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Imagine
a branch from a grapevine. Grapevines of course produce grapes. A good
one will have a lot of grapes.... but lets think about the branch .. .the
twig that actually holds the grapes...
what can it do? Can a
branch produce any grapes? No it cant When it is on the vine it bears
fruit... grapes. But how does it get those grapes? it gets its grapes
from the vine as the vine brings nutrients from the soil, takes sunlight
and gives the branch whatever it needs to bear fruit.. The branch can
only bear grapes when it is connected to the vine, meaning that the vine
is the source of life and fruit for the branch. The branch actually can
do nothing by itself, it is completely dependant upon the vine. This is
what I want to talk with you about today, staying attached to the vine.
living in the vine. When Jesus was preparing his disciples for life after
the crucufixion and resurrection he gave them an example of a vine and
its branches. in a parable. Lets look at John 15 to see this story.
15 УI am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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. 3 You are
already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5
УI 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. 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. 7
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish,
and it will be given you. 8 This is to my FatherТs glory, that you
bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
He says in verse 4 they, and us, must remain in the vine, in HIM, because
apart from him we can do nothing. The word remain is in verse 4 four
times, and that is the focus of this passage, remaining in the vine. The
word remain, which is translated Abideth in teh King James Version is a
very simple word, It means to stay there, to live there, to have that as
your center of operation, to make the fine your home. Jesus is saying we
should live in the vine, live in him. Just like a branch must stay on the
vine to have any fruit, we too must stay on the vine if we are going to
have any fruit.
Now we know it is possible to do all kinds of things without Jesus, Our
world, full of unsaved people do stuff all the time, so he is not
speaking of things in the material physical world. He is speaking of
spiritual matters, of accomplishing things in our lives on the spiritual
level. Our American culture perhaps has a much different attitude than
the one we see expressed here. In america we think about how to get
things done. we have plans, proceedures, programs, all kinds of things
that will help us achieve our goals. We are a culture who does things,
and perhaps we have trouble with this eastern idea of just trusting God
instead of doing something.
But this passage teaches us that the way to get things done for God is
not through these programs, or any kind of self effort, but through faith
in God who will accomplish his purposes in our lives as we trust him. We
also at times have the problem of wanting to accomplish our own goals
that we may not have time to listen to see what God wants to acomplish.
The answer lies in this passage, which is to abide, or live, or trust in
the vine for results.
The analogies or parables that Jesus used are very simple stories that
anyone can understand. Somtimes though, in our culture, we lose the
simple things because they seem so simple. Just think...whenever
something needs to be done, or if there is a problem...what do we
say....we say Уwhat can i do?Ф maybe instead we should say,
Уwhat can God do?Ф
Think for a bit about the analogy here. The fine grows and sprouts branches.
THe branches bear fruit largely because of the vine. The vine is the one
who actually produces the fruit...the branch just bears the results of
the work of the vine. That is the point of this parable. As it is written
in Ephesians 2:10 For We are Gods workmanship, created in christ jesus to
do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do.
or Phillipians 2:13... For it is God who works in you, to will and to act
according to His purposes.
It is the vine, or GodТs job then to produce the fruit. Our job is
to live in the fine... as we live in the vine that implies that we trust
the vine, have faith in the vine, and allow the vine to produce its
fruit. Our job is to bear the fruit that the vine has produced.
Recently we went on vacation, and while we were gone the dogs got into
our garden and trampled some of my plants. I had cared for the garden
pretty well, but while I was gone there was no one there to protect the
plants from the dogs. But in this passage, it is clear that God is not
like this. God is always there to protect the branches. And what happens
to a branch that is cared for and on a good strong vine? it produces
fruit.
Now to get an idea of just who this vine is, we need to go back to verse
one
Jesus says he is the true vine, and the father is the gardner. Jesus is
claiming to be the one and only true vine. This of course is a spiritual
metaphore...he is claiming to be the only true source of spiritual life.
