"WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?" BLOG 5 – "I AM THE TRUE VINE"

THIS BLOG CONTAINS:

• Series introduction
• Community group/family study
• Daily bible studies 
• You can listen to all the messages at:  Click this link to audio content
• For more information visit www.communitychurchputney.com

COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY 5

“I AM THE TRUE VINE” (John 15:1-4) 

John 15:1-4“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  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.

We are all bombarded by advertisements on products and services that will, they promise, transform our lives into the vision of success that we want.  That new car, new cream, that holiday, that gym… may be the key I need to the ‘land flowing with milk and honey’.  

Here, Jesus makes two great claims: “I am the true vine”, and, “My Father is the gardener”. Let’s listen to Him and enter into the true success of true fruitfulness. 

·      How do the metaphors of ‘the vine’ or ‘the body’ (1 Corinthians 12:12-14) help to define what Christianity is?

·      The Father is said to ‘prune’ us. What is the result, and what is your experience of this? 

·      Jesus encourages us to “remain in me”. How can one do this? 

·      Two specific ways that we can remain in the vine – in Jesus, is through His word and prayer (15:7). This means that we learn to read the bible with Jesus in mind – We look for and apply the gospel, in particular, as we read it. For example, what does Psalm 24:34 say to us without Christ, and what does it say if we are gospel centred?  

·      Jesus speaks of our being pruned whilst saying “you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you”. How are you doing at holding in tension our acceptance (justification) whilst pursuing growth (sanctification)?

RESPONSE

Jesus gives us an amazing promise if we will ‘remain in the vine’. At Christmas many tempting offers are made. Maybe you go out of your way for a bargain. Are we prepared to go out of our way to know and remain in Christ? 

DAILY DEVOTIONAL 

MONDAY – I AM THE TRUE VINE

John 15:1-4“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  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.

Jesus is not just a vine or just the vine; He is the ‘true’ vine. Jesus is drawing on Old Testament history where God’s people were likened to an unfruitful vine, 

Isaiah 5:1-2I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

Jesus is the ‘true vine’ – He, unlike all of us, has been perfectly fruitful. Yet, he was ‘cut off’. He was put into the ‘winepress’ of God’s wrath; He was treated as ‘unfruitful’, as He took judgement in our place. This provides the possibility of coming and being joined to Christ. 

Jesus is the true vine of salvation and fruitfulness. Many other things promise to be a ‘vine’ for us – a source of salvation, fruitfulness, joy etc. Only by coming to the ‘true vine’, to Jesus, are we made clean, and joined to God as the Spirit comes and resides in us; thus joined we become fruitful – our lives being transformed in to the very likeness of the true vine – Jesus. 

RESPONSE

Are you trusting in Jesus, the true vine, for salvation and fruitfulness? The emphasis of this text is not on our trying to bear fruit so that we can remain in Christ; the emphasis is on remaining in the vine (by faith) so as to bear fruit. 

TUESDAY – THE VINE

John 15:1-4“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  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.

This kind of imagery is used in order to highlight the living nature of our relationship with God. Dead religion is about ideas, practices, emotions, ceremonies… Christianity is principally about having the life of God, by the Spirit, living within us. 

The vital nature of our relationship with God is also brought out in the metaphor of the church as the ‘body of Christ’. 

1 Corinthians 12:12-14Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized byone Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Vine and body are not just metaphors that help to teach about how to build our relationships; these images point to the deeper reality of our union with God and one another by the Spirit. 

RESPONSE

Weighed in a balance, do you think of your relationship with God as more about giving or receiving? Do you, maybe at a deep level, think more about how you should do more, or do you focus on receiving?  Jesus, as the vine, teaches us that, like a branch in the vine, we are receivers, and, what we do, comes out of this. 

WEDNESDAY – THE FATHER AND THE VINE

John 15:1-4“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  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.

This references the process of ongoing transformation (sanctification) that God is working in us. If we are ‘in the vine’ (have become a Christian) we have a new relationship with the Father; He is nurturing us so that we ‘bear more fruit’ – live lives that are increasingly Christ-like. 

To grow fruit, the Father often has to remove things. Less is often more! The Father ‘prunes’, better translated, ‘trims clean’; this means the removal of that which is unclean and sinful. He does this so that we become more fruitful. For example,

·     Sinful things (Actions and attitudes that are ungodly)

·     Unhelpful things (Some things, though not sinful, may be unhelpful) 

·     Having too many things – there are only so many things that we can juggle before we become bad at everything, feel bad, look bad, discourage and become discouraged. 

