I Am - The True Vine

well good morning everyone it is so good to see each and every one of you here with us this morning uh if you're wondering why you're stuck with Dawson the student pastor this morning it is because Keith is most likely resting and recovering today after performing officiating his daughter's wedding ceremony in California yesterday and so we just pray for him we praise God for that union um and we're just excited for him to to get to be away with family for that time and since Daniel I feel like Daniel set me up or maybe made you curious like well what did Dawson say in Hebrew i'll I'll sing the first line of the verse to you it's from Deuteronomy 6 this is known as the Shama in the Hebrew Bible but it it goes something like this shama Israel Yahweh Elohu Yahweh and that means here as one Israel yahweh is our God yahweh is one with us right and so communicating God's covenantal relationship with the people of Israel but that's not what we're talking about today today we're finishing up the last of our I am series and as a reminder there are seven I am statements that occur in the Gospel of John and in these I am statements Jesus communicates something about himself something about what it looks like to follow him something about his mission right and we're on the last one today and it's I am the true vine but here's where I want to start today i don't know about you but for me for a long time I thought that the Christian message that Christianity was about eternal life insurance like that that that was what Christianity was it was eternal life insurance what what I had to do was give God my one-time premium payment of saying "God you know I I believe you're God i believe that Jesus came i believe that he lived the life I could not live i believed that he died the death that I deserved and that someday because of that belief because of that faith God you're going to take me away to be with you in heaven forever right so I won't have to fear death in that way like that's it that's that's eternal life insurance but there's some problems with that view I think of Christianity the the first one is this it makes Christianity a transaction it's just a transaction it's not a relationship there's no relational aspect of that it's like I signed my part of the contract God signed his part of the contract and now I'm just kind of hands off my contract's signed the other problem of course is that it makes it hard to make any sense of the many ethical commands that Jesus gives to his followers throughout the course of his ministry like if if all Christianity is supposed to be is this sort of eternal life insurance then the idea of saying "Hey you know um love your neighbor care for the poor care for the widow and the orphan uh give your money away to charitable causes these sorts of things." None of that makes sense in the sort of eternal eternal life insurance view because it's like "No Jesus actually I can do whatever I want i'm just going to keep living like however I want because you signed the contract Jesus sorry that's on you." Okay okay and if and if you say there's something wrong with me I'm just going to sue you for breach right like there's like that's not like it makes it's nothing but a a a relationless transactional contract but here is the worst part it misses this view of Christianity misses the full implications that the gospel has for us and they're earthshattering and they're beautiful and maybe you came in here this morning and you're like Dawson what what you just kind of said Christianity is like that's what I thought Christianity was right and my hope is is that as we look at this text today in John chapter 15 as we walk through it together that what we're going to see is a much more beautiful much more full much more compelling version of Christianity that is characterized by the word abide now we're in John chapter 15 uh this occurs in a string of chapters towards the back part of John that are often referred to as the farewell discourse now I has has anybody read any first century biographies recently no one that's okay okay well if you read a first century biography one of the things that would jump out at you as you read them is a ton of attention would be paid in that biography to the words and actions a person did just before their death in sort of Greek and Roman thinking that was one of the most important moments of your life this this moment right before your death and so you wanted to know like you would you if you were writing a history of someone's life you would pay really close attention to what they said and what they did just before they died and that's what John is doing here in the farewell discourse so we're going to pick up in verse one we're read through verse 5 and what I've done is I've split this text into three sections so first we're going to see the call then we're going to see the warning and then lastly we're going to see the reward so let's look at the call verses 1-5 here is what it says i am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser 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 already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you 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 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 okay so before I jump into sort of breaking down these five verses here's the first thing I want you to to sort of be thinking about and keep this in the back of your mind throughout the sermon we're going to come to a moment where it's going to become really important but as you were listening there I hope that you'll notice that there was a really really important word that has shown up in or around every other I am statement all six other I am statements that we have looked at have either contained this word in the statement itself or that word has been in very close proximity to the statement but it is notably absent here and that is going to be very very important when we talk about the implications of this passage so keep that in the back of your mind we'll see a gold star if you can figure it out by the end but the first thing we see here is Jesus sort of sets up the image right and there's three main parts to the image there's the vine this is Jesus in the image there's the vine dresser or the gardener or the farmer that's God the father and then there's the branches of the vine which are the disciples but in sort of bringing this out to its its its fullest meaning i mean it's kind of every human being can be a branch of the vine if it abides and we're going to get to that more right and so this is a vine culture image right this is a keeping of vines i don't know if any of you have anybody grow grapes for a living