We’ll be in John (the Gospel of John) chapter 15, verses 1 through 11 this morning. I hope you brought your Bibles.
Let’s pray…
I’m going to read verses 1 through 11 of John chapter 15. Just by way of quick context and background, John chapters 13 through 17 is called the “Upper Room Discourse”, also known as the “Last Supper”. These are Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples. If you knew your time here on earth was short, you’d want to say the most important things to the most important people in your life. Jesus has so much he wants to pour out from His heart into His disciples hearts. This is how Jesus wants His relationship to His disciples to be after He returns (ascends) to heaven. Another word for “relationship” is “connection”. I’m going to call this message “Connection”. I want to ask you; what are some different types of connections you have with various people in your life? For example you have family connections. What are some others? How do you keep those connections alive? I randomly send texts to various friends as I think about them, just to check in and see how they’re doing.
Let’s read…
John 15
New American Standard Bible 1995
15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
I actually got stuck on the first two words of the first verse, where Jesus says, “I AM”. Seven times in the Gospels, Jesus makes these “I AM” statements about Himself.
“I AM the bread of life” - John 6:35-51
“I AM the light of the world” - John 8:12, 9:5
“I AM the door” - John 10:7, 9
“I AM the Good Shepherd” - John 10:11, 14
“I AM the resurrection and the life” - John 11:25
“I AM the way, the truth and the life” - John 14:6
“I AM the true vine” - John 15:1, 5
And then twice in the Gospels, Jesus declares His identity as “I AM”
John 8:58 - “Before Abraham was I AM”
John 18:4-5 - “the guards and Judas came to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and they asked him ‘are you Jesus of Nazareth?’ and He answered, ‘I AM’” and they all fell to the ground”
This “I AM” reference actually originates in the Old Testament when God told Moses to go back to Egypt and set the Israelites free. Exodus 3:13-15 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.
So, what is Jesus saying with all this “I AM” business? Well… Is it not obvious? Can you not see it? Jesus is saying that He is God; plain and simple. Are we all on the same page here? Does anyone have an honest disagreement that Jesus is God? Speak up if you doubt Jesus is God, and we can address it. Does anyone here wonder how Jesus can be God and man? God is infinite; man is finite. God is spirit; man is body and soul. God is all knowing; man thinks he’s all knowing. God and man are very different, but… God being able to do anything, Nothing is impossible with God. God created mankind, so He is able to “write Himself into the story” so-to-speak. He became human. The Son of God became the Son of Man.
Verse 1 - So Jesus is the true vine, and God the Father is the vinedresser, the husbandman, the grower, the farmer, the caretaker of the vineyard. This image that Jesus is using, of a grape vine would have been very familiar to the disciples. They lived in a rural, agricultural, farming time and place. So, have you guys seen a grape vine, up close? How would you describe a grape vine to someone who’d never seen one before? What are some descriptive things you could say about a grape vine?
In the greater context of the entire Bible, throughout the Old Testament, Israel is pictured as a grape vine. The Jewish temple was decorated with ornate, gold grape vines with clusters of grapes. Jesus builds on this framework, this theme, this picture of a grape vine to say, “I’m here! I’m the fulfillment of the concept that Israel was a grape vine being cared for and tended to by God.”
Verse 2 - We’re the branches in this little parable. Branches get their life-blood (sap) from the trunk of the grape plant, but below that the grape plant is grafted to a grape root-stock. We watched a little video this year in the children’s Sunday school curriculum about grafting plants. What I noticed that I hadn’t thought about was that for two different plants to be grafted together, they each need to be ‘cut’ first. It reminded me that Jesus was cut for us during His crucifixion. It is Jesus’ crucifixion that brings us into connection/relationship with God. What was two grape plants, when they’re grafted together, form one grape vine.
So, what are some things that grape vines are not good for? They’re not good as a lawn. They’re not really good for firewood. They’re not good for construction lumber. They’re not particularly good for shade (they’re kind of naturally a low-lying plant).
