A while back we began a study of the times throughout the Gospel of John where Jesus said, “I am…” I am the Light of the world. I am the Door. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Bread of Life. Tonight I want us to close out this series by looking at another one of these statements that Jesus makes found in John 15:1-8.
I want you to imagine with me that you are sitting at the bedside of your dying father. He’s still young by today’s standards, but the doctor has just told you that it will only be a matter of hours before his life will come to an end. And there you sit, dumbfounded, perplexed, confused. It wasn’t that long ago that you were enjoying his company in the family fishing boat. It was just a little while ago that you were laughing with him around the birthday cake. But now your laughter is replaced by tears. The end is near. It’s just a matter of time until there will be no more opportunity to fellowship with dad.
The silence is broken by your father’s frail voice bidding you to come closer. He has some things that He wants to tell you. He’s waited a long time to say anything, but he can’t wait any longer. And so you draw closer to him and listen intently, knowing that you will never forget the words that are spoken now.
This is where we find the disciples in John 15. The previous two chapters have given us the details of the last supper. You know the story. The night before Passover Jesus and His disciples gather in an borrowed upper room to eat together. He chooses the bread to represent His body and the wine to represent His blood as He shares with His closest friends one more time the reality of His sacrifice. He makes the devastating pronouncement that one of them would betray Him and Peter would deny Him. He takes upon Himself the job of a servant as He washes the feet of His disciples. The end is coming.
No doubt the disciples are sitting there perplexed and dumbfounded as they listen to the words of Jesus. No doubt their hopes for an earthly kingdom are being dashed on the rocks. No doubt they become dejected and saddened as they realize that the time for them to be with Jesus is short. Then Jesus says, “Arise, let us go from here.” And they begin making their way from that upper room to the garden of Gethsemane. They pass through the hustling and bustling streets. They pass through the city gates and they make their way through the ancient vineyards that stand in the shadow of the city of Jerusalem. And Jesus calls his loved ones to come in a little bit closer. He has something that He wants to share with them. And having a supreme ability for taking the common and making it supernatural, He holds a branch full of plump ripened grapes and begins to speak…
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Here in one of Jesus’ final messages to His disciples before His death He says, “I am the Vine.” And I believe that there are at least three things that we can take from this message and apply to our lives today. Let me share those with you quickly this evening.
I think first of all though I must make some distinctions. Jesus says, “I am the vine, my Father is the husbandman, or the vinedresser, and you are the branches.” Jesus is the Vine. Most of us, when we think of a vine, we think of the long, trailing limb that climbs along the trellis. But actually, the vine is the trunk that grows out of the ground. It is what the branches stem from. The Father is the Vinedresser. He is the one who owns the vineyard and the one who tends to it. We are the branches. In a vineyard the branches sprout from the vine and are tied to a trellis or propped up with sticks to keep air circulating and to keep the plants as open as possible to as much sunshine as possible. The branches are what produce the fruit. That’s where the grapes come from. So we have Jesus as the Vine, God the Father as the Vinedresser, and us as the branches. Having made those distinctions, let me share with you the lessons I think we can learn from this passage.
I. The Branch’s Function In The Vineyard
The first thing that I want to point out to you is the branch’s function within the vineyard. What is the purpose of the branch? I just said it a moment ago. But Jesus gives us the answer to that question in verse 8 when He says, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” The branch’s function is to bear fruit.
I read this conversation recently. FARMER: Good morning tree! How are you doing today? TREE: Just fine, farmer! My, isn’t it a lovely morning? FARMER: Yes, it is. Except for one thing--where is your fruit? I see all your nice, green foliage and your sturdy trunk and root system, but where is your fruit? TREE: Master, you will notice I am more firmly anchored than any tree in the orchard. I have the most beautiful leaves to be seen anywhere! I have no broken, sagging branches or scuff marks from workmen’s shoes on my limbs. FARMER: That’s well and good, but I planted you for the purpose of bearing fruit, not to look pretty and preserve yourself! Suppose all of my trees had your attitude! Why have you not produced fruit? TREE: I tried bearing fruit once a few years ago. Some of the beautiful fruit I worked so hard to produce fell to the ground and became rotten. The odor was terrible. My limbs would bend and break and in the effort my whole system was strained--it was all one tree could stand! Then the workmen came and climbed my tender limbs and snapped my branches with their rapid strokes. To top it all, I produced the most fruit of any tree in the orchard and I didn’t get any glory! No, I am content to stay right here and leave fruit-bearing to some other tree. After experiences like these, what do you expect? FARMER: I expect you will make beautiful logs for my fireplace!
