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"I AM THE TRUE VINE" |
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Can you imagine coming to the end of your life and realizing that you wasted it? I love this quite from Patrick Morley: “I wanted my life to count, to make a difference, to be significant. Now I am tormented with the thought that I may just become another statistic . . .I’m afraid I’ve lost my soul. I didn’t sell it . . . I simply gave it away.” (Patrick Morley, The Rest of Your Life) You and I have a need to be significant. God created us with a drive to do something productive with our lives. Please turn with me in your Bibles to John 15:1-11. This morning we are finishing our 6-week series “Satisfied by the Great I AM.” For the past five weeks, we have been looking at five of Jesus’ “I Am” statements, realizing that Jesus is the Great I AM, the only true God, who satisfies our every need. This morning we end our series with Jesus’ statement in John 15: “I am the True Vine.” As we read this passage, we’ll see that Jesus satisfies our need to live productive lives. We read in John 15:5: "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." If you want to bear fruit – if you want to be productive – you must remain connected to the True Vine, which is Jesus. And as we look more closely at this passage, we’ll see six things that we can do to remain in Jesus. Let us begin. The first thing that we need to do is: Recognize Jesus We read in John 15:1: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” Vines and vineyards were a normal part of life for the average Jew. When the disciples heard Jesus talk about a vine, they no doubt would think of Psalm 80 and how the Jews, God’s chosen people, are the vine – listen to Psalm 80 verses 8-11: "You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River." And they no doubt thought of Isaiah 5:7 and how Israel is the vineyard of the LORD. We read: "The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight." When Jesus said, “I am the True Vine,” the disciples understood that Jesus was teaching them something important about Himself and his relationship to His people. I am not an expert in viticulture (the study of grape production), so I did a little research: Basically, one of the first rules of growing grapes, whether for making wine or table grapes, is that you must choose the right kind of vine to plant. You choose the vine depending on the kind of grape you want produced. When Jesus says, “I am the True Vine,” he is saying that he is the only vine that will produce the right fruit. If we want our lives to produce the right fruit, there is only one True Vine to which we need to be connected – and that vine is Jesus. Some people think that there are many ways to God. Jesus here teaches, by way of the vine, that there is only one – only one way to God – for there is only one True Vine to which we must be connected. And Jesus is quite clear that He is that vine. We also would be wise to realize that most of the people in our world today seem to think that they are just fine without any vine at all. Our temptation is not so much to go after other Gods – when was the last time you were pressured to worship Zeus – but we are instead tempted to just go on our own way, living life as if there is absolutely no God at all. Imagine a bunch of branches trying to produce some sort of fruit without being hooked up to a vine? Jesus stands up in the midst of such nonsense and loudly proclaims: “I am the True Vine!” Have you responded to Jesus? Are you living your life aimlessly, not knowing why you are alive or what you are accomplishing with your life? Give your heart to Jesus. Tell Jesus, “You love me, you died for me, I believe it – I will make my life all about being close to you. You, Jesus, are the True Vine – I want to be productive – I will spend the rest of my life plugged into you!” Having plugged into the True Vine, there is more we can do, though, to grow in our plugged-in-ness to Jesus: The second thing that we can do to remain in Jesus and live productive lives is this: Enjoy His priorities We read in verse 2: "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." Jesus had just said that He Himself is the Vine, and that his Father is the gardener. The Father is the gardener who cuts off the unproductive branches and prunes the productive branches. If you have ever cared for a fruit tree, you know that the best fruit comes when you take care of the tree. You have to cut off the dead wood (which harbors insects and disease), and you have to prune the fruitful branches to maximize the fruitfulness. And if your plumb tree could scream, it would scream when you prune it! Cutting off dead wood and shortening the good branches would not feel good. And it is the same with us. The stuff in our lives that is dead and diseased with sin – the bad habits, the ungodly influences, the sin – God is all about removing that stuff from our lives so that we are more fruitful – it is for our own good! But it hurts. An important step that we need to make as Christians is deciding to trust God’s love for us, and that pruning is for our own good. When is the last time you actually asked God to remove the dead stuff from your life? When is the last time you prayed to God, “Jesus, show me my sin and get rid of it. I know it will hurt, but I want to be closer to you and I want to bear more fruit than I am bearing.” Just like the Israelites in the desert, we often wander around for years because we hold onto the sins of Egypt in our hearts – when we could enter so much sooner into the fruitful promised land if we would just hate sin and ask God to remove it. Question: do we enjoy God’s priorities? Do we hate sin in our lives? Do we want to be more fruitful, even if it hurts? And the third thing that we can do is this: Make Jesus your ambition In verses 3-5, we read: "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain 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. 