Sermon Tone Analysis
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Be Fruitful
On the heels of Jesus telling the disciples that if they love him they will keep his commands he gives some further marching orders for his followers.
And in these marching orders he focuses less on them loving him and more on them being fruitful for him.
We talked about last week that those who love Jesus will do what Jesus commands them to do.
Particularly loving God and obeying people.
And we talked a little about what that will look like, but this morning we are going to talk about it further.
Jesus returns to their agricultural understanding to convey a deep and meaningful truth.
A truth that if we truly listen and we truly grasp will have an amazing impact on our lives as followers of Jesus.
Jesus is going to use an extended metaphor to help us see what it looks like for the life of a follower of Jesus.
The follower of Jesus will always bear fruit.
If you belong to Jesus this is your new nature.
You will obey his commandments.
You will have the Holy Spirit.
And you will produce much fruit.
The Vine
In this extended metaphor, we start off by seeing that Jesus says “I am the True Vine.”
This statement is the 7th of the I am Statements found in John’s Gospel.
Jesus has told those listening to him “I am the bread of Life, I am the light of the world, I am the door, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the resurrection and the Life, I am the way, the truth and the life.”
And here he ends these very definitive statements with “I am the true Vine.”
Obviously with the metaphor that follows we can assess and understand what it is Jesus is saying, but there is something deeper going on here.
If Jesus is the true vine, that means that there is a false vine.
A vine that doesn’t produce godly fruit.
A vine that portrays itself as God’s vine, but isn’t.
Who/What is this vine that Jesus false vine that Jesus is speaking about?
Throughout the OT, Israel is portrayed as the vine.
A vine that the Father planted and wanted to be fruitful.
They were to be a light to the nations, they were supposed to live such holy lives that people were drawn to God.
But Israel turned out to be a corrupt vine.
A vine that produced not good fruit, but failure and rebellion.
Jer 2:21 “21 I planted you, a choice vine from the very best seed.
How then could you turn into a degenerate, foreign vine?”
But Jesus is the true vine.
He that Israel pointed to.
Jesus has replaced the fake vine and is the true vine.
That’s one of the things that Jesus is communicating with these “I am” statements.
Everything they have had before was always pointing to him.
And he is the fulfillment of the promises.
Even more, Jesus is better than the things they had recieved.
Not only is he conveying the truth that he is better, but he is also communicating that he is God.
We’ve talked about it before, but just for a refresher, when Jesus says “I Am” he is using the divine name of God that was revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Ex. 3.
So with this simple statement, “I am the true vine” Jesus is stating that he is the new and better Israel and he is the God Almighty in human flesh.
There is only one way to be attached to the true vine and it is through Jesus.
We must be disciples of Jesus if we want to stay in the Father’s Garden.
You see this “I am” statement is also different from all the other ones.
In this “I am” statement notice that it isn’t Jesus alone, but he incorporates the Father with what he is doing.
Jesus is the vine and the Father is the gardener/vinedresser.
And in this I am statement and metaphor we see how Jesus’ and the Father work together for the good of those who love Jesus.
So what we will see in this metaphor is that there are three characters.
Jesus as the vine.
The Father as the gardener.
And People as the branches.
The Branches
In these verses, Jesus wants us to see that there are two different types of branches.
And each of these branches has a different destiny.
The branches represent disciples of Jesus.
They are either dead disciples or living disciples.
They will either thrive on the vine or they will be cut off and thrown into the fire.
The dead disciples are cut off from the vine.
What is a dead disciple?
A dead disciple is someone who likes Jesus, but doesn’t thrive on Jesus.
They do the “Christian Things” but they don’t love Jesus.
They don’t obey his commandments.
They don’t live for Jesus.
They want to look like their a part of the vine.
But they are imposters.
In the immediate context, I’m sure the disciples with Jesus are thinking about Judas as the dead and unfruitful branch.
He followed Jesus.
He looked like a disciple.
He was trusted.
He did the right things…until he didn’t.
Until something more appealing, something he desired more came along.
And when he was offered a way out he abandoned Jesus.
Because he didn’t find life in Jesus.
He didn’t find his purpose in Jesus.
He would rather have the things of this world than have Jesus.
So what we have to know is just b/c someone calls themselves a Christian, doesn’t in fact mean that they are.
The test for those that truly love Jesus is do they produce fruit.
The living branch will produce fruit.
The dead branch will not.
So it’s as simple as this.
If you don’t bear fruit it’s b/c you don’t belong to Jesus.
And if you don’t bear fruit, you are removed and thrown into the fire.
Those who don’t actually love Jesus.
That aren’t devoted to Jesus are not going to spend eternity with Jesus.
And the reality is they are only fooling themselves.
They are simply playing the part.
They don’t have life from the vine.
And it breaks my heart to know that there are people out there who have convinced themselves they are safe.
That they are saved.
That Jesus loves them, and one day they are going to be thrown into the fire.
B/c they loved the idea of Salvation.
They loved the idea of Heaven.
they loved the idea of Jesus.
But they didn’t love the person of Jesus.
In contrast to the dead branches Jesus tells us about the living branches.
He says that the good and living branches produce fruit.
So the way to tell the difference between a living branch and a dead branch is whether or not they fruit they produce.
So what Fruit is a living branch supposed to produce?
In a simple and easy way to understand it, we are to be producing Spiritual Growth.
And I want to talk about a couple of ways we can do that.
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