Sermon Tone Analysis

Spiritual Viticulture

Viticulture is the practice of caring for vines.

Vines have small branches that bear fruit, such as a grapevine.

For vines to be productive, they must be pruned back each year.

It is a type of cleansing that allows light and nutrients to be the most effective.

The vine also will produce certain shoots called “sucker shoots.”

These shoots grow where a branch is connected to the vine.

If these branches will grow bearing leaves with no fruit.

If these sucker shoots are not cut off, they will suck the life out of the vine causing the vine to bear little to no fruit.

A good vinedresser will cleanse the vine by cutting into the fruit-bearing branches to prune them and will cut off the sucker shoots to remove them so that the vine will bear abundant life and fruit.

In some ways, this is what Jesus is describing in John 15:1-16.

A sort of spiritual viticulture where Jesus is the vine and God the Father is the Vine Dresser.

Just as a gardner plants and cultivates the vine, so God has sent Jesus and cares for Him and those united to him, by cutting into those who bear fruit and cutting off those who do not bear fruit.

Jesus is the true vine of Israel.

Those who are connected to the Vine are the elect that God sovereignly brings to the Vine.

God is the author and finisher of your salvation.

He is the one who graphs you into the Vine by choosing you, changing your heart of stone into a heart of flesh (regeneration), and drawing you to the Son.

By faith you accept the Son’s free gift of salvation, his atoning death and resurrection life.

You trust in Him to save you from God’s wrath.

Through Christ you have been justified, that is made righteous, and have been sealed with his Spirit for eternal life and have been empowered by His Spirit to bear His God-glorifying fruit.

That is the aim of every branch connected to the Vine.

Jesus says,

Why do I say “Spirit-empowered?”

Jesus makes it clear that you cannot bear fruit apart from him.

John 15:5 (ESV)

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.

In chapter’s 15-16, Jesus goes on to tell His disciples that he must leave so that the Holy Spirit can come and help them.

John 15:26 (ESV)

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

John 16:7 (ESV)

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

John 16:13–14 (ESV)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

In the context of John, this is a promise for his disciples, but it is one that extends to every believer as we have already seen in our study of Acts.

Jesus promised his Spirit would empower them to testify in Acts 1:8 and in Acts 2, the promised is fulfilled.

At conversion, you were baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the one who enables you to progress in holiness, that is your sanctification.

You walk according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4) by putting the deeds of the body to death by the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:13).

It is the Holy Spirit who produces sanctification in you.

That is what Paul means when he makes a distinction between the fruit of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit.

The fruit of the flesh are the works of the flesh that derive from the flesh:

The fruits of the Spirit are the works of the Spirit derived from the power of the Spirit

It is Christ’ Spirit that enables you to bear God-glorifying fruit, and it is only Christ Spirit that empowers you to bear fruit.

For apart from Jesus you can do nothing, and so it is for the church.

As a church we must understand that it is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to joyfully advance His kingdom by making much of Jesus, for apart from Him we can do nothing.

This morning, we need to ask a few questions that help us 1) understand the fruit so we can recognize, and God will, produce more of it 2) understand how God cultivates more fruit 3) understand the consequence of not bearing fruit.

We will only answer one question this morning:

What is God-glorifying Spirit-empowered fruit?

Jesus uses some form of the phrase “bear fruit” eight times in seventeens verses.

He insists that any branch that is in the vine, that is, any professing christian who is united to Jesus, must bear fruit.

For,

John 15:2 (ESV)

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away...

If you are not bearing God-glorifying Spirit-empowered fruit in your life something is wrong.

So, it would be helpful for you and I to figure out what is the fruit Jesus is speaking of in verse 2.

I’m going to use three short phrases to sum up what I see as the God-glorifying Spirit-empowered fruit Jesus is speaking of throughout John 15.

The Fruit of Great Commitment to Christ (John 15:9-10)

Jesus says the mark of a true believer is one who abides in Him.

To abide in Jesus is to remain in him.

To remain in Jesus is to endure, to persevere until the very end.

Commitment to Persevere

When Jesus says “abide in me” he is saying remain in me, or persevere until the end.

Branches that are connected to Christ Christians bear the God-glorifying Spirit empowered fruit of perseverance.

Jesus says to his disciples,

Furthermore, Jesus says

Remain in Christ.

Don’t lose heart.

Hold fast to the faith.

That is your part.

Jesus will empower you to hold on.

He promised that none will be lost John 6:36-44.

If you are holding on to Christ know that Jesus is holding on to you.

If you are not holding on to the faith, loving Jesus, living for Jesus, then you are not part of the Vine because you are not abiding in Him.

Do you know what was the most common sentence Christopher Columbus wrote in his log of the Santa Maria?

“This day we sailed on.”

Alexander the Great was asked how he had conquered the world.

He replied, “By not wavering.”

Athanasius, at the Council of Nicea, said, “If all of this world falls from the truth, I will stand!”

The infamous missionary to India shortly before he death said to his wife,

“Eustace, if after my removal anyone should think it worthwhile to write my life, I will give you a criterion.

If he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly.

Anything beyond this will be too much.

I can plod.”

William Carey

What do these four men have in common?

They all understood a commitment to persevere!

There is drive in the heart of every believer that comes from His Spirit to remain faithful to Jesus at all costs.

That drive is manifested in a life of commitment to persevere, to remain, to abide in Jesus.

Commitment to Obedient Love

But the commitment to plod is not just one of duty.

It is a commitment of love for Jesus and each other.

Jesus says

Genuine God-glorifying Spirit-empowered Christians love Jesus.

And they demonstrate their love for Jesus with a commitment to obey him.

Furthermore,

Jesus also says

Genuine love for Jesus always bears the fruit of obedience.