Matthew 7:15-20, 28-29 (15-29)
"Jesus Taught an Agri-Spiritual Lesson about Fruit Recognition"
Sunday, June 1, 2008; 3rd Sunday after Pentecost
[Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28; Romans 3:21-28]
In the name of the Triune God-Father, X Son, and Holy Spirit. [Amen.]
(Matt 7:15-20, 28-29 ESV) "'Beware of false prophets, who come to you in
sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them
by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from
thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree
bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased
tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.'
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his
teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as
their scribes."
Introduction: Dear fellow fruit-bearing saints of God.
What does the color green bring to your mind? Money? Nature? The
long part of the liturgical church year that extends from after Holy Trinity
Sunday up to Advent? All of the above?
Green often reminds us of money since that's the basic color of our
American paper currency. Green also reminds us of nature especially this
time of the year when the forests, fields, lawns, and gardens are "greening
up." In addition, green is the liturgical color of the many
Sundays-after-Pentecost that make up the Non-Festival Portion of the
Liturgical Church Year.
You see, during the Festival Portion of the Liturgical Church Year we
focus on Christ's birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and
ascension, all of which compose His work of salvation for sinful mankind.
Its dominant liturgical color is white representing purity and joy although
we also see blue, purple, and red at various times.
During the Non-Festival Portion of the Liturgical Church Year we
emphasize spiritual growth of individuals and Christ's mystical body, the
church. It's when we apply our Savior's salvation work to us personally,
realizing that the Holy Spirit nurtures our faith in Jesus through Word and
Sacrament thereby motivating us to live our faith daily in a God-praising
way. Its dominant liturgical color, as mentioned earlier, is green
representing life and growth.
So, in today's Holy Gospel Reading Jesus authoritatively teaches us the
significant lesson that astonishes us today even as it did the people then,
namely, how we live our lives will serve to either support or deny what we
confess with our mouths. That is, actions speak louder than words. Or, as
we've said before, let's strive to walk the talk of our confession of faith.
In other words, .
Transition: Jesus Taught an Agri-Spiritual Lesson about Fruit Recognition
emphasizing that Mere Words Don't Honor Jesus but Obedient Actions Honor
Jesus.
I. Mere Words Don't Honor Jesus. [21-23: "Not everyone who says to me,
'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name,
and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I
never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"] Talk is
cheap. It's easier to say what someone might want to hear rather than what
that person may need to hear. In fact, people often say what makes them
sound good even though they live differently. Applying this to our
spiritual setting the sad reality is that .
A. Some people are pretentious Christians. Pretentious Christians
are hypocrites . people who confess the Christian faith but carelessly live
lives that contradict and compromise their words. Take, for example, the
First Commandment's instruction to have no other gods in the face of the one
true God of the Bible. We confess that with the Apostles' Creed when we
say,
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty ... . And in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, our Lord . . I believe in the Holy Spirit . ."
We echo those words to some degree when we confess to be
"under God" in our national Pledge of Allegiance. Our money even confesses,
"In God we trust."
But does the way we live our daily lives-interacting with
family members in our homes, doing business in our communities, treating
each other in the church setting-support or deny our God-centered
confessions? Does our daily lifestyle demonstrate the true fear of, love
for, and trust in God that we pledged at our Baptism, re-pledged at our
Confirmation, and speak and sing in the historic liturgies of our divine
services? Do we pay close attention to the nine Commandments that flow
forth from the First Commandment with honest efforts to obey them? Are we
only "mouth-Christians" who merely talk the talk or also "heart-Christians"
who honestly walk the walk of the faith the Holy Spirit gave us when we were
baptized into Christ and offers to strengthen when we eat and drink Christ's
body and blood in Holy Communion?
Perhaps we forget or choose to ignore the stark reality of
God's divine judgment that .
B. Jesus rejects pretentious Christians. This is truly serious
stuff with eternal consequences! Let's pay close attention to Christ's
clear teachings . not to what vain worldly philosophies promoted by secular
corporate America, Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen, seven steps of this, 40 days
of that, and others say. Hollow verbal confessions without the substance of
reliance on Jesus Christ alone with words and actions are not of Him and
those who unrepentantly make them will be rejected by Him, separated from
Him, and cast into the fiery torments of eternal damnation by Him.
True Christianity is a counter-cultural, challenging, and
contrite confession. It swims against the tide of contemporary society and
invites Satan's attacks in many forms of persecution. Troublesome
situations like increased costs of utilities, fuel, food, and other
necessary items coupled with decreased income in our family settings;
decreasing participation and monetary support coupled with increasing
expenses in our congregational setting; and physical health issues in our
personal lives make us want to seek quick-fix solutions that follow the way
of the world rather than rely on Almighty God.
True Christianity as reflected by orthodox confessional
Lutheranism will never be the majority, most popular, or clappy happy thing
that some try to make it. Those are fantasies promoted by pretentious
Christians who seek after glory. They do so by denying the reality of
humble cross-bearing obedience in an effort to justify self-indulgent and
self-gratifying lifestyles and sometimes even worship styles that minimize
or forsake the comforting substance of our Savior's self-sacrificial atoning
work for our salvation.
