LIVING A FRUITFUL LIFE
JOHN 15:1-5
Salvation by faith in Christ alone has two fundamental dimensions. First of all, being saved means I will one day live in eternity with God. Likewise, being saved means that I am to live for God on earth each day. One on hand, Christianity is about getting man out of earth into heaven. But in a real sense, it is also about getting God out of heaven onto earth. Because we are saved, we are going to heaven when we die. In the meantime, God has left us on earth that we might live for him. This is not a news flash for most of us. Followers of Jesus Christ are constantly told that we should live for God. However, it is this very teaching that often makes church so frustrating and counterproductive. We are often reminded that we should life for God, but we are rarely taught how to do it. So I want to address this question: How can I truly live for God? Jesus answers: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.”
In John 15:1-11, Jesus describes the Christian life as a branch bearing fruit or being fruitful. But this description is not unique. Through the New Testament, living for God, or aspects of it, is described as bearing fruit or being fruitful.
• In Matthew 3:8, John the Baptist speaks of true repentance as fruit.
• In Matthew 7:16-20, Jesus speaks of the evidences of spiritual authenticity as fruit.
• In Romans 1:13, Paul refers to winning converts to Christ as fruit.
• In Romans 6:22, he refers to growth in holiness as fruit.
• And in Romans 15:28, he speaks of the monetary offerings given to meet the needs of others as fruit.
• In Galatians 5:22-23, the characteristics of Christlike character are called “the fruit of the Spirit.”
• Colossians 1:6 pictures spiritual and numerical growth in the church as fruit.
• Colossians 1:10 describes doing good works as fruit.
• Hebrews 13:15 calls verbal praise to God as “the fruit of our lips.”
The New Testament consistently describes godliness as fruitfulness. But here in John 15, we are given a definitive explanation of the process for spiritual fruit bearing. This explanation hinges on the claim that Jesus makes for himself: “I am the true vine.” The spiritual implications of this divine claim give us a simple but comprehensive strategy for living a fruitful life.
I. RECOGNIZE THAT GOD IS THE VINE DRESSER.
In John 15:1, Jesus says, “I am the true vine.” This is the last of Jesus’ seven, famous, self-descriptive “I AM” statements recorded in John’s gospel. But this final “I AM” statement is unique in that it is the only one in which Christ makes God the Father an explicit part of the picture he uses. Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” A vine and a vineyard need someone to care for them. Jesus says this is the sovereign role God the Father plays in the spiritual world.
• God is the vinedresser.
• God is the gardener.
• God is the husbandman.
• God is the farmer who works the ground.
• God is the one who owns and operates the land.
• God is the one who cultivates the vineyard and cares for the vine.
Jesus describes Father this way to teach us two lessons about God’s will for us and work in us.
A. IT IS GOD’S GOAL TO PRODUCE FRUIT IN OUR LIVES.
God’s plan and purpose for your life is to make it fruitful for him. John 15:8 says that we glorify God by bearing much fruit. Colossians 1:10 says that bearing fruit pleases God. In Matthew 21:19, Jesus gives his most severe word of judgment to an unfruitful fig tree. And Matthew 21:43 makes it clear that the cursing of the fig tree was a declaration that Israel had lost is privileges and position as God’s chosen people because they have been unfruitful. I repeat: God has just one priority for your life: SPIRITUAL FRUIT.
Check out how John 15 speaks of fruit.
At the beginning of verse 2, Jesus tells us what God does with the branch that does not bear fruit. He takes it away. Then it tells us what God does with the branch that does bear fruit. He prunes it so that it might bear more fruit. Then in verse 5, Jesus plainly says that he is the vine and we are the branches. If we abide in him and he in us we will bear much fruit. Don’t miss the progression of the text. God wants to move you from bearing no fruit, to bearing fruit, to bearing more fruit, to bearing much fruit. God’s goal for your life is that you will bear actual, added, abundant, and abiding fruit to his glory. God the Gardner is working to make our lives fruitful for him by uniting us to the true vine – The Lord Jesus Christ. We do not and cannot do anything to produce fruit in our lives. Fruitfulness is what God does in us because of our union to Christ. Our lives are fruitful for God only as we let Jesus live in us, just like the branch gets its life from being connected to the vine.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” What is that purpose? What is the eternal purpose for which God causes all things to work for good? Romans 8:29 answers, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” That’s God plan for your life. This is why God sent his Son into the world. This is why God gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us. This is why God has breathed out his word to us. This is why God has left us in the world. It is the will of God is to have the Spirit of God use the word of God so that the children of God may look like the Son of God. God is at work to make you and me look like Jesus. Period.
