I Am the true vine

John 15: 1-6

Thank God and moro church for allowing me to be here

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Being a true believer of Christ and relying on Him to supply you brings forth a life filled with an abundance of joy and fulfillment, while living for your own gain and selfishness will only bring you separation from God’s true blessings, and total destruction.

Prayer

These verses have been said by some pastors to be the most important in the bible,

Because it deals with genuine and professing believers,

It is a warning to make sure your salvation is secure, and see whether your roots are grounded

A sad but realistic truth Not everyone in the church today is saved, not everyone who professes christ is going to heaven.

You need to know if your grounded in truth or if your dead in sin and these verses will show us,

this message will not be a popular one, but one that needs to be preached.

One that needs to be heard.

We all know someone who has said the church is full of hypocrites - sad part is their half way right,

Especially nowadays with the progressive church (bethel - prophecies teaching deut 18:22, homosexual involvement in church, chasing the tickling of ears teaching, woke pastors)

Important to know where/who our foundation is

These verses pick up thurs night, right after Christ gave the last supper and washed the disciples feet, exposed Judas as the betrayer and sent him away from the upper room. And Christ is telling them this teaching on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane where He will be arrested and Crucified the following day.

1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

SPEAK ON THEOLOGY OF VERSES

The seventh claim of His deity in the I Am statement from John’s gospel. It is an echo when The Great I AM spoke to Moses from the burning bush in the millenniums past. Exodus 3 :14. This is a clear declaration of Christ equivalence with God. - reason wanted to kill Jesus

Other I ams, bread of life, light of the world, the door, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way the truth the life, true vine,

2 more - before Abraham was I AM, I am in Gethsemane when they fell down.

Trinity - Father/gardener - jesus/vine - holy spirit/in branches

Jesus’ is the vine Israel couldn't be. - Isaiah Ch 5 parable of Israel/ps 80

Israel produced sour grapes, couldn't keep from sinning, following other Gods

The father is the one who is in control of pruning or purifying the disciples in order to produce according to His will,

Now this verse says that Jesus is the true vine, meaning He is the only way not a vine THE,

Only foundation to build on, only source, only thing we need, only provider, only

the key to see that we are in the right vine and producing real fruit for the True vine is to read scripture and apply it to our lives. James 1:22-25 practice what we preach is an essential practice for the true believer.

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.

Here Jesus is showing that Judas has actually been cut off and thrown away by the father, and the remaining disciples were going to be “pruned” or cleansed to produce more for God.

You cut off a dead branch, you prune a good one

What is pruning? - to reduce something by removing things that are not necessary oxford

Why are we pruned? - farmers know

What may be pruned in us? - Job, health, possession, friendships ANYTHING WE PUT ABOVE GOD

My wife actually showed me this. We had a “rose” bush in the backyard that never produced roses, so we really just had a thorn bush. One day she clipped a bunch of the dead limbs off and literally the next day a rose was beginning to bloom on the thorn bush and right then we discovered it was a rose bush. Sometimes we need to let go of our older ways in our lives that are just taking up resources in order for God to make us more fruitful for His will and Glory. And sometimes it is a very uncomfortable process. Things or people we love that have no benefit for our lives need to be removed to make way for better things to come. Godly things.

2 types of men in that room - those who proclaim, those who are saved

Disciples had no idea judas was a betrayer - showed he was follower

he was sent away by Christ to do satan's bidding, in John 13:27. , he was given over to his lust

for money. He betrayed the Son of God for 30 pieces of silver the price of a slave.

After witnessing Christ do miracles and all His teachings. A Disciple of Christ betrayed Him.

Showing we can also grieve God, by choosing our lusts over Him. Choosing to gossip, slander, judge, the list goes on and on. Every time we sin we Grieve the Holy Spirit that is inside of us.

Really look at your life, the bible teaches that a person who is saved in Christ will show good works or be fruitful. We are NOT saved by works, don't misinterpret what I am saying, the fruitful branch can be seen by everyone and be known to be a fruitful branch.

