The Vine and the Branches

ME: Intro

If we were to go down to Wegmans right now,

We would find a variety of different kinds of grapes.

Red grapes, green grapes, moon drops,

Or my personal favorite,

Cotton candy grapes!

Have you tried those?

Oh man, they are good!

But how do these grapes grow?

Do you have branches in the vineyard that are just trying with all their might to grow grapes?

Some of them are going to tanning salons to get that right shade of red on their grapes.

Then others see the tan on those red ones,

So, their grapes begin turning green from envy.

Maybe that is why they taste a little more bitter too.

But then you have those night life branches,

The ones that drop in after dark.

That’s how they produce moon drop grapes.

And of course, you have the branches with a sweet tooth.

Always snacking on cotton candy to make the cotton candy grapes.

These branches probably like going to baseball games and carnivals and things like that.

That sounds like the way we get these grapes, right?

No?

Then, what do these branches do to grow these grapes?

They remain attached the the grapevine.

That’s it.

They remain attached to the grapevine and grapes grow.

A gardener will come through and prune the vines to grow more grapes.

But the branch does not prune itself,

Nor does it grow the grapes.

The nutrients for growth are sourced from the vine,

And the gardener does the pruning.

This is the illustration Jesus uses in John 15:1-11 of the Vine and the Branches.

Slide

And our outline for this passage is very simple.

God Prunes (1-3)

Members Abide (4-10)

Joy Results (11)

Ask yourself and one another, how is abiding in Christ each day going for you?

This year, our focus is on clarifying specific areas to unify our body to glorify God.

Those areas of clarification include mission, leadership, and membership.

The past several weeks we have been clarifying different areas of leadership.

This morning, we begin to shift our attention to clarifying membership.

What does it mean to be a member of Christ’s body?

What am I to do?

What commitments am I making?

Our passage this morning gives us the baseline commitment of being a member, abiding in Christ.

Back in ch. 13 of John,

Jesus began what is called His farewell discourse to His disciples.

He began by washing His disciples feet then announced His departure.

Understandably, this was distressing news for the disciples to hear.

So, Jesus comforted them and called them to trust Him in ch. 14.

Now, in ch. 15, Jesus teaches His disciples to abide in Him,

Presenting Himself as the true vine,

With His disciples as the branches,

And the Father as the gardener who prunes the branches.

WE: (vs. 1-3)

When looking at the Gospel of John,

Slide

One of the key features is Jesus’ “I Am” sayings.

Which are a callback to Exodus 3:14, where...

Exodus 3:14 ESV

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

This means Jesus’s “I Am” statements are Him claiming to being God.

Because He is using the OT language for Yahweh on Himself.

His “I Am” statements begin in John 6:35 with I am the bread of life.

Next is I am the light of the world in John 8:12.

Then in John 8:58,

John 8:58 ESV

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

This statement is a clear reference to Christ’s eternal existence.

An attribute that can only be true of God alone.

Next, in John 10:9 and 11,

Jesus says I am the gate and the good shepherd.

In John 11:25, He says “I am the resurrection and the life.”

And in 14:7, He says “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

In each of these statements,

Jesus is showing He is God.

Slide

This is what the incarnation teaches,

That God took on flesh.

Paul says in Col. 2:9 that in Christ the fullness of God dwells bodily.

Jesus is the Lord to whom we must pray for salvation,

Jesus is God over all,

He is our God and Savior,

He is the source of God’s grace.

Faith in Jesus being God is the basis of Christianity.

He has an endless, unfailing life because He is fully God.

But He also lived the full human experience of temptation and suffering because He is fully man.

The Bible forbids worshiping anything other than God.

While it commands us to worship Jesus Christ.

Because He is the fully God, fully human Savior of the world.

He is our proper object of faith, hope, and love.

Any belief system without this emphasis cannot be Christianity.

So, this is the foundation beneath why members abide in Him.

