John 15 and Genesis 1 - Biblical Perspective on Work and Fruitfulness
Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
July 9, 2023
Genesis 1:26-28 and John 15:1-8
INTRO
Today’s topic is about work and fruitfulness, and it is our first topic because it is going to bring us back to the very beginning of the Bible to understand what we are made for.
As we get started here, I want to stress an important theme that we first encountered when we learned about the gospel. Let me ask you: What is the relationship between faith and works? How do we understand being saved by grace and being obedient to God? This is a classic question, and the Scripture is very clear on the answer: Ephesians 2:8-10 says, (SLIDE 4) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
In the very same breath, the Apostle Paul lays out a theology of the relationship between faith and works: We are saved by grace through faith, it is a gift, we can’t boast in ourselves! But now that we’ve been forgiven, redeemed, made new creations, adopted into God’s family, and given His Spirit to dwell within us, having become the recipients of such a costly love, being in awe of the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ, we now have the privilege of walking in obedience to God as a response of love in return. It is not to earn his favor, it is not out of obligation or legalism…we love because he first loved us.
Friends, YOU are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for YOU to do! If you trust in Christ, you live in the freedom and security of being a blood-bought child of God who simply gets to joyfully be fruitful in obedience to your loving father.
Keeping ourselves centered in the gospel, let’s see what Jesus himself described as our purpose in life and the outcome of being connected to him in the gospel. (SLIDE 5)
Open with me to John 15. We are going to read ahead a little in our Gospel of John series, because we will come to this chapter later in October. This is right in the middle of Jesus’ teaching in the Upper Room to his disciples the night before he was crucified.
This is the 7th “I Am” statement of Jesus in the gospel of John, and it is a climactic moment for how Jesus explains discipleship.
MAIN 1 — Gospel Fruitfulness (John 15:1-8). (SLIDE 6a)
READ John 15:1-8.
Again, we will come back to this passage later this fall, so I’m not going to go into every detail of this passage. But let’s be clear about a fews things here:
(SLIDE 6b) Who’s in control? The gardener or the branches? The gardener of course!
(SLIDE 6c) Who is the source of life? The vine or the branches? The vine of course!
Ok, so the branches seem pretty insignificant with no authority and no life in themselves.
KEY: If you let the gardener do what he wants, and you are connected to the vine, who gets the privilege of bearing the fruit? (SLIDE 6d) The branches!
For whose glory? (SLIDE 6e) God’s glory! Who’s fruit is it ultimately? The gardeners!
I WANT TO BE A BRANCH! Our world tells us that we are supposed to be radically autonomous individuals, you do you, meaning come from within you, you can blaze your own trail, march to the beat of your own drum. But friends, expressive individualism is like cutting yourself from the vine, its like kicking the gardener out of the garden. You will wither and die!
ILLUST — I read a book a few years ago by a guy named Paul Kingsnorth who had grown up an atheist in England in the 1980s. He said as a young man he was fully bought into the modern age. In his words, he believed that “religion was irrelevant. It was authoritarian, it was superstitious, it was feeble proto-science. It was the theft of our precious free will by authorities who wanted to control us by telling us fairy tales… religion was dying a much-needed death at the hands of progress and reason.”
And so Paul went searching for truth elsewhere. He immersed himself in popular culture, he became an environmentalist, he experimented with Wiccan cults, he tried politics, and he indulged every passion and desire. After all this, Paul said that he never found fulfillment or wholeness in any of it. He said, “I found instead the perfect manifestation of everything I wanted in the first place: the magnification of my own will.”
He was confronted with his own sinful heart. Everywhere he looked, he only found the rotten fruit of humanity’s rebellion against God, of HIS rebellion against God. He had been sucked into the
Slowly he came to realize this rebellion and its consequences. Slowly he came to understand that he needed forgiveness, that he needed Christ, that the cross holds the key to everything. He wrote, “I grew up believing what all modern people are taught: that freedom meant lack of constraint. Christianity taught me that this freedom was no freedom at all, but enslavement to my sinful passions. True freedom, it turns out, is to give up your will and follow God’s. To deny yourself. I am terrible at this, but at least now I understand the path.”
Friends, there are two promises and a warning in this passage in John 15:
(SLIDE 7a) When you follow Jesus, you will be pruned. This means the dead and rotten parts of your life will be cut away. Pruning can be painful, it can be messy, and it isn’t easy. But remember that YOU are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for YOU to do!
(SLIDE 7b) If you abide in Christ, you will bear much fruit. When you’re connected to the True Vine, not some fake or rotten vine like the idols and false saviors of this world, you will be fruitful for God’s glory. Jesus is the source of all good, he is the giver of life, he is the only one who is worthy to follow and who will transform your life.
(SLIDE 7c) Little fruit is ok because there is potential for pruning to grow more fruitful. But fruitlessness is not ok. It will result in being “cut off” from the vine of Jesus. In other words, God isn’t looking for perfection and it isn’t a comparison game! But if you abide in Christ, you will have some fruit and God will prune you so that you will be more fruitful.
Now, let’s step back for a moment. Because this idea of fruitfulness isn’t new here in John 15. Jesus is actually pulling together a larger theme that goes all the way back to the beginning of the Bible and explains our original purpose as God’s image bearers.
MAIN 2 — Original Calling (Genesis 1:26-28). (SLIDE 8a)
Go to Genesis 1 with me. At the culmination of the creation story, God designs and fashions human beings on purpose for a purpose. Let’s look at what the text says: READ Genesis 1:26-28.
