The True Vine

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PRAY

Context

Who is John?
This entire book of the bible is recorded by John, an Apostle of Jesus. John and his brother James were both called by Jesus to be his disciples during his time on earth.
The ESV Study Bible Purpose, Occasion, and Background

The Gospel of John was written by the apostle John, the son of Zebedee, a Palestinian Jew and a member of Jesus’ inner apostolic circle during his earthly ministry

Why did John write his book?

24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

What does he mean in verse 25?
Jesus accomplished a lot. Not only salvation for us but other works on earth as well. Earlier in the book we see
The ESV Study Bible (Literary Features)
As an extension of this, the first half of the book is built around seven great “signs” that Jesus performed as proof of his messianic identity (see 2:1–11; 4:46–54; 5:1–15; 6:5–13; 6:16–21; 9:1–7; 11:1–44).
Sometimes these “signs” or miracles are followed by and “I am” statement (I am the true vine). These “I am” statements are used throughout this gospel to shows Jesus’ character, glory, and power as God. Which all reinforces the central theme of the book of John:

The theme of John’s Gospel is that Jesus is the promised Messiah and Son of God. By believing in Jesus, people can have eternal life (cf. 20:30–31).

I Am Statements
Up to this point, John has documenting Jesus’ “I am” statements. There are seven in total, today’s being the seventh. The previous six are:
7 I am statements in John
The bread of life. (John 6:35)
The light of the world. (John 8:12)
The door. (John 10:7-9)
The good shepherd. (John 10:11)
The resurrection and the life. (John 11:25)
The way, the truth, and the life. (John14:6)
The true vine. (John 15:1-5)
Today we come to the final “I am” statement of John. Where Jesus says “I am the true vine.”

1. The Desire of the Vine Dresser: To Produce Fruit

Not many of you probably know this about me, but I am a serial killer of flowers, and basically plants of any and all varieties. I can walk up to a plant and ask if it needs anything…and it will wilt immediately. Knowing this about me is fascinating, especially when you considered who I married.
As most of you know, my wife is the crazy flower lady. Flowers, vegetables, plants, if it grows in soil, my wife probably loves it. Every time I turn around, we are swapping flowers on the porch, we are swapping vegetables or flowers in the garden, a random plant *POOF* appears on the table, or on the bathroom counter, or on my pillow; you really never know.
If you haven’t gotten the point already, my wife loves plants. She comes by it honestly. As you know, my father in-law has somewhat of a green thumb. Both he and my wife can breathe in a plant’s general direction and it will all but sing and dance. Something about the way they cultivate and nurture their plants is obviously different than the way I do it, because encourages their plants to grow. They, unlike me, know how to help nourish plants in a productive way. While my plants are wishing someone else had bought them, their plants are ripe with flowers and fruit.
Pretty much the entire bible is set in a time where agriculture is a central part of society. Listeners and readers of the Bible would have been familiar enough with agriculture to understand it when used as an analogy or illustration. In the book of John, Jesus uses the relationship between the vines and branches of a plant to describe the relationship between believers and God. In John 15, beginning in verse 1, we read:

I Am the True Vine

15 “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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Before talking about fruit or fruitfulness, Jesus first addresses the relationship between the vine and vine dresser. He begins with:

15 “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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

We see here that Jesus is calling himself the vine = the source of life. We also see that he calls God the father the vine dresser (or the person who tends to and cares for the vine).
What is the role of the vine dresser?
The role of the vine dresser is to tend to the vine so that it produces as much fruit as possible.
What is the fruit Jesus is speaking of here?
Matthew records Jesus using this same word in his Gospel. In this scenario, Jesus is warning against false prophets.

