Remain in Me

John 15:1-10

Key Verse 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.  Apart from me you can do nothing. 

Good morning.  Today we consider the parable of the vine and the branches.  This parable is the most succinct and clear imagery to illustrate our close relationship to God, in relation to each part of the Trinity.  Jesus told this parable on the eve of his Crucifixion.  In the last chapter, the disciples’ hearts were troubled because Jesus had told them that he would die for the sin of the world.  So, through the parable of the vine and the branches Jesus encourages his followers to remain in him, and teaches us that even though he is now in heaven, yet he also remains in us.  “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” (v4)  Through today’s passage, each one of us should examine whether we are remaining in Jesus, and take action to cling to Jesus like a branch clings to the vine.

Part I  The Vine and the Branches (1-3, 6)

Let’s read verses 1-2.  “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 prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  In this parable there is a vine with many branches being tended by a gardener.  Jesus explains in verse 5, “I am the vine; you are the branches” and also in verse 1, “my Father is the gardener.” So the vine is Jesus, the branches are God’s people and the gardener is our Heavenly Father.  When all of God’s people are joined to Christ, they form a vast plant, which represents the church and also the kingdom of God.  Each of these aspects of the parable is full of meaning.

First, that Jesus is the true vine.  Look at verse 1a again.  “I am the true vine.”  Jesus words are absolute.  He does not say that he was a vine or one of the vines.  He says that he is the true vine.  This means that Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life.  There is no other also-true-vine; any person who has ever claimed to know of a different vine is himself just a branch with no root.  Only the true vine can give life to the branches.

If Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.  The vine supplies all of the branches’ needs that they may have life and bear fruit.  Here we picture the close relationship that man shares with his creator, in the body of Jesus.  The vine is joined tightly to the branch and sap flows between them.  At that point of contact, the Holy God directly touches sinful man.  The Father wants to reach out and help up fallen man, but how can he when his Holy touch destroys the sinful, and when the sinful touch stains his Holiness?  That is why there were many barriers between men and God in the Old Testament.  But now in Jesus, men can be reconciled to God as tightly as a branch is joined to a vine.  Jesus is in very nature God (Ph 2:6), but he became flesh and make his dwelling among us (Jn 1:14).  The vine connects naturally to the branches because they have the same type of flesh.  But still, how can the Holy and sinful ever be joined?

As Jesus in his body is at the same time the Son of God and equally the Son of Man, so also, in Jesus’ blood God and man are reconciled.  As a vine produces sap for its branches, Jesus has provided his own lifeblood for our sins.  When we are connected to the vine, this blood washes us free of our sins.  As the vine nurtures and cares for the branch, so Jesus provides all we need, even taking our sins and burdens upon himself.  As a vine does for a branch, so Jesus provides all things for those who remain in him.  What things?  First is life.  A branch has no life apart from the vine.  Next is nourishment.  Jesus proclaimed in John 4:14 “…whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” And in 7:38, “ ‘Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’  By this he meant the Spirit.”  Jesus provides the Holy Spirit, like water flowing within us, or like the never-ending supply of nutrient from the vine.  Jesus is where we connect to God, but the Holy Spirit is where God dwells in us.  What else does the vine provide?  In verse 9, love.  In verse 11 joy.   In fact, in verse 7, whatever you ask.  The vine provides all things that we need, so that the branches can be fruitful.

Second, that we are the branches.  It is important for men to know that we are branches.  Many men thought of themselves as their own vines.  They are self reliant and capable, yet they cannot save themselves.  Like a cut branch cut off the vine and put in a vase, they look handsome and vibrant for a time.  But without access to the nourishing sap of the vine, they are irreversibly doomed.  Their glory is a fading moment before they wither up. 

But when we know our place as branches, we can remain in the vine.  To be a branch under the care of the vine is peaceful and secure and nurtured and provided for.  The role of the branch is passive and submissive to vine.  The vine does not depend on the branch, but the branch cannot live without the vine.  But the vine and the branch also share a beautiful partnership; in this way Jesus calls us his friends in verse 15.  The vine and the branch are so closely joined that they form one organism.   The entire church is like a single grape plant.  Here one branch is connected to the vine, there another.  Then all are joined together.  Thus fellowship with God results in fellowship with our brothers.  The church has many people, even many denominations.  But there is one vine to whom all true believers are joined.  So Jesus commands us to love one another.  We may be very different from each other.  Someone says, I cannot get along with “that guy”.  But as a church, we must work together to be a fruitful plant. 

