John 15:1-11
Experiencing Joy
INTRODUCTION
On the night He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus went over His coming arrest one last time with the disciples. He had been teaching them and leading them to this point throughout His ministry, but they had failed to get the point. So now, before it occurs, Jesus rehearses for them again the fact that He would be taken away from them. In chapter 13:33, He told the men that He was going to a place to which they would be unable to follow, and this disturbed them greatly. He said,
“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.”
How could this be? How could it be that the man to whom they had given their lives and for whom they had forsaken all was now going away and they would not be able to follow Him?
Jesus quickly began to put their minds at ease in chapter 14 as He explained that He was going to be with the Father and that He would prepare a place there for them and that in time He would return to get them, but for now, they were to remain behind. Near the close of chapter 14, Jesus explained that after He was gone, the Holy Spirit would be sent to be with them. He would teach them and lead them and comfort them. Whether the disciples realized it or not, this Holy Spirit would be a greater blessing to them than the actual physical presence of the Lord, because now He would always be present with them wherever and whenever they labored. They would do even greater works than Jesus had done during His ministry!
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greter works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” (14:12)
No doubt the disciples were still saddened by the news they were receiving that night. They were hearing Jesus, but they weren’t getting how that after He was gone from among them they could still go on and more than that, not be saddened by it. Well Jesus had the answer, and in chapter 15 He uses an ordinary vine, whether it was a grape vine or some other is not relevant. He used this vine and its branches and fruit to illustrate the only way they were going to know the kind of joy and fulfillment that life can bring in Christ. In fact, He says in verse 11 that the things He was saying in verses 1-10 were said in order that His joy might remain in them, and that their joy might be full.
God’s desire has always been and still is today for His children to experience great joy in this life. No doubt all of humanity wants the same thing, and certainly the disciples wanted it, but the problem is that God and man have differing ideas about how that is going to be accomplished. See, the disciple’s idea of experiencing joy had to do with physically enjoying the presence of Christ and having a hands on religion – a religion of touch and feel and see and know. Theirs was the same idea as that of man today. Religion today is still based on touch and feel, and on see and know. It’s about what a man can experience and get out of the deal. It’s the John 6 kind of religion that is great to have so long as bellies are being filled, but is forsaken at the first hint of hardship. That’s so different than God’s idea of religion. God doesn’t really want religion at all, but rather a life of faith and devotion to Him, and if true believers can understand God’s plan for experiencing joy and practice it daily in their lives, then they can and will experience the joy that comes only from above, the joy that satisfies the dry and thirsty soul.
Do you want that kind of joy? Is it lacking in your life? You can’t produce it, so there’s no use trying. The kind of joy for which your soul longs will only be found in Christ. According to Paul in Galatians, it is a fruit of the Spirit, something that He works out in your life as you rightly relate to Him. So how do you do that? God doesn’t just have joy set aside for certain people, every one of His children can experience it, but only when they observe and apply the things Jesus taught in today’s text. Let’s consider three things Jesus pointed out that will lead to your experiencing joy the way He intends.
YOU MUST UNDERSTAND YOUR PLACE IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS.
In verse 1, Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” Then in verse 5 He says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches…” There it is. God the Father is the husbandman. It is He who owns it all and controls it all. Jesus is the true vine, and we as believers are the branches. What a great truth! Jesus is the true vine, and we are merely the branches!
By making this statement, Jesus implies that there are other vines, yet He is the true one. If we’re going to have life, the kind of life we find in John 14:6 and in John 10:10, then we’ll only find it in Christ, the true vine. People all over the place, in false and true churches are attempting find life outside of Christ. That is, they’re trying every means they have available to them to produce a quality of life that they think will bring them joy and fulfillment, but Jesus tells us in this passage that we’ll only find that life in Him.
Jesus isn’t speaking about salvation here – he’s addressing people who profess to be saved already. He’s telling these saved people how to go about finding life. What are some of the other vines to which people try to connect themselves? Some try to stay connected to popularity for joy and fulfillment, others try riches and fame. Folk try to find it in marriage or other relationships, in recreation, in work, and most all men and women try religion of some flavor. But all at some time or another try different ways, but as Jesus pointed out, a man can gain the whole world, have everything there is to have, and yet when it’s all said and done he’s left with nothing – he’s lost his own soul, meaning that he’s wasted his life searching for something in the world that only Jesus Christ can give. Jesus made it clear in verse 5 that apart from Him, we can do nothing. He’s not talking about us not being able to eat or drink or go to work or watch TV. What He is talking about is that there is nothing we can do apart from Him that will have any eternal value, nor is there anything we can do on our own that God will find acceptable and pleasing. If we’re going to get to the Father, then it’s going to be through Christ.
