John 15:1

I am the true vine

Tonight brings us to the last of the I Am statements from the Gospel of John that we'll be considering. So now as you turn to John 15, 1, let's hear this word that is meant to encourage Jesus' disciples and encourage us as well. John 15, verse 1.

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

Tending grapevines. Tending grapevines is difficult work. Sometimes when Jesus uses a metaphor to help us understand who he is, how he relates to us, it can seem a bit distant from our experience, but we happen to live in a place that is surrounded by vineyards. Some of us might occasionally enjoy the product of those vineyards too, but we're surrounded by grapevines. But I'm going to guess most of us have not done much work with grapevines, and so it might be difficult for us to appreciate what goes into managing and tending a vineyard. It's hard, and its basic nature hasn't changed all that much in 2,000 years. You want the vines to get enough water, otherwise the vines won't be healthy. But you don't want too much water, because too much water results in grapes that are no good for making wine. That rich soil that's good for your vegetable garden is terrible. for grape vines. It's terrible. You actually want the vines to be stressed to produce. This is the exact opposite of what we would expect, but you actually want to put pressure. But you don't want to put too much pressure on the vines, otherwise they won't flourish. Then there's the work of pruning. Branches that aren't productive get cut off because they take nutrients away from productive branches. So you cut away the dead wood because no grapes are bad, but too many grapes are also bad. Because too many grapes results in underripe fruit, which is no good for making wine. So not enough, bad, too much. bad. Even too many leaves on the vine could be bad because different grapes require different leaf canopies in order to protect them from the sun. I know this gets technical, doesn't it? Right? So the vintner has to inspect the vines, he has to tend them, he has to prune them to get the best possible fruit when the harvest comes. Even after then the harvest, he might need to further cull the fruit as well in order to produce the best product. So when Jesus here uses the metaphor of a vine, he's using, in fact, something that would have been really, really familiar to his disciples. Vineyards were a common sight, it was really common to work in vineyards, whether it was your vineyard or you were working as a day laborer, that was really, really common work. So Jesus' disciples, all of this stuff that we're talking about now that we might need to have explained to us, they would have known that. That would have been part of the world in which they lived. And so they would surely have recognized this truth that Jesus is trying to teach us through this metaphor, that a fruitful life is found only in vital connection to Jesus Christ. A fruitful life is found only in vital connection to Jesus Christ. In this verse, it actually falls really neatly into two parts, right? So, all of these other I Am statements have focused only on Jesus. This is the only one that includes a statement about the Father. as well. And so that's an opportunity for us to think some about what the Father does for us. So the text falls neatly in two. So we'll first think about what it means that Jesus is the true vine. And second, what it means that the Father is the vine dresser. So first of all, Jesus is the true vine. All of this vineyard imagery would have been really familiar to the disciples. And because it was so familiar, it's used in other places in the Bible as well. It's actually used all over the Bible. I'm just going to mention two. tonight, otherwise we will be here much longer, although I see that we finished the prayer time early. Do I get to just keep going then? Is that how that works? I won't do that. So I'm just going to mention two, right? The first one I'll mention is Isaiah chapter 5, verses 1 through 7. Isaiah 5, 1 through 7. And for the sake of time, I'm just going to summarize what that says. So in Isaiah 5, Israel is compared to a vineyard. And once again, we see that God is the vinedresser. So Israel is the vineyard, and God is the vinedresser. He tends the vines, but the vineyard produces worthless grapes. And in verse seven, it says that what fruit God expected, well, that was supposed to be justice and righteousness, but it isn't what Israel actually produced. They were unjust in the way that they treated others, and their lives were not holy and righteous towards the Lord. They produced bad fruit. That's one reference. Second reference, Ezekiel chapter 15, Ezekiel 15, where an unpruned vine is allowed to grow wild. And this is what it says in verses five and six. This I will read for us. Verses five and six of Ezekiel 15 say,

behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I've given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