The answer to this next question is obvious, but I’m going to ask anyway. What are grape plants for? To produce grapes. The whole goal of a grape plant is the fruit. It’s all about the grapes.
You could say that it’s the branch that produces the fruit, but a branch that’s not connected to the trunk or the root-stock would be dead. The branch depends on the trunk and the root-stock. So it is with us, we’re meant to produce fruit from our lives, but without a connection to God, we’re dead. Oh people may exist without God. People can do pretty well in this world without God. But they’re literally dead men walking. A bunch of zombies. Ephesians 2:1 says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
If you are a living, connected branch, (get ready for this) you will be pruned. Okay, what does that mean? God will remove stuff from our life that’s not producing fruit. Our lives as Christians are not supposed to be about what we can accumulate. Honestly; if all you think about is your next purchase, you might want to cry out to God and say “prune me”. If all you think about is your next thing you want to buy or the next entertainment you seek, you might want to cry out to the LORD and say “prune me”. Or just get ready for pruning. God prunes us so our lives would be more focused on Him.
Verse 3 - You’re already clean because of Jesus' word. God takes care of speaking His word to us. He takes the responsibility of making sure His word gets to us. It’s our fault when we either don’t hear Him, or ignore Him, or misunderstand Him. He, by the Holy Spirit, spoke His word to us (in the Bible). Do you read the Bible and think of it as God speaking directly to you? Do you hang on every word in here as if it were a love letter from someone to you? Do you think of this word as cleansing to your soul? Ephesians 5:26 says, of the church (that’s us) “so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,” So reading the Bible is like taking a bath. Have you ever thought of it that way?
Verses 4-6 - Abide, dwell, live with, stay in connection with the Lord. It’s not that you, by your own effort and will and determination and discipline have to work to stay connected with God, this is more of an indicator that when you're connected to the Lord, your life will produce fruit. Galatians 5:22-25 says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
So we can take our pulse (so-to-speak) as a Christian, by examining ourselves and seeing if our lives are producing these kinds of fruit. Let’s go through them one-by-one, really quickly. Does your life look like these things, more or less. The only way we can remove the weeds and the dead branches from our life is by relying on the Holy Spirit and depending on Him and trusting in Him and submitting or yielding our lives to Him. All we can do is examine ourselves like it says in 2 Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
If you see things that don’t match this “fruit producing” life by God’s Spirit, maybe you need to get right with God. when Jesus talks about the branches that don’t produce any fruit and are gathered up and cast in the fire He’s talking about hell, and I certainly don’t want that for any of you.
So let me ask you this are you connected to God? Have you put your faith in Jesus as your savior? Do you have assurance of eternal life? Do you know that you’ll be in that kingdom of God? Do you have the hope of heaven? What is it that gives you assurance that when you die, you’ll go to heaven?
Do you think you’re good enough to get to heaven? Would you consider yourself to be a good person? Let’s examine ourselves under the spotlight of God’s law, the Ten Commandments and see ourselves as God sees us…
Verses 7-10 - so if you’re connected to God, because of the work Jesus did on the cross, you’ll stay connected with Him because His Holy Spirit has come to dwell in your heart and life. If you’re connected to God, You’ll have a natural, consistent prayer life. If you have this union with God, you’ll do works that bring glory to God. If your life shows the fruit of the spirit (most importantly LOVE), it means you have this connection with God because of your faith, and trust and reliance upon Jesus and God’s Holy Spirit in your life. Your life will produce good fruit. Give the Michael’s or Hobby Lobby example of fake plants with show fruit…
Verse 11 - All that, and you’ll have joy. Does that mean you’ll never be sad? No. There is a lot of heaviness and sorrow in this life. Sometimes God prunes us, and that can be painful. But you’ll never lose your connection with the LORD and with that connection comes a life characterized by Joy, even when it gets difficult. This life can be hard and have hurts, but when we’re connected to God, we can look past it to eternity where we’ll be with God in paradise.
I am my beloved’s and He is mine, His banner over me is love
He feeds me at His banqueting table, His banner over me is love
He is the vine and we are the branches, His banner over me is love