• God is not up to three or seven or twenty-five different things in our lives.
• Ultimately, God’s purpose is not to make me a better preacher or pastor.
• His purpose is not to make you a better mom or dad, husband or wife, son or daughter.
• His purpose is not to transform you into the world’s best secretary, teacher, manager, cop, brain surgeon, or whatever you may do.
• He is not working to give you position, prosperity, or possessions.
God is bending his purpose and will to one purpose – to shape you and me into the image of his Son. Now, he may be pleased to help you become a great mom, doctor, basketball player, church worker, but that’s not his ultimate concern for you. His great objective for your life, the reason God has left you on earth, is to make you more and more like the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ.
B. GOD IS AN EXPERT AT PRODUCING FRUIT FROM OUR LIVES.
God the gardener is great at growing grapes. How does he do it? First of all, GOD PLANTS US. Acts 17:26 says, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” Think about that. God created us. God determined when we would live. God even established the exact places were we would live. That means there are no accidents in the believer’s life. Nothing happens by fate, chance, of happenstance. God plants us. God plants us where he knows we will grow the best. It is not always easy for us to understand why God plants us where he plants us. Quite honestly, we often don’t like the circumstances and situations he plants us in. Sometimes we find ourselves asking God, “Father, what are you doing in my life? Why have you put me in this situation? If you are really there, why am I really here?” But I have some good news for you: God knows what he’s doing. He has planted you where he knows you can grow the best.
• What happens to you is not by accident or incident, but providential appointment.
• It’s about God, not geography.
• It’s about the Lord, not your location.
• It’s not about where you are, but who you are.
• It’s not in the land; it’s in the man.
• Where God’s finger points his hands protects.
• You’ll never find yourself in a situation where God is not.
God the gardener knows what he is doing. And he plants us where he knows we can grow the best. Let me put it another way: Even though God is the heavenly gardener, GOD STILL USES FERTILIZER. You do know what fertilizer is, don’t you? It stinks. It smells. It’s nasty. But it’s necessary. Without fertilizer – without hard times, painful experiences, and difficult relationships – we won’t grow. So sometimes has to plant us in some mess to get out of us what he has put in us. But I want you to know that the gardener knows what he’s doing when he plants you.
Likewise, GOD PRUNES US. God purges us. God cleanses us. He cuts back and cuts off the leaves that prevent us from growing sweet fruit. Without going into great detail about this horticultural process, let me simply tell you three things you need to know about the pruning process: It is essential. It is unavoidable. And it hurts! But even in the painful pruning process, God knows what he is doing. In his book The Signature of Jesus, BRENNAN MANNING writes: “Christian maturity lies in allowing God the freedom to work his sovereign wisdom in us, neither abandoning a disciplined life of prayer in frustration nor running to the distractions the world affords us.” MANNING then illustrates: “What comes to mind is the image of a branch plunged several times into fire. As the fire scorches the wood, it burns away all the natural saps and juices proper to the wood. At first, the wood is charred and ugly. Each time it is thrust into the fire, the purging process continues. Finally when all the natural juices that have been resisting the action of the fire are burnt away, the wood takes on the qualities of the fire itself and glows.” This is how God works in our lives. Sometimes he has to put us in the fire. But it is not to destroy us. It is to purge us. By his grace, the fire transforms us so that the beautiful qualities of the flame are reflected in our lives.
II. REALIZE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE TRUE VINE.
John 15 is a part of what we call THE UPPER ROOM DISCOURSE. It is the final lesson Jesus teaches his disciples before he is betrayed, arrested, tried, condemned, and crucified. During this last supper with his disciples, Jesus declared that he was going away and that one of them would betray him. In response to this news, Peter said, “Lord, I will go with you.” Jesus responded, “No, Peter. Where I am going, you cannot go right now. You will go later, but not now.” But Peter is not down with that. “Why can’t I come with you,” he insists. “I’ll die with you.” At this point, Jesus deflates Peter’s pride by informing him that he would deny him three times before the rooster crowed the next morning. That’s how John 13 ends. But Jesus does not leave Peter there. In John 14:1, Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” The Lord then begins to give his disciples crash course on faith and ministry. He teaches them how they are to live and labor when he goes away. In John 15 Jesus teaches his disciples about one of the most vital areas of true spirituality: OUR RELATIONSHIPS.
