How To Recognize Fruit (Sermon)

How to Recognize Fruit

John 9: 30 The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
34 To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out. (New International Version)

I was listening to a pastor who was teaching about the healing of the man born blind. And, since my mind works in strange ways, I started to read on ahead in the chapter and I was struck by this passage. Did you know that in some Bibles this section starting at verse 13 is labeled “The Pharisees Investigate the Healing”? Since I have this weird little mind of mine I started to think, “Now isn’t that just like some Christians today?” I mean it.

How often do you hear about how this thing or that thing or the other thing can’t possibly be used of God because it’s too loud or too expensive or it sounds different from the way we talk when we’re in church? Why is that? Do we think we have the corner on all spiritual knowledge and God can’t do what He wants to without checking with us first? Or at least He should send us a memo about the change, right? You say Christians don’t act that way. Oh, really? In the time since I became a Christian I have heard this same story so many times it doesn’t even surprise me anymore, which is a shame.

I went with my family to a picnic held by a Christian motorcycle club a few years ago. While I was there I had occasion to meet one of their members who served as a chaplain for their group. Things were going along well until we began discussing the Bible. That’s an odd thing for Christians to have differences about, don’t you think? We couldn’t agree about what it says in THE BIBLE? The handbook of our faith? Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth? Well, it seems that I was using a sinful Bible. I had no idea. But it seems the New International Version is the spawn of hell and damnation! At least it is to hear this gent tell it. According to him, and I later found out quite a number of other Christians, it’s a work of iniquity. Why, you may ask?

Well, it seems that certain verses are translated a bit differently in the NIV than they are in the King James. Some verses have many clauses to them and some were considered by the scholars who authored the NIV to be parenthetical so they were included as footnotes to show the possible interpretations of the Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic texts. As anyone who has studied a foreign language can tell you, things don’t always translate directly from one language to another. There are shades of meaning in one language for concepts that are straightforward in another language and can’t be nuanced properly.

I can’t and don’t intend to launch into a lengthy description of all the verses in the NIV that offend the King James Only crowd. Just know that this is a major controversy for many in the church today. It has been known to split entire churches. By the way, this same gentleman tried to tell me that I needed to get written permission to use any passage from the NIV because it is copyrighted. Does anybody out there have a King James Bible with them this morning? Open it in the front. Is it copyrighted? I thought so.

Another thing that has been known to cause dissension in the church is music; not only the style, but the manner of performance. My mother-in-law goes to a church in Alabama where there is no piano, no organ, no guitars or tambourines. All the music is performed a cappella at every service. It seems that since there are no mentions of musical instruments in Leviticus, which has to do with the conduct of worship, they don’t feel there should be any musical instruments used in worship.

Another topic where Christians get into enormous disagreements is the use of modern music in worship services. This controversy, believe it or not, is as old as the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther borrowed tunes from popular drinking songs and grafted Christian lyrics onto them. This was considered heresy by his colleagues. But I kind of like “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” and “Away in A Manger” don’t you? A young boy some years later told his father that he didn’t like the hymns being used in the church because their style was so far out of date. The father replied that the youngster should write better songs if he was so smart. So Isaac Watts took him up on the offer and wrote “Behold the Glories of the Lamb” using the tune of a popular song of that day and the year was 1690.

“But” some might say, “the current modern music can’t be used, can it? I mean the kids all get so wild when they hear it. They tear up the theaters and cause riots.” Yes, we need to watch out for music that causes this kind of behavior. That’s why Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” should never be played in a church because that’s just what the audience did when it debuted in Paris in 1913. But we would never dream of saying that classical music is not worthy of our churches.

So where am I going with all this information? I should think it would be obvious. Look again at verse 33. “33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." (NIV) Again, “33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

Do you understand? Don’t be so quick to judge whether or not something is worthy of use for God’s work. If it bears fruit, it’s sanctified, because God is blessing it! Does this mean we’re supposed to run around trying to do the Lambada for Jesus? I wouldn’t. But there are a whole lot of things that can be done for Christ that people would feel comfortable doing in this church with His eyes looking down seeing what it is you are doing.

Many people think that doing taekwondo as a ministry is nonsense. I had one guy come up to me and say, “How does that work? Do they go around fighting each other saying ‘Jesus loves you.’ whack?” He didn’t really want to know. He just wanted to prove that I was wrong and he was right.

