I am the True Vine

We have a seat and let's pray together, shall we?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are today.

And we still ourselves now as we come to your word.

And we pray that you would teach us as we listen to your voice.

Father, thank you that you are good all the time.

Father, thank you that you are the God who has so outrageously loved us.

And we know that you hear our prayer because we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, it's great to see you this morning.

And I'm glad to see that you survived Storm Alley.

Storm Alley wasn't quite the beast from the east, was it?

But she still packed, or he, I don't know, it could be either with Alley, couldn't it?

Still packed a fair punch.

And I was walking to drop the girls off at nursery on Thursday.

And I dropped them off and I was walking home.

And on the walk home, via a park, I noticed that Storm Alley had actually caused a lot of chaos in this park.

So all I could see everywhere in this park was dirt, was leaves, and was a little bit of branches everywhere in this park.

And so you'll forgive me for this, okay?

I had John 15 in my head all week and it was Thursday.

So what I did is I walked over and I picked up one of the branches, okay?

So here's my branch that I found that had come off the tree.

And if you look at it, you can see it.

It's got some little grapes there that are kind of dying out.

We've got some leaves here.

We've got some little buds as well that are part of this branch.

It's a good-looking branch, isn't it?

But the thing is, this branch, its best days are probably behind it.

And so my question to you this morning is, we'll put it on the screen,

is what would it take to get that branch bearing fruit again?

I guess we've got a few options, haven't we?

We could kind of pick up some grapes and kind of tape the grapes to it.

Or we could find some of these leaves, couldn't we?

And we could kind of staple the leaves to it.

Or, my favorite, we could kind of stick it in the ground

and we could cheer it on from the side.

Go on, branchy, you can do it.

Friend, what would it take to get this branch bearing fruit again?

You see, as Jesus, as he speaks to his disciples in John 15,

he wants them to think like that.

As they consider their lives with him,

he wants them to know that they need him.

That's why we chose that last song,

Lord, we need you.

We need you.

Every hour, we need you.

Remember where we are in John's Gospel.

Here we are, John 15.

Jesus has just said to his disciples that he's leaving.

Remember, this is the evening before Good Friday.

And Jesus has just told his disciples that his hour to go has come.

And he is willingly going to go to the cross

with the place where he will go to offer his life as a sacrifice for the sins of his people.

The place where he goes to bear the punishment that they deserve before a holy God

because of their rebellion against him.

And the place where he goes to reconcile them to God.

And the place where he goes to prepare a place for them in his father's house.

All the while telling them that one day he's going to return and he's going to take them to be with himself.

Now this is what I did this week when I was reading this.

Just pause to consider all of that bit of information.

I wonder if anyone has ever asked you that question.

If you found out that you had 24 hours to live,

what are the things that you would fill those 24 hours with?

Has anyone ever asked you that question?

Remember there was a Simpsons episode about that years ago.

What would you do if you only had 24 hours to live?

If you knew that.

You get the usual answers, don't you?

You get kind of skydiving or swimming with dolphins

or spending time with loved ones and family

or an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland or something like that.

What would you do if you found out you had 24 hours to live?

Here is Jesus with less than that to live.

And what is he doing?

Is he thinking of himself?

No, he is serving his people.

Isn't that incredible?

He is serving his people.

He is lovingly assuring them.

He is graciously preparing them for what life is going to be like

when he is not physically there anymore.

And right at the heart of this, you see in verse 5,

is his message to them, really simply.

You are the branches.

And I am the true vine.

You have a great need of me.

You have a great need of Christ.

But you have a great Christ for your need.

That's what he's saying.

Remain in me.

Abide in me.

And the thing for us to understand at this point

is that Jesus hasn't just delved into his imagination

and thought, I need a really good metaphor

to enable me to connect my disciples

and for them to understand what I'm saying.

I know what will work.

Horticulture.

He's deliberately picked this image.

You see, the vine is an image

which is loaded with Old Testament significance.

All the way through the Old Testament story,

we're told that Israel are God's chosen vine.

Now, perhaps you picked it up

as Neil read to us those words from Isaiah chapter 5.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

Israel were God's people.

They were the people that he had chosen for himself.

They were the people that he had rescued,

that he had taken,

and who he had planted in their own land.

With the idea that as they lived

in loving relationship with him,

as they radically obeyed him,

as they were different from the watching world,

that the watching world would look in

and see everything that's going on

and think to themselves,

isn't Israel's God wonderful?

