I Am the True Vine — John 15

0:00 I wanna ask you to take your Bibles and turn to John 15. John 15, please. I'd like to just read this, first verse and then we will begin with a word of prayer. John 15 beginning in verse one. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman or your version may say vine dresser, a gardener.

0:38 I am the true vine, my father is the husbandman. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we want to give thanks for this day. Once again, we're we're thankful for the things that have preceded this meeting. Our time to remember the lord Jesus Christ.

0:53 We're thankful for this opportunity that we had to sing this morning, singing praises, singing about the the wonders of a holy god, singing about how you've provided this salvation for us, new life. Father, we're thankful for the word. We're thankful that you give it to us and we do have a desire. We want to cultivate a thirst, a hunger, a desire for your word. We wanna be helped by it.

1:20 And we realize it's it's very appropriate, it's very helpful to us. It's in fact it's it's needful. And so father we pray now as we dedicate this next these next few minutes to reading the word, examining it, studying it. Father, we pray that you would apply it to our own hearts. We pray the work of the Holy Spirit would not be hindered this morning.

1:44 Teach us. Teach us, Father. We pray for obedience, hearts of obedience. And so we ask these things now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1:57 As we read this opening verse in chapter 15, we see that the Lord Jesus is speaking, and I want to go back a little bit and try to understand the context in which He's speaking. You may recall that this is right before His death, that He's been with the disciples in the upper room, so to speak. And in fact, one of the pretty amazing I would say an amazing experience that the disciples had, in fact, Peter and John were commissioned with this task when Jesus said to them, go make ready for the Passover. And and and they're like, where what do you want us to have? And he said, I'll tell you what, Peter and John, y'all y'all go into the city and there you'll find a man carrying a pitcher of water and follow the man and follow him and then ask the...

2:48 His master, where where should we make ready for the Passover? And he'll tell you and there go make ready. Well, Peter and John had that experience just as the Lord described. They walked into the city, they saw the man, they followed him, they went into the master's home, they asked the question and the guy said, look, here's a room, it's all furnished. And then the scripture says that there they made ready.

3:16 That's pretty amazing. Right? That was like, that's a miracle that happened in the sense that that the Lord Jesus gave them that kind of instruction and was able to carry that out. So they're there in the upper room. Now, how about this?

3:30 Maybe just a quick hand raised or somebody share. What are some of the things you remember happened in that upper room? Peter and John, they're made ready. The disciples came to have this Passover feast with the Lord Jesus. What's something that comes to your mind that you remember from that?

3:49 Worth? Okay, that they were sitting, they were reclining around the table. Yep. What else? What else comes to mind there?

3:59 Jesus washed their feet. Yeah, Jesus washed their feet. That's right. We read we are in John chapter 15, that happens in John chapter 13. He is washing their feet.

4:07 Something else that you maybe remember? Oh, yeah. So Judas, the whole episode with Judas happens. He is dismissed. We will do one more thing that you remember in that upper room.

4:25 Philip? That's right. So that's along the same lines of what's happening with Judas there. Christian? Jesus is doing a lot of teaching.

4:34 Man. So we get 14, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in believe in me. He tells about the preparing a mansion. He tells about the Holy Spirit.

4:49 He gives teaching about the Holy Spirit that the Comforter is gonna come. I'm gonna depart. The Comforter is gonna come. So all that's going on. All that's happening and here we get to this portion where Jesus speaks these words that we just read.

5:31 They knew something was happening a little different, but you know what? They could have had in their mind that Jesus could have ministered for three more years, right? I mean, they didn't have a definite timeline or know that like, okay, oh yeah, the three years are about up. They had no concept about how long Jesus was gonna go. They had no concept about what He was gonna do.

5:56 I mean, He had told them just very very soon before this, he had told them, I must be delivered over to the hands of the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees and the Son of Man must die. They're like scratching their head. They're wondering like, okay, we don't quite understand this. Tell us more. But they didn't understand like, okay, now is the time.

