Are Small Churches Less Fruitful?
00:00:00.000 | When Jesus talks about fruitfulness, he is not afraid to throw around numbers,
00:00:08.840 | real numbers, numbers like 100 fold and 60 fold and 30 fold.
00:00:14.280 | So does this mean pastoring a small church that is not growing less fruitful
00:00:18.720 | than pastoring a large growing church?
00:00:21.000 | It's a question from a listener named Wilson, who is a discouraged pastor.
00:00:25.920 | Dear pastor, John, I was told by a seminary professor that to bear fruit
00:00:29.840 | is to reach an increasing number of souls with the gospel.
00:00:32.880 | I think he gets this from Matthew 13, 23.
00:00:35.720 | Basically, if you only serve a handful of people, a congregation of 40, for example,
00:00:40.960 | you're not bearing as much fruit as a larger church.
00:00:44.000 | God is investing in you and seeing less significant fruit in return.
00:00:48.200 | He wants big fruit measured in the hundred folds.
00:00:51.640 | I believe many pastors, especially from small churches, struggle
00:00:54.920 | with the weight of this pressure.
00:00:57.000 | What is the fruit that Jesus meant when he says bearing fruit?
00:01:00.400 | Is it number of converts?
00:01:02.240 | Is it personal holiness or repentance?
00:01:04.440 | And how did you define success and fruit in your own pastoral labors?
00:01:09.120 | Well, I sure want to be used by God at this moment to help the discouraged
00:01:16.840 | pastor keep his hand on the plow.
00:01:19.480 | When John the Baptist comes in preparation for Jesus, one huge part of his
00:01:27.160 | message is bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
00:01:32.760 | Even now, the ax is laid to the root of the trees.
00:01:37.280 | Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
00:01:44.400 | And the crowds ask him, what should we do?
00:01:47.880 | And he answered, whoever has two tunics, share with him who has none.
00:01:52.400 | The tax collectors ask, what should we do?
00:01:57.440 | And he answers, collect no more than you're authorized to do.
00:02:01.760 | Soldiers ask, what should we do?
00:02:04.120 | And he says, don't extort money from anyone.
00:02:07.800 | In other words, what is completely clear is that bearing fruit in John the Baptist
00:02:16.440 | ministry, as he intends it, is a new kind of love.
00:02:20.800 | It's unselfish, it's loving, it's kind, it's sacrificial, it's generous, and it
00:02:27.520 | flows from a heart of repentance and trust in God.
00:02:30.960 | Now, Jesus picks up the same language, Matthew 12, and says, either make the tree
00:02:38.040 | good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is
00:02:42.560 | known by its fruit.
00:02:43.560 | You brood of vipers.
00:02:44.960 | How can you speak good when you are evil?
00:02:49.120 | The tree is evil.
00:02:50.440 | It's not going to bear good fruit for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth
00:02:54.800 | speaks.
00:02:55.320 | So the specific fruit that Jesus has in mind here is language coming out of the
00:03:00.800 | mouth that is loving or kind or honest or gracious or helpful or upbuilding rather
00:03:08.960 | than damning and condemning, putting people down.
00:03:14.960 | You will know them by their fruit means that there's an internal condition of the
00:03:20.560 | heart that expresses itself in outward words and actions.
00:03:24.880 | So fruit for Jesus at this point then is new kinds of words and actions that accord
00:03:32.200 | with faith and repentance.
00:03:34.920 | Then we come to John 15, which I think is probably the most important section on
00:03:39.720 | fruit.
00:03:40.840 | And he's using the imagery of fruit and the vine being grafted into the vine.
00:03:47.800 | And I think he's talking about a transformed life of sacrificial love, but
00:03:53.400 | probably also it flows over into people being influenced by this and coming to do it
00:04:02.640 | themselves.
00:04:03.760 | So here are the key verses.
00:04:05.480 | "I am the vine," this is verse 5, "I'm the vine, you are the branches.
00:04:08.920 | Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me
00:04:16.920 | you can do nothing."
00:04:18.240 | So fruit is the opposite of nothing.
00:04:21.160 | In other words, fruit is everything we do which can only be done by the power of
00:04:27.920 | Christ, which would include our entire moral transformation by the power of the
00:04:35.240 | Spirit flowing through Christ and the effect it has on other people.
00:04:40.840 | And then he goes on in verse 8 and says, "By this is my Father glorified that you
00:04:47.040 | bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples," which sounds a lot like
00:04:52.200 | Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
00:04:55.920 | deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven," which would incline me to think
00:05:02.000 | he has in mind here a real significant transformed, visible, new kind of behavior.
00:05:09.040 | And then he goes on and says, "Abide in my love.
00:05:12.760 | If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
00:05:17.440 | And then he adds in verse 12, "This is my commandment that you love one another
00:05:21.440 | as I have loved you.
