Producing Much Fruit
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are God's spiritual vineyard
and we should bear fruit that reveals
that we are Christ's true disciples.
Here now is Gene Getz:
To understand what Isaiah is writing about
here in relationship to the future,
we need to understand the here and now.
And fortunately, we can understand
the here and now.
And when I say the here now,
I'm talking about the church age.
When the church was birthed
at Pentecost nearly 2,000 years ago.
We're still a part of that church--
that great company of believers.
But this was a mystery to Isaiah.
It was a mystery to the other prophets
in the Old Testament.
They didn't understand it.
In fact, it took Peter, James, and John,
and the apostles time to
even understand this period of time
after they began to carry out
the Great Commission.
And the apostle Paul writes about it
in his letter to the Ephesians.
And this is what he says:
By reading this you are able to
understand my insight about
the mystery of the Messiah. ...
And that's a good phrase:
the mystery of the Messiah.
Now the Old Testament talks
about the Messiah.
We've already seen in our studies
that the Messiah will come.
The Messiah will reign.
But it was a mystery in relationship to
what's going to happen
before Jesus Christ comes to reign.
And so Paul continues to explain this. He says:
...This was not made known to people
in other generations as it is
now revealed to His holy apostles
and prophets by the Spirit: ...
And when he talks about the apostles
and the prophets, here he's including himself.
But he's referring primarily to
those men that Jesus chose
and gave the Great Commission
to go into all the world.
Which of course, is our responsibility as well.
They did not fully understand that
until even after the Holy Spirit came
and began to reveal--
even to Peter, James, and John,
and others of the apostles.
And they were also called prophets--
to understand this mystery.
And so it shouldn't surprise us
that Isaiah didn't understand it.
The other Old Testament prophets
didn't understand it.
But Paul was thrilled that he understood it.
That he was recipient of this great truth
to be the great apostle to the Gentiles.
And so he continues. He says, here's
the mystery that is revealed:
...The Gentiles are coheirs,
members of the same body,
[and] partners of the promise
in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
. . . This is so God's multi-faceted wisdom
may now be made known through the church...
And the church is that body of believers
that we're a part of, baptized into the
body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
And Paul continues:
... [made known] to the rulers
and authorities in the heavens.
This is according to His eternal purpose
accomplished in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.
And what we have in the
redemptive story from Genesis right on
to the book of Revelation is an
explanation of God's eternal purpose.
And we are a part of this very significant event,
and process, and period of time
called the church age.
Now Isaiah, not understanding that of course,
goes right on to discuss--through God's Word,
through His revelation--the future glory of Zion.
Zion's future glory. In chapter 4,
verses 2 through 6:
On that day the Branch of the Lord
will be beautiful and glorious...
And there, if you look at the context,
I think it's very clear that
the Branch of the Lord is Jesus Christ,
the Messiah.
And he goes on to say:
...and the fruit of the land will be
the pride and glory of Israel's survivors. ...
And again, here I believe he's
talking about some of the
literal promises to Israel being fulfilled
during this millennial age--
the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ.
...Whoever remains in Zion
and whoever is left in Jerusalem
will be called holy--all in Jerusalem
who are destined to live--
when the Lord has washed away
the filth of the daughters of Zion
and cleansed the blood-guilt
from the heart of Jerusalem
by a spirit of judgment
and a spirit of burning. ...
In other words, Israel is going to
go through some real trials during what
the Bible calls the great tribulation,
which is explained in the early part
of the book of Revelation.
But they're going to come through that.
And that takes us on then into
the day when Christ will rule in Zion.
...Then the Lord will create
a cloud of smoke by day
and a glowing flame of fire by night...
And we don't know how literal that is.
But it really takes you back to
when the children of Israel came out of Egypt,
came across the Red Sea.
And God directed them
through the wilderness:
cloud of smoke by day
and fire by night.
It may be metaphorical but the fact is, it's protection,
God will be in control.
And God will be guiding you:
Oh, Jerusalem, you who are
followers of the Messiah.
And he goes on to say:
...over the entire site of Mount Zion
and over its assemblies. ...
There will be protection and guidance.
...For there will be a canopy
over all the glory,
[and] there will be a booth for shade
from heat by day, and a refuge
and shelter from storm and rain.
And probably that's metaphorical
language explaining protection.
God is there.
He will protect you.
All of you in Israel who confess your sins,
acknowledge your sins,
and worship the Messiah for
who He really was.
Now we know that that also includes
Gentiles as well during this period of time.
Though I believe the church of Jesus Christ
will have been removed from the earth.
And we will have the wonderful glorious
opportunity--beyond any imagination
that I could ever think of--
to rule and reign with Christ.
