The Vine and the Branches
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The Vine and the Branches
The Vine and the Branches
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper.
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.
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, so 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.
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.
19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.
I am He. The original text reads ἐγώ εἰμί — literally, “I am.”
Of course we know this is the same name God used when he first revealed Himself to Moses in
Prior to this Upper Room Discourse, Jesus taught His disciples:
“I am the bread of life.” —
“I am the light of the world.” —
“I am the door.” —
“I am the good shepherd.” —
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” -
Here in Jesus says, “I am the true vine.”
Like all the other passages, each metaphor reveals His deity.
Let’s read our passage tonight.
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper.
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.
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, so 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.
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.
The metaphor here is straightforward. The passage pictures a vine with many branches. The vine is the source of life. Each branch must abide in the vine to live and receive it’s sustenance for life — and also to bear fruit!
Obviously the fruit-bearing branches represent true believers, but
What is the identity of the fruitless branches?
Some say the barren branches are redeemed people who are barren or carnal Christians. Other say the fruitless represent unbelievers.
Which is it?
The context is where must always go.
Who were the characters in that Upper Room that night?
The disciples were with Jesus. We were told that He loved them to the end. He comforted them in chapter 14. The Father and the Father’s will were foremost on His mind, because He was thinking of the events surrounding His death that would occur the next day. But from the text we know there was someone else Jesus was aware of — His betrayer, Judas. A short while before, Jesus dismissed Judas from the fellowship, knowing that he was going to betray Him.
All the characters were on His mind. He continued to teach the 11 whom He loved deeply and passionately. He was about to go to the garden to pray to His Father and yet there was the reality of Judas.
Each of these characters played a part in the metaphor. Clearly from verse 1, Jesus is the vine — “I am the true vine.” and the Father is the vinedresser. The fruit-bearing branches represent the 11 disciples immediately, and all true disciples to come. The fruitless branches represent Judas and all those who never were true disciples.
Turn with me back to . You remember the astounding example Jesus played out before them as He knelt to wash their feet. And after He was finished this conversation took place.
10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”
And the Apostle John adds in verse 11.
11 For He knew who would betray Him. This is why He said, “You are not all clean.”
Judas was the exception. He was never bathed. he was never cleansed…by the water of the word. () He never submitted to the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. ()
Remember again how John brought in Judas at the beginning of chapter 13.
2 Now by the time of supper, the Devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Him.
Judas still appeared to the other 11 disciples to be one of them. He was so trusted that Judas carried the money bag for the group. He looked to be a “true branch on the vine.” There was however one difference, only one difference between Judas and the other disciples — Judas bore no fruit! He would never bear any spiritual fruit. So God removed Judas, that fruitless branch, and it was burned.
Some contend that Judas was a believer who turned away and lost his salvation. According to them, the same could happen to any believer who becomes fruitless. But there’s a serious problem with that.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish —ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand.
John 10
He guaranteed them absolute security of every child of God.
37 Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.
A true and genuine believer can never loose salvation and be condemned to hell — not because of them — But because of Christ.
Branches that are truly and intimately connected to the vine are fruitful and secure and will never be removed. But those with superficial attachment — are branches that are not truly tapped into the vascular system of the vine — will be removed.
Horticulturists call these branches “suckers” because they are shoots that are really attached to other branches, drawing strength from the branch and not the vine. There are some that are actually attached to the very base of the vine, but they are not producing fruit. All their energy goes into setting down roots of their own.
There are people, like Judas, who appear by all human appearances to be united with Christ, but they are destined for hell. They are attached to their spouse or Mama or to the preacher even. They may attend church. They know all the right answers. They go through all the motions, but they have no fruit. God removes them, and they will be burned. Others are like the 11, intimately attached to the vine and producing genuine fruit.
Let’s look a little deeper at this by considering the particulars, especially the characters of the metaphor.
Christ the True Vine
Christ the True Vine
This is nothing new. In the OT, Israel was pictured as the Lord’s vine and He was the vinedresser. He cared for the vine, trimmed it, cutoff branches that didn’t bear fruit.
