The Vine And The Vinedresser Series

THE VINE AND THE VINEDRESSER

Series on John 15 pt. 1

John 15:1

12/10/06

Today we are beginning a series of messages on John chapter 15. We will be going through the whole chapter verse by verse. I am not sure what lead me to preach on John 15. I wanted to spend some time on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and God lead me to this chapter of the gospel of John. It is a chapter that is full of great teaching, some which may be hard to take. I pray that as we go through this chapter that it will be as much of a blessing to you and it has been for me.

I will warn you, that this will not be an overview of the 15th chapter of John, but an in-depth study. Think of this passage as a gold mine, and the only way to get the gold is to mine it out. I want to weigh carefully the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that we miss much that the Lord would have us to know by reading through scripture as fast as we can. That is the reason I am not a big fan of the reading through the Bible in a year.

As 2 Tim. 3:16 tells us “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

That is the purpose of Scripture, to teach doctrine, to reproof, to correct, to instruct in righteousness, not seeing how many verses we can read in a year.

So as we study John 15 let us do so with heart longing to learn about God and His word. Looking to what God would have us to know as we walk in Him.

With that said lets turn to our passage. John 15. I am going to read the first six verses even though we are only going to be looking at the verse 1 today. “"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

I want to begin our look into this passage by making note of the immediate context. All the words recorded in John 15 are the words of our Lord. These words are spoken sometime after the Passover meal Jesus has with His disciples. We know this because we have Judas leaving the Passover meal after being confronted by Jesus with the fact that he would betray our Lord. That happens back in John 13:30.

Some question exactly where these words are spoken. Some suggest that they are spoken in the upper room, while others suggest that they are spoken on the way to the garden of Gethsemane. The confusion comes from the way chapter 14 ends. Notice verse 31 where Jesus states; “Arise, let us go from here.”

But if you turn to chapter 18:1 you have the same type of words, “When Jesus had spoken these words (the words of chapters 15-17), He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered.”

This has caused some folks to suggest that the material in John is out of order. They want to place chapters 15-17 before chapter 14. This however does damage to flow of the teaching of our Lord, and the material when examined simply does not make sense when rearranged this way. I believe a simpler answer can be given.

How many of you have ever been sitting down to dinner with friends or relatives, the meal is over and you are finishing up your coffee. You look at your watch and say, “Well, I have leave.” Then you get up to leave and what happens? You spent another ½ hour standing by the door chatting about one thing or another.

I believe this is what happens here in John 15-17. I read through chapters 15-17 and it took me 8 min. and 26.875 seconds to read. That is not all that long of a time. So it certainly is feasible that Jesus and his disciples stand to leave, and Jesus continues talking during that time, until they actually leave.