Jesus said "I AM"
by Steven L Pace, First Baptist Church of Fieldon
3/22/2003
In the early morning, just as the sun begins to brighten the sky, a man moves silently through a vineyard. He has work to do, and he does it with determination and precision. He pauses to sharpen a pruning knife, because he knows that he will be most effective if his knife is sharp. He works with skill, reaching first here, then there, slashing a branch loose from the vine. Occasionally he will even slice through a cluster of grapes, dropping them on the ground as useless. When he has finished with that particular vine, he moves on, leaving behind a stump of where a branch used to be. The rising sun glistens on the sap as it oozes from the fresh wounds the vinedresser has just created.
Sometimes God moves in our lives in such a way that it causes us pain, and our wounds are fresh and oozing. At the time it is occurring we do not necessarily think, ¡§Well, this hurts, and it may be God working in my life to cleanse me of what I don¡¦t need.¡¨ But it is so necessary for us to know that much of the time, God is working a great work in our lives, even if we do not understand what is happening at the moment. (Was taken from Sermon Central wish I could give the person the credit but I cannot find it again)
Jesus says "I AM" 7 times in the new testament.
1. The first is found in John 6:35, "And Jesus said to them¡ ’I am the bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never Thirst.’"
2. The second time is found in John 8:12; "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ’I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk n darkness, but have light of life.’"
3. The third time is John 10:7,9-10; "Then Jesus said to them again, ’Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep’ I am the door: If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture, The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
4. The 4th time is John 10:11, 14, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep" "I am the good shepherd, and I know My sheep and am know by My own."
5. The 5th is John 11:25 where Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me. He who believers in Me, though he may die, he shall live."
6. The 6th in John 14:6, it is where Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."
The final time that Jesus uses the "I AM" statement is the 7th and finial time he uses it.
He simply says that "I am the true Vine"
The number seven represents the perfect completion scripture.
The Vine was used to represent Israel, God¡¦s Chosen People.
Now Jesus say I am the true Vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Jesus is God¡¦s anointed, God¡¦s only Son, God¡¦s gift to may so that he may have eternal life.
He also says that My Father is the vine dresser. It also says that God is the vine dresser. God is the one that looks upon us and judges our work for him. He is the one that opens and closes the door to heaven and the only way in is through His son.
Verse 2 also tells us that God allows us to go through trials and difficulties in our life. You see it is going through those time that strengthen our life. He says that God prunes the trees.
I also want you to notice that they are taken away, cut off. They differ from those found in verses 4-6. Jesus said they are "in me" but they have problems: they bear no fruit.
I want to hang out on verse 2 for just a minute and look at three aspect of these branches.
1. The unfruitful branches at one time were attached to Christ. There was a time, a point, when they began to bud and sprout. They even grew into branches.
They:
* Listened to Jesus and the Gospel.
* Opened their ears
* Made professions
* Were baptized
* Seemed capable of bearing fruit
* Appeared to be fruitful branches
So many time is our lives that is as far as we get. We are a part of the vine. We go to training on how to share our faith. We learn the methods but we never use them.
There are other times in our life that we feel so close to God that we can literally feel his presence in our life and there are other times that we feel like there is a great valley between us and there in no way of getting across. We feel like our prayer life went down the tubs. We are going through the motions, we go to church, we hang out with our Christian friends but there is no power, we can¡¦t feel God¡¦s presence.
If that is you, you need to recommit yourself to the Lord today. You see God wants to have a real and vibrant relationship with you. I was speaking with a lady at winter jam and she was telling me of the mistakes that she had made. She told me that she felt distant from the Lord and couldn¡¦t get close to Him. I asked her if she had asked God for forgiveness and she said yes, over and over I ask.
Then I asked her this question, "Have you forgiven yourself?" She said "No". There are some of you here today that can identify with this lady. You have asked over and over again for forgiveness¡K and God has forgiven you and now its time for you to forgive yourself.
The Second thing I want you to notice is;
2. The branches are unfruitful. They are "in" the Vine, a part of it, but they simply bear no fruit. What does this mean?
- Unfruitful branches do not receive the nourishment from the vine
- Unfruitful branches are not genuine enough to bear fruit
- More profession than possession
- More pretending then being
- More deception than truth
- More counterfeit then real
- Unfruitful branches become apostate and deserters ¡V in other words men and women abandon their faith and its not so much when the times get hard. But, in the good times we tend to forget about God and it is Him that is blessing us.
