Sermon Tone Analysis

God-glorifying Spirit Empowered Fruit

We have been studying what life is supposed to be like in God’s Vineyard.

Jesus is the true vine of Israel.

Those whom God is drawing to the Son in salvation will be connected to the Vine, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and bearing God-glorifying fruit.

Those who are in the Vine will abide in Christ, that is they will remain, they will endure until the end always bearing fruit.

I summed up the fruit with three short phrases:

Great Commitment to Christ

Those connected to the Vine will bear the fruit of love for Jesus that expresses itself in joy-filled obedience.

Because you love Jesus, you will obey Jesus with a happy heart.

Your love for Christ will overflow onto your brother and sisters.

Jesus says the world will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another.

A great commitment to Jesus is empowered by His Spirit that cultivates a deep abiding love for Jesus.

Great Communion with Christ

Those who are connected to Jesus will bear the fruit of effective prayer that will come from abiding in God’s word.

John Piper defined prayer as, “The overflow of the fullness of God’s word abiding in you.”

The more the word of God abides in you, the fullness of that word spills into your prayers.

The more you pray word infused prayers from a heart that has spent time communing with God, the more effective your prayers will be for bearing fruit because you are praying truth and the desires of God’s heart.

Great Commission for Christ

Those connected to the vine will bear the fruit of the Great Commission.

The Spirit of God compels you to testify about Jesus.

Jesus has commanded that you go and preach the gospel, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

All of us who are in the vine are either sowing the word of God or reaping the harvest of conversions, or even both, but you are never idle in your pursuit of advancing God’s kingdom.

The fruit of the Great Commission is conversions.

We concluded last week that

We must bear the fruit of having a great commitment to Jesus, that enjoys a great communion with Jesus, that sees a great commission revival for Jesus, if we are going to be successful in joyfully advancing His kingdom by making much of Jesus.

Now that you know the kind of fruit that is produced on the true Vine, we must turn our attention to how God cultivates his vineyard to bear more fruit.

That is the aim of very branch connected to Jesus.

You prove that you are truly connected to Jesus by bearing God glorifying Spirit empowered fruit: great commitment, great communion, and great commission.

God’s desire is that you bear this kind of fruit abundantly in your life.

To ensure that his vineyard will be fruitful to his glory, he makes two kinds of sovereign care-filled cuts into his vine.

One cut is a pruning cut and the other is a removal cut.

Both serve the Vine and his glory.

The Father Prunes His Vineyard to Bear More Fruit

Pruning is God’s Cleansing Discipline

The word Jesus uses for prune is kathairo, which means to cleanse.

Pruning is a form of cleansing because it trims fruit-bearing branches to make room for more fruit, while cutting off unproductive branches.

Spiritually speaking, the Father cleanses the fruit-bearing life of the Christian with his discipline, which is often painful.

Pruning is God cutting into your heart to remove sin or to strengthen you to abide in Christ.

Or to put it another way,

The Father uses suffering and hardship to prune His fruit-bearing branches to bear abundant fruit of holiness and righteousness.

In my opinion, one of the best truth’s of God’ discipline is found in Hebrews 12:4-11.

The purposes of the Book of Hebrews is to show that Jesus is the all supreme and fully sufficient Great High Priest.

He is the once for all sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world.

There were likely three kinds of readers of the Book of Hebrews.

They were likely Jews who were true believers, Jews who believed but were still sacrificing, and unbelieving Jews.

The writer warns in Hebrews 3:7-9

Today is the day of salvation.

Believe upon the Lord and continue to believe him, that is remain in Him.

Enduring is one of the themes that develops in Hebrews, especially thorough hardship.

In chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews notes that suffering and hardship are used by God to disciplines his sons and daughters to bear fruit.

The Father uses suffering and hardship to prune his fruit-bearing branches to bear more fruit.

Consider for a moment what the writer of Hebrews says of the Father’s loving discipline in Hebrews 12:4-11.

God disciplines His Own.

The writer of Hebrews says,

The writer of Hebrews reminds his readers that they are children of God in v5.

In verse 6, Those whom God loves and receives are the ones receiving the discipline.

When you receive God’s discipline, he is treating you like a Father treats a son whom he loves (v7).

In verse 8, if you are not receiving discipline from God, then you are not his son or daughter.

The writer of Hebrews calls you an illegitimate child.

This implies that suffering is, in some ways, a normal part of the Christian walk.

we should not surprised by suffering.

It comes to those who testify about Jesus and it us comes through the sovereign care-filled hand of God to express his love for you.

God’s discipline is painful.

The word chastise, in verse 6, means to severely flog, which is a painful beating.

Verse 11, says

Hebrews 12:11 (ESV)

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant...

The word for pain is rooted in the idea of sorrow.

It carries the sense of emotional pain you experience when you are sorrowful or unhappy.

Paul uses this sense in Philippians 2:27, to describe the pain he would have felt had Epaphroditus died from his sickness.

Paul says

The writer of Hebrews uses the analogy of a father who disciplines his son.

I have a good earthly father.

There were times when I needed correction, to get back across the line.

I feared my dads disapproval, in a healthy way.

I knew when I disobeyed, he was going to exercise discipline on my behind.

He was controlled, intentional, and specific.

He did not enjoy the corporal punishment, but he knew I needed it because my will was strong, and he loved me enough to do whatever it took to get me back on track.

It was painful, not life scarring or traumatic, but it hurt enough for me to remember not to cross the line again.

If we being evil can discipline our children to correct them, how much more can a good ann dholy God discipline his children?

God’s discipline serves a purpose.

God’s discipline serves a purpose.

It is not willy nilly or given in a drunken rage.

God’s discipline for you is to serve you, to better you, to conform you into the image of his son.

The writer of Hebrews uses the word paideuo, which means to discipline with the notion of correction.

It can also carry the idea of educate and train up.

In verse 11, the writer of Hebrews says that God trains his children to bear fruit.

The idea of training is an athletic metaphor.

Like an athlete who trains his body, or disciplines his body, for a race, so God trains his children through discipline to bear fruit.

Hebrews 12:9-11 explains the purposes for God’s discipline.

The fruit of Respectful Submission (v9).

By respectfully, I mean to embrace God’s will, even when it is painful, as good for your life.

We do not naturally embrace God’s will, even if we think we do.

Keep in mind, only God knows the depths of your heart (Psalm 139).

Knows how deep we harbor unbelief that likes to tell God he can go this far and no further.

He knows exactly what he needs to do get your heart to say, not my will but your will be done.

When I was but a year old in the faith I strayed into a pattern of sin.

What started off as something good quickly turned into sin when i refused to accept God’s will on the matter.

In hindsight, the more God said no about this thing, the more I leaned into my stubborn will.

God sent several people to speak into my life that the path I was pursuing was not God’s will.