Unless a Seed Falls and Dies April 7, 2011

Transcription

1 Women & More Unless a Seed Falls and Dies April 7, 2011 The first Queen Elizabeth asked a man to go abroad for her on business. I sincerely wish I could, said the man, but I can t. My business is very demanding, and it would really suffer if I left it unattended. Sir, replied the Queen, if you will attend to my business, I will take care of your business! The King of kings and Lord of lords has asked that those of us who have believed and received him be about his business we are charged with the task of His enterprise. And yet we have placed our own business ahead of His! We ve claimed that our business of living and working and loving would suffer if we did so, but the Maker of heaven and earth assures us that if we seek first his kingdom, that all these things would be added to us. No one, or no thing, must keep us from taking care of our Lord s business the very short while we are upon this earth, because we will have all eternity to be sorry we didn t! Why should we? We are redeemed! There would have been no offspring of the Lord Jesus Christ had he not died to redeem us. But since His precious life was sacrificed, it produced a large crop every believer. We are his seed, and unless that seed falls and dies planted in soil there will be no new flower or tree or fruit: no new growth in the garden of God. The soil-saturated seed produces the flower that will embrace and scatter more seed, because life to God and for God will spring from the spiritual death of His saints every one. John 12:24 is a metaphor for Jesus own life s plan it pictures our Savior first! Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. The Expositors Bible Commentary: The likeness of the grain of wheat that is buried in the cold soil only to rise again multiplied for harvest is applicable to all believers in Christ. Until the seed is planted in the ground and dies, it bears no fruit; it will remain alone. Further commentary by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown: The necessity of his (Jesus) death is here brightly expressed, and its proper operation and fruit life springing forth out of death. When Jesus cried It is finished from the cross, he died, was buried, rose again on the third day, and for 40 days was seen and heard by thousands. Now it was time to ascend to His Father, and so Jesus began his farewell discourse to his disciples. His departure would create change for his followers, so he gave them parting instruction: And the Lord Jesus focused on their three relationships: 1) with Him, 2) with one another, and 3) with the world around them.

2 2 Jesus told them the Parable of the Vine and its offspring. It had already been predicted in two Old Testament passages. Hear Asaph plead with the God of Israel, to the tune of The Lilies of the Covenant in Psalm 80, beginning with verse 14-19: Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, 15the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself. This vine and this son was and is Jesus Christ, our Lord! 16 Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. 17Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. 18Then we will not turn away from you; revive us and we will call on your name. 19 Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. Titled in the NIV: The Song of the Vineyard (Israel) in Isaiah 5:1-7 I will sing for the one I love (the Father) a song about his vineyard: My loved one (the Father) had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. 2He 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 men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4What 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? 5Now 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. 6I 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 house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. God would prepare for Christ s coming the incarnation to also make a way for the Gentiles. Now to the New Testament and the Vine (Jesus) and the Branches (us) in John 15:1-4 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you 4 Remain in me, and I will 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. In this passage, Jesus (the Vine) stresses to his disciples and us certain features: a. In saying I am the true vine, Jesus asserts that there is genuine stock.

3 3 In other words, no fruit can be better than the vine that produces it, so unless the believer is vitally connected with the true vine, the quality of her (his) fruit is unacceptable. b. God the Father is the gardener. Success in raising any crop depends largely on the skill of the gardener (farmer) who tends and waters, and protects and cultivates for maximum yield. Inscribed around a picture of an apple core are these anonymous words: Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the apples in a seed! This picture is hanging in a downstairs bathroom, and it never fails to awe. c. Pruning is so necessary for any branch ouch! And there are two aspects noted in the pruning process: the removal of dead wood, and the trimming of live wood so that its potential for fruit-bearing is increased. Anne Johnson Flint: That holds the knife, that cuts and breaks with tenderest touch; that thou, whose life has borne some fruit may now bear much. But dead wood is worse than fruitlessness, and it has to go, because it can harbor disease and decay working its way into the live wood and killing it off. The strength from the true vine would be wasted on the destructive activity going on. The Master Gardener wants healthy and productive branches, so he will cut them off a picture of God dealing with humans. The Expositors Bible Commentary again: God removes dead wood from His church and disciplines the lives of believers so they are directed into fruitful activity, where their devotion sincerely unites others to Jesus as branches are united to the vine. Rejected and useless, by his own rejection of the True Vine, Judas was an example of a branch that was cut off. Jesus speaking in John 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one (Judas) doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. The primary means by which pruning (cleansing and purifying) is done is through the Word of God, which 1) condemns sin; 2) inspires holiness, and 3) promotes growth. Conditions for further service are also brought about by our obedience (to obey is better than sacrifice), and prayer. (Twice already this spring we ve studied prayer: A Prayer-hearing God and Must Talk to Father About This). Fruit-bearing is not optional. The continual production of fruit will depend on our constant union with the source Jesus (the Vine). If Christ permeates, then fruit is inevitable. In fact, the proof of discipleship followship is fruitbearing! Jesus glorified God the Father by his life, redeemed us by His death, so that by Christ Jesus we will glorify the Father with the fruit we bear.

