I Am the True Vine
John 15:1-11
1. A lot of flowers are in bloom right now. Florists make a fiving marketing them.
Man, to florist: ‘I'd like a bunch of flowers, please.”
Florist: “Certainly, sir. What flowers would you like?”
Man: “Err ... I'm not sure ... Ummm ..”
Florist: “Let me help you, sir — what exactly have you done?” [www.times-gazette.com]
2. Vegetables are another category of plants. There are biological definitions of vegetables and culinary ones. For example, a tomato, zucchini, or pepper are biologically a fruit, but from a culinary point of view, they are treated as vegetables.
3. Then we have fruit. Our son has planted a number of fruit trees, and we planted the peach tree at the parsonage. Other fruit, however, grows on vines, most notably the grape.
4. The ancients cherished grapes, because from them they could make wine. And wine would keep. In many ways, it was the beverage of choice, often mixed with water to stretch it – and to disinfect water.
5. Jesus often alluded to vineyard and wine, from talking about wineskins to turning water into wine to the Lasst Supper. The Bible mentions vineyards at least 60 times and wine over 200 times. So when Jesus used a metaphor for Himself as being a vine, and believers being branches producing fruit, the imagery was near at hand and familiar. To some of us, maybe not as much.
Main Idea: Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure, having promised the Holy Spirit to minister in His stead; He now describes how His disciples can relate to Him, even though He is no longer physically present.
I. The BACKGROUND of Jesus’ Teaching
A. Israel as a VINE (Isaiah 5:1-7)
“Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
“And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”
B. The MESSIAH as one who restores the demolished vine, Israel (Psalm 80:8-19).
You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River. Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face! But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name! Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!
C. The possible visual BACKDROP for this teaching is the Temple door.
• 100 feet by 34 feet gold….when Titus destroyed Jerusalem and sold the gold, the price of gold in the Roman province of Syria dropped 50%.
II. Jesus Relates to Us Like a Nurturing VINE (1-5).
A. Jesus is the AUTHENTIC productive vine, those who identify with Him are branches (1-3).
1. An allegory, Father is the vine dresser, Jesus, the vine, His followers, the branches.
2. The Father sees to it that we are pruned.
3. “Left to itself a vine will produce a good deal of unproductive growth. For maximum fruitfulness extensive pruning is essential.” (Morris). Do you have a fruit tree?
4. This illustrates: affliction contributes to our sanctification. Trials make us stronger – or should.
5. The Son takes a position of subservience to the Father. Much of what the Father and Son do here is via the Spirit, who was just mentioned in the previous chapter; the Holy Spirit is the completer of what the Father and Son do.
6. Note here the cleansing power of the Word. The Word is the app through which God communicates to us and cleanses us. As water washes the body, the Word the soul.
7. Jesus is addressing 11 of the 12 apostles, a special training time. Who or what are the branches broken off and burned?
8. 11 of them would abide in Christ, one would not. His destiny was to be burned.
In John’s epistles –heavily influenced by these teachings – to abide or remain means to stay faithful to Christ as opposed to apostasy, deserting Him, denying His deity, refuting His teachings.
I John 2:19-20, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.”
9. Here it means more; the issue is not faithfulness alone, but fruit in general, of which faithfulness is just one example.
B. Believers draw their strength and NOURISHMENT from their connection to Christ (4-5).
1. Many Christians depend totally on self-help sermons and books. We need to take initiative and responsibility for ourselves, but we also need to remember that we cannot live the Christian life in our own power.
2. Just previously, in John 14:16, Jesus promised the Spirit to help us accomplish His will in light of His absence: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
3. Much of what the Father and Son are doing in our lives today is through the agency of the Spirit. [Explained to Marylu what doctor said, but didn’t talk to him]
III. We Relate to Jesus as FRUITFUL Branches (6–11).
• Fruit is what a plant produces on the outside that otther people can see and benefit from. It is the visible evidence of an inner working power.
A. Fruit is not just a product; the PROCESS counts, too.
• Lost people can replicate some of the fruit of the Christian; but such fruit does not come from being nurtured through a walk with Jesus Christ.
• Romans 8:9, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
1. Fruit is what a plant produces on the outside that other people can see and benefit from. It is the visible evidence of an inner working power.
2. “When our Lord says: Abide in me he is talking about the will, about the choices, the decisions we make. We must decide to do things which expose ourselves to him and keep ourselves in contact with him. This is what it means to abide in him.” (Boice)
B. Such a close relationship with the Lord will TUNE our prayers; Jesus will grant our requests as when He was here on earth (7).
C. Fruit includes INSTANCES of virtue which would not have happened if we did not know the Lord.
D. Some examples of fruit in the context include FAITHFULNESS, LOVE, and JOY.
• Note here that love and obedience are hyper-linked (9-11).
• Jesus exemplified the Father’s love and His love for the disciples.
E. Fruit implies reproduction, or contributing toward EVANGELISM and making disciples.
Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure, having promised the Holy Spirit to minister in His stead; He now describes how His disciples can relate to Him, even though He is no longer physically present. He is the vine; we are to be fruitful branches.
