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Sermon

Stay in the True Vine

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
John 15:1-11

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This sermon examines John 15:1-11, where Jesus declares Himself the true vine and exhorts His disciples to abide in Him. Pastor Dave shows that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the Old Testament vine imagery that Israel failed to embody, and that genuine spiritual life and fruitfulness are only possible through a faith-filled connection to Christ.

Key Lessons:

  1. Jesus is the true vine that fulfills what the failing vine of Israel could never accomplish — producing the fruit of righteousness acceptable to God.
  2. Abiding in Jesus is not mystical or complicated; it means continuing to believe in Him, holding fast to His word, and keeping His commandments.
  3. Those who appear to be in Christ but bear no fruit were never truly connected to Him — their attachment was only apparent, not real.
  4. Keeping Jesus’ commandments does not earn His love but rather demonstrates and allows believers to enjoy the love relationship they already have with Him.

Application: Believers are called to persevere in faith when trials, persecution, and confusion come — staying connected to Jesus through belief, obedience, and His word rather than drifting toward other sources of life and joy. Those who have not truly committed to Christ are urged to repent and place genuine faith in Him.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does understanding Jesus as the “true vine” — in contrast to Israel’s failure — change how you view your own spiritual fruitfulness and its source?
  2. When trials and suffering come, what specific practices help you “stay in Jesus” rather than seeking comfort or meaning elsewhere?
  3. How can Christians balance the call to examine their fruit with the assurance that God keeps those who are truly His?

Scripture Focus: John 15:1-11 teaches that Jesus is the only true source of spiritual life and fruitfulness. Supporting passages include 1 John 2:19 (apostates were never truly in Christ), Isaiah 5:4-7 (Israel as a disappointing vine), Hebrews 6:4-5, 9-12 (warnings paired with assurance), and John 8:31 (continuing in Jesus’ word as evidence of true discipleship).

Outline

Introduction

Let’s pray together.

Lord, these songs that we sing, they are my prayers right now. God, do glorify your name through me, through your preached word. I depend on you, but not just me, Lord. The entire congregation, all of us listening here, we depend on you and your spirit. You have to make your word clear to us. You have to help us to understand it and you have to work in our hearts to believe it and to put it into practice. So God, I pray that you would do that this morning. We need you every step of the way. We are the beneficiaries of your consumate grace poured out again this morning, even through me as I seek to explain your word in Jesus name. Amen.

We’re going to go straight into our passage this morning. So, if you would please grab a Bible and turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verses 1 to 11. We are finally returning to our verse by verse study of the Gospel of John.

I do want to share an introductory word, but I’m going to do that after we actually read our texts. So we’re in John 15:1-11 Pew Bible page, 179 if you’re using the Bibles that we’ve provided.

Scripture Reading: John 15:1-17

And for greater context, we will read down to verse 17. So please follow along as I read John 15 1-1 17.

This is Jesus speaking.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.

John 15:1: “I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.”

The Pain of Seeing Loved Ones Leave Christ

One of the great sorrows of the Christian life is seeing loved ones who stop following Jesus.

It happens in Christian families or once beautiful children grow up and leave Christ.

It happens with new converts who after a time of excited growth turn back or turn aside.

And it even happens with longtime brethren, ministry leaders who suddenly quit Jesus for a lie.

“One of the great sorrows of the Christian life is seeing loved ones who stop following Jesus.”

Part of the pain of witnessing people depart from Christ is simply trying to explain spiritually what has happened.

These people seem like they really believed. They were baptized. They were learning and serving and evangelizing.

How could they become apostate?

How could they suddenly fall away or over time drift away?

Explaining Apostasy Biblically

Some attempting to explain conclude that well, as long as one professes faith, it doesn’t really matter how a person lives after that. You can’t go apostate as long as you’ve professed faith. Once saved, always saved. We’re saved by faith, not by works. doesn’t really matter what happens after that.

Well, passages in the Bible like this one do not allow for such conclusion.

Others conclude oppositely trying to explain abandoning Jesus or abandoning obedience to him, it results in they say loss of salvation.

If you don’t persevere, you forfeit God’s spirit and salvation. That’s what’s happened to these people. They were saved and now they’re not.

But this view doesn’t fit with the scripture either. Even this passage for verse verse 16 clarifies that those chosen by God for salvation, they are also appointed to persevere.

It is not possible for anyone who is truly saved to lose that salvation.

“It is not possible for anyone who is truly saved to lose that salvation.”

The True Explanation: Apparent but Not Real

The real explanation for how someone in Christ could still fall away to judgment is twofold.

First, the apostate person’s being in Christ is only apparent, not real. They only seemed like, look like from the outside they were in Jesus, but that was not the truth. This is what First John 21:19 explains. 1 John 21:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” That’s the first part of the true explanation. The second part is that the apostate persons previously displayed spiritual life. It did not come by a saving connection to Christ, but just the gracious effect of merely being near Christ for a time.

