The True Vine

John 15:1-17

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. – Isaiah 5:1-2

Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. – Isaiah 5:3-5

I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. – Isaiah 5:6-7

Welcome! Today we continue our series into the Book of John, looking at the first half of the fifteenth chapter. I have opened with this passage from Isaiah 5, because I think it is quite relevant to today’s passage in John. But before we get into John 15, let me remind you of what we have seen in the last several chapters.

We are in the middle of a meal Jesus and His disciples are sharing together, what has come to be called the last supper. In recent days Jesus had been increasingly speaking about His death, the necessity of it, and He seemed to indicate that it would happen quite soon. During this meal, Jesus had already dismissed Judas, and some of the disciples knew that Judas would betray Jesus. Satan had already entered Judas, and Judas was at this very moment in the process of betraying Jesus to the Jewish authorities who wanted to arrest or, preferably, kill Him. Jesus had also already had the conversation with Peter in which Peter said he would die with Jesus, following Him anywhere, to which Jesus replied that in short order Peter would deny Jesus three times. All of this had to be tremendously troubling, discouraging, and even shocking to the disciples.

Jesus then began a long discourse that was meant to encourage the troubled disciples. He told them to trust in God and in Him and that He was going to prepare a place for them, by which He meant heaven. He said they knew the Way, and when they asked what He meant, He said that He was the way and the truth and the life.

He then explained that He would answer prayers made in His name, prayers that would bring glory to the Father, and said that those who had faith in Him would do even greater things than what Jesus was doing. He also told them that they would not be alone, that they would be given a Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, also called the Holy Spirit, who would come and teach them and remind them of Jesus’ words. In addition to all this, He told them that He would leave His peace with them, a supernatural kind of peace. Elsewhere this is called a peace that is beyond understanding.

Chapter 14 ends with these verses:

“You heard Me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on Me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what My Father has commanded Me. Come now, let us leave.” – John 14:28-31

This is an encouragement too. I think of how a good doctor, before a scary procedure, takes the time to explain what you will go through and how it will all be OK in the end. Jesus here says, I will leave you, but I am coming back. That is, it will be scary, it will be hard, but it will be OK.

I am struck by the phrase, “the prince of this world is coming.” We know that Satan had entered into Judas. But I think the phrase means much more than that. What was coming was Jesus’ being ridiculed, horribly beaten, and ultimately crucified. What was coming was great crowds eager for Jesus’ blood, shouting, “Crucify, crucify!” What was coming was Satan’s big moment, his apparent triumph, his seemingly total victory, what would seem to be his crowning achievement in all of history. But Satan had no hold on Him, because Jesus was without sin; He had always done exactly what the Father had wanted Him to do. Jesus was coming as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He was going to be the sacrifice for sin, because He was without sin. As a result, even death could not hold Him. He would rise again, having paid for the sins of the world, offering eternal forgiveness to all who would call on Him, and would be with His followers, ultimately, forever.

And this brings us John 15. After encouraging the disciples with these tremendous truths, Jesus said the following:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. – John 15:1-4

Jesus says He is the true vine. What does this mean? This word true (alatheos) has been used in similar contexts before. Earlier in John it said that Jesus was the true light. It also said that He was the true bread. So what does true mean? I think you could say Jesus was the perfect vine, the perfect light, the perfect bread. There have been other vines, other lights, other breads. You can find descriptions of other vines, lights and breads in the Old Testament. For example, in the passage I began with this morning from Isaiah 5, Israel was called God’s vine. But it was a vine that had a lot of problems. The prophets repeatedly described Israel as a vine and repeatedly warned that, because of Israel’s sins, God was going to allow the vine to be left unprotected or trampled upon or used by others. As for being a true light, light in the Old Testament had several meanings, but one of the most prominent was as a kind of salvation, or a pathway towards salvation. But this salvation or this pathway was conditional, dependent on one’s actions, and limited in scope and duration. And as for bread in the Old Testament, perhaps the most obvious example is the manna, but this only satisfied for one day; all who ate it would be hungry again. And the manna fed people, but it did not preserve them; the older generation who ate manna in the desert all died despite eating all that manna.

But Jesus is the true light; in Him is eternal salvation, complete salvation. And Jesus is the true bread; in Him we will never hunger nor thirst again; in Him not just our stomachs but our souls, our hearts, our everything, will be forever completely satisfied. And so, in the same way, Jesus is the true vine; the perfect vine.

