Untitled Sermon (12)

Intoduction

Good morning if you have your Bibles go ahead and open up to John chapter 15 and we will start in verse 1 in a moment.

Today in the life of the church is Palm sunday. It is tranditionally the focus on holy week reflecting and celbrating on the last week of Jesus life.

This upcoming friday would be good friday that would mark the death of Jesus. and then as we gather together next Sunday we will celebrate the risen saviour together.

and as we move towards that celebration we gather together today to look at our 6th I am statement in the gospel of John

In case you haven’t been with us we have looked at the I am statements in the gospel of John to learn about who Jesus is.

So often at this time of year we relfect on what he’s done and miss the beatuy of who Christ is and who that makes us.

We started with

I am the bread of life- Jesus alone satisfies

I am the light of the world- Jesus steps into our darkness

I am the door- looking at the safety and security Jesus provides

I am the good shepard- Focused on the qualites of the shepard

I am the way, the truth and the life.....Jesus gives us access to the father

Next week we will look at the passsage where he says I am the resurection and the life but this week the I am statement can be a little confusing to us because of the analogy Jesus uses. However to a first centruay Jewish person it would have been a normal everday use of the the images they interacted with.

Just a reminder as we read this passage today we are in the last 24 hours of Jesus life. These are some of the last words he would speak to his disciples before he would be crucified.

most likely these words are spoken between the upper room and the garden of gastheme.

let’s dive in a read the text

John 15:1–11 ESV

“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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 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. 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. 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. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I 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 be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Pray

Verse 1 is actually the 7th I am statement in the book of John and reading it at first glance with no OT background would be a litlle confusing....your thinking Why in the world is Jesus saying that he is the true vine?

but the OT imargery is vivid. All throughout the OT the nation of Isreal or Gods people are reffered to as the vine. However almost everytime Isreal is reffered to as the vine it is negitive.

they are failing and gods wrath and judement is coming on them.

and now in this moment Jesus looks at his disiciples and changes this concept radically. He says I am the vine. IN fact I am the true vine. in every single place Gods people have got it worng, I will get it right

I will do what they can’t do. I will follow the father in perfect obeidence.

What he is saying right here to his disiciples is I am who you can’t be

And teaching us this timeless truth that

1. Jesus suceeds where we fail.

and becasue Jesus suceeds where we fail he prunes us so that we produce more fruit.

so he makes it clear he says anyone who doesn’t produce fruit in their lives is not of me. but if you do produce fruit, not only does it prove that you belong to me but as you do bear fruit I will prune you for one purpose to produce more fruit.

This can be a little scary at first blush. Jesus is basically saying hey if you are mine I am going to come like a gardner does to a vineyard and I am going to cut you like a gardner does.

I don’t know about you but If I am with Jesus that night.....I am not like dude that sounds awesome. No I am backing up in that moment. I am thinking. this is not what I signed up for. Like I don’t want you to cut me Jesus.

HOwever Jesus is clear there is a purpose, there is a reason, and that is so that you produce more fruit.

Like the goal of a fruit bearing plant isn’t to just produce fruit so that people can just look at it and say AWESOME fruit.

no it’s to feed people and then to grow more fruit.

same with a christina. you don’t live a certain way so people just look at you and say AWESOME! That looks great. No it’s to produce the fruit, get pruned and produce more fruit.

and what’s this fruit suppose to look like.

That’s found in

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

notice what paul does here. He says the fruit of the spirit....not the fruits but singular the fruit. These chartirestics are all tied together. And if you are a christ follower Jesus makes it clear these will be evident in your life.

not in a perfect way but there will be some evidence of these in your life.

In our fots sereis back in summer 2015 we talked about tim kellers defenations on these words and while we can’t unpack the whole sermon series here is a reminder of what this fruit should look like

Agape – love

Definition – To serve a person for their good and intrinsic value, not for what the person brings you.

Chara – joy

Definition – Delight in God and his salvation for sheer beauty and worth of who he is.

Irene – peace

Definition – Confidence and rest in the wisdom and sovereignty of God more than your own.

Makrothumia – patience

Definition – Ability to take trouble (from others or life) without blowing. To suffer joyfully.

