I am the vine

I am the vine

I am the true vine.  These are the words of Jesus in John 15:1.  To most of you here this is more than likely a very familiar and foundational phrase.  I can assure you that this is a profound statement, so deep and rich that we can only scratch the surface.  We will only get a glimpse at the tip of the iceberg.

I am the true vine.  

Turn with me to Psalm 80.  

As you do I want to remind you that 2 weeks ago in an introductory overview I shared with you 4 things that I hope to communicate in this series (name them).  In that message we drove home the first point, the deity of Jesus as projected in the very simple and yet profound statement before Abraham was born I AM (referencing Ex 3:14).  Jesus is God.

Last week we drove home that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures, specifically that he is the fulfillment of the manna spoken of in Ex 16.  God gave His people bread from heaven that they might live.  I am the true bread from heaven that God has given to his people that they might receive me and live; I am the bread of life.  Today we will be seeing more of the same (Jesus fulfilling Scripture) and driving home points 3 & 4: Jesus is the true Israel and those in Christ are the true Israel.

Today’s I AM statement is I am the true vine.  As we unpack that, remember to whom Jesus was speaking.  Remember Jesus’ audience.  Jesus is not having a conversation with people in New York in 1993.  He’s not having a conversation with people in Georgetown Texas in 2011.  Jesus’ audience is first century Israel under the OC.

With that being said, let’s look together at some Scripture that Jesus’ audience would have been quite familiar with.  They would have no doubt known the concepts in this text; they may have known this text; they may have had this text memorized.

Psalm 80 (speaking to God, we will start in verse 8)

 ⁸ You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.

This may sound like a broken record, but I’ll just say it again: Israel was enslaved in Egypt.  God brought Israel out of Egypt.  Look at how the divinely inspired infallible inerrant word of God describes this: You brought a vine out of Egypt.  Who did God bring out of Egypt?  Israel.  Israel is the vine.  The vine is Israel.  

You drove out the nations and planted it.  God drove out the pagan nations, the Canaanites, the Hittites, Perizites, all the –ITES and planted Israel in the Promised Land.  God planted the vine in the Land.  Israel is the vine.

 
⁹ You cleared the ground for it (the vine), and it took root and filled the land. 

God is the gardener.  He is the one with the green thumb.  He is the one who cleared the ground for the vine.  If you want to plant a literal plant you would clear the ground of rocks and weeds.  You would get out all the bad and unnecessary elements and would be left with the good fertile soil in which to plant the vine.  That is what God did when planting Israel, the vine, in the land.  He cleared out all the bad and unnecessary elements, weeding out the land; He drove out the heathens.  This left good soil in which to plant His people (houses, roadways and gardens for his people to enjoy and flourish in).  God planted the vine, Israel, in the fertile soil of the Land. [He] cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.  Israel is the vine.  Israel took root in the land.  They made the land of Canaan home.  They, Israel, the vine, took root.  This people as numerous as the sand on the sea, filled the land.

¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.   ¹¹ It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.  

A vine sends out branches and spreads out covering the terrain.  That’s what Israel did.  They covered the land.  Israel is the vine.  The land is the vine-yard or vineyard.

 ¹² Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? 

2 questions: 1)what exactly is meant here and 2)the psalmist’s question: “why?”  Both answers lie in Deuteronomy 28.

Deut 28:45, 49-52 ⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.

 ⁴⁹ The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. ⁵¹ They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. ⁵² They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. 

The protective walls of God’s vineyard will be broken down and all who pass by will pick its grapes.  God would remove his protection, others would destroy them and enjoy the good things God gave them.

 ¹² Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? 

They disobeyed God.  So He brought a foreign nation against them.  They break down the walls of Israel and besiege the city.  They break down the walls of the vineyard and pick its grapes.  Foreigners besiege Israel and take women and crops and whatever other good things they want; they pillage Israel and God allowed it because they were unfaithful and due to the covenant stipulations blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.  This is one of those curses – destruction at the hands of a foreign army.

The Psalmist didn’t really not know why it happened.  He knew the covenant stipulations.  It’s like you and I saying, “Why?”

