Hanging on the Vine

At our house, we like to grow things. Whether it is fruit trees, a vegetable garden, or even ornamental plants and flowers, we are always working on things that are growing. And one of the things that never stops amazing me is that growing things is a lot of work. You would think that simply planting in the soil would be enough, but there is a lot more to it, especially if you want those plants to produce fruit. To borrow tech terminology, there is no such thing as “plug-n-play” for plants. For a plant to truly flourish, it needs constant care and attention.

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to John chapter 15. And while you are finding your spot, I’ll remind you that in chapter 14, we entered into this section of scripture, where Jesus is about to be arrested. And, knowing this, Jesus has been comforting His disciple and preparing them for life when Christ is no longer bodily with them. And just last week, we were talking at the end of chapter 14 about our God who is with us in three persons, how God The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are all equally God and constantly with us, helping us in unique ways as we continue our daily walk in following Jesus.

And so, as we continue this morning, We’re going to be starting right where we left off. So, would you open with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 15. We’re going to begin reading this morning from verse 1. And as we read together, where ever you are today, I invite you to stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word. Let’s read together from John 15:1

John 15:1–8 NASB95

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

Let’s pray together: Lord, Jesus, we praise You for the new day, that we have another chance in life and breath to worship You. And we come together before You now to study Your Word. We ask, Lord, that as we enter into it together, that You would be in and among Your people. Would You come and teach us things that we did not know? Would You challenge us in the things that You would change in us, and by Your Spirit, would You give us the courage to change them so that we can become more like You. It is in Jesus’ Name that we pray, Amen.

Thank you, you may be seated. Last year, Bethany and I planted three grape vines in the yard. The plants were young, and it was late in the season. We didn’t really do a lot with them, other than put them in the dirt. I went and got poles and wire to give them a lattice system, but never put it up. The vines grew a little, but got chewed up by a lawn mower and by kids in the yard. They looked all but dead. But this February, I noticed a couple of leaves on two of the vines. I went out and set the poles and the wires, and Bethany pruned them back. A week later, the resulting new growth was staggering. The vine was okay, but there was no growth on the branches without our care.

Beloved, what is it that Jesus tells us in this passage this morning is very important. He tells us who He is, and then He tells us who we were made to be, and finally He tells us what the possible outcomes for our lives are. And as it turns out, there are only two. But for us to understand them, we have to look at the rest of this first, so let’s start at the beginning, in verse 1.

John 15:1 NASB95

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

The first thing that Jesus tells us is that

Jesus is our source of life

Here is a fact, friends: branches don’t live on their own. They need the vine to survive. All of life and sustenance comes to the branches from their connection to the vine. Up in Washington, we had blackberries in our yard, I actually recently discovered them in our yard here as well. But the blackberry vines grow as an unstoppable force. You can cut back the branches, and the branches die. Once they have been cut off from the vine, the branches die. But if you want to get them out of your yard, you have to get the vine. The vine, all the way down to the roots, has to be taken out, or you’ll be fighting them again soon enough. Why?

Because the vine is the source of life. Jesus is our source of life. He is the one that we draw all life and growth from. He is our Living Water, and the source of everything that we need. And what that means, beloved, is that we need Him. We need Him. Every day, every moment we need Him. It is vitally important to us that we are rooted in our source of life, that we are connected directly to Jesus and that we stay that way.

You know, this passage is quoted often. Our youth group derives their name from it. We think of this passage in relation to those that believe and those that don’t, and this is not wrong. We are most certainly going to talk about these things this morning. But we need to remember that these things were spoken by Jesus in the context of the Lord’s Supper. In other words, when Jesus said these things, He was talking to His disciples. He was talking to 11 men that had been with Him, walked with Him, eaten with Him, and who Had heard all of His teachings, witnessed all of His miracles, and who literally followed Him everywhere.

And this is the group that Jesus turns to here and says, “I am your source of life.” “I am the One that you need.” Now, that’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Why would Jesus be saying this to them? Don’t you think that the disciples knew that they needed Him? We just saw them a chapter ago freaking out that He wasn’t going to be with them, surely they knew that they needed Him? They may have known, and yet Jesus knew that they needed to hear it. And if they needed to hear it, beloved, so do we. You and I need to hear that Jesus is our source of life, and that we need to be connected to the source.

