I AM the True Vine John 15:1-11

It's All About Jesus  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  48:49
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Staying Connected

Since March we have had to find ways to stay connected. Some of the things we have tried work. Some didn’t. Staying connected is a big thing in today’s world. And is more important, especially for those who are part of the body of Christ since in Him, we are individually members of one another (Rom 12:5)
We have cell phones, email, zoom meetings, facebook, twitter, and all sorts of “social media” intended to keep us connected - telephone - telegraph - tele-person!
I heard it through the grapevine...
As important as these “connections” have become to us, there is one that is far more powerful and more important than any of them.
It’s not modern. It’s not space age. In fact, it is ancient.
VS. 4 “Abide in Me...” (10x’s) Jesus is saying that we must abide in Him - remain connected to Him - the true vine.
Read John 15:1-11
John 15:1–3 NASB95
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 “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. 3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
John 15:4–6 NASB95
4 “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. 5 “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. 6 “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.
John 15:7–8 NASB95
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
John 15:9–11 NASB95
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Prayer of Illumination

The Vine is a Common Symbol for Israel - God’s People

This passage follows the previous Ch. 14 where Jesus has just participated in the Last Supper with the disciples in the upper room.
He has said one would betray him and another would deny him…words of comfort given to troubled disciples.
vs. 31 = “Get up, let’s go from here.”
They leave the upper room and travel toward the Garden of Gesthsemane passing by the Herod’s Temple.
History books tell us that a gigantic golden vine with grape clusters the height of a man decorated the entablature above the temple gates. Walking through those temple gates you would see this great vine - and there would be, dropping from that vine, clusters of golden grapes about six feet tall.
This was an illustration to the people of Israel themselves as they walked through the temple gates to worship the Lord. It was a reminder to them of their relationship with God. It was a visual picture (much like many stained glass in churches today) of how God’s people were taken out of captivity in Egypt and planted as God's true vine in a choice land, in a land flowing with milk and honey, the Promised Land.
Now Jesus comes along and turns what they think they understand on its head by saying....

“I am the true vine...” (15:1)

Jesus didn’t simply pull this statement out of thin air. Throughout the Scriptures, the vine had been a symbol and a visible depiction of God’s people.
Psalm 80:8–9 NASB95
8 You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it. 9 You cleared the ground before it, And it took deep root and filled the land.
Isaiah speaks of a vineyard that does not thrive despite the care that God has poured out upon it.
Isaiah 5:1–2 NASB95
1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.
Isaiah 5:7 NASB95
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Jeremiah 2:21 NASB95
21 “Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?
Hosea refers to Israel as a vine producing fruit for itself and with the profit he has increased the number of altars. He calls them an empty vine.
Hosea 10:1 NASB95
1 Israel is a luxuriant vine; He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, The more altars he made; The richer his land, The better he made the sacred pillars.
Ezekiel speaks of vine and branches (Ezekiel 15) - describing Israel’s spiritual relationship with God saying Jerusalem is like a useless vine.
Jesus uses this same image in Matthew 21:33-40 where he give a parable of a landowner who plants a vineyard.
The vine - God’s people are called to be productive - but they had become worthless and unproductive - producing no fruit...

The Only Purpose and Value of the Branches on a Vine...

Jesus says here in John 15:1 & John 15:5
“I am the true vine”
“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.”
What he means is not that we can do absolutely nothing. We can do many things, but, apart from him, we can’t do anything that will endure.
You may be an elder, and you want your church to be a setting in which people are built up in faith and engaged in serving others with a sweet spirit, but you think you can make that happen by working harder - applying yourself in greater ways.
You may be a pastor or a Sunday School teacher, and you want to have an enduring influence on others for the sake of the Kingdom, but you think all it will take is some hard work on your part.
You may be a seminary student striving to make the grade...
Jesus says to all of us... "apart from me you can do nothing.”
But he also says,
John 15:5 NASB95
5 “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.
Our relationship to Him is like that of a vine and its branches.
Branches that abide in the vine not only produce fruit; they produce “fruit that will last” (v. 16).
John 15:16 NASB95
16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
We all want our efforts - our work and the fruit that we produce to amount to something. This includes me. And I believe that what Jesus says here in John 15 – what he says about abiding - remaining in him – can help us with doing this.
And the way I want to approach this passage is to ask and answer three questions.
What does it mean to abide in Jesus?
Why is abiding in him important?
How do we do it?