A fruitless vine might as well be dead wood. So you can hear this in talking about Isaiah and Ezekiel, you hear the thought world that Jesus is working with, right? You hear the ideas that he's working with. See, Israel was God's covenant people. They'd received God's law. They'd received God's promises. They'd been called to a particular way of living, a life of faith and obedience. The prophet Micah had reminded them of what the Lord desired from them, to do justice, to love mercy and faithfulness, to walk in humility before the Lord. That's Micah 6, 8. But Israel had broken covenant with their God. They'd neither trusted his promises nor obeyed his commandments. Israel had been a fruitless vine. But look at what Jesus—look again at John 15.1. There's a little word I want to point out to you. Jesus doesn't just call himself a vine. What does he call himself? The true vine. I am the true vine. He's not like Israel. Jesus is the place to find spiritual life. He's the fulfillment of all of God's promises. He was not unjust. In fact, he came to proclaim good news to the poor and the oppressed. He didn't distrust his father, instead he wholeheartedly trusted his father. He has fully and completely obeyed the law. In Jesus Christ was found all of the righteousness, all of the holiness, all of the fruitful living, all of the genuine spiritual vitality that Israel lacked, and frankly that you and I lack too. And he dies and he is raised for all who believe in him that our sins might be forgiven and that we might be grafted into a living, vital union with him. He shares his spiritual vitality with us such that later in the text he goes so far as to call us the branches to his vine. his life coursing through us, producing in us his own fruitfulness, lives in which justice, love, mercy, faithfulness, holiness, and humility are cultivated, lives that engender the life of Jesus and others, even as his life was engendered in us. So that's one half of the passage. Let's think about the other half now. So we've thought about the son. Now we need to think about the father. The father is the vinedresser. So if God the son is the vine, then God the father is the vine dresser. He's the farmer, the vineyard manager, the viticulturist. He manages the soil and the water. He knows his vineyards, so he knows just the right kind of stress that the branches need to produce the best kind of fruit. and branches that bear fruit are tended by the Father so that they are even more fruitful. He tends the leaves so that the fruit gets the right amount of sun. He prunes the branches that don't produce fruit so that the life of the vine flows into those that do. And he thins and he culls the grapes for harvest. The dead branches, well, they're good for one thing, burning in the fire. But those branches that bear fruit, he prunes them. He tends them. He makes them more fruitful. The son is the vine. The father is the vine dresser. And I'm going to go out on a little bit. Can I say go out on a limb here with this metaphor? I'm sorry, that wasn't on purpose. That just kind of happened. So, I sat at seven and a half hours in the car today. So, right? The son is the vine, the father is the vine dresser, and even though he's not explicitly mentioned in these verses and won't be mentioned until later in John 15 and John 16, surely the work of the Spirit is implied here as well. as the one who dwells within believers, who produces the life of the Son within us, who takes from what belongs to the Son and declares it to us. I can't help as I think about this passage but be amazed at the complete unity of the work of the Godhead. The way that their oneness from all eternity, the fruitfulness of the Father, in beginning the Son, the Father and the Son, in inspirating the Spirit. I can't help but be amazed at how the fruitfulness of the Godhead and their unity from all eternity is expressed in this oneness of their work, this oneness of the vine and the vine dresser, their oneness and their devotion to producing spiritual fruitfulness in the lives of believers as God's life flows and overflows in and through us. What a remarkable image. So as we meditate upon this reality, and that a fruitful life is found only in connection to Jesus. I wanna suggest four questions, four questions for us to think about that we might ask ourselves in order to see the life of Jesus increasingly flourish within us. Here's the first of those. So first, do I meditate upon the Father and Son's work of producing life in me? Do I meditate upon the father and son's work of producing life in me? So here's the thing about metaphors, right? This is a metaphor, right? You're meant to think about it, right? It's meant to capture your imagination, to work its way into your heart. It's one thing to grasp an idea in your head. It's quite another to have it capture your heart. It's one thing to read this text and then another thing to be weeding a flowerbed or cutting back a shrub and to wonder, is this what God is doing in me? Because you've been thinking about it and letting it dwell within you. And then to go back and read and reflect upon the text again, I just wonder, if we allow ourselves the time to slow down and to think about such wonderful and encouraging realities. So first, do you meditate, do I meditate upon this work of the Father and the Son in producing fruit in us? Second, a second question, am I abiding in Christ? Am I abiding in Christ? Am I trusting in him, treasuring him, depending upon him? Does his word abide in me? Do I pray with the security that when I ask according to his will, he answers me? And that's where Jesus himself takes this. If you keep reading in John 15, this is where he goes. The life of Jesus abides in us as we abide in him by his word and by prayer. Have I made intentional decisions to cultivate regular time in God's word and in prayer into my daily routine? So first, do I meditate on this reality? Second, am I abiding in Christ? The third question is closely related to the second. Am I bearing fruit? Am I bearing fruit? Does my character increasingly resemble that of Christ? Am I growing in holiness and in humility? Are my relationships characterized by justice and by love? Are others drawn to Jesus through me? Or here's the question that gets me. Would those who know me best call my life fruitful? Jesus says that he is the vine and that we bear fruit through him. If I'm not bearing fruit, dot, dot, dot. Right? What questions ought that raised for us? Right? And if I know that I'm not really abiding in Jesus, then ought I really expect much in the way of fruitfulness? So you see how that's really related to the second question, right? Am I abiding in Jesus and then am I bearing fruit? A fourth question and a final one. Am I grateful for God's pruning? Am I grateful for God's pruning? Do I see the hardships in my life? And surely that is what pruning refers to. Do I see the hardships in my life as God's means for cultivating me, for allowing the life of his son through the gift of his spirit to flourish in me so that I bear much fruit? I don't want to be deadwood. That's good only for the fire. So I really, when I think about it that way, I ought to be grateful that the Father prunes those who belong to the Son. So a fruitful life is found only in vital connection to Jesus. Thanks be to God for grafting us onto the true vine, for nourishing us, even for pruning us, that we might bear much fruit. Let's pray. Father, such a rich image. I pray that this would seek deep into our hearts as nutrients for our souls, that we would be encouraged and strengthened. so that we might abide in your Son, and in doing so, bear much fruit for your glory and for the sake of your gospel. Amen.