1 Corinthians 1:3-11
Galatians 5:17-26
John 15:1-11

For our text today I decided to back up a little bit. John 15 has been working on me for the last 6 months or so. John 15 isn’t really an Easter text. It comes on the night before Jesus is crucified. This text is part of what some commentators call the upper room discourse. It includes Jesus washing the disciples feet; one last repetition of the things he has been saying to prepare them; telling them He was leaving them; indicating that one of them would betray him; instituting Communion. I actually wonder if this text was spoken in the room. I don’t think it matters too much. But since the verse before John 15 ends with “Arise, let us go from here,” I have had it in my mind that maybe Jesus is walking with the disciples from the upper room to the garden where He prayed and was betrayed. It is just nice and neat to think of Jesus talking about vineyards as he walks through a vineyard on the way. As I said not important. So here we go in John 15:1 Jesus says:

1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

There is a lot of vineyard imagery in the Bible, particularly in the Psalms, the prophets and the parables. So vineyard language is familiar, it is not a surprise. But often Jesus at least in his parables doesn’t often get this concrete. Here though his time with the disciples is coming to a close and Jesus is a bit more concrete, “I am the true vine.” He then says that “My Father is the vinedresser.” Ok. He is quite clear here. Then he starts talking about branches.

2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He will take away: and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.

We are just two verses so far, but in my study I found a number of things particularly interesting here.

First, the test of whether a branch is kept is the fruit. The fruit vine has a purpose. To produce fruit. The vinedresser wants fruit. He desires fruit. He looks forward to fruit.

Ever plant a fruit plant or vegetable plant in your yard? You are excited when you see the first shoot push up. And you are excited as it grows bigger. But neither are anything compared to what you feel when you see the first fruit. At that point, I find myself looking at the plant every time I get a chance. “Is it ready?” (OK, when I had a yard I did that.)

Second, when I am recalling this text in my mind, I almost always misremember the text. I often think it says the vinedresser will cut off the “bad” branch. But, my translation at least, doesn’t say that. The branch that doesn’t bear fruit “He will take away.” The branch that does bear fruit, that is the branch that the vinedresser cuts.

The branch that doesn’t bear fruit the vinedresser just pulls it out of the rest of the growth. No anger. Not really any emotion at all. “He will take away.” But for other branches that are bearing fruit he prunes. Here, I do see (or imagine I see) emotion, but the emotion still isn’t anger. It is desire. There is joy to see fruit and a desire for more, more health, more growth toward fruit. There is joyful, anticipation.

Third, let’s think about “take away” a little more. If the branch is just taken away then was it ever attached to the vine? Or was it just held up in the midst of the other branches. Held up but not attached. John Calvin, makes the point that when the branch is not attached to the vine it doesn’t produce fruit. When it is attached to the vine it does produce fruit. It is really that simple. If a branch is attached to the vine it will bear fruit. But if that same branch is not attached to the vine - it won’t.

Fourth, that pruning, it is all about the fruit. (As an aside, if you take only one phrase home today, I hope it is that one. “It is all about the fruit.”) Back to pruning. It is not about the prettiest leaves or the most robust, leafy growth. As a matter of fact, it may specifically be the robust leafy growth that needs to be removed. That growth could be sapping resources from the rest of the branch, from growing fruit. That growth could also be shading the branch beneath it, preventing it from growing fruit. Leaves are not the point. Growth is not the point. It is all about the fruit. Something may be pruned away precisely because it is thriving.

Fifth, the vinedresser doesn’t ask the branch which parts to prune. Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? The vinedresser has the big picture. The vinedresser can see how one branch affects the health of another. The vinedresser is the one that decides. He wants fruit. He is an expert at his craft. But the branch doesn’t need to worry (even if it could.) The vinedresser has the branch’s best in mind. The branch is meant to produce fruit and He wants it to produce all it can, and his pruning will help that it may bear more fruit..

So moving on:

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

This sentence, is Jesus’s gift for Jensa and Danny and Tim and all the others who love a pun. ( I originally wrote love a “good” pun. ) Anyway, the pun is not visible without a little digging into the Greek words John uses for “prune” and “clean.” I am indebted to Earl Palmer for pointing this out. The word John uses for prune is kathairo and for clean is katharos. But each word has an element of cleansing or purification. Katharos was used when describing the ritual cleanliness required for a levitical priest. So Jesus is further tying the vine image to the “real world” by implying that the pruning is really cleansing the vine, in the same way that he cleanses us.

