4/28 Sermon - Living Branches in the True Vine

John 15:1-8

What do you see up here, in the front? I’m not asking a trick question. What is it? It’s a plant! It’s a bowl of grapes and grape branches. Right now, these are alive. For now. Today, Scripture uses a pretty good picture for our life with Jesus, and I’m going to run with that. We are living branches in the true vine. First, let’s look at this branch, let’s consider grapes, branches, vines.

First, a gardener has to take care of a grapevine. Do you know what that’s called? A vigneron (vin-yr-own), or a master gardener. This is a job that requires a degree. People at top level vineyards have worked their whole lives with grapes and vines! Taking care of grapes, producing good grapes, is actually pretty complex. Only the best trained people can do it.

And it’s all about the vine. That living connection the branch has with the vine is the most important thing to make good grapes. If a branch is separated from the vine, as this one is, it’s going to die. There’s no maybe, there’s not slight chance of survival. The vine gives life to the branch, makes it produce grapes.

And do you know what the gardener does? He prunes the branches. He cuts away the extra branch, he cuts back dead bits, he cuts off pieces that aren’t doing well. There is a very good reason for this! All these extra pieces suck away nutrients: the dead pieces, the extra wood, the sick parts. They suck away nutrients. But if he prunes the branches, they get the most nutrients possible. If he prunes the branches, they are healthy.

What’s the point of having a vineyard? To produce fruit, right!? To make good grapes. There is nothing better for a gardener than a grape branch full of good, delicious, juicy grapes. The grapes, in a sense, praises the vine & the gardener. Even we as the customers love to have good, high quality grapes.

What does the gardener do with branches that don’t produce grapes? He doesn’t prune them. He cuts them. He gathers the branches. He thrown them into the fire. The branches don’t bring him glory. They don’t produce fruit. They’re dead. So he cuts them away.

This picture, this image, of a gardener, a vine, branches, pruning, cutting, is so clear, right? You can’t mistake what Jesus means. It’s just like the relationship we have with Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus is a living thing. It’s alive! We are living branches, we are in the true vine, in Jesus. Let’s look at what John says about this.

1. I am the true vine. The only way grape branches can grow, can be alive is through the vine. Jesus is the true vine. Life exists in him alone. This happens through Jesus’ life and death.  He died for our sins. He gives us eternal life. Through faith in Jesus we have forgiveness, life, and salvation. And we are branches in him!

3. You are already clean because of the words I have spoken to you. Branches just grow, right? They are attached to the vine. You don’t have to worry about your attachment to Jesus. You are branches. The Word of God, the Word that tells us about Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, this word makes you clean, forgives your sins. This Word makes you living branches.

4. Remain in me, and I also remain in you. This is how our salvation, our life in Jesus works. He remains in us, and we remain in us. Through that connection to Jesus, we have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

1. My Father is the gardener. A master gardener, a vigneron, knows exactly what to do with grape branches. Our Father in heaven isn’t a tyranny. He’s not a brute. He’s not cruel. He is a loving father. He cares about you. He loves you. He wants nothing more than to bring you into eternal life. So he prunes us.

2. Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Think back to the picture of the vigneron, the master gardener. They prune branches. What do you do in your gardens? You prune plants. You cut them back. And there is nothing healthier than cutting back. Martin Luther has a funny way of looking at this. If the branches could talk, in plants could talk, would they enjoy pruning? Of course not, right! Most would be angry at you; they would cry out in pain. “Why are you cutting me! This hurts! Stop!” But the wise plants would be happy. Pruning means growth.

This helps us take a new look at the suffering in our life. God prunes us. He cuts us. This means that there is suffering in our life. This looks different for each of us, and this hurts for each of us. Health problems. Mental or emotional anguish. Sadness. Anxiety. Worry. Physical pain. Suffering! That is God pruning us. But we don’t like it! We cry out, we wonder, “Why, God, why are you doing this! Please stop! Stop cutting me, stop hurting me.” But pruning = growth.

