Seeds for 08/29/2023 - Matthew 12:33-37
Scripture: “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Observation: Let’s go back to how Jesus got started. After the Pharisees heard about Jesus healing a man of demon possession, they accused Him of casting out demons on the authority of the prince of demons. Then, verse 25 begins, “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them…” (emphasis mine)
This is what He’s talking about. There’s an interplay between our insides and our outsides. The accusation of the Pharisees was not simply a mistake. It was revelatory, showing what was on their insides. “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Our words are powerful. Most if not all of us have spoken words we were proud of. Most if not all of us have spoken words we regretted. Sometimes, yes, we may have joked too far or been careless with our words. But we also know the experience of conviction because our words revealed what our heart was full of.
Thankfully, at the heart of the Gospel are three words with the power to eclipse our very worst and start a chain reaction that transforms us from the inside out. Words from the lips of Jesus, declared from the cross, that reveal His heart: “It is finished.”
As the hymn, It is Well With My Soul, says it:
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 1. Here’s a relevant portion for today:
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3, emphasis mine)
That captures it, right? If we want to produce fruit, Jesus and Psalm 1 agree—it’s an organic process. How we cultivate the inside will determine what we yield on the outside. Delight in Jesus, the Word made flesh. Delight in Scripture, the Word revealed to “make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus will come and make “our tree” good from the inside out if we let Him.
Application:
What am I planting myself by that produces good fruit in my life?
What am I planting myself by that produces rotten fruit in my life?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, transform me from the inside out. Plant me by the living water of your Word, that I may yield a harvest for you. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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