We need to be daily aware of this, because the fact of the matter is that there are other things we might plant ourselves into. I like sweet tea. I like coca-cola. But do you know what those things have in common? They aren’t water. They won’t bring me what I need and will leave me with things that I don’t. Jesus is our living vine, we need to plug ourselves into the source of life, and we need to do it daily because it is far too easy to get torn away.

Now, we’re going to get more into this in a moment, but first we need to look at something else from verse 1.

John 15:1 NASB95

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Friends, Jesus is the source of life, and

God the Father uses the source to bring growth in and through you.

God the Father dresses the vine. He cares for it. He directs its growth. He manages the branches, and He is has one purpose in His work on the Vine: to bring about as much growth and as much fruit as possible. So, what does that mean? That means that when you are rooted in the Lord, Jesus Christ, that when we allow Jesus to be our source of life, then God, the Father, is working in you to bring about the most growth and the most fruit possible.

God is working in you and me to make us produce fruit. And just like a gardener tends a vine, God is working on those who claim to be rooted in Christ. He is working on Jesus’ vine. And He isn’t here to play. Look at verse 2 with me.

John 15:2–3 NASB95

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

We need to understand that producing fruit is not optional. Your job, my job on the vine is to produce fruit.

Your job in Christ is to produce fruit

You and I are branches. Our job is to produce fruit. That is our purpose for being on the vine. God created you and put you where you are for a purpose. And that purpose isn’t your personal happiness. It isn’t to enjoy doing what you want to do in life, and to retire into a life of ease. Your purpose, the reason that you exist is to glorify God by being found in the vine of Jesus Christ, producing fruit. That is the calling on your life. And, really, there are only two options. Either you are going to serve your purpose or you aren’t. And we’re going to walk through that here in a moment.

But first, I want to take a moment to talk about this fruit. We need to take a moment, and we need to talk about what this fruit is. What does it look like? What is the fruit God is looking for in our lives. Because if our purpose is to make fruit, we’d better know what fruit is, hadn’t we? We’re on the vine of Jesus, we are His branches, so what kind of fruit does the Jesus vine grow? And there is one answer and two types that both need to be present in the life of the believer. First,

You need to produce Jesus Fruit

Now, pastor, that doesn’t tell us anything. Well, yes it does. You see, an apple tree makes apples, a grape vine produces grapes, and the branches on the vine of Christ produce Christ-like fruit. They need to produce fruit that looks like Jesus, and that can grow other branches into the vine.

Our church vision statement is to Know Jesus and to Make Him Known, and it’s not a coincidence that these two things relate directly to the two types of fruit that God is looking for in and from you.

The first type is the fruit that grows in you, or

Fruit that comes from knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus changes you. Growing as a branch on the vine of Jesus changes You. It changes you from the inside out. As you abide in Him, as you grow in Him, you become more and more like Him. His Gospel makes you clean. That is what verse 3 tells us. Believing the Gospel and choosing to follow Christ, that will make you clean. But beyond that, as you follow Jesus, as you grow to be more like Him, you should actually become more like Him.

You should start each day to look a little bit less like you and a little bit more like Jesus. Galatians 5:22-23 actually gives us a list of things that should begin to be different about us, because the Spirit of God living in us through the blood of Jesus changes us to be more like Him. Let’s look at the list:

Galatians 5:22–23 NASB95

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are character traits that don’t come natural to us, but that grow as fruit in the lives of those that are in Christ. They don’t just appear there, they grow there as you abide in Christ. If you want these things to grow in you, you have to be connected to the vine, you have to be connected to Jesus all day, every day.

These things are the fruits of character in your life. These are the bits of who God is that should begin to make up who you are in Christ. And remember, this fruit isn’t about you. It’s about the glory of God. It’s about God being glorified in you, a branch on His vine. And as you know Jesus more, and more, that is what will happen because these fruits will begin to grow in your life.

That is the first half of the equation, the fruits that grow in you. But there is another type, the fruit that grows from you. You might also think about these as

Fruits that come from making Him known

We’ve talked about this over and over again in the Gospel of John, haven’t we? We are to be disciples that make disciples. One of the biggest ways that you and I follow Jesus is in making other followers of Jesus. One of the greatest ways that you will see the fruits of knowing Jesus to grow is when you are actively engaged in making Him known. This is because it is hard to teach others to do something you’re not doing.

