Did you know you can grow your own food? It’s amazing.

Five years ago, when Olivia and I moved into our house, I began planting what’s called a “food forest.” Basically, a whole bunch of perennial fruit plants supported by other beneficial plans.

One of the plants I was very excited about is called “Hardy Kiwi”. It’s exactly what it sounds like. A vining plant that grows tiny little kiwi fruits that can actually survive our cold winters.

Now, I’d never eaten one before, but I planted it, and couldn’t wait to try one for the first time. Year 1? Nothing. Year 2? Nothing. Year 3, though? Still nothing. Except, wait! There was a single tiny kiwi fruit that began to grow.

All summer long I checked on that one fruit. I’d carefully squeeze it to see how ripe it was getting. I waited, and I watched, and I waited. Until one day the time was finally right. The fruit was ripe and juicy.

I picked it. I popped it into my mouth. And sure enough, it tasted just like a little kiwi.

I was feeling very proud of my accomplishment until, just a few moments later, my lips started going numb. My throat began to swell up and tingle. It started to affect my breathing.

Turns out, I’m wildly allergic to hardy kiwi. It is a bad fruit for me to eat. Which is a huge disappointment, of course, but I will say this: Now, when I hear Jesus talking about good and bad fruit, I have a whole new appreciation for the metaphor.

YOU HAVE A CHOICE

Well, here we are. Our final week exploring Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, we’re not digging into the specifics of the sermon, as much as the broader themes and ideas that define the whole thing so that you can study it on your own.

So far, we’ve seen how Jesus’ teachings here are a fulfillment of the Old Testament law. He takes the wisdom of God in the Hebrew Bible and explodes it to the nth degree…

“You’ve heard it said, ‘don’t commit adultery.’ But I say, don’t even lust. You’ve heard it said, ‘don’t murder.’ But I say, don’t even hate someone.”

To Jesus, these are the types of behaviors which can actually heal our broken world. That can show our friends and neighbors there is another way to live.

Last week, we reflected on how Jesus starts his sermon. With a radical inversion of the values of our world. Where we might naturally assume that wealth, success, and power are signs of God’s blessing, Jesus flips things on their heads.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” he says. “The mourning… the persecuted… Those are the ones who are fortunate. Because the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.”

Today we’re going to look at how Jesus ends his sermon, specifically with three mental images that we just saw in the Bible Project video: Two paths, two types of fruit, and two houses.

The basic idea in all three images is this: You have a choice to make. You can choose to follow the teachings of Jesus that we just heard, or you can go your own way.

But rather than look at all three images, I’d like us to just dig into one: the image good and bad fruit. So, grab your Bible and turn with me to Matthew 7:15, Page ________.

BEARING FRUIT

Let’s read the passage, and then we’ll talk about it.

Matthew 7:15

“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”

First, I think it’s helpful to remember that Jesus’ original audience lived in an agrarian society where fruit and trees and crops were a part of their everyday life.

The idea of patiently tending fruit trees, waiting for the harvest, eating the fruit they’ve grown, etc. was not a novelty for them like it is for me. And bearing good fruit was vital, because it was a part of how they survived.

Jesus begins this teaching with a warning: “beware of false prophets.” In other words, there are people out there who will claim to speak for God. However, if they’re a false prophet, in reality, they are doing anything but. So be careful who you’re listening to.

Grads, this is some very good advice as you head out into the world of adulthood. There are a LOT of people out there who speak with authority. But not all of them are speaking the truth.

So how do you know if someone is a true prophet or a false prophet? Well, according to Jesus you know because of the fruit they bear. Is it good fruit? Or is it bad fruit?

Is it sweet, delicious fruit that nourishes you? Or is it bitter? Does it make your lips numb and your throat close like hardy kiwi? Good fruit or bad?

Now, it’s not much of a stretch to realize that Jesus isn’t just talking about prophets here. He’s talking about everyone. About you and me.

Because We all bear fruit in our lives. What kind of fruit we bear tells the truth about our identity.

GOOD FRUIT

Alright. So how do I know if the fruit my life is bearing is good fruit or bad fruit? Well, Jesus doesn’t spell it out in this passage, but there are other passages that do. For example, in Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul describes what he calls the

“The Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23) That’s “good fruit.” In fact, let’s imagine these fruits growing on an actual tree.

Here’s the fruit Paul lists out:

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-Control

That is good fruit. I think Jesus mentions other ”fruits” in the Sermon on the Mount we can add to this tree.

Peacemaking

Humility

Mercy

Justice

Truth

Forgiveness

Self-sacrifice

Contentment

There’s so many more we could add. But just take a second, look at the whole tree, and imagine someone who bears all of that good fruit in their lives on a regular basis.

You’re basically talking about Jesus, right? That’s who he is.

So now imagine a tree that bears bad fruit. What would you expect to find growing on it? Well, the exact opposite of what’s growing on the good tree: Hate, selfishness, cruelty, judgementalism, impatience, injustice, greed, self-indulgence, etc.

That’s the kind of fruit that turns your stomach. The kind that has you running for an epipen. But here’s the thing: it is exactly the kind of fruit we see everywhere we look in this broken world. There’s a lot of bad fruit growing in humanity.

So, let’s get back to the big idea for this conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is saying,

You have a choice to make.

What path you walk, what foundation you build your house upon, and what kind of fruit you bear.

