Sermon: The Life-Giving Vine and the Fruit-Bearing Branches

Well, good morning. I invite you to turn with me in the Bible to John chapter 15. You can open up there in your own copy of God's Word or take one from the pew in front of you, and John 15 is on page 901 in those pew Bibles. This morning we will be reading and hearing God's Word preached from John chapter 15, verses one through 17.

As we come to God's Word, let's take a moment and ask the Lord for his help to understand and his blessing upon the preaching. Would you join me as I lead us in prayer?

Our Father in heaven, you are the self-sufficient God, independent, in need of nothing, but we are oh so dependent. We cannot do anything apart from you. Apart from you we have no good thing. We are dependent upon you for life and breath and everything. And we ask, oh Lord, right now as we come to your word, that you would pour out your grace upon us, that you would show us Christ, that you would cause us to behold him and

to believe in him, that in him we might find all we need. And Lord, I pray that you would bless me this morning as I stand to preach. Apart from you, I cannot preach as I ought. And so would you bless me with your Holy Spirit to communicate your truth through me for the benefit of your people and for the glory of your name. In Jesus' name we ask, amen. John chapter 15, verses one through 17. Listen carefully, for this is God's Word.

"Jesus said, 'I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

These things I command you, so that you will love one another.'"

Well, no one would mistake these two thumbs here for a green thumb. But Sarah and I have really enjoyed trying our hands at some summer gardening. Ever since we moved back to Michigan a couple years ago, we have tried to make slow improvements to the garden bed in front of our house. And in the backyard, we built a little garden plot so that we could plant vegetables and fruits and enjoy summer fruit from Michigan. What we enjoy most about gardening

is not the planting and the weeding and the watering and the pruning. What we enjoy mostAnd the reason we do it at all is to see the growth, the growth of the plants, and then to enjoy the growth. As the flowers bloom, we enjoy the smell of the flowers and the beauty of the flowers in blossom, and the fruit as it pops on the plant and then ripens and is ready to be plucked to eat. That's what we enjoy about gardening.

Perhaps you yourself are a gardener and enjoy this season in Michigan for the same reasons. In our passage, Jesus tells us that his Father and our Father is like a gardener.

He is a gardener who has planted a vine and is tending to it, and his purpose in planting the vine and tending to the vine is that the vine's branches will produce fruit.

And he tells us very plainly, "I am the vine, and you, Christians, are the fruit-bearing branches." Just as you intend when you plant and water and weed and prune your garden, your plants, you intend to bring forth fruit in due season. So God the Father intends that you, Christian, will bear fruit. That is God's intention for you.

And so in our passage, Jesus teaches us three things about fruit bearing, three things about Christians bearing fruit. The first is that Christians bear fruit only by abiding in Christ. The second thing Jesus teaches us is that Christians bear the fruit of obedience and love. And the third thing that Jesus teaches us about Christian fruit bearing is that Christians bear fruit that brings glory to God, joy to us, and blessing to others. And those are the three things that we

want to see in our text this morning, and learn from our text this morning. So first, Christians bear fruit only by abiding in Christ. Jesus makes this point through the image or the metaphor that he employs throughout the passage, and two things are very clear from the metaphor, from the image. The first thing that is clear is our purpose. Our purpose as Christians is to bear fruit. Look with me at verse two. "If a branch does not bear fruit,

the Father will take it away. But if the branch does bear fruit, it will be pruned so that it may bear even more fruit."

God's intention for Christians is that they will bear fruit. And then you see that in verse 16, this is confirmed when Jesus says, "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit." So the image makes clear our purpose as Christians, to bear fruit. The second thing it makes clear is that bearing fruit can only happen through Christ. If you forget everything else from this sermon, I pray that does not happen. Please don't tune out from here on out.

But if you happen to just forget everything else, don't forget this from the sermon. Jesus is the vine, you are the branches, and you only bear fruit, spiritual fruit, through Christ.

