The True Vine
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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.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 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.
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
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.
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.
17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Intro
Intro
Very familiar saying, last of the I am statements
Wine, not vine. Vines not as common in our thinking today (grape vines, many other type of vines)
“In victory, you deserve Champagne. In defeat you need it.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte
“Beer is made by men, wine by God.”
― Martin Luther, circa 1500s
Why the picture of the vine? Vine imagery was common in the ancient world, tied to wine (fruitfulness, symbol of prosperity etc) Dionysos, Greek god of vegetation, symbol vine
But specifically Jesus alluding to the vine because of OT references.
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
What is the shadow in the OT?
Symbol for Israel (people of God) in the OT, multiple places in Ps, Is, Je, Ez, Ho
Jesus passing by the temple, golden vine overhanging the temple entrance
Found on Jewish coinage.
Commonly accepted symbol for Israel
But I am the true vine, is making a statement that Jesus is ‘true’ or perfect compared to the vine of Israel
In the OT, vine reference to Israel emphasizes their lack of fruitfulness, their rebellion, lack of obedience and trust and faith, causing God’s judgement to cut them down, cut down the vine
God as spading, clearing, planting, and taking care of the vineyard, only to be rewarded with sour grapes - Is 5
21 Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?
Perhaps most clearly seen in Ps 80:7-8
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
Their plea Ps 80:14-18
14 Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
18 Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name!
So the shadow of the unfaithful, unfruitful vine pointed to a vine, the Son of Man, who would be perfectly faithful, perfectly fruitful (doing everything that God’s will laid out for him), perfectly obedient to God who planted him, unlike Israel
But moreover, when Jesus is making the claim that he is the true vine, he is saying that Israel is no longer the vine that is at the center of God’s salvation plan for the world. From this point on, to belong to the people of God means to belong to Jesus, the true vine
Not a statement on the unimportance of the physical nation of Israel, but rather that true Israel, spiritual Israel, is now Jesus
But vine imagery is used here to further expand on the benefits and privileges that the disciples of Jesus have as being part of Jesus himself, being part of the New Covenant people of God
Vine Imagery leads to three aspects
Relationship (Intimacy)
Fruitfulness
Sustenance (Growing, Remaining)
Relationship
Relationship
Intimacy between the vinedresser (farmer) and the vine
He planted it, tends to it, protects it, ensures it grows and bears fruit. Not a plant it and forget it (green thumb, my Ikea plastic plants )
Only I am statement that has an additional statement of dependence, not standing alone
Indicates the level of intimate, mutual interdependency between the father and the son
Found throughout the Gospels
Jn 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
with God, preexisting relationship from eternity in the Trinity
The Father’s affirmation
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Here Jn 15:9
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
Jn 15:10
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.
So Jesus highlights the purity, the intimacy of his love for the Father
But the intimacy relational aspect of the vine symbol is extended by Jesus to his relationship to his disciples and to us
Jn 15:5
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.
More than any other image, such as shepherd sheep, the vine image emphasises the intimacy of the relationship between Jesus and his people.
The sheep can wander away and survive, the branch is dead when its broken
The vine provides the life force and the sustenance for the existence of the branches
More than that, the vine’s fruitfulness is seen on the branches
So there is a risk (stretching the metaphor) for the vine to depend on the branches for its reputation of fruitfulness
In extending the imagery of the vine from just vinedresser to vine to vine and the branches, Jesus also highlights that the intimacy of the Father and his love is in some manner mirrored by the intimacy that is possible between Jesus and us
Jn 15:9
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
Just the very thought that Jesus loves us with the same intense kind of love that the Father loves him and he does the Father - just meditate on it. Who are we to be loved by God the way that the Father loves the Son in their eternal, perfect relationship that is not dependent or contingent on any external factor but only on the purity and the intimacy of the bond that they share in the Trinity.
This love is what leads Jesus to care for us, to lead us, help us and yes what led him to die for us.
Jn 15:13-15
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
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.
No longer are we called servant but friends.
Intimacy of knowledge and ommunication
What does it mean to be a friend of God? Clearly not that we can disobey God, for that would be to dishonor him as God
But rather where the servant is told and has to obey, friends of the king are more than told what to do. But also revealed to them are the master’s purposes and motivations.
Knowing what to do vs what and why
Friends of the king are intimate with him, have a seat at his table, a window into his thinking, and a share in his successes. And this king loves his friends so much that he will lay down his life for them.
The vinedresser’s intimacy with the vine, mirrored by the vine’s intimacy with its branches.
Fruitfulness
Fruitfulness
Of course, the vine metaphor naturally lends itself to the question of fruit.
