Sunday Sermon John 15:1-8 Series Part 4
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Good Morning Church! And welcome to all our visitors! Thank you for coming to worship in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time. That’s what we do here, right church. Line upon line, precept, upon precept.
The last time we had church here at our physical location was on March 15. Today, is June 14, so that is about three months or 90 days since we worshipped together.
A lot has happened locally, nationally, as well as globally since we met, but even in the midst of this pandemic and epidemic our God is still in control.
My God is still in control and still, He reigns on His throne
Though mountains may tremble and sea billows roll
I'll sing, it is well with my soul
My God is still in control
~Mack Brock~
In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.
Prayer
Prayer
Lord Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us back together today and for supplying our need according to your riches in glory .And Thank you for each person that is here today and for those that will be listening online. Lord, as we gather IN Your Name, we have come with expectation desiring to hear from You. Thank you for preparing our hearts so that we can receive with meekness your implanted Word which is able to save our souls. Your Word Lord is living and powerful, sharper than any two -edged sword so pleaser Father, do a work in our hearts, please Father we cry out to you to make us like Jesus. Lord, please do a work in our hearts, this day and may you be glorified. Fill us with you spirit and cause to over flow with joy everlasting. Thank you for your protection, provision, and providence!
~ In Jesus Name! Amen~
Read John 15:1-8
Review
Review
The backdrop of this text starts all the way back in John 13. We are in the middle of the Upper Room Discourse.
Jesus and the boys, just had the last supper if you may, they just learned who the betrayer was. But they also learned about service and humility as Jesus girded his waist with a towel and washed the disciples feet.
Jesus goes on to teach the boys abut sending the Holy Spirit, about Peter’s denial and that He is the Way the Truth and the Life.
We are about 24 hours from Jesus being crucified and we see here in John 14:31 that they had left the Upper Room and were headed to Gethsemane.
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
5. Scholars believe that they traveled by night and as it was passover and a full moon they were passing by the Temple. The vines that were inlayed with gold on the Temple doors were glistening and Jesus looked up and said:
“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, that it may bear more fruit.
The is the seventh and final I am statement of Jesus.
So that is the backdrop of this text.
The Upper Room discourse runs for John 13-17, even though they are no longer in the Upper Room, although some scholars call the second part of this great sermon, The Farewell Discourse.
So this is were we stopped last week, here in John 15.
We talked about the fruit that a believer will bear in their lives if the ABIDE in the vine.
Fruit like winning souls to Jesus Christ
The Fruit of the Spirit
The Fruit of Obedience and Holiness
The Fruit of serving others
The Fruit of giving
The Fruit of praise begins to pour out of our lips, we move from being ungrateful to being grateful. Amen!
Churches die and are dying all over the United States, because they are not Abiding int the Vine.
The disciples knew what Jesus was talking about here because the Vine was symbolic of Israel. But Jesus is now saying He is the Vine.
And church, we must remember, that Israel had become an unhealthy Vine, that produced bitter and sour grapes that were good for nothing.
This is exactly what religion will do for a person, or for a church. If they are not abiding in the Vine, abiding in Jesus, they will not only produce a bitterness, but will wither away.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Last week after church, there was a few of us here that talked about He takes away.
Takes away- airo- to lift up, pick up, raising up, or pulling up. To remove.
We get our word airplane from this word.
Kevin shared that his Bible says both takes away and lifts up. The pew Bible does the same.
Kevin had shared that if the text meant to taketh away, then a new believer would need to rapidly produce fruit or he would be taken away.
And besides, the grapes in Palestine actually grew on rocks back then, not on treleces like today. In fact, when the grapes grew on the rocks, at times they would fall on the ground a get dirty. The Vinedresser would lift them up, clean them up, and put them back upon the Rock where the sun would be. This would prevent infection.
Doesn’t Jesus lift us when we are struggling? or does he just up and cut us off?
I will let you decide this one.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Prunes- kathairo- v. — to cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of a plant in order for it to grow healthier or to produce more fruit.
We get the english word catharsis, which means a purification or cleansing process.
Pruning comes in various ways, but one thing for sure is that the Vinedresser knows what he is doing
When people are trained in the are of viticulture, they are trained for a number of years. Why?
If they start cutting off the wrong branches they can ruin the whole crop.
So The Father skillfully prunes the branches back so we can as the text say bear more fruit.
Jesus moves no fruit, to some fruit, to much fruit. This is the sanctification process.
Sometimes God uses suffering to prune us while other times it is His loving discipline:
And by the way, if the father does not prune the Vine, those sucker branches will be all over the place.
See church, sucker branches suck the energy from the Vine and causes less fruit or no fruit to be produced.
You can a branches or plants with great leaves, very green leaves, and the branches can be all over the place and yet no fruit.
