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I Am the Vine; You are the Branches
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, April 2, 2006
Sixth in a Lenten series entitled, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”
The Eight “I Ams” of Jesus from John’s Gospel
Scripture – John 15:5
In the tapestry of our lives is woven a very strong,
frequent thread. Often unnoticed because of the bright and the beautiful
threads we give attention to. But this thread is there weaving itself around
almost all of the others. It is the thread called ‘The Last time.’
In truth, our calendars are filled with ‘the last times’.
This is the last time we will be able to live out this day. This is the last
time we will be in this room all of us as we are now. High school seniors are
going through the emotional ‘last time’. They have known forever that the day
would come when they would graduate, but now it is getting very close and they
know that when they graduate it will be the last time they will all be together.
When Jesus gathered his apostles in the upper room, he knew
it would be the last time. When he took the bread and blessed it and broke it,
he knew it would be the last time this side of the cross. The fact that he
could take the cup and turn it into a life force of faith is an amazing event of
the power of the last time. For two thousand years later, here we are around
his table. The last time became the first time. I would hope that if this day,
you have never really understood the connection between you and the Lord Jesus,
it would be the first time.
When Jesus had broken the bread, it is thought by scholars
that he made his way then toward, toward that place when he would wrestle and
say with, with the Lord and say “Let this cup pass from me.” But on the way
there were vineyards. And it is thought by some that he stopped at a vineyard
and with one hand he took the grapes and with the other hand he took and placed
it on the vine.
Let’s read it. John, the 15th chapter,
beginning with the first verse. Jesus said, “I am the true vine. My father is
the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. And every
branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. So, it will be even more fruitful. You
are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 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. And if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much
fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. And if anyone does not remain in me,
he is like a branch thrown away and branch picked up and thrown into the fire
and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you
will and it will done unto you. This is my father’s glory that you bear much
fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” This, friends, is the word of
the Lord and this is one of the great ‘I am’ passages in the gospel of John, the
sixth in this series.
I want to ask four questions that our lord might ask of you
as it relates to his teachings about the vine.
The first question is: “Where is your
strength-hyphen-home?” In the good times as well as the weak times, where is
your strength coming from. I am calling it your strength-home. Home is where
we go for protection, for strength, for rest, for laughter, for nourishment, for
love. Home. The word that is used by Jesus, it is sometimes translated
‘remain’ as it is in the text I have read. Other times, ‘abide’. But it’s a
word that means to take up residence. It is a homey word. Look how often he
uses it. In the fourth verse, he uses it four times. Remain in me. In the
fifth verse, once; sixth verse, once; seventh verse, once. Seven times in four
verses. Wouldn’t you think Jesus is trying to tell us something. Jesus is
trying to ask us, “Where’s home for you?” Now he knows you’ve got an address.
And he knows that you are in the registry. He’s asking about the registry of
the spirit. Deep within. Where is your strength-home.
You see, many of us in our culture, I read in the paper,
have second homes. Affluent society. We live two places. Jesus is saying,
“Don’t make me your second home. Make me your first home. Make everything else
you do your second home. Because I can give you strength. All of the other
places, you will give strength.” Where are you going take in, instead of give
out. He is saying, “If you will make me your first home, if you will abide in
me, if you will remain in me, I can give you the strength to get through the
good times, I can give you the strength to get through the weak times.”
Let’s be honest about it. Do we not begin to make
ourselves our home?
Our own competence.
Our own confidence.
Our own courage.
Our own choosing.
We really believe and we come to believe we can handle just
about anything. And, of course, that we deserve everything. But, just suppose,
that in the busyness of our lives and the exhaustion of what we’re about we
begin to realize what we’re doing is completely giving ourselves to other things
and we’re not taking in anything.
And what Jesus wants to do is deep within us create home so
that when we have to go there we can open the door and be there, with the Lord.
Jesus knew that life is vine based, not branch based. And now, perfection is
not required here. The disciples were not perfect people. They would betray
him, they would deny him, even one of them, Simon Peter, cursed him. But Jesus
knew that even though they fled that sooner or later they would find home
again. And they did. Just like we do. Are you always consistently on target
with the Lord? Oh, if you are, God bless you. Pray for the rest of us. The
whole point is: The Lord says, “Make me home and I’m going to stay there. I’ll
be there for you. I’m not leaving. You may leave my place inside of you but
I’m going to be there.”
First question: Where is your strength-home?
Second question: Who or what do you expect to lift you up
when you’re down?
Listen, as I read. Because this, this is a word that I
really think is, is terribly mistranslated in almost all of the translations.
Now you know, if you’re playing in the band and you’re the only one who’s kind
of out of step, it could be that you’re out of step. So, I caution you. But
let me footnote what I’m saying. “I am the true vine,” he says, “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 may be more fruitful.” He
cuts off . There’s not much mercy and grace there. I don’t think that’s what
Jesus meant.
Let me give you a little, a little word study here. In the
language of the New Testament is the word airo. It means, basically, to lift up
or to take up. Let me give you some scriptures where this identical word is
used.
