John Part 32

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.

John 15:1 ESV

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

The word’s “I AM” are once again used here

Jesus is clearly connecting himself

to the same God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush

In Exodus chapter 3.

Ego Eimi in the Greek

Is “I AM”

and it is the same name God gave to Moses

Jesus has used it repeatedly through the gospel of John

I AM the: Door

Good Shepherd

Light of the World

Bread of Life

The Way

The Truth

The Life

and here he says…

I AM the vine.

Jesus then says that his Father is the vinedresser

This is a word that simply means farmer

The one who planted the vine is God the Father

So, In this analogy that Jesus is telling

The Father is the planter of the vine.

Jesus is the vine

And we are the branches

And the branches must bear fruit

Remember, Jesus is getting his disciples ready to go on without him

And so, if they are branches connected to the vine

but they do not bear any fruit

Then Jesus would have come in vain.

His mission was to produce millions of branches

that produced millions of fruit.

He is the source of the branches and the fruit

because he is the vine

And the vine came from the Father

And the only way we can stay connected to the Father

Is through Jesus, the true vine.

Which is why he said in the last chapter

No one comes to the Father but by or through me.

John 15:2 ESV

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.

If you don’t produce fruit,

Jesus says, the Father will take you away

and you will see where he takes you away to in verse 6

and even if you DO produce fruit

it is not enough

He will prune you so that you will produce even more fruit

So, we cannot ever get to a place where we are not producing fruit

Otherwise, we will be taken away.

Many people who preach once-saved-always saved

will be confused by this word “taken away”

Because they will often claim that if someone walks away from Jesus

it was because they were never saved to begin with.

But Jesus says that there will be branches IN him

that are no longer producing fruit

who will be taken way from him

Meaning, they were with him at some point

but taken away from him at a later point.

He does not say, they were never branches to begin with

But rather, he says, they WERE branches,

and not just branches laying near him

but it specifically says,

Branches IN me that are not producing fruit.

So, the issue many saved by faith forever preachers deal with

is the fruit bearing requirement

They preach that if you have to do anything

Then you are saved by works and not by faith

But, they are not understanding true faith

and true fruit

Jesus is the vine,

and it is the vine that produces branches

and the source of the water and nutrients for the fruit

comes to the branches from the vine

so, any fruit you bear

is really the fruit of Jesus

And you were saved as soon as you became a branch

But if you want to stay saved

You’ve got to be a branch that Jesus can produce fruit through

and that means, you’ve got to be a healthy branch

So, he is going to prune away some things

to make sure you produce even more and more fruit

And some people do not let him doing any pruning

When God says, if you let me take those R rated movies

I can produce some more fruit through you

They don’t let him prune it

When God says, if you let me take those vulgar songs from your radio

I can produce some more fruit through you.

They don’t let him prune it.

Every day, God is working on us

He is wanting to prune things out of our lives

Things that we think we need

but they are things that God know are keeping us

from producing the maximum amount of fruit possible

Let God prune you.

Don’t hold onto things He is trying to remove

Things that are only a hinderance to you being fruitful in his kingdom.

John 15:3 ESV

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

So, you were clean as soon as you heard the word of Jesus

and you became a branch right then

Some people do not even get this far

they do not accept the word of God

However, some people make it this far and stop

and they never produce a single fruit for God

if the 11 disciples did that

we would not even know who Jesus was.

John 15:4 ESV

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.

Again, the vine is the source of the fruit

You cannot produce fruit without Jesus

You must abide in Him.

That means to live there, or stay there

John 15:5 ESV

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.

Same thing as we’ve already stated

Just restated for emphasis

You must abide in Jesus

or you will amount to nothing.

John 15:6 ESV

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.

So, there is now a second reason for not abiding

The first is because you are not producing fruit

and in that case, God himself takes you away.

The second here, is someone who just does not abide

indicating that we do have free will to stop abiding in Jesus.

And if we do that

We will wither away

like a branch that was fallen from a tree withers away

and those branches will be thrown into the fire and burned

This is clearly a reference to hell.

So, branches that were IN the true vine

have the ability to NOT abide in Him

and those branches will cast into the fire.

John 15:7 ESV

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

The word “wish” here can be misleading.

This isn’t a license to make any wish you want

In some translations the word here is “want”

but that is also misleading.

The word means “purpose” or “will”.

So, it means whatever you WILL ask, that thing you asked, will be done.

In other words, God will hear your requests IF

and there is a big IF here

IF… you abide in Jesus

and IF, his words abide in you.

