Bearing Fruit - A Vison for 2007

A message from John 15:1-8 by Phil Rogers 7/01/07

To listen to Phil's message click here m3u / mp3

In praying about our vision for 2007 I was led to John 15. After Christmas we stayed with Andy’s in laws and I found and read a book by Bruce Wilkinson (Walk Thru the Bible) “Secrets of the Vine” which confirmed a lot of what I had been thinking.

Jesus likens himself to a cultivated grapevine (one of many such illustrations in John’s gospel e.g. door, light, bread etc.) A grapevine’s growth is very similar to a blackberry, left uncultivated it goes wild. God our Father is the vinegrower who tends and cultivates the vine. Out of the vine's root stock can grow any number of canes, but this is often kept to one (or two) main trunks. Each year new shoots grow out of spurs on the main trunk which become branches. In their first year branches grow rapidly but do not give any flowers or fruit. On a well cultivated vine, after the first winter these new branches produce two to three hundred flower buds. If these were all left to flower and fruit the vine could not produce enough energy to ripen them and you would end up with thousands of tiny bullet like grapes useless for either eating or making wine. So flower buds are pinched out leaving only 30 or 40 buds which will produce great big bunches of fat juicy grapes delicious to eat and great for making wine. After they have fruited once, the branches will never fruit again. If left their buds would grow into new branches, not fruit, but the vinegrower only wants new branches growing from the spurs on the main trunk as they produce the best fruit so in winter the old branches are cut off to make room for new branches. The vine with its main stem and a whole bundle of branches coming out of it is a good picture of the local church.

In the light of this when we read John 15 verse 2 we have problems. “Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts off, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will bear even more fruit.” I won’t bore you with the huge amount of literature and debate about what one commentator calls ‘this most difficult of verses’. Why is it so difficult? It implies that there are some ‘in Christ’ who bear fruit and other who don’t and that those believers who don’t bear fruit are chopped off, whatever that means! In real life every single branch in a vine will inevitably bear fruit buds in its second year. If a vinegrower cut off the branches that had no fruit buds, he would would cut off all the braches needed for fruit next year and never get any fruit at all. He only cuts off old ones that have already produced fruit. Secondly pruning does not give ‘even more fruit’ - pinching out the excessive fruit buds results in much less fruit but of far better quality. Is Jesus just a carpenter ignorant of vines, or is he the son of God who knows all about the vines he created? Our Bible translations certainly read as if he was just a mere carpenter making an ignorant and inaccurate comparison.

A winemaker in California became a Christian and was hungrily devouring his Bible when he came to John 15. He was so troubled by its inaccuracy he went to see his pastor who went to his Greek NT to see what the passage actually says. He translated it word for word. “Every branch in me not producing fruit he raises up”. The vinegrower suddenly got very excited. “That’s exactly what we do. The new shoots grow so rapidly they trail in the mud and we go round and pick up every new branch and wash it and tie it into the upper supports so that it gets the sunlight.” The pastor also told him that the word ‘more fruit’ could also mean greater or better. Many recent commentators say that the verse should be translated “Every branch in me that produces no fruit he raises up, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will produce even better fruit” although there is not one single Bible translation that has caught up with this yet. It was not Jesus who was ignorant about grape cultivation, just our Bible translators. Jesus was quite accurate in what he said - he really is the son of God!

So what are the applications of this passage?
1. New believers have to grow out of Christ they must not grow out of us or depend on our faith. We must not let anyone depend on our faith and enthusiasm. Our children must find their own personal life in God, not have a second hand faith dependant on us.

2. New believers need support, they need lifting up, cleansing and healing and setting free from the filth they pick up from the world and they need to be tied into the local church, and they need to feel the sunlight of God’s presence. This is the Father’s job, he is the vinegrower! So what is our role? We are channels through whom God works, we can pray with new folk, help and encourage them to keep close to the Lord, to deal with sin issues and and help them get firmly tied in to the local church and be their support. Real converts grow fast! Especially in a church where our meetings are full of the presence of God.

3. God is looking for good quality fruit from us. What is fruit? In scripture we read about the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness etc. but these character qualities can only be seen by actions: showing love, being joyful, being a peaceful peacemaker, being patient and kind etc. The effect of these ‘good works’ is to impact non-believers and cause them to seek God and this is called the fruit of the gospel. Character > Conduct > Converts. For further exposition of what bearing fruit means see the article below.