6:20 And you think about three years, what had they observed? John the Baptist, if we go right back to the first of John, John chapter one, we would read about John the Baptist recognizing the Lord Jesus. There, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We get into John chapter two, we see the first miracle. And so in John chapter one, it talks about Jesus calling the other disciples.

6:48 This is the... If maybe we start the clock running on the three years about in the second half of John chapter one. They called him. Jesus has called him. They're following him and they get to go to this marriage feast in Canaan to see the first miracle.

7:04 The first time that Jesus acts outside of the realm of the physical and produces water. He produces... He takes this water and produces wine. Turns water into wine. And you know, it's interesting.

7:19 I don't know if you wanna flip back there or I could just reference this for you. Is if you look in John chapter two and verse 11, it says, and there the disciples believed on him. And so they understand like, okay, Mary's looking at this and what did she do? She took these things and she pondered them in her heart. She's like, okay, wow, there's something different.

7:46 And so then we go through this process of the three years and we see Christ performing miracles. He's healing the blind man. He's raising Lazarus from the dead. We have that recorded for us in John chapter 11 there. And so Jesus is doing some pretty amazing things and He's got people's attention.

8:07 He taught as no other man taught. He was able to perform these miracles. He was able to lead the disciples in such a way that they wanted to be led, they wanted to be taught. And here He is coming to this particular point and saying, I am the true vine. I am the true vine.

8:37 So why he say that he was the true vine? I will have you go back, you can hold your finger here in John chapter 15, but go back to chapter one of John. And we want to take just a minute and consider the Lord Jesus. We read this of him. Look at look at where John chapter one, we read him.

9:13 We read this and we'll begin. Let's begin in verse four. Okay? Verse four, in him, this is referring to the Lord Jesus, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. Notice the word light.

9:29 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This is a reference to John the Baptist. Verse seven, the same John the Baptist came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He, John the Baptist, was not that light but was sent but was sent to bear witness of that light.

9:55 And notice verse nine if you will. That was the true light which lighteth every man that comes into the world. You'll notice that this phrase happens that Jesus was the true light. The verse that we started with this morning, he's saying, I am the true vine. And so at his very introduction in the Gospel here in John, he's recognized as the true light, this true light that is piercing through the darkness, this true light that is lighting all men.

10:30 So go over to chapter three and we make an interesting connection here in chapter three. You'll remember this is Jesus talking to Nicodemus. And in chapter three, let's begin in verse 18. Thinking about Jesus being the true light, He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. We know this to be Jesus.

11:01 Look at verse 19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil will hate the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that but he that doeth truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. And so here we have this introduction given of the Lord Jesus Christ and compared to His light, the true light.

11:47 John again uses this phrase and this adjective or description of true. Look over in John chapter six. We find here it says that He is the true bread. Notice this if you will. John chapter six and we'll begin reading in verse 30 for some context.

12:14 Jesus is talking here among the Pharisees, not the disciples this time. He says this, They said unto Him, What sign will you show then that we may see and believe thee? Or what work will you do? Our fathers... This is the Pharisees referring to Abraham.

12:35 Fathers did eat or referring to Moses and the children in the wilderness. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Now look at what Jesus' response is. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily or truly, truly, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread the bread of God is He which comes down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.

13:16 Jesus is saying here He's making a mild correction to these guys. They're saying, Look, God or they're saying, Moses, our Father Moses gave us this bread from heaven. He's referring to manna. And Jesus is saying, Now wait a minute, God provided that, right? Moses doesn't get credit for that.

13:35 Moses was set up as my leader but Moses didn't... Wasn't the doughboy. Right? Moses wasn't the guy providing the the bread. It was God.

13:46 God provided this And he makes this distinction, this bread came from heaven. Now I have been sent of my Father. I have been sent down from heaven. I am the true bread. You see this manna?