i don't right so I had to do a lot of reading about that this week but again so the idea is but if you've ever bought grapes at the grocery store which I have done you always notice there's there's the really like thick central vine and then there's smaller sort of branches coming out from that central vine that have the actual grapes on them and so in the image Jesus is setting up here he's that central vine that then produces the space for the smaller vines to grow and produce grapes and then of course God is the vine dresser who's taking care of the vine who's taking care of the branches and there's a a certain word I said that was going to be really important at least in this part of the passage and that word is abide right this word abide it shows up over and over and over again starting in verse four continuing to verse five i mean Jesus says this word again and again and again and again so it must be important to the passage now the Greek word underlying the word abide in the English text that I'm using is the Greek word minnow and the the most the most common sense of the word minnow is to sort of remain somewhere so like if Jessica my wife and I took a vacation somewhere and we stayed there for five days like we could say something to the effect of "Yeah you know Jessica and I went to the Grand Tetons and we minnowed there for 5 days." But it's interesting because the way John is using it and the way Jesus is using it in this passage it has much more of an active meaning a sort of ongoing meaning and to explain that I think it's helpful to return to another one of our I am statements from earlier right jesus says,"I am the good shepherd." Does everybody remember that so to abide to know in Jesus is to say "I am a sheep of this shepherd and each and every day I have to continue following him." That's what abiding means it means that each and every day I'm making the intentional active choice to continue following my shepherd my good shepherd or think about like running a marathon or running a race on a set track to mino is to keep running on the track on the track that's been set before us without turning off and trying to take detours or shortcuts or other directions that we think might say no this is the track that's been laid out for me i'm going to keep running on this track that's what it means to abide and then the second big image of this first section is this idea of pruning this idea of pruning now again if you've ever kept a garden maybe rose bushes something like that you know what pruning is right it's the act of purposefully trimming away parts of a plant to encourage the plant's overall health and growth right and what Jesus says is that as we abide in him that God the Father is going to prune us now I don't know about you but imagine this scenario imagine you have a nice rose bush and you want it to be healthy and you want it to really be just fruitful and have these beautiful roses right well you're going to have to prune it so you go up to your rose bush one day you have your pruning shears in your hand and all of a sudden the rose bush starts talking to you and it goes "Hey Dawson please what whoa those look sharp what are you going to do?" And I say "Well I'm I'm going to prune you." Well what's that mean well it means I'm I'm going to cut away parts of you so that all of you will will grow to be more healthy and full what do you think the rose bush is going to say no thanks i'm good i don't I don't need to I don't would rather not have little parts of me cut away and I think we're the same way like if we're honest with ourselves like when you're praying in your prayer life do you very often say "Hey God prune me god I want you to I want you to take away the unhealthy parts of me." And yet the text is saying that as we buy that's something that's going to happen it says that pruning is is going to be an ongoing process like over the course of our whole lives we're going to continue to be pruned it says that pruning is not optional jesus doesn't say you might be pruned or maybe you'll be pruned or if God gets around to it you'll be pruned he said if you're abiding in me and bearing fruit you will be pruned that is going to happen uh the same word that he uses to tell the disciples you are already clean is the same word that's translated pruned above i think it makes sense to translate it pruned in both sections so it would say something to the effect of you know I'll I'll prune everyone that bears fruit and he says to the disciples you are have already been you're in the process of being pruned as my disciples because I've been teaching you and then lastly that as we're pruned it's going to lead to greater fruitfulness in our lives like as we mature as Christians now people come to know Jesus at different points in their lives right and that's okay but there is this this idea in in the whole Bible that as you follow God you will mature you will bear more fruit like I don't know about any of you have you ever met somebody you can raise your hand if this is true for you you ever met somebody who just like has the shine of Jesus you know what I'm talking about like they walk into a room and you can just like feel it you can just feel it the peace the love the care that they have for everyone in that room that is a person who has been abiding that is a person who has allowed themselves to be pruned and we are seeing and experiencing their fruit and so if you're filling in the blanks here here's the first big one as we abide in the sun we are pruned by the father as we abide in the son we are pruned by the father okay so that was the call but I said there's three sections here i said right there's the call the warning and the reward so now we're to the warning and this picks up in verse uh six here's what it says it's a conditional statement so it starts with the word if 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 so returning to the original first five verses what Jesus said was that there are some branches that are are not in the vine they're not they're not abiding in the vine they're not bearing fruit and what the father does is he doesn't just he doesn't prune those ones he takes them away he cuts them off of the vine because if you have a branch on a vine that is not producing it is sapping strength from the whole plant and it's not producing anything and so any good keeper of a vineyard is going to cut away those branches and they fall to the ground and since they're no longer connected to the main vine that is sustaining them they dry they shrivel up and Jesus says that ultimately they'll be used as firewood as kindling now it is so easy it is so easy to read that and to to to want to soften soften what Jesus is

