THE BRANCHES
Series on John 15 pt. 2
John 15:2
12/17/06
I want to show you some optical illusions this morning. This man draws these pictures so that when you look at them a certain way, they appear to be three dimensional. But it is all a optical illusion.
Some folks live their lives like a optical illusion. They claim to be one thing but in reality they are something else. The majority of people living in the US claim to be Christian. But if one looks to the Scripture to define what a true Christian is, we see that there are many folks who simple do not fit in with what God defines as a true disciple of Christ. They are living a life of illusion.
Last week we are began a series of messages on John chapter 15. One of the thinks that Jesus defines for us in John 15 is what a true disciple of Christ looks like. What as some things that should be found in their lives. Last week we looked at the vine and vinedresser. This week we will begin to look at the branches.
Please turn with me to our passage for this morning. John 15. We will be reading verse 1-6, but our focus will be one verse 2;
“"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 bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. "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. "I am the vine, you [are] the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
As we begin to take a look at who these branches are I want to make two points. The first is my desire to see each one of you grow spiritually through the study of John 15. When I went to visit my sister’s family over the Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law was telling me how big his church, 700 people. This week I received an email from a pastor down in Alabama who was interested in getting the complete set of my Titus messages, (that’s right all 107 of them). He pastors a church of 2000. I know that most pastors dream about have a big church. And to be honest I used to.
But my desire has really changed. My desire to have a spiritually growing church. I would be lying to say that I do not want this church to grow numerically. Certainly I want people to be saved, and come to church here. Certainly, I want people to feel at home here and join our fellowship.
But rather then have a church of 700 or 2000 I would rather have a church of 70-100 folks who love the Lord like there is no tomorrow. I would rather have a church full of folks who serve as they should, who pray as they should, who read the Bible as they should, who give as they should. Give me a church of 70 folks who have a hunger for God’s Word over a church of 700 any day. I can say that I mean that sincerely.
As we go through John 15 please keep that in mind. I present these things to you so that you will grow in Christ, because that is my desire for each one you.
The second point I want to make before we get into this passage is connected to the first. I present this material for you to first and foremost examine yourself. Too often we read the Scripture looking for how we can apply to someone else. I will admit that I am first in line when it comes to doing this.
But as we talk about being a true disciple of Christ, as we examine the wonderful teachings found in John 15, listen by examining yourself? Ask yourself how does this apply to me? Is Jesus talking about me? After you have done that, then and only then can you apply to someone else.
As our Lord states in Matt. 7:5 "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
So let us make sure we get rid of the planks before we go trying to pull out the specks.
OK let us now turn our attention to the passage. As we look at verse 2-6 we begin to see the main teaching of Christ in the first part of John 15. While our Lord teaches a few different truths here, truths that we will examine in turn. There is one main truth that He is declaring in these verses, and that ABIDE IN CHRIST. We must abide in Christ, the true vine, in order that we might not only produce fruit, but produce “much” fruit.
That word “much” in verse 5 is the Greek word “POLUS”. It is also translated “great”, or “abundant”. What Jesus is saying is that not only will His disciple bear fruit, but they should bear much fruit, a great amount of fruit, abundant fruit.
So the main teaching here is abide in Christ. We also can see that our Lord Jesus Christ also presents us with two man groups within this teaching. First branches that bear fruit, (2b, 5, 8), and branches that do not bear fruit.
We also see the results of this fruit bearing or lack there of. Fruit bearing branches are pruned. Fruitless branches are cast out of the vine, gathered up and burned.
This brings us back to the first part of verse 2; “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He (that is the Father) takes away…” The question therefore needs to be asked “Who are these fruitless branches?”
There are three main views regarding who the fruitless branches are in this passages.
The first is what I would all the Arminian view. (The name Arminian comes from a man named Joseph Arminius. He developed a theology that bears his name.) But in this view the fruitless branches are genuine Christian who loss their salvation. Because they do not bear fruit they fall from the grace of God and loss their salvation, and are thus dammed. In other words because they are unfruitful, the Heavenly Father removes them out of the spiritual body of Christ.
The second view of who these fruitless branches are comes in two variations. The first states that these are genuine Christians, but because of their fruitlessness the are divinely disciplined. The taking away spoken of in verse 2 speaks of physical death, but not spiritual death. They do not lose their salvation, but they are prematurely taken into the presence of the Lord for their lack of obedience to God.
A supporting verse for this position would be 1 Cor 11:29-30 “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” Of course the sleep mentioned their refers to death.
The second variation of this line of thought is that these are genuine Christians but that the words “He takes away” in verse should be translated, “lifts up” and not “takes away” or “cut off”. As James Montgomery Boice states in his commentary; verse 2 should read, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he lifts up”.
The Greek word translated “takes away” can in fact be translated “lift up”, it depends on what the context calls for. Boice along with some others, takes this to mean that God lifts up the fruitless branches in an effort to get them to bear fruit.
The third way in which the branches mentioned in verse 2 can be understood is that they are not in fact genuine Christians, but that there fruitless branches are not true disciples. They are as we mentioned at the beginning of my sermon, folks who are living a live of illusion. These folks have experienced not a genuine union with Christ, but one that is external and artificial. While they may claim to believe and fellow Christ, their fruitlessness reveals their true hearts. They are counterfeit Christians.
So what view do we go with. I believe that the third view is the one that the Scripture shows to be true. There are eight reasons why we ought to hold to the that view that Jesus here is not speaking of genuine Christians in verse 2. We are not going to get through all of them today, but I want you to understand that each reason applies not only to our understanding of John 15 but to our understanding of what it is to truly abide in Christ and bear fruit for God.
