Abiding in the Vine

We've arrived at the final week of our Bible study, Simply Jesus, with John 15.1, I Am the True Vine. And you remember that we left Jesus and his disciples in the upper room last week. Jesus was telling them about things to come, things about heaven, things about the Holy Spirit. He was telling them about the work that God was leaving for them to do. And when he said that he was going to be going away, Thomas asked, well, he said, we don't know the way to where you're going. And that's when Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. And that was the conversation. We're still on that same night in that same space as we hit this I Am text. But there's a little hint of a change for us in John 14.31 is recorded that Jesus said, rise, let us go from here. And then he goes into I Am the True Vine. And so the way I picture it is that they actually left the upper room at that point, and they left that building that they were in, and they began this journey on foot to the Garden of Gethsemane. And so maybe there's five, 10, 15 minutes or so that they're actually leaving. And when they get outside, because Jesus is such a master at taking these everyday ordinary objects and making deep spiritual truths and applications for us, I picture that they get outside and he sees a vine. I just picture it as this ancient vine. And he begins to tell them, I am the true vine, because, you know, Israel was also referred to as a vine many times in the Old Testament. But now he says, I am the true vine, and he begins to use that as an illustration to tell them how they were going to do the things that the work that God was leaving for them to do. Because he had said earlier that night in John 14.12, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father. So the passage that we're studying today will have many key words that are super easy for us to understand what they mean in terms of an analogy. Words like vine, branches, gardener, fruit, abide. Well, vine is super easy because Jesus says, I am the vine. And the branches are super easy because he says, you are the branches and the gardener is easy because he says, my father is the gardener. And then he talks about fruit and abiding fruit. He talks about seven times in this passage, and he uses the word abide 11 times. So what I want to do is read through John 1 verses or John 15, 1 to 11, and then we'll dialogue a little bit about it. So it goes like this.

So our approach today is going to be a little bit different in that I'm not going to go back through those verses again, verse by verse, but what I want to do is sort of gather up four themes that we see in here and I'll put them on the slide for you kind of by just one or two word phrases and they are this, first connected. As a follower of Jesus, we have become connected to him like a branch may be grafted into a tree. And then the word fruit, since we are connected, we will carry on the work of God and that is called fruit. And indeed the father wants us to bear much fruit and we cannot bear fruit on our own. We must abide in him in order to bear fruit. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to go through those four themes. So let's start with the one connected. When we believe in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit and we become connected to God in that way. Some of the terms that we use are when we get saved, we become part of the body of Christ. We become connected to the body of Christ and God becomes connected to us through the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul gave an analogy of that in Romans and I want us to look at this verse because he uses agriculture again in this Romans 11 verse 13 and verse 18. And Paul says, I'm speaking to you Gentiles, you, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree. What I love about that verse is he uses that word nourishing, the nourishment that comes up from the root. And we know that to be true in biology. Plants are nourished by the root or by the stem or by the trunk. It comes up through that into its branches, its leaves and that way. And we talked about this before, the nourishment that we get being connected in Christ. In fact, the first I am started that way when we talked about Jesus said, I am the bread. And we made the point that in real life, when we eat bread, it does something for us. It fuels us. Jesus said, I'm the living bread and that implied he does something for us. He is the one that gives us fuel for the things that we need to do, the work that God has given for us to do. And here we are on this, I am now, I am the true vine. And we're talking about being grafted into the vine, staying connected so that the nourishment comes up through the vine and fuels us, gives us what we need to do the work that we need to do. I also think it's kind of sweet that we start, we started this Bible study with, I am the bread of life. That was the first I am statement. And we ended it with, I am the true vine. And are those not the two elements that we use at communion to celebrate what Jesus has done for us, the sacrifice that he made and the nourishment that we can receive from that. The bread, two ordinary objects, bread and wine, and they become for us symbols of the nourishing through Christ. Well, the second theme is fruit. Since we are connected and we receive our life giving nourishments from him, we will bear fruit. God wants us to bear fruit. We are not made acceptable to him by bearing fruit. We're made acceptable through Christ so that we can bear fruit. And this is something that we always need to remind ourselves of, that we're not saved by bearing fruit. We are saved to bear fruit. And somehow as human beings, we always want to tip that upside down just a little bit and somehow think, maybe if I work a little harder, do a little bit more work for the kingdom, God will love me more or better or something. It just always seems to want to turn itself around. So it's good that we remind ourselves and start with this conversation that we're not saved by bearing fruit. We bear fruit after we become saved. So fruit