When I was growing up, we lived in a rural area. Almost everyone I knew grew part of their food. I lived on a farm, and we grew almost everything we ate. I remember the process that my dad went through to produce food. It was hard work, starting long before the time of harvest. Now, even in rural areas people have no clue how to grow their own food, nor do they care to learn. The same is true for Christians and churches seeking to grow spiritual food. For the majority of churches, we have past the time of teaching and training people to dig into the word and study until they fully understand how to make application of the word. We have produced a generation of people who treat a church like a grocery store. You pick and choose a church much like they choose food from a grocery store. If they like it, they will stay, if not, it is off to another aisle where there is a different variety of worship or preaching. If the message makes them feel conviction, they are uncomfortable and won’t go back. In many cases, the church is producing a social club, not a fruitful congregation. In John chapter 15, Jesus continues His time with the disciples before they go to the Garden by teaching them about being fruitful Christians.
In John 15:1, Jesus declares himself to be the true vine. He is not counterfeit; He is the only one! He had already told them in John 14:6 that He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one can come to the Father except they come through Him. His Father is the husbandman, the caretaker or vinedresser of the vine. For a vine to produce good fruit it must be pruned, watered, and fertilized. Sometimes you can prune, water, and fertilize and a vine still does not produce fruit, much less good fruit. When this happens, the one taking care of the vine cuts away the part that refuses to produce and be profitable, He then has no choice but to throw the unprofitable vine in the fire.
John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”
If a vine is not connected it cannot produce fruit. If we are not connected to Christ, we cannot bear fruit. We are to abide in Him. How do we stay connected so that we are profitable fruit bearers? We study His word. We should want to know Jesus more than any other relationship we have. He is our life source, the one who keeps us connected to the Father. His word fertilizes our hearts with truth. It challenges us to grow and win others to Him. It does the work in our hearts that causes the branches to remain healthy and productive. This is how God instructs us in righteousness, through His word.
John 15:4-6 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
The other connection that is vital is prayer. It is through our talking to God that we can make our petitions made known to Him. I know that He already knows what we will ask, but just like we want our children to talk to us, God wants us to talk to Him. In verse 7 we are to abide. The Greek word for abide means to stay. There is to be no wavering, no in and out, but a constant connection that doesn’t change. When this occurs, there will be a glorification of the Father as we will bear much fruit. Bearing much fruit is a direct result of staying connected to the source of life. This is evidence to all around us that we are His disciples.
John 15:7-8 “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so, shall ye be my disciples.”
In the rest of John 15, Jesus teaches them to abide in His love. In verse 13 He teaches them about true love, love that lays down its life for a friend. Then He calls them friends. They still did not understand that He was speaking of His own death for them.
John 15:13-15 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
Jesus continues to teach valuable nuggets of truth to His disciples before they go to the Garden where He will be arrested and no longer be with them. Every word He said from the middle of chapter 13 until chapter 18 was words that would help the disciples to continue the ministry and be fruitful Christians. This was God’s plan to win the world to Himself. Will all listen and obey? No, but God loved them anyway and offered them the opportunity to be saved. For those who repent of their sins and live by the words of Christ, there is a great reward at the end of their lives. These words are for us today as much as they were for the disciples. Will you heed them and bear fruit, much fruit, or will you be pruned away and thrown into the fire?