The vine is not some plant with beautiful flowers, its leaves look great but really the vine in all its glory is when it its branches overflow with luscious grapes that are ready to fall off and is ripe for the picking.
And so Jesus has told us, he is the vine and we are the branches. And the branches are what bears and carries the fruit physically, so fruit bearing is what counts if you are a branch.
And the true vine is characterized by abundant fruit, so Jesus’ imperative desire for the branches that are joined to him, his disciples, all of us, is that we bear fruit? No that would be too basic, too normal.
The true vine’s branches must bear more fruit (v2), much fruit (v5, v8).
And if you turn your attention to v8, John 15:8
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
The fruit bearing is a sign of two things
The proof that Jesus’ disciples indeed are his disciples. That is they are the branches belonging to the true vine and in that union with the life giving vine, they cannot but bear abundant fruit.
Secondly, through that abundant fruitfulness, Jesus says the Father is glorified. Jesus mission is to bring glory to the Father. And the story we have seen so far in John’s gospel is Jesus work on behalf of the Father is through his ministry to save his people from their sins and redeem them into his possession. They become branches and we must remember, they/us now show the visible results of Jesus’ ministry by the fruit we bear. And in that fruit bearing, we bear testimony to the validation of the life changing message of the gospel and the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and through that testimony, glory is ascribed to the Father
That’s why I said it is risk of the intimacy between Jesus and us that the visible fruit bearing of the vine is dependent on our ongoing response to the word of Jesus Christ.
And so Jesus reminds his disciples, bear much fruit because that is a substantial portion of the means by which I bring glory to my Father. And to not bear fruit is in a way robbing God of his glory (Carson)
And what is the fruit? That is our commonly asked question. What is the fruit that I am to bear as a disciple of Jesus Christ?
And here in this context, Jesus talking to the 11 disciples (after Judas has left them), there is the fruit of mission, that is new believers. But you can also in the passage see that Jesus desires obedience, joy, love for fellow believers also as visible signs of discipleship.
Of course we are also familiar with Paul’s fruit of the Spirit in Galatians.
And cast your mind back to Genesis, where God’s first command to Adam and Eve is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over it
So fruitfulness has always stood for the visible results of following God’s will in the lives of his people. And that is comprehensive and involves every aspect of our character as we mold ourselves in the image of Jesus Christ, and other evidences as determined by our situation and context in life as we go along this journey of discipleship. Fruit marks us out as Christians, as branches that derive its growth and life from the true vine, and that fruit brings glory to God.
Sustenance
Sustenance
Since fruit bearing is so important to the vine, the vine needs to be tended to and cared for by the vinedresser, if it is to sustain itself over time
And it is a delicate process. One part is trimming, pruning
Pruning is very important. Grapes produce fruit on shoots growing off of one-year-old canes. If you have too many old canes (from no pruning), then you’ll get fewer grapes. If you prune back your vines completely each year, then you get lots of new growth, but again, few grapes.
Another aspect is to get rid of and cut off dead wood, dead branches that are incapable of bearing fruit so that the fruit bearing branches are able to flourish without the nutrition from the vine being siphoned away by the dead wood.
And so as the vinedresser, the Father undertakes this process of pruning and cutting off
Jn 15:2
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.
Every branch that is fruitful, the father trims so that it will be even more fruitful.
And that aspect of pruning, trimming evokes the trials and discipline we undergo in our Christian life so that we may increase in our faith and fruit. Heb 12:7,10
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
The second thing the Father does as vinedresser is to cut off dead wood, that is every branch that is incapable of bearing fruit.
And here we run into the stuff of long discussions and debates among Christians.
Who are these dead branches?
How did they get attached to the living vine in the first place?
And we have to remember that the metaphor demands that the vine be dressed appropriately, which is pruning and trimming as in real life. But it is stretching the application of the metaphor too much if we focus extensively as to the identity and the salvation potential/history of the dead branches without focusing on the need for fruitfulness to prove the validity of discipleship.
The trimming is to highlight the need for fruitfulness and the extent of the intimacy that exists between the vine and the branches that are tied to it fruitfully.
And this is emphasized in v3 Jn 15:3
3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Jesus is reminding the 11 disciples that you are already clean, you are already started out as fruitful in your life because of the word that Jesus has spoken to them. So his word, his revelation when successfully applied in the lives of his people sets them apart already as clean and fruitful and the ones who will be pruned and not trimmed.
