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Sunday 03/16/25

Title: It’s always been about the fruit!

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It’s always been about the fruit!

Jesus, when teaching about the kingdom of God after being challenged by the Chief priests and elders, He gave them the parable of the vineyard tenants.

That because of their desire to claim the harvest for themselves and their flagrant mistreatment of the son of God the kingdom would be taken away from them and given to those who will bear the fruit of it. The first and overarching theme being that God deserves a harvest for the investment He’s placed into His people.

This reveals that God possesses a very different priority than most modern churches.

Notice His focus was not on the lost but on His covenant people. This is not to the exclusion of the lost, but in all seriousness – the lost are not even represented in this parable or the one we covered before this of the unfruitful fig tree.

God’s primary focus has always been His Own people. That is He can truly be their God – showing Himself strong through hearts which are completely His, that testimony would in itself be the clarion call to the lost, to come.

“if the son of man be lifted up He will draw all men unto himself”

Last week we looked at 2 Peter 1 which tells us that God has already given us everything we need for intimate knowledge of and union with Him and becoming like Him – Christ in us.

The next thing Peter addresses is the need to labor in the field. Not the lost, but our own heart.

I think that it is a fact that is really and honestly missed by many is that when Jesus said “the Harvest is great but the laborers are few” it was not a work of evangelism alone that He was referring to.

In context at that time in His earthly life & ministry Jesus was sending His Own disciples out among Jews who were already in Covenant with God. The message was NOT to get intoCovenant with God but to prepare their heart for submission to the king of God’s Kingdom when His kingdom came.

That is not in any way a side-by-side comparison with evangelizing the lost.

Yet we use that phrase “the Harvest is great but the laborers are few” exclusively for evangelizing the lost and that is quite literally out of context with what Jesus was focused upon.

That isn’t to say it isn’t important nor is it to say that that phrase cannot be used in that way… only that the priority of Jesus’s heart was to deal with those who already belonged to God by Covenant.

What “harvest” therefore was He looking for?

The same as that of the parable we started with this morning of the vineyard tenants. The Pharisees, Sadducees, doctors of the law and chief priests were all very focused on drawing disciples off to themselves from among the Jewish people who were already in covenant with God.

Rather than encouraging them towards producing fruit and being ready for the Messiah when He came, they were more concerned about garnering personal allegiance into themselves.

So when prophets would come or teachers or rabbis, seeking to cause fruit to be produced in the Jewish people, these religious leaders would react with prideful jealousy. We know all to well from what they did with the Son of God that it was not above them to falsify claims to kill off anyone who stood in their way.

In the parable of the vineyard tenants, Jesus was portraying the OWNER as the Father to Whom the Harvest belonged! The work of the vineyard however, would be taken from them and from the JewishNation as a whole and given to a nation who would bear the fruit of it to which he was referring to the Gentiles.

But notice also the mercy of God in that even while Jesus was speaking that way during His life and ministry… His command to His disciples upon the HolySpirit coming upon them was still to FIRST go to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria BEFORE going to the Gentiles.

It wasn’t until the JewishNation as a whole continued to express both neglect of their Messiah or hostility against Him that in the missionary journeys of Paul, he told the Jewish people that God was turning from them to the Gentiles.

Now I say all this because I feel like before we move on we need to really understand these parables and what they were really focused on.

It has always been about the knowledge of God himself as well as His power being displayed to the world through his people.

The phrase we learned in the Old Testament was “to make His name famous and His power known”. The means by which this is always done is through the changed lives of His people.

The eyes of the Lord are searching to and fro throughout the whole Earth for those whose hearts are perfect towards him so that he might show himself strong on their behalf.

Why?

Well first out of His love for them and faithfulness to them but also to win those who have not yet seen the Beauty and the power in the magnanimity of Who He is that they might come to him and Trust as well.

So in short it both is and always has been about bearing fruit.

As such our passage in Peter was encouraging us to bend every effort to “add to our faith, patience and the patience, intuitive knowledge and to intuitive knowledge, self control into some control, godliness and the godliness, brotherly love and a brotherly love, unselfish love”.

He told us if these things are ours… truly, truly ours and if they are continually increasing their production in our lives then we will not be barren or unfruitful in our intimate knowledge and Union with Jesus Christ and so a abundant entrance will be opened up to us into the Everlasting Kingdom of Our Lord.

One part of us that is engaged in all of these things Is the attention of our minds. So it is that today we’re going to look at our minds.

Holding our minds in obedience to Christ

2 Corinthians 10

“(1) Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ-who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. (2) But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. (3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. (4) For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, (5) casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

If you are truly risen with Christ, then Set your minds on things above not on things of the earth.

Setting our minds

Colossians 3

“(1) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Blessings!

Tri

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!