How I Am Changes Who I Am
The True Vine
John 15:1-11
Seven times in the gospel of John, Jesus uses the same name God used in the Old Testament, in introducing Himself to Moses in Exodus 3: I AM! In using that I AM name, He was declaring His deity and revealing what He does.
Now here is what we have discovered so far.
We hear Jesus say in John 6.48, “I AM the bread of life.” As the bread of life Jesus is our PROVISON.
In John 8.12, Jesus says, “I AM the light of the world.” As the light of the world He is our PATHWAY as He guides and guards our steps.
In John 10.9, Jesus says, “I AM the Door.” As the Door He is our PASSAGE into liberty.
In John 10.11, Jesus says, “I AM the good shepherd.” As the good shepherd He is our PROTECTOR. Nothing can get to us without first coming through Him!
In John 11.25, Jesus says, “I AM the resurrection and the life.” As the resurrection and the life He is our POWER for overcoming temptation.
In John 14.6, Jesus says, “I AM the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” As the way, the truth and the life, He is our PROVIDER for abundant and eternal life.
Now that brings us to the seventh and final I AM statement of Jesus recorded in John's gospel. It is found in John 15:1 where we hear Jesus say, “I AM the true Vine and My Father is the vinedresser.”
Now I would suggest that as the true Vine, Jesus is our PRODUCER and what I want to show you today is what Jesus produces in us as “the true vine.”
John 15:1-11
Now when Jesus said, “I am the true vine” you can know that the minds of His disciples raced back to the Old Testament. As Jews, they knew Israel prided itself on being the vine of God! In fact, over the main entrance to the Temple was a detailed carved, gold-leafed symbol of a vine with branches and grapes.
As worshippers entered the Temple, the symbol of the vine, branches and grapes would remind them of their special calling and of their heritage; all of which was rooted in scripture.
You can open the book of Psalms or Isaiah and find all kinds of references to Israel as the vine of God. In fact, Jeremiah spoke of Israel as the Lords “noble (choice) vine” in Jeremiah 2:21.
And now here stands Jesus claiming to be not just a vine or the vine, but the true vine. The implication is everything else is a false vine. He is now declaring that He was taking the place of Israel!
That means if you want to have a right relationship with God, it’s not dependent on you being a Jew, but coming to God through Jesus because He is the True Vine. Real attachment happens only through Him!
And notice, Jesus doesn’t just make the statement and leave us hanging. After making the declaration in verse 1, he follows it by explaining to every believer, branches as they are described in the text, what Jesus being the true vine produces on their behalf.
There are five things given in this text that Jesus as the true vine of God produces in the life of the branches. And we’ll have to look at them quickly, so hang on!
As the “true vine”, Jesus is
1. The Life-Giver
Verse 1,4a
Just as the vine is the source of life to the branch, Jesus, the “true vine,” is our source for life! Severed from Him, we have no life! You can have existence without having life!
Now the key to understanding the concept is found in understand the word “abide”. What does it mean to abide in Him? Well, the word “abide” means “to remain or to stay.” When I think about the word “abide,” I think connection!
In order for the branch to live, it must be connected to the vine. When there is a break in the connection, what happens to the branch? It dies!
No connection, No life!
Can a branch live independent of the vine and be abiding in the vine? No.
Can a branch decide its thoughts and ways are better than that of the vine and be abiding in the vine? No.
All of us as branches need to remember that abiding in Him means drawing from life from Him. Remember, we learned last week He is the Life of God and without Him there is no living.
Just as the vine is the source of life to the branch, Jesus, “the true vine,” is our source for life. Severed from Him we have no life!
Being connected to the “true vine” produces real life, fulfilling life, meaningful life, abundant and eternal life.
By the way, notice Jesus adds at the end of verse 5 that without Him we can do nothing. Why not? It is because we’re dead. Dead things have no animation. They give no responses. They offer no service. They do nothing.
Well they do stink and rot, which describes a lot of church members I’ve known. They don’t support anything the church does. They don’t give any money or make any visits. They don’t offer any service. They are what my friend Bill Sturm describes as good-for-nothing church members.
There is nothing good or productive or effective or beneficial that comes from a corpse. There is no life and there is nothing that can be done for the glory of God without Jesus.
So the very first thing we see, and the most important is as the “true vine”, Jesus gives life.
