Download MP3

Why Does God Want Fruits?

John 15:1-12 Hymn 493 (436), 208 (289), 456 (430)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Why does God want fruits?

In last week’s sermon, we were reminded that we, as branches of the true vine, should share more abundantly the living power of Jesus and bear, fruit for supplying this power to the world. We heard the purpose for which God keeps the branches of the vine in the world. We also heard that God has no intention to keep the branches that bear no fruit.

The last sermon began to examine in specific how the living power of Jesus flows into the branches according to the scripture, and it ended with the intention to explore this further in a follow-up sermon.

The Lord preached the parable of the fruits of the branches while he was on earth and then preached concerning more specific fruits through his Apostles.

1. It is the fruit of Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23) “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

2. It is the fruit of light. (Ephesians 5:9) “9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)”

3. It is the fruit of saving lives. (Proverb 11:30) “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.” (Romans 16:5) “5 Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.”

Theses fruits are constrained within individuals. Love has no meaning when there is no one but an individual. Of course there is a kind of love called self-love. Although this is a philosophical concept, even this kind of love is only possible when the self we are loving is loved by another. There should be an object in order for “love” to be established. The act of longsuffering has to have an object in order to be patient with this object. It is important to have peace within our own mind, but that peace should not be limited within oneself. The peace should be a peace that can extend to neighbors in order for society to be a safe place to live and flourish.

Just as fruits exist not for their own sake but for their gardeners and others who need them, we have to keep in mind that our own fruits should also be for others. When we accept this, we should note the following two important points.

First, we should understand that all of our fruits have be the fruits that deliver the living power of Jesus. These fruits should not be on their own, but rather, solely used by God for delivering the living power of Jesus to the needy.

Second, the fruit should not be self-centered but witness to and reveal the entire universal church that starts from the time of Adam to the second coming of Jesus Christ on the last day. The plan of our Lord is to distribute the living power of Jesus to the whole world. However, each individual is very limited in demonstrating the living power of Jesus in time and space. Therefore, the church should spread out to distribute the living power to the world. We become the hands of the Lord to reach out to the needy. The plan of the Lord is that our lips open up to those who need the warm words of Jesus. Since we have received different gifts, some of us may teach, some may rule, some may give, and yet some others may serve in order to complement another’s lacking.

Since we see our individual lacking in fulfilling this great picture of God’s plan, we respect and rely on one another to fulfill the will of God. Let us advance with this vision of the great picture that God completes through the true branches scattered around the world. If we do not see this great picture of God, saints may easily fall to egotism and local churches can drift towards their own group-centric interests or infatuation with their own expansion. By doing so, churches lose the living power and fall to the religious hypocrites who are not members of the body (the true church) of the Lord.

As the gardener has his purpose for vine branches, God has His own plans for His branches. Let us examine this.

1. To reach out with the living power of Jesus

As previously mentioned, God the gardener intends for the living power of Jesus to flow through our fruits to those who are groaning in the shadow of death. His purpose for the fruits is to be a means for the living power of Jesus to flow into and make alive miserable souls who are unaware and running toward Hell.

In 1 Timothy 2:3-4, we read, “3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” As the Lord commanded, we have to preach the Gospel to the end of the world in order for others to live by the living power of Jesus.

The scripture states that we can sing because of God’s promise that He will make our church become a livable place for people. God commanded us to burst into song with loud joyful shouts.

2. To show the glory of God

Verse 8 reads, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” It is to the glory of God most of all that our churches and saints bear much fruit with the living power of Jesus and fill the whole world with Jesus Christ. The word, “showing yourselves to be my disciples”, does not mean to bear much fruits in order to become the disciples of Jesus; rather, bearing much fruit glorifies God the Father and not only confirms that we are the disciples of Jesus but also displays wonderful works to the world.

Matthew 5:13-16 says “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” This text says that the saints and church should let people see their good deeds and glorify God the Father.

