"Be Fruitful"
Sermon Notes by Keith Dow
Dec. 29/02 John 15:1-17
Slide #1 - Necessity of Bearing Fruit
-Why even bother worrying about bearing fruit?
Jesus commands it
1. John 15:1-4
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me"
This fruit is the signs of our conversion, our works in Christ.
James endorses it
2. Faith Without Deeds is Dead
"As the body without the spirit is dead, so Faith without deeds is dead" (James 2:20-26).
"a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." (James 2:24)
-Saint Augustine speaks of these verses when he writes
"Perfect uprightness consists in thinking rightly first, and then acting in accordance with your thoughts... You do right when you offer faith to God; you do right when you offer works. But if you separate the two, then you do wrong. For "faith without works is dead"; and lack of charity in action murders faith, just as Cain murdered Abel, so that God cannot respect your offering." (Saint Augustine, Confessions)
Slide #2 - We Can be Judged by What We Do
-Has always been a struggle to understand the tension between grace and works
-Even the verse sited most often in support of being saved by grace includes the idea of works as a natural outcome of being saved
1. Ephesians 2 (8)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
"The Grace of Jesus is a demand upon the doer, and so his doing becomes the true humility, the right faith, and the right confession of the grace of the God who calls" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
-Matthew 25 seems to imply that we can be judged for what we do in the final judgement
2. Matthew 25 (39-40)
‘When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Keith Green in the Sheep and the Goats, judged for "What they did and didn't do"
-Perhaps this is because it is impossible to be saved by grace and not show it
3. Matthew 15 (18-20)
"the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.' "
-Direct correlation between who one is and what one does that is unavoidable
Slide #3 - Not Just Abstaining from Evil
-Tend to focus on the negative aspects of Christianity (abstaining)
-Should be seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness
-Two parts to the Christian life, as James notes;
1. James 1:27
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
-Seem to have become so intent on avoiding evil, that we do nothing good
-Perhaps the best way to keep from being polluted is by pursuing the good.
-The best defense is a good offence
-So what is this fruit that Jesus talks about? There seems to be two categories.
Slide #4 - Inward Fruit
-Although the Fruit of the Spirit is shown on the outside, they are primarily character traits, a way of being
1. Fruit of the Spirit
"the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22,23).
-In "Celebration of Discipline" Richard Foster includes some other aspects that could be considered fruits
2. Richard Foster
Inward Disciplines (meditation, fasting, prayer, study)
-The next category is that of outward actions
Slide #5 - Outward Fruit
1. William Wordsworth
"That best portion of a good man's life - His little, nameless, unremembered, acts of kindness and love"
2. Matthew 25
Hungry, thirsty, stranger, needing clothes, sick, in prison
-It all comes down to imitating Christ, and striving for perfection because He is perfect
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked by E. Stanley Jones how Christianity could be more acceptable in India, said, "I would suggest, first, that all of you Christians... begin to live more like Jesus Christ."
"Do you believe in Christ? Then do the works of Christ, so that your faith may live! Let love be to your faith as soul to body, and let your conduct prove that your faith is real. You who say that you abide in Christ ought to walk as He walked." (Saint Augustine)
-It is easy to ask how is this even possible, and the truth is that it is not possible without Christ, but with Him everything is possible
Slide #6 - It is possible through Christ
1. Romans 8:31
If God is for us, who is against us?
"no opposition can finally crush us" (J I Packer, Knowing God)
Jesus said "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
2. Richly Rewarded
"No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life" (Luke 18:29, 30).
Ending Prayer
"I offer unto Thee all my goodness, though it is exceedingly little and imperfect, that Thou mayest mend and sanctify it, that Thou mayest make it well pleasing and acceptable in Thy sight, and ever draw it on towards perfection" (Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ)
Closing
"Let us then, brethren, who believe in Christ, study to make our actions and our thoughts upright. Let us lift up our hearts, together with our hands, that we may be found upright through and through, approving the rightness of our faith by upright actions, lovers of the Bride, and beloved of the Bride groom, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who is God blessed for ever. Amen." (Saint Augustine).