In the original language it is actually repeated, it is literally, I am i
am the true vine. ... this is done for emphasis, the disciples or readers
ofJohnТs gospel would have picked up on the play of words on I AM I
AM... This was what God told Moses to tell the children of Isreal that
his name was ... remember when moses asked god who he should say sent
him...god said...tell them I AM sent you.
It would have been clear to the original readers that Jesus was claiming
to be god, and is saying here that He alone is the source of life
spiritually speaking. The father of course being God, and being the vine
dresser or the gardner.
But if there is a true vine, then does that imply maybe there are false
vines? maybe so. THink about the things we depend on in our lives. Just
like a branch depends on the vine for its very life, Jesus is saying we
should depend on him for our very lives. But what do we depend on... Our
jobs...our health...our families...our money.... our strength....our
intelligence.... these are all good things, but they can be untrue vines.
But Jesus himself is the true vine, the true vine being the source of
spiritual life. We cannot have a true spiritual life apart from Jesus. In
other places he claimed to be the bread of life, living water, all things
that are essential for life. it is only in Jesus that we can be saved,
and that we can find meaning in life. NOw when I say jesus i mean
something apart from religion, I mean a close personal relationship that
is first and last by faith
When we do this, trust HIM completely, which is abiding in the vine...
then fruit will come... He does not say you must produce fruit... or you
had better bear fruit... he says you will bear fruit. it is a promise
In verse two it says he cuts off every branch that bears no fruit he is
talking here about those branches that are not truly in the vine...they
will eventually be cut off. THe pharisees of Jesus day thought they were
great believers because they obeyed the law, yet htey refused to believe
in Jesus, The pharisees were in church every time the door was open and they
obeyed the law meticulously to every detail. THey appeared righteous
before men, but they were unwilling to believe in Jesus and remained
lost.
Just like today, there are religious people who think that by their
religion they will get to God. and heaven... The bible says those that
believe in Jesus and surrender their lives to HIM will inherit the
kingdom of god... nowhere in teh scripitures is it written that those who
obey rules will get into heaven, or those who appear religios will get
into heaven
This is where abiding in the vine is so important you can be a very
moral, or even a very religious person, but if you depend on anything
other than the true vine for your spiritual life it wonТt work,
The scriptures say we can tell who teh children of GOd are by their
fruit.
Most religions try to find a way to get to god...they try to produce
their own fruit. the key difference in Christianity is that in our
religion, God is reaching down to man to save him.... and those who rely
on this true vine.....bear fruit.... are successful spirtiually speaking.
Religion would say then...try to bear fruit to prove you are in the
vine....but Jesus says here...to abide in the vine and you will show
yourselves to be true children of god because God will produce the fruit
in you. It is a matter of having things in teh right order
Now on the positive side, those branches that do produce fruit are pruned
so they will bear even more fruit. Just like cutting a tree back to help
it grow.
Notice in verse three he says they are already clean because of the word
he has spoken to tthem. The word clean is the same as the word prune in
verse two in the original language. This is in the past tense. This is
before they actually had born any fruit at all, Jesus had already pruned
them.... The disciples, and us, are already clean because of the work of
Christ. Wyhen Christ died on teh cross he paid the debt for all our sins,
past present and future. We need only claim that forgiveness by faith and
believee in Him, and we too can be clean. and the result of that is
fruit. and the reason that works is because of the WORDS OF CHRIST...as
it says... basically its because he said so...
WHen jesus says because of his word, that means, because of who he is...
We are clean then, not because of who we are, but because of who Christ
is. He is the true vine, the true source of life, and he has declared us
clean if we believe in
him, and therefore we are in the vine with him. Now doesnt it make sense,
if we are saved by faith in Him, that we should also live by faith....it
is a continuous thing. as we have faith, we trust him more and more, the
fruits of that will start to show
but what is this fruit he is speaking of?
Just what is fruit.?