Slide

That is once again what Jesus is teaching us with His final “I am” statement.

He declares that He is the true vine.

He is not just any vine,

And not just any vine is true.

The fact that He declares Himself as the true vine implies the existence of a false vine.

So, how do we know what is the false vine?

We look to the OT.

In Gen. 49:22, Joseph was called a fruitful vine.

This was the first use of a vine or vineyard as a symbol for God’s chosen people, Israel.

Later, David said to God regarding Israel in Psalm 80:8,

Psalm 80:8 ESV

You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.

But sadly, Jer. 2:21 says to Israel,

Jeremiah 2:21 (ESV)

Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild (or false) vine?

See, in the OT,

God said to His people that they are a false vine because of their failure to obey God.

So, this OT background informs what Jesus says here in John 15,

The vine and branches illustrate this organic union,

A relationship of complete dependence.

But Jesus is showing that the nation Israel was not the true vine.

Jesus is saying that He is that vine.

Since Jesus is the true vine,

This means He is the true Israel.

In other words,

The path to God is no longer dependent on being a descendant of Abraham,

Now the path goes through a vital connection to Jesus.

As He said in his previous I am statement,

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

This means we don’t need to become a citizen of Israel to be right with God,

We need to become a member of Christ’s body.

So, don’t worry about abiding in Israel,

Abide in Christ!

And this is huge!

Because becoming a citizen of Israel entails a lot of religious deeds:

We would have to bring sacrifices to the altar,

Perfectly obey every part of the law,

Celebrate every Jewish festival and observe every holy day.

But then Jesus comes along and basically says,

This is not only unnecessary,

Its not enough.

Instead, He says,

Abide in Me.

Trust in Me.

Connect to Me and you will be connected to God,

Whom He says is the vinedresser.

This title once again alludes to the OT.

To what is referred to as a vineyard song in Isaiah 5.

Where God tended to Israel as His vine,

Only to be rewarded with worthless fruit.

But now, because Jesus is the true vine,

God tends to those who are united to Christ by faith.

He is the source that produces fruit in the branches.

Slide

In vs. 2, there are two types of branches listed,

Living branches and dead branches.

Jesus came to bring life.

Therefore, He gives life to all branches connected to Him.

Any branch that is not connected to Him, however, is dead.

Because those branches never truly trust in Christ.

At best, a person like this is like Judas.

They might be around Jesus,

But they are not connected to Him.

They do not have a genuine, life-giving, trusting relationship with Him.

So, Jesus separates genuine members from fakes.

And the Father’s work as the vinedresser is maximum fruit production.

So, vs. 2 says that God removes every dead branch that does not produce fruit.

If we do not bear fruit,

It is because we are not connected to Jesus.

No branch that is connected to Christ is entirely fruitless.

His branches will always bear at least some fruit.

But because God’s goal is maximum fruit production.

Even when His members do produce fruit,

God still prunes us to produce more fruit.

Peter, for example, bore a lot of fruit during Jesus’s ministry.

But then denied Jesus three times the night of Jesus’s betrayal.

He was pruned by God,

And went on to produce even more fruit than he did during Jesus’s ministry.

Likewise, if we are connected to the vine,

We will produce fruit,

And God will still cut, prune, trim, and chop us.

Because He is not content with us just staying connected and bearing a little fruit.

He is determined to make maximum fruit production in us.

He is determined to make us more like Jesus.

And the only way to do this is through the painful and uncomfortable cutting away of dead or decaying parts to make us more healthy.

In other words,

God’s commitment to our fruit bearing is greater than our commitment to comfort.

God will do whatever it takes for maximum fruit production.

So, this means,

The difficulty you may be going through,

Even right now potentially,

May be an act of kindness on God’s part.

Because He loves you,

And He is shaping you into something more.

But this shaping takes a sharp blade,

It is painful.

But it is a reminder of God’s loving commitment to you.

Members bear fruit because God wants maximum fruit production in us.

