Sermon Tone Analysis

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.

10 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.

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

To recap: In C13 Jesus eats His last meal with the disciples before He’s crucified (He celebrates Passover), in C14 Jesus tells them that he’s leaving them but won’t leave them alone- He’s giving them another Comforter the HS, and in C15 he charges them to remain or abide in Him.

So we transition from Jesus’ going - to the disciples remaining or abiding.

Jesus uses this metaphor of the vine and branches to illustrate His connection to them and what that should result in.

So we have the Vine, the branches and the fruit.

Vine: Jesus begins with a profound statement “I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser” in other words, Jesus is not just any vine – he is the true vine, the real vine as opposed to a false vine or a substitute.

The OT likens Israel to a vine: Hos 10:1 Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit, and Isa 5:7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.

Deut 32:4-5

But Jesus is telling us that He is the vine, the real and genuine vine that is prophesied in the OT.

From now on, true believers will be identified by their relationship to Him, the true vine, and not anyone or anything else.

Faith, not physical lineage, becomes your connection to this vine.

Paul tells us in Gal 3:27 we are all Sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

This vine becomes the most vital part of a believer’s life because as the vine, Jesus will nourish the branches (His people), and feed them what they need to produce fruit.

The Father is also involved in that He is the vinedresser that cultivates and prunes the branches so that they bear more fruit.

The vine is the source of life for the branch and apart from the vine, the branch can do nothing – that’s not too flattering since we are described as the branches.

Nothing-why?

Deut 32:4-5 Luther nothing is not a little something.

Have you ever seen a tree branch on the ground?

Not much happening there, they don’t do much outside of being picked up for kindling wood – you pick these up because they’re not connected to the tree.

You generally don’t cut live branches off a tree to start a fire.

Notice something else – the branches are twisted and crooked.

(ruler illustration – stop dwelling on WWJD vs dwelling on WDJD, branches start off crooked)

Crooked branches yield crooked results

Branches: Remember, our connection to this vine is by faith and without faith it is impossible to please God, hence Jesus’ saying that a branch separated from the vine will remain fruitless.

J Calvin: "Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty."

(True wisdom consists almost entirely of two parts: Knowledge of God and Knowledge of Self)

When you understand who God truly is (immortal-perfectly straight line), and then see yourself as you are (mortal-crooked line), you realize that you need to look more like Him.

The disciples, as well as us, are described as the branches, and the goal of a branch is to do what?

Bear fruit!

In verses 1-5 we go from no fruit, to fruit, to more fruit and eventually, hopefully to much fruit.

V8 tells us that the Father is glorified in our bearing fruit – so this is important, we want to bear fruit and glorify God.

It immediately reminds me of the garden of Eden, the command to Adam and Eve – be fruitful and multiply – some of you will be very sad to find out that that doesn’t only apply to making babies - sorry!

It has a spiritual application: Our lives are to be spiritually fruitful out of our relationship to Jesus.

But in order to bear fruit, the branch must be connected to the vine, it must draw life from it.

There are three things we need to know about the branches: 1) cannot bear fruit alone, 2) branches are pruned to bear more fruit, and 3) fruitless branches are thrown away and burned.

(Basically they bear fruit or become fuel).

Live branches are evidenced by live fruit – live fruit is the byproduct of a live branch.

Notice something VERY important, something that unlocked this passage for me that we need to understand in order to move forward:

branches bear fruit, they don’t make fruit!

Fruit naturally flows from a branch’s connection to the vine.

We tend to put the cart before the horse, or in this case, the branch before the vine.

Even Jesus, when explaining about His own fruit, His works, says twice in John 5 “I can do nothing on my own”, if Jesus says He can do nothing on his own, why should we think we can.

Later in Jn 14 He says that it’s the Father who dwells in me, He doeth the work – fruit flows from His connection to the Father.

Now for us, Paul says in Phil 2:12-13 to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

We work out our salvation, we don’t work for our salvation.

We work out what He is working in us, God gives the increase – and the result is fruit bearing.

The point is, we don’t make the fruit – God makes the fruit through us.

AND, 2nd thing we must also remember is this: the branches do not eat the fruit they bear – it’s always for someone else.

We are not bearing fruit to feed ourselves but to feed or serve others.

You were saved to serve.

Prov 10:21 The lips of the righteous feed many and 1 Pet 2:10 live so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Fruit: So what is fruit, what does it look like?

Gal 5 tells us what it shouldn’t look like first: the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

This is one kind of fruit (bad fruit), but Paul goes on to tell us that that the fruit of the Spirit is L J P P K G F G S-C – this is good fruit.

Notice that fruit comes in two kinds and you will produce one or the other.

Jesus says Lk6 For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit.

Your fruit tells us a lot about your vine.

Some fruit looks good outwardly but when you bite into it, it’s rotten.

Nice appearance on the outside, inside rotting away.

It’s the same thing with people and it’s actually understanding the difference between your reputation and your character –

Your reputation tells us what people think about you,

Your character tells us what God knows about you.

No secrets.

Paul closes with a warning that those who bear bad fruit will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Remember, we all start off with crooked hearts but God didn’t create us that way, nor does He want us to stay that way – we must be connected to the only thing that will straighten us out – Jesus the true vine.

Since fruit comes in two kinds and you will produce one or the other, where is your fruit coming from - what are you connected to?

What are you abiding in, because everyone abides in something.

Is it material possessions, a political party, a sports team, a drug, pornography, financial gain, a relationship, a divorce, food, television, your career, a feeling - guilt, loneliness, bitterness, envy, jealousy, pride, fear, you want to ask yourself what do you think about most.

That will probably tell you what you’re abiding in.

Your fruit either comes from the True vine or an unhealthy substitute – our lives are filled with substitutes that are bad for us.

Sugar substitutes – cause cancer in lab rats and some humans – but at least its not sugar!

Butter substitutes- margarine is one molecule away from being plastic.

Substitutes for the real thing.

You gotta love some of these ads - orange juice made with REAL oranges – oooh!

Fruit punch made from real fruit juice (.005%)!

What a concept.

Here’s my concept, I want to be a real Christian made with the real Christ!!

I want Christ, undiluted, running through my veins and not a substitute.

But, in order to do that, I need to abide in the real thing, the true vine! (HA Ironside)

Christ is a substitute for everything, but nothing is a substitute for Christ (HA Ironside)

Here’s the dilemma: How do I know if I am? I’m not sure how good my fruit really is and we know where that could lead, or maybe it is that you have some fruit but want more fruit, much fruit.

What do we do?

Most people believe the solution is this: go make good fruit.

Men are very goal oriented- good fruit = rewards, bad fruit=consequences, let’s make good fruit.

I’ll do good things, I’ll make good fruit and bring it to the vine, and that will make God smile, it’s a win-win.

And here’s where we miss the point.

If you are a bad tree, you cannot produce good fruit, as per Jesus.

If you’re not connected, you put the branch before the vine

What you would consider as good fruit, doing the good things you do, would be very similar to decorating a Christmas tree.