To bear the Fruit

 

By Pastor Young Joon Park

November 30, 2008

 

John 12:20-26

20 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast;

21 these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, ¡°Sir, we wish to see Jesus.¡±

22 Philip *came and *told Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came and *told Jesus.

23 And Jesus *answered them, saying, ¡°The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

24 ¡°Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

25 ¡° He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

26 ¡°If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

 

Story: One old American couple traveled to Israel.

 

We will die and face the eternal life or death.

If we believe in Jesus truly, then we will face the eternal life in Heaven with the Lord.

If we do not believe in Jesus truly, then we will face the eternal death in hell.

Lot of people do not want to hear about the hell because of the fear or disbelief.

Whether we like it or not the hell is real and people will go to hell if they do not believe in Jesus.

 

Whoever believes in Jesus truly – for the eternal reward.

Whoever does not believe in Jesus true heart – for the eternal judgment.

 

Romans 10:9-10

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

 

 

 

I. The time frame of the Gospel of John

 

1. FIRST YEAR OF MINISTRY (1:19–4:54)

2. SECOND YEAR OF MINISTRY (Chap. 5)

3. THIRD YEAR OF MINISTRY (Chap. 6 – 11:57)

4. THE LAST WEEK OF HIS LIFE (12:1-19:42)

5. DURING 40 DAYS AFTER THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS (20 – 21)

 

 

II. GOD loves YOU

20 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast;

21 these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, ¡°Sir, we wish to see Jesus.¡±

22 Philip *came and *told Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came and *told Jesus.

23 And Jesus *answered them, saying, ¡°The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

 

1. Plan for the Gentiles

John 10:16

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

 

Their action and guide was the prophetic action of leading the Gentiles to the Lord. And also their stronghold of the concept toward Gentile was shifted up from this time even if they did not realize what they were doing.

 

and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

 

Jesus¡¯ Disciples did not understand this word until Acts 11:

 

Acts 11:18

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ¡°So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.¡±

 

God loves everyone and that is why He sent His Only begotten Son Jesus.

 

2. Plan for the world

 

The time was ripe, because the Gentiles (Greek is the symbol of the Gentile) joined with His disciples, they were in Jerusalem where the sacrifice of Himself for the world as the witnesses of His death as the Savior and the Lord not for only for Israel, but for the Gentiles (the world) as in John 3:16. They met Jesus and watched the Jesus¡¯ Crucifixion.

 

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

This word means that God loves you individually.

 

When we read Bible, sometimes we wondered which word is for us, because most of the word that God spoke is for the people of Israel, so it seems like that some word is not for us.

 

Some scholars emphasized that many parts of the word are written toward people of Israel and not for us, so it feels like the word is not a fit for us.

 

But Jesus spoke to us that all of us are included in His Plan, that is why He said about us as OTHER SHEEP, WORLD, and ONE FLOCK WITH ONE SHEPHARD.

 

3. Identification for the Gentiles

John 17:20-21

20 ¡°My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message,

21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

 

Also Jesus identifies us as Himself.

 

Jesus encountered Saul when he was on the way to Damascus to persecute the Christians. Jesus called him and rebuked him.

 

Acts 9:4-5

4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ¡°Saul, Saul, why do you persecute   Me?¡±

5 ¡°Who are You, Lord?¡± Saul asked.

   ¡°I am Jesus, whom You are persecuting,¡± He replied.

 

Jesus introduced the Christians as Himself to Saul.

Jesus identified us as Himself, which means all the word in the Bible is ours.

 

Then how much difference there is between Jews and Gentiles as far as the Blood of Jesus Christ is concerned?

 

4. No difference between Jew and Gentile

Romans 10:12-13

12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him,

13 for, ¡°Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.¡±

 

Not only that, but also we are inheritance of the Lord.

 

Colossians 1:12

giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

So

Every word for the Israel is yours.

Every word for Jesus is yours.

 

When we have the intimate relationship with the Lord, He will give you His Understanding, His Knowledge and His Wisdom with His Revelation.

