The story is told of a man who was honored as his city’s leading citizen. Called on to tell the story of his life, he said, ‘Friends and neighbors, when I first came here 30 years ago, I walked into your town on a muddy dirt road with only the suit on my back, the shoes on my feet, and all of my earthly possessions wrapped up in a red bandanna tied to my stick, which I carried over my shoulder. Today I’m the chairman of the board of the bank. I own hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings, three companies with branches in 49 cities, and I am on the boards of all the leading clubs. Yes, friends, this city has been very good to me.’
After the banquet a young man approached this person and asked him, ‘Sir, could you tell me what you wrapped in that red bandanna when you walked into this town 30 years ago?’ The man said, ‘I think, it was about a half million dollars in cash and $900,000 in government bonds.’[i]
For us to truly understand the financial success of this individual, we needed to know the source of his resources. What was in the red bandanna made all the difference in the world. The same is true for us as believers. What God has entrusted to us has a significant bearing on the results or fruits of our lives. One element we all have access to is the very presence of God. But we also realize that God has given each of us something different in our red bandannas. Each of us has different gifts, backgrounds, experiences, and blessings. The great issue when we arrive in God’s presence will be what we did with what He gave us. God has an expectation of what each of us can contribute to His kingdom.
Before Jesus engages in the last and fiercest strife against the prince of the world, He teaches His disciples by means of a simple allegory the demands their discipleship imposes upon them and the conditions under which it can become effective. As they are not a collection of individuals, but a corporate society, the new Israel of God, it is natural that Jesus should frame his allegory in language that had been used to describe the people of God under the old dispensation.[ii]
Jesus uses the analogy of the vine. In John 15, Jesus gives the secret to a truly joyful, and effective life; He gives us a purpose for living.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.[iii]
Jesus emphasizes what must be taken seriously by these men if what He has lived for and is about to die for will have any lasting significance in the world. Will these men commit themselves to seeing that His ultimate sacrifice will have an impact on their generation and the succeeding generations? Will they realize the importance of maintaining a vital relationship with Christ even though He will be absent in body, but present within them in spirit? Will they take on the task of spreading the message seriously enough? Will they do so at their own personal expense? Can they do it and maintain a loving relationship with each other?
Jesus gives both to them, and to us the needed ingredients to live effective, meaningful, and purposeful lives that will impact and influence others. Here in John 15, we discover two elements to a fruitful life.
THE FIRST ELEMENT TOWARD AN EFFECTIVE AND PURPOSEFUL LIFE IS TO ABIDE OR REMAIN IN CHRIST
It is only as we are dependent upon Him, that we will be effective in our lives. There must be a vital union with Him in order for His life to flow through us. We cannot do ministry in our own human strength and wisdom.
A. The source of life and power is union with Christ.
Believers can easily agree that this is true. Yet, why is it that so many Christians live a stunted or stagnant life? Why so little power? To answer how Christ’s life and power would flow into the lives of the disciples after His departure, Jesus uses the picture of the vine, which was charged with meaning to the Jewish people. Jesus said He was the true vine, and His followers would be the branches. They would now fulfill what the nation had failed to accomplish, which was to be in vital connection to the true vine which is Jesus Christ and produce good fruit.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.[iv]
Since the word ‘true’ in verse 1 means ‘genuine’ or ‘real,’ Jesus claims to be the one true stock. Just as there must be an original vine from which all specimens of a given variety are taken, so He alone is the source of the heavenly life of the spiritual vine.[v]
What did Jesus mean by this analogy? How does this work? Obviously, Jesus was talking about the nature of His work in the lives of genuine believers. Every Jewish person knew from the Old Testament that the nation of Israel was described as the vine, but Jesus is showing that national pedigree wasn’t what makes a person a true follower of God.
The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in.[vi]
There were always true followers within the nation, but national lineage wasn’t enough. There were always those who had an outward form of godliness but did not have an inward reality. As a nation, Israel was not producing the fruit that God had intended.
Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.[vii]
Not to mix our metaphors, but the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree that would not produce fruit, though it was full of foliage, is expressing the same concept. God had an expectation for Israel to be fruitful, yet she did not produce good fruit. Good fruit is to be obedient to God and fulfill God’s purposes for us as His followers. Isaiah pointed out that the nation had produced bad fruit instead. The fruit Israel produced was not the kind God intended. She gave her strength to consume it upon her own evil desires, as Hosea pointed out.
Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.
Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.[viii]
Israel had taken the blessing of God and consumed it upon themselves. Using God’s blessings to solely consume it upon ourselves is a form of idolatry. God desires that He be first in our affection and our service. What I find fascinating in studying the various covenant agreements in the Old Testament is the reoccurring theme of the need to fulfill God’s purposes in our lives. The purpose is one of growth and multiplication. To Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:
God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.[ix]
God repeated the same command or mandate to Noah after the flood in Genesis 9:
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.’[x]
The judgment on the Tower of Babel, in Genesis 11, was being ignored. They were settling into one spot, and then trying to ‘make a name for themselves,’ so God confused their ability to communicate, and the result was that they scattered over the face of the entire earth.
In giving the promised son Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, God revealed the same purpose of fruitfulness and multiplication.
He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars–if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’[xi]
Whereas, the Old Testament’s focus was on the natural and material development of the human family, the mandate to be fruitful and increase in numbers moves to the spiritual and eternal aspect of reaching more people and expanding God’s kingdom. To the church, God has a similar expectation. First, we are to be fruitful in our mission of ‘making disciples’ of other people.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…[xii]
Secondly, as we are to be fruitful in character or moral fruit.
One advantage that the people of God, which is the church, have as opposed to the nation of Israel is that the true vine is the Lord Jesus. It is as we abide or receive our strength from Him, we will produce the kind of fruit God the Father is looking for. The important element here is our trust or faith in Christ. To abide or remain in Christ is to make our home in Him just like He makes His home in us.
The branch abides in the vine structurally; and the vine abides in the branch through its sap, vitally.[xiii]
Jesus is committed to us. He remains in us. We are being challenged to draw our strength and life from Him.
B. Jesus then gives insight into the spiritual life.
How does God work with us to develop us into fruitful people? God cleanses or prunes us. He cuts away that which inhibits or hinders the life of His Spirit.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.[xiv]
Jesus brings out two concepts regarding this unique relationship. There is only two approaches to branches. Either cut them off because they are dead and non-producing or prune them to produce more fruit. Jesus’ pruning process comes by way of His word.
In Eugene Peterson’s translation of the bible, he writes in verse 3; “You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken (John 15:4).
Our response to the Word of God determines how fruitful we will really be. If we are obedient, there will be life giving evidence. The Word of God is not optional. It is the key to an effective life. The Word of God is one tool for pruning us in order that we will bear more fruit.
Merrill Tenney explains the nature of pruning as one of God’s tools to cause fruitfulness in the life of His people.
As the farmer wields the pruning knife on his vines, so God cuts dead wood out from among His saints, and often cuts back the living wood so far that His method seems cruel. Nevertheless, from those who have suffered the most there often comes the greatest fruitfulness.[xv]
As we are attached, we are receiving life from the vine. It is God’s purpose to pour His life into ours that we may be fruitful. The question remains on our part whether we will receive that life, and to what degree? It is to that measure that we will be fruitful. Apart from Jesus it is impossible to be fruitful. But what does it mean to abide or remain in Jesus?
To abide means to remain, to stay closely connected, to settle in for the long term. With this picture Jesus is showing the disciples how an ongoing, vital connection with Him will directly determine the amount of His supernatural power at work in their lives.[xvi]
Abiding is all about the most important friendship of your life. Abiding doesn’t measure how much you know about your faith or your Bible. In abiding, you seek, long for, thirst for, wait for, see, know, love, hear, and respond to a person. More abiding means more of God in your life, more of Him in your activities, thoughts and desires.[xvii]
Our obedient response to God’s Word is an expression of fruitfulness which glorifies God and is evidence of our relationship with Him.
C. This challenge is then followed by an incredible promise.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.[xviii]
One element of abiding and being fruitful is that we see answers to prayer. It is an indicative of a relationship with our Heavenly Father. Whatever we ask, we receive. This promise is conditional in nature. The condition is that we remain in Christ and His Word. The essence is that as we are in Christ and like Christ, we will desire what He desires for us and for others. Then as we pray, we express His desires. We are now praying according to His will. And John reminds us in his epistle that we will receive whatever we ask, when we are praying according to His will.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.[xix]
THE SECOND ELEMENT IN AN EFFECTIVE AND PURPOSEFUL LIFE IS HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER BELIEVERS
We cannot remain isolated and flourish as believers. This has to do with loving each other.
Though Jesus does not say it in so many words, He evidently means for the disciples to understand that abiding in each other by love is just as necessary to their success as their common abiding in Him by faith. Division, party strife, jealousy, will be simply fatal to their influence, and to the cause they represent…. Had Christians always remembered the commandment of love, on which Christ so earnestly insisted, what a different history the Church would have had! How much more fruitful she would have been in all the great results for which she was instituted.[xx]
A. Abiding or remaining in the love of God.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.[xxi]
Here the love of God is spelled out for us. The example is the Father’s love for the Son, which is perfect and unconditional. This is the love that these early followers of Jesus experienced from Him. It is with this kind of love that they are now admonished to continue. What’s true of them is also true for us. It is more than sheer emotion, but is very practical. Obedience is at the heart of this love. The model that is set before us is Jesus’ obedience to His Father.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.[xxii]
B. The manifestation of this love is seen in how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.[xxiii]
What kind of love is Jesus talking about here? It is God’s kind of love. It is a love that is forgiving and accepting of the other. When we think about laying down our lives, this isn’t just willing to physically die for someone, but laying aside our rights if it will benefit the other person. It means living an unselfish life and thinking about the wellbeing of those we live with.
