Wednesday in the Word...John 15:1-11...I AM the true Vine

Tackling the concept of "professing" Christ and "confessing" or "possessing" Christ.  I always pray to preach the deeper commitment of "confessing" Christ than a message that comes short of it.  If we confess we will be professing but we can profess without the heart change of confession.

All those cold winter months of pruning apple trees with Mr. Lazaleer help this passage come to life.  So many branches needed to be taken away because they were not only not producing fruit but hindering good branches from producing more fruit.  The good branches needed yearly inspection and pruning to see greater production and therefore more glory for the tree.  

I am always amazed at Jesus' use of analogies and pictures to help us see what is going on and what will happen in the future.  He also always provides an example to follow, namely Himself.

Today's Wednesday in the Word covers John chapter 15 and verses 1 through 11.  Jesus and His disciples, minus Judas Iscariot, exit the Upper Room and the Passover Meal and make their way to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.  Jesus keeps right on teaching.

v.1 - "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser."

Jesus is speaking and He gives the interpretation of who is who in this analogy.  He is the vine but He also distinguishes that He is the "true vine" and therefore indicating that there are also other vines that are false.  There are other sources out there that people, who are the branches as we will see, could connect into.  Picture in your mind that vine with its many branches.  The vine is the main vein that goes from the ground to its very end.  

Jesus identifies that God, the Father, is the vinedresser.  God is the one who is the caretaker of the vine.  The vinedresser has specific responsibilities which we will see in verse 2.  Now picture that man walking through the orchard carefully eyeing the vine and its branches with his pruning shears in his hand.  He is concerned about the health of the whole plant and inspecting the fruit or where fruit might soon be.

One last thing before moving on is to remind ourselves of Jesus' "I AM" statements.  This is number 7.  "I AM the bread of life.  I AM the light of the world.  I AM the door to the sheep.  I AM the Good Shepherd.  I AM the Resurrection and the Life.  I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  I AM the true Vine."

v.2-3 - "Every branch in Me that doesn't bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you."

Jesus is the vine and God is the vinedresser so now we come to the branches.  Process of elimination would make those branches us.  There are two types of branches, ones that bear fruit and ones that do not bear fruit.  The ones that don't bear fruit and completely cut off and taken away.  When pruning apple trees, these we would call "suckers" and the procedure was not to prune them but to cut them off, take them away and dispose of them.  The good branches were looked over carefully and pruned specifically so that they would produce more fruit than previously.

This brings us to the concept that some "profess" Christ but don't "possess" Christ.  The branches that are connected to the vine (Jesus) but don't produce fruit are branches that will be taken away.  I think it would be good to make a distinction too between "profess" and "confess."  To profess would be to say something but to confess would be to submit to something.  To profess deals only with the mind while to confess goes further and deals with the mind, the heart, the will, and ultimately the actions.  Our connection with Christ needs to be on the level of submitting so that we would produce fruit for His glory.  We do more than profess (say a simple prayer) rather we possess Christ, we are "in Christ" and confess (surrender our will and submit to God's word) that Jesus is our Lord.  Finally, to confess means a heart change has happened that can only be done by God Himself.  A great example of this distinction is Jesus' words again in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21 which reads,

 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter."

I guess if we keep these verses in context and also with the setting, the branches would be the disciples.  They are told by Jesus that they are good branches but one has been taken away namely Judas Iscariot.  They would be pruned even more so that they would bear more fruit.  They would experience an event in the future when 3000 would believe.  A bumper crop of fruit that they hadn't seen so far.  Even with Jesus physically there and Him performing never before done miracles, people are going to side with the religious leaders to crucify Him.  

v.4-7 - "Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.  If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

The word "abide" means "remain" or "stay around."  Just because you are attached to the vine doesn't mean that all action has stopped.  The vinedresser, the pruner, goes around every year to inspect those branches and making improvements for more fruit.  The Christian is attached to Jesus through His salvation provided for us but the Christian is to continue to remain and stay around for more growth which is a given for those who are in Christ.  

This action of remaining around Jesus is crucial for the growth of the Christian and the fruit that comes to give glory to God.  This can not happen apart from Jesus.  This can't happen by just being a good person or by standards set by the world.  The abiding in Jesus, the vine, is accomplished and connected to His word(s).  Our Christian growth can not be separated from our involvement in Jesus' words.  The farther we get from Jesus' words, the more distorted our prayers will become.  We will not be praying with His words in mind and in view.  We should want our prayers to reflect God's will above our own and actually replace our own.  Jesus taught His disciples a pattern to pray and part of that prayer was, 

"Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is heaven." 

Jesus warns His disciples a second time about those branches that don't bear fruit.  The outcome of their lives would be thrown away, dried up, gathered up, and cast into the fire.  This is a clear picture of the final judgement of those who are not saved.  This part of the gospel message is as important and needs to be included as what comes in the next verses.

v.8-11 - "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.  Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also 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 so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."

The other side of the coin is what happens to the branch that is attached to the vine that bears fruit?  The Father is glorified.  He is not only pleased but He is magnified.  The Father is looking for us to bear "much" fruit.  We are not just praying for one here and one there but for a bumper crop.  We are not looking to be useful for a season but for the rest of our lives.  This shows that we are not just "professing" Christ but "possessing" and "confessing" Christ with our surrender and submission to His words and ways.

We follow the example of Christ.  Jesus lays out the progression.  As the Father has loved Jesus and Jesus has loved Him back and in turn loved us then we are to love Him and the Father and also others.  This gets us right into the two greatest commandments given by Jesus to love God and love others.  How do we show this love?  We keep His commandments.  We surrender and submit to His will and plan.  Again, Jesus gives us His own example to follow.  He submitted and surrendered to the the Father's commandments, even to a death on a cross.  Our obedience is a sign of our love for Jesus and therefore an indicator that we would be pruned by God, the vinedresser, rather than taken away and burned.

The last note today is on the subject of joy.  Joy comes in the abiding, the remaining and staying around Jesus.  We receive joy, a joy that can be full, and we also receive Jesus' joy.  This is an amazing fact.  We actually can show appreciation to the One who did what we could not do ourselves.  Mind you, we are not earning salvation here because salvation has already come, but we have the opportunity with our lives to "hug" Jesus with our obedience, our abiding in His word, and our love expressed to God and others.  The joy that Jesus experience by being obedient to His Father can be experienced by us being obedient to Him.  

Jesus will come back to this concept about our joy being full.  This joy is always attached to Him and defined by what He did.  It is a joy that we can not attain apart from Him.  If we are to have full joy then we need to be branches attached to the vine and pruned by the vinedresser.

"Heavenly Father, thank You for the analogies and pictures that You give us in Your word to understand better Your love for us and our proper response to You.  May we be pruned today to bring You glory and experience more of Jesus' joy in our lives.  Amen."

Pastor Adam

p.s. - Bonus video from David Platt about Jesus' I AM statements.