14:03 It was just a symbol or a pointing to what was to come. Yes, God provided manna and bread in the wilderness, but now I've come here to be the light, to be the bread. All of this to give you life. And so here it leads us up to the third thing that we see in the verse that we've read in John chapter 15. You'll go back there.

15:15 In some respects, yes, but in a lot of respects we would say Israel failed. Right? So here we are in a transition. Remember, Jesus is in the upper room teaching the folks, teaching the disciples that, look, something new is going to happen. The Old Testament is going to fade away.

15:31 The principles, the customs, the traditions, the Jewish teaching. This is coming to an end. The Passover. I am the Lamb. The Passover is going to end and something new is going to take its place.

15:49 I am the light, the true light. I am the bread. You're no longer gonna get manna from heaven. That ended and now I'm gonna be the one that's gonna go forward. The true vine, Israel was God's people to represent God's people, God's nation in the Old Testament, but that's gonna come to the end.

16:06 Israel's gonna be replaced by what? The Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. And so here I am the true vine. I am going to be the one that's going to take this into the future. The concept of Israel's going to come to a close, but now you're going to see happen the church be developed and that's going to go into the future.

16:29 I am the true vine. There's three things in our epistles in New Testament that a comparison is made or an analogy or a description is made about the New Testament church. It's just a little trivia question for some fun here. Three things that are likened unto the church. They all start with B.

17:00 There's three that start with B. Anybody want to give us one? Jenna? Bride. Okay.

17:05 That's one. Debbie? Body? We got one more. Not quite, but close.

17:13 We got bride and body and one more. We're in it. Dawn or Wayne? Building. That's right.

17:21 These three things. So I'll leave it to the young lady to mention a bride. Right? But Jesus used these things as an analogy or some teaching and so... But I thought it was interesting that we know a lot about these and they're great.

17:42 They're good analogies. Right? And that we've got this concept of the building. If we had a cinder block walls or if we look on the outside we see these brick that were described as the bricks being laid in there, being built up, being built together. There's the concept of unity there.

18:04 There's the concept of a master builder, Christ being the chief cornerstone. This is a great picture, a great illustration for us. The same with the body. We talked about that before here in the sense that the Christians, the Church as a body, Christ as the head, Christ as the command center, Christ having His proper place of preeminence. And then all the different members, all the many members, that...

18:31 And not one more important than the other. The eye needs the the foot, the foot needs the eye, the elbow needs... That is an attachment point. You know, everybody's important, everybody's needed. Again, the unity, the concept, it's all there.

18:44 And so... And with the bride, you you... The the bride is... If we want to picture a a wedded union, the bride's not complete without the bridegroom. So we've got the body with the chief cornerstone, Christ.

18:58 We've got the body with the Christ as the head, and the and the body is the members, the functioning. And then we've got this Christ Christ as the bridegroom, the church as the bride. Again, all unified, all being unified with Christ. And so we have these beautiful pictures. I often don't think, like if I would have had that quiz, that, hey, name name things Jesus uses to describe the New Testament church.

19:31 I would have said, fried body building. I don't know that I would have thought about the vine. Right? I don't often think about that. But here, this is all pre that.

19:41 This is pre epistles. Here he is telling them, I'm the true vine. And and we'll read on a little bit in a little bit here. He says, I'm the true vine, you're the branches. And and so we get this analogy, we get this comparison that the Lord Jesus is is using this for our our benefit.

20:07 Again, we we can't exist like the building can't be built without the foundation and cornerstone. The body can't exist without the head. The bride can't be married without the bridegroom. And the branches can't exist without the vine. And so we we see...

20:34 We start to see God revealing His plan, God revealing all these things to us. And don't you see that it's what... Like I... You... Can we like get excited about the fact that everything that Christ describes Himself as, we're the benefactor.

20:51 Like we had this morning, Don shared with us that that Christ is the good shepherd, the chief shepherd, and the great shepherd. Who benefits from that? We do. You know, He's our leader. He's our shepherd.

