John 15: I Am the True Vine.

Good morning church. My name is Brian Kent. It’s an honor to be here today to share the Word of God with you as Pastor Adam takes a well deserved Sunday off to spend with his family.

If I don’t look familiar to you, worry not. This is my first time here at Ferndale CTK, so no, you are not forgetting having met me a few Sunday’s ago. But if I do look familiar, I am a part of the larger CTK Network and there is a chance we have connected at an all-campus event or something else. My family and I attend at CTK Blaine. stuff about family, picture, wife working for the campus...

Today I get the privilege of kicking off your next series discussing Jesus’ seven “I Am” statements in the Gospel of John. You might be wondering why someone saying the words, “I am” would be a significant phrase. I could tell you that I am hungry. Or, I am from Blaine. The significance of this comes not from how we use the words today, but rather, how God used them when speaking about Himself throughout the Old Testament. One of the best examples of this comes from Exodus 3, when God was speaking to Moses through the burning bush.

Exodus 3:14 CSB

God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”

This is one of many times that God would refer to Himself as “I AM”, a significant declaration of His nature as God, creator of the universe, and Lord of all. Anyone in the time of Jesus who new anything about the Old Testament knew that God is “I AM”. So when Jesus came on the scene and referred to Himself as “I AM”, it was likely interpreted as Jesus comparing Himself, even implying, that He is God.

So why do a series on these statements? Not only is their striking similarities to Jewish imagery and tradition that develops understanding of who Jesus is, but as explained in the Tyndale Bible Dictionary, “each “I am” statement is followed by, either immediately or in their wider context, conditional statements about the importance of following Jesus”. And what connects them is that each stems from scriptural promises of divine salvation.

Today’s “I Am” statement comes towards the end of Jesus’ last supper with His disciples. After Judas was excused from the meal, Jesus began to teach the remaining eleven disciples in what is often called called His “farewell discourse.” Today’s “I Am” statement is found about a quarter of the way into the discourse John 15. We will read the statement at the continued verses related to the statement. This is Jesus speaking.

John 15:1–17 (CSB)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. “This is what I command you: Love one another.

What great passage, with a lot in it. Of course, Adam did ask that I have you all home by dinner time, which I can understand. So we won’t be able to get to everything.

I do want to begin by briefly covering four parts of this passage that, although not our main topic today, are important for us to keep in mind as we go through today's teaching.

Jesus as part of the Trinity. John 15:1

Jesus Christ is God, 1/3 of the Holy Trinity. The Trinity, as explained in the Lexham Survey of Theology, is the collective name given to the three persons in God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is important to remember because in today's passage we read, John 15:1 ““I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” Jesus and God have different roles. Yet still, Jesus is God. And the Father is God. Jesus is not the Father and neither is the Father, Jesus. What is an anomaly to our understanding is not to God. We read in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So when we read about Jesus’ relationship with the Father, we read it as Christ who is fully human, and fully God. John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” God, unfathomably in community with Himself as God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Separate yet one.

Some branches will be cut off. John 15:2, 6

2) John 15:2 “Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he [God] removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.” There are some people who may seem to be in Christ, but in reality they are not a fruit producing part of the vine. Thus, they are cut off from the vine, Jesus. Apart from relationship with Christ, we cannot produce spiritual fruit. Apart from Christ, we can’t truly worship or glorify God. Can we go to church, serve on a ministry team, sing loudly, give generously, be kind, do good, love our kids, and neighbors. Yes. But without relationship with Jesus, it is not glorifying to God, and we won’t remain in the vine.

The branches are those who believe in Christ. John 15:3

3) This passage is not talking about being saved, rather, those who are saved. John 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.” The instructions we will see today, to follow God’s commands, abide in Christ, love others. None of those have anything to do with you being saved. We cannot earn our salvation. Jesus did all of the work. All we must do, is believe and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, and give our life to Him. And for those of you that are not believers this is true for you as well. You need not get close to Him first, get your act together, or make up for all the wrong you’ve done. Ephesians 2:8–9 “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.”

All of this is done for God’s glory. John 15:8

4) Everything in the passage is done for God’s glory. John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.” God is glorified when we produce the fruit that comes from abiding in Christ, and prove that we are His disciples. We are created for His glory. He always works for His glory.