Some say fruit is reproducing yourself. the bringing to christ of other
people...i am not sure i buy this. We cannot save ourselves and so
therefore we certainly cannot save others. No. fruit is what comes
naturally from those who are controlled by the holy spirit, who have been
transformed by God. Fruit is the natural result of being dependant upon
Christ for everything.
In Galatians Paul tells us precisely what the fruits of the spirit are
Gal. 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against
such things there is no law.
This is what fruit is....
We cannot in ourselves produce these fruits. It is hard to be joyful,
loving, patient and so forth in this world. But if we depend on Christ
for our sense of purpose and well being it is easier because we are in
the vine.
Fruits then are how we treat people basically, things like love, joy
peace patience, these are the marks of a person who has been changed by
God. If you can be mistreated and show love in return....that is a fruit
of the spirit if you are mistreated and retaliate with a vengeance...that
is not a fruit of the spirit But dont judge yourself too harshly.... you
cant make that judgement on one thing that happens...it is better to look
at the long haul..the bigger picture, just like you would in your garden.
If you have a tomato plant and one tomatoe doesnt do well yo udont trash
the whole plant.... its the same idea. but if we are in christ, over a
period of time we should see soem fruit developing.
Have you ever had the desire to do something wrong...like really tell
someone off, cuss someone out even, but didnt because you just didnt think
it right... that is a fruit of the spirit, that is the work of the Holy
SPirit.
When he says we are already clean because of his word, he is saying he
has already given us what we need to bear fruit. we need only trust him,
beleive it, and have it by faith.
In verse 4 he says remain in me and i will remain in you. I dont think
this is a conditional phrase...he is not saying if we remain in him he
will remain in us... in this context he is giving the disciples
comfort.... what he is saying is....a promise...when we remain in
him...live in him, trust him completely...he will be faithful to remain
in us...he is saying that he will give us the things we are depending on
him for, things like fruit in our lives.
Just how do we remain in the vine. We do this by faith, taking our
nourishment, our very life from the vine, which is Christ Doing something
by faith, means doing it as though it were already a reality even though
you cannot see the reality. Like getting in your car, turning the key and
pushing on the gas pedal and going someplace. That is faith. You believed
your car would take you where you needed to go so you got in and went. It
is the same with faith, you believe God will deliver so you act in such
way as though it were already true. Those of you who drove to church this
morning,,, how many checked to make sure you had gas in the car, or oil,
or that that tires were not flat? Most probably didnt because you had
faith that the car was ok. It is easier to trust your car if it has
performed well in the past, and in the same way, if you experience
trusting God for your needs, it gets easier to trust him because of His
track record. This is what doing things by faith is all about. In this
context it would be acting as if you had patience even though you did
not, believing that God would give you patience as you relied on him for
hte fruit of patience.
Just as a branch gets all its resources from the vine, we must get all
our resources for our spiritual lives from the vine, who is Christ. This
is a matter of fairth then but the way we achieve things in the spirit
world, in our relatinship with God, is not through self effort, not
through processes or the things we do.... no it is more through the
things we believe. The reason this is so, truthfully these things are
provided already, they are there whether we believe them or not...but
they cannot be real for us until we believe in them. Our belief opens the
floodgates to the blessings that come from God. Fruit in our lives is
also a blessing, even things we do for God are blessings he gives us. So
what we beleive is very important. Psychologists say it is very hard to
act in a way that is against what you believe for very long. We do
naturally the things we believe. As we believe in Jesus, He himself will
produce in us the fruit he wants us to have. Jesus often spoke of faith.
In Matthew Jesus healed a blind person, and he said to them. Matthew 9:29
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, УAccording to your faith
will it be done to youФ;
As you might imagine.... a branch has complete faith in the vine it grows
on... can you imagine this grape branch deciding it wants to produce
cataloupes or apples ... it could read a thousand books on the subject,
and try try try... it could even rededicate itsellf every day to trying
to produce apples... but what will happen to the branch on the
grapevine...it will produce grapes no matter what. As silly as this
analogy seems, sometimes we want to produce fruit that GOd never intended
for us to produce, and as a result we are not happy in our christian
lives.
