Introduction with children
A Branch on the Tree or a Stick in the Mud?
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Theme: Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing
Object: Two branches that has been broken from a tree -- one with leaves withering, the other without any leaves at all.
Scripture: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5 (NIV)
Recently I found this branch underneath a tree. I guess it had been broken off by the wind. As you can see, the leaves have all started to wither and die. I also found this branch nearby. As you can see, there are no leaves at all. It is completely dead. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it a branch, I would call it a stick.
Do you think that if I took these branches out into the yard and planted them in the ground and watered them they would come back to life? No, that wouldn’t work, because the branches get the nutrients that they need to live from the tree. Branches cannot live or grow without the tree. Without the tree, there will never be leaves on the branches. If the branch comes from a fruit tree, there will never be fruit on the branch if it is separated from the tree. If I take this dead branch and plant it in the ground and water it, it won’t come back to life, it will just be an old stick in the mud.
That same thing is true about our life with Jesus. Listen to what Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
If we keep our life connected to Jesus, we will grow. Our life will produce beautiful leaves and delicious fruit. But if we are separated from Jesus, our leaves will wither and die and we will never put forth any fruit.
What will your life be? Will you be a beautiful branch on the tree...or will you just be a stick in the mud?
Dear Jesus, help us to remember that apart from you, we can do nothing. Amen.
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Introduction
Picture the scene, Jesus and his disciples (except Judas as he had already left to betray Jesus) had just finished the ‘last supper’. Jesus then says to them “Come now; let us leave”. They walk from the ‘upper room’ where they had supper to the ‘mount of olives’ and the ‘garden of Gethsemane’ where Jesus would be arrested.
They walk past (or through) the temple and they would probably have seen the golden vine that adorned the temple doors.
“The temple doors were adorned with embroidered veils, with their flowers of purple, and pillars interwoven; and over these, but under the crown-work, was spread out a golden vine, with its branches hanging down from a great height, the largeness and fine workmanship of which was a surprising sight to the spectators, to see what vast materials there were, and with what great skill the workmanship was done.”
The reason that the temple doors had this vine above them was because the Israelite nation is described in many places of the Old Testament as a Vine, or as a Vineyard.
Jesus is continuing to teach them, I am sure in the knowledge that he would soon be arrested. They pass a vineyard, something all too common in Israel at the time.
As they are passing, I can imagine Jesus stopping and walking up to one of the vines and while he is standing right beside it he says this:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
John 15:1-8
Unfortunately I can’t give you anything quite so visual and deep in tradition, but what I can do is give you all a grape, which I’d like you to hold for a while.
Get the congregation to pass round bunches of grapes each person taking one.
I’m going to break up my talk into a couple of sections, firstly I’d like to talk about the fruit that Jesus mentions and then to look at the branches.
1) Fruit
So what is the fruit that we should be growing? It is the fruit that shows that we are Jesus’ disciples.
Right after the passage we read, Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that they need to love one another and earlier during the ‘last supper’ he told them:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34
So the fruit that Jesus is talking about is our love for each other.
I am sure that it is also the attributes that are described in Galatians as the ‘fruit of the Spirit’:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Galatians 5:22
So the fruit is how we live our lives, through God’s Holy Spirit, showing all the attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
2) Branches
Vines are not like trees with a large trunk out of which the branches grow, one branching off the other. Seeing the vines growing in the fields, the disciples would have observed that vines have a central stem out of which the branches grow.
In Hampton Court, there is a grapevine that is reported to be the oldest living vine. It is over 230 years old. This grapevine has one root which is 3.6 metres (12 foot) round, and some of the branches are over 36.5 metres (120 foot) long. Despite its age the vine still produces 500 to 700 bunches (weighing 220 – 320 kg) of grapes each year. Although some of the branches are 120 feet from the main root, they still bear the sweet and delicious fruit because they are connected to the vine. Each branch is connected directly to the stem and draws nourishment from it.
There are 4 different types of branch that we can look at in respect to this passage.
1. Dead wood
2. Fruitless
3. To be pruned
4. Fruitful
Which type are you?
1. Dead wood
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Dead wood are the branches that are not connected to the vine, just lying around waiting for someone to pick them up and throw them onto a bonfire.
People who have no connection with Jesus are like this dead wood, those people who do not who Him at all and those who have rejected who He is. I urge you this morning if you are like this dead wood that you need to be connected with Jesus, you need to know him only then will your life have real purpose and become fruitful as God has always intended for you.
All you need to become connected with Jesus this morning is to believe that he is God’s only son and that he lived a perfect sinless life (he did no wrong at all) and that God punished Jesus for all our sin, all those things that are wrong in God’s sight. That Jesus died in what is rightfully our place and that he rose again and is now in heaven with God. That is the only requirement to become connected with Jesus, nothing else. And once you are truly connected to him he will turn your life into a fruitful purposeful life.
Prayer for those who need to be connected to Jesus
2. Fruitless
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If a branch of a vine is left to grow without any, or little maintenance I am led to believe that it will stop producing fruit, these branches will continue to produce lots of leaves and will continue grow, but they stop producing any fruit. They are fruitless, these branches need to be cut off the vine as they take away the nutrients and moisture from the rest of the plant.
Some people who go to church regularly are like these branches, they may look as if they are connected with Jesus, but they are not drawing on Him to produce fruit. Perhaps they are trying to grow on their own and not relying on God to provide what they need.
Perhaps these branches were once producing lots of fruit, but have become weary and their connection with Jesus has become weak. Maybe they haven’t been pruned back enough or at all.
This can be reversed: ask God to reconnect you, read and study the Bible regularly, pray often, ask a close a Christian friend to help and pray with you.
Prayer for those who need to be reconnected
3. To be pruned
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For a grapevine to survive and produce lots of fruit it needs to be pruned on a regular basis, this not only encourages healthy growth but trains the plant to grow in the direction the gardener wants it to. Pruning also produces greater quantities of fruit.
All Christians need to be pruned, we all need to be encouraged to grow healthily into mature Christians and to grow in the direction that God wants for us. This pruning will produce more fruit in our lives, more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
This pruning may well be painful, but is also necessary. The pruning may be that we need to spend less time doing things we like to do and more time spent in God’s presence. For instance I have been challenged through preparing this morning to utilise the time
I spend travelling to work more for God and less for me. At the moment I read the paper, listen to some music, play on my phone, or do some work on the laptop. From next week I plan to read the bible and spend more of the time in prayer.
But we should all be prepared to look at what we do in our lives and see where we have got our priorities wrong. Let us ask God to show us where we need him to prune in our lives.
4. Fruitful
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A branch that produces an abundance of fruit.
This is something that all Christians should aspire to.
But even a fruitful branch will need pruning in order to keep it fruitful!
So there are really only three types!
Prayer for all who need to be pruned
Conclusion
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So, in conclusion, Jesus told us he is like a vine and we are like its branches if we are to be fruitful we must firstly be connected to him, secondly we need to work at being connected by reading and studying our bibles regularly, by praying often (in fact the Bible tells us we should pray continuously). Thirdly we should be asking God to show us what we need to prune from our lives so that we may become even more fruitful.
Only you know which type of branch you are, so what are you?
Dead wood, Fruitless or in need of a good pruning?
Think about this as you eat the grape you’ve been so patiently holding.
Prayer
Abba Father let me be yours and yours alone.
May my will forever be ever more your own.
Never let my heart grow cold, never let me go.
Abba Father let me be yours and yours alone.
