What is success in your life?
What does it look like to be fruitful in your life?
I wonder what businesses you work at or even the communities you are in and are a part of,
what is fruitfulness?
Would fruitfulness look like more income for the company?
Would it look like happy customers, happy stakeholders?
Perhaps in your key performance indicators, it looks like insurance procedures are followed,
managing a growing team, having more and more sales.
And maybe even DJ Khaled's song captures what fruitfulness and success is like,
which I'm sure will bring some blank faces in the room, but just have a listen to the lyrics.
All I do is win, win, win, no matter what.
Got money on my mind, I can never get enough.
Enough.
You see, the human condition has always been chasing for the outcome to make something bigger
and better, to add more software updates, to bring a new iPhone.
We are all like that.
We are people who want to see success and outcomes in our life.
And even if we're not, even if we're not the ambitious kind of person, we still want success.
We still want outcome.
It might not be as grandiose, but it might just sound like,
if there was just one thing or one challenge in my life,
and if that one thing was sorted, then I'd be happy.
The common human experience is this outcome-shaped hole in our heart, and we keep trying to fill it.
John 15 gives us the grandest vision of fruitfulness and success in life that is all-consuming,
glorious, and majestic.
But unlike any KPI, unlike any success criteria, the one in this passage is satisfying.
Friends, I'm convinced that this passage that we have just read answers those age-old existential questions
that we are either consciously or unconsciously asking ourselves.
So let's pray.
Father God, we are thankful that we can just gather and praise you.
If there are stresses in our life that repeatedly trample over our minds,
may your peace and comfort intercede for us right now, so we can just hear from you.
For we know in 2 Timothy 3.16 that your word enables us to be teachable,
to be corrected and encouraged, and to point us to the life and salvation found in Jesus.
So help us listen to your word.
Amen.
So we're currently in a series called Abundant Life, looking at the Gospel of John.
And for the last and the next few weeks, we are in what Bible teachers call the farewell discourse,
which is the message Jesus gives to his disciples, preparing them for when he says, well, farewell.
Last week in John 14, Dan encouraged us in Jesus' promise of future hope
and his ongoing presence through his spirit.
And so this week, Jesus continues in particularly that ongoing presence aspect.
It's more of the, now what?
If Jesus goes away, what does that mean day to day?
What's our purpose?
Which is in fact our first point, our purpose.
If you're taking notes or have the St. Paul's app to follow along, I have three points.
Number one, the purpose.
Number two, the attributes.
And number three, the means.
So let's jump into verse one.
I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.
He 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.
We are made clear here that Jesus makes an exclusive statement that he is the true vine that the fruit grows off.
Jesus is the true vine.
The previous place I was living in, it had this vine that was all-consuming.
It would cover the brickwork to the point that it would even start nestling in.
I don't know if you've got those windows that have like panes and so it had like little gaps.
And it was healthy because it was growing, growing inside the house, which is not what we wanted.
And there's something unique that we must hear when we look at this image, this all-consuming vine,
that Jesus is the vine and that we are his branches.
So let's keep looking at this extended metaphor.
Verse eight.
This is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
And he says it again, verse 16.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.
Then again in verse two.
He 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.
Fruitfulness is so important to God that he even prunes the branches that are already fruitful
because he wants them to flourish and abound in even more fruit.
And it is crystal clear that the purpose that we have been made for, the purpose that you have been made for,
is to bear fruit.
There are no two ways about this.
It cannot be that, oh, I'm connected to Jesus.
I'm connected to Jesus, the true vine, but because of the season of life I'm in,
I'm just going to take a break from Jesus and bearing fruit.
You cannot disconnect the follower of Jesus from the bearing of fruit.
It was what you were made to do.
If a vine bears fruit, through his branches, and if Jesus is the vine, his disciples are to bear fruit.
And so it makes sense that in verse six, Jesus says,
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 burnt.
A vine is meant to grow fruit as roses need petals.
You know that junk drawer that you have collecting all the odd bits and bobs like nails that fall out,
miscellaneous furniture, old batteries, items that don't have a home,
maybe some pen lids, all of that kind of thing.
