10-14-2018 Fruit Loops John 15:1-17
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Intro:
Now is an interesting time for me. I am in my mid thirties. For some of you, you are thinking, well you're still really young. And it's interesting because I look back on my life, and I can see some unfolding as I watch my kids grow up. And then, perhaps you also, look forward to what the Lord might have down the road. I have essentially finished up school and launched knee deep into ministry and so I think that well just 10 years ago I was 26, and now 10 years forward will make me about... 76. My numbers may impress you with my math skills, but what I am saying is that I have grown in the last couple years more so than in the previous decade. And I'm thinking as I stand in the midst of all of what has gone on in the last couple years, I really start to weigh out, with thankfulness, what God has done, and I also follow that up with a prayer “Lord help me to live a life that is pleasing to You.” And I don't want to stumble and I don't want to spoil the name of Christ. And you start to weigh out a lot of things knowing that you can just aimlessly run hard your whole life and get to the end and have it not really count for much. You don't want to live a wasted life, and so I get in a re-calibrating mode. And so I evaluate what will be ahead. And that's been that type of the year for me-- it's not been a depressing year. It's not like a mid-life crisis that you hear about, but certainly it has been a challenging year so far. And I'm very thankful the way the Lord has directed me to the scriptures and showed me a number of things for me to to weigh in on. I don't wanna live a life that is wasted. And even though I feel young, I'm reminded that the very August 10 years ago when I left Denver, Colorado and moved to Dunbar/Pembine, Wisconsin -- a place that I couldn't find on the map and still it's hard to find--on the way to know where.
And that's really at the age of 26, or whatever age you are, to stop and consider: “Will my life count for eternity?” When it's all said and done, will it be like the fireworks on the 4th that just explode in the sky and are gone and are finished, or will there be lasting effects, lasting fruit?
I want to turn to John chapter 15. Because this is exactly what Jesus is speaking about to his disciples. And I'd like as you're turning there to consider the context of His message to his disciples. It's almost as if you were to have this final hour, final brief period of time to tell your kids the most important things to you.
I don't know what I'd be like for those of you that are men with doctors who say, “you've got only 5 hours to live so settle your accounts.” What would you say your kids?
Transition:
And I think that Christ understood that as they had just left the upper room, and were traveling down through the Kidron valley and over to the garden of Gethsemane, He knew exactly what was going to happen. And He is giving them a final challenge. He had given them a challenge in chapter 13 about what it means really to be great, He washed their feet. He talked to them in chapter 14 about how the Holy Spirit would come and take up residence in their life. And now in chapter 15, He is speaking to them about a life that is bearing lasting fruit. This is important to Him! And what I love about the preaching of Christ: it is always rich with illustrations an application. He will come right where they were living I can imagine that He is probably taking a branch grapes on it and He is describing to them a spiritual principal.
Let’s read the first 5 verses of chapter 15 and then read verse 16
Scripture Reading:
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
And then verse 16:
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
When we talk about fruit in the New Testament, lasting fruit, there are references throughout on what fruit really is. Romans chapter one talks about fruit being people coming to Christ. In other words, if you share the Gospel and someone accepts Christ as their personal Savior, you can say that the saved are fruit. We also understand in Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the spirit. In short, a spirit filled life will produce fruit. Fruit is from God and what God does and we are to do the work of the produce. Fruit is the supernatural lasting work of God--fruit that lasts! That's what Christ is wanting for these disciples to have.
Dr. Matt Olson has said, “God is not impressed by what you do for Him. He's not. But I think a lot of times we measure our spiritual success by what we do for God. But God is not impressed by what you do for him.” Rather, YHWH is impressed by what He does for you that's always impressed with. I was impressed by what he does in you and through you.
Transition:
So we come to the end of verse 5 and He says,
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him—this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you are not able to do anything.
The ESV says, “apart from me you can do nothing” In other words, without the Lord there is nothing you can do in your own strength that has eternal value. That's a pretty sobering thought isn't it? Because a lot of people today are soul ambitiously seeking after getting things done for YHWH, yet none of that has mattered. It is only what YHWH, by His grace, has worked in you and through you.
So how does He really develop this thought?
There are a couple profound thoughts that I want to share with you this morning in order to find and keep lasting fruit.
The first one is that we come to acknowledge Him.
I. Acknowledge Him
I. Acknowledge Him
To acknowledge him. It's interesting we come to verse 16 and the reason I just read the first 5 verses and then verse 16 is because I think verse 16 is central to the entire chapter.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
Jesus is essentially saying verse 16, that “this just really wasn't your idea, it is mine. This isn't your initiative is mine. You're not shows in me I've chosen you.”
