The True Vine
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmark: John 15:1-17
Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:
Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:
Welcome everyone to the family gathering. It is a joy to be able to meet together this way, and I just want to take a moment and say thank you. Thank you for those of you who have joined us each week of this really unprecedented time. We look at the stats from our streams, and we have people joining us from all over the country. Thanks for coming and being a part of Eastern Hills during this time. While we may never get to fellowship with you in person this side of heaven, it’s a blessing to be able to pray for you and share the message of the Gospel with you each week. Thanks to the EHBC family that has made this transition, and thanks for reaching out to those you know and sharing the hope of the Gospel with them during this crisis. Many of you are watching right now on our YouTube channel. While you’re there, please Like, Subscribe, and Share our channel with others.
Know that your church staff is praying for you throughout this time, and we are striving to follow God’s lead as we try creative things and innovative things to keep sharing the truth of Jesus and to help everyone to stay connected.
One of those things is that we have checked with the governor’s office, and we have been given approval to hold drive-in services, provided that everyone stays in their cars unless absolutely necessary. So we have put on the calendar another drive-in service: this one for two weeks from today, May 3. It will be at 9:00 am on the south parking lot, and then we will stream a recording of that service at 10:30 for our internet-only guests and members.
Another way that we’re trying to be innovative is with our Prayer Line. We realized that perhaps it would be easiest to just invite people to pray at the same times together, and to provide the Prayer Line digitally for those who would like to pray specifically for things going on in our church family. You can get a copy of the Prayer Line in PDF format from our website. Just go to ehbc.org, visit the Family Life section, and go to the Prayer link. The PDF is password protected for privacy reasons. If you would like the password for the Prayer Line, just send an email to me, Rebecca, or Shanna. We’re inviting everyone to pray at either 11:30 am MDT or 5:30 pm MDT on Wednesdays. Of course, you can pray at other times as well, but if you would like to join together in prayer, even though we aren’t together physically, we have set those times aside for corporate prayer.
One last way that Eastern Hills has provided for you to engage in Bible study during the week is through RightNow Media. (SCREEN) You can join for free through our church invite, and have access to what is basically Netflix of Bible studies. There are thousands of studies for all sorts of audiences: kids, students, singles, parents, men, women, couples, families, seniors… there are even series on there right now about responding to crisis and ministering to your neighbors, and a bunch of other topical studies. And it’s free to you. Just use the link on your screen and get signed up…even if you aren’t a member of the church… it’s our gift to you.
I’ve said this each week we’ve been streaming: let’s participate together in worship this morning, regardless of where we are. If you can, when I ask us to stand, please do so. If you would sing out or clap your hands during the time of praise and worship through song, do that. As we pray, pray together with me. When we study the Word, make sure you get your Bible out and join in.
We do have this morning’s service all set up on YouVersion, so you should be able to see it if you get on YouVersion and look for our Live Event.
We are currently collecting our offering to support SBC missionaries and church planters in the United States and Canada, called the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Our goal this year is $14,000, and we have given $14,266.83 so far. Thank you so much for your generous giving to this offering!
If you have felt God leading you to give to the AAEO, but just haven’t had the chance yet, we will be collecting this offering this week and next toward the goal. I have one last video from the North American Mission Board that I wanted to show you about how the AAEO is used… a ministry called GenSend:
VIDEO
Use online giving. Go to our website, and right there on the front page is a button linking to our online giving page. It’s even mobile-friendly. You just choose the fund you want to give to (Church budget or something specific, like Annie Armstrong), and walk through the steps.
Updates for Shine ABQ Partnership, serving Kennedy Middle School. EVERY WEEK WE NEED 200 BF, LUNCH and DINNER items through May 22… especially dinner and lunch items like ravioli, tuna packets, microwaveable pasta dishes, and mac and cheese. We are providing care packages for students who in many cases saw their attendance at school as the only meals they would get in a day. Church, we need to serve these families. If you can help, there is a list on our website at ehbc.org under EHBC Family Life. If you can help, please bring those supplies by during our delivery times, 1-4 pm Monday-Friday. We will also need church members to volunteer for packing and delivering the care packages to Kennedy. There is a Sign-Up Genius link on the Shine Partnership page on our website (under the “Family Life” tab), where you can sign up to come help pack or deliver. We have also asked the community to help through NextDoor.
