Fruit Bearing — E.A. Johnston

Fruit Bearing Requires Suffering

An owner of a large apple orchid was walking among the trees with a visitor, showing him the different apple trees. They walked into an orchid full of Northern Spy apple trees, and they came across several rows of trees that were quite unlike the others.

The visitor asked why the branches of these trees were all growing up straight, whereas most of the other trees had their branches bent down. The owner of the apple orchid said that the trees whose branches were straight up were young trees and had not yet borne any fruit.

When trees bear fruit, the branches bend down, and that's true, friends, as it applies both to nature and to the Christian life. If you want to be a fruit-bearing Christian, then be prepared to be bent down.

Be prepared to be under strain. The more fruit that you bear, the more you'll be bent lower. And if you study Christian biography, as I have, you'll find a common denominator between men and women greatly used of God, and that is suffering.

Some of the most used saints of God have been the ones who were also great sufferers. They lived their lives bowed down beneath the weight of the spiritual fruit that they were bearing forth. I remember a story which Dr. Stephen F. Oford related to me one day.

Dr. Oford was my homiletical mentor and colleague, and we were sitting in a study, and he was telling me about the time he was invited by a pastor friend of his to go hear an upcoming young preacher who was making some noise among the Southern Baptist ranks.

So Dr. Oford agreed to ride along with his pastor friend to a nearby town to hear this young preacher. On the way back, the pastor asked Dr. Oford what he thought of the young preacher. Stephen Oford answered, oh yes, quite a remarkable young man, but he hasn't suffered enough yet.

And when Dr. Oford related that story to me, I could not appreciate what he was saying those many years ago. But now that I'm older and have passed through what I've passed through in life, I fully comprehend what he meant by his statement.

And I have a photo of Stephen Oford in his eighties, and I can see the strain in his eyes of the bent over life for God through fruit bearing and the experiential suffering for God. The title of my message today, friends, is Fruit Bearing.

The True Vine and the Command to Bear Fruit

My text can be found in the Gospel of John in chapter 15. You can turn in your Bibles there now. There is much fruit in this chapter, and it can be read several ways. It can be read as the union between Christ and his church under the parable of a vine.

It can be read as a exhortation for a believer to have a daily quiet time in a close walk with his master in an abiding life. It can be read as a portrait of the sovereignty of God, how he receives glory from his servants.

For in verse eight, Jesus declares, herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. But I want to look at this passage today, friends, along these lines that we as believers have a commandment from God to be productive for him.

It's not a choice, but a command. And as we serve our God and our generation and live in obedience to him through a close walk with him, then he will bring forth fruit through our lives, which will be a blessing to others in our generation.

Listen, friends, we do not produce the fruit. I know many of us believe our usefulness lies in the amount of our activity for God. But really, friends, God's not looking so much for activity from us as he is obedience to him while we carry out his work, which he's called us to do.

We mistakenly believe it is what we do for God, which is fruitful. But friends, we must come to the realization it's not what we do for God that counts, but what God does through our surrendered lives, where the rivers of living water flow through an unobstructed and consecrated vessel, all for the glory of God.

My Bible declares in Zechariah chapter four and verse six, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, if we want fruit that brings glory to God and that remains long after we're gone, then we must be sure it is God working through us to produce his fruit by his power.

Jesus’ Final Teaching Before His Arrest

Let us now go to this familiar passage of scripture in John chapter 15, which I consider to be one of the richest passages in our New Testament. Regarding this passage in John chapter 15, scholars disagree on the location where the discourse was given.

Some scholars believe that this discourse took place while Jesus and his men were yet still in the upper room and the vine spoken of is the vine of the cup they were drinking, and that's the illustration used.

Other scholars say that perhaps a tendril of a creeping vine came up the trellis by an open window where they sat, and this was the reference made to the vine. Other commentators point to John 14, 31, where Jesus says to his disciples, arise, let us go hence, inferring that they had left the upper room while the discourse was made along the way to Gethsemane, where as they crossed the brook Kidron, they saw the bright fires lighten up the nighttime sky from the vine cuttings which were being burned.

That's striking imagery, isn't it, friends? Well, I like to think this discourse occurred while they were walking along in their little band with Jesus leading the way and the disciples keeping up with him and hanging on every word that fell from his lips as they slowly made their way to Gethsemane, where Jesus would be taken from them and arrested and they would each flee like cowards, each deserting him.

Jesus knows full well that this is the last moment he will have together with them as a group before his arrest and crucifixion, and he wants to impart to them some vital truths which will get them through not only the approaching ordeal but through their earthly lives as they witness to his power and glory.

Let me at this time, friends, read us our passage from verses 1 through 8, which is our framework for our message today. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.

And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine.

