The “Fruitfulness on the Frontline” series of Sermons began on 08 February 2015 at St James with the theme “Fruitfulness in Scripture” –

This morning we start on our major theme for the next nine weeks.

We are going to be looking at fruitfulness on the frontline.

What do we mean by “frontline”?

We all have different frontlines.

Your frontline may be an office, a factory floor, a lunch club or a classroom. Your frontline could be the football terraces or the local pub.

In other words your frontline is anywhere that you spend time with other people, and, in particular, other people who are not Christians.

I have mentioned the ideas of Loren Mead before.

Loren, back in the early nineties, wrote a book about the challenges facing the church today, and, in particular, the trouble that we have getting past the idea that the mission field starts as soon as you walk out of the door of this church.

Sadly, many people in our churches feel unequipped to face that mission field.

They feel that they have to know the Bible from back to front and inside out – that they need the skills of a champion debater – in order to carry out such a task.

The inevitable reaction, therefore, is to sit back and leave it to the professionals: leave it to the minister.

The major drawback of such an approach is, of course, that your minister doesn’t work in your office, isn’t seen on the factory floor, does not attend your club, drink at your pub or support your team.

So how do these people get to hear the Gospel? Who can plant the seeds in these places so that we can bear much fruit?

Of course, the answer is that it is you who plant the seed in subtle, and in not so subtle, ways.

The answer is that, if we are going to be fruitful, we have to cultivate the places where we are.

The idea of fruitfulness in Scripture

 

However, before we start talking about the different ways we can be fruitful where we spend most of our time, we need to see that the call for us to be fruitful is a biblical one and, in fact, one of the most common recurring themes in the Bible.

So let us look at the whole idea of fruitfulness in Scripture.

If you were asked what the Bible says about fruitfulness, some key passages might well spring to mind. Galatians 5, surely: the “Fruit of the Spirit”? John 15: vine and branches?

Believe it or not, though, we find fruit on the first and last pages of Scripture – in the Garden of Eden and the new Jerusalem – and almost everywhere in between.

Look more closely, and it becomes clear that God’s desire for fruitfulness is as extensive as the gospel – with what God has done in Christ in bringing men and women back to himself and in setting in motion his plan to restore the whole of creation.

Created for Fruitfulness

So let us start at the beginning. Look at Genesis 1; 20 -31

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

So it is that fruitfulness begins with God himself, who creates land with the capacity to produce plants and trees which bear fruit, who blesses animals to be fruitful and multiply, and who calls on human beings created in his image to ‘be fruitful and increase in number’ (Genesis 1:26-28).

That original mandate has to do with building families, growing crops and breeding animals – essentially cultivating creation.

Yet, such cultivation provides the basis for the organisation of society and includes, by extension, the development of culture and civilisation – building houses, designing clothes, writing poetry, playing chess – as we represent God’s rule over every activity, in relationship with others, reflecting God’s own creative hand.

Sadly, the expectation that Adam and Eve would spread God’s blessing from Eden to the whole world is shattered when they disobey God and are expelled from the garden.

What will God do now?

But, as Genesis continues, so the promise of fruitfulness is reiterated – to Noah after the flood, and to Abraham and his family, where numerical growth of the people is bound up with God’s covenant with them, for the sake of blessing all nations. Then, after the covenant at Sinai, the promises are linked to the people’s obedience to God in the promised land, as God’s ‘vine’ planted there (Psalm 80:8-11).

Through all this, as we see in Psalm 1 and elsewhere, bearing fruit becomes an archetypal image of righteous living and being a blessing to others. The righteous, those in covenant relationship with God, who constantly meditate on his law, are like a tree planted by a stream that produces fruit (Psalm 1:3). The tree is well located, well planted, and well watered. Because of that, it thrives, bears fruit in season and does not wither.

Alas, however, the repeated complaint of the prophets is that Israel as a vine or vineyard seems unable to bear fruit. Isaiah 5:1-7  –

I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”
7 The vineyard of the Lord Almighty
is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

‘The song of the vineyard’ in Isaiah 5:1-7 is particularly poignant, recording God’s deep sadness that his chosen people, who had been planted to bear fruit, ultimately, for the blessing of the nations, had produced only sour grapes.

The consequence in the Old Testament story is that they suffer judgement and dispersal in exile.

Even so, the language of fruitfulness is picked up again in promises of restoration back to the land, sometimes associated with the giving of God’s Spirit.

Isaiah 27:2-6, in particular, provides a moving counterpart to 5:1-7. –

In that day—
“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3 I, the Lord, watch over it;
I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
so that no one may harm it.
4 I am not angry.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
I would march against them in battle;
I would set them all on fire.
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me,
yes, let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit.