The second reason is one that maybe we do not think about often.

Just as the unbelieving Jews, Jesus says, rejoiced in the light of John the Baptist ministry for a time. That was in John 5:35.

So, religious persons may rejoice in the light of Jesus for a time.

To borrow the language of Hebrews 64 and five, such persons experience a measure of enlightenment.

They taste of God’s heavenly gift. They taste the good word of God. They experience a sampling of God’s power.

And this does have an effect on their inner persons.

Such people often feel conviction of sin, a desire to learn God’s word, a desire to serve God, joy at the thought of entering into God’s kingdom.

Yet all along these persons stopped short of true repentance and faith.

They have tasted Christ but have not eaten Christ.

“They have tasted Christ but have not eaten Christ.”

They have only found Christ to be useful in the pursuit of their own wants.

Thus, their devotion to Jesus and their benefiting from his spirit can be only temporary.

Inevitably, in some crucial moment of testing, their heart idols finally draw them away from Christ. And we see examples of this in the scripture, most obviously in Judas Iscariot.

Now you and I cannot see into each other’s hearts.

We do not know who are the professing Christians around us or that we know will fall away.

Though the Bible warns us that we will sometimes see that.

Yet the Bible doesn’t direct us to speculate about each other. rather to encourage one another to persevere and to receive and respond to the encouragement from Jesus himself for our own perseverance.

The Exhortation: Stay in the True Vine

My brethren, when you come into the time of painful testing, and you will, when life doesn’t make sense anymore, when you are hated and rejected for faithfully proclaiming Jesus gospel, when some of your own dear friends and family leave Christ, how will you respond? What will you do?

The exhortation from Christ himself in our new passage is summed up in my sermon title and that is stay in the true vine. Stay in the true vine.

Whatever alternative attracts you will not yield true life. Nor will that other way enable you to bear acceptable fruit to God.

There is only one true vine of spiritual life and that vine is Jesus God’s son.

Therefore, when troubles come, stay in Jesus and bear fruit.

“There is only one true vine of spiritual life and that vine is Jesus God’s son.”

This is the word of Jesus and of John his apostle from our new passage.

Context of the Farewell Discourse

Now, before we consider more specifically how Jesus presents this message, let’s remind ourselves again of the context of John 15, we are right in the middle of Jesus farewell discourse. The farewell discourse goes from John 13 to John 17.

Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem. They have just celebrated or they have recently celebrated Jesus’ last Passover supper. Judas Iscariot has already left into the night to betray Jesus. And Jesus has told the 11 that he is shortly going away from them with very strong implications that he’s going away to die.

The disciples therefore become confused and troubled. So Jesus shares this final word of comfort and instruction with them, a farewell discourse.

We’ve seen the first two main parts of this discourse already in our study of John. Just as a summary review, in chapter 13, Jesus charges his disciples to follow his example of love and humble service to one another. In chapter 14, Jesus relates a series of comforting promises to his disciples to assure them that after his departure, they will be well provided for and he will see them again soon.

“The disciples become confused and troubled, so Jesus shares this final word of comfort and instruction.”

In the last verse of John 14, if you just glance there, Jesus tells his disciples that it is time for them to leave the upper room where they are. The conversation of chapter 15 and following it apparently takes place while the disciples are walking through Jerusalem toward the Kiddran Valley and toward the Garden of Gethsemane. The garden is where Jesus will be arrested.

John 15:1-17 is Jesus’ next section of final critical instruction for his disciples. And this section, rather than simply explaining more comforts to his disciples, is primarily an exhortation.

Now, we’re going to examine the main part of this exhortation today, verses 1 to 11. There is a second part, which we’ll come back to investigate next time, verses 12 to 17.

Jesus Is the True Vine (vv. 1-2)

But this new larger section verses 1-1 17 it is an exhortation and it begins with a clarifying metaphor and verses one to s two we see a clarifying metaphor to which Jesus will keep coming back and explaining in this next section. So as we work our way through this passage and we even use some bullets for a sermon outline. This is our first stop. In verses 1 to2, we see introduction.

Jesus is the true vine.

In verses 1 to two, we see introduction.

Jesus is the true vine. Look at just verse one again.

Jesus says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.

Here we have the seventh and final I am statement from Jesus in this gospel is a number of I am declarations. This is the last. Now this statement therefore is famous but somewhat unusual because Jesus not only defines he is who he is but also who the father is. Usually doesn’t include someone else in his I am statements but he does here figuratively giving identity to both. Who or what is Jesus? He is the true vine.

“Here we have the seventh and final I am statement from Jesus in this gospel.”