Jesus says this in both the negative and the positive. Verse four, he says, "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." And then in verse five, he says it in the positive. "Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit." So those two things are very clear from the metaphor, and the metaphor is clear enough on its own for us to be able to

understand the point that Jesus is trying to communicate. But there's even more to this metaphor, this image, that reinforces this point, that brings it home to us that we might not immediately see. You see, Jesus is using an image here in John 15 of a vine and the branches, and it's an image that is loaded

from the scriptures. You see, in the Old Testament, the vine, a vine was often an image used to describe the people of Israel.

Regularly, Israel was compared to a vine that was planted in order to bear fruit. So for example, Psalm 80 says, "You, God..."brought a vine out of Egypt, you drove out the nations and planted it, planted the vine.

But that vine that God planted, Israel, was a vine, was a people that didn't bear good fruit. They didn't bear good fruit, the fruit that God was seeking. And so when Jesus says, "I am the true vine," he is saying, "I am what Israel was meant to be. I am the life-giving, fruit-bearing vine that gives glory to God the Father."

And he also means to say, "I am life.

Spiritual life is to be found in me.

And the fruit of your spiritual life can only be produced through me." And so Jesus is saying you cannot find life in Israel, in belonging to the people of Israel. You cannot find life by simply taking and going through the religious customs that Israel was meant to keep.

You can only find life in me, and we might say today, you cannot find life simply in reading the Bible or in simply showing up to church week after week after week. Those are good things. You ought to read the Bible. You ought to come to church week after week after week. But those things don't have life. They point you to the one who has life.

Jesus says in John chapter five, and it may be what he means to say to you today, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." You may be doing all these things, all these really good things, but refusing to come to Christ. He is the life that you are seeking, the life that you need, and the fruit that pleases God can only be

produced by abiding in Jesus. And so Jesus exhorts again and again in this passage, "Abide. Abide in me, and I in you. Abide in my love."

The meaning of the word abide, I think, is best understood through the imagery that Jesus uses of the vine and the branches. We know that a fruit-bearing branch

must be, and shows itself to be connected to, united to, vitally connected to and united to a life-giving source, a life-giving vine. Abiding means you are vitally connected, vitally united to Christ.

It means don't attempt to live life apart from me, separated from me, at a distance from me. You must abide in me.

We just had a number of high school graduates that were standing on the platform. At this point of life, when you're getting ready to graduate from high school, you are ready, eager to spread your wings and fly. Fly the coop. I am ready to live life independently, to do things on my own, to do things for myself. And that's good and right. We all come to that point, and we should be ready, most of us, to gain independence over time and

be able to spread our wings and to fly ourselves, so to speak.

Jesus wants you to understand this morning that when it comes to the Christian life, there is no spreading your wings and flying. There is no graduating. There is no getting to the point of the Christian life where you are on your own, independent, self-sufficient.

You never gain independence from Christ.

Some Christians in Galatia, some early Christians in Galatia thought that they might be able to gain independence from Christ. They began to live like it, in fact. And the Holy Spirit, through Paul, says in Galatians 3, "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

Sometimes we think or we act like Jesus gets us most of the way there. He takes us 99% of the way, but then he leaves it to us to do the 1%.And the point Jesus is making here is that from beginning to end, the Christian life is one of abiding in Christ, remaining in Christ, being united to Christ.

And the way that believers are united to Christ, and Christ to believers, is through faith. So when Jesus is saying, "Abide in me," he's saying, "Believe in me, trust in me, continue to keep trusting in me, to keep the faith."

It's a command.

But it's not up to you to do this all on your own. It's not up to you to do this on your own. Remember, apart from Christ, you can do nothing.

And so Jesus points us to two means that will help us to abide in Christ, and Him in us. In verse seven, it says, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." He's speaking here about the Word, His Word, and prayer. Colossians 3 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."

The way that we abide in Christ and have Him abide in us is to let the word of God dwell in us, to take root in us, to bear fruit in us, and we pray. We pray in Jesus's name. We pray in his name because we can't pray without him. God won't bless our prayers without Christ. But we pray to abide in him, to commune with him, and fellowship with him.