Chrestotes – kindness

Definition – Practical kindness with vulnerability out of deep inner security.

Agathosune – goodness. (integrity)

Definition – Honesty, transparency. Being the same in one situation as another.

Pistis – faithfulness.

Definition – Loyalty. Courage. To be principle-driven, committed, utterly reliable. True to one’s word.

Prautas – gentleness. (humility)

Definition – Self-forgetfulness.

Egkrateia – self-control

Definition – Ability to choose the important thing over the urgent.

and when Jesus says if you in me I am going to prune some things out of your life so there will be more of this type of fruit in your life.

Let me illustrate it for you this way

Seminary

preaching class

I got this

I felt like I was gods gift to my NOTBS extenstion center class there where 8 of us.

it was my turn to preach preached to 8 people at FBC athens in my class

and I knew it I KILLED IT. my best friend zach said I killed it…and to this day he stands by that. I got a 72

I was crushed.

as the class went on we had a lady in the class who was in her late 60s early 70s

and she was awesome. She had gone to seminary with her husband and he was retiring from ministry and she was coming back to finshish her degree. YOu got up to preach which was pretty interesting. and she got done. She made like a 95.

It was during that time I wondered was I even called to preaching ministry

but that was a pruning moment in my life. God was getting ride of some of the pride I had let build up over the years in my heart. and the Lord had to use this expierence to prune that out of my life.

but there are some of you that are going through pruning right now

Whatever the reason for pruning, our natural selves always want to escape it. No one naturally wants the knife. Nevertheless, the results of God’s pruning will be beneficial for us and for him.

R kent Hughes said it this way “

Often we Christians are subject to what I call the “when syndrome.” “When I get spiritually mature, these things won’t happen to me.” “When I get married, I will not struggle this way anymore.” “When I retire, my life will be easier.” Afflictions would only stop if they were useless, and that is why they never stop. Without pruning, a vineyard would never be in full bloom.”

and if I am honest in this moment....this is not fun. But it’s nescarry. See somewhere along the way peple started buying the lie that if I follow Jesus....no more trouble, no more problems, no more suffering....like I just have this happy life where where everything goes my way.

Yet here Jesus says hey some of the hardship in your life is going to happen and I am giong to use it to prunce you and produce something inside of you that will make you more like me.

I know in my life there have been some signfiicant pruning moments. Moments I look back on and honestly never want to go through them again. and would wish them on no one else

however through those moments....once I recognized what the Lord was doing I realized he was doing those things in my life to make me more like Jesus....to make me more loving, self controlled, to teach me what real joy looked like

and while I never want to go through those things again I see that God used them for good in my life.

and maybe you are walking through a season of pruning. and you want it to stop....but if Jesus really is who he says he is you are going to have to trust him. You are going to have to press in and say Lord I don’t understand why but I trust you and I am going to make sure during the pruning process I stay connected to you.

What else do we need to know about pruning? God’s hand is never closer than when he prunes the vine.

During those times of severest cutting when, to us, he may seem to have departed, he is the closest.

but we can be sure of this when we are pruned there is more of Christ in our lives

Because that’s what he is teaching his disciples here he is teaching them to trust, to abide and stay close to him. and they are able to do this, we are able to do this because of what he has done in our lives

Look again at verse 3. You want to talk about a verse that more people should know, more christians should qoute this would be a great one.

Jesus looks at a group of guys who within 24 hours will all deny him, all turn their backs on him, all fail him and he says

John 15:3 ESV

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

You are clean…and it has nothing to do with you. It’s becasue of my word and the fact that you bleieve it. That’s what makes you clean. You are all going to blow it in a major way yet you are clean. you’ll be okay becasue of what I will do through you.

and they really did blow it right?

Like just peter would be a good example. I listened to a couple of guys preach this text after I studied it and they all agreed with it.

Here is a guy who was said he would never deny Jesus.

and Jesus response as we looked at last week is before the rooster crows you are going to deny me three times. You are going to be so ashmed of me.