Who is the father? He is the vine dresser or more literally the earth worker. The one looking for good fruit from his vine.

Now understand that these metaphors of vine and vine dresser, they do not come out of nowhere. Perhaps if indeed Jesus and his disciples are walking through Jerusalem, it’s possible that they pass by a vineyard. They see some grape vines and this prompts Jesus metaphor. But even if not, the disciples would have immediately seen the appropriateness and significance of Jesus calling himself the true vine. And why is that?

Israel as the Failing Vine

Because a vine or a vineyard is a frequent metaphor in the Old Testament for Israel.

We saw this ourselves earlier in our service, didn’t we? If you were paying attention to the scripture reading in Psalm 80, the writer Asaf, he beseeches God to protect from enemies the vine that God took from Egypt and planted in Canaan and caused to prosper. I never explicitly identifies that vine in the psalm, but who is it? It’s Israel.

What’s striking though about the Old Testament uses of vine or vineyard for Israel is that the metaphors usually portray Israel as a failing vine. Not just a vine, but an unfaithful vine, a useless vine, a disappointing vine. For example, in Jeremiah 2:21, Jeremiah 2:21, God rebukes spiritually adulterous Israel by saying, “Yet I planted you a choice vine, a completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?” God similarly denounces Israel in Isaiah 54 and 7. Mark made reference to this passage in his prayer earlier. But in Isaiah 54 and 7, God says this, “What more was there to do for my vineyard than I have not done in it?

Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones?

For the vineyard of the Lord, or Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his delightful plant.” Thus he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed.

for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

Hosea 10:1-2 is another place in which God rebukes the the luxurant vine of Israel for producing fruit for itself rather than for God.

So from just this sampling and there are plenty more we can see that God was always looking for the good fruit of righteousness from his vine Israel his special vine his chosen vine his well-ultivated vine he was looking for that good fruit of righteousness but time after time after time when God would look for the harvest there was none or there was only a sad imitation It’s just disappointment from the vine of Israel.

“God was always looking for good fruit of righteousness from his vine Israel, but time after time there was none.”

Jesus: The Vine That Fulfills

But now John 15:1, what does Jesus proclaim?

I myself am the true vine.

True in what sense?

True in that Jesus is the ultimate vine which the failing vine of Israel merely anticipated.

You see, unlike Israel, Jesus is full of spiritual life, real life, even divine life.

Thus, Jesus can actually and does actually fulfill his role as vine. He produces acceptable fruit to God. He produces the fruit of righteousness.

“Unlike Israel, Jesus is full of spiritual life, real life, even divine life. He produces acceptable fruit to God.”

Those attached merely to the vine of Israel, they are attached to a lifeless thing.

Therefore, they will gain no spiritual life in themselves, and they will produce no good fruit to God.

But those in the vine of Christ, the true vine, they have God’s own life surging into them. Thus, they produce good fruit.

To say this another way, with his announcement of himself as the true vine, with his presentation of himself as the true vine, Jesus makes clear that no other vine for God will do.

Attachment to a mere nation, religion, or church, it will not produce the true fruit of righteousness.

Rather, if you think of yourself as a religious person and you are intent on bearing fruit to God, you must not fail to go all the way to Christ because he is the only he is the true vine of salvation.

Two Types of Branches

This is the first and quite arresting part of Jesus metaphor. But he continues, as he continues, Jesus makes a distinction in the type of attachment people may have in Jesus as the true vine. Look now at verse two.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

Now here Jesus developed metaphor is pretty straightforward but also sobering. Jesus says that there are two types of branches in him, each with its own outcome. There are the branches that bear no fruit and there are the branches that bear fruit. What happens to the branches that bear no fruit?

They are removed by the father.

What does that mean?

Verse six will clarify for us later. but takes away in verse two is a reference to God’s judgment.

After all, what is a vine dresser looking for from his vine? For fruit.

For good fruit. So, what’s the use of a branch that doesn’t bear good fruit?

Just getting in the way. So, God’s going to get rid of that branch.

“What is a vine dresser looking for from his vine? Fruit. So what’s the use of a branch that doesn’t bear good fruit?”

But what about the branches that bear fruit? What happens to them?

Well, they don’t just sit pretty. They get pruned by the father to bear even more fruit.

The Father’s Pruning Work

Now the word for prunes here is interesting because it’s not one that you would expect in an agricultural context. The Greek word is cathyro, the root of which also gives us our English word catharsis.

Cathyro means most literally to clean.

And so with this word choice, Jesus is pointing us to the spiritual meaning of his metaphor. What is the father’s pruning action? It’s making clean.

It’s making holy.

It’s sanctifying.

In other words, if you are fruitbearing branch in the true vine, Jesus, you can be sure that the father will sanctify you.

