June 29, 2003
John 15:1-8
“The True Vine”
Intro
I’m going to ask the ushers today to pass around some clusters of grapes. Would you be very careful to grip the clusters of grapes only by the branch, rather than by the individual grapes, and then simply pick off one grape for yourself and pass it on? We don’t want to spread germs here this morning, so please only take the clusters by the branch!
As you’re doing that, we’re going to talk today about Jesus’ prescription for joy—and His prescription for joy is not to seek…joy! Ask the average person on the street what he wants most, and it’s decently likely that his response will be, sadly, in my estimation, “I just want to be happy!” If the primary goal of my life is happiness, then I am destined to live a fairly shallow life! And many people who set “happiness” as their life goals will then proceed to go about seeking to find happiness by pursuing happiness—and they will fail in their pursuit! Happiness as an ultimate goal in life is a fairly shabby goal, and the pursuit of happiness as a life’s work is unlikely to yield such happiness! Two things I’ll say about that: one, instead of happiness, which tends to ebb and flow with the circumstances that attend my life, I’d rather have joy, which transcends the particular circumstances in which I find myself. Two, both happiness and joy are by-products of the pursuit of other things rather than products of the pursuit of themselves. In other words, if I pursue happiness, I’m not likely to find it; if I pursue something else, I might well get happiness in the bargain. Jesus tells us, at the end of the passage we are considering today, in John 15:11, that He speaks to His followers in order that His joy might be in us, and that our joy might be full. But interestingly, the words He speaks which precede this don’t mention the word “joy” at all. Not one time does He introduce the subject of joy until the very end, when He sums up and says, “Hey, I’ve said all of this so that you can have a life that is just full of joy!”
Instead, He talks about vines and branches and grapes. Somehow, the joy that we all, if we experienced it, wouldn’t trade for anything, is wrapped up in vines and branches and grapes! By now, most of you should have in your hands one nice green grape. Consider with me just a few questions, if you would:
Where did this thing come from?
Did the quality of this grape come about as an accident, or was it tended?
Would I rather eat this grape, or the branch from which it came?
If the branch to which this grape was connected had not produced grapes, of what practical use would it be?
How do I know if it is a good piece of fruit or not?
OK, now you can enjoy the grape, if you so choose!
Message
As you turn in your Bibles to John 15, let me mention that we come today to the end of a 7-part series on the subject “Who Does Jesus Say He Is?” We finish with the statement, “I am the True Vine”. The vine was a powerful symbol, and one with which Jesus’ disciples would immediately identify. The vine was a symbol of Israel itself; during the Maccabean period of Jewish history, it was the vine which served to represent Israel on their coinage. This isn’t surprising; scripture, including Psalm 80 and others, so identified Israel. Isaiah’s prophecy declared that Israel had produced bad fruit; righteousness and justice were lacking. The vine had gone bad; those who ought to have been tending and guarding and keeping the vine were failing miserably. Hence, Jesus identifies Himself as the True Vine and His Father as the Gardener.
Further, as the disciples left the Upper Room, where they had shared the Last Supper together, and made their way toward Gethsemane, they would pass the temple. A chief ornament decorating the Temple was a “golden vine with a cluster of grapes as large as a man.” As Jesus gave this illustration, did He have in mind this the Temple sculpture which they would soon pass?
Further yet, consider the elements that had been present at the Passover Meal. There on the table had been lamb; remember John the Baptist identifying Jesus as “The Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world.” There was bread a-plenty; Jesus had identified Himself as the “Bread of Life”, that which we ought to make the prime staple of a spiritual life. And there was wine as well; now, Jesus points to Himself as the Source of the real fruit of life, the True Vine! Follow along with me as we stand and read together John 15:1-8:
I referred last week to Robert Bork’s outstanding book, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, a tour de force on the subject of American decline. Hopefully, you’ll find a way to read this important book. One of the two chief characteristics of modern liberalism to which Bork points as being devastating to our American way of life is the rise of unbridled, radical individualism, an individualism, as summed up in Frank Sinatra’s prideful epic, ‘I Did it My Way”, which denies the need for others. The more I consider this topic, the more I see so many vestiges of it in our contemporary American approach to spirituality, and it is sickening. I see it in our churches, when Christians effectively take the approach that they hardly have need of others in order to live a life pleasing to God. No, you cannot go it alone, and if you are thinking that I’m speaking only of those folks who don’t attend church, you are sadly missing my point. I’m talking to some of you, I’m afraid; I’m talking about an approach to Christianity which says, "I’ll do my thing—come to church, do whatever—and while it might be nice that other folks are around, they are not integral to the living out of my Christian experience. I’ll come and listen to a sermon and leave; maybe I’ll pray or read the Bible, but the fact that other people are doing the same thing is tangential, only incidental to my walk with God.” That, folks, is a prideful, unBiblical individualism. Some of you today are in the process of making decisions on a variety of matters. Are you just going to do it “your way”? Or are you willing to cut across the grain of our entire society and allow others, wise, Christian friends, into the decision-making process?
