1 "I am the true vine,
and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts
off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear
fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 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. 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. 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. 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."
- John 15:1-8, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Across the country grade schools, high schools and colleges are or soon will be holding their graduation ceremonies. For the graduates this is oftentimes a bittersweet occasion. What makes it a time of mixed emotions is not the accomplishment of finishing school, but the recognition that soon many of their friends will be going separate ways. And so some of the final conversations that classmates will have with each other or will put in each other’s yearbooks is the desire to stay in touch, to stay connected. Because if friendships are going to last or grow stronger or develop more deeply, people have to stay connected with each other…
Jesus Christ is the best friend of every person in this world. As Christians, we know this. But like any friendship, it is a relationship that has to be cultivated. When it is, great blessings follow. If it is not, the friendship, the connection, the joy of knowing that He is genuinely interested and involved in our life can grow distant or even be lost completely…
Today Jesus talks to us about these things. He provides us with an illustration of the importance and blessing of staying
CONNECTED TO CHRIST
On the basis of our text, let’s take a look at the
1. Encouragement
2. Promises
3. Results
that Jesus speaks of in regard to this connection.
Before we begin, a few preliminary remarks. Our text is one of seven beautiful and powerful "I Am" statements made by Jesus and recorded for us in the Gospel of John. Every time Jesus makes one of these pronouncements He is telling us two things. First, that He is God ("I am who I am," the word we often translate "Jehovah," is the name God gives Himself in the Old Testament); and secondly, how He as God relates to us. He is our Good Shepherd. He is the One who gives the world spiritual light. He is the Bread of Life which nourishes us, and so on…
In the statement before us, Jesus calls Himself the vine and us the branches. I don’t believe it is difficult to understand the imagery. Jesus, the vine, is the source of our spiritual life. We, the branches will grow and flourish spiritually only as long as we stay attached, or connected to Him. And the stronger and longer we are attached, the more we grow and produce fruit. That’s the general overview. Let’s take a look at some of the specific lessons before us today…
First, in this exposition are strong words of encouragement. Within these 8 verses, the word "remain" is used 8 times, and the idea of us "remaining in Christ" is mentioned 5 times. If the importance of something is to be judged solely by the number of times it is repeated, what Jesus wants us to know is that He considers it vitally important that we remain connected to Him. But it goes even farther than a mere statement of fact: By repeating this statement again and again Jesus is issuing each of us a call for exertion, diligence and effort when it comes to our relationship with Him…
To understand this correctly, it is necessary that we have a proper Scriptural understanding of conversion, which is… We did not choose Christ to be our own, but Christ chose us to be His own. In other words, our coming to faith is not the result of a decision we made, but the result of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts and bringing us to faith. That’s why, when it comes to being in the faith, the Apostle Paul in the Book of Ephesians refers to it as being an act of God’s grace, not of our own work…
So we are not the ones who can claim responsibility for coming to faith. However, once we are in the faith, how we use it and act on it and live it out is our responsibility. Therefore, when Jesus asks us to "remain in Him," He is suggesting that this is something we can do. He is suggesting that there are steps we can take to "remain in Him." Well, what are some of them? What can we do to "remain in Christ?"
First and foremost, we remain connected to Him through being actively involved in Word and Sacrament. Worship, Bible study, personal devotions, and daily contemplation of Christ and what He has done for us through His life, death and resurrection keeps us close to Him. Taking the Lord’s Supper regularly and thoughtfully keeps us close to Him. An active prayer life – talking with Jesus – helps us "remain in Him."
Behind these suggestions is the idea that we can and will remain deeply connected to Christ only to the proportion that we make our relationship with Him a priority in our lives. In the second verse of our text Jesus talks about how the Father as the Heavenly Gardener makes an active branch even more fruitful by trimming it clean.
I’m not much of a gardener, but even I know that for a plant to grow strong and healthy you have to pinch off the offshoots and the excess branches. Too many of them rob the main plant (or branch) of its strength and vitality and stunt its growth.