saying but you I just can't he he says what he says here he says that a failure to abide will lead to a failure to bear fruit will lead to an ultimate cutting off from the vine and use as

kindling and here's what I think he means failing to abide in Jesus has both temporary and eternal consequences and a lot of preachers particularly in ages gone by would focus a lot on the eternal consequence part of that fill-in- thelank statement right they'd be like "And boy don't you know that if you don't find Jesus you are going to burn." You know that sort of like preaching right and yet I want to focus in just a little bit on the temporary consequences of not abiding because I don't think we talk about those enough because what has Jesus said if you're abiding me you're what you're bearing fruit and you we don't think about this enough because we have a very individualistic view of what our relationship with Jesus is all about but that's not what Jesus I don't think is saying here you know who the recipient of your fruit is not you it's everyone else around you if if I'm bearing the fruit of the Christian life goodness peacefulness joy patience forgiveness love hospitality you know who's bearing the greatest benefit from that it's not really me i'll bear some secondary benefits from it that's everyone around me if I'm patient you know who's going to bear a benefit from that my wife my spouse if I'm loving and neighborly you know who's going to bear the benefit from that my

neighbors but if I I can only do that if I'm abiding in the vine jesus says "You you can only do that if you're abiding in me if you're continuing with me if you're continuing to follow me and if I'm not bearing fruit it's not just me that suffers it's everyone around me that suffers parents if you are not abiding in the vine then your children are not experiencing the

fruit if you are not abiding in the vine and you are a co-orker your co-workers are not experiencing your

fruit there are temporary consequences for us and for other people this is why the ethical commands of Jesus

matter this is why the life insurance view of Christianity rings so hollow because there's nothing in that view about bearing

fruit and it's a tragedy in that

way failing to abide in Jesus has both temporary and eternal consequences now a couple of notes there it's not on our effort alone right remember this like it's as we abide in the vine he's helping us he's sustaining us he is empowering us to bear this fruit and not only that but then you also have the vinders you have the father who's pruning us who's cutting away the parts of us that aren't producing fruit so that we can produce more fruit it's not down to our individual effort alone but it does require that we continue to abide so that we allow ourselves to be nourished by the vine so that we allow ourselves to be pruned by the father now I think there's a very common rebuttal that you might hear in our culture today to that sort of statement and and here's what it is well Dawson what about someone who doesn't follow Jesus doesn't profess to be a Christian and yet when I look at their lives I I see things that look like fruit you know maybe they volunteer down at the Denver Rescue Mission or maybe they help out with Special Olympics or uh maybe they're involved with another homeless outreach in their community or maybe they they just are really loving and kind towards their children i think all of those things can be true in fact Jesus actually confronted this during his ministry in the sermon on the mount he talks about the Pharisees and the Pharisees are doing a lot of things that are fruitful they're praying they're trying to take care of the poor they're trying to gather together in community and synagogue like they're doing good things but Jesus says the reason that they're doing it is because they want praise from other

people they're not abiding in God they're abiding in the culture and in the ways that the cultural fruit resembles Christian fruit they look like they're bearing fruit but the ways in which the cultural fruit diverges from Christian fruit they are not bearing fruit that their lives are not driven by a desire to abide in the vine be pruned by the father their desire is to abide in the culture be pruned by the culture and be praised by the culture and that always always leads to compromise on something every time because it's the forsaking of the true vine with a false

one so we've seen the call we've seen the warning oh but let's talk about the reward verses uh seven and 8 if you abide in me and my words that is all of the teachings everything Jesus said and taught to his disciples abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my

disciples what's the reward of abiding in Jesus jesus says you can ask for whatever

sit with that for a second that is a huge promise and Jesus says "If you're abiding in me if you're abiding in my words you can ask the Father for