This is a picture of us Christians. We have a tendency to be all over the place. We have are branches in everything, but we are not good at any one thing. God has gifted each one of us in a specific way and we must walk in those gifts. Instead of being focused on many things, let us focus on 2 or 3 and get good or produce fruit in those things. Then, maybe God will move us onto others.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Church, remember the reason why we are all pruned, It is simply to bear fruit.
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
There is an interesting word here:
Clean- ka-tha-ros- pure (guiltless) adj. — in a state of ritual cleanliness or free of guilt and sin. Free from dirt or cleansed.
In following this analogy, in keeping with the flow logically, what Jesus is saying is, “ I lift the downtrodden branch, I wash the contaminated fruit!”
How does Jesus wash the contaminated fruit church?
What does the Word say here?
Church, you are made clean through the Word! Not commentaries, not christian novels, not by the news. But by the Word.
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Paul is taking about husbands washing their wives in the Word.
But this is a picture of Jesus washing his bride the church.
Church, we are positionally clean by the blood of the Lamb!
But to remain clean practically, we must wash in the Word. Just like the Vinedresser would lift up those branches that were hanging on the ground and clean off the dirty fruit, he will do this for you!
Church, this is such a beautiful picture:
Jesus is the True Vine, your the branches.
When you downcast or dirty, the Father (Husbandman, Vinedresser, the Gardener, will come and lift you up, wash you off through morning devotions, spending time in the Word, attending grow groups, and even prayer meeting when we have them.
Praise God we worship God in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time. Why?
Because going through the Bible one verse at a time has a cleansing effect on out lives!
Church, the Word does not teach clean yourself up and then come to me, it teaches Come to me and I will clean you up!
Remember, Jesus said, “Come to me as your Savior, Learn of me as your Teacher, Follow me as your Master, and Abide in Me as life!
Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the life!
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
Church, we finally made it. We are landing this plane.
Jesus is saying, “Just hang out with me and you will bear fruit!”
Abide- meno- to continue v. — to continue a certain state, condition, or activity. Not to depart, to remain as one, to be held, kept, continually. To dwell, to reside, to remain.
Abide is mentioned 12 xs in John 15. 11xs in John 15:1-11.
Can you name any other section of Scripture where the Lord repeats a word 12xs to get our attention? To make a point?
Remember repetition is our greatest teacher.
The branches of a Vine are for bearing fruit, they are useless for anything else.
Church, Jesus is calling us to be connected, to abide. He is tired of us hiding and sliding, he is wants us abiding!
This is not an ask, but a command, an imperative from Jesus.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Dr. John Walvoord said “abiding in Christ describes the relationship in which a believer has the full benefit of a union with Christ”. By staying close to Jesus Christ through obedience to His Word, God will permit us to bear fruit and not just a little fruit, but “more” fruit and then “much” fruit. Jesus wanted His disciples to realize that apart from Christ we can do nothing.
Church, Do you get this? Do you see this? We cannot grow, we cannot produce fruit, we cannot have spiritual victory, we cannot have full joy in life apart from abiding in Christ.
The Greek is very strong here, not only can we not do anything, but we are not even capable of doing anything apart from Him.
Try teaching, or witnessing on your own without a close relationship with Jesus Christ and see how much fruit you bear.
Get up tomorrow morning and turn on the TV and spend no time in the Word or with Jesus Christ and go through the day and see how much fruit you bear for God.
Truth is, apart from our connection to Him, we won‟t amount to anything as far as God-honoring fruit production is concerned.
And by they way, our job is to abide, It’s the job of the Father to produce fruit!
Bring out the branch and show them...
God has called us to be connected to him, connected to each other.
Fruit comes from spending time with Jesus.
You know in the OT, Moses got to climb Mt Sinai to meet with God. He was the advocate of the people.
But guess what Church, the veil was torn, Jesus is our Advocate, he is our Mediator with God.
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
Like Moses, God is calling us to climb that Mountain to meet with Him.
We will not bear fruit in isolation or by not spending time with Jesus.
When is the last time you climbed the mountain of God? When is the last time you weeped before the Father? When was the last time you heard his voice, became honest with him, cried out to Him in your distress?
Going to church, does not mean your abiding in the vine.
Churches and movement are dying, because they are not abiding in the Vine, because they have become religious like Israel and are producing wild and bitter grapes that are good for nothing. Let this, not be us!
Prayer
Prayer
Announcements
Announcements
Does anyone have any announcements?
Its great seeing each and every one of you today and to our visitors we say welcome and please come back and see us.
Thanks for you faithfulness in prayer and in your giving.
We will continue in our journey through John 15, next week. We will learn what happen when we do not abide.
Benediction
Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
The Lord Bless you!
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