Third, that the Father is the gardener.  Like a farmer, the Father tends his vineyard very carefully.  He prepares the soil and provides the best environment for the grapes to grow.  But a farmer does not grow grapes to look at them; he expects a harvest.  So also, our Father tends his garden with an eye toward making it fruitful.  Verse 2 reads, “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.”  If the Father sees a fruitless branch, he cuts it off.  If he did not, that branch would weaken the whole plant.  Yet he turns the knife even to fruitful branches, pruning them so that they can be even more fruitful.  We’ll consider these separately.

Verse 2a warns, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.”  This refers to God removing people from his vine, because they were not fruitful.  It is a fearful image.  What will happen to a branch when it is no longer in the vine?  Verse 6 gives us the sad answer, “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”  These branches do not refer to the outsiders but to people in the church.  They must have had some contact with Jesus, because they had been in the vine and they were cut off.  So these words of judgment are a warning to us.  Its a warning to bear, fruit but more fundamentally a warning to remain in Jesus.  In fact, the reason they were not fruitful is that they did not remain in Jesus.  And only later did the Father cut them off because they were not fruitful.  It was they who first chose not to remain in Jesus.

When we consider God’s judgment, we first remember that God does not cut them off arbitrarily, but he is patient and gives them many chances to bear fruit (Lk13:8).  In last week’s message we were told how God would chop down the tree of Israel and leave only a stump.  This is extreme gardening.  But he had to do it, because the tree was wholly corrupted and fruitless, yet he could use the stump to start a new and fruitful tree.  He did not do it suddenly, but he gave Israel many chances and provided all that Israel would need to be fruitful.  But in Isaiah 5:4, God laments, “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” And verse 7 explains, “The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”

But if God does find good fruit in us, this does not mean that we will not also be cut.  Look at verse 2b “…while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  These branches are the fruitful Christians.  In a vineyard, farmers spend time pruning the fruitful branches.  Otherwise they will produce many small fruits rather than big and juicy fruit.  A branch does not enjoy being nipped and pruned.  Neither do we enjoy it when God prunes us, but we can appreciate that God does so out of his love, because he wants us to bear even more fruit.  Pruning is painful at the time, but later it produces a harvest of righteousness (He 12:11), which makes it worthwhile.  How does God prune us?  First, we have verse 3“You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” Here the word clean is the same word as verse 2 use for prunes (see NIV text note).  Jesus said that his disciples had been cleaned or pruned by his word.  The word of God is sharper than a double edged sword ().  It reveals our sins and cuts them away.  When we study the Bible and find our sin, we must repent and turn from it.  God also prunes away things which are not exactly sinful, but are hindering our fruitfulness.  He told Abraham to send away Ishmael and focus on Isaac.  It was not easy for Abraham, but when he did so, he could bear more fruit in Isaac.

At the MSU conference we also heard from one Mongolian shepherd how God pruned him. He had a job that paid 10 times the average Mongolian wage.  And so in a country where everyone rides horses, he bought a sporty Japanese SUV.  But he became very materialistic.  Then God pruned away his SUV through an accident.  Yet he recognized it was the hand of God, and he could thank God that he pruned away what was keeping him from being fruitful.

God also pruned me.  When I was young, I had a dream to make name for myself in silicon valley.  To become rich and successful.  But when I graduated, I knew that God did not want me to move to silicon valley, but to remain longer in College Park.  So I had to give up my selfish dream.

Being fruitful so important, life or death and then heaven or hell.  The word fruit is mentioned 8 times in this passage (1-17).  But 2 questions arise: How to be fruitful?  What is the fruit that God desires?   The answers to these questions are not what some people believe them to be.  We are inclined to think that we bear more fruit by working harder, focusing on the external action.  Similarly, we are inclined to think of fruit in terms of what is visible, for instance how many Bible students we have.  But that is not the primary fruit that God seeks.  After all, we heard last week how God would send Isaiah to an obstinate people.  They would not listen and he would not be fruitful.  He would start off with a tree and he would end up with a stump.  Isaiah did not produce a lot of visible fruit.  But he was very fruitful in other ways, and he wrote the book of Isaiah.  In fact God judges the heart, and the primary fruit that God seeks is internal fruit.  For instance Gal 5:22 and 23 explain, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”   In fact Jesus offers us his love in verse 9, his joy in verse 11 and his peace in verse 27 of the last chapter.  These are the fruits of the Spirit which are to be manifest in the believer.  Love even for enemies, joy in times of suffering and peace in warring world.

