The Skilled Pruning Knife of the Lord - John 15:1-8

©Copyright August 8, 2021 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

We all want to see our children grow and mature. They will grow in different ways, and various metrics may define growth, but we want them to grow, develop, and be the best they can be.

Is it any surprise that God would want the same thing for His children? God does not simply want us to get into the kingdom. He wants us to flourish in the life He has given. He wants us to achieve the potential He made us to realize.

This morning we venture into the area of horticulture. I confess that I am in water WAY over my head! But I hope the message of the text is clear, despite my lack of knowledge in this area.

There are some hard words here, but there are also some majestic words. Some of what Jesus said is an emphasis on previous themes. Let’s keep building on the foundation Jesus is laying.

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.

The True Vine

In the Old Testament, Israel was referred to as God’s Vineyard in several texts (see Isaiah 5). So, this was a familiar metaphor. Jesus takes this and says, “I am the true grapevine.” Jesus is saying, “I am the only One who can truly give you the life you are looking for.” Many other claim to be the source of eternal life but they are deceptive vines that may look good but have no real ability to provide the life we seek.

We want to know joy, peace, fulfillment, hope, and purpose in our lives. We can look many different places but the Lord is the only true vine. Every other pretender will come up short. They cannot give you what the Jesus alone can give us: forgiveness, an eternal home in Heaven, and a new beginning. Only Jesus can do this.

We hear people say, “What is true for me, may not be true for you.” It is a statement that makes no sense. If it changes with the person, it is not truth, it is preference. Jesus says He is the true source of life. He is the One who saves us, sustains us, and redeems us. He can do this because He is the only One who can give us life because He is only One who addresses the problem of sin which is the barrier that stands between us and God.

God’s Pruning Knife

The words of Jesus get more difficult. Jesus already told us His Father is the Gardener. A good gardener has to make choices. He must decide which branches are dead and drawing off the nutrients the good vines need. He also must cut back the good vines so they will allow for new and vibrant growth of the grapes of the vine. And this is what we are told,

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.

First He speaks of those branches that do not bear any fruit. They are essentially dead branches and the Father removes them. In verse 6 we read,

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.

The question is: do these branches represent Christian people who lose their salvation OR are they people who profess to be Christians but show by their lives they are not truly connected to Christ? Different theological viewpoints will come to different conclusions. I believe the Bible speaks directly and forcefully that a person cannot lose their salvation because they did nothing to receive it! God chose us, invited us, brought us to faith, forgave us, and then filled us with His Spirit. If we have surrendered to Christ as our Savior, we are given the Holy Spirit as a deposit with guaranteesour inheritance. As a result, the character of Christ should begin to be seen in our life more each day.

As we have pointed out many times: a person who professes to be a believer but has no change in their life, their desires, or their purpose, give evidence they are not really believers at all. They have an academic relationship with Christ rather than a saving relationship with Him. They believe the facts but have not surrendered to the One the facts are pointing to. They know about God but do not know God. They are dead branches. They miss Heaven by 18 inches, the distance between your head and your heart.

There are those in the church who know the right words, know the appropriate facts, and maybe have become convinced of those facts. They may have served in significant roles but have not surrendered to Christ as their Lord and Savior. They show no evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They are like the Pharisees of Jesus day; they are knowledgeable and even devout, but they are not reborn. As a result, they are dead branches. God will remove them.

The most important question anyone can (and should) ask themselves is this: “Have I been transformed by God’s Spirt or do I simply have religious knowledge? Is Christ someone I believe in or is He the One on whom I am betting my life and my eternity? Have I surrendered to Him? Do I follow Him? Is He my Lord and master or simply a religious being I am attracted to? Am I a follower or merely a fan?

Even if we are followers of Christ, the knife of the gardener will not pass us by. The HEALTHY branches, we are told, will be trimmed. Vines in a vineyard need to be pruned each year and pruned aggressively. Even the healthy branches need to be cut back so that nothing is drawing nutrients from the fruit to come.