Now apply that kind of illustration to our spiritual lives. We have to be aware of those distractions and offshoots that rob us of our spiritual vitality… that keep us from developing and properly cultivating our spiritual lives… that sap the strength of our connection with Christ. What are some of those things?
Maybe it’s the business of our lives. It’s an interesting phenomena indeed that in this age of time and labor saving devices the malady of "stress" and stress-related problems are at an all time high. It seems that most of us feel we have too much to do with too little time to do it. And so something has to go. And if that something is related to cultivating our spiritual lives, it’s hard to grow.
Then there are all the distractions and choices that we have. Toward the end of the 19th century the atheist philosopher Frederich Neitsche (I believe) made the statement (probably with some degree of satisfaction) that reading the daily newspaper was fast replacing the time that many believers once devoted to Bible reading and prayer. Think of the scores of other things that have been added since that time – all of which vie for our time and energy.
Some years ago a man by the name of Charles Hummel wrote a magazine article, later put in booklet form, entitled: "The Tyranny of the Urgent." The essence of the article is the distinction he makes between the "urgent" and the "important." Let me read a couple of paragraphs:
We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is that the important task rarely must be done today, or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and Bible study, a visit with that non-Christian friend, careful study of an important book: these projects can wait. But the urgent tasks call for instant action – endless demands pressure every hour and day…
…The momentary appeal of [urgent] tasks seems irresistible and important, and they devour our energy. But in the light of time’s perspective their deceptive prominence fades; with a sense of loss we recall the important tasks pushed aside. We realize we’ve become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent.
Insightful, wouldn’t you say? How does this apply to us? In this way: There is nothing more important than our relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior. He is the One who lived for us and died for our sins. He is the One who now, at this very moment, lovingly oversees our lives and awaits us to join Him in the heavenly mansion He has prepared for us. Until that time He asks us to forego all the urgent things in order to fulfill the one important task of "remaining in Him." This is His encouragement to us…
And as we do, He attaches a promise. "Remain in me, and I will remain in you." What a promise this is, and what a piece of assurance. Jesus says, "Stay connected to Me, and I promise I’ll stay connected to you." Jesus spoke these words to His disciples on Maundy Thursday. Earlier that evening He said something similar (recorded in John 14): "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." I’m not sure if we have the capability of fully understanding what Jesus is telling us here, but I know it’s a beautiful thought. Christ lives within us and remains in us as we remain in Him…
The result of this intimate connection with Christ is stated in these words: "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit." And later on, "This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
The fruit of faith that God desires and that comes naturally from a branch connected to the vine manifests itself both inwardly and outwardly…
Inwardly, the fruit of a connection with Christ consists, first and foremost, of the knowledge of our salvation. We know who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us. We know "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich." We know what will happen and where we will be the moment after we close our eyes in death. We know that we are but strangers here, and that heaven is our home – thanks be to Jesus. Other inward fruits of being connected to Christ follow and build off of this certitude of our salvation, such as peace… joy… hope… contentment… and confidence.
And Jesus indicates the inward fruit cannot help but show itself outwardly. Those who know Christ and are deeply connected to Him through Word and Sacrament and prayer will reflect this relationship in their lives before a watching world. This is to God’s glory… And so we are in the happy position of being able to give glory to God by simply doing what comes naturally to a branch connected to the vine: bearing fruit…
Perhaps we can summarize these last thoughts of Jesus with a story. A little girl on her way home from church turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the preacher’s sermon this morning confused me." The mother asked why. The girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than us. Is that true?" Her mother replied that yes, that was true. "He also said God lives within us. Is that true, too?" Again the mother replied yes…
"Well," said the girl, "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?"
And the answer Jesus gives is yes. As we stay closely connected to Him, He will show through in us through the natural fruits of our faith.
Let’s bring our thoughts to a close… The message of this text is about our relationship with our best friend, Jesus, and the importance of staying in contact with Him. It is both His will and our desire to stay connected. He is the vine, we are the branches. Our spiritual growth, development and ability to live out our lives to His glory depends entirely on keeping that connection strong…
Therefore may God give us the will, the power and the strength to elevate what is truly important over all urgent things in life… and may we always understand the importance of staying connected to Christ.