The vine is faithfull to bring the nourishment from the soil where the
roots are, and to do whatever plants do with sunlight, to give the
branches what they need. The branch need only relax and utilize the energy
and nutrients provided to bear fruit. It has no resources on its own, The
branch is totally dependant upon the vine, So, like the branches, we are
to remain in the position of having Christ as our only resource for our
lives.
in verse 5, Jesus makes sure we understand by repeating that he is the
vine and we are the branches. And he promises, if a man remains in me and
I in him. He has already said if we remain in him he will remain in us,
he will bear much fruit. and he says apart from me you can do nothing.
Just like this branch cannot produce grapes now that it is not on the
vine , neither will we be able to unless we are relying on him.
You somtimes hear people say living the christian life is hard... that
may be because they are trying to do it in tehir own strength, and if
they are they are right, its impossible. it is just too hard. God does
not want us to live the christian life he wants us to depend on his son
Jesus, and trust HIM to produce the godly life that we should have.
THrough prayer, bible study, worship, fellowship, we abide in the vine.
we live in the vine, If we do those things, the mind of christ will
control us, and the result of that is fruit. It is also listening to the
voice of God, How often when you pray, do you wait and listen for what
God has to say? Now you may be a christian and may be saying you dont
have much fruit.
That could be beause you are not trusting in the vine to produce fruit,
or it may be that you are just not recognizing the fruit you do have. If
that is the case I would encourage you to make up your mind to look for
fruit in your life, and to claim in by faith.
Remember fruits are the result of our relationship with God. They are not
works that we do.... You know when you were little your parents told you
to watch out for the company you keep because it rubs off on you. or
youve heard people say bad habits rub off on people. it is the same in
teh spiritual world..... if we spend time with God, he will rub off on
us. That rubbing off is fruit. It does take effort, but that effort
should not be trying to УdoФ things...that effort should be
in trusting God to do things....
If we develop, cultivate, our relationship with God, we will have fruit.
It really works. We do have to claim our faith in a sense. If someone
gave you a million dollars and handed you the checkbook, you could have
it all your life but if you never wrote a check on it then it would not
do you much good. This is what faith is...it is writing checks on the
eternal spiritual bank account God has given us. but if by faith you
claim the victory and trust god to produce the fruit in you, you will be
surprised what will hapen. And even if we dont have enough faith...he
promises in James that if we ask for faith he will give us faith... so even
teh faith that is required on our part is also a gift, more reason to
just abide in the vine.
It is easy to say we have faith....but at time i wonder if we do. i know
there are times when i get all stressed out and worried about things....
about the future about the way things are going.... but if i trusted GOd
more i would not be worried or stressed out because i would know my
heavenly father has the situation under control...and that choice is ours
...which to believe...
The question becomes...is the bible true or not...did god mean what he
said or notТ did he say you might bear fruit maybe perhaps if its a
good day you might.... no he said you WILL bear fruit...it is a promise
from God. Remember, it is the vine that produces the fruit. The branch just
bears the fruit. Think on this analogy, any goodness we have comes from
our vine who is Christ, so then, there is no boasting but only
thanksgiving. It is a matter of faith then to claim the fruit not through
self effort or by trying to produce fruits of tthe spirit No, Jesus said
to Remain in the vine...which means to wait patiently and trust God to do
it.
If the vine is not healthy there will not be good grapes, if any at all.
Our vine is Christ Jesus.... donТt you think that means we have a
pretty healthy vine
In verse 6 Jesus tells what happens to a branch that does not remain in
the vine. This analogy is not about salvation, it is about bearing fruit,
so keep that in mind. He is just telling the disciples what will happen
to them if they try to have their life apart from Christ. This may not
even be referring to sin....we can let good things get in our way of
abiding in the vine. There were times in seminary when i didnТt
pray or have a quiet time because I was too busy studying theology or the
scriptures.. Like i dont have time to pray because i have a paper due on
prayer tomorrow.....my fruit suffered as a result. Just consider this
branch... it was cut off the vine this morning. it stilll looks pretty
good, but if we left it here and came back next sunday and looked at it,
it would not look very good because it has lost touch with the vine.
