The Vine and the Branches

Introduction

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First off, let me say thank you for having me. Part of preparing for pastoral ministry is practicing preparing and delivery sermons and there’s only so much of that you can do in a classroom setting at seminary. Getting experience preaching in a local church is crucial and so I’m glad to be here this morning. The text I chose for my sermon today is . This is a pretty familiar text because its where Jesus gives us the metaphor of the vine and the branches.

And I love this passage of Scripture because it challenges every single person who encounters it. Whether you’ve been a faithful Christian for 80 years, your struggling in your faith, or your not a Christian at all, this text has something to say to you.

For example, maybe you’ve been following Jesus for awhile but your walk with the Lord has become joyless and has turned into drudgery. Or maybe you know your Bible well, you regularly attend church, and your obedient to God in every area of your life, but you do those things because you want to earn favor in God’s eyes. Maybe you’re more mystical and see your faith as a relationship between you and Jesus with little need for the local church or for keeping the commands of the Bible. Or, like I said earlier, maybe you aren’t a Christian at all and you think that whatever the afterlife is like you will get there because you’ve been a good person.

I think we can all at least partially identify with one of these categories and no matter where you’re at today has something to say to you. So let’s turn now and read .

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Before we jump in at verse 1, it’s important to keep the context of Jesus’s words here in mind. This passage comes in the middle of what is commonly called “The Farewell Discourse.” It’s called that because this is one of the last times Jesus will address his disciples before his death.

And prior to chapter 15, Jesus has been telling his followers about the Holy Spirit. He has told them that even though he is leaving them physically, the Father will send the Spirit and therefore God will still be with them. He has also told them that difficulty will come, but that they will get to do works that are even greater than Jesus himself has done. In other words, Jesus tells his followers that he is leaving and trouble is coming, but God is still with them and God will build his church on earth.

1) The Metaphor (1-6)

This brings us to chapter 15 and the vine and the branches. We are going to take this passage in two parts this morning. First, we will look at what Jesus is teaching us through the metaphor of the vine and the branches in verses 1-6. Then, in verses 7-17 we will look at the concept of abiding, and the different things Jesus calls us to abide in. So look with me at verse 1.

1) The Metaphor (1-6)

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

a) The Vine (1)

Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” The first thing that sticks out to me in this verse is that use of the word true. Jesus doesn’t just call himself the vine; he calls himself the true vine. This is significant because it teaches us two things. First, Jesus is succeeding where Israel has failed. Many places in the Old Testament, Israel is referred to as the vine, but here Jesus says, “I am the true vine.”

Second, Jesus is the true source of nourishment, sustenance, and life. There are many other places we can go to sustain us but only Jesus is the true source of life. The main point of this metaphor is that Christians must be nourished and sourced in Christ or they will fall away. If the place we go for meaning in life or the strength to get through the day is something less than God himself we are missing out on the true source of all things.

Whether we are motivated by good things like work, relaxation, or family, or sinful things like alcohol abuse or greed, if our main reason for getting up each morning is not Jesus, the true vine, then there will be a day when the motivation runs out. We can get fired or retire from our jobs. Family members move to a new city or pass away. And alcohol abuse ends in premature death. But in this passage Jesus says that he wants to be your primary source of life and he isn’t going anywhere.

b) The Vinedresser (1)

We also see in verse 1 that Jesus calls his Father “the vinedresser.” The imagery here reveals that if Jesus is the source of all life for the Christian, then the Father is the sovereign and all-powerful one who is working in the lives of believers. And we can’t press the metaphor too far of course because in reality a vine and the one who grows the vine are totally distinct beings, but Jesus has said elsewhere in the Gospel of John that he and the Father are one.

But I think the point is that the Father is working behind the scenes in this world to produce a result that he desires and Jesus is the visible glory of his Father. Just like with an actual vine, if someone comes to admire a vine you’ve grown they will see the beauty of the vine but they will praise you for growing it. So it is with the Father and the Son. We see Jesus’s finished work on the cross and his ongoing work in our lives, and we give glory to the Father.

c) The Branches (2-6)

So now that we’ve been introduced to the vine and the vinedresser, let’s meet us, the branches. Jesus says in verse 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.” The first group of people in the verse are those who do not bear fruit.

