Abide in His Love

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.

Jesus is the True Vine

In this passage of Scripture Jesus is teaching using a metaphor which is a figure of speech based on the comparison of two things which can be descriptive in terms of another idea, object, or process.

Jesus chooses to describe Himself as the grapevine and his followers as the branches.

This is significant for a few reasons but first off is that in the Old Testament Yahweh called Israel His vineyard.

This can be seen clearly in

Isaiah 5:1–7 NLT

1 Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a rich and fertile hill. 2 He plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines. In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter. 3 Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah, you judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done? When I expected sweet grapes, why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes? 5 Now let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed. I will break down its walls and let the animals trample it. 6 I will make it a wild place where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed, a place overgrown with briers and thorns. I will command the clouds to drop no rain on it. 7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence.

This scripture is a song about the Lord’s vineyard in which Israel is referred to as the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Furthermore, the Lord tells Israel of how He prepared a pleasant garden for them and because of their sinful was they ruined it so therefore he will cast judgement on them, and the land will be desolate and taken over.

Undoubtedly the followers of Jesus would have been familiar with Isaiah’s writings so Jesus as He often does will show the connection between Himself and Old Testament writings.

In addition, the vine is the source of life for the grapes in the vineyard just as Jesus is the source of eternal life, quality of life and the foundation of our faith.

As Jesus often did, He is teaching his followers that He as the True Vine is replacing Israel as Yahweh’s plan of salvation for the world. Said directly that He and He alone can and will do what Israel failed to do time and time again which is to share God with the world not only through word but also by living a Holy Life. Yet even though Israel struggled with sin, Christ came to share the Gospel with the house of Israel first because the Lord is still merciful and loving to the descendants of Abraham.

God the Father is the Gardener

Jesus refers to God The Father as the vinedresser who will cut off or remove unfruitful branches. He will also prune the fruitful branches so that they may produce even more fruit.

In our modern culture many people do not like to talk about the judgement, but the truth is that because God is a holy and righteous God there is a judgement for those who sin or reject Him.

What many people never seem to grasp is two very important principles which are:

1) Sin is defined by what the Bible says is Sin not what each individual or culture feels is sin because the Bible is God’s infallible word and mankind’s opinions are biased based on personality, environment, and culture.

2) By rejecting Jesus as you Lord and Savior one is thereby declaring themselves their own God and are essentially practicing idolatry. I realize that some will think my view a little extreme, but the Bible teaches us that lawlessness and rebellion are each person doing what is right in their own eyes instead of following God’s instructions. By refusing to submit to God and creating their own realities and spending their lives investing in their own lifestyles instead of the ways of God they are therefore putting that individualistic and sinful lifestyle first and serving themselves or their sin instead of the God who is the sovereign creator of heaven and earth.

So if we can grasp the reality that we serve a loving God who is also a righteous and Holy God then it is much easier to understand what Jesus is explaining which is that those who reject God will in fact have to face the judgment and if they do not receive salvation in time will be cast to a devil’s hell that was never meant for them.

Sinners are judged not because God sent them there rather on the contrary it is because they chose to go there by rejecting God and either living for themselves or serving false gods.

The Father Prunes Every Fruitful Branch to Make It More Fruitful

Grapes like many other plants actually flourish when pruned.

The Father prunes us in our Christian walk as well so that we may flourish.

The good news is that Jesus tells us that we have already been pruned by the words of His message and choosing to follow Him. But the pruning will be a continual lifelong process as the Holy Spirit dwells in us and sanctifies us to be more Christlike.

Have you ever felt like you were being stretched too thin or that you have so much to do that there is a weight on your chest or that things that seemed easy are not more difficult even though you are trying your best? Or maybe a life circumstance seems to be more than you can handle.

Most of the time we give the devil too much credit and say he is giving us trouble. While that is true sometimes, other times God is allowing us to experience trials and testing to prune us and make us more fruitful either in our current season or in the season to come.

James 1:2–4 NLT

2 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.

You see everything that happens to us is Father-filtered and what the devil means for harm God uses for good. Through our trials even though our faith is tested this temporary stress provides the opportunity for our endurance to grow. Then at some point our endurance becomes so developed and complete that no matter what happens to us our faith remains strong, and we have peace knowing that the Lord thy God is already working things out for us! Somebody give Him praise today!