Tell me, what good are the branches on an apple tree if they don’t produce apples? What good are the branches on a grapefruit tree if they don’t grow grapefruit? What good are the branches in a vineyard if they don’t produce grapes? Fruitless fruit trees are worthless. A farmer does not plant rows and rows of corn or beans just because it looks pretty when the wind blows across the plains. He plants so he can harvest corn or beans. If there is no corn or beans then the farmer has wasted his time and efforts and resources for nothing. He wants his plants to bear fruit.
Now, I think it’s important that we establish what fruit is. Some would think that fruit bearing means attendance and involvement in church functions. They are a part. They are involved. Therefore they are bearing fruit. But that is such an inadequate definition. Bearing fruit is much more than that.
Others have said, and I think it would be easy for us to assume that when Jesus says, “Bear much fruit,” what He’s really saying is, “Win lots of people to Jesus.” It would be easy to assume that bearing fruit is being likened winning souls. But I don’t think that fruit should be limited to just that definition. That is part of it. And I hope that after this morning you would know that I believe very strongly in the importance of evangelism. But bearing fruit is not just winning souls.
Others have said that the fruit Jesus is talking about here is the fruit of the Spirit… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So to bear fruit is to exhibit these attitudes and qualities. And while these things are something that the Christian should be exhibiting, I don’t believe that bearing fruit should be bound to only the fruit of the Spirit.
Fruit is any action, thought, or attitude of ours that God values because it glorifies Him. Let me show you why I think that. In Titus 3:14 Paul writes these words: “Let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.” If you study the words fruit and good works throughout the Scriptures you will find that they almost always used interchangeably. So bearing fruit is not limited to just evangelism. It’s not just being involved in your church. It’s not even just exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit. It is all of these. It is anything that glorifies God and points others to Him.
Christ’s call is for us to bring glory to God in everything we do. Whether it is preaching the word, witnessing to a friend, having a good attitude in times of hardship, or carrying a neighbor’s groceries, if it’s done from a motive to glorify God and point people to Him then you are bearing fruit. And that is our function. That is our responsibility as branches… to produce fruit.
II. The Branch’s Pruning From The Vinedresser
In this passage we also see the branch’s pruning from the Vinedresser. In verse 2 Jesus says, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.” That sounds pretty troubling, doesn’t it? A lot of people have supposed that what this means is that anyone that doesn’t bear fruit cannot be a Christian. Others have said that if you live without showing evidence of salvation you lose it. But are those explanations consistent with the first four words of that verse? “Every branch in me.” I would tend to think that if you are in Christ you are a Christian. I would also tend to think that the majority of us here today have gone through spells where we really didn’t feel like we were bearing fruit. And I don’t think that we necessarily lost our salvation in every case. So what does Jesus mean?
I think we can answer that question in two parts. First of all, by looking at the Greek. The word for take away in Greek is airo. And probably a better translation of that word would be to take up or to lift up, instead of take away. For instance, in Matt. 14:20 it tells us that after the feeding of the 5000 the disciples took up 12 baskets of food. The word is never used to signify cutting off. It gives us more of a picture of a vinedresser leaning over to lift up a branch that is fruitless. But why would Jesus say that? I believe the answer to that can be found in the second part of the initial question.
Bruce Wilkinson, author of The Prayer of Jabez, and Secrets of the Vine, the book from which I’ve drawn a bit of my material tonight, tells about a time when he met a man who owned a vineyard in California. This man told him that he felt like he finally understood this passage we’re looking at. This is what he said… “New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground. But they don’t bear fruit down there. When branches grow along the ground, the leaves get coated in dust and when it rains they get muddy and mildewed. The branch becomes sick and useless.” Mr. Wilkinson said he asked, “So what do you do? Cut it off and throw it away?” “Oh no,” the man exclaimed. “The branch is much too valuable for that. We go through the vineyard with a bucket of water looking for those branches. We lift them up and wash them off. Then we wrap them around the trellis or tie them up. Pretty soon they’re thriving.”
Doesn’t that make more sense to you? God doesn’t think any less of us than that vineyard owner thought of his branches. When branches become fruitless He doesn’t cut them off and throw them away. He lifts them up and cleans them up and helps them to flourish. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away or lifts up.”
Jesus goes on to say, “And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” When I lived in Florida I did a lot of landscaping. For five years I worked cutting people’s lawns and bushes and trees, planting flowers, laying mulch, all sorts of things. But once or twice a year came a very dreaded season unaffectionately known as cutback season. Every year we would have to take a week or two or three to go around to all our places and cut all sorts of trees and bushes way back. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve done this recently with the two myrtle trees by the fellowship hall. But many bushes and trees would be flourishing and for some odd reason we would have to go through the major trouble of cutting them if half, sometimes more than that. It was an ugly job. And it looked ugly when you got done. But somehow those plants would bounce back and would become more beautiful than they would have ever been without the cutback.
