybe it’s not the most clear word we could use, but all religion is not bad.
Maybe I should say these legalistic people, these self-righteous people, said, oh, we’re so much better than them. Jesus, did you hear about them? Jesus says, you’re just as sinful as they are, and you’re going to be in the same boat with them. He says, we’re all guilty.
And that means that each of us has the need to repent. If we look at particularly verses 3 and 5, twice Jesus tells the crowd that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. He says, yeah, the tower that fell on those people in Siloam, something like that can happen to you unless you repent. Those people who were slaughtered by Pilate, that can happen to you unless you repent.
Twice, he tells them, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And we need to stop and make sure we understand what repentance means because I think it’s one of the most, it’s one of the least well-defined words in our Christian vocabulary. We say repent and we have all sorts of thoughts about that, what that means in our minds. We think, oh, it just means you feel bad.
Well, it doesn’t mean feeling bad about it and then doing nothing differently. At the same time, we may think on the other extreme that it means that I’m never ever going to do that again. I’m going to walk the straight and narrow from here on out. Repentance leads us to have that as our goal, but repentance doesn’t mean sinlessness.
What Repentance Means
Repentance, the word in Greek means to have a change of mind, but it’s not solely an intellectual change of mind. Like, oh, I thought this, but now I think that, and we go on with life exactly as it was before. It’s a change of mind that leads us to turn toward God and away from sin. It leads us to hate our sin.
The way I’ve explained this in the past is that the difference between an unrepentant sinner and a repentant sinner is not that one sins and the other doesn’t. The unrepentant sinner, where we start out in life, says when it comes to our sin, when it comes to these choices, I hate God and love my sin. That’s the unrepentant sinner. The repentant sinner says, I love God and hate my sin.
We as believers should grow in Christ to the point that we more and more have victory over sin, but it doesn’t mean we become sinless in this life. But as believers, if we’re repentant, those moments when we sin, it shouldn’t be, oh, I love this, this is so wonderful, God, I don’t care what you say. That’s a lack of repentance. Repentance says, God, why did I just do that?
I hate that I just did that. Why would I do that to you? See, there’s a change of mind that’s going to show up in a change of life. That’s why the prophet Isaiah describes it this way.
He’s talking about turning toward God and away from sin. He said in Isaiah 55, 7, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord. It’s not a matter of sinless perfection. It’s this change of mind that causes us to love God and to hate our sin as a result.
And Jesus is speaking to this crowd and He’s speaking about the condition of Israel as a whole. We can’t lose sight of the fact that As he’s talking here, he’s talking about the nation of Israel. He’s talking about the nation of Israel, but it’s true for every person in that crowd. The reason I say he’s talking about the nation of Israel has to do with the fig tree that we’ll see in just a moment.
And also this prophecy that he makes here that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Well, the nation of Israel, by and large, refuses to repent and turn to Christ. And the nation of Israel suffers some of the things that he’s talking about here in A. D.
70, in the year 70. But he’s talking to the nation as a whole, but it’s true for every individual in that crown. Even though it’s a national promise and it’s a national warning of judgment, it’s true for every person in that crown. Because nations are made up of people.
Just like societies are made up of people. Churches are made up of people. Families are made up of people. If the nation has sinned, it’s because the people have sinned.
It’s not that the nation, this abstract idea, has sinned. The people have made the choice to walk away from God. And that’s how the nation has sinned. If the nation repents, it’s because the people turn and repent.
If the nation is judged, it’s the people who are going to experience that judgment. And so there’s this pattern all throughout the New Testament that’s clear. Each of us is individually responsible for our relationship with God. Even in passages that might seem to suggest otherwise, like Acts 16, where I believe it’s the Philippian jailer who’s told, he asks, what must I do to be saved?
And they tell him to believe in Jesus, and he’ll be saved, you and your house. It doesn’t mean that you believe in Jesus and your entire house is saved. It’s that he’s talking to a Gentile and saying, if you believe in Jesus, you’ll be saved. And guess what?
That’s true for all your family as well. Even though they’re Gentiles, it’s not just for you. It’s for everyone that if they trust in Jesus, they’ll be saved. Each of us is individually responsible for our relationship with God.
And so even as he’s calling the nation to repent, it’s a message to the individuals within that nation that they need to get right with God while they have the opportunity. So he says, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And so we look at verses 6 through 9, and we see what happens if they don’t. There’s this refusal to repent that I’ve already mentioned.
We know from history, most of the people that he’s talking to do not end up trusting Christ as their Savior. They end up rejecting Him as the Messiah. And it leads to disaster. This refusal to repent leads to disaster.
