The Vine and the Branches
In John 15:1, we find Jesus walking through the streets of Jerusalem in the evening, joined by his eleven disciples (minus Judas Iscariot). They departed from the house where they had observed the Passover and made their way to the outskirts of the city where Jesus would spend time in prayer before he was betrayed, an event which would happen only hours later. As they walked, Jesus continued to teach them important lessons to prepare them for life on the other side of the cross.To teach them spiritual truth, Jesus would often borrow familiar concepts from the natural world around them. John records how he had already done this earlier in his ministry to teach truth about himself. He described himself as bread, the bread of life from God (6:35, 48, 51). He described himself as light, the light of truth from God (8:12; 9:5). He described himself as the good shepherd who provides for the spiritual needs of God’s children and protects them from danger (10:7, 9, 11, 14). He described himself as the resurrection and the life that overcomes the power of death (11:25). And has described himself as the only true way or road that leads to God (14:6).As he walked with his disciples through the streets of Jerusalem on the night of his impending arrest, he used another illustration from the natural world. This time he described a vine in a vineyard (John 15:1-6). This was a common sight outside Jerusalem at that time. It was as common as seeing a subway in New York City. Jesus used this common situation to teach important insights about the kind of relationship that a Christian should have with God.
Jesus used this common situation to teach important insights about the kind of relationship that a Christian should have with God.
Even though Jesus was going to leave them that night, they would continue to be connected to him in a spiritual relationship that would last forever, just as a branch is connected to a vine. Jesus uses this illustration to describe what this relationship would be like and how his followers should cultivate this relationship in the days ahead. This helps believers today in the same way. It helps us to understand the nature of our relationship with God and shows us how to respond to this relationship in a personal way.To begin this conversation, Jesus made a very important point. Not all who identify with Jesus are true believers. So, as you consider the teaching of Jesus in this passage, ask yourself this question. “Am I a true believer who has believed on him as God and Savior for forgiveness from sins and eternal life, or am I following him for other selfish reasons?”
I. Your relationship with Jesus determines your relationship with God (John 15:1).
By using the illustration of a vine and a vineyard, Jesus was not doing something new. This illustration already appears in the Old Testament. Many years before, God had described the nation of Israel as a vine. He removed this vine from slavery in Egypt and planted it in Canaan, where he gave it the best of care (Psa 80:8). But he later said that this vine turned out to be fruitless and unfaithful (Jer 2:21). Israel turned out to be a bad plant that failed to meet expectations.One evidence of this was how she used their material blessings from God. Like a bad vine that sucks up all the nutrients from the soil for itself without producing fruit for its owner and benefiting other plants around it, Israel received all of God’s blessings and used them for herself. She used her material wealth to create new idols and fancy places to worship them (Hos 10:1). She should have used God’s blessings to care for the Temple of God, to care for the poor, and to be a blessing to the nations of the world who needed to learn about God and to experience his love through her.God eventually responded to this self-centered behavior by sending the empires of Assyria and Babylon to destroy the city of Jerusalem and take away many of her citizens as prisoners of war. Since Israel did not use her blessings to turn the nations of the world to God, but used these blessings for herself, she wandered away from her purpose and lost her God-given influence in the world (Isa 5:1-7).During the earthly ministry of Jesus, the nation of Israel was still in a position of irrelevance, just as we find at the end of the Old Testament. But Jesus presented himself as a better alternative. He taught that having a relationship with God did not require somehow connecting with the nation of Israel. Instead, to have a relationship with God required connecting directly to Jesus himself.
Having a relationship with God did not require somehow connecting with the nation of Israel. Instead, to have a relationship with God required connecting directly to Jesus himself.
This is what he meant when he said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser” (v. 1). Israel was a vine, and the world offers many other “vines” that promise to give you a relationship with God and give you a satisfying life. But Jesus made a different claim. He presented himself as the true vine, the only vine who is able to connect you to God.
II. There are two kinds of people who identify with Jesus (John 15:2).
By using this vine illustration, Jesus is showing the difference between people who claim to have a relationship with him and those who don’t. He is showing the difference between those who are associating themselves with him and those who are not. Everyone in the world does not claim to be in a relationship with God through Jesus. For instance, those who practice Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, or atheism do not. In this passage, Jesus is not talking about those kinds of people.Jesus focuses his teaching here on a different “two kinds” of people. These are people who have some sort of relationship with Christ, whether real or imagined. Notice how he describes them as “every branch in me” (v. 2). By saying this, he is referring to every person who claims to have a relationship with God through Jesus, even making a profession of faith and even participating in baptism. But he also teaches that not everyone who makes this claim is “in him” for real. They both identify themselves as being “in a relationship” with Jesus, but not all of them have the kind of relationship that provides a real relationship with God.
Jesus focuses his teaching here on a different “two kinds” of people. These are people who have some sort of relationship with Christ, whether real or imagined.
Like the group of twelve disciples, a church today is composed of people who claim to be in a relationship with God through Jesus. But how can we tell whether we are “in him” for real or not? Jesus answers this question by pointing to the fruit of our lives.
A. Those who do not bear fruit (John 15:2a, 6)
First, Jesus mentions those who publicly identify as being in a relationship with him, but the lifestyle they are living shows no evidence of this. They show no fruit that comes from God. This kind of person appears to be real for a while, but they eventually fade away and fail to produce any kind of genuine Christian fruit. (We will talk more about the fruit that comes from a genuine relationship with God in an upcoming sermon.) In the end, God will remove this person from any association with him and cast him away into the fire of eternal judgment. He does this just as a gardener will cut off the branches of a vine when it fails to produce grapes, or berries, or whatever fruit it is supposed to produce.You will notice that it is God who removes these branches. Though we need to be aware of these dynamics, we are not responsible to remove people from their claim to be in a relationship with God. Consider what John says in another letter that he wrote called 1 John. He talks about people who participated in the activities of church and who everyone thought was a genuine believer. However, they were like Judas Iscariot instead and were artificial Christians. Here is what John said about them when they eventually stopped coming and participating with the believers at church. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” (1 John 2:19).
