Of Vines and Branches (Part Two)
Text: John 15:1-8
We are going to be looking at John 15:1-8 again this morning, so if you would, go ahead and turn there and we’ll read it. (READ TEXT)
So this is what is very clear from just this text.
1. Jesus is the Vine – the TRUE VINE.
2. God the Father is the Vinedresser
3. There are branches in the Vine
4. Branches that abide in the Vine bear fruit and are pruned so that they bear more fruit
5. Branches that don’t abide in the Vine don’t bear fruit, and are taken away.
Now one of the rules of hermeneutics is that – Scripture interprets Scripture. And God does not contradict Himself. If a passage or passages seem to contradict other passages, the misunderstanding is with us, not with God or His Word.
So let’s start where Jesus starts – He says, “I AM the True Vine” – Now we touched on that last Sunday, but I want to unpack it just a little more so we can get a better understanding of what Jesus has just said here. He begins this statement by saying “I AM”. Ego Eimi. And He does this several times throughout John’s Gospel, and it is – IN-FACT, a claim to DEITY! A claim to being God!
When Jesus says, “I AM” He is applying to Himself the Name of God, that God revealed to Moses in Exodus chapter 3. You remember that? God told Moses, “Go and tell Pharaoh ‘Let My people go!” And Moses said, “When I speak to Pharaoh, who do I say sent me?” And God says, “Tell him that the I AM that I AM, has sent you.” Now Jesus has already made this VERY, VERY CLEAR. If you remember, John 8:58 He said, “Before Abraham was – I AM.” And the Jews picked up stones and wanted to kill Him because He was claiming to be God.
In John 6 He said, “I AM the Bread of life.” In John 8 He said, “I AM the Light of the world.” In John chapter 8 – I just quoted it, that’s where Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” In John 10 He said, “I AM the Good Shepherd.” And “I AM the Door to the sheepfold.” John 11, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.” And John 14, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
And here Jesus says, “I AM the True Vine.”
All of those statements are so interesting in so many ways, but one I want you to notice is that out of those 8 instances, 3 of them point to the fact that life is found in Jesus… 4 of them if you count this here in our text from John 15. The Vine provides life. And this is why… in the very first chapter of John’s Gospel account, we see this… John 1:4, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
I AM – Ego Eimi – literally means, “The Ever Present One.” Or, “The One who is Always is.” And so when Jesus adds those other phrases… He’s saying, that He’s God, and He is the One who always is The Bread of Life… He is the One who always is the Light of the world… He is the One who always the Way, the Truth, and the Life… and He is always the One who is the Vine.
That’s why He says, “I AM the TRUE vine.”
The other vine was just a type – a picture. Pointing to the reality that is Jesus Christ.
So how does a person get saved? Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Every Christian believes and confesses this. It’s what we call an essential doctrine.
Romans 10:17 tells us “Faith comes from hearing.” And the kind of hearing which faith comes from, comes “through the Word of Christ.” That’s the Rhema of Christ… not the “Logos”… the “Rhema”… that’s the Word that Christ speaks into a person’s heart as they hear the Gospel message. We might say it like this – That’s Christ speaking to you, THROUGH the Word that is being preached. It’s the same word used in our text… in verse 7 (John 15:7). Jesus says, “If you abide in Me, and My Word (rhema) abides in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” That’s why Peter says… In 1 Peter 1:23 that we have been “born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.” And its why Jesus says, “Father, sanctify them with the truth – THY WORD is truth.”
So God, grants us faith by His grace. As His Word is rightly and truthfully preached, Christ speaks into our hearts, and faith is born. It’s a work of God.
Now let’s look a little deeper ok…
Acts 13:48 (READ)… who believed? Those appointed to eternal life.
Philippians 1:29 (READ)… what has been granted to us for the sake of Christ? That we believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake. We like the first part of that, but not the second part…
2 Thessalonians 2:13 (READ)… God chose them to be first fruits TO BE SAVED. How? Through sanctification by the Spirit and BELIEF in the truth – that’s another way of saying belief in Jesus and in God’s Word. Remember, we are sanctified in truth THY WORD IS TRUTH.
