I AM the Vine - John 15:1-8

By way of review, what do the I Am statements teach us about Jesus?

He is Messiah that they have been waiting for, he is the Son of God, He is God, He is our Davidic king

What are the six I Am statements that we learned about so far?

I Am the Bread of Life

I Am the Light of the World

I Am the Gate

I Am the Good Shepherd

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Today we are wrapping up this series with Jesus’s statement in John 15:1 - I am the vine.

Let’s read verses 1-8 together.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

I don’t know about you but I have always loved this passage because I can feel the closeness that this word remain has (or in many translation it is abide). On the other hand, it took me many years to understand what Jesus was talking about when he said that he is the vine. And what does he mean when he says that we need to produce fruit? Is he saying that we are supposed to be doing a bunch of stuff after showing us the better picture of Mary sitting at his feet? We are going to talk about all these things today. My goal in this sermon is that each of us are able to come away from this message with a renewed understanding of the intimacy that Christ desires to have in us as we walk with him in relationship.

Biblical Context

Place, Time, Audience

Old Testament Connection - Ezekiel 17:1-10

As with any specific study in Scripture, let’s start with the context of this parable. For  context we’ll talk about the place and time in the story, the audience who heard the parable, and the Old Testament reference or parallel to Jesus’s assertion.

Place, Time, Audience

Remember last week, we found that Jesus was sitting at the Last Supper with the disciples when he made the previous I am statement. Jesus actually talked about a lot of things at that table after Judas left like the New Commandment and promises of power, the Holy Spirit, and peace. Then at the end of the chapter, Jesus said “Get up; let’s leave this place.” There are many speculations about what Jesus meant by this, but most commentaries assert that it had been a while since Judas was told to go do what he would do. In a show of the certain control that Jesus had over every moment of his sacrifice, he does another disappearing act, this time on Judas and the soldiers. They would come to the Upper Room and find it empty and have to go on a search for Him. He will tell the disciples some specific and important information during this time until he heads out to the garden in the Kidron Valley.  I have read in some studies that he could have simply gone to another house to talk but commentators think it is more likely that Jesus was walking the backstreets of Jerusalem as he extended his time with the disciples.

With the change in physical setting, Jesus sets the scene to talk about a new topic. I would ask you to consider that John did not write his Gospel with section titles and chapters. Instead, he may have divided up his topics by physical setting. To this end, everything that we hear Jesus talk about, even his prayers at the end of the section, should be read with this initial content of the vine and the branches in mind. We are setting the stage for a larger message rather than interpreting an individual topic. Because of this, it was hard to reign in the message to just 8 verses. I could have included 2 entire chapters and the message would have been somewhat similar. We know what the setting was, now lets look at an Old Testament Connection to this vine.

Old Testament Connection - Ezekiel 17:1-10

: it was really fun to look through Scripture and try to find what text John might have been using as a reference to this topic because there are vines, vineyards, and wine references throughout the Bible from beginning to end. John does this really cool thing in his writing of Revelation and this Gospel, though. He leaves clues in the text that reference certain particular places in the Old Testament. In this text, he uses exact words from the Septuagint, written more than 350 years before his time, to reference the text that he is talking about rather than just quoting it. He does this throughout Revelation as well. So, if you do a word study on the Greek that he used for the vine, the fruit, the farmer, and even throwing it into the fire, you get an almost perfect match in the Septuagint to Ezekiel 17 and none of the other general references of vines and vineyards in prophecy.

What I found interesting is that the prophecy in Ezekiel 17:1-10 came with a message and application to Zedekiah, Judah’s King and is referencing Babylon and Judah’s walk towards the exile. But with John referencing this particular Scripture and Jesus obviously originally teaching it, we see the prophecy is repurposed so that the prophecy’s near/far effect is revealed and this highlights that all of the Old Testament is about Jesus in multiple ways.

So let me just summarize what this prophecy said as an overview since it is not our primary text. This is a parable of two eagles. There was a huge, powerful, beautiful eagle that took a branch from the top of the cedar and placed it in the land of traders and merchants. From here, the eagle took a seed and planted it in fertile ground and with abundant water so that it could grow branches and produce fruit. And a vine grew and it is described as splendid. But what happened? Ezekiel says that another big eagle came along and the vine “bent its roots toward him” and “stretched out its branches to him from where it was planted.” So God said that the first eagle would obviously tear out the vine by its roots and strip off its fruit. He would make the vine weak.

