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John 15:1-8
! Introduction
How many times a week are you out checking your crops or your garden?
At this time of year, we are very focused on fruit bearing.
If your wheat is not developing a good head, you become concerned.
If you see plants with indication of disease on them, you quickly run to the agronomist.
Many of you are checking your plants - are there flowers on the tomatoes, are they setting, is the fruit developing.
On the field and in the garden, we expect fruit bearing in the proper season.
Fruit bearing is normal and expected.
Do we have the same expectation of ourselves?
!
I. God Expects Fruit Bearing
One of the crops commonly grown in Israel was grapes.
The growing of grapes is not very familiar to most of us, but was very common in Jesus’ day.
If you have ever seen grape vines, you know that they are often grown on trellises.
They have fairly prolific growth and require quite a bit of pruning to help the plants produce a lot of fruit.
Apparently the plants are not permitted to produce fruit for the first three years.
There are two types of branches - those that bear fruit and those that don’t.
The non-fruit bearing branches are removed and the fruit bearing ones are pruned so that they can grow more fruit.
The branches of a grape vines that are pruned are good for nothing.
They are like the pile of branches that have fallen from our willow trees or those that I have pruned from trees that are placed in a pile in the back yard so that some time in the future, the pile will be burned.
The picture of growing grapes is the picture behind John 15:1-8 in which Jesus compares our life in Him to that of a grape vine.
Read text.
!! A. Fruit Bearing Normal
What we notice first of all is that God has created grape vines and other plants to produce fruit.
In Genesis 1:11 God says, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.”
And it was so.”
God created plants to reproduce, to bear fruit.
This is a natural thing and we share this expectation of fruit bearing, especially at this time of year.
God has the same expectation of us.
He has not created us to live for our own sake and contribute nothing.
He has created us to bear fruit.
There are a number of places in Scripture which indicate this expectation.
In Matthew 7:15-23, we have several thoughts along this line.
There it says, “every good tree bears good fruit.”
Later in the same passage, Jesus talks about those who claim to know Him, but do not bear fruit.
He says to them, “I never knew you.”
In the passage before us this morning, the expectation of fruit bearing is communicated throughout the passage.
In particular, we note in John 15:8 that we bring glory to the Father when we bear fruit.
The Westminster confession indicates that it is the chief end of man to bring glory to God.
We have been created to bring glory to God and we bring glory to God when we bear fruit.
Furthermore, we notice that there is a strong connection between fruit bearing and being disciples of Jesus.
In the NIV, Jesus declares that by bearing much fruit you show “yourselves to be my disciples.”
There are different translations, but what is the same in all of them is that there is a strong connection between fruit bearing and being a disciples of Jesus.
Those who belong to Christ and are His followers are expected to bear fruit.
!! B. If Not…
The passage also indicates what happens when we do not bear fruit.
As we identify the characters in the picture presented in this passage, we note that God is the vinedresser, Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.
If we do not bear fruit, God assumes that we are spiritually dead and he cuts off all those branches that do not bear fruit.
This is a pretty radical action and yet it is done because God acknowledges that there is no life there any more.
When we lived in Manitou, we had an apple tree in our yard.
The year we moved there, it was just mature enough to begin to bear fruit and it bore large apples.
They were tart, but tasty apples, particularly good for pies.
That year, there were only a few apples on the tree and we were expecting more the next year.
The next year, was a drought and it did not bear any apples.
Each year, I pruned it in hopes of a good harvest and finally one year it bore boxes of apples.
It was very exciting.
The following, year, however, it did not bear many and after that fewer and fewer until branches began to die and I realized that the tree was dead.
It no longer bore fruit and so there was only one thing to do and that was to cut it down.
That is how God finally treats those who do not bear fruit.
I am not sure what it means for God to cut off those who do not bear fruit.
There is some kind of a judgement intended.
What is clear, however, is that God realizes that those who do not bear fruit are dead.
The useless branches are those which refuse to listen to Jesus, those which listen, render lip service unsupported by deeds or those who accept him as Master, but then - due to trial or self desire, abandon him.
God judges such branches.
On the other hand, those branches which do bear fruit, God prunes.
He works in them.
He removes what is not growing well.
He trims back what is useless so that there can be the most effective growth.
The imagery is good.
Although I don’t know much about grape vines, I understand it from rose bushes and apple trees.
The more you prune, the better the fruit bearing.
That is what God does in us because fruit bearing is so important, it is expected of all who claim to know God and who are His followers.
!
II.
What Kind Of Fruit?
But when we talk about fruit bearing, what kind of fruit are we talking about?
The Bible mentions a number of different things.
!! A. Fruit Of A Changed Life
In Matthew 3:8 we read the story of John the Baptist and about those who were coming to him for baptism.
He warns them that they should not only repent, but also bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
This indicates that a life lived in God must bear the fruit of a changed life.
If God has come into a life, the result is change in that life.
One major change is that a life lived in God must now be a holy life.
Ephesians 5:9 says, “(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth).”
There must be the fruit of a life lived by compassion.
In John 15:16, 17, Jesus talks again about bearing fruit and then goes on to talk about obedience to His command to “love one another.”
Galatians 5:22,23 summarizes the fruit of a changed life when it says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Is your life bearing the fruit of change?
!! B. Fruit Of An Exemplary Life
The Bible also speaks about the fruit of an exemplary life.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
There is a pride that boasts of the goodness resident in a person.
“Look at me, see how well I am doing.”
That is not the fruit of an exemplary life.
There is the pride of a person who hides his life - the false humility of a person who never lets his light shine before men.
That is also not the fruit of an exemplary life.
What this passage talks about is neither of these things, rather, it talks about a person who recognizes what God has done in their life and is not afraid to display the work of God - the fruit of God active in a life.
That kind of fruit must be displayed before all men so that others will be drawn to God.
Is your life bearing the fruit of being an example to others?
!! C. Fruit Of A Worshipping Life
Then we also discover in the Bible that the fruit that is expected in us is also the fruit of a praising life.
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