He is not saying here that if we do not produce fruit we will lose our
salvation he has already said we have fruit because we are HIS, because
we are saved, but if we try to get our sustinence from anwhere other than
the vine, we are like a branch that is no longer in the vine.
He is saying that our efforts outside the vine are totally useless. You
can try to love people on your own for a long time but there is no way to
love some people apart from God giving you love from the vine. Our
remaining in the vine is then a matter of faith, regardless of how things
seem, or how we feel, or even what we believe to be reality. It goes back
to beliving what Jesus is saying here, taking it at face value and having
faith in it.
What he is saying is that if we dont rely on the vine we wlll wilt away
and be useless in they Kingdom of God, and on earth too for that matter.
As a branch then our job is to just remain in the vine. TO stay where we
are in a spiritual sense, to keep beleiving. There was a song a few years
ago, whose chorus went something like its not in trying but in trusting
and that is the essense of remaining in the vine.
if we are in this relationship in this way. if we are in the vine so to
speak, if we are so dependant upon CHrist that he is the absolute center
of our lives, we will think the way he thinks WHen He, or the Holy
Spirit, controls our lives because we are abiding in the vine, then verse
seven comes into play. If we are in this condition, then ChristТs
words are in us. and as a result, we can ask whatever we wish and it will
be given to us just as verse seven says. Now this does not mean that we
can ask for just anything and have it appear out of the air.what it
means, is that if we are aligned with the spirit in this way, by abiding
in Christ, then our thoughts will be the same as Gods, we will want the
same things God wants, and in this case we would desire fruit therefore
God is more than happy to give us what we ask forТ If we are in
this position we will probably be asking for fruit...and he will give us
that when we ask. The reason for all this is seen in verse 8 It is to the
fathers glory that we bear fruit so then if we are abiding in the vine,
totally dependant upon Jesus for everything, then we will want nothing
but the Lord to be real and manifested in our lives WHen we want that we
get that and as verse eight says, this is to the fathers glory that we
bear much fruit and thus show our selves to be his disciples.
It is not that we do good works, or show fruit so that we can be
disciples, or to even prove that we are disciples. What Jesus is teaching
here, is that if we trust him completely, then we will have good fruit
and that will show the world that we are his disciples This is a very
important difference .... Our culture...the world says...prove it
...prove yourself... but here God says...Trust me
Fruits themselves are a gift from God, so we cant take pride in
ourselves, but can only take pride in our heavenly father who has given
us these good things. . what he wants us to do is to focus on the vine,
which is Christ Jesus himself, we should focus on being in the vine, and
trust God to produce fruit in us just as he promised to do.
So in conclusion I would challenge you to stop trying to be a christian,
stop trying to be good, stop trying........just stop. and instead, rely
on Christ. It sounds risky, but it will work In our culture it is so easy
to just do something....to try to make things happen, but we must realize
that we cannot make things happen, not ultimately. but if we trust the
vine...have faith in the vine then we will be amazed.
I Corinthians 2:9
However, as it is written
No Eye has seen
No ear has heard
No mind ha conceived
What God has prepared for those who love him.
Is God God or not? Can God do waht he said he would do or can he not.
This is the key question on the floor today. It is not what we can do,
but what he can do through us that ultimately matters So let us have
faith in Jesus then, and let us remain in the vine,
Whatever your situation today... the vine who is christ jesus is the
answer ..... if you need to know jesus in your heart so you can have this
relationship, see me when we are done... if jesus does live in your
heart. see how much you can believe in him today and tomorrow....HE
wonТt let you down.
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