We heard and you can imagine how this prophecy was a foretelling how and why the Israelites would be walking into exile. And the chapter proceeds to tell Zedekiah how this is because of him being planted by Nebuchadnezzar as a puppet king but he did not stay loyal. But, how does this repurpose to Jesus and the story of I am the Vine? In Ezekiel 17:22-23, God said to Zedekiah what he will do in the future and how he will become the eagle in the future,

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 17

I will take a sprig

from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it.

I will pluck a tender sprig

from its topmost shoots,

and I will plant it

on a high towering mountain.

23 I will plant it on Israel’s high mountain

so that it may bear branches, produce fruit,

and become a majestic cedar.

Birds of every kind will nest under it,

taking shelter in the shade of its branches.

In the story, God reorients the sprig and thus seed that grew into a vine to the kings in the line of David (of which Zedekiah was just one). What Jesus is saying is that he is the king that came from the line of David and he has grown into the vine to lead the kingdom of God. And Jesus is God and from God so he will not lead us, his people, astray to another God. We could continue to make more connections here, but let’s move on. Now that we know why Jesus is calling himself a vine and thus the king from the line of David and where that picture is coming from… let’s take a look into what Jesus says about this and how he repurposes the parable. We’ll start with the characters.

Characters:

Farmer = God the father

Vine = Jesus

Branches = the Disciples

Fruit = Christ-like love, fruit of the SpiritJohn 15:9-12, Galatians 5:22-23

In Verse 1, Jesus tells us that the gardener is the Father and in verse 5, we learn that Jesus is the vine and his disciples (which extends to those of us that are part of the kingdom of God) are the branches. I think we need to carefully define what fruit is as well. You see there have been many sermons that I have heard from some of my favorite pastors that asserted that this fruit is making more disciples. While this is a really good thing to do and we are certainly all called to share the gospel and testify to Jesus, I have become convinced that this is not what Jesus was referring to in this passage. If we read the next verses, John 15:9-12 – We see that Jesus explained, 9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.[1]

So this fruit could be expressed or explained as Christlike love.

Also, Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.” [2]

This also makes good sense to me. Here’s why, when a branch is attached to a vine and it receives water from the vine, then fruit is the result. If the branch is supposed to make another branch, then that branch would depend on and be connected to us rather than the vine. Our fruit, which we can think of as Christlike love or the fruit of the Spirit, is literally the “stuff” that comes out of us as a result of the transformation that we experience as we spend time in Christ’s presence.

Now we know the characters in this parable, what part do they play?

Jesus tells us in this parable how the Father Gardens, how we produce fruit, and what the benefits are from producing that fruit. Let’s start, like Jesus did, with how the father gardens.

How the Father Gardens

removes branches that do not produce fruit

prunes branches that do so they make more fruit

1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

- Jesus is the king from the line of David that will successfully lead us to worship God and away from worshipping other Gods. Notice that in this story, and different from all the other I Am statements, Jesus brings in the Father as a participant to the story.

2a. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes,

- what causes a branch to not produce fruit? It is a branch that is no longer to connected to the vine. Friends you get to choose whether you will continue being a Christian even after you have accepted Christ as your savior, and our God wants and respects our free will to continually choose him. What are ways that we can disconnect from the vine? Remember in 1 Samuel 8:5, the people of God wanted to be like the other nations and asked for a king. Has there been a time when you wanted to be like the world and so you stopped meeting with God or worshipping God in the personal life? Or maybe even more telling, have you ever said God you are not enough. I want more money. I will serve you if I can also serve have this job, get this healing, have this easier life. That’s kind of what the Jews were saying in first Samuel. God, we will serve you but we don’t want you to be king anymore, we want you and a king like everyone else. On a purely naturalistic level, it is so easy to get caught up in our busy life and being like everyone else and to forget that God is above all that busy-ness and He deserves a place in our life that includes relationship. Is God enough for you, as a king, or do you want God plus something?

2b. and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

- Being pruned as a branch literally means that the dead things are being taken away. If you feel God pushing you to surrender a habit, if you begin to feel conviction over your choice of entertainment and desire to make better choices, if you know that you are learning a hard lesson or are being changed because of suffering that you or someone near you is experiencing, then you are likely being pruned by the father and it is for your betterment. How do I know that this is the case? This is the promise of Romans 8:28 – We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Life is hard and we all have suffering in this life. But the beauty of being a Christian is that God is able to use the suffering that we encounter in order to make us even more like Christ. Does pruning hurt? Yes! But the benefit that we see is the production of more fruit in our lives. Don’t be afraid to let go of the old man as God directs and embrace the new.

OK, God the father removes and prunes. What do we do so we can produce fruit?

