Christ Our Vine

Subject: Bearing Fruit

Verse: John 15:1-5

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Turn to John 15:1-5

1. Introduction driscribing life around our passage

1. Once agian we have our Lord, Jesus Christ giving us a great illustration. If we don’t know agriculture or our Bibles well enough we will miss the big picture here. Throughout the Old Testement grapes and a vinyard represented Israel. In the 80th Psalm in verse 8 we read “You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it.” Israel was the vine God pulled from Egypt and planted. God planted and establised them in a land occupied by other nations, know as the “promise land”.

Isaiah 5:1–2 reads, “1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.”

Again, God’s vinyard is Israel, He cultivated the land and planted the “choicest vine”. He built a grape press in the middle and expected “good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones”. Let’s be clear, I didn’t say they were worthless, God said that. It says “worthless” grapes, now some Bibles translate this as “Wild grapes”. The word here used is derived from the Hebrew verb bâăsh, which is to be offensive, to corrupt, to putrify; and some say it to man monk’s-hood, which is a poisonous herb, offensive in smell, which produces berries like grapes. Such a meaning suits the connection better than the supposition of grapes that were wild or uncultivated. The point here is there were vines in Judea which produced such poisonous berries, though resembling grapes.

2. In Jeremiah 2:21, we read, “Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?” A faithful seed, true, genuine seed, not mixed with weeds, nor with seed of an inferior quality. These were God’s people, the chosen people to show the world God’s love. Jesus referrences this in Matthew 13:24 where He is describing the Kingdom on God. God’s kingdom my be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. We can see that God planted choice, faithful seed on a fertile hill. but the enemy came and planted tares among the wheat, or turned the vines, the grapes into degenerate shoots, “wild grapes”, even poisonous berries resemebling grapes.

3.

Let’s Read, say Amen if you are there: John 15:1-5

John 15:1–5 (NASB95)

1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Opening prayer:

Our loving Yahweh, our righteous Father, we ask you this day, to teach us, to clarify your word to us. Open our hearts and minds to the truth of your word, Father. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.

2. An attention-getter. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away”

1. As we read through God’s word there is little doubt that everyone notices the negative aspect of these verses. Why as God’s people do we not hold tight the promises of His word, but focus on the negative? “He takes away”, verses, “so that it may bear more fruit”. We know that unfortunately there are to many people that claim to be serving the King, claim to be God’s children, those who pass as “branches” but they are fruitless. The common understanding here is that God will remove those who are note bearing fruit. Those who are not His children.

“Taking away” is not the focal point of what Jesus is saying. Jesus is not speaking of salvation here, as He is talking with the 11 desciple. This is not proof that if we don’t bear fruit, we lose our salvation. You can’t make the point of pruning the branches if you don’t have the counter of the fruitless branches.

We all know you prune plants to promote growth, this is the point. As a vineyard is worthless unless it bears fruit for the happiness or subsistence of man, so the Christian life would be worthless unless we live so that others may be made holy and happy by their example and labours, and so that the world may be brought to the cross of our Saviour, Christ Jesus. As we examine our selves, our lives. If we aren’t bearing fruit, we need to go before our heavenly Father, and as that He cleans and prunes us. Part of pruning us is our trials of life, this is meant for us to draw closer to God through reliance on Him. 1 Peter 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” We need to cling to God, rejoice in Him in all things, the good and the bad. For all things go through our Fathers hand, and are meant for our good. Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

2. God, the Fathers’s, role hasn’t changed. He is still carring for His vine. We see in verse 1 Jesus is clarifying He is the True vine, not Israel, but God’s son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true vine and “His” Father is the vinedresser. The Fathers role is decisive, He watches over or cares for the Vine, the vinyard, since He is the vine dresser. If the vine and branches aren’t tended to, there can be an abundance of unproductive growth. See, Church, the point Jesus is trying to make is, the Vine yields the nourishment to all the branches, large or small. All the nourishment of each branch, comes through the main stalk, or the vine. So Jesus is the source of all real strength and grace to his disciples.

3. You are already clean

1. The Desciple have been walking with Jesus for over 3 years. Through thier surrender to Him, they have laid aside thier lives and worldly tendencies. Jesus taught them to forsake this world to serve the kingdom of God. This made them ready to proclaim the Gospel when Jesus ascended. They were ready to a “workman” for God by the grace of Jesus’s teaching. This processes of abiding in Christ has made them clean, it has purified them before God. Church, it was thier faith and listening to and folling with Word of God, that made them clean. It wasn’t Jewish traditions, it wasn’t any legalistic practices, it is only the Word of God, which brings faith and obedience, that cleanse us.

2. Provide an application-—“Here’s how this idea relates to our lives.”

4. Abiding in Jesus

1. There are two words in the Greek being used for “abiding”. The word here is “μένω” Meno,to stay, abide, remain. We are to “remain” in Jesus!. Abiding is God’s gift to us, as we can’t do this on our own. Let’s simplify abiding in Jesus. This is to give up of ourselves to be taught, and led, so we can rest in arms of everlasting love. This blessed rest, is the fruit, the foretaste, and the fellowship of God’s own rest! This is the peace of God, a great calm of the eternal world, this surpasses understanding and comforts our hearts and minds. With God’s grace secured through abiding in Christ, we have strength for every duty, courage for every struggle, we have blessing on every cross, and even the joy of life eternal in death.

