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The Fruit of the Spirit | 11: Secrets of Fruitfulness
We bought a lemon tree.
It looked happy and healthy, got flowers, but produced no lemons.
Well, actually, it produced tiny lemons that disappeared.
So we went to a nursery and described the problem.
The lady said, “Why don’t you bring in a sample of the soil, and we’ll do a soil test?”
I said, “How much would that cost?”
She said, “Nothing. It’s part of the service.”
As we were chatting, the owner came over and asked if everything was okay.
So I told him what was happening.
He said, “So you’re getting little lemons, but they drop off.”
I said, “That’s right.”
He said, “Well, you’re problem is that the bees aren’t pollinating the flowers.”
I said, “So how do you fix that?”
He said, “Simple. Plant a lavender next to it. The bees will be attracted by the flowers and they’ll pollinate the lemon while they’re there.”
Problem solved.
It’s easy when you know how, isn’t it?
We’ve been talking about the 9-fold fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
This is now the final message in this series.
So wouldn’t it be great if someone could tell us how to develop the fruit of the Spirit?
Jesus taught on bearing fruit
John 15:1-8
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
I enjoy reading about people’s last words.
Buddy Rich is considered to be one of the most influential drummers of all time. He died after surgery.
When he was being prepped for surgery, the nurse asked him, “Is there anything you can’t take?” He said, “Yeah, country music.”
When murderer James W. Rodgers was facing a firing squad in Utah, he was asked if he had a last request. He replied, “Bring me a bullet-proof vest.”
Playwright Wilson Mizner was visited by a priest on his deathbed. The priest said, “I’m sure you want to talk to me.” Mizner said, “Why should I talk to you? I’ve just been talking to your boss.”
These are amusing little stories.
But when a person of substance knows they’re going to die, they generally have something important to say.
If I were dying, with my family gathered round, I wouldn’t be asking if they’ve remembered to feed the cat.
Everything that Jesus said was important.
But the things that He said just before He died seem to have extra significance.
Jesus spoke these words in John 15 the night before He was crucified.
So in my view, that makes them especially important.
There are three characters in Jesus’ analogy.
1. The true vine
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.”
What did He mean by the true vine?
Why not just say, “I am the vine?”
Isaiah 5:7
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
Jeremiah 2:21
Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
So Israel was God’s vine, but they failed to be what God wanted them to be.
Now Jesus is saying, “Don’t think that you can trust in the fact that you have descended from Abraham. I am the true vine.”
What does this mean for us, and how does it relate to our fruitfulness?
John 15:4
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
Notice that there’s a two-way deal going on here?
We abide in Him, and He abides in us.
Abide is one of those old fashioned words you probably never hear anyone use outside of church.
I can’t imagine walking down the street and your neighbour says, “Abide with me a moment.”
You’d say, “Seriously? What, are you Amish?”
So what does it mean?
It means to continue in a place or condition.
In this case, we continue in Him, and He continues in us.
So how does this happen?
John 15:7
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
So to continue in Him means that His words continue in us.
In other words, obedience to Him is the key to continuing in Him.
Gladys Aylward was a simple woman who did what God called her to do.
In 1932, at the age of 30, she spent her life savings to get from England to China.
Alone.
With no support.
She opened a home for orphaned children who were starving or just wandering the streets.
When Japan invaded China in 1938, Gladys was forced to flee. She trekked through the countryside for twelve days with over one hundred children in her care.
In the face of extreme difficulty and danger she devoted her life to those children.
When she was publicly honoured years later, she said, “I did not choose this. I was led into it by God. I’m not really more interested in children than I am in other people. But God gave me to understand that this is what He wanted me to do – so I did it!”
Simple obedience.
Obedience to Jesus keeps us in the vine.
The vine – that’s Jesus – is the source of life for all the branches – that’s us.
Separate a branch from the vine, and it won’t last long by itself.
So we need to abide in Him by being obedient.
2. The vinedresser
John 15:1
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
What does the vinedresser do?
1. He planted the vine, because He gave His only begotten Son.
2. He prunes the branches.
John 15:2
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
He doesn’t prune all of the branches, only the ones that bear fruit.
And that leads to more fruit.
My mother had a mulberry tree.
It bore the biggest, fattest, sweetest mulberries you could imagine.
And in abundance.
After the fruiting season was over, we went to visit her one time.
She said, “I’ve pruned the mulberry tree.”
I went and had a look at it.
And when I saw it, I thought, you can’t be serious!
She’d cut this sizable tree back to about a couple of feet off the ground.
I said, “You haven’t pruned it. You’ve demolished it.”
She said, “It’ll grow back.”
I said, “You’ll be lucky if you ever get fruit off that again.”
But guess what? She was right.
It grew back bigger and better, with even more mulberries.
Pruning increases fruitfulness.
That’s not all that God does.
As the supreme Vinedresser, He does pretty much everything.
I planted a vegie patch, mostly from seed.
And we started eating our home-grown broccoli.
It tastes so much better than shop-bought broccoli.
And I’m pretty proud of myself for raising this crop.
A round of applause, please, for this great achievement.
But what did I actually do?
In most cases, I took a seed and put it in the ground.
That’s it!
I didn’t make the seed / put life in the seed / make the soil / the rain / the sunlight / the air it breathes.
The Lord does all that, and I get the credit.
For doing my little bit and putting the seed in the ground.
Like they say: Hang around with Jesus and He’ll make you look good.
The Father is the vinedresser.
He does most of the work.
And we, who are mere branches on a vine, are dependent on His activity for everything.
So there’s the true vine - Jesus.
There’s the vinedresser - the Father.
Then there are…
3. The branches
That’s us.
It’s those who believe.
Speaking to His disciples, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”
And then He talks about two kinds of branches.
Those that bear fruit, and those that don’t.
And the Father deals with each one differently.
Jesus said, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
What happens to a branch that bears fruit?
He prunes it. Why?
So that it will bear even more fruit.
This refers to the discipline of God.
He disciplines us so that we’ll bear more fruit.
That’s what a good father does.
I know, you’ve probably heard the story of the man who said, “I beat my son every day. If I don’t know what it’s for, he does!”
This isn’t that.
God is a wise Father who never disciplines purposelessly.
He always has a reason.
So if you are being disciplined by God, or have been disciplined by Him, it’s okay.
Be encouraged: He does it because He loves you and knows that you can produce more fruit.
If He disciplines us, it’s a vote of confidence in us.
So how does God discipline?
He uses tough times: financial challenges, hardship, sickness, opposition, relationship difficulties.
Because He knows that it will bring out something better in us.
But what about the other branches, the ones that don’t bear fruit?
Now that’s a different story altogether.
John 15:2
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;
John 15:6
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Wow! That doesn’t sound good.
This tells us that fruitfulness is not an optional extra.
Fruitlessness means there will be consequences.
So we have a choice.
Either we can continue in Him through obedience and submitting to His pruning.
In which case we’ll bear lots of fruit.
Or we can be fruitless branches.
In which case we’ll be cut off and burned.
The choice is ours.
John 15:5
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Perhaps there is someone here who has never given your life to Christ.
You’re not even a branch on the vine, because you’ve never been grafted in.