Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus Is the True Vine

John 15:1-8

Series: The Great I Am

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - March 2, 2014

BACKGROUND:

*Jesus Christ is the great I AM, Lord God Jehovah of the Old Testament.

In Exodus 3, the pre-incarnate Christ is the One who spoke to Moses from the burning bush and said His name is "I AM."

*Almost 1,500 years later God the Son humbled Himself to become a man.

And as He ministered among His people, Jesus gave us at least 8 "I AM" statements in the Gospel of John:

-"I am the bread of life."

-"I am the light of the world."

-"I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.''

-"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 "I am the vine."

*Jesus spoke these "I AM" statements as more evidence that He is the Almighty God of the Old Testament, one with the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit of God.

Today we will finish this series by focusing on the Lord's "I AM" statement in John 15:1-8.

MESSAGE:

*Jesus said, "I am the true vine."

-- What does this mean for us?

1. First: As the true vine, Jesus is our essential connection.

*Listen to the Lord again in vs. 1&2:

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, that it may bear more fruit."

*Then in vs. 4-6, Jesus said:

4. "Abide in Me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, 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, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

6.

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned."

*The Lord is our essential connection to life.

Jesus Christ is our only possible connection to eternal, abundant life!

Jesus tells His followers, "I am the vine, you are the branches."

And William Barclay helps us understand why it is so important for the branches to be connected to the vine.

You see, by themselves the grapevine branches are basically good for nothing.

Their wood is too soft for any constructive purpose.

At certain times of the year, Jewish law required the people to bring offerings of wood to the Temple.

That wood was to be used for the altar fires.

But they were not allowed to bring wood from grapevine branches.

The only thing that could be done with the cut-off vine branches was to make a bonfire and destroy them.

(1)

*That is a picture of life without Jesus.

In the long run, we can do nothing worth doing without Jesus, we have nothing worth having without Jesus, and there is no true life in our souls without Jesus.

So Jesus Christ is our essential connection to life!

*This connection reminded one Christian friend about people on life support in the hospital, and she told me: "Jesus is our life support."

Jesus Christ is our real life support!

He is our only source for eternal, abundant life.

*As the true vine, the Lord is our essential connection.

2. And He provides for our essential cleansing.

*Everybody needs the kind of spiritual cleansing we see in today's Scripture.

God's Word tells us it involves both purifying and pruning.

Jesus talked about these things in vs. 2&3, where He said this to His disciples:

2. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He (i.e. the Heavenly Father) takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

3.

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

*There is a whole lot we can understand about salvation in these verses.

[1] First, it comes through a person: Jesus Christ.

*The only way to be saved is to have a close, personal relationship with Jesus.

When we place our trust in Him, we become connected like branches are connected to a vine.

[2] Salvation comes through a person, and it is provided through the Word of God.

*Again, as Jesus said in vs. 3: "You (i.e.

You who are My followers.

You who know Me and trust in Me) are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you."

*The Word of God tells us the truth about our sins and salvation: That we must be saved, that we must be born again spiritually, that our sins must be forgiven and washed away, and that we will be saved by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[3] Salvation is provided through the Word of God.

But it had to be paid for by the cross of Christ.

*Jesus spoke these words just hours before He died on the cross.

The cross was supremely on His mind as He spoke here.

And down in vs. 13, Jesus said: "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."

*God loves us more than we can imagine, and He always has, because He is love.

Romans 4:5 tells us an amazing thing: God "justifies the ungodly."

This means that no matter what you have done, God loves you and He will forgive you, if you will trust in Him.

And we should trust Him, because He loved us enough to die on the cross for our sins!

*When we hear this truth and receive the Risen Christ as our Lord and Savior, our sins are forgiven and washed away forever!

But there's more to the story, because as long as we are in this world, we are branches that need to be pruned.

That's why in vs. 2, Jesus said our Heavenly Father prunes every branch that bears fruit, so it will bear more fruit.

*Greg Buchner explained: "Growing up we had a grapevine that belonged to a neighbor right along our property line.

And watching him, I learned some things about grapes and grapevines.

Grapevines would rather produce shoots and leaves than grapes.

They end up looking lush and green.

But ultimately they're only good for making decorations.

*Grapevines must be pruned radically.

The gardener must cut them back each year as far as he possibly can.

Branches with no fruit must be removed so they don't draw nutrients away from the grapes.

And fruitful branches must be pruned back to produce even more in the following year."

(2)

*Steven Pace says: "Fruitful branches are pruned, all bad spots are removed, and even the strongest Christians have spots in their life that have to be removed.

All of us have areas in our lives that we struggle with, things that God needs to prune away:

-Some struggle with their thoughts, some with attitude.

-Some with commitment, some with relationships.

-Some with behavior, some with service.

-Some with passion, some with surrendering their will to God.

*The purpose of pruning is to prepare the branch to bear more fruit.

The purpose is not to punish, not to hurt, not to damage the branch.

God wants to use us to our full potential.

And that is why he prunes the branches."

(3)

*We all need pruning, and this hurts, because it cuts.

It reminds me of something I heard a preacher in Georgia say almost 40 years ago: "The most miserable people in this world are not the lost people.

The most miserable people in the world are the Christians living like lost people."

But thank God for that misery!