John 15:1-11

1). Jesus Is The New Israel, Which is To Act As The New Witness for God In The World. If We Would Enjoy His Blessing We Must Do So By Living Continually In Him In Trust and Obedience As Branches Remain In The Vine (15:1-11).

Jesus now wishes to encourage His disciples further before finally leaving the Upper Room and therefore emphasises their oneness with Him, something which can be illustrated by His Oneness with the Father. He likens Himself to the True Vine of which they were the fruitful branches. The Vine was no new portrayal. Jesus regularly likened Israel to a vine (see Matthew 20:1; Matthew 21:23; Mark 12:1; Luke 13:6; Luke 20:9), whilst the vine as a symbol of Israel appeared on coins in the time of the Maccabees. In the same way Israel was also regularly portrayed in the Old Testament in terms of the vine, but in their case it was often as a false vine in contrast to a true vine (e.g. Psalms 80:8; Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 27:2; Jeremiah 2:21; Jeremiah 12:10; Ezekiel 17:6; Hosea 10:1). Thus His reference to Himself as ‘the true vine' is clearly in deliberate contrast to Israel as the false vine. He is depicting Himself as the source and basis of the new Israel.