This word seems to conflict with the word that continues in Matthew chapter 6. In Matthew 6:1, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” The Lord points out two faults. First, good deeds that are done purely to show and impress others as the objective is wrong. Second, the correct purpose for good deeds is to glorify God because of the fruits (good deeds) that we supply to people. Here, the Lord is forbidding “your righteousness” and excluding this from true fruits. “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

While the words “your good deeds” in Matthew 5:16 means the fruit bore of the living power of the Lord within the perspective of John 15, the words “your righteousness” in Matthew 6:1 means self-righteousness. The Lord forbids the fruit that is purely of human righteousness and not of the living power of the Lord.

Matthew 6:2-4 is speaking about giving. The Lord, by saying “as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others”, forbids the giving for their own glory and continues on saying “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” when you are giving.

Matthew 6:16-18 is speaking about fasting. The objects of doing righteousness or giving are people in the earlier verses. But fasting is toward God. Nevertheless, there were many of the religious professionals who tried to show to people even the fast to be done solely toward God at the time of Jesus and this showing was practiced in general in the age. The Lord is forbidding this.

How would you feel if your children imitate filial piety for the sole purpose of looking good in front of others? Wouldn’t be disgusting if your spouse, who shows no respect to you whatsoever when no one is around, were well-mannered to you only in presence of others?

Furthermore we are living in an age in which even worship services become a way to show off to people. The glory of God seems to be nowhere in the mind of those who lead the worship services of those churches. They say “to the glory of God, to the glory of God” with their mouths. But the word, “to the glory of God”, is nothing but a means and their minds are overcome with how to please men to gather more people.

Our worshiping has to be truly kneeling before the presence of God and such worship should be desired in our hearts.

The Lord forbids such showing for man for the final purpose of obtaining glory from man. But in the current text the Lord promotes bearing much fruit by the living power of Jesus to give glory to God the Father.

3. For the happiness of saints.

If a church is a true church, it is inevitable that it would bear fruit. Again, if you and I are true saints being saved, we cannot help but to bear the fruits that God expects and bear it in abundance. This we heard from the Lord in the text.

1. We hear answers to our prayers for bearing much fruit. (Verse 7)

Verse 7 says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” This is the promise that he would answer prayers asking to bear much fruits that supplies the living power of Jesus, according to the desires of God. When we experience the fulfillment according to our prayers, our lives are filled with fullness of life. In a secular word, it is the life of new and fresh winds.

2. The joy of Jesus becomes my joy in its fullness. (Verse 11)

Verse 11 says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” Isn’t this wonderful? First of all, it is amazing indeed that the joy of Jesus becomes my joy. The fact that the Lord wants His joy to be in common with our joy is amazing. This joy to be completed is amazing.

We have noted that the elder son could not share in the joy of his father in a sermon on Luke 15 several weeks earlier. The father of the prodigal son was very happy about his prodigal son returning home. He was so happy that he wanted to share his joy together with his neighbors. But the elder son, who is more than his neighbor, could not participate in the joy of his father and complained to him, dissatisfied with the joy of his father.

God wants the saints to bear much fruit in order to not only fully participate in the joy of the Lord but also enjoy the joy of the Lord as the joy of the Lord becomes my joy so that saints rejoice all together. Is the explanation simple enough to understand? Perhaps I may explain it in this way. When we bear much fruit, the joy of the Lord permeates our minds and becomes our joy, to enjoy all together with the Lord and saints now. When we bear fruit with the living power of Jesus, our joy overflows in full. This is the plan of the Lord for us.

Our Lord wants you and I to participate in the joy of the Lord. He truly wants our church to participate in the joy of the Lord and enjoy it all together.

It may be enough joy to fill the same seats you used to sit in when you come to this church. But you should not want to just receive only. Nor should you try to give only. We have to enjoy the living power of Jesus though one another. When you move for such purpose, you may be able to build this church with the fullness of the living power of Jesus.

Our church will become lively with the living power of Jesus and become fully active. This church will rejoice together with Jesus because of the fruits borne by His living power and become the church where all will enjoy one another. I would like to bless you for the building of this church together with a pastor who will be called to serve this church with the vision of such a fruitful church. You may be well prepared for receiving such a pastor to form the church with even greater fullness of the living power of Jesus Christ. Let us pray and put effort towards the church bearing much fruit with the living power of Jesus.

Let us sing Hymn 208 and pray.