The True Vine

Use these materials to go deeper into this message on your own, or with your small group. 
Passage Breakdowns, SOAPS Format & Instructions (Weeks 1-12)
Passage Breakdowns, SOAPS Format & Instructions (Weeks 13-26)

If you’d like to follow along with us using the Gospel of John Scripture Journal, you’re welcome to purchase a copy here

8:40 Service | 10:00 Service | 11:20 Service | Sermon Audio

Good morning Chapel family. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I want to say a special thank you to my own dad—he just turned 86 years old, and he continues to set an amazing example for me and a lot of other people.
So…we are continuing our study in the Gospel of John, and I’m going to jump right into the Scripture—John 15, verses 1 through 17. Let’s hear God’s Word…
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, 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.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 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. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. This is the Word of the Lord.
So Jesus is gathered with his eleven remaining disciples; it’s the night before the cross. And before he leaves them, there’s something about his identity that he wants to make sure they know. Leading up to this moment, Jesus has already made six “I am” statements:
I am the bread of life.
I am the light of the world.
I am the gate.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the resurrection and the life. And…
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
So now, on this last night together, Jesus makes one final “I am” statement. And this one is so practical. If we grasp this truth about Jesus, it will open up our lives to possibilities we never knew existed. Jesus looks at his disciples, and he says, “I am the true vine.” What did he mean by that?
Well, in the Hebrew Scriptures, the nation of Israel is often compared to a vine. Psalm 80 verses 8 and 9:
You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
 You cleared the ground for it,
 and it took root and filled the land.
So Israel is like a vine that God planted. And if you were part of that vine—if you were an Israelite—you were part of God’s people. But Jesus says, “From now on that’s going to be different. The people of God are no longer defined by nationality. From now on they are defined by their connection with me. I am the true vine. And my people are like branches growing from the vine.”
So in the passage, Jesus talks about fruit that grows off those branches. Since he’s talking about a vine, the kind of fruit you should visualize is grapes. Okay, so what do the grapes symbolize? If the vine is Jesus, and the branches growing off the vine are God’s people—believers, what are the grapes?
Look with me at Galatians 5, verse 22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That’s the fruit. Those are the grapes. Character qualities that flow from our lives and affect everything we do: the way we think; they way we act; the way we treat people; the way we respond in hard situations. That’s the fruit.
And Jesus says, “Here’s the thing about that kind of character—that kind of fruit: the only way you develop it is to remain in me.” In fact, Jesus repeats that phrase, “remain in me” nine times in this passage. It’s clearly the main thing he’s telling us to do. To quote a guy in my men’s group last week: “Our job is not to produce fruit; our job is to remain in the vine.” Exactly. So for the rest of this message, I want to talk about how to cultivate a life of remaining in Christ, and what difference that will make.
So first, let’s talk about The Practice of Remaining in the Vine. Jesus tells us four things about this. First, Depend on his power. What are you depending on to make you the kind of person you want to be? At the end of the day, is it your effort, or is it Christ’s power? When Jesus invites us to “remain in him,” he’s inviting us to a whole way of looking at life—where you wake up every day, and you realize: “I don’t have what it takes to live this day well, so I desperately need the power of Jesus.” It’s very extreme; it’s very humbling; and it’s absolutely necessary. In verse 4, Jesus says No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. And then in verse 5, he says it bluntly: apart from me you can do…what’s that last word? …nothing. You will not accomplish anything of real value apart from Christ.
And yet, here’s the positive side: if you do remain in him—if you learn to connect yourself to his life and his power—you’ll be capable of doing things and handling things you never thought possible.
I was talking to a friend who had to appear in court for a difficult family issue. Highly emotional; highly stressful. And she was concerned that she would fall apart—that she would just emotionally break down. So she asked a lot of people to pray for her. So the date came, and later that day she left me a voicemail that basically said, “I showed up in court, and it was just as nasty and ugly as I thought, but I was completely at peace. In fact, I felt compassion for the people who were trying to hurt me.” And she said, “That is so not me. That’s not how I am! But I had prayed for that day so much, and I was leaning on Jesus so much, it was all him.”
There’s a fancy theological term for this. It’s called our “mystical union” with Christ. In the words of Louis Berkhof: “This union may be defined as that intimate, vital, and spiritual union between Christ and His people, in virtue of which He is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation.” And it’s “mystical,” which means you can’t fully understand it; it’s a spiritual reality that we have to experience by faith. But it’s real. And we can learn to live this way.
Back in 2005, when I was installed as Senior Pastor here, Norma Jean bought me a watch. And she had it engraved on the back with John 15:5. 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. She chose that verse because she had heard me talk about it so much. Because I realized very early on that I will always have the capacity to do unloving and destructive and dumb things. I also realized that the times in my life that I’ve seen good things, it’s because I’m not focusing on myself, and I’m not even focusing on the fruit! I’m focused on Jesus. And I my wife likes me a lot better when I’m that kind of person, so she carved it into my watch. So I wouldn’t forget.
Are you trying to be a good person by effort? Keeping the rules? It’ll never work. The secret is relationship. Cultivate a mindset of dependence on Christ.
Second, Submit to his pruning. Verse 2 says …every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. I am a very amateur gardener. And I’ve never grown grapes. But I know that if you want a good harvest, you have to get out the pruning shears.
There’s a vineyard in the Napa Valley called Matthiasson Wines. In a recent newsletter, they explained how they prune their vineyards. As I read this, think about how this parallels God’s pruning of us. Here’s what they wrote:
Why do we prune? Because if the vine is not pruned it reverts very quickly to its wild nature, climbing everywhere with its long, sinewy trunk and tiny, scraggly bunches of uneven grapes…