4 4 Failure to maintain a vital connection with the Vine brings its own penalty! Beth Moore: Nothing about our last victory guarantees our next; and nothing about our last defeat guarantees our next. 2 Timothy 2:11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him. Jesus never promised us an easy trip; but He assures us of His presence and guarantees our safe arrival! Meanwhile, we are about His business His enterprise: In the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus, likening it to the kingdom of heaven, told about a landowner who conducted an early-morning hire of workers for his vineyard. Later in the morning he found three standing in a marketplace doing nothing, so he hired them with a promise to pay what is right. In the afternoon the landowner did the same thing. And even later early evening he discovered still others standing idle. Learning that they had been offered no work, he also hired them for the same wage. At day s end, beginning with the eleventh-hour-hires, the landowner paid out a denarius to each. But those who had signed on first expected more. And when they were given their denarius, they began to grumble unfair to the landowner, citing their long heat-of-the-day burden of hard labor. In verse 13 the landowner responds, Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn t you agree to work for a denarius? He urged him to take his pay and go. I. To be about our Lord and King s business is to work for Him! Romans 6:10-11 The death he (Jesus) died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. And we will scatter seed for Him witness tell. Psalm 78:4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praise-worthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. R. A. Torrey in his handbook, How To Work for Christ, describes personal work as hand-to-hand evangelism: leading them into many fields of fruitful labor for Christ. He describes five marks of good opportunity for this work: 1. When someone is alone; 2. When they are unoccupied; 3. When they re in good humor; 4. When someone is communicative, and 5. When they are in a serious mood. 2 Corinthians 9:6-12 talks about reaping and sowing: We will reap the Scripture that we sow; the prayers that we pray (Matt 6:6 and James 4:2); the witness that we sow (Psalm 126:6), and the wealth that we sow to be generous is to be godly. But if the seed is not planted, there will be no harvest!

5 5 We re to be careful what we plant now, as it will determine what we reap later! If we plant honesty, we will reap trust; If we plant goodness, we will reap friends; If we plant humility, we will reap greatness; If we plant perseverance, we will reap contentment; If we plant consideration, we will reap perspective; If we plant forgiveness, we will reap reconciliation; If we plant hard work, we will reap success, and If we plant faith in God, we will reap a harvest. II. To be about our Lord and King s business is to suffer for Him! Austin Phelps said, Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots of character. To identify with Christ is to identify with suffering exhibiting how a follower of Christ lives and how she dies: a cross and a crown. Being rescued from persecution is not always God s will; not being rescued is often the very thing which will bring about His will. While we should not seek persecution, we should not flee it too quickly if at all! The number one cause of persecution is people giving their lives to Jesus, every day in every way and say! We are not to shrink when suffering accompanies our service to God, said Charles Spurgeon. The promise of the old covenant was prosperity, but the promise of the new covenant is adversity If you bring forth fruit, you will have to endure affliction. Nik Ripken A life lived in the presence of God will be framed by suffering and persecution. Live victoriously in the midst of persecution by incarnating a genealogy of faith. In 2 Corinthians 12:9a and 10 Paul says: But he (God) said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness... Then Paul responds: This is why, for Christ s sake I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. It all started with the grain of wheat dying and then producing a crop: Jesus rose from the dead because he was crucified, and Jesus is worth our service and our suffering! Isaiah 28:16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says, See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. Is there some desert, or some boundless sea, Where Thou, great God of angels, wilt send me? Show me the desert, Father, or the sea; Is it Thine enterprise? Great God, send me! Mrs. Charles E. Cowman