It should not surprise us that this love is supernatural in nature. It can only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. In describing the results or the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives, Paul describes it for us in Galatians.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.[xxiv]
We often stop at the positive descriptions of the fruit but in this context, we also see that the fruit also crucifies what is part of the sinful nature. It crucifies ‘the flesh with its passions and desires,’ This in turn has a positive effect upon our relationships with others.
The first characteristic of this kind of love is joy, which give us strength. Joy is an attitude that is not determined by our circumstances. Joy determines the quality of how we serve others. The problem is that we often allow our response to people or circumstances, to circumvent, or cut off that joy. We tend to blame others, or circumstances for where we are at. How destructive is blame? Charles Swindoll reminds us of the destructive nature of blame in relating to others.
Blame never affirms, it assaults.
Blame never restores, it wounds.
Blame never solves, it complicates.
Blame never unites, it separates.
Blame never smiles, it frowns.
Blame never forgives, it rejects.
Blame never forgets, it remembers.
Blame never builds, it destroys.[xxv]
Until we stop blaming, and start obeying, only then will we regain a joy that overcomes what life and what people may dish out to us.
C. The blessing of obedience brings joy.
So, how do we regain joy in our lives? Simply by obeying God. That’s the key to joy.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.[xxvi]
It makes complete sense to think that joy is our portion, as we remember that in God’s presence is fulness of joy. Should we not be continuously in God’s presence, bringing His presence into every situation in our lives?
D. The nature of friendship with God.
You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.[xxvii]
The fact that Jesus calls His followers His friends is a unique relationship. D. A. Carson explains it this way.
Who then are his friends? ‘You are my friends if you do what I command.’ This obedience is not what makes them friends; but what characterizes his friends. Clearly, then this ‘friendship’ is not strictly reciprocal: these friends of Jesus cannot turn around and say that Jesus will be their friend if he does what they say. …But mutual, reciprocal friendship of he modern variety is not in view, and cannot be without demeaning God.[xxviii]
Carson goes on to describe the nature of that friendship as what God is willing to share with us, His intentions, as revealed in His Word.
An absolute potentate demands obedience in all his subjects. His slaves, however, are simply told what to do, while his friends are informed of his thinking, enjoy his confidence and learn to obey with a sense of privilege and with full understanding of their master’s heart. So also here: Jesus’ absolute right to command is in no way diminished, but he takes pains to inform his friends of his motives, plans, purposes. …In times past God’s covenant people were not informed of God’s saving plan in the full measure now accorded Jesus’ disciples.[xxix]
Ultimately, the fruit that God is looking for in our lives is the way we treat others. Love is to be the guiding factor of our lives. The most powerful witness that we communicate to others is how we treat them. That is what gives the message of Christ its credibility. What the world needs now is love, but it is a love that is expressed in our obedience to God and expressed toward others. Living a loving life is how to live a purposeful and effective life. It is a life that communicates the gospel to others.
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[i] John Maxwell, Be All You Can Be! 25.
[ii] R. V. G. Tasker, John, T.N.T.C, (Grand Rapids, Mi: William Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1960), 173.
[iii] John 15:16, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[iv] John 15:1.
[v] Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975), 227.
[vi] Isaiah 5:7.
[vii] Isaiah 5:3-5.
[viii] Hosea 10:1-2.
[ix] Genesis 1:28a.
[x] Genesis 9:1.
[xi] Genesis 15:5.
[xii] Matthew 28:19a.
[xiii] A.B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, 414.
[xiv] John 15:2-6.
[xv] Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief, 227-28.
[xvi] Bruce Wilkenson, Secrets of The Vine, (Sisters, Or: Multnomah Publishing Co., 2001), 96.
[xvii] Ibid, 103-04.
[xviii] John 15:7.
[xix] 1 John 5:14-15.
[xx] A.B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, 423.
[xxi] John 15:9.
[xxii] John 15:10.
[xxiii] John 15:12-13.
[xxiv] Galatians 5:22-24.
[xxv] Charles Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip, 213.
[xxvi] John 15:10-11.
[xxvii] John 15:14-15.
[xxviii] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 522.
[xxix] Ibid, 523.
