THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART III.

John 15:3 Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.

How can Jesus declare these men are clean, does he not know that within this same week they all will abandon him? Even deny that they are associated with him?

And yet Jesus declares them to be clean. Clean because of their acceptance of his claim that he is the Christ, the promised Messiah.

They heard his voice, they believed his words and are declared clean by their Teacher.

Jesus declares that they are clean, branches of the Vine that are bearing fruit, the fruit of righteousness.

How did that come about?

Through the words of life that Jesus had “poured” into them for almost three years.

This truth is confirmed in John 5:24, Most assuredly I tell you, he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but has passed from death into life.

It is a work that God himself accomplishes in us as well through the Lord Jesus Christ and that through the gift of faith works mightily in us who believe and are yielded to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Again, in I John 1:9 we are assured that it is God (and not us) who cleanses us from all unrighteousness on an ongoing basis.

Children of God may humbly consider themselves clean, holy and without blemish, because they have been washed with the water of the Word, (Jesus Christ), Eph. 5:26.

They have been (past tense) made whole and at the same time are being made whole, a work in progress.

Col. 2:10, “You are complete in him, (Jesus) …. And through the Holy Spirit’s working in us we grow to greater maturity in our Christian walk.

It is immaterial what our eyes observe around us at Sunday mornings or at any other time in our fellow Christians.

We observe the outside, but our Father observes the inside of his children and he is delighted, Zephania 3:17.

For he sees a people that he personally has called out of darkness into his marvelous light, I Peter 2:9.

He sees a people that he has gathered from many nations, denominations and even some abominations, and he has brought them home to himself.

A people that he cleaned up from all their filthiness and idols, Ez. 36:24, 25.

He put a new heart and a new spirit in each one of them and removed the stoney heart out of them, this new heart is meek and plyable.

Our Father sees a people in which he planted his own spirit, the Holy Spirit, who will transform them so that they will delight to walk in ways ordained by him.

A people who know that they have been redeemed, who know that their Father rejoices over them with great joy.

A people who take delight in doing their Father’s will.

(Free translation of Ezekiel 36 : 24 – 28.)

Our Father delights, he is joyful to see a people who are clean through the words that he has spoken to them, living branches that are bearing the fruit of faith.

Living branches that are bearing the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit in abundance, Gal. 5:22, 23.

Fruit that is the manifestation of the Life that is in the Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Thomas, Aug./2010. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART II.

John 15 : 2.

Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it , so that it may bear more fruit.

On the face of it this verse seems to be telling us that believers better see to it that they produce fruit or out the door they go.

And yet this conclusion, even though common among many Christians, is not compatible with many other truths of Scripture.

Last month we also saw that the Life in the Vine bears fruit in the branches.

For the right answer we need to compare Scripture with Scripture.

When we study this subject we find that Jesus died for all, his death was sufficient atonement for all, just the same not all are saved.

I John 2:2 …….And he (Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Hebr.2:9 ……That he (Jesus) should taste death for every man.

Or John 1:29 ……Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

May we then conclude that since Jesus tasted death for everyone, that therefore all will be saved?

No, not quite. There is a condition. The condition is believing that Jesus came into the world to face death for sinners and their sins.

The application of the sacrifice of Jesus to our personal condition.

John 3:18 He that believes on him (Jesus), is not condemned, but he that believes not, is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

So, we could reconstruct John 15:2 this way: every branch that does not respond to the offer of Life that the Vine provides is taken away by the vinedresser due to his own choice.

Before we get the urge to pat ourselves on the back for making the right choice, let us remember John 3:19 ……..And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather that light…….

If it had been up to us, we certainly would not have made the right choice.

It is not without cause that Jesus says: “No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him,(yank him by the arm, so to speak) in John 6:44.

The truth of John 15:2 is also illustrated in Luke 19:11-27.

This parable is not about making money in the market place, it is about the new Life in Christ that is available to everyone. The question is, what do we do with that new Life that is freely given to us?

That new Life is manifested in the believer in the form of a life of love, love to our Father and love to our neighbors.

The more of this love we give away, the more we receive in return.

Conversely, the man that buried his pound (new Life) in the ground, from him was taken away even that which was given to him in the first place, Luke 19:26.

Here is a picture of a branch that does not bear fruit, it is taken away.

The choice is ours, willingness to bear fruit or not.

A willingness to yield ourselves to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to do those things which are pleasing to the Father.

All this so that our life will be a demonstration of the Life of the Vine that is in us.

This willingness to yield to the Holy Spirit also makes that the life of a “branch” is anything but passive.

To the contrary, it is an active live, lived in service to our Father who gave us the real life. Life that does not end, ever.

As well it is a life of service to our fellow man in a multitude of aspects.

A life that has been touched and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit no longer seeks its own advantage or benefit, but that of others.

It completely changes the answer to the “why” of things.

Why do I work my job? Why am I a Christian? Why do I attend church? Why do I begin a conversation with a person who seems lonesome? Why am I here in the first place?

It is a life that no longer seeks fulfillment in order to be happy.

It is a life that finds joy in contentment.

John 15:2 goes on to say that the vinedresser prunes the branches that do bear fruit, in order that the quantity and the quality of the fruit might increase.

The story was told to me of a father who went with his school age son to a country fair.

While there, they observed a lumberjack with a chainsaw carving away at a stump of a tree. Now and then the man carefully observed a piece of paper on a small table, which turned out to be a picture of an Indian in full ceremonial dress.

The boy observed the artisan for a while, then he turned to his father. He said: Dad, you know what he is doing? Yes, was the reply, he is carving an Indian out of that stump.

