The True Vine

This study comes out of Masterlife & the Disciple’s Cross

John 15:1 CSB

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

I AM

This is the last of the seven great “I am” statements in John.

Burning Bush Exodus 3

Exodus 3:13–14 CSB

13 Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” 14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”

TRUE VINE

There are actually three different vines found in Scripture.

The past vine was the nation of Israel (see Ps. 80:8–19; Isa. 5:1–7; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 19:10–14; and Hosea 10:1). The OT used the vineyard or vine as a symbol for Israel, God’s covenant people, especially in two “vineyard songs” (Is 5:1–7; 27:2–6). Israel was God’s choice vine on which he lavished care and attention (Ps. 80:8; Isa. 5:1–7; Jer. 2:2; 6:9; Ezek. 15; 17:5–10; 19:10–14; Hosea 10:1; 14:8). In an act of wonderful grace, God “transplanted” Israel into Canaan and gave the nation every possible benefit. “What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?” God asked (Isa. 5:4). If ever a nation had everything it needed to succeed, it was Israel.

But the vine produced wild grapes! Instead of practicing justice, it practiced oppression; instead of producing righteousness, it produced unrighteousness and cries of distress from the victims. God had to deal with the nation Israel and chasten it, but even that did not produce lasting results. He longed for fruit, but the vine (Israel) became degenerate and produced rotten fruit. However, Israel’s failure to produce fruit resulted in divine judgment.

There is also a future vine, “the vine of the earth” described in

Revelation 14:14–20 CSB

14 Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and one like the Son of Man was seated on the cloud, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the one who was seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come, since the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. 17 Then another angel who also had a sharp sickle came out of the temple in heaven. 18 Yet another angel, who had authority over fire, came from the altar, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vineyard of the earth, because its grapes have ripened.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle at the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20 Then the press was trampled outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press up to the horses’ bridles for about 180 miles.

This is the Gentile world system ripening for God’s judgment. Believers are branches in “the vine of heaven,” but the unsaved are branches in “the vine of the earth.” The unsaved depend on this world for their sustenance and satisfaction, while believers depend on Jesus Christ. The “vine of the earth” will be cut down and destroyed when Jesus Christ returns.

The present Vine is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the “true Vine,” that is, “the original of which all other vines are a copy.” As Christians, we do not live on substitutes!

Not a Fake, temporary

By Whose Authority?

Therefore Jesus, as “the true Vine,” fulfills what God had intended for Israel. The Father is the Gardener who cultivates and protects the Vine.

The reference to the Father as the gardener harks back to Isaiah’s first vineyard song, where God is depicted as tending his vineyard, only to be rewarded with worthless grapes (Is 5:1–7; cp. Ps 80:8–9).

John 15:2 CSB

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.

He (i.e., the Gardener, the Father) desires fruit, which is mentioned eight times in this chapter. A progression is seen: fruit (v. 2), more fruitful (v. 2), and “much fruit” (vv. 5, 8).

The fruit which God desired from Israel was loving obedience, righteousness, and justice (Isa. 5:1–7).

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He cuts off. The phrase “in Me” does not mean the same thing as Paul’s words “in Christ.” Here it is part of the metaphor of the Vine and seems to mean, “every person who professes to be My disciple (a ‘branch’) is not necessarily a true follower.” like Judas

A branch that bears no fruit is obviously dead. To ensure maximal fruit production, the divine vineyard keeper removes dead branches and prunes all the others (Heb 6:7–8). Every year in Palestine gardeners prune their vines. They cut off the dead wood which has no life in it and trim the living branches so that their yield will be greater.

Of itself, a branch is weak and useless. It is good for either bearing or burning. The branch cannot produce its own life; it must draw that life from the vine. It is our communion with Christ through the Spirit that makes possible the bearing of the fruit.

Many of the images of Christ and the believer given in Scripture emphasize this important concept of union and communion: the body and its members (1 Cor. 12), the bride and the Bridegroom (Eph. 5:25–33), the sheep and the Shepherd (John 10).

A member of the body cut off from the body would die. The marriage creates the union, but it takes daily love and devotion to maintain the communion. The shepherd brings the sheep into the flock, but the sheep must follow the shepherd in order to have protection and provision.

The sooner we as believers discover that we are but branches, the better we will relate to the Lord; for we will know our own weakness and confess our need for His strength.

If you were to inspect your life in Christ, your actions, attitudes, desires........ what fruit is being produced?

Based on these 2 verses, what is God saying to you?

For Next Week: Read and mediate on John 15:1-4 Memorize John 15:7 & John 15:4-5