And you're like, just one day, just one day, there'll be a need for it.
But ten years later, it's still collecting dust.
It's called a junk drawer for a reason.
It's junk.
It's no longer filling its purpose.
It's useless.
And if this is the purpose of all people,
if fruitfulness is the purpose for all people,
then we ought to ask,
are you living out the purpose of the creator?
Do you even know your creator?
Are you fruitful?
The thing is, we've already established that in all spheres of life,
our success measures can be different.
And unfortunately, we as Christians and even our churches are impacted by the culture around us
rather than responsive to our culture.
And sometimes we say, fruitfulness must look like a big building
or a large number of resources.
But even worse, we can have really dangerous thoughts creep in our community,
such as,
I know I'm a fruitful Christian because God is blessing me with lots of money,
happy kids, and a smooth sailing life.
And to this I want to say,
God does not promise any of those things.
Nor is that the reality of humanity.
For suffering at all levels is the common experience.
So to say that,
that would be a lie.
We will all have different opinions on what it looks like to be fruitful in your life.
And so what we really need to do is we need to pull apart what Jesus is saying here in John 15,
Jesus the truth vine.
What does he mean by fruitfulness?
What is fruit according to John 15?
What are the attributes of fruit?
Well, let's look at verse again slowly.
This is to my Father's glory,
that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples.
By bearing much fruit,
glory is given to the Father.
The purpose of fruit is to give glory to God.
Fruitfulness is when God is being made big in your life.
It's when he is made supreme.
If Jesus is the vine,
the fruit that you bear is all-consuming,
majestic and glorious,
because it points to him.
It might be different to what our world might expect God's fruitfulness to look like.
In fact, I think this reality is actually comforting.
It's a comfort,
because you can glorify God
and be fruitful,
even when your child is screaming at you.
You can be fruitful
when the trials of life come,
because fruitfulness is not on the account of your measure,
but the glorification of God.
So you can rest easy.
It's to make him great,
not to make you look good.
Fruitfulness is not about your success
or your glory,
but about Jesus' glory.
And in the process of trials,
he is refining you
to make you more like Jesus.
It was great that our Boom Holiday Kids program
more than doubled our numbers last year,
but I did have to ask myself,
would I be all right
if we didn't grow?
Or even less?
Would we still be fruitful?
And the answer is yes,
because we got to present lives
that heard the gospel and responded.
The number and the success is up to God.
It's not up to me.
In fact, the Bible uses the term fruit
in a range of different ways,
and they all lead to the glory of God.
So there's three that I'd like to mention.
The first one is actually in God's very,
very first call of humanity
as he created the world.
In Genesis 1, 27 to 28,
it says on the screen,
so God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created them.
Male and female, he created them,
and God blessed them,
and God said to them,
be fruitful and multiply.
This is the fruit of resemblance.
You glorify God when you live out your purpose
of resembling God who created you in his image.
You are an image bearer.
You are his representative on earth.
But resembling God from just the knowledge of God
is like when you read a book.
Think Harry Potter.
It's been turned into a movie.
You watch and you see Hermione Granger
and one of the characters,
and you think,
okay, that's not quite what I had in mind
when I first read the book,
I was thinking more of this than this.
The director tried their best,
but not quite when I was reading the pages off the screen.
In the same way, we can't get it right.
We can't get resembling right on our own merit.
Our view of God
is like looking through a sheer curtain.
It's obscured.
But there is a perfect image of God
who we are called to become more like.
In Colossians 1.15,
it describes Jesus as the image of the invisible God,
the I am of the true vine.
That I am is his declaration
that he is the same God who created you.
He's the same God who was,
who is, and will always be.
Fruit is when we start becoming more like Jesus.
His character, his obedience,
his way of being.
The second one is the fruit of the harvest.
In fact, it is what God commands
and created man for the beginning
after the fruitfulness,
which is to multiply.
And it's not just an,
all right, let's have five more kids.
Please, I would love more Christian kids.
There is a shift for multiplication
in Jesus' commissioning of his followers
in Matthew 28.
It's not just more children,
but actually to go and make disciples
of all nations.
