Juicy Fruit January 21-22, 2017 Pastor Michael Craft Text: Luke 6:43-45 1 Luke 6:43-45 NKJV 43 For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. We must remember, the verses directly before these verses all have to do with judgment and showing mercy giving FORGIVENESS. It is interesting, however, that here Jesus seems to be saying that although we should be quick to show mercy, and not condemn, we must remain those who are careful. Careful of what? Careful of who we are listening to. I believe that Jesus is trying to make a case to these listeners that He was indeed Someone who could be trusted, Someone they didn t need to be sitting in judgment upon. He directs their attention to the fruit that He was showing and ultimately the words that were coming out of His mouth, as pointing to the righteousness that was in His heart. In the context of showing mercy, and refraining from judging it may seem odd that now Jesus is basically saying, judge a tree by the fruit that it produces. But you see, judging a book by the cover and judging a tree by its fruit, are two radically different things. As responsible followers of Jesus Christ, we are called upon to make assessments The Book of Acts tells us that there were a group of people, called the Bereans, who were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11 - NIV). Would we say that these Bereans were judgmental? No they were diligent, and wise. You and I are hearing so-called wisdom from a million different sources these days. Everything from biased newscasts, to personal blogs from celebrity/movie stars with an audience and no business speaking on certain subjects, to preachers and so-called Bible teachers with an agenda that seemingly couldn t be further from God s agenda. In that kind of environment, we had better be diligent, and perhaps a bit judgmental in that we don t take everything at face value, but research hard enough that we at least look to see if the messenger is bearing any real fruit in their life! Why? Because if the fruit is rotten chances are the tree from which it came ain t so hot either! I m not saying that we become so judgmental that we just turn off everybody, but I am saying that we pay attention to the messengers. "What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 For example: This is why the Bible speaks very bluntly about those who desire to be leaders in the family of God. The men are to have only ONE wife. They are to maintain their own household well. They aren t supposed to have kids that are way out of whack. They aren t supposed to be getting divorced and having affairs. Seems obvious, right? I mean, why should anyone listen to someone teach them what the Bible has to say about a certain subject, if that speaker isn t LIVING that for themselves? Now, this brings up something that we must consider: Before we can properly assess ANYONE else me must properly assess ourselves. How is OUR fruit? Michael, you keep saying fruit. What are you talking about? Galatians 5 describes for us the kinds of fruit that God desires to see in a Christian s life: Galatians 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. You know what this means? It means that IF you have God s Spirit living inside of you, then the fruit of that the evidence of that the proof of that is going to be that you are going to start being more: LOVING JOYFUL PEACEABLE KIND GOOD FAITHFUL GENTLE and you ll start showing a little SELF-CONTROL I used to think that these particular things were things that I needed to strive for things that I needed to work on. But that s not necessarily true. These things are the fruits like the SYMPTOMS of being a person that is full of God on the inside! For example: If someone is brokenhearted, the fruit of being brokenhearted is that they are crying all the time, they can t eat, and they re singing sad songs. That s the fruit of being brokenhearted! And the fruit of God s Spirit living inside of us, is that we will simply BE loving, joyful, peaceable, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. Having a life that is full of God does indeed require that we make certain decisions... It s about choosing correctly, Who you are going to follow, Who you are going to be influenced by. I think each of us make these kinds of choices each day Think with me all the way back to the Garden of Eden. God had given Adam and Eve full rein to do as they pleased, simply enjoying the Creator and His awesome creation. But God gave humanity a choice, remember? There were two trees, amongst the myriad of others in the Garden, that stood out, and were pointed out by God. The first tree: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The second tree: The Tree of Life.
3 One of those trees led to death, one led to life. Adam and Eve chose death. They chose to have the ability to decide what is good and what is bad to have that knowledge for themselves: Why should I have to have God decide what is right for me or what is wrong for me? I am my own person I m not stupid I want to make my own decisions! I know what is right I know what is wrong! People are still making that wrong choice today: I don t need some old Book to tell me how to live, how to have a successful marriage, how to raise my kids, how to handle finances, how to truly find peace! I ve figured out what s right AND what s wrong all by myself! The Bible even tells us that there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25). When we make choices based on what we think is good, and what we think is evil not based on what the Bible teaches us is good and evil we are living in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and it inevitably leads to death for us, and many times pain and suffering for those around us as well. In the same way, when we make choices that show that we are reliant upon God s leading and wisdom, we are making choices that lead to life for us and those around us. Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. Each day, when we wake up, we make a choice to either live in the Tree of Life or in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now the bummer is that some people fake it. And guess what? They re pretty good at faking it. They seem to have mastered what it looks like to be a person that bears fruit. They know how to smile at the right times and how to put on the show, but the truth is that they are living out of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are trusting in man themselves. Not God. EXAMPLE: Plastic grapes on mom s dinner table. Jeremiah 17:5-8 Thus says the Lord: Cursed (arur) is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub (arar) in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. Once again, we see two trees mentioned in connection with two men. The first is really a shrub, and the man who s like the shrub is cursed, because he has trusted in man and makes flesh his strength. The second tree is planted by the water; it has deep roots, it is powerfully strong so much so that it matters not if the heat comes or even if there is a season of drought because it ll keep on yielding fruit it s awesome. It s like a man as well except it s not like a man who trusts in his own strength, it s like a man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.
