Jesus, the True Vine Introduction Today is the fifth sermon in our series The Greatness and Awesome Glory of Jesus. We have talked about Jesus the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus the Lamb of God, Jesus the Overseer of our Souls, Jesus our Judge and Advocate, and then today Jesus, the True Vine. Our passage is found in the gospel of John 15:1-8. This is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse to His disciples. The disciples relationship with Jesus is about to change from physical to spiritual. Up to this point, you could say they have been riding a high you with the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and Peter, James, and John experiencing the glory of Jesus on the mountain as He is transfigured before them and all the miracles, the healings, the walking on water, etc. As in a marriage you could say that they were in the honeymoon stage and about to enter into the hard work and commitment of marriage. Jesus is speaking into the post-resurrection era in which we now live. He is speaking to and He is speaking about the church, the people called out by the grace of God into a relationship with Himself in and through Jesus Christ. Jesus uses the analogy or word picture of a grape vine to explain the nature of the relationship between Himself and His followers in the post-resurrection era in which we now live. John 15:1-8 1"I 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[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 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. 5"I 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. 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. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “ This analogy of our relationship with Jesus being like a grapevine is simple and profound and so much could be said. Let me highlight just a few things: 1. Jesus is the True Vine In Hampton Court near London, there is a grapevine under glass; it is about 1,000 years old and has but one root which is at least two feet thick. Some of the branches are 200 feet long. Because of skillful cutting and pruning, the vine produces several tons of grapes each year. Even though some of the smaller branches are 200 feet from the main stem, they bear much fruit because they are joined to the vine and allow the life of the vine to flow through them. This needs to teach us dependence on Jesus. Like a vine that supplies life giving sap to its branches what is it that we receive from Jesus? This question is answered in John 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” What we become filled with as we remain in Jesus is love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.” So without love, that only comes to us through being connected to Jesus, though we can accomplish amazing things and do amazing things like grow a business, raise a family, and give ourselves to the plight of the poor we are nothing and gain nothing. John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” 1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” I have spoken often about the importance of discipline. Again last Sunday I emphasized the importance of training ourselves, or discipline ourselves in faithfulness. The book of Proverbs tells us that a wicked man will die for lack of discipline but our discipline will result in lifeless and empty routine without dependence. The very life of Jesus is to flow through us as life-giving sap flows through a vine giving life to the branches attached to it. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. 2. We are branches Three things this needs to tell us. A. We must remain in Jesus No less than 5x in these few verses Jesus tells His disciples to remain in Him. The word remain comes from a Greek word which can also mean to stay; live, dwell; last, endure, continue." Remaining in Christ includes belief, dependence and endurance. We believe in Jesus and so we depend on Him and endure in remaining in Him recognizing that, as a branch must remain in a vine remaining is the essential requirement for life. Practically speaking how do we remain in Jesus? Let me give you 2 ways we do this coming out of John 15. 1. John 15:7 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” We remain in Him by remaining in His word. For the love of Jesus to flow through us to touch others we must be spending time each day reading and meditating on the Word of God. Remember we need both discipline and dependence. This is why we continue to use and promote Life Journals at Ross Road Community Church. 2. John 15:10 “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.” We remain in Jesus through not only reading and meditating on God’s Word but through obeying the Word of God. B. Every follower of Jesus that remains in Him will bear fruit. Fruitfulness is not tacked on as an extravagant extra. This passage John 15:1-8, uses the word “fruit” more than any other passage in the New Testament. There are six references to the word, “fruit,” in these eight verses And then four times in this small section Jesus uses the term “much fruit.” to emphasis that He wants his disciples to know that we are to bear “much fruit.” John Piper: “…bearing fruit means loving other people. It means letting the love which we constantly receive from Christ as we abide in Him flow through us and out to others for their benefit.” C. To be connected to the vine means that we are also connected to each other to form one vine that bears fruit. If we are in Jesus we are one in Christ Jesus with everyone else who is in Jesus. G.K. Chesterton “A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun or moon.” Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” What must flow through us is the love of God for each other. Galatians 6:10 “…let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” William Barclay, the Scottish Bible scholar, wrote, “Love is the binding power which holds the whole Christian body together. The tendency of any body of people is sooner or later to fly apart; and love is the one bond that will hold them together in unbreakable fellowship.” 3. God is the Gardener 2 things God is doing as the Gardener. 1. “He cuts off every branch in Jesus that bears no fruit.” The KJV says He “takes away” This cutting away is talking about God’s justice, judgment and wrath against those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ. Who might outwardly confess a belief in Jesus but do not depend on Him, have not died to self to find life in Him. In the end they will be separated from those branches vitally connected to the vine and will be thrown into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels as outlined by Jesus in Matthew 25. 2. “…every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” Pruning grape vines is a basic principle that any grower, regardless of experience must understand. Whenever you leave a vine unpruned, the first year you'll have a massive big crop. Novice growers can feel delighted with their success and wonder what all the pruning fuss is about. There's a flipside to this. The vine will produce more fruit than it knows what to do with because when you actually prune a vine correctly, you remove as much as 95 to 98% of the previous season's growth. If you leave all of that growth from the previous year it will have buds on it, which means you'll have a huge crop the following year. The vine can't produce enough energy to ripen an unregulated crop, and it'll be poor quality. The clusters will be straggly, and you won't have much fruit worth using. Even if it is able to ripen, given that it has to force so hard to come through, the vine will have diverted energy that it might ordinarily use to mature the wood and to help the vine get ready for winter. Pruning is something that keeps the vine in balance. It maintains the natural equilibrium. It allows the vine to have a good regular crop of the best quality grapes you can have year after year after year. The word prune actually means to purge or cleanse. There are a number of ways that God prunes us. John 15:3 “You are already clean [pruned] because of the word I have spoken to you.” Hebrews 4:12 talking about the ability of the word to prune us,” For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” God prunes us through the trials, struggles, difficulties and challenges of life. Hebrews 12:7-11 “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” God disciplines us in love. I never feel closer to the girls then when I have had to discipline them and then hold them close in an embrace and comfort them. We have many things in our lives that will not bear fruit and must be removed. God reduces us down that all of our energy goes into producing good fruit, into loving others. He cuts us down that will be closer to Jesus. He might cut off a particular part that we are fond of, a habit we enjoy, something we are proud of. It might be a part of our lives that we think it really important, that we couldn’t live without. But the gardener knows what He is doing. And He prunes with a purpose – that we might be even more fruitful. More fruit! More fruit! More fruit! This may not be pleasant - but, as the saying goes, “When the gardener prunes his plants, it’s at that time that he is closest to them”. Conclusion: As we move into communion remember it is our responsibility to remain in Jesus, to remain in His love, one way we do this is by remembering His love for us, and it is up to Him to produce fruit in our lives by flowing His love through us. Together we must remain in Jesus that we might be a church that bears much fruit for Jesus. Unless we believe in Jesus Christ and follow Him and depend on Him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength we are of no use to drawing lost people into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We want to spend the remainder of our time worshipping through singing and during this time whenever you are ready come and take communion. I leave you with two questions to ponder: Question 1: What has been pruned out of your life in the last five years and what new fruit has Jesus produced in your life during that time? If you can't think of anything, consider how often you have let the Word of God cut into the depths of your life leading to confession and cleansing and then a more fruitful life. Question 2: What in your life needs pruning out now -- what keeps Jesus from producing new fruit in your life today? Jesus, the True Vine, is above all. Oh, the greatness and awesome glory of Jesus!!