Introduction
The
Upper Room Discourse: a private conversation with his disciples about
how to be effective as his followers in the interim between his
ascension and return. Specifically, Jesus explains what it looks
like to follow him, the resources he gives us that enable us to
follow him, and the wonderful rewards of
following him (true fulfillment; peace that triumphs over
tribulation; fullness of joy).
In Jn. 15, Jesus
provides us with an extended metaphor describing a spiritually
fruitful life. Let’s start by reading the metaphor part
(we’ll read the rest soon)—read 15:1-6,8,11,16a. First,
let's identify the key elements of the metaphor:
The VINEDRESSER
stands for God the Father, the One who oversees the vineyard and
initiates key elements in the fruit-bearing process.
Jesus is the TRUE
VINE, the unique source of spiritual life that produces the fruit.
In calling himself the “true vine,” Jesus is echoing the
many Old Testament passages where God calls Israel his vine or
vineyard and laments their lack of fruitfulness. Jesus is the
Messiah, the One who fulfills the hopes of Israel and enables God’s
people to become truly fruitful.
The BRANCHES stand
for human beings, whose fruitfulness is directly connected to how
they relate to Jesus. We’ll look at these different kinds of
branches in a minute.
And what is the
FRUIT? Although it involves changes in our character and spiritual
experience (“the fruit of the Spirit”), it is ultimately
other people whose lives are lastingly changed by Jesus
through our influence. The whole purpose of fruit is reproduction.
Re-read 15:8. The idea of glorifying the Father means displaying the
unique greatness of God to others so that they are drawn to him (see
Matt. 5:16). Re-read 15:16. This language echoes
Matt. 28:19,20 (read), where Jesus told his followers to “go
and make disciples of me”—people who trust in Jesus as
the Messiah and follow his instruction.
To live a
spiritually fruitful life is to allow Jesus to transform you so that
other people are drawn to him. True spirituality is
ultimately other-centered rather than self-centered. If you
relate to Jesus only so that he will bless you, you will be
disappointed. But if you relate to him so that he may bless others
through you, you will experience the full joy of being spiritually
reproductive!
“OK, I want this—how do I become
fruitful?” The first step (which is not explained in this
passage because of the audience) is to be reconciled to God by
receiving Christ. Once we have done this, the Vinedresser
and the Vine want us to be spiritually fruitful, and they will
faithfully play their roles toward this end. Our spiritual
fruitfulness hinges on how we relate/respond to them . . .
Cooperate with the
Vinedresser
Once we are in the Vine, we come under the
Vinedresser's care. God the Father begins to intervene in very
personal ways designed to help us become fruitful. And here the
metaphor breaks down—we can choose to resist his work or
cooperate with it. 15:2 speaks of two different ways he does this.
Read 15:2a. What
does it mean that he “takes away” the branch that is not
bearing fruit? This sounds like unless we bear fruit, God will
reject us and judge us. But this is clearly contradictory to the
rest of scripture, which teaches that God accepts us on the basis of
our faith in Christ apart from works (Eph. 2:8,9) and
that we are then eternally secure (Jn. 10:27-30). To
whom then is Jesus referring? Two views are possible.
He could be
referring to people who have a superficial association with him, but
who have never truly believed in him—people like Judas, for
example. In this case, these branches would be identical to the
branches in 15:6 who are destined for God's judgment unless they turn
to Christ.
It is also
possible (and I think likely) that Jesus is referring to true
Christians who are not fruitful. The verb translated “takes
away” (airo) should be translated differently. Airo,
like most words, has a fairly wide range of meaning—from “take
away” (Jn. 1:29) to “take up” (Jn. 5:8).
Jn. 11:41 contains both uses. It seems to make more sense to
translate it “lift up” in this case for two reasons:
Vinedressers do indeed lift up/tie up unfruitful branches out of the
mud and shade so they get sunshine, and other passages speak of God's
initiative to stimulate us to fruitfulness (read Heb. 12:11).
He does this in many ways.
Maybe you’re
ignorant of how to grow spiritually, so he brings you into contact
with walking Christians who can guide us to the resources you need to
grow. Maybe you’re mired in things that prevent fruitfulness
(e.g., immoral relationship; materialism; bitterness), so he convicts
you and/or allows you to experience the consequences of your poor
choices to wake you up to your need to get back with him. Whatever
he does, you can be sure it is motivated by his desire to see you
have the true joy of being fruitful for him. Is the Vinedresser
trying to “lift you up?” How are you responding?
What about those
who are already bearing fruit? Why mess with success? Read 15:2b.
Even fruitful branches have lots of extraneous growth that looks
impressive, but uses precious life that could go to bearing more and
bigger fruit. God wants the greatest harvest possible, so he “prunes”
us so we may bear more fruit. Do you recognize God’s pruning
activity in your life?
It may involve God
asking to remove things that, while not overtly immoral, are
extraneous and therefore inhibiting greater fruit production.
HOBBIES, RELATIONSHIPS, PLANS, FINANCIAL ALLOCATIONS may have to be
adjusted or abandoned—not because God is a COSMIC KILL-JOY—but
because they stand in the way of even greater fruitfulness and true
joy. Some of these are easy to abandon because they have already
become stale in comparison to following Jesus—but some are very
painful to lay aside.