People try to change the way I do ministry all the time. But it doesn’t work. Do you know why? Yes, I’m stubborn. But besides that, I know that the NIV bears fruit. I know that the taekwondo ministry was bearing fruit. I know that contemporary Christian music bears fruit. And if Jesus tells me to throw my net on the right side, you watch me move to starboard. I’m willing to be led. I’m willing to use anything I’ve got at my disposal to witness or lead or coach or comfort enough to bring someone into the kingdom. And I’m willing to let others or even help others with using things that relate to their talents. But that’s because I judge ministries by fruit.
Do you know what fruits I’m talking about?

Galatians 5: 22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (NIV)

When you look at something someone is doing in the name of Christ, ask yourself, “Are these people loving? Kind? Joyful? Patient? Faithful? Gentle? Self-controlled?” Is there prayer going on? Are people showing each other love? Are people coming to Christ? Are they being instructed in Christian living? These are the types of fruit to look for.

You can also look for indications of the absence of the Holy Spirit which are contained in verses 19 thru 21. If there is impurity, sexual immorality, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness and things such as that, then whatever it is cannot be from God. This isn’t rocket science. The Bible says that the knowledge of good and evil is born within each of us, so there is no excuse for not following what is good.

In his book, The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren says, “Fruitfulness is a major theme of the New Testament. Consider the following:
“We are called by Christ to bear fruit. “16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” (John 15:16) God wants to see lasting fruit come from our ministry.
Being fruitful is the way we glorify God. “8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”(John 15:8) An unfruitful ministry does not bring glory to God.
Being fruitful pleases God. “10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work” (Col 1:10)
Jesus reserved his severest judgment for the unfruitful tree. He cursed it because it didn’t bear fruit. “Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May you never bear fruit again!’ Immediately the tree withered” (Matt 21:19). Jesus didn’t do this to show off but to make a point: He expects fruitfulness!
The nation of Israel lost its privilege because of unfruitfulness. “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Matt 21:43). ” (SEE Footnote 1)

And that brings us back to our lovely little group of Pharisees. They set out to “investigate” this healing. It wasn’t done to suit them so they had to find something wrong with the one who did it. But they couldn’t. They just kept repeating their catch phrase, “He’s a sinner.” like a bunch of over-fluffed parrots. “Awk! He’s a sinner!” Nice discernment, dude! Does Caiaphas give you a cracker if you say it fifty times or something?

What was there to investigate? They didn’t have the science in those days to analyze the mud. Even if they had, I have a suspicion that it was just that; mud. The important thing was where it came from. Didn’t they know this man had been blind from birth? Probably not. The Pharisees are chronicled as a group too busy being important to get to know the people they were supposed to be leading to God.

They questioned this man several times. They questioned his parents. You’ll notice they didn’t question any witnesses. They questioned a man who had been blind until he left Jesus’ presence to wash in the pool of Siloam and his parents who weren’t even there probably. Nice work, Kojak! You’ll never make detective at that rate.

The point is that they ignored the fruit because the method didn’t fit with their plan. (If you want to make God laugh – tell Him Your plan.) They had too much invested in being the only game in town. They had to be consulted before anything Holy went on in their district. Who did this Jesus guy think He was, coming around here healing people without their permission? And on the Sabbath, too? But Jesus knew He didn’t need their permission.

He knew that He could sanctify mud because He was the one who originally made all of its ingredients. Mud was enough. He could have called down fire from heaven and destroyed the Pharisees for questioning His authority. But He didn’t because He knew mud was enough. How do you sanctify mud? The answer is, YOU don’t, but He can.

God uses uncommon vessels to do His mightiest works. And I should know because I’m about as uncommon a vessel as has ever walked the earth! The only people who are put out by that fact are the ones who can’t recognize fruit when they see it, or they don’t care about fruit because they have another agenda.

Now how about you? Are you producing any fruit? Do people look at your life and see the way they want to live? Are you bringing people into the kingdom? Are you using all of your talents? And if you are here today and you don’t know Jesus, let me ask you this. Would you like your life to bear fruit? Would you like to be responsible for healing broken people? Would you like to bring your loved ones to the one who opens the door to heaven? Would you like to meet the Lord of Glory who gives peace for today and joy for eternity? If you’re here and you want to meet with Jesus today, then the altar is open through this next song. I’ll be happy to pray with you and so will our deacons. If you’re here today and you want more power in your walk and you want to re-dedicate yourself to the cause of Christ, then come on and we’ll pray together and ask God for that.


1. The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995, Pg 62