WHOSE VINE IS IT ANYWAY?
A Declaration of Dependence
John 15:1-8
July 11, 2004
Introduction:
This week we will be continuing our series titled “A Declaration of Dependence.” During this month in which we celebrate our independence as a nation I want us to turn our attention to our dependence upon God in every area of life. In our last message we saw that we are completely dependent upon God for our salvation. This week we will see that our need to depend upon God does not stop there - rather it starts there.
We have a tendency to depend too much on ourselves. We trust in our own abilities to get things done. We put faith in our own ingenuity to figure things out. We as a people are often times very much like the proverbial man who won’t stop to ask for directions when he is clearly lost. We are confident that we can find a way to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and keep on going by ourselves.
As a nation this is particularly true in our day. More than ever we have come to the conclusion that we don’t need God. And so we find the mention of God being removed from public life all across the country. And this is probably just the tip of the iceberg if this trend isn’t reversed. So what do we do? We find Christians responding with much the same kind of independent attitude. We fight it in the courts. We seek to elect people to congress who agree with our viewpoint. We petition our senators and representatives when key legislation is being considered to insure that they will vote the way we want them to. We hold protests and demonstrations in the streets to call attention to our agenda.
Do you know why we are not more successful? Because we are fighting the world on their terms. All of the things I have just mentioned are things that they are doing as well. They file motions and lawsuits, petition congress, organize protests and letter writing campaigns. These are the things they depend upon rather than God. And we are doing the same.
I am not saying that we should stop doing any of those things nor am I saying that any of those things are wrong. But we must remember who we are and whose we are. Whose Vine Is It Anyway? It’s God’s vine as we will see in our text for today. We belong not to ourselves, but to God. True and lasting change will never come through the legislation, but through life change. America will not be saved through societal reform, but through revival.
This concerns me because, quite frankly, I am not sure the church in America has the spiritual vitality to lead such revival. If fact, I am fairly certain of it. The more we come to depend upon ourselves or worldly tactics the less we depend upon God. And the less we depend upon God the closer we come to spiritual death.
1. Stop Denying and Start Depending
Jesus told us what happens to a branch that stops drawing on or depending on the vine for its source of life. It stops producing fruit and is cut off by the gardener. Listen to his words:
1I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Contrary to the opinion of some in the church God does not want us to simply be faithful, but fruitful as well. God expects us to produce. He wants us to get results for his kingdom. Just look at the parable of the talents and what was said to the one who did not multiply his investment. You see God has invested in us and he expects to see a return just like the gardener who has invested in his garden and expects to see some fruit.
We see in these verses that God expects his people to get results. The branches that don’t produce fruit are cut off because the gardener will not waste his time feeding and watering that which is worthless. But when he finds a branch that does produce fruit he prunes it, not as punishment, but so that it will bear even more fruit next time.
You see gardeners know that certain types of plants need to be pruned in order to produce up to their full potential. We have some raspberry bushes in our backyard, but they haven’t been pruned for some time and so it doesn’t look like they are going to produce much this year. So in the fall we are going to prune them back and hopefully they will do better next year.
I want you to notice something interesting about this verse. It doesn’t say that God only prunes the branches that produce big, bright, juicy fruit. He prunes any branch that bears fruit of any kind. If the branch is producing sour or sickly fruit, he prunes it so that it will do better. If the branch is producing beautiful tasty fruit, he still prunes it because he wants even better in the future. God doesn’t require you to be the very best there is, but he does require that you produce and he wants you to keep growing better and better. He has high hopes for you and he won’t be satisfied with the status quo even if you are.
