Are you bearing fruit?
We need to be bearing fruit. It is a calling of God for His children. He states it very clearly in John 15:16. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”
PRAY
Father we ask for Your anointing on us today. Place Your anointing on me as Your messenger today. You have called us to bear much fruit, but the sad truth is that many Christians are not bearing any fruit. Teach us today that we are your friends and as your friends we need to be bearing fruit. Show us through Your Word how to accomplish this.
Open our eyes so that we may see Your Word. Open our ears so that we may hear Your Word. Open our minds so that we may understand Your Word. Open our hearts so that we may receive Your Word today.
AMEN
READ John 15:1-17
The vine is an Old Testament figure that was used to represent the people of Israel. In this Scripture Jesus is telling those who would listen that He is the True Vine, the man of God’s right hand.
Jesus is now using this illustration to show that everyone who accepts God through Him becomes a part of the vine.
Isn’t that some awesome news? When we accept Jesus as our personal Savior and begin a personal relationship with God through Jesus we become a part of the True Vine.
The basic truth of this chapter is that a Christian cannot bear fruit unless they have an abiding relationship with the True Vine, which is Jesus Christ.
That makes a relationship with Christ very important and the key word hear is abiding. To abide in something means to stand fast or to remain or to stay.
We need to be in a continuous relationship with God through Christ. We can’t go out and live like the world 6 days a week and give God one day and continue to expect to be abiding in the vine. If we are living that way then we are not abiding in the vine, we are abiding in the world.
The writer of Hebrews stated, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” Hebrews 10:26-27
There are many benefits to abiding in the vine; having our prayers answered, bearing much fruit, and eternal life with Christ in heaven.
So we need to figure what it means to abide in the vine so that we can be assured that we are not in spiritual fatigue so that we can be assured that we are bearing fruit, having our prayers answered, and have a place in heaven.
What does it mean to abide in the vine?
A vine branch is lifeless and useless unless it remains attached to the vine. Inside the vine is living sap that flows throughout the vine into each of the branches enabling each branch to produce fruit.
For us to abide in the vine means that we are going to be people who are depending upon Christ and who are allowing the power and the Spirit of Christ to flow through us and in us.
Abiding in the vine means that we are living our lives with the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in us. It is His presence in our lives that drives our desire to be more like Christ and the more we are like Christ the more fruit we are going to bear and the more prayers we are going to see answered.
Abiding in the vine means that we have an ongoing relationship with God through Jesus and that relationship is the most important thing in our lives. God first, everything else follows.
What does it mean to bear fruit?
The fruit that is mentioned here is the result of love in the life of the believer.
God loved us and the fruit of His love was Jesus coming to the earth and dying on the cross and then being raised from the grave so that we could have everlasting life.
Because God loved us so much we love Him.
When we love God the Bible clearly teaches that we should love others. So our love brings forth actions. We do good things for others, we help them, we support them, we build them up, and we share the love of God with them so that they too will become children of God.
The final result of this kind of love is changed lives. We are changing because we are becoming more like Christ.
If we want to see fruit produced in our lives then we must abide in Him. The more we abide in Him, the more we become like Him. The more we become like Him, the more fruit we bear.
There is a natural progression in this Scripture in regards to bearing fruit. It says that we will bear fruit. Then is says we will bear more fruit. And then, lastly it says we will bear much fruit.
People who are not bearing fruit in their lives are people who are not living their lives for Jesus and they are not following His example of living. Not only are they not bearing fruit, but their prayers are not being answered, and even worst, they have no assurance of eternal life in heaven.
The person who is becoming more like Jesus needs very little motivation to bear fruit because they are living out life for who they are in Christ.
When you become more like Jesus you want to witness to more and win souls for God.
When you become more like Jesus you will pray more.
When you become more like Jesus you will see your attitude change.
When you become more like Jesus you will treat people more like Jesus did.
When you become more like Jesus your conversations will sound more like the conversations Jesus had with others.
We need to abide in Christ and we need to enter into His presence to be more like Him and when we do enter His presence we can break out of the natural and break into the supernatural and we can begin to see things happen for the kingdom of God.
How are we going to remain in the vine?
It is so easy. Jesus showed His love for God and He remained in God by being obedient to God.
Jesus tells us in John 15:9-10, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love.”
Accepting God’s Word and following God’s Word is the key to abiding in the Vine. His Word has the power to renew our minds. When we follow His Word it determines our actions and our attitudes.
When we accept the Word of God and follow it our identity changes and our destiny changes, and our lifestyle changes.
God’s Word changes everything and it is the key to abiding in the Vine.
What are the other benefits of abiding in the vine?
The first we have already discussed. The first benefit is bearing fruit, more, fruit, and much fruit.
The second benefit of abiding in the Vine is answered prayer.
Two times in this portion of Scripture Jesus tells us that if we remain in Him, the True Vine, then you can ask whatever you wish in His name and it will be given you. Two times!
This is an awesome blessed promise of God. To abide in the True Vine means that we can experience answered prayer.
When we are in the presence of God we can prevail upon the strong name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and we can ask for the impossible to be done with the assurance that it will be done.
This may mess you up a little bit today!
Have you ever wondered why there are so many stories in the Bible about hurting people? People who were touched by God through Christ?
Sick people, hurting people, people who couldn’t see or walk or talk, people who experience loss and pain, so many stories of people who were touched by one man that changed their lives.
The reason those stories are there is to remind us that we serve a God who made it possible for our every need to be met. We serve a God who answers prayers.
The key to having our prayers answered is that we must have an honest relationship with God. ”If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you can ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”
That’s a beautiful promise. But in Scripture every promise has a condition or every promise has a premise.
The promise here is that God will give you whatever you ask in prayer if you remain in Him.
We have already discussed how to remain in Christ.
By being obedient to Him. By allowing His words to remain in you. In other words, God says if we fill our minds with the Bible, the word of God, then we will be in Christ. We will be abiding in Him.
God requires that we listen to Him first before He listens to us.
If I don’t pay attention to what God says to me in His word, why should He pay attention to me when I talk to Him? If I ignore His word, why should He pay attention to what I say to Him?
Your prayer life will never be more affective than how much you understand scripture. The more you understand the Bible the more you’ll know how to pray affectively. The more affectively you know how to pray the more you will see prayers answered.
It starts with abiding in the True Vine. It starts with making sure there is nothing between you and God. It starts with being in His presence and being in His Word.
The final benefit of abiding in the Vine is eternal life.
We see in John 15:2 that the gardener, who is God the father is going to judge those who do not bear spiritual fruit. He is going to prune those branches away.
In verse 6 it says that those branches that are cut away are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned up.
Some very popular supporting verses for this thought is found in John 3:16-18. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes I him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Condemnation is reserved for those people who chose to ignore the Son of God, the people who chose to ignore His commandments, the people who chose to not abide in the True Vine.
There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who have everlasting life as a result of their faith in Christ and their desire to abide in Him and those who do not believe and do not have an ongoing relationship with Him.
The Bible says that those people are already sentenced and await only the execution of the sentence.
There are benefits to abiding in the True Vine, Jesus Christ.
We can bear fruit, more, fruit, much fruit.
We have the assurance of answered prayer.
We have the assurance of eternal life in heaven.
Are you abiding in the vine?
Are you a person who is depending upon Christ and who is allowing the power and the Spirit of Christ to flow through you and in you?
Are you living your lives with the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in you?
Is His presence in your lives driving your desire to be more like Christ?
Are you involved in an ongoing relationship with God through Jesus and is that relationship the most important thing in your life?
Are you abiding in the vine?
CLOSE