This fruit is Holy Spirit produced Christlikeness.

Slide

It is summarized in Gal. 5:22-23.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This is the fruit that God produces in His branches,

This gracious disposition and habits that come from the Spirit.

So, yes,

The Father prunes us for maximum fruit production.

He cultivates and cuts back overgrowth in the branches that produce fruit.

Slide

But then,

Jesus says in vs. 3 that we are already clean.

In other words,

Jesus is saying that members of His body are already saved.

How?

He says,

Because of the Word He has spoken.

God works through the words of Jesus,

Cleansing us with those words.

The Bible says, we are justified through faith in Christ and His words.

But even though we are already clean,

Already saved,

God still prunes us, why?

Because we are also still being saved.

The Bible says, we are sanctified through faith in Christ and His words.

And while this process is happening,

We are also waiting for the day we will be saved.

The Bible says, we will be glorified through faith in Christ and His words.

These are the three stages of salvation:

Justification, sanctification, and glorification.

So, it is true to say that we are saved,

Are being saved,

And will be saved.

Or, as Jesus puts it in vs. 3,

We are clean,

He is cleaning us,

And we will be fully clean.

This present cleaning process of sanctification is God pruning His branches.

GOD: (vs. 4-10)

So, while God prunes,

What do members do?

Slide

In vs. 4, Jesus commands members to abide in Him.

This command can be tricky for us.

We have this tendency to think of abiding as some sort of emotion or experience.

But what Jesus is talking about is not a momentary thing,

It is this ongoing reality,

A whole life posture.

It is an emphasis on permanence and steadfastness in the relationship between Christ and His members.

Jesus is saying genuine members are connected to Him.

So, abide,

Remain connected,

Receive life from Him,

Live out of this connection to Him.

That is why Jesus uses the illustration of the vine and the branches.

It helps us to understand what it looks like to abide.

Because a branch only lives off the nutrients of life provided by the vine.

Without it, the branch dies.

So, when we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior,

The life of Jesus flows into us like the nutrients flow from a vine to a branch.

Jesus makes us alive.

The Bible says His Spirit literally lives in us,

Giving us power to trust Him and serve Him and speak of Him to others and live for Him.

And He promises He will never leave us,

He promises to sustain us at all times,

As a vine sustains the branches that abide in it.

The life of Jesus flows through every member of His body.

This union to Him is so imperative that Jesus says to abide ten time in vs. 4-10.

Ten times in seven verses.

He says to abide in Him,

Abide in His love,

Abide in His words.

In the context of the vine metaphor,

Thinking of branches simply staying connected to the vine,

Where nutrients flow freely to the branches to grow fruit on the branches.

So, Jesus is saying,

Just like branches bear fruit only by abiding in the vine,

Members bear fruit only when we abide in Christ,

When we rely on Christ,

And are spiritually aligned with Christ.

Jesus said it this way in John 8:31,

John 8:31 (ESV)

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,”

And those who are truly His disciples bear much fruit.

Slide

Vs. 5 says that apart from His life,

We can accomplish nothing for God,

And we can do nothing to please God.

We could sing our hearts out in church,

We could give more than anyone else in the offering,

We could know all the answers at Bible study,

We could be first in line to serve in the church,

But if we do all these things apart from Him,

Then we are doing these things in our own strength,

And therefore, they are not pleasing to God.

In fact, the Bible compares them to dirty rags.

Because they all would be fruit of our own effort,

Fruit of self-righteousness.

And self-righteous fruit does not please God,

Nor does it honor God.

The Bible teaches that there is this utter inability of humans to do anything to help ourselves.

Because we are born with this sin nature.

Therefore, God’s grace is absolutely necessary for every stage of salvation.

We cannot be justified by our works,

Nor do we sanctify ourselves after we are justified by Christ.

We are justified by Christ and sanctified by Christ.

Without Christ,

We sinners are helpless.

