Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

And is the overflow of your intimate relationship with Christ.

John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Introduction:
1.         Love fruit
2.         Making a difference – things that need to be done

Free online – spiritual gifts analysis

http://www.churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.php
We so busy, busy, busy.  Running here and there.  No margins in our lives

“Issue one in our culture, Christian or non-Christian is the search for significance, which has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years.”     Paul Ford, lay mobilization consultant

What really matters? In the second half of life.  In the first half.  In the last trimester?

I.  His Focus – Fruit bearing!
Nothing like delicious fruit!  Making a difference!
In the process of discovering what has happened to you and who you are in Christ you will want to bear fruit in your life!

God wants us to be fruitful in His kingdom.
Jn 15:2  “bear fruit”  prunes so it will bear “more fruit”
15:4  “cannot bear fruit unless”
15:5  “he bears much fruit”
15:8  “by this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples”
15:16  “You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain”

World’s definition of success: accomplishing, achieving, climbing ladders that don’t necessarily matter in the long run.

Significance: the process of accomplishment in the things that really matter in life in the long run.  The things that matter to God. We need to rethink the rest of our lives in terms of significance.

Here Christ says that we can define “significance” in terms of three relationships: Our relationship with him; our relationship with each other; and our relationship with the world.

Of utmost importance is that He tells us that simple truth about how to live lives of significance…make our relationship with Him first!

Fruit: What is he talking about?
Converts:
John 4:35-38 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.””

John 12:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Character
Isaiah 5:1-7     the Song of the Vineyard = Character
Galatians 5:25 Qualities
Others: Ps 80:8f; Eze 15;
John 15:17  Love one another w/ sacrificial love
John 15:27 w/ Acts 1:8  Impact
More Basic: 15:7-17
Possessing the divine life itself expressed in the characteristics of that life.  Union with God!

Am I fulfilling the mandate of my calling?

II.         Identity:  who is who in this analogy?

A.        God the Father is the Gardener – “My Father is the vinedresser”
Trains the branches, fertilizes, weeds, prunes, waters. He takes an active role in developing the life of the branches so that they become fruitful.

Called to Christ by the Father
John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”

The Father opens our hearts to pay attention to the Good News
Acts 16:14 “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia…The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”

The Father gives people to His Son
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”  (Effectual call)

John 10:28-29 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and my father are one.”

The Father gives them new life (not a new religion)
Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

The Father uses imperishable seed
1 Peter 1:23-25 “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

The Father places the branches of the vine exactly where He wants them.  He knows who they are and exactly what they need.
1 Corinthians 12:18 “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”

It is the Father prunes the branches
John 15:2-3 “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Jesus does not say, “Every branch that appears to be in me” but every branch “in me”.   How can a person be ‘in Christ’ and yet be separated from Him like Judas was?  No amount of theological standing on our heads will erase this antinomy.

What I do know for sure is that we are all a mess!  We are sinners at every level of our existence.  We are weak-willed just like Peter.  He was so cock sure that he would take a stand for Jesus and die for him.  But within hours he denied Christ 3 times.

But during his life Peter was pruned by Christ.  He learned who he was “in Christ”.  Many times he was drawn up short.  He was rebuked publicly by Paul for not living consistently with the gospel.

So too, the Father disciplines all his children

Hebrews 12:4-7, 10-11 “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?…For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

There is also the pruning part of this passage . . . Jesus says that his Father is the gardener who not only cuts off unfruitful branches, but also “prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more” (15:2). When gardeners prune a plant, they are literally shaping that plant, deciding which branches to take away and which to leave. They are pruning with a vision for what the plant will become. They are forming the plant for maximum fruitfulness and/or beauty.

I don’t like pruning.  It isn’t bad to cut off truly dead branches. But usually pruning involves cutting back live branches, taking away beautiful. Usually, the plant I begin to prune looks quite fine. When I’m finished, it is downright ugly. I often feel rather sad when I’m done with a pruning job, even though I know it’s necessary for the health and fruitfulness of many plants.

I like being pruned even less than I like pruning, however. In my experience, God’s pruning is rarely like a haircut, painless with immediately positive results. It’s more like what happens with plants. God takes away, often with some pain on my part, aspects of my life that have been fruitful. Sometimes I can’t see why God is doing this to me. Sometimes I feel angry with him. Sometimes I feel afraid or sad. But, in retrospect, I can see how God’s pruning helps me to be more fruitful for him.

Jesus Christ is the Vine: “I am the true vine”
Last of the 7 “I am’s” in John
= the right stock.  Every nursery person knows impt of right stock
= Jesus Christ is the only source of spiritual life.

ILL:  Life in the vine!  Burned, all is lost, dig into ground for living root, brought into the light and grafted in!  Under the Tuscany Sun, 2003 starring Diane Lane
While on vacation, a just-divorced writer buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim, hoping it will be the start of a change for the better in her life

The Son cleanses
John 13:10-11 “Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.””

John 15:3  “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.”

The Son nourishes us by His teaching.
John 15:4-5 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

The disciples are the branches: “You are the branches”
Last words to the 12.  Important words.
John 13-17 is Christ’s farewell message.
They have been grafted into a right relationship with Jesus through faith.

15:3  “you are already clean”  = forgiveness. Not perfect but clean
If there are a 1000 steps between people and God, God has taken all of them toward us except one.  The last one these men have taken.  They’ve received Christ.  They’ve opened the door of their lives to him.  Therefore, they are branches.

III.        The Mandate of this Passage: Abide in Me!
The Christian life is simply one of abiding in Jesus, letting his words abide in us, and bearing much fruit.

A.        Meaning
Drawing our life from Christ
Sharing our life with Christ
Total association – share our lives intimately with him.
To stick like glue to Jesus.
Opening ourselves and our inner world up to Him.
Their willingness is weaker than they think.
Fortunately, He never leaves or forsakes them.

Remain in Me.  11x in Jn 15; 40 in John; 27 x in Jn’s letters
1.     Accept Him as Savior.  A faith commitment
2.     Persevere in faith
3.     Continue to listen to him, be teachable and pliable.

Seeking to bring every thought into conformity with Him
Stressing the impossibility of bearing fruit without abiding in him.
Branches do not have a conscious will.  Abiding is natural.
The Father prunes
The Son cleanses and nourishes But the branches must chose and make an effort to abide in Cx.
Seeking to spend time with him, to share his thoughts, emotions, intentions and power with him.
To be a conduit for his life to flow in and through us.

http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/video/hanks02.asp

~The Lord Jesus loves the church…every little part of the church
~ Ministry is the overflow of intimacy with Christ.
Yes, God uses our gifts in ministry even w/o intimacy          being   the best.

The power of art of heal and comfort.
They go out into the world and touch other people. You have to be responsible for every piece of art of you do.
Use your power to touch people well.!

Art is out of your heads…you are just a conduit.
Takes a weight of responsibility off my shoulders…let it flow through me.

B.        The Exchanged Life
Abiding in Christ:
“If Christ does not enter your kitchen, there is something wrong with your kitchen.  If you can’t take god into your recreation, there is something wrong with your play. We all believe in the God of the heroic.  What we need most these days is the God of the humdrum, the commonplace, the everyday.”             Peter Marshall, Sr.