“Out to the Fields Anew”            John 15:8

 

Synopsis:

Throughout the Bible, there are tons of agricultural references, but none show up more than the idea of bearing fruit. What exactly does that mean and what does it look like in the life of the church… and is it something we should be concerned about. Scripture tells us that God is glorified when we “bear much fruit and become disciples,” so appears evident that we should be in the business of fruit bearing. But, are our actions and plans, what we’re spending our time on, bearing fruit?

 

Sermon Text: John 15:1-8

1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just 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. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 

 

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When most think of the word barren, the first thing to come to mind is usually a lonely, leafless tree, standing in an empty field. Imagine it, a dead tree, alone in a field. Now, while it may be technically true that such a tree is barren, not every barren tree looks that. Barren, you see, can be defined as an object that “habitually fails to (produce) fruit.” While this can be equated with something being dead, something that once had life but lives no more, the truth is that something can be barren and yet still live – that is to say, something can be breathing, happily living and enjoying life, while habitually failing to produce any fruit. To illustrate this point, allow me to tell a story about a two trees.

 

When I was a child, my parents, spent a good portion of their time in the yard. My mom in particular loved planting – everything from trees and bushes, to flowerbeds and plants. As such, I was privileged to have a very lush yard to play in. The one thing that always upset me was that we didn’t have more fruit trees… We did have one orange tree, but I’ve never been a fan of them. What I wanted more than anything was a mulberry tree. My grandmother had an enormous mulberry tree in her backyard and I can still remember sitting in it during quite a few Sunday afternoons, gorging myself on that delicious fruit. One day, while I was complaining about our lack of a mulberry tree, my dad informed me that we did in fact have a mulberry tree in our yard. Understandably, I was shocked. I immediately asked him where it was, hopeful in my belief that I would soon be enjoying delicious mulberries… unfortunately, when we arrived at our mulberry tree, there were no mulberries. When I asked my dad where they were, he used some choice words to inform that this tree produced no fruit – it was, and continues to be, barren.

 

I tell this story to illustrate the point that some barren trees can look fully alive. The tree at my parents’ house is, to the uninformed eye, fully alive – it loses it leaves every fall and grows new leaves every spring; it is now considerably taller than my parents’ house, and provides adequate shade for the grass around it… yet, it is still a barren tree; it habitually fails to produce fruit.

 

This leads us to our scripture for this morning, where Jesus speaks about fruit and the importance of fruitfulness. We will be reading from John 15:1-8, please prepare your hearts and ears to hear what God speaks to you:

 

1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just 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. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

 

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. Do you hear that? Our God, when we bear much fruit and follow as his disciples, is glorified. But what does it mean to bear fruit – what are they, what do they look like, and how do we bear them? These are all very good questions, and questions I intend to answer this morning.

The fruit which God speaks of, not only in this passage but in numerous passages throughout the whole of scripture, is the visible evidence of our faith taking root in our lives. Again, this fruit that we are talking about this morning, this fruit which brings glory to God, is the visible evidence of our faith taking root in our lives. That is to say, it is not something that is intangible; it’s not something that is limited to a description such as “growing in love” or “getting deeper with God.” It is not something that we cannot see, or touch. No, the fruit which Jesus speaks of is something that is measurable, something that is visible, and something that is able to be uniquely identified as a fruit of faithfulness. And the characteristics of these fruit vary, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians when he says that the fruit of the Spirit is: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. These are the fruits that come to bear in our own personal lives, the fruits that are seen and made visible individually. And when these fruits are born in our lives, it is something that we can see; something that we notice. Many of us, I’m sure, have either personally experienced or have known a person who has changed in a deep way. Perhaps their temper dies down, their rough nature disappears, or maybe that cloud of sadness and despair is replaced by a smile. You see, these fruits, these individual fruits are the visible evidence of our faith taking root in our lives; these fruits are the movement of holiness in our lives. Too often, we come to rest on a belief that we are okay where we are, that as long as we say our prayers and show up to worship that we are okay, but God is asking for more than that! God is asking for real change in our lives, not limited to whims and emotional highs, but long lasting change that is bursting with new life. And these changes, these fruits that are born in our lives, signs of our progressive movement towards holiness, are not meant to be kept to ourselves. I do not want you to think that these fruits are all about you and God, because that couldn’t be further from the truth. These fruits, given birth in you are meant to be shared and seen as living testimonies to the grace of God, active in our world. These fruits are what inspire the body of Christ, the Church, as it makes disciples for the transformation of the world.

