Jesus the Genuine Vine

We're going to be in John chapter 15 today, friends, which is one of the most visually striking chapters of the Bible. Even the setting which Jesus delivered this message is striking. To get a sense of this, we must begin at chapter 14 at the very end of verse 31, where Jesus declares, Arise, let us go hence, here.

Some Bible commentators believe that this discourse of the vine and the branches was given while Jesus and his disciples were still lingering in the upper room, and the reference to the vine is the grape in the cup they were drinking. Some scholars say the reference may be to an open window where a creeping vine wrapped itself around a trellis and came into view. Yet other scholars believe, and I tend to agree with them, that the place of the discourse was after Jesus and his men had left the upper room.

Notice his words, their very telling, which precede John chapter 15. Arise, let us go hence, meaning that Jesus delivered this discourse as the little band slowly made its way to Gethsemane. They had a cross over the brook Kidron, which was the traditional place where branches would be burned.

In John chapter 15 and verse 6, we read, If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gathered them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Picture Jesus and his men as they made their way beneath the moonlight crossing the brook Kidron, where in the background they would see flashes of the fires burning of those branches in the evening night. That's striking imagery, isn't it, friends? And that brings us to the beginning of John chapter 15, where Jesus declares, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman.

In the Greek language, the text reads, I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the genuine vine, and my father is the tiller of the soil. But here, Jesus is declaring that he is the genuine article. He's the real deal.

He's the true vine. Everyone else who claims to be him is a fake and a fraud. And he goes on to describe his father as a tiller of the soil.

This is striking imagery as well, for we cannot grasp the full import of it without connecting John chapter 15 to Isaiah chapter 5. Let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 5 now, beginning in verse 1, where we find the parable of the vineyard, where God is described as a husbandman, a vinedresser, a tiller of the soil. Beginning in verse 1, we read, Now I will sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved Touching his vineyard my well Beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill and he fenced it and Gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choices fine And built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine press therein And he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes For his vineyard he chooses the choicest piece of land the most fertile with rich soil He built a watchtower in it to keep his eye constantly upon it He removed all the stones and hindrances to his crop Even had such high expectations for it that he made a wine press Ready to squeeze luscious grapes into fine wine From that bumper crop he planted it with care. He watered it with love He pruned it for usefulness As God the Father does with each of his children But in the case with the Jews he looked for grapes But all he got for all his efforts were wild grapes a useless crop Then he laments in verse 4 what could have been done more to my vineyard? That I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes when each believer stands at the Judgment seat of Christ and he unfolds his blueprint for a life And he shows us the exact care He took over us like a vineyard how we planted it how he removed Obstacles from it how we cared for it with love and watched over it how he pruned it and had great Expectations for us and what did it bring forth? Oh, what did we bring forth? What did we bring forth? That's the question friends there will demand an answer on that day as we give an account to God of our lives as the books are opened and Reviewed over in John chapter 15 Jesus states in verse 5. I Am divine Ye are the branches? He that abided to me and I and him The same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing Jesus means what we do in the flesh for him apart from him is only Wood hay and straw They will one day be consumed by fire All that will remain are the gold silver and precious stones of a life lived in Complete surrender and yieldedness to him the reality of eternity Will reveal to us that while we were here in our earthly body It will be the abiding in him that matters For service to God, it's not so much what we do for him But what activity God does through us through our surrendered lives That's the fruit that remains for we are not fruit producers But only fruit bearers.

That's the meaning here friends It's God's work in and through our lives for his great glory