When I was a little girl, my Grandmother had a decorative cornucopia in her dining room. Have you ever seen those? This one was a woven basket in the shape of a curved horn. It was full of plastic fruit! It always looked so inviting. Gorgeous grapes, plums, apples, oranges, strawberries, peaches – all at the peak of ripeness! Until you got close to it and saw the shine on it. And the dust. I’ve never been fooled to bite into a piece of plastic fruit. But what about other types of fruit? Galatians 5:22-23 identifies the “fruit” that a Christian will bear because the Holy Spirit lives inside that person and manifests that fruit in their life. Those qualities are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If we back up a few verses, Galatians 5:19-21 reveals the acts of the flesh in stark contrast to those Christ-like qualities. Paul writes: “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition…” and the list continues.
Today, we’re going to talk about bearing fruit. My goal is to send you away with the
following thought implanted in your mind:
Bearing good fruit is the mark of a Christ-follower who
is connected to Jesus and bound for eternity with Him. And I want you to want the Holy Spirit to
bear that fruit in you.
1.Jesus withers the fig tree and is questioned about
authority (Mt 21:18-32)
2.Jesus tells the parable of the tenants (Mt 21:33-46)
3.Jesus spoke the parable of the wedding banquet (Mt
22:1-14)
So, let’s begin.
Read Matthew 21:18-22.
Jesus is an early bird.
Isn’t He? The night before, He
had an altercation with the chief priests and teachers of the law (some
versions of the Scriptures call them “scribes”). Then He spent the night in Bethany. Remember that from last week? So now, He’s up early the next morning and
He’s ready to head back to Jerusalem. He
has a lot to do. He sees the fig tree
and figures He’ll grab a quick bite of food.
Finding only leaves and no fruit to eat, Jesus curses the tree, saying,
“May you never bear fruit again!”
Immediately, the tree withered. The
curse seems a little excessive. Doesn’t
it? Good thing. This is a stern warning.
You may not know that fig trees produce leaves and figs at
the same time. So, for Jesus to find the
tree covered in leaves, but have no figs was an indication that the tree was
barren. It wouldn’t produce fruit. It wouldn’t fulfill its purpose. I did some searching on this subject online
and discovered that there could’ve been something missing from the soil. I also learned that fig trees need wasps to
be pollinated.
Isn’t the same way with us?
If we are not connected to Jesus in relationship, we will not bear the
fruit of the Spirit! This is a spiritual
thing. We cannot produce authentic fruit
through our own effort. We might, for a
time, produce something that looks like real fruit on the outside, but it will
not stand up to any real scrutiny. We
also need fellowship with other believers to be “pollinated”. We need to be plugged into a local
church. We challenge each other. We sharpen each other. We encourage each other. Jesus knew this. That’s why the universal church is called the
Body of Christ. We each have a function
to perform and each part supports the others.
The disciples are amazed when they see how quickly the tree
withered. Mark 11:12-21 tells the story
a bit differently. But the end result is
the same. The tree Jesus cursed withered
quickly. In the Mark account, Jesus cursed
the tree, they went to Jerusalem, cleared the temple, and when evening came and
they passed that way again, the tree was withered. The disciples’ amazement led Jesus to tell
them to have faith and not doubt and they will not only be able to do what was
done to the fig tree, but they will say to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself
into the sea,” and it will happen.
Have faith. Don’t
doubt. “If you believe, you will have
whatever you ask for in prayer.” What
are you asking for in prayer? Do you
believe? Have you been asking for a
while and doubts are creeping in? How is
your root system? Are you soaking up the
Living Water? Are you being fertilized
with the Scriptures? Are you being
pollinated by fellow believers? Your
pastor? Your small group leader? Are you allowing God to prune the barren
parts of your life? Let’s keep moving.
Read Matthew 21:23-27.
So, Jesus is back in the temple courts teaching. The chief priests and elders come and ask Him
by what authority He is doing these things.
Healing, teaching, clearing the temple so it will be a house of prayer
and not a den of robbers, getting rid of those buying and selling so the
Gentiles can hear the message of God.
They also ask where He got the authority. Jesus answers their questions with a question
of His own: Where did John’s baptism
come from? Heaven or human origin? I can almost see the religious leaders in a
huddle before they make their play. They
consider the consequences of each answer as gifted politicians would and decide
they are too afraid to commit to either answer.
They didn’t care about truth.
They cared about how they would appear.
Just like a whitewashed tomb! Just
like that fake fruit in my Grandma’s cornucopia. Jesus responds to their, “we don’t know,” by
saying He wouldn’t tell them by what authority He was doing the things He was
doing. They were blind to the works of
God because of their hardened hearts. Continuing
on…
Read Matthew 21:28-32.
Jesus tells them the parable of two sons. In the parable, the sons’ father told them
both to go to work in the vineyard. The
first one said, “no,” but changed his mind and went. The second said, “yes,” but didn’t go. After hearing the quick parable, the chief
priests and elders admit that the first son actually did the will of his
father. And Jesus tells them that “tax collectors and prostitutes are entering
the kingdom of God ahead of you.” So the
parable seems to be about them. Doesn’t
it? They are represented by the second
son. The prostitutes and tax collectors
are represented by the first son. Jesus
goes on to tie this story to His earlier question to them about John’s
baptism. He explains that John came to
show them the way of righteousness and they didn’t believe. The tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after they saw this, they didn’t
repent and believe. Ouch. But a loving ouch. Sadly, these men didn’t feel the hurt in the
right place. Their hearts weren’t affected. Their minds weren’t affected. Their pride was wounded, but they were
unchanged by their time with Jesus.
Principle: Staying connected to Jesus produces fruit
including obedience to God’s will.