Part of the pleasure of pruning is that it is pure craftsmanship, like woodworking or ceramics, a blending of form and vision, assessing the vine’s growth and adjusting the pruning cuts to its individual differences…

If we prune correctly the vine will be balanced. That means it will grow just enough. If it grows too much, the resulting wines will be thin and simple. If it grows too little, the wine will be bitter and hard. The right amount of growth—what we call “balanced growth”—results in balanced wines.

Do you see the parallels? Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the Gardener.” So as the master Gardener, God knows just how to prune us for maximum growth. But here’s the reality: being pruned is not fun. Hebrews talks about this—Hebrews 12:11… No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. That’s the pruning! It’s painful! But listen…Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
If you believe that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who guards the sheep pen, and nothing can get to us without passing through him first, you can be confident that anything painful in your life has a purpose. It is God’s pruning. He is passionate about producing a harvest in your life. John 15:8 says this is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit.
Maybe God has removed something or someone from your life, and it hurts. That’s pruning. Here’s the question: will you resent the pruning and become bitter? Or you will you recognize the hand of the Gardener, and submit to it, and allow it drive you closer to Jesus?
Third thing: Treasure his Word. Verse 7 says If you remain in me and my words remain in you… Because part of remaining in Christ is placing a high value on what he says—the words of Scripture. One of the great examples of this what Mary chose to do, as opposed to her sister Martha. You remember the story: Jesus comes to visit these two sisters; Martha kicks into party hostess mode—frantically running around, preparing the food. And she’s so frustrated with her sister Mary—why? Because instead of helping in the kitchen, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, listening to what he said. Hanging on his words. And when Martha complains to Jesus, “Tell my sister to help!” Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. But few things are needed—or indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Look, I know the pressure. You get up in the morning, and just like Martha, you’re worried and upset about many things. But when you choose to fight for that 20 minutes of quiet, and open your Bible, and sit at the feet of Jesus, you are choosing what is better. You are staying connected to the Vine, and that’s where all the power is.
And then one more way to remain the vine: Keep his Commands. Verse 10: If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love… We talked about this last week: if Jesus clearly teaches something, and my attitude is, “Well, that’s a nice suggestion, but I’m not doing it,” then I’m not remaining in Christ. It’s as simple as that. Now, I will never perfectly keep the commands of Jesus, but if I don’t have a desire to obey him, I can’t claim to be remaining in him. And some of you are thinking, “This sounds legalistic—like, I obey a list of rules, and God blesses me.” It’s not like that at all. This is relationship with a person—a person to has elevated us from servant status to friend status! A person who lay down his life for us. And he says, “Now, follow my leadership”
But now, Jesus gets more specific. He doesn’t just talk about keeping his commands in general; he zooms in on one particular command. Did you see what it is? Verse 12: My command is this: (Let’s read it together) Love each other as I have loved you. And then at the very end—in case we forgot—look at verse 17—let’s read it together: This is my command: Love each other. So here’s the deal: remaining in Jesus means we keep his commands, especially his command to love. That’s the most important one. Because you can read the Bible an hour a day, and pray for another hour every day, and give 20% of your money to God’s work, but if you are a harsh, critical, unloving person, you will be cut off from the power supply. Love is that important.
And here’s the hardest thing to say: if you are consistently—over time—a harsh, critical, unloving person, and if you consistently ignore God’s Word—you never spend time in the Bible—and if, when you experience the pruning of God, you just get angry and resentful…in other words, if you never remain in Christ, and therefore your life never produces any real fruit, you should take warning. Because Jesus says in verse 2 that unfruitful branches are cut off. He says in verse 6 that they’re thrown into the fire and burned. This is not talking about someone who once believed, losing their salvation. This is someone who acted like a branch, and hung around the vine, but was never really bought in. Like Judas. This is someone who grew up in the Bible belt, or hangs out at church events, or has a lot of Christian friends, but they never really believed. And Jesus says they’ll experience judgment and ultimate separation from him.
So this passage contains a serious warning. But for those who believe, it’s an amazing promise. Because if we take Jesus up on his invitation to remain in him, look what happens…
The Results of Remaining in the Vine. Three things:
First, Answered prayer. Look at verse 7: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. I have a distinct memory of being about eight years old, standing alone in my backyard. And I prayed, “God, if you’re real, could you—just this once—make me fly? Nobody else will have to see it—just you and me. Please God, let me fly.” I opened my eyes, and bent my knees and jumped, and I know this is going to shock you: nothing happened. I tried a few more times, and then gave up. And that’s when I first started learning how prayer works and doesn’t work.