Now we might want to think that when Jesus is talking about those who do not bear fruit he is talking about people who don’t claim to be Christians. After all, there are billions of people around the world who do not know Christ and thus they are not bearing fruit for God. However, because Jesus goes on to exhort his listeners to abide in him or else they will fall away, it’s clear that he has professing Christians in mind.

In other words, what Jesus is saying here is that those who profess to know me but do not show evidence of knowing me, do not know me. And there aren’t any who get a pass. This is “every branch that does not bear fruit.” Every person who claims to be a Christian but goes on living their life the same way they would if they were not a Christian, is not saved. Jesus says that the Father will take them away from the vine.

These are difficult words and they are especially difficult for us in the Southern United States. Most of us were born to Christian parents, started going to church as babies, and were given our first Bible before we could even read. In China or India or the Middle East this isn’t a problem because it costs people something to be a Christian and so nobody is going claim it if they don’t live it. It’s easy for us to claim and not live it, though. And if we do, Jesus says we will be taken away and will not experience eternal life with him.

The next group are those who bear fruit. And we might expect Jesus to commend or congratulate this group, but what does he say instead? He says that the Father prunes this group so that they will bear more fruit. Think of growing a garden or some flowers at your house, maybe a tomato plant. Even when the plant is producing tomatoes you can’t just leave it alone and let it be. You need to prune away the dead areas and you need to clean up the branches so that the vine can produce even bigger and better fruit.

This is the picture Jesus wants to give us of the Christian life. God didn’t save you to leave you be until you die and then let you into heaven. says “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” but then just two verses later in , Paul says that we were “Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

And in order to produce fruit for God we need to be pruned. We need God to strip away our sinful tendencies and worldly passions and replace them with obedience, love for God, and love for our neighbor. The pruning may be painful. Often God uses suffering or disappointment to wean us off the things of the world but he does it out of love. He does it because he wants us to be better supported by the true vine and he wants us to produce fruit that glorifies him.

Before we move on I want to unpack what I think Jesus means when he uses the word fruit. In , Jesus connects fruit to righteous living, experiencing joy in Christ, loving one another, and doing evangelism. It’s clear that when Jesus talks about producing fruit he doesn’t just have one small thing in mind. The idea is that God is sanctifying his people for their wholistic well-being and his comprehensive glory.

So far this has been a pretty challenging and dreary passage. Either you aren’t producing fruit for God and he will take you away, or you are producing fruit but he wants prune you so that you produce bigger and better fruit. Verse 3 has a different tone though. If you are a follower of Christ in this room listen closely to verse 3. “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.”

Jesus is saying, if you are in me and you are producing fruit for my name, you are clean. You’ve been saved. I don’t count your sin against you, I don’t count your failings against you. You are clean. And the best news is that our cleanliness is based soley on Jesus’s word. I think what Jesus means by his word is all that he has said and all that he has done. Remember in John chapter 1 how John calls Jesus the word. I think Jesus’s point here in verse 3 is that you are clean because Christ died for your sins and you believed him through his word.

Here’s where those of us who base on our relationship with God on our performance get challenged. Do you feel good about yourself when you read your Bible but poorly when you don’t? Do you think that you will spend eternity in heaven because you prayed a prayer as a child and then attended church for the rest of your life? Jesus says that the way to be clean is through him and him alone. Praying, reading Scripture, and going to church are all important things, but the only thing that can save us from our sins is Jesus Christ. If you would like to talk more about that after the service please come find me.

Now that Jesus has laid out his metaphor, he gives us the only command in this passage at the beginning of verse 4, “Abide in me.” Some translations might use the word “remain” and that’s really the sense of the word abide. To remain or to stay. Here’s the point of verses 4-6. You cannot produce fruit that glorifies God if you do not stay near to Christ. Jesus reiterates his points from earlier when he says “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. (But) if anyone does not abide in my he is thrown away.” Just as a branch cannot bear fruit if it is detached from the vine, you cannot live in obedience to God if you are not attached to Christ.

