SERMON: BRANCHING OUT

(Source of Photo: http://www.colorado.edu/history/yonemoto/JakuchuBeanVines.jpg)

Preached by Gregory W. Lee
7 October 2007

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to John 15
1. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
3. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
4. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
-- this morning, we are going to be ending our series on the "I Am" statements of Jesus -- there are a total of seven of these statements in the book of John -- as you probably know, the number seven represents completeness or wholeness or perfection -- so in these seven statements, we see the complete picture of Christ -- who He is -- why He has come -- and what He has done for us
-- I hope that as we have worked through these statements of Christ in the book of John that you have noticed how the titles that He has claimed for Himself mirror the complete work and plan of Christ in our lives
-- first, Jesus showed how God reaches out to us through His prevenient grace -- He told us "I am the bread of life" -- pointing out how He has blesses all of us -- the saved and the unsaved -- with our basic needs in life so that we might be aware of His presence -- as the Bible says, "the rain falls on the just and the unjust" -- in the same way, Gods prevenient grace reaches out to all of us
-- next, Jesus showed how the meeting of these basic needs causes us to look for Him as the Creator and Provider -- He told us "I am the light of the world" -- helping us see how the revelation of Christ comes about through His providence in our lives so that we might recognize Him and see Him as our God
-- Jesus told us, "I am the door" -- pointing out that God has made a way for us to come to Him through His justifying grace -- by pointing us to the door of salvation -- to the cross of Calvary where Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins and for our reconciliation with the Father
-- and then Jesus demonstrated that our spiritual lives don't end at the altar and the cross, but merely begin there as He begins to sanctify us and lead us into holiness and perfection in Him
-- Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd" to encourage us that as we walk in this newness of the Christian life that He has not left us alone -- that He will be with us to guard us and guide us and lead us on our journey
-- when we wondered where we were heading on our journey, Jesus told us "I am the resurrection," reminding us of our final goal and our hope for eternal life with Him
-- knowing that the path before us would be difficult to follow and that other paths would beckon to us from this world, Jesus told us "I am the way and the truth and the life" to keep us from straying down false paths that promised life but deliver destruction
-- and, finally, Jesus tells us in the passage we are going to be looking at this morning, "I am the true vine" -- pointing out to us both the source of our life and our purpose in Him -- so, as we close our study of the "I Am " statements, let's turn to John 15 and examine these two points from Christ

II. Scripture Lesson
-- before we look at these verses and consider their implication, let me share with you the context of this passage
-- these words were spoken by Jesus on the night that He was betrayed -- as you remember, Jesus has been sharing a meal with His chosen 12 disciples in the upper room -- He has washed their feet -- He has instituted the Lord's Supper as new sacrament -- and He has shared with them that He is about to be betrayed and be killed and leave them
-- Judas has left the room to go to the High Priest to betray Jesus -- and the remainder of the disciples are sitting there in shock over what He has told them
-- as Chapter 14 closes, Jesus says, "Come now, let us leave" -- and with that, Jesus and the 11 remaining disciples leave the upper room and make their way to the Garden of Gethsemene
-- as they walk along, Jesus continues to share with them His words and His heart, knowing that this is the last time He will see them until after the resurrection
-- as they walk along in the night towards Gethsemene, it is no great leap of imagination to picture them walking through vineyards planted on the hills outside of Jerusalem, because Jesus uses the image of a vine and its branches to make His next "I Am" statement to this small group of believers
-- look back at verse 1
1. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
-- "I am the true vine," Jesus says, "and My Father is the gardener" -- in other words, I am the source of life -- I am the root of Jessee that was promised -- there have been other vines that have claimed to be the Messiah -- there have been other religions that have claimed to show the way to Heaven -- but I am the true vine -- I am the only vine -- and I was planted here in this place by My Father
-- everything that has happened to me thus far has not been by chance -- and everything that will happen to me this night and in the future is planned and controlled -- I am in the hand of the gardener and His purposes and His will are being fulfilled
-- verse 2
2. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
3. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
-- Here Jesus speaks to the disciples hearts about two issues -- what about Judas, the one who is obviously betraying Jesus? -- "he has chosen to separate himself from me, so the Father is going to cut him off of the vine" -- and what about the remaining disciples? -- could they become like Judas? -- "No," Jesus tells them, "You will be pruned so you may be more fruitful, but you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you -- you may not understand it right now -- you may not understand why I have to go to the cross -- but in the future, the truth of my words will come to you and you will be fruitful witnesses of me to the whole world"
-- verse 4
4. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
-- here we come to the main part of Jesus' message to His disciples and to us -- in these verses, Jesus points out to us both the source of our life and our purpose in Him -- let's look at these separately