“If you are a fruit-bearing branch in the true vine, you can be sure that the father will sanctify you.”

And how will the father do that?

By cutting back your improper growth.

After all, even good fruitbearing branches in a vine, they might grow in ways that are ultimately unhelpful to the plant and unproductive for bearing more fruit. So, a good vine dresser knows to routinely clip back these portions.

In the same way, the father according to his perfect wisdom and according to his careful love for the vine, he will send sanctifying trials on all fruit bearing branches in his son.

So then in Jesus vine metaphor, all the branches face one of two types of cleaning from the father. They will either be cleaned away if they bear no fruit or if they do bear fruit, they will be cleaned up to bear more.

Now, someone may ask, how can any branches truly in Jesus fail to bear fruit and thus face this being taken away facing judgment?

Well, the answer is what I said before.

These branches in Jesus, they only appear to be in Jesus, but are not really. If they were, they would have Jesus’ own fruit bearing life in them, and thus they would bear at least some fruit.

But no fruit, no fruit that lasts, it means that you’re not really in God, God’s one true vine, even if you say that you are.

Command: Stay in the True Vine (vv. 3-4)

So, this is the opening metaphor. And Jesus immediately applies it to his disciples in verses three and four or the beginning part of verse four. So here’s our next sermon point. We saw the introduction. Jesus is the true vine.

Now we see command stay in the true vine. Command stay in the true vine.

Look at verse three.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Notice Jesus doesn’t leave his disciples in suspense as to which type of branches they are. You are already clean. He says, “You are the clean fruit bearing branches that will soon get cleaned more.” How did you become fundamentally clean?

Not by your own efforts, but what did Jesus say? My word. By my word, I made you clean. You believed in what I proclaimed. You believed in me and believed in my gospel. And so now you are clean. And by the way, that should remind you of what Jesus said just two chapters ago in John 13:10. Remember when Jesus was washing the disciples feet and Peter’s like, “Give me a bath, Jesus.” Jesus says, “Whoever is bathed only needs to have his feet washed because he’s already clean and you are clean, but not all of you.” Because he was speaking also about Judas. So same thing, Jesus identifies his disciples as true branches.

“You are already clean. You are the clean fruit-bearing branches that will soon get cleaned more.”

Okay. So now what? If the disciples are clean, fruitbearing branches, what’s the implication? What do they have to do with this metaphor?

Well, if as Jesus says, clean branches face more cleaning so that they may bear more fruit, this being the case, the disciples ought to commit to a certain response for when that painful cleaning comes.

In fact, for them, a time of cleaning has already arrived.

Jesus going away to the cross is a father sent sanctifying trial for the disciples. Indeed, the disciples have never faced such a great test, such a great trouble in their lives.

So, how must the disciples respond to this imminent great trial? And how should they respond to the other trials that might come in being in Jesus?

The answer is the beginning of verse four.

abide in me and I in you.

The Greek word translated abide here can also be translated remain or stay. And I prefer those translations because I don’t know about you, but abide is not a word that I use very often. Don’t say like, hey, you know, where are you? I’m abiding at home. We don’t really say that. Maybe when you think of abide, you think of something abstract, poetic, mystical. Abide is just another way to say the word stay. So that’s what I’m going to use.

How should you, Jesus speaking to his disciples, but he’s also speaking to us.

How should you, as a branch in the true vine, respond to the great troubles of your life? The answer is stay in the vine. Stay in Jesus.

Even when it looks like Jesus is abandoning you, don’t abandon him. Don’t turn turn back. Don’t turn aside to plug yourself into some other vine.

Jesus is the one and only, the only true vine, and his father is the caring vine dresser.

Expect that cleansing trials will come, but commit to staying in Jesus and bearing fruit.

Abiding Means Believing

Now, in the verses that follow, Jesus is going to clarify a little more what staying in him means.

But already by verse four, we can say that staying in Jesus first and foremost means continuing to believe in Jesus.

After all, Jesus said in verse three that the disciples became clean by his word, a word which they believed.

Furthermore, John 6:56 and John 14:20, they both link the reality of Jesus staying in his people and his people staying in him with simple faith.

Thus, abiding or staying in Jesus is not as complicated as we might think it is.

To stay in Jesus, you simply believe.

You keep on believing. You keep on trusting. You keep on relying on him for everything. For your forgiveness and your salvation, for your holiness, for your service to him and your service for him, for your daily needs, and for whatever else. Really, that’s what we were singing in the song today earlier.

Simply put, to stay in the true vine, don’t stop believing.

“To stay in Jesus, you simply believe. You keep on believing. You keep on trusting.”

Now, I mentioned that this passage is an exhortation.

And I say that because Jesus doesn’t just provide an instructive metaphor and a stirring command, but he also provides encouragement to obey the command. And that’s what we see in the rest of our text.

