Sermon Text: John 15: 1-8
The Vine and the Branches
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 prunesso 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, as I also 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 you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; 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.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Morning Message
What does it mean to remain? I will give you the definitions and then we will come back to them later. First: To continue to be as specified. Second: To stay in the same place. As I said, we will come back to these later. In 1st John 2: 28, we hear this: “And now little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” This is a warning for believers in Jesus to live out their faith. Jesus could come back at any time! Are we ready? Now I do not mean ready as in: Are you saved? I mean: Are we ready for that moment? What will that moment be like when Jesus appears, and we are face- to- face with are Savior? What will we be doing in the moments preceding His return? Will we feel confidence and satisfaction knowing that we were hard at work living as Jesus called us to live, or will we feel ashamed that we were doing other things, things that do not glorify Him? You know we will have no warning of His coming. It’s not going to be like when company is coming to visit, and you have time to get your house in order. That is why we need to keep our lives in the proper order.
From my daily devotional: a lesson on gardening. Gardeners know that there are two types of tomato plants: determinate and indeterminate. Determinates are tomato bushes that produce fruit for a limited time. Indeterminates are tomato vines that continue to grow and bear fruit for as long as the growing conditions are favorable. In Jesus’ parable of the vine and branches, He talked about grape vines. And modern grapevines don’t bear fruit forever; they have a season of growth and are then harvested. But He introduced an important spiritual concept: abiding or remaining. As long as we, (the branches) abide (remain) in Jesus (the Vine), and His words abide (remain) in us, we will bear much fruit. We will know the Father (the Vinedresser) so well that we can ask for whatever we need, and it will be given to us. His will becomes our will as we pray and ask. What does it mean to abide in Jesus? It means to live in close fellowship with Him—in worship, in obedience, in service, in love, and in ministry. In that way, we are always prepared for His Second Coming. Here is the ultimate goal of the Christian life. God’s will becomes our will: when we become so in tune with God that we want His will for our lives instead of ours. What do you pray for? What do you want? Does it match up with God’s will and His word?
I think that in many ways we get things backward. We focus on the results that we want and the ministry that we know needs to take place. If any of us were asked, we would say that we want to see church growth. We would say that we want to see real change in our world. We would say that we want to see more people come to Jesus and be saved, and of course we want healing and wholeness for all that are hurting. We are so focused on the results that we forget about the process. We have the example of Jesus who showed us what it takes to accomplish ministry. Jesus did not skip the process, and neither can we. What did He do? After feeding thousands He went off by himself for prayer. He did this over- and- over again. He understood, that in order for him to do these things, he had to stay connected to the Father. How often do we pray and how much time do we dedicate to prayer? Jesus would spend the whole day. For the most part, we have our prayer time; get it over with; and move on with our day. I understand that we are short on time, but we cannot then wonder why our prayers aren’t always answered. How closely do you walk with Jesus? Where is He on your priority list?
To remain in Jesus is to continue to be as specified. As specified by Jesus! To stay in the same place. Where were you when you first came to Jesus? You were 100 percent with Him! We are to remain there. This is the one aspect of your Christian life that should remain the same. I always tell you that you have to grow and change in order to become more like Jesus, but in this one instance, your life should not change. It has an ugly name and we all do it. It’s called backsliding. Jesus says if you will remain in me, continue as specified at your conversion, I will remain in you. We cannot remain in Jesus with just Sunday morning effort. We cannot remain in Jesus if we live a double life of sometimes faithful to him and other times faithful to the world. I say these words to you every time we take communion. Did you ever wonder why I use these words? “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. In communion we partake of the elements in order to remember the sacrifice of body and blood by our Savior. That sacrifice made it possible for us to once again abide with God. Because Jesus, by dying on the cross, paid the price for all sin, we were now acceptable to God. God doesn’t just want part of you, and He doesn’t just want you part of the time or when you feel like it. Jesus calls us to abide, to continue with, to stay in relationship with. Remaining in relationship with Jesus is our goal.
In Christ’s Love and Peace
Pastor Bob
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