21:04 He's our He's the one that's giving us life. If I'm the if He's the light, I'm the benefactor. I get to walk in the light. I get to be a recipient of the light. If He's the bread, I'm the recipient.

21:15 I get I get the bread. I'm the benefactor. He's the vine, I'm the benefactor. I've got a place to grow now. I've got not only the opportunity to be a branch, but I've got the opportunity for his life, his nourishment to to course through me, course through him to course into me.

22:04 What relation is that? How I can't exist. I can't exist as a believer without Him. And so we understand the Lord Jesus. I am the true vine.

22:20 The next half of the verse says, my father is the husbandman. You see, this is all part of God's plan being revealed again as He's talking to His disciples. He establishes the fact that He's the vine, they're the branches, But he he tells us that God the father is the husbandman. And we we see all through the gospels, and particularly in John, when when it... Jesus is talking about his work, he's always referencing the father.

22:55 He's explaining the Father. And it's like I and my Father are one. They are they are they are linked together. Jesus doesn't act independently of himself. I came to do my Father's will.

23:09 And so here we have this union, if you will, this partnership. These guys are definitely linked together. God the Father, God the Son. God the Father is the husbandman, the vine dresser, the gardener. He's the one that's gonna tend the vine.

23:33 He planted, in essence, did he not plant the Lord Jesus. And He's given him this ability to grow and He's allowing for him to have branches. He's allowing this to happen, but not only allowing it, but He's tending to it. He's making sure that the vine gets enough sunlight. He's making sure that these branches, they've got the right support.

23:59 He's making sure that if they get dirty, he's going to clean it. He's making sure that... Well, let's read about what it says in verse two. We get some more concept about what the what the husbandman does, what the vine dresser does. Every branch that is in me that bears not fruit, the vinedresser now this is God the Father takes it away.

24:21 And every branch that bears bears fruit, the vinedresser purges it. He's cultivating, he's purging or cleansing, that it might bring forth more fruit. And so we have this this analogy, this comparison that God the Father is taking care of the vine. So let's apply that to the New Testament church. Right?

24:45 I mean, Jesus said, I am the vine. You are the branches. My father is the the husbandman, the caretaker of this vine. So Christ died. You and I are sinners.

25:01 We can be made clean, be put into Christ's family. We'll quote John chapter one, But as many as received Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to them gave He the power to become sons of God, to be put into his family. We use this word grafted in, which is appropriate. And so here we're placed in this family and the Lord Jesus would tell the disciples, upon this rock, I will build my church. He's building his church.

25:34 And so here we've got this body, this new living organism as Christ, the church, and God the father as the caretaker or the the one who's tending. So just as we're living life in a New Testament context, as we're living life in our in our present day and we have come together as a body of believers. Yes, Christ is the head, but the father is the caretaker. Something needs purging. Well, He's going to purge it.

26:13 Something needs cleaning, He's going to clean it. Something needs removed, He's going to remove it. Something needs help, He's going to provide for the help. And and so we've got this aspect of the Godhead working together for the body in this analogy with the vine. I am the true vine, my father is the husbandman.

26:39 You remember when they... The disciples asked the Lord Jesus, hey, how do we pray? Teach us how to pray. He would say, when you when you pray say this, my Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

26:56 Thy will be done. And so you notice the the the place that he gives... It's it's the vine dresser. It's the vine... It's the gardener's place.

27:03 It's the caretaker's place. It's... He's saying that hallowed be thy name. He is supreme. He is the one.

27:12 He's the one to be reverenced. We're here to to do his bidding. And so all of this... Of what is desired is that the Father would tend this vine in such a way that there would be fruit. Let's read the context now of the passage and with some of these things that are laid down.

27:31 So first, I said that we wanted to appreciate, understand a little bit more who the Lord Jesus Christ is in relation to you and I in the church. How He is totally sustaining, life giving, allowing us to be a part and we're the benefactor. In a similar way, we wanna appreciate God the father as the vine dresser, as the cultivator, as the as the the supreme one. Notice now, we'll just read... I'm just gonna read these few verses beginning back at verse one.