Look at life as if it was a fruit bearing tree - how does it look?

If I see a tree that has apples hanging from it, I'm not going to think this is a mesquite tree. The fruit from the plant or tree is unmistakable. Just as being a christian should be. People should be able to tell what you believe by the way you act, not speak. Confessing Christ is the easy part, living it out is where we stumble. Actions speak louder than words

3.You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Disciples trained/taught by jesus for 3 years -going to build the church off the apostles - eph 2:20

Greek word used here for “clean” also means purified

The disciples were about to receive the Holy spirit

As we hear and respond to the teachings of Jesus we begin to become “clean” and produce more fruit for the Father, we are able to provide more resources to others the more we receive the word of God and apply it to us.

The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on the Earth about 1380 ft below sea level. It is about 31% salt compared to the oceans 3.5%. It receives water from the Jordan river. All around the dead sea is desert land not able to grow anything due to the salty water the dead sea provides.

The sea of Galilee receives water from the Jordan as well, yet the sea of galilee has fertile soil and lush growth all around it. What's the difference between these 2 seas?

The dead sea only takes in water while the sea of galilee takes in and distributes water. We don't only need to take in the word of God and store it for ourselves. We need to be like a flowing river moving life from ourselves to others. Not a dam holding in everything.

This way we too can be clean disciples of christ, not becoming stagnant

What is a stagnant believer? One who feels like they are spiritually dead, one who doesn't want to worship doesn't feel like it, one who might not be in the word every day, one who doesn't pray very regularly

Fasting your body is hard enough (feel weak and depleted), now imagine fasting your spirit from the word of God - spirit becomes weak and stagnant with no spiritual food

Jesus studied the word of God and prayed often, how much more do we need to do it?

4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch can not bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

Here Christ is teaching to the apostles to remain in Him, or to live by His teachings in order for them to have a “fruitful” ministry. And to try and do this on their own would be impossible for a branch can not be fruitful of itself. Jesus also Promises to abide in us if we stay in Him

How often do we as believers think we can do things on our own and in the end it just fails miserably.

The branch cant produce of itself

If we remain in Him and live by His word, the spirit will continue providing for us. Continuing to live by faith, God will use us for His will for His glory at His speed, and at His time. We need to have a humble heart before God

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.

Here again Christ is stating to the apostles that the ones that stick close to Him will be blessed with abundance and also a warning of what will come to pass if they begin to drift away from the Vine.

Now we know that most of the apostles were put to death and imprisoned. People try to use verses like these to spread their prosperity gospel. Which is an abomination, We can be blessed by God and be poor. You can be blessed by God and be blind. It seems that when we hear the word blessed we immediately think of money, and that is not always a blessing. Bring chosen by God almighty to spread His word to teach His book, to show others His Son, now that's a blessing.

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.

Judas iscariot was the branch that will be thrown away into the furnace of Hell, he lived for himself and was given over to his desires for money.

Jesus is talking about the ones who are not genuine believers, the ones who profess Christ but are not His sheep, the ones who come to church and practice religion but have no relationship with Him. the ones who show up to make the checklist, - i went to church, check, time to go and eat at the cotton patch, when does the game come on? -

This is serious stuff, there are not some magic words you can utter and become saved. You have to LIVE IT OUT and have a relationship with Him, I mean Christ DIED and rose again for you because he loved you, He who knew no sin became sin and died and rose again on the third day for everyone who would believe in Him. Now how can we as believers who profess Christ, who love Christ show our love for Him?

Conclusion

We can not be merely professors of Christ, the bible has given us a command to go out and create disciples, Preach the gospel boldly. Some of you may know people who are merely hearers of the words and not doers, some of you may be that person. MATT 7:22 I beg of you to submit to Christ, repent, serve faithfully, after all aren't we all slaves of Christ? And the slave is not greater than the master. If the world hated Him first, its going to hate you regardless, so show the secular world why you love Christ and why they should.

prayer