John 15:1-11

VITAL UNION OF VINE AND BRANCHES

Text 15:1-11

1

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.

3

Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.

4

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me.

5

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.

6

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples.

9

Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love.

10

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

11

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Queries

a.

How were they cleansed through the word which He had spoken? John 15:3

b.

How are His disciples to abide in Him and He in them? John 15:5

c.

What was His joy? John 15:11

Paraphrase

I, Myself, am the Vine, the real one. My Father is the Vine-dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes and cleanses that it may yield more fruit. You have already received your initial cleansing through faith and obedience to the word which I have spoken to you. Now continue to remain in Me and let Me remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains in living union with the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in living union with Me. I, the Vine, am the life-source; you, the branches, are the agents for bearing fruit. The man that dwells in Me and in whom I dwell in this living union, this man bears much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing fruitful. If a man is not dwelling in Me in living union, he is thrown away as a branch that is withered and dead and is gathered up with the others, and thrown into the fire and burned. If you continue to abide in Me and let Me abide in you through My words, you may ask whatsoever you will for My sake, and it shall be given unto you. This is the way My Father is glorified and exaltedwhen you produce much fruit by dwelling in Me. This also is the way you continue to become My discipleswhen you continue to produce much fruit. Just as the Father loved Me and His love sustained Me, I also love you and My love for you will sustain you if you dwell in My love. If you keep My commandments you will live and dwell in My love even as I keep My Father's commandments and live and dwell in His love. All of these things I am telling you that you may come to know the same joy that I know and that your joy may be one of fullness.

Summary

Jesus teaches that fruitfulness, adoration of the Father and discipleship is dependent upon living union with Christ, the Vine. All of this results, in turn, in a fullness of joy which Christ Himself knew.

Comment

Let us keep constantly in mind the central theme of these last fleeting hours of private instruction to the disciples: the living union between Christ and His disciples. From the opening of the Passover supper that night until He is arrested in Gethsemane, He uses many different figures of speech and different approaches to illustrate the absolute necessity of this intimate union.

The Passover celebration was always pregnant with Messianic prophecies, types and symbolism carried over from the Jewish Scriptures into the rituals of the night. Jesus had just referred to Himself as the fulfillment of the shadowy sacrifice of the Passover lamb. He had just plainly told them that He came as a ransom for the sins of many. He had referred to the fruit of the vine as a symbolic memorial of His blood. Perhaps they had gone out into the night (John 14:31, Arise, let us go hence) and on their way from the upper room to Gethsemane had passed the Temple. Now the Temple, as Herod had restored it, had a great vine made of gold entwined and hanging around the door into the Holy Place. The vine is a figure employed prolifically in the Old Testament to typify the chosen Messianic people of God:

a.

The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7).

b.

I had planted thee a noble vine. (Jeremiah 2:21).

c.

Israel is an empty vine. (Hosea 10:1).

d.

Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt (Psalms 80:8).

e.

See also, Ezekiel 15:1-8; Ezekiel 19:10.

The vine had actually become the symbol of the nation of Israel. The emblem on the coins of the Maccabees was the vine. It may be that the minds of the disciples, already dwelling on their idea of the temporal Messianic kingdom, were being drawn into further materialistic meanderings as they thought of the Old Testament symbols of Israel, the Lord's vine. They were contemplating their position in this kingdom because of their national heritage as Israelites. But Jesus would have them know that He was the Vine, the real Vine, in contrast. to the typical vine. Membership in the Messianic kingdom, and all the glorious blessings promised by the prophets, is to be found not by national inheritance but by personal faith and intimate communion in the Person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and True Vine. It is the same as all the nations of the earth being blessed in Abraham. in The Seed (singular, Galatians 3:16) of Abraham.