And through Israel,

God would do what he said he would do through Abraham.

He would bless the nations.

This is what he was going to do.

But Isaiah, more often than not,

we find when he speaks about Israel

and the other Old Testament prophets

that they do as well,

they speak about Israel being the vine,

and it's a negative thing.

Okay?

It's a negative thing.

God looks for good fruit.

What does he find?

He finds bad fruit.

Israel, instead of being marked by fruitfulness,

are marked by fruitlessness.

And because of that,

they deserve God's judgment

for the rebellion against him.

Israel meant to be God's true vine,

but he looks for good fruit,

he finds bad fruit.

And that's the backdrop that Jesus comes with

into John 15,

and he declares to his disciples,

I am the true vine.

Do you see it?

In other words,

he is being everything that Israel failed to be.

Unlike Israel,

the fruit of his life,

the one of his God-glorifying obedience,

the fruit is going to be love,

righteousness,

and faithfulness.

And if his disciples are going to bear any fruit in their lives,

they need to be found in him.

He is the true vine.

And so as Jesus prepares his disciples for life in his absence,

he wants them to know that he is this true vine,

and they are the branches.

And what Jesus wants them to do,

I don't think we can miss.

It's already been a lot.

I love it when people give your sermons away

before you even stood up.

It's great.

Don't need to do any work.

You can't miss what he's saying,

can you,

in these verses?

You can't miss it.

He says it 10 times in these 11 verses.

Remain.

Or, Maggie,

I assume you're reading from the ESV.

It says,

Abide.

Abide in me.

10 times in these 11 verses.

Now,

from this point on,

okay,

because I realize we're living in a Brexit-filled world,

we'll talk about abiding rather than remaining.

Okay?

So just so you're not sitting there thinking,

I told you Jesus was all about remaining.

Okay?

He wants them to abide in him.

So everybody hold up 10,

10 fingers,

two hands,

okay?

This is what he's doing here.

You can't miss it.

Count with me.

Okay?

Abide.

Say it.

Okay?

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

Abide.

You can't miss what he's saying.

Sounds like some kind of French verb test,

doesn't it?

You can't miss what he's saying.

He wants his disciples to abide in him.

That's what he wants them to do.

Now think about it logically.

Jesus, what has he done?

He's drawn his people to himself.

Right?

They didn't choose him.

He chose them.

He's drawn them to himself.

He's paid for their sin on the cross.

He's made them clean.

He's taken away the barrier to God that existed because of the rebellion against him.

And he's made a way for them to be adopted as sons and daughters of the living God.

And he's given them his spirit.

And every believer is united to Jesus.

That's our identity.

It's the one that the New Testament says all the time.

In Christ.

That is the believer's identity.

In Christ.

He has made us his own.

He is ours and we are his.

This is what he's done.

He's made us his own.

And so Jesus says, stemming from that union with him,

every day live in a fruitful and joyous communion with me.

And I've been walking with Jesus for something like 16 years.

And I know that many of you have been walking with him way longer than that.

Probably way longer than I've even been alive.

And I've read these verses of John 15 countless times before.

And every time I read them,

I'm struck by both the beautiful simplicity of what Jesus says here.

And also how these words are wonderfully profound.

This is the Christian life, is it not?

What Jesus says here.

And invite you afresh to let these words from John 15,

as God would speak through his word as we hear his voice,

let these words impact you afresh.

Because some of us here, I know, may have grown cold spiritually.

Okay, we've just stopped thinking.

We've just stopped in our affections for the Lord Jesus.

Some of us will be here and we've drifted spiritually.

Jesus used to be a massive deal,

but as life has gone on, he's just going to move to the periphery.

Some of us may have settled spiritually.

Some of us may be nowhere spiritually.

And everything probably in between those four.

But friends, I hope that as we look at this passage together now,

as we look at the claims that Jesus makes about himself,

and as we think about the claims that Jesus would make about all those who would follow after him,

that we would be struck once again by how beautiful he is,

but also how much we need him.

So let these words impact you afresh from John 15 this morning.

It was Puritan Andrew Murray who famously said,

A soul that is filled with large thoughts of the vine will be a very strong branch.

And all I want us to do this morning and the time we have remaining

is just to walk through these 11 verses together.

There's so much in here, so can I encourage you to go home after this and read these for yourself?

Go to your small group this week, having read them, and bring fresh thoughts.

We don't have time to cover everything this morning,

but we're going to make a few pit stops as we walk through these 11 verses this morning.

