John 15.1-17 Jesus the Vine

  • Sam Ford
  • Mar 30, 2008
  • Series: Gospel According to John

John 15.1-17 Jesus the Vine (Abide in Him)

March 30, 2008

Sam Ford

 

Loving beyond the vows

I speak about my marriage a lot because, after Jesus saving me, it is the most impacting event and experience in my life.  It is the most wonderful terrible thing God created.  I have experienced more Joy in my marriage than in any place or anything else...and I have also experienced more pain.  I got married when I was 21, Caylin was 19.  We were high school sweethearts.  At the time, everyone told us not to get married, that we are young, naïve, and unprepared.  We did anyway because, well, I'm me.  But if I knew what I know about Caylin today, I would have scoured the earth to find her and pursue from the moment I found her. 

 

  • Husband, it is a powerful, amazing, blissful thing. I remember how proud I felt to just tell people this was my "wife" as opposed to my girlfriend. I had a woman on my arm that had committed to me until I was dead. Life changed so dramatically. You go from I, to WE, from MINE, to OURS, from I THINK I'LL GO to WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO. I had a princess for whom, at least on that wedding day, I felt like I was the knight in shining armor. Proverbs 5.18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
  • Provider Protector: You're not only a husband, but at some point you realize that you're a provider and protector. Even if she works (which she did), men still carry the responsibility. In other words, the bills have to be paid, shelter must be provided. But, if you're not careful, this becomes your primary focus and being a husband, a lover, a friend, a nurturer, suddenly takes a backseat to making sure you have stuff...nicer stuff...nicest stuff.
  • Father: Children are a blessing from the Lord but they are often a curse on your marriage relationship. When children come into the picture, suddenly your energies, priorities, and expectations about life shift. Unless you deliberately choose, and work toward making the husband/wife more important, they won't be. And when the children leave the house after 30 years, you're left with nothing but a reason to divorce because you don't know that person lying next you.
  • Pastor: Then if you're someone like me, God comes along and says now go be a Pastor. But it can be any significant position where you're leading people, an organization, or just in a position of dependence for people. Suddenly, I am making sacrifices for this new stage of life, sacrificing my role as a Father, as a Provider, all the while failing to protect the most important role God has given me...the very one he takes himself A HUSBAND.

 

We are God's Bride

My vows to Caylin were not that I would just BE MARRIED to you until DEATH, but that I would LOVE you until you die.  But our natural tendency will be to fall into a formal marital relationship between a man and a woman versus a man leaving his father and his mother and holding fast to his wife, and becoming one flesh with her.  I believe, just as each of us as are close to our brides as we choose to be, we are each as close to God as we choose to be.  

 

We spend much of our time being sure we're meeting all of the responsibilities of "Christian" that we fail to seek God as our single, most central, passion.  And it is a pursuit.  It is not just, well, I'm not going to "WORK" because I don't have to...that's just some heretical theology of laziness straight from the demons.  Drawing near to God takes discipline just as loving your spouse in the way that is most powerful, most intimate, and most meaningful takes genuine effort.

Seeking Satisfaction

In today's passage, and in the next three chapters, Jesus gives somewhat of a farewell address.  In the last few hours before he will be arrested, tried, and eventually crucified, Jesus provides some foundational instruction to his disciples on how they are supposed to live.   He chooses his words wisely, telling them the keys to life. At the core of it is charge to Psalm 34.7  Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 

READ - V. 1-8 The Vine Metaphor

In these first eight verses, Jesus describes a persons relationship with Jesus in terms of a vine, branches, and a vinedresser.

 

1.      Jesus says he is the TRUE VINE

The Scripture use the image of a VINE regularly throughout Scripture.  This is probably because the landscape of Palestine was known for such vines-it was simply part of their culture.  In the Old Testament, Israel was described as God's original vine that he planted.  Israel was God's choice vine that he chose to give care and attention through which he would bless the world. 

 

Exodus 15.17-18  17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,

                    the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode,

                    the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.

18           The Lord will reign forever and ever."

 

Psalm 80.8-9  You brought a vine out of Egypt;

          you drove out the nations and planted it.

9      You cleared the ground for it;

          it took deep root and filled the land.

 

Israel failed to grow into the a flourishing vine only rotten fruit.  They forgot their God and worshipped all kinds of other gods various nations.  They denied the Creator and worshiped the creation in the form of all kinds of other Gods. Speaking for God the prophet Jeremiah wrote, 2.21  Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed.  How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine. 