PRAY
MUSIC:
MUSIC:
This is Amazing Grace (G)
The Lion and the Lamb (G)
Scandal of Grace (G)
Come Thou Fount (D)
PRAY
Opening
Opening
This morning is the last one of the I Am statements in John. We’ve seen that Jesus has said that He is the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Gate for the Sheep, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, and last week, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In each of these statements, Jesus has said something very specific about Himself. He has said that He is THE… He hasn’t said that He is A… He’s not A light of the world.
He said that He is THE light of the world. He is not A way, He is THE way. He is not A life, He is THE life. Just as last week’s context, this I AM statement is being given on the night before Jesus was crucified, this one sometime after the Last Supper. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read our focal passage for this morning, John 15:1-17:
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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, 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. 9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.
PRAY
I have three fruit-bearing trees in my back yard. Three plum trees. We were just in the yard this weekend and saw that there are little baby plums growing on the tree. We’re not too worried about how much “crop” we get every year… too much just means a lot of plums to pick up. If we don’t get a crazy freeze in the next two weeks, we are going to have a lot of plums to pick up this year.
But there is one other fruit-bearing tree that has an impact on my yard. It’s a non-flowering mulberry that isn’t actually IN my yard. It’s just over the wall to the east. It is, I am fairly certain, one of the largest trees in our neighborhood. It’s really tall, and really broad, and most years, really productive. Some years, we actually get two rounds of mulberries. It makes… I don’t know… it seems like a million a year.
Now this wouldn’t be so bad, except that the mulberries on this tree are not at all tasty. They aren’t good. Sickly sweet. Last summer, the owner of the house next door agreed that the mulberry tree was getting a little to close to our roof and to their roof, so they had a company come in and trim it back. They did a good job. Now the mulberries will just fall from higher up.
But there was one branch from this mulberry tree (or probably more accurately, from one of its children that is growing in the corner of the yard behind ours) that they didn’t trim because of where it came from. So after they were done, I trimmed it. We have this little patch of dirt and rocks in the corner of our yard, and I just put the branch there. At first, it looked like a normal, healthy branch. Green leaves. I think it even had mulberries on it when I trimmed it. And there it has sat for months.
The mulberry tree that it came from is now budding again, and there are some small green leaves on it. Won’t be long until we get mulberries again, I guess. But that branch sitting in the shade of that mulberry tree hasn’t changed, other than to look more and more dry and lifeless. No new leaves. No mulberries. I actually broke a small branch off of is this week, and it was dry as could be.
In our focal passage this morning, Jesus is using another mashal, an illustrative picture, to help His disciples understand one more aspect of His identity, His ministry, and His mission, as well as to get them to understand their own identity, ministry, and mission as His disciples. For this mashal, He uses the familiar picture of a vine, its branches, and the bearing of fruit.
The first thing that we see here is the fact that Jesus is the vine, and not just any vine: He is THE true vine.
1) Jesus is the true vine.
1) Jesus is the true vine.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
If Jesus is the true vine, doesn’t this imply the existence of a false vine? Remember that Jesus’ disciples were all Jewish. They were a part of God’s chosen people, and many Jews put their hope of having a right standing with God in the basket of the fact that they were chosen… that God chose them because they were special, so He had to treat them well. But the fact is that it was God’s sovereign choice of Israel that MADE them special in the first place.
Back in Isaiah 5:1-8, for example, God had spoken of Israel as the vine that He took care of and who had yielded only worthless grapes for Him. For many of the Jews, their salvation was all wrapped up in their heritage, their lineage, and their religious observance. For them, the vine of Israel was a false vine.
Think about this for a moment. In this mashal, the vine is central. The vine is what all of the branches ultimately connect to. The vine is where those branches draw their identity, nourishment, strength, and support. For the Jews, being connected to Israel was no guarantee of a right relationship with God, because being in a right relationship with God isn’t about being from the right family or living in the right city. It has always been about faith. When Jesus said that He is the true vine, He is saying that He is absolutely central, and so salvation is found in Him, not in anything or anyone else.
The first thing that we need to make clear from this passage is that the way to the gardener is through the vine. The way to God is through Jesus. If we think that connecting ourselves to anything else is going to save us, then we’re wrong. Our jobs, our health, our service to others, our giving, our power, popularity, and position can’t give us a right relationship with God and thus eternal life. That life is only found in the true vine, Jesus.
