Scripture
Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain is one of the most important sermons in his early ministry. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). That is, he came to reconcile people who were estranged from God with God.
Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain is about the kingdom of God. A few weeks ago I mentioned that Jesus spoke constantly about the kingdom of God. There are 53 references to the kingdom of God in the four Gospels. Jesus did not ask people to invite him into their hearts. He did not tell people to pray the “sinner’s prayer.” Instead, he urged people to enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus opened his Sermon on the Plain with a description of the blessings that belong to those who have entered the kingdom of God, and a warning to those who have not yet entered the kingdom of God.
Then Jesus described how his disciples are to live as citizens of the kingdom of God. He said that they must love their enemies and not judge others.
Then Jesus told his disciples how they could examine whether or not they were in fact citizens of the kingdom of God. This is profoundly simply yet extremely important.
Let’s read about it in Luke 6:43-45:
43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:43-45)
Introduction
This past week there was a TV news report about a study that revealed that twins who smoke show more signs of premature facial aging compared with their identical twins who are non-smokers or smoked at least 5 years less.
To reach their findings, published in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal, the researchers recruited 79 pairs of identical twins who attended the Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. Of these pairs, 57 were women, 22 were men, and the average age for all pairs was 48.
One twin within each pair smoked, while the other had smoked for at least 5 years less, or did not smoke at all.
Several photos of pairs of twins were shown on TV. Frankly, it was relatively easy to spot which twin smoked and which one did not, as the twin who smoked looked clearly older.
That news report got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be great if we could take a photo of every person who professed to be a Christian and, therefore, a citizen of the kingdom of God? Then, just by looking at each photo we could tell which person was really a citizen of the kingdom of God and which person was not a citizen. Unfortunately, taking a photo of each professing Christian will not reveal that person’s citizenship in the kingdom of God.
However, Jesus said that there is a way for every Christian to examine his or her citizenship in the kingdom of God. Now, what Jesus said is profoundly simple. And yet, perhaps because it is so simple, we miss the value of applying it to ourselves.
Lesson
In today’s lesson, we learn that every Christian can examine his or her citizenship in the kingdom of God. How? By applying the tests in Luke 6:43-45, every Christian can examine his or her citizenship in the kingdom of God.
There are two tests:
1. The Test of Conduct (6:43-45b)
2. The Test of Conversation (6:43c)
I. The Test of Conduct (6:43-45b)
First, every Christian can examine his or her citizenship in the kingdom of God by the test of conduct.
Jesus was preaching to a great multitude of people, and especially to his disciples. They listened to him as he talked about the blessings of citizenship in the kingdom of God, about loving enemies, and about not being judgmental. But listening to Jesus was not enough to be a citizen of the kingdom of God. If a person claimed to be a citizen of the kingdom of God, then there was a way to test it, and the first test was the test of conduct.
It is also important to keep in mind that Jesus wants his disciples to focus on self-examination. Having just spoken against being judgmental in the previous section, Jesus does not want his disciples to assume an unwarranted examination of others. The whole point of these verses is for each disciple to examine his or her own citizenship in the kingdom of God and not to examine others. (Now there is a place for examining and making judgments of others, but only in the right situation, such as officers with church members, in accountability relationships, and so on.)
A. The Explanation of the Conduct (6:43)
First, notice the explanation of the conduct.
Jesus said in verse 43, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.”
Now some have asked if the contrast is between the quality of trees of the same species or if the contrast is between trees of different species. That is, is Jesus comparing good and bad trees of the same species? Or, is Jesus comparing trees of a useful species and a useless species? The answer is that Jesus is comparing trees of different species because in the next verse he talks about different kinds trees.
Jesus is simply saying that good trees bear good fruit, and bad trees bear bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
B. The Principle of the Conduct (6:44a)
Second, look at the principle of the conduct.
Jesus summarized the principle regarding the test of conduct in verse 44a, “ . . . for each tree is known by its own fruit.”
What Jesus is saying is extremely important. Commentator Darrell Bock puts it well: “The fruit a tree produces cannot be different from the character of the tree itself. Fruit is a picture of the product in one’s life.”
C. The Illustration of the Conduct (6:44b-c)
Third, see the illustration of the conduct.
Jesus illustrated his principle by saying in verse 44b-c, “For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.”
That is self-evident. You will produce what you are. You will not produce something different.
D. The Application of the Conduct (6:45a-b)
And fourth, notice the application of the conduct.
Notice how Jesus applies the illustration in verse 45a-b, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.”
Jesus is exhorting his disciples to take careful look at themselves and the fruit that is produced. A person who is not a citizen of the kingdom of God will not produce godly fruit. But a person who is a citizen of the kingdom of God will produce godly fruit. A citizen of the kingdom of God follows the King’s commands no matter what the cost.
Chuck Colson illustrates this point in Loving God:
A while ago a woman in a suburban Washington church demonstrated this truth.
No one was surprised when Patti Awan stood during the informal praise time at the Sunday evening service. A young Sunday school teacher with an air of quiet maturity, she had given birth to a healthy son a few months earlier, a first child for her and her husband Javy. The congregation settled back for a report of the baby’s progress and his parents’ thanksgiving. They were totally unprepared for what followed.
Hanging on to the podium before her, Patti began, “Four years ago this week, a young girl sat crying on the floor of a New Jersey apartment, devastated by the news of a lab report. Unmarried and alone, she had just learned that she was pregnant.”
The congregation grew completely quiet; Patti’s tear-choked voice indicated just who that young woman was.
“I considered myself a Christian at the time,” she continued. “But I had found out about Christ while in the drug scene. After I learned about him, I knew I wanted to commit myself to him, but I couldn’t give up my old friends or my old habits. So I was drifting between two worlds – in one still smoking dope every day and sleeping with the man who lived in the apartment below mine; in the other going to church, witnessing to others, and working with the church youth group.