Solomon found this out. He was a man with unlimited resources, a wealth of potential, unparalleled wisdom, and as he searched the world over and as he attempted a great variety of things to find fulfillment and joy in living, he discovered that it was all vanity – it was useless and leaves a man just as empty as he was in the beginning. The whole duty of man he discovered was to love God and, to put it in the words of Jesus, to be a branch that remains in Him.
We are branches. That’s it. As children of God we are not the husbandmen, nor are we the vines. Our place in Christian living is to stay connected to the vine and to allow Him to bear fruit through us. That’s it! That may not sound too thrilling, but regardless of our personal feelings about our position in life the reality is that we as believers are completely and utterly dependent upon God through Jesus Christ.
Our place in the scheme of things is to be branches. We are servants, not the master. We are slaves, not the owners. We are the creation, not the Creator. You see, God has rights to every one of our lives because everything there is rightfully belongs to Him as the Almighty Creator God. But even more than that, He has rights to our lives because He bought and paid for them with the precious blood of His only begotten Son. We were nothing to God except for offensive, rebellious sinners, and yet in spite of what we were, God gave up Jesus for what we could be. But that’s not all. God has rights to our lives because He is the Creator, and yes He has rights because He bought and paid for us, but He also has rights to our lives because at some point in time, as believers, we willingly chose to make Him the Lord of our lives. We gave Him that right! We recognized our place then in salvation and there was no greater sense of joy and fulfillment to us, now we must continue to recognize it in daily Christian living if we are to continue to experience joy from above.
YOU MUST SUBMIT TO GOD’S PRUNING WORK IN YOUR LIFE.
Verses 2-3 say,
“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
While the King James text uses the words “purge” and “clean,” the meaning is to prune. Remember that Jesus is speaking to saved people. The lost are not under consideration, so when we read that there are some branches that aren’t bearing fruit that will be taken away, John’s not talking about God separating lost people from among the saved. He’s talking about removing those branches that are useless and are taking up space, taking up the valuable resources that could be better used for those branches that are producing fruit. He says that the branch, the soft, flexible and pliable portion of the vine, that does not bear any fruit – he takes it away. It’s not just discarded, but it’s placed among other dead branches. May I suggest that of all the places that Jesus can take you – you don’t want him to take you to the pile of dead branches? As believers, as children of God, as men and women in whom the Spirit of God resides, we ought to want Him to take me to heights we’ve never known, to want Him to take us to opportunities we’ve only dreamed of, to take us to areas of ministry we’ve never seen before. The husbandman (God) takes the dead branches away. And those branches are taken away because they are dead – they don’t produce any fruit.
You can understand that. God makes perfectly good sense here:
· Dead branches take up good space.
· Dead branches don’t give praise.
· Dead branches waste time.
· Dead branches don’t go to Sunday school.
· Dead branches don’t tithe.
· Dead branches complain all the time.
· Dead branches talk during preaching.
· Dead branches walk during a sermon.
· Dead branches are a stumbling block to someone else.
· Dead branches gossip all the time.
· Dead branches talk holy and walk unholy.
Dead branches need to be removed, but it’s not the job of the other branches to do the removing – that’s the work of the husbandman.
You can understand that. I think there are some branches here that are producing fruit, but even the branches that are bearing fruit experience pruning. The Greek word suggests that God will clear out, or cleanse, he will remove things from the vine that are hindering its good and proper growth and ability to produce more and even better fruit. Every one of us as God’s children has things in our lives that hinder our spiritual growth and ability to bear the kind of fruit for which God is looking. The writer of Hebrews told his readers to lay aside every weight that hindered them, and when we recognize those things we ought to lay them aside, but very often we don’t recognize the sin in our lives. We have blind spots and areas of our lives that keep us from growing and producing fruit, so God goes to work to prune out those things. May I suggest to you today that this may be an explanation of what God is doing in your life? It may not be, but there is the possibility that it is. You lose things, people, possessions that are close to you – not to hurt you, but to take you to a higher level – that you may become very productive – that you may produce more fruit.
