Chaplain’s Corner –
January 24, 2008
Rev.
Rich Hines
Being Fruitful - For Eternity
This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ
as their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain or a gospel
minister in a jail, prison or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission –
in the
All Scripture quotes are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of
the Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a text, any
deviation from the NKJV text is placed within parenthesis signs (). These usually occur as direct translations
from the original languages, or as notes from the
original setting to help apply the text to today’s culture.
ALL CAPITAL
LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or to make a comment
about a biblical text, or emphasize a statement
My
prayer for ministers of the gospel in prison, jail and rescue missions, AND for
the souls they minister to IS THAT THEY WOULD BE USED TO PRODUCE FRUIT FOR
ETERNITY. Said another way, I pray that
they would have good, spiritual fruitful.
That is fruit that will endure and really count in the end, for all
eternity.
Next
month, I’ll give even more on spiritual fruit.
This month, I want to begin by saying: biblically, fruit is what we
do. It’s what comes out of our
lives. IT'S ALSO EVIDENCE to others and
hopefully to ourselves, as to who we really are. After all, doing COMES OUT
OF BEING. We do what we do,
because of who we really are.
Jesus
taught this in Matthew 7:18-21,
18
"A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, Nor can a bad
tree bear good fruit.
19
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20
Therefore, BY THEIR FRUITS WILL YOU KNOW THEM.
21
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter
the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
In
this passage the bad trees that produce bad fruit are lost people who will end
up in the eternal lake of fire. Even
though some of them professed Jesus as Lord, they will not be in heaven. Rather, they will eternally burn - away from
the presence of the Lord God. Since they
were never truly saved from sin, they could not produce in their own life any
good fruit.
Those
that are truly born of God, are enabled BY GOD to
produce true good fruit. This is so
because He makes them “Trees of righteousness” (see Isaiah 61:1-3).
A
study of the matter of bearing good fruit begins in the Old Testament. There, the nation
Psalm
80 –
8 You
(referring to the ‘God of hosts’) have brought a vine out of
9 You prepared room for it, and caused it to
take deep root, and it filled the land.
10
The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs.
11
She sent out her boughs to the Sea (i.e. the Mediterranean) and her branches to
the River (i.e. the
Hosea
10
1
and in
Isaiah 5
7
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of
As
such,
Note
it in Isaiah 5, written about 725 BC -
1
Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved
regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved
has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2
He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest
vine. He built a tower in the midst of
it, and also made a winepress in it; so He EXPECTED IT TO BRING FORTH GOOD
GRAPES, BUT IT BROUGHT FORTH WILD GRAPES.
…
7
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of
A
little later about 600 BC, in Jeremiah 2:21, the Lord God of hosts said:
21
Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
As
a nation,
Make
no mistake about it, the Bible absolutely teaches there's no such thing as a
Christian, a saved person, who does not have good, supernatural fruit produced
through their life, at least sometimes. If you or I are connected to Christ in a
vital living union, it only follows that some of His character will flow
through our lives and evidence Him to others.
Listen
to this quote from A.W. Pink. In about
1920, he wrote -
"...
the character of the fruit reveals the character of
the tree that bears it; the nature of the waters makes known the nature of the
fountain from which they flow. A
supernatural knowledge of God produces a supernatural experience, and a
supernatural experience RESULTS IN SUPERNATURAL FRUIT.
That is to say, GOD ACTUALLY DWELLING IN THE HEART
REVOLUTIONIZES, TRANSFORMS THE LIFE. THERE IS THAT BROUGHT FORTH
WHICH MERE NATURE CANNOT PRODUCE, yea, that which is directly contrary
thereto. And this is noticeably absent
in the lives of perhaps 95 out of every 100 now professing to be God's
children.
THERE
IS NOTHING IN THE LIFE OF AN AVERAGE PROFESSING CHRISTIAN EXCEPT WHAT CAN BE
ACCOUNTED FOR ON NATURAL GROUNDS. But in
the GENUINE CHILD OF GOD IT IS FAR OTHERWISE.
He is, in truth, a miracle of grace; he is a 'new creature in Christ
Jesus.' His experience, his life, is
SUPERNATURAL."
That
said, look with me at a very important passage in John
15. Jesus said in John 15:1-8,
1
I am the true vine, and My father is the vinedresser.
2
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes
away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more
fruit.
3
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you,
unless you abide in Me.
5
I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much
fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a
branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the
fire, and they are burned.
7
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you
will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8
By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
In this passage
all the fruit is good fruit. In contrast
to that good eternal fruit, Jesus also spoke of branches "in Me" that bore no
fruit. What He meant was that His
Spirit did not produce fruit for God, or fruit acceptable to God, in their
life. This fruitless kind of person in
John 15:2, is the same as the one in Jesus' Matthew 7
illustration, that bore BAD FRUIT.
Here,
the fruitless branches are people that were never saved. Their end is to be burned forever in the lake
of fire. Here in John 15:2 and 6a; the kind
of person that was associated with Christ, but was a fruitless branch, is
exemplified by Judas Iscariot.
