Life In The Vine
Are you attached?
John 15:1-8
Are you attached to the real thing?
God wants to clean up your life!
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. What does it mean to be clean here? Can be clean in the OT sense of ritually clean but can also mean as probable here clean as a pruned branch and ready to bear fruit. How does this relate to pruning? The dead wood, crossed branches, excess vegetative growth is pruned away. Clean.
what is your fruit to be?
We are to abide in him - Remain in me, and I will remain in you. How do we remain in Jesus? In what manner does he remain in me? We are attached, grafted in, through the blood of Jesus. Kept by the power of God, nourished and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:12-13 a daily vital relationship through faith – Galatians 2:20. Through obedience to the word! Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 9
No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Apart from the vine there is fruitlessness and death resulting in destruction. The illustration. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Applies lesson from the vine directly to us. The application.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. In case we missed it!
If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. Answered prayer is also a result of this abiding in the vine, with the added condition of Jesus words remaining in us. Our abiding affects our prayer and the answers to our prayer. How do we pray according to God’s will, abide in Jesus and pray, abide in the word and pray.
Your life can bring glory to God! This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
No one grows grapevines just for their leaves or branches, they grow grape vines for fruit We are looking for grapes!
levels of fruitfulness in this passage – no fruit, fruit, more fruit, much fruit. Fruit that will last in verse 16. Picture the things that God has done in your life, the things that God allows in our lives, and the people God brings across our path. All this is to move us towards greater and greater fruitfulness. teaching from Al Vom Steeg. There are several stages in the life of a leader, with the one of greatest fruitfulness often come at the end of life. But before this, there is often a time of pruning and discipline. And something has to die. Too often, leaders pull back at this point, and go back to what they know. They are still fruitful, but they miss the greatest effect they could have. Those who go through the pruning, move into a time of incredible effectiveness, often far surpassing their best years before. They learn to abide. Branches when left on their own are fruitless. They require the vine. We require Jesus to bear fruit.
The end result of the pruning, of the abiding, of the increased fruitfulness, is glory to the Father. When we bear much fruit, when our lives demonstrate our discipleness, when we abide in Jesus, God is glorified.
Are you attached? Will you be pruned? Will you abide?
When you look at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians you see a list most if not all of which are characteristics of God. You see all this stuff in the life of Jesus. It is no big surprise that Jesus would want to reproduce his life in us. I get to be conformed to the image of God, and Jesus is the perfect picture and fulfillment of that image in a human being. God what do you want to prune away from me, from us, from our nation. God wants you to abide. God wants to prune you. God wants you to bear much fruit. Will you abide? Will you be pruned? Will you bear much fruit?
I watched the Statue of Saddam Hussein fall this past week – the greatly feared battle of Baghdad turned out to be much less intense than feared. One thing that struck me in this was the failure of a system when the whole is based on one fallible man – the same happens to churches that base themselves on one fallible pastor. But Jesus here is saying build your life on me - I am not fallible, I am God, and the life that flows from me to you will not fail as long as you are connected to me.
Prayer