I Am: "The True Vine"
Notes
Transcript
Greeting:
Greeting:
Good morning everyone
Welcome visitors
Invite back tonight and Wednesday night
Lesson Text:
Lesson Text:
John 15:1-11
Opening:
Opening:
This morning we are going to wrap up our series that we have spent the alst few weeks looking at.
We are concluding the series of the “I Am” statements of Jesus.
Over the last few weeks we have been studying about who Jesus says He is and what that means for us.
We have looked at Jesus’s own words and who He tells us He is...
I hope that through this series we have gained a better understanding and appreciation for Jesus.
I hope we continue to see the value in who Jesus is and what he means to each of us...
This monring we have come to our final statement.
Jesus will give us one more “I am” statement...
And we can find that in John 15:1-11
Let’s begin by reading this passage…
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 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. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 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.
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
Lesson:
Lesson:
Last week we looked at one of the most amazing statements and amazing promises that we could find in scripture.
We saw Jesus make the teaching that if we love him and are faithful to Him that he’s promised us a home in heaven with Him.
He’s promised to come back from the home he has prepared to gather up all those who believe and are faithful in Him.
Jesus offered these words we remember to the disciples as some comforting word as He was about to depart from them and face death.
But Jesus wanted them to know what was possible with Him and the hope that is there for disciples of Jesus Christ…
Jesus now in chapter 15 as we come there this morning is going to give us even more insight as to this relationship we should have with Him…
Jesus makes his seventh and final “I Am” statement here this morning…
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
He says I am the true vine…
If we back up and look at scripture as a whole we can see this idea of the vine used to show this connection we have to Jesus or God throughout scripture…
It was used throughout the Old Testament to demonstrate the relationship Israel had with God.
You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
We see Israel referred to as the vine when they were brought out of Egypt.
Isaiah 5 refers to them as the degenerate vine
And we know that this same image carries on throughout the New Testament as well.
But what can we learn from this idea of the vine?
Today we are going to do the same thing we have been with the others and look at some context or setting, then the saying itself, and then the significant or some applications for us…
So the context…
If we look there in John 15 if you go there with me you will see we find ourselves still in the same setting as we were last week…
Jesus is here with his disciples getting ready to leave them to go face death as we said earlier
And we can see as we looked at last week much of all chapter 14 is spent with Jesus providing encouragement to them as he gets ready to leave…
But something he wants them to know throughout this if you go back and read this chapter and think about what we will read this morning, Jesus wants to really get us to understand this relationship he has with Him.
He wants us and them to see this relationship has this spiritual connection, we don’t have today a physical connection with Him.
He’s not physically here with us, but spiritually, we are still connected.
And so were the apostles…
Thats the same message he wanted the apostles to know, that even after roughly three and a half years of them following Him literally, physically, now they are going to be separated…
But there is still a relationship that connects them…
A spiritual relationship.
And that’s where our statement comes in this morning.
This idea of Jesus being the true vine…
So now what about our statement…
What do you think of when you see this idea Jesus presents of the vine?
I think most of us here this morning are familiar to some degree with gardening or growing crops or something along those lines…
I think back to when I was younger and I would help my grandpa in the garden tiller or hoe out the garden..
We would have watermelons or whatever it was out there and what was the one thing you didn’t need to run over or chop up?
The vines…
Why?
Because we know what that vine does, it carries nutrients, it provides life, it’s what keeps the branches and in return the watermelon or whatever fruits you’re growing fed and alive…
If I chopped that vine up, as often sometimes maybe I did accidentally, what could happen?
It would die…
Without the vine there couldn’t be any fruit or vegetables or anything grown could there?
Jesus essentially tells us the same exact thing here doesn’t he?
We are going to see him mention a few characters if you will in this passage, first him as the vine, but also us as the branches, and God as the vinedresser…
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.
We see this idea that Jesus is the vine and from the vine, from that source there are branches.
Branches that stem from the same vine, but what do these branches do or what should they do?
They are to bear fruit he says, he says if they don’t bear fruit they are trimmed off, and the ones that does bear fruit he says He, the vinedresser, God, prunes it so that it can bear more fruit…
Again we can see this make sense, and so could the disciples in a physical sense, those of you that garden know this.
Especially maybe those that grow tomatoes may have seen this.
If you have all those branches, and suckers that stem out that don’t bear tomatoes you can do what?
You can trim those, cut them off, they are no good, but the ones that does bear fruit, the ones that does have tomatoes will grow and produce even more…
So as we look at this saying itself it’s one that should make sense to us, as we read this we should see spiritually what Jesus is trying to tell us..
He’s speaking here to us, you, we, the apostles, us as Christians as the branches…
Now some people try to take this and run with it in an unscriptural way…
Many today in the religious world try to take this and say that all the different branches are just different denominations…
We are all different groups, different branches, but we are all connected to the same vine, Jesus, so that’s what really matters…
But is that what Jesus is saying?
Look back at the text and see who he is talking to in verse 4-8
You…
Over and over we se this, you, not they we, any thing but you, one, if you abide in me and I in you he says…
Who is he talking to?
Has he called all different denominations, different faiths, different people together?
No….
He’s talking to his disciples, disciples that are his, Christians that are in Him.
One united in him…
Paul told the Ephesians of this same unity they were to have, this same connection rooted in Christ..l
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Thats who we are, the branches unified in Christ…
Jesus is speaking about his individual disciples here and our relationship to him and us realizing that we have a great blessing but great responsibility by us being connected to the vine…
We will come back to this relationship more in just a minute as we close out the sermon looking at the significance of the application…
But one last comment real quick on the saying itself..