only grows on branches that are connected to the vine. That is obvious to us in nature. We have never found a branch of a peach tree laying on the ground all summer long. And in September, we see beautiful ripe fruit. That never happens. And what is shown us in nature can be applied figuratively to our spiritual life as well. We have to stay connected. Okay. So what does fruit look like? If somebody came into our group and they knew nothing about the Bible words that we talk about, what would they think when we use the word fruit? So I want to define it a little bit for us. What does fruit mean? And I'm going to throw it into two categories. I don't think it's quite as simple as that, throwing it into two categories, but I'm going to do it anyway. way, and I'm going to say that fruit here means two things. The good works that God prepares for us to do, and the godly character that God prepares for us to display. And so let's start with the first one. The Apostle Paul gave us insights into the work that God left for us to do. I often refer to Ephesians 2, verse 10, which says we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in. This is God's intention for us. He prepared it beforehand for us. He has prepared for us things for the kingdom to do, good works for us to do. And so I like to ask the question of myself every once in a while, what is the work that God has given me to do right now in this season? This fall, right now, what is the work God has given for me to do? What is the work God has given for you to do? Some of those answers are self-evident. At different seasons of my life, I was a mother with children at home. It is self-evident that if I am a mother with children at home, the work certainly that God has given me to do is to love those kids and to display some type of godly character, to create a path for them to easily understand who God is, who their Heavenly Father is, and to train them in the things of the Lord. I am a wife, and so it is self-evident that there is a host of work that God intends for me to do in connection with that relationship. I am a member of this church body, and so it is self-evident that I should be serving with the gifts that God has given me in this church body. Those are things that I can figure out without asking too many questions. But there's other kinds of good works that God has prepared for each one of us to do that we couldn't figure out that way. Maybe we call them divine appointments, or whatever we want to call them. But there are things that are just suddenly thrust upon us. We are in a certain situation with someone who needs empathy, needs a shoulder to cry on, needs us to point them in the direction of the Lord. These things just happen to us in life. And those are things that God has prepared for us, but we can't plan them out. I think about Peter and John. Just months after this conversation, right after Pentecost, they're going to find themselves in Acts chapter 3 on the way to the temple, and they'll find the lame man. And this was a good work that God had prepared for them to do in advance, beforehand. And they walked right into it, and they were faithful. So there's both of those things. But the other aspect of fruit is godly character. And the apostle Paul talked about this in Galatians. Galatians chapter 522. And he explained to us some of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is alive and active in you, when you are connected with the Holy Spirit, this is some fruit you should see in your life. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. I hope you had the opportunity to do that little exercise on page 76, where you listed those things and maybe put a smiley face on the ones that you see God has done that in your life. And then a little crown on the ones that still need, like, lots of work. Like, Lord, be Lord over my life. Put the crown over these areas, because I still need to get more traction from you in that. But as we abide in Christ, we are intended to bear fruit. And when we don't bear as much fruit as our gardener might want to see in us, then he comes with the ministry of pruning. And this is where we get to the category of much fruit. And we say to ourselves, I knew there was a catch. I knew that there was something going on here. We don't just get to grow any direction that we want and do whatever we want here. Our gardener is going to come and prune us. And God is compared in this passage to that skilled vine dresser or gardener who prunes the branches carefully and skillfully, not to punish the branches. He prunes them to prepare them to bear fruit. And this is a ministry that I know resonates with everyone, because we can identify areas that God has pruned us or is pruning us. I wish I was in a discussion group today to be able to hear where God is pruning in each one of your lives. But in orchard pruning, in real life orchard pruning, or vineyard pruning, or rose pruning, there's a system that gardeners follow. And it is the four Ds that you want to remove. It is the dead, the diseased, and the damaged. And then you prune to direct the growth. So let's kind of use that as an analogy and apply that over our lives and see the work that the Lord does. Because he does come in and prune those dead areas of our life, things that were maybe once flourishing, but for whatever reason are no longer. And they need to be removed to make some space for air circulation, some space for something new to grow there. And so dead things are removed. And diseased areas in our life are removed. We become contaminated by the culture around us. And that creates disease. Contamination brings in a disease. And when some part of our body becomes diseased, it must be separated out before it spreads. And that is a work I can see the Lord has done in my life, is just cutting that off, taking it away to give the greatest health in the areas that are remaining. And the damaged areas, there are areas of our life that become damaged. And I want to say this gently and carefully, but I think we all understand other people in other situations can sometimes bring damage into