JESUS, THE TRUE VINE
John 15: 1-17
By Pastor Paulus Budiono
Lemah Putro, Sunday, September 13, 2020
Shalom,
We are supposed to let the Lord – the living Word – hold our weak hands that often make many mistakes so that He can work in us. Don’t act the opposite way, for when we hold His hands, there would also be a possibility for us to stop holding on His hand when we don’t need Him anymore. As a result, failures keep happening in our lives.
Now, what does the Word of God want to tell us to be something for us to firmly hold on to? John 15: 1-17 wrote, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser… 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… By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples…. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.”
The apostle John wrote that Jesus is the true vine and His Father is the vinedresser. It’s clear that there is a connection between the Father and the Son here. Therefore, if we desire to glorify the Heavenly Father, we need to know the Son for no one comes to the Father except through Jesus, His Son (John 14:6). What’s more, Jesus explained that we are His branches.
The words “I am” isn’t just a self-proclamation about His status because “I am" confession triggered the anger of the Jews and the Pharisees. For an illustration: When we introduce Mr. X as a good dentist to a friend who is having a problem with his teeth, it’s all up to him to believe and see that dentist for a treatment for his teeth or not. How shall we respond to Jesus’ claim as a true vine? Do we really believe Him?
The Gospel of John wrote seven “I am” proclamations from Jesus, namely:
- I am the living bread (John 6:35, 48)
- I am the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5)
- I am the door (John 10:9)
- I am the good shepherd (John 10:11)
- I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)
- I am the true vine (John 15:1)
Thereafter, Jesus said no more “I am” statements.
If we take a closer look, Jesus’ proclamations about “I am” is related to Moses’ question to God about His name when God called him to take His people out of Egypt. God answered, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14).
With the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John after following Jesus for ± 60 years. What were the reactions of the audiences when he quoted Jesus’ proclamation of “I am”? The audience did not yet understand, hesitated and some even rejected Him. For example:
- When Jesus said, “I’m the living bread”, many of His disciples went back and followed Him no more, only the 12 disciples stayed and even one of them (Judas Iscariot) later betrayed Him because he didn’t believe from the very beginning. However, later, all of His disciples really left Him when He was arrested (John 6:48, 66; Matthew 26:56).
- When Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”, the Pharisees said that His witness was not true (John 8:12-13).
- When Jesus said, “I am the door for the sheep and I am the good shepherd", the Jews said that Jesus had demons and was mad (John 10:19-20).
- When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and life" and then He raised Lazarus from death, there was a great excitement, but the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and plotted to kill Jesus and Lazarus who was risen (John 11:46-53; 12:9-10).
Evidently, it wasn’t easy to convince people to believe in Jesus even when they had seen miracles. How about us? Do we believe in Jesus’ seven proclamations or only some which are in line with our interests?
What target does Jesus want when we become His branches? To bear a lot of fruit, but we must pay attention to the flavor of the grapes, is it bitter, sweet enough or really sweet. How to produce the best flavor? The branches must be pruned regularly with the Word of God (John 15:3) while the one that bears no fruit must be cut off. In other words, it is not enough to only admire the Word of God and use thousands verses to bless other people and ourselves or to choose verses that only benefit us and make us popular.
Do you know the significance of what Jesus said about “I am the living bread”, “I am the light of the world”, “I am the door”, “I am the good shepherd”, “I am the resurrection and life” for His 11 disciples – because Judas Iscariot went away leaving the fellowship after receiving the bread (John 13:27-30)? Among all, however, His proclamation of “I am the true vine” is a personal kind of message that is not for most of the people there, nor just for everybody.
Application: Each of us (personally) is one of His branches. If we don’t bear fruit, we can’t blame other people who bear fruits, but we will personally face the Heavenly Father as the vinedresser.
Strangely, God planted a noble vine of the highest quality seed, but what grew up was the degenerate and an alien vine (Jeremiah 2:21).How was it possible? The Israelites were like the vine planted on a very fruitful hill, was well taken care of and watched over very carefully but it brought forth wild grapes (Isaiah 5:1-2). On another occasion, the Gentiles (who came from the vine from Sodom with poisonous grapes) admitted that the Israelites experienced many disasters because they had left God who took care of them with the best wheat and the blood of the grapes and then went to the foreign gods that provoked Him to anger (Deuteronomy 32:9-16, 31-33).
Pay attention here, God never fails and He once promised to the prophet Isaiah (although it was 2000 years ago) that the Israelites would take root, blossom, bud and fill the face of the world with fruit (Isaiah 27:2-3,6). Even though now the Israelites are still full of chaos, one day His promise will be fulfilled. Jesus as the true vine with His roots grow deeply to the ground. That’s the sign of His sacrifice that as a seed fell to the ground and died in order to bear much grain (John 12:24).
The grapes talked about the marriage relationship as what was said about Shulamite and King Solomon who were drunk with love and praised each other. They talked about their vineyard (Song of Solomon 6:11, 7:12, 8:12) that needed to be watched from the little foxes (Song of Solomon 2:13, 15). The grapes related to the physical and spiritual marriages; it’s a joy for God and man (Judges 9:13). Surely Jesus didn’t talk nonsense, we, the Gentiles, must be certain that we also had a chance to be integrated to this true vine because He said it was not us who chose Him but He chose us so we would go and bear a stable/eternal fruit (joy) – bringing freshness and warmth in the middle of the cold spiritual lives that many people face.