Jesus tells peter in the darknest moment of my life you aren’t even going to be able to identify with me.

and peter says no way I’ll die if I have to. and Jesus gives him room in that moment.

later when Jesus is arrested Peter tries to prove his alleginence to Jesus and cuts a dudes ear off. ONe pastor in commenting on this asked the apprioarite question how bad do you have to be with a sword to cut someones ear off?

I mean like that takes skill to be that bad…but Jesus puts the ear back on and they move from there.

and it doesn’t get better it gets worse for peter. He does everythng Jesus said he would do.....He deny Christ to a little girl. and then when she comes back and questions him again he gets so angry he starts cursing and denys Jesus again....rooster crows....heart sinks.....jesus and his eyes lock and he’s gone.

and Jesus is looking at the guy whose going to do this. In fact a group of men who will deny him and he is saying you are clean becasue of me.

see when we don’t belive that we aviod God. When we think everything rest on us....that its our rightousness....our works our job to clean ourselves up we aviod God.

We are so good at

SELF CONDAMNAITON

I’ve been there....I’ve missed a day, a week a few weeks of Bible reading and been like well before I read my bible, before I pray, before I enter into Gods presence I got to start living better. How about that’s not the gospel.

and peter understands this because at the end of the story…he’s not avoiding Jesus…no after Jesus rises from the grave Peter sees him on the beach jumps into the ocean and worships Jesus. He gets it. He says I am a mess. I am broken…I can’t fix this but you can.

and when we understand who we are in Christ and how He has cleaned us up....then and only then will we pursue him like that. We will truly learn what it looks like to abide in Christ.

we realize we have no reason to avoid GOd. It’s quite the opposite. We are his children, we are loved, we have been set apart for him. and whne we realize that we respond like peter and we run to God.

IN verse 4 he uses what seems to be a pretty silly example but speaks to us profoundly. He ways let’s say you found a branch and it was just by itself....there is no way it’s gong to produce anything of signficance. In the same way it’s true for the Christian life. You can’t bear fruit unless you are connected to the vine.

how are we connected to the vine.

Prayer, Bible study, Christian community just to name a few.

and then Jesus makes it clear. He says apart from me you can do nothing in verse 5. And intially you might think, while yeah I can do a lot.

I can make money, lead my family, give genesouly. INfcat osome of you may think i can even lead a ministry…and while it may seem possible you won’t bear any fruit in doing so.

we are good at going through the motions and looking the part but Jesus is clear you need me to bear fruit, and if you don’t bear fruit you are not in me.

We can tie fruit onto our lives like ornaments on a Christmas tree, but the real fruit of his character comes from the vine itself

Abiding involves a growing sense of weakness.

and as we sense our weakness we realize just how much we need CHrist.

Jesus ends with this profound thought in verses 6-11 on how abiding in the Lord is lived out through a lifestyle of love

It boils down to when we are truly abiding in Chirst we abide in his love and realize just how loved we are....and because of that we follow him, and because of his love we obey not the opposite way.

If you have been married for any amount of time you know this is how a true vibrant relationship would work.

Just as a moment of confession I get it wrong much more then I get it right in my marriage with Elizabeth. She is super gracious and love, and caring towards me.

example:

when we first started dating we I would take her to the most reomantic place in huntsville, the Madison square mall food court. I would get pizza…she would get chick fila.

I would eat my pizza pretty quick and then I was like hey I think I am going go walk around while you eat......to which she said ok

but she should have said let’s break up right?

and I would do that. and then I realized you know what. I love this girl. I need to stay with her hang with her, not leave her so I did

it wasn’t the opposite way around....I wasn’t sitting there thinking if I sit her then my love for her would grow.....no it was the opposite way my affections for her were stirred so of course I began to do the right thing.

know their is probably about 1000 other examples I could choose but I use that as a way to remind us in a much greater way it’s true with Christ.

we don’t obey, so we can abide, and maybe we expierences GOds lvoe through that.

no we abide, and expierence his love which causes us to obey.

and as we are abiding it’s important not to get it turned aroudn the other way.

so this morning.

let’s make sure we are connected to the true vine

let’s realize he is approachable and longs to invite us in

and let’s abide in his love

Invite

A

b

c

Alter

church membership