Essentially, the whole purpose for your life is not what you come up with, rather it is what YHWH comes up with. Not only has YHWH chosen you, He has ordained you. The purpose of your life is to bear fruit,. lasting fruit. God has designed you to show the evidence of what He does in you and through you. But today I don't think we really acknowledge that He has that authority, or that right.
When a new baby is born. They enter into this world with a very independent spirit and they want to do things their own way. And by the time they reach kindergarten, it has not changed a lot. You go through high school and you go into adulthood, now you may know how and learn how to refine your responses a little bit, but by nature we want to do it our own way.
And I still have that bent in my life-- I want to do things my way. Yes, I'll serve YHWH but I want it my way. I want to live a righteous life and I'll do it comfortably my way. I want to follow the Lord, but I don’t want it to cost much, hurt much.
But what we see in verse 16 is you are to acknowledge Him that He is Lord and Master of your life. And you will not bear lasting fruit unless you come to the place where you acknowledge His Lordship over you. Your natural tendency is to try to do everything yourself except acknowledging Him as Lord. In fact, I could probably describe my work that I will do for YHWH, list out my plan on what I will do and how I will live this Christian life in detail with plans on how I will avoid suffering, pain, and a high cost and then I will somehow submit it to the Almighty God for Him to give the stamp of approval.
It is as if I am waiting for Jesus to say, “Wow, Josh, what an awesome idea! I'm so impressed that I will just go ahead with your plan.” But the reality is He is saying here, “you have not chosen me, I've chosen you and I've ordained you. I know what I want you to do, I want you to bear lasting fruit.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust Yahweh with all your heart; do not lean toward your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will straighten your paths.
Horse Breaking illustration:
Breaking a wild horse works well to illustrate this! I know near nothing when it comes to training horses, but I know people that do know! Ted has told me in times past, that there are different techniques in training a horse to allow riders. I have heard of some people in the past, where, as the wild horse is pacing or running around the ring, they would jump on to try and mount up only to get kicked off and bucked off the back of the horse. The trainer would then get back on the horse several times again only to be flung off several more times before eventually giving up. The stubborn horse would give up the constant battle and give in or the would-be jockey gives up after a cracked rib. The other method is to allow the horse to run around the ring until it runs out of energy. Two things have to happen: 1) the horse has to acknowledge the trainer. And 2) the horse has to trust the trainer. In other word, if if the horse does not acknowledge that I am in control and have a healthy respect. I'll never be able to ride it. But the animal also will have to trust me. And that's not a natural thing.
As a horse runs around, I am told, at first, they will not acknowledge the human at all. The trainer will be patient until the horse is sweating, and really tired, and realizes it can’t escape, and so then gives up running around. After that, the horse has no other option but to start glancing at and then fully acknowledge the trainer. But even then, more patience is involved with the human as the trainer attempt to position the saddle and tie it around only to have the horse start running wildly again. Only with pure exhaustion from the horse, trust begins to build and with the right training, a trainer can ride a wild horse with that method within an hour and without injury. So too, we must calm down, acknowledge Him and trust Him
We need to acknowledge His Lordship and we need to trust Him. And until we do those things we will not have a relationship with Him. We will not be able to be bearing lasting fruit. Then verse 16 what He is saying to acknowledge this fact: that not only is He Lord and Master in choosing us, but also He is the one who will bring fruit into our lives. So if you're going to be bearing fruit that lasts, then acknowledge Him as Lord and Master, don’t resist Him.
Transition:
Second way, a word that we see all throughout chapter 15 is the word “abide”.
II. Abide in Him
II. Abide in Him
Someone who bears fruit is someone who is abiding. Okay, what does it mean to abide/reside/remain in/live in?
Picture for a moment a vine—after all, this is what Jesus uses for us to picture. And then the branches are coming out of the vine, and at the end of the branch is what? Grapes/Fruit. Now if that fruit is going to be growing, it has to be connected to the branch connected to the vine. The abiding is a necessary process. Jesus addresses the the fact that if you want to be bearing lasting fruit, you must be abiding in the vine.
Look at verse 2, it says
2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Just quickly I like to take a look at 2 real conditions: you have a branch that is not bearing fruit, and a branch that is bring fruit. And YHWH is taking steps in each of these. Either your fruit bearing Christian or you are not bearing fruit. Either way, our Lord is involved in your life.