If the connection between a branch and it’s vine is severed,

There will be no fruit.

Jesus is saying the same is true for us.

If the connection between Christ and us is severed,

There will be no fruit of salvation.

Slide

In light of humanity’s helplessness apart from Christ,

Jesus warns in vs. 6,

What happens to those who are severed from the vine.

Even if a person claims to be a member of Christ’s body,

But there is no evidence of Christ’s life flowing through them,

Jesus says, the same thing that happens to dead branches will happen to them;

They will wither, get gathered up, and burned.

This was already alluded to back in vs. 2,

Where Jesus said the Father takes away branches that do not bear fruit.

Unless we have fruit of Jesus’s life in us,

We will be cast in the fire.

This echoes the prophecy in Ezek. 15,

Where a barren vine is said to be useful only for burning.

So, take this warning seriously!

Is there clear, unmistakable evidence that the God is living in you?

If He lives inside us,

He makes His presence known.

He says we shine like bright lights in a dark world.

It is also important we understand that the branches being cast in the fire are not Christians who have lost their salvation.

Jesus is clear that this cannot happen.

He does not come and go inside His members.

If a person is not showing fruit,

It is because they are not abiding in Christ.

And if a person is not abiding in Christ,

It is because Christ is not in them.

And if Christ is not in them,

It is because they do not have a saving relationship with Christ,

And they never had a saving relationship with Him.

If a person does not have a saving relationship with Christ,

Then, Jesus says, fire awaits them.

This fire alludes to eternal judgement.

It echoes what Jesus taught in Matt. 3:12,

Where He warned about the Father separating the wheat from the chaff,

With the chaff being burned in an unquenchable fire.

Or Matt. 25:41,

Where Jesus says to those who don’t abide in Him...

Matthew 25:41 (ESV)

‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’

Jude 7 teaches that this eternal fire is a punishment for sin.

Rev. 20:14 calls it the lake of fire,

Which is the second death.

So, Jesus is the starkest of warnings here,

The baseline for every member of His body,

Is to abide in Him.

If we do not do that,

Then we are not His.

And if we are not His,

We are thrown away into the punishment of eternal fire.

However, if a person is a genuine member of Christ’s body,

Then they enjoy a living connection to the vine,

They abide in Christ,

And they bear fruit.

Remember, in vs. 3,

Jesus said the disciples are already clean because of the word He spoke to them.

It is Jesus’ words that do the miraculous work of cleansing and connecting.

Then, after we are made alive by this connection,

Jesus commands our obedience.

But think about the command Jesus gives here,

Abide.

Slide

What is Jesus expecting us to do when He says to abide?

Well, He explains in vs. 7,

By abiding in Him,

His words abide in us,

And He answers our prayers.

Therefore, Jesus says,

Ask whatever you want,

And it will be done.

How?

Because those who abide in Christ,

Will want what He wants.

We who have His words abiding in us will pray for what Jesus has declared He will accomplish.

That is why Jesus can guarantee to answer these prayers.

Slide

So, I would like to highlight the three steps Jesus gives for us to apply His command to abide.

First, be ever aware of your need for Jesus.

You need Him the same way a branch needs a vine.

You must live in this perpetual reliance upon Christ.

If you drift from this awareness,

Then you drift from abiding in Him.

Second, Jesus says His words abide in His disciples,

This requires being exposed to His words.

It requires you to examine, analyze, give attention to, and consider His words.

So, that you can understand them and retain them.

So, the second step is to abide in His Word.

These first two steps feed into one another.

Because keeping the words of Jesus fresh in your mind,

Keeps you aware of your ongoing need for Jesus.

And your ongoing awareness of your need for Jesus,

Prompts you to abide more and more in His word.

Then, these two steps naturally flow into the third step.

As you abide in Jesus and His words abide in you,

Jesus invites you to ask whatever you want.

Because you will want His will to be done.

And praying for His will to be done,

Is a declaration against unrighteousness, injustice, unbelief, and disobedience.

