The Necessity of Bearing Fruit

Text: Matthew 28:17-20

17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Introduction
Last week we talked about the different kinds of soils where the word of the Lord was sown. It ended up challenging us to become the sower and the good soil at the same time. It taught us that as Christians, we ought to bear fruits as evidence that we are the good where the seeds were sown.
Today, we will be talking about the necessity of bearing fruit. Why do we need to bear fruit? Was it really necessary for us to go out to share the gospel of Christ. Today, as we look around, many churches preach about the great commission. Many pastors and teachers of the bible are convinced that Matthew 28:17-20 is a passage to follow because of its imperative form. In contrast, only few churches were able to digest its meaning and enjoyed its benefits.
Here are some reasons why do we need to bear fruits.

Bearing Fruit Is Obedience
The fact that the statement in the passage is in imperative form, it stands for a command to be obeyed. It was because of all authority that was bestowed to Jesus Christ that commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations (v.17). We can note here that the passage did not give us an option if we need to obey or we can choose not to go to nations to preach the gospel.
This brings us to conclude that going out to reach the lost is really obedience to what was commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ. We can also note in verse 20 the Jesus instructed his followers to teach others to obey what he has commanded where we also becomes the recipient of the same command. The idea is, someone teaches us, while we also teach others to do the same, thus resulting, to continuity of the gospel of Christ until this very day and up to ends of time.
We can also see here that the passage is very strong in its form where it is suppose to compel us to do what it says, to go to the nations and preach the gospel. Opposite to what was stated in the passage, these words fell into many deaf ears in the Christian realm. Before, I used to think that “Born again” Christians were totally different to what the world described people. Christians are supposed to be “apart from the world” were “nominalism” does not exist in Christian realm. As time goes by, more and more Christians become nominal in the faith, settling themselves comfortably in the seats inside the chapel which totally contradicts to what was commanded in the passage. Nominalism is not the plan of the Lord for us, multiplication is.
The fact that we were called by our Lord, we were called to reach the other people. God’s calling is supposed to be transferrable and should not be cut off. It is suppose to be a continuous process, and not a one time process. Going out to reach the lost is fulfilling what the Lord has called us to do,

Bearing Fruit Is Fulfilling The Scripture
Every time I read the phrase “All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me”, I used to see something in there that was not explicitly stated. It sounds like that there was a plan that has come into fulfillment and circumstances were never an accident. Allow me to quote 2 passages.

13“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed

.
Daniel 7:13-14

10 The LORD will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 52:10

These two Old Testament passages tell us something very similar to what was stated in our passage. Daniel 7:13-14 probably tell us about the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take note the phrase “was given authority”. How about the phrases, “like a son of man”, “all peoples”, ”nations”, etc. All these were parallel to our passage. So as the book of Isaiah 52:10, “all nations”, “all the ends of the earth”, and “salvation”
The convincing part here is that they are parallel to what the Matthew 28:17-20 was saying, thus, confirming that everything that happened was a plan of the living God. And if it was a plan of the living God, what we can see here now is the command of our Lord to go to all nations, making them disciples of our Lord, and teaching them to obey what Jesus has commanded, that once we do that, we are fulfilling what the scripture declared. That all nations, all people, and all men of every language will come and worship the Lord.
Therefore, if we want to fulfill, or to do, what the Bible is saying, doing the “Great Commission” is certainly a way to work on that. Reaching out is fulfilling what the Bible have said.

Bearing Fruit Is Affirmation Of Our Faith
I love what the Lord has promised those who obey the Great Commission, “And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” This passage affirms that the Lord stays with us whenever and wherever we reach out for the lost. Through this, it can be easily concluded that we can really say “I am a Christian”, because we have bear fruits where we really cannot do it by ourselves, but only under the power and help of our Lord Jesus Christ only.
Mark 16:17-18 is a wonderful passage. I know that these passages were not that reliable for earlier manuscript does not really contain these words. The sudden change of style in writing also suggests that this portion of Mark were only additions to the original letter of Mark. And probably, this was added by an early Christian author in order make clarity on things that was said by Mark. However, despite of this uncertainty, there is still a probability that it was really a part of Mark. What we can do with the passage however is to deal with it by text but not drawing doctrinal stands on it. And I also do not see a contradiction to what were written here compared to other books especially to Matthew and Luke.
This passage says, 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues…” Now this is something that we might need to ponder. If we believe in Jesus Christ, and has been the recipient of the word of the Lord before, the belief or the faith that we have right now is supposed to be accompanied by these signs.
“They will speak in new tongues” does not imply speaking in tongues inside the church, but speaking in new tongues for the purpose of evangelizing other people who have different tongue or languages (Acts 10:45-46).
Here we can see that God empowers those who go out reaching the lost as what the Lord Jesus Christ has promised. This therefore is a form of affirmation of our faith.

Conclusion:
In its simplicity, tells us to do something. Reach the lost. Are you willing to obey the Lord?