The Vine and the Vinedresser
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The Sermon Notebook: New Testament Lessons from the Lord’s Vineyard (John 15:1–8)
Jesus and the Disciples are leaving the upper room. They are going to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will pray His great High Priestly prayer and will later be arrested by the mob led by Judas. Jesus speaks the words which compromise chapters 15 and 16 while they walk to the garden.
It is easy to imagine Jesus and His men walking through the darkened streets of the city and then passing beyond the walls into the surrounding countryside. As they walked toward the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus began to talk to His men about vines, vine dressers and fruit.
He taught them about the most vital relationship in life, and that is the relationship a person can have with God through Jesus Christ.
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, that it may bear more fruit.
3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
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.
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.
8 “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
In John’s gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ affirm’s His deity or His divine status, by speaking of Himself in terms of “I AM”.
Jesus said, “I AM the bread” more specifically...
He is the “Bread of life”
He is the “Living Bread that came down out of heaven.”
Jesus said, “I AM the Light of the world…the Light of life”
Jesus said, “I AM the door”
He is the entry way to salvation and rest
Jesus said, “I AM the Good Shepherd”
a. He is prepared to lay down His life for His sheep.
b. He knows His sheep, and they know Him
Jesus said, “I AM the resurrection and the life”
a. By believing in Him we shall live even if we die.
Jesus said, “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life”
Access to God the Father is made possible thru Christ alone.
Now in the 15th Chapter of the Book of John, we come to the final “I AM” statement mentioned by our Lord regarding His divinity.
He says to His disciples...
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
What does this mean?
The Lord is speaking metaphorically of Himself as the vine and His Father as a vinedresser. He is speaking with symbolism. He is giving imagery that helps us to better understand. In this case it helps us to better understand our abiding relation to Christ and our dependency on God’s preparation work.
He did not come to establish the nation of Israel in power.
Here, Jesus is explaining to His disciples that it is not the nation of Israel that is the true vine, but that is He... who is the true vine.
Their affiliation with Israel or their Jewish heritage is not what is essential.
Israel in the Old Testament is portrayed as God’s vine. But Israel proved to be both a fruitless and unfaithful vine.
Israel in rebellion, failed to produce good fruit and would face God’s judgment.
Israel would reject God’s messengers, and would ultimate crucify the Son of God.
Just as Jesus is the true light of the world and the true bread out of heaven, He is “the true vine” in the truest perfect sense.
He says, “My Father is the vinedresser”.
A vinedresser is a farmer of the vineyard. He is a tiller of the soil. He plants, He fertilizes, and He waters the vine. These are crucial to the survival of the vineyard. Everything that the vinedresser does is to care for the vines of the vineyard.
Lets look at what else the vinedresser must do to achieve the potential of the vine.
Reading verse 2....
2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
Now the vinedresser must consider the branches.
Do they bear fruit at all? If not, those branches that are found to be unfruitful are “to be cut off” and taken away.
For the branches that DO bear fruit, He does not remove them, but He prunes them that they may bear more fruit.
Pruning is a crucial process in tending the vineyard. The vinedresser would take a pruning hook, which is a sickle shaped blade with a short handle in it, and cut back the growth of the plant in order for it to grow healthier or to produce more fruit.
This imagery draws on the way that pruning is done, to illustrate the nature of Christian growth. God prunes every branch that bears fruit, that it may bear more fruit.
It is critical that we view God’s pruning as His care and nurturing.
Jesus still comforting His disciples, clarifies to them..
3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
All of the twelve disciples had embraced the gospel with the exception of Judas Iscariot who proved to be a false convert.
The remaining eleven, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, were the true disciples who believed the teachings of Christ
Jesus said to them “you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” The Word of God brings about salvation.
The Word of God is the pruning hook, because it “is living and active and sharper than a double edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit.
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.
To abide in Him is to have sustained conscious communion with Him.
To abide in Christ signifies the constants occupation of the heart with Him - a daily active faith in Him which maintains the dependency of the branch upon the vine, and the circulation of life and fatness of the vine in the branch.
As the vine and the branches are joined together, Jesus says, “[stay close] Abide in Me, and I in you”
What can a branch do that is separated from the vine except die? A branch that does not abide in the vine will never be fruitful.
The closer we stay to Christ, the more fruitful we become. The imagery here is the grapes of the vine. But the fruit that believers bear is a life that has been changed by God’s pruning.
Abiding in Him will be evidenced in an obedient life. There is no such thing as a fruitless Christian.
Do you recall how John the Baptist called upon those who would hear to “bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
Again John the Baptist warned...
10 “And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
A good tree produces good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit. And any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
It is impossible for the branch to bear fruit of itself, it must abide in the vine.
Jesus clarifies, this metaphor that is based on the production of grapes through the cultivation of grapevines.
He says to His disciples.
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.
It is thru the true branches, that the life of the vine flows, and it will not fail to produce fruit. What is the fruit that we are to bear? The fruit is spiritual. We are to bear fruit that is of the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul reveals what the fruit of the Holy Spirit is… He says in...
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.
That we truly abide, in the true vine, will be evidence by Christlike traits.
We have Christlike traits when, We have Love for the Father, We have love for one another, We have love for holiness and righteousness, We love to do good, We walk in good works, we seek His approval and not the approval of men. Christlike traits only come about by abiding, staying close to Christ.
The Lord issues a warning to the Apostate and or the false branches...
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.
The consequences of not being in Christ and abiding in Christ is catastrophic.
The Lord knows the true from the counterfeit.
The words “they gather them” seems to be a reference to the day of judgment. Jesus does not specifically tell us who “they” are who does the gathering, but it seems likely that He is referring to His angels.
41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Now Jesus declares to His disciples, promises with conditions attached to them....
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.
By abiding in Him, His word abides in us.
Gregory’s Sermon Synopses: 200 Expanded Summaries The Lord Jesus Gives Us Instruction about Fruitfulness
His instruction relates to a consequence: “ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (v. 7). The life that abides in Christ finds its will coinciding with His will. When we are so saturated with His words that they shape all of life, our prayers will reflect back to Him His own will and word. Every such prayer will be answered.
The secret to fruit bearing is abiding in Christ. This is not first effort, but relationship. Are you in the Vine?
8 “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.