God will often use hard times to prune us. These times are not meant to destroy us but to draw us deeper into the Lord. James, the brother of Jesus wrote,

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

The goal of the difficult times God brings into our lives is for “our endurance to be fully developed so we become perfect and complete, needing nothing.” In other words, God often uses hard times as a tool to prune us and to make us more mature in our faith. We can only learn endurance under pressure. We can only know how to depend on Him by losing all other things we could depend on.

We know this is true from personal experience. When have you grown the most in your faith? Certainly, it was when you went through some difficulty and God ministered to you in a special way. The hardship turned into a gift that changed your heart and life.

Sometimes God has to remove things from our lives. He may need to remove anything that hinders your walk with Him. It could be bad habits, it might be friends, it might be a hobby or some amusement. You might lose your job to move you to the place God wants you to work. Your health may go through a downturn so you learn to depend on Him and not on your diet and exercise program. Whatever it is, it will involve a reordering of priorities. And as you do these things which are uncomfortable, you will grow and deepen in your trust and love for Christ.

You may even feel God has deserted you. You can rant and rave, but I have found that only delays the process of growth and lengthens the pruning period. We must trust God with the pruning knife just as we trust His healing touch. God is not AFFLICTING us, He is PERFECTING US.

The knife of the surgeon is never pleasant, but it is sometimes necessary for us to be healthy. The chisel of the Sculptor must chip away at the marble everything except the form they are creating. The marble would tell you it is a painful process, but the Sculptor would tell you it is a necessary process in order for the work of art to appear. In much the same way the Gardener must trim and prune what is hindering growth in us. Like the marble, we may consider it a painful process. We may resent the intrusion into our lives, BUT, if we truly want to be a follower of Christ, the pruning is necessary to strip away anything that stands in the way of our relationship with Him.

The Sobering Truth

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.

John gives a list of characteristics of a healthy believer: FIRST, they remain in Christ. In other words, we need to walk close to Him. This means developing good habits. Just as to be physically healthy we need to eat well, get regular sleep, and find ways to get exercise. So, to remain close to the Lord we need to talk with Him (in prayer), listen to Him (by reading the Bible), honor Him (in worship) and walk with Him (through obedience to the Word) and we need to do this on a regular and disciplined basis.

Not only do we need to work to stay close to Him, we need to continue to make sure that all the areas of our lives are open to Him. Robert Munger wrote a wonderful little booklet years ago that is titled, My Heart, Christ’s Home. In it He pictures Jesus walking through the rooms of our life asking for access to every corner of our lives. It points out that we often say Christ is Lord of our lives, we invite Him in, but we leave many parts of our lives locked to His entry and influence. It may be our work, our relationships, our hobbies, our thought life, our friendships, our children, our hurts, our dreams, our fears, and our blessings. For us to be truly fruitful in significant ways, our challenge is to continue to work at surrendering every room of our heart and life to Him.

We start this process (and it is a process) by confessing our reluctance and repenting of our selfishness considering His wisdom and grace. Then, picture in your mind giving Him the key to each successive room until it is all under His control with absolute access. This kind of total and transparent relationship with God leads to the greatest fruit-bearing.

Second, the genuine believer will produce MUCH fruit. We know what some of this fruit will look like because Paul gave us a list: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” These should be growing on a regular basis in increasing measure. There will be other fruit such as: changed lives, restored families, removal of barriers between people, and a deepened worship.

We have said it before in these verses: if you do not see the fruit of the Spirit; a Christlike demeanor and approach to life, growing in you, then you need to take a step back and see if your commitment to Him is genuine or merely academic or emotional.

An emotional relationship to Christ is one that is anchored to an emotional experience you had once. You may be swept up in the crowd, you may have been deeply moved by the message of the speaker, or you may talk about how you “sense” Christ all around you. Such people like the emotional high, but never truly turn their life, hope, and future over to Jesus. They are content to “feel good.” Having a real relationship with Christ is secondary. Often when the novelty “wears off” these same people disappear looking for the next best thing.