Pruning isn’t just suffering. Pruning can be anything that makes us uncomfortable too. He prunes us when he says certain things are bad, others are good. He prunes us when he drives the idea of that we contribute to our salvation out of our head. He prunes us when we’re forced to wrestle with difficult parts of God’s Word. But this helps us grow in our faith.

God sends suffering and pain into our lives to grow us. To cultivate us. It’s not a pleasant experience, but it gives meaning. God wants us to grow. Even in our pain, even in our suffering, God is there. God works to grow us.

There is a warning for us in these verses as well. What does the master gardener do with dead branches? He cuts them off. 2. He cuts off every branch that bears no fruit. 5. Apart from me you can do nothing. 6. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

What happens when we are not connected to Jesus? We die. It’s as simple as that. If I cut away a branch from a vine, there is not a 80% mortality rate, or a slim chance of survival. The branch dies. When we, as living branches, separate ourselves from Jesus, the true vine, we die.

What happens when we don’t produce fruit? The Father, the gardener, cuts us off and burns us. God cares about fruit! We also should care about fruit! Fruit does not cause a branch to grow, right? Grapes don’t cause branches to grow. However, if a branch has no fruit, what does that mean? It means the branch is dead, disconnected from the vine.

Living branches in the true vine. 5. I am the vine; you are the branches. Remain in me and I in you, and you will bear much fruit. This picture of a vine, branches, grapes tells us so well how our salvation works. In Jesus, the true vine, we have forgiveness from sin, the promise of eternity. We have life. Through his Word, we are true branches. And we produce fruit. There are really only two applications we can take from this:

1. Remain in Christ! You are living branches. Your life of faith is a living thing, just like a grape branch. The only way for us to stay alive in by remaining in the true vine. Just look again at John 15:1-8. How many times does Jesus say, “Remain in me?” eight times! Maybe this is important. Verse 7 tells us how.

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
- It couldn’t be simpler. Remain in Jesus’ words. Be in the word of God! Reading the Bible. Sitting in church. Devotions. If you want to grow, if you want to be healthy, if you want have life, be in God’s Word. Too often people tell me how much they struggle to trust God and to live for him. Of course, we’ll always have problems with that, no matter what. But part of the problem is this: I ask them how much they are in God’s Word, and it’s usually not much. Remain in Jesus’ words.
- Pray. We pray to God. That’s what Jesus says here. When we have doubts, struggles, suffering in our life, we pray. Prayer should be the most used muscle in our heart.

2. Bear fruit. You are living branches in the true vine. What happens naturally as a result? We bear fruit. If a gardener has a vineyard, if a vine is living, what is the natural result? Grapes. Our Father is the gardener, Jesus is the true vine, we are living branches. What is the result? Fruit!

8. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. Have you ever shown someone your garden? Have you ever shown off something you’ve made or something you’ve done? There is a sense of pride, right? And that’s not entirely a bad thing! How much more does your Father in heaven, the gardener, take pride in you. He loves it when we bear fruit. He delights when we show love to others. Like a Father watching a little child play her piano recital well or play well in a basketball game, our Father delights in our works.

We have some guidance, too. What happened in Acts 4? The believers were selling their possessions, giving to the poor, giving to those who didn’t have. What does 1 John 3 tell us? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. Fruit does consist of kind words, prayers for others. But a major part of fruit is also generosity towards others. Kind actions that we do.

God doesn’t guilt trip. He doesn’t make bearing fruit this impossible standard for us to achieve. God gives us all sorts of opportunities for us to bear fruit. Look around let’s ask ourselves this question: Who is in my life that I can help and love? My wife or husband? My children or grandchildren? My neighbors or friends? God places so many people in our lives for us to love and help.

Finally, we are living branches. We are in the true vine, in Jesus. We have life and salvation. Fruit’s going to happen. As we live each day connected to the vine, to Jesus Christ, fruit will grow. Let’s go out today, this week, and love others, in actions and in truth. As living branches, let’s bear fruit.