The True Vine

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 27:4-6
• Hymn — Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty
• Prayer of Invocation
• Prayer of Confession
• Assurance of Pardon — Romans 6:22-23
• Scripture Reading — Joshua 6:1-14
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — Abide with Me
• Sermon
• Lord's Supper — Hymn — Behold the Lamb
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: The True Vine

Scripture: John 15:1-17

I. The Vine Dresser of the True Vine

A. The Father as vine dresser echoes Isaiah's Vineyard songs

1. In Isaiah 5, God plants and tends the vineyard only to receive sour grapes from Israel
2. In Psalm 80, Israel is depicted as a vine brought out of Egypt but ravaged; the psalmist cries for the "son of man" (Psalm 80:17) to restore the vineyard
3. Jesus as the True Vine fulfills what Israel failed to produce; he is the new Israel, the new Temple, the true Manna ([Andreas Köstenberger])

B. The vine dresser does two things: cuts off unfruitful branches entirely, and prunes fruitful branches for greater yield

1. "Prune" can also mean "cut off" — a deliberate wordplay by Jesus
2. Cutting was central to Israel's covenant life: circumcision symbolized either sanctification (cutting toward holiness) or being cut off from God in judgment (Romans 2)
3. The two examples in the immediate context: Judas (cut off entirely) and Peter (pruned through his denial and restoration)

C. Sanctification — the painful pruning process — is the path to joy, not misery

1. John 15:9-11 — Jesus commands his disciples to abide in his love so that his joy may be in them and their joy may be full
2. Jesus was the holiest and the most joyful man who ever lived; holiness is happiness
3. God's divine simplicity: God does not merely have joy — he is joy; in the Son he invites his people into that joy

II. The Branches of the True Vine

A. This seventh and climactic "I am" statement depicts the most organic union between Christ and his people yet described in the Gospel of John

1. Earlier images (e.g., the Good Shepherd) preserve a distance between Christ and his people; the vine-and-branch image makes them organically one
2. John 15:15 — Jesus calls his disciples friends, not servants; he shares all he has received from the Father with them
3. John 15:16 — Unlike Jewish disciples who chose their rabbi, Christ chose his disciples; apart from him they can do nothing, including choosing him

B. Union with Christ is the controlling doctrine of this passage, understood in three phases

1. Union with Christ before the foundation of the world — Ephesians 1:4
2. Union with Christ at the cross and resurrection — Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:5
3. Union with Christ through the Spirit working faith within the believer — Ephesians 1:13

C. John 15:3 — "Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you"

1. Contrast with John 13:10, where Jesus excepts Judas; here Judas is gone and Christ speaks only to his elect
2. Peter is included in this "already clean" declaration even though he is about to deny Christ three times — his backsliding cannot sever him from the vine
3. Union with Christ in eternity past never becomes disunion in the temporal present; the Father always sees the believer through the Son

III. The Fruit of the True Vine

A. The fruit of the True Vine includes evangelism — the fulfillment of Isaiah 27:6, where Jacob takes root and fills the whole world with fruit, accomplished through Christ sending his disciples to the ends of the earth

B. More fundamentally, the fruit of the True Vine is the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5

1. The fruit of the Spirit consists of internal characteristics — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control — not primarily external achievements
2. Fruit must begin within the heart of the believer before it can go out to others

C. Prayer is the means by which the believer's will is aligned to Christ's will

1. John 15:7 — "Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you" is conditioned on abiding in Christ
2. John 15:16 — Answered prayer is offered in the name of the Son; to pray in Christ's name is to ask only for what Christ has promised, not for worldly prosperity he never modeled or guaranteed
3. The fruit of the Spirit is ultimately Christ himself reigning in the soul — friendship with the one who is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, displaying holy joy to an unholy and joyless world