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

From this we can understand ‘fruits’ to mean a life, a message, and teachings consistent with God’s standard for living here on earth. A fruitful life produces things of eternal value. Things that will last long after our bodies have given up. Things like our eternal destination and the impact we had on other for Christ.
But not all will be fruitful (or live their lives according to God’s standards).
Not every branch that is attached to a vine will live, flourish and produce fruit. So what does the vine dresser do with those branches? He can’t leave them. If he leaves them there, they will be attempting to draw life from the vine without purpose. For this reason, they have to be removed.
Who are the branches that don’t produce fruit?
Some believe these are the believers in Christ that are unfruitful for one reason or another.
More likely, especially based on what we will read shortly, these unfruitful branches represent unbelievers or people who claim the name of Jesus, but don’t actually follow him or have fruits to show for their devotion to the vine.
However, there are som good branches, some that bear fruit. What happens to them? They are pruned.
What is pruning? Why are the fruitful branches being pruned?
Definition: “to cut or lop off (twigs, branches, or roots).”
When you first hear that it doesn’t sound like a good thing. But because of God’s design, there is a way in which clipping branches on plants actually encourages the plant to produce more fruit. Pruned branches grow back stronger.
The desire of the vine dresser: to produce fruit.
That branches of the vine will produce fruit: lives, actions, and teachings that are holy. How does this happen?
By removing fruitless branches and nurturing the existing branches in a way that will encourage more fruit production.
The most fruit is produced by the branches that are more strongly connected to the vine.

The Relationship Between the Vine and Branch: Abiding in One Another

Now that we understand the role and relationship between the vine and vinedresser, Jesus moves on to talk about the relationship between the vine and the branches:

3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

When reading these verses, one thing sticks out immediately: the use of the word “abide.”
The word “abide” (or a version of that word) is used 10 times in verses 1-11 (assuming I didn’t miscount).
Jesus isn’t typing this or writing it down so there is no caps lock, underlining, italicizing, bold lettering or anything like that to emphasize the meaning.
Instead, in biblical times, emphasis often comes from repetition.
Jesus has repeated this word 10 times so he must want us to think about it.
So we know the word “abide” is important, but what does it mean?
to remain; continue; stay: - Dictionary.com
When we think about abiding in our own lives, we are abiding right now in this church, Kentucky, and America.
We have a foreign exchange student from Spain living with us right now. Its always interesting to hear the cultural differences between our countries.
Things like when we eat, what we eat; emphasis on sports, work, and hobbies. All kinds of things. Certain things are just so intertwined with the culture that we immediately associate them with ourselves and our country.
For example, if I gave you this list of words, what would be something associated with all of these words:
McDonald’s
Pacific Coast
Walmart
Ranch Dressing
Bald Eagle
Atlantic Coast
Football
Spray on Cheese
Red, White, and Blue
Mount Rushmore
I would think that your immediate thought would be: America. All of these things are in some way associated with America. We associate them that way because they abide in America.
Jesus is making the point here that our lives should be saturated with Him so that we produce fruit that glorifies God.
Jesus is telling us that we should abide in him to the point that when people think of us, they also think of Him. I hope and pray that when people see me, and talk to me, they think “There’s Morgan. Isn’t he that crazy Christian guy?” What an honor that would be, to be immediately associated with Christ. We are to abide in him.
What happens when we abide when we abide in Christ?

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

The stark contrast here is interesting. Jesus gives two options:
Abide in me and bear fruit.
Complete inability to do anything.
A lot of us want to view our relationship with Jesus as optional. Jesus doesn’t say ‘apart from me you can do some things, they just won’t as good as they would be with me.’ He says ‘apart from me, you can do NOTHING.’
Without Christ, everything we do here on earth will wither away and be nothing. Everything you’ve ever worked for: your fancy house, your nice car, your fancy clothes; all of it withers to nothing without Christ.
If we want to anything of eternal value, we need Christ. When we abide in Christ, we produce fruit.
When we abide in Christ, we produce fruit. Later on Jesus says:

but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

What does that mean?

That you should go and bear fruit implies that the purpose of Christ’s choosing people is not merely that their sins be forgiven and they have eternal life but also that their lives be fruitful and productive in fulfilling God’s purposes.