What does it mean to abide in Jesus?

When Jesus says in verse 4, “Abide in me,” what does he mean? What he means is: “Take your life from me.” “I am the vine, you are the branches” (v. 5). And, as a branch receives life from the vine, you are to receive life from me.
We know how this works.
A branch has to remain organically - physically connected to the vine or…what? It will die. Cut a limb off a tree, and it won’t be long before the leaves will turn colorless and shrivel up, and the limb becomes brittle. But as long as the limb “abides” “remains” on the tree, it takes its life from the tree.
It’s the same way with Jesus and us.
There is life in him. “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
And, if we take our life from him, as a branch does from the main stalk, what we will see in our lives by God’s grace is abundant fruit.
It doesn’t mean, of course, that we will be successful in everything we do, but it does mean that we will see Christ’s desires for us come to fruition. That whatever we do will have been done for the Glory of God.
That’s what it means to abide in Jesus.
John 15:4 NASB95
4 “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.

Why is it important that we abide in Jesus?

Is it in fact important? Jesus says,
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower, the vinedresser. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit” (vv. 1f.).
He then goes on to say,
John 15:6 NASB95
6 “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.
There’s a principle at work here, and it’s a principle that will help us to see why it’s important that we abide in Jesus.
The principle is simply this:

Where there is No root, there is no fruit.

Isaiah 11:10 NASB95
10 Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious.
Romans 15:12 NASB95
12 Again Isaiah says, There shall come the root of Jesse, And He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, In Him shall the Gentiles hope.”
The “root” of a family is its ancestor. Jesse was King David’s father. We know from the genealogical records (Matthew 1:1–17 and Luke 3:23–38) that Jesus was descended from the line of Jesse and his son David. In Isaiah 11:10, the Hebrew word used for “root”(שֹׁ֣רֶשׁ) implies a root that remains alive and sends up a shoot too branch; thus, the root of Jesse was a root from which more descendants could come.
It is Jesus who, like a root in the soil, draws from the life-giving stores of growth and grace the nutrients and the moisture, as it were, that are needed for bearing fruit.
NO ROOT - NO FRUIT
What is this fruit that those who are attached to the vine produce?
It is simply this:
The fruit of being in Jesus is being like Jesus.
And what does it mean to be like Jesus? It means that we love others the way Jesus loves us.
John 15:12 NASB95
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
It means bearing the fruit of the Spirit...
Galatians 5:22–23 NASB95
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Here’s the thing:
What flows into us as we remain (abide) in Him ought to flow out of us as we stay connected to Him.
What we have received by God’s grace we ought to graciously give by grace.
What comes to us because we are abiding (remaining) in Him ought to show through us as we remain in Him.
As we have been loved, so we ought to love in return.
Where there is no root, there is no fruit...
But there’s another reason. When we recieve our life from Jesus, there is fruit (you will kno them by their fruits (Matt 7:16 & 20) and when there is fruit, God the one who has planted the vine - the vinedresser is glorified.
John 15:8 NASB95
8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
You and I were created as image-bearers of God. We were designed to reflect God’s glory. Of course, in our sin we have distorted this reflection. But, in his great mercy, God has redeemed us. He is sanctifying us. Making us holy...
2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB95
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
If you have made a profession of faith in Christ you even now are a new creation, and, because we are, we are able to bring glory to the Father by “bearing much fruit.”
So, abiding in Jesus is important because if you’re not abiding in him, your life is not bearing fruit for God.
And there’s only one way your life can produce fruit for God:
You must be abiding in Jesus.
You must take your life from him.
There is the what and the why....

How do you abide in Jesus so that you bear fruit for the glory of God?

We don’t have to guess at the answer - Jesus tells us.
Now, what he says may surprise you. In fact, you may find it too simplistic, and, for that reason, you may think there has to be something more to it.
(When I was at Tulane studying architecture (just at the beginning of the computer revolution - 1971) I took a class in MAP (MacroAssemblyProgramming). We were given an assignment to write a program that would determine if an interstate highway ran east - west, north - south (odd#’s = north/south even#’s = east/west)
…I was so proud of what I had done…turned in the assignment - went to class the next day and the professor called each of us up to get our cards and as I walked back to my seat - was told I made the assignment too hard - the program could have been written with as few as 6 cards - I think I had a stack of 50).
Our abiding in Jesus - bearing fruit for the glory of God doesn’t require 12 steps or 613 Pharisaical laws, it essentially involves two things:
His Words and Our Words -
Scripture and Prayer...
John 15:1–2 NASB95
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 “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.
How does the Father go about pruning the branches?

