9 - I Am the True Vine

SLIDE: John 15:1

John 15:1 (NIV)

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

BUMPER

WELCOME

OPEN YOUR BIBLES TO: John 15:1-8

SLIDE: TITLE

Introduction

Well, it’s been quite a journey together. Today we wrap up our nine-week series, What’s in a Name, where we’ve been looking at the “I Am” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John. There are seven of them, and each one tells us a little more about Jesus’ understanding of himself. But perhaps even more important is that he began each one with the phrase, “I Am.” This was the ancient name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush, “Yahweh,” which is a form of the verb “to be.” So here was Jesus, seven times, identifying himself with God.

Today we look at the last “I Am” statement, found in John 15:1-8;

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

Background Information

Jesus and the disciples have left the Upper Room and are walking through Jerusalem toward the Garden of Gethsemane. “Come now; let us leave.” (John 14:31) On the way they must have passed the Temple complex, where Jesus looked over at the large sculpted vine on one of the outer walls. He pointed toward the Temple and said, “I am the true vine.”

This was a reference from one of the most familiar passages in the Hebrew scriptures: Isaiah 5:1-7

The Song of the Vineyard

Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

Throughout the Old Testament, Israel is portrayed as the Vineyard of God. It was a familiar picture. But now Jesus is saying that the New Israel is the spiritual fulfillment of God’s promise. And one is connected to the true vine through Jesus, rather than through Abraham.

Transition:

I want to focus this morning on what it means to “abide” in Jesus. One of the great challenges to spiritual life is the irony of time-conscious human beings trying to relate to a timeless God. We live under the tyranny of the clock; God inhabits eternity.

Psalm 46:10 says “they that wait upon the Lord…” But we’re terrible at waiting, mainly because it takes so much time! For most of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. Rather, it’s that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a watered-down, mediocre version of it.

Main Teaching:

Hurried-Sickness

Let’s talk about a syndrome called Hurried-Sickness

John Ortberg, in his book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, identifies the sundrome of modern life: Hurry-Sickness.

We’ll buy anything that promises to help us hurry.

Shampoo and conditioner in one—to save all that time we spend rinsing.

Domino’s Pizza. They don’t sell pizza—they sell “delivery in 30 minutes or less.”

McDonalds. We don’t buy it because it’s good, or even because it’s cheap—we buy it because it’s fast. But even then, you have to park your car, go inside, and sit down and eat. So we invented the drive-thru window so we can eat in the car as nature intended.

SLIDE: Hurried-Sickeness

Definition (from Meyer Friedman): Hurry-Sickness is “a continuous struggle…to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other persons.”

Symptoms of the Syndrome:

Constantly speeding up daily activities: - reading, talking, eating, etc. - calculating which car is likely to pull away from the light faster. - Counting the people in the grocery line—and then still keeping track of the place where you would have been in the other line. If you beat them, you won! If they beat you, you feel depressed for the rest of the day.

Multi-tasking. - We used to call this “doing more than one thing at the same time,” but that takes too long to say. - We do it best in the car. Hurry-sick people can drive, eat, shave, put on make-up, drink coffee, listen to the radio, talk on the phone, and make hand gestures—all at the same time!

Superficiality. - Depth can only come slowly—in relationships, conversations, and thoughts. - But we have traded wisdom for information; depth for breadth.

An inability to love. - Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. - Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don’t have. - This is why hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life—it is impossible to be aware of the Father’s love when you are always in a hurry.

The cure for the syndrome:

Abiding in Jesus.

Luke 10:38-42 (we are introduced to Mary and Martha)

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus commends the attitude of Mary in the story; as opposed to her sister Martha. (By the way, we now know the last name of these siblings from Bethany; it was Stewart!)

Martha was in the kitchen making a centerpiece by carving a swan out of a watermelon, and printing festive designs on the napkins using half an apple dipped in a mixture of food coloring and cornstarch! And doesn’t Mary just tick you off in this story? There is work to be done, right? Somebody has to do the work in this world.

Just for fun: What about you (raise your hands:

Are you a Mary. sitting at Jesus feet contently?

Or are you a Martha, feeling like there is work that needs getting done?

