I AM the Vine

Introduction

Story of Canning tomatoes

2 weeks ago I got a phone call from a friend in forest City and He asked me If i wanted any fresh tomatoes from his garden.

“Ill take a couple”

He showed up with boxes full of freshly picked tomatoes-

He gave me 4 boxes of the biggest most beautiful tomatoes I have ever seen.

When Amy gets Home I show her these 4 boxes of Amazing tomatoes and her response was so sweet.”

Do you know what her first response was? “ I hope you don’t think Im going to can those tomatoes.

and so I did what every man does , I put my foot … and watched a Youtube video and canned 12 quarts of Tomatoes.

today we are continuing on through Jesus’s final discourse to his disciples.

At the end of Chapter 14 Jesus says to His disciples “ Rise let us go from Here.

Jesus and His disciples have just left the upper room and they are headed towards the garden of Gethsemane.

And as they are walking Jesus continues to leave them His final words of encouragement and commands for them to follow.

As I studied this passage out, Many expositors of scripture believe that Jesus and the disciples would have had to walk past the temple as they where leaving the city and this is where Jesus s-poke the words of John 15.

We know that on this night it was a full moon because it was the Passover -which always happened on the full moon.

The gates of the temple would have been open all night for the Sabath, and they would have been shining in the light of the moon.

These were special gates, in fact they were a tourist attraction because of their beauty.

These beautiful bronze Gates had been forged in Greece, then carried the 1700 miles to Jerusalem and placed at the entrance to Herod’s Temple.

And what made these gates so special was the Golden grape vine that was wrought into them.

This vine symbolized the nation of Israel’s relationship with God

And I believe that as Jesus passed this golden vine a shining in the full moons light He spoke the words of John 15. to this disciples.

Jesus is about to make his 7th and Final I am Statement in the Book of John.

Look with me at our text this morning

John 15:1-11““I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

This wonderful picture that Jesus paints is about man’s relationship with Him as His followers,

This morning I want us to look at how Jesus compares our relationship with God to the fruit of the vine.

Transition: the first thing Jesus speaks of is the vine.

The Vine

Jesus says in verse one and then again in verse 5,

John 15:1 “ I AM THE TRUE VINE”

When Jesus Speaks of “the vine” these men would have naturally thought of Israel.

All of their lives the vine has been the symbol of their Jewish religion-

A symbol meant to remind them that the way to find God is through their religion.

A symbol that identifies them as part of the Jewish Faith.

And Jesus looks up at the temple - and points to the picture of the grape vine representing Israel and He says “ I AM the TRUE vine...”

After feeding the hungry 5000- “I am the Bread of Life”

After getting a cup of water for the thirsty- “I am the Living water that will never run dry”

After feeding the hungry 5000-"I am the Bread of Life- if you eat of me you will never be hungry again”

And Now He is looking at the symbol of the broken Jewish religion that was meant to point people to God - and He says “ I am the TRUE VINE- I am the way to the Father.

Jesus is telling these men that Israel is not the true vine because they have failed at pointing people to the father-

in Isaiah 5 The prophet is describing a story about a vineyard planted with love and tended with care by the gardener.

But Instead of producing good grapes, the vineyard grew wild, and out of control and the grapes were inedible… Meaning the fruit was no good.

and at the end of the story Isaiah the prophet identifies the vineyard as the nation of Israel.

Isreal was no longer walking with God they were not producing the fruit of God, and they were not pointing people to God.

So now When Jesus calls himself the true vine, he’s making a contrast with the nation of Israel and Himself.

He is saying that Israel is not a true vine, because

A true vine gives the branches the nutrients they need to produce good fruit,

And Isreal does not give people the nutrients needed to grow and produce spiritual fruit. In fact Israel as a religious nation has turned away from God’s truths.

Here’s the point Jesus is making to these disciples

: The path to God doesn’t go through the nation of Israel; it goes through Jesus.

the path to God doesn’t go through religion but through a relationship with Jesus.

Jesus is saying “I am the ONLY true vine- I AM the Only the source of life, the Only giver of spiritual nutrients, and the Only one who will sustain the branches of my disciples so that they will produce good fruit.

Transition: Jesus then speaks of ....

The Gardener

John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the Gardener. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he [the gardener] takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

John 15:6-8 “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

When I was growing up our family has a 1/2 acre garden. Every spring my dad would load us up and take us to the garden to work till the land, pull the weeds and plant perfect rows of seeds.

As the plants grew bigger and bigger ,We continued to water the plants and pull the weeds, But we also had to carefully prune some of the dead and dying limbs from the plants so that the stronger ones could grow and produce even better fruit.

and in the fall as the fruit and vegetables ripened we had the joy of harvesting the fruit that we had labored over all summer.

