The Importance of Bearing Fruit

By Tony V. Hammack




These notes are best when used in conjunction with the audio or video. To listen to the audio (podcast), click here. To watch the video, click here.

Introduction
Fruit is the part of a plant that produces food and seed.
   1. Food symbolizing the sweet flavor of a changed personality, conformed into Christ’s image. (Galatians 5:22,23)
   2. Seed symbolizing an effort to share God’s message and life to a lost and hopeless world. (Matthew 13:1-23)


Food
The Fruits of the Spirit, which show a changed personality are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
These fruits, when being expressed in the life of a believer, give us what we need to be able to scatter seed. It also makes us resemble Christ’s character and is good for us and others.

Seed
Matthew 13:1-23
The success of the sower in this parable is based completely on the condition of the hearer’s heart.

• Path – Lack Understanding
• Rocky Soil – People receive the Word with joy but when testing comes they fall away.
• Thorns – Worries and anxieties of life, deceitfulness of wealth, choke out the Word
• Good Soil – This person hears and understands producing a crop 30 60 or 100 x’s what was sown.

Here success is attributed to the wise.
Proverbs 11:30 (Amplified)
The fruit of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise captures human lives [for God, as a fisher of men--he gathers and receives them for eternity].

Outline
I.    Fruit production is very important to God
II.   Fruit production for the believer begins with personal holiness.
III.  Abiding in Christ is a key to fruit production
IV.  Two ways you’ll know you are fruitful


I.  Fruit Production is Very Important to God
   A.  Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28)
   B.  The Parable of the Fruitless Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46)
   C.  Gentiles grafted in (Romans 11:17-21)
   D.  A Fruitless Tree (Matthew 21:19)
   E.  There’s Urgency to Produce (Luke 13:6-9)

A. Dominion Mandate
We’ve been given a mandate from God to be fruitful and multiply

• Genesis 1:28
• Genesis 9:1
• Isaiah 54:1-3
• Mathew 28:19

B. The Parable of the Fruitless Tenants
Matthew 21:33-46
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way.  37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

1. God is the landowner who planted a “vineyard”. He rented it to men and expected them to work in his vineyard producing fruit. The story is silent as to whether or not the tenants did in fact do any farming. Come harvest time he sends his servants to collect his fruit. (v. 33-34)

2. However it’s very clear that when the owner sends “his servants” to get the fruit the tenants don’t cooperate.
     a. tenants seize, beat, kill and stone them.
     b. The tenants treat more servants who are sent the same way.
     c. Last of all the owner sent his son saying, “They will Respect my Son.” (v. 35-37)

3. The tenants reason in their minds that the son is the heir so if they kill him they will steal his inheritance. So they kill him. (v. 38-39)

4. Jesus gets the very perpetrators of the crime to pronounce their own judgment.
     a. The tenants lives will be ended.
     b. The vineyard will then be rented to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. (v. 40-41)

5. Jesus then refers the Chief priests and the elders of the people to reflect on (Psalm 118:22,23)

The cornerstone (or foundation stone) concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.

Jesus is the stone that was rejected by the builders.

6. Because of the inability of the chief priests Pharisees and elders of the people (v. 23,45) to produce fruit, the kingdom of God is taken away from them and given to people who can produce fruit. (v. 43)

7. If we fall on this stone (in faith and humility) we will be broken to pieces, but if the stone falls on us (in judgment) we will be crushed. (v. 44)

Bow now or bow later

Philippians 2:9-11

• 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

8. The parables (The Parable of the Two Sons and The Parable of the Tenants) are directed to the chief priests and the Pharisees. They knew the parables were referring to them. Their anger led them to want to arrest Jesus but they didn’t because the people held that he was a prophet. They loved the praise of men.

C. Gentiles Grafted In
Romans 11:17-21
17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.  19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

   1. Unbelieving Jews are broken off from God.
   2. Because of the Jews unbelief the way has opened up for the gentiles to be grafted into the life flow of God through faith.
   3. Gentiles are to have a humble view of themselves realizing that if God broke of the natural branches he can also break them off. (v. 21)

D. A Fruitless Tree
Matthew 21:19
Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
John 15:6
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.

E. There’s Urgency to Produce
Luke 13:6-9
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

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