The implication is clear. You can bear good fruit. It’s possible. It’s your choice. But that raises an important question: How do you do it? How do you grow good fruit?

GOOD TREE

And I know it may seem like the answer is super obvious. You think of all that “good fruit” we mentioned before, and you just do those things, right?

Be kind and patient and forgiving and truthful. Problem solved.

Except, how successful have you actually been at just willing yourself into Christlikeness? White knuckling it into humility and patience and contentment? It’s easy to talk about being more peaceful… until you’re cut off in traffic.

It’s not so easy, is it? Bearing good fruit doesn’t just happen.

And here’s why: Because fruit is not an action; it’s a result. In other words, Fruit is a lag measure.

Here’s what I mean: imagine that you wanted to lose weight. You can’t just wake up one day and say, “today I will weigh 10 pounds less.”

The weight you want to lose is a lag measure. A result. The only way to get there is to have the right lead measures in place.

Lead measures are things like eating fewer calories, getting more exercise, cutting out snacks… You do all those things and the lag measure - losing 10 pounds - will be the natural outcome.

The same thing is true for bearing Christlike fruit. Fruit is a lag measure. Joy and peace-making and loving your enemies are the results of something else.

What are the lead measures, then, for bearing good fruit?

Well, Jesus gives us a hint in verse 16.

Matthew 7:16-18

Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.

According to Jesus, the quality of the fruit depends on the quality of the tree. If the tree itself is good, the fruit is good. If the tree itself is bad, the fruit is bad.

Which means that your focus should not be on willing yourself to bear virtuous fruit (“Come on, be humble!”). No! Your focus should be on tending your tree.

Making sure your tree is rooted in healthy soil. Carefully pruning your tree. Making sure it gets the right nutrients and enough water. And keeping pests away. Those are the lead measures for fruitfulness. Put simply,

Tend your tree and the fruit will follow.

TEND YOUR TREE

So let’s talk about how. How do you tend your tree so that your fruit looks like this? 

Well, that’s what the gospel of Matthew is setting out to answer. Remember, it’s a “discipleship manual.” Within these pages we can learn exactly what it means to follow Jesus and become like him.

If we’re willing to do the work. If we’re willing to tend the tree. So let’s extend this metaphor and talk about what Matthew wants you, one of his readers, to do:

1) Root yourself in Jesus.

This is a fundamental one. Again, you have a choice of what to root your life in. You can send your roots down deep into success, or wealth, or influence… OR you can surrender it all and put roots down deep into Jesus.

You have a choice of what kind of tree to be. Later in the gospel, Jesus makes it clear:

Matthew 10:39

If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

In the gospel of John, Jesus puts it even more directly, using the fruit metaphor:

John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.

In other words, if your roots go down deep into Christ - if you have surrendered it all to him and he is the center of your life - the fruit you bear will be good.

But, if your roots go down deep into your own selfish desires, guess what. The result - the lag measure - will be bitter, mealy, mouth-numbing nastiness. Bad fruit.

If you want good fruit, you need a good tree. If you want a good tree, root yourself in Jesus.

2) Tend your tree to look like his.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about growing fruit trees, it’s this: To get the best fruit, you can’t just plant a tree and walk away. You have to tend it.

Pruning away unhelpful branches, making sure the tree has the right nutrients, enough water… It’s those lead measures I mentioned before.

In the context of discipleship, this looks like doing the same things Jesus did to maintain his spiritual life: prayer, solitude, meditating on Scripture, fostering rich community…

It looks like asking the Holy Spirit to help you prune away the parts of your life which are hindering your growth.

It looks like actually trying to practice the commands of Jesus (like the ones in the sermon on the mount!) instead of just writing them off as idealistic extremes.

Matthew 7:24

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise...

It takes dedication, but it’s doable.

Oh, and by the way, grads? You should know that you are really lucky. Here’s why: It’s way easier to shape a sapling than a mature tree. It is so much better to start practicing all this when you’re young.

It’s like investing in your retirement account. If you start it when you’re 50, you’re not going to end up with much. But if you start saving for retirement when you’re 20? It’s going to multiply.

Don’t wait to start tending your tree. Start caring for your tree to look like Jesus now and the Christlike fruit you bear when you’re my age (or 60 or 80!) will be astounding.

So. Root yourself in Jesus. Tend your tree to look like his, and finally,

3) Learn from the master gardeners in your life.

The best part about being a disciple of Jesus is that we’re not on this journey alone.

Remember, at the end of Matthew, Jesus sends out his disciples by saying this:

Matthew 28:19-10

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations… Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

You see, right from the outset we see that we were never meant to learn how to follow Jesus in a vacuum. We learn from one another.

And I would wager that there are Christ-followers in your life whose lives look a lot more like this than yours does. Why? Because they’ve been tending their tree for years.

Don’t be discouraged that they’re farther down the road than you. Be encouraged that you’ve got a master gardener in your life who can teach you how to prune!

Learn from them! Ask them to teach you. Pay attention to how they live their lives. I guarantee they didn’t get there by good intentions alone.

They are master gardeners because they’ve been at this for a while. Their fruit is good because they’ve tended their tree.

They can show you how to tend yours.

——

So there you have it. Jesus ends his Sermon on the Mount with a powerful invitation.

Matthew 7:20

Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

My friends, just like Jesus’ original disciples on that hillside, you have a choice to make. What kind of fruit will you bear?