(SLIDE 8b) Made in God’s image, male and female, for a purpose (Gen. 1:26-27)
That purpose is to partner with God as his co-rulers, his representatives, his stewards in taking care of the created world. We reflect him in everything we do, as an image, like a mirror, bringing glory to God by our words and deeds. This is worship! This is how we bring praise to God in everything! This is what we are designed for!
(SLIDE 8c) 5 Imperatives about fruitfulness (Gen. 1:28)
Be fruitful (main verb, all others explain what this means), Increase in number, Fill the earth, Subdue it, Rule over it
(SLIDE 8d) Fruitfulness defined: Work and Keep (Gen. 2:15)
(SLIDE 8e) “Avodah” = cultivate/nurture
(SLIDE 8f) “Shamarah” = keep/protect
(SLIDE 8g) Key Word — Stewardship
Cultivating and protecting
Innovating and conserving
Developing and guarding
KEY: In stewardship there is a “yes” and “no”, there is a movement forward and a need to hold back, there is newness and creativity, and there is also restraint and careful attention to limits and boundaries. In short, stewardship takes wisdom!
Book recommendations:
Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work — Tom Nelson
Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good — Amy L. Sherman
APPLY:
Let me share with you a few simple encouragements about stewardship and vocation:
(SLIDE 9a) It takes time for trees to produce fruit. Some trees, such as plum trees, take just three to five years to produce, while other trees, like almond trees, can take up to twelve years.
ILLUST — Albert Mohler notes how commonly we “overestimate what can be accomplished in a single year, but underestimate what can be accomplished in a decade” (The Conviction to Lead, 194).
ILLUST — Friends, have you ever thought about why Jesus spent his first 30 years of life as a carpenter? Was it a waste of time? What if this was intentional, what if this was part of his full humanity…that he would be a craftsman, a cultivator and protector of creation, that he would grow up practicing the very stewardship that he designed us for! It takes time to be fruitful, and Jesus himself showed us that he has the patience to spend 30 years practicing a trade!
(SLIDE 9b) “Work is firstly contribution, not compensation.” —Tom Nelson
(SLIDE 9c) Your work is not merely a hopper of evangelistic contacts; God cares about the quality of your work because it brings him glory. In other words, evangelism in the workplace includes both spiritual conversations and good work. Do good work for God’s glory! Whether you make cabinets, teach kindergarteners, work at a hospital, write computer code, or homeschool your kids…do it all for God’s glory!
(SLIDE 9d) You are an ambassador in the marketplace. Seek God’s glory through creativity, restoring things, caring for others, and honesty and integrity in work. In short, inspire your non-believing co-workers to be stewards who cultivate and protect. This will point them to the one who designed and fashioned them, and open the opportunity for them to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ!
We have talked about integrating faith into every area of life, not compartmentalizing faith, making our church a place where people catch a vision for how the gospel impacts everything. Work and fruitfulness is an important starting point.
ILLUST — An example that came to mind is my friend Wilson Vave who is a member here. If you don’t know, I go to Dunn Brothers Coffee a lot! Wilson started working there a couple years ago. I’ve had the privilege of watching him start fresh in this new place, slowly build trust with his co-workers through his diligence and hard work and through loving and caring for people around him. Day-by-day, he brings a joyful and peaceful presence to his workplace, and God is bearing fruit through Wilson.
Last year Wilson became a manager at the coffee shop. I talked with him a few months after he started taking on significant responsibilities; he was working on paperwork on the computer at one of the tables. I asked him how it is going with the new role, and he said that he has been trying hard to think about how he can manage people in this business in such a way that they see Christ in him. You could tell that he genuinely cared about his work, but even more so, he cares about people, especially that they would know Jesus.
What if our church could grow to become a training center that inspires people to be ambassadors in the marketplace? What if we had conversations, studies, and material available for you learn about vocational stewardship and fruitfulness in your work and home that truly integrates faith into every area of our lives? What if we saw the gospel proclaimed and demonstrated, people come to Christ, and transformation happen in our own community? That’s the goal, that’s the dream, that’s my prayer.
Let’s tie this back to John 15 and what Jesus says about fruitfulness.
MAIN 3 — Fruitfulness Explained (John 15:9-17). (SLIDE 10a)
Let’s go back to John 15 now to see how Jesus explains the fruitfulness that fulfills our original calling and comes from being pruned and abiding in Christ. READ John 15:9-17.
So, what is fruitfulness? (SLIDE 10b) It is everything that is the product of effective prayer in Jesus’ name, for God’s glory, secure in the love of Christ (v. 7-9). There are four signs of gospel fruitfulness that Jesus outlines here:
(SLIDE 10c) Obedience to Jesus (v. 10) — “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.” It is a reflection of Jesus’ own obedience to the Father, not to earn the Father’s favor, but out of love: “…just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”
(SLIDE 10d) Experience of Jesus’ joy (v. 11) — “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
(SLIDE 10e) Love for one another (vv. 12-13) — “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
(SLIDE 10f) Witness to the world (v. 16) — “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit.”
Questions
How does Genesis 1 and 2 describe the purpose for which we were created?
Explain your understanding of stewardship.
In what ways has God been pruning you for fruitfulness for his glory?
How will you pursue abiding in Christ in the coming weeks?
Resources
Incomparable: Explorations in the Character of God — Andrew Wilson
Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work — Tom Nelson
Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good — Amy L. Sherman