johnthetruevine

John 15:1-8

1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Before we deal with the parable of the vine we need to touch on this last of seven “I AM” statements of our Lord Jesus Christ in John’s Gospel. Jesus says “I AM” in answer to the soldiers in 18:5, but these seven “I AM” claims are the clear statements of the authority of Jesus Christ and have an object in view..

These claims are so exclusive and so definite that a person must either turn from Jesus, die in their sin, and go to an everlasting hell or they cry out with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”

Who is “I AM”?

What is the significance of the statement when Jesus Christ says: “I AM”?

Find Exodus 3 in your own Bible: Genesis, Exodus …

Exodus 3:1-16

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

3 Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn."

4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!"

And he said, "Here I am."

5 Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."

6 Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

7 And the LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

12 So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

13 Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"

[There were over 500 “gods” in Egypt, which one are you?]

14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

15 Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'

The “name” of God means His attributes, His being.

“I AM” is the name of Jehovah, the name of God.

In John’s Gospel there are seven occasions [seven being the number of perfection] where Jesus makes a claims to be the “I AM”.

When studied the previous passages in John where Jesus made an “I AM” claim, I reserved my comments until we arrived at this final claim in chapter 15. And even now I will only briefly express the force of each of the “I AM” claims.

The first “I AM” claim is John 6:48.

The context of John 6, where Jesus feeds the multitudes with five barley loaves and two fish, then He treads upon the sea, as Job 9:8 had prophesied, and then He preaches a sermon claiming that He is the True Bread sent from heaven. What is “bread”? Bread is a symbol of the most basic staple of our sustenance. Do not get hung up in literalism. Think of the symbolism of bread as that which keeps us alive.

In chapter 6, Jesus says, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” Now we spent enough time explaining that Jesus did not mean an act of cannibalism.

Jesus does not mean that the bread becomes His literal body. And besides, you must understand that John 6 has absolutely nothing to do with the Lord’s Supper. To steal a new catch phrase from General Honera down in Louisiana, “Don’t get stuck on stupid!”

What Jesus means in John 6 is that our relationship with Him must be as intimate as eating a piece of bread that our body assimilates and the bread becomes a part of us.

As we dwell on the Word of God we “eat His flesh and drink His blood.”

So Jesus says that He is exclusively the One who sustains life:

John 6:48

I am the bread of life.

The second “I AM” claim is John 8:12.

There are many comparisons between darkness and light in the Bible. Darkness often refers to ignorance and evil. Light often refers to understanding and holiness. The believer must walk in the “light.” The light of Holy Spirit revelation of the Word of God, understanding is given to a heart that has been changed from stone to flesh.

So Jesus says that He is the exclusive source of understanding and the way of holiness.

John 8:12

"I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

The third “I AM” claim is John 10:9.

In chapter 10, Jesus gives the parable of the Good Shepherd. In the opening verses He contrasts how one enters the sheepfold. The true Shepherd must enter by the door. The “doorkeeper” is the Word of God. The false shepherds who were prophesied about in Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23 are the Jewish leaders who feed themselves and abuse the sheep. There are “hirelings” and care not for the sheep.

But Jesus says that He is the “door of the sheep”, i.e. He came by the prophets [according to the OT Scriptures]. “I AM” the Door.

John 10:7-9 “Amen, amen, I say to you that I AM the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

The fourth “I AM” claim is John 10:11

As Jesus continues the parable of the shepherd and the sheep in chapter 10, He says how He is the True Shepherd. The True Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. He says that there will be one flock and one shepherd. There is one universal church made up of all believers of all time and the church has only one Savior.

John 10:11

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

The fifth “I AM” claim is John 11:25

Jesus answers Job’s stark question, “If a man die, shall he live again?”

[Job 14:14]

We shall all die and we shall all live again. The question is not the duration of life after death, but rather the nature and quality of that life. We will all live as long as God lives and we will live somewhere. It is either eternal life or eternal death; it is heaven or hell.

And so Jesus makes this claim that the only way to eternal life is through faith in Him.

John 11:25-26

25 "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

The sixth “I AM” claim is John 14:6

Since we have recently covered chapter 14, I will say to those who missed those messages that it does not matter one whit what you or I think about how many ways to God there may be.

But it is a fatal mistake to call Jesus’ integrity into question. In what is the boldest statement ever made by anyone!

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Mohammed is not a way to God.

The teachings of Buddha are not a way to God.

Vishnu will not take you to God.

Not even the Virgin Mary is a way to God.

There is only one way to God and that is through the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. If this claim by Jesus is not true then nothing else that He said will matter.