• Verses 1-11 teach us how to relate to Christ.
• Verses 12-17 teach us how to relate to other believers.
• Verses 18-27 teach us how to relate to the world around us.
Note the progression of the text. As Christians, we must learn to relate to other believers among us and to the world around us. But before we can learn to relate to others, we must first learn how to relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. In our text, Jesus pictures our relationship with him to be like the union of the vine and the branch. He says, “I am the true vine.” When Jesus gives himself this Jehovistic title, he is basically saying two things about himself.
A. JESUS IS THE CENTER OF THE GARDENER’S PLAN.
When Jesus called himself the true vine, he was drawing a parallel between Israel and himself. Psalm 80:8, Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21, Ezekiel 19:1-14, Hosea 10:1, and many other Old Testament passages depict the relationship between God and Israel with the picture of a gardener and a vineyard. In fact, by the time of Christ, the vine had become the national symbol for Israel. A golden vine was engraved over the temple area in Jerusalem. A vine was engraved on the coins minted during the Maccabean revolt. Israel’s “Bald Eagle” was a vine or vineyard. Some commentators suggest that Jesus appropriated this figure from vines that were along the path between the upper room and the Garden of Gethsemane. Maybe. But be clear that this is not just a parable from nature that Jesus is using here. He is making a direct comparison between himself and Israel.
When Jesus called himself the true vine, his disciples would have definitely and immediately associated his statement with Israel. But here’s the catch. Although the Old Testament often speaks of Israel as a vine or vineyard, the image virtually always appears in a negative sense. The nation was a useless vineyard that bore no fruit or a spurious vine that produced sour grapes. Israel was the vine that failed to produce good fruit. Whenever historic Israel is referred to under this figure, it is a statement about the vine’s failure to produce good fruit. And it is accompanied by the threat of God’s judgment on the nation. In stark contrast to Israel’s failure to bear fruit, Jesus claims, “I am the true vine.” It’s emphatic: “I, and only I, am the true vine.” Or as WUEST puts it: “I, in contradistinction to all others, am the true vine.” Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of God’s redemptive plans. Jesus alone is heaven’s wonder, hell’s worry, and humanity’s way out of sin, death, and judgment. Only Jesus can say, “I am the real vine, the genuine vine, the dependable vine, the sho’ nuff vine. I am the true vine.”
B. JESUS IS THE SOURCE OF THE BRANCH’S POWER.
A little mouse was crossing a bridge over a very deep ravine alongside an elephant. And as they crossed the bridge, it shook under the weight of the elephant. But when they got to the other side, the mouse looked at his huge companion and said, “Boy, we really shook that bridge, didn’t we?”
That’s how it often feels when you are walking with God – like a mouse with the strength of an elephant. So much so that, after crossing life’s troubled waters, we are tempted to say with the mouse, “God, we really shook that bridge, didn’t we?” But we must not lose sight of the true source of spiritual power. Our lives are fruitful, productive, and God-honoring because of Christ alone. It is no goodness of our own. Isaiah 64:6 teaches that all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. Romans 3:23 teaches that we are all sinners who fallen short of the glory of God. And Ephesians 2:1 teaches that without Christ we are dead in sins and trespasses. We cannot produce spiritual fruit on our own.
• Our minds are sinful.
• Our eyes are lustful.
• Our tongues are poisonous.
• Our necks are stiff.
• Our hearts are cold.
• Our hands are bloody.
• And our feet run shift to mischief.
Without Christ, we are failures, not fruitful. But when we receive Jesus Christ as the Forgiver of our sins and the Leader of our lives, everything changes. No. Spiritual fruit will not grow overnight. A process of producing fruit takes time. It doesn’t happen instantly. I know we have a “quick fix” mentality these days. And we want everything right now. But you don’t get fruit that way. Christlikeness and spiritual maturity, and God-glorifying ministry take time. But if you hang in there with the process, you will see the Lord sovereignly transform your life from barrenness to fruitfulness.
