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Sunday 20 October 2002 - "The key to fruitfulness"

(Summary of sermon by Erlo Stegen)

John 12:24 & Ps 126:5 The disciples were always together with Jesus; they beheld the miracles He performed, how He set people free from disease and demons, and thought it was the end of their earthly sorrows. They expected Him to set the Jews free from Roman rule. But Jesus always eluded to the fact that the Son of man was going to be crucified and die.

Peter once took Him aside to reprimand Jesus for saying He would be crucified, but Jesus clearly and loudly rebuked him and said: "Get ye behind Me, Satan", for you see not with the eyes of God but of man. We as Christians should always be in serious prayer and ask the Lord to keep us from seeing things with fleshly eyes, lest we identify with the devil, who is always in opposition to God's will.

Jesus took the simple and plain farming example of a seed of grain that must fall in the ground and die, before it can bear forth fruit. If it doesn't die, it will always remain alone. If the seed dies, and it seems like the end of it all, then it starts to blossom and bring forth fruit which is part of the seed. The disciples were together with Jesus, but were not yet part of His being. They still argued about who is the most important amongst them. When Jesus died, His disciples thought all has come to and end, they were critical and despondant. They didn't understood that the Son of man had to die to bring forth fruit. Whenever He spoke about His coming death, they were confused. There was no possibility of real help for them if they were to be set free from the Romans, because they would still fight and hate.

Did the death of Jesus work in your life to deal with sin and hatred? If not, you are in danger of falling into the category of people who identify with Satan, and who stand in opposition to God's will. Paul said they die daily so that the power of the resurrected Jesus will be manifested in them, even their bodies.

We should also die to ourselves. Always pray that God's will be done, not our own will. If the wife is not submissive to her husband, it could be that the husband is not setting a good example because he is not submissive to God. Children will not be submissive and humble themselves if the parents don't set the example. Maybe our Christianity is just on our sleeves, when it suits us, we take our Christian cloak off, and do our own thing. At church all is nice outwardly, but at home you change clothes. Like the lady who was on her way back home from church and met someone on the way who wanted to fight with her. She took her special church apparrel off for the fight.

A story about the Flood missionary family is related to illustrate the theme that a seed of grain needs to die in order to bring forth fruit. For the full story, click here.