What authority does Jesus claim for Himself?

I AM the Door; Jesus is the exclusive entrance to God's kingdom.

I AM the Good Shepherd; Jesus gives His life for the sheep.

I AM the Bread of Life; Jesus is the sustainer of all life.

I AM the Light of the world; Jesus is the source of all understanding of truth.

I AM the Resurrection and the Life; Jesus is the only promise of eternal life.

I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life; Jesus is the "single issue in our pluralistic insane society.

We will have more to say in a few minutes about the seventh I AM claim;

I AM the True Vine; Jesus is the source of life, we are but branches.

But do you see the conflict over authority? Do you see the issues that result from such exclusive claims?

What about you? Are you struggling with the authority of Jesus the

Christ over your eternal soul? I vividly recall my own struggle, now over 37 years ago, when I knew that a true commitment to Jesus Christ meant that my life had to change forever. I must love Jesus more than I loved my favorite sins.

So if you are fighting against the claims of Jesus and who has authority over your life, you or God, let me tell you in love that if you win the fight with God over your imagined “autonomy”, the "prize," if you "win," is eternal damnation!

The seventh “I AM” claim is John 15:1.

Since that is where we are today in our exposition of John’s Gospel we will deal with that claim now.

John 15:1 "I am the true vine….”

Because Jesus said in 14: 31, “… Arise, let us go from here.” The idea is that as He and His disciples left the upper room and were walking through Jerusalem, they passed the temple and Jesus saw the great golden vine that decorated the door of the temple. That may have been the case. In any case there were vines growing everywhere in Judea.

It is natural enough to believe that Jesus, who nearly always taught in parables, used the vine to teach this vital lesson. Christ demands a spiritual union between believers and Himself. Anything else is a sham and hypocrisy. The true disciple of Jesus abides in Him and can do nothing without Him, indeed, cannot live otherwise.

Jesus is the “True Vine”. This is not a contrast between Jesus and other false vines but this is His way of saying that He is the source of true life.

Jesus is the “True Light” [1:9], the “True Bread” [6:32, and in Hebrews 8:2 Jesus is the “True tabernacle”.

In a world that is starved for truth, we have before us very Truth in Jesus.

The Bible student will, of course, know that the vine is a symbol of Israel in the OT.

Psalm 80:8-9

8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt;

You have cast out the nations, and planted it.

9 You prepared room for it,

And caused it to take deep root,

And it filled the land.

Isaiah 5:1-7

1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.

2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.

3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.

4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?

5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it."

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

There are other OT uses of the vine as a symbol of Israel, e.g., in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but there is an interesting thing about all of these comparisons of the vine to Israel: Every time it is a symbol of Israel’s failure and degeneration and not fruitfulness.

But how does Isaiah speak of the Messiah who is to come?

Isaiah 53:1-3

1 Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

3 He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

And so, although Jesus “came unto His own and His own received Him not,” He is the “True Vine.”

And God the Father is the Vinedresser.

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

There are many different interpretations for verse 2.

2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

John Calvin and Arthur Pink say that among true believers there will be hypocrites. While it is true that there are “tares growing among the wheat,” that is not the best interpretation of verse 2.

Editing note: After I preached this a brother corrected me in that Mr. Pink held to the same view that Mr. Boice does. I appreciate it when anyone takes the time and interest to tell me when I am wrong. I owe Mr. Pink an apology but now he is where there are no tears or regrets.

After considering the possible interpretations I believe that James Montgomery Boice has it right. Boice says that the interpreters were influenced by verse 6 and took the weakest meaning of the Greek word airo.

This Greek word has four meanings: (1) to lift up, or pick up; (2) to lift up figuratively, as in lifting up one’s eyes or voice; (3) to lift up with the added thought of being carried away, and; (4) to remove.

If you take the first meaning, “to lift up” it would mean that the Father is caring for the branches and not carrying away unproductive branches. This idea goes better with “abiding” in the vine.

Also, this is exactly what the gardener does as he keeps the branches of the vine from lying on the ground where they attract insects and parasites that would hinder their growth.

So the first thing that the Father does is to “lift up” the Christian who “does not bear fruit” so as to bring him or her into a closer spiritual relationship with Himself.

The second thing that the Father does is to “prune” the branches so that they may bear “more fruit.” In spiritual terms this would mean that bad habits and sinful thoughts and actions are being stripped away. It means that our priorities are being changed. It may mean that certain family or friends are taken out of our lives so that our spiritual growth is not hindered.