4 Now, what I really want you to see is that there is a hidden message here that I think is totally cool. I hope you will too! When you look at the original language (Hebrew) at this verse you see that the word cursed is the word arur. When you look at the word translated shrub, it is literally the English word for Juniper Tree. Now, according to Wikipedia, there are 50-67 species of Juniper trees in the world. However, according to Nogah Hareuveni, an expert on plants of the Bible, in Hebrew the name of this tree is called the Arar. Does that sound similar to the word for cursed (arur)? Yes, it does, and what this gentleman claims is that what Jeremiah is doing here is something that many writers did when they wrote in the Hebraic Poetic Form; He is using a wordplay which drives home an interesting point in this powerful poem, that you may not see when reading it in our language. What s the point? Again glad you asked! Here s a picture of the tree the Arar. Looks nice, right? Why then, would Jeremiah use it as an illustration of a man that is cursed? Check this out: If a thirsty, hot traveler approaches the tree and picks a nice big fruit, he will find a nasty surprise. When opened, the fruit makes a "pssst" sound, and is hollow and filled with webs and dust and a dry pit. The Bedouin call this tree the "Cursed Lemon" or "Sodom Apple" because it grows in the desert salt lands that surround the Dead Sea where Sodom and Gomorrah once were. According to their legends, when God destroyed Sodom, He cursed the fruit of this tree also. Interestingly, the cursed tree looks very healthy and abundant, as if it has survived, even in hard times, and still has done well in life. Like the tree, many people who rely on their own strength really persevere enough so that they seem to "have it all." But again they re faking it. They may look awesome on the outside, but on the inside they re dry and their fruit is bad not juicy. Jesus, in our text, gives us all a real great way of cutting through all that phony-bolognaness and judging correctly whether we are judging others or taking an honest look at ourselves and trying to determine if we re the ones who are full of phoniness. Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. What comes out of your mouth often betrays what is truly in your heart. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and it gives away who we REALLY ARE.
There are different ways to test this. For instance: 5 Many times, when you ask someone where a specific location is Another way to test what s in the heart is to watch what comes out when you re cut Many times, the words of the answer to a chance question or how they react when they are cut will show where a man s thoughts most naturally turn, and where the interests of his heart lie. Always our speech betrays us. What really is wrong with this tree? Essentially, the big problem is that the fruit has no juice. The tree is supposed to absorb life-giving water from the soil and pass it on to others through its fruit, but something is not happening. It is as if the tree has cut itself off from the source of living water by relying on its own strength, as that passage in Jeremiah suggests. All fruit, that is any good, sucks up water from the branches or vine, which is in turn sucking water from the ground. Actually, the water from the ground will determine the taste of the individual fruit. This is one of the reasons why an orange tastes different if it was grown in California from one that was grown in Florida: Different soils different water sources. ILLUSTRATION: In 2008 the state of California suffered many severe wild-fires. One strike of lightening began a fire that raged and raged. Do you know that vineyards over 150 miles from where the fires raged are now dealing with a serious problem? The wine that has been sitting in oak barrels for the past few years is now ready to be sold. However, when it was first squeezed, the grapes used were grapes that sucked water that had traveled all that distance and was filled with ash from those fires. Many of these vintners are struggling with trying to sell wine that tastes like a wet ash tray. ( The Wall Street Journal March 31 st, 2010 by Ben Worthen - http://online.wsj.com/article_email/sb10001424052748704211704575140141004748362lmyqjaxmtawmdawmtewndeywj.html). Seriously How s your fruit today? Is it juicy? If you are struggling with a serious lack of: LOVE JOY PEACE KINDNESS GOODNESS FAITHFULLNESS GENTLENESS and not even a smidgeon of SELF-CONTROL perhaps it is because you aren t absorbing your water from the right place? Jesus said in John 7:37-38 If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. He said in John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. It really is a choice that you and I must make each and every morning. Which tree will we choose? One last verse and then we re all done:
6 Deuteronomy 30:19-20a I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life... The "juice" comes when we do those 4 things: Choose Life we trust in God, not our own strength Love the Lord our God where is your heart your words will give it away Obey His Voice whenever He speaks, we re tuned in and listening and obeying! Hold Fast to Him abide in Jesus cling to Him hold on tight, through trials and pain Without this, our lives are empty and hollow and we re not fooling anybody. Especially God.