So who gets the glory for our salvation? God does! We cannot boast at all, or in any way.
And The Apostle Paul answers any objections to this in Romans 9:16 where he says, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
So, if we go back to Ephesians 2:8-9, Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” What we see there is that salvation – EVERY PART. EVERY ASPECT. EVERY BIT OF SALVATION is by God’s grace. How does God’s grace save us? Through the faith that He gave us. How did He give us that faith – by Christ speaking into our hearts as we hear the Word faithfully proclaimed and taught.
Now let’s go back to our text, John 15:1-8, where we see that there are branches that are taken away. Why are they taken away? Because they didn’t bear fruit. Do you remember why Jesus cursed the fig tree in Matthew 21? Because it bore no fruit. It should have… it looked like it would have. It was leafy and green – but no fruit. On the outside it looked like a fruitful fig tree, but as Jesus came close to it, He found no figs, so He cursed it and it withered away.
And why didn’t it bear fruit? Well…. Let’s look at another teaching on this same thing… The Parable of the Soils… in Mark 4:1-20
Jesus said, “Some seed fell on the path and birds ate it, others fell on rocky ground, but didn’t have any depth of soil, and they sprang up but then were scorched by the sun and died. Other seeds fell into the thorns and were choked out by the thorns and weeds… and then finally some fell on good soil, and produced. They yielded fruit – some 30 fold, some 60 fold, and some 100 fold.” He then explained what that meant.
The seed is the Word… It’s the Word of God. The soil is the person.
The first seed falls on the path – Jesus says this is when a person does not understand the Word and the devil comes and snatches it away. The second seed falls on rocky ground and since a person who has no root in themselves they fall away, turn away, do not abide or persevere when tribulation or persecution arises – JESUS IS THE LIFE – NOT US. The third seed falls into thorns and those thorns are the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, and they choke out the Word… and the forth seed lands on good soil, and that’s those who hear the Word, accept it, and bear fruit. In other words, they become Christians and bring glory to God.
Soils 1 through 3 believed to a point – but they did not believe UNTO salvation. They are the many who will come to Jesus on that day and say to Him, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and cast our demons in Your Name, and do many mighty works in Your Name?” And He will declare to them, “I NEVER knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.”
And this is what Jesus is talking about in this passage…
Please look with me at verse 8… John 15:8 (READ).
When we bear much fruit, we PROVE to be His disciple. The NIV actually is a little more clear… It says, “you bear much fruit, and thus show yourself to be His disciple.”
Now John goes into a lot more detail into this in his letters.
1 John 1:6 he says, “If we say we have fellowship with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
1 John 2:4, “Whoever says ‘I know Him’, but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Or verse 9, “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”
1 John 3:6, “No one who abides in Him, keeps on sinning; and no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him.” And verse 9, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed (that’s the rhema – the Word of Christ, spoken into the heart of the believer) abides in Him, and he cannot keep on sinning BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN BORN OF GOD.”
Now I know we’ve covered a lot of ground. So I’m going to try to summarize this, and I’ll close.
When you and I were saved by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, we were born again by an incorruptible, imperishable Seed. We are New Creations in Christ Jesus, and old things are passing away. Romans tells us that our old selves – our sin nature – was put to death with Jesus on the cross. At the same time, it also teaches that we don’t reach sinless perfection in this life, but we press on, looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Perfector of our faith. What that means is – we don’t go on living a lifestyle of sin, or go on making a practice of sin. The power of sin is broken. We are no longer slaves to sin. We have been redeemed… bought away from sin. “Bought with a price”, and we now have a new Master, and His Name is Jesus.
And so – a Christian cannot just come forward at an altar call and repeat a prayer, or make a public profession of faith through baptism, and then just go on sinning, and living in unrepentant sin. Because if they do that – they show – that they were never truly born again by that incorruptible Seed. They show that they were not good soil. They show that they are not connected to the One True Vine.
Ultimately – as we’ll see next Sunday (Lord willing) it comes down to love.
Who do you love?
LORD’S SUPPER
CLOSING