So what is a vine? I think the passage tells us. A vine is first and foremost a producer of fruit. I personally think that, as far as plants go, vines are not terribly attractive; I would even call them rather ugly. Older vines get that snarled twisted up look, and they sprawl all over the place, down on the ground, on the dirt, unless you prop them up. Their leaves are nothing special to look at; their fall colors are not particularly impressive – you get the idea; I’ll stop hating on vines now. So what makes a vine special? It’s yummy fruit! Fresh-picked grapes are amazing. And of course grapes are used to make wine. I am not promoting the idea that you all go out and drink a bunch of wine, but it is undeniable that fine wines are appreciated throughout the world not for their alcohol content (which you can get lots of other ways) but for their uniquely satisfying flavor.

Now in the Old Testament, Israel was God’s vine. Isn’t that interesting? We have seen that with the Isaiah verse as an example. Beyond this, the vine was printed on coins during the period of the Maccabees, and Herod’s rebuilding of the Temple at the time of Christ included a giant vine made of gold on it worth millions of dollars. So not only Scripture, but the Jewish people themselves viewed themselves as God’s vine. They took pride in this. But, what had happened? God had sought to produce godly fruit through the people and nation of Israel, people that worshiped God, loved Him, obeyed His commands. But Israel had almost completely failed to do this with any consistency. Israel was the vine that failed to bring good fruit.

And so, now, in John 15, Jesus announces that He is the vine, the true vine. And so why did He come? He came to bring men salvation (light), to bring sustenance for eternal life (bread), and to produce fruit, eternal fruit (vine). And He announces this using the I AM phrase that implies deity; we talked about this last week. He is the “I AM,” and He is the vine.

I opened with the passage calling Israel the vine in Isaiah 5. Listen to Isaiah 11:1: A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The stump of Jesse?! That doesn’t sound good, does it? A stump implies something that is basically dead, that has been chopped down. That’s Israel, apart from Christ. But from its roots a Branch comes and bears fruit. That’s Christ, the true vine.

God the Father is vine dresser, the one who tends the vine. I love this picture. He loves and cares for the vine. And in the vine, a part of the vine, are the living branches. That’s us. God the Father cares for us because we are living branches. We are in the vine, attached to the vine. For God the Father to care for us, as He does the rest of the vine (His holy Son), we must be connected to Him. Apart from the vine (apart from Him) we are just dead twigs.

Now a vine dresser had (and has) two main jobs. One is to cut off the branches that do not produce fruit, because the vine wastes energy on these branches that could go into the fruit-producing branches. The other is to prune the branches that do produce fruit, trimming them back between seasons so that they do not get too far from the root. If he doesn’t do these two things, then all of the fruit will be affected; it won’t grow as large or as plentiful or as sweet.

To me this is a beautiful picture of God the Father. His holiness requires that we, sinful man, must be attached to the vine, which is the sinless Son, or we cannot be in His presence. But He also “prunes us,” that is, He cuts us back when we get too far from the central vine, which is Christ. That is, He keeps us close to Christ. As the passage says, He prunes us so we will be even more fruitful.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about pruning, about being pruned, my first thought is “Ouch.” Even seeing a fruit tree that has been severely pruned back makes me somehow cringe, to react as if that must hurt. I doubt it hurts the fruit trees or the vines, but when God prunes us, that is another matter. If you have been pruned, you know that pruning can be quite painful. How does God prune us? Through trials, through hardship, through the loss of a job, or other material possessions, through humbling us, through others telling us exactly what we are doing that is bad, through damaged or broken relationships, and even through physical challenges, illnesses, and through others slandering or persecuting us. God can use all things, even bad things, to assist in pruning us.

But He does it because He loves us. He does it to help us. He does it to make us remain close to Him, to be more connected to Him, more directly fed by Him, and to make us more fruitful.

Then Jesus says to the disciples “You are already clean.” The “you” here first refers to Jesus’ audience, the eleven disciples. Not twelve, but eleven. Not Judas. And this is consistent with what we have already seen in John. This phase, “You are already clean,” is what Jesus told Peter and the disciples back when He washed their feet. He said that a person who has had a bath only needs his feet washed. What Jesus said exactly was “You are clean, though not every one of you.” That is, Judas was excluded. Why? Because Judas had never given his heart to Christ.

Now what does Jesus mean by the branches that bear no fruit? I think we need to pay attention to two things: the exact point in history when Jesus says this, and the meaning the Jews at that time (and the Old Testament) gave to the vine. Let’s take the second thing first. As I have explained, Israel saw herself as the vine. What Jesus was saying to not only the disciples but to all who claimed to be followers of Yahweh God (that is all Jews) was that the time had come to judge Israel the vine. Israel the vine, apart from Christ, was dead. It was not living. And it was about to be cut off.

