Jesus is my True Vine
John 15:1-8 (ESV):
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2Every 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.
3Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
4Abide 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.
5I 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.
6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gath ered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
In the textbook we are using for my Thursday class, The Life of Jesus Christ, J. Dwight Pentecost cate gorized the multitudes of people who followed Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry into three kinds of people:
1. The Curious – They were the people who were attracted to Jesus Christ to hear His words and see His miraculous works. He called them disciples in Matthew 5:1.
2. The Convinced – Among the curious, there were also many who came to put their trust in Jesus Christ. They were also referred to as disciples in John 2:11.
3. The Committed – Then, the convinced were challenged to make a deeper commitment to follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24-28).
Today, if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, where do you fall based on these three catego ries? It is true that we all can start as part of the curious, but we should end up becoming convinced. Then, after we have tried Him and realized that He is worth following, we must move to becoming more com mitted. The truth of the matter is that we will never enjoy the full blessings of our life with Jesus if we settle in following Him casually.
As we continue to unpack our overall theme, “Jesus Is the Answer for Me,” I want us to study to gether this awesome function of Jesus Christ being our true vine. Again, just like what we have seen in the past Sundays, Jesus uses some metaphors that were quite familiar to the people during Bible times, like Je sus being the Bread of life or the Good Shepherd. For this morning, we moved to agriculture, which was a very common source of livelihood during those days. Now, to understand better the significance of this ref erence to Jesus Christ, we have to familiarize ourselves with Isaiah 5:1-7 (ESV):
1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
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5And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteous ness, but behold, an outcry!
In this passage, it is very clear that the nation of Israel was portrayed as a vine planted by Jehovah. However, instead of living for God and giving Him good fruits, they turned away from Him and gave Him only bad fruits. So, fast-forward to the New Testament, Jesus Christ is now presented as the true vine that would satisfy the demand of the Father, the vineyard owner, for good fruits. Therefore, if you and I choose to attach ourselves to Jesus Christ, we must also choose to bear fruit because our fruitfulness is the clearest proof that we truly belong to Christ.
So, if you have this desire to bear fruit, there are three keywords you must catch from our main text. But before I expound these three words, it would help us also understand the context of our text. In John 14, Jesus spent some time explaining to His disciples about His coming death and departure to the Father to pre pare a place for them in heaven. In light of His coming death, it is important for the disciples to go deeper in their commitment to Him. Why? The reality is that without Him being physically present, it would be so much easier for these disciples to live unfruitful lives. For us who don’t physically see Jesus Christ today, this doc trine of Jesus being the True Vine is critical for our stability and fruitfulness. Let’s now examine these three keywords:
I ABIDING (vs. 1-4)
Let’s begin with the first four verses - “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 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. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 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.
Within this farming metaphor, Jesus refers to Himself as the True Vine, which simply means that He is the source of true life for the believers. Their spiritual health and vibrancy depend solely on Him. Next, the believers of Jesus Christ are identified as the branches attached to the Vine that provide all the necessary nu trients in order for them to survive. Lastly, the Father is Vinedresser. He is portrayed here as a busy, active, faithful gardener working in His vineyard. As we have established already, it is obvious that the Vinedresser is working hard to care for the vineyard because He expects to receive good fruits from it.
Throughout the main text, the word “abide” is repeatedly used seven times (7X). The word literally suggests “remaining or staying connected.” The idea of remaining or abiding in Christ has to do with intimacy and re lationship. Jesus is our source, the only one who can provide the spiritual sustenance and vitality we need to be useful believers. With the emphasis on fruitfulness, the believers, as the branches, must remain closely
connected to the vine. We only produce fruit when we abide in Him. Verse 5 plainly stated this truth – “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.”
Don’t miss the phrase, “For apart from me you can do nothing.” Are you willing to accept this truth? As branches, we cannot produce life on our own. We must draw life from the Vine. In fact, if we follow the metaphor, branches, once separated from the Vine, are useless and are only good for burning. Jesus con veyed the very same truth in verse 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.”
Dr. Tony Evans, commenting on this verse, wrote, “We need to hang out with Him. You cannot avoid
Jesus all week and then show up on Sunday morning expecting growth. We only pro duce much fruit when we abide in Him.”
It is quite humbling to accept that we are dependent creatures. But this truth
should never be taken negatively. Instead, we should continually celebrate that we have Jesus Christ providing us the help we need to thrive in this life. The apostle Paul was nev er bothered with this truth. In fact, he declared these words:
Philippians 4:13 (ESV):
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
2 Corinthians 3:5 (ESV):
5Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,
Indeed, we are insufficient without His help. But we can accomplish more than we can imagine with His help.
The question now is: Are you abiding in Him? How do you know that you are abiding in Him? This passage in John15 defines for us what we can experience when we are abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ:
A. Answers to prayers – God’s presence is manifested in our lives through answers to our prayers. John 15:7 (ESV):
7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. B. Obedience to God’s Commands – There is a deep desire to maintain an obedient life. John 15:9-10 (ESV):
9As 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 command ments and abide in his love.