But here's the question that I want us to really get to grips with today.

What does it mean to abide with Jesus?

What does it mean, rather, to abide in Jesus?

Because I think as we walk through these three verses this morning,

I think we kind of can categorize them under three headings.

Okay, here's the first one.

Abiding means knowing.

Look at verse 1.

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

So you see that Jesus doesn't want his disciples simply to know his identity.

He wants his disciples to know the identity of his Father as well,

because his Father is intimately involved and committed to the lives of his people.

And who is the Father?

What does he say?

He is the gardener.

If you have an ESV, he is the vine dresser.

And he does two things.

Verse 2.

Firstly, he takes away fruitless branches.

As a loving gardener, he will see to it that the branches who are not living will be cut away

and thrown into the fire and burned.

See, it's a great warning in these verses as well, isn't it,

when we think about what it means to remain in Jesus, abide in Jesus.

Because John's gospel is full of followers of Jesus who would start off keen,

who would appear to be following him, but as time goes on,

and as they come to terms with the cost of what it means to follow Jesus, they turn away.

Of course, in the immediate context of John 15, who's just left the building?

Judas.

And I assume that as the days go on, as the disciples live their lives when Jesus isn't here,

and they watch many people claim to follow him,

but decide after a while that it's not worth it anymore,

I assume these words are meant to give them great confidence,

because they shouldn't panic, because what is going on there is the Father being the vine dresser,

that they can leave it with him.

He's the Father.

He's the good vine dresser who cuts away,

and secondly, he is the vine dresser who prunes branches that are producing fruit,

so that they will produce more fruit.

So good is God this vine dresser,

so committed is he to his people,

and so sovereign is he over all things,

that he will use every means possible

to achieve the goal for those who are abiding in Christ

of pruning them,

so that they will produce more fruit for the glory of God.

Now, I don't know how you react when you hear that word pruning,

but as I study John 15 this week,

again, it reminded me of how painful a word that is.

And it's often painful, isn't it,

when it happens in our Christian lives,

when God exposes my faults,

when God questions my desires,

as God puts his finger on things in my heart,

the thorns that need to go.

It's painful.

But it makes all the difference in the world

that as I seek to follow him,

as I seek to abide in Jesus,

that I know that the vine dresser

is my loving Heavenly Father,

and he wants me to be pruned

so that I can bear fruit in my life

for his glory as I'm transformed more

into the image of Jesus Christ.

There's a godly American woman called Joni Erikson-Tada.

Some of you may have heard of her.

At 17 years old,

she was involved in a tragic diving accident

that left her a quadriplegic.

She was consigned to life in a wheelchair,

and she's consigned to not being able to use her hands

for the rest of her life.

And someone once asked her

what she says to God

each time she wakes up every morning.

I imagine you might be thinking two things.

Is she going to say,

I hate you, God?

Or is she going to say something else?

Here's what she said.

She responded to that question.

My weakness, that is my quadriplegia,

is my greatest asset

because it forces me to run into the arms of Christ

every single time I get up in the morning.

I hate you, God.

No, no, no.

I need you, God.

You know, in John 15,

I wonder if in the hours to come

whether that will be Peter's experience.

Is he painfully comes to terms

with his own failings

as he denies Jesus three times.

And remember,

at the end of John's Gospel,

we get this wonderful scene

as Jesus reinstates him,

restores him,

teaching him,

Peter, don't rely on your own strength.

Don't look to your own understanding

to figure life out.

Look to me.

Look to me.

Come to me.

Because that's the sting

at the end of verse 5, isn't it?

It's the warning.

Without him,

we can do nothing.

It's a love and warning

about the complacency

that can so easily creep

into our Christian lives.

That is,

we run around prayerlessly

trying to accomplish things,

even religious things,

you know,

doing job after job,

running from person to person,

running from meeting to meeting,

trusting in our own skills

and abilities,

all the while failing

to abide in Jesus' words.

Friends,

we need the comfort

that we are Jesus's

and he will never let us go.

And we need the warning here

that without him,

we can do nothing.

We need both.

There's someone that once asked

Charles Spurgeon,

famous Baptist preacher,

how he dealt with the trials

and hardships that came his way

in the Christian life.

And he famously replied,

I have learned to kiss the wave

that throws me back

against the rock of ages.

Friends,

abiding for us will mean knowing.

And secondly,

abiding will mean doing.

Look at what he says

to his disciples at verse 7.

If you wish,

and it will be done for you.