¹³ Boars from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it.   More of the same: fulfillment of God’s covenant stipulations.  Boars from the forest represent the foreigners.

¹⁴ Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, They sensed a distance from God.  He had turned from them.  His hand of protection was not upon them.  They had forsaken Him.  He punished them.  They don’t like the state of punishment and repent.  Return to us.  Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, Watch over this vine.  The vine is Israel.  Israel is the vine.

Watch over this vine ¹⁵ the root your right hand has planted, who planted the vine?  God did; God is the gardener.  

Watch over this vine ¹⁵ the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.

The vine is now also identified as the son that God has raised up for Himself.  Israel is the vine.  Israel is the son that God has raised up for Himself.  The Israelites are the children of God.  

Israel is the son of God; Israel is the vine.

 ¹⁶ Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish.   Remember, the psalmist is talking to God.  God, “Your vine is cut down.  It is burned with fire.”  What does this mean?  The psalmist says the same thing again, with different words.  This is a parallelism.  At your rebuke your people perish.  God, your vine, your people Israel, are destroyed.  The psalmist is now returning to the idea set forth in verse 12  ¹² Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?  The destruction of Israel at the hands of a foreign army as God brings wrath on His people for being disobedient.  Per Deut 28 covenant stipulations, blessings and curses.  The nation of Israel is invaded, besieged, burned, destroyed.  According to commentators this psalm could point to 2 possible events:

• Destruction of 10 northern tribes of Israel in 722 BC by Assyria
• Destruction of 2 southern tribes in 586 BC by Babylon

Halley’s Bible handbook places the context in the Babylonian captivity.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown says it probably refers to the Assyrian captivity.

Spurgeon says could be either or.  I’m with Spurgeon.

But we won’t let what we don’t know rob us of what we do know.  We do know that:

• Israel is the vine.
• That vine was cut down and burned.
• Israel was destroyed by a foreign army.

¹⁷ Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. 

Some say the “son of man he has raised up for himself” either refers to Israel as a people or the leader that God had in place, the king of Israel at the time.  Many also agree that this is Messianic, speaking ultimately of Jesus.  

Either way, this is a plea by the psalmist for God’s favor to return to Israel.

¹⁸ Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. 

 ¹⁹ Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. 

SUMMARY: So here we have a psalm about God’s vine – God’s vine that he took out of Egypt cleared the ground for and planted.  The vine was cut down and burned.  The vine is Israel and its getting cut down and burned was at the hands of a foreign army and was due to their breaking the covenant – disobedience to the Law.

With that in mind, turn with me to John 15.

Now the context of our passage is just after the Passover meal.  Jesus is with the 12.  Judas has now departed to do his dirty work, so Jesus is with 11 of the apostles.  That is who Jesus is speaking to in our passage.

Now long before Jesus came on the scene the Jews had the OT Scriptures.  They considered themselves the vine (Psalm 80).  By birth, we belong to Israel; we are the vine.  We are the branches that extend from the vine of Israel.  That was the Jewish mentality.  Jesus is about to radically shift their paradigm.  This paradigm shift had been going on since JTB came on the scene.  

Every one of these I AM statements are paradigm shifters for the first century audience, especially.

¹ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 

This is huge.  What Jesus is saying in this verse has greater significance than we probably give credit.  I am the true vine.  Who is the vine?  Israel.  Jesus says to those who had long considered themselves the vine, I am the true vine.  In other words, I am the true Israel.  AND my Father is the gardener.  We read of God planting the vine in psalm 80, seeing God as the gardener.  Jesus is here saying that God is his father.  He is saying again that He is the true Israel.  Psalm 80:14-15 declared that the vine God planted was also the son he raised up for himself, Israel.  Jesus is saying my father is the gardener; I am the son that He raised up for himself.  I am the true vine.  I am the true son of the gardener, God.  I am the true Israel.