I raise this issue because a central theme of today’s message is the theme of connectedness. If I am not connected in the proper relationships, I am out of the ballgame when it comes to living a God-pleasing life. If you’re making notes, I’m going to give you the first three big points right now, in order to set the stage: Jesus is the Vine; God the Father is the Gardener; I am a branch. Now let’s examine those concepts!
I. Jesus is the Vine.
There are two main functions, interrelated, that a vine serves. The vine is
A. The Source of Life
B. The Source of Fruit
The vine bears the nourishment for the branches to live and thrive. Cut off from the vine, the branch will die. Period. A branch cannot survive on its own. It has no root. It is unconnected to a source of life. And then since an unconnected branch has no life, it can of course bear no fruit. It is the vine, attached to the roots which draw in the nourishment for the plant, which provides life to each branch and which brings to the branches the nutrients necessary to produce fruit. And Jesus comes to us and says, “I am the True Vine.” There is thus no life and no fruit apart from Jesus!
II. God the Father is the Gardener.
Notice that there are some things that God is doing in order that life might be sustained and fruit might be produced. First,
A. He lifts up the branches.
Now, you’re not going to find that in your Bible…rather, you’re going to read “every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away…” I’m going to suggest an alternate understanding of that passage. In the original Greek, that word translated “takes away” is the word airo. Here’s the rub: airo has as many as four possible meanings, four different usages. It can mean “to lift up or pick up”. It can mean “to lift up figuratively, as in lifting up one’s eyes or one’s voice”. Third, it can mean, “to lift up, with the added thought of lifting up in order to carry away”. Last, it can mean what most translators have taken it to mean, that is, “to remove”. James Montgomery Boice makes a compelling case that what is meant here by Jesus, when He uses airo, is not “to remove”, but rather, “to lift up”. This rendering emphasizes the care of the gardener. Branches of grapes need to be lifted to the sun so that the fruit will develop properly. Grapes are not like squash or pumpkins, which can lie on the ground perfectly well and develop normally; they must instead hang free. Any branch that rests on the ground is unproductive. What would a normal gardener do? Would he cut off that branch, or would he instead lift it up that it might produce grapes? Customarily, he would stretch the vine across some arbor in order to get oxygen and sunlight to it. A third reason that this is very possibly the preferred understanding is the sequence that Jesus gives here makes sense: first, the gardener lifts all of the vines up. Then,
B. He prunes and cleans the branches.
He gets rid of the insects, the moss, the parasites that would threaten its development. He cuts away what is not helpful for growing. A vine produces certain shoots called “sucker shoots”, which start to grow where a branch joins the stem. If they’re allowed to continue to grow, they would dissipate the life of the vine through so many branches that the vine would produce little or no fruit and would produce mainly leaves instead. Every vinedresser knows it is important to prune away those sucker shoots to ensure plentiful fruit.
Similarly, God the Father prunes us from time to time, in order that we might grow better. Sometimes that pruning is painful—some of you have gone through periods of pruning recently, and maybe continue to do so. That’s okay; God is working in you to produce real fruit in your life. He demonstrates His care by clearing away the obstacles to your growth.
C. He throws away worthless parts.
We find this down in verse 6. Some find this verse to suggest that those who are Christians, but who lapse into sin, will lose their salvation. I personally don’t believe that that rendering is necessary at all, nor that it squares with the general teaching of the Bible on the subject. Rather, the context here is of fruitfulness, of those good works produced in the life of the abiding Christian, and it seems to me that the best understanding of Jesus’ words here refer to the discarding of any works which we might do which don’t qualify as “good fruit”.
D. He gets the praise when the fruit is produced.
We see this in verse 8, that it is the Gardener who gets the credit when the fruit ripens and is useful. The branch doesn’t brag; it is the Gardener Who gets the praise.
So what we have here is the clear teaching that it is God Who is in control of the vineyard, and His desire is to produce fruit. Jesus is the Vine through Whom the fruit will come. What is my role?
III. I am a branch.
I am connected to the Vine. Without the Vine, I am dead and useless;
A. I have no life of myself.
Last week we saw that Jesus referred to Himself as the “Life”. Death is the domain of Satan; life, of Jesus. A branch that is cut off from the vine wasn’t even of as much value as a branch cut off from a tree. A tree branch might be made into a plank, but the branch of a vine is little more than kindling! There is no life in a branch separate from the Vine.