So, despite my enjoyment of these kind of word games, I will prune the rest of that branch of thought. Here is my take on why I think this is important. The Father is about cleaning the branches so they can bear fruit. And Jesus is saying that his disciples are starting clean because of His teaching, but as they grow there will continue to be places for cleansing. Quoting John Calvin, who says that “By these words, he shows that believers need incessant culture that they may be prevented from degenerating; and that they produce” no fruit ”, unless God continually apply His hand.” No vine outgrows pruning.

4 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. 5 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.

Jesus here introduces the word abide. First, I needed a definition of abide. I think in this context, the primary definition is “to continue, to dwell, to endure, to be present, to remain”. The English word abide also has another definition that I have found helpful, “to accept or act in accordance with” as in “I said I would abide by their decision.”

So what is Jesus saying when he says that I should abide in Him and He will abide in me. He actually repeats that idea of it being two ways twice. In verse 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you.” and in verse 5 “he who abides in Me, and I in him” First, apparently Jesus the creator of the universe can dwell, endure, be present and remain - in me. I just have to stop and admit that this is mind boggling. The creator of the universe, in me. The savior of the world, endures - in me. Second and equally bewildering to me, I can dwell and be present in the Godhead - in Jesus. Jesus said it twice in two verses.

There is mystery here that if we have to know how everything works is going to irritate, but I hope we can just take that at face value for now, because Jesus tells us what it produces. Then maybe we can back into a way to get a handle on abiding.

So as I said, Jesus tells us what this abiding produces. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” We got a start in talking about this earlier. The branch disconnected from the vine is not going to bear fruit. And Jesus compares us to the branch, and says that we won’t bear fruit if not abiding in Him.

So abiding in Him and him in us produces fruit. It is all about the fruit. Then in case we missed it He says straight out. “I am the vine, you are the branches.” So those points I made earlier about vines and pruning, Jesus really does intend for us to use that kind of thinking about ourselves. Then he sums up to make triple sure we didn’t miss it, “he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Now he goes one step further. If you are apart from Me (not abiding in Me) you will not only not bear fruit you will not live. You will whither. That follows from the vine image right. Those branches that are not attached to the vine, they will be pretty easy to spot right. They will be brown dry. Completely expected, But it is not easy to hear. I can do nothing without abiding in Jesus. I have to admit that isn’t easy to swallow. I think of myself and being pretty self-sufficient.

But this is certainly not the only place in the New Testament that sounds like this. Paul in Romans 7 says “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” and James 1 says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

Then in Acts 17 we hear Paul preaching to the men of Athens, and saying “The God who made the world and all things in it … does not dwell in temples made with hands … as though he needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things.” If he gives life and breath and all things and he is the vine then we need to abide in Him.

In the 1 Corinthians text we see another echo of this idea, that it is Jesus who provides everything we need. Paul is praying for his readers in the opening to his letter and says, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift.” Here again Paul’s assumption is that everything, and all speech, and all knowledge and all gifts are a result of the grace of God.

To summarize Jesus has told us he is the true vine, the Father is the vinedresser, we are the branches, the Father is keen to have fruit, and most importantly, bearing fruit is the result of abiding in the vine, in Christ. The next verse is troubling.

6 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.

I don’t think there is any getting around that verse. If you don’t abide in Jesus, you won’t bear fruit and if you don’t bear fruit God’s goal for the branch is not met. And God the Father it is all about Him. If we were talking about a person and said that, say a politician, pick any one, that would not be praiseworthy, it would be an indictment. But with God … it really is all about Him. But, unlike people, God is good. And what He wants is good, and He will do what is good for Him. And if we are abiding in Jesus, in Him, then what he does will be good for us too, because we are in him.

I just want to make one more note here about this text. There is still no anger here. This is just doing what is needed. Because he wants good fruit these branches that distract from fruit can’t be sapping the energy of the plant.

7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

These verses gets a lot of abuse, don’t they. “Ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you” When it gets abused though they rarely include the phrases before or after. Remember It is all about the fruit. If you are abiding in Jesus and you wish for what he wishes for then the Father will do everything you need to bear fruit. Because the Father is glorified in the fruit.