When I first read this I thought every branch in me that there is no fruit, He will take it away. I'm thinking well that's impossible every Christian bears some sort of fruit, right? But I think that Jesus says, “every branch in me-- I would take that to mean that this is in Christ-- A believer not bearing fruit. Perhaps visibly for the rest of us, we might think, wow! They are busy with the church! They are active singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School class, always at the church busy busy busy doing things, but it is not for us to judge because God sees whether that's just busy activity in the flesh or whether it's really a result of spiritual fruit. Sometimes what we think is spirituality, is not from YHWH’s perspective. He's the only one that can judge that, so I think that sometimes we say, “well if they come to church and they're teaching a class, busy serving they must be bearing lasting fruit. YHWH sees past all the superficial stuff to the heart and He knows if there is really fruit lasting for the eternal life.
Now is it possible that a Christian--saved/born again might not be bearing spiritual fruit? I believe so. But I also believe that if that's the case, The Holy Spirit will get involved in your life. Because He has not created you to live that way. He has chosen you and appointed you.
He has designed your life-- the purpose of your life is to bear lasting fruit. So if you're not, what is He going to do? It says in verse 2. He takes it up out! Some interpret and translate that verse: He cuts you off/cuts you out. But literally the Greek word there means to lift up that's the word ayro “to lift up”. The same word we find in the Gospels when they lifted up or took up the leftovers from the feeding of the 5000. What Jesus is saying here is more likely as a vine dresser walking through the vineyards. We can picture He looks down and sees a branch (that's you, that's me) He sees a branch not bearing fruit. What does He do? Reach down and cut off and throw it away. BUT I don't think that's what it's saying I think He reaches down--and a gardener will do this--reach down lift it up, wash it off and then tie it to a stronger branch or to a trellis so that it will have the opportunity to bear fruit. You see when it's down in the dirt with the dust and the lack of sunlight, then a lack of oxygen--it wont bring fruit. So He lifts it up that I might bring forth fruit.
I believe this is a biblical principle that when you are not bearing fruit, YHWH gets involved in your life to correct you. And sometimes, it's a still small voice, sometimes it's a little gentle reminder with “close calls”. But how many of you have ever been whacked in the head by the heavenly baseball bat? It's not because He doesn't love you or want you. He is trying to get your attention because you're going on with this life on your own schedule with your own priorities. But there is no real fruit, no lasting spiritual progress. He is saying, I didn’t call you to that! I didn’t design you for that! you're just spinning your wheels for eternity doing busy work. I made you different to bear fruit forever! Believe me that if you are saved, He will get your attention. You can read through it in Hebrews chapter 12 is a great passage of how YHWH chastens us whom He loves and He works in the life of the believer.
The ultimate action of God as when He continues to pursue that believer to correct them and they don't respond we read in 1 Corinthians 11 is God will take them home. So YHWH is not just going to just let it go despite our desire to let it go. Because He loves you and has an intent for your life ,He will correct you. That's not pleasant!
But would you rather have our Lord correcting you when you're 18, or 25 or even 35, then to go all the way to 75 years old and look back to say, “I’ve wasted my life. I did a lot of stuff and none of it matters.
God loves you too much to let that go.
So He will lift you up. The second part of this verse says,
2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
“every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit”
This is interesting, because I believe for for most of us here, we would say, “I know there's some fruit in my life. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control. I have lead someone to Christ, I see God working in me, I see God working through me at times. I'm not perfect, but I know that there is been some fruit. So what then does YHWH do? To the Christian who is bearing fruit, He prunes you!
Mary and I never had a Raspberry bush until moving to Kingsford. The only way we were able to keep them growing is because they already grow like weeds. But, even with them growing like weeds, if we wanted a substantial crop for next summer, we had to prune them. If you ever have pruned a Raspberry bush, you know that by the end of fall they look dead! The first time we learned to prune out the branches that bared fruit, we did all those branches and we were convinced we killed them! But sure enough the next summer they were weeds again!
So What?
So What?
Jesus knew that his physical presence with his disciples would soon end. He also knew that these men would need a clear understanding of their position with God, as well as what was expected of them. So he filled their minds with pictures and ideas to help them survive the days to come. But these same lessons also provide vital resources for preparing future generations of disciples to grow in their faith.
Jesus chose these disciples and appointed them to spread the gospel and produce fruit for God’s Kingdom. The Lord chooses each believer to be a branch in the vine—a branch that bears fruit that will last. The remaining, or lasting, fruit means either new believers whose faith perseveres, or the enduring quality of the fruit of the Spirit—especially brotherly love.
Conclusion:
When YHWH is observing this church and he sees your life, and He confirms you are bearing lasting fruit, what is He going to do? He is going to prune you for the purpose of you bearing even more fruit. If your not bearing fruit, abide in Him and He will lift you to higher levels.
My challenge to you today is to have a life that counts for eternity--fruit that remains forever. To acknowledge Him as Lord of your life. To trust Him. To abide in Him intensely. And when He prunes and when you're corrected, repent and bring yourself back to what you know is true about God.