Reason 1: Jesus Will Stay in You

In verses 4 and following, we see seven reasons 4 to 11, we see seven reasons why you must stay in Jesus and bear fruit amid trouble. Seven reasons to stay in Jesus and bear fruit amid trouble. And the first reason is right here in the beginning of verse four. And that reason is number one, because Jesus will stay in you.

Stay in Jesus because Jesus will stay in you. Look at the beginning of verse four again.

Abide in me and I in you.

If this first phrase in the beginning of verse four is a command to keep on believing in Jesus, then what is the second phrase saying? Is it a promise?

Abide in me and I will abide in you. Is it an implied condition? If you abide in me, I will abide in you. Or is it another command? Abide in me and let me abide in you.

Answering is difficult because as you can see from the text, there’s no verb in the second phrase to clarify. Just says I in you.

I lean toward understanding the second phrase here as a promise. But no matter which way you take it, the overall sense comes through.

Only those who stay in Jesus get to have Jesus stay in them. And who would not want that?

We have spoken several times recently about all the spiritual blessings, the cornucopia of blessings that are just poured out on believers by union with Christ, by your being attached to Christ, you and him and he in you.

This is made most obvious by Jesus giving his own spirit to you to guarantee his ongoing presence and power in your life.

“Jesus giving his own spirit to you guarantees his ongoing presence and power in your life.”

So if you want ongoing fellowship with God himself in his son. If you desire his spirit to stay in you, then you must stay in him.

Reason 2: You Can Only Bear Fruit in Him

That’s the first reason. A second reason to stay in Jesus and bear fruit amid trouble appears in the rest of verse four and into verse 5. Number two, because you can only bear fruit in him.

Because you can only bear fruit in him.

Let’s look at those two verses now.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

You’ve heard me say this before, but the great lie of false religion is that on your own, or maybe with a little help from God, you can do something that pleases him.

You do not have to believe in Jesus or be in Jesus to bear acceptable fruit to God. It might not be quite the way God said to do it, but you can please God.

Even professing Christians can sometimes believe this lie, thinking or saying, “But look at all these nice Roman Catholics and Jews and Muslims and Hindus. They are very sincere in their religion. They are quite moral. Surely God accepts them.

We have to go back to the metaphor that Jesus presents in verses 1 to2.

How ludicrous is the idea that any branches can bear fruit apart from being in the true vine.

They are cut off from the life source.

They can’t bear fruit.

And if God indeed has only one true vine, and that vine is Jesus, then no one on his own, no matter how religious, can present any good fruit to God.

Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” In other words, you will produce no fruit, no acceptable fruit.

“Apart from me, you can do nothing — you will produce no fruit, no acceptable fruit.”

Now, believe me, religious people can put on a great show. They can deceive you and me with apparent fruit.

But God is not deceived. No one slips counterfeit fruit before God and gets away with it.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 says that a man’s heart is desperately seek desperately sick and deceitful. A person can’t even understand his own heart, but God can. God says that he searches out the heart. He tests it and then he judges the resulting deeds. He pays attention to the heart and the fruit.

Thus, apart from a lifefilled connection to Jesus by faith, any presented fruit before God, any supposed righteousness before God falls into only one category. And that’s what Isaiah 64:6 describes. Isaiah 64:6, the first part of it. For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.

Yet, notice the contrast back here in John 15. Notice the contrast for those who stay in Jesus and have Jesus stay in them. This one, Jesus says in verse 5, bears much fruit.

So, does believing in Jesus have a transforming effect on a person’s life?

Absolutely.

A person is made alive. He’s delivered once and for all from sin’s penalty and power. And thus, he is freed up to new love and obedience to God.

So, friends and brethren, do you intend to bear fruit to God in your life?

then you better come to Jesus and stay by faith in Jesus because you can only bear fruit in him.

Reason 3: The Fruitless Will Be Judged

Now someone might say, “What does it matter if I don’t bear acceptable fruit to God? God is loving. God will forgive me.” Well, consider from verse six the third reason to stay in Jesus and bear fruit amid trouble. Number three, because the fruitless will be judged. Because the fruitless will be judged. Verse six, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up.

And they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

This is what verse two is already talking about, isn’t it?

God is not indifferent about you staying in his one true vine or not.

If you’re not in, if you’re not truly in Jesus by faith, and if you are not getting cleaned up to bear more fruit by the father’s prothing, pruning, well, then you will be cleaned out like a branch far away from any life-giving vine. So will you wither away spiritually until the time arrives for God’s agents, God’s angels to collect you and throw you into burning into the fires of hell forever to be in conscious torment.

“God is not indifferent about you staying in his one true vine or not.”

You know sometimes people complain about Christians being too concerned about fruit.

There is of course a way to overdo it.