So it is that in today's Gospel Reading Immanuel spoke
these closing words to His Sermon on the Mount in which .
Transition: Jesus Taught an Agri-Spiritual Lesson about Fruit Recognition
emphasizing that Mere Words Don't Honor Jesus but Obedient Actions Honor
Jesus.
II. Obedient Actions Honor Jesus. [24-27: "Everyone then who hears these
words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on
the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and
beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the
rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will
be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell,
and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it
fell, and great was the fall of it."] Even as mere spoken words don't honor
Jesus, so also merely hearing His words also doesn't honor Him. Although
our works do not earn His favor, works that flow forth from Spirit-given
faith both demonstrate the reality of Immanuel's presence in our hearts and
lives and thank and praise Him for residing in us. After all, He clearly
stated that
(John 14:15 ESV) "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."
The apostle James warned that
(James 2:17 ESV) ". faith by itself, if it does not have works, is
dead."
He also declared at the beginning of his letter,
(James 1:22 ESV) "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves."
All of that and more is to simply remind us that .
A. True Christians repentantly obey Jesus alone. Construction
workers know that the basic element for a building is a solid foundation.
Most large structures must be built on the earth's bedrock for secure
stability.
Jesus Christ is the only secure stable foundation of
spiritual life. That's what He meant when referring to Himself He told St.
Peter,
(Matt 16:18 ESV) ". on this rock I will build my church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
St. Paul clearly identified that rock when he wrote to
the Corinthians,
(1 Cor 10:4 ESV) ". the Rock was Christ."
One of the church's most beloved hymns that has endured
the test of time states in the refrain of all four stanzas,
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 CPH, #575)
"On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand."
The blessed fruit of repentant confession and absolution
is obedience. After honestly admitting our sinful uncleanness we hear the
sweet words of forgiveness assuring us that
(1 John 1:7 ESV) ". the blood of Jesus . cleanses us from all
sin."
In response to that divine declaration the Holy Spirit
accomplishes what our Synodical Catechism describes with the following two
questions and answers.
(Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation. 1991. Page 150.)
"162. Besides faith, what else does the Holy Spirit create in you by the
Gospel? The Holy Spirit sanctifies me in the true faith . so that I now
strive to overcome sin and do good works (sanctification in the narrow
sense).
"163. What are good works in God's sight? In God's sight a
good work is everything that a child of God does, speaks, or thinks in faith
according to the Ten Commandments, for the glory of God, and for the benefit
of his or her neighbor."
Regarding this St. Peter instructs us to,
(1 Peter 1:13b-16 ESV) ". set your hope fully on the grace
that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient
children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but
as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it
is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"
We attempt do so with joyful gratitude that
(Phil 2:8 ESV) ". being found in human form, [Jesus] humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
By means of that coupled with His victorious bodily
resurrection from the dead He defeated sin, Satan, and death itself. Now
all who cling to Him alone with Spirit-given faith have the benefit of
forgiveness of sins, namely, salvation and eternal life.
On the other hand, .
B. Pretend Christians unrepentantly disobey Jesus. Let this serve
as a serious warning to all of us as we hear in St. Paul's following
admonitions.
(1 Cor 6:9-10 ESV) "Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually
immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God."
(Gal 6:7-8 ESV) "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for
whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own
flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the
Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."
Therefore,
(Phil 2:12-13 ESV) ". as you have always obeyed, so now, .
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works
in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
It all comes down to realizing that .
Transition: Jesus Taught an Agri-Spiritual Lesson about Fruit Recognition
emphasizing that Mere Words Don't Honor Jesus but Obedient Actions Honor
Jesus.
Conclusion: Almighty God instructed His circumcised children of Israel then
and us His baptized children of Israel now in today's Old Testament Reading,
(Deut 11:18-19 ESV) "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your
heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and
they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your
children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you
are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."
A discipline of daily devotional activity that includes Bible reading
and prayer is a practical way to cultivate good faith-fruit production. The
"Portals of Prayer" devotion booklets that our Fellowship Club makes
available to us provide an excellent resource for this. I encourage all of
us to daily nurture our faith with God's Holy Word and regularly with Christ's
Holy Supper. The Holy Spirit will use those means of grace to help us avoid
the trap of mere words that don't honor Jesus while equipping us to exercise
obedient actions that honor Him.
The Apostle Paul declared to the Romans of his day and us Americans now
in today's Epistle Reading,
(Rom 3:22-25a ESV) "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a
propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."
That's the "KISS" model: Keep It Simple & Succinct. We have sinfully
fallen short of God's glory. God has graciously justified us through Christ's
redemptive work that we receive by faith. Let's now apply our Savior's
spiritual lesson that He revealed when Jesus Taught an Agri-Spiritual Lesson
about Fruit Recognition emphasizing that Mere Words Don't Honor Jesus but
Obedient Actions Honor Jesus.
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our holy
Savior. Amen.
In the name of the Triune God-Father, X Son, and Holy Spirit. [Amen.]
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