4. After we have followed Christ for a while and grown a lot, we may go through a winter, a tough time, like Jesus did in the wilderness, but when we get through it we come out ‘in the power of the Spirit’ and start bearing fruit. But then Father cuts us back! Ouch! He is not looking for lots of activity, he wants quality, excellence. You have heard the saying “less is more”. Have you ever tried to do something foir the Lord, and it all went wrong! This was probably not the Devil but Father pinching out the buds. Focus on our gifting. Doing a few things very well rather kis far better than doing lots of things not very well. Whatever fruit we bear will only come from the Holy Spirit. It will have the anointing of God on it. It is not by merely human activity. Jesus says ‘Without me you can do nothing?’ Do we really know and believe that? This statement is the core of our vision for 2007. Let us come to a place where we really know it and believe it.

5. Sadly storms come and can rip branches off the vine. They cannot be regrafted in but have to be gathered up and burned. We need to hold on very tight to Christ and also to the support structure. When storms come if we turn against the Lord and pull away from the local church we can get detached and that just doesn’t bear thinking about. We know of people who onced believed but now are nowhere! They didn’t hold on in. But if we hold on tight actually the node where we are attached to the main vine gets stronger through the stress. It may bleed a little, but it heals up much tougher. Like those wonderful testimonies from last Sunday’s testimony meeting, which was so emotional. Folk who had a difficult year yet held tight to God and came out the other end stronger The key theme of this passage is holding on tight to the Lord. (Abiding in Christ) ` It is about remaining in him, staying dependant upon him, knowing that our life comes from him alone and that without him we can do nothing.

6. How do we do this? By maintaining a daily life of devotion to Christ. Making times to meditate on the Bible and talk it through with the Lord; praying continually, constantly referring to him, chatting to him, involving him in what we do and say and think; acting in faith knowing that God is at work in us to accomplish his purpose. “I need you Lord. Thank you for your Spirit’s power working through me!” See the article below for practical help in maintaining regular devotions.

7. God also spoke to me about seedless grapes. These are very popular and tasty but the goodness is all in the seeds. You can even buy grape seed extract from health food shops. God designerd fruit to carry seeds a picture of the gospel, the word of God. People want it seedless, but we must give them the word even if they spit it out! How can we more in tentionally give the gospel to those who come to Pre-school, Toddlers, Let’s Do Lunch and Resonate. We must always incorporate the Gospel somehow! (see article below)

8. “By this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit and so show yourselves to be my disciples.” v8 Don’t we want all the glory to go to God? Imagine a people producing so much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness where every one is walking closely with the Lord, each one serving God with excellence and anointing where we all hold together through the storms. Where new shoots keep coming and are growing strongly as we lift them up and help them get clear of the world’s filth and see them tied into the local church vine. This is our vision for this coming year. We shall expand on this in coming months.

This I believe is the Lord’s call to us this year - to bear much fruit. Let this be a year of producing much fruit together as part of ABC.

Redidication & Breaking of Bread
As we come to break bread. let us make this a special occasion, an opportunity to renew our relationship with the Lord and commit ourselves afresh to bearing quality fruit.

As the bread is coming round, take a few moments to examine our hearts. How is our devotion to the Lord? Turn away from everything that gets in the way; laziness or busyness, independance, self-reliance, all sorts of distractions, maybe even sin. Ask the Lord to help you get into some sort of habit of prayer and bible meditation.

"Father we have not always responded well to your pruning, but today we want to thank you for your care for us, as Jesus gave himself for us on the cross we give ourselves afresh to you and to each other."
As we eat the bread express to God our own personal desires to press in closer to him in this coming year.

In coming week in our groups please share these desires and choose to be accountable to each other.

Song: I have a destiny

Let us take the wine, the fruit of the vine, sweet, tasty, attractive, It reminds us of the fruit of Jesus’ life - his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, his self-control the fruit of his love - people healed, lives changed, sinners forgiven and his death on a cross - his life blood poured out like deep red wine, his greatest fruit of all - people out of every tribe and tongue in all human history redeemed and joined into Christ the Vine so that we too may pruduce fruit that will last forever, just as he did. As we drink the cup let us ask him to make us fruitful personally and as a whole church together in 2007.