 

Isaiah 11.1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit Jesus comes as the true vine, the ideal Israelite, and does not fail.  Jesus comes and fulfills not only ALL THE LAWS that God gave Israel perfectly, but lives out what Jesus calls the greatest commandments-LOVE THE LORD YOU GOD with all your heart and soul and strength, and LOVE they neighbor.  .

 

2.      On THIS VINE (Jesus) there are two kinds of BRANCHES. 

The VINE of Jesus has two types of branches in it, those that bear fruit and those that do not.  When Jesus says, "every branch of mine", he is not speaking about everyone who is saved.  Instead, Jesus is probably talking about genuine Christians and "professed" Christians who are not in fact rooted in Christ (e.g. Judas). 

 

3.      For this VINE, there is a VINEDRESSER (gardener)

God the Father is called a vinedresser or gardener.  I enjoy and appreciate the image of God as a gardener.  The gardener has the responsibility to care for the branches connected to the vine.  Two types of branches are attached to this vine.

 

(1) Branches who do not produce fruit = Cut off and burned.  I believe these branches are in fact people in the church who profess to be Christians but are not.  You know they are not because they are not rooted in Christ.  How do you know?  They don't produce any fruit. 

 

(2) Branches who produce fruit = Pruned to produce more fruit.  These branches are producing fruit but God intends for them to produce more. So he cuts them down, removes unnecessary parts, so that the branch will eventually be much healthier and robust.

 

What is all of this FRUIT?

If we follow the metaphor, then Jesus says that ALL OF US are branches whose intended purpose is to produce fruit-we are designed for it.  We were not planted by God to wither or lie dormant, we were planted here to thrive and grow full.  But full of what? 

 

What exactly is meant by fruit?  There appear to be a couple of different types:

  • DEAD BRANCH DEMON FRUIT: Galatians 5.19-21 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

  • LIVING BRANCH SPIRIT FRUIT Galatians 5.22-23 22 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.

 

  • GOOD WORKS: It seems like you could live out all of those things for yourself and that FRUIT is probably meant for other people to eat, not just you. I believe the Bible calls the outward manifestation of these spiritual fruits-good works. These are not just the attitudes but the acts of kindness, mercy, and grace offered to those in need around us. Titus 3.14 14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

 

Jesus did not call us make fruit.

But Jesus didn't command us to BE FRUITFUL, rather, he speaks of it as a RESULT of something else.  Focusing on the works alone, as a goal or a cause, will not lead to fruit of the gospel because the GOOD WORKS are not what SAVE US or makes us GROW.  Ephesians 2.8-9 says that we are saved by grace...predestined to do good works a result.

 

I'm supposed to make fruit, produce spirit-filled attitudes and grace-filled works.

 

The fruit is not created by me.

If I am a branch, I have no control over whether or not I make fruit.  Try as I might, I am not going to able to squirt out fruit. It will require two things (1) a deep rooted connection with the VINE (2) a caring VINEDRESSER to make sure that the proper pruning takes place.  1Peter 4.10-11  10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

The type of fruit produced is not under my control

Although the analogy isn't perfect, if I'm a branch, it doesn't seem like I have a lot of control over the actual creation of the fruit. Not only do I not choose what kind of fruit is produced, necessarily, I don't really decide when and if it will bloom.  No matter how hard I try to squirt out a banana, if God has made me an orange branch, you are not going to see any bananas. The only think I might be able to control is how DEEP and connected I get to the vine.  Romans 12.4  4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them:

 

The fruit is not for me. 

 

Jesus charges us to ABIDE in him so that we produce fruit.

Jesus tells us to ABIDE in him.  We are not called to focus on producing the fruit, but to be connected with the vine.  But what does it mean to ABIDE to REMAIN or TO CONNECTED with Christ? 

 

Anyone who is truly abiding in the vine that is Jesus, anyone who is desperately, pursuing a relationship with Jesus, to know our God, to savor our God, to hear our God, to see our God, will remain in the vine and produce fruit.  A fruitful Christian life that is characterized by SERVICE BUT NOT ROOTED in the utter enjoyment of God is not connected with or glorifying to God. As John Piper would argue, a life that most glorifies God because he/she is most satisfied in God-and that life will result in fruit.  Fruit is the natural outflow of our relationship with God just as joy and praise in a marriage are the natural outflow of the depth of love.

