John 15:1–11

¹ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

As we sit here right now, a bitter, high profile, public dispute among a recently divorced Hollywood power couple continues to rage. The divorce itself between the two A-list stars has been settled after much fighting and maneuvering. But the conflict continues between the couple, primarily over one, specific, very valuable asset: a vineyard in France, the Château Miraval.

Formerly 50/50 owners of the chateau and vineyard, the husband now alleges that the wife violated a verbal agreement that she would offer him first right of purchase if ever she wanted to sell. She, on the other hand, claims she did offer it to him to buy but that he tried to forced her to sign a restrictive Non-disclosure Agreement disavowing some of her allegations against him in order for him to finalize the sell.

It is a fascinating and very sad situation.

Who knew that the great question in this very public and acrimonious divorce would come down to this: Who owns the vineyard?

That vineyard, again, is very, very valuable. Ownership of it matters, a lot. It is prized, deeply, and it is likely that maneuvering on both sides will continue for some time before the courts ever figure it out.

Who owns the vineyard?

As it turns out, according to John 15, in the Kingdom of God Jesus and His bride are also in partnership in a vineyard. I say “partnership,” but, really, there are major differences! First of all, there is no question of who owns God’s vineyard. The Lord God does. It is His and His alone. And there is no dispute concerning the operation of the vineyard. God’s word is very clear on how the vineyard works. Even so, in John 15, Jesus instructs us on the operation of the vine, on how it works, on how fruit is produced, on what is expected of it, and on how the imagery of the vineyard can guide us as we walk The Jesus Way.

As it turns out, God too is concerned about His vineyard. Let us see how Jesus uses this amazing image to lead us.

To claim the name of Jesus without producing the fruit of Jesus shows that something is wrong with our union with Jesus.

It is most telling that in God’s Kingdom there is a vineyard. It is an image that Jesus uses more than once. For instance, in Matthew 20, Jesus tells a story likening God to the owner of a vineyard and the Kingdom of God to a vineyard. He tells another parable in Matthew 21 that does the same: God is likened to one who plants a vineyard to whom He sends His servants and then His own Son. In Luke 13, Jesus likens God to one who plants a vineyard, puts a fig tree in it, and calls for it to be destroyed since the tree will not bear fruit.

All of these are relational images that have to do with God’s relationship with the world and/or with His own people within the world. His clearest application of this vineyard and vine language is in John 15.

We begin with a premise: The vine is intended to bear fruit. Listen:

¹ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

To claim the name of Jesus without producing the fruit of Jesus shows that something is wrong with our union with Jesus.

First, the participants in the vineyard are named:

• The Father is the vinedresser. He tends to the vine.
• The Son is the vine. The power of life surges through Him.
• We, believers in Christ, are the branches. We draw life from the vine that is Christ.
• Fruit is the life of Christ that manifests itself in and through and out of our lives.

To claim to be in Christ and to not bear fruit is an aberration. It shows that something is wrong with our perceived union with Christ. Why? Because a healthy branch produces fruit if it is in fact rightly joined to and growing out of the vine.

Vinedressers prune non-productive branches so that, in time, fruit may grow. Keener observes of this:

The three common domestic fruit “trees” were the fig, olive and vine, and of these, the olive and vine (esp. the latter) required most attention. Those tending vines (and some kinds of trees) would cut away useless branches lest they wastefully sap the strength of the plant; in the long run, this diverted more strength into the branches that would genuinely bear fruit. The weaker the vine, the more harshly one pruned it, reducing short-term fruit but ensuring a greater measure of fruit the following year. Farmers pruned in two different ways: they pruned fruitful branches to make them more fruitful, and (as in 15:6) they removed unfruitful branches entirely.[1]

Let me ask you a question: Is your life evidencing in healthy ways The Jesus Way? Are your producing fruit that looks more and more like Jesus? Or is the branch that is you failing to produce fruit. If it is failing to produce fruit, are you discontent with this? Do you want to produce fruit? Do you see and feel the tragedy of fruitlessness? Do you wish your life to be a demonstration of the power of Jesus?