What must we “do” to produce fruit?

Become Clean - Romans 10:9-10

Remain in Christ

Have Christ in Us

3. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

- This statement feels a bit out of place in this parable until you realize what Jesus is saying here. He is saying that you cannot be a branch unless you have taken the first step and become a follower of Christ. Paul does a really good job of showing us what Jesus means here in Romans chapter 10. Verses 9-10 tells us, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.” Then in verse 14, Paul says, “How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?”

- Jesus is making that point that he has preached to the disciples and like in Matthew 16:16 where Peter says to Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” they have all made this declaration of faith because of this preaching.

4. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

- Jesus said the same statement twice in a row, nearly word for word that Jesus asserts this. It must be really important to him.

- The ESV uses the word abide in this verse, which I’ve always thought of as a beautiful picture of our intimate relationship with Jesus. One thing that I really caught onto this year with this passage is that this remaining or abiding is given to us in two parts. Have you noticed that? Jesus said Remain in me, and I in you. What does he mean by that? It must be important because he will say it multiple times throughout this short passage. I think that there is first of all a statement here that Jesus is in the Father and the father is in him. He will not stray from the father like the way that the other vines (kings) strayed away from first eagle in Ezekiel. This remaining in the vine is like a loyalty issue that we continue to keep Christ as lord in our life.

But there is also this intimacy element of Christ in us that many people miss. In the letter that was from Jesus to the Laodiceans in Revelation chapter 3, we learned about a people that were Christians and claimed to be Christians, but they were lukewarm and not useful to the kingdom of God. Why? Because in verse 17 they said, “I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing, and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” Jesus said, even though you are Christians and you have said that I am Lord of your life, you don’t actually have me in you. In fact, in verse 20 he says, “See? I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and be with him and he with me.” Having Christ in us means that we are depending on Him for a daily living. We take our water (the holy spirit) from him every day. We eat our manna from him each day. We know that our survival and the source of our life depends only on Christ. Not what we can learn, not how much we can make or how successful we see ourselves. Not in gaining perfect health and avoiding suffering. We both attach ourselves to Christ and we accept or bring in all our nourishment from Him.

This is also how we produce fruit or become more like Christ. Producing fruit, as we said earlier is gaining Christlike love or the fruit of the Spirit. But I want to make an important point that Pastor Elise pointed out in her sermon two weeks ago. The key here is Without Christ we can do nothing. We don’t gear ourselves up to love people more or make ourselves be more loving, no, we receive Christ’s love as we he remains in us. The love, the joy, the peace, the patience, and all the other characteristics of the fruit is grown in us is actually a result of Christ in us. If we say, oh I’m a nice person, I love everyone. I already know how to do this, then we are being like the Laodiceans, not even able to see our need. And Jesus will be left at the door of our life knocking away. This love that we need from Christ is the supernatural love that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13. If we are doing all the things but we don’t have Christ’s love, then it all falls flat. Then we don’t really have him in us.

6. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

- this is what happens if we cut ourselves off from Jesus and try to follow another, more popular path to God. If we choose not to remain loyal to Jesus, then we have no part in him and we cannot call ourselves followers of Jesus.

OK, let’s keep moving and finish this up. Jesus doesn’t just say we have to do this or else. He gave us some promises or benefits that come with producing fruit.

Benefits of Producing Fruit

We are filled with Christ’s power.

We glorify/worship God.

7. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

- Our first benefit for being faithful to be in relationship with Jesus is that we are also filled with the power of Christ. Why? because having Jesus in us is accomplished, as Jesus will explain to the disciples starting the John 15:26 through the Holy Spirit living in us. Romans 8:12–16 says,

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Then in verses 26 and 27, Paul goes on to say

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us, with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Keeping Christ in us means that we walk with the power of the Holy Spirit and we get the ability to pray through the power of the Holy Spirit.

8. My father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

- Benefit #2, we glorify God. The Greek word for glorify, δοξαζω, also means to honor or praise God. We know this word δοξαζω because we incorporate doxologies into our worship service. To us this often means that we recite or sing a short statement or scripture as a corporate body to praise God. Jesus says that producing fruit and thus showing that we are Christ’s disciples is how we worship or praise God both individually and as a body or community.

- Challenge: Stay in Christ and keep Christ in us so we become more like Christ each day and watch how he transforms us.

Jesus is certainly talking about relationship, about sanctification, about spiritual growth here. But I think that we need to be sure to remember that multiple times in this passage, Jesus clarified that he is the one that is the source of the fruit in us. It is not up to us to umph our way up into being a “good Christian” or “making disciples.” Our fruit is a product of our relationship with Christ. The result of this relationship is that we begin to look more like Christ.