Whatever prompted the allegory of the Vine, it is one of the most beautiful pieces of rhetoric available for man to feed his soul upon. And its purpose is to explain both the idealistic and practical sides of the vital union between Christ and all who would be His disciples.
He begins with the emphatic verb-pronoun linking which translated literally means, I, Myself, am the Vine, the real Vine! The only fruitful, saving relationship is intimate communion by the disciple with the Person of his Master. He, the Vine, is the source of life for the branch. There is no other source of life for the branchapart from the Vine the branch not only does not bear fruit, it withers and dies and is burned.
The Father is the Vinedresser, the Husbandman. The Greek word for husbandman is georgos, meaning farmer or vinedresser. It is the same word from which we get the proper name in English of George. Notice the twofold work of the Husbandman. Every disciple (branch) who does not produce fruit after his own kind (other disciples) is cut off completely, cast forth and burned (John 15:6). The whole idea of the allegory is that if there is any real union between the disciple and the Master, there will be some life, and if there is any life there will be some fruit. Therefore, the disciple who has no fruit has no life because he has no real union with his Master. God grant that preachers may be raised up to preach the Word of God with a fervency, purity and communicativeness which will draw all who profess to be branches into this intimate, personal union with the Vine. Preachers may organize, delegate and create a furor of activity, but there will be no real fruit until each Christian is in this life-supplying union with Christ.

The branch that does abide in the Vine and produce some fruit is cleansed by the Husbandman in order that it may produce more fruit. The vine is grown all over Palestine. It is a plant which needs a great deal of attention if the best fruit is to be produced on it. Each year the vine is drastically pruned that it may produce more and better fruit. We quote Maclaren here:

We all, in our Christian life, carry with us the two naturesour own poor miserable selves, and the better life of Jesus Christ within us. The one flourishes at the expense of the other; and it is the Husbandman's merciful, though painful work, to cut back unsparingly the rank shoots that come from self, in order that all the force of our lives may be flung into the growing of the cluster which is acceptable to Him. let us understand the meaning of all that comes to us. The knife is sharp and the tendrils bleed, and things that seem very beautiful and precious are unsparingly shorn away, and we are left bare, and, as it seems to ourselves, impoverished. But oh! it is all sent that we may fling our force into the production of fruit unto God. And no stroke will be a stroke too many or too deep if it helps us to that.

The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us, All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11).

The word cleanse comes from the Greek word catharoi from which we get the English catharsis which means to purify. This continual purification of the Christian comes when his faith is put to the test through the chastening of the Lord and tribulations. The branch which continues to draw his life from the Vine not only endures the pruning but is made stronger and more fruitful as a result. We also must be diligent to purify our souls by our obedience to the truth (1 Peter 1:23) and follow after peace with all men and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

In John 15:3 Jesus tells the disciples that they have already been cleansed (pruned) to a certain degree through the word which He had taught them. Already, through their reception of His word, certain of the rank shoots of worldliness had been cut out of their lives. Already they had accepted the call to discipleship and had sacrificed much and had borne some fruit. The same principle applies here as was stated by Jesus in John 13:10see our comments on that verse.

John 15:1 through 3 have concentrated on the pruning and cleansing of the branches in order that they might produce much fruit. Now in John 15:4 through 7 the concentration is upon the vital union of the branch in the Vine. The branch is powerless (Greek here is ou dunatai:meaning literally, no dynamic) to bear worthwhile fruit apart from the life which the Vine supplies. In the first three verses the great fundamental facts are presented (a) the Vine, (b) the branches, (c) the Vinedresser working for fruit. Upon these three great facts rests the imperative admonition, Abide in Me. All that is good and true and just and holy in word or deed coming forth from the Christian, originates not in him as branch but has its origin and motivation and power in Jesus Christ, the Vine. If anything good comes from us it is the mind of Christ in us (Philippians 2:5-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Colossians 1:27-29). Apart from the love of Christ we can do nothing pleasing to God, even though we give our body to be burned (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Matthew 7:21-23) and perform miracles.