Matthew 28:19 NASB95

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Acts 1:8 NASB95

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

You and I are supposed to be busy making the fruit of other disciples of Jesus Christ. No one gets a free pass on this. All of us are called to have Jesus fruit in our lives, fruit that comes about in our lives and the lives of others we are leading, as we become more and more rooted in Jesus each day.

This is what we are called to do. You exist to make fruit. and so what each of us has to decide is, first, are you rooted in the vine of Jesus Christ? Do you abide in Him? Is He your source of life and hope and peace and joy? Each of has to choose to abide in Christ. We have to choose to be rooted in the vine. But simply claiming Christ as your source of life, there are really only two types of people found on the vine

First,

There are those that make fruit

This is what we are called to do. Really, and truly, this should be where every person that calls themselves Christ followers should be. Having a life of fruit in character and in the making of disciples is the very definition of a successful life in Christ. But we need to go into this with eyes wide open. What I mean is, If we want this to move past intentions and into the reality of God in our lives, if we actually are going to become those that make fruit, then there are some things that we need to understand about God’s plan for the Christian life, and there is one thing that we have to focus on implement as our only purpose in life. First, let’s look at what we need to understand. Look at verse 2 again

John 15:2 NASB95

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

The first thing that need to understand if we want to make fruit is that

God, the Father, prunes those that love Him

Why do we prune plants? We prune them so that new growth can occur. When you prune a grape vine, you do it so that new growth will occur and produce more fruit. And more fruit is a good thing, because that’s why we have the vines in the first place.

God wants you to produce fruit, but He isn’t satisfied just because you bear a little fruit. If you had an orange tree, and it only produced one orange, would you be happy? No! Of course not. You want that tree to produce as much fruit as possible. And so it is with God. God wants you to produce as much fruit as possible, the very best that you are capable of. And to do that He has to prune you.

Let me tell you something, pruning hurts. And you can’t tell me that it doesn’t. When I prune a plant, it leaves an open wound on that plant. The plant gets smaller than it was. When God prunes you, He is going to cut things out of your life, and it’s not all going to be stuff you want to let go of. It might be your dreams of fame and fortune, or for some comfort item you’ve wanted and saved for your whole life. He might take away your ability to do something you are good at. He might use the circumstances of your brokenness to strip you down of everything but your relationship with Him. He might use the loss of someone you love to open up opportunities for you to draw nearer to Him.

And your pruning may not look like one of these things, but it might just look like all of them.Pruning hurts. Pruning will involve suffering, and if you are truly following Jesus, pruning WILL continually happen. As long as there is air in your lungs, God will never stop bringing you to places of correction, exhortation, challenge, and greater intimacy with the Father. There will always be pain in your life, because God love you enough to prune you and to turn you into what He is making you to be.

Let’s continue. Look at verses 4-5 with me:

John 15:4–5 NASB95

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

The second thing that you and I need to understand about our lives is that

We can do nothing on our own.

Now, some of us like to argue with this one. you say, I can do a lot of things on my own. And I hate to tell you, but no you can’t. You can’t even breathe without God. You use His lungs that He made to do it. You use His air to do it. And when your lungs fill with air, it is because He tells them to.

This really goes back to what we were talking about earlier, that we need Him for everything. Jesus is our source of life, and there isn’t anything that we can do without Him. Even the works of our hands require us to use body parts, materials, and talents that He created and has given us. We can’t do anything on our own, which means that we need Him from everything.

And that’s okay, because when we realize that we need Him for everything, and we constantly remember that, it makes us more likely to make that one thing our top priority, which We’ll get to in a second. But, if we depend on Him for everything, if we allow Him to prune us, and we cling to Him, trusting Him for everything, then guess what? Look at verses 7-8

John 15:7–8 NASB95

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

Those who produce fruit are provided for by Christ and are glorifying to the Father.

The vine provides for its branches, and is glorified by their fruit. We don’t say “this branch produces a lot of fruit.” We say “this tree” or “this vine” produces a lot of fruit. And so it is in Christ. When we are in His will, there is nothing that we will ask for outside of His will, so we can rest assured that whatever we ask for will be given to us.

And because we are in His will, doing the things He has called us to do, we can be assured that we will produce fruit. More than that, we will be able to see it and so will others, as we become more Christ-like and lead others to Him. And God is the One who is glorified, because He is the One that accomplished the work in us that brought the fruit.

This leads us to the one thing that we need to focus on. There is one thing that this passage tells us to do as believers that should be our primary focus and driving purpose in this life: Abiding in Christ.