So God wants us to be faithful and fruitful because only by being truly faithful can we be truly fruitful. What does that say of those who are fruitful without being faithful. It says that their fruit is really false fruit and it doesn’t count. They are like those who on the day of judgment will say that they have cast out demons and healed the sick and all of these wonderful things in Jesus name, but he will tell them that he doesn’t know them. You can’t fool God. Donald Gee tells the story of when he was young and tried to plant tomatoes. That particular summer was not very good for growing plants. His tomatoes never developed on the plants not even little green tomatoes. He was thrilled when he came outside one day to find big red ripe tomatoes on his vines. When he got closer he realized they were tied on by his mother. Sometimes, we also try to fake the fruit of the Spirit. We try to tie it onto an unchanged life. (Stephan Brown/Sermon Central) If a young boy could figure out that the fruit was fake it won’t be any trouble for Jesus to figure it out.
And what of those who claim to be faithful while not being fruitful. Jesus teaching in the passage and in the parable of the talents exposes them for the frauds they are. Jesus will show us in this passage that if you are faithful – dependent upon him – you can’t help but be fruitful.
2. Stop Trying and Start Trusting
So we have seen the importance of producing fruit or getting results for God, but how do we do that? How do we live up to God’s high expectations? It sounds like it would be really hard to do - especially if you may have had a parent that was hard to please. May be you grew up in an environment where nothing you ever did was good enough. Well God is different. He does expect results. He does set the standards high. But anyone here can fulfill his expectations very simply. Stop trying and start trusting. Stop working and start waiting. Sound too simple? Lets look:
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
A local pastor in the Philippines used the following parable to illustrate Christ’s offer of rest if we will depend upon him and the response of people who won’t trust Him completely: The driver of a carabao wagon was on his way to market when he overtook an old man carrying a heavy load. Taking compassion on him, the driver invited the old man to ride in the wagon. Gratefully the old man accepted. After a few minutes, the driver turned to see how the man was doing. To his surprise, he found him still straining under the heavy weight, for he had not taken the burden off his shoulders. (Larry Chell/SermonCentral). That is a picture of the Christian trying to fulfill the expectations of God through his or her own effort. We are in Christ and yet we are needlessly struggling under heavy burdens that he intended to take from us.
Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it is connected to the vine and drawing nourishment from it so we cannot produce results for God unless we are connected to Jesus Christ and drawing our strength from him. We learned last week that when we trust in Christ for salvation we are positionally placed in Christ and now we see that we must remain there to be effective.
Jesus said that the one who remains in him “will bear much fruit.” Two important points. First, the one who remains in Christ will bear fruit. It is guaranteed. Jesus doesn’t say he might bear fruit or he could bear fruit but that he WILL bear fruit. That is why we can’t say we are being faithful which being fruitless. Our fruit is the evidence of our faith. Later Jesus said, “you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” Bearing fruit is therefore the evidence that you are truly a disciple of Jesus Christ. Not bearing fruit is then the evidence that you are not. It may sound harsh, but a fruitless Christian is a faithless Christian and a faithful Christian is a fruitful Christian.
The second thing to notice is that Jesus said you “will bear MUCH fruit.” He didn’t say you would bear a little fruit or some fruit, but much fruit. Why does he want us to bear a lot of fruit? Because he says, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit.” Your fruitfulness brings glory to God. If being fruitful brings glory to God then what does your unfruitfulness do? It brings dishonor to God. It is therefore of utmost importance that we bear much fruit because the more fruit we bear the more glory we bring to God.
How much glory is your life bringing to God? How much glory would you like it to bring? The exciting thing about all of this is that it is not up to us to work up the harvest. In fact Jesus clear teaching is that you and I can’t produce any fruit on our own. Our only responsibility is to remain in Him. The word ‘remain’ means to abide. In other words we need to depend totally and completely upon him. Are you doing that? Are you ready to make a personal declaration of dependence upon God? Stop trying so hard to be a good Christian and start trusting in God to make you a good Christian.
Next we see that if we will remain in him we will never be separated from him.
3. Stop Resisting and Start Persisting.
6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
As long as we are depending upon Christ we are secure in our relationship to him. This takes the worry out of it. We already have so much that we worry about in life today. We worry about our finances, our children, terrorism, ect. The last thing we need is something else to worry about. But if we remain connected to Christ, then we have nothing to be concerned with.