When Jesus said these things, as I mentioned in my opening, it was the night before He would die on a cross as He took our sins on Himself. He never committed a crime, yet was killed as a criminal. He never sinned (did, said, or thought something that displeased God), yet took our punishment on Himself. He did this so that you and I could have a way to become right with God.
Our relationship with perfect, holy God was broken because of our sin, and we could never have done anything to fix it. So God took it upon Himself to give Jesus in our place, dying the death that we deserve for our sin, so that we could be forgiven. It is only in being connected to the true vine, Jesus Christ, that we are saved. It is in Christ that we are not only forgiven, but given eternal life because Jesus defeated death by rising from the grave. In Christ, we are also empowered by the presence of His Holy Spirit in us (much about that is found in chapter 14, right before this passage).
All of this is simply received by faith, surrendering ourselves to God by trusting that it is only in Jesus that we can be saved and be in that right relationship with God. It is from Jesus, the true vine, that the branches draw their identity, nourishment, strength, and support. And those who believe in Christ are those branches.
2) Believers are the true branches.
2) Believers are the true branches.
In many ways, this passage is really about discipleship: what true disciples, (committed lifelong learners and followers of Jesus) look like. Jesus makes this clear in verses 2-5 of chapter 15:
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, 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.
Think about my plum trees. Hundreds of branches each preparing to bear fruit. What if I trimmed my plum trees down to stumps? How many ripe plums would you expect to get? None. It’s the fact the branches are connected to the vine that allows them to be able to produce fruit.
Eleven times in this passage Jesus uses the Greek word (or a form of it) that we translate “remain” or for some of your Bibles “abide.” Jesus is not suggesting in this passage that we can somehow cut ourselves off from Christ, or that we can truly be in Christ, and then cut off from Him. We must be clear that Scripture teaches that if we truly are in Christ, then we are saved as a permanent condition.
This word “abide” or “remain” speaks to where we live, where we actually reside. We may stumble and wander away, and so hamper our connection to the vine, but the believer in Christ will always return to Jesus.
So this passage presents us with a difficult implication: if there is a true vine and false vines, are there also true branches and false branches? Yes.
Even from the earliest days of the church, the body has been a mixed body: those who truly believe mixed with those who have not truly been saved through faith, because they have never actually believed. They may be baptized, and may be church “members,” but they aren’t really the church, because they were never truly connected to the true vine by faith. When the time comes for the separation of the wheat and the weeds, they will be the weeds.
24 He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. 26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 The landowner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’ 28 “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he told them. “ ‘So, do you want us to go and pull them up?’ the servants asked him. 29 “ ‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn.’ ”
So Jesus first gives us a litmus test of our identity in Him: do we bear any kingdom fruit whatsoever? Do we look anything like Jesus? True branches draw their identity from the vine they are connected to, and Jesus even said that we can recognize a good tree or a bad tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:20). Jesus said here in John that if anyone is not connected to Him, then that person will be “thrown aside… and wither.” We will be removed.
Take a moment and evaluate your life. Do you bear kingdom fruit? Are you growing more like Christ over time? Is the Spirit working in your life at all? I don’t want to cause anyone to doubt their salvation this morning, but I do want everyone listening to this message to take stock, because eternity hangs in the balance. Are you a branch, or not? If not, then surrender to Christ right now, even where you are.
If you look at your life, and have peace that you do indeed belong to Christ, then praise God! That’s awesome. The remainder of this passage really addresses what a healthy branch looks like, and the kind of fruit that it bears. And since the vine is central, it all comes back to remaining connected to the vine.
But there will be pruning, so that we will be even more fruitful. There will be cleaning of the parts that don’t belong in us through the word of Christ. This will take place because we must be healthy if we are going to bear fruit, because a branch cannot bear fruit on its own. In fact, on its own, a branch can do NOTHING.
Think about the branches that I cut off of the mulberry tree. They are not healthy. Why? Because they have been disconnected from the tree. They are legitimate mulberry tree branches. Even branches from that mulberry tree. But they have lost their vitality, their ability to produce, because of their separation from the tree.
Healthy branches are connected to the vine, and so they bear fruit.
3) Healthy branches produce fruit.
3) Healthy branches produce fruit.
