In this message we want to consider the purpose of the vital groups. Many of the groups have been coming together to pray earnestly and have been laboring for about seven months, but what has come out of this? The outward situation among us may not seem that encouraging because we have not yet seen some definite results. The saints in the book of Acts prayed together for ten days. The result was the outpouring of the Spirit (2:2-4) and three thousand added to the church (v. 41). We may expect a similar great result after we pray together for a short period of time. We may be discouraged since we have not yet seen much of a result.
We need to consider the Lord’s word to us in the Gospels regarding preaching the gospel and gaining the increase. At the end of Matthew, the Lord charged us to go and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (28:19). At the end of Mark, He charged us to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation (16:15). Mark tells us that miracles would follow the disciples’ preaching of the gospel (vv. 17-18). At the end of Luke, the Lord told the disciples to wait at Jerusalem until they would be clothed with power from on high (24:49). Then they would have the impact for people to receive the gospel of the forgiveness of sins (v. 47).
We may expect such power and instant results in our gospel labor, but we need to go on to see what the Gospel of John says. There is not a charge to proclaim the gospel at the end of John as there is in the synoptic Gospels. The last chapter of John describes a situation in which Peter became disappointed. Because of his disappointment, he went fishing, going back to his old occupation (21:3). When he took the lead to go fishing, the other disciples followed him. They fished through the entire night and caught nothing, but in the morning the Lord suddenly appeared to them and told them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. When they did this, they caught an abundance of fish (v. 6).
John tells us they caught one hundred fifty-three fish (v. 11). But without these fish, and even on land, where there were no fish, the Lord prepared fish and bread for His disciples (v. 9). In John 21 the Lord Jesus did not come to charge the disciples to go and disciple the nations. He was training them to have faith in Him for their living. The first word the Lord uttered to them was this: “Little children, you do not have any fish to eat, do you?” (v. 5). This shows that He was caring for their daily living, their daily necessity.
After they had eaten breakfast, the Lord asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Peter was not bold to say as he did before the Lord’s crucifixion that he would never deny the Lord. Peter responded by telling the Lord that he loved Him, and he eventually said, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You” (v. 17). After Peter’s responses to His questions, the Lord charged him to feed His lambs, shepherd His sheep, and feed His sheep (vv. 15-17). This is the Gospel of John’s way to tell us how to bear the remaining fruit of the gospel.
John speaks directly about bearing fruit, however, not at the end of his Gospel but in chapter fifteen. In verse 16 the Lord said, “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.” John does not speak of preaching the gospel as the other Gospels do. He speaks of fruit-bearing. The vine bears fruit only once a year. If you want fruit from the vine, you cannot pray and have much fruit the next morning. That would be a real miracle, but the bearing of fruit by the vine is not like this. If you look at the vine today, it seems that it is the same as it was yesterday because the season has not yet come for it to bear fruit. Besides having no fruit, it may not even have any blossoms.
The real fruit-bearing in the Christian life is just like the vine. It is yearly and according to season. The period of time before the bearing of fruit in its season will test you. You may think that you are waiting to bear fruit and that this waiting is a waste of time. But if you would ask the vine, the vine would say that the time was not wasted. That time is not a waiting period for the vine but part of a producing period. The vine is in the stage of producing even in the winter, and eventually in its season the fruit appears.
John 15 is a very valuable and deep chapter in the Bible. A number of Bible teachers teach only the abiding in the Lord from this chapter. Actually, however, John 15 stresses the bearing of fruit. Abiding is not for the sake of abiding; abiding is for the sake of fruit-bearing. If you abide in the Lord for your whole life and do not bear any fruit, your abiding means nothing. The stress in John 15 is not on abiding. The key is abiding, but the stress is fruit-bearing. We can have the fruit-bearing by abiding.
For the branch to abide in the vine is the living of a life under all kinds of conditions—the sunshine, the blowing wind, the rain, the heat, and the cold. In other words, to abide in the Lord is to live a life in Him under all kinds of suffering. Actually the vine tree suffers day and night for and until the season when it will produce its fruit (see Hymns, #635).
It was not our decision to choose to be a branch of Christ, the true vine. The Lord said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you....” (John 15:16). The word “set” is a strong word. It is not just that the Lord has appointed us or arranged something for us but that He has set us. This is our destiny. The destiny of the lovers of Christ is to bear fruit.
According to John 15, fruit-bearing is not an easy thing (vv. 18-25). The vine suffers for many months before its season comes to bear fruit. After the fruit of the vine is harvested, the whole vine is stripped. In the winter the vine endures the cold and the snow until the spring begins. Then it begins once again to bear fruit. The fruit-bearing process is a process of suffering the sunshine, the blowing wind, and the rain. The Song of Songs even speaks of “the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines” (2:15). The foxes love the tender grapes of the vine. We need to be impressed with this picture. The vine can bear fruit only in its season through much suffering. Someone may want fruit from the vine right away, but the vine cannot produce this fruit until its season comes through suffering.
I have been speaking about our need to bear fruit for the Lord’s increase since 1984, but most of the saints expect instant results. They may think that they can pray for a short period of time, and then the Lord will sovereignly arrange for them to meet someone who will be saved and added to the church. In Taipei we contacted half a million homes and baptized thirty-eight thousand people in less than seventeen months, but we did not see much remaining fruit from this.
If George Müller were here, he would tell us that to bear fruit is not a quick thing. He made a list of people and prayed for them daily until each of them was saved. In his autobiography he said that there was still one person for whom he was praying that was still not saved. But after he died this person was saved by the Lord. We must see that fruit-bearing is a seasonal matter. It is the same with bearing children. Once a woman has conceived a child, she must wait for nine months to deliver this child. The time of the child’s birth cannot be decided by her.
We should not think that our meeting together for about seven months in the vital groups has been a wasted time. We must remember that the bearing of fruit is according to the proper season. On the other hand, some vine trees may not bear any fruit for one reason or another. This means that the vine lived in vain for one year with no fruit. The vine did not bear fruit because it lived wrongly. Whether or not we will gain some fruit by the end of the year depends upon how we live in the coming months.