 

"To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with him; to be always leaning on him, resting on him, pouring out our hearts to him, and using him as our fountain of life and strength, as our chief companion and best friend. To have his words abiding in us, is to keep his sayings and precepts continually before our memories and minds, and to make them the guide of our actions, and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior." JC Ryle

 

Abiding in Christ, being a CHRISTIAN, is more than just doing a few good things, serving in a few ministries, giving a few bucks to a church, or even memorizing a few verses.  Our faith is about desperately seeking to know and delight in our God.  John 17.3  3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  It is a life that is totally other.  This is not religion where you have some sort of moral REFORMATION, this is radical TRANSFORMATION whereby nothing is more important than God. 

 

It is the kind of radical transformation that can take a Christian murdering Pharisee like Saul, and put him in prison to say....Philippians 1.21  21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.  Whereby he is saying THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD more important than BEING WITH JESUS...nothing more beautiful, nothing more important, nothing more satisfying. 

 

 

How do we abide like that?

How do we abide?  We abide in Jesus, we love Jesus,

  • REMAIN in the WORD: Listening to God

Psalm 119.33-40

  • REMAIN in PRAYER: Communicating with God

Philippians 4.4-7

  • REMAIN COMMUNITY: Opportunities to Serve & be pruned

 

 

 

READ John 15.9-16 - What is the result of a fruitful life?

So, I have all this fruit-so what? A fruitful life means a rich relationship.  And therein lies the problem, we are so concerned with having a different result OTHER than the knowing God.  The very reason we do not abide in Jesus is because we believe that there is something MORE SATISFYING than glorifying God-as if they are two different things.

 

We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand

Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is greater

healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self... The

point is this: We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all

things; and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered.

The sun of God's glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of

our soul. And when it does, all the planets of our life are held in their proper

orbit. But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the

soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at

the center.  - John Piper (Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ)

 

Pursuit of God (not fruit) will result in love...

Truly making the pursuit of knowledge and intimacy of the God of the universe, drawing near to God, seeking after his face through His Word and through prayer, allowing him to shape you through pleasure and pain, and declaring God as MORE IMPORTANT than everyone and everything else WILL result in a love for God. 

 

Love flows into obedience.....

And that love will naturally flow into obedience and, for the LOVE of GOD, as John rites is obedience and his commandments are not burdensome just as love for your bride should not be burdensome.

 

Obedience rooted in a delight in God will overflow into love for others...

And most importantly, those who abide in Christ will not REMAIN alone, by themselves, talking to Jesus like a junior higher with unlimited cell phone minutes, enjoying relationship with God in the darkness of their house....they cannot help but overflow into love for others.  This is an issue of OBEDIENCE, ROOTED in LOVE, ROOTED in KNOWLEDGE of GOD.  IF you don't you do not love God and you are not a Christian! 

 

1John 4.19

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear Lihas to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

 

Why will I fight this?...we don't believe our joy comes from SELF-GLORY

Jesus says in verse 11, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. " We don't believe that.  We don't believe that our joy could possibly be rooted in church....wait....I didn't say that.  I said joy in God.  Although many believe that God's glory and personal happiness are in fact two different and opposing things, I firmly believe that God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in him.  And when I am most satisfied in him, I experience Joy and those around experience Love. 

 

But much like the Jews before us, we will begin by pursing GOOD WORKS and FRUIT because religion of men is easier than relationship with God.  It's not that we don't do religious things...it's that we ONLY do religious things for religious reasons.  They did not focus on God, they focused on themselves, and worked on producing fruit that would make them ‘pretty' before me.  But their vine grew diseased and their fruit became rotten.

                                                                    

CONCLUSION  - Jesus loves me so that you'll love

I can tell when a husband or a wife are just going through the motions with each other, their children, or their friends.  I can tell how much a man is loving his bride like Jesus by what the bride looks like...it has an effect.  I can tell when a Father loves his children like God loves his children...it has an effect.  Love is not just fluffy-fuzzy-feel good-fruitiness.

o       Do you know what happens to someone who knows they are loved? 

o       Do you know what happens to someone who knows they are not?

 

I'm here to tell you that your God loves you.  He loves you.  He knows what you've done, he knows what you're going to do, and even despite that, he dies for you and calls you his friend.

Like a husband who had been denied, he sacrificed everything for His bride.  He did not lay down His because he was obligated or needful OR so that he could have a Bride that would "love" him because she felt obligated...he came and died so that He might prove that NOTHING...neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8.37.-39)

 

If you just REST in His love, and now worry about all the ways you can prove to God that you love Him, SIT THERE in HIS incredible, inescapable, irresistible LOVE and that will prove you are his disciple-that you love him.

 

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