Jesus reiterates his points from earlier when he says “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. (But) if anyone does not abide in my he is thrown away.” Just as a branch cannot bear fruit if it is detached from the vine, you cannot live in obedience to God if you are not attached to Christ.

And the great news is that in the rest of our passage Jesus tells us how to stay attached to him. He gives us at least six things we need to abide in: his word, prayer, obedience, joy, the church, and mission.

2) Abiding (7-17)

2) Abiding (7-17)

a) Abide in Jesus’s Word (7)

So look with me at verse 7. Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Notice that Jesus says if. The clear implication is that some people will do these things and some will not. But it’s important to remember that Jesus is not saying that people can lose their salvation. In Jesus has made it clear that he knows his people and no one can snatch them out of his hand. But what he is saying is that their will be people who claim to be Christians, but they will not abide in these things, which will reveal to you that they are not in fact true believers.

The first thing Jesus calls us to abide in is his word when he says “(If) my words abide in you.” Jesus was telling these disciples that when he went away they would not remain in him if they did not remember his words to them. And for us today we have Jesus’s words in our Bibles. It is simply impossible for us to bear fruit for God if we don’t know what God has said in his word. How can we know what actions are sinful and what are pleasing to God if we don’t know what the Bible says? We can’t fight temptation or doubt if we don’t know God’s promises to us about those things.

We can’t abide in Christ if we don’t abide in the Bible. If you aren’t reading Scripture regularly, or you are but it isn’t very fruitful, please find someone in your family or this church, or even Pastor John, and ask them to teach you to read the Bible.

b) Abide in Prayer (7, 16)

The next thing that helps us abide in Christ is prayer. In the second half of verse 7 and also in the second half of verse 16, Jesus says something along the lines of “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Now these verses can very easily be taken out of context and can mislead us. In both verses 7 and 16 when Jesus says to ask for whatever you want he has bearing fruit directly in mind. Jesus is not saying if you abide in him you can ask for a brand new car or a bigger house and it will be given to you. He clearly means that if you want to turn away from a specific sin, ask him and he will help you. If you want to share the gospel with your grandchild, ask him and he will help you.

Praying in Jesus name, which is what he asks us to do in verse 16, doesn’t just mean saying “in Jesus name” before we say “amen.” It means praying for the things Jesus would pray for. And in this passage Jesus promises to answer our prayers. If our prayers are never answered there are two possible problems that his passage tells us about. Either we aren’t abiding in Christ, because he says “if you abide in me…it will be done for you.” Or we aren’t asking for the types of things God wants to do. Let’s abide with Christ in prayer by praying fervently that God would remove sin from our lives and the lives of those we regularly pray for, and replace it with righteousness living and living on mission.

c) Abide in Obedience (8-10)

And this brings us to the next thing Jesus calls us to abide in: obedience. Verses 8-10 say, “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.”

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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.

Jesus tells us that when we bear fruit we bring God glory. And remember that Jesus is talking about wholistic fruit. He’s talking about choosing not to sin, resting in Christ, doing good deeds to others, and sharing the good news of salvation. When we do these things God is glorified, and when we don’t God is not. And we have to keep in mind that the fruit we produce as Christians is not what saves us, only Jesus’s work on the cross does that, but Jesus does reiterate his point from earlier that those who produce fruit are proved to be my disciples, and those who do not produce fruit are proved otherwise.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

In verses 9 and 10, Jesus gives a picture of his perfect obedient and fruit bearing relationship with the Father. He tells us that the Father loves him and he loves the Father, and that Jesus abides in the Father’s love through obedience. And it’s the same thing with us. Think about this illustration for a moment. Picture yourself as a student who shows up to class without having completed your homework. The teacher isn’t going to kick you out of the class if she finds out you didn’t do your homework, but there will be tension in your relationship. You won’t be able to learn as well as you should that day because you will feel guilty or scared that she will find out.