We must pray to our righteous Father, our loving Yahweh, and plead, that should we fear or doubt, as though these blessings were too great to attain, or to expect, that He speaks to us to strengthen our faith and sure up our obedience. We must hear our savior’s cry, Abide in me child, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, be cleansed and pruned, and you will find rest for your soul.

2. Illustration

There are two ways to drink tea. Some people are dippers. They dip their tea bag up and down in the mug. A lot of Christians are like that. They dip in on Sunday morning, then dip back out. The tip back in on Wednesday night. Then they dip back out. But there's another way to drink tea, and that's to be an abider. It involves actively dropping the tea bag in the water and letting it stay there. Without touching the bag an amazing thing will happen. The color of the water begins to change as the influence of the bag in the hot water affects the change in the cup. A person can just sit and watch the transformation take place because of the act of abiding.

When you are a dipper, you've got to make things happen by your own effort. You've got to move back up and down, dip a spoon in and out of the cup, wrap the string around the spoon, jerk, and then pull. It can require a lot of human effort. But when you are abiding, the water changes all by itself.

There were two guys drinking tea. One man was dipping and pulling away. The second man just let his tea bag sit. The first man said that he couldn't let his tea sit in the cup too long because his tea would get too strong.

That's exactly what happens when you abide. The depth of your abiding will determine the rate of your progress in your spiritual life. Jesus wants you to stay there and experience the full strength of His presence.

3. .

5. Abide in Me and I in you, so you can bear much fruit

1. Our saviors cry is to abide in me, and I in you in. The preamble to abiding in Christ is to take His yoke and Learn from Him. Then, we can have the blessed rest our savior speaks of

2. Illustration:

Think of this like three envelopes. We have a big one, a smaller one, and the smallest one and a slip of paper. The Bible says that we are in Christ and that christ is in us. The smallest envelope has Brian Williams writen on it. The says when Brian Willams accepts Jesus Christ, Christ abides in Brian Williams. Christ is the slip of paper and is placed inside the envelope reprsenting Brian Williams. The slip of paper (Christ) is in Brian Williams (the envelope), but when Brianb Williams accespted Christ, this puts the Brian William envelope into the Christ envelope.

Now, the Bible says that Christ is in God. So, we are going to slip the Christ envelope into the God envelope. So, in order to get to Brian Williams, you’ve got to go through God, and get through Christ, and after you’ve gone through God and Christ, then you get to Brian Williams. However, when you’ve gone through God, and gotten to Christ, and think you hve gotten ahold of Brian Williams, when you open the Brian Williams envelope, he is full of Jesus. So, I am in Christ, Christ is in me, Christ is in God, God and Christ are in each other (they are one), so I am well covered be Jesus Christ and His heavenly Father.

3. John 15:4–5, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” ,

So, we profess to be saved through faith in Christ Jesus. Does our life show witness to the fruit of the Spirit? If we are truly in fellowship with Him, if we are “abiding” in Him, then it will! So, naturally we need to ask and know what is Biblical fruit. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22-23; the fruit of the Spirit is, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Now we need to contrast, compare that to the fruit of the flesh. If we back up to verse 19, we see the fruit of the fleash being, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, and carousing. These fall into three categories, Sex, Worship and Social Relationships.

Sex is a gift from God and is for Marriage, only! Let’s be crystal clear, any sexual relations outside of marriage is sin and not approved by God! Worship is also a gift from God. When we worship properly it is complete communication of our spirit with God. Aldulterated worship is idolatry! Socail Relationships, word under the Holy Spirits guidance and results in fellowship, building up the community, sharing goods and blessings for the purpose of building God’s kingdom for social order.

It doesn’t matter what we profess our lives tell our true story. To be crystal clear, if we are walking with God, in fellowship with God, and walking in the power of the holy spirit, our lives will display Biblical fruit; “he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit”. This isn’t a might, or has an option to...Jesus, our Lord and savior, christos Yesous, says “he bears much fruit”. Much, the Greek word is “polus” meaning much or many.

4. Illustration

3. Application:

If our lives show the fruit of the flesh, and we have placed our trust in Christ through faith for salvation, but we are not living in fellowship...which Christ referrs to as “abiding” in or with Him; then instead of love there is bitterness, malice, unkindness. Instead of joy we get gloom, when we need longsuffering, we have impatience. Instead of gentlelness we have anger, ourbursts, or harshness. Instead of faith we have worry disbelief or lack of trust. Instead of meekness or humility we have pride, arrogance, houghtyness. Instead of selfcontrol we have compulsion.

7. Conclusion

1. Summarize what you’ve taught.

2. Present a call to action—what should your congregation do, now that they’ve learned these truths from God’s Word?

8. Pray