The Word This Week
John 15:1…
Moving on from the upper room on the night before Jesus died, Jesus continues to instill in His disciples the things they will need to know and to practice in order to found His Church.
These are His final instructions to those men who have been faithfully following Him for over three years, with the exception of Judas, who has left them to betray Jesus. (Judas correctly anticipated they were headed to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus woiuld be arrested.)
There is reason to believe as they passed by the gates of the Temple, Jesus used the ornamentation on the gates as another example to employ to teach His guys. (It is known the gates were decorated with bronze grape vines, which are symbolic of the nation of Israel.)
This possibly explains why Jesus suddenly employed the metaphor of a grape vine in this very important and illustrative teaching.
He begins with the declarative statement, “I AM the true vine.”
The reason He would say this is because Israel was intended to be God’s vineyard, but they had failed miserably in the task they had been called to by replacing their relationship with God, which began so well, with the thinking the keeping of rituals and religious practices equaled fruitful relationship with God.
Jesus here tells us here athat is not the case. It was not the case then – and it is not the case now.
Israel had been intended by God to reach the world for God, as they exhibited the blessings of God to a lost world. The intent of God was to save the world through Israel. But instead of being a fruitful vineyard, they had long since become a disappointing vineyard. No good fruit was being produced because they had become completely disconnected from God.
The key to good fruit, as Jesus reminds us here, is to be connected to God in Christ.
In this easily understood metaphor, Jesus is the true vine, and we are the branches. The branches can only acquire the sustenance to produce fruit when connected to the root. No connection, no fruit. Connection, fruit – and good fruit that lasts.
Do you get the connection?
Pastor Bill
Moving on from the upper room on the night before Jesus died, Jesus continues to instill in His disciples the things they will need to know and to practice in order to found His Church.
These are His final instructions to those men who have been faithfully following Him for over three years, with the exception of Judas, who has left them to betray Jesus. (Judas correctly anticipated they were headed to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus woiuld be arrested.)
There is reason to believe as they passed by the gates of the Temple, Jesus used the ornamentation on the gates as another example to employ to teach His guys. (It is known the gates were decorated with bronze grape vines, which are symbolic of the nation of Israel.)
This possibly explains why Jesus suddenly employed the metaphor of a grape vine in this very important and illustrative teaching.
He begins with the declarative statement, “I AM the true vine.”
The reason He would say this is because Israel was intended to be God’s vineyard, but they had failed miserably in the task they had been called to by replacing their relationship with God, which began so well, with the thinking the keeping of rituals and religious practices equaled fruitful relationship with God.
Jesus here tells us here athat is not the case. It was not the case then – and it is not the case now.
Israel had been intended by God to reach the world for God, as they exhibited the blessings of God to a lost world. The intent of God was to save the world through Israel. But instead of being a fruitful vineyard, they had long since become a disappointing vineyard. No good fruit was being produced because they had become completely disconnected from God.
The key to good fruit, as Jesus reminds us here, is to be connected to God in Christ.
In this easily understood metaphor, Jesus is the true vine, and we are the branches. The branches can only acquire the sustenance to produce fruit when connected to the root. No connection, no fruit. Connection, fruit – and good fruit that lasts.
Do you get the connection?
Pastor Bill