But these 11 can also cast their minds to the 12th, one who is missing. Judas. He was a visible branch till he was not, cut off due to his lack of fruit. And throughout the NT, we see examples of those who looked llike they were Christians but in the end, due to their lack of fruit and obedience, they resembled not the fruitful branches of the true vine but the corrupt branches that characterized the unfruitful vine that was Israel in the OT. 1 Jn 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
The lack of their plain fruit is what marked them as not belonging to the true vine and hence they were cut off, visibly evidently cut off to have no further appearance of contact and union with the vine who is Jesus and the fellowship of the true branches that are Christians.
But the Father’s role is not the only piece that is highlighted by Jesus. He ascribes a role to us, the branches as well, in maintaining and sustaining the fruitfulness of the vine.
And that is characterized by the repeated admonition of Jesus of Abide/remain in me. So Jn 15:4,5
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.
And the one that does not abide Jn 15:6
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.
This is another place the metaphor breaks down a bit because you wouldn't think branches have any other choice other than to remain attached to the vine. They cant break themselves off.
But Jesus breaks the metaphor to say that the intimacy of his relationship with us, that gives us life and the mutuality of our fruit bearing demands that we continuously rely on him, depend on him for our life and sustenance so that we can be fruitful.
And so the question we ask ourselves is: am i deriving my life and existence and means of sustenance from the source that is Jesus, the true vine, or am I depending on something or someone else?
The more I depend on him, the more I will be fruitful and my aim is to be completely dependent on him so that I can be as fruitful as I can be.
And two further aspects of this abiding are highlighted by Jesus.
Jn 15:7
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
One is that abiding in Jesus means that his words abide in us. That is Jesus is the Word, the Word become flesh, and his revelation to us is the source of our cleanliness, so to abide in Jesus is equivalent to continually having his word be in us, so that as we increase in the knowledge and understanding of his words, the more it transforms us to think and act like him
And in turn, after Jesus has communicated to us by his word, we can communicate with God through prayer, but our minds and hearts are so transformed by the abiding word that just like Jesus, the desires of our heart are in accordance with the will of God, so that what we pray for (desire/wish for) abundantly delights God that he grants it to us.
The second aspect of abiding is abiding in the love of Jesus Jn 15:9-10
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.
Tying it back to intimacy, Jesus says I have loved you with the same love that the Father has for me. So remain in that love
And how do we remain in that love? By continually obeying and doing his commandments to us
Now in our notion of love, that would not seem be very loving. You don’t love me for who I am but just for what I do? How is that real love?
But to be in a loving relationship, where we are loved and we also love (not one sided), is to treasure it, enjoy it in such a way that we respond to the love that is given to us in a manner that pleases the one who has loved us
And so Jesus, says the Father loves me and I will do and I have done whatever it takes to do his will and please him. I have kept his commandments so i remain, I continue to enjoy the love that flows between us
And so there is an expectation, a standard that differentiates true love from love that is fleeting or cynical or for a season.
[Student parent example]
When someone invests in you, gives of themselves, expends themselves in service to you because they loved you first, there is an expectation, a standard that shows that the relationship we share is one that is bound by trueness of love
And the standard for us as branches of the true vine, as Christians , is not our human standards but the standard set by Christ himself (Carson), which is I remain in the love of my father by keeping his commandments so do likewise.
And that is a tough standard but that is the perfection that is demanded due to the intimacy between Jesus, the Son of God and us, and he says run to me, depend on me, ask in my name to the Father so that I will make you able to raise yourself and keep yourself in the expectation of true love.
And to bring that thought to a close, Jesus says in v11 Jn 15:11
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
What is joy? Webster defines it as the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : delight. b : the expression or exhibition of such emotion
Jesus says that what I treasure/desire most is possessing the love of my Father so that it brings me the utmost joy when I obey him, submit to his will, and bring him pleasure. So I am joyful abundantly
And I want that fulness of joy to be a reality for you. Obey me, not because a contract demands it, like a servant to a master. Where obedience is contingent on payment for services rendered
Obey me, because you cherish the intimacy and dependency and fruitfulness of our relationship, because your utmost desire is for that relationship to grow stronger and further, so that you find no pleasure, no desire greater than continually increasing in the experience of my love for you.
Too often, we would rather be servants. Tell me what to do. So our obedience is not leading to joy but just task oriented or result oriented.
But Jesus says I have called you friends, I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have died for you, I now live for you, I have given you a seat at my table, I have given you a window into my thoughts.
Do we take pleasure in that? Do we find all our longings and our desires to be inferior to the desire we have to remain in the fellowship and communion and love of the Son of God, the Word became flesh, who lived for us and died for us and lives once again for us because he loves us?
If we love him, in that intimate love between the vine and its branches, then we will bear more and more fruit to bring glory to him and to the father, to see his name and fame and renown spread through our testimony so that we can say this is the God who loves me and I love him and I abide/remain in his love. That is my greatest desire and joy.