A SIMPLE FRUIT STORY
Rev. Larry Peters
August 18, 2013
Psalm 67:1-2, 4-7
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
In all of our lessons for today, we are being taught the way to live our life. Our teacher is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Life is a classroom. We are the students of life. We learn many things in life. There is literally something new for us to learn each day, if and when we pay attention. We must attend class. We must pay attention in class; pay attention to what is happening, what is around us, what God has given us in life, and the lessons we learn.
One thing that we should learn is that we all have something to give. God has given each of us certain talents and abilities. We should learn to see them in ourselves, and learn to see them in others. We should see the benefit of sharing together what we have learned; what we have worked on; who we are; what we can do; what we can give. These are the fruits of our produce.
In addition to our talents and abilities, we are given fruit of the Spirit that Paul describes in Galatians as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are character qualities of Jesus that God intends every believer to have. This fruit is not produced by us, but only produced in us. They are produced by the Holy Spirit who himself lives in us. This truth is made known to us in 1 John 4:13 where it reads; “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit.” Living by faith in the Son of God who indwells us in what the fruit of the Holy Spirit is all about.
To fully appreciate just how precious these words are, we need to see them in the larger context of Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia. This is written at a time when believers in Galatia were falling away from the simple message of the gospel. They were abandoning the message that a sinner is declared righteous before God as a free gift of his grace through faith in Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross. Instead, they were falling for the lie that they could make themselves righteous before God through obedience to the Old Testament law. It comes down to this: What do you believe, if you believe anything at all? Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it this way; “Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.” Or put still another way; “If you don’t believe in something, you will fall for anything.”
False teachers had been misleading the Galatian believers into thinking that they could be more righteous and acceptable before God on the basis of the law of Moses (that is law put forth by human beings). And this message isn’t for the Galatian believers alone. It is a message intended for you and for me. It is a message of great encouragement for those who believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ as Lord; and is a warning to those who would choose to put something else in place of him.
There is the question of what to do with the law of God. If we choose to turn away—what then? Do we simply ignore the need to be holy in the way we live? Do we reject God’s law altogether? Do we forget about following the pattern of Jesus’ own holiness, and to grow into his likeness? Are we to be our own guide, following our own way, our own standards—would that, in any way, save us? No! The standard of holiness has not changed. Neither has the way toward holiness. We are to cease trying to make ourselves holy on the basis of our own human efforts. Instead, we are to allow God’s Holy Spirit to live the life of Jesus Christ through us.
God’s Holy Spirit is our guide. God’s Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ is our teacher along life’s way. We need to pay attention! As followers of Christ, his disciples, we acknowledge Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. There is no other way! We receive him into our life, and he shows us and teaches us how to live! Jesus said: “I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Do you want to have an abundant life? Do you want to live a fruitful life? Then you want Jesus Christ!
You must have Jesus Christ in your life, so that you can live through him. For unless you are a Christian, a follower of Christ and a confessor of him as Lord, there is little chance that you have any idea of what it is like to live the abundant life in Christ! People in Galatia began to measure their spirituality by their own belief, performance and standards. True believers measure their spirituality only through Jesus Christ who blesses us in great measure!
We live to love and serve God and our fellow human beings. Through God’s grace, we are able to be a blessing to someone in need. May we be able to live out the perfect character qualities of Jesus in us, to be his disciples, to glorify God, and by bearing much good fruit.
I’d like to share with you today a simple fruit story. My grandfather was a farmer. He was an educated man. He graduated from Edinboro State Normal School. I later graduated from this school when it was no longer “normal”, but when it became a university. My grandfather loved to teach and everybody thought he was going to be a school teacher. Instead, he learned about life and taught what he knew in a different way. He was an apple farmer and he was good at it. His love was to produce good fruit, and he was always ready to help others.
The local farmers would take their best fruit to sell at the grand old Market House here in Meadville. There was friendly competition among the farmers and each year they would “crown” and “apple king.” I don’t know if this was any more than a title. I do remember that he would often hand out pencils with “apple king” printed on the side. We grandkids were always proud to get one. My grandfather found a way to use his talent and ability. He also seemed to pay attention to what was around him and to the needs of other people. He was a student of life, learning life lessons and seeing the benefit of sharing together what we have learned.