Second, Jesus is
2. The Sin-Forgiver
Verse 3
For some perspective, let’s back up to
John 13:10
Jesus is describing two different aspects of cleansing. One He calls being bathed. That’s a description of salvation. Salvation takes all the effects of our sin and washes us and makes us clean.
Washing the feet describes daily cleansing. In those days they wore sandals and daily travel meant you’re feet got dirty. You didn’t need to take a whole bath just to get your feet clean.
It’s Jesus say of describing our relationship with Him. We get saved and it’s an all-over experience. But it’s not uncommon for us to get some dirt on us in the daily pathways of life. And what Jesus is saying is you don’t need to get saved all over again. You just need to take care of the daily dirt.
The relationship with Jesus is taken care of with the bath. The daily fellowship needs attention.
Now with that picture in mind, notice what we read in
John 15:3
That’s the same word He used in 13 to say we are completely clean. In fact, it’s the same word back in Revelation 19:8 to describe the believer's robe in Heaven.
Listen: By His cross: we have been made clean! Through His blood: we have been made clean! By His sacrifice: we have been made clean! We have been saved and cleaned by grace through faith for good works! That's our position before God! We are completely clean.
That’s how Isaiah could declare, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
We have a Father in Heaven who has made us clean in Christ and we have been made new! The Christian life is not humans attempting to clean themselves up so they can be saved. It is Jesus cleaning us so we are saved. We've already had a bath! And to play off a familiar phrase, once bathed, always bathed!
We read it in black and white right here in John 15:3, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” John 13.10, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
That’s a reference to Judas. He needed more than a foot washing, he needed a bath! But for those who were clean already, they just needed a foot-washing.
Why? It is because dirty feet affect our fellowship with the vine. We pick up dirt along the journey and we need to seek daily forgiveness so our daily relationship with our Savior is sweet and close. You can put this down: bathed saints need a daily foot washing!
Listen to the promise of 1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
To “confess” means to say the same thing. It means to agree with God. Do you know why so many believers are missing out on the blessing and favor of God? Here's why: they have their heads full of doctrine but their feet are dirty. You will never experience the abiding life in Christ without having Jesus wash your feet. He cleans them as we confess our sin. As we repent of our sin, Jesus rinses off our feet.
So, as the “true vine”, Jesus is the Life-Giver. He is the Sin-Forgiver and He is
3. The Fruit-Producer
verses 4-5
Now remember, “abiding” means “to remain or to stay.” He’s talking about how a branch is connected to a vine. In fact, where the two connect you cannot tell where the vine starts and the branch ends or where the branch starts and the vine ends. That's abiding! It's speaks of being connected!
So when it comes to producing fruit, the secret is being connected! You've got to be connected to the vine in order for fruit to come from your life. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit without being connected to the vine, you and I cannot produce spiritual fruit without being connected to “the true vine.”
See how vital it is that we be connected to the vine? If we are severed from Him we have no life and we bear no fruit. !
Once we are connected to Christ through salvation and rightly related with Him through daily cleansing, we are then in the position to be used by Him to produce fruit.
So what kind of fruit does He produce in and through us as we abide in Him? Most of the time, we think in terms of winning souls and doing evangelism and reaching people for Christ.
Those are all good things to do, but that’s not the fruit that’s talked about here. In fact, those will never happen in your life until first of all you are bearing the fruit that is referenced here because the fruit here is the fruit of the Spirit.
That fruit is described in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
God goal is to produce all nine characteristics of the Spirit in every child of God. And notice I said, God just produce it. You can’t produce it on your own. Remember, without Him you can do nothing.
The fruit of the Spirit is produced by abiding in the vine. It is the expression of God living within you. And the more you surrender the more fruit you produce. And the more fruit that is produced, the more you’ll impact people with the message of the Gospel.
By the way, do you know who, other than you, needs you to bear this fruit? Those who love you! Those who live with you! Your spouse! Your children! Your employee! Your Sunday School members!
The best thing I can do for my wife and children and for my fellow church members and Christians in general is abide in Him and let His words abide in me so that He can produce in me the fruit of the Spirit!
And I’ll tell you who desperately needs for you to abide in Christ and let Christ produce His fruit in you is a lost and dying world.
We’re always going about it backwards. We try to teach people evangelism techniques and evangelism strategies in hopes they’ll go tell people about Jesus and win them to the Lord. But Jesus says, “Learn to abide in Me and let me produce My character in you and I’ll produce the fruit.”
John 15:8
Do you know why I want to bear much fruit? Because the more fruit I bear, the more glory God gets!
