3.3.34 7.20.2025 The Church is Branches, Jesus is the Vine

Start:

Entice: Jesus used agricultural metaphors even when speaking to crowds who knew more about farming than He did. More about sowing seed, more about removing weeds, more about preparing the harvest and processing of grapes for wine. The power of agricultural parables and comparison is that they are practically universal and you don’t need to know the details to understand the basics.

John 15:1–8 ESV

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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and 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 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Engage: The point is simple. As branches take nourishment from a vine, we take nourishment from Jesus. To flourish we need to remain connected to Him. The individual branches—connected as they are to Jesus are also connected to one another. It is not a healthy plant when vine and branches are separated, it’s a pile of brush. 

Expand: To grasp what Jesus says about our relationship to Him we need to recall a parable recorded in Matthew. This parable came late in His ministry, when He was in Jerusalem the last week of His life. It speaks directly of misunderstanding and miscasting the relationship between God and His people.

Matthew 21:33–41 ESV

33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

This agricultural metaphor of a living vineyard that belongs to God should inform our understanding of the direct relationship of each of us to Christ. He is the source of our life. It also reinforces the communal and social aspect of our relationship with one another. As bad apples destroy whole barrels—bad branches compromise the health of the full plant. 

Excite: These metaphors speak to the variety of Christian experience. The Church of Christ, in Christ, and for Christ is also the Church of us, and for us, as we are all a part of one another.

How we got here,

how we are nourished,

and what is expected.

It all begins by recognizing that we  

Explore:

We take our communal life from Jesus.

Expand: Our life together begins with  

Body of Sermon:

1 Selection.

Farming is not random. It is based on the selective breeding and growing of plants by the Farmer. God the farmer wants us all to be a part of the vine so He makes a distinction and selects 

1.1 Good from bad.

Determining the good from the bad comes down to selecting the 

1.2 Fruitful from unfruitful.

1.3 Living from dead.

the next step is

2 Connection

Following the full contour of the metaphor we must  remain continually attentive to the communal nature of this connection. We are many branches connected to the central, nourishing vine.

That means

2.1 Abiding in Christ.

2.2 Living in Christ.

2.3 Obeying Christ. 

That brings us to

3 Production.

People don’t plant “crops” for mere enjoyment. In Jesus day, all agriculture was necessary. For sustenance or profit, cereals, grains, vegetables, and grapes were grown to provide a crop. So Jesus wants us to understand God’s purpose is to ultimately gather a harvest.

So we must be productive in 

3.1 Bearing Fruit.

Jesus give a first glimpse at identifying that fruit by expecting, even commanding

3.2 Loving one another. 

Shut Down:

The image of the vineyard reminds us that God is our creator & redeemer.

The image of the vine and branches reminds us that Jesus is our sustainer.  

Selected by Christ we are connected so that we may be productive.

One of my focal points this month is the collective nature of Christian faith. We live in an individualistic culture in which far too many believers have decided they don’t need anyone else. They don’t need the Church 

There are too many Christians who have become convinced that all they need is to be connected to Jesus and no one else—without ever thinking about how they would come to know Him, understand Him, and wish to follow Him apart from the Church.  The vine image rightly shows that this solo version of Christianity does not work. The image we have examined today demonstrates individual Christianity is impossible. 

The image of the vine extends and refines the image of the vineyard. We must be firmly planted in the vineyard and  productively grafted into one-another and the vine. Like the idea that Jesus is whole without His body the idea that the vine is intact without its branches is absurd. We are who we are because of Him. Without Him we wither, without Him we die.