So, if we are really abiding in him

and his words are abiding in us

then the things we will ask for

are things he already wants to do

because it will be his words that are in us

Not our words

So, don’t think you can ask him for a new Cadillac

because those are not his words in you

Those are your words.

John 15:8 ESV

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

So, God get’s the glory when we bear fruit

and when we prove to be his disciples

So, if you are proving to not be his disciples

then you are not glorifying God at all

But if you bear fruit and prove to be his disciple

you ARE glorifying God.

So, don’t let anyone tell you that you just need to believe in God to be saved

and that you do not need to do anything else

and if you DO do anything else

then you are getting the glory and not God

because Jesus said,

if you abide in him

you can’t do anything at all

Apart from the vine, you are a dead branch

but attached to the vine, you are a fruitful branch

So, being fruitful proves you are his disciple

and God gets the glory for your fruit

But without fruit, you are only proving that you are NOT his disciple

and God isn’t getting any glory from a dead dry branch

No one ever said, why would a fruitful branch that is

Have you ever grew anything in a garden and had someone see the fruit

and started glorifying the branches?

No, they glorify the one who planted the it, watered it, and grew it.

So, God is the vinedresser

and he is going to get all the glory for the fruit you produce

Now, we are shifting away from the True Vine analogy

and Jesus starts talking about love.

But he is still talking about abiding.

John 15:9 ESV

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

Now, the Father loves Jesus,

and in the same way,

Jesus says, he loves us.

Then Jesus says that we need to abide in his love

Meaning, we need to stay there

Abide means to stay there

or live there.

So, we need to live in the love of Jesus.

How?

John 15:10 ESV

10 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.

To abide in the love of Jesus

We must keep his commandments

remember, if you don’t abide in him

You will be like a branch that withers away

and will be cast into the fire

I know he isn’t talking about branches here

but he is talking abiding in him

and we can use his analogy of the branches anywhere he is talking about abiding in him

So, if abiding in his love means keeping his commandments

Then not keeping his commandments means you are NOT abiding in him.

and you cannot be saved if you do not abide in him

John 15:11 ESV

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

The joy here, I believe is the Holy Spirit

The Bible says that there is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit

and Jesus is saying, if you keep my commandments

if you abide in me

if you bear fruit

then, my joy will be in you

and your joy will be full.

He’s trying to teach his disciples how to walk in the Spirit

And part of that is to keep his commandments

which, if you really love Jesus,

he says you will do.

And then he gives us one of his commandments…

John 15:12 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

And this is the hardest commandment in the Bible.

In fact, it is source of almost all commandments

If you love each other the way Jesus loves you,

then you won’t gossip

you won’t lie

you won’t commit adultery

you won’t murder

That’s why Jesus says the two greatest commandments are

Love God

and Love your neighbor

Because all of the Law hangs on those two commandments.

If you love God

You won’t make idols

you won’t serve false gods

If you love people

you won’t sin against them either

The problem is… we’ve had the commandments for thousands of years

and we cannot keep them

we have tried and tried

but Jesus is showing us how to do it

We’ve got to abide in him

and he has to abide in us

How will Jesus abide in us?

when his Holy Spirit is in us.

And that is how we will love each other the way that Jesus loves us.

John 15:13 ESV

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

So, the Love of Jesus is the Greatest love that there is

and Jesus says, go ahead and love each other

the same way I love you

Seems impossible

but just wait

John 15:14 ESV

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

again, we see the word “if” here

and he uses the word friend here

but this is the same thing as abiding in him

and his words abiding in us, that we heard earlier

John 15:15 ESV

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Remember, John 1.18 is the mission of Jesus

To make the father known

and Jesus says

I’ve done that

His mission is complete

and now his disciples are about to take the wheel

They are no longer servants

but they are friends.

It is now time for them to produce fruit

Because Jesus is leaving them

John 15:16 ESV

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

So, there are some who use this verse to argue that God has chosen people

and that we don’t have free will to choose him

but he choose us

But this is not what Jesus is saying

Yes, he chose the 12 disciples

but that does not mean he chose only them to be saved.

He chooses all of us before we choose him

And he has an appointed plan for all of us before we even know it

The question is… will we choose him and his plan

or choose ourselves and our own plans.

John 15:17 ESV

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

So, he wraps up this part by saying it is all about loving each other.

That is the purpose of abiding in him

and bearing fruit

and keeping his commandments

So, that we can love each other.

John explains this Love concept clearly in 1 John chapter 4…

1 John 4:8–13 ESV

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

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