00:05:22.760 | Greater love is no one than that he laid down his life for his friends."
00:05:27.200 | And the paragraph ends in verse 17, "These things I command you so that you
00:05:31.880 | will love one another."
00:05:35.200 | So, the very least we can say about the fruit that Jesus is saying will be
00:05:42.640 | produced by his disciples is that they love each other, that they love people,
00:05:49.040 | which I think is confirmed in verse 2 where it says, "Every branch in me that
00:05:55.520 | does not bear fruit, he takes away."
00:05:58.920 | In other words, love is absolutely essential to confirm that we are truly
00:06:05.040 | abiding in the vine, truly born again.
00:06:07.600 | And that's exactly what John says in his epistle, "By this we know that we have
00:06:12.200 | passed from death to life, that we love the brothers."
00:06:16.600 | And, of course, then we turn to the apostle Paul, we find almost the same
00:06:21.320 | kind of thing as he uses the imagery of fruit bearing over and over again,
00:06:26.680 | and it's a transformed heart of love and joy and peace.
00:06:30.960 | For example, Galatians 5:22, "The fruit of the Spirit is joy, love, joy,
00:06:36.440 | peace," and Colossians 1:10, "Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
00:06:40.640 | bearing fruit in every good work."
00:06:43.120 | Philippians 1:11, "Be pure and blameless, fill with the fruit of righteousness."
00:06:48.640 | Ephesians 5:9, "The fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true."
00:06:56.400 | Titus 3:4, "Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help in
00:07:05.680 | cases of need and not be unfruitful."
00:07:09.880 | Now, to what degree this kind of faith-filled, self-denying,
00:07:15.280 | fruit-bearing love and good deeds will lead to the conversion of sinners and grow
00:07:22.480 | a big church is decisively in God's hands, not ours.
00:07:28.040 | We pray for this.
00:07:29.400 | Of course, we want this to happen, and we strive for this.
00:07:33.880 | This is God's intention.
00:07:35.480 | He says that others may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father.
00:07:40.360 | There is no artificial disconnection between our bearing the fruit of love and others being
00:07:46.280 | moved by it, changed by it, but they're not identical, and we don't have ultimate
00:07:51.800 | control over the response of other people.
00:07:55.840 | So, the decisive assessment of the success of our ministry, now this is Wilson's
00:08:02.720 | question, the decisive assessment of our success in ministry, that is, whether we have
00:08:10.880 | been faithful, is not determined by the number of our converts.
00:08:17.280 | What God will hold pastors accountable for, indeed, all of us, is have we fought the good
00:08:26.000 | fight of faith?
00:08:28.000 | Have we put to death evil deeds in our own hearts and bodies by the power of the Spirit?
00:08:34.480 | Have we walked in love?
00:08:36.720 | Have we preached the Word with faithfulness and courage and without compromise?
00:08:43.640 | Have we maintained a life of earnest prayer for ourselves and for our people?
00:08:49.920 | Have we loved and pursued lost people?
00:08:53.200 | Have we been faithful with the ordinances of the church and with the right ordering
00:08:58.680 | of church discipline?
00:09:00.560 | Have we kept the global purposes of God in world missions and the Great Commission before
00:09:06.320 | us with concern and prayer and advocacy?
00:09:10.280 | Have we cared about suffering people inside, outside the church, and done what we could
00:09:17.320 | in acts of compassion and justice?
00:09:20.560 | These are the things that we should devote ourselves to because we can, by the power
00:09:27.520 | of the Spirit.
00:09:29.520 | For some, God blesses this faithfulness with many converts.
00:09:36.640 | For others, fewer.
00:09:39.480 | But the joy of the Lord will be our strength, and the triumph over sin and the loving of
00:09:47.260 | other people and faithfulness to God's Word rooted in the gospel.
00:09:53.200 | This will be our peace.
00:09:55.640 | Amen.
00:09:57.240 | Gospel-rooted peace in it all.
00:09:59.040 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:00.040 | And thank you, Wilson, for the question.
00:10:02.080 | And thanks for joining us on the podcast.
00:10:03.720 | Three times a week we publish, and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our
00:10:07.680 | episode archive and even reach us by email with a question you may be facing in ministry
00:10:11.120 | leadership.
00:10:12.120 | You can do all that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:10:15.120 | Well, speaking of things that Jesus said, the theme of the kingdom is a big one for
00:10:21.960 | him.
00:10:22.960 | In the ESV translation, kingdom gets mentioned 126 times in the gospels, but just 34 times
00:10:28.080 | after that in the rest of the New Testament.
00:10:30.360 | So why does Jesus give the kingdom such prominence?
00:10:33.880 | And what is the kingdom of God to begin with?
00:10:36.360 | Two questions for the price of one APJ.
00:10:39.040 | That's on Friday.
00:10:40.040 | I'll be your host, Tony Reik.
00:10:41.040 | We'll see you then.
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