our life. And our gardener will prune out those areas to remove them. The reason I want to be careful with that is because I don't want us to get into this routine where we blame other people for other things. But it is true. When we had that big snow a few years ago, and so many of our trees, and shrubs, and flowers, and all that, they became damaged through no fault of their own. And there were twigs and branches on rose bushes that were just bent over. And they needed to be removed. They were never going to right themselves again. They needed to be pruned and cut off. The memory of that damage needed to be removed. And you know what? God is faithful in our lives. And sometimes, he will just prune and remove the damaged areas to make room for new growth. And then after those, then he directs us for growth. I have a elderberry shrub in my front yard that I prune regularly to direct its growth vertically. Because just the way I have it situated in my yard, I have a couple of grasses in front of it. And I want the elderberry to grow very vertical. I have the exact same thing in my backyard that I do not prune, because I want it to grow all big, and leafy, and be more rounded shrub. So I treat them differently. And God treats us differently in how he prunes things in our lives, depending on where he's put us, the gifts that he's given to us, and what he desires for us to do. And so we can't compare our lives with one another and the work that God is doing. But God prunes us to direct our growth in a certain area. And all of these, his removing the dead, diseased, damaged, and directing growth, all of these things, we would be wise, once we understand what's going on, to welcome that pruning, knowing that God is pruning us gently and carefully. And he's doing it for good. He makes proper cuts that heal well. He does not come with a hatchet and just prune us down to nothing. And sometimes maybe someone will say that, just say, God has just pruned me down to just a stump. I don't think God does that in our life. I think he is very, very generous and very careful with the pruning. And yes, sometimes we may feel a little bare. And we may think to ourselves and look around and go, I feel a little uneasy here. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. But God's work is good. And it's always timely. He always prunes at the right time. I have pruned at the wrong time and reaped the rewards of that. But God prunes at the right time. I want to just add one little bonus comment in this for those of us who might qualify for an AARP card. And that is, I want to talk. Talk about pruning on older branches. I have a tree in my yard. It's right out my dining room window. It is the most glorious tree. It is called an Indian magic crabapple tree. And it has the colors of our calendar just completely dialed in. In April, it flushes with blossoms in fuchsia color. And then it's green-leaved in the summer. And by September, the leaves have turned a beautiful orange. And by October, those orange leaves are just iridescent. And they begin to drop. And it uncovers the fruit. And the fruit is not like big apples like you'd think. It's like berries, crabapples, just tiny little berries. And so the fruit is orange for Halloween. And it's orange for Thanksgiving. And then magically, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the weather turns cold enough. And those orange berries turn red for Christmas. And they are red at Valentine's Day. And then they drop as the new growth pushes in the spring. And then up come the fuchsia blossoms. So it is just the best tree. But this tree I have is about 14 years old. And I have observed something in this tree. This tree often has these branches, sticks. I don't know what you call them, or branches. And they shoot up in the air, straight up. And you know what they're called? They're called water sprouts. And I want to read from Wikipedia of what a water sprout is. Listen to this. Water sprouts are shoots that arise from branches that are several years old. The structure of water sprout is not as strong as natural tree growth. And the shoots are more subject to diseases and pests. This type of shoot is considered undesirable on orchard trees because very little fruit is produced on them. So these older branches send off opinionated shoots called water sprouts that do very little for anything. No fruit. It doesn't help the beauty of the tree or anything. And so if we layer that over our lives, I think we can see, to me anyway, I just see this care that needs to be taken as we've been in Christ maybe for longer, that we don't become these opinionated, been there, done that, kind of branches that aren't filled with care for the people around them and for the work of God, but just kind of do their own thing with very little fruit. We don't want that. We all want our life to count for something. And we don't want to end up with no fruit. So I thought that that was just an interesting extra bonus. And we want to see a love. Psalm 92, 14 says, they still bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green. Love that passage. One last thing about fruit before we move on to abiding that I want to add here. And I want to add the element of patience to fruit. James wrote about patience. And in fact, he wrote about it in context of this exact same thing. He used a farmer as an illustration. So I want to take us to that. It's James 5, 7. And James says in this passage, he says, be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Isn't that a great passage? Good things require patience. Fruit requires patience. What is the characteristic of the farmer in this passage? He is patient about it. James says he waits for the early rains and the later rains. Now, the early rains in this time would have been considered the fall rains, after the farmer would put the seed into the ground, the grain into the ground. And then the fall rains come. And all it does is soften the kernel. But then winter comes. And it's wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Nothing is happening. From the outside, you can't see anything. But