B. Those who do bear fruit (John 15:2b, 3-5)
Jesus also mentions another category of people who publicly identify as being “in him,” and the lifestyle they are living does show fruit that comes from God. The artificial believer who does not have a real relationship with God shows no real, ongoing fruit from God, but the genuine believer does. This does not mean that a genuine believer automatically shows as much fruit as possible. That is why God must prune them. “Pruning” means that God trims their branches. He does not cut off their branch entirely, as he does with an artificial believer. Instead, he trims in a more limited and strategic way, carefully removing the stubborn and unfruitful leaves and twigs that are growing from these branches.Genuine believers may go through periods in life when they behave out of character, pulling their sap from wrong sources in the world. But if you are an artificial believer, this will characterize your life all the time. If you are a genuine believer, God will trim your branches to correct this wrong behavior so that you will be more effective, more obedient, more joyful, and more fruitful for him. He will do this through two primary means, the Word of God and experiences of suffering.
If you are a genuine believer, God will trim your branches to correct this wrong behavior so that you will be more effective, more obedient, more joyful, and more fruitful for him.
To help us understand what Jesus is teaching here about two kinds of people who identify themselves as being in a relationship with Jesus, we need to consider the backdrop of his teaching. For approximately three years, twelve men had publicly and personally associated themselves with Jesus. We call them the twelve disciples. They listened and learned, prayed and ministered, preached and taught together with Jesus. But one of these men, Judas Iscariot, was an artificial believer. In fact, he was absent from the entire previous conversation in the upper room (John 14). He also was absent from this conversation in John 15 as Jesus walked with his disciples at nightfall through the streets of Jerusalem. Judas had slipped away to betray Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders.But what about the other eleven men? Jesus assured them of genuine faith. He said, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (John 14:3). “The word” which he had spoken to them refers to the teaching he had given them throughout the past three years. They had truly believed the truth about Jesus as God and Savior. They had already believed on him as the lover and leader of their lives, all of them except Judas Iscariot (John 6:66-70). This is especially meaningful due to what Jesus said earlier in the same upper room only hours before, which was, “You are clean, but not all of you” (John 13:10). When Jesus said that, Judas was with them in the room, so he had to make a qualifying statement. But when he spoke in John 15:3, no qualifying statement was necessary because Judas had departed.Though Jesus had assured these eleven men of being genuine believers, we know that they would waver in their faith. They would back away from Jesus for a phase of time. In fact, three times that very night Peter would curse and swear and deny his association with Jesus. Only John (the man who wrote this gospel) would be present at crucifixion, and all the men would hide in a house together in fear for their lives. One of them, Thomas, would slip into serious depression.If all we knew about these men was how they behaved during the crucifixion and the weeks that followed, we would assume that they all were artificial believers. But because the Holy Spirit was at work in their lives, because the Word of God was at work in their hearts, and because they responded to the patient ministry of Jesus, God trimmed away their doubt and self-centeredness to restore their faith and confidence in him. They were not artificial like Judas, who never returned. They were genuine branches who responded to the faithful trimming of God in their lives.
These eleven men were genuine branches who responded to the faithful trimming of God in their lives.
Judas experienced a different end. He turned his back on Jesus and never returned. Instead of coming to Jesus for restoration, he ran away and killed himself. Instead of being a branch pruned by God, like the other eleven, he was a branch cut off and cast away forever. He was like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. He received the teaching and blessing of God, but he wanted a relationship with God for selfish reasons. From what we see in Scripture, he followed Jesus to get a prestigious position in his future government and to become a financial success.In light of this teaching, you need to ask yourself some questions. First, have you chosen to turn to Jesus as your one true connection to God? Or are you trusting in another vine, another god, another philosophy, theory, or feeling, or your own behavior, or another religion, like traditional Judaism or something else? No vine but Jesus can provide you with a real and lasting relationship with God. You need to turn away from your sin and your wrong ways to God, and you need to put your trust in Jesus alone as God and Savior.Second, are you a genuine branch? Are you a real believer? Are you fully trusting in Jesus Christ alone as God and Savior to forgive your sin and to give you a relationship with God forever? Or are you following Christ for some other reasons? Perhaps you are hoping to have a more comfortable life? Perhaps you are following Christ because it seems like the most logical thing to do? Perhaps you are following Christ because you think he will help you to be more successful financially? Perhaps you are following Christ because you grew up in a church that encourages you to do so and because your parents taught you this way? Or perhaps you are following Christ because you are afraid of what other Christians will think about you if you do not? Whatever the case, you must be sure that you have believed on Jesus Christ as God and Savior for real, and for no other reason than that you are a sinner who needs to be restored to a right relationship with God.Third, if you have believed on Jesus as God and Savior for real, then Jesus promises that “you are clean through the word which he has spoken to you.” You have believed the truth about Jesus and the Holy Spirit has given you a new life as a child of God. You have a place in the presence of God that will never go away, and you have a relationship with God now that is yours to experience on a daily basis. After all, trusting in Jesus as God and Savior is not like turning to the nation of Israel or some other kind of religion. Jesus is a vine that will never be unfruitful, uprooted, or cast away. I ask you to consider whether you are a genuine branch or an artificial one.