Again,

he asks them to do two things.

Firstly,

to abide in his words.

As they abide in him

and as Jesus's words

abide in them,

this is how they will abide in him.

This is what he's saying.

So Jesus wants them

to build their lives

upon his words

and to allow his words

by his spirit

to shape how they live,

to inform how they think

and to guide how they act.

So in his absence,

it's by living in

and by living by his words

that his disciples

will abide in him.

See,

later on at verse 10,

Jesus says,

if you keep my commands,

you will remain in my love

just as I have kept

my father's commands

and remain in his love.

So do you see

what Jesus is calling for here

from his disciples

is nothing other than

an all-out radical obedience

and a joyous commitment

to his word.

And of course,

that's going to be

the primary means

by which the father

shapes and prunes

his children.

As his word does

its shaping and moulding

and convicting work

in our hearts.

Jesus says,

abide in my words.

Friends,

I think we need to ask ourselves

this morning,

as followers of this man,

what are we doing

and are we

abiding in his words?

You know,

Sunday night

in the Shanks household

is omelette night.

Okay?

I take a turn

at the cooking,

light cooking omelettes.

If I'm honest,

it's because it's easy

and it's quick.

Okay?

It doesn't taste great

but we just do omelettes

in the Shanks household.

I remember the first time

I ever tried it.

I remember Alex sitting there

and she's screwing up her face

and it's a lovely bit of shell.

Okay?

A lovely bit of shell.

Contrast my cooking

to Alex's cooking.

The best meals

that she makes

are the ones

that she makes

in the slow cooker.

She makes a big batch of it

and we normally have it,

puts it,

it cuts up the meat,

marinates it,

puts it in the slow cooker.

In the morning,

we have it in the evening.

She normally makes enough of it

that it can last two or three days.

First night when we have it,

it's brilliant.

Second night that we have it,

the day after,

it is incredible.

See the third night

that we have it,

it blows your mind.

Do you know why?

Marination.

Marination.

This is what happened.

The flavor

has gone from just being

on the meat

to being in the meat.

The flavor

has permeated

and has transformed

everything about the meat.

Now,

I don't know

what you think of

as you think about Jesus

as he says,

abide in my words,

but it seems to me

that what he's saying here

is a lot more slow cooker

than it is Omelette.

Right?

Abiding in his words.

And it challenges me

and it's convicted me

this week

that how often

that I just settle

for Omelette.

Friends,

are you abiding

in his words?

You're abiding

in his words.

It was John Bunyan,

the man who wrote

Pilgrim's Progress,

whose peers used to tease him

that every time

you would cut him open,

every time you would cut him,

he would bleed Bible.

Incredible thing to say.

Imagine if somebody,

wouldn't it be lovely

if somebody joked

and teased you about that?

That there was a man

who bled Bible.

Friends,

are you abiding

in his words?

The second thing

at verse 7

he asks them to do

is ask.

Can I go back one?

Is that right?

Is to ask.

Is to pray.

That as Jesus' words

abides in us

and as it shapes us

and it hones our desires,

our hearts should be

more and more conformed

and in harmony

with his desires.

And it's with that attitude

and possessing that heart

that Jesus invites

his disciples

to ask their Heavenly Father

to pray to him.

This is a wonderful invitation.

And to come before

this loving Heavenly Father

with confidence

that he hears

because you make your prayers

through the name

of Jesus Christ.

I don't know about you,

but I want God's desires.

I want God's word

to shape my prayers.

Now what I've found

has really helped me recently

and I give it to you

this morning

is to use scripture

to base your prayer life on.

Now Paul's letters

for example

are full of prayers.

Great exercise

to do this week.

Maybe take one of them

that you find

in Ephesians

or Colossians

or Philippians

or something like that.

Take it

and use it

to order

and structure

your prayers.

Tim Keller

in his great book

in prayer says

our prayers should arise

out of an immersion

in scripture.

The wedding

of the Bible

and prayer

it anchors your life

down in the real God.

Jesus invites

his disciples

to dedicate themselves

to abiding

in his word

and he asks them

to commit themselves

to seeking the Father

in prayer.

Read your Bible

and pray every day.

Someone should write

a kid's song

about that.

That's what he's saying here.

And thirdly

abiding means bearing.

See it?

Verse 8

This is to my Father's glory

that you bear much fruit

showing yourselves

to be my disciples.