But let’s appreciate that God is pretty concerned about fruit.

The exhortation is stay in the true vine because the fruitless will be judged.

Reason 4: God Will Answer Your Prayers

A fourth reason to stay in Jesus and bear fruit. It comes with some more clarification of what this staying means or practically consists of. Number four, because God will answer your prayers.

because God will answer your prayers.

Look at the beginning of verse seven. If you abide in me and my words abide in you. Pause there for a second.

H is Jesus changing up here what he said before. Is this a new command?

Not really. Jesus is just repeating his command from verse four in another way, a parallel way. To stay in Jesus means more than believing in and relying on Jesus in his person. It also means having Jesus words stay in you. And what does that mean? Well, it means to believe and hold fast to Jesus teaching.

And this too is an idea that we’ve already seen before in John. Do you remember John 8:31? John 8:31 when Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him but not fully if you continue in my word then you are truly disciples of mine.

To stay in Jesus means to stay in his word and to let his word stay in you.

You learn his word. You believe his word. You teach and proclaim his word and you put it into practice.

This is a further description of what it means to stay in Jesus.

But what further does Jesus promise to those who stay in this way, who believe, and then also have Jesus word stay in them? Well, that’s the rest of verse 7.

Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

It should sound a little bit familiar because this is a repetition of what Jesus said in just the last chapter, John 14 13 and 14. So I ask you again, would you like to have answered prayers?

Would you like to be bold with God in prayer, confident that he hears you and that he will provide?

Well, then you need to stay in Jesus.

You need to believe in him and you need to hold fast to his teaching.

And if you do that, what kind of prayers do you think you will pray?

Self-indulgent prayers. Prayers for ease and the enjoyment of idols.

God, I pray that you’ll give me lots of money. Give me good health. Give me prosperity. Give me success.

Those are not really going to be the kind of prayers you pray. Not if Jesus word is staying in you. rather prayers like God enable me to do your will. God provide for my needs according to your own wisdom. God help me to declare your word boldly. God show me more of Jesus.

Show me more of your glory.

Yes, those are the kind of prayers you will pray. And you know what Jesus promises as a result?

It will be done for you. Whatever you wish, it will be done for you.

“Whatever you wish, it will be done for you. God is trying to help us understand how much he desires to answer our prayers.”

You know, with a repetition like this, I think God is trying to help us understand how much he desires to answer our prayers.

But he says, “I want you to ask for the right things. I want you to ask for the things that are truly valuable, that are truly good for you.

So stay in my son. Believe in my son.

Let his word richly dwell in you. Then you will know what good things to ask for. and then I will happily grant it to you.

Reason 5: Your Proven Discipleship Glorifies God

A fifth reason to stay in Jesus and bear fruit amid trouble appears in verse eight says or no let me give you the point and then we’ll read the verse uh number five because your proven disciplehip glorifies God because your proven disciplehip glorifies God. Now we read verse eight.

My father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Now do you see from this verse why God cares about our fruitfulness?

It’s about his glory.

Though the method of glorification may surprise us. Though if we think again about the beginning metaphor in verses 1 to2, it makes perfect sense.

Jesus is the true vine. The father is the vine dresser. The vine dresser plants the vine and then tends to all its branches to ensure fruitfulness.

So when the branches indeed bear fruit if it’s a good vine, who deserves the praise for it?

Does the vine deserve it? Well, yes, in a certain sense. It must be a good vine to have good branches to bear good fruit. But who ultimately deserves the praise? who ultimately should receive the glory for the branch’s fruitfulness, the vine dresser.

So it is with us, Jesus and the father.

When the father places us into Jesus and prunes us so that we have new spiritual life manifesting in more and more good fruit, he gets the glory. The father does.

said another way, when the good fruit of our lives shows us to be Jesus’ true disciples, we glorify the father because through his son and the spirit, the father did it all.

“When our good fruit shows us to be Jesus’ true disciples, we glorify the father because he did it all.”

He’s the one that produced that spiritual life and the fruit.

So then if you wish to give God glory in your life then you must stay in Jesus and bear fruit and you will have unique opportunity to do that even in the great trials of your life. Stay in Jesus bear fruit because you will glorify the father in your proven disciplehip.

Reason 6: You Will Enjoy Jesus’ Love

The sixth reason which we see in verses 9 to10 to stay in Jesus and bear fruit amid trouble. It comes with another clarification. We’ll see that also.

Number six, because you will enjoy Jesus love.

Because you will enjoy Jesus love. Look at verses nine and 10 or the beginning of verse 10. Just as the father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Okay. So here again we have a restatement of Jesus original command with a different emphasis. Back in verse three Jesus said that he made his disciples already clean by his word. Now here in parallel Jesus says he already loved the disciples with the very love with which the father loved the son.

So what are the disciples to do now?