My father was born and raised in Meadville. He was a city kid. He knew very little about farming. But he liked the farmer’s daughter. Later on he married her and she became my mom. Still later, when I was a boy, we were all surprised when dad decided to move us out to live on a farm. This is the same guy who would run from my grandfather’s cows when they came walking up to him—some of them had horns! Well, our farm on Route 86 near Saegertown didn’t have any cows. We mostly had fruit; red and black raspberries, strawberries and apples.
I remember that my grandfather was very helpful in sharing what he knew to get dad started. In particular, I remember when he taught my dad how to graft a branch of one type of apple tree onto the trunk of a different type of apple tree. In his own orchard, grandpa had many strange looking trees that grew different types of apples. One of the benefits of grafting is that varieties of fruit ripen at different times which can stretch out a fruit season over months. I also think that my grandpa liked experimenting with what he could do as a fruit farmer. My dad, in turn, was mechanically inclined and was good at repairing his and my grandfather’s farming equipment. This was something that my grandfather was not always able to do.
When we pay attention to what is around us and to the needs to which we can design our purpose, when we strive to use the talents and abilities that God has given us in life, and when we see the benefit of sharing together what we have learned, what we can do, what we have worked on—these are the fruits of our produce, the very best of who we are and what we have to give!
One of the favorite ways of teaching or telling a story is to do so in a way that connects with the people who hear the story. Jesus, when teaching, was a master at reaching out to people. The people were amazed at what he taught and the way, the authority, in which he taught it. One of the more familiar analogies or parables that Jesus used to teach was that of fruit and fruit-bearing. Many people were farmers. The climate of the land is such that with irrigation, cultivation and proper care, a broad assortment of fruits were able to be produced. The Bible repeatedly mentions such fruits as figs, plums, grapes, melons and several kinds, pomegranates, olives, pears and apples.
The people knew about fruit and the vines, branches and trees on which they grew. The people knew, for example, that if a fig tree failed to bear figs for three straight years, as in Jesus’ parable of the unfruitful fig tree, it was unlikely to ever do so again. So the tree would be cut down and burned, and something would be planted in its place—something that was sure to bear fruit. They understood how no branch can bear fruit by itself, that it is only healthy when it is attached to a good tree or vine. And they understood about grafting, how branches of various types could be grafted onto a single host plant. Even so, sometimes the grafts held and succeeded, and sometimes they did not. Sometimes they fell off and withered away.
Jesus wants to make this point very clear. He says in our lesson today that “whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:6). Jesus Christ came to give us life! Apart from him there is only death! When I was a boy, I tried my own experiment with grafting. I cut off a branch from an apple tree and stuck it in the ground. I thought that maybe I could grow a new tree and produce my own apples. Well, it didn’t happen. It does not work that way. I guess I thought that the power to produce apples was in the branch. But I learned that the branch only bore the fruit, it did not produce the fruit. And now, no longer part of the tree, it was lifeless. It would only dry up, wither and only be good for firewood. Apart from the tree, the branch could do nothing.
Jesus is our source of life. We need to remain connected to Jesus! Jesus says, “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 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” (John 15:4,5).
And Jesus says that God is the vinegrower. God is the one who removes every branch that bears no fruit. This is not only to remove the branches that no longer bear fruit, but to enhance the fruit-bearing possibilities of the branches that do. This is weeding out the garden! And there is also mention of pruning. God prunes every branch that does bear fruit. Pruning is another way of caring for the branch. Pruning encourages new growth so that the branch can bear even more fruit. And God looks upon his garden and calls it good! God is glorified when we bear good fruit!
As Jesus taught the people, he connected with them. They understood what he was talking about when he told his fruit stories. They knew that Jesus is concerned not just about branches and fruit—but about people’s lives. In all of our lessons today we are being taught the way to live our life. The way to live our life is to love and serve God and our fellow human beings, and to glorify God by bearing much good fruit.
Nourished by God’s love, we grow. We learn how to love because God loves us. This love stimulates us in a life-transforming way that we cannot help but love others as God loves us. Love is one of those good fruits of the Spirit, that the Holy Spirit of God produces in us and that we are to share with others. As we grow in the Lord, and as we grow more and more to be instructed in the Scriptures, we grow increasingly to perceive the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Paul says, “Since we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Romans 8). And as we do, we discover a way to live life that is abundant and fruitful.
What a great privilege we have! God the Father has placed God the Holy Spirit in us when we believed and confessed Jesus Christ as Lord! And God the Holy Spirit, who has taken up residence in us, lives the very life of God the Son through us!
May Jesus Christ be praised! May we increasingly allow the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in us; and may God be glorified as a result! Amen.
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