I Am the True Vine
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: Begin with introduction to the statement (last I am statement in gospel of John) and it’s relevance to the people knowing what a grapevine and vineyard would be and it’s uses and needs for care. I can imagine Jesus standing on a hill top over looking a vineyard when He used this statement to describe this part of who He is and what He does.
Vitis (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine.
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards are often characterised by their terroir, a French term loosely translating as "a sense of place" that refers to the specific geographical and geological characteristics of grapevine plantations, which may be imparted to the wine itself.
This is the backdrop for this teaching which was recorded in the Gospel of:
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.
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Transitional Sentence: So, all those who truly abide in the True Vine will bear much fruit and only those who bear fruit will remain on the vine.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.”
What is the True Vine and the Vine-dresser?
Why would Jesus call Himself a true vine and not just the vine?
a. What is a True Vine?
True vine - Grapes: they have branches and fruit (Photo)
False vine - poison ivy: no branches and no good fruit (Photo)
b. What is a Vine-dresser? What does a vine-dresser do? (Photo)
Definition - A person who prunes, trains, and cultivates vines.
The Vine-dresser’s goal: See that every branch produces fruit.
c. What does the vine dresser prune? Verse 2 of the passage says:
“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.
He removes the branches that bear no fruit.
Sometimes on a grape vine branches don’t bear fruit. They are basically lifeless or they just keep on growing in length with no fruit. (Use the wild Grapes story from Basswood)
Sometimes branches grow and grow and grow but every once in a while a small cluster of grapes pops out. This cluster gives the vine dresser hope that this branch can bear much fruit so, the vine dresser prunes that branch. The branch is cut back to that cluster of grapes. Then the branch can produce more fruit. The branch wont be worried about just growing, it will start putting energy into fruit production.
Do you remember the vine dresser’s goal? See that every branch produces fruit. The more the better.
2. But what is the fruit? Verses 4-6 of the passage says:
“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. 6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
a. The branches must Abide in the Vine. (Branches get everything from the vine and the vine from the roots. Expand) (Photo)
b. The branches must bear Fruit!
So, what is the fruit? For a grape vine it would be grapes, for a kiwi vine it would be kiwis, but this isn’t really talking about fruit. It is talking about disciples of Christ Jesus. So, what fruit will disciples bear?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
This is the fruit a disciple of Christ Jesus will bear. Before you become a branch on the true vine you didn’t really have fruit. You may have had some of each of these but they were only little clusters of fruit that only resembled fruit. But once you are a part of the vine and begin to abide in Christ Jesus you began to be pruned and began bearing true Spiritual Fruit.
Love: The heart of God’s character and, along with faith and hope, one of the cardinal virtues, according to Christianity. Christian theologians often distinguish among different forms of love: erotic love, friendship love and the love for neighbor that most closely resembles God’s self-giving love in Jesus, who came down from heaven and sacrificed his life for humans who were in rebellion against God.
Joy: Joy is the sense or state of gladness or elation that people experience through their relationship with God and through good things in their lives.
Peace: Peace denotes the wholeness, soundness, and well-being that characterizes God and that God created in the world. As peace was broken due to human sin, such well-being constitutes the hope for ultimate restoration by God.
Patience: The quality of forbearance and self-control which shows itself particularly in a willingness to wait upon God and his will.
Kindness: The quality of compassion and generosity, characteristic of God’s dealings towards the weak and poor, and demanded of believers. The kindness is also shown in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ.
Goodness: in man is not a mere passive quality, but the deliberate preference of right to wrong, the firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil, and the choosing and following of all moral good.
Faithfulness: Commitment to a relationship with God or fellow human beings; seen in that loyalty, devotion and service which is a reflection of God’s own faithfulness.
Gentleness: An expression of compassion, seen in God’s dealings with the frail and weak, and expected of believers in their dealings with others.
Self-Control: Physical and emotional self-mastery, particularly in situations of intense provocation or temptation.
This Spiritual Fruit proves our discipleship. Verse 8 of the passage says:
“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
If you say you are a Christian and confess Christ Jesus there should be Spiritual fruit in your life. There will be fruit because the vine dresser will prune you and remove that which prevents fruit production.
So, what happens if you don’t bear fruit even after you have been pruned?
c. Well, the vine dresser will Prune the dead stuff.