Who receives the glory and the pleasure from the fruit of that Garden?

It’s the gardener. The gardener is the one who lovingly labored and He is the one who receives the glory and the praise for the fruit His garden produces.

In the story Jesus is sharing with the disciples God the Father is the Garden,

he is the one who plants the seed of Salvation into the hearts of the lost

He is the one who sent the True Vine “Jesus” into the decaying world so that He could bring life, He is the one Who prunes, and nurtures the branches so that they will bear much fruit.

and so He alone is the one who receives the glory through the fruit that is produced.

Transition: Jesus’s story moves on to ...

The Branches

Look with me at what our text says about the branches

John 15: 1-2 “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

John 15:5-6 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

Illustration: Show a branch of a pepper plant that is still attached to a plant, and also just a branch that is taken off,

Ask the kids “which one of these branches is a pepper plant?

Compare the two - they look the same they smell the same, they even taste the same,

The difference is that one is attached to the life source and the other is not

ANSWER “They both are”

Then ask “which one of these two branches will produce fruit?

Only the one that is attached to the vine.

Why will “this one” produce and not the other ?

because it is attached to the life source that is required to produce fruit.

Compare the two - they look the same they smell the same, they even taste the same,

The difference is that one is attached to the life source and the other is not

In Jesus’s illustration the branches are disciples who are following Jesus. To the world around them they are known as Christ followers.

But Jesus says that not all the branches are the same, some produce fruit and some do not.

Just like this pepper plant—there are two types of people who claim to follow Jesus, those who are attached to the vine and Alive and those disciples who and dead and without life.

In John 10:10 Jesus said He came to give life to the lifeless and then in John 14 He said I AM the only source of LIFE, I am the only way for anyone to have eternal life...

Meaning “You cannot have life without Jesus.”

and now in our text in John 15 HE is saying “I am the vine that brings fourth life to the branches. and any branch that is not attached to the vine is not truly alive.

it may be able to fool people into thinking it is alive by the way it looks , Just like this pepper branch- but it is completely withering and dying inside.

it can only fake life for so long, and in the end it will wither away.

Remember Judas Iscariot, the disciple who less than an hour ago- was filled with the devil & left to go & betray Jesus ? I believe that Jesus, in this text, is speaking of Disciples like Judas Iscariot.

They hang around Jesus without a genuine, life-giving relationship with him, And to many people, they look just like real followers of Jesus.

But in reality they are not connected to the vine and are without the source of life,

and without the source of Life these branches cannot produce the fruit that branches are meant to produce.

The truth Jesus is saying is very simple- If you don’t bear fruit, then you’re not connected to Jesus.

If your life shows no evidence of Jesus, then the reality is that you probably don’t belong to him.

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

In the end there are going to be multitudes of “ Christians” standing at the gates of heaven thinking that they are right with God because of their religion, but Jesus is going to say to them “I never knEw you”- You may have looked like a Christian, you may have even acted like a Christian, But you never did the one thing that was required for eternal life and that is to be attached to the Vine- To Abide in Christ, You played religion but never accept Jesus Christ as your life Giving Source.

And this is what I believe Jesus is speaking of In verse 6 of John 15 when he says John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

If you are not in Christ than your actions, no matter how good you think they are, will still land in the eternal lake of Fire.

Because you are a branch that is not connected to the Vine

Jesus speaks of a second branch in our text -a branch that Abides in Him

He is speaking of Genuine Christians who are attached through faith in Jesus -the life giving vine.

Look at what He says about these branches that Abide in Him

John 15:2 -5 “... and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

if you have put your faith and trust in Christ alone for your salvation you are connected to the vine, and God, as the gardener, is going to do whatever it takes to cause you to bear fruit. God will cut you and prune you and trim you and chop you until you bear fruit.

Illustration: I have a plant in the community room that I take care of. Every week I give him about a half a gallon of water and I also prune all of the branches that are week and dying. I do this because as long as those dying branches are still there they are sucking the energy from the plant and the plant cannot grow. But once they are removed all that energy and strength that the plant was using to try and keep life in those branches now goes into producing more and better branches and leaves.

Understand this church- God’s commitment to your fruit bearing is greater than your commitment to comfortably staying the same.

If you are in Christ, God is going to prune your life. and this process of God pruning away our sinful habits can be painful at times. It can be overwhelming at times. But we need to understand that God is doing it for our good.

On Tuesday I was listing to Dr. David Jeremiah and He said something that has just stuck in my head all week.

“We ask God to change our circumstances so that our lives will be better, but God says I'm going to use your circumstances to make YOU better."

The difficulty you’re going through right now may well be an act of kindness on God’s part. He loves you, and he is using your circumstances to prune your life, and grow your faith so that you can produce more and better fruit.

