A Branch On The Tree.
Charlie Brown, “Snoopy some day we will all die.” And Snoopy says, “True, but on all the other days we will not.” Here's my addendum, -The believer never dies!
The grapevine has always been central to Israel’s agriculture and economy and was an important symbol for Israel’s relationship with God in the Old Testament.
Isaiah spoke of the house of Israel as the vineyard of the Lord, and Jeremiah said that God had planted Israel as His choice vine.
Israel, however, was unfaithful and therefore could not bear the kind of fruit God expected.
Instead of producing large delicious grapes - the fruit of righteousness - as the vine of God they produced sour grapes – the fruit of hypocrisy, greed and all kinds of evil.
God expected to find peace, but instead He found bloodshed; He expected to find justice but instead He heard cries of oppression.
Israel could not produce the type of fruit that God had intended because they tried to produce it on their own- and not God’s way.
Galatians 5:19-21MSG ”It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.“
Just before the death of Jesus on His way to the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper with His disciples, they passed by the valley of Kidron, a vine growing area.
Seeing the grapes and knowing that He would soon be leaving them, Jesus used the opportunity to again teach and remind them, “that every individual is created to bear fruit.”
Jesus states, John 15:1NKJV “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
John 15:1TPT “I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father.
In a vineyard, the vine is the main trunk of the plant. The branches depend on the vine for all their nutrients. Just like the vine, Jesus Christ is the source of life, strength and every blessing under the sun to His people.
We depend on Jesus for everything, for it is in Christ that we have all the nutrients of God’s grace! -I need His grace, don’t you? P.H
John 1:14NIV The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Again, John 15:1 Jesus emphatically states that I am the true vine.
In the time of Jesus, there were many fake vines. Many imposters.
Therefore Jesus states in, John 15:1 I Am the true vine…
The Father tends to the Vine. He’s the Vinedresser. The husbandman.
He has the best soil, hoe, rake, shovel, fertilizer, plenty of water, and spirit filled weed control. Plus, He controls the sun (Son)!
The Father is not just a good, good Father. -He is also a good, good gardener!
Are you connected to the Source? There is no hiding it!
Philippians 2:14-15NIV ”Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky“
Again this I know, “If you are connected to the source you will shine.” P.H
Daniel 12:3NIV ”Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.“
Listen, the righteous will shine forever!
John 15:2NKJV 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.
Again, “God can take away, and He can bring addition.”
John 15:2TPT He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest.
Throughout America, stakes and wire are used to holdup and manipulate the vine. Vines are trained to grow upward. However in Israel, the vines grow and spread on the ground.
To keep the vines and grape clusters from rotting on the miry clay, (on the ground), the vinedresser place rocks underneath the grapes to stop rot damage.
The Bible teaches ‘as we wait upon the Lord,’ God places our feet on a firm foundation, Luke 6:46.’
Again, John 15:2AMP ”Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that continues to bear fruit, He [repeatedly] prunes, so that it will bear more fruit [even richer and finer fruit].“
The most common interpretation is that the vine dresser is just trimming off dead branches. (The Unproductive).
It is at this time that the vinedresser takes the pruned vines off the clay and places them on rocks!
Psalm 40:1-3NIV ”I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.“
The vines that are pruned produce better, bigger and richer grapes.
John 15:3TPT The words I have spoken over you have already cleansed you.
O’ don’t you just love God’s word? Hebrews 4:12NKJV For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Jeremiah 23:29NKJV “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
Those who live in the vineyard are connected to the life giving source- Jesus the eternal word, -He keeps us whole and clean. P.H
John 6:63AMP It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit [it is of no account]. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life [providing eternal life].
John 15:4TPT So you must remain in life-union with me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.
Remember in America most vineyards are grown with poles and wire, but In Israel, they follow the ancient custom of allowing the vine to simply grow along the ground. The branches also naturally rest upon the ground.
If the vines were left to grow wild in this condition, there would probably be no fruit. The vinedressers have to do two things:
First, they raise up the vine, and the branches by putting large stones under them.
Isaiah 40:29,31NKJV He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
“Just like the vineyards of Israel ,you are placed on the rock to mount-up, to grow, to become more like...” P.H
Verse 30, states that the youth and the young men/flesh gets weary.
However, those who are positioned and who train on this ‘Rock’ will mount up with wings of an eagle!
Second, the vinedressers have to regularly prune the branches in order to get them to bear more fruit.
Hebrews 12:11 “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
Spiritually, Jesus is the true vine, the truck that keeps us to the roots. He is the source from which all growth begins.
-No vine, no branches.
The branches cannot, nor will not, exist without being grafted into the vine.
This I am sure of, If your life is habitually fruitless, make sure you aren’t severed from the Vine. P.H
John 15:4AMP Remain in Me, and I [will remain] in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself without remaining in the vine, neither can you [bear fruit, producing evidence of your faith] unless you remain in Me.
“So the production of fruit becomes the evidence that you are connected to the Vine!” P.H
John 15:5TPT “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches. As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless.“
Two Choices:
Separated = Fruitlessness = powerless.
Connected = Fruit = power.
John 15:6NKJV 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 vineyard is symbolic of God’s kingdom on earth, and believers are responsible for tending the vineyard until Jesus Christ returns.” P.H
Those who reject the vineyard owner's Son (Jesus) will be driven out of the vineyard and have no place in it.
Truth- A fruitless life is just the beginning of sorrow. This wasted life will eventually be gathered and thrown into the fire and burned! P.H
John 15:8NKJV By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
To be Jesus’ disciples down here, means the fruitful will be His disciples throughout eternity! P.H
-Here’s the vineyard, Are you ready?
Galatians 5:22-23NIV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
-Benediction.
