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The
Holy Spirit: The Produce (6) John
15: 1 – 11; Galatians 5: 13 - 26 Today
we focus on the produce
or fruit of the Spirit. We have looked at the Person,
Promise, Preserved, Power and Purpose.
Today we focus on what the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. The message
of this sermon is that you
can be the person the Creator wants you to be. You can become truly human,
like Jesus who is truly human. “Truly
human!” you exclaim. So often you hear people excuse their failure by
saying “I am only human”. Or excuse someone for a mistake by saying,
“They’re only human.” Now
lets think about this. What is the benchmark for being human?
Is it a person who makes mistakes, is a mixture of selfishness and
altruism, a person who does good things and bad things?
Are we saying that true humanity is just what we experience. I
guess that is right if you think that there is no ideal, and nothing
beyond what we see and get in this world. I guess if you have no room for
belief in a higher being and all that we can live by is our rationalism,
then what we experience is true humanity. But if you believe there is a creator God who made things good then maybe being human is something
else. The Bible presents two views about humanity. The most common
view is that we were made perfect and that we have fallen from that
perfection [Gen 3]. The
other view is that the Bible says creation was good, not perfect, and that
creation is moving towards completion as Romans 8: 19-25 suggests [Gen
1:31]. Personally I hold this position that God created a good
world, not a perfect world [Gen 1:31],
and we humans are developing and growing towards our intended
purpose. Though I also see
grounds for understanding that we are less than good because we have been
rebellious [Gen 3]. The
Christian worldview stands in opposition to our culture’s worldview that
we are just what we are – human. The Christian
worldview says we are less than
human. That Jesus is the true human, who reveals what it means
to be human. So the simple point of this sermon is to be truly human we
need to bear the fruit of the true humanity, not the produce of incomplete
humanity. So
the big question facing us is how can we be fully human? Is that possible
in our own strength? History would suggest no; it’s not possible. The
Christian view is that we
need to grow into the likeness of Christ if we want to fulfil
our destiny and be the people God wants us to be. For John this was
possible when we are grafted into the Vine - Jesus [Jn 15]. To put it
another way we need to be followers of Christ and tuned in to Jesus. Paul
takes a similar view but speaks of us walking
by the Spirit [Gal
5: 16]. Paul
argues in Galatians chapter five that we have been given freedom [Gal
5:13], and that we should be
careful how we exercise our freedom [Gal 5:14].
So he encourages us to “walk” in the way of the Holy Spirit [Gal
5:16]. Now
Paul was a great theologian. He was great not because he gave us wonderful
explanations, and deep insights into the mystery of Christ and the
workings of God, his greatness lies in that he made the faith practical.
Here in this little epistle / letter Paul has once again provided some
brilliant theological thoughts on how he brings his theological understanding
down to earth, so to speak. He
tells us that Jesus
has won us freedom. We are free from the Law, ritual, and
obedience to tradition. But this is a dangerous concept as it suggests we
can do what we like. Paul explains what our
responsibilities are. We
have an obligation to God who loves us. That obligation is to love God. And because we
love God we are to love our neighbour. Paul makes it abundantly clear, as
Jesus did, that we have one law to follow – Gal
5:14 For
the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.”
Now
we need to say something about this simple yet profound statement. We do
not naturally love well or easily, because our humanity is incomplete and
messed up. We are not like Christ. We are a mixture of self-interest and
concern for others. Mostly self-love wins the day. To grow like Jesus we
need to place our selves so to speak in the right soil. What
we are faced with are some
simple truths. We do
not automatically do good, or naturally love people. So we must
decide which way we will go. We seem to have a choice. We can choose between a secular worldview or a
Christian worldview. We can choose between rationalism or faith
as the main way of making sense of this world. We can choose between
fatalism or hope. If we choose the Christian worldview, the way of faith,
and hope then we need to make the decision walk in the way of God. In so doing God gives
us the Holy Spirit and fills us with love – the love of Jesus.
Our response is to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Saviour, learn
Jesus’ ways, accept
the love Jesus gives, and accept
the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We
may say that the Spirit led life is a result of abiding, or being in tune
with Jesus. So if we focus on Jesus we develop the right nutrients that
help us grow and produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Let’s
turn to another analogy – the
garden. And I guess all of us understand the basics of
gardening. Plants
need nurturing to produce fruit. Basically the nurturing of a
plant requires soil and water - the right
amount of water and certain soils. In wine-making the cooler the soil the
more acidic the wine. Limestone produces a better Riesling.
The point I wish to make is that plants mature and produce fruit
when they are in the right soil and have the
correct amount of water. This
applies to us. We as Christians will not grow to be the people God
wants us to be unless we are being looked after. Our
gardener is the Holy Spirit. Jesus
said that the Holy Spirit would lead
us into all truth [Jn
14:25; 16:13]. Paul in
Galatians reminds us that we need to walk in the Spirit.
He contrasts this walking in the Spirit with walking in the way of
this world and that leads us to selfishness, anger, jealous, dissension,
envy, enmity and so forth. But to walk in the Spirit produces something
very different. To walk in the Spirit helps us become the true humans God
wants us to be. True humans bear
the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit has
nine characteristics. They are not nine fruits, but the fruit of the
Spirit which contains these characteristics
/ qualities. 1)
Love
agapê
– this is the word to describe Jesus’ love for the world. Agapê
is the love that seeks the
best for others even at one’s own cost. This is not a natural love.
It is a love arising out of the heart but carried out by the will.
We can only love in this way with God’s help. 2)
Joy
– This is the joy that comes from God. It is not the joy that is
associated with a triumph or an exciting moment. This joy arises out of a
deep sense of harmony, peace and relationship with God. 3)
Peace
– does not mean an absence of trouble or conflict, but those things
that make things good for living and create well-being. Here it means
serenity that comes from knowing our lives are in God’s hands. 4)
Patience
– this word that we translate patience is most commonly used in the NT
to describe the attitude of God and Jesus towards humanity [Rom
2:4; 9:22; I Tim 1: 18; 1 Pet 3:20]
Patience is about being slow to anger when you might have a reason to be
angry. 5)
Kindness
& Goodness
– These words are very
closely connected. We are talking about “goodness” in its widest
sense. One scholar says that when Jesus cleansed the Temple and drove out
the money lenders he showed goodness; but Jesus showed kindness to the
sinful woman who anointed his feet. 7)
Faithfulness
- This is trustworthiness and is characteristic of the reliable
person. 8)
Gentleness
– This is the most difficult Greek word to translate. It includes the
idea of being a submissive and teachable person. 9)
Self-control
– This is the spirit of mastering one’s desires and love of
self-interest. It carries the notion of the athlete’s discipline that
equips us for service. These
qualities of the fruit are those who walk
by the Spirit. This means we live our lives conscious of the Spirit
who shows us who Jesus is, and grows within us this fruit. The person
dwelling in Christ, following Jesus, listening to the Spirit, open to
God’s blessing will see this fruit begin
to bud, and develop and eventually ripen. In re-reading this sermon
this morning I realised I can say that the Holy Spirit is producing this
fruit – I see the buds developing into ripe fruit! ******* Peter C Whitaker, BUC: 29/06/2008 |
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CLICK TO EMAIL ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS TO : pgwhitaker@netspace.net.au |