Part 2  Remain in me (4-10)

But still, how can we bear fruit? There are many answers that come to mind, like work harder or work smarter.  But what does Jesus teach?  What word occurs even more times than fruit, 11 times just in verses 4-10?  That word is “remain”.  Why should a passive word like remain be the key to fruitfulness, instead of an active word to go out there and do something?  But by remaining in Jesus, we are allowing God to work through us to bear fruit for his glory.  Let’s read verses 4-5.  Remain in me and I will 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.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.  Apart from me you can do nothing. 

As a branch cannot bear fruit on its own, neither can a Christian apart from Jesus.  It is like trying to run a vacuum cleaner with no power.  When I was vacuuming, I sometimes tried to reach a little farther than the cord would reach.  Then the plug came out of the socket.  The vacuum cleaner stopped the instant it was removed from the power source.  In this kind of a way, Jesus says, apart from me you can do nothing.  But the difference is that when a branch separates from the vine, it does not immediately wither up.  For a while, it seems OK.  But that is an illusion, a separated branch is a dying branch, and it can bear no fruit.  Apart from Jesus we can do nothing.  But Jesus also tells us then when we remain in him, we will bear much fruit.  He did not say that we might possible bear fruit, or that we might bear a little fruit, but that, if we remain in him, we will bear much fruit. 

But what does it mean to remain in Jesus?  Is it going to church faithfully on Sunday and attending all of the meetings?  Not exactly, because we might do these things superficially.  Such a man would be like a taking a branch and gluing it onto the vine.  For a while, the branch will stay green and from a distance, it looks like the branch is in the vine, but in reality, it is only next to it.  This branch cannot survive or bear fruit.

But rather remaining in Jesus is a personal relationship with God.  Jesus says in verse 4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”  As the vine and the branch share fellowship, so does Jesus remain in us when we remain in him.  We see Jesus’ invitation, if anyone will remain in him, he will also remain in them.  He does not drive anyone away (Jn 6:34) Verses 7 and 9 give some further direction about what it practically means to remain in Jesus.  Verse 7 says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you.”  We remain in Jesus’ word through Bible Study, followed by obedience to what we learn through our study.  Writing testimonies is helpful to remaining in Jesus’ word.  Whenever I put off personal Bible study, and whenever I do not obey God’s word, I am not remaining in Jesus.  For a while I look OK, like fresh cut branch, but pretty soon, I begin to wither and loose fruit.  When I trace back how I got so messed up, I can find its origin in seemingly small things.  Not putting priority on remaining in Jesus through personal Bible Study.

Also verse 9 says, “remain in my love.”  Remaining in Jesus involves remaining in his love.  Absolutely.  When we love Jesus more than anything, we follow him.  When we love something else more, we abandon Jesus and follow it.  Now what could there possibly be, more worthy of our love than Jesus?  But for petty things we have seen many abandon God. We think some other thing is more desirable.  Maybe it’s a sin that looks fun.  Or it is just enjoying this life.  But 1John 2:15 commands, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  God’s love is not in us if we love the world.  We can only remain in Jesus’ love by loving him with all of our heart and soul and strength.  We have only one heart to love one thing most.  There are many ways to love God.  Jesus specifically mentions obedience.  Look at verse 10. “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.”

In review, when we remain in Jesus, he will remain us, like a friend (15) .  When we remain in Jesus, we will necessarily bear much fruit. And when we remain in Jesus, verse 8 tells us, “This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

We also think about how it is that few truly remain in Jesus.  Isaiah 6, described how God would work through only a tiny remnant, just a stump.  In Elijah’s day, there were just 7,000.  And today, many are superficially going to church and are not really remaining in the vine.  Many others fall away because of persecution (Mt 13:21) or love of the world (2 Ti 4:10).  But we must make a decision to be part of the remnant.  We remain in Jesus by remaining in his word and in his love, through obedience.  May we develop a strong foundation of character for us to be usable by God.  May we have God’s vision for us to bear much fruit in Jesus.  May God also bless our Bible study ministry to be fruitful as we remain in Jesus.