The Great I AM
09/16/2007 - The Vine
How many of you are gardeners? You plant flowers or fruits and vegetables and you love doing it? I admire a good gardener because it takes a certain level of skill and tenacity to be one. You have to know what flowers require sun and which ones require shade. You need to know when to plant your fruit and vegetable seeds and how far apart to make your rows. And then you've got to be ready to fertilize and to weed and to water. It's takes a lot of work to be a good gardener. You got to stay at it everyday. But there's nothing like a beautiful flower garden bursting with color or a lush vegetable garden teeming with produce.
I'm not a gardener. Jennifer is the gardener in our family. She loves to plant flowers and get her hands dirty and I admire her for that. It gives her a lot of joy and brings a lot of beauty to our property. I just cut the grass because that's something I can do and not mess up too bad!
But one thing every serious gardener knows is the importance of pruning. Certain plants and trees need to be pruned back in the off season if they're going to reach their full potential in season. A rose bush, for instance, needs to be pruned because if it's not it'll get all straggly and tangled and start to grow in on itself. It'll produce roses, but they won't be big and brilliant, instead they'll be small and faded because the life of the plant is drained off in too many different directions.
A few times a year we take the hedge clippers and prune back our forsythia bushes. The first time we did it we got carried away and I thought we killed them for sure. We took them almost down to the ground, but before we knew it they grew back thicker and fuller than ever.
Plants are pruned to make them more productive, more beautiful, more fruitful. And right now if you're a follower of Jesus Christ God the Father, our heavenly gardener, may be pruning you and me to make us more fruitful and more beautiful as well.
This morning we conclude our summer series called The Great I Am with one of my favorite sayings of Jesus found in John 15:1, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. In this series we've been looking at the eight great I AM statements of Jesus found in the gospel of John. And each week we've discovered that who Jesus is radically changes who we are when we put our faith in him and choose to follow him.
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the I AM. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life." And this week he says, "I am the vine."
And each time Jesus makes these statements we've seen that he divides the crowd between those who follow him and those who walk away, between those who are for him and those who want to see him dead.
When Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" he claimed to be greater than Israel's greatest hero, Moses, who brought bread down from heaven. When Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd" he claimed to be greater than Israel's greatest king, David, the shepherd boy. And when Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I AM" he not only claimed to be greater than Abraham, Israel's revered founder, but he claimed to be none other than God himself because it was God who said to Moses from the burning bush, "I AM who I AM."
And those who heard Jesus say "I AM" knew exactly what he meant and so they picked up stones to stone him for blasphemy because "he being a mere man claimed to be God." But Jesus escaped with his life because it was not time yet for him to go. And he wasn't going to die under a pile of rocks.
Instead, he was going to be lifted up on a cross and now the time had come. It's the night before the crucifixion and Jesus has just finished the Passover Seder with his disciples. And as Tim described two weeks ago it was a very tense time. It was a confusing time. It was a crazy time with lots of stuff going on. And in the midst of it all Jesus tries to calm their fears.
Don't let your hearts be troubled, he says. Trust in God, trust also in me. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
I love these words of Jesus to his friends. These are good words for us as well. I've quoted them many times in hospital rooms and at funeral gatherings and on occasions when it's easy to be afraid. Jesus promises us peace. What is it that has you afraid right now? What are you feeling anxious about? There are endless things we can worry about and obsess over. And when we're not worrying then we start to worry because we're not worried. "What am I forgetting to worry about?" we think. The month of September often brings its own set of fears. The start of a new school year. Back to a heavy workload. The transition of kids going away to college.
On Labor Day Sunday we dropped our daughter, Chelsea, off at college to start her freshman year. And we weren't prepared for the tears that flowed and the sadness that seemed to overwhelm us along with the fear of her living so far from home. It was hard to leave her there and drive home knowing that she didn't know anybody on that campus and was feeling so unsettled and so were we. Our hearts were troubled. We were afraid.
And we had to come back to the fact that we really believe that God had led our daughter to that school. We had to trust God that she was where she needed to be and so were we. And God will be with her and with us as well. But we'll have to keep revisiting these words of Jesus again and again because the fears will come back.
So now the Passover meal has ended and Jesus says in John 14:31, Come now, let us leave. So the disciples get up, shuffle toward the door, and follow their leader down the stone steps and out into the quiet streets of Jerusalem. And under a brilliant full moon they wind their way across the Kidron Valley over to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus has an appointment with a traitor named Judas.