And as the rest of the Bible reminds us, dear friends, it is not ultimately up to us. God is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

And because of this then, that we are united to Christ, the life-giving source, that God is at work in us, then the expectation is what verse five says, that whoever abides in Christ, and He in us, he it is that bears much fruit. We will bear fruit. We are united to Christ, and He is a life-giving, fruitful vine.

So, first thing Jesus means to teach us from John 15 is that you can bear fruit only by abiding in Christ through faith. The second is that Christians will bear the fruit of love and obedience. Of love and obedience.

Jesus says in verse 10, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love." Verse 10 explains verse nine, how you abide in Christ's love. It's an explanation, but I think verse 10 is also an encouragement, another encouragement, another reassuring promise for us. If you keep His commandments, you will abide in Him. You will abide in His love. The fruitless, lifeless branches of verse six, you will not be cut off like them

if you are in Christ and you remain in Him. We bear fruit. Secondly, we love one another. Jesus is taking all of His commands, everything that He said, and He's narrowing it down to one: love one another. He's not relegating all of His other commands, making them a second tier. Jesus is saying that by loving one another, you are fulfilling all of my commands. And so He says, "Love one another," in verse 12 and following.

And by this, Jesus means that as Christians, we are to love selflessly, sacrificially, with humility. We are to give in love without the expectation of getting in return, because Christian love is aimed at the good of the one being loved. These are the fruits, the evidence that we are in the vine. I want you to notice here, though, Jesus is making for us a connection. He's saying that there's a likeness. There's a likeness between the fruit that is produced by

Christians and the vine. And we know that this is true in all of plant life. Kids, if I were to ask you, what kind of fruit will an apple tree produce? You would say apples. Right? And if I were to ask you, what kind of fruit will a tomato plant produce? Tomatoes. Right? There's a likeness. And Jesus says that Christians, because they are united to Christ, will produce obedience and love, the same fruit that Christ himself produces.

So verse 10, Jesus says, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love."And then in verse 12: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Christians bear the same fruit as Christ. There's a likeness.

And so Jesus, his own love and his own commandment keeping is setting an example, a pattern to follow, to emulate.

But you can never, dear Christian, as hard as you try, the fruit that you bear, it will never be as sweet or delicious or good as the fruit that Jesus himself produced. You can never perfectly replicate such fruit. Jesus says in verse 13: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

Christ's commandment keeping was perfect, unblemished. Christ never failed to abide in God's love, and his love,

there's no greater love. It's unmatched, it's unequaled because Christ laid down his life for us.

So Jesus is an example for us to follow, but Jesus, dear friends, is more than an example.

Jesus is more than an example. That is not why Jesus came to earth, to just be a good example for you to follow. Jesus did not come to earth just to make you be a better person or a better version of you. Jesus came to be a life-giving vine, the life-giving vine. He came to give life to those who are dead in their trespasses and sin.

In John 12:24, Jesus says about himself: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jesus came to give you life. To give you life. You must believe. Jesus is not trying to make you be a better person. He does not want you just to follow his example. He wants you to find life in his name and produce the fruit that comes from that life.

So Christians bear fruit only by abiding in Christ. They bear the fruit of love and obedience. And finally then, Christians bear fruit that brings glory to God, joy to us, and blessing for others. Look at verse eight with me.

Jesus says, "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."

Sometimes here at this church, we will ask and we will recite together, what is man's chief end? What is your chief end in life? To glorify God. And Jesus has told us here that we glorify God by bearing fruit, fruit of love and obedience. But do you know what God's chief end is? If I were to ask you, what is God's chief end? What is God's chief end in sending Christ into the world? What is God's chief end in uniting you to

Christ by his Spirit? What is God's chief end in giving you faith to trust in Christ, and his chief end in causing you to bear fruit? And God's chief end in pruning you by the hand of his providence so that you bear even more fruit? What is God's chief end? His own glory. His own glory. As you abide in Christ, and he in you, and you bear fruit and prove to be a disciple of Christ, God is glorified. God is glorified. How is that? How does your fruit give glory to God?