God wants us to abide so we can be forgiven, have eternal life, and have abundant life. He wants our lives to be lived in a way that has eternal value. Value beyond our time here on earth.
What happens to those who don’t abide?

6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

Branches that don’t abide are cut off are thrown into the fire. Fire is not a new illustration or image for the Hebrew people. Fire was often used in the Old Testament to represent the eternal fire of hell. Ezekiel says:

15 And the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest? 3 Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it? 4 Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it, and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything? 5 Behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything! 6 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 7 And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them. 8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel uses fire to show God turning against his people after they have acted faithlessly. Jesus’ illustration in John 15 sends the same message.
The options we see in John 15 are:
Act faithfully, abide in Christ, and produce fruit.
Act faithlessly, do not abide in Christ, and be thrown into the fire.
So how do we act faithfully and abide in Christ?
Well, you’re here. So that’s one big step. Church is most of our primary way in which we are involved in Christian community. Christian community helps hold us accountable to living in a holy manner and reminds us of the beauty of God’s kingdom…so do it!
Another way, in my opinion the primary way, we abide in Christ is by reading the words God gave us: scripture. The bible is the primary way God communicates with us. His infallible, inerrant, perfect scripture is our primary source for knowing how to live holy…so do it!
Another way we can interact with scripture is to memorize it. As someone who has grown up in a digital age, I don’t like wondering. If I have a question about literally anything, I pull out my phone and look it up. With that kind of power its easy to fall into the trap of thinking I don’t need to memorize anything. Why would I memorize this information when I can get it in 5 seconds?
We memorize it so we can recall it in times of need: talking to unbelievers, encouraging a struggling believer, chastising your husband, or whatever it might be for you. Scripture memory should be something every believer is actively pursuing in their lives.
Now some people, like me, sometimes think they’re smart. *I’m not looking at my wife because I’m sure she’s giving you a head shake no* And people like me think “I don’t need to know exactly what it says, I just need to know where it is so I can look it up. Here’s the deal: if you don’t know what it says, you probably don’t know where it is either. So while you’re into it, just memorize what it says too.
There’s one more way I’m going to bring up for how we can abide in Christ, my church folks know what’s coming, its prayer.
Why pray? We see throughout the entirety of scripture: a person prays, God moves; then another person prays, and God moves; and another, and another, and on down the line. Pray because prayer works.
Jesus says:

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

God wants to answer our prayers! When we pray and God answers our prayers, we praise God. Therefore, he is glorified.
So pray! Get down on you knees and ask God for forgiveness of your sins, confess to God the beauty and glory of his love for you, praise him for your salvation, and beg him to answer your prayers for his will and your desires to walk in holiness.
So there it is: go to church, read and memorize scripture, and pray. Things church people have been told they should do plenty of times before.
Why is that though? I promise you we don’t get this starter kit at seminary that says “just tell them do these three things, it’s always worked for us.”
Preachers, pastors, and evangelists have repeated this for centuries, not because of habit…but because it works…so do it.

Christ: Our Life, Love, and Joy

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Abiding in Christ is what believers do. Those who love God follow his commandments. We don’t follow God’s commandments out of blind faith in something we don’t understand, but because we trust God’s will and plan for our lives, for the world, and for the universe.
When we follow his commands, we show God our trust and love for him and his plan.
Verse 11 says

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

God wants us to be joyful. He tells us here that our joy comes from God and that our joy may be full in him. All we have to do is abide in him, and he will produce fruit. Our joy comes from knowing that the vinedresser tends to the vine so that our lives will glorify God eternally.
PAUSE
Some here today may ask “I want my joy to be full, I want to abide in Christ, but how do I do it?”
If you don’t understand or want to know more about how to take the first step to abiding Jesus, please come see me or someone near you before you leave so that we can help you take the first step to abiding in Christ, our love and joy.
And believers, go forward this week abiding in Christ and pray God will use you to produce his glorious fruit.
PRAY
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