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." This is the heart of the passage. And there is one thing that should really stand out to us here: spiritual fruit is the byproduct of a relationship with Jesus. Notice that Jesus does not command his disciples to produce fruit! He commands his disciples to remain in him. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. Branches don’t have to work really hard to produce fruit. Branches produce fruit – naturally – when they are connected to the vine. One of the biggest mistakes that Christians can make is to try to be great, fruitful Christians – without being close to Christ. I am sure you are aware of some of the results of such mistakes – heard of the Crusades? Remain in Jesus. This is the point of the entire passage (and the point of the entire Bible, right?!) Make knowing Jesus your great ambition. If you make knowing Jesus your ambition, you will bear much fruit! But if you make producing fruit your great ambition: Remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:22-23: "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" Knowing Jesus is what matters. Consider again the end of verse 5: "Apart from me you can do nothing." Isn’t that a bit too absolute? Lots of people accomplish good things, and they aren’t even Christians! According to Jesus, though, all that really matters is being connected to Him. The only way we’ll accomplish anything of value is if we are connected to Him like a branch is connected to the vine. Why? When we are connected to Him, he works through us. If we want to accomplish anything worthwhile in life, we must be connected to Jesus. And the fourth thing we can do to remain in Jesus and live productive lives is this: Accept reality Reality is that Jesus’ disciples remain in Him. And reality is that those who remain in Him bear fruit. If you are a Christian, you will remain in Him and bear fruit. If you don’t bear fruit, there is a major problem. According to verse 6, not bearing fruit is strong evidence that the branch is not plugged into the vine. And what happens to branches that are not plugged into the vine? We read in verse 6: "If 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." This verse should provoke us to a healthy fear. Consequences are real. Life is at stake! Remain in Him! Stay vitally connected to Jesus, or the inevitable consequence will result. Verses like these make it pretty clear how Jesus feels about mediocrity. Some people tend to think that Christianity is just fine as a Sunday religion. But Jesus didn’t come and die on a cross and rise again just so you could go to church on Sunday and then carry on with your life. Jesus died and rose again so that we could have life – true life – which is defined as remaining in Him. That is what it is all about! And this brings us nicely to our next point, the fifth thing that we need to do to remain in Jesus and live productive lives: Invest your heart Listen to verses 7-8: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." I just love this promise: “ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.” Some people who don’t know God might really like to have a God like that! Can you imagine? “Genie in the sky, I want a Porche!” Bam, there it is in the driveway.” But this is not the God of the Bible. This is not Jesus, the one who loves us and gave himself up for us. The God I believe in loves me too much to satisfy my every whim. He knows that what I need to do is give Him my heart, for only then will I find happiness. Listen to these verses again: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." Notice that we are here invited to participate in the biggest thing going on in the universe: the glory of God. We have the opportunity to be a part of bringing glory to God! We do this by showing ourselves to be his disciples. And we do this by bearing fruit. And we do this by remaining in Him! And this is what remaining in Him looks like: You ask whatever you want, and it is given to you. The most important thing we can do to remain in Jesus is to give him our hearts. Give him yourself. Make his desires your desires. If you are seeking God’s glory above all else, then you have the promise that your prayer is answered! One thing is for sure, He WILL glorify his own name. JOIN HIM in that passion. Invest your heart. Even take a moment right now to tell God, for the first time or for the umpteenth time, that all you really care about in life is His glory. And the last and sixth thing that we see we can do to remain in Him is this: Never underestimate obedience Jesus here gives us very clear instructions on how to remain in Him: obey Him. We read in verses 9-11: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 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. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." How do we remain in Him? By obeying Him. What is God saying to you these days? In what area of your life is God this morning saying, “you need to obey me.” Maybe there is some decision you need to make – big or small – and you know that you just need to make the decision in obedience to God. Or maybe there is something you know that you need to stop doing – Make a decision right now to obey. And what is the result of obeying Him according to this passage? Joy. Do you want Joy? Then obey Jesus. Remain in Him by obeying his words. And if you have any doubts about whether it is really worth obeying Him, remember these words in verse 9: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love" God is not some evil ruler of the cosmos who uses people to accomplish his own selfish goals. God is LOVE. Obedience to God may be hard, but it is always, always, ALWAYS the path to JOY. What is life all about? How can you be sure that you don’t waste your life? How can you satisfy your need to live a productive, fruitiful life? How can you make your life count for something? By remaining in Jesus. Remain in Jesus and your life will be more fruitful and more joyful than you can possibly imagine. He is the True Vine. He is the great all-satisfying God, the Great I Am. Let’s pray. |