That’s right, said the boy, he is carving away everything that does not look like an Indian.

And that is the objective of the divine Vinedresser, cutting away everything in us and about us that does not look like the image of Jesus.

When we give our Father permission to do this pruning in us, he will set about to carefully, lovingly remove those things in us that are not pleasing to him.

John the Baptist defined the purpose of this pruning process when he said: “He (Jesus) must increase and I must decrease”.

Pruning is usually painful, because it often involves those things that we, God’s children trust in for our wellbeing, our self-support systems that we all have developed to cope with life as it comes to us. It may be our job or profession, our bank account, our ability to control our circumstances, our knack for controlling those around us, our reputation, a whole series of perceived rights that we believe are ours, the list goes on.

It is what the Bible calls fulfilling the lust of the flesh, Gal.5:16.

Flesh is always self-serving, it seeks its own welfare, often at the expense of others.

Flesh always claims to know best, it is opposed to the Holy Spirit and is anti-Christ.

Flesh is not of faith, therefore it is always sin.

Pruning, however painful it might be, is always for our good.

The Psalmist knew that all too well when he said: It was good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes, Ps. 119:71.

Hebr. 12:11 is very specific about pruning: “Now no chastening (pruning) for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby”.

When adverse circumstances come our way, what ever their source, our Father will use them in the pruning process.

When we can approach life in that way, we can also agree with Rom.8: 28 - 30 …..And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he foreknew, he also pre-destined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he pre-destined, those he also called, whom he called, those he also justified, and whom he justified, those he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

To be continued……..

St.Thomas, Dec./’08. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART I.

The gospel of John, chapter 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser, (vs. 5) …… and you are the branches”.

These few words are loaded with meaning.

Jesus compares himself and his followers to a grapevine and its branches.

That means first of all that I, as a branch, am indelibly connected to the Vine, Jesus Christ.

That also means that I, the branch have no life in myself apart from the Vine.

Apart from the Vine I am dead, without life whatsoever.

This fact is confirmed in many places. In Acts 17:28 we read this: ……..For in him we live and move and have our being.

I Cor.1:30 says this: …….For of Him (our Father) are you in Christ Jesus………

Because of God’s mercies I am in Christ Jesus, only on that basis may I consider myself a partaker of the life that he is, John 14:6.

Branches of grapevines do not go around looking for vines to attach themselves to, likewise the initiative to be a Christian did not originate with me, but with the Vine.

In this chapter, verse16 Jesus says …..you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you….

It is the life in a grapevine that produces branches in springtime with the express purpose to produce fruit.

Fruit that contains the seeds to produce new vines that will show the same life and virtues of the original vine.

The branches do not produce the fruit, the life in the vine produces the fruit, all that is asked of the branches is to bear that fruit.

All this would make us ask two questions, one, this all seems to be very passive, what role do I play in following Jesus?

And the second question, what is “fruit”?

The first question we will address when we discuss verse 2 of this chapter.

Most Christians have been taught at one time or another that God expects us to “produce” fruit in our Christian life and usually a variety of reasons are given to back up that claim.

That “fruit” would be a catch-all term for all kinds of good works and Christian practises and disciplines, especially worship and witnessing.

May I submit to you that the fruit that this passage speaks of, are not things that we do.

Fruit is the manifestation of the LIFE that is in the vine.

And the manifestation of that LIFE is outlined as the fruit of the Spirit, Gal.5:22, 23.

That life that is in the vine first produces the branches.

Then, when the branches become mature, the life of the vine produces the fruit in the branches. ( I John 2: 12 – 14).

(For the process of becoming mature in Christ he gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, Eph. 4:11. This is also the message of Matt.28 : 19, leading believers to maturity in Christ.)

The same way that grapes, even juicy, ripe grapes do not perform any tasks for the vine whatsoever, they just hang there and are a manifestation of the quality of the vine.

These juicy, ripe grapes are not a manifestation of the quality of the branches, they are a manifestation of the quality of the vine.

I am the vine , you are the branches……..

The fruit then that is produced by the vine is the manifestation of the life of the vine that first produces the branches and then produces the fruit in the branches.

It is the life in the vine that produces fruit in the branches. The branches are nothing but a channel for the life of the vine to flow to the fruit of the vine.

Verse 16 of this chapter says that Jesus has ordained or appointed believers to bear fruit and that this fruit would remain, it would be of value eternally.

This kind of fruit is not what we do for God or others, it is the constant recognition and awareness what we are in Christ Jesus, children of God who are loved and accepted by Him, just the way we are.

Likewise, the fruit (note fruit, singular), of the Spirit of Gal. 5:22 is not the things we do, but what we have in Christ Jesus.

And what we do is but the outflow of what we are, reflecting in our daily life the life of Jesus by which we live and move and have our being, Acts 17 :28.

Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, etc. are not actions on our part, these virtues reflect the character of Jesus who is the vine.

It is he, his life that is reflected in the virtues of Gal.5:22 and 23.

This fruit (of the Spirit) is the expression of the Life of the Spirit in us.

And the expression of that life will lead to deeds, good works.

But now these good works are no longer works we do for God, they are now works done by God through us.

Remember, branches cannot do anything by themselves, branches are fruit bearers, not fruit producers.

I am the true vine, my Father, he is the vinedresser and you are the branches.

It is the desire of the Vinedresser that the branches live in submission to the Vine, so that the fruit produced in the branches will be highly desirable to any one who passes by.

To be continued…….

St. Thomas, Dec./’08. Simon VanderKooy.