Now, with these 4 things in front of us, I want to introduce our main focus.

What we will focus on today is, as this translation puts it, “remaining” in Christ. Having a real relationship with Jesus.

Let’s start by seeing how many times Jesus refers to “remaining” in today’s passages.

John 15:1,4–10 (CSB)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener... 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

It is all about our relationship with Jesus. In other Bible translations, it says “abide in me”, or as one scholar puts it, “reside in me”. And He is inviting each of us into that relationship.

The thing is, every person in this room has a different story. Different mistakes. Different family history. Different experiences.

So when we read over and over again in this passage the statement, “remain in me”, “abide in me”, in simpler terms you might say be close to me, each of us is hearing that from a different place. Each of us thinks, and feels something unique when we hear Jesus telling us to come in close.

I grew up in a Christian home. We went to church most weekends, my Mom took us to Awanas. Faith has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was 15, I went to a Younglife camp that summer and heard this idea about Jesus wanting to have a relationship with me. Jesus wanting me to be with Him in a new way. My faith was transformed. Jesus wanted me to be close to Him. Tell about how this changed your life. Then go through a few seasons and how your relationship with God changed. [probably need to imply the Biblical justification for my deserve]

Relationships change. They do not stay the same. We change. I mean, it would be unfair for me to compare my relationship with Jesus now to that of my younger years, and say “Brian, you used to be so on fire for God”. Well yeah, I was 20 years old with raging hormones, no problems bigger than having to work a 7 our shift at Little Caesars pizza, and a healthy ignorance of just how difficult life was. Now I’m 36, married, working a full time job, trying to pay all the bills without caring too much about money, let alone the ups and downs that come from living with two preteens, an energetic 7 year old, and a toddler. Sure, I’m not “on fire” much these days, probably more “on tired” most of the time. Yet my closest moments with God now are ones that 20 year old me would have given anything for.

Throughout life, we change. Emotionally, physically, intellectually, hormone levels, experiences, and scars. All of it, it changes.

Relationships changing isn’t exclusive to our relationship with God. For anyone who has been married or dated anyone for more than 3 months knows. The honeymoon stage doesn’t last forever. Yet, some of you would probably say that you and your spouse are more in love than when the two of you were riding on the emotional unicorns of young love back in the day when nothing could get you down. Or, maybe you don’t feel like you’re more in love. Maybe you don’t know what being in love really is anymore.

Same thing with friendships. Family relationships. Siblings. Parents. Kids.

What about your relationship with your coworkers, or your boss.

All of these relationships change, whether for good or for bad. Once you get to the real stuff, people start to hurt feelings. Break promises. Say horrible things. Move away. Dishonor marriage vows. Call names. Let people down.

In relationships, people get hurt. None of those relationships are immune to that. Because all the ones I just listed have one thing in common; two humans. Two people stained by sin. Whether believers in Christ or not, they are both still wrestling with the sin every day.

So when we read that Jesus wants us to abide in Him, it’s no wonder that not all of our gut reactions are the same.

When hearing Jesus say “abide in me” I wouldn’t be surprised if half the rooms instinct is to run arms wide open to Him, and the other half of us having our gut tell us to hold back, to be cautious.

So why should we have a different sense of hope in a relationship with Jesus?

Because half of the relationship with Jesus is completely different than all the other ones.

Yes, the first half is the same. It’s you. Changing. Growing. Feeling. Stumbling. Getting back up again.

But the other half.

The other half of that relationship is Jesus. God in the flesh. Our God who is never changing. All-powerful. All-knowing. Good, gracious, kind, loving, slow to anger.

So when we change. When we mess up. When we are sick, weak, tired. When we are joyful, and happy.

Whatever it is, Jesus is always Jesus. He is always the same. He didn’t like you more in the past, or like you less now. When He says He loves you, that doesn’t change. When He said, “your are forgiven and made new” when you first believed, that is still true today. He doesn’t take that back. His love for you is not subject to your actions. It is a gift, not a wage.

But it gets better. Every night, I sing to my younger boys, who share a room together. I sing them “Jesus loves me.” My mom sang that song to me growing up and those words are in me forever. I pray that it would seep into Porter and Heath’s heart and brain so for the rest of their lives they would know that “Jesus loves them”. Good day. Bad day. He loves them.