Then we see that if we continue in a life of dependence upon Christ we will have dynamic prayer lives.
4. Stop Pouting and Start Praying.
7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
That sounds like an absolutely amazing promise and it is. Think of the power that we have as Christians – as people who are rightly related to God and depending upon him moment by moment. Jesus promises that we will be given whatever we want if we ask for it from a relationship of total dependence upon him.
How can that be you ask? I’ve asked for lots of things in prayer that have never come to pass. Sometimes it is as simple as recognizing that the answers to our prayers don’t always come in the ways we expect them to and so we miss them. A devout priest was caught in a flood one day, and he climbed onto the roof of his Vicarage and as the water started lapping up over the roof he prayed “Lord, deliver me from this flood”.
The water continued to rise and a policeman in a rowing boat passed: “Can I help you Vicar?” “No thanks, the Lord will deliver me!”
A little while later, the water is even higher, and the Vicar is up to his waist, even standing on his roof. A lifeboat cruises past, and the coxwain shouts out “Can I help you, Vicar?” “No Thanks” was his reply “The Lord will deliver me – I’ve prayed for it”
After another few minutes, the water has risen so much that only the Vicar’s head is peeping out from above the water and a helicopter flies over. The pilot leans out and calls “Can I help you Vicar?” “No thanks, the Lord will deliver me!”
At which point, the water rises over the Vicar’s head and he drowns.
When the Vicar arrives at the gates of heaven and faces St Peter he is furious: “I’ve been a most serious and devout priest all my life, devoted to prayer and good works – why didn’t God answer my prayers. “Oh,” says Peter “That ‘s strange: we sent two boats and a helicopter after you…” (Simon Rundell/Sermon Central)
We have to deal frankly with the fact that we have all prayed prayers that were not answered the way we wished. But we dare not discredit or limit Jesus statement. The simple fact is that if I ask for something that I want and I don’t get it that reveals that I was not asking from a state of total dependence upon God.
Let us recall that in the illustration that Jesus uses here we are the branches and he is the vine. That means that we must be drawing all of our resources from him. Surely that includes our wants and wishes as well. If your prayer was not answered ask yourself, “Was the source of my desire rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ or some other selfish desire?” Think about it – Was the origin of your wish list God or yourself?
The secret to answered prayer is this: As we remain connected to the vine Jesus’ desires flow through the branches – that’s us – and manifest themselves in our prayers to the Father which are then guaranteed to be answered. The prayer is not guaranteed to be answered because it is something that I wanted and since I am so special God gives it to me. No. We know all too well what kind of children come from that kind of parenting.
When kids always get there way they are spoiled and self-centered and rarely happy because in the real world they rarely get everything their way the way they did when they were growing up. In fact I saw some statistics the other day that indicated that most people who describe themselves today as being happy and content with life grew up with parents who were firm disciplinarians and refused to simply let them have everything their way. God is the perfect parent and he will not spoil his children.
So instead we see that when we are so intimately connected to the vine that his desires become our wishes and find expression through prayer the results are guaranteed. Are you that connected to Christ this morning? Have his desires become your desires? If so, you can move mountains through prayer. If not, you need to die to self this morning. Not an easy thing to do by any stretch of the imagination. But the longer we hold on to our own dreams and desires the longer that we will be living in a state of frustration. You will become like the people James described: “When you do ask you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong” (James 4:3, NLT).
There is also another condition for answered prayer found here. Jesus said not only do we need to remain in him, but also his words need to remain in us. His words are the whole gospel message and in reality the whole of scripture. An amazing way to see success in your prayer life is to pray the scriptures. Don’t just read the Bible, study the Bible, and memorize the Bible, but pray the Bible. Pray prayers that are found in the scriptures and make them your own as you do – personalize them. Also claim the promises found in God’s word as you pray.