Not just stay in Jesus but stay in his extravagant divine love.

But how practically does one do that?

Jesus says he answers the question right in verse 10. By keeping his commandments.

Now this is where someone will find an objection. Wait a second. Is Jesus saying I must earn or maintain God’s love by my own obedience?

Isn’t that salvation by works?

It is not salvation by works because that is not what Jesus is saying.

Consider again how the command here to abide or stay, it parallels the statements we’ve already seen in verse 7 and verses 3 and four.

These three statements together provide a kind of chain of implication.

A person stays in Jesus by one’s faith in Jesus. That’s verses three and four.

And such faith results in holding fast to Jesus word. Verse 7. And a holding fast to Jesus words produces a drive to keep Jesus commandments. Verses 9 and 10.

In other words, keeping Jesus commandments does not keep Jesus love.

Yet those joined by faith to Jesus are the ones Jesus already loves. And that faith, if it’s true, will look diligently to obey Jesus.

Say, I’m not not sure I get it quite yet, Pastor Dave. Well, by way of explanatory parallel, look at the rest of verse 10. Jesus says, “Just as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Did Jesus, God’s son, earn or maintain his father’s love by Jesus obedience?

No. The father’s love has been poured out infinitely on the son since before time. Father didn’t have to wait and be like, “Let me see how you do it. Then maybe I’ll love you.” No. He always loved the son. And why? Because of who the son is. The son in his essence is one who perfectly obeys and honors the father.

Thus, the son’s obedience is not the means of obtaining the father’s love.

Rather, it is approving of and enjoying of the father’s love in the relationship that they already have.

So it is Jesus says for all those who believe in and stay in him.

You do not maintain Jesus love by your keeping his commands.

Rather by keeping his commands you merely show that you already are in a saving love relationship with him.

And when you know when you prove to yourself and others by such obedience, then you can rest in and actually enjoy that love which was yours when you were placed into Jesus.

To speak even more simply, Christians will not be able to appreciate the love relationship that they have with Jesus if they do not obey him.

“Christians will not be able to appreciate the love relationship they have with Jesus if they do not obey him.”

The inconsistency between profession and practice will be too much for the soul to take. you will not be able to stay in and enjoy Jesus love.

Therefore, if you want to know that you are loved by Jesus and if you want to be able to enjoy that love, then what must you do?

You must actually stay in Jesus. You must stay in him by faith, holding fast to his words and keeping his commands.

They go together. If you’re in Jesus by faith, you will want to keep his commands. And as you do so, that will just be a fresh reminder that yes, I am in a saving love relationship with the son of God.

Reason 7: You Will Receive Jesus’ Joy

The seventh and final reason to stay in Jesus and bear fruit is closely related to the sixth, number seven, because you will receive Jesus joy.

Because you will receive Jesus joy. And this is verse 11, the the last one we’re looking at today.

These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full.

Does humanity have any higher quest than for joy?

The prospect of joy, happiness or pleasure, it lies behind every action, every decision that people make.

The problem is that since the fall in the garden, mankind has been looking for joy in every place other than the one place it can actually be found, which is in God.

We Christians, like the original 11 disciples, we have come to confess that Jesus is our life and joy. We believe in him. Thus, we freely give up all other joys to enjoy him.

But when the pressure ramps up, when temptations come, when suffering increases, when we don’t understand what’s going on, we wonder if we should seek joy elsewhere. Is Jesus really is or has what we’re looking for.

Jesus reassures us here that he ever is the fountain of joy and he desires to impart his own full joy to us.

“Jesus reassures us that he ever is the fountain of joy and he desires to impart his own full joy to us.”

But there is only one way for Jesus to do so and that is if we stay in him.

If when the troubles come, when the testings come, we stay by faith in Jesus, in his teaching and in his commands, if we do this, we need not sacrifice any of the joy that is ours in him.

Rather, in our perseverant faith and obedience, Jesus promises that our joy will be made full. Would you like to have full joy, fullness of joy? I trust that you would.

then you must heed Jesus exhortation.

Stay in Jesus and bear fruit.

Now Jesus will explain more what staying in him means by one final implication in verses 12 to 17. Staying in Jesus means keeping his commandments. And keeping his commandments means particularly keeping the new commandment which is what? To love one another with the same love with which Jesus loves us.

Thus, to abide or stay in Jesus means that you must love your brethren like Jesus loves you. And we’ll say more about that next time.

Application: What This Text Means for You

But to close this message, what does this text mean for you? What is God saying to you today?

If troubles have indeed been tempting you to abandon Jesus, then hear your kind Lord today. Let his words encourage you to persevere, stay in Jesus, and keep bearing fruit.

“Hear your kind Lord today. Let his words encourage you to persevere, stay in Jesus, and keep bearing fruit.”

