I am the True Vine
Continuing our series "A Dialogue with Jesus" in John 13-16, we come to chapter 15 and Jesus' outrageous claim "I am the True Vine"
Jesus uses a very powerful image to help the disciples (and us) understand how we are to continue to grow and bear fruit after he has gone. He is saying - I am the true vine, my father is the gardener, you are the branches. If you want to bear fruit…if you want to change…if you want to see internal character transformation – you need to be connected to me just as a branch is connected to the vine, you must have my pulsating life flowing right through every part of you, you must be intimately and organically and powerfully connected to me. On your own and by other methods and through your own hard work you will not bear fruit - you won’t (vs4), you can’t (vs5).
We also noticed that if Jesus is not our vine, the one we connect to to receive life and be the people we want to be, we will connect to other vines. But no other vine will produce long lasting internal fruit and no other vine can give us life during times of suffering. Jesus is the only TRUE vine. Verse 2 shows is that God the Father who is the gardener uses suffering to prune us. At the time it seems devastating and irreversible, we don’t understand what is going on, it seems like such a waste. But later we see that God was wanting to reap greater fruit in us - he is a wise and loving gardener and he uses the trials, disappointments, sufferings, setbacks and upsets of life to prune us. Suffering reveals whether we are really connected to the true vine. If we are not, we will be thrown away and burned (vs6). If we don’t produce fruit, it reveals we were never connected to the vine and ultimately we’ll FOREVER be cut off from the vine.
We also saw how this picture of Jesus being the true vine helps us correct two common mistakes in the Christian life. Firstly, those who think “I need to clean up my act before I come to Jesus….I need to bear fruit in order to be connected to him” and secondly those who think “It doesn’t matter what I do, God will forgive me…I can do what I want.” The Jesus shows us that you connect to the vine FIRST and then you bear fruit. Fruit will inevitably come. But he accepts us by grace and we grow by grace. It is all of him. However if you are not bearing fruit then you should ask yourself whether Jesus really is your vine and be warned that judgement is coming for all who are not connected in.
Reflections, Questions and Application
(1) Read John 15.1-17. Recap the main points from the sermon/passage. How does the metaphor Jesus’ uses help us understand the Christian life?
(2) Read Galatians 5.22-23. Which fruits of the spirit would you like God to grow in you and why?
(3) How does the passage say we are to “remain” in Jesus? What does that look like in practice? How can you “remain in him” without it becoming legalistic?
(4) What other “vines” do we go to for life and joy and strength and hope? Where else do we try to connect to convincing ourselves that “if I connect here…..I’ll be the person I want to be?” What kind of fruit do we reap when we seek to find ‘internal life’ from these vines?
(5) What does verse 2 mean? How DOES God use the suffering and disappointments and setback and trials of life to prune you? How has he done that in your life? For more on this, read James 1, Hebrews 12, Romans 5 and 1 Peter 1. How does God sovereignly use trials in life?
(6) How does it encourage you that spiritual growth (like a vine) is gradual, unseen and often slow? What changes have you seen in yourself and other in your MG over the last 6-12 months?
(7) What is the warning in this text for those that don’t bear fruit (vs6)? What does that mean? How does that make you feel?
(8) Christians often make one of two (opposite) mistakes, either (1) I must bear fruit to connect to Jesus or (2) It doesn’t matter if I bear fruit, God will forgive me. How does this passage correct both views? Which way are you more likely to go?
(9) Pray for each other that (a) we’d remain in Christ (b) God would use trials to prune us and (c) that we’d bear much fruit for his glory.
(10) For those who want, the fuller meaning of what Jesus says has to be seen in context of Isaiah 5 and Pslam 80 where “the vine” is God’s people. Read Psalm 80.7-19. Who were the vine (i.e who was brought out of Egypt)? What happened to them? What are they asking God to do now? What do you think verses 17 is talking about? How do these verses apply to John 15 (and help us understand what Jesus is saying)? How do these verses apply to us today? How are we as the church, in Christ, do what Israel should have done?
Comments
If you look at many of Jesus’s parables he seems to imply that there are people who believe they are Christians and yet he tells them to go away because he never knew them (Matthew 7:21-23). Similarly, where the farmer scatters the seed, whereas the first two involved the seed being taken away or never taking root, the third category sounds like Christians that start to grow and then fall away due to the pressures and temptations of he world. It seems that, just like James said faith without works is dead, if we are not living out our faith then perhaps we don’t have a faith and Jesus doesn’t know us in that intimate way?
I don’t know how this correlates with other bits in the Bible, particularly in Paul’s writings, which suggest that once we’re saved we’re always saved, even though Paul himself seems to warn against falling away and talks again and again in his letters about people who have left the Lord, or people Paul has ‘handed over Satan’, in the hope they will return to Christ?
I also think it is helpful to point out that it is the fruit that is so important. Linking in with the Matthew 7:21-23 passage where Jesus says he never knew them, even though they prophesied, drove and demons and performed miraculous things in his name! So maybe it’s not about the gifts of the Spirit (which we often get hung up on - “Why can’t I speak in tongues?”, etc.) but rather the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)?
I guess these are the things that those who are in the true vine will produce rather than all the nasty stuff if we are joined with the world (Galatians 5:19-21)?
Is the pruning therefore where God allows you to be in situations where it can be seen if those fruits are truly there? The painful process of losing something dear, or a potentially fear-creating situation, to see if you truly have peace and joy? A difficult person comes your way so that you can show kindness when you really don’t want to? A load of temptation from the enemy but where self-control from the Spirit will keep you strong?
Does any of that make sense, and perhaps have some truth in it? (That’s not rhetorical)
The Profesionals 1
Hi steve,
We have been discussing this as a mission group and are just wanting to clarify what the “branches” is referring to. Is it Christians or humanity? The way we understand it is that those who do not know Jesus will be cut from the vine (vs 6) rather than it meaning Christians that do not bear fruit will be cut from the vine?
Is this the right way to think about it?
The professionals.