I Am The True Vine (You Are The Branches) - John 15 V 1-11 This Is Part 1 Series

I AM THE TRUE VINE (You are the branches) - John 15 v 1-11 THIS IS PART 1

This teaching on the vine (actually Vine) is all about abiding in the Lord. It will focus on dwelling and abiding. Just so we see the passage clearly I will put it here:

{{John 15:1 “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser. John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit. John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. John 15:5 I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you. John 15:8 By this is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Abide in My love. John 15:10 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. John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”}}

VERSE 1

Turn to John 15. The Lord said He is the True Vine – “I am the True Vine”. (verse 1) Now, at the outset, let us wonder why he introduced the word “true” and did not just say, “I am the Vine,” as He did a bit later. Well, the true vine grows in the perfect soil and in the perfect conditions, and from perfect stock. It does not suffer from blight and other diseases. It produces perfect fruit. The ordinary vine grows in a variety of soils, and ideal conditions are sought for it, but it still produces mixed quality fruit. The perfect conditions of the Lord’s Vine were the hillsides of opposition and the elements that battled Him. It is what a man faces that reveals the true mettle of that man.

This vine metaphor is not a new concept to the Jews who heard these words, as the vine and the vineyard were known symbols for Israel in Old Testament times and one of these we will look at. Turn to Isaiah 5 v 1-7. {{Isaiah 5:1 “Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill, Isaiah 5:2 and He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in the middle of it and hewed out a wine vat in it. Then He expected it to produce good grapes but it produced only worthless ones.

Isaiah 5:3 “Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. Isaiah 5:4 What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? Isaiah 5:5 Now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard. I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed. I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground, Isaiah 5:6 and I will lay it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”

Isaiah 5:7 The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”}}

Isaiah wrote this of the nation in his time that had departed from Jehovah. It adopted the idolatrous sins of the heathen nations and turned to sacrifices to idols. The rejected the prophets and despised the Lord. Now God gives a parable of The Vineyard. Verse 7 explains the two main symbols – the vineyard is Israel and also Judah which was delightful at the start.

The vineyard started to go mutant and did not produce what God expected and wanted. However look at verses 2 and 4. God did everything for Israel. He could do no more. He attended to every need, but the vineyard produced only worthless and mutant grapes. The worthless vines were the men of Israel. They were malformed vines that corrupted the vineyard of the Lord. He had no choice but to abandon them. The place was left to its own choosing and they chose idols, bloodshed and adultery. Not long after they fell into judgement in the invasion of Babylon.