True Life
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 28:48
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Transcript
A man and woman thought they needed to go to couples counseling because, while they had a strong marriage, there was just one thing that drove the wife crazy. So they get in the car and get to the office and the first thing the counselor says, “So, what brought you here today?”
The wife immediately speaks up and says, “Dr. I am so frustrated, he just takes everything so literally.”
The Dr. turns to the husband and asks him, “What brought you here today?” and He answered “My Truck.”
Historical/Cultural Context -
Historical/Cultural Context -
The Gospel of John was written between 90 AD and 100 AD. Scholars also believe that John wrote the three Epistles and the book of Revelation around the same time-frame as he wrote this Gospel. The Gospel of John was written after Matthew, Mark, & Luke had been written and circulated. John has been dubbed by most scholars as “The Spiritual Gospel.”
Biblical Text -
Biblical Text -
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, 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, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
“As the Father loved Me, I also have 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, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
These things I command you, that you love one another.
-[Prayer]-
-[Prayer]-
Life Principle - Life Comes Through Remaining In Christ, Which Produces Much Fruit, Bringing Love & Joy In Our Lives.
Life Principle - Life Comes Through Remaining In Christ, Which Produces Much Fruit, Bringing Love & Joy In Our Lives.
Life Point- Life Comes Through Remaining In Christ
Life Point- Life Comes Through Remaining In Christ
Exegetical -
Exegetical -
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.
You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
Homiletical -
Homiletical -
Jesus says I am the true vine. At this time there were many claiming to be the Messiah. Many of them wanted to lead the nation into battle to overthrow the Roman government.
So Jesus sets himself apart from the others, He is being exclusive. Anyone who says there are multiple ways to heaven have never actually red the Bible.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
Jesus is using the vine as a metaphor about how the kingdom operates.
He says He is the vine and the father is the gardener.
What does the vine do?
It transports water and nutrients to the branches, which in turn use that energy to produce fruit. Jesus is the bringer of life, of living nutrient filled water.
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
The Father is the Gardener. What does a gardener do? He tend the garden right?
What happens when the gardener who is looking at a vine and he finds one that is dead? He cuts it off, for 2 reasons
1) The dead branch is useless and will not produce fruit.
2) If that branch died due to some kind of disease it stops it from spreading to the vine and subsequently to the other branches.
Remember that the vine here represents Jesus and God’s promise. Israel was a branch of the vine, but they produced no fruit.
Remember Jesus is talking to Jews here, so He is letting them know that Israel is about to be cut off from the covenant of God. They are about to be cut off and the gentiles will be grafted into the vine.
It says that God prunes the branches that do bear fruit. Have you ever gone through a pruning process?
What does that look like?
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
No one likes it when they go through the process of pruning. It usually isn’t a fun time. But we know that during those difficult times is when God does His best work in our lives. He is making us to look more like Jesus. He is producing in us perseverance, which is part of the fruit of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
It is through the process of pruning that we bare much fruit.
Jesus tells His disciples that they have already been pruned and purified by His message. The message of the Kingdom. Everything that He has said and done up to this point. Believing Him to be the Messiah, The savior. This has purified them.
You know what? It purifies us too.
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Remaining in Christ and His word, which is the Bible, is key for every believer. Without this, You will not grow in Christ. I said you won’t grow, not maybe, not sort of. But will not grow and produce much fruit without remaining in Him. This happens through a personal relationship that is held together by prayer, reading, and studying the Bible.
This is such a simple truth but one that rarely happens amongst church goers. The statistics on this are abysmal at best.
Life Point - Life In Christ Produces Much Fruit
Life Point - Life In Christ Produces Much Fruit
Exegetical -
Exegetical -
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.
But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!
When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.
Homiletical -
Homiletical -
A true Christian doesn’t just sit and no grow. If you are a Christian you have no choice but to grow, maybe at a different rate than others but you will grow.
This scripture is not talking about the loss of salvation it is pointed right at the Jews of Jesus day and is a warning for us today, to those who are not truly saved. Yes there are people in churches all over the world today who are sitting in a service somewhere but aren’t true believers. They go to church for a lot of different reasons except for the one that matters.
That being, they have been bought by the blood of Christ and have been changed by the Holy Spirit of God. They have been given a new nature, one that bears much fruit.
We are given this truth through a story Jesus taught about seed that is being spread.
“Therefore hear the parable of the sower:
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.
But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Those who are truly saved will bring great glory to the father because much fruit is produced in them by Holy Spirit.
Illustration -
Illustration -
A man named Bishop Latimer was a very devout catholic priest. “But Thomas Bilney felt pity for Latimer and decided to try to win him to the true knowledge of Christ. Bilney asked Latimer to hear his confession of faith, and Latimer was so moved by what he heard that he left his study of the Catholic doctors to learn true divinity. Where before he was an enemy of Christ, he now became a zealous seeker of Him.” This is the difference between someone who has a religion and someone who knows Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Life Point - Life & Joy Comes From Loving Each Other
Life Point - Life & Joy Comes From Loving Each Other
Exegetical -
Exegetical -
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.
When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.
This is my command: Love each other.
Homiletical -
Homiletical -
People ask all the time why they should obey the commands of Christ. Why do you do it?
Do you do it out of a sense of duty?
Do you do it because “it’s the right thing to do?”
Do you do it because that’s the way you were raised?
None of these are the right reasons for obeying our Lord. It is out of a heart filled with the Love of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. We keep His commands because we Love Him. We Agape him. We love Him with the highest form of love. Love that says I love you just because. Remember John 13:35
By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus says that there is no greater love than one lay down his life for his friends. Then he calls us friends, not just slaves but friends. What an amazing status change for the believer.
With that in mind, do you have love enough for the brethren that you would lay down your life for another Christian? How about laying down your life for your enemies?
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Life Principle– Life Comes Through Remaining In Christ, Which Produces Much Fruit, Bringing Love & Joy In Our Lives.
Life Principle– Life Comes Through Remaining In Christ, Which Produces Much Fruit, Bringing Love & Joy In Our Lives.
Call to Action – altar call….
Call to Action – altar call….