Now the reason all of this is so important is what he says next: “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” I always will think of R.C. Sproul’s response to this verse: “Nothing is not ‘a little something’”. We are wholly dependent on the work of Christ and the ministry and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who thinks they can do it apart from Him is a fool.

Here is something important to remember: we are dependent on Him, God is not dependent on us. If we were gone it would not change God AT ALL. The only person you hurt by walking away, is you! On the other hand, if God were to walk away we would immediately die. He is the One in whom we live, move, and have our being.”

We are dependent on Him! We cannot save ourselves (by good works), we cannot change people’s lives (no matter how hard we try), we can do nothing to further the Kingdom of God without Him. If the Lord is not leading in what we are doing, we are wasting our time.

A Powerful Secret

There is one more benefit to all of this:

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.

Rick had a very similar passage to this a few weeks ago. And if you remember, people tend to zero in on one part of the promise: “If you ask for anything it will be granted”! That is better than Santa Claus or a Genie who gives you three wishes. It is the kind of God we want . . . one who exists to meet our needs. But to think this is to miss the real promise. You must always read a promise in context!

There is a condition to the promise: “if you remain in me and my words remain in you.” This makes perfect sense. If we are diligent in our study of the Scriptures, if we continue to surrender to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, if we are willing to do whatever He says, then AND ONLY THEN do you have confidence to know God will give us anything we ask. This is because what we are asking for will be what He wants for us!

The Lord wants to see us grow. He has gone to great extremes to make us His. He wants to be what He created and intended us to be.

Applications

We must expand our definition of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Being a Christian is not about where you live, how you were raised, or even the religion you most identify with. It is not about an experience you once had or even a particular prayer you pray. It is not about trying to live a good life! Being a Christian is being a person who knows they are sin addicted. They know Christ was sent by God to give His life as payment for our sin and they are willing to bet their life on Him! A true believer is not one who had an experience in the past; a true believer is the One who is walking with God right now!

We need to be intentional about our spiritual health.Our task is to remain in the vine. Our job is to constantly check ourselves and our commitment. We need to do our part in maintaining our growth. We are saved by the work of Christ ALONE. We grow by the work of Christ working in and with us. We will grow the most when we are seeking Him.

The best way to do this is to work at remaining spiritually healthy. Spend time with God each day (worship, Bible Study, prayer). Listening to Christian music is not the same thing as worshipping. You can enjoy Christian music without ever bowing your heart before the Lord. I remember growing up and humming a melody while I was out playing. When I would stop to ask what melody I was humming . . . it was a beer commercial! You can like Christian music without ever embracing the lyrics of the song. Music can help in our worship, but it is NOT worship in and of itself. Worship is about the heart!

Do a daily inventory of your life before the Lord. Look back on the day and see how much of it was lived for Him. Confess the times when you were swallowed up by the cares of this world and rededicate yourself to following Him. If we worked as hard on our spiritual life as we do our health, fitness, golf game, or children’s sports careers, or TV binge watching, we would make a huge impact for the gospel.

Fruit-bearing proves faith and glorifies God. This is exactly what Jesus says. He told us that we would know the pretenders by the fruit they bear. In other words, you should see a change in the life of those who are truly following Christ.

I’m not advocating we all become “fruit inspectors” and spend our time trying to determine who is a true believer and who is not. We must inspect the fruit of teachers, so we don’t follow someone leading us away from the Lord. However, we can leave the rest of the inspecting to the Lord. There is only one life we need to continually be examining . . . it is ours. We should passionately pursue a life that is bearing witness to Him in everything we say and do. We can divert attention from our own lives to those we believe are “worse” than we are. Don’t do that!

Our job is to let the Lord do the judging of others. He alone knows what is really happening, the motives, and the circumstances. Let’s spend time diligently inspecting our own fruitfulness so we may grow. Let us persevere in the times of pruning anticipating the growth that will come because of the pruning knife of the Lord.