B. I am not the end product; fruit is!
The purpose of the grapevine is to produce grapes, not branches. As a Christian, I do not exist merely for the purpose of soaking up the blessings of eternal life in Christ. I’m not here just to take in and grow fat and sassy. I’m here in order that I might bear fruit! “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine; oh, what a foretaste of glory divine”, to be sure, but “work, for the night is coming, when man works no more.” The reason I exist, the purpose God has for me in leaving me here to hang around awhile, is not merely to…hang around awhile! I am here in order that I might produce fruit, for that is the end product. So I’m not going to get all high and mighty, because I have no life of myself, and because my salvation in Christ is not an end in itself. But let’s balance that with this important consideration:
C. I play a critical role in God’s plan.
Jesus tells me that I play a role! I’m not the Vine; I’m not the fruit. But if I’m not serving as a conduit between the Vine and the fruit, if I’m not producing, there will be no fruit! In another place, He calls me to lay up treasure in Heaven, to do things here and now that take on that eternal dimension. I can choose to use my life in cooperation with God’s Holy Spirit to such a degree that, as I am in Christ, fruit can be borne out of my life. That is cool! And that leads to point 4, which is
IV. As a branch, my purpose is to bear fruit.
That’s why I’m here. What can we say about that?
A. Fruit is evidence of life.
If there is no fruit on a vine, we may question whether life is present. The same is true in the spiritual realm, of course! Over and over, Scripture calls us to take a look at our present-day life situation in order to determine whether or not we truly know God in Christ. The best way of knowing whether or not you are in Christ, whether or not He is your Lord and Savior, is not by asking, “can I remember the time and place in which I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to save me?”, but rather, “what evidence do I see in my life that Jesus is producing fruit through me?” But there’s another question that bears considering:
B. What makes fruit “good”?
Think about it. What makes a fruit good, its outward appearance, or its inward taste? We’ve all had the experience of biting into a luscious looking piece of fruit, expecting to savor the taste, and yet coming away with a bitter, or a sour, or worse, experience! It may look good on the outside, but that doesn’t guarantee that a fruit is really good on the inside, where it counts, and just as we can’t judge a book by its cover, so we can’t truly judge a fruit by its peel, right?
What pertinence does that have to us? Simply this: we can look at people from all sorts of various religious experiences, and see in their lives an outward dimension which looks good! There are certainly people of other faiths who lead moral lives. There are certainly cultists who do what look outwardly like good works. There are compassionate Hindus, and honest Muslims, and self-sacrificing Buddhists. But according to a Biblical understanding of the issue, these would not constitute good fruit.
Here is a simple, functional definition of “good works”, good fruit to be borne by a Christian: “the right deed, done the right way, with the right motive, for the praise of the right One, Jesus.” Those who don’t know Christ may do the right thing, and may even do it the right way. If the motive, however, is in order to earn salvation, to establish one’s own goodness, then the fruit is not good, for Christ does not receive praise from any work done from selfish motives.
And it is clear that it is Christ’s desire that we bear “much fruit”. How does this happen?
V. I only bear fruit as I abide in the Vine.
This is surely the big idea that Christ is driving home to us: “abide in Me, in order that you might bear much fruit.” Without Jesus, you can do nothing! That means that
A. Any success I achieve without the power of God is just another word for failure!
Now, these are critical words for those of us who are “activists”. My temptation is to go and do, to envision, plan, organize, and promote, and then to say, “oh, God, would you mind helping out with this?” If I ever think that anything I do can make any difference for God’s kingdom apart from Jesus’ power, then I am missing the point mightily! I was struck last year, at our district conference, by the words of Bob Bakke, who heads up prayer ministries for the EFCA. Bob’s key quote was this, “the whole work of the whole gospel of Jesus Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit.” In other words, I can’t accomplish anything without the Holy Spirit. Nothing. I need Jesus for everything. Everything. Without Him, I can do nothing! I must abide in Him. And so the question comes,
B. What does it mean to “abide”?
Let me sum this up into two terms, and then talk about the outworking of these two ideas. First, it means
1. Taking the Word in
Jesus speaks in verse 7 of His words abiding in them. While the exact meaning for His disciples was different than for us—we have the written Word of God in its final form, as they did not—still, the practical import of allowing His Word to dwell in us richly is there for us. We don’t please God, and we can’t produce good fruit, as long as the Word of God is a matter of relative unconcern to us. We are responsible for our own selves to maintain the vital relationship that we need with Jesus, the Vine. Ray Stedman writes, “we must decide to do things which expose ourselves to Him and keep ourselves in contact with Him.”
The second matter involved in abiding in Christ is the matter of
2. Living the Word out
Jesus said, in verse 10, “if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” This gets beyond knowing the Word and taking it in; it is the critical compliment, without which all of our knowing is essentially worthless. We must live it out. Bible study is of great value, but our lives are not to be libraries, but rather laboratories of His love.
And what happens when we abide in the Vine? Answered prayer. Much good fruit. And ultimately, a joy that we cannot find by seeking it, but by doing the will of God.
Without Jesus, you are as dead as a branch that has been severed. With Jesus, and in Jesus, you have the opportunity to produce much good fruit that lasts forever. And it starts by abiding in Him. Does that describe you, Christian?