It may involve
ongoing revelation of how much more selfish and autonomous you are
than you thought you were. Ironically, it is those who embrace the
goal of impacting others for Christ who experience this painful
revelation. To make matters worse, we usually experience this
revelation in the midst of suffering for Christ (e.g., LEADERSHIP;
PARENTING). It feels overwhelming—but the Vinedresser knows
exactly what he is doing. This painful pruning is designed to
increase our appreciation of God’s grace and our dependence on
his power, so he can increase our spiritual depth and effectiveness.
Are you being
pruned by God? How are you responding?
Abide
in the Vine
Jesus is very
clear about our part in this fruit-production—“abide in
me” (re-read 15:4,5). Only his power can transform us and work
through us so that others are drawn to him. “Abiding”
connotes dependence on Jesus instead of self-sufficiency
(15:4b,5b). “Abiding” also connotes
ongoing dependence on Jesus (“remain;” present
tense) instead of intermittent dependence. The key to a fruitful and
therefore joyous life is not religious self-effort, but personal,
ongoing dependence on Jesus to live his life through us.
What does this
look like in real life? This sounds a little nebulous—almost
like Eastern religious passivity. But it is an active
dependence that expresses itself in practical ways. Jesus
goes on in 15:7-12 to explain some of these ways. Which of these
does the Spirit arrest your attention on?
Abiding in
Christ involves praying effectively because your prayers are in
accordance with his word. Read 15:7. What more basic way can we
depend on Jesus than to pray to him and ask him for what we need and
want? Many of us don’t pray much because we’re still
self-sufficient. (The Father’s pruning is designed to address
this!) But many of us pray little because it hasn’t
“worked”—we have gotten what we wished, so we quit
praying. But the key to “getting whatever we wish” is
that we are abiding in Jesus’ words—letting his words
inform us of what to wish and ask for. Jesus is not a Genie who
appears when we rub the bottle of prayer, saying “Your wish is
my command.” He is the Lord, who invites us to learn what he
wants to do and to participate in advancing his will by asking him
for it in very practical ways. As a baby Christian, most of my
prayers were for what I wanted at the time. But when I listened to
godly people pray, their prayers were studded with scripture. I
found that the more I prayed for God’s priorities, the more
answers to my prayers I experienced—and it is so exciting to
experience answered prayer! And the more I spent time in God’s
Word, the more familiar I became with God’s priorities and how
they applied to my situation. CORPORATE PRAYER IS A GREAT WAY TO
LEARN THIS!
Abiding in
Christ involves experiencing his love by trusting and following his
direction. Read 15:9,10. Now we must be very to understand what
this does not mean, as well as understanding what it does mean. At
first glance, this sounds extremely threatening—like God won’t
accept us unless we obey him all the time. For some of us, this
dredges up painful memories of abusive parents or authority figures
whose commands were self-centered and rejected/punished us unless we
complied. That is religion, not Christianity—law, not grace.
If you have received Christ, he already loves you with a permanent
and unconditional love (“I have loved you”). The point
is not that we must continue to earn his love by obedience, but that
we continue to experience his love by trusting him—and the acid
test of trust is obedience. When I was a child, my parents’
love was unconditional—and I am so grateful for the security
and stability their unconditional love gave me. But my enjoyment of
their love and my experience of deepening intimacy with their love
were connected with my trust in them—by following their
guidance. When I mistrusted them and disobeyed them, I felt distant
and alienated—and even convinced myself that they didn’t
love me. But when I trusted their love and wisdom and followed their
guidance, I felt even closer and more secure in their love.
Something very similar to this is also true of our relationship with
Jesus. Don’t think of his
commands as oppressive, burdensome rules—think of them as
invitations to experience his love more deeply!
Abiding in
Christ involves building sacrificial love-relationships with other
Christians. Read 15:12,13. Do you want to experience Christ’s
love in deeper intimacy? Do you want to see him transform you into
someone who draws others to him? Do you want to experience the
fullness of joy that results from a spiritually productive life?
Then you have to keep his command to get deeply involved in Christian
community! There is no such thing as a fruitful Christian who
is isolated from other Christians. His life-giving,
life-transforming love flows into you not only as you pray according
to his word and as you keep his commands—but also as you give
his love to other Christians (and receive it from them). American
Christianity tends to be autonomous (“Just Jesus and me”)
and its community tends to be extremely superficial (once-a-week
“Drive-thru”). Jesus is calling you to get involved
enough with other Christians that you regularly receive and give his
encouragement, admonition, forgiveness & forbearance, etc.
to/from other Christians. This is the very best context to learn how
to pray according to his word. This is the very best context to give
and receive help to keep his other commandments. Many of you are
spiritually unfruitful and joyless simply because you won’t get
involved in this way! I had to learn this the hard way—and I
still have to learn it. Will you trust Jesus enough to keep this
commandment? If you’re not in a home group, join one! If you
are in a home group, get off the bench and start laying down your
life for your friends!
Conclusion
What has God
arrested your attention on? Maybe it’s receiving Christ.
Maybe it’s cooperating with his pruning. Maybe it’s
praying informed by his word. Maybe it’s trusting him enough
to follow his direction. Maybe it’s getting involved with
other Christians and learning to love them. Just respond to the one
thing he is outing his finger on—and you’ll begin to bear
fruit!
Copyright 2004 Gary DeLashmutt