If you’ve not yet come to know Jesus or have not been taking obedience to him seriously, not been taking your calling to bear fruit seriously, then again, hear the words of your kind Lord and be moved to new repentance and faith.

The Assurance of the Believer

But one result that should not come from this message, one thing that you should not be hearing me say or the Lord say, and is that it is right or that it is good for you to enter into endless introspection about the sincerity of your faith.

Because that is one way you could react to this. You could react to this passage. You could react to this sermon and be tempted to say to yourself, “Oh no, I think I believe in Jesus, but do I really believe?

Will I persevere? I don’t want to deceive myself. I don’t really know. Who can ever really know?” If that is the way you’re moved this morning, let me share a few things with you. First understand that God does not expect his people by and large to lack assurance to be unsure whether they really know him and are saved.

That is a Roman Catholic doctrine but that is not a biblical one.

Yes, we must make sure that we are not walking hypocritically.

We must not profess to believe in Jesus while we walk in disobedience.

But if you are willing to take Jesus words in this passage seriously and act on them, then I see no reason that you should lack assurance of salvation or that you should keep on questioning your faith.

You may say, “But I still sin, Pastor Dave. We all struggle with sin. If we didn’t, then why would the Father need to clean us? He is in the process of cleaning us, and he will bring us along.

The simple question is, are you willing to keep going with that or are you going to give up? If you’re in the give up stage, well then yes, you should be seriously concerned. But if you say, I want to take this seriously. I want to persevere for the Lord because that’s what he’s called me to. That’s the way a believer responds.

I find it interesting that many of the sections of the New Testament that warn of apostasy from Jesus, they are paired with explicit affirmations to the listening audience of their saving faith. We see it here in John 15. The exhortation to stay in Jesus is bracketed by statements from Jesus that he knows his disciples are already clean and that he’s appointed them to persevere.

Similarly, in Hebrews 6, right after the writer there warns that those who depart from Christ risk never being able to return, the writer adds this right afterwards in verses 9 to12. Hebrews 6 9-12.

But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

We might ask why urge perseverance in the believers who have already been chosen by God to persevere.

And the answer is that your taking seriously your need to persevere is part of God’s ordained means of causing you to persevere.

“Your taking seriously your need to persevere is part of God’s ordained means of causing you to persevere.”

So again, I say if you take the Lord’s word today to heart and strive to put it into practice, then be of good courage.

The Lord will keep you. He will cause you to persevere.

But if you hear the message today and tell yourself that it’s no big deal or you’ll get serious later, then you must be warned because you’re in danger of proving that you don’t really belong to the true vine.

You must repent and get attached for real by faith before you wither and dry up before the branches are gathered to be taken away and burned.

God’s word is meant to afflict the comfortable but comfort the afflicted.

“God’s word is meant to afflict the comfortable but comfort the afflicted.”

So may the Lord do both today. Let’s close in a word of prayer.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the true vine of Jesus.

There is no other life. There is no other place, Lord, where you can regenerate us.

There is no other salvation.

There is no other forgiveness.

There is no other place for transformation to truly walk in obedience except in Jesus. Lord, we are so glad. We are so glad that you put us in Jesus. You put us in the true vine and then freed us up to bear fruit.

God, we do want to take all the encouragements of this passage to heart so that we stay in Jesus.

So that when trials come, when persecution comes, when we see other people abandoning Jesus, we will not we will believe. We will hold fast to his teaching. We will obey his commands.

Lord, if there are any ways in which we are already beginning to drift, I pray that you would move us to a new seriousness and a new sincerity so that we may receive indeed all that you have meant for us.

We trust God that by faith and by receiving your word for what it is, you will enable us to persevere. We don’t have to be biting our fingernails wondering what’s going to happen to us in the future.

If we stay close to you, Jesus, if we stay with you, we are forever safe.

God, I pray as appropriate that you would fill the listeners today with an assurance of their safety in Jesus. Even as at the same time, God, you spurn in them a drive to keep following after Jesus no matter the cost.

Again, God, I pray for those who don’t know this security, who don’t yet have true life because they are not in the true vine. I pray that you would cause that to happen today.

that they would see not in a a way that is introspective with no way of actually verifying anything but for lo for those Lord who know yes I have not been bearing fruit unto God I don’t do righteousness I don’t love righteousness I don’t love Jesus therefore I must not be in the true vine God I pray that you would bring them into the true vine today By repentance and faith, they would turn from their sins, turn from all their efforts to make things right with you, Father, and just trust and depend on Jesus alone, his life, his death, and his resurrection, and they would be saved.

And then they would start bearing fruit because they are saved.

Lord, let your perfect will be done by your word and by your spirit today. God, I pray that as a church, we would be constantly encouraging one another to persevere in Jesus.

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