And Mr. Boice writes that the order of “lifting up” and “pruning” is important. If we go about lopping off unspiritual practices without first being drawn closer to God in true devotion we will only become self-righteous hypocrites. We will look down on others who have not made the same denials and consider them to be worldly and ourselves spiritual. This is the essence of legalism.

The key to our spiritual pruning and growth is given in verse 3.

3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

In 13:10, referring to Judas Iscariot, Jesus said, “… you are clean, but not all of you.” Here Jesus tells them how they became “clean”.

The only way to be clean is through the Word of God. God gives us the desire to be clean by “lifting up” and He “prunes” away unclean habits and thoughts, and it is through His Holy Word.

I cannot stress too much the importance of daily devotional Bible reading. This is especially true for preachers who necessarily spend most of their time reading and searching the Scriptures preparing sermons.

Psalm 119:9

How can a young man cleanse his way?

By taking heed according to Your word.

There is a third point in the parable of the vine.

4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

With all of the “easy believism” in the modern Christian world it seems that Jesus could not have really meant what He says in 15:4-5.

You cannot separate the two uses of “abide” that are the secret to fruitfulness. If we do not abide in Christ then He is not abiding in us and we can bear no fruit. The branch cannot bear fruit of itself.

We abide or dwell in Christ by grace, of course, but not without a deliberate effort on our part to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice there is a progression as the believer is “lifted up”, and “pruned”. There is fruit, more fruit, and much fruit.

But there is nothing done that is useful in the Kingdom of God apart from abiding in Christ.

Notice also, that Jesus does not say, “Without you, I can do nothing.”

Verse 6 presents some difficulties for those of us that believe in the eternal security of the believer.

6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

The fruitless vine is not good for anything. The wood is too soft to be used for furniture or to build anything. It is twisted and brittle. It is not even fit to burn because it burns too quickly. Ezekiel describes Israel as worthless wood of the vine.

Ezekiel 1-8

1 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

2 "Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest?

3 Is wood taken from it to make any object? Or can men make a peg from it to hang any vessel on?

4 Instead, it is thrown into the fire for fuel; the fire devours both ends of it, and its middle is burned. Is it useful for any work?

5 Indeed, when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be useful for any work when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned?

6 "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

7 and I will set My face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them.

8 Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have persisted in unfaithfulness,' says the Lord GOD."

So let’s be honest before God. Are we useful in any way? Or, are we just like the barren tree that is encumbering the ground, just taking up space? Then go to His Word and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here is the situation. Jesus is referring to those who are already in Christ but who are unfruitful. Can it be that a person can come to faith in Christ and be justified and still lose his salvation?

We must always use the analogy of Scripture. That means we must always yield to passages that refer to a subject and that are very clear to interpret passages that seem to say something different or that are somewhat obscure.

Can a true believer lose his or her salvation?

John 10:27-29

27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.

Eternal life must be “eternal” or words have no meaning.

Jesus does not say that if we do not abide in Him we will be unfruitful although that is true. What Jesus says is that the person who does not abide in Him will be cut off and burned. We cannot help but think of burning in hell. So can a true believer be cut off and sent to hell?

There are three interpretations of this passage.

The first one we have [at least I have] rejected and that is that a true believer can lose his salvation.

The second interpretation makes these branches nominal Christians. Most of the Puritan writers and Matthew Henry and Charles Spurgeon take this as the meaning. But the difficulty with that is that Christ seems to be referring to true believers.

It is sadly true that the visible church is full of people who only claim to be Christians but their life is not controlled by the Holy Spirit. But it does not seem that Jesus is referring to such people.

The third interpretation is that it is the believer’s dead works that are burned.

It is the believer’s fruitfulness that is spoken of throughout this section and not his salvation.

Paul supports the view that burning does not always mean hell.

1 Corinthians 3:9-15

9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.

14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.

15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

So we have the matter of unfruitful Christians.

Can we take any comfort in the prospect of a person being saved, lifted up, pruned, and yet being content to be fruitless? We should be ashamed to even consider that as a manner of life in Christ.

The person who is content to be as fruitless as possible may learn too late that he has been deceived.

So what I am saying is that Christ is teaching that true believers abide in Christ and Christ abides in them and they are fruitful.

We will stop at verse 6, but I cannot leave you wondering about what is the “fruit” that Christians must bear.

Personal evangelism and bringing others to Christ is surely good fruit, but some true believers rarely if ever, are able to produce such fruit. This is the work of the Holy Spirit and we must be very careful not to manipulate people and thus fill the visible church with more false professors.

Amen