I Am The True Vine Series

I AM the True Vine

John 15:1-8

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

11-01-2020

Connected

On June 29, 2019, I scratched another item off my bucket list. Joshua, Shiann, and I all jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. It was one of the most terrifying and amazing experiences I’ve ever had and I can’t wait to do it again.

There are two ways you can jump - solo or tandem. I jumped tandem, which means I was literally strapped to my instructor.

Where he went, I went. If he was going out the plane, I didn’t have a choice, I was going as well.

He had already made 8 jumps that day and would finish with about 30. He said he had jumped over 10,000 times all over the world. He knew what he was doing. I just had to stay connected to him and everything was going to be fine.

Did you know that the Christian life is a lot like that? The closer we stay to Jesus, the better.

This morning, we have come to our last I AM statement of this series. Jesus is continuing to encourage his distressed disciples and tells them that if they connected to Him everything is going to be okay.

Turn with me to John 15.

Prayer.

Identity

In the Gospel of John, there are seven “I am” statements that Jesus makes to help His disciples, and us, to understand who He is and what His mission was. [Slide]

1. “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51) As bread sustains physical life, so Christ offers and sustains spiritual life.

 “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12) To a world lost in darkness, Christ offers Himself as a guide.

“I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7,9) Jesus protects His followers as shepherds protect their flocks from predators.

“I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14) Jesus is committed to caring and watching over those who are His.

“I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25) Death is not the final word for those in Christ.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6) Jesus is the bridge back to the Father house, heaven.

Four of these were spoken publicly to the crowd. The fifth was in a private conversation with Mary and the last two are given directly to His disciples.

Remember, that chapters 13-17 of John are called the “farewell discourse.” It covers about four hours on the Thursday night before Jesus would go to the cross on Friday.

He has washed their feet, told them that He would be betrayed, and rebuked Peter’s confident assertion that he was willing to die for Him by saying that before the rooster crows, Peter would deny Him three times.

Chapter 14 ends with these words:

“Come now; let us leave.” (John 14:31)

Jesus and His disciples are on the move. They have left the upper room and walking through Jerusalem eastward to a little garden called Gethsemane.

He looks at His frightened disciples and as Jesus turns and looks back toward the temple, He can see the huge golden grape vine that adorns the Temple doors. The grape clusters were said to be as big as a human.

He tells them, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” (John 15:1)

Remember that by using those two little Greek words “Ego emie”, “I Am,” Jesus was claiming to be God.

God gave Moses His covenant name, “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14).

There are people that would say that Jesus never claims to be God in the Scriptures. Every time He made one of these I AM statements He was claiming deity.

The religious leaders understood this and this is why they were plotting to kill Him for blasphemy.

I am the true vine.

This short sentence would have exploded with meaning for His disciples.

Israel was an agricultural society and there were vineyards everywhere.

Jesus used the vineyard in several of His parables and the disciples would have understand the implications of what He was saying.

The vineyard was the symbol of national Israel. It was on even on their coins.

But every time the image of the vine was used in relation to Israel in the Old Testament it is a rebuke and judgement.

Isaiah sang this song about Israel:

“I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.” (Isaiah 51-2)