RESPONSE

Jesus reveals Himself as, “I am the vine”. It’s His will that you are more fruitful. Let’s choose to believe that ‘In all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose’ (Romans 8:28).But don’t forget that His ‘purpose’ is that you and I become more fruitful, or, as Paul puts, ‘conformed to the image of his Son’.  (Romans 8:29)

If you are a Christian, the Father will lovingly ‘prune’ you. This is often a painful process. It often happens through circumstances and the actions of others – good and bad; and, principally, it happens as we read and meditate on the bible. ‘Pruning’ or Sanctification, happens as we cooperate with God by repenting (turning from things) as God convicts. Ask God to reveal any areas of your life that He would want to ‘prune’.

THURSDAY – YOU ARE ALREADY CLEAN 

John 15:1-4“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  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.

Many of us tend to focus on what needs to be done, whilst not noticing all that has been done. To use the gardening illustration: we can be so mindful of the grass that needs cutting, that we forget to enjoy the flowers that are in bloom! 

When one reads this text, one can so focus on ‘He prunes’, that we can miss the, ‘every branch that does bear fruit’ (that’s you!) and ‘You are already clean’ (that’s also you!). 

You are already clean

Despite the sanctification process that you still need to go through, you are justified – you are seen by God as ‘already clean’. This verse in Hebrews is so helpful,

Hebrews 10:14For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Through Jesus’ death for you, you are ‘perfect’ – you are ‘clean’. You are as righteous as Christ Himself! Whilst, at the same time, being ‘made holy’ – being sanctified – ‘pruned’ so as to bear more fruit. 

Jesus says that our being made ‘clean’ (justification) was made possible “because of the word I have spoken to you.” This ‘word’ is the message of Jesus’s life and death for sin. This cleansing is illustrated in John 13 where Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. 

John 13:7-8Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

This act was a demonstration of what He is about to do on the cross – His death will wash them of their sin. And, unless we let him wash us, He says, “you have no part with me”! 

RESPONSE

You are ‘already’ clean if you have put your faith in Jesus. 

How well are you balancing your complete justification (which is a gift through faith alone) with your failings and need to mature? Jesus commands you to “Remain in me” Remain in the truth of His forgiveness whilst earnestly seeking to bear more fruit. 

FRIDAY – REMAIN IN THE VINE

John 15:1-4“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  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.

4a. Remain in me, as I also remain in you… 5b. If you remain in me… 7a. If you remain in me 

How do we remain in Jesus? 

Two ways to ‘remain’ in Jesus are through the word and prayer; as we read,  

John 15:7If you remain in me and my wordsremain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

i) Remain in Jesus through the word

How does one ‘remain’ in the vine? How can we get practical about this? Abiding in Jesus is very much linked to letting His ‘words remain in you’ (15:7). You only know about Jesus, about the gospel, about what God is like, about His revealed will, about what we are studying this week – that He is the vine...through the bible. What are you doing or will you do to get into the bible? 

ii) Remain in Jesus through prayer

As we allow the bible to saturate our thinking, we can pray in accord to God’s revealed will in scripture. Also, an essential part of bearing fruit is asking for the fruit that we would like to see. As you read the bible look for commands, promises, inspiring moments and let these shape what you pray for. 

RESPONSE

During this series we have been admiring and learning from the portrait of Jesus that is given to us in these seven “I am…” statements. 

Knowing Jesus is the greatest ambition you and I could have. Knowing Him is the best thing we can do for our friends and family. 

We have seen that Jesus says, 

• “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD” (6:35; 8:12) – He is the same God that saved, provided for and led the Israelites in the desert. 
• “I AM THE GATE AND THE GOOD SHEPHERD” (10:9-14) – He lays down His life to save and protect us. 
• “I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE” (11:25-26;) – He gives us new life now, and the promise of future resurrection. 
• “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE” (14:6-7) – He is the way to God, the truth about God, and gives us eternal life with God
• “I AM THE TRUE VINE” (15:1-4) – We are joined to Jesus, His life flowing into us, and as we get closer to Him we will bear more fruit. 

Let’s end this series by allowing Jesus to remind us of the question from which we got the title for this series,

Matthew 16:15“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

I have prepared this series, and pray that it has helped you to be able to answer this question in a richer and more faith-filled way. Please do memorise, meditate and trust what is revealed in these “I am” statements; If we will do so, we will ‘bear much fruit’.