Because your fruitfulness, dear Christian, is not evidence of your sufficiency or your power or your wisdom or your effort, ultimately.

It is evidence of God's grace at work in you. He produced the fruit, and it magnifies God, gives glory to his name, and causes us to praise God, to thank him.

So Christians bear fruitThat God produces in us that brings him glory.

And we also bear fruit that gives joy to us, that brings joy to us. Verse 11. I think for me, this is probably the most surprising verse, the most unexpected verse in all of John 15, in this portion of the passage.

All that Jesus says in John 15 is for your joy. For your joy.

And so that means that God's glory is for your joy.

It means that being pruned by the Father's hand of providence, whatever trials come your way, is for your joy.

It means that abiding in Christ by faith is for your joy. It means that Christ abiding in you, His Word in you, His love in you, His joy in you, is for your joy.

It means that obeying Christ's commands is for your joy. It means that loving others selflessly and sacrificially even is for your joy.

And it means most simply this: it means that the entirety of your life, dear Christian, the entirety of your Christian life is for your joy. The life that God has purposed for you is not one that spoils your joy or takes it from you.

But the life that God has purposed for you to live is one that is meant to increase your joy to its full capacity, to fullness, completion.

So Christians bear fruit that brings glory to God, joy to us, and blessing to others.

I told you that I love it when harvest time is here for those plants. One of the things that I've enjoyed these past couple summers living in Michigan is enjoying the fruit that's been produced from your gardens.

At some point, some gardeners have planted way too much, and they can't eat all the tomatoes that are produced, and cucumbers, and squash, and zucchini, and so they'll share it. "I have enough for myself. You have some. I want you to enjoy this." And I love participating in what you've accomplished by eating your fruit.

In a similar way, the fruit that we bear as Christians is meant to bless others. It's meant to be shared that it might bless others. Surely this is what Jesus meant when he said, "Love one another." Right? Your aim is at the good of someone else, is at the blessing of someone else, benefiting them. But in verse 16, Jesus says one other thing about how our fruit can bless others. We hear Jesus say to his 11 disciples that one of his purposes in choosing them was that

they should go and bear fruit.

Not stay and bear fruit, but go and bear fruit.

The fruit of their abiding in Christ was meant to be a blessing to others.

And we are actually enjoying their abiding fruit today.

As 21st century Christians in America, we are enjoying their fruit. You see, they went. These disciples, these 11 disciples, became the apostles, the sent out ones. They went as they were commanded. They made disciples of all nations. They taught the nations to obey all that Christ commanded.

And through their evangelism and discipleship, churches were established. The gospel was proclaimed, and you came to faith and were brought into the church.

You are the abiding fruit that Jesus is seeking, that God is seeking, from sending out the disciples, sending out the apostles with the gospel message. And that's why the church exists today. That we might bear fruit that becomes a blessing to others, that is shared by others. And so may it be that our fruit, as we abide with Christ and He produces fruit in us, the fruit of abiding with Him, that our fruit will become a blessing for others, and for

our joy in Christ, and for the glory of God. You see, dear Christians, that is God's purpose for you.

God's purpose for Christians is to abide in Christ in order that you would bear much fruit for the glory of God, for your joy, and for the blessing of others. Would you pray with me?

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that He is a life-giving vine, and that you have united us to Christ by faith.

We thank you, oh Lord, for your Spirit, who helps us to abide, who causes us to persevere in faith. And we pray, oh Lord, that this word which we have just heard, which could be compared to a seed scattered, that it might fall upon soil that is ready to receive it in our hearts, so that as it is watered, it would bear fruit that would bring joy to us, glory to you, and blessing to others. We ask, oh Lord, that you would bless this word

to our growth in grace and for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.