Isaiah 5:1-
1 I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.
3 So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for My vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?
5 Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant He delighted in. He looked for justice but saw injustice, for righteousness, but heard cries of wretchedness.
Israel was spiritually barren. God took away her protection wall and left her unprotected.
Foreign nations attacked her and destroyed her. There was no longer blessing through a covenant relationship. Fruit bearing comes through a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the True Vine in Scripture. The NT writers often used the word “True” to describe what was eternal, heavenly, and divine. Israel was imperfect. Christ is perfect. Christ is the True Vine. Israel was the type, Christ is the reality. Just like Christ is called the “true tabernacle” as opposed to the earthly tabernacle. He is also the “true Light.” God had revealed much in the OT, but Christ is the Word, the true Light that has come into the world. Christ is the true bread, the real sustainer of life, the mana in the wilderness was a mere symbol of Him.
Consider what this metaphor pictures about Christ. The lowliness of a vine demonstrates His humility. It pictures the close relationship and vital unity between Christ and His church. If the branches are to live and bear fruit, they must completely depend on the vine for nourishment, support, strength, and vitality.
Many call themselves Christians, but have no dependence on Christ. They truly believe they can do something without Christ.
— “apart from Me you can do nothing.”
They are attached to any and everything but Christ. They are attached to their own personal skills, possessions, relationships, education, their own energies. They think the church is their vine, so they plug into that and attach themselves to a religious system. But none of that can sustain them. They lack the true Life source — Christ, the only True Vine.
The Father is the Vinedresser
The Father is the Vinedresser
Jesus gives a picture of His relationship with His Father. The fact that Jesus is the Vine and the Father is the Vinedresser, doesn’t mean that Jesus is not God. Jesus is emphasizing the fundamental difference between His role and the Father’s. The Father cares for the Son and those joined to the Son by faith.
The role of Vinedresser was familiar to the disciples.
After the vine was planted, the vinedresser had two basic duties.
He cutoff fruitless branches, which take away sap from the fruit-bearing branches. If sap is wasted, the plant will bear less fruit.
Then, he constantly trims shoots from the fruit-bearing branches so that the sap is concentrated to bearing fruit.
We see this point made by Jesus in verse 2.
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.
The fruitless branches are useless. God removes them. He doesn’t repair them or clean them up. He removes them. There was not vital connection to the vine in the first place. The connection was only superficial. They never had any true, life-giving, fruit-bearing connection to the vine. They were never saved.
The Father prunes the fruit-bearing branches so that they bear more fruit. These branches obviously represent true Christians because only Christians produce spiritual fruit. Pruning is not a one time thing, it’s a constant process for the purpose of producing fruit.
8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
The Father Removes the Fruitless Branches
The Father Removes the Fruitless Branches
It’s the vinedresser’s business to know the difference between the fruit-bearing and fruitless branches. Because he has to know which ones to prune and which ones to remove. This is an important distinction because the fruitless branches drain sap, sunlight, and nourishment from the fruit-bearing process.
The practice in the first century in the Middle East was to prevent a vine from bearing fruit for the first 3 years. That way all the resources went to growing and developing the vine. By the 4th year the vine was strong enough to bear an abundance of fruit. Careful pruning would then actually increase the fruit-bearing capacity. The branches were mature enough having been through the years of pruning to produce fruit.
Jesus illustrated His disciples to mature branches that produced fruit — but needed pruning. The inference here is there is no such thing as a fruitless Christian. Every Christian bears some fruit.
10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.
17 In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.
True faith in Jesus Christ, life in Christ, always produces fruit.
Galatians 5:22-2
Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Notice the singular of the word Fruit. This means that everything Paul mentioned: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control — everyone of them is the Fruit of the Spirit. This means every Christian will have each of these.
We read this morning from — You will know a genuine believer by his fruit. Therefore, Jesus’ illustration makes no sense were it not that every Christian did not bear at least some fruit. And since all Christians bear fruit, it is clear that the fruitless branches in cannot refer to them. And if they’re fruitless that demonstrated they were not of His. So they were to be eliminated.
