I Am The True Vine

Intro

When I first moved out of my Mom’s house and bought a house of my own, I had a garden in my front yard with all sorts of plants. The plants were planted there already and I had nothing to do with them, but when springtime came it was my job to take care of the garden. Lots of plants, and even more weeds, popped out of the ground, but for months there was one big plant that just continued to stay dead. It looked horrible, so months after everything else had started to bloom I decided it was time to pull this dead plant out of the ground. As I was working in the garden, my mom came to visit and I told her about the plant and that it was such a shame that I had to pull it out. She inspected the plant and pushed away all the dead branches and found just three or four green leaves sprouting at the base. She continued to cut away at everything that was dead and reduced this 3 and a half foot plant down to stubble, but that was when she taught me that plants must be cut back so that what is dead doesn’t choke out what is trying to live. Sure enough, within days the plant started to sprout and within weeks it was even bigger than it was before.

Jesus taught that we are all like plants. In our passage tonight, he taught that there are some of us who are fruit-bearing healthy branches and there are others who are dead branches. The fruit-bearing branches will be pruned by His Father so that they can continue to grow and bear even more fruit; but the dead branches will be cut off and used as firewood.

If what Jesus taught about people is accurate, then I cannot think of anything more important for us to do right now than to evaluate whether we are fruit bearing branches, or else dead ones.

But what does that mean? What is a fruit-bearing branch, and what is a dead one?

The fruit-bearing branch is the one who seeks after God and follows his commandments, and in Galatians 5 we are told that the fruits are characteristics such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The dead branch is not a person who is physically dead, but spiritually dead. It is the person who does not seek for God, but seeks to please themselves. Galatians 5 says that this person practices sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry. This is the jealous person, the person who seeks to cause drama, the person who drinks more than they ought.

Now, I encourage you to consider this and be honest with yourselves, because what we are about to read has the power to drastically change your life; but if you are not willing to start by being honest with yourself and where you stand, tonight will be of no benefit to you.

Now, clearly each of us want to be the fruit-bearing branch. I doubt very much that anyone desires to be dead inside or to be thrown into the fire. It is good that your desire is to bear fruit, but let me ask you, how is that possible? Can a dead branch just decide to start bearing fruit? And if it can’t, and I admit that I am spiritually dead, aren’t I just resigning myself to being cut off and thrown to the fire?

I’m glad that you asked, lets take a look at what Jesus has to say about that:

MP1 Abiding in Jesus is the only way to have life.

John 15:1–5 ESV

“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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 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. 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.

When we ask the question: “how can a branch bear fruit?” there is one very obvious question we can ask to answer: what is it connected to? If we were to take a trip to an apple orchard and as we were walking come across a dead branch laying on the ground, do you think it is even worth having a conversation about how that branch can make apples? Seems to me like that would be the silliest waste of time to discuss.

I want to avoid having that conversation tonight. When it comes to the question: “how can I bear fruit,” we must immediately look to what (or who) we are connected to. We can think about all the different strategies and the wonderful intentions of trying harder, but that’s all nonsense if we aren’t plugged into the vine (or trunk) for life.

Jesus says that he is the vine, and so he is our source of life. Apart from Jesus, the conversation about bearing fruit is as ridiculous as that conversation in an apple orchard about a fallen branch.

Jesus very clearly says in verse 5 John 15:5

John 15:5 ESV

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.

Jesus makes it clear for us, but in order for us to understand Jesus we must understand the word abide. Can someone define abide for me?

That word is also translated remain, stay, continue, and dwell

To abide in Jesus is to remain with him, stay with him, continue with him and dwell with him. It means that he is who we are devoted to and where we spend our time. Abiding in Jesus means placing Jesus first and foremost and relying on him for the breath in our lungs.

So Jesus does us a favor by making in incredibly clear:

If you abide in Jesus, you will bear fruit.

If you do not abide in Jesus, you will not bear fruit.

To those who abide in Jesus and are bearing his fruit:

expect pruning. If you are connected to the vine, then you can expect God to take care of you, which will involve some painful pruning from time to time. God loves us, and because God desires us to bear much fruit, he will cut away what is dead so that was is alive may thrive.

To those who are not abiding fruit but feel spiritually disconnected from Jesus:

Don’t resign yourself to the fire. It’s true, a normal branch that falls off and dies has no hope but to be used as firewood; but we are not normal branches and God is not a normal vinedresser.

Luke 13:6–9 ESV

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

God desires that everyone, even those spiritually dead and far off would be plugged back into the vine and would thrive in bearing fruit. He desires this so much that he has sent his own Son into the vineyard to care for the dead branches and stop at nothing to see them bear fruit.

Jesus also tells this to his disciples, even to Peter who will deny Jesus 3 times later that night:

John 15:13–15 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.

What lengths is Jesus willing to go to in order that once-dead branches can be brought back to life and bear fruit? He is willing to lay down his life and die for it! No greater love exists than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends. And that is exactly what Jesus did!

And isn’t it amazing, that Jesus calls us his friends? I think in order for us to understand this a little bit better, it would be helpful to learn a couple of words. δουλοσ is the word here translated “servant,” it can also mean “slave” and it implies an employer-employee relationship. θιλοσ is the word translated “friend” here, but it can also be translated “brother” and it implies a deep bond among peers.

Jesus says that at one time we were just his servants, before we really knew him or what he was doing, but then he reveals his own heart to us. An employer doesn’t let an employee read his journal or peek into his innermost thoughts, but a friend will share those things. Jesus lets us into his heart, and he even sacrifices his own life so that we can be brought back into the vine!

So we aren’t left to think about that inevitable fire roaring, but we are given a new hope that even a sinner like me can be changed and bear the fruit of God.

To further clarify that we aren’t the ones that can bear fruit by ourselves, Jesus says

John 15:16 ESV

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.

Jesus is the one that initiates our relationship, and Jesus is the one that causes us to bear fruit.

The question I ask you is this: are you abiding in Jesus?

There is one element of abiding left that we haven’t talked about yet. Abiding in Jesus means living, remaining, continuing in him and his Word, but it also means being obedient to him and keeping his commandments.

Jesus says that if we are his friends, his θιλοσ, then we will keep this commandment from him: That we love one another as Jesus has loved us.

We cannot abide in Jesus if we do not love one another with the same sacrificial love that Jesus displayed.

At the beginning I said that I couldn’t think of anything more important for us to do than to evaluate whether we are fruit-bearing branches, or dead ones.

Now I ask you the same question, worded differently:

Are you abiding in Jesus, or have you set up camp somewhere else?