Lessons Learned From The Woes

Lessons Learned From The Woes

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks, looking at Jesus and His relationship to the Scribes and Pharisees and we found that there are some things that anger Jesus and inhibit God’s work. That leads us to today. I’d like to talk about the Church and its response to the Woes of Jesus.

Remember yesterday when I wrote about my friend at the apple orchard? He told me something the owner said to him that changed the way he saw the church forever.

When he first arrived at the orchard his first impression was how amazed he was by the size and beauty of the trees. Those trees were so full of leaves and the branches were so big that he knew they must produce tremendous amounts of beautiful and delicious fruit.

The owner of the orchard shook his head and said, “No. They’re not producing hardly any fruit at all.”

My friend looked at him in disbelief. The trees were so full. Their size and beauty told a story of a healthy, productive grove of trees. How could they possibly be unproductive and unhealthy?

The owner explained, he had not pruned those trees for a couple of years. As a result, they were so big and so full that the outer foliage had taken over. The outer leaves and branches were so thick that they were blocking out the sun. No light was getting to the fruit-bearing parts of the tree. Incredibly, those full and healthy branches were literally choking out the productive part of the tree. You can probably do the math. Any fruit that came from that tree was small and bitter.

That, my friend, is an unparalleled picture of the church. Churches can be big and beautiful, have tons of people, a good band and a talented speaker for a pastor but that doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit is working there. The mark of a true and healthy, Spirit-filled church is that it is producing fruit for the Kingdom of God.

That has nothing to do with size, good music, pretty buildings or glitter and glam. It has everything to do with God’s Light reaching men and women, changing lives and producing fruit that grows His eternal Kingdom.

Can I get an amen?