C. Profound Joy – There is also a deep-seated joy that is not dependent in our life’s circumstances. John 15:11 (ESV):
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
These three blessings are incredible, and we definitely don’t want to miss them. Let me challenge you to make sure that you abide in the Vine, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.
II ABOUNDING (v. 5)
The next I wanted to emphasize is based on verse 5 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoev er abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
If you examine this verse, it is quite explicit that God has designed us to be capable of not only bear ing fruit but bearing much fruit. As we have established earlier, our Vinedresser is a faithful gardener who is actively working to help us bear as much fruit as possible. So, if we are not bearing fruit, obviously, the prob lem does not lie on the Vine or the Vinedresser but on the branches because of our failure to respond to all the graces we are receiving from them.
Before we examine what the owner of the Vineyard does for us to bear fruit, let’s first consider this passage in Luke 13:6-9 (ESV):
6And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it
and found none.
7And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’
8And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.
9Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Here, it is evident that the vineyard owner regularly examined the fig tree to seek fruits. In fact, he was willing to do this for three years to give the tree enough time to bear fruit. When the tree failed to bear fruit, the owner concluded that the tree could not keep wasting the ground and must be cut because of its failure to bear fruit. That’s how we should see the Father towards us. He is constantly seeking fruits from us. I trust that we don’t disappoint him by failing to respond to all He is willing to do for us.
According to verse 2, there are two activities that the Vinedresser does to help us grow. A. He “takes away”
This phrase should never be interpreted as being separated from the Vine or losing one’s salvation in Christ. Rather, the best interpretation comes from the Greek word used for this verb: "airo.” The phrase verb could be translated “lifts up.” In other words, the branches in a vineyard could become large and drag on the ground easily. So, God, the gardener, “takes them away” from the ground by lifting them up. God will, therefore, seek to make us fruitful by lifting us up, encouraging us, and motivating us. For example, God can use His Word as the source of our encouragement, or He can also bring us word of encouragement through other believers He brings into our lives.
B. He “prunes”
The pruning of branches that bear fruit involves cutting away excess leaves so that the branch can get more nutrients from the vine. The pruning process is considered cleansing the branch so that the excess leaves do not rob the branch of the nourishment it needs to be more fruitful. This process is always painful, but it is always productive. Sometimes, God will bring challenges and trials into our lives to enable us to grow in our faith and cast off anything hindering full productivity.
The Bible plainly states that our trials are designed to make us better people.
James 1: 2-4 (ESV):
2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
So, when you have trials, don’t immediately pray that God removes them. First, ask which area of your life God is trying to improve through your trial. Then, do your best to grow better in that area. Remem ber, that is God’s way of helping you become more productive. We may not enjoy the time of pruning, but rest assured, it is for our highest good.
This is probably the best place in the sermon to define what fruits God is looking for from us. You might be asking what fruits I must bear in my life. Dr. Kent Hughes explains it this way:
“The fruit Jesus speaks of is not primarily evangelism but simply the reproduction of the life of the vine in the branch. Jesus is looking for the fruit of his life in us. If the inward graces of the Holy Spirit are not present in our lives ("love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful-ness, gentleness, self-control," Galatians 5:22, 23), if these qualities are not present (not perfected but present) in our
lives, we must face the fact that we may not be true believers. There must be
something of the life of the vine in us if we belong to God! There must be Christlike ness.”
So, is the life of Christ abounding in your life? Again, God wants to see that bear
much fruit by demonstrating the life of Jesus Christ to the world.
III ADORING (v. 8)
Lastly, let’s read verse 8 - By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Examining this verse, the third keyword, which is adoring, is drawn from the truth that our fruitful ness brings glory to the Father and is the strongest proof that we are true followers of Jesus Christ. Evident ly, these two items are inseparable. If your fruitfulness is Christlikeness, God will ultimately be pleased be cause He is working in our lives to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:29 (ESV):
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The verse reveals for us why God saved us. It is not so much that we will go to heaven; it is more of us conforming to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Remember, when God created Adam and Eve, He creat ed them in His image. However, sin destroyed God’s image in us. So, when He decided to save us in eternity past, He also decided to restore His image in us. So, as we keep growing in His image, He is totally glorified because we were saved for that purpose. Of course, once you reflect Christ's image in the world, people around you will conclude that it is because you are seriously following the Lord. I put an emphasis on serious following. I don’t think you would look like Jesus Christ if you were not serious about following Him.
As I close, I pray that you will not miss the three keywords in our study about Jesus as our True Vine: Abiding, Abounding, and Adoring. Here in BCI, this is the foundation of our mission statement:
“Leading people to a life of commitment and productivity in Christ.”
When you join our church, we don’t want you to be just an attender; our desire and prayer is that you grow deeper in your commitment to living for Jesus Christ and living a life of fruitfulness and usefulness. Why do we want you to have that life? We know this is the only way you can bring greater honor and glory to God. May the Lord honor our desire for you that you continue to grow in living a life of commitment and productivity while you are here in Bible Church.