Word

In verse 3, Jesus says, “You have already been cleansed” – that is, you have already been pruned; how? – “by the word that I have spoken to you.”
John 15:3 NASB95
3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Have you ever seen a pruning knife?
It is a mean-looking thing. But in the proper hands, it can be used to bring health. The Father’s pruning knife is the Word. With it he takes to the branches and cuts away the dead parts. He shapes the plant by controlling the direction of growth. He prunes to preserve the vitality of the branch and to maximize its yield.
Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is like that.
Hebrews 4:12 NASB95
12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
That’s what the His Word does. It exposes areas of our lives – thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors that inhibit our spiritual growth – and it cuts them away. It also shapes the patterns of our thinking and living through the commandments it contains - our only rule for faith & practice.
In verse 10, Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” – which is the same thing as abiding in him.
The Word of God, you see, shows you what ought to do and what we shouldn’t do.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 NASB95
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
It teaches and corrects. It trains us in righteousness. And when we submit ourselves to it and are saturated and soaked with it owe can say that we are abiding in Christ.
Here is His Word and then there are our Our Words our Prayers...

Prayer

Twice in this passage, Jesus speaks of prayer.
In verse 7, he says,
John 15:7 NASB95
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Again, in verse 16, Jesus says,
John 15:16 NASB95
16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
These words are so often misinterpreted.
Jesus is not saying God is some sort of cosmic vending machine - some porter in a hotel, eager to indulge our every wish.
The WCF says this about prayer...

A. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God,1 for things agreeable to His will,2 in the name of Christ,3 with confession of our sins,4 and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.5

Asking for whatever you wish is conditional...“If you are abiding in me, and my words abide in you” – that is, if you are living out what you have learned in His Word – “ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
The key to prayer is that we are to want what Jesus wants for us and to ask for what He desires.
That’s what it means to pray in his name. It is to pray as he has authorized us to pray. When we pray for what he wants, we will receive it.
And what is at the heart of everything we pray for?
…that God would be glorified.
And how is God glorified?
By the fruit we bear.
And how do we bear fruit?
By abiding in Jesus. He is the vine; we are the branches.
Apart from him we can do nothing. Remember, where there is no root, there can be no fruit...
But, Jesus says, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit” (v. 5).
So, is your life bearing fruit?

Sponge Test

You’ve heard of a litmus test - here is a sponge test.
When you squeeze a sponge, whatever is inside will come out. So, here’s what I want you to do this week is this:
I want you to pay attention to the times when you get (not by someone giving you a hug)but squeezed by the pressures of life.
Whether you’re at home with your family or on the job or here at church or wherever you are. I want you to notice the times when things are squeezing in on you - press down on you.
And then pay attention to this:
I want to watch what it is you say in that moment – even if you only say it to yourself.
I want you to notice what comes from within you?
Is it grumbling or gratitude? Does it reveal bitterness, rage, anger or sweetness of spirit?
What comes out of you (a sponge) will be your clue as to whether you’re abiding in Jesus or not! Remember: What flows in to you by God’s grace will flow out you.
So, what do you do if you discover you’re not exactly producing sweet fruit of the spirit?
You get squeezed, and your first impulse is to grumbling like a sour grape. Or you get angry. Or you curse the person who puts you in the bind.
What do you do when you learn that about yourself?
You do this:
You ask for forgiveness. You go back to that well of never ending grace - remember the root - Jesus Christ. You begin again to saturate yourself in God’s Word and remember:
it’s his Word that cleanses you. And what you learn from his Word you apply to your life.
That is, you keep his commandments, and you do this because this is how you “abide - remain - in his love.”
And, over time, when something happens that squeezes the life out of you…it will also squeeze the love out of you, the sweet fruit of the Spirit.
And that’s the fruit you want as you abide in the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ and know that God, our father is glorified by this, that you are bearing much fruit and prove to a watching world that it is all about Jesus...
John 15:11 NASB95
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
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