In the text we see one other character if you will mentioned here…
We see the idea of “they” in verse 6…
Go back for just a moment to Matthew 13 with me to see what might be a good parallel between the two…
In Matthew 13:24 scripture begins telling us of the parable of the tares…
Those of you that were here on Sunday night may remember this but we looked at the idea of the parable here where the reapers will come and gather together the tares and bind them up to be burned…
If you drop down to verse 36 you can see Jesus give the explanation fo the parable and notice verse 39…
Jesus says the reapers are the angels that gather together the tares to be thrown away and burned…
This very well could be who Jesus is referring to in our text this morning so just throwing that out there before we move on…
But now, to wrap up this idea, what significance does this saying have for us?
What can we learn from Jesus’s words this morning?
Two main ones I believe we can learn…
First, as the branches we are to bear fruit..
Jesus made it very clear in our text that as his branches we are to bear fruit.
Our whole purpose of being in Christ is to bear fruit…
He tells us in the text this is only possible for those of us that abide in him…
If we don’t it’s not possible to bear fruit.
So we have to have that connection with Christ..
And if we fail to do this, we see the outcome..
We are to be cut off cast out and thrown into the fire…
We can see this idea throughout all of the gospels, read through Matthew or Luke and see how many references are made to bearing fruit.
Paul as well made not of this in many of his writings…
that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Walking worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, Being fruitful in every good work..
All while increasing in the knowledge of God…
These are the instructions Paul gave the Colossians who were in a relationship with Jesus
We’d be wise to take the same advice…
And the second main point is this…
The biggest takeaway we can get is understanding this relationship we have between the vine and the branches, between Jesus and us…
Understanding his relationship that we have in Christ…
If you read back through I believe it’s 13 times we will see that little word “in” mentioned..
There is a connection, an undeniable connection, between Jesus and his disciples…
But we need to know that this must take place in order to receive the blessings that come from Christ…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
All spiritual blessings are only found in Jesus Christ…
If we aren’t a child of God, if we aren’t a disciple then we don’t have those blessings…
Without that relationship with him we don’t have hope, we don’t have heaven, we don’t have all of the amazing spiritual blessings that he has to offer…
Just as that branch that produces fruit must be connected to that vine, so should we.
Our relationship with Jesus isn’t some superficial relationship.
It’s this idea that we are in Him and he in us…
Remember context again here…
Jesus is preparing his disciples here for a him to leave them and he is wanting them to know don’t worry there is something far better, far deeper than just this physical relationship you have with me..
You have a deeper, spiritual connection, you can abide in me and I in you spiritually.
Do we have that kind of relationship with Him?
I want you to think about a very serious question this morning…
Whether you are a Christian or not, whether you need to hear this for yourself or maybe hear this to ask someone else you study with, for whatever reason, I want you to think about this question…
Can you be in Jesus if you are not a part of his body?
We noted 13 times just here in John that we can see there is no spiritual blessings for those who aren’t connected to the vine…
Thirteen times he used that word in to show the relationship between us and Him…
So can we be a part of Jesus if we aren’t apart of his body?
To be in Christ is equivalent to and shows the necessity of being in his body, which we know is the church…1 Corinthians 12 Paul explains that in detail as well as in Ephesians…
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Are we a member of his body?
Are we a member of his church, the church he died for?
The church he established?
If we aren’t then we can see that we don’t have that relationship with him unfortunately, we must be a part of him to receive these blessings…
We must be a branch that’s connected to the one true vine.
Go sometime over to Ephesians where we just read and just read the book and see the connection Paul speaks of between us and the church and the significance of that relationship…
This morning the big takeaway for us if you don’t get anything else out of this lesson I want you to get this…
A relationship with Jesus, relationship meaning being a part of him, abiding in him, being a part of his body, his church, is necessary for not only just salvation but for every single spiritual blessing…
This morning I hope we all see this and we see the fact that a relationship with Jesus Christ is necessary…
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
As we conclude this series I hope it’s been beneficial to you.
I hope that we have learned some valuable insight about who Jesus is, I hope we have all grew closer to him through this study…
This morning I want you to think about your life…
Your relationship with Jesus Christ…
How is that relationship this morning?
Do you have one at all?
We have hopefully saw very plainly this morning that if we aren’t in Christ he isn’t in us, if we don’t have a relationship with Him, we don’t have these spiritual blessings…
So how does one get into Christ?
How does one get into the church?
Some today will tell you that you get into Christ through belief, through a prayer, through accepting Jesus…
But I want you to listen to what Gods word says…
I want you to listen to what scripture says about how one gets into Christ…
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
What were we baptized into? Into him… into Christ Jesus
What were we raised with?
Him…
We were untied with him, we were added to his body, his church when we were baptized for remission of sins.
His blood cleansing us…
And when we go back to Ephesians and look at the relationship Paul tells Christian’s, those who have already done this, been baptized into him, been added to his church…
What does Paul tell them concerning their relationship with Christ?.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
So if you’re here this morning and never been baptized, if you don’t have a relationship with him, why not?
For those of you who are Chrisitan’s already, how’s your relationship?
Is it shaky?
Did maybe at one time we have a close relationship but now we have left him and went astray?
Have we failed to keep bearing fruits?
Let’s come back home…