But there is something else I pray they learn about that song that isn’t explicitly said in the lyrics. Something I hope and pray that will be written on their heart so deeply that no amount of hurt or deceit from the work of sin can ever hide it from them. And this next part is true for you too.

Jesus loves you just as God the Father loves Jesus.

Some of you might be thinking, “Woah, woah, woah.” I know Jesus loves me, but He was perfect and God’s son. No way Jesus loves me the way God loves Jesus.

Jesus loves you just as God the Father loves Jesus.

John 15:9 CSB

“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.

Friends, it doesn’t end there. Even God loves us as He loves Jesus. This is Jesus speaking.

John 17:23 CSB

I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

Gosh, church, we cannot comprehend how much He loves us.

But, what about Jesus, like, He deserved that love. He was worthy of that love. No way I deserve that love.

Yeah, He was worthy of it. And yeah, we aren’t.

Ephesians 2:4–5 CSB

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

Friends, God loves you more than you could ever imagine. And his does not change His love based on what you do. His love, as D. A. Carson puts it, is prior to all of our mistakes. 1 John 4:10 “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

He loved us so much that He died on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He did that knowing all your sins, and still did what needed to be done, so that we could experience His love.

God’s love for Jesus doesn’t change, and Jesus’ love for us doesn’t change.

So how should we respond?

John 15:10 CSB

If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

If I can reference a great way that Pastor Wendy Powell from Bellingham CTK puts it, when Jesus talks about the connection between our obedience and His love, He is telling us about His love language.

To put it even more simply.

We love Jesus by keeping His commands.

And what are those commands?

Matthew 22:37–39 CSB

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus is saying to love God and keep His commands, as Jesus Himself did.

A love that is committed to glorifying God in everything, prayerfully walking with the Lord in all of life. Completely sold out for Him.

A love that seeks to know God and the things He loves, taught to us through the Word of God, and in response to that knowledge, living life according to God’s ways.

And what is the other love? To love others. To take that same love that Jesus is loving you with and to love others just like that.

To realize that Jesus’ love for you is like God’s love for Him. Thus, we are called to love others like Jesus loves us, which is like God’s love for Jesus.

When we take this and then read others commands in the Bible, it starts to change how we understand them. If you think about God’s love for Jesus, which is paralleled in Jesus’ love for us, commands like forgive others completely change.

A friend of mine once asked me, “Brian, who are you to withhold forgiveness from that person, when Jesus didn’t withhold any forgiveness or love to them?”

Oof.

When Jesus talks about praying for and loving our enemies. Whether grouchy neighbors, ignorant coworkers, or people across the political line. If Jesus can love them, who are we to say their sin or error against us is too much to overcome.

But when we pray blessing, pray for good things to happen to those people, we will begin to experience a new understanding of Christ’s love for us.

You might be wondering how obeying God’s commands deepens our relationship with Him. Commands that are led by, but not limited too, loving God and others.

Talk about relationships again, and how relationships are influenced by unspoken expectations. Relationships grow when people submit the needs of others, and do the things that will improve the relationship. Show them love. Give an example of how you are submissive to your wife and chose things that are loving to her.

See, God is calling us to obedience because sin and disobedience separate us from Christ and His love.

His desire for our obedience is not some twisted plot for us to be robots who do his bidding, but that we might be able to experience more and more our relationship with Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.”

We were created for this. To worship and love God, and experience His love for us. As the Westminster Catechism puts it, the purpose of our life is the “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

Therefore we should strive to constantly be asking, “is this God’s Will?” constantly striving to live in a way that is rooted in Christ. That we might produce fruit, glorifying to God. That we may come to see the joy and love in obedience.

Friends, you can never pray too many times, “Lord, help me to do what glorifies you?” Not because we must keep the law in order to get to heaven, but because we were created for this.

And how is that possible, when our lives are still littered with mistakes, hurt, and sin?

Because as Jesus says to the disciples in this passage, and to all who have faith in Him, you are already clean. Jesus says, “I paid for those sins.”

Therefore obey because that is how we love God and produce fruit that brings glory to Him. That is how we experience the love of Christ just as Christ experiences the love of God.

And He has plans to shape us to be closer to Him and further glorify the Father.