 

 

III. Our obligation to bear fruit

 

24 ¡°Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

25 ¡° He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

26 ¡°If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

 

1. The Grain of Wheat

 

We use the seed for two different purposes  

One for planting and the other to be used for food

 

This purpose of grain is to bear fruits and multiply

 

      (1) This grain must fall onto the earth

Grain has very hard skin, and the hardness is like as a stone.

When this grain falls onto the earth, this hard skin becomes soft and dies, then produce much fruit.

So our hearts and minds have to be broken and die for the fruit.

The purpose of our life is to produce the fruit, a lot of it.

 

The earth is the place where we are everyday.

We are going to face many different circumstances and environments that we are not comfortable in, or simply we do not like.

Through all different situations we are made to be soft and cause us to die.

 

Romans 8:28-29

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

29 For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

 

Sometimes we have difficult environments, and other times we have different situations.

Like today, we are facing the economy problem.

 

But through this we are getting ready for the new things that God is preparing for His Kingdom in coming months and years.

 

We cannot control the circumstances or environment, but we can overcome it by the Holy Spirit. We have to submit to the Lord and follow His Will alone daily.

 

      (2) This grain has to die

 

We do not die because of our pride.

Why do we fight with others? Because my thoughts are better than others and people do not want to get their prides hurt.

 

Our life is short and we will receive the reward from the Lord or Judgment according to how we follow the Lord during our life on earth.

 

Some times I see the news about the celebrities¡¯ life.

They do not know where they are going and what the purposes of their lives are at all.

 

When we die we will bear much fruit as a result.

We will understand whether we died or not when we see our fruit.

 

The principle of the Lord

 

         a) Unless one dies – it remains alone – no bear fruit

              He who loves his life – his life will be lost.

         b) If one dies – it bears much fruit.

              He who hates his life in this world – his life will be kept to life eternal.

 

2. The requirement of Jesus¡¯ Disciple

Luke 9:23

Then He said to them all: ¡°If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

 

   1) He must deny himself – yield to the Lord completely

 

   2) He must take up his cross daily – let my will to die

 

   3) Follow Me – follow His Will alone

 

3. The testimony of Apostle Paul

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

Jesus took all my sins and nailed them 100% on His Cross already, so there is no more of my flesh sin, because I no longer live in this flesh.

So my life is no longer mine any more, but belongs to the Lord.

 

That is why we have to hate the sin and hate our sinful life.

 

We are dead because of the sin, and the sin is stinging matter and there is no hope at all. So we have to hear the voice of the Lord like as Lazarus heard the voice of Jesus.

And we have to come out right away from the ungodly matter.

 

Fear of the Lord means to hate the sin just the same as God hates sin, and also knowing that God does not compromise with any sin at all.

 

So our Christian life is to live on this earth with faith in the Son of God, and stay in the intimate relationship in Him.

 

4. The Promise

    1) You will bear fruit.

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

 

Matthew 28:19a

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, ¡¦

 

    2) The Father will honor you.

Daniel 12:3b

¡¦ and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

 

 

Conclusion

 

1. Do you realize that the Lord loves you so much at personal level?

2. Every word of the Lord is yours.

3. To bear fruit, it requires that you need to die.

4. The practical way for you to die – to die your will and to follow the Lord's Will

 

One of army officer trained his soldiers with grenades in Korea during the Vietnam War around 1965.

But one soldier mishandled a grenade and slipped it out from his hand during the training in the middle of the soldiers. The officer threw his own body over the grenade as soon as he saw this accident and saved other soldiers¡¯ lives.

There was not much time to think about it, because he only had 4 or 5 seconds to decide when the solider took the safety pin from the grenade.

But this officer instantly made a decision to save his soldiers.

 

He is regarded as one of the all time Korean hero..

 

Jesus Christ died for us without any hesitation, because He loves us so much.

So we have been saved and there are so many people coming to the Lord everyday throughout the world.

 

We need to die everyday, not only for ourselves, but also for those who had not come to the Lord yet and for the Kingdom of the Lord.

We will see the fruit when we die.

 

And let¡¯s sacrifice our life to reach out the lost with Jesus¡¯ Blood.