But before they get to the garden they pass a vineyard of grapes, one of many bordering the Valley of Kidron. And there Jesus stops and picks up a vine and teaches the truth that John will later record for us in John 15. If you have a Bible turn with me to John 15.
John 15:1, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
Now to understand what Jesus is talking about we have to recall what Jesus had said just a few minutes ago when they were sitting around the dinner table. In John 14:19-20 Jesus said, Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Strange stuff isn't it? What in the world does Jesus mean that he is in the Father and you are in me and I am in you? It sounds so mysterious. And it is. So to help us get our minds around the concept Jesus picks up a vine heavy with branches full of budding grapes and says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
Now notice that Jesus calls himself the "true" vine, the genuine vine, the real deal. That image would have connected immediately with Jesus' Jewish disciples because the vine was the national symbol of Israel. The vine was to Israel what the bald eagle is to America. It was the symbol of their country minted on their coins. A solid gold six foot grapevine worth millions of dollars hung over the door of the Temple in Jerusalem.
The symbol of the vine came from a number of Old Testament passages where God calls Israel his vine. He planted Israel on this earth to produce fruit, to be righteous and to uphold justice, to draw people to the one true God. But the vine failed to produce fruit.
Listen to how the prophet Isaiah expresses God's grief in Isaiah 5, I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. 2He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in itand cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. 3"Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.4What 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? 5Now 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. 6I 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." 7The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Israel, God's people, failed to produce. So instead of being part of the solution to the violence and poverty and injustice in this world they were part of the problem. And God judged them for that. So now Jesus arrives on the scene and says, "I'm the true vine. I'm the new Israel. I will succeed where the nation failed. I will produce fruit that will bless this world through ordinary people like you who are connected to me through faith. I will make you fruitful." So how does Jesus produce this fruit in your life and mine?
Look again at John 15:1, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He 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. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Jesus is the vine and his Father is the gardener, the farmer, the vinedresser. I did some reading this week on the art of viticulture, which is a big Latin word for the science of grape growing. And what I discovered among other things is that it takes a lot of time and a lot of work to produce a good harvest of grapes. You don't just plant a vine and walk away. The vine needs lots of attention and care and love from the gardener in order to produce fruit which says to me that God is intimately involved in the lives of those who are connected to the vine.
He is working on us and in us and through us to see that we will bear fruit. His hopes of blessing this world, your world, your home, your family, your school, your office, your shop, your neighborhood with fruit like love and righteousness and justice and goodness and peace are pinned on us. And so he's doing everything he can to help us succeed where the nation of Israel had failed. God is getting his hands dirty in your life and mine right now. He is elbow deep into it.
The analogies that Jesus has used for himself and for his Father in this I AM series often speak of their intimate involvement in our lives. Remember Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. My sheep listen to my voice." That's a picture of intimacy. We talked about how much time shepherds spent with their sheep, 24/7/365 days a year.
Now he says, "I am the vine and my Father is the gardener." God is not sitting in some distant office running his church like some multi-national corporation. We're not just a number to him or some widget on an assembly line. He is intimately involved with our lives everyday. And he has a goal in mind for each one of us and that is for us to bear fruit, more fruit, Jesus says in verse 2, and then much fruit he'll say in verse 5 so that we can bless the world and bring glory to his name.
So how does he plan to do it? He does it with rocks and sticks and with a knife. Those were the primary tools of a gardener in Jesus' day.
Look at verse 2, 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.
That word "cut off" is literally the Greek word airo and it can also mean "lift up." In fact, it's translated "lift up" in other passages of the New Testament. Both meanings are possible and Jesus may have both meanings in mind here.
You see when a new branch starts to grow off the vine and isn't bearing fruit yet the gardener gently lifts it up and lays it on top of rocks or props it up on sticks that were shaped like a "Y." He does that so that the new branch can get more sunlight and begin to bear fruit. And my observation over the years is that God often seems to do that for new and young believers in Christ. Often he does dramatic things at the beginning of our spiritual journey to strengthen our faith, prop us up, and turn us toward the sun so that we can bear fruit. I feel like he did that for us as a young church when he dramatically provided the Barn for us to meet in.
But over time if we stop walking with Christ, or as Jesus will say, stop remaining in him, and bear no fruit God may choose to take out the knife and cut the branch off.
