Life Link
10/14/2007
Fruit of Living for Christ
John 15:1-8 ( The Vine and the Branches )
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. 2 Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
Video Illustration:
Plot Outline: Based on true events, We Are Marshall tells an inspiring story of how a small town in West Virginia, steeped in the rich tradition of college football, struggled to restore their community after one of the worst disasters in the history of American sports. For this team and this community, Marshall football was more than just a sport, it was a way of life. But on a fateful night in 1970, while traveling back to Huntington after a game in North Carolina, 37 members of Marshall’s football team, plus coaching staff and team boosters, were killed in a plane crash. As those left behind tried to cope with the loss of their loved ones, they found hope and strength in the leadership of Jack Lengyel, a young coach who was determined to rebuild Marshall’s football program and in the process help to heal a community.
1. Fruitlessness
John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.
Matthew 3:10 Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 15:13 13 He replied, "Every plant that My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.
Illustration: Useless branches! -- In the natural world branches of the vine which are not good for that to which they were specially ordained, viz., for the bearing of fruit, are good for nothing. There are trees which may be turned to secondary uses, if they fail to fulfil their primary. Not so the vine. As timber it is utterly valueless (Ezek 15:3,4). It is with it exactly as with the saltless salt, which, having lost its savour, is fit only to be east out of doors; both of them being meet emblems of the spiritual man who is not spiritual, who is good neither for the work of this world nor of a higher.
(from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright (c) 2002 AGES and Biblesoft, Inc.)
• Looking Like a Christian is not the same as bearing fruit:
Note: A tree still looks like a tree, but the type of fruit it bears tell what kind of tree it is.
Matthew 21:19 Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And He said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" At once the fig tree withered.
Luke 8:13 And the seeds on the rock are those who, when they hear, welcome the word with joy. Having no root, these believe for a while and depart in a time of testing.
Luke 13:7-9 He told the vineyard worker, ’Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’ 8 "But he replied to him, ’Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 Perhaps it will bear fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’"
John 17:12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by Your name that You have given Me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled.
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love,
I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Hebrews 6:7-8 For ground that has drunk the rain that has often fallen on it, and that produces vegetation useful to those it is cultivated for, receives a blessing from God.8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and will be burned at the end.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
• Pruning the Branches
John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.
2. Fruitfulness
John 15:8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law
Philippians 1:11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Colossians 1:5-10 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth,6 the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in the truth. 7 You learned this from Epaphras, our much loved fellow slave. He is a faithful minister of the Messiah on your behalf,8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.
9 Prayer for Spiritual Growth
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.
3. Fruit Types
John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.
Matt 12:33 "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit .
a. Private Fruit
Rom 6:21 And what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.
i. Private Fruit Includes (Gal 5:22-23):
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Goodness
6. Faith
7. Gentleness
8. Self-Control
9. Righteousness (Phil 1:11)
Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
b. Spiritual Fruit
John 4:36-38 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so the sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true: ’One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor."
Matt 28:18-2 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
c. Everlasting Fruit
Acts 11:22-26 Then the report about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to travel as far as Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he encouraged all of them to remain true to the Lord with a firm resolve of the heart — 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith — and large numbers of people were added to the Lord. 25 Then he went to Tarsus to search for Saul, 26 and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Matt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matt 13:44 (The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and of the Priceless Pearl
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
Mark 10:21 Then, looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, "You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me."
Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
2 Cor 4:7-15 Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 8 We are pressured in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; 9 we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. 10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who live are always given over to death because of Jesus, so that Jesus’ life may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you. 13 And since we have the same spirit of faith in accordance with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak, 14 knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and present us with you. 15 For all this is because of you, so that grace, extended through more and more people, may cause thanksgiving to overflow to God’s glory.
Illustration : Plastered
Bearing fruit is essential to Christian discipleship.
A life well lived is a more effective witness than words well said.
Benjamin Franklin learned that plaster sown in the fields would make things grow. He told his neighbors, but they did not believe him and they argued with him trying to prove that plaster could be of no use at all to grass or grain.
After a little while he allowed the matter to drop and said no more about it. But he went into the field early the next spring and sowed some grain. Close by the path, where men would walk, he traced some letters with his finger and put plaster into them and then sowed his seed in the field.
After a week or two the seed sprang up. His neighbors, as they passed that way, were very much surprised to see, in brighter green than all the rest of the field, the writing in large letters, "This has been plastered." Benjamin Franklin did not need to argue with his neighbors any more about the benefit of plaster for the fields. For as the season went on and the grain grew, these bright green letters just rose up above all the rest until they were a kind of relief-plate in the field -- "This has been plastered."
"By your fruits shall all men know that you are my disciples." Author Unknown
