Fruit and Foundations: Luke 6:43-49
The Lord’s Prayer
‘“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our sins,,
as we also have forgiven those who sin against us,
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
but deliver us from the evil one.[b]”
For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
I started into the series last week called ordinary to extraordinary with Jesus first miracle, can anyone remember which day of the week that this miracle would most likely occurred on please? (ans: Wednesday) Why because this is the day that weddings of people getting married for the first time occurred in that society. But that aside what I want to look at today is how do we as ordinary people do extraordinary things as we do this Christian journey? How does the Spirit of God work in us and through us in such a way that God’s kingdom comes and his will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
The passage that I have just read has two key points about us as individuals, and I think about the church or corps as a body. “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Where was Jesus going with these verses? There are some interesting links in these verses relating to other stuff and this was important stuff for the people listening to him at the time. It would be vital to Christians for the time he was with them and immediately after his death and resurrection and as the Church developed past its infant stages and into the future. The fruit and the words that came out of those who believed would be a great indicator of the spiritual health of people within the Church and the Church itself. When I say spiritual health, I mean and have no hesitation in saying the spiritual health of people who claimed to be in relationship with Christ Jesus.
A thing to remember about this passage is that while Jesus was talking about trees and fruit he was and he he wasn’t talking about trees. This was metaphorical, that word picture stuff. Jesus was talking about people and in doing so he used a couple of interesting fruit at that. He talked about figs and grapes and compared them to thorn bushes and briers. Briers are a prickly wild rose; there are a lot of them growing up the Waitaki valley around Otamatata.
The nation of Israel at the time was itself is compared to three types of fruit producing plants two of which are the fig and the grape vine. But hey there are another couple of sermons in that at least – another day.
Back to us and the Church and doing not so ordinary stuff. In fact doing extraordinary stuff, life changing, eternity shaping and heaven coming down to Earth stuff. What is it that Jesus is saying in these couple of verses about this? How is it that you get to store up good stuff in your heart and bear good fruit? This could be well worth knowing.
Is there anyone here who is content to do stuff in your life that hurts others that is negative, that is counterproductive, that is evil? If you’re content to be in that place you are probably in the wrong place this morning. If you have that sort of thinking going on it’s time to sort out that thinking, maybe it’s time to change.
The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. What do you want your heart to be full of, good, bad, or something indifferent? I see that Jesus didn’t refer to indifferent. Because if you are indifferent that’s ‘not good’. We were not saved from our sins to be indifferent. The Spirit of God does not enter a person’s life so that they can become indifferent. He changes people for good. He dispels evil and good fruit comes through him and out of them.
I read this the other day by a Christian thinker by the name of Erwin McMannus;
“What if we didn’t have to go outside the narrative of Christ to invent and to create this beautiful reality that is known as the future? Most of us have a passive view of the future—our view is that it already exists, that it’s already determined, that it’s already going to be whatever it’s going to be, and we wrap it up in our theology and our faith.
But what about those of us who have a dynamic view of the future—that the future is created by human choices and human actions? For us, we know the future is an integration of the divine act and the human will. This is perfectly in line with the sovereignty of God because it's how he designed the future to happen!
So, what if we were the stewards of God’s future?
What if the church’s principle role was to be an agent of change[,] to create a future that is only in the imagination of God right now?”
(Erwin Raphael McManus: http://www.outreachmagazine.com/features/5655-imagine-tomorrow.html?p=3)
1) What a dazzling thought. What kind of a future do you want? Personally I’ll go as far as to say that if we ask Christ to invade our lives and live in us through his Spirit, not only will our lives be good spiritually. That we will see change from an ordinary mundane existence to an extraordinary living beyond ourselves life. We will live lives that bring us into an understanding of our place in community with God and our fellow humans, our world and eternal existence. I know that it seems like a lot, surrendering to Christ will start that ball rolling. But what will also occur will be is that we will display the fruit of God’s Spirit; (But the fruit of the Spirit is) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. [the truth is that] Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23).
How then do we get to this place?
2) Jesus makes it quite clear when he says this, “‘Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.”
How do we live these lives that Jesus is talking about as being fruitful, how do we do good instead of evil? This is clear cut kind of stuff isn't it. In my case I struggled for years on and off with doing what I wanted to do as opposed to what Jesus wanted me to do. That kind of up and down, belief and doubt, faith and struggle kind of existence, sitting on the fence kind of existence. There was one thing that I wasn't doing right. I was hearing the words of Jesus, I believed the words of Jesus but was I putting them into practice? Only when it suited me, I was not an evil man, I was not like other men who did evil. Well I could tell myself that. But hey I had some stuff coming out of my mouth that told another story. Some of my actions told a story of what my heart was really like. I had a few excuses for it also. The rest of the guys I worked with spoke that way so I had to too fit in. In relation to behaviours, I could cast it off, the rest of society finds it acceptable so why shouldn’t I do it? Jesus words said something else. If I’m truly a follower of Jesus what should I be putting into practise? As Christians we should only have one gauge of living and that is what does Jesus say about it?
For if we use his words as our gauge we are living in the best place for us as individuals and as a congregation, as human beings.
He says this himself about those who do as he says, those who put his words into practise; “They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.’”
We can live extraordinary lives, in following Jesus words; we can receive the grace that God pours out through Jesus and the sacrifice that he made for us on the cross. We can receive eternal life, and know that we are in that place of having received eternal life as God’s Holy Spirit lives with us, as we produce the fruit of His being in our lives. If we put Jesus words into practise, what will we be like?
“I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.” Jesus said it, lives are a witness to it. We've all seen the lives that have collapsed when the storms of life have come, we may also have seen those who put Jesus words into practise and survived those storms.
God does extra ordinary things in our lives, When we put Jesus words into practise. We are able to stand up to the temptations, the times of mayhem and the storms that hit us all, our lives will be a picture of this. We will be able to do the extraordinary.
3) There is a couple of challenges with this:
i) Do you know the words of Jesus so that you can put them into practise? If not get into them, so that you can.
ii) The other is that even in knowing them are you willing? If not there’s an issue with that foolish part of your nature that you can overcome.
Are you ready to allow yourself, are we ready to allow our ourselves as a group of humans to allow God to come in, in all his Holiness and Divinity to bring his Kingdom to Earth through us, are you ready, are we ready to be agents of God’s future here and now?
I offer the invitation, are you wanting to live an extraordinary life. I’m not talking of a life without challenges or storms, or temptations but a life lived doing what Jesus says, practising the words of Jesus. A life and lives here in his grace and empowered by his Spirit you will stand firm? That is not to say you won’t be struck by sleet and gale force winds. But it means that by putting the words of Jesus into practise you will stand firm. If so, if you want to live life on the firm foundation that is Christ, please come forward to declare it and receive prayer support for that decision.