Now Jesus was saying this first and foremost to His disciples, challenging them to “remain in Me.” Why does He say this? We need to look at the exact point in history when Jesus said this. Had Jesus gone to the cross yet? No. Had He paid for the sins of man yet? No. Had the disciples really been saved yet? I would say no. Did they have the Holy Spirit yet? No. So although the disciples were in one sense clean because, like the prophets of old, they had faith in the promises of God, these promises had not yet met their fulfillment in Christ becoming the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For the disciples the next few days and weeks were critical. If, after Christ died, they threw away their faith for good (if this were possible), they would not be redeemed, would not be saved. They needed to “remain in Him” through the terrible events ahead; they needed to stay in the vine.

Jesus had been building into this small group of folks so that they would be the beginnings of a church, of saved people, in the millions. But for this to happen they had to remain in Him. Apart from Him, there would be no church, no gospel spread throughout the world, nothing. Does that mean everything depended on them? No, because God is sovereign; He knew what would happen by choosing those He chose. From God’s point of view, these things were certain – they would remain in the vine, in Him. But from the disciples’ point of view, Jesus’ words would come back to them; in those dark hours, they would battle despair and think about how Jesus told them, despite it all, to remain in Him, and to them, it would be a choice. I don’t want to really dwell on the paradox between God’s sovereignty and our choices; it is hard for us to grasp, but man’s free will and God’s sovereignty are both clearly on display throughout Scripture.

How does this apply to us? Well, I don’t believe one needs to worry about losing their salvation. I believe you can have confidence that God is able to preserve those He has in His hands, that He will not lose one of His flock. It’s all Him. We accept His gift of salvation by placing our faith in Him; He saves us. We don’t save ourselves. We can have that peace we talked about last week in Him. We can trust Him to preserve us. For the reasons I have already explained, I think it is misunderstanding of these verses to bend them into an argument that we can lose our salvation unless we continue with some kind of self-effort.

That being said, the phrase “Remain in Me” does have an application for us. We will not produce any fruit, either in our character or in reaching others, apart from being connected to Him. He gives life; we do not. This is why everything we do, whether it is seeking to grow in personal holiness or in spreading the gospel, must be rooted in Him (He is the vine!), dependent on Him, prayerfully connected to Him.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. – John 15:5-8

We have already talked about the “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Let’s talk about the “If a man remains in Me and I and him, he will bear much fruit.” I hope this encourages you! I have talked to some people in the past who were discouraged by this verse. What if you feel like you are not bearing any fruit? I would ask you about your love life. Do you love God? Are you spending time with Him, worshiping Him, studying His word, praying to Him? That’s fruit! I think people get discouraged when in a certain area they can’t seem to make any progress. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any fruit. As to that area, that’s an entire message topic – but I would encourage you to think seriously about James 5:16: “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” Many people are too embarrassed to do this, but those who have found a partner who will be this for them have found that it really does break through the ruts of sin we can find ourselves stuck in.

If you are just in a dry period, pray for spiritual “rain,” pray for the “want to” in your life, pray that God would stir your heart freshly towards Him, and seek fellowship from those who have that quickened heart. Seek it not just on Sunday morning, but in a small group or one-on-one.

If you truly have no fruit in your life, no interest in spiritual things, no desire to grow or change, nothing, then perhaps you have never been saved.  I think of 2 Cor. 13:5: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” Please talk with someone mature in the faith if you think this is the case. Someone mature can help you to test yourself and can also help you come to a place of true repentance, a true turning to Christ.

By the way, let me say a little more about fruit. What is fruit? It’s not how successful you are, whether we are talking about how much money you make or how many people you lead to Christ. Fruit is not about numbers. Fruit is a life that brings glory to God, a life that is Christ-like, characterized by loving God and loving people. Fruit includes the fruit of the spirit, from Gal. 5:22-23, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Fruit means more and more crucifying the sinful nature with its passions and desires, Gal. 5:24. Fruit includes adding to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love, 2 Peter 1:5-7. Fruit includes making disciples, fulfilling the Great Commission, Matt. 28:19-20. Fruit includes developing the character qualities of an elder or overseer as given in Titus 1 and I Timothy 3. Fruit includes the spiritual gifts, prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy, Romans 11:6-8, and also the list in I Cor. 12. Prayer is fruit. Worship is fruit. Studying the Bible is fruit. All of this is fruit. None of it is obtained through self-effort. All of it can be obtained by abiding in the vine.