² He (God – the gardener) cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes (or cleans) so that it will be even more fruitful.   We have a contrast here between fruitful and fruitless branches.  I am the true vine.  There are branches in me.  Branches in me that don’t bear fruit will be cut off.  In Psalm 80 the whole vine was cut down, not just the fruitless branches.  Jesus is here saying now, in the first century, there will be a distinction between those who bear fruit and those who don’t.  No fruit – cut off.  Fruitful branches cleaned and made more fruitful.  (Those who have will be given more)  What Jesus is saying here is along the lines of what John the Baptist said in his ministry:

Matt 3:7-10   ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? (wrath is coming – in the same way that God brought wrath on your forefathers through Assyria and Babylon, he is about to bring it through the Romans) ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  Here John doesn’t use the vine metaphor, but the tree.  He is saying the same thing.  Produce fruit.  Don’t think that you are in the vine just because you are related to Abraham.  Produce fruit.  Trees that don’t produce fruit will be cut down and burned in the fire, just like the vine we read about in Psalm 80.  

Back to our text in John 15

² He (God – the gardener) cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes (or cleans) so that it will be even more fruitful.³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Who is the “you?”  The 12.  Or 11. They are clean.  They bear fruit.  They are his.

⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 

God isn’t cutting down the whole vine again.  This time, He is making a distinction between the branches that bear fruit and the branches that don’t.  The branches that don’t bear fruit are the branches that are cut off – the unbelievers.  The branches that do bear fruit are believers – those who remain in Him.  DISTINCTION BETWEEN BELIEVERS & UNBELIEVERS!

He tells them, in the first century remain in me.  It would be tempting to just do what is easy: trust in the Pharisees and the leaders, trust in their ethnicity, trust in works of the law.  But Jesus said those things don’t produce good fruit.  The law produced death.  The fruit produced by ethnic Israel under the law was violence, injustice and blood shed.  They took advantage of the poor, took care of themselves, they killed the prophets.

Remain in me.  You will be no good if you don’t remain in me.  Just as a branch that is cut off is no good and has no life, you will be no good and lifeless apart from me.  

Remain in me.  It will be hard.  You will be hated, mocked, kicked out of the synagogue.  Your enemies will become the members of your own household.  You will be called blasphemers, but remain in me.  I am the true vine.  They think that they can say we have Abraham as our father but God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones.  They think they can say because Abraham is our father, we are the vine.  They think they are cutting you off of the vine, but it is ME who is the true vine.  I am the true vine and it is they who are being cut off.

 ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Remember the context.  Remember the audience.  1^st century.  It would have been very tempting for those Jews in the first century to not remain.  

• Judas did not remain.  
• 1 John 2 speaks of those who were among them but went out from them, departed, did not remain.  
• Jesus went on to tell them that the time would come when people will put them out of the synagogue and will think that by killing them they will be doing a service to God.  He told them that he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword (father against son – members of own household – enemies).

He then states that the branches that remain in him will bear much fruit.  Christians will bear fruit.  The unbelievers will be trying to bear fruit.  They will be making sacrifices according to the law.  They will be tithing and going to the synagogue, temple worship, but it will be fruitless.  

The only way to bear fruit is to remain in me – to abide in the vine, the true vine – the true Israel.

⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  In my opinion, the best way to understand verse 6 is with the audience in mind, the first century context in mind, and the OT as the backdrop, specifically Psalm 80.  Again, recall what came of God’s vine in Psalm 80:16.  The vine was cut down and burned in the fire.  That happened through God’s judgment on the nation at the hands of a foreign army.  Again, in the first century, God  brought judgment on Israel at the hands of a foreign army.  He didn’t cut down the whole vine.  He made a distinction between the righteous and the wicked.  He rescued the righteous and brought wrath on the wicked.  In Luke 21:20-24 he told his people that when they see Jerusalem surrounded by armies flee to the mountains.  A great number of them were scattered abroad long before this happened.  The faithful Jews (not faithful to God and his son, but faithful to their traditions) trusted in their temple and their leaders and their religion, but they were burned in the fire.  They were the branches that did not remain in him and were thrown into the fire and burned.

Believers were branches that remained in Jesus, the true vine.  Unbelievers did not remain. They were cut off and thrown into the fire.  God in this is showing that those in Christ are the true Israel.  Believers are the true Israel.  

Not all who descended from Israel are Israel.  Only those who are in Christ.

 ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.   Again, a distinction is made, those who remained in Christ would receive what they asked for in prayer.  They would bear much fruit.  They would emerge as God’s chosen people as God was bringing wrath on OC Israel and establishing a new people under a new covenant.  These were his new covenant people.  His people under the OC did not produce fruit in keeping with repentance but as it is written in Deut 32: 32-33 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah.  Their grapes are filled with poison and their clusters with bitterness.  Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.  Christ’s contemporary generation was a wicked and adulterous generation of whom the leaders were a brood of vipers, whose fruit was the fruit of wickedness – grapes of Gomorrah.  They showed this to be true by murdering the Son of God and then doing the same to his beloved disciples.  But the disciples, those branches who remained in the true vine, Jesus, bore much fruit, the fruit of love.

   ⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Now to review briefly.  As we saw in Psalm 80:

• Israel is the vine God brought out of Egypt and planted in the land.
• God has a green thumb; he is the gardener.
• Jesus said I am the true vine, his father is the gardener.
• Jesus is the true Israel.
• Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures.
• In Psalm 80 the vine was cut down and burned.
• Israel was besieged and destroyed for disobedience to the covenant.
• Jesus said branches in him would bear fruit, but unfruitful branches would be cut off and thrown into fire. Distinction between fruitful & unfruitful.
• Unfruitful branches were apostate Israel, unbelievers who were destroyed by Rome.
• Jesus is the true Israel.  Those in Christ are the true Israel.

That is us, my friends. We are the true Israel.  We are the true people of God as Christians as we are in Christ.  Christ is the true vine, the true Israel.  Those in Christ are the true Israel.  As those in the vine, we are branches that will bear fruit to the glory of God.  Fruit is what is naturally produced by a plant.  One who belongs to Jesus who has had a changed heart and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit will produce the fruit of the Spirit.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We come to the same conclusion this week as we did last week.  Last week we concluded that Jesus is absolutely necessary for spiritual life period and regular communion with Him is nourishing to the soul and good for your spiritual health.

Bread, representative of food is necessary for life (physical life).  Without bread (food) you will die.  In the same way, Jesus is the bread of life.  Without the bread of life (Jesus) you will remain in death.  One must receive Jesus, partake of Jesus in order to have spiritual life.

In the same way, a branch that is cut off from the vine is dead.  It has no life in it.  Its life source is the vine.  Apart from that vine it has no life.  Jesus is the vine.  A branch that is cut off from Jesus has no life in it.  There is no spiritual life apart from Jesus.  Jesus is the source of spiritual life.  You may be breathing, blinking, walking and talking but if you are not in Christ as a branch is in a vine, you do not have spiritual life.

What do I mean by spiritual life?  Reconciliation to God, restored relationship to Him.  The fall of man put us at enmity with God.  Sin separates man from God.  The blood of Jesus purifies us cleansing us of our sins so that we can be restored to God.  This life, this spiritual life, this abundant life, this life that is truly life comes only through Christ being found in Him.

Let’s live this.  We speak of amazing spiritual realities that Christ’s blood has covered our sin and we have been reconciled to God and have a restored relationship with Him, but often times we don’t live like those things are the reality.  Positionally, we are IN CHRIST.  We are in the vine.  We have life.  However, often times we live and operate as if we were broken off, shriveled up with no life.  

That’s like a man who has 3 million dollars in his bank account and receives his credit card statement.  He owes $5000.  He panics because the interest rate is 30%.  He goes to work the next day and can’t concentrate on his job.  His boss takes notice and calls him into the office.  What’s wrong?  I have a $5000 credit card bill.  It’s going to take forever to pay this thing off and in the end I will be paying sooooo much more than $5000 because of the interest rate.  Why is this man freaking out.  He won’t have to pay any interest.  He can write a check for $5000 because he has 3 million in the bank.  Yet he is living and operating as if he didn’t have 3 million in the bank.  He was living as though that wasn’t the reality.

Let’s not be like that man.  We have been reconciled to the Father.  Our sin has been dealt with.  We have a restored relationship to God.  We are children of God.  We can call him Abba, Father.  

Let’s live like these marvelous realities are true because they are.  

As branches in the vine, we have life.  Let’s live.