• He will transform your heart.
• He will remind your mind.
• He will revive your soul.
• He will sanctify your ways.
• He will cleanse your hands.
• He will change your attitude.
• He will alter your lifestyle.
And when he does, make sure you recognize that the changes in your life are produce by Christ alone – by the true vine.
A.J. GORDON, one of the founders of Gordon-Conwell Divinity School, was one day he was out walking and was looking across a field to a house. It was truly a remarkable sight. So Gordon started to walk toward it. As he got closer, he could see that it was not a man at the pump, but a wooden figure painted to look like a man. The arm that was pumping so rapidly was hinged at the elbow and the hand was wired to the pump handle. The water was pouring forth, but not because the figure was pumping it. It was an artesian well, and the water was pumping the man.
When you see a person who is living, working, and producing fruit, you need to recognize that it is the Lord Jesus working in that person through the Holy Spirit. And just as the wooden man was totally yielded to the water pump, so you and I as Christians must submit to the dynamic work of the true vine. And when we submit to Christ’s authority, our lives will bear true and lasting fruit to the glory of God.
III. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE JUST A BRANCH.
MAX LUCADO has written a provocative beatitude: “Blessed is the man who knows that there is only one God and stops applying for the position.” I like that. It means that if we are going to live fruitful lives, we must stop trying to be the gardener. And we must stop trying to be the vine. We must remember that we are just branches. I am just a branch. And you are just a branch. In John 15:5, Jesus declared, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” I don’t know about you, but I suffer from “TRUE-VINE-WANNA-BE-SYNDROME.” I have accomplished some things in my life and can do a few things moderately well. I have reasonable intelligence, health, and strength, family and friends who love me, and a challenging ministry. But I cannot allow these things to cause me to forget that I can do nothing without Christ. Moreover, I am nothing without Christ. You would think that I would understand that pretty well by now. But it is something that I have to constantly relearn: the utter futility and emptiness of trying to accomplish anything of eternal value in my own goodness, wisdom, or strength. It cannot be done.
• If I want to be a godly husband (and I most definitely do); without God’s enabling help, I cannot do it.
• If I want to be a God-pleasing father (and I do with all my heart); without the Lord’s help, it just won’t happen.
• If want to be a Christlike pastor and a faithful preacher (and the Lord knows that I do); without Christ working in me, you are looking at a man that just can’t get it done.
The same is true with you and the spiritual fruit the Lord is calling you to bear. You can do nothing without Christ. But flip the record over and play the other side. With Christ, all things are possible. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Colossians 2:10 says, “And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Without Christ, nothing is impossible.
The reason why we must remember that we are just branches is so that we don’t lose sight of the one actually produces the fruit. Christ is the true vine. We are the branches. And we must remember that the fruit is produced in us, not by us. The true vine is the one who actually produces the fruit. All the branch does is hold on to the vine. John 15 uses the word meno to speak of the believing branch holding on to the true vine. Meno means “to abide, to remain, or to continue.” It is used to speak of the immutability of God, the fact that God does not change. But it is also used to speak of people abiding, remaining, or dwelling in a certain place. This is how it is used here. Jesus says we must abide in him as he abides in us. Just like the bird is in the air and the air is in the bird, we are to abide in Christ as he abides in us. Just like the fish is in the water and the water is in the fish, we are to abide in Christ as he abides in us.
• WE MUST ABIDE IN HIS WORD. In John 15:7, Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
• WE MUST ABIDE IN HIS LOVE. In John 15:9, Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”
• WE MUST ABIDE IN HIS JOY. In John 15:11, Jesus says, “These things I have spoke to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
I AM THINE, O LORD; I HAVE HEARD THY VOICE
AND IT TOLD THY LOVE TO ME
BUT I LONG TO RISE IN THE ARMS OF FAITH
AND BE CLOSER DRAWN TO THEE
CONSECRATE ME NOW TO THY SERVICE LORD
BY THE POWER OF GRACE DIVINE
MAY MY SOUL LOOK UP WITH A STEADFAST HOPE
AND MAY MY WILL BE LOST IN THINE
DRAW ME NEARER, NEARER BLESSED LORD
TO THE CROSS WHERE THOU HAS DIED
DRAW ME NEARER, NEARER BLESSED LORD
TO THY PRECIOUS BLEEDING SIDE