Praying for His will to be done is praying for His kingdom to come,

Where idols will be crushed,

Strongholds will be torn down,

And the gates of hell will never prevail.

By commanding you to abide in Him,

Jesus commands you to live in a constant state of reliance upon Him,

Keeping His words active in your mind and your heart,

And to pray for His will to be done in your life and this world.

Slide

In vs. 8,

Jesus says abiding in Christ glorifies the Father.

How?

Because the fruit from abiding proves you are Christ’s disciple.

And a lack of fruit proves just the opposite.

So, this idea of proving ourselves as Christ’s disciples,

Seems to imply this invitation for our fruit to be inspected.

If we are claiming to be members of Christ’s body,

But there is no fruit,

Then we are frauds.

So, we should welcome people to inspect our fruit.

Because Christ’s members have nothing to hide.

Our fruit testifies to the gospel.

This Jesus who died must have truly risen from the dead,

Because He is alive inside of us.

And because we are connected to Him like branches are connected to a vine,

We bear fruit.

Fruit of confession, forgiveness, and increasing Christlikeness.

Sure, we will go through barren seasons,

But over the course of our lives,

We will see evidence of Christ’s life at work in us.

This fruitfulness is God’s primary redemptive purpose in us.

Isaiah 27:6 envisioned a time when God’s people would...

Isaiah 27:6 (ESV)

...blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.

Jesus is not saying that we are accepted by God because we bear fruit.

Just the opposite.

Because of the saving union with Christ that we receive by grace,

God produces fruit in us.

Thus, the only work Jesus gives us here is to abide in Him,

And let Him produce fruit in us.

Slide

In vs. 9-10, Jesus expresses how He loves you just as the Father loves Him.

Think about that for a moment.

The Father shares Himself fully with Jesus.

And Jesus is saying,

He is loving you in that same way.

So, continue in this vital communion with Him,

By abiding in His love for you.

If you obey Jesus’s command to abide in Him,

Then you will naturally abide in His love,

Which produces further obedience.

Christ demonstrated this with His life,

He abided in the Father’s love,

And perfectly obeyed the Father’s will.

Think about some of the commands Jesus has given in His farewell discourse over the past couple chapters.

In 13:34-35, He commanded us to love one another.

In 14:1, He commanded us to trust God and Himself,

In 14:11, He commanded us to believe what He taught about His relationship with the Father.

And now in this chapter,

He commands us to abide in Him, His Word, and His love.

This is a reciprocal thing.

We obey the command to abide in Jesus by abiding in His love,

And we abide in His love by obeying His commands.

His love for us is not conditional on the basis of our obedience.

His love for us produces love for Him and empowers obedience.

Making obedience the evidence of God’s love in us,

Rather than earning God’s love for us.

So, let us just sit on this in a potentially uncomfortable way for a moment.

We are focusing on clarifying genuine membership.

So, if you are listening,

And you claim to be a member of Christ’s body.

But you are living in willful, persistent, and ongoing disobedience.

Then Jesus is saying that you do not really love Him,

That you are not bearing the fruit of His love.

And if that is the case,

Jesus is also saying,

That you presently lack His life in you.

And if that remains unchanged,

He says you will be gathered up and cast into the fire.

Genuine members obey Christ.

And this makes sense if you really think about it.

A follower of Christ follows what Christ says.

It is irrational otherwise.

To say I love Jesus but I don’t listen to Him.

Then you really don’t love Jesus.

James says faith without works is dead.

A member who does not obey is not a genuine member,

They are a faker.

Because if Jesus truly lives in you,

You can’t even help but produce obedience.

His life in you causes you to love what He loves,

To treasure His Words,

And to obey them.

Not out of this obligatory, guilty sense of duty.

But out of joyful gratitude.

You will find delight in doing what Jesus wants you to do,

Because He is shaping your heart to be like His.