whatever." Is that a blank check can I say "Jesus I'm abiding in you a billion dollars would really be nice." No because guess what your abiding in the vine you're being pruned by the father is going to shape how you pray and what you pray

for it's it's going to to you're going to pray for things that are going to help you abide you're going to pray for God to prune you more you're not going to ask God for a million dollars unless you're like "God give me a million dollars so I can give every last penny of it away." It's a prayer like when you look through uh the prayers in the New Testament for example the Lord's prayer so this is the model prayer that that Jesus teaches his disciples to pray right what are the things Jesus asks for in this prayer for God's kingdom to come and be fulfilled on earth for God's will to be done in the world around him for forgiveness from sin and the ability to forgive others for their sins against us there's nothing Jesus there is nothing self- serving about those prayers and the one the one bit of s sustaining that Jesus has asked for is give us this day our daily bread don't give me more than I need don't give me so much that I become greedy and and a hoarder of of things god give me what I need so that I can survive and that I can continue to live and abide in you

or Paul as you read his letters he's constantly writing prayers in his letters but he never once prays for selfish things he's always praying for other people for their healing for them to continue to grow in faith for unity in their churches he just he prays outwardly because his prayer life is shaped by abiding in Christ and by being pruned by the father and what is the result of all of this god is glorified that is a word that we do not use in our culture and so we don't know what it means but in the Old Testament when it whenever it says God to you be all the glory uh the the underlying Hebrew word there is this word kabode and what kabode really means is like the heaviness or weightiness of something because if you're in an ancient society uh the way you pay for something is on a scale and there's a counterwe on one side and then you put your coins on the other side of the scale until they balance right and then you can purchase the thing that you want and so something's value to an ancient mind this is why gold has always been considered valuable in ancient culture is because it's heavy so it was it could quickly counterbalance the scale so we're saying when we give God glory we're saying God you are the most valuable thing there is nothing else even close to you in value and that shapes how we pray and as God grants those prayers as we bear fruit as he prunes us he's glorified because why because what are we showing to other people what is the most valuable thing in my life what is the most glorified thing in my life it's God who I'm abiding in

uh I said at the beginning of the sermon if you'll remember that the the sort of sad part about the eternal life insurance view of Christianity um is that that it misses the fullness it misses the full implications of the gospel but what we're seeing here is that abiding in Jesus blesses us and it glorifies the father abiding in Jesus blesses us and it glorifies the

father the other thing I said to all of you is that there's a key word that's missing from this I am statement and its surrounding verses that was in every other I am statement gold star if you figured it out but it is the most important word in all of these I am statements even this one that it's absent from it is the driving theme of every I am statement you know what it is life life it's about

life the problem the issue with the eternal life insurance view of Christianity it is it's just about what I get me me me what do I get i get to receive eternal life but what Jesus is showing us in this passage is that the gospel is not just about us receiving life it's about us producing life and giving it

away the the original purpose of humanity you go back to Genesis 1 when God creates humanity do you know what their job is genesis 1 and two the work of humans is to sustain and to promote the life that God has created on his earth but the problem is human beings chose to produce

death and so the consequence that they face is death but Jesus isn't just interested in undoing the consequence he's interested in allowing us to get back to the purpose for which we were created which is to produce and sustain and create

life we are supposed to give life away to our spouses we're supposed to give life away to our neighbors we're supposed to give life away to our community we're supposed to give life away to our co-workers we're supposed to give life away to our employers we're supposed to give life away to our employees whatever your position is in life your job as a Christian your calling as a human being is to produce and give away

life and that's what Christianity offers us the ability to do again whereas before Christ we were in death and we could only produce death and yet now in Christ we receive life and once again we can produce life and we can give it away and I don't know about you but to me that's way way more compelling than life insurance let's pray god thank you for this day thank you for your

word thank you God for the good news of the gospel not just that we are saved from the consequence of death and delivered over to life but God that through Christ through abiding in Christ through trusting the I am by eating the bread of life by following the good shepherd by entering into the gate by trusting in the resurrection and the life by following the way the truth and in the life by living in the light of the world that you are God because you are the I am because of that we have not just been delivered from the consequence of death but we can produce life and so God help us to abide god help us to be pruned so that we can produce fruit that we can produce life and we can give it away to everyone we pray this in the name of the true vine in which we abide Jesus Christ amen