Other times the Lord prunes not to increase our endurance but rather because there may be behavior that needs to be removed from your life. Maybe there is not obvious sin in your walk but there may be mindsets that need adjusting or even people or activities that take us away from the specific plan and purpose God has for our lives.

Personally, I have been guilty many times of having too many logs in the fire and at times the Lord has had to shut down projects that while good were taking time and energy away from what He has called me to do. It is very important for us to never mistake activity for progress because they are two different things. Amen!

Hear me today don’t be surprised when God may prune certain things from your life even if they are not bad things or sin so that you can produce more fruit in the specific calling He has placed on your life.

For example, I am called to Pastor an outwardly focused family church so while I could start a care ministry for example which is great it is not what I specifically am called to do and would actually dilute my called ministry and make me less effective overall in God’s specific plan and purpose for my life. It would be wiser of me to raise up a servant leader who does feel called to do that ministry because they will not only do it better, but it will also allow me more time to operate where the Lord has placed me.

This is the reason why the office of a Deacon was created so that the Apostles could focus on preaching and teaching the word of God and not the daily distribution of bread. It is also why Moses appointed judges to settle minor conflicts among the Israelites in Wilderness because he could not be responsible for hearing every problem that would arise otherwise, he would burn out and not have as much time with the Lord praying and hearing His word which Moses was to deliver to the people.

Let me be clear as a church body and brothers and sisters in Christ we should all volunteer to help out as we are able to. However, you should not spend more time on projects you are not called to do than the main thing the Lord has called you to. This may sound simple, but it does require integrity because it is all too easy to say I am not helping because that’s not my calling which is wrong but it is also ok to politely tell someone I cannot make it because I do not have the available time right now. In either case we need to walk with integrity and realize we are accountable not only to one another but also to the Lord. This is a lesson I have had to learn as a man who has two full time jobs and a family. There have been many ministry opportunities that while good projects I was not able to be a part of because to do so would take away the little time I have with my calling or my family. The good news is that if you are open and honest with people, they will be more understanding and when done right both parties support and pray for each other therefore maintaining unity in the body with a we all can win type mindset.

Christians Are The Branches

Jesus gives us as His followers very specific instructions. Repeatedly He reminds us to remain in His love and that He will remain in our love. This is similar to Jesus remaining in the Father’s love and the Father in His love. Said differently, Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are one and cannot be separated and have are all together perfect love.

Jesus desires for us to have that same relationship with Him because He love us like the Father loves Him. Jesus promises us that when we stay in Him that not only will we be fruitful, but we will be very fruitful. So, what is our fruitfulness? It is being His disciples and by being His disciples it brings glory to the Father.

Jesus also promises us that when we remain in His love that we can ask The Father anything in Jesus’s name and it will be granted. So that raises the question of how exactly we can be sure to remain in His love.

Jesus teaches that we must obey His commandments just as He obeys the Father’s commandments. He has shared the good news with us so that we can have joy full and overflowing.

So what are the commandments which Jesus wants us to follow? Simply put it is to love one another as He loved us. Then the example of laying down one’s life for another is the greatest love ever shown. So, we can safely say that Jesus desires us to live our lives serving others and not just ourselves. And while we may not be required to literally lay down our lives physically in most cases like He did, we should invest our time, resources and talents for the Kingdom of God in service to others.

You see if I am spending my life investing in others like Jesus did and tells us to do then I don’t have time to be inwardly focus on my own problem and experiences because I realize that life is bigger than my individual situation and more importantly this outwardly focused mindset pleases and honors God.

Throughout this passage while Jesus gives us joy by sharing all the good news, He is completely forthcoming in warning us that if we do not have fruitful lives and love and serve others than we are not in alignment with God’s plan and purpose and therefore will be held accountable for that.

Jesus ends the metaphor with wonderful news that He chose us to produce fruit for the Kingdom and that He calls us friends. Also, again He tells us that whatever we ask the Father for in Jesus’s name will be given to us. And lastly that the commandment of Christ is to love one another.

Closing

So, in closing if you haven’t done anything to honor God by serving others lately than there is no better time than now to start. And if you haven’t shown genuine love for a brother and sister in Christ lately, please do so today.

You see these days are short and we want to remain in Christ’s love and receive all the blessing He has in store not only for us but for those we lead to him and encourage in Him.

Prayer

May God richly bless you all and remember our joy is in Jesus!