Not only is it impossible to bear fruit apart from Christ, it is impossible to live! The assumption is that Jesus is warning these disciples who are now in Him not to sever that relationship lest they wither and die and be cast into the pyre (Greek pur; meaning fire). Being cast into the fire undoubtedly means being cast into hell (cf. Matthew 3:8-12; Matthew 7:19; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 25:41). The wood of the branch has the curious characteristic that it is good for nothing when severed from the vine. It is too soft for any use, At certain times of the year the Jews were required to bring wood offerings to use in the fires on the Temple altar (Nehemiah 10:34; Nehemiah 13:31). The commandment (Leviticus 6:8-13) was that wood of trees were to be burned upon the altar. The wood of the vine was fit for nothing (Ezekiel 15:1-5). The only thing that could be done with the wood pruned out of a vine was to make a bonfire of it and destroy it (cf. Isaiah 27:11).

Now the important question is: How may we abide in Him in the Vine-branch relationship of which He speaks? Is it completely mystical and must we wait upon a mystical revelation apart from the written revelation?

The authoritative word of Christ speaks the only answer in John 15:7 through John 15:10. Let us here quote Dr. Maclaren again:

His abiding in us is. the abiding of His words in us; or, to speak more accurately, the abiding of His words in us is. the means of His abiding in us. What is meant by Christ's words abiding in us?. It means the whole of the conscious nature of a man being, so to speak, saturated with Christ's words; his desires, His understanding, His affections, His will, all being steeped in these great truths which the Master spoke.

If Christ's words are your desires then your desires will harmonize with His will, and ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Christ knows what is best for us. He loves us too much to give us our selfish desires and so the abundance of His riches is withheld until our wills are brought into conformity to His will.

To abide in His love (John 15:10) is the same as abiding in Him. And how are we to abide in His love? By keeping His commandments just as He kept the Father's commandments. Christ in us is our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27) and He dwells in us through His word (cf. our sermon notes on the Holy Spirit).

Bearing fruit (which is a result of abiding in Him) is also one of the ways to go on abiding in Him. The word be in John 15:8 would be better translated become (from Greek ginomai) indicating that discipleship is a continuing process. We never so much are disciples as we are in the process of becoming disciples. Bearing fruit has, of course, the highest of all purposes, to bring glory and honor to God the Father. We are to let our lights shine before men in such a way that men may see our fruit and glorify the name of God (Matthew 5:16; John 3:21; 1 Peter 2:12). All of our fruit-bearing and glorifying of God is prompted by our intimate union with Him in keeping His word. Lenski says, ... this is how we remain in Jesus: by receiving and permanently holding his utterances, the hremata (words) that come from his lips. He in us, and we in Him, the medium and bond of His spiritual union being His spoken Word (cf. John 15:7-10 with John 8:31).

John 15:11 is the crowning point of this whole discussion. Jesus has laid down the divine formula for finding and filling oneself with joy. It is not a joy of frivolity which the world gives and takes away. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory it is the joy which Christ Himself knows. Though He was a man of sorrows while on the earth, there was in His soul that deep and abiding joy which no tribulation could smother. It was prophecied that He would be anointed with the oil of gladness (Psalms 45:7; Hebrews 1:9). He found joy in the fact of God's revelation to men (Luke 10:21); He found joy in saving the lost (Luke 15:1-32); but most of all His joy was in the glory that was set before Him (cf. Hebrews 12:2; John 17:3). His joy on earth was found in complete self-surrender in love (John 4:34) and this is where His disciples shall find the same joy (John 13:17).

The plain path which leads to a cup of joy that runneth over is: (a) Abide in Him, (b) bear fruit, (c) glorify the Father. Why are so many Christian people not finding joy and fulfillment in their Christianity? Why are they withered and dead? Because they have not allowed the life-giving, fruit-bearing sustenance of the Word of God and the Spirit of Christ to flow through them. Further, they do not allow the Word to flow out of them as a river of living water, quenching the thirst of the souls of the unsaved; nor are they lights unto the world; nor are they the salt of the earth. They are unfruitful. They are unhappy and bereft of the joy of Christ!

Quiz

1.

What background probably prompted Jesus to use the allegory of the Vine and the branches?

2.

What is the main purpose of the allegory?

3.

What part does the husbandman play in the allegory?

4.

Do works and busy activity always indicate fruitfulness? Why?

5.

What good is a branch if it does not bear fruit? What happens to it?

6.

How do we abide in the Vine?

7.

What is the joy of Christ and how may His disciples find the same joy?