So that's a marvelous projection
on into the future in relationship to
Jesus Christ and producing fruit.
Now when we look at this the story biblically,
what Isaiah saw, but didn't understand fully,
if at all in some respects.
The apostle Paul looking back,
of course understood.
And made reference to
what was happening here.
What Isaiah was describing
when he wrote Philippians.
And in chapter 2, notice what Paul says.
Of course now understanding
who the Messiah is:
He humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death--
even to death on a cross. ...
Now that presents a serious problem
for even God-fearing Jews today.
Because it refers to the
death of the Messiah.
Now the interesting thing is that
when you get to Isaiah 53,
by inspiration of the Lord,
Isaiah understood some of this
when he used phrases like:
a man of suffering;
He's despised;
and He's rejected;
He's pierced because of our transgressions;
He's like a lamb led to the slaughter.
Those are all phrases from Isaiah 53.
I'm sure that as Isaiah was
penning these words, he was trying
to figure out, what's this all about?
But prophetically, he was describing
what happened to Jesus Christ
when He was nailed to the cross.
He came to His own, but His own
did not receive Him.
He was nailed to the cross.
Not just by them, but by all of us.
And He became the Savior of the whole world.
Now Paul goes on to say, here:
...For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name that is
above every name...
Now He has a name that is
above every name today.
But not everyone recognizes it
as Paul says they will.
...God gave Him the name that is
above every name, so that
[at] the name of Jesus every knee will bow-- ...
Has that happened?
No.
But it will.
When He reigns. Every knee will bow:
...of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth--and every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
By the way, serious Jews have
a real difficult time with Isaiah 53.
They have a really tough time
because it doesn't fit into their story--
to their narrative.
But Isaiah, speaking prophetically,
described what we know very clearly
happened when Jesus came.
He was rejected, nailed to the cross.
He was like a lamb led to the slaughter.
But He was the perfect Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world.
All a part of God's great redemptive plan.
Now I think there's another
spiritual connection here
with this whole concept of the Branch--
Jesus the branch.
Jesus Christ, the Branch.
Because Jesus used the illustration
of the vine and the branches.
And he said: I'm the true vine.
In that sense, he's the main branch
and we are branches.
All true believers in Jesus Christ
are the branches.
There in John 15.
And we're to bear spiritual fruit,
just as a restored earth will someday
literally bear fruit.
And there, the literal promise is
being fulfilled during the earthly reign of Christ.
It involves not just spiritual regeneration
but it involves a very productive earth.
But see, we spiritually in this period of time,
as a spiritual kingdom, as it were,
are to bear much fruit.
And that fruit is really the fruit of love.
And that raises a question here:
How did Jesus' words
in John 15:8 to 9, 12, 17 correlate
with what He said in the upper room
in John 13:34-35?
Now let's look first of all
what He said in John 15.
Where He's talking about the fact
that He is the vine we. We are the branches.
In verse 8 and verse 12, He said this:
My Father is glorified by this:
that you produce much fruit
and prove to be My disciples. ...
Now I want you, in your mind
just underscore "prove to be
My disciples" with the much fruit
that we're to bear.
And then Jesus goes on to explain
what the fruit is. He says:
. . . This is My command: Love one another
as I have loved you.
Now the connection here is to go back
in the question for application,
back to John 13.
And in that upper room
after Jesus had washed their feet,
He said this to these men:
I give you a new command:
Love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you must also love one another.
By this all people will know
that you are My disciples,
if you have love for one another.
In other words, the fruit that we should
be bearing, in the ultimate sense, is love.
Christ-like love in
all of our relationships.
And people will know that we're
Christ's disciples by our love.
And that correlates with what
He said in John 15.
If you produce much fruit,
you'll prove to be My disciples.
In essence, here with the metaphor
of the vine and the branches,
He's saying the very same thing that
He had said in John chapter 13.
When He said: By this all men will know
you're My disciples: If you have
love for one another.
And so, when they left that
upper room, Jesus prayed
as He was going towards the Garden of Gethsemane.
They were following. It was night.
And He lifted His eyes to heaven and He said,
"Father, I pray that they,
these men, will be one as We are one.
But Father, I pray that for all of those
who will believe on Me through their message.
That's us. Today.
Because we came to faith
through their message--
the apostles' teaching, the New Testament.
And so Jesus prayed that
we might be one as He was one with the Father.
Beautiful illustration of the Trinity.
So that people would believe
that Jesus actually came from God.
And that's the miracle of love and unity.
In that it demonstrates the fact that--
it demonstrates who Jesus Christ really is:
the incarnate Son of God.
So here's the Principle that
grows out of the book of Isaiah:
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are God's spiritual vineyard
and we should bear fruit that reveals
that we are Christ's true disciples.