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Book: John
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John 15:1
I. "I am the true vine, My Father is the Husbandman."
A. Note how many times Jesus uses this name for God and refers it
to Himself.
1. 6:35 "I Am the bread of life."
2. 8:12 "I Am the light of the world."
3. 8:24 "If you believe not that I Am, you will die in
your sins."
4. 8:58 "Before Abraham was, I Am."
5. 10:7 "I Am the door of the sheep."
6. 10:11 "I Am the good shepherd."
7. 11:25 "I Am the resurrection and the life, he that
believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live, and he that liveth and believeth on Me shall
never die."
8. 14:6 "I Am the way, the truth and the life, no man
cometh to Father, but by Me."
9. 15:1 "I Am the true vine."
10. When the soldiers came to arrest Him in the garden, He
asked them, who are you seeking, when they responded,
Jesus of Nazareth, He answered, I Am, and they fell
down to the ground.
B. What prompted this declaration?
1. The Lord and the disciples having left the upper room
and as they were going to the Garden of Gethsemene,
could have passed through the Temple court, as the
gates were left open all night during the feast period.
On the gates of the Temple proper were large gold
clusters of grapes that represented that the nation of
Israel was God's vineyard.
a. In Isaiah 5: Israel is likened to a vineyard
that brought forth wild grapes.
b. Jer. 2:21 "I have planted thee a noble vine,
wholly a right seed, how then art then turned
into a degenerate plant of a strange vine unto
Me.?"
c. Hosea 10:1 Israel is an empty vine.
2. In contrast to the false vine, "I Am the true vine."
3. Perhaps they were walking through vineyards in the
Kidron valley.
C. "My Father is the husbandman."
1. The one that cultivates, watches over, and reaps the
fruit.
2. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh
away.
a. This is the pruning process.
b. There is only one purpose for the branches and
that is to produce fruit.
1. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of the
worthlessness of vine for any purpose
other than to bear fruit.
2. I cannot be used in building.
3. It is not good for firewood.
3. Every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it
might bring forth more fruit.
a. The husbandman is not satisfied that you just
bring forth fruit, He is interested in you
bringing forth more fruit.
b. Therefore the purging process.
1. Purging from our lives those things
that hinder our bearing fruit.
2. Many of the grapes in Israel grow right
on the ground. A large trunk propped up
with a boulder. The bunches of grapes
lie right on the ground.
3. As the grapes begin to ripen, they will
go through the vineyard with a bucket
of water and lift the bunches of grapes
off the ground and wash them that might
bring forth more fruit.
c. This purging is different than pruning. It
refers to a cleansing process that the Lord
takes us through. The next verse declares,
"Now you are clean through the word that I have
spoken unto you."
d. The word of God has a cleansing effect upon our
lives. Psa.119:9 asks, "How shall a young man
cleanse his ways?" It then answers, "By taking
heed to Thy word."
II. The importance of relationship in bearing fruit. "Abide in Me, and I
in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine; no more can you except you abide in Me."
A. Bearing fruit is a very natural process. There is no effort or
strain.
1. So the fruit that comes from our lives should come very
naturally, or should I say, "New naturally." For it
comes from our new nature that we have received from
Jesus Christ.
2. There are many people that seek to offer the Lord,
their works.
a. You remember the offerings that the sons of
Adam brought to the Lord. Cain brought from the
field, and Abel brought from his flock. The
Lord respected Abel's offering whereas He
rejected Cain's.
b. Remember what God said to Adam in the day he
sinned, "You shall earn your bread by the sweat
of your brow." In a sense, Cain was offering to
God that which came from the sweat of his brow.
c. God rejects our works of the flesh. When God
called Abraham to offer his son to Him as a
sacrifice, He said, "Take now thy son, thy only
son Issac." Abraham could have objected at this
point and declared, wait a minute God, I have
another son Ishmeal born of the Egyptian woman.
He was the result of Abraham trying to fulfill
the will of God with the efforts of the flesh,
and God did not recognize it.
d. How many times do we seek to offer to God the
works of our hands when He is seeking the fruit
of the Spirit.
e. Sometimes what we offer to God we offer with
sweaty hands, nervousness, and irritable
spirit, and we wonder why God rejects our
offering.
B. God wants to develop the fruit of the Spirit in your life. How
is this accomplished? By simply abiding in Jesus Christ.
1. He is the vine, you are the branch. Cut off from the
vine, you are dead.
a. Our life comes from Jesus Christ.
b. He is our source for life and fruit.
2. It is futile to think that you can bring forth fruit
from your life apart from Jesus Christ.
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