For example, in Mark where we are said, we’re told by
Jesus, his disciples are going to be willing to deny themselves and ‘take up’
their cross and follow me. I take that to mean that when things come apart we
don’t circle the wagons and have a pity party. We invite Jesus in and we say
“We’re going to walk through this, aren’t we Lord.” And we do. And in the
process what happens is we learn, not only do we learn but we discover that God
makes fruitful what we’re going through.
Here’s another one. Favorite verse of mine is Matthew 11,
last two verses. “Take up my yoke upon you.” It’s the ‘airo’ word. “Take up
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Because my yoke fits. Fits you.”
Look again. Eleventh chapter of John. Eleventh chapter of
John is when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. And in that Mary and Martha
have met him and they uh they kind of lay a guilt trip on him “Lord, if you had
only been here our brother would not have died.” And, how would you feel? And
what Jesus did is he told them to roll away the stone and they did and then it
says. “he lifted up his face to heaven.” That’s the ‘airo’ word. And he
prayed, “Father, thank you.” And then goes on to say that you’re going to use
this for your glory and he raises Lazarus from the dead.
I think there needs to be a little bit of alteration of our
view here. I don’t think what the Lord is saying is that when something is not
perfect God comes and whacks it off. I think what he’s saying is it’s going to
be lifted up to a new level and for a new purpose.
How does this relate to growing grapes? Bruce Wilkinson,
in his little book on this passage, really explained this to me. It seems that
a vine grower who is a Christian, a vineyard man, Napa Valley, California, had
dinner with him. Said “I want to explain to you that verse.” Now, here’s a
Bible scholar being taught by a layperson who’s a vineyard man.
He says, “You know, we have learned that when the vine
grows it grows straight down, toward the earth. Gravity. It gets down there,
it gets dirty. If it rains, it gets muddy. It becomes useless and diseased.
So, what do we do?
Wilkinson said, “What do you do? Cut it off?”
Said, “Why, no. That’s too valuable. That’s what we’re
about, growing grapes. So we go through with a basin and we wash it. And then
we either put it up on the trellis or we tie it up. And in a little while, now
that it’s all clean and it’s tied up, it begins to flourish, and before long
it’s growing grapes.”
Friend, that’s exactly the picture I think Jesus is trying
to get across here. He’s saying, “When you find yourself dragged down by
something in life, let the Lord pick you up, wash you clean, tie you to the
trellis of the cross and walk on.”
Third question I think Jesus would ask is: “Have you
pruned anything out of your life lately?” Listen to this. “I am the true vine
and my father is the gardener and he prunes so that that which is may become
fruitful.”
In that same little book I was talking about, Bruce says he
bought a house outside of town, in a place that he was just attracted to because
there was a vineyard, there was a row of grapes between his house and the next
house and he loved the vineyard principle so much, so he bought the house.
One day he came home and his neighbor was whacking away at
that grapevine. Whack. Whack. Whack. “My soul,” said Wilkinson, “he’s
hacking away at the reason I bought the house.” He goes over and he says, “What
are you doing?” Man looked up him, said, “You’re a city boy, aren’t you?” Well
he danced around that a little bit but finally he admitted to it and the man
said, “You got two choices. You can grow big leaves or you can grow big
grapes. Make your choice.”
That’s true of life, isn’t it. Well, not many of us have
vineyards. Some of us, at least, do grow tomatoes. Let me tell you about
tomato plants. You put tomato plants in and you have a strong stem and then,
there’re the, there’re the branches, we could call them, where the tomatoes are
going to grow. But if you leave it there, just don’t pay any attention to it,
what’s going to happen is, there are little sprouts. They used to call them
suckers. They’d come up, kind of at a forty-five degree angle, right out of
that main tomato-growing branch. And if you’d just leave those quote-unquote
suckers alone, what’s going to happen is that you’re going to have a tomato
plant with wonderful green leaves and little bitty tomatoes. Now, what are you
after? So, what do you do? You go in and you pinch those little old suckers
off. Why do you do that? Because you’re about the business of growing
tomatoes.
What have you pruned out of your life lately. Or is it so
full that all you can see is the leaves and the fruit bearing doesn’t take
place?
Fourth question Jesus would ask is: “What is it that’s
giving glory to God?” And the answer to that, being fruitful. And to be
fruitful to a person is you’ve got an eye for what God is going do in your life
and through your circumstances so that he can do his work through you. Listen
to the last verse that I read, verse eight. “This is that it may to the
Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples.”
We do not know when our last day will come. Jesus did.
And on that night when he gathered his disciples together and would later tell
them about the vine and the branch, he took the bread and he broke it and he
said, “This is my body which is broken for you.” Was he fruitful? I guess so.
And two thousand later, two thousand years later we’re finding home in him.
And he took the cup. And he said “This is my blood which
is shed for you for the remission of sins.”
Will you pray with me?
Lord Jesus, I ask you as the true vine to come to us just
now, enter our hearts, make home deep within us, forgive us of our sins, send us
your way in your time. Lord Jesus, during this few minutes, help us to focus on
you and what you want to do with us. And if there’s some homework we need to
do, some pruning we need to do, some cleaning up we need to do, may it happen.
We pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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