The True Vine

 


The True Vine

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 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. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 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.

“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. 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. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so, you will be My disciples.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 15:1-11

This passage of scripture teaches us that God wants to produce spiritual fruit in our lives, but we need to let Him do it His way. Key phrase “… without me you can do nothing …”. This is a very important lesson that comes up very many times in the Bible. In this short devotional, I’m going to emphasize four points about bearing spiritual fruit: Pruning, Perseverance, Prayer and Produce.

1.      Pruning: Jesus says He is the true vine, we are the branches, and God the Father is the vine dresser. The purpose of the vine is to produce fruit in the branches. We will talk about the fruit as the final point, for now we need to know that to produce fruit, the Father needs to cut out the dead branches. I enjoy growing roses. But to grow beautiful roses, I need to cut out the dead branches, feed and water the rose bush. In this parable, the dead branches represent sin in our lives. Sometimes God brings hardship into our lives to prune cut out the sin. Notice we are not commanded in this parable to cut the dead branches ourselves. All the branches need to do is let God do His work. Pruning is very beneficial to fruit bearing, but it is painful. It is also painful when God brings hardship into our lives to teach us obedience, patience, humility, sorrow for sin, or whatever He wants to teach us.

2.      Perseverance: This parable has one command that is repeated over and over. “Abide in me”. To abide means to remain, to stay put, to stand your ground, to endure, to persevere  If we are going to bear spiritual fruit, we need to have patience and to hang in there even when the going gets tough. We need to endure the pain caused by the pruning, and then come out stronger and more fruitful. 

John 6:27 “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

I Corinthians 13: 13 “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love”.

1 Peter 1:23 “…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever …”

I John 2:14b “… I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

3.      Prayer: “…. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. …”  Prayer and perseverance go hand in hand. We must pray and never give up hope. We need to pray with faith, believing that God will answer our prayers. This is very specific prayer in this parable. It is prayer for God’s word to have power in our lives to produce that spiritual fruit we keep talking about. Do you want God to do a life transforming work in your life? Are you tired of trying to live the spiritual life in your own strength, and failing over and over? I know I am. Nothing of any lasting value is ever done without prayer. But with believing prayer, miracles happen.

4.      Produce: God is glorified when we bear much fruit. Fruit that sets us apart from the world and makes us Jesus’ disciples. Many people claim to be Christians. Many even say they are born again Christians. But Jesus did not say to go into the world and make decisions. He said we should make “disciples”.

Matthew 28:18-20 …And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Therefore, we have devotionals here at the Mission. We don’t just want to feed the body so that you are hungry again in a few hours. Jesus says He, Himself is the spiritual bread from Heaven. He says when we eat that bread, we are fully satisfied and will never be hungry again. (read John 6:27 again). When Jesus comes into our lives, he transforms us from the inside and makes us completely new creations. Produces spiritual fruit:

Galatians 5:22-23 “…But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

When the Father does his work of pruning… cutting out the dead wood of sin….

When we persevere: stay put, remain, endure … always staying connected to the vine that is Jesus…

When we pray in faith and perseverance for God to produce fruit in us ...

Then He will produce much fruit in us: Much love. Much joy, Much peace. Much longsuffering. Much kindness. Much goodness. Much faithfulness. Much gentleness. Much self-control.

Self control. We make decisions. We overcome temptation. We follow the steps necessary to stay sober. But we do it in the power of the vine Jesus Christ. We do it through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus says "without me you can do nothing". But we say with the Apostle Paul: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Closing prayer: Thanks for the physical and spiritual food.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cousins All Are We

Image
Cousins All Are We With Eve as our mother, Cousins all are we. Mother, father, sister, brother, In our shared humanity. One blood, one race, one people, From pole to pole the same. Let the bells ring from the steeple, That we all bear Adam’s name. With Adam as our father, Sinners all are we. So when I judge my brother, Judgment falls right back on me. The billions dead in battle. Are the blood of brothers slain. From the eating of the apple, And good Abel killed by Cain. With Jesus as our Savior, Forgiven all are we. But we don’t deserve his favor, Even though it is for free. We must take His love inside us. We must claim it as our own. Let no one then deride us. As we bow before His throne. With God as our Maker, Living dust are we. Salt and pepper in the shaker, Of this global family. Our loving Father knows each grain. He’s watching from above Are we the cause of brother’s pain? Or are we giving love? Wit...
Read more

Victory of the Spirit Over the Flesh

Image
Victory of the Spirit Over the Flesh Erie City Mission:    03-31-2024 Human nature is full of regret, remorse, and defeat. We all have times in our lives when we say things or do things that we wish we could take back or do-over. But time marches on and we do not have a time machine to send us back to fix mistakes of the past. Sometimes we live with new regrets every day and it seems that we are in a vicious cycle, making the same mistakes over and over. Even the Apostle Paul lived with these feelings:   Romans 7:14-25 14 We know that the LAW is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do . -- For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.   22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law ; 23 but I see another law at work in me , waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me . 24...
Read more

Suffering for Right and Wrong

Image
  Suffering for Right and Wrong                                                       Erie City Mission     4-30-2018 One of the questions that many people ask is “Why do bad things happen to good people”? The question seems to imply that if bad things happen to bad people they are getting what they deserve, but if bad things happen to good people, then it is not fair. Some would even say God is not fair. What I am going to show from the Bible is that suffering has a purpose and that God is not only fair but loving and compassionate when He allows suffering. Some kinds of suffering are the direct result of sin or a crime. If a murderer is sentenced to life in prison, he is suffering for his crime. But not all criminals get caught and not all crimes are punished through the justice system. In fact, many times the innocent are punished ...
Read more

Freedom in Christ

Image
It wasn’t long after Karen asked me to do the meditation for this service, that an outline began to form in my head. The day before Mom passed away, I had been listening to the old negro spiritual: “Steal away, steal away, steal away home to Jesus. “Steal away, steal away, steal way home. I ain’t got long to be here. I thought about how Mom went home peacefully, like sneaking out of the nursing home without triggering the alarm. But I also remembered how this was a song sung by slaves who were telling their family and friends that they were planning to escape that night. Today we are going to talk about how faith in the resurrection of Jesus sets us free, both in this life and in the life to come. What is the Gospel? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, y...
Read more

The Planet with a Heart

Image
The Planet with a Heart. I am not wise or learned, of things about the sky. They say you’re not a planet, and I can’t imagine why. The fact that you’re a perfect sphere, is plain for all to see. Three billion miles away from here, through a camera called LORRI. The fact you orbit ‘round the sun, was never in dispute. But you fail to clear yourself a path, and so the ill repute. Because you’re nice to neighbors and share your space with friends. The experts say you’re just a dwarf, and then debating ends. Not the god of the underworld, but the loving pup instead. The joy of children everywhere, who have Walt Disney read. Forty-seven point seven-eight times the speed of sound. Yet it’s been almost a decade since the rocket left the ground. We only get a moment’s glance, as New Horizons speeds on by. But for twenty, thirty years from now, we’ll still be looking at the sky. You share your space with Charon, more a sister than a moon. With Stix ...
Read more