Look with me at this section about the fig tree. In Scripture, the fig tree frequently represents Israel and its condition before the Lord. Back a couple years ago when I was preaching my way through Mark, I’m sure you remember every detail of that, right? Now, I had to go back and look up what I said.
But we talked about the story where Jesus curses the fig tree. And that’s something that people draw on today and say, oh yeah, well, if Jesus was sinless, why did He flip out and be out of control and curse the fig tree? Okay, first of all, it doesn’t say he was out of control. And to be clear, it doesn’t say he cursed at the fig tree.
He cursed the fig tree and said, you will not bear fruit again. No one will eat fruit from you. And the reason why he did that, they say, oh, it’s unreasonable. It shows that Jesus wasn’t really sinless.
He had a bad temper. Jesus looked at this fig tree that even though it was out of season, was flowering in a way that it showed there should have been life there. You don’t put these flowers out and these leaves out unless there’s going to be fruit. And so it’s signaling that there’s fruit, and he gets to it, and there’s none.
And Jesus curses the fig tree in front of his disciples as they’re on their way to the temple because it’s a symbol of the nation of Israel. It’s a symbol of the people that they were going to deal with at the temple, that Israel at that time said, we’re walking with God, we’re doing all these religious things, we’re doing all of these rituals, we’re showing how wonderful we are, but there was no actual spiritual fruit among people like the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were showing all the signs, they had the leaves, they had the flowers, but there was no fruit. And Jesus was making the case that this is wrong to try to put on a show that we’re close to God, we’re so righteous, we’re so holy, and there’s no actual fruit of walking with God.
It was a symbol of Israel. Several times in Old Testament prophecies, we see the fig tree and its fruit as a symbol of Israel and its relationship with God, its condition before God. And so Jesus has just been talking about the sin of the people in front of Him. When He says, you’re just like the Galileans, you’re just like the people at Siloam, unless you repent, you’ll likewise perish.
So going from talking about their sin to this story, it’s no surprise that He uses a fruitless fig tree as his parable to describe the spiritual deadness of those in his audience. And some of the figures in this story, the planter that comes and notices there’s no fruit on the tree, represents God the Father. The tree represents Israel, and I believe the vineyard keeper represents Jesus. So what’s left is the expected fruit.
What fruit does God expect to see as the vineyard keeper has been down there working on the tree, fertilizing the tree, that’s Jesus doing His ministry. What does God expect? What does God require from Israel? He requires repentance.
Not perfection, but that turning to say, I care about God, I care about what God is doing, and I’m willing to put aside my own ideas about what should be in order to pursue His. God wants to see that repentance. That’s the fruit that He’s looking for from the tree, and He doesn’t see it despite the fact that the vineyard keeper is down there doing what he’s supposed to do. Jesus is doing ministry among these people, and they’re still rejecting it.
And so when it talks about the Father, when it talks about cutting down the fig tree, that’s judgment. That’s the Father saying, it’s time to uproot this fig tree. It’s not bearing fruit. And what does the vineyard keeper say?
Just a little more time. Just a little more time. Give it another year. And by the way, this is not completely unreasonable.
Fig trees don’t bear fruit, if I understand it, until year four. So when the planter says, I’ve been coming here for three years expecting fruit, well, you don’t come the first three years expecting fruit. We’re talking about years four, five, and six. Six years.
Ample time. To be showing fruit. And the vineyard keeper says, just give them a little more time. I will continue to fertilize the tree.
I’ll continue to work the tree. I’ll continue to labor here in this field and give it a little more time. And at this point next year, which is just in the story, I don’t know that it means literally a year in God’s terms, in the story of Jesus. But when the time comes, if there’s still no fruit, absolutely pull it up, put it in the fire.
It doesn’t mean to destroy it or annihilate it. In this case, it’s describing judgment. Put it through the fire. But if it bears fruit, great.
It’s Jesus. Not in opposition to the Father, but demonstrating this grace that the Father exhibits as well because He says yes. It’s Jesus saying just a little more time. I know there should be fruit here.
I know there should be repentance here. But just a little more time. Give them just a little bit longer. The tree, if it doesn’t bear fruit, is going to be cut down.
And he’s warning that if Israel refuses to repent and continues on the path that it was on, it was going to lead to judgment. And some of that judgment, like I said, was exhibited in A. D. 70, about, what is it, 37 years after Jesus?
