I Am The True Vine Series

I Am the True Vine

John 15:1-11

1. A lot of flowers are in bloom right now. Florists make a fiving marketing them.

Man, to florist: ‘I'd like a bunch of flowers, please.”

Florist: “Certainly, sir. What flowers would you like?”

Man: “Err ... I'm not sure ... Ummm ..”

Florist: “Let me help you, sir — what exactly have you done?” [www.times-gazette.com]

2. Vegetables are another category of plants. There are biological definitions of vegetables and culinary ones. For example, a tomato, zucchini, or pepper are biologically a fruit, but from a culinary point of view, they are treated as vegetables.

3. Then we have fruit. Our son has planted a number of fruit trees, and we planted the peach tree at the parsonage. Other fruit, however, grows on vines, most notably the grape.

4. The ancients cherished grapes, because from them they could make wine. And wine would keep. In many ways, it was the beverage of choice, often mixed with water to stretch it – and to disinfect water.

5. Jesus often alluded to vineyard and wine, from talking about wineskins to turning water into wine to the Lasst Supper. The Bible mentions vineyards at least 60 times and wine over 200 times. So when Jesus used a metaphor for Himself as being a vine, and believers being branches producing fruit, the imagery was near at hand and familiar. To some of us, maybe not as much.

Main Idea: Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure, having promised the Holy Spirit to minister in His stead; He now describes how His disciples can relate to Him, even though He is no longer physically present.

I. The BACKGROUND of Jesus’ Teaching

A. Israel as a VINE (Isaiah 5:1-7)

“Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He 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.

“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What 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?

“And 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. I 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. For 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 righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”

B. The MESSIAH as one who restores the demolished vine, Israel (Psalm 80:8-19).

You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River. Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?

The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.

Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.

They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face! But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!

Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name! Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

C. The possible visual BACKDROP for this teaching is the Temple door.

• 100 feet by 34 feet gold….when Titus destroyed Jerusalem and sold the gold, the price of gold in the Roman province of Syria dropped 50%.

II. Jesus Relates to Us Like a Nurturing VINE (1-5).

A. Jesus is the AUTHENTIC productive vine, those who identify with Him are branches (1-3).

1. An allegory, Father is the vine dresser, Jesus, the vine, His followers, the branches.