I Am: The True Vine
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
This is the only I Am saying that runs into an additional assertion, my Father is the Gardener.
The Father doesn’t play a mere background role but He trims and prunes the branches.
In the Old Testament the vine was a common symbol for Israel. About Israel being Gods covenant people.
But whenever Israel was called the “vine” it typically referred to there failure to produce good fruit, and what would follow is a corresponding threat of God’s judgement on a nation.
Hosea 10:1–2 (NKJV)
Israel empties his vine; He brings forth fruit for himself. According to the multitude of his fruit He has increased the altars; According to the bounty of his land They have embellished his sacred pillars.
Their heart is divided; Now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars; He will ruin their sacred pillars.
So God planted Israel as good Vine in Canaan and He blessed her with much fruit.
Israel multiplied there alters which on the surface sounds like a good thing.
- We can multiplied our church attendance
- Multiply our giving
We could multiply our serving
But yet when it speaks about sacred pillars, some translation say sacred stones, they multiply those as well. And sacred stones is a form of idol worship.
The idol worship could be politics, could be sports, Could be phones, could be pornagraphy, could be work.
So even though they ramped up there alters at the same time they embellished there worship of idols. So they became hypocritical and idolatrous
God doesn’t want your hypocrisy he does want your idol worship but He wants your heart.
vs 2 There heart was divided so said he would break down there alters and ruin there pillars.
As a nation they began to prosper and Israel erroneously attributed her success to false gods, rather then the Lord.
For she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold— Which they prepared for Baal.
Israel was Gods choice vine which He lavished care and attention.
Israel was considered to be Gods vine.
God longed for fruit, but the vine (Israel) lost its moral qualities and produced rotten fruit.
Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.
Theres a fertile vineyard on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared up all the stones referring to the people in Israel.
And God planted the best vines on this hill. The hill I believe represents exposure and prominence. So he put Israel on display.
He built a watchtower, a stone structure to to guard the vine yard.
And made a winepress in anticipation of producing good wine.
But only to produce poor grapes. Only wild grapes grew from the vine.
“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
Please Judge between me and my vine yard! I completely set you up to win, but you did not that advantage of it.
All you had to do is leave everything alone.
Who’s fault is it that Israel’s not producing fruit? Israel’s fault.
Sometimes we like to blame God why our life looks like this or that.
But in reality its not Gods fault that our life looks this way its ours. He made us to produce fruit.
When there is no pruning its a result of judgement.
I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it.”
Psalm 80 brings together the themes of vine and the son of man.
Restore us, O God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine
And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, And the branch that You made strong for Yourself.
It is burned with fire, it is cut down; They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
So Jesus said I am the true vine! Israel i made you a vine but you produced bad fruit.
The conditions could be perfect! But yet all you will produce is wild grapes.
Jesus has already, in principle, superseded the temple, the Jewish feasts, Moses, various holy sites; here he supersedes Israel as the very locus of the people of God.
Jesus when He says I am the true Vine, I am the full revelation of Gods truth.
Jesus is the ultimate Vine.
Like the manna that was provided in the OT was genuine bread from heaven, but Jesus said I am the true bread from heaven I am the ultimate expression of Gods Divine will.
Jesus is saying I am the ultimate self disclosure of God to man!
There is no other expression under which we would need to know God. Christ is it ! The End.
The Imagery of the Vine suggests incorporation, mutual indwelling, and fruitfulness.
Incorporation because are apart of something greater then ourselves we are indeed apart of the body of Christ.
Mutual indwelling, is because we are in Christ and Christ is in us .
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
And fruitfulness- we where made to have Christ on full display in our lives.
We we’re made to have the fruits of The Spirit overflowing in our lives.
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.
The branches derive their life from the vine; the vine produces its fruit through the branches.
The Fathers work as the Vinedresser is two fold, first He takes away branches that don’t produce fruit. And no branch that doesn’t bear fruit is exempt.
He gets rid of the dead wood so that the living, fruit-bearing branches may be sharply distinguished from them, and may have more room for growth.
Fruitfulness is an infallible mark of true Christianity; the alternative is dead wood.
Then you have the pruning
Prune- means to cleanse from filth, purify. The father cleanses the branch in order to bear more fruit.
This pruning process is to reveal that your maturity is a work of God.
I don’t produce fruit myself, He does the pruning process.
Because He does it, I dont have to live in fear I dont have to worry.
He does the pruning process,
When Jesus cleanses us He does it completely. He doesn’t clean us partially.
Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”