Sermon Cloud

As we enter John 15 Jesus continues to affirm His disciples.

I believe that as He says these things they are probably on the way to or arriving at Gethsemane

• Remember that the last few times we saw Jesus encouraging the disciples after dinner while they were at the Last Supper. (John 13:1)

• At the end of John 13 Jesus had predicted Peter's denial John 13:38 Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.

• At the end of John 14 Jesus said to the disciples, “Arise, let us go from here. ” John 14:31

• Matthew 26:33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” ³⁴Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” ³⁵Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And so said all the disciples. ³⁶ Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray."

• In John's Gospel we are somewhere between verses 35 and 36 of Matthew 26.

Approaching the garden filled with olive and possibly pomegranate trees may have prompted the next illustration that Jesus uses as He assures the disciples of His care for them and of them.

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

• Jesus uses the metaphor of a vine that supports branches which bear fruit to demonstrate to His disciples their relationship to Him and to the Father.

• This was common in Israel, an agrarian culture.

• I am sure that many of you understand the relationship of the branch to the trunk.

• Jesus says that He is the True Vine

• He is the source of life as we have seen.

• John 1:4 In Him was life and that life was the light of men.

• He is also referring to a theme from the history of His nation Israel.

• As we saw in Psalm 80 Israel is a vine that was planted by God

• Psalm 80:8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. ⁹ You prepared room for it, And caused it to take deep root, And it filled the land.

• In Hosea the prophet speaks of Israel who has been sinful in idolatry and selfishness and says of them, Hosea 10:1 Israel empties his vine; He brings forth fruit for himself. According to the multitude of his fruit He has increased the altars; According to the bounty of his land They have embellished his sacred pillars. ² Their heart is divided; Now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars; He will ruin their sacred pillars.

• Jesus is the TRUE Vine, that is one that never fails, one that is always faithful in contrast to Israel.

• All that are in Him are God's

• But there are some who appear to be in Him who do not bear fruit whom the Father takes away..

• The CHURCH, Visible and Invisible.

• Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, ²that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, ⁴who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; ⁵of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.⁶But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, ⁷nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” ⁸That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

• His Father is the Vinedresser

• He prunes and cares for the vine and the branches

• The fruitless are taken away

• We see what happened to Israel, after much patience and chastisement they were carried of into captivity and the nation was lost.

• Even in Jesus' day it was made up of religious people but they did not believe God when Jesus came to them and told them what He was doing.

• It has come back after a couple thousand years, but it is largely secular today and still rejects God's plan and the fulfillment of His promises in Jesus.

• The fruitful are pruned.

• What is fruit? It is a heart for the things of God.

• Hebrews 13:15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name

• This is the attitude of fruitfulness.

• It is also godly character Galatians 5:22-23

• Love

• Joy

• Peace

• Patience

• Kindness

• Goodness

• Faithfulness

• Gentleness

• Self Control

• Ice Cream Social

• As contrasted with the fruit or deeds of the flesh Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

• Those who know Christ are being conformed to a pattern of godliness.

• They are trusting His provision for them, Jesus

• They are clean because they have received the word that was spoken to them. as you should remember from John 13:10 “You are clean, but no tall of you..”

• God prunes all of His fruitful ones.

• And so Peter and James and Paul all tell us to rejoice in our trials

• Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; ⁴and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

• Tribulation is the pruning that brings forth the good fruit and fruit is the expected result of all of this.

• Apple tree in the yard.

• As I have said good works are not what saves us but evidence of our salvation

• Jesus states it here in an unmistakable way.

• If you are connected to the vine you will bear fruit.

John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

¹² This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, that you love one another.

• There is the command to remain and abide and yet in verse 16 Jesus says to the disciples that “they did not choose Him, but He chose them and appointed them that they should bear much fruit.”

• We know we are in the vine by the very fact of our fruit.

• If we have no fruit, no desire for the things of God beyond our own self-interest.

• No change in our character even over time as we have been Christians for many years.

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• We should be concerned and as James tells us, James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

• When we have heard God's word and believed it we are grafted to the vine.

• But the test of whether the grafting is real is whether or not we bear fruit.

• Luke 13:6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷“Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ ⁸“But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹‘And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

• I believe that again Jesus is talking to and about Israel in this parable.

• They have not born fruit and have rejected His word to them though they were very religious!

• At the same time He gave them more time to hear the word and respond to it.

Are you in the vine today?

• Is God pruning you?

• Not just are things difficult at times, but do the difficulties bring you toward Jesus or away from Him?

• Or are you fruitless?

• Have you made a profession of faith in Jesus but have little or nothing to show for it?

• I challenge you today to hear His word!

• I challenge you to look at your life and find the fruit.