The Christian
Fruitfullness
By: Alfredo M. Inso Jr.
Introduction
Christians are suppose to bear fruit just as the branches on a fruit tree
bears fruit. If you planted a fruit bearing tree and does not bore even a
single fruit, no doubt you will surely be disappointed. At worst you would even
be thinking, “Now where is that axe!”
It’s because fruit bearing
trees are suppose to bear fruit and those that don’t, fail to fulfill their intended
purpose.
Christians in the Bible are
also described as the branches that suppose to bear fruits. If they don’t they
fail their intended purpose and so thereby useful for nothing but to throw into
the fire. This sermon will serve as a reminder to awaken sleeping Christians.
The first thing we are
going to do is of course to look up Scriptures that explicitly telling us the
principles of bearing fruits.
I. Principles of Bearing Fruit
In 2 Co 5:17 it tells us that if anyone is in Christ he is a new
creation the old has gone the new has come. Christians are new creation
recreated by God to glorify Him through fruitful lives.
John 15:16
You did not choose Me but I choose you and appointed
you to go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain (fruit that will
last) that whatever you ask the Father in My name he may give you.
Eph. 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God preapared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ro
7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even
to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
2Co
9:10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower and
bread for food, supply and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of
your righteousness;)
Php
1:11 Being filled with the fruits of
righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Php
4:17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire
fruit that may abound to your account.
II. The Fruit of Christians Emphasize
Description of a fruitful Life
Fruits
has been described as “The outwward expression of the inward
nature.” In other words Apple trees produces apples not oranges, Mango
trees produces mangoes not guavas.
In Matthew 7:15-20 The Lord
Jesus Christ warned His disciples concerning the false prophets who will come
to them in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Jesus said
to them, “You will them by their fruits.” (read Mat.
7:15-0; 12:33; Lu 6:43-45)
So what kind of fruit are Christians
supposed to produced?
Based on the Scriptures
above that we are chosen by God and appointed to go and bear fruit. We are
supposed to bear fruit. We are designed to bear fruits. So what kind of fruits
we are supposed to produced?
Since the inward nature of
Christians is Christ, if we are truly born again and regenerated, the
fruit of Christians is the manifistation of the life of Christ/Person of Christ
and His work.
1. Expressing the Person of Christ
In Gal 5:22-23 it says,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindess, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self control”
The fruit of the Spirit is
the expression of the Person of Christ in our lives. If you have the Spirit of
Christ in you, you will have this fruit.
Note: The
word fruit here is singular indicating the unity of all the qualities and they
are not separated/apart from each other but in unity, they are one.
Now let us examine every
quality with their description:
Love:
God’s uncondtional love charaterized by self sacrifice.
Joy:
God’s joy not based on material things but on the spiritual blessings.
Peace:
based on God’s sovereign love and acceptance.
Patience:
enduring unfair treatment by other people just as Christ did.
Kindess:
treating other people the same kindess God has shown us.
Goodness:
expressing the moral purity and the righteousness of God.
Faithfulness: being as trustworthy as God.
Gentleness;
displaying God’s humility in our dealings with others.
Self-Control: experiencing God’s control over our fleshly cravings/desires.
2. Expressing the work of Christ.
The Christian faith is not
a passive faith, but an active faith. We are called by God chosen by God as
Christians not only to believe, but also to obey. True faith produces loving
obedience. And so besides expressing the person of Christ, Christians are also
to express His work. The life of Christ is not only be manifested in us, but
also the work of Christ be manifested too in every Christian.
The purpose
and the work of Christ why He came here.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save
what was lost” Lu 19:10
“Just as the Son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many”
Matt 20:28
“..I have come that they
may have and have it to the full.” John 10:10
The primary reasons
Christ’s came is to offer His life as payment for sins, to seek and to save His
people from sins and the wrath of God which is to come, and to proclaim the
good news of God’s grace through and by Himself.
Christ Jesus was born to
die for our sins and set Himself as a Mediator between a Holy God and a sinful
man. He reconciled us back to God through His death on the cross. His life on
this earth was spent preaching and teaching repentance, the good news of God’s
amazing grace and the will of God.
III. Christians are predestined to be conformed to
the image of Christ.
In Ro. 8:29 it says that we
are predestined by God according to his purpose to be conformed to the image of
His Son Jesus Christ and not to the image of this world.
We are created by God to
Himself to bear fruits, to express the image and the person and the life of His
Son Jesus Christ and to express His work.
Christians are supposed to
have this the person of Christ in his life and the
work of Christ in His life. The fruit of the Spirit of Christ should come out
and be manifested among men and not to be invisible.
Christians are suppose to bear fruit for that is the very purpose of God in
their lives. That is their intended purpose they are desinged for that and God
prepared it beforehand that Christians sholud bear fruits, to grow and not to
be stagnant.
Their inward nature should
come out and you will know true Christians by their fruits. If the person of
Christ and His work be manifested in the life of a Christian, he or she is not
only a professing Christian, but he/she is a genuine Christian.
A good tree does not bear
bad fruit and bad fruit does not bear good fruit.
It’s not a guarantee my
friend if you only say that you abide in Christ and yet bears no fruit in your
Christian life for we know that there is no who abides in Christ bears no fruit
because those who truly abides in Christ bore fruits.
Jesus said,”Abide in Me and
I in you so that you will bear fruits, apart from you can do nothing”
“If we say that we abide in
Him we ought to walked jaust as He (Christ Jesus) walked.” 1 John 2:6
Warning !
“Every tree that doest not bear goo fruit is cut
down and thrown into the fire!” Matt 7:19
Conclusion:
Therfore my beloved
brethern examined yourselves and meditate this sermon.
Try to look at yourself and not others and ask this question in you:
“Did I bear fruits as I am
supposed to? Do the Person of Christ and His work are expressed and manifested
in my life as a Christian?
If not then repent! ask Christ to help you to filled your life with Christ and
thereby to bear fruits.
We as Christians are supposed to live the life of
Christ, to have a Christ like life and we are also supposed to do His work this
are our fruits. Not to become like world and it’s
lust.