See the goal

of the Christian life

God's ambition

for our lives

and our hearts

is that we would know him

and that from

that glorious relationship

we would bear more fruit

so that through us

God's name

would be glorified

in the sight

of the world.

Friends,

Andrew said

that is what

always encourages me

most as your pastor

to see some of you

grow.

Now it never looks

spectacular does it?

Never looks spectacular

in your life

but I hear some of you

talk about how

you're telling your friends

about Jesus

and two years ago

that's something

you could never have

thought about doing.

That I see some of you

loving somebody

in a quite selfless way

and I know that

wouldn't have happened

two, three years ago.

I see some of you

growing.

And this is what

he's talking about here.

When your whole life

becomes worship

your whole life

becomes bearing fruit

for the glory of God

and as the world

looks in

and as it sees

the fruit in our lives

fruit that's only

explainable because

of the life-giving sap

that is running

through the vine

to the branches

that the world

looks in and exclaims

I don't get that.

Isn't there God

great?

Because I think

that is the thrust

of the fruit here

that Jesus is talking about

I think that's what

it's supposed to lead to.

That as his disciples

abide in him

as his disciples

just in the verses

after this

as they radically

love one another

and as they bear fruit

the world will see

this radically

counter-cultural

community in action

and they will sit up

and take notice

about how glorious

this God is.

You know I've got

a friend called Nick

I studied with him

last year

and Nick goes to

Govan Free Church

over in Glasgow

if you've never

been to Govan

let's just say

it's a little bit

different from Brunsfield

okay?

A little bit different

and Nick was telling me

recently when I was

speaking to him

about a guy

who's been coming

along to his church

who's called Robert

and Nick described

to me how Robert

in his former life

was a very dangerous guy

and Nick is bald head

35

he looks mental

okay?

If he's saying

Robert is a dangerous guy

I'm going with

he's a dangerous guy

but he told me

how Robert

from a life of drugs

and gangs

had become a Christian

and Nick said

that as he looked

into that man's life

the transformation

was absolutely

and I quote

breathtaking

and if you want to

check it out after this

Robert's testimony

is on the Free Church

website at the minute

let me just read you

just a snippet of it

as we work towards

a close this morning

and particularly listen

for how he describes

the Christian community

that he came in touch

with okay?

He says this

as I attended

lots of recovery groups

in Glasgow

I heard about

the Free Church

work in Govan

there's a lot of respect

for what is happening

through this fellowship

and right away

I felt as if

I had come home

up until six months ago

I had been addicted

to street and prescription drugs

as well as alcohol

for a period of 30 years

30 years

but now I'm free

and I'm working hard

at building new godly habits

into my daily life

given the epidemic

of drug abuse

in our scheme

I see that my own background

actually helps a wee bit

in getting alongside others

who are enslaved

to using like I was

Govan Free Church

is like a family to me

and it is a community

I have come to love

and one that I see

God is working through

and a wonderful story

a testimony

and a wonderful example

of the attractive fruit

that Christ produces

through his people

as they abide

in his word

this is to my father's glory

that you bear

much fruit

showing yourselves

to be my disciples

abiding means bearing

now as we close friends

I know our time is gone

let me take you back

to my branch

okay

here's the branch

not going to take some grapes

not going to staple some leaves

not going to jab them

in the dirt

okay

how is he going to grow

how is it going to bear fruit again

the only hope for this branch

is it gets connected

and receives the life giving sap

from the vine

and Jesus says to his followers

this morning

abide in me

if you are going to produce fruit

God glorifying eternal fruit

in your lives

then it's only going to be

by abiding in me

that that's going to happen

friends I wonder what that's going to look like

for us in our own lives

this morning

so before we finish

and before the busyness

of the rest of the day

and the rest of the week

kicks in

let's just be still

for a moment

and let's pause to reflect

and absorb

everything that God

has been saying to us

in his word this morning

let me just put the verses

up in the screens

Jesus says

I am the vine

you are the branches

if you remain in me

and I in you

you will bear

much fruit

apart from me

you can do

nothing

let's be still

for just a minute

our heavenly father

so often we find

abiding to be so difficult

and so it's my prayer

for us this morning

as you are people

that you would

help us to abide

in the words

of Jesus

and I pray

that this week

in every situation

that you would

help us

know you

and that through us

you would do

your work

in our hearts

and bear fruits

for the glory

of your name

in this nation

father thank you

that this is only

a possibility

because you first

loved us

so we pray

and ask today

that Jesus

would become

even greater

as the days go on

in our sight

in his name we pray

amen