 

And this is why the fullness of fruitfulness does not come in personal growth, but in our corporate growth, in the sharing together of what God has done in us and for us. It is in our worship together, it is in our studying together, it is in our fellowshipping together, in our serving together – the fullness of God’s plan in moving us toward fruitfulness is seen in the fruits birthed from our ministries! It is in the feeding of hundreds of families through our Hearts and Hands food pantry; it is in the joy experienced and the meals served to countless children during our children’s summer programming, it is in the homes of over a hundred and fifty children who now have school supplies for their upcoming school year, it is in the tears shed by our youth as their feet were washed and their heads prayed over during the mission trip – the fullness of God’s fruit in our faith comes when we join together to work for God’s glory in the world.

 

And we say amen, and we get happy, and we agree with the idea that we need to bear fruit, that we need to see more of the Spirit moving and changing lives, but when we go forth from here, what is of prime interest to us? What is it, when we reflect on our work at this church and on the matters of the greatest importance to us… what is it that comes to mind? Which ministries, which are the branches of our vine, are we tending to? As we think about his, let us turn to  Genesis 1:27-28 which reads, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply… Before there was worship to disagree over, before there was money to argue about, and before there were bulletins to argue over and bible studies to decide on – God wanted us to be thinking about being fruitful. Is the scripture talking about growing human population, well of course it is, but to limit it to something so simple ignores the depths of God’s words – It’s not just about making babies, it’s about the multiplication of and fruitfulness of God’s desire for all of Creation, the pinnacle of which is humanity! And yet, these fruits which we get so excited about, which give us so much hope and joy are often some of the last things we tend to. Instead, we give our attention to ministries of this church which, only when unreasonably twisted, are bearing fruit and making disciples. 

 

Before Noah constructed the ark and saved a remnant of humanity, we were told to bear fruit; before Moses parted the waters and liberated the Hebrews from slavery, we were told to bear fruit; before the Ten Commandments were hewn into rock at Mt. Sinai, giving us the foundations of Biblical law, we were told to bear fruit; before David united the Israelites and Solomon built the first Temple, we were told to bear fruit, and even before the Son of Man came down to live amongst us, died for us, came back from the dead for us, and ascended into Heaven where He continues to sit at the right hand of the Father, we were told to bear fruit. Despite all that, despite the obvious importance of bearing fruit in and around our lives, too often we remain content to rest on the accomplishments of our past, or mask our fear or laziness with excuses, ranging from a lack of gifts to a lack of time. My friends, we have a God who loves us as we are, but loves us too much to leave us where we are – God wants growth from us, God delights in the fruit birthed from our desire to pursue Him and the workings of the Holy Spirit. There is no task which God calls us to, no desire which the Spirit has stirred in our hearts, that God has not already provided the means and the method with which to carry it out – there are no insurmountable obstacles for those that walk with love of God.

 

The real question is this: Are we willing to leave behind the shade and comfort of barren trees to plant anew? Are we willing to prune the branches of our vine that the fruit we are producing might be all the more successful and might just produce fruit anew? Tilling the soil, planting the seeds, irrigating the field, and tending to the needs of young saplings – it’s not easy work, but to be a part of growing something fresh, something new, something bursting with life that is nourishing to the Body – it is truly special. So I ask you, are you ready? That is not a rhetorical question – Are you ready? Are you, by the grace of God, ready? Then let us go forth from here, filled with a sincere desire to glorify God on our path of discipleship, bearing the fruit which Christ Himself calls you to be a part of.

 

Amen.