So, as “the true vine”, Jesus is the Life-Giver, He’s the Sin-Forgiver, the Fruit-Producer, and
4. The Prayer-Answerer
Verse 7
So has God obligated Himself to comply with our every request? It sure sounds like He has here in verse 7. Did He mean what He said? I will answer by saying, “Absolutely yes!” Jesus always says what He means and means what He says.
But what we must ask is this: What did He mean when He said, “You will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Well, let's take it apart and see. Let’s start with the word “You ..” Who is “You?” To whom is He making this promise? It is given to those who are abiding in Him.
In other words, as we yield our will to His will, as we surrender our wants to His wants and as we draw our life from Him through abiding or connecting to Him, that connection will change the way we pray!
No longer will our prayers be self-serving or self-seeking or self-satisfying!
When we are drawing our life from Him and He begins producing fruit in and through us, all we will want is what He wants: nothing more and nothing else. No wonder He promises to do what we desire because He changes our desire to match His desire!
You pray for things that now matter to Him! You pray for things that now focus on Him! You pray for things that now please Him!
He also says the promise is for those who are allowing His words to abide in them. Are you so familiar with His words that they coming pouring into your mind when temptation comes or when trouble comes or when trials come? Are His words or your words the first words that come pouring out of your mouth when you’re angry?
The only way His words will abide or remain or stay with you is if you are constantly and consistently pouring them into your mind and life. Study His word corporately and privately. Read His words. Listen to His words. Memorize His words. Meditate upon His words.
And when God's Word begins to impact your decisions and choices each day, you can know that His words are abiding in you. And if God's words' are not impacting your decisions and choices each day, then you can know that His words are not abiding in you.
Our problem is we’re always focused on the last part of verse 7 and we ignore the first part. Then we voice our prayers, and when God doesn’t answer, we say prayer doesn’t work. But I want to remind you it is the first part that makes the last part work.
We will know answers to our prayers when we are abiding in Him and His words are abiding in us.
Jesus is the Life-Giver, the Sin-Forgiver, the Fruit-Producer, the Prayer-Answerer and finally, Jesus is
5. The Joy-Filler
Verse 11
There is no greater evidence that Jesus is alive and that Jesus saves than a born-again, spirit-filled, abiding, joyful Christian! I promise you that joy will catch the attention of this community for Christ and for our fellowship!
And yet the sad truth is that the world sees very little joy coming from those who claim to have it.
You say, “Pastor, if you knew what I was facing you would understand why I'm not very joyful.”
Oh really? Do you know what Jesus was facing when He said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full?”
He said that as He faced the cross to die for your sins! He was about to be nailed to a tree after having been spat upon, beaten and stripped! Those where His circumstances and yet we hear Him saying, “I want My joy to remain in you! I want your joy to be complete and full!”
Joy doesn't come from our circumstances and what is happening around us. It comes from Christ in us and from our abiding in Him!
I want that kind of joy. I need that kind of joy. I can have that kind of joy and so can you. Abiding in Him and His words abiding in you are the secrets to lasting joy!
If you have no Jesus, you will have no joy. If there is no abiding in Christ, there will be no joy! I there is no connection, there will be no joy! You cannot produce His joy in the flesh!
Back in 1768, Lancelot Brown was serving as King George III’s Surveyor of Gardens and Waters. He took a small cutting from a grape vine in Valentine’s Park near Essex England and planted it in the Hampton Court Palace Gardens. Today, 247 years later, it is still growing and producing grapes. IT is believed to be the oldest and largest known vine in the world.
It now measures about 12 feet around the base and its longest rod or limb is 120 feet long. The crop it produces averages 500 to 700 bunches of grapes that weigh 500 to 700 pounds and it takes the vine keeper about three weeks to remove the grapes.
The grapes, which are black and sweet, have always been used by the Royal household as dessert grapes. In 1930, however, George V started sending the grapes to hospitals, and within five years they were being sold to palace visitors. Today, the full crop of black eating grapes is sold to visitors in the palace shops in late summer or early autumn.
Even more amazing than that vine, is the life and reach and harvest of the True Vine. It was planted in eternity past and has been harvesting a crop for 1,000s of years. In fact, those that are attached to this vine will live forever.
It is alive and vibrant and still doing what only it can do: give life, forgive sin, produce fruit, answer prayers and fill your life with joy.
Today I invite you to come to the true vine and connect.
Let’s pray.