“But being pregnant ripped through the hypocrisy of my double life. I had been meaning to ‘get right with God,’ but I kept slipping back. Now I couldn’t live a nice, clean Christian life like all those church people.
“I felt the only answer was to wipe the slate clean. I would get an abortion; no one in the church would ever know.
“The clinic scheduled an abortion date. I was terrified, but my boyfriend was adamant. My sister was furious with me for being so stupid as to get pregnant. Finally, in desperation I wrote my parents. They were staunch Catholics, and I knew they would support me if I decided to have the baby. My mother called me: ‘If you don’t get an abortion, I don’t want to see you while you’re pregnant. Your life will be ruined and you’ll deserve it.’
“I had always been desperately dependent on other people. But I knew this was one decision I had to make alone. I was looking out my bedroom window one night when I thought clearly for the first time in weeks. I realized I either believed this Christianity or I didn’t believe it. And if I believed in Christ, then I couldn’t do this. God is real, I thought, even if I’ve never lived like he is.
“That decision was a point of no return. I put my faith in the God of the Bible, not the God I had made up in my head. I was still everything I never wanted to be – pregnant, alone, deserted by family, and rejected by the one I had loved. Yet for the first time in my life I was really peaceful, because I knew for the first time I was being obedient.
“When I went to an obstetrician and told him of my decision to have the baby and why I had made that choice, he refused to charge me for the pre-natal care and delivery. I confessed my double life to the church, and through the support of Christians was able to move away from my old friends to an apartment of my own. I began going to a Christian counseling agency and felt God leading me to give the baby up for adoption.
“I had a beautiful baby girl and named her Sarah. She was placed with a childless Christian couple, and we all felt God’s hand in the decision.
“And so that’s why I praise God this evening. I thought in the depths of my despair that my life was ruined, but I knew I had to at least be obedient in taking responsibility for my sin. But today, because of that very despair and obedience, I have what I never thought I could – a godly husband and now a baby of our own. But what matters more than anything is that I have what I was searching for so desperately before – peace with God.”
So, every Christian can examine his or her citizenship in the kingdom of God by the test of conduct.
II. The Test of Conversation (6:45c)
And second, every Christian can examine his or her citizenship in the kingdom of God by the test of conversation.
Jesus said in verse 45c, “ . . . for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Darrell Bock said, “The tongue is a litmus test of the soul, and the product of one’s life is a litmus test of the heart.”
It is a particularly sweet fact that Jesus changes our speech habits. Bethan Lloyd-Jones, the wife of the revered Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones, tells in her Memories of Sandfields her recollections of ministry in Wales and of the remarkable conversion of a foul-mouthed man. His speech was so blasphemous and filthy that he sickened even his toughest acquaintances, so that he was almost always left to drink by himself. After meeting Christ, he found that he could not speak without swearing. The words poured forth before he could even think. He was sickened himself by the filth. But deliverance came. He was dressing for work and could not locate his socks. Instinctively, he shouted to his wife, “I can’t find my _____ socks! Where are the _____ things?” As his words echoed back, sorrow gripped him, and he fell back on his bed and cried aloud, “O Lord, cleanse my tongue. Lord, I can’t ask for a pair of socks without swearing. Please have mercy on me and give me a clean tongue.” Lying there, he knew something had happened. From that day on no foul or blasphemous word ever came from his lips.
With most believers, the problem may not have been so embarrassingly obvious and the cure not so dramatic. Nevertheless, the fact is that for the convert Jesus changes one’s speech. If there is no outer change, there has been no inner change. As the Apostle James put it, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless” (James 1:26). True faith changes our speech.
The tongue – the things we say – reveals what is in our heart. One’s words are the most direct communication of the inward being. When a man’s conversation is ungodly, his heart is graceless and unconverted. If his speech is carnal, he is carnal. If it is worldly, he is worldly. If it is godless, he is godless. If it is profane, he is profane. If it is mean, he is mean.
We must resist the temptation of regarding our good words as “typically me” and our many bad words as “not really being me at all.”
Jesus’ warning is unavoidable: “For out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks.” When Christ ultimately judges us, he will judge our words.
On another occasion, when the Pharisees had blasphemed Jesus, he reused the language of the present sermon and ended with a chilling note. Listen to how he put it in Matthew 12:33-37:
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Examine your citizenship in the kingdom of God by the test of conversation. Your heart, your morals, and your doctrine can be judged by your words.
Conclusion
So, every Christian must examine his or her citizenship in the kingdom of God by the test of conduct and also by the test of conversation.
In August 2013 a public zoo in the third largest province in China temporarily shut down due to an unusual problem. Visitors discovered that the zoo's lion was actually a dog posing as a lion. According to a report in Beijing newspaper, the fraud came to light when a mother and her young son visited the zoo and the animal labeled an “African lion” starting barking. The outraged mother said, “The zoo is absolutely cheating us . . . . I paid good money for the tickets and I feel defrauded.”
Zookeepers admitted that the so-called lion was actually a Tibetan mastiff, a large dog with a furry brown coat. They had even cut the dog’s hair so as to give it the appearance of having a large mane to try and make it look like a lion.
The chief of the park’s animal department claimed that they really did have a lion, but it was away at a breeding facility. The dog belonged to an employee and was put there “for safety reasons.” A spokesperson for the zoo said, “We’re doing our best in tough economic times.”
Others may be able to fool us about their kingdom citizenship. We may be able to fool others about our kingdom citizenship. But we definitely will not be able to fool God. And since that is the case, let us examine ourselves to see if we are indeed citizens of the kingdom of God.
Test your conduct. And test your conversation. Do they flow out of a heart that is transformed by the grace of God? Amen.