28:31 Abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it it abide in the vine, No more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine. Verse five, I am the vine near the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

28:53 For without me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and the men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you shall... Then you will ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Notice verse eight.

29:15 Here's the gardener... Here here's the vinedresser again. Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit so that ye shall be my disciples. And so here we have it. Here we have this reason that the vine is even being established.

29:37 The why God would send his son to die on the cross to pay for mankind's sin to establish a body, it is so that it could bear fruit, bring forth fruit, and the Father is glorified in this fruit bearing. So the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, He wants relationship with you and I. He wants a love relationship with you and I. And in in having that love relationship, He wants to see fruit in in the sense that He would be glorified. Whenever the work comes about, He's going to enjoy that relationship, but then we're going to see the fruit of it as well.

30:20 And so this purpose of fruit bearing. You know, in the New Testament, we could go across and we'll see... Actually when we just read through this entire chapter of 15, we see fruit mentioned six times. There are six different mentions of the fruit. And so the reason the vine exists, the reason Christ as the vine, we are the branches is to bear this fruit.

30:48 We can think about fruit bearing in three different categories. In fact, it's probably helpful to separate them in these categories that there is in the New Testament we would see fruit of character, who we are. We would see the fruit of conduct, what we do. And we would see the fruit of converts, who believes or who responds to the call of salvation. And so this idea of fruit bearing is prevalent.

31:22 You'll see it in many of the epistles written that we would bear fruit. Not only do we see these categories of fruit bearing that we just talked about, the conduct, the character, yeah, thank you, character and the converts, But we would see levels of fruit bearing. Now listen, it's not the fact that God's trying to say, oh, you gotta get to plateau one, you gotta get to plateau two, you gotta get... It's not that at all. But what does he say throughout this chapter?

31:53 The first time we read it is in is in verse two, we see this category of fruit bearing. Every branch in me that bears not fruit. So the first category is no fruit. Zip, zilch, zippo, right? And so that's the first category.

32:10 Then we're going to see it and it's just going to be fruit. Then we read on a little bit further and it says more fruit. We read on a little bit further and it says much fruit. And then lastly, we find the fruit that remains. And so you have these different aspects, no fruit, fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that remains.

32:35 And so this morning, have considered the Lord Jesus Christ as the true vine. All, I mean, inappropriate to say all that entails, but we tried to wrap our mind or expand our thinking about what that does entail. Christ, the true vine. We've considered the vine dresser, heavenly Father as the one who is tending the vine to bring about to see this fruit. And the third thing that we'll consider is you and I as the branches with the responsibility to bear fruit.

33:21 We can talk about the fact that you have to be abiding in the vine to bear the fruit. We can talk about the fact that it's not your effort, it's simply by allowing the Lord Jesus to work through you to course through through you to be a conduit. That's where the fruit is going to come from. And so here's here's what I would ask us to do. Evaluate where...

34:12 There's been fruit in my life manifest that's gonna remain, fruit that's remaining. And so as we evaluate that for ourselves, then look, if we say there's great news in this. If we say that there's no fruit or little fruit or... Well, all we have to do is go to the Father and say, hey, in fact, He's tending it. Right?

34:43 He already knows. It's no surprise to Him, but we seek him. And I I know in in my life, I can I can look and say, oh, I I understand? I'm... I've got some dirt on my leaves and the sun's not getting through.

34:59 My my fruit is hanging in the dirt and the worms are getting all over it. I need some help. I I need some nourishment. I I gotta take on some more... I need I need some cutting away.

35:14 And so here we are that if we would yield, in fact, if we would just spend time, if we would abide, and if we're saying, we're saying, you know what, I've got next to nothing kind of fruit. Then we look at verse five and we make this connection. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abides in me, I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me you can do nothing. If there's no fruit, you're probably producing nothing.