this farmer is waiting patiently through that time period to the latter rains, which would be the spring rains. And when they come and the earth warms up, then up comes the grain. And it yields a crop. The fruit is there. But if he had given up, then he wouldn't have seen the fruit. And there's so much fruit in our lives that we don't dare give up on. We have to wait patiently for the Holy Spirit to do that work in our lives and to display the fruit. So don't give up. God is not giving up on us. God will bring the increase in the proper time. So our final theme in this passage is the theme of abide. And in order to bear fruit, we must abide in Jesus. If we were to call the gardener's job in this analogy tending and pruning, what would be the branch's job? The branch's job would be yielding and abiding, connecting, staying connected, staying put. That's the job of the branch. Jesus said 10 times, abide in me or abide in my love. It was a command. Stay put. Now, I live at a certain address in Ontario. That is where I abide. I presume you each have a home. You abide there. You stay put there. You come and you go, but you always return to that place. It is where you reset. It's where you refuel. It's where you refresh yourself. Abiding is an active part of the fruit-bearing process. So what are things that help us to abide? And I don't want to go on forever. I just thought of two things that help us to abide, obedience and humility. And they're both in this passage. The reason I pointed out obedience is because Jesus focused on it so much. Put very simply, he would say things like, if you love me, you will obey what I command. If you obey my commands, you'll abide in my love. So obedience equals abiding. And I hope you were able to go on that last page of our study guide through all those scriptures in the upper room conversations where Jesus went through friendship with Christ, begins with love, and adds obedience, and results in abiding, and then ends with love. It's really a neat grouping of verses there. So I hope you get to it. The last area that I want to cover is the subject of humility. And it is another area that Jesus stressed, especially in the text that we studied this week, was our need for him. And I think that verse 5, to me, is the key to this week's study. And verse 5 says, I am the vine, you are the branches. And it ends with, apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. So again, if someone was just entering into our midst and we said, apart from Jesus, we can do nothing, they might say, well, that doesn't make any sense to me, because I feel like apart from Jesus, you can do a lot of things. Like you can go to college, you can get a driver's license, you can go to Walmart, you can do a lot of things apart from Christ. And that's true. So what is Jesus talking about here? Well, the conversation in the upper room is a conversation of eternal things. And what he's saying is, apart from me, you can do nothing that has lasting fruit, that has value for eternity. You will have nothing to show for your life apart from me. And that is the context here. And again, we all want our life to count for something. We don't want to just be born and earn a paycheck and spend a paycheck and earn a paycheck and spend it and then die. That's not what we want to do. We want to bear fruit. Fruit that will last. And so we learn from this that apart from me, you cannot do that. It's interesting that some of the gospel writers capture Jesus saying things like, all things are possible for one who believes. With God, all things are possible. And here Jesus says, apart from me, you can do no thing. All things are possible, but apart from me, you can do no thing. You can do nothing. So it's a really good contrast for us to remember. So I want to close by sharing a story of someone who really had this insight dialed in. And maybe you know, maybe you don't, that this summer was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. 50 years already have passed since that time. And there was two astronauts that had landed, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. And once they landed, Buzz Aldrin read this very scripture from our text on the moon,

I find that so fascinating. Of all the scriptures, thousands of scriptures in the Bible, he chose this scripture. At such a momentous time, when it seemed like man had accomplished so much, he chose that time to say the words of Jesus, apart from me you can do nothing. What a guy. That's really impressive. I wish I had known more about that earlier. And then he took communion, and he wrote about this in Guideposts magazines. He said the very first liquid ever poured on the moon and the very first food eaten there were the communion elements. He had intended to do that over the radio waves, but at the last minute NASA pulled the plug on it because they were in a lawsuit already from Apollo 8 mission when they had read the creation story as they were orbiting the moon on Christmas. And so they were in this lawsuit, and they thought we better not do any more Bible verses. So the people on the ground did not hear this live. What they heard was, let's take a moment of grateful silence here. But up on the moon, John 15 5 was being recited and communion was being taken. Isn't that amazing? That should be our heart. I want that to be my heart. That even if I seem to accomplish something great, that I stop and say, apart from Jesus, I can do nothing. And to go to the Lord and say, Lord, for the things you have planned for me, I just need to be connected. I need to be abiding in you in order to do those things. Father, thank you for this lesson. Thank you for this passage. And I pray that you would make us women that would yield ourselves to the pruning that you have in mind in our lives, yield ourselves to your work, and that, Lord, we would hold onto this tightly, this aspect of staying connected to you to understand that apart from you, we can do nothing. Thank you for this text, Lord. Make it alive in our hearts. Make it do something in our lives, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.