Sermon for 5/2/21 13 Minutes
Notes
Transcript
John 15:1-8
John 15:1-8
This morning I'll be reading John chapter 15 verses 1 through 8.
And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
John 15:1-8
This morning we will be looking at the figurative words spoken by Jesus about vineyard, vines and fruit. We will see how these words apply to us today.
John 15:1–8 (HCSB)
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.
Let us pray:
Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.
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Last Sunday we looked at Jesus' words where He spoke about being the "Good Shepherd",,, and Jesus was telling the disciples how He would lay down His life for them,,, to help them understand what would be happening later in His life.
And Jesus is trying to give them comfort,,, even before they need it!
If we spend the time that we truly need in our Bible today,,, Jesus will give us comfort through His words as well,,, again,,, even before we need it!
This morning,,, we will look at the words of Jesus as He gives an example of the way that we can be changed,,, so that we can produce more fruit.
Let's look at these verses this morning and see how they can help us in our walk with God this week.
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Before we can begin with these few verses,,, we need to look at what kind of fruit,,, is Jesus talking about.
Galatians 5:22–23 (HCSB)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
We can do these things every day with the help of the Holy Spirit,,, but without His help,,, we will always fail.
I've told you before about my struggle with impatience,,, and that only happens during times when I don't pay attention to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
He's right there,,, trying to help me,,, but,,, I must do my part and see how He is guiding me to act!
I can always look back and see where I came up short by not paying attention,,, but we serve a God that loves us so much,,, and is always ready to help us,,, He is always ready to give us another chance,,, all we have to do is ask forgiveness and work to improve as we go forward.
Jesus is trying to show us how to produce the fruit that we need in these verses,,, and the right way to go about it,,, so let's begin in verse 1.
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Verses 1 and 2 say: 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. 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.
This illustration that Jesus was using would have been clear to the ones that He was talking to that day,,, and my Faithlife Study Bible says that He was probably referring to a grapevine.
The vineyard keeper will always remove any branch that isn't producing fruit so that it will not pull the rest of the plant down.
He will also prune every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.
This must be done with care to make the best fruit,,, while being sure that too much is not taken off or,,, too much left on.
Jesus was telling us that He is the vine,,, and God is the vineyard keeper,,, so God would be doing any pruning that needed to be done.
One of my commentaries compared the pruning to any trials that we might go through because there is always a lesson in there for us that we can learn,,, and through that process,,, and the help of the Holy Spirit,,, we can make ourselves better,,, and produce more fruit.
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Verse 3 says: 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
The cleansing agent here,,, is the word of the Lord.
The disciples had been cleansed by Jesus' words,,, at least all of them,,, but possibly Judas.
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Verses 4 and 5 say: 4 Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.
A branch is unable to produce fruit unless it remains on the vine,,, and one that isn't connected to the vine,,, dies.
Jesus is saying that we must remain connected to Him,,, and we do that by reading God's word,,, prayer,,, Bible study,,, Sunday school,,, worship,,, all of the things that keep us in our relationship with the Lord.
Because it's through our connection to Him that we produce the fruit that we need to live out a fulfilling life here on earth.
And if we aren't connected to Him,,, we can do nothing at all.
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Verse 6 says: 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
These words have been interpreted in at least three ways:
(1) The “burned” branches are Christians who have lost their salvation. (But this contradicts many passages,,, for example,,, John 3:16, 36; 5:24; 10:28–29; and Romans 8:1.)
(2) The “burned” branches represent Christians who will lose rewards but not salvation at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:15). (But Jesus spoke here of dead branches; such a branch is thrown away and withers.)
(3) The “burned” branches refer to professing Christians who,,, like Judas,,, are not genuinely saved and therefore are judged.
Like a dead branch,,, a person without Christ is spiritually dead and therefore will be punished in eternal fire (cf. Matthew 25:46).
Judas was with Jesus; he seemed like a “branch.”
But he did not have God’s life in him; therefore he departed; his destiny was like that of a dead branch.
This seems to me,,, to be the best interpretation of this verse.
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Verse 7 says: 7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.
Staying connected to Jesus is the key to having our prayers answered.
This means that if we stay connected to Him,,, our will becomes more like His will,,, and our wants change,,, to become more of what Christ wants.
This doesn't mean that we can just ask for anything and receive it just because we ask for it in Jesus' name.
It must be in tune with what God wants,,, not our wants!
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Verse 8 says: 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
When we stay connected to Christ like we should,,, we begin to exhibit a Christ like attitude that is visible to the world,,, and that makes those around us want what we have.
That is our best witness to those that don't believe,,, because they are searching for it,,, they just won't admit it,,, or maybe,,, they don't even realize it yet.
But it's the practice of staying connected to Christ,,, "staying connected to the vine",,, and producing more fruit,,, and by doing so,,, proving ourselves as Christians,,, all of this,,, is what glorifies,,, the Father.
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So as we finish here this morning,,, remember these verses and the words of Jesus.
Remember that we must stay connected to Him because we cannot do anything on our own.
Remember that God is with us through all of our trials,,, and He will get us through them.
And also remember that whatever we are going through,,, might be part of a pruning process that God is using to make us able to bear more fruit.
But no matter what,,, we need to stay connected to Jesus as much as we can,,, so that we can produce the fruit that we need,,, so that others,,, can see "Jesus" in us!
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