John 15:1-8
It’s All About Relationship
If there’s one passage of scripture that you memorize and make your own this year, let it be from today’s gospel.
Jesus is saying to you…
Each one of you here today…
Sitting in these pews and to each of our shut-ins, who will be listening to this message…
As he said to His disciples…
“Abide in me as I abide in you.”
Let’s say those words together…
“Abide in me as I abide in you.”
Jesus message for us today, is the same as it was to His disciples.
It’s all about relationship.
“Abide in me as I abide in you.”
Jesus gives us an illustration that we can visualize.
Most of us have probably eaten grapes.
In Jesus’ day, it would have been most certain, as grapes were a major part of the Jewish diet.
Once again, here is Jesus, using something ordinary, grapes, to explain something extraordinary.
Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.”
God planted Jesus’ seed.
God nurtured Jesus as the vine.
God tended Jesus’ life as He grew from an infant to an adult and received the power of the Holy Spirit at His baptism.
Jesus’ seed was planted in fertile soil.
Jesus’ life bore much fruit.
Jesus vine was deeply rooted.
Its stem was made strong.
Jesus was able to resist the temptation of the evil one because of the strength of the vine that He was, always in relationship with the Father.
Listen carefully to Jesus’ words.
Jesus does not say “I am the Father.”
Jesus says, “I am the vine. My Father is the vinegrower.”
Jesus is in relationship with God, the Father.
It is because of this relationship, that Jesus was able to perform many miracles of healing.
Listen again, carefully to this scripture.
“He” meaning God, “removes every branch in me” meaning Jesus, “that bears no fruit.”
What this scripture is saying is that even Jesus was pruned by God.
Listen carefully to the next sentence. Jesus is speaking: “Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”
Near the end of Jesus’ ministry, remember that all who came to Him were healed.
We received many illustrations of single healings in Jesus’ early ministry.
But at the peak of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus healed the entire crowd.
Now, Jesus is going a step further.
With us….
You and I.
Ordinary people.
We become part of this relationship of the vine and the vine grower.
You and I…
We are the branches.
Remember how strong and secure the vine is….
Planted in fertile soil.
Listen carefully to Jesus’ words….
“I am the vine, you are the branches.
Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”
Think about this relationship.
God is the vine grower.
Just as God removed the dead, lifeless branches of Jesus,
He will remove the sin stained, dead branches of us…
the dead branches that produce no fruit….
the complaining….
complaining bears no fruit…
a spirit of unforgiveness…
unforgiveness bears no fruit…
a spirit of lust….
lust bears no fruit.
a spirit of addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, foul language, fornication, adultery, stealing….
addictions bear no fruit.
God prunes selfishness from us and self centeredness because those traits bear no fruit…
Here’s the big one for many, many, many people…
God prunes impatience from us, because impatience bears no fruit.
How many car accidents are caused by impatient drivers?
How much anxiety do Americans exhibit because of a need to “have it all now”?
There is a lot to teach a child by having them wait until after dinner to receive a piece of candy.
How impatient we are standing in long lines at the grocery store, the bank, or in traffic jams.
Patience is a hard lesson to learn, but once learned, it removes the spirit of anxiety, and if not removed, anxiety leads to diseases of the stomach, intestine, colon, nerves, brain, and other systems in our body.
The fruits of the spirit are love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, long suffering, and self control.
We receive these fruits because God prunes the opposite off of our dead branches.
God prunes hate, fighting, impatience, ugliness, harshness, mean ness, complaining, and out of control behavior.
God removes those branches which bear no fruit so that the rest of the branch can produce lots of fruit.
Last fall, I went up to my mentor’s son’s house to pick grapes in his vineyard.
Now I had imagined a big basket, and I’d be picking grapes off the vines and putting them into baskets.
Was I fooled.
First of all, when I got there, my eyes scanned the back yard as far as I could see.
Rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows of grape vines.
In fact, there were acres.
In fact, it took a truck to get from one side of the vineyard to the other.
In fact, it took an hour for two people to go down 1 row of grape vines, with a very sharp shears, and snip off countless bunches of grapes.
You see, these bunches were carefully, lovingly, and tenderly pruned throughout their growing season.
And they bore much fruit.
We picked grapes by the ton.
I am not exaggerating.
Big bunches of plump, juicy grapes, were tossed into huge plastic containers and then loaded onto a truck to take them to the wine press.
If I squeezed them too hard, they burst into juice all over my hands and arms.
Well tended grape vines bear much fruit.
When we allow God to cut off the dead branches from our lives, we also bear much fruit.
Remember Jesus words….”Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”
I am concerned about our members who seem to be cut apart from the vine.
I am concerned about a heart that thinks sleeping in on a Sunday morning is going to help them to live more productive lives.
We have branches in our congregation that are cut off from the healthy vine of our membership.
We have branches that are producing much fruit, involved in many aspects of the ministry of this church, while other branches do very little.
God will organize our time so that when we offer our talents to Him, our lives will be enriched, and there will be time for play, and fun, and earning a living.
God gives us strength to get through the hustle and bustle of life.
But apart from Him, we can do nothing.
Listen to the scripture as Jesus is speaking…”Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
What is Jesus saying here?
If we live our lives apart from Him, our destiny will be the fires of hell?
Our dead branches will be burned if Jesus does not abide in us and we abide in Him?
This is not scare tactics.
This is not fire and brim stone.
This is love.
This is relationship.
This is warning….
Listen to verse 7. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
You do not have to abide in Jesus.
You have a choice.
The choice is yours.
Abide in Jesus and bear much fruit.
Remain with Jesus and bear much fruit.
Allow Jesus to remain with you.
Continue with Jesus and bear much fruit.
Allow Jesus to continue with you.
Stay with Jesus and bear much fruit.
Allow Jesus to stay with you.
Be in relationship with Jesus.
Allow Jesus to be in relationship with you.
Submit to Jesus,
And allow Jesus to be faithful to you…
Or sever yourself from the vine, wither, be thrown into the fire, and burn.
What Jesus wants for us, is to be in relationship with Him and to produce much fruit.
When we are in relationship with Jesus, and produce fruit, we glorify God.
Listen to verse 8: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
Let us not become distracted by the “do this” of the world and “do that” of the world.
Let us focus on our relationship with Jesus.
Let us bear much fruit.
To God’s glory.
Amen.