Fruitfulness is when more disciples
are made for Christ.
It's the fruit of the harvest.
Think of that wonderful verse
that Jesus says in Matthew 9.
The harvest is plentiful,
but the workers are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
to send out workers into his harvest.
Does your fruitfulness look like seeing new followers of Jesus?
Are you a prayer warrior for the harvest?
Are you one of the harvest workers?
At St. Paul's, we encourage you to do this
by praying one plus one plus one.
Pray for one person for one minute each day
that God might transform their life
to be able to hear God's good news
and follow Christ.
The final one is the fruit of the Spirit
in Galatians 5.
And what this is really
is it captures a renovation
and a transformation
of the inner heart by the Spirit.
It's the character of love,
joy, peace,
forbearance.
It's a heart that is becoming
more like the heart of Christ.
And that's what we want to actually see
in our community.
You can see those characteristics are not private.
They are not solely for the self,
but they are deeply relational.
If we are all growing in fruitfulness,
what a mutually loving community
as we forbear with one another,
as we are patient and caring
and kind with one another.
That's the picture back in John 15, 17.
These things I command you
so that you will love one another.
Growing in fruitfulness
leads to a wonderful,
other-centered community,
but it's also mutual.
Look in verse 11.
It says that this fruitfulness
should lead to our joy as well.
Because fruitfulness
has always been
about God's glory
and our joy.
Glorification of God
leads
to our joy.
If you're in the room
and you're uncertain about
whether Jesus and his fruit
is worth living for,
I really would love
genuinely to know
a success marker
that is as joyful,
glorifying,
and eternal.
Come chat to me after.
Because if you're looking
for efficiency
in terms of more bang
for your buck,
let's just say
you put 80 hours of work
each week.
All the results of that,
even the earthly
and financial security
that you gain from that,
ceases eventually.
it's fleeting.
You can't take it
with you beyond the grave.
But,
if we can take Jesus
at his word,
if he is trustworthy,
his fruitfulness
will be like no other,
just like in verse 16.
His fruit will last
forever.
But it is a fruitless
exercise
for you and I
to try to be fruitful
on our own merit.
As much as I have encouraged you
to pray for the harvest,
I want to see
a desire
for transformation
in my life,
we need to listen
very carefully
to Jesus' words
in verse 5.
I am the vine
and you are the branches,
whoever abides in me
and I in him.
He it is
that bears much fruit,
for apart from me
you can do nothing.
Jesus is the agent
of bearing much fruit.
Remember in verse 1,
the father
is the gardener.
He is the one
who prunes,
not us.
So we must be careful
to think
that fruitfulness,
success comes
from the voice within
because it doesn't.
So how does someone
bear fruit?
What is it,
the means
by which we bear fruit?
It's in verse 4.
Remain
in me
as I also
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.
If you want
to bear fruit,
it starts
in remaining
in Christ.
It's this image
of being
deeply rooted
in the true vine,
unmoving,
steadfast
in the beauty
and ever-growing
nature
that comes
from being
a part
of a vine
that will
always produce
fruit.
And John's
usage of
remain here,
it's a relational
sense of remain,
the remaining
in him.
When you engage
with someone
relationally,
you really get
to know them,
whether it's
your spouse,
a friend,
even your barista.
Hopefully you get
to know their heart,
they love coffee,
their will,
they want to make
coffee,
and their mind,
they know how
to make good
coffee.
And you really
want to listen
to them.
That's what it
is to remain
in Jesus,
to know his
heart and love
for you,
to know his
will over your
life,
to know his
mind.
Remaining in
Jesus produces
much fruit.
That's our role.
That's our key
responsibility.
I wonder if you've
ever been in a
pattern where there
is a sin or an
idolatry that you
just want to stop
happening in your
life.
You don't want it
to define you.
And there is a
character trait that
just isn't growing.
And instead,
you might be growing
in jealousy or
envy.
And it's all well
and good to know
that we're called
to bear fruit.
But you feel like
constantly you are
conforming to the
image of the world
rather than the
image of Christ.
Christ.
Friend, your
call is to
remain in
Christ.