Look at verse 6, If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
Ouch! That sounds serious. What does Jesus mean by that? Well, as you can imagine there's a lot of debate over what that actually means. Some believe that Jesus means that we can lose our standing with God, "lose our salvation" is the term that's often used.
Personally, I don't believe that's what Jesus has in mind here especially in light of other things he's already said. Instead, I think he's speaking more about divine discipline that God may bring into our lives if we stop remaining in him and cease bearing fruit. Every writer in the New Testament has something to say about the discipline of God in our lives and sometimes it's pictured as fire. God disciplines us because he loves us. He disciplines us for our own good. He disciplines us so we will bear fruit.
So if there's no fruit bearing in our life, Jesus says, God will first lift us up, prop us up, give us every opportunity to be fruitful. But eventually he may have to get out the knife and cut us off in some way with some sort of discipline.
But that's not what the gardener wants to do. He wants us to keep bearing fruit. And if we are bearing fruit, God will still get out the knife and prune us back so that we can be even more fruitful. One of the main tasks of the gardener was to carefully keep the vine pruned and cleaned. The "sucker shoots," the shoots that were robbing the branch of nourishment, needed to be cut off or else no grapes would grow. Dirt needed to be sponged off the leaves, bugs needed to be picked off by hand, dead leaves needed to be removed. Caring for the vine was a full-time job and that's how God cares for us. Pruning and cleaning are a constant process.
The struggles we face, the disappointments in the life, the difficult relationships, the pain, the suffering, the heartaches, the obstacles, the things that don't go our way, are all part of this pruning process of God. He's out to remove the things that are draining the life right out of us. And if we remain in him through it all and don't bale out we will bear much fruit.
Look at verse 4, 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. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
Six times in four verses Jesus says remain in me. Remain in me. Remain in the vine. Remain in me. Remain in me. Remain in me. Do you think he's trying to tell us something? So what does Jesus mean when he says remain in me? Well, John defines it for us in 1 John 3:24 where he writes,Those who obey Jesus' commands remain in him, and he in them. Remaining in Jesus is all about obeying the things he said. It means pursuing our relationship with him both privately and in community with others.
I appreciate the way Tom Wright puts it in his comments on this passage when he says, "The urgent question, then, is this. How do we 'remain' in him? What does it look like in practice? We must remain in the community that knows and loves him and celebrates him as its Lord. There is no such thing as a solitary Christian. We can't 'go it alone.' But we must also remain as people of prayer and worship in our own intimate, private lives. We must make sure to be in touch, in tune, with Jesus, knowing him and being known by him."
If we as individuals and as a community hope to make a difference in this world, if we are to be a blessing, if we are to fulfill the mission of Christ we talk about it all starts with remaining in him. That's why we've gathered here this morning for worship and prayer and community and a fresh look at Jesus. That's why many of you will gather or talk with other Christ followers sometime during the week. That's why many of us will carve out time to be alone with Jesus in prayer, or in worship, or in the Scriptures. We will not accomplish the mission of Christ without first remaining in him.
Without me you can do nothing, Jesus says. Not somethings. Not a few things, but nothing.
I was talking to someone recently and they were wondering how do we become the kind of people that Jesus wants us to be? How do we be loving and kind and patient and forgiving and self-less and all these things that Jesus talked about? How do we produce that fruit? It seems overwhelming. And I said, "We don't have to produce the fruit. That's not our job. That's God's job. Our job is to simply remain in the vine and God will take care of the rest."
It's interesting to me that the very first miracle of Jesus was to turn water into vine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. He did what vines do. Vines take water from the soil and turn it into wine. And that's what Jesus wants to do in our lives. He wants to transform us. But to do that God has to take the knife and keep pruning away the things that keep us from bearing fruit.
Wright goes on to say, "And, though it always hurts, we must be ready for the father's pruning knife... The vinedresser is never closer to the vine, taking more thought over it's long-term health and productivity, then when he has the knife in his hand."
Do you feel like you're being pruned right now? Do you feel the sharp edge of the knife? Let me assure you that the knife is in the loving hand of God the Father, our heavenly gardener.
Years ago I was talking to a farmer about this passage and he said, "Bruce, the test of good pruning is not the fruit that the vine produces in one year. The test of good pruning is the number of years that the vine will produce fruit." God wants to make us fruitful for a lifetime.
So Jesus puts down the vine, the object lesson is over and now it's time for his eleven disciples and for us to remain in him.