It’s the same thing with our obedience as Christians. When we sin God does not kick out of us family or cast us away from his presence. But the relationship is strained. We can’t experience his love or his peace. And therefore Jesus calls us to abide in obedience. To turn from sin and to bear fruit for God.

d) Abide in Joy (11)

And that brings us to verse 11 which might be the most striking verse in this passage. Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” You might say, but Jesus, you’ve been talking about how some people who call themselves Christians aren’t actually saved and you’ve been calling us to abide in all these difficult things that we can never fully live up to.

But, Jesus, says. I have said all this that the very joy of God may be in you and your joy may be full. What a statement! Jesus tells us these things because he loves us and he wants the best for us. Failing to abide in Christ may lead to joy but it will only be temporary. Whether our joy comes from sinful sources like alcohol, drugs, or sex, or good sources like family, friends, and leisure, nothing compares to the joy that Christ offers.

The joy that Jesus wants us to have is a joy that cannot be taken away when we lose our job or lose a loved one. And the joy that Jesus wants us to have doesn’t end at death like every worldly joy. Jesus’s joy is perfect and it’s eternal. And he wants you to have it. But we have to abide in him.

e) Abide in the Church (12-15, 17)

Really quick, there are two more things Jesus calls us to abide in. First is the church, which we can see in verses 12-15 and also verse 17. Here Jesus calls us to “love one another as I have loved you” and then he says it again in verse 17, “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” It is impossible to be a Christian and not love other people. In , John says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God.”

And the reason for this is because of the love God has shown us. In verse 13 Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay does his life for his friends,” and he is encouraging us to love, but he is also foreshadowing his own act of love. Jesus is the one who actually will lay down his life for us.

So where is the primary place that you practice this kind of love that Jesus talks about? It’s the church. This church should be a place of helping out others when they are down on their luck or need some work done around their house. Churches should be marked by cooking meals for one another and always looking for ways to serve our brothers and our sisters. Every single one of us has something to offer the church and we should use our gifts to love one another.

f) Abide on Mission (16)

Lastly, Jesus calls us to abide on mission. In verse 16 he says, “You did not choose my, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” Just in case we were tempted to think that all this stuff we are supposed to do will help us earn a relationship with Jesus, he says “I chose you.” If you are a Christian today it is only because Jesus saved you. But then Jesus says that he didn’t save us and that’s it. No, he “appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.” This use of the word go seems to indicate that Jesus is talking about evangelism.

Just like in the Great Commission where Jesus tells us to “Go and make disciples,” he is telling us to make evangelism a part of our lives. We should abide in sharing the gospel. And this doesn’t have to be hard. We only have to make small adjustments to start living on mission. We can invite our neighbors over for dinner and talk about what God has done in our lives. We can make friends with people we meet out in the community and find out if they know Jesus. When we are with our families we can have devotional times where we read or study the Bible together.

And even if it seems like everyone you know is a Christian and therefore you can’t live on mission, remember how this passage began. Jesus said that there are some who claim to be Christians but their fruit proves otherwise. Find these people and pour into them. For those of you who are already doing this, keep up the good work and show others how it’s done.

Conclusion

Well, that’s . In this text Jesus uses the metaphor of the vine and the branches to teach us that apart from him we are lost and hopeless. He also challenges us as Christians to continue to abide in him and warns us that some who claim the name of the Christ are not true believers. He then calls us to abide in six things: the Bible, prayer, obedience, joy, the church, and mission.

So if you’re a Christian this morning your response to this text should be to abide in Christ by practicing those six things. Don’t do them as chores to earn favor before God, but as joyful tasks to help you abide in the true vine. If you’re not a Christian or you were convicted by Jesus’s words about removing branches that do not bear fruit, turn to Christ. There’s nothing you can do to make yourself right with God, except to take Jesus as your Savior. If you have any questions about that come talk to me after the service or talk to Pastor John when he gets back. Let’s pray.