The fruitfulness
comes with
wholeheart commitment
to remaining.
What we must
reconcile here is
actually in verse
10.
It says,
if you keep my
commands, you
will remain in my
love, just as I
have kept my
father's commands
and remain in
his love.
The way to
understand this
verse is that in
the extended
metaphor of Jesus
being the true
vine, we need
to understand that
his vine is not a
vine of a former
glory that failed
to grow and bear
fruit.
He is the vine that
grows unstoppably on
that brick wall.
Because remaining
is not behaviour or
sin management.
I'm going to say
that again.
Remaining is not
behaviour or sin
management.
It's a total
transformation of
your being.
Because if you
remain in the true
vine, your
obedience, your
fruitfulness is
purely the natural
result of a heart
that loves and
remains in Jesus.
And you see, Jesus
doesn't call us to
something to which
he has not modelled
himself.
He's calling us to
keep his commands in
the same way he has
kept his fathers.
And he calls us to
remain in his love.
And he describes that
love in verse 13.
Greater love has no
one than this, to lay
down one's life for
one's friends.
You are my friends if
you do what I command
you.
Jesus is saying that
out of all the
experiences of love,
all the greatest love
stories and songs ever
written, better than
anything Taylor Swift or
Shakespeare can write,
is a love story of
someone who remains and
obeys his father's
will.
When Jesus obeys his
father in laying down
his life, he literally
does it for God's
glory and our joy.
It's because you are
the friend he died
for.
You're the friend.
Jesus' pure, unwavering
commitment to you and
God the father led to
the restoration of what
would have been a
broken branch from the
vine.
Remaining in his love
looks like the
constant retelling of
this story to
yourself again and
again.
It's like having this
childlike wonder who
wants to read the same
story over and over
again because it brings
them so much joy.
It's in every moment,
sorrow or praise that
you remember the gospel
story to remind
yourself that you
remain in Jesus because
he has already
remained.
Church,
keep remaining in his
love, keep remaining in
his story.
So what does remaining
look like day to day?
It doesn't look like
going to find that vine on
your wall and attaching
yourself and tying a knot.
Self-help books,
ministry strategies,
knowing your star sign or
your personality type, a
diary, productivity tools,
although some being more
helpful than others,
none of those are the
start to fruitfulness.
Striving and working hard
is not the solution to your
outcome-shaped hole.
Fruitfulness starts in
remaining in his story and
his love and sometimes you do
actually a disfavor to
yourself when you think you
need to move past the story of
the gospel because you've
heard it a million times.
And then you start some
self-improvement in just
becoming a better person in
your life.
But the passage is clear.
We don't move on.
We just abide in the gospel
even deeper.
So if you've come away from
this talk thinking you need
to be more successful or you
need to try hard at being
fruitful, I have really done
you a disservice.
And I apologise profusely.
If there is anything as a
church that we need to
focus on, it is the
heartbeat of remaining and
abiding in Christ.
For example, have you thought
that the reason why you
might not see in your own
heart a mission urgency for
the gospel is because you
aren't in Christ's love and in
his story?
It's because you're not in it
regularly, day in and day
out.
If you think of the month
calendar and each month
having 30 days approximately,
each day having 24 hours,
there would be 360 waking
hours.
For the more extreme, maybe
like 480.
I'm going to be honest.
I don't know if nearly two
hours each Sunday is helping
us remain.
Out of those waking hours,
that's just 2% of a month.
If we even came for every
single week, just 2%.
And if that's the amount that
we are remaining, we must
wonder if that gives us an
unwavering and steadfast
devotion to Jesus.
How about the 98%?
How about all the other days,
minutes, and hours?
What is consuming our brains,
our hearts, and our thoughts?
What are you actually remaining
in?
As if Sunday is the only time we
carve out space for Jesus.
But all time is the Lord's.
We sing, O great God of highest
heaven, occupy my lowly heart.
But don't occupy my time.
Every action, every rhythm of
life, every practice builds a
heart and will that remains in
something.
Whether consciously or unknowingly,
you are building a heart that
remains in something.
It's just whether you remain in
Jesus' vine or a fake vine.