So what is the dead stuff? A better question is, who are the dead stuff?
Hypocrites - professors of faith only - not doers of the faith. Matthew Henry says: “This is the doom of the unfruitful. They are taken away. It is here intimated that there are men who pass for branches in Christ who yet do not bear fruit. Being only tied to him by the thread of an outward profession, though they seem to be branches, they will soon be seen to be dry ones. Unfruitful professors are unfaithful professors; professors, and no more. It is here threatened that they shall be taken away.”
You can say you believe in Christ Jesus but if you don’t truly know Him or abide in Him there will be no change in your life. You will continue living the way you always have. Galatians 5:19-21 says:
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
These are the things which must be pruned, these deeds of the flesh are the things that keep the fruit from growing. Have you ever seen a cluster of hard grapes on a grape vine? They never ripened up or like the berries on the poison ivy, they are poisonous. Useful for nothing but spreading more poison ivy plants around the property.
Do you remember the son of perdition who walked with Jesus? Judas Iscariot. He was pruned from the Vine. He professed faith in Jesus on the outside by following Him but He didn’t bear fruit. His faith didn’t move from his head or lips, to his heart, his faith didn’t overcome his desire for money and power so, he was pruned, he was removed from the group. Don’t be Judas.
3. The real proof of discipleship. Verse of the passage says:
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
a. So, how do we abide in Him?
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Three simple ways… 1. Stay in the Word 2. Fellowship 3. Prayer
There are many ways to abide in the Vine. One is to remain in the word. Eat this (hold up the bible). It is our daily bread. Learn it, tuck it away in your heart. Let it change you. This is an instrument for pruning the branches which produces fruit. You can’t devour this and not be changed by it.
The second way is fellowship. Meet together with others who are disciples of Christ Jesus. In order to keep a knife sharp it must be sharpened on a stone or with a sharpening iron. We are just like knives. We need to be sharpened, and the sharpening device is other disciples who can push you to become more than you are and produce more fruit.
The third and best way is to pray. Pray everyday. There must be communication between you and the Father, between the branches and the vine dresser. Relationships between people don’t work out well if there is no communication on a regular basis between the people in the relationship. Just as it is with your relationship with Jesus. No communication no relationship. Pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks.
And then after that you have to keep His commandments.
b. Especially His new commandment. John 13:34
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Do you remember the first fruit of the Spirit? Love. If love is working in you, you won’t love others in your own strength. You will love others with the love of the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in you. You in your own strength can’t love well enough to show the love of Christ to others. The love of Christ through the Holy Spirit is the only way to love others. So be filled with the Spirit and love one another.
As you love God and love others as yourself you won’t help but to fulfill God’s other commandments. Because loving God and loving others fulfills the law. These two things help keep you from doing other things that are counter to being a disciple of Christ Jesus. You will put away the deeds of the flesh - all that rotten fruit.
c. So, what is the ultimate goal in abiding in the Vine?
It’s to be Full of Joy Verse 11 of the passage says:
“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Here you have Spiritual fruit number two. Joy. Not a made up fake kind of joy but the joy of Christ Jesus. That joy is the Holy Spirit. That joy is in those who believe and allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow within them. Your joy is minimal, its hard to have your own joy. It’s hard to be in the middle of a storm that is tearing you apart and have joy in that storm. The most common answer would be to fight back, to rage against the storm, to hurt the people who are causing the storm. But joy will help you keep a better attitude, joy will help you see the silver lining in the storm. Joy will help you abide in the vine and continue bearing fruit because the storm is just one way God can prune you to produce more fruit.
Exit: None of you are vines. Only Jesus is the vine. You cannot live and thrive if you try to go it on your own. You must be a branch and you must abide in the vine. As a branch you must bear fruit to remain a part of the vine. If you are to bear fruit you must be pruned. God is the vine dresser, He is the one who will do the pruning. Sometimes the pruning is easy and nice. Sometimes the pruning is harsh and will be a storm that threatens to tear apart your life. Just remember while you are standing in sunshine or in a storm, if you are abiding in Christ Jesus as a branch, He will provide everything you need to include His joy which will make your joy complete.
We are the branches, He is the vine. Abide in Him and bear much fruit. Don’t be a lifeless dried up branch that will be cut away and thrown into the fire. Be a fruitful branch, bearing much fruit for the glory of God.
Pray!