I want to address the misnomer that this passage is saying, as many have heard in the past, we must evangelize and our numbers must be growing or else we are not producing fruit. Friends, evangelization is a natural product or result of bearing fruit, but it is not the fruit itself. Let me say it a different way. God is not judging us based on how many people we “convert.” However, when we produce Christlike love, the fruit of the Spirit, we become more like Christ every day. This is called Sanctification. As we become more like Christ, guess what the result is? People can see Christ in us. And then all the I Am statement apply well here because We look like Him!

in us, the world sees people who have been spiritually fed and begins to look for food for their spirits, then they find Jesus, the Bread of Life

in us, the world sees the reflection of the light of Christ and suddenly realizes the darkness that they are living in, then they find Jesus, the Light of the World

in us the world sees people who are safe and at peace and they begin to look for how to get to this refuge, then they find Jesus, the Gate

In us, the world sees people who are comforted and steady as they walk through suffering and they begin to look for comfort in their own trials, so they find Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

In Us, the world sees new men and women who are different than they were before Christ and they begin to look for the opportunity to hope for a new life, so they find Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life

In us, the world finds confident people who are sure of their steps, who know what is right and wrong, and who are calm in the face of chaos, and they begin to look for the only path towards life, and they find Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

And in us, as we are connected to and nourished by the vine, The world finds Christ, I AM, as they benefit from and enjoy the fruit that Christ has produced in us.

This is how evangelism is the natural result of growing the fruit. Because what people find in us as we are connected to Him is what they are looking for.

To conclude: I’d like to put skin on this thing. Have you ever heard that saying? What it means is I would like to give you a couple examples of people who I think lived out or are living out this vine and branches picture through their regular life experiences.

The first story that I would like to tell you about is this guy named Tim. I barely knew Tim. He was a member of the church that my ex-husband attended while he was in Bible School. I knew that he was an amazing man just based of early stories that I was told about him. I only met him at some visits that we took back to Southern California for things like weddings and such, and never a deep conversation. But 3 years ago, I reconnected with this church as I began to spend a bit more time down in Orange County and all the old college group was there except Tim. It didn’t take long to learn that just a couple months before that, Tim had passed away. And I was offered housing for a weekend with his widow and child. Ummm… what a weekend. Throughout the weekend, I began to learn about this family’s life with Tim as they processed their loss. They told me that he was a talented engineer and a great man of God. One of his kiddos told me how every conversation that he would have would get flipped to “and how is God showing up here.” Then they began to tell me about his time in the hospital fighting cancer. They said that he made a huge impact for Christ on every single nurse, doctor, and care giver that interacted with him. And when he was ready to get wheeled out of the hospital, knowing that he was going home to die, he insisted that he had to ring the bell that those who beat cancer ring. He said that he felt like he had won the race already and he couldn’t wait to see Jesus. This particular story had such a big impact on his older daughter, who was at the time a prodigal, that his actions, just being him because of his relationship with God is what caused her to come back to Jesus and commit to having a relationship like that with Jesus for herself. This is a picture of a confident life well lived for and with Jesus.

The second example that I really want to give and I will conclude with this, is an example that I saw just this week of this church living out the New Commandment and living as branches on the true vine. Sam, daughter in law to Patrick and Breeze, came to us this summer and gave her life to Jesus with the first service that she attended. We watched her start to come out of her shell, get baptized, experience the Holy Spirit, and grow in faith. Last Friday, she went home to Montana to be reunited with her husband, who has been working hard to get a home again for them. Before she left, we had a surprise party for her, here at the church as a going away. Listen, this had to be hush, hush, so if you didn’t get an invite, there was no intention to leave you out, it just couldn’t go in the announcements. Well, there were a lot of people at that party and this group sent Sam and her children home with a wonderful gift of presents and food. She felt so loved. But the most amazing thing was that Breeze saw her husband’s face over a call when Sam was telling him about the love that had been poured over her. She said that he was totally in awe. He is not a Christian and does not go to church, but the love that you all poured out to Sam over the last few months and especially this week touched his heart in a way that all her talking and sharing about Jesus has not. Can I say, good job! When Jesus said, this is how they will know that you are my disciples, it really is true. By loving one of our own, we can pray that another child is on his way to Jesus’s feet.

My goal today was that we would understand the intimate relationship that God desires to have with us. I hope that this has been an encouragement to spend our time and effort with Jesus in relationship and to let the rest fall into place as Christ makes us more like him.