And I'm going to say that I have
admitted to many people that I do
my best work in strategic planning
in the setting of late nights
and Maccas.
Or so many times, like, I do my
best work.
But I wonder if I've trained
myself to do that over years
and years of practice.
Now, I'm not saying that's bad.
I'm just saying that regular
practices that you do shape you.
They can shift your being where
your heart chooses to remain.
And the best way to grow in this
sense of remaining and abiding is
setting up our life in a way that
helps us remain in the true vine.
Just even small little steps to get
there.
So where in your life do you need to
start remaining so that you can be
fruitful?
Where can you redeem moments of your
day for the Lord Jesus?
Submit those wills and times to
Jesus so that you can remain steadfast
to hearing his words and his story.
I wanted to capture that in a really
memorable way.
And all I could think about is maths.
Three simple operations.
Subtract, add, and multiply.
It's very Ed Sheeran.
And I really did try to put divide,
but that's not going to work.
Subtract, add, or multiply will help
you remain in Jesus.
Firstly, subtract.
Maybe there is something that you do
that is not helping you remain in
Jesus.
Something that is taking your time and
attention from remaining.
Subtract it.
Cut it out.
Remove it.
If that's the case, come chat with me.
Get some wise counsel with someone who
can mentor you and help you grow in
godliness.
Chat with someone with a lanyard.
Number two, add.
Outside of subtracting, there are
actually other things that maybe you've
never considered in your life that
perhaps aren't necessarily bad, but it
just takes the mic off Jesus.
Have you thought about curating your
media intake?
What is it that you read?
What are the podcasts that you listen
to?
Music, TV, YouTube, social media.
And I'm not saying subtract all these
things completely from your life, but
instead let's add value.
Why don't you add and follow social
media sites that help you see Jesus'
love and his story?
I've got a ton if you want.
Have you thought about listening to
podcasts that make you chase Christ
rather than chase what the world
offers?
Instead of just listening to music
like, all I do is win, when you're
going for a run, play some pump-up
worship tunes.
We've got a St. Paul's playlist.
How can you add moments that help you
embrace the gospel in your existing
structures?
Because I wonder if half the battle
here isn't this striving to do more and
more, but rather just redeeming what we
are already doing and adding eternal
value.
And lastly, multiply.
Maybe we need to multiply rhythms that
God has graciously given us that we know
are tools to experience his presence and
work in our life.
Looks like abiding in his word, in prayer,
and community.
We keep talking about personal devotional
life because we're convinced that is part
of you embracing the love of his story and
of Christ in your life.
It's a part of remaining in him.
So multiply the amount that you're in the
Bible.
Maybe instead of once a month, it becomes
once a week.
Then it becomes daily.
Then it becomes day and night.
Read the Bible with your spouse, your
housemate, your best bud.
Increase your church attendance.
Not so you can tick a box, not so that other
people will be happy, but to genuinely hang
out with people who are encouraging you to
abide in Jesus.
Maybe there's someone you love chatting to at
morning tea or in your community group.
At morning tea, grab their number.
Give them a call or a text during the week and
see how they're growing and going and how
you can be praying for them.
Church, imagine just if we all chose one
thing, not all just one thing, taking one
little step.
I'm imagining a church that is genuinely
shaping their life to remain in the goodness
of Christ's words and his commands.
And what overflows is a community that deeply
loves, cares, and is sacrificial like the image
of Christ who remains with his church.
I can see that God would use this to stand out
this community in Chatswood for his glory and the
joy of all people.
And I really want to pray that this is the trajectory
of the journey for you as individuals, but for us as a
whole community.
So why don't you join me as we talk to the Lord?
Father God, unite us as brothers and sisters in Christ
who delight in hearing, obeying, and embracing your word.
We thank you that your words contain the sweetest voice of Christ
who remains on the cross for your glory and our joy.
So we too pray that we might remain in Christ.
May you convict us of the reality that we must remain in his love
and his story to be unwaveringly devoted to our Lord and Savior.
God bless you, Savior.
Grant us the will and desire to take one little step that helps
us choose to remain rooted in your love and your saving story for us.
Amen.