Application: Are
you being changed by the time you spend with Jesus? Do others see the fruit of the Spirit in your
life? Or do you, perhaps, just do your
Bible study, reading and prayer to check off a task of something you know you
should be doing each day? How will you
submit to God in areas where your life is failing to produce fruit? Will you allow Him to prune the places in
your life that are barren?
Let’s keep going.
Jesus is going to tell another parable.
Read Matthew 21:33-41.
In the parable of the tenants, Jesus says a landowner (God)
planted a vineyard (the nation of Israel).
He rented it to some tenants (the religious leaders) and moved
away. At harvest time, the landowner
sent his servants (the prophets) to collect his fruit. Verse 35 says the tenants seized the
servants, beat one, killed another and stoned a third. Jeremiah 20:1-2 talks about the prophet
Jeremiah being beaten. Hebrews 11:37
mentions one being sawn in two. This is
what tradition says about Isaiah.
Jeremiah was stoned in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21. The landowner sent more servants and the
tenants treated them the same way. Then
the landowner sent his son (Jesus). The
tenants throw him out of the vineyard and kill him to take his
inheritance. He wraps up the parable
with a sobering thought for one who understands the parable: When the landowner comes, he will bring the
wretched tenants to a wretched end and he will rent the vineyard to other
tenants who will give him his share of the crops. The really scary part of this
is that the hearers of the parable determine God’s response. These hearers were the chief priests and
elders.
Isaiah 5:7 tells us that the vineyard is the nation of
Israel and the people of Judah are the vines He (God) delights in. Isn’t this a beautiful picture? The fruit comes from the people. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The new tenants will care for the vines,
produce fruit and give it back to the landowner. Isn’t God’s Word delicious?
Jesus follows this story directly with a bit of a curve
ball.
Read Matthew 21:42-46.
Back to the wretched end of the first tenants. Jesus is the stone the builders rejected that
has become the cornerstone, as referenced in Psalm 118:22-23. The kingdom is being taken away from the
corrupt religious leaders and given to new tenants who will produce fruit in
keeping with repentance. The reading I
did explained that anyone who falls on the stone and those on whom the stone
falls are badly broken or crushed. Neither
condition is a beneficial brokenness that leads to repentance and
salvation. Those who reject Jesus are
irreparable. End of story.
Principle: The kingdom of God is for those who produce
fruit.
And it’s a domino effect:
to produce fruit, you must be connected to Christ and have the Holy
Spirit living inside you. To have the
Holy Spirit living inside you, you must have Jesus living in your heart. To have Jesus living in your heart, you must
accept Him as Lord and receive His free gift of salvation.
Application: Where
do you need to press forward in faith and obedience rather than giving in to
fears? Who is caring for your vines
through Biblical teaching, encouragement and truth? Whose vines are you caring for? Are there areas of your heart and thinking
that are rejecting Jesus’ teaching? What
will you do to get back on track and submit to His lordship over your life?
Now let’s look at another parable.
Read Matthew 22:1-14.
This parable of the wedding banquet is a beautiful picture
of celebration with a king who is holding a wedding feast for his son. Servants were sent to invite people, but they
refused to come. Who would refuse a
king? Who wouldn’t want to attend a
lavish party thrown by a king? Eat a
king’s food? Enjoy a king’s
entertainment? To live like a king for a
few hours? I suppose we should ask those
who will not accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation. Anyway, these people refused to come. Some of them even mistreated and killed the
servants. Do you see the similarities
with the parable of the tenants? The
king was outraged and went to war against the murderers and burned their
city. Then the king sent the servants to
invite the street people, and the wedding hall was filled. The king came in to see the guests and
noticed a man without the proper wedding clothes. He had the man bound and thrown outside where
there will be weeping a gnashing of teeth.
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Again, the king is God.
The son is Jesus. The servants
are the prophets. Those who refused to
come are the Jews who rejected the invitation.
The destruction in verse 7 is believed to be the destruction of
Jerusalem by Rome. The street people are
the Gentiles. The one who wasn’t wearing
wedding clothes? He didn’t accept God’s
free gift of salvation. Proper attire is
important for this wedding feast. It
says in Revelation 19:7-8 that the bride made herself ready with fine linen
that was given her to wear. The garments
are important because the king provided the clothes. According to Isaiah 61:10, they are the
garments of righteousness. Just like
Jesus imparts His righteousness to us as a garment when we accept Him as our
Savior. Our personal righteousness
(works) are filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
This is a picture of salvation.
The invitation has gone out. We
cannot accept it on our own terms. The
terms of the invitation are coming to the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ. There is no other way to heaven. You cannot crash this wedding feast! Jesus is the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except
through Him. The feast is ready. Come.
Get your clothes. Put them on. Bear real fruit.
Principle: You choose: the King’s wedding banquet or
darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Application: Have
you accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation?
If not, why not? How is Jesus
preparing you for the wedding banquet of the Lamb? Are you wearing the proper wedding clothes:
the garments of salvation? Are you ready
and eagerly awaiting Christ’s promised return for His church? If not, why not? Is your life producing authentic fruit? What fruit are you producing? Sweet, mouth-watering, juicy love? Joy? Peace? Patience?
Kindness? Goodness? Faithfulness?
Gentleness? Self-control? Are you lacking in any of these? Ask God to develop them in you. He wants to do that! Arte you bearing that fake fruit that may
look real on the outside, but on the inside is actually lust, superiority,
anxiety producing, restless, reckless and selfish?
Don’t delay.
Accept your invitation to the wedding feast today. Jesus is waiting. But He won’t be waiting forever. Sooner than you think, the door will close
and you don’t want to be left outside in the darkness, where there is weeping
and gnashing of teeth. Smelling a
delicious feast and holding a bowl of fake fruit.
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