Finally we are giving out paper and envelopes to everyone. Please write your name on the envelope and write just one thing on the paper, one specific area in which you want to to see better quality fruit produced in your life in 2007. It needs to be something specific, something realistic that you could acheive. One main thing the Lord spoke to you about in the message earlier that you will be able to tell if you have improved or done it.
Seal the paper in the envelope and in six months time they will be returned to you.

Article from News & Notices to supplement this message.

What is bearing fruit?
Col 1:10 “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,”
Phil 1:11 “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God.”
Gal 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Fruit is the character of Christ that grows in our lives which shows itself in good works. e.g. the fruit of love and kindness show themselves in acts of love and kindness. This fruit comes from the inner qualities of the life of God flowing in us, like the sap flowing in the branches of the vine that comes from the vine rootstock itself. But our fruit is the actions that demonstrate the life within us. We can think ourselves very patient on our own, but put us with difficult people and if there is true patience within us it shows itself in our being patient with others.

There is another aspect of fruitfulness in scripture. God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Paul talks about fruitful labour (Phil 1:22) and about the word bearing fruit (Col 1:6) in both cases referring to people coming to Christ. Paul’s work, his labour was to spead the message of the word of God to those who had never heard it like sowing seed, and the fruit of his work, the result of sowing the seed of the word, was more people coming to know Christ. i.e. Multiplication, filling the earth.
What is the relationship between these two different aspects of fruit? The word will only bear fruit in the lives of others when they encounter the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. As grapes contain juice and seeds so people benefit from our good works like tasting sweet grape juice, but grapes also have seeds and some of those seeds will get into people we bless with our good works. The seed is the Gospel, the word we speak that goes along with our good works - our love, our joy, our peacefulness and our pacifying influence, our patience, our acts of kindness and goodness, our trustworthiness, our gentleness and self-control. Without these qualities our words are empty and sound hypocritical.

We are not called to be seedless grapes! The flavour of the grapes is in the juice, but the goodness is in the seed. Heathshops sell grape-seed powder, full of vitamins and antioxidents and other highly beneficial substances such as anthocyanins and resveratrol which protect against nerve degeneration, viruses, inflammation, cancer, aging and thus prolong life. The word of God has even more power than grape-seed! God’s word protects us against spiritual degenaration, sins of all kinds and the cancers of bitterness and unforgiveness, and it prolongs life and brings healing and wholeness to us. The word of God, we are told, can bring us life ‘and healing to our bodies’ Prov 4:20-22

To bear fruit we need to keep hold of Christ and this involves maintaining a healthy devotional life. We do this by meditating on scripture and through prayer. Set some realistic, attainable goals. Can we manage every morning when we get up? Three times a week? Half an hour every lunch time at work? Choose a passage of scripture to work through ands then take it verse by verse, praying over every word. Talking about with the Lord, asking him questions, turning if possible every word and every phrase into praise, thanksgiving, confession of truth and of sin, asking and praying for others. It is easier to prayer read the Bible than it is just to read it and just to pray! Use a note book if you like to keep a record of your meditations, your thoughts and prayers. Practice this as often as is possible - at least once a week, several times is better, six days out of seven is best. (see Ex 16:13-31) We can also pray ‘without ceasing’ 1 Thess 5:17. Spending every spare moment chatting ot the Lord and involving him in our daily lives. Think of all the spare moments - lying in bed after we wake up, in the bathroom, walking or driving to work or shopping, doing the ironing or just going out for a walk. Relaxing in front of the fire. We can make so many more opportunities to talk to the Lord who is always with us than we do - but we do need to switch off the tele and the radio and the ipod and shut out the noise so we can ‘be still and know that he is God’. He says ‘my sheep hear my voice’ and we can if we will only listen.
One of our goals for 2007 is to encourage everyone in ABC to develop their personal devotional life with God. I hope that these practical tips will help. It also helps if you partner with someone else to encourage each other and make yourselves accountable to each other, and share your successes and failures and pray for each other and with each other. There is nothing like praying with others to stimulate your own prayer life. Please do come and join us often as you can during this coming week of prayer.

Psalm 92: 12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
15 proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Phil Rogers