I’d like to tell you I am a Mary, but more times than I care to admit I’m a Martha.

But this is what Jesus was talking about in John 15; the importance of “abiding” in him.

He uses the imagery of a grapevine with branches growing out of it. He is the vine, and we are the branches. Interestingly, Jesus associates the practice of abiding in him with fruitfulness—productivity.

“The one who abides in me, and I in them, this is the one who will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Notice the difference in posture between the two attitudes: — Martha is busy and hurried—a frenzy of activity. This is the posture most of us are familiar with, and which our culture rewards.

— But Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. This is the posture of a disciple.

It brings to mind a kindergarten classroom, and Jesus’ words, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

SLIDE: How do we do it? — 3 ADVANCES

How do we do it? (Abide in Jesus—sit at his feet)

Cultivate four regular practices into your life:

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1 - Scripture.

Read some every day, perhaps use a One-year Bible. Learn the difference between reading for information, and reading for formation.

— Informational reading covers as much as possible.

— Formational reading covers what is needed, and focuses on depth, not quantity; perhaps only one word. Informational reading has a goal of mastering the text (content and meaning) — Formational reading has a goal of being mastered by the text. Informational reading treats the text as an object — Formational reading sees ourselves as the object of the text. Informational reading reads analytically — Formational reading reads receptively. Informational reading seeks to solve problems — Formational reading seeks to enter into the mystery of God.

ADVANCE — 1

2 - Worship.

Develop a habit of gathering regularly for worship with God’s people.

Come prepared to encounter the living God, not just to evaluate and critique and compare. Remember, we’re here like a group of spiritual kindergartners, sitting at the feet of Jesus. He really is present with us by his spirit. Learn to “attend to him” like Mary did.

ADVANCE — 2

3 - Fellowship.

The importance of small groups. Wherever two or three are gathered in his name, he really is there with them. More importantly, he is present in the faces and lives of the people we gather with. We encounter Christ in each other. Because the church is the body of Christ, each gathering of believers offers a whisper of his presence and the lingering aroma of his fragrance.

ADVANCE — 3

4 - Prayer.

Prayer at fixed times. (Morning or Evening, etc.)

Also, prayer throughout the day.

Paul wrote, “Pray continually…” (1 Thess. 5:17)

Conclusion

The example of Brother Lawrence. “Practicing the Presence of God.”

Brother Lawrence is the patron saint of all the Martha’s in the world, who just don’t have the temperament of Mary to sit in quiet contemplation at Jesus’ feet.

He lived for 15 years in a monastery but struggled with the discipline of structured prayer times. He wrote, “For a long time I felt like a failure at prayer, but then I realized that I would always be a failure at prayer and I began to feel much better.” (Don’t you like him already?)

Brother Lawrence was in charge of the busy kitchen for the monastery, and this became his laboratory for learning to live continuously in God’s presence—ironically, the same setting (kitchen) as Martha’s failure to choose the “one thing needed.”

SLIDE: Truth for you life...

His teaching on prayer is summed up in three simple points:

“God is closer to us than we think.”

“No one sees anything of [our prayers], so nothing is easier than to repeat these little interior acts of worship throughout the day.”

“We can make our heart a prayer room into which we can retire from time to time to converse with Him gently, humbly, and lovingly.” Then, “I do this simply by keeping my attention on God and by being generally and lovingly aware of Him.”

Perhaps his greatest success is seen in this observation: “My fixed times of prayer are no longer anything other than a continuation of this same exercise.”

And so we come to an end of our journey, and I cannot imagine a better place to end then with the exhortation to ABIDE WELL IN CHRIST. For all we’ve learned about who He is, and how He lives with us… We are invited to ABIDE forever with the great I AM. The King of kings and Lord of lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Prince of peace, the Messiah… Immanuel.

SLIDE: Life Application

God is WITH us, forever… Just one long continuation of being with Jesus… over and over and over again…

Let’s pray together.

Prayer: “Father, we want you to be our dwelling place throughout all generations. But we confess that we are not very good at remaining in you. We are distracted and hurried, running breathless after so many other things. Help us today to slow down and abide only in you.”