It is using the same language. It is a mirror image of Isaiah 5.

In spite of their fruitlessness, God remains lovingly committed to his people, and will assume responsibility for the care of the vine, watching over it, watering it, and protecting it against enemies.

This is because he has large-scale plans for his vineyard – nothing less than to ‘fill all the world with fruit’ (27:6)!

Fruitfulness in Christ

Given the rich Old Testament background, it’s perhaps no surprise that Jesus uses images related to fruit and fruitfulness, sowing and harvesting, fig trees and vineyards.

Especially evocative is Jesus’ sayings about the vine in John 15.

15 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.

The upshot of Jesus’ declaration and his use of the vine image is that he is now taking up the role God had assigned for Israel.

Union with Jesus in the vine means participation in the restored end-time people of God who are called to bear fruit to God’s glory (John 15:8).

Paul too picks up the language of fruit at various points in his letters, where the original mandate of fruitfulness given at creation finds fulfilment in the worldwide transformation of a people – Gentile as well as Jew – a people who bear the fruit of the Spirit as a sign of the new creation.

As Paul says in Galatians 5, those who walk by the Spirit (5:16) and are led by the Spirit (5:18), who live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit (5:25) are no longer under the authority of the law. Nor are they bound to ‘gratify the desires of the flesh’ (5:16), that way of life marked by alienation from God and each other. Instead, the death and resurrection of Christ and the giving of the Spirit have ushered in a new era – a new creation no less (6:15) – in which the Spirit animates our relationship with God, just as he promised through his prophets.

Then, when writing to the Colossians, expressing thankfulness to God for their faith, love and hope, Paul writes that the gospel is ‘bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world’, just as it has been doing among the Colossians themselves (1:6). And as part of his prayer in 1:9-14, Paul prays that they will be those who are ‘bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God’ (1:10). Those references to ‘bearing fruit’ and ‘growing’ are remarkably similar to the phraseology and thought of Genesis 1:28. Paul appears to be suggesting that the gospel is creating a people who now fulfil the purpose of the creation mandate, a people who are being remade in the image of the Creator (see Colossians 3:9-10). Amazingly, Paul sees God’s originally intended design for humanity finally being completed through the power of the gospel bearing fruit in the lives of men and women!

As we pray and work to see fruit in the spread of the gospel, and as we abide in the vine bearing fruit to the glory of God, and as we seek to walk in step with the Spirit who does his new creation work in and through the church, we look forward to the new Jerusalem where trees will bear fruit for the healing of the nations.

Echoing Ezekiel’s vision of the restored temple (Ezekiel 47:1-12), John too, in Revelation, sees an Eden-like ‘river of the water of life’ proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Where humans were formerly denied access to the tree of life, now John’s vision includes it, describes how it produces fruit every month which renews those who eat it.

The picture John paints – of free access to life and vitality – is hugely significant in a world where people struggle to overcome disease and death.

Here the natural order is wonderfully transformed, with God’s promises of restoration finding their ultimate fulfilment in the renewal of the cosmos to be a place where God and people can truly dwell together.

Here too, citizens of the new earth are drawn from all nations in fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, itself reflecting the original blessing of fruitfulness on humanity right back at creation.

Here, by God’s grace, we will take our place.

We cannot escape from the conclusion that we are called to be fruitful.

Conversely, we also cannot escape from the repeated warning that if we remain unfruitful God will remove his blessing from us.

God bless y’all

I want to introduce you this morning to probably the most important little word if we are ever going to make progress as a church in the area of fruitfulness.

It is a word which is so common in the southern United States that is vital if you are ever going to understand the New Testament.

It is the little word, Y’all, as in a parting greeting, “y’all be good now”!

You see, in English, “you” can be either singular or plural.

In Greek, Hebrew and most other languages there are different words for the singular and plural “you”.

So, when we read our scriptures, we read things like “I am the vine and you are the branches” and we read it in the singular. In reality, we should read, “I am the vine and y’all are the branches”.

As Marva Dawn says in one of her books: “We all need to become Southerners to read the Bible correctly, because to inhabit its world is to speak about our lives as y’all (plural) instead of you, singular. Y’all together, working together, learning together, witnessing together will be fruitful. The westernised individualised vocabulary is ruining our church, we have to get away from reading the Bible and thinking of you in the singular. We need to become the church of y’all. To bear fruit, as God wants us to bear fruit it is going be because y’all are together bearing the likeness of Christ in the frontline of your lives. God bless y’all!”