No more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. Now friends, verse 1 of chapter 15 is very interesting in the Greek language where Jesus says, I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman.

Christ as the Genuine Vine

In the Greek it reads, I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the genuine vine. That distinction made by our Lord speaks of his utter difference from mankind. No one else is quite like him. He is the genuine vine, the one true God, the living God.

He is the Savior and there is no other way to heaven but through him. All others who make that claim are false prophets. He is also stating that he is entirely different from us. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways are ways.

His ways are in contradistinction to our feeble human efforts. Now notice what Jesus states concerning the Father. My Father is the husbandman. In the Greek it is translated, and my Father is the tiller of the soil.

This entire passage speaks of agriculture and farming, growth and fruit production. God the Father, as the husbandman, the tiller of the soil. The husbandman performs his work on the branch by pruning it, making it more productive.

God’s Pruning Produces More Fruit

Is that not so? Is that not how God deals with his children in the Christian life? This pruning aspect in regard to the production of fruit is our concern today. Notice in verse 2 our Lord states, In every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, he prunes it.

Why? That it may bring forth more fruit. When a tree becomes barkbound, then the sap cannot freely flow as it should. So a husbandman must take a knife and cut open the bark of the tree so this would encourage better fruit growth so the sap can flow.

Listen friends, if you desire to be used to God, then be prepared for the divine pruning knife in your life. God will get out his pruning knife on you. Listen to a companion verse from Hebrews in chapter 5 and verses 7 -9.

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up precious prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard and that he feared though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.

Did you catch that friend? He, Jesus Christ, Jesus, learned obedience by things which he suffered, things that's plural. This whole matter of usefulness to God lies in this, our passage today friends.

It's wrapped up in this pruning, this purging process which God performs in our lives to make us more useful to him, more fruitful to him. Remember my introduction of the story about the owner of the apple orchid and the tree branches which were upright?

They were young trees yet to bear fruit. When the fruit came, then the branches would bend down with the weight of the fruit. This speaks of the connection between fruit bearing and suffering in the Christian life.

Charles Spurgeon and the Weight of Ministry

When you study Christian biography, you often find this connection between the two, fruit bearing and suffering. One example of this is found in the life of Charles Spurgeon. I have a photo of Spurgeon where the great British preacher is sitting at his desk with quill pen in one hand and the other hand resting beneath his bearded chin.

Spurgeon's eyes are framed by deep circles of wear and fatigue. The dark circles beneath his eyes are so prominent in this photograph that they look as though they were made by a black magic marker. Spurgeon's face reveals a great atlas-like weight upon him.

Weariness and burden is written all over his tired face. He sits there regally like a tragic king whose kingdom is heavy upon his shoulders. He is marred by life and Christian service. His painfully sad eyes portray the deep manic depression.

He sits there absorbed in his work yet detached. Perhaps his mind is off in a more pleasant locale like Minton, France, his beloved winter retreat. He sits there as an object of pity, yet how can this be?

He is the great Spurgeon, but he looks like a worn out old man, yet he's just 56. He carries the weight of the metropolitan tabernacle upon him, the pastor's college upon him, his orphanage upon him and his theological battles upon him, which he fought with his peers.

The burden and care of the ministry mark his once cheery countenance. He's not the jovial Spurgeon here, but one who is acquainted with grief. He is a man, well familiar of a life, lived under the divine pruning of a knife, the knife which cuts away, strips away, peels away and purges away.

Christlikeness Through Reproach and Suffering

And when one looks at Spurgeon's face in this photo, his face reveals another visage staring out from behind the human form. The face of Christ appears out beautifully behind Spurgeon's sagging face. The man of sorrows is there with him, comforting him, encouraging him on in the work of the kingdom and the Christian race.

For to be Christlike is not to receive awards, accolades or applause, rather friends, it is to be deeply familiar with great suffering and emptying. To be Christlike is to know what it means to be misunderstood, to be an object of ridicule and a target for enemies.

To be Christlike is to experientially know reproach, rejection and even abandonment of close friends. Our Lord Jesus hung publicly in naked humility on a bloody tree. He was ridiculed, scorned, spat upon, rejected by his own people and nailed to an ignoble cross like a common criminal.

He bore reproach. The great weight upon Christ on the cross would have been too unbearable for us, for he bore the sins of the world and he suffered the turned face of the Father who cannot look upon sin.

This photo of Spurgeon reveals just how Christlike he really was. And if we, friends, desire usefulness, if we wish to be great bearers of fruit for our precious master, then we must be prepared for the pruning, the suffering of living a life on the false stretch for our God.

Prayer for Greater Usefulness

Let each one of us pray for more usefulness for him. Let this be our prayer continually that we might bear more fruit so the Father may be glorified. Let us pray.