And as verse 2 tells us.

John 15:2b (CSB)

…he [God] prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

We cannot deny that relationship with Christ will never face hard times, or include suffering. Truth is, hard times and suffering are just a part of life here on earth.

The other thing, is that God isn’t always going to deliver you from those hard times. Does He have a plan for you. Yes! And that plan ends with you beginning eternity in heaven with Him. God’s focus is on the eternity. A plan for the future, a looking forward length that we can’t even fathom. Will God deliver us from some struggles, sickness, or persecution. Yes. And sometimes, even when we pray for deliverance, He may not. His priority may not be something better in this world, but instead use that trial to bring you deeper into relationship with His Son, Jesus. Whether He delivers you or not, God is going to work on you. God has a plan for you from that trial. In Christ, there is fruit that will come. In the book of James we read James 1:2–3 “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”

A friend of mine recently told me about a difficult time he was having at work. He discussed his struggles, and prayers. As we talked, we came to this moment that we realized, God wasn’t putting challenges in His way because He wanted him to change his job, or rethink all the decisions he had made. Rather, God was using a challenging time at work to call him not to desperation, but to be desperate for Jesus. To put more stock in his relationship with Christ than the comfort and security of his job.

God wasn’t pruning for a change in his life, but for a deeper relationship with Jesus.

God’s prunes us that we may grow in Christ, and glorify Him more.

Now, can commitment to obedience lead you to do some crazy things as a fruit producing branch on the vine of Christ. I’m gonna say that’s probably a yes. Will they sometimes be things that the sin in us says, “does God really want you to go that far”? “Jesus would never take you out of your comfort zone or disrupt your boundaries”. I have that voice. The one that twists my thoughts into worry and compromise. That one that tries to add doubt to obedience. Sadly, sometimes my heart says, “let’s meet in the middle, God”. And guys, God is not glorified when we meet him in the middle. And He isn’t interested in compromising His will.

But sometimes, my wandering thoughts keep pushing for reasons to not obey. “so like what if Jesus tells me to sell all my belongings and my house and give away all my money. Like, how am I going to feed my family?” Anyone else ever think thoughts like that. As if that little red devil on your shoulder from the old cartoons is like, “What if Jesus messes everything up?”

When I was a kid, I had some friends that were super confident. They’d come over to hang out and would be like, “I’m really good at Monopoly. I’m gonna kick your butt.” See, I was home-schooled, so I wasn’t very good at trash talking with all the public school kids growing up, so my response would be something like “Yeah, well what if you land on “Go to Jail” every time and never collect 200$’s." I really got them right. My response was to create an ridiculous scenario and use that as a come back. For those wondering, it never. “What if the entire Ferndale Eagles football team all forget their cleats and have to forfeit. Then Blaine would definitely beat them in football.” Friends, for one, that “what if” isn’t the problem. The problem is when you believe that “what if”, when you believe that “unlikely extreme” and instead of obeying God, you do nothing. You pick the easy route.

When we look at the instructions for obeying Christ in scripture, they are rarely things so extreme that the average person would cower at the thought of doing them. Love others. Help someone when you see they need help. Be kind when it would be easy to criticize or make fun of. Make a decision that benefits someone else more than you. Do as Jesus instructed and help the widows, orphans or kids from broken homes, poor, needy, even if you don’t feel like they deserve it.

Most of the things that Jesus is going to call you to do, aren’t as “risky” as the devil would like you to think.

And you know what, if Jesus said he was going to win at a game of Monopoly, it wouldn’t matter how many times he landed on Go to Jail. He’d still win. And if He did tell you to do that unbelievably crazy thing, or if that unlikely scary result happened, He would be glorified, and you know what, you would experience something greater than what you lost. You would experience Jesus.

When we read that God is the gardener and is going to prune us, we can’t expect it all to be easy. He won’t prioritize all our things and pleasures the way we do. But He will always prioritize your relationship with Him.

What we can expect, what we can know, is that we are loved. Loved by Jesus, just like how God loved Him. Therefore, friends, abide in Christ. Obey His commands. Find joy in His Word. Pray. And give it everything you’ve got to love God and others in everything you do.

Let us end in praying through these passages.

John 15:9–12 (CSB)

“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.