TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

SERIES THREE
TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

Message Ten
Christ Being Glorified in His Multiplication
by Our Bearing Remaining Fruit

Scripture Reading:

John 15:8    In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so you will become My disciples.

16                 You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.

OUR RESPONSIBILITY BEING TO BEAR FRUIT

In the entire universe God’s economy is to grow Christ, the Son, as the universal vine. The Father as the husband-man is the source, the author, the planner, the planter, the life, the substance, the soil, the water, the air, the sunshine, and everything to the vine. The Son as the vine is the center of God’s economy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father. The Father, by cultivating the Son, works Himself with all His riches into the vine, and eventually, the vine expresses the Father in a corporate way through its branches. This is God’s economy. God’s central interest in His economy is to grow this universal vine.

The branches of a vine tree are for fruit-bearing. Hence, as believers in Christ, who are His branches, our duty, our responsibility, is to bear fruit. To bear fruit is to overflow and impart to others the riches of life that we have gained from the vine tree. The vine is the source of the riches of life, and we, the branches, enjoy the riches of life by abiding in the vine continuously. Through our enjoyment of the life of the vine, this life begins to overflow from us. When we contact others, we need to overflow and impart this life to them so that they may become a part of the universal vine by being united in life with the vine. This is what it means to bear fruit.

GOING OUT TO BEAR REMAINING FRUIT

Many people prefer to receive practical instructions on how to bear fruit. They expect to be told to pray, deal with their sins, fast, and then go out and preach. However, if we care mainly for doctrines and practical instructions, we will not bear the proper fruit.…Although all vines bear fruit, the fruit born by different vines is not the same.…John 15:16 says, “I chose you, and I set you that you ‘should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain,” Today there is a problem with much of the gospel preaching in Christianity. Many preachers and evangelists are concerned that much of their fruit does not remain.…Thus, the problem is not mainly how to get people saved but how to cause them to be remaining fruit.…I would not like to see the saints bear fruit only to lose the fruit after a few months. Rather, I desire to see that we would go out and bear weighty fruit, fruit that is filled with life and that remains forever.

The Need for Prayer

Today we may receive a report that a thousand people have been saved, but after a few months, much of the fruit may be gone. I am happy that many young people have been brought to the Lord, but I am also concerned that within the saved ones there is no issue of life and almost no change in life.…We need to pray for the present situation. During the period when I was saved, when many of the good missionaries who had come to China saw that they were unable to get into the educational circle, they prayed often and prayed desperately. Furthermore, the founders of the missions that sent the missionaries, in both the United States and Great Britain, offered many prayers to the Lord for China. I believe that the Lord’s move of the gospel in the universities and the gaining of many students through the gospel at that time were the answer to their prayers.…Almost all the ones borne as fruit from that period were weighty, precious, and remaining.…Today, however, many of the ones gained by the different Christian movements are loose. Although they are saved, they do not rise early to read the Lord’s Word. Oh, how we need to pray!

Abiding in the Vine, That Is, in the Body

In order to bear remaining fruit, we need to realize that fruit-bearing is not an individual matter but a Body matter.…In a vine none of the fruit-bearing branches are independent, isolated, or detached from the vine. Instead, they are attached as parts of the vine to bear fruit corporately. Thus, in John 15:12 the Lord said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you.” To love one another is to be fitly framed together and to be one. At the end of His speaking in John 17, the Lord prayed that we would all be one (vv. 11, 21). Fruit-bearing is a Body matter. First, we need to be built together, and then we need to abide in the vine, that is, in the Body, to absorb the riches of the life of Christ as the life-juice of the vine. In this way we will not only be full of life but also have an overflow of life when we go out to contact people. We will contact others not as individuals but as branches of the universal vine, not merely preaching but imparting and overflowing life to others. When this is our practice, I believe that the fruit we bear will be weighty, sweet, and remaining. Furthermore, I believe that this kind of fruit will grow in life and be transformed at a proper pace.

Our Needing the Head and the Whole Body
with All Its Members to Sustain and Support Us

Ephesians 4:15 says, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” We need to grow up into the Head in all things. All things includes not only the big things but also the small things. We need to go to the Lord and check with Him concerning everything-every aspect, every part, every element, and every motive-in our daily life. Otherwise, when we go out to gain people, our going will not be weighty and serious but will be like playing a game. This should not be the case with us. Our going out to gain people should be a burden, a serious matter, a matter of life or death. To gain people, to bring Christ to them, and to impart life to them is a serious matter. I am concerned that many young people have made the matter of gaining others into a game. They take it lightly and may even make it a joke.…When we grow up into the Head in all things, out from the Head we will have the increase.…In verse 16 the increase is not only something out from the Head but also a matter of being joined and knit together through the joints of supply and through the operation, the effectual working, in the measure of each part of the Body. This means that the outreach, the preaching of the gospel to others, is a matter that concerns not only the Head. but also all the members of the Body. In order to preach the gospel for the imparting of life to others, we need the Head and the whole Body with all its members to sustain and support us. If we hold the Head and have the support of the entire Body when we go to impart life to others, we can be assured that whatever we bear as fruit will be weighty, full of life, and remaining. (CWWL, 1971, vol. 3, “Gaining People and Building Them Up for the Body of Christ,” ch. 5)

THE MORE FRUIT WE BEARING,
THE MORE GOD BEING GLORIFIED
IN OUR CHRISTIAN WORK

When the believers as the branches bear much fruit, the Father is glorified, for in fruit-bearing the Father’s life, the divine life, is expressed. In John 15:8 we see that glorification is in fruit-bearing: “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” According to 12:24 the one grain fell into the ground and died, rose up, and brought forth many grains. This is multiplication, and this multiplication is glorification. Hence, the many grains of wheat in 12:24 are the many branches of the vine in chapter fifteen. The branches of the vine bear fruit, and this fruit-bearing is the Father’s glorification. The more fruit we bear, the more God is glorified in our Christian work. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 288)