Wilkinson again tells about a time when his family moved out into the country. One of his favorite things about this place was the grapevines that lined the fence line between his house and his neighbor’s. One day, to his sheer horror, he looked out the window to see his white haired neighbor cutting that beautiful vine to shreds. Quickly, he made his way out to speak with him. “So you don’t like grapes do you?” “Love them,” his neighbor replied. He said, “Really. Well, I thought we’d be sharing this vine and I wasn’t sure what you were doing.” His neighbor looked at him and said, “You’re a city boy, aren’t you? Don’t know much about grapes, do you?” He said, “Son, we can either grow ourselves a nice looking vine of leaves to cover this fence line or we can have the biggest, juiciest, sweetest grapes you’ve ever had. We just can’t have both.”
You see, grapevines would rather produce shoots and leaves than grapes. They end up looking lush and green, but ultimately they only good for making decorations. So, grapevines must be pruned radically. The gardener must be merciless, cutting them back each year as far as he possibly can. When he does it helps the branches to yield more and better fruit.
You ever wonder why it seems like God is out to get you? Maybe a lot of things are going wrong in your life. I don’t know what it may be specifically, but whatever it is, it sure hurts. Ever think that maybe God was trying to prune you? What do I mean? Well, sometimes we allow things to get connected to us that are really hindrances to us bearing fruit like we should. We let priorities slip in that take away from what God wants for us. We get caught up in things that detract from what we should be. And sometimes God has to step in and begin to prune us, begin to cut us back, so that we can better be what He wants us to be, so that we can bear more fruit for Him. It’s not that we’ve got sin in our lives. It’s just that we’ve allowed hindrances and other priorities to creep in and choke out our ability to bear much fruit.
Is pruning fun? No. Is it worth it? You bet it is. But here’s the thing… it’s all up to you. Unlike literal branches on a vine, you have a choice as to whether or not you’re going to bear fruit and whether or not you’re going to submit to God’s pruning. Let’s commit to allowing God to do what’s necessary for us to bear fruit like He wants us to.
III. The Branch’s Connection With The Vine
And lastly this evening, we see the branch’s connection with the vine. This is what everything else hinges on. How is a branch to bear fruit if it isn’t connected with the vine? It can’t. What’s the point of lifting up or pruning a branch that isn’t even connected with the vine? There is no point to it.
Jesus says in verse 4, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” You see, it is impossible for us to bear any fruit if we are not first connected with Jesus Christ, the Vine. Like we talked about last week, He is the Source of our life. Without the vine the branch cannot bear fruit. Without the vine the branch does not exist.
Can I say something that may sound like it contradicts what I’ve said tonight? Wilkinson writes, “God does not want you to do more for Him. He wants you to do more with Him.” What am I saying? I’m saying that the important thing is not, “Am I bearing a lot of fruit?” The important thing is, “Am I abiding in the Vine? Is my relationship with Jesus really what it should be?” If you abide in Christ, it is only natural for an abundance of fruit to follow. But if you aren’t abiding in Christ, your branch is going to wither and die.
Many times, as I talked about last week, we can get so busy doing what we’re supposed to be doing, doing good things, but in all the busyness we forget all about the abiding. And in the midst of trying to do something big for God we forget about the importance of being with God. We neglect our relationship with Him. We neglect our time with Him. And as a result all of our busyness nets no fruit. Our labor becomes empty because we’ve stopped abiding in the Vine. It’s not about the work, it’s about loving and desiring Jesus. It’s not about knowing about Jesus, it’s about knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him.
I know I’ve talked a lot about this lately, so I don’t want to prolong it. But let me read you something that Mr. Wilkinson wrote. “In our western-style rush to do and perform for God, we often falter at the task of simply enjoying His company. Yet we were created to be dissatisfied and incomplete with less.” If we would only stop and make our highest priority to love Jesus, to know Jesus, and to be with Jesus, we would find that our fruitfulness would increase and become what God wants it to be.
If you look at a grapevine and notice the place where the vine and the branch connects you will find that the branches with the largest, least obstructed connection to the vine is the branch that produces the most and the best fruit. And the same is true spiritually. You will find that the men and women whose relationship, whose connection with Jesus is vibrant and abundant are the ones whose abundance of fruit is plenteous and most appealing. I want to be one of those people who abide in Christ, don’t you?
This evening, Jesus is the Vine. He is the source of our strength and growth and fruit. God the Father is the vinedresser who works in our life to make us more able to bear fruit. And we are the branches, the ones that Jesus has chosen to bear the fruit. Let’s be branches that abide in the vine. Let’s be people who are so in love with Jesus, so desirous to know Him, so involved in our relationship with Him, that it’s only natural to do what we’re supposed to do, bear fruit.