What happens when believers gather in one place? “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance… Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”” (Acts 2: 4, 11-13).
Hearing some people mocked that they were full of new wine, the apostle Peter with a loud voice said that they weren’t full with wine, but “drunk” by God’s love for the Spirit of God was poured down upon them (v. 14-18). It is true that the speaking in tongues is not easy to be understood by human except if there is one with a gift to interpret it (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:10). People who speak in tongues speak of secret things to God and edify themselves (1 Corinthians 14:2, 4). What is being edified? The strong bond with the very person of Jesus, the Heavenly Bridegroom.
Don’t forget, branches refer to personal matters. It doesn’t include many people! If the branch only has a lot of leaves (activities) to look for self-popularization or it doesn’t bear fruit, it will be cut off, but the branch with fruit will be cleaned. There aren’t any special reasons for branches to grow in a barren or fruitful land, the Lord simply wants the branches (us) to have a serious private relationship with Him (the vine).
Jesus as the vine knows the exact conditions of each branch and the Father as the vinedresser sends the “spiritual scissor” (His words; cf. Hebrew 4:12) to prune/sanctify the unnecessary/useless twigs. The more the sanctification happens the sweeter the fruit will be. At least, the one who experiences the fruit of joy (as the result of the close relation between the branch and the vine) is us and Jesus. Nevertheless, among one branch to other branches (our neighbors) we must keep on loving one another. That way, we as the branches don’t need to be arrogant for our producing many fruits that then mock others that bear only few fruits.
One day, trees went to anoint a king for themselves. The olive and fig trees rejected to be the king, and the vine rejected it (the high position) as well because it didn’t want to leave its new wine that cheered both God and men (Judges 9:8-13). That’s Jesus as a vine who doesn’t like to be praised and elevated.
It’s clear that the words that proceed out of Jesus’ mouth clean us. That’s why the Word of God that we read talks to us to sanctify our hearts. Honestly, how many verses in the Bible do we say amen to? After we have faith that we are His branches, we need to improve it to be hope in sanctification. We need to admit that it is indeed true the Word of sanctification won’t be easy for us, it sometimes doesn’t correspond with our thoughts. As a result, many people choose the “Words” that please their ears (2 Timothy 4:3). For example: would husbands/wives accept a sharp warning from their husbands/wives that corrects their mistakes? There is no other way except that the sharp Word of God works to sanctify our weaknesses and mistakes! Sadly, we are easily to be offended when the Word of God rebukes us. As a result, we leave the fellowship. Pay more attention here, that if we like reading, listening, keeping and doing the Word of God every day, we will have happiness (Revelation 1:3, 22:7).
How about the relation among one branch to the other branches? In reality, we often get offended by Mr. A, we get mad when someone points out at us as the troublemaker, then we blame other people and stop ministering and even leave the church to move to another church. Therefore, Jesus reminded us to love one another (John 15:17). This thing can be done if we stay in His love (agape) and obey His command (vv. 9-16). We need a sanctification process to get to love one another rather than just asking Him to pour His love because the Rod of God, the Holy Spirit and His sacrifice are the evidence of His love.
Jesus was serious when He said, “I am the vine, you are the branches” to bear eternal fruit. What is eternal? Prophesies, tongues, knowledge will vanish away, but love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).
Why did Jesus see His disciples as friends and no longer servants with a lower position? He also asked Peter if he loved (agapao) Jesus. It turned out that in His position as apostle, Peter could only love with phileo love (friendly love) to Jesus. Jesus asked for three times to Peter, but he could only love Him with the phileo love.
Implication: Jesus doesn’t belittle the phileo love but He wants us to bear agape fruit because no matter how good our deeds are, without agape love, everything is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Jesus wants to increase the phileo love to become agape because phileo love made Peter afraid of Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 16: 21-23) and even, later on, denied Him (Matthew 26:69-75). The world also has phileo love and consider them who love the world as theirs (John 15:18-19). In contrast, to maintain the agape love, Jesus was crucified-died-rose to live in eternity. It is clear, we can’t fully trust the fruit of phileo love. Sometimes we can only work together when things are according to what we have in mind or the worldly idea because we are still eager to hang around with the world.
Remember, it’s true that a branch has a personal relation with the vine, but between one another, each branch must maintain their relations, support one another and pray for one another. For example: if a husband (a branch) never bears fruit, he will not be able to depend on his wife that bears a lot of fruits. One day, the husband will be cut off from the vine. Therefore, husband and wife must support one another to grow in faith, hope and love. After getting married, husband and wife will get children and even grandchildren. Be careful, if husband and wife never bear fruit and in the mean time, their children and grandchildren bear fruit, then they will be left behind, while their kids and grandkids will be taken into eternity.
What a pity that people didn’t respond well to Jesus’ seven “I am” proclamations. Some of them rejected it, can’t value it well and don’t know what it was (like Thomas and Philip). How about our responses as a Gentile? Let’s leave behind all of our attributes and become branches that stick with the true vine (Jesus) to bear the fruits of love that are provided by Him. After we finish with the sanctification process, let’s not hesitate to help others (other branches) so that after perceiving the fruits of our sanctification, they would also be integrated to Jesus (the vine) to bear eternal fruits. Amen.
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