Israel had refused to repent Jesus talked about this in other places the Romans came in and laid waste to Jerusalem destroyed the temple that’s why we have the wailing wall today the western wall that’s all that’s left of the temple from this event in AD 70 and some of the leaders the Pharisees, the Sadducees some of these people were executed while they were in the temple just like the Galileans whose blood was mingled with Pilate’s sacrifice. Some of these people were killed as the city was destroyed just like those that the Tower of Siloam fell on. Jesus warned the nation, unless you repent, you will perish in the same way. God frequently warns throughout Scripture the consequences that arise when we do not heed His warnings.
God is a loving God, but He is also a just God, and He doesn’t mess around. He gives us warnings of judgment as opportunities for us to repent. And that leads us to verse 9, that understanding the judgment of God and its reality, we should repent today while there’s time. This parable of the fig tree, as I said, it also represents, it also illustrates the mercy of God.
If the tree was already in its sixth year of not giving fruit, then giving it another year, giving it more time was an act of mercy. I am not the most patient person. I don’t, well, I don’t plant grapes anymore because every time we’ve planted grapes, we’ve ended up moving within a year. I’m not superstitious, but I like it here, so we’re not planting grapes.
But there are other fruit trees that you plant that take multiple years before you get any fruit. I don’t mess with those. I like stuff like okra and cucumbers that within a couple of months, they come up and they can feed the whole village. I think one year we brought a bunch of zucchini and just laid it out in the welcome center.
I couldn’t give the stuff away because it was so prolific. I’m not the most patient person. If those plants don’t produce, I’m yanking them up. Think of how patient God is to give Israel more time.
Think of how patient God is to continue to give us more time the vineyard keeper said if it bears fruit next year fine God was giving Israel more time to repent just as he extends that opportunity to us now we look at the world we see the condition that it’s in and as believers we wring our hands at the condition of the world and say I can’t believe people act this way I can’t believe God lets them get by with acting that way. Sometimes even non-believers will say, how could a good God allow things like this to go on? And a question I heard long ago that still convicts me is, if God wiped out all evil, if God wiped out all unrighteousness at midnight tonight, how many of us would still be present on this earth at 1201 in the morning? Zero.
God is so incredibly gracious. He is gracious to the world giving an opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to repent. He is gracious to us as His people that when we fall, when we stumble, when we mess up, He does not immediately zap us, but He gives us opportunities to repent. He lovingly calls us back to Him.
The judgment that is warned of for believers is not the same as the judgment that’s warned of for unbelievers but let’s face it anything that has the word judgment in it is not something we want to participate in and so he gives us opportunity to escape that’s why Peter said the Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slow slowness did God forget why why hasn’t he judge the world? Why hasn’t he dealt with this? Why hasn’t he fixed this? He’s not slow, he hasn’t forgotten, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
God delays just a little longer to give us the opportunity to turn to him. But there comes a time when even God says it’s enough. Verse 9 says, if it bears fruit next year, fine, but if not, cut it down. There would come a day when God’s patience with Israel was cut off this community they experienced the judgment of God like I said 40 years later for rejecting the Messiah and it reminds us that there comes a day for each of us of judgment if we do not repent and accept the forgiveness that he’s offered Hebrews chapter 2 says if the words spoken through the angels proved unalterable and every transgression and every disobedience received a just penalty.
How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed by those who heard. God has warned the world of judgment. His word continues to warn the world of judgment, that it’s coming, that God is just and He will not allow evil to go unpunished, but He has because He is also loving and merciful, and those things go hand in hand.
His justice and His love, they go hand in hand. God has made a way of escape, and that way of escape, that great way of salvation, is that God the Son came to be that vineyard keeper, to work among us, and water the plant, and fertilize the plant in hopes that we would turn and repent. And Jesus Christ came and took responsibility for my sin and for yours. Our unrighteousness doesn’t have to go unpunished.
Our sin doesn’t have to go unpunished because Jesus took the punishment. We don’t have to be punished because He took the punishment. When He was nailed to that cross and He shed His blood and He died, He did it because each of us had sinned against a holy God. And each of us was facing that judgment but Jesus took it in our place so that today it’s not about what we can earn or what we can deserve or how self-righteous we can be or how we can show that I’m better than that person it’s trusting that Jesus died in our place that he died to save sinners and trusting that he rose again three days later to prove it and asking for that forgiveness.
If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want to invite you to do so today. As I said, there’s nothing for you to earn, nothing for you to deserve. Jesus has already done that. It’s a matter of recognizing that our sin has separated us from God and that only Jesus could fix it, that He died to pay for your sins in full so you could be forgiven. And then ask Him for that forgiveness and you’ll have it.
