Remain In Me (John 15:1-17)

Introduction

Picture a grape vine. This vine looks a lot like a tree would see every day, but the only real difference is that are grapes on the branches. Today, I want to talk to you about how farmers take care of their grape vines. Probably not what you were expecting when you came to youth today.

So basically you have your vine, this is the part of the plant that goes into the ground and has all of the branches coming out of it. a farmer would grow a grape vine on a pole or tree. The vine produces all kinds of branches, and this is where the fruit, in this case, grapes come from. However, for the plant to produce the most fruit possible it has to undergo what is known as pruning. Who here has heard of pruning?

There are two types of pruning. In the first type a farmer cuts off the branches on the vine that are not producing fruit. Why you may ask? They do this because as the plant collects nutrients and energy it uses it to produce fruit. But if 3 of the branches on the vine are producing fruit, while 15 are not, those 15 are going to take a lot of energy and nutrients away from the 3 branches which are doing what they are supposed to do and producing fruit. So, to optimize the amount of fruit being produced by the 3 branches, the farmer cuts off the 15.

The second type of pruning is done when a branch is producing fruit. The farmer trims up this vine so as to help it produce the best fruit it can.

Remain In Me

In the Bible we can read about a time that Jesus picked up this imagery of a gardener, a vine, and its branches. In the Gospel of John (an account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection), chapter 15 Jesus says this,

“I am the true vine. My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch joined to me that does not bear fruit. He trims every branch that does bear fruit. Then it will bear even more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain joined to me, just as I also remain joined to you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain joined to the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain joined to me” (Jn 15: 1-4 NIrV)

Jesus is painting a picture here with his words. He is telling his followers that 1) He is the vine, 2) God the Father is the gardener, and 3) We are the branches.

Jesus is says to his followers that God the Father is going to prune the vine, and He is going to do this in the two ways we just mentioned. And both ways have to do with how the branch is producing fruit. So what does Jesus mean by producing fruit here? What does it mean for us to produce fruit? I did some digging into this and I found it could mean a few things.

It could mean that we are living in obedience to God’s commands. This is a continual lifestyle of listening to what God says, and saying “yes” to Him.

It could mean that we are leading people to having relationships with Jesus.

It could mean that we are producing the fruits of the Spirit. In a letter written by another early follower of Jesus, Paul, he talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Listen to what Paul says these fruit are: But the fruit the Holy Spirit produces is love, joy and peace. It is being patient, kind and good. It is being faithful and gentle and having control of oneself (Gal. 5:22-23a NIrV) And if this is what Jesus is talking about here, the fruits of the Spirit are what God produces in us as we remain in him.

So, the question now must be answered, what does it mean to remain in Jesus? There are three answers to this question as well, and all three of these answers are needed to properly remain in Jesus.

To “remain joined to Jesus” means to have faith in him, to trust that he is God become human, that he died for your sins, and that he rose from the dead three days later! If you don’t do this, there is you will not bear fruit. You may accidently obey God’s commands because you believe it is the “right thing to do”, but you are not going to obey the commands that you don’t want to obey. If we don’t have faith in Jesus, we will toss away the commands of his we don’t like and obey the ones we think are good. This is not true fruit bearing. Remember that I said it is a lifestyle of saying “yes” to God, it is not just a I guess I’ll do that because it sounds like the right thing to do, but I am not going to do that because that is difficult or it might cost me something.

To “remain joined to Jesus” means to obey God’s commands. We know this because Jesus says in verse 9-10 Jesus says, “Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. In the same way, I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (Jn 15:9-10 NIrV). If bearing fruit is a lifestyle of saying “yes” to God, then remaining joined to Jesus is the day to day, little “yeses” we say to God. Obeying Jesus in day-to-day life is the cause which leads to the effect of an entire way of life known by its obedience to Jesus. So, what does it mean to obey Jesus? Jesus continues in verse 11-13 saying, “I have told you this so that you will have the same joy that I have. I also want your joy to be complete. Here is my command. Love one another, just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than the one who gives their life for their friends.” (Jn 15:11-13 NIrV). So to obey Jesus is to love others the way he loved his earliest followers (the people he is speaking to here) and how he has loved us! Love the Jesus way! Jesus showed love to his earliest followers by serving them even though he was their teacher (he was a higher rank in the social ladder) (Jn 13:1-17), he corrected them when they were not following God’s way of life (Matt. 26:51-54), and in the ultimate display of justice and love, Jesus died for his early followers and for us today. In another letter written by Paul he says this to the people in Rome, and I really want you to pay attention to this part because these are the most important words you will ever hear! Paul says, “At just the right time Christ died for ungodly people. He died for us when we had no power of our own. It is unusual for anyone to die for a godly person. Maybe someone would be willing to die for a good person. But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The blood of Christ has made us right with God. So we are even more sure that Jesus will save us from God’s anger. Once we were God’s enemies. But we have been brought back to him because his Son has died for us. Now that God has brought us back, we are even more secure. We know that we will be saved because Christ lives. And that is not all. We are full of joy in God because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of him, God has brought us back to himself.” (Ro 5:6-11 NIrV). There are many more examples of how Jesus loved his disciples in the Bible, these are just a few examples. I encourage you to read one of the records of Jesus’ life in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John and see how Jesus loved his disciples). And this is the love that Jesus calls us to have for others, a love that serves others, corrects others when they are turning away from God’s way of life, and is even willing to lay down its life for others

Finally, the third what to remain joined to Jesus is to have an ongoing relationship with God. Not a relationship that only happens on Sunday at church or Wednesday at youth group, but a relationship that is ongoing, day after day, week after week, year after year. If we seek to produce fruit in our lives, to live a lifestyle of saying “yes” to God, to lead others to a relationship with Jesus, or to produce the fruits of the Spirit in our lives, we must have an ongoing relationship with Jesus. We can participate in this relationship by spending time with Jesus in prayer, in reading our Bibles and learning to love God for who He reveals Himself to be in the Bible, by coming to youth group and church, by worshipping God, by spending time alone just being quiet with God and listening for His voice.