YOU: (vs. 11)

Slide

And that is why Jesus explains in vs. 11 that Joy Results.

This is the reason Jesus gives for telling us these things.

Because He wants you to know His joy,

And He wants you to know it to the full.

Joy is an unmistakable fruit of a genuine member of Christ’s body.

Jesus created joy.

And if you are saying the Creator of joy lives inside you,

But you are miserable all the time.

Then something is not adding up.

It does not make sense,

It is illogical.

But if you are finding joy in Jesus,

It is because you are His member.

When we abide in Christ, joy results.

We can’t know Him and not know joy,

We can’t have Him and not have joy,

We can’t love Him and not love the joy He produces.

It is impossible.

This doesn’t mean we just go around everyday with a big smile,

Laughing at everything no matter the circumstance.

But it does mean we live a life that is marked by confidence that Jesus is greater,

That He is more satisfying than anything this world has to offer,

And Jesus promises that this joy will flow through Him to us.

Because Jesus is not giving us joy like He is handing us an item.

He is giving us joy by giving us Himself.

Making His joy our joy.

Filling us to the brim with it,

Overflowing to the point that we are engulfed by joy.

Joy is above us and below us,

It is all around us.

It is beside us, behind us, and before us,

Joy is everywhere.

You know the song,

“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Where?

Down in my heart.

Where?

Down in my heart to stay.”

But do you know the other lyrics?

I’ve got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,

Down in my heart to stay.

I’ve got the wonderful love of my blessed Redeemer,

Way down in the depths of my heart,

Down in the depths of my heart to stay.

Is this true of you?

Do you trust that Jesus offers you joy to weather any circumstance?

Jesus is the infinite, eternal, everlasting God who offers endless joy.

Abide in Him and His joy becomes your joy.

If Christ is our source.

Then our understanding of this world,

And our purpose in it begins to change.

Our affections and allegiances change.

We desire what God made us for.

Our goals align with Christ’s calling on our lives.

But when this does not happen,

It may be because our goals are still self-focused,

Which will never produce joy.

But Jesus wants you to experience His joy.

And His joy comes not from gratifying Himself at the expense of others,

But from sacrificing Himself for the benefit of others.

So, obeying Christ is not this massive burden that we carry.

It is not all doom and gloom.

Jesus teaches just the opposite.

He says that obedience,

Even at the most basic level of abiding in Him,

Results in joy.

And Jesus wants us to live in His joy.

WE: Conc.

Jesus invites us to Himself in Matt. 11,

Saying His burden is light.

Obedience to Christ is a good work.

And Gal. 6:9 says,

Galatians 6:9 ESV

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Doing good in this world can feel wearisome.

And at times, our feelings can seem so much more powerful than Christ’s promised joy.

Whether you have been a member of Christ’s body for a short time,

Or almost a lifetime.

This wearisome feeling can make us tired,

Tempting us to fall into sin and feed our flesh,

Causing us to fall our of step with the Spirit,

Resulting in an unfruitful season where we feel disconnected from Christ.

So, we must accept Christ’s invitation to rest in Him,

We must obey His command to abide in Him before we get tired.

This is the baseline of genuine membership.

Abiding in Christ.

If we get that right,

Everything else flows from it.

Our fruitfulness is completely dependent on the act of abiding.

So, as we work to obey Christ,

We must keep our First Love our first love.

We must keep our relationship with God through Christ from becoming secondary to anything.

Everything else in comparison is unimportant.

So, going back to the three step application Jesus gave in vs. 7.

Abiding in a practical sense is a constant awareness of our need for Jesus.

Abiding in His Word on a daily basis,

And asking Christ whatever we want in prayer.

Abiding in Christ is deeply relational.

We are meeting with Jesus every day.

Spending time with Him in His Word and through prayer.

This is the baseline for every member in Christ’s body.

So, how abiding in Christ each day going for you?

Let’s foster this culture where we lovingly ask ourselves and one another this question.

Pray.