So if the vine is where the branches get their identity, their nourishment, their strength, and their support, do we have any false vines in our lives? Are there places that we are looking to get those things: identity, nourishment, strength, and support?
If we are in Christ, then we are to draw these things from Him. He provides many ways for us to be energized and strengthened, but when the ways He gives replace the Giver Himself, that’s when we find we start to become spiritually unhealthy.
As we looked at two weeks ago in the message on “The Resurrection and the Life,” Jesus always glorifies the Father because He knows that is what is best. In the same way, He actually WANTS us to bear kingdom fruit, for two reasons:
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. 9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.
First, producing much fruit brings glory to God. If we can do nothing of kingdom value and worth by ourselves, then it stands to reason that if kingdom work and fruit is being borne out in our lives, it is because God is working in our lives by His Spirit. When the watching world sees a church family that is focused on the Gospel, and living out the Gospel in a real way through their unity, their care for others, their practical and intentional ways of telling others about the love of God in Christ, the world is going to take notice. These things aren’t natural. They show that God is working in the believer’s life, and if people can see God at work, then He will receive glory.
Second, it’s simple. Healthy fruit trees bear fruit. It’s what they do. When we bear kingdom fruit, we prove that we really belong to Him.
If you don’t bear fruit, are you healthy? Consider what Jeremiah said in 17:7-8:
7 The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. 8 He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.
Where are we planted? If we are going to bear fruit, it doesn’t really matter what our situation is. What matters is that we trust in the Lord. We can bloom in any situation we’re planted in if our roots are in the true vine. In Colossians, Paul said that he was praying for the church that they would maintain that healthy connection to Christ…
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
So how do we bear kingdom fruit in this time of social distancing and stay-at-home orders? I get it. It’s hard. So much of our “normal” has been disrupted. We have stresses that we didn’t know existed, things that we might have seen as a joy if they weren’t things we HAD to do. But just because we have to stay at home doesn’t mean that we can’t bear fruit, because as we are connected to Christ, He will cause fruit to be borne in our lives.
Think about even the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
Most of these things are things we can bear even if we aren’t around other people! We don’t need to be around others to have joy, or peace, or patience. We don’t need someone around to exercise self-control or to be faithful to God. Abide in Christ during this time of quarantine.
Now, back in our focal passage, we see several pictures of fruit that are produced in the life that remains in the true vine. Very quickly,
Obedience.
10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
Obedience is a fruit in and of itself. We don’t naturally want to obey God. We want to go our own way, and that goes all the way back to the Garden. When we walk in obedience to God, that is fruit!
Joy.
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
When we are abiding in Christ, we have joy. This again, is one of the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5.
Love.
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus gave us an example. He laid down His life for us, and we are lay down our lives for others.
Friendship with God.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.
A servant isn’t given a reason to serve, just a command. We have been shown great love, and now we have the privilege of responding to that love because we have been shown what God is doing in Christ.
Multiplication.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.
We are to go and produce fruit. And that fruit that is produced in us should then in turn remain… it should produce a branch that then produces fruit. And that can happen as we love one another.
Closing
Closing
We are called to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God, but we are only going to do that if we 1) are connected to the true vine in the first place; and 2) if we draw our identity, nourishment, strength, and support from Him.
Are you a branch of the true vine? If not, know that Jesus loves you and wants to be in a relationship with you… not so you can just check a box and say “ok, I’m saved,” but so that you can grow and become more like Jesus, bearing fruit for the kingdom of God. Surrender you life to Him this morning. We want to be able to celebrate that with you. Send us an email or post a message on Facebook, and we will get back to you.
Are you struggling right now? I get it. So am I at times. Keep submitting to Christ and maintaining that connection with Him. Don’t neglect your spiritual growth because your schedule and the rhythm of life is all messed up. It’s in keeping our eyes on Jesus that we will produce fruit.
Church membership: we don’t have a method for receiving members online. We hope and pray that we will not be too much longer in this stay-at-home situation, and when we can come together again, we look forward to seeing many make that step of formally joining with this church family.
Prayer needs: send an email, or post, even now, and ask those who are watching with you to pray for you.
PRAY
Response/Offering Song: Cornerstone (Capo 2 in G)
Recognize: delivery drivers, letter carriers, and truck drivers
Closing Song: This is Amazing Grace (G) - V1, V2, C, E
