The true vine

Discipleship is a hard process but a rewarding process!

As a christian you are going to experience much difficulty some of it brought on by our own decision and some of it brought on by our circumstances. But all of it happens to draw us closer to God.

The difficulties we face forces us to either focus on ourselves or focus on God. As Christians our difficulties should draw us to a loving and caring God and draw us to become more like Christ.

Tonight we are going to look at what it means to be a disciple of Christ and what Christ does for his disciples.

John 15:1–17 NLT

1 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. 9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

If we are a Christian we are a disciple and if we are a disciple of Christ we cannot survive without being connected to Christ.

So we must…

1. Abide in the Vine

John 15:1–6 NLT

1 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.

As disciples we are called to bear fruit. Our fruit comes from our connection to Christ our Fruit is a byproduct of our life in Christ. A grape vine produces grapes. The grapes can only be produced if it is connect to the life source.

Christ is our life source and we must stay connected to him. Whenever a vine produces fruit there are also other branches that grow on the vine that are not fruit bearing and the gardener will prune those branches from the vine in order for the good branches to get more nutrients and sunlight.

God does that exact same thing in our own lives through pruning out things that are not glorifying him. The pruning process that we go through constantly through out our lives is not a fun process because it involves certain parts of our lives to be cut away.

When something is cut away it causes us pain but the pain causes us to grow. God cuts away things in our lives for us to be more connected to him.

What is it in our life that God has pruned from your life?

What is it that God needs to prune from your life?

God prunes things that are not glorifying to him. God prunes the branches in our life that are hindering our growth in him. God can prune seemingly good thing out of our lives if we make them our top priority.

We must allow for the cutting away process of our lives to point us to Christ because the pain we experience brings about us becoming more like Christ.

The process of becoming like Christ is a process that hurts because we are not perfect but we should be thankful for the cutting away. The cutting away brings us to Christ.

The cutting away shows us areas in our lives that are not reflecting Christ.

We must abide in Christ for us to thrive as disciples. We must abide in the life source because it is impossible to live the Christian life with out him! A christian cannot be a christian without abiding in Christ.

Disciples of Christ bear fruit. The fruit that we bear is evident of the God that we serve. We are called to inspect our own lives and see if we are bearing fruit or if we are full of dead branches that need to be cut off. Our lives should be full of fruit that shows a life that is completely dedicated to Christ but there are going to be seasons in our lives where there are places that needed to be cut off in order for us to draw closer to him.

There are a couple of ways that we abide in Christ and he will provide for us.

2. Abide in Prayer

John 15:7–8 NLT

7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

When we abide in Christ we abide in prayer. So many times the first thing that we neglect as Christians is reading God’s word and communicating to him.

We so often neglect the key aspect of a relationship whenever we neglect prayer and studying.

When we read God’s Word, the bible, we are hearing from God himself. Whenever we prayer we are talking to God. Whenever we are disciples in order for us to Abide in Christ then We must abide in communication to him.

Whenever we live a life that is close to God our heart and prayer then matches his heart for our lives.

The promise is that once we abide in prayer God will answer your prayers.

That sounds awesome but it doesnt mean that God will grant us materialistic things because of our prayers. God answers our prayers because we are abiding in him and our wants begin to match God’s wants for our lives.

3. Abide in Obedience

John 15:9–10 NLT

9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

Disciples abide in obedient love towards God through following what he has commanded us to do.

This sounds scary but it’s just like obey a good earthly father or authority figure in your life. We obey different leaders in our lives due to our respect or love we have for them. God is a loving God so whenever we obey him we are doing so out of our love for him.

Obedience is a fruit that we should bear because it shows our love we have for Christ. God calls us to love others and love Him. When we are obedient in those aspects of life we will have a fruitful discipleship life.

Obedience draws us to Joy because an obedient Christian is a joyful Christian.

4. Abide in Joy

John 15:11 NLT

11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

A fruit that we bear is the fruit of Joyfullness. This is an awesome fruit because it shows that a christian life is a difficult life but yet an extremely joyful life. The joy that we can experience through Christ is unlike any other joyful experience in the world.

Let’s take sports for a moment. Whenever you win the big games you are ecstatic for a couple days maybe a couple of weeks but thats it! Whenever we experience Joy from Christ it is an everlasting joy. A joy that last all throughout eternity. A joy that is incomparable to anything that we experience from the world.

Worldly joy fades quickly but Godly joy last for eternity.

Disciples who abide in Christ also abide in his everlasting joy. The everlasting joy is brought about us knowing that God loves us.

5. Abide in Love

John 15:12–17 NLT

12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Disciples of Christ are people who abide in the love of Christ. The fruit of us loving Christ is that we will love others.

WE love others because we have experienced love unlike anything else.

We are loved by God not because he has to but because he chose to love us. That shows a love that is not forced but rather true love. His love is a love that cost him his life for us.

A fruit of being a disciple is the love we have for others. The love we have for others stems from us wanting others to experience Christ like we have.

We are called to produce everlasting fruit from being rooted in Christ. Us being in Christ does not alway mean that our life will be easy but through the pain that we experience we are drawn to him.