35:50 That means that you're probably trying to do it without Christ or not abiding in him, not connected with him, not utilizing the resources that are that are there for you. And so the solution is to plug back in, to yield to the vinedresser, to stay connected to the true vine, to be the recipient of the benefits that He has for us, the plan that He has for us. My, when before we moved up here, I had a, we rented a house that happened to be right next door to my grandfather. And there was a little white fence that divided the two properties there. And this was in the city, there was a city lot.

36:42 So my backyard had big oak trees. It's a small little lot 50 by something, know, like... And so there was no room to plant anything in there. So I I wanted to plant a few tomato plants. I thought, well, I'll plant them right in between the in between the houses here on this white fence.

37:02 So I did. I put four tomato plants out there. Pretty aggressive, you know. Put four tomato plants out there and what I didn't really think about, I mean, just... That was a spot I put them there.

37:17 But as the summer progressed, these vines, well, these tomato vines, well, they just weren't doing so hot. In fact, they were very thin, narrow, squiggly growing up. And what I came to realize is they were not getting enough sun. It was between the houses and the way the sun would come up, trees and things like that, they were just not getting sun at all. My grandfather who is in fact, this month he turns 102.

37:45 At the time he was much younger. He was like 99 or something when this tomato thing happened. But guess what? The tomato vines, they had a couple blooms on them but it was late in the season and they just weren't producing a tomato. And so my grandfather, he decided he was trying to get somebody.

38:14 He told me he never executed this plan but he told me what he wanted to do. He goes, Andy, I was gonna go out there and tape a real tomato to your vine just so could have a tomato for all your... I mean, I kept it weeded, and there it was, but it bore no fruit. And it just kind of reminded me that here now, this is my grandfather, okay? My grandfather, he was looking for fruit on that vine.

38:45 And he didn't see any, but he was willing to help me. He was willing to say, you know what, I'll I'll be even willing to put one out there for you. Just a small picture of the... Our our vine dresser, our heavenly father. If he looks at us and doesn't see any fruit, it's not a critical thing.

39:03 He's saying, look, I wanna help you. I wanna put that fruit right there for you. Let's pray. Yes. Yes.

39:36 Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Anybody else wanna mention something? Devin?

39:43 Convert maybe, the fact that a convert would remain in price? That's

39:50 what mine... That could be. Could be. Christian? Yes.

40:01 Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

40:11 Yeah. Power does have to do with... He's like, when we do things for the Lord, we can bear fruit by going out and being disciples and bringing other people to the Lord. But if we examine motives, the motive is to glorify ourselves, not glorify God. Well, God's quotes at those things and we're rewarded based on those things.

40:30 So the fruit that remains is when we bear fruit and it's for 100% for God's glory and it's not just for ourselves.

40:37 That's a good thought. Bob, you're gonna say something? No. No. Okay, I thought you were raising your hand.

40:43 So yeah, I think those are definitely consistent with other scriptures and that the word remain can also be, it's very similar to this word abide. So we have this thought of us abiding in Christ and this fruit abiding or remaining us remaining in Christ. So thoughts that were shared are good. I think the fruit definitely remaining would be something that lasts and even eternal, eternal value, eternal benefit. So if we look at...

41:49 Well, it almost looks like it's 02:00 from here but it's really only a few minutes after twelve. But let's we'll break and happy for more discussion on this afterward and then ones that need to get up can. Our heavenly father, we we just want to say thank you for the word and father, we're we're very thankful that well, I I think about this. I think about just some of the words of the lord Jesus. Come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden.

42:20 I will give you rest. You provide for it. You you'll give us the fruit. You'll give us peace. And so we're we're we see how you're such a gracious master, such a a loving, caring, for us, sacrificial love, how the father is portrayed, loving, and gracious, wanting to use us, wanting to have this relationship with us.

42:55 So, father, we we we do pray. We pray that we would be a people that would be just plugged in, plugged in to you and the things that you have for us. Plugged in to the lord Jesus Christ, plugged in to the father and so we ask this now in Jesus Christ name. Amen.