Our driving goal in life is to abide in Christ

Nick Saban, who has led Alabama to far too many national titles, teaches his players not to look at the score board, but to focus on doing all the little things right to the best of their ability and at the highest level each and every play. Because if the whole team does that, in the end that will give them the best chance at winning.

The word Abide means to live or dwell. Do you want to see fruit in your life? Abide in Christ. Do you want to grow disciples as you have been commanded? Abide in Christ. Live in Christ. Literally, make your entire life about Christ. You can’t do anything on your own anyway! So it only makes sense that you make Him the very center, and purpose, and reason in your everything. If He is your source of life, don’t you think you should rely on Him for it?

Live in Christ. It seems obvious, and yet I’ll say it again, live in Christ. Let your life be about Jesus. Let your work, your education, your home life, your marriage, your parenting, your dating, your facebook account, your coming in and going out, your sitting down and your rising up, let your life be built on and completely dependent upon Jesus!

It seems obvious. But it isn’t enough to just know it. You have to do it. You have to produce fruit. It is what you were made for, and it isn’t optional. And you may know this, but knowing and doing are different things.

Remember, when we started today, I told you that Jesus was talking with His disciples. He was talking with the 11. He was talking with those that had just given Him 3 years of their lives. And I want you to see that He is talking to people who are attached to the vine when He says these things. Look at verse 2:

John 15:2 NASB95

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

Now, look at verse 6:

John 15:6 NASB95

“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

Remember, I told you there are only two types of branches on the vine. There are those that make fruit, and

There are those that are cut off and burned

When a branch isn’t producing fruit, I cut it off of the vine. I cut it off because it is a drain on the vine. It steals nutrients, and space, and good things from the parts of the vine that are producing. And once I’ve cut something off, I don’t try and graft it back into the vine somewhere else. I put it into the pile to burn it. Why? because it is a waste. It had a purpose, and it wasn’t fulfilling it, so it gets destroyed to make room for those that will produce fruit.

You know what the scariest part of this passage is? It’s that He’s talking to the 11. He is talking to those that are on the vine, and He says don’t just be on the vine! LIVE IN THE VINE! Be used by the vine to produce fruit. See, you have to be on the vine to get cut off from it. But the part that gets cut off is cut off because, while it was there, it wasn’t really part of the vine. It looked like the vine, and took from the vine, but really it was a cancer.

And the danger for those who are like this in regards to our Lord is that you think that you are saved, and made clean, and in actuality you are not. You are living a lie, and deceiving yourself.

Beloved, who are on the vine of Christ at Friendship this morning, I ask you: which branch are you? Are you the branch that is abiding in Jesus, being pruned by the Father, and bearing more and more and more fruit? OR are you the one that the vine dresser is going to cut off. You look the part, and are happy to take those things of God’s Word and the prayers of the saints and the love of the body that do you good, but when you or others look at your life, there is no fruit at all.

Which are you this morning? You know in your heart of hearts, don’t you? I would love to say we are all bearing fruit, and yet I know that there are hearts here this morning that God is read to prune so that they can finally grow some fruit. There are those that have been here along and along that need to finally surrender and find their abode in Jesus. Don’t just hang on the vine: Abide in Him this morning. Abide in the vine of Jesus. Don’t wait until your time is up and you are cut off and put in the fire. While it is still called today, find your everything in the only source of life. You can’t do it on your own, but the good news is, you don’t have to.

Jesus will meet you where you are this morning. Will you let today be they day you start abiding in Him? I’m going to pray for us now, and if you hear Him calling you to Himself this morning, would you let me lead you to Him? Let’s pray together:

Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I am undeserving of your love, your grace, and your mercy. And I know that I have been going through life as though I could do this on my own, but I am here this morning to admit to you that I can’t. Lord, Jesus, would you forgive me of my sins? Would you cut away from me that old, dead part of me, and bury it in the cross you died on? Would you raise me to a new and glorious life, even as You were raised from the dead. Would You help me to abide in You, Jesus, that the Father may produce fruit in my life. I have nothing to give this morning, Jesus, and so I’m depending on You for everything. In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen.

We’re going to sing a song together now. And if you prayed that prayer with me this morning, and you have decided to be a branch that is making fruit today, would you send us a private message so that I can follow up with you? I’d love the chance to pray with you and to celebrate with you, and to help you as you begin on this journey with Jesus. But for now, would you join with us, as we sing together a song of celebration and surrender to our Vine.