In Matthew 3:8, John the Baptist proclaims, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

The fruit you are bearing is “in keeping” with the reality of your own heart. Our fruit reveals what is really going on within us. Your life is “in keeping” with that to which you have affixed your heart.

Is the fruit of your life “in keeping” with Jesus and His way?

To bear the fruit of Jesus we must abide in Jesus.

There is a word that is repeated many times in our text. It is the word “abide.”

It is telling that, in John 15, we once again find the distinction between justification (our salvation that has been completed in and through Jesus) and our sanctification (our living out of our justification for the bearing of much fruit). First, our justification. In verse 3, we find a bold and clear statement of our justification:

³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

That statement almost sounds out of place with its language of “cleaning” (though this is etymologically linked to the word for pruning) and with the past tense of “Already you are clean.” But it is very important. It means that if you are in Christ then the saving work of God for you is complete. “Already you are clean…”

This image is actually used by Jesus to make the same point just two chapters before our text, in John 13. Here, Jesus comes to wash Peter’s feet and Peter is shocked by the action.

⁸ Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

Do you see?

• “Already you are clean…” (John 15:3)
• “And you are clean…” (John 13:10)

You are clean. You are washed in the blood. You are born again. You are justified. Fruit-bearing is not a matter of earning salvation. Fruit-bearing is a matter of living as a saved person.

So, God gets the glory for your fruit and God is the one who works a work. Even so, we are called to abide, to dwell with Jesus. It is Jesus who creates the fruit!

⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

To “abide” is to dwell with, remain with.

“Remain in me—and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.” (David Bentley Hart[2]; also “remain” in N.T. Wright[3] and Scot McKnight[4])

This is not casual. This is not surface. To abide is to live with, to be in relationship with.

As we remain in Christ, abide in Christ, His generative power flows through us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, producing fruit. The result of fruit-bearing is two-fold:

⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

When we bear fruit:

• God is glorified.
• We are shown to be disciples of Jesus.

This happens when we abide in Christ. Do your see your relationship with Jesus as one of abiding?

Does the fruit of your life communicate an abiding state in Christ? Are you dwelling with Christ? Remaining with Christ?

Walking The Jesus Way is a critically important aspect of abiding in Jesus’ love.

Even here, however, there is a note of sanctification. The work is Christ’s. The fruit is Christ’s. The empowerment is from Jesus. Even so, the branch is not utterly passive in bearing fruit. Note the conditional phrase.

¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

There is a link between the keeping of Jesus’ commandments and the bearing of fruit. The conditional note of verse 10 is critically important: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…” Verse 10 is important because it calls us away from a magical view of sanctification and reminds us that while the work is Christ’s and the fruit is Christ’s and the empowerment is Christ’s, even so we are in relationship with him. In this sense (limited and carefully defined!), there is a partnership element in the operation of the vineyard. I agree with Gary Burge who said of verse 10:

The branch produces what the life coursing through its limbs desires, that is, the “fruit of the vine.” But the outcome is not a mechanical productivity of fruit. The disciple steps into a relationship of love with both Jesus (15:9) and the Father (15:10), out of which a transformed life, a fruit-bearing life, will flow. [emphasis added][5]

This does not mean we earn or merit our salvation. “Already you are clean…” (v.3). But it does mean that we:

• strive to walk in obedience to Jesus’ commandments, and
• strive to reject anything that obstructs fruit.

We might say that we, as followers of Jesus, cannot conjure up fruit out of our own efforts. We can do nothing outside of Christ! But what the believer can do is introduce obstructions to fruit bearing. This is called sin. Here again, we return to the words of John the Baptist: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Repentance opens the door to fruitfulness. But this means that a refusal to repent closes the door to fruitfulness. This is because sin is a toxin. Sin is that which obstructs the flow of Holy Spirit sap from the vine to the branches and therefore undercuts fruitfulness. This is why Jesus prunes us, cuts us back, does a work in us, so that we might, in time, bear fruit.