God has spoken to you and his word is infallible so pray it back to him. God himself said, “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). When he says that his word will not return to him empty – how is it that his word will return to him? Through the prayers of his people. When God’s word is returned to him through the prayers of his people then his desires will be accomplished and his purposes achieved. Notice again that it is not about our wants and wishes, but about his desires and his purposes. When you pray God’s word back to him out of a relationship of total dependence upon Jesus Christ the floodgates of heaven will be opened and your prayer life will truly be “powerful and effective” (James 5:16).
Sign seen in a textile mill, "When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman." A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, "I’ll just straighten this out myself." She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally she called the foreman. "I did the best I could," she said. "No you didn’t. To do the best, you should have called me." How many times have we Christians made a mess of things and then only as a last resort called upon God and said, “I am sorry but I did the best that I could?” And God shakes his head in frustration and says, “In order to do your best you need to call on me in prayer in the first place.” Why is it that so often God seems to be our last resort? Determine today to make him your first option.
The great preacher and pastor of Chicago’s famous Moody Church, A.C. Dixon declared, "When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do, but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do." (Guy Caley/Sermon Central)
5. Stop Delaying and Start Obeying
There are some wonderful and amazing benefits that we have looked at this morning when we remain in a relationship of complete dependence upon Jesus. We will produce much fruit. We will be secure in our relationship to God. We will see our prayer lives take off and our prayers answered. But what does it mean to remain in Jesus? He tells us in the next few verses.
9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
Jesus tells us that the key to remaining in him is obedience. Disobedience severs us from the vine and we lose his life giving power. Simply said - sin separates us from God. And so we are called to live a life of obedience. Jesus also tells us that he is not asking us to do anything that he himself has not done. He has lived a life of obedience to the Father and has therefore remained in the Father. We are simply called to follow in his footsteps – to follow his example.
Conclusion:
Are you prepared to do that this morning? Are you ready to make a declaration of dependence upon God? Only those Christians who are totally surrendered to God will be use by him to change the world. It was said of Paul and Silas: “these men … have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6, ESV). Of course that was the statement of their critics. I would submit to you that the world of their day was up side down to start with and that they were therefore turning in right side up again. And we find ourselves in similar circumstances today. The Christian foundation of our nation is being eroded – the world has been turned up side down. Today more than ever we need Christians like Paul and Silas who will be used by God to turn “the world upside down.” Will you be one of them?
How did they do it? How did they manage to turn the pagan Roman world upside down? Did they do it by filing lawsuits in the courts? No! Did they have letter writing campaigns to the emperor? No! Did they protest and march in the streets? No! Did they seek to amend the constitution? No! Well what did they do then? They ministered to the needs of the sick, the poor and the oppressed. They called upon God and the buildings in which they met were shaken. They lived lives of utmost holiness and integrity. They proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ powerfully and fearlessly. And hell itself was impotent to withstand their onslaught. They did not have money or courts or lawyers or legal standing, but they had God and needed nothing more. Eventually the emperor would be converted and the Roman empire conquered by Christianity. The empire would crumble and fall but the church of Jesus Christ would stretch to the very ends of the earth.
A lady who had a small house on the seashore of Ireland at the turn of the century was quite wealthy but also quite frugal. The people were surprised, then, when she decided to be among the first to have electricity in her home. Several weeks after the installation, a meter reader appeared at her door. He asked if her electricity was working well, and she assured him it was. “I’m wondering if you can explain something to me,” he said. “Your meter shows scarcely any usage. Are you using your power?” “Certainly,” she answered. “Each evening when the sun sets, I turn on my lights just long enough to light my candles; then I turn them off.” (Just Like Jesus – Max Lucado)
As a Christian you have been connected to the power source – Jesus Christ. Will you make a declaration of dependence upon him? Will draw upon his unlimited resources and power? The disciples did so and they turned their world upside down. So can you!
