Sept 23, 2012 Sermon

John 15:1-11

Jesus the True Vine

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunesto make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just 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. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

When we were in Niagara Falls a few weeks back we found this fabulous little restaurant.  It wasn’t on the main drag and required a bit of a drive, but I read all these reviews that said it was the best food in Niagara Falls, so we had to go.  We journeyed over there for our final dinner in Canada and found out it was a 30 minute wait.  Typically, that wouldn’t be too bad, but we now have to decide if Caleb can make it through a 30 minute wait.  We decided to stick it out, believing the food to be worth it, and we were glad we did.  The food was incredible, and the price was amazingly low.  For food that good, I would have expected it to be twice as expensive as it was.  As I finished my last bite of the best strawberry shortcake I have ever had, I thought to myself, this restaurant is almost perfect.  The only thing that would make it better is if it wasn’t 800 miles from home.

We all have experiences like this.  Most of them probably don’t involve strawberry shortcake, but we know what it feels like for something to be almost perfect.  Maybe we have a gathering and we think about how great it was, but it would be a little better if only there was a certain person here.  Maybe we eat a meal and think it was wonderful, but it just needed a little something extra.  Maybe your job would be better if only one responsibility was lifted, or perhaps a day would be great if only you didn’t have allergies. 

We know this feeling—it’s almost perfect, but not quite.

What’s amazing is that God wants us to experience a life that fills in that gap—to have a complete joy.  So many of us go through life thinking of God as some imperial taskmaster, trying to deny us the really fun things in life in favor of tough and boring tasks.  The church probably hasn’t done what it should to lift up the idea that God wants us to celebrate life and enjoy God’s gifts.  Christianity isn’t all about denying ourselves every pleasure—it’s about living each moment in celebration of God’s grace and glory.  There are certainly things we cannot do as Christians, but there are good reasons for all of them—because there’s something better we should be doing.

So Jesus is trying to teach us how to have complete joy in today’s text.  He wants this for us—God wants us to be joyful, to be filled with gratitude and rejoice at the abundance present in life.  This is what God wants for you—and Jesus even tells us how.

There are two main components to this text that I want to address.  When we read this section, these are the two words that jump off the page, and these are the two concepts we need to understand if we’re going to move toward the complete joy that Christ offers us.  The first is abide—we need to know what it means to abide in Christ.  We talk about it a lot, but I’m not sure how much time we spend explaining it.  The second is fruit—what does it mean to bear fruit for God’s kingdom?  We’re going to focus on these two words today, and I’m hopeful that by the end of this sermon we’ll have solved the world’s problems and all go forth in everlasting joy.  Right?

So we’ll begin with a focus on what it means for us to abide in Christ.  The command in this passage is clear—we are to abide in Christ as he abides in us, and we can only bear fruit if we abide in him.  This is important to note the order here—if we rush off into the world, into our ministries, whatever they may be, without first making sure that we are rooted in Christ, we are in error.  Our first priority in life must be to tend our relationship with Christ.  We must focus on this first—it might feel selfish, but in actuality it is the most selfless thing we can do, because once we are rooted in Christ we recognize that we are sent out into the world for the benefit of others.  We begin to see ourselves as gifted for the purpose of blessing others.  Life then becomes outward focused—but only if we first abide in him.

So what does it mean to abide in Christ?

Let’s go back to talking about my dinner in Niagara Falls.  It was a great meal, so I don’t mind discussing it at length.  I started off with minestrone soup, and then moved on to the main course—a hulking steak, combined with some potatoes and vegetables.  After this we wrapped up with dessert.  It was a great variety of food, some of it healthier than others, but we know that the human diet needs a wide variety of foods to be healthy. 

But let’s imagine you could only eat one food—what would it be?  And what, do you imagine, would the repercussions be?  If you eat only one food for you entire life, you will not be healthy.  When I was a kid, my pastor talked about how he and his roommate believed that they could survive on nothing but oranges.  They bought this massive bag of oranges and ate nothing but for quite some time, until some gracious individuals left a hulking basket of diverse foods on their porch one morning.  Had they continued in this way, they would have doubtless run into major medical problems.  We’re not made to run on only one food.  We need variety in our diets to be healthy.

Plants, though, are a little different.  A branch is made to be attached to just one food source—this is the only way it can survive.  We know that grafting is a great way to blend two different plants—but have you ever seen a farmer graft a branch into a different branch each and every day to make sure it has a diverse experience of food sources?  This would be foolish—the branch would become confused from all the cutting and would soon wither and die.  Such a farmer wouldn’t last long.

In the same way, we are designed to be fed from one source—Jesus Christ.  Over and over again, he talks about the abundant life—think of the complete joy he mentions in this passage.  The only way to reach this state is to be focused on him alone, to receive all of our nourishment only from him.  Without proper feeding from the source, our soul withers and we become unhealthy.  It’s so important to be connected to the proper source—the right place from which to be fed.  Today, we often spend most of our time worshipping other gods—we worship money and success and power and entertainment.  It may not seem like worship, but we often exclude God from our thinking and strive for something other than him.  We turn from God and put something else in his place.  When this happens, we’re letting something else feed us, and that’s not healthy for us—w e begin to whither.  We don’t notice it at first, but we suffer because of our choices. 

So Christ is directing us to put God first.  Make sure that we’re receiving our nourishment from God and God alone.  And it has to be daily.  Sunday morning can’t be your only nourishment.  I have some plants in my house that don’t get watered enough, and you can tell.  It’s easy to notice their neglect.  We are the same way if we aren’t letting God nourish us every day.  This is prayer and Bible Study.  This is offering up our work and our play.  It’s watching tv and movies glorify God.  It’s making choices in budgeting that are grounded in faith.  It’s putting God first and seeing everything else through this lens—that’s what it means to abide in Christ. 

So once we’ve centered our lives on Christ, we can then talk about fruit.  And friends, I want to keep this part very simple. 

How many of you have ever seen a fruit-bearing plant in bloom?  Have you seen an apple tree with apples on it, an orange tree filled with oranges, a vine with grapes on it or a tomato plant dotted with ripe fruit? 

Ok—now, how many of you have ever seen this same plant reach over and eat the very fruit it is producing?

No one?

Ok—this is the purpose of our fruit—it is for others.  It is not for ourselves.  We do not produce fruit so that we can consume it.  A plant produces fruit to benefit others—for their enjoyment, for their health, to contribute to their life.  Fruit is good for you—we don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables.  We’re supposed to be eating 7-13 servings a day! 

So fruit is produced for others.  In the same way, the fruit Christ is talking about is what we do for other people.  How do we know if we’re producing fruit?  Examine your relationships with other people.  You are called to impact others for good.  We are called to love one another, to serve one another—this is our fruit.  It’s simple—serve others.  I’m not going to dress this up or spend an hour explaining it.  It doesn’t matter how you serve others—just do it.  In your prayers, in your words, in your actions—serve and love others, just as Christ serves and loves you.  Examine your life—and take action.  Bear fruit for the kingdom.  Spend your energy and your money and your time for the benefit of others. 

Let us pray