We saw the promise that God would give what people ask, things that are in His will, in last week’s passage as well. Not that we should be afraid of something if we are not sure it is in His will – we should simply pray and leave the results to God. He loves us. He desires to make us fruitful, growing in Him. He will give us what we ask when it helps us and others to grow in Him.

Then it says, this is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. I have talked about this several times before in John, but it still astounds me – we can bring glory to God! How can anything bring glory to God? He’s God, He’s Love, He’s complete. Yet, as we abide in Him, so that He produces fruit in us, we bring glory to God. The fact that I, a sinful wretch apart from Christ, can – in Christ – bring glory to the eternal, infinite, God of glory, is an amazing, humbling, and yet wonderful thing.

“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. – John 15:9-11

Some of us are hard of hearing. Did you hear that? Jesus just said, “so have I loved you.” Jesus loves you. Not some abstract impersonal creation force, but the Person of Jesus. He loves us. He loves us a lot. He loves us the way God loves Jesus, His Son. This is hard for all of us to really hear, I think. If we got even a glimpse of how much Jesus truly loves us, we would be undone. We can’t handle that much love. Not yet, anyway.

And as we abide in Him, as we stay attached to the vine, as God produces fruit in our lives, the fruit of obedience, doing what He wants us to do, we experience joy. What does “complete” joy look like? The Greek word, pleroo, is the same one used to describe being filled with the Spirit, Eph. 5:18. It’s the same word used when Mary spilled the expensive nard on Jesus; the house was filled to the brim with the smell. This kind of joy, this quality of joy, is meant for us and is available to us.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. – John 15:12-15

Again, He says it. Do you hear it? “As I have loved you.” Make sure you hear it! Abiding in Him means you hear it. And then He calls us to love one another in the way He loves us. That is a sacrificial love, a love that finds joy in sacrifice for others. It is the opposite of selfishness. And as we do this, we, Jesus says, are His friends. He even says that He no longer calls us servants, but friends.

What’s the difference between servanthood and friendship? Some might say it is position, but I would say it is primarily a change in intimacy. Jesus is our King; let’s not forget this. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And yet He calls us His friends! This is astounding! You want to really confuse an unbeliever? The next time you hear someone talking about the important people he knows, tell Him that you are friends with Jesus, the Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. I know it’s funny when I say it like this, but it’s true!

I love this. Jesus’ friends love each other. There is a depth of friendship, a depth of relationship available with a fellow believer that is not available with someone who does not believe. Now just because two believers get together doesn’t mean they will automatically have that kind of friendship, but it is available. You will find it if you serve the Lord together, if you study the Word together, if you pray together, and as you talk about spiritual truths together. If you only talk about football together, you won’t experience this. Clemson may talk up the “Clemson experience,” but it doesn’t hold a candle to the “Jesus experience.” I encourage you to seek these kinds of relationships. When you have relationships like this, even if you don’t see the person for a long time, even if you and they are on opposite sides of the earth, when you do get back together, it takes no time to get back into a closeness in the Lord that is unlike any secular relationship. I believe it is because we are both connected to the vine; the same “blood” (sap?) runs through our veins.

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. This is My command: Love each other. – John 15:16-17

Jesus did choose the disciples. Go back and look at the beginnings of the gospels to remind yourselves of this fact. “Come follow Me,” He said, and they did. The same is true for us. He has called us to Him. And now, we are in Him, in the vine, and He has appointed us to bear fruit, eternal fruit, and He will make it so. And then Jesus repeats two things He has said before, yet again: Number one, call on Him, ask in His name. And number two, love one another.

As an application this week, I would like you to do two things. One is to ask God for something. I think it would be great if it is something you have never asked Him for. If you can’t think of anything, pray that God would give you the opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with an unbeliever this week. And the second thing is to make a specific plan to love another believer in some way this week. This could be by having someone over for a meal, or writing someone a note, or giving someone a phone call, anything that creates a contact between you and another believer that would not happen without special planning. Again, it would be great if it could be someone you don’t normally connect with. I don’t ask you to do this for me, but for Christ. He has chosen us and appointed us to go and bear fruit. This week, let’s abide in Him and bear fruit for His glory.

Finally, one last thought. Look at the picture of the vine. Does it remind you of anything? It reminds me of Christ on the cross. And note that it does not really produce fruit unless it is lifted up (otherwise the fruit lies on the ground where bugs and animals take it). Jesus is the true vine.