This
kind of person is around Christ and professes to be His follower, but they
never really have had His life in them.
They have never truly repented of their sin and believed in His power to
change them. Though they are around the
things of Christ, they never have had His life and power flowing through them.
So,
if we are truly saved, there will be some supernatural, eternal fruit produced
through our life and ministry. We could
even say, it’s evidence of our true salvation.
But,
we should want there to be a bumper crop
for our Lord and His eternal glory!
I believe this passage in John 15 tells us how that can happen. So let’s look a little closer at it.
1
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes
away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more
fruit.
3
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
If
we compare verse 3 with John 13:10,11 we’ll know that
in John 15, Judas Iscariot was no longer present.
John
13:
10 Jesus said to him (Peter, and all the Apostles including
Judas Iscariot) “He who is bathed needs
only to wash his feet, but IS COMPLETELY CLEAN; and you (you all – a plural
‘you’) ARE CLEAN, BUT NOT ALL OF YOU.”
11For
He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”
So
here in John 15, on the way to the
1
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
IN CONTRAST to God’s previous use of the vine as a
reference to His people, HERE JESUS SAID HE WAS THE TRUE VINE. With these
few words, Christ changed the resource for the production of good fruit from
His people to Himself. They had thought
that they were totally responsible to produce fruit. After all, they had been referred to as
vines. But now, Jesus said He was the
vine that supplied the power to produce fruit.
Earlier
in John 14:16,17 Jesus hinted at this. There He said –
16
… I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that HE MAY
ABIDE WITH YOU FOREVER -
17
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him
nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He (in the person of Jesus) dwells with
you (in their historical present) AND WILL BE (in their future, but in our
present) IN YOU.
Today,
by His Spirit, Jesus Christ lives in every true believer. And He is the vine that supplies them as a
branch, the power to produce proper, even supernatural fruit. So Jesus said in verse 2 –
2
… and every branch that bears fruit He (God, the Father – the
vinedresser) prunes, (in order) that it may bear more fruit.
The
pruning work of God in the life of a believer is the cause of greater
fruitfulness. Sometimes this pruning is
His discipline. Sometimes,
providentially He takes things out of our lives so that we can be even more
productive.
Moving
into the main message Jesus wanted His followers then AND NOW to get, seriously
consider verses 4-5.
4
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you,
unless you abide in Me.
5
I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much
fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Here
we have the principal of ABIDING. It’s
mentioned and alluded to SIX TIMES IN JUST TWO VERSES. This is an action word, a verb. As such it has been translated: to abide, to
stay with, to continue, to tarry, to remain. Jesus here used it in a relational
sense. The first time He used it in
verse 4, is an imperative. This is not a
suggestion from Jesus, it’s His command: “Remain in an ongoing vital
relationship with Me!”
I
think the Spanish translation of the Greek word here helps. Every time this word appears in this passage,
Spanish translations use a form of the verb “Permanecer.” Anglicize that Spanish word, and you have “to
be permanent with.” That’s it! As Lord, Jesus commands His true followers to
spend TIME WITH HIM, to be permanent
WITH HIM. The more we obey this command,
the more fruit He will produce through us.
Dear
ministers of Christ, determine right now to SPEND MORE TIME WITH CHRIST. As you do you’ll realize more of His Spirit’s
presence and guidance in your immediate life.
The more we abide in Him, the more good fruit He’ll produce.
Now
look again at verses 6-8,
6
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a
branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the
fire, and they are burned.
7
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you
will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8
By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
In
verse 6, Jesus was helping them understand (in their future) what happened to
Judas Iscariot. But unlike Judas, true
believers DO ABIDE IN CHRIST. They do
practice a relationship WITH
HIM. What Jesus told those 1st
Century disciples and us 21st Century followers today, in verse 7,
goes a bit farther.
He
says IF we practice being with him, WE WILL BE IN HIS WORD AND HIS WORD WILL BE
IN US! That’s a good thing – to have His
word more permanent with us.
As
a result of being filled with the Bible, our prayers will be different. The more biblical we become, the more
biblical our prayers will be. The more
biblical our prayers are, the more God will grant them, So, verse 8 flows out
of that and says even more fruit, “much fruit,” will be produced through us.
Do
you and those you teach want to glorify God by being used to produce good,
eternal fruit? Then God’s word, even
Jesus Himself tells you:
1.
Spend more conscious time with Him and less with the world’s influences.
2.
Spend more time in His word and less with the opinions of men.
3.
Spend more time praying as His word (not your flesh) would have you to pray.
Here
are a couple of places you may want to start in 2008
John
15:15-17
15
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master
is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father
I have made known to you.
16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed
you that you should go and bear fruit,
and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father
in My name He may give you.
17
These things I command you, that you love one another.
Jeremiah
17:7,8
7
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD
8
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots
by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green,
and will not be anxious in the year of drought, NOR WILL CEASE FROM YEILDING
FRUIT.
Rich Hines, Min. to Chaplains Next month we’ll see what spiritual fruit looks like.