· He may allow you to lose loved ones
· He may allow you to lose your job
· He may allow friends to turn their backs on you
· He may allow you to lose your health
· He may allow you to lose your home
Whatever distractions are keeping you from serving the Lord, God says for His own sake, I’ve got to prune or clean your branch. But we are being pruned – not for our pain, but that God would receive glory. When God gets finished pruning on my life, He will receive the glory. And when He gets finished with me…my life will give Him glory, my ways will give Him glory, my songs will give Him glory, my prayers will give Him glory, and my giving will give Him glory. And I will experience joy in my life because of God’s pruning work like I’ve never experienced it before, not because the pruning was pleasant, but because it was necessary in order for me to be more productive for the Master.
YOU MUST ABIDE IN CHRIST.
Jesus said in verse 4,
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”
Abide in Christ! That sounds real spiritual, but what does it mean? The word abide comes from a word that means to continue, to stay or dwell. Perhaps one of the simplest ways to think about it is just to ask yourself this question, “How does a branch get the sap it needs without staying connected to the vine?” The answer to that question is the answer to our question of how we are to abide in Christ. You see, we are to stay connected to Christ, to stay hooked up with Him, to dwell in Him, to continue in Him.
Jesus mentioned a few things in verses 7-10 that will help us.
We must allow the Words of Christ to remain in us (vs. 7)
In other words, we need to get into God’s Word on a continual, regular basis. We need to have a consistent plan of regular Bible reading, of Bible study, of Bible memorization, of meditation on its teachings and how they apply to our lives. We need to allow God’s Word to get into our lives and allow it to influence everything we think or say or do. It is to be the filter through which we view all of life and the standard by which we live it.
We must maintain an active prayer life (vs. 7)
Jesus mentioned asking what we will of the Father. He’s speaking about a habit of prayer – a habit that is all too often lacking in the believer’s life. How in the world can we expect to experience the joys of Christian living, of abiding in Christ if we fail to do the simplest of things such as prayer? Believers need to be praying people – because people who aren’t praying are just playing.
We must continue in love for others (vs. 9)
Jesus plainly taught that this was the second greatest commandment; second only to our love for God the Father, our Husbandman. If we are going to experience joy – if we are going to be satisfied in this life, then we are going to have to love people, but it is not a forced love as in “I don’t like them but I have to love them.” This is the love that flows from maintaining the right love relationship with our source of love. It is about staying connected to the one who provides us with all our resources.
It is clear that on our own we lack the capacity to love the unlovable, but in Christ we can love all people, regardless of who they are or what they have done. We can only love others as we rightly love the Lord.
We must be obedient to the Word of God (vs. 10)
This may sound like a repeat of the first thing mentioned earlier, but it is not. How often we find believers who can quote the Bible and who know the doctrines of the Lord’s Word, yet they struggle in their application of that Word. If we are going to experience what good things God has in store for us, then we need to not only know the Word, but also obey the Word. We need to do the things we are told to do and not do those things that are forbidden in the Scriptures.
CONCLUSION
So what happens when a child of God refuses to abide in Christ? What happens when a believer is not bearing fruit in his or her life? That child of God is of no use in God’s kingdom purposes. He or she has chosen not to abide, not to continue or to stay connected, so they must be cut off and set aside. We might think it tragic that God would resort to such measures, but we can be sure that this is never His first choice. How patiently God waits while He invites such a believer to get his act in gear and put himself in a position where he is able to bear fruit.
There are always those of you whose lives can be observed over a period of time, years perhaps, and the question always comes to mind, “Are they really saved?” It is an awful question to have to ask of any professing believer, but the reality is that there are many who are professing but who are not possessing. You may claim to be saved, but it is your life and works, the fruit you do or don’t bear that ultimately tells the truth about your claim.
If you’ve just been living a lie and you know that you’ve never accepted Christ as your Savior, then not only are you not connected to the vine, you are completely unable to be connected unless you do something about it. You need to recognize that without Jesus you are completely lost and unacceptable to God. You have no way to earn His favor or to merit salvation. You stand condemned before a holy and righteous Father. However, if you realize your lostness today then you can be saved – but you must confess your condition to Christ and be repentant concerning your sin and trust Christ to save you and He will.
Some of you have been lacking the kind of joy about which the Bible speaks. This is not a joy that comes or goes with the wind, but is sure and lasting so long as you remain connected to the vine through such things as prayer and Bible study, things such as loving others and being obedient to the Word of God. Have you been connected? Have you been longing for that which you do not have? Has there been something missing in your life because of wrong and hurtful choices?
God wants you to experience a joy that goes beyond our understanding, and the way is clear, but the choice is yours to make. God’s not going to force you to choose joy, nor is He going to argue with you about the difference it can and will make in your life. Today He is inviting you to reason with Him and know whether you’ve been connected to the vine, and what you are willing to do about it if you are not.