The first reason. In regards to the Arminian view of a genuine believer losing their salvation, this view contradicts numerous other Scriptures, and the clear teaching of the Word of God that a believer cannot lose their salvation. The teaching that a believer cannot lose their salvation is called the “perseverance of the saints” or “eternal security.”
We can spent a lot of time on the subject of the “perseverance of the saints”. There are verses that folks who deny this doctrine would point to and so forth, but for our study I just want to look at a couple of passages.
The first passage I want to point is John 10:28-29; “"And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
I want to notice who is it that give eternal life? Jesus states that He gives eternal life. We don’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, it is something Jesus gives to us. And when Jesus gives eternal life notice what He states next, “they shall never perish”. In the Greek we have a double negative here. This is done to stress the fact that once Jesus gives eternal life, that person shall never perish.
Never in this passage means “never”.
Jesus goes on to say that no one can snatch them out of His hands. There is nothing or no one who can snatch them, that is those whom Christ has saved, out of Christ’s hand. Why?
Because the Father has given to them to the Son, and “He is greater than all.” To say that you can be snatched out of the hand of God by fruitlessness, is to say that there is something greater then the Father. And that something would have to be you.
To say we can lose our salvation is to say that our fruitlessness, our disobedience, our ungodliness, is greater than God. Our fruitlessness, our disobedience, our ungodliness can pluck us right out of the hand of God and drop us into the lake of fire.
But as we can clearly see that is not what Jesus tell us in John 10:28-29; “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
Look back at our passage. An even more significant word is used in John 15:6; “"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered…” Jesus here is speaking of an unfruitful branch.
He states that it is “cast out”. The word in Greek is “BALLO”.
Listen to John 6:37; “"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” Guess what Greek word is translated “cast out” here? “EXBALLO”. Which means “not cast out”.
So Jesus uses the same terminology as in John 15:6, but He states; one “…who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” Once the Father gives us to the Son, once we go to Christ, He will NOT cast us out. There is no circumstance that is give that would cause Him to cast one out. He does not “I will by no means cast out” unless that person is fruitless.
To hold to the Arminian view of John 15:2, one would have to contradict the very words of Jesus in John 6:37.
As I said we could spent quite a bit of time showing “perseverance of the saints” or “eternal security” from the word of God for we have only seen the tip of the ice burg. But the scripture is clear. John 15:2 cannot be talking about genuine believers losing their salvation. To make that fit you have to ignore the testimony of so many other Scriptures.
The second reason I believe that the third view mentioned regarding John 15:2 is the one that the Scripture show to be true is because the second view, that is that John 15:2 is speaking of genuine believers that are brought under judgment of God by dying or that God is “lifting them up” is that if you do take the plain words of Jesus regarding what happens to the fruitless branches they sound more like eternal condemnation the just physical death or chastisement.
I believe that we need to look at verse 2 in light of verse 6; "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;…” 2a; “"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
That terminology is used throughout Scripture not to denote chastisement, but eternal separation from God. Listen to some passages;
Matt 13:40-42 “"Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, "and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Matt 7:19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Mark 9:43 "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched.”
Over and over in the Scripture being thrown into the fire is language used to denote eternal judgment not chastisement of believers.
Boice and others do say that verse 6 has do to with our works being judged, our works being burned up. They would reference this to 1 Cor. 3:13-14;
“each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
The problem with that view is twofold. First, in John 15:6 notice what it is that is being burned; “"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
The branch itself is thrown into the fire, not the fruit of the branch, which would be our works. Yet in 1 Cor. 3 we see that ones work is put through the testing fires, not the person. So one passage it is the branch that goes through the fire, the other it is the fruit.
The second problem is that we lose the contrast that is being made in John 15 between being pruned and being taken away. Granted Boice translates verse 2 as lifted up as opposed to cast out. But you cannot translate verse 6 “lifted up” it just doesn’t fit.
If you are speaking of the believers as both fruit bearing and fruitless I believe you lost the point that Jesus is making. If verse 2 really should be translated “lift up” and it simply has the idea of the Father trying to get the branch to grow fruit, how is that any different from what the Father is doing through pruning that branch.
I believe that if you hold to the second view of John 15:2 you simply lost the distinction that our Lord is trying to bring about between fruitful Christians, and counterfeit Christians, by comparing pruning with casting out. You cannot get away from the fact that in verse 6 we have branches that are being “cast out” regardless of how you translate verse 2.
Well we got through two of my reason for holding to the third view. I pray that you can see how what we have covered certainly has a much wider application then just John 15. The two main points I would have you take away today is that 1. You are secure in Christ, and 2. There are such things as counterfeit Christians.
Next week we will look at the six other reasons that I hold to the third view that Jesus is speaking of false “believers”. The final six reason will be supportive of why hold that view, as opposed to seeing why the other views are no viable as we have done today.
As I stated at the beginning of this sermon my desire is for each one of you to grow in Christ. I pray that this morning’s message has given you a greater insight into what the Lord Jesus is communicating here.
I pray that this message has given you some food for thought as you reflect on what it means to be a branch abiding in the true vine that is Jesus Christ.
In closing I want to say that to abide in Christ means that you have professed Him as your Lord and Saviour. That you have trusted in His gospel, that Jesus died for your sins, that He was buried and that He rose again three days later. To abide in the true vine begins with a profession of faith in Christ. And I pray that every person as done just. That you have believed in that blessed gospel.
LET US PRAY