But doesn’t Jesus say, “Ask for anything you want”? Yes—but look at the first phrase. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, THEN ask whatever you wish.” When I prayed to fly, did that request arise out of my remaining in Jesus? Not at all. But fifty years later, here’s what I can tell you: the more I remain in Christ—depend on his power; submit to his pruning; treasure his Word; keep his commands—the more my desires start to align with his desires. And therefore my prayers begin to align more and more with the heart of God.
In my first year as a pastor, God had me in rapid growth mode. I was spending tons of time in the Bible and in prayer, and God started answering very specific prayers. And I started writing them down in the back of my Bible. I was leading our young adults group at the time, and we would pray for certain very unlikely people to come to the group that night, and they would show up. We would pray for a specific person to come to faith in Christ, and that night, they gave their heart to Christ. We prayed for jobs and finances and healing, and I have pages and pages in the back of that Bible with a record of God answering those prayers. Because we were remaining in him, and our prayers resonated with his heart, and it was amazing to see them answered.
Secondly, when you remain in the vine, you see Much fruit. Imagine this scene: a dating couple is driving along Jacksonville Road. The guy is driving; his girlfriend is in the passenger seat. Just as they pass Lincoln Park Airport, a car pulls out of Beaver Brook Road—you know, the road next to the airport—right in front of them. The guy has to step on the brakes hard to avoid an accident. And his girlfriend braces herself. Not for a collision! She braces herself for the explosion of anger she knows is about to happen: the leaning on the horn. The angry words. The tailgating of the offending car. She’s seen it so many times before. But it doesn’t happen. The guy slows down, and backs off, and keeps driving. And she looks over at him, and he says, “The guy probably didn’t see me—it is bad visibility there. Or maybe he’s really late for something. It’s not a big deal.” And his girlfriend looks at him, and she says, “Who are you?!”
Or, imagine this: a woman walks in the front door of her house one Saturday afternoon. Her husband says, “Where were you?” She says, “Oh—I was across the street at the new neighbors—I brought them some cookies, to welcome them to the neighborhood.” The husband says, “Really?” Because his wife has always been painfully shy. She is not the kind of person who welcomes the new neighbors. So he says, “Well, how did it go?” She says, “Really good! We talked for about half and hour. And she’s going to come to Chapel Women with me in the fall. And her husband says, “What have you done with my wife?”
Two stories, based on true stories of people I know. Something is happening in their lives, and it’s surprising the people around them, and it’s even surprising them! Because they’re changing. And people are starting to wonder, “How is this person, who’s always been like this, becoming like that?” Where there was once anger, there’s patience. Where there was once fear, there’s confidence. Because if we remain in him, we bear much fruit. And like Jesus says, it’s lasting fruit. And it brings glory to God, because we’re showing that we are Jesus’ disciples.
And when that happens, it leads to Complete joy. Listen to what Jesus wants for you—verse 11: I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. When we live connected to the Vine, and we experience answered prayer, and we experience fruit—change in our lives—there is no greater joy. Life will still be hard. Painful things will still happen. God will continue to prune us, which is never fun. But when we’re connected to Jesus, there’s this undercurrent of joy that cannot be taken away. The world will continue to tell you that joy comes from the perfect vacation or the dream house or finally losing those unwanted pounds…but that’s not where joy is. It comes from a life-giving connection with Jesus.
A few years ago I watched the movie Cinderella Man, with Russell Crowe. Did you see it? It’s the true story of a boxer from the 1930s named Jim Braddock. New Jersey guy! And he had done okay for a while, but now he was washed up, and it was the depression, so he went back to working on the docks to support his family.
A couple of years earlier, he had lost a fight to a famous boxer named John Henry Lewis. And very unexpectedly, Lewis’ people reached out to Jim Braddock and gave him another chance to fight Lewis. So he trained the best he could; the night of the fight arrived; and Jim Braddock came out inspired. Clearly winning the fight. And there’s a scene in the movie where it’s in between rounds. And the trainer for this other fighter, Lewis, says to him, “What’s the matter with you? You beat this guy easy last time?” And Lewis gives this unforgettable line—he looks at his trainer and says, “He ain’t the same guy!”
Now think about your life. Think about those areas where you struggle. Maybe it’s with anger, or lust, or addiction, or fear. And maybe you’ve given up hope that you could change. But you’re going to walk out of here and begin remaining in Christ. You’re going to get in the habit of depending on his power, and submitting to his pruning. You’re going to treasure his Word and keep his commands.
And the people who know you well are going to see you change, and they will say, “He ain’t the same guy.” She ain’t the same woman.”
Listen: apart from Christ, you can do nothing. But when you remain in him, you will bear much fruit.