3. The third thing that I want you to notice is that God will "cut off" the unfruitful branches.
This is not a statement about loosing salvation. It is about removing that things in our life that draw us away from God. God will remove those thing so that the fruitful things in our life can grow.
He may remove some old friends that draw us away from doing his work.
He may remove some old habits that draw us away.
He may in remove our jobs, our income or what ever it is that is distracting us from being used by God.
God will only bless us in proportion to our faith. Lets say we are teaching a Sunday School class but we only look at the lesson right before class, God will not honor that.
If God calls us to teach something we need to be planning it well in advance. I kid and say that I do my sermons on Saturday night and that is true. But I normally have the outline done on Monday or Tuesday and I spend the rest of the week looking for illustrations and asking God why he laid a particular verse on my heart.
Prior Planing Prevents Pour Performance. In the military it is know as the 4 P’s to success. The same holds true in the ministry. We cannot just show up and wing things, if we do that we will fail, we will frustrate people, we will not have control and our class will not grow. As a matter of fact we will probable loose most of the class.
What do you have in your life that needs to be pruned and thrown into the fire. What is taking up all your time so that you are not giving God the best but what is left?
I have a simple question for you¡K How fruitful are your branches?
Mat. 3:10 say that the ax is already at the root of the tree, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire,
1 John 2:19 says, The went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Luke 8:18 says Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.
Heb 6:8 The land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.
What are the fruits of your labor producing? Is God blessing and increasing or is he cursing and shrinking?
The Scripture gives severe warning to believers, that the branches that are "In" the vine will produce fruit and will multiply. But those that are out side the vine and doing things on their own will wither and die, and eventually be thrown into the fire. And we will be held responsible for our actions.
Praise God that the scriptures don¡¦t end there but they give us a picture of what a fruitful ministry looks like. In the last half of verse 2 ¡V 4.
I would like for you to notice 3 things that happen to the fruitful branches.
1. Fruitful branches are pruned. All bad spots are removed. Even the strongest Christians have spots in their life that have to be removed.
All of us have areas in our lives that we struggle with. Things that God needs to prune away.
Some struggle with their thoughts
Some with attitude
Some with commitment
Some with relationships
Some with behavior
Some with service
Some with passion
Some with motives
Some with willingness
There are many things that we struggle with. There is a quick way to determine what that is. When someone brings up something and a person immediately gets defensive, That is the area in their life that they are struggling with.
So I have a question for you. What area in your life when someone steps on your toes do you immediately get defensive about? That is the area you need to deal with this morning.
The purpose of pruning is to prepare the branch to bear more fruit. The purpose is not to punish, not to hurt and damage the branch. God wants to use us to our full potential that is why he prunes the branches. Sometime we get so involved in everything that we cannot do anything right. Mediocrity becomes our best and God wants so much more than that.
We need not be involved in everything and just be involved in a few things. Then put our heart and soul in those few things. Then God can rise up the person that need to fill in the gaps that we leave when we depart.
We tend to get so involved in so many things that our families begin to suffer. We think that we are super man or super women. God does not need a bunch of people who think that they can do everything. God needs a group of people that think they can do something and put their heart and soul into that something.
There are lives here today that need to be pruned, We need to get back to the Basic¡¦s of Life. We need to get home and help out our wives with the things around the house instead sitting down and turning on the television.
We need to stop playing this is my job and this is your job and start acting like a family again.
What are the branches in your life that need to get pruned?
I started this sermon with Jesus saying the 7 "I AM"
The first 6 deal with you coming to know him personally as your Lord and Savior. The final one has to do with now that you are do something about it. Produce fruit or be cut off and thrown into the fire!
So, where are you right now? Are you connected to the vine, feeling the life of God flowing through you as you remain in Him? Or are you disconnected, slowly dying, trying to stay in control of life and manage things in your own strength? Keep in mind that there are seasons of pruning, as we saw in the passage, where even some parts that seemed to be growing are cut off so that other parts can be more fruitful. There are times in our lives where maybe we are not seeing the fruit, but we know we are remaining in the vine. If that describes you, remain. Paul would say, stand firm. Hold fast, keep the connection, continue to let Jesus’ words dwell in you, allow the gardener to prune, and cling to the promise that you will bear much fruit.
If you are not connected, I urge you to allow God the master gardener to graft you back into the vine. Return to Him. Surrender yourself to Him let Him have every bit. And let His life fill you. Let yourself get so close to God that you can feel Jesus’ blood runing through your viens, just like the water runs through the vine.