III. The Source of Life -- "In Christ"
-- the first thing He tells us in these verses is that He is the source of our life -- that to live -- to be spiritually alive -- we must remain in Him
-- "I am the vine," He says -- "and you are the branches" -- to live, you must remain in me -- to live, you must abide in me
-- now this is an illustration that I think most of us can relate to -- let me explain
-- the backyard at our house is fenced in to keep the dogs in -- and because our dogs are experts at escape and like to dig out and climb out, we have put an electric wire at the bottom and at the top of the fence
-- a few weeks ago, our dogs got out -- and when I went out to check, I found out that the electric wire wasn't working -- grapevines had grown through the fence and grounded out the wire -- so I spent an entire day walking along the fence line, cutting off all of these grapevines and tossing them away so the fence would be clear again
-- but, truth be told, I wasn't cutting grapevines -- I was cutting the branches that come off those grapevines -- you see, there is one main vine for the grapes -- and all of these branches that were growing through my fence were coming off of that one main vine -- it was the source of life for all of those branches
-- the branches were getting their food and their nourishment and their support from that vine -- and as long as they were connected to the vine, these branches were able to live -- but when I cut them off, they were killed and could be removed -- if I really wanted to keep the grape branches off my fence, I would have to cut the actual vine that was feeding the branches
-- Jesus is telling us that our spiritual lives work in much the same way -- we stay spiritually alive only if we are connected to Him -- only if we abide in Him
-- Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches" -- through the vine of Christ we receive our food and nourishment -- we receive the grace and mercy and peace of the Lord -- we receive His power and His presence
-- the Bible has another term for this relationship with Jesus -- it calls it being "in Christ" -- to be "in Christ" means that we are connected to Him -- that we remain in Him -- and that we are doing the things necessary to maintain this closeness and this oneness with Christ -- praying and studying His word and attending church and fellowshiping with other Christians -- it is through these means of grace that we stay connected to the vine -- that we remain "in Christ"
-- which brings us to Jesus' second point in this passage

IV. Bearing Fruit
-- let's read verses 4-5 again
4. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
-- we were created to be in fellowship with God -- to be in a relationship with Him -- to be "in Christ" and connected to the true vine so that we would be filled with His nourishment -- fed by the Word and by His Providence so that we might do a good work for Him
-- the focus of these verses is not just on being connected to the vine -- but on the results of being connected -- of being "in Christ" -- namely, we are called to bear fruit for Christ
-- when I was cutting those grapevines back the other day, it struck me just how much they had grown and spread in just a year -- I had cut them back before, but over the course of a year, they had grown and spread out and covered the entire fence
-- that's a great picture of what we should be doing as Christians and as the Church of Christ -- Jesus tells us here that we are called to bear fruit for Him -- to spread out and cover this land with the good news of the gospel of Christ -- and to bring others into His fold as we point them to salvation through Jesus
-- Christ does not intend for us to be confined to the four walls of our sanctuaries or to limit our Christianity to Sundays -- His intent is for us to bear fruit for Him -- to be faithful and productive members of His Church -- sharing with others the love of Christ
-- let's imagine for a moment that this church building is a vineyard -- and right in the middle of this room there is a large grapevine -- from this grapevine there are branches growing in all directions -- most of the branches are confined to this room -- they hit the walls and grow up along the walls -- they are growing along the floor and along the ceiling -- they are draped over the pews -- but they really aren't bearing any fruit because they aren't out in the sunshine where they can really flourish and grow
-- do you know what happens when you tell someone about Jesus? -- a branch goes out the door and spreads to that place -- do you know what happens when you share the love of Jesus by serving someone? -- a branch goes out a window and spreads to that place
-- and when these branches get outside the walls of the church, then they can really spread and grow and start to bear fruit for Christ
-- I imagine most of us have seen kudzu at some point -- or at least pictures of kudzu -- look at this picture -- these kudzu vines have literally covered this building -- they have overtaken it and are spreading out in all directions
-- this is a perfect picture of what we are supposed to do as the branches of Christ -- we are to take His message to the world -- we are to spread out and share the good news of Jesus and of the cross and of the resurrection with all that we meet -- spreading out and covering the entire world with the love of Christ
-- Jesus tells us here that if we remain in Him, we will bear much fruit -- what is going on with your branch? -- is it just resting on a pew -- or is it spreading and bearing fruit for Jesus?

V. Closing
-- "I am the true vine -- you are the branches -- if a man remains in me and I in him, He will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing"
-- as we close this morning, I want you to really take a look at the spiritual fruit in your life -- are you bearing fruit for Jesus or are you just taking up space on the pew?
-- Jesus tells us here that if we are in Him -- if we are connected to Him and drawing our source of life from Him -- that we will bear fruit -- He doesn't say that we can bear fruit if we feel like it -- He doesn't say that we might bear fruit if we decide to -- He says that we will bear fruit
-- if you look at your life and honestly can't see any fruit, then you have to question where you are in your relationship with Jesus -- this world has a good way of sapping our strength and our vitality -- and if we don't remain close to Jesus -- through prayer -- through worship -- through reading His word -- through knowing Him day in and day out -- we might find ourselves cut off from our source of life and nourishment
-- if you aren't bearing fruit in your life, then it's an indication that you are not where you should be in your relationship with Christ -- maybe you have never come to Him in faith before -- trusting in Him for your eternal life and for the forgiveness of sins -- if this is the case, then all you have to do is ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins -- to trust in Him and believe that He died on the cross for you and that He rose on the third day -- and you will be saved
-- maybe you do know Him -- but you have slidden back in your devotion to Him -- if that's the case, I want to encourage you this morning to recommit your life to Him -- to get reconnected to the vine -- so that you might enjoy the abundant, fruitful life that He promises
-- whatever you need to do, I invite you to respond to God's word as you feel led -- the altar is open as always for you to spend time with God -- and I'd be happy to pray with you if you would like
-- let us pray