But wait a minute! We have a problem.
Look at verse 2
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.
See the prepositional phrase “in Me?” “Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes.”
If they are “in Me” are they not Genuine Believers?
Paul uses a similar metaphor in where Israel was represented by an olive tree from which God removed branches. The branches were cut off because of unbelief.
20 True enough; they were broken off by unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
18 Therefore take care how you listen. For whoever has, more will be given to him; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”
Here Christ warned those who cultivated the appearance of godliness without any vital connection to the life of God. And what happens: God removes the Judas-branch.
19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
There are many with superficial relationships with Christ. The warning Christ gave in , reveals this.
22 On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’
23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’
Paul admonished the Corinthian Church to
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test.
There’s a problem with the Fruitless Branches being Christians — God removes them and They are thrown into the fire. If these were in fact Christians — then they would have lost their salvation forever. But they were not true. They were Judas-branches, sucker branches. They associated themselves with Jesus, but put on a façade of faith in Him. The heavenly Vinedresser will remove them.
The Father Prunes the Fruitful Branches
The Father Prunes the Fruitful Branches
Verse 2 — “And He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.”
The Father removes the fruitless branches but He tenderly cares for the fruit-bearing branches and He does it this way so that they produce more fruit.
The word translated Prune is καθαίρω. It’s a word with a range of meanings. The fundamental idea is that of cleansing. Farmers clean the husk off of grain, they clean the soil of weeds and stones before planting. But in the metaphor of the vine, it refers to a cleansing, a purging shoots from the fruitful branches.
This was done several ways in Palestine. The tips were pinches off to stop growth. Larger branches were topped to prevent them from becoming too long and weak. Flowers and grapes were thinned out. And like for the vine, pruning is necessary for our spiritual lives. The Father removes sin and superfluous things that limit our fruitfulness. Our Lord uses suffering and problems in our life to remove what limits our growth and producing fruit. These Spiritual Tools take many forms: sickness, hardships, loss, persecution, slander, threats — all of these can be useful tools to the Vinedresser. The whole idea is for the branch to produce fruit. This Heavenly Vinedresser knows exactly what He’s doing and executes His work with impeccable skill.
This also correlates to what Jesus already demonstrated to His disciples when washing their feet.
John 13:8-
8 “You will never wash my feet—ever!” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”
When something is clean it is holy or acceptable to God. When something is unclean, it is unholy. There is then a cleaning that has to do with our sanctification, which is why Jesus explained this to Peter.
And so the Father lovingly prunes us, cleanses us from that which needs to be removed. Knowing this His love and concern in doing this should change the way we look at trials. Everything is divinely designed that we might bear more fruit.
How do you look at trials?
Do you see them as pruning by a loving Father?
Or do you lapse into self-pity, fear, and complaining?
Think about this. It is thrilling to realize that God wants our lives to bear much fruit. Pruning can be painful, but the fruit is holiness. If we realize that the pruning process is God’s work to make us holy, we can look past the process to the goal.
And here’s what God uses as His pruning knife.
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.
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Did you see it?
The Word. He uses the Word of God to prune. The word translated clean here is the adjectival form of the verb — it’s καθαρός. And it describes the pruning process. God uses His word to prune the sin out of our lives and stimulate growth and fruitfulness. This is another reason to be in the Word.
He uses the trial to make us responsive to His Word.
Aren’t you driven to the Word in the trial?
We become more sensitive to truth of Scripture when we’re in trouble.
Haven’t you notice that Scripture sometimes jumps off the page when we have a particular problem?
In adversity, God’s Word comes alive to us.
Charles Spurgeon
The Word is often the knife with which the great Husbandman prunes the vine; and, brothers and sister, if we were more willing to feel the edge of the Word, and to let it cut away even something that may be very dear to us, we should not need so much pruning by affliction. It is because the first knife does not always produce the desired result that another sharp tool is used by which we are effectually pruned.