I want to be clear - Just because someone is not producing fruit right now doesn't mean they are not a child of God, Many believers like fruit trees, will go through a period of spiritual drought, But the gardener will not let them stay there- if they are attached to the vine, He will continue to prune them ,and trim them so that they will again produce the evidence of Jesus’s work in their lives.

The entire reason the gardener lovingly cultivates and prunes the branches is so that they will produce good fruit.

Finally, lets take a couple of minutes to look at what Fruit the branch attached to the vine will produce.

The Fruit

Jesus Says that when we abide in Christ we will produce 4 types of fruit that are the evidence that we are attached to the vine.

the first fruit produced by a branch attached tot he vine is

1st Fruit Produced: Answered Prayer from the Father

John 15:7 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

When We are connected to the true vine -Prayer is our communication back and forth with the father through Jesus. Its how we seek his help in our lives.

and Jesus says ‘Answered Prayer is evidence of your relationship with Jesus.

Do you see the fruit of answered prayer in your life?

2nd Fruit Produced: Obedient Love for Jesus

John 15:9-10 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

Christ loves us the way the father loved him, and in response if we are truly connected to the vine. We will demonstrate our love for him by our willing obedience to him.

The fruit of true salvation is willingly living a life of obedience to God’s Word.

Willing obedience isn't done out of obligation or fear of Gods judgement - the fruit of willing obedience is a deep longing to want to follow the commands of jesus because you know that He receives the glory from your life.

So what does this say to the person who claims to be a Christian but chooses to consistently live in disobedience to Gods word?

i think its simple- You don’t love Jesus, You are not bearing the fruit of Obedience to Jesus -Therefore, the life of Jesus is not in you. , and you will be cast into the lake of Fire.

True Christians obey Jesus, obedience is the natural fruit of someone attached to the vine of Christ.

3rd Fruit Produced: Abounding Joy in Life

john 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

true joy is a deep feeling of contentment and happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who we are or what is happening around us.

The Joy from the Lord comes from Being In Christ, and abiding in Him.

This does not mean that every day you are happy and filled with laughter, but It does means that your life is marked with the confidence that Jesus is greater and more satisfying than anything this world has to Offer.

Simply Put - You cant truly claim to be abiding in Christ and be known as a grump. True Christianity will produce the fruit of Joy in the Believers life.

If you find your self more grumpy than Joyful what does that say about you?

If you find your self more anxious about your life than peace in God what does that say about you?

it says you are not abiding in Christ , Therefore you may not be in Christ.

4th Fruit Produced: Sacrificial Love for Others

John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Christ Commands us to love one another the same way that He loved us.

This type of Sacrificial love that dies in the place of some else is impossible- unless Christ lives in Us.

Jesus sacrificed for us by dying on the cross so that he could bring life to us.

The greatest from of love is not romantic or friend-worthy it is sacrificial -even for those who don’t deserve it.

And only someone with Christ living in them would be compelled by love to sacrifice for their enemy.

Genuine Christians will produce the fruit unconditional sacrifice for others reguardless of that persons love for them.

What does you life look like today? do you constantly sacrifice for others ,or do you live your life and spend your time and resources for your own comfort and pleasure.

Bring it Home

Jesus tells us that there will be many who claim to be Christians- but do not produce the fruit of Christ in their life,

and in the end they will be cut off, gathered up, and burned (v. 6).

This warning of Jesus in John 15 is meant to be taken seriously.

Church Family- Is there clear, unmistakable evidence that the living God resides in your life? If he lives in you, he makes his presence known through you by the fruit you produce.

God does not hide inside his children he produces fruit that the world will see- so that His name will be glorified through your life .

Don’t just clinging to a prayer that you remember praying as a child as your guarantee for eternal life?

Jesus is giving us something so much more tangible that we Can test our salvation against.

church family- If there’s no genuine fruit in your life, then God is not present. And if God is not present, then you’re not his child, and the eternal fire of judgement is waiting for you.

and in the end “ You will hear the words of Jesus “ Depart from me into ever lasting judgement”

Does God live in you? That’s what it means to be a Christian.

God made Salvation your very simple, Because God wanted you to realize there is nothing you bring to the table of salvation accept a sinner in need of a Savior. Salvation is not about the branches but about the gardeners loving care.

Romans 10:9-10 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Producing fruit is not the way to Salvation its the result of true salvation,

If you are here today and your life is not producing the fruit of Jesus then I beg you to stop ignoring the realty of your life. Stop playing religion and begin a new relationship with Jesus today, A relationship that will bear much fruit.

Pray

Invitation - during song - if you would like to talk with someone dont wait, I would love to talk with you today about your salvation.