Fruit Of The Branches I Series

FRUIT OF THE BRANCHES I

Series on John 15 pt. 10

John 15:4

2/25/07

God’s Word! This is God’s Word (Bible). God! Not the words of a man named Matthew, John or Paul, but God. God speaking to us. While many folks say they believe that this is God’s Word, it seems rather odd that their actions seem to say something different. If we really believe that these are the Words of our creator, the Words of our Lord and Saviour, then why do we not have the desire to study it as we should. Why do we not care about what it really says?

You see I like to read. I enjoy my Field and Stream magazine as well as other hunting magazines. I like to read my Military History Magazine. I do read the Daily Star, (though it would be a stretch to say I really enjoy it. But I read it). But you see those are the words of men and women, of mere mortals. But God Word calls us to a higher ideal. While I read those things I study God’s Word. I want to know not just what it says, (reading), I want to know what it really means, (studying). Every week I seek to open up to you the riches of God’s Word. I seek not just to read it you, but to show you what it really means.

Some may ask me, How can you take months to preach through a single chapter of the gospel of John? If I just read it to you, it would take a week or two. But I desire for you to know what is God is telling us, what is He telling you!

I can honestly say that I find great joy in unfolding God’s Word, digging into it to uncover it’s gems. I further find great joy in communicating those gems to you. That is why it takes me months to get through a chapter of John’s gospel. To do otherwise I believe is to neglect God’s Word. To neglect my call to proclaim God’s Word. To spend little time looking into God’s words is to, I my view, say that God does not have that much to say, or what He does say is simply not that important us. However God’s word to me is important, and He has so much to tell us, and that is why I spent the time I do in preaching through passages of Scripture.

With that in mind let us turn to our passage for today. Which is once more going to be John 15:4.

John 15:4 “"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

In order for a person to fully understand what is being said in this verse, as well as the first part of John 15, you have to have some understand of some key words in the passage. If you do not have an understanding of these key words, then the passage makes little sense. That pretty much tell is what we have been doing in our study thus far into John 15.

First you have to understand who the vine is; “"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

If I have a improper view of who the vine is, my whole understanding of the passage will be faulty. We have seen that the vine, that is the true vine is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

We have to know who the branches are. “"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

Again, if we do not have an understanding of just who these branches are, then we have a defective view of the whole passage. We have seen that there are two branches here. Just as you have a TRUE vine, we have true branches. We also have counterfeit branches, which as we have seen are counterfeit Christians. These are mentioned in John 15:2 & 6. These are the fruitless branches. The true branches that Jesus is speaking of here in John 15:4 are indeed true believers in Christ, those who have been born again of the Spirit of God.

Also to understand 15:4 we must know what it means to abide in Christ. “"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

We spent a couple weeks looking at what it is to abide in Christ. We looked at some very practical ways by which we are to abide in Christ. Once more we can see if we have a distorted view of what it is to abide in Christ, we end up with a distorted view of the whole passage of Scripture.