The believer can also fail to foster fruit by refusing to practice fruitfulness, as we saw in Hebrews 5:

¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

We are therefore to trust in Christ, to repent of our sins, and to walk The Jesus Way. Walking The Jesus Way is a matter of abiding, but it is also a matter of keeping Jesus’ commandments.

Part of walking The Jesus Way, of abiding in Christ, is refusing to be content with lesser, fruitless models of our faith. Consider, for instance, the casual indifference reflected in this description of the Christian life voiced by a character in William Faulkner’s novel, Sanctuary.

“I’m an American,” he said. “I dont brag about it, because I was born one. And I been a decent Baptist all my life, too. Oh, I aint no preacher and I aint no old maid; I been around with the boys now and then, but then I reckon I aint no worse than lots of folks that pretends to sing loud in church.[6]

Let me ask you a question: Is that right there what you think Jesus had in mind when He spoke of us abiding in Him and bearing fruit? Does that sound like the kind of viable, healthy, fruit-producing, life-transforming experience that Jesus is calling us to in John 15?

To get to a good model of the Christian faith, it will involve rejecting bad models…but rejecting bad models can be hard. In 1854–1855, Søren Kierkegaard wrote a series of letters to the Danish press about the emptiness of the state religion of the day. He said that what the Christians of Denmark thought was Christianity was really an illusion and that they needed to be about the painful business of ridding themselves of the illusion so that they could receive the real thing. He wrote:

What we have before us is not Christianity but a prodigious illusion, and the people are not pagans but live in the blissful conceit that they are Christians. So if in this situation Christianity is to be introduced, first of all the illusion must be disposed of. But since this vain conceit, this illusion is to the effect that they are Christians, it looks indeed as if introducing Christianity were taking Christianity away from men. Nevertheless this is the first thing to do, the illusion must go.[7]

Do you see? If you have wedded yourself to an unhealthy model or image of the Christian life (i.e., say, a model in which the Christian life is simply getting saved and then doing whatever you want until you die), it will feel like Christianity is being taken away from you when a healthy, biblical model (i.e., say, abiding in Christ, the vine, and bearing the fruit of that abiding as branches) is introduced.

Or consider an unhealthy model of the Christian life in the other direction: legalism. Consider the difference between the model of Sisyphus and the model of the vine.

In the myth of Sisyphus, Sisyphus is condemned by the gods to roll a large bolder to the top of a high hill. Just as he gets to the top, the boulder rolls all the way to the bottom and Sisyphus has to start all over again. And this he has to do for all of eternity: strain and push and try to do something that is forever doomed to futility.

Consider how very different that is from Jesus’ image of the vine: Resting and abiding in Jesus and, out of that, following Him in love and gratitude. Jesus has gotten the boulder to the top of the hill. He has completed the work. And now we are privileged to follow Him and learn His way on the basis of that completed work.

Which model drives your approach to the Christian life?

Abide in the vine!

We must abide in Christ, and so bear fruit! This is The Jesus Way. This is what it is to be a disciple!

Abide in Christ!

 

[1] Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. (IVP Bible Background Commentary Set) (p. 293). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[2] Hart, David Bentley. The New Testament: A Translation. (p. 205). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

[3] Wright, N. T. The New Testament for Everyone. Third Edition: A Fresh Translation (p. 188). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[4] McKnight, Scot. The Second Testament: A New Translation. (p. 116). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[5] Burge, Gary M. John. The NIV Application Commentary. Gen. Ed. Terry Muck. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), p.418.

[6] William Faulkner. Sanctuary. (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), p.265.

[7] Soren Kierkegaard. Attack Upon Christendom. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968), p.97.