I’ve been talking a lot about fruit and making a big deal about the fruit and saying that the fruit is what the whole thing is all about, but I haven’t really talked about what the fruit actually is. Well it is time to do that. First I want to wrap up one detail in the vine image. If Jesus is the vine, the Father is the vinedresser, and we are the branches, then where is the Holy Spirit? Well the text doesn’t say where he is, but I am not going out on a limb to say that the Holy Spirit is with the Father and Jesus. So he is there. I imagine Him being the way that we can abide in Jesus and Jesus abide in us. In the vine image I think He is the sap. The is in the vine and the branch and is the medium is the substance that spurs on the fruits growth. This helps me tie in our Galatians text.

In his letter to the Galatian churches Paul contrasts what results from the work of the flesh and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Our Galatians text begins with: 17 For the flesh set its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

So first by way of introduction, this text is found in a letter to the Galatian churches and in it Paul is pleading with the churches to not be compelled to live by the Jewish Law. There are apparently people there who are telling them that they need to be circumcised to really be Christian. And Paul in 17 and 18 comes to a point where he has introduced and insisted that the Law is part of the flesh. So here he is telling them that the flesh and the Spirit are set against each other. This is NOT one of those places where “Oh, it doesn’t really matter which decision you make as long as you are true to your faith.” The is NOT that case. Paul is insisting that you can not do something that is both from the flesh and from the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And also because we are flesh we can’t do what we want but rather what the Spirit leads us to do and empowers us to do.

Then Paul gets to the meat of our text, the contrast of the results of the flesh and the results of the Spirit.

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, …, enmities, strife, jealousy, …, disputes, …, factions, … and things like these of which I forewarn you….

I’ve trimmed that list down to some that we are painfully aware of ourselves. I don’t feel bad doing that because Paul ends his list with “and things like these.” He is not being comprehensive, he is probably giving a list of things that are current for the Galatian church. And that list is a doozie. That is not a place I want to live. (Oh wait, I live in the Bay Area.) But I want to make particular note of the fact that this list is not comprehensive for Paul it is plural. He is listing a bunch of different separate things that are deeds of the flesh. You are going to run into new ones.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

First there is the law again. Paul is still saying it isn’t about the law. But I want to notice the difference in structure. Here Paul is not saying “some of the fruit of the spirit ARE”. No. He said “the fruit of the Spirit IS”. This is singular. There are not nine fruits of the Spirit, and I’ve got 5 or 6 or if I’m really good 8 or 9. No! There is one fruit of the Spirit that has nine beautiful attributes. There is one true vine, Jesus. And normally, if we don’t do something sneaky like grafting different apple varieties on the same trunk, a plant/vine will have one variety of fruit. So this shouldn’t be a surprise from our vine image in John’s gospel.

Well, OK, wait, there is the tree of life in Revelation 22 that bears 12 kinds of fruit, but that tree bears them one each month. So that might actually help us here. There is still one fruit of the vine with nine attributes, but maybe there are different ratios or qualities of those attributes, but now we are off in the realm of wild speculation.

To sum up, Jesus is the true vine, the Father is the vinedresser who want fruit from the vine, we are the branches that if we abide in Jesus and He abides in us by way of the Holy Spirit, then we will bear the fruit the one specific fruit that the Father desires. And that fruit will mean that our lives are marked by ALL of the nine attributes from Galatians. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

When Bob was our pastor here and He was preaching he would occasionally reach about this point in a sermon and say something like. “If I continue with this I run the risk that I will stop preaching and start meddling.” He didn’t always get to that point but I learned to sit up when he did.

Well I find myself in the same place. I pray that I will be true to God’s desire. I have been struck while I was preparing for today that I, at least, can confuse spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit. I will often equate the two, but they are not the same. As we see here in Galatians, Paul intends for his list of the attributes of the Holy Spirit’s fruit to be comprehensive. In 1 Corinthians when Paul talks to that congregation in Corinth which was enamored in the Holy Spirit’s gifts his language is not comprehensive. He says in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.”

That language is wide open. There are all kinds of spiritual gifts and Paul closes chapter 12 in verse 31, “But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” And what was that way? Well, chapter 13 is the “Love” chapter, right. And what did we learn today about Love? It is an attribute of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And what did we learn about the fruit today? It is all about the fruit.

I would go so far as to say that sometimes the gifts of the Spirit are the leafy thriving growths. And that growth can help produce fruit or hinder by shading the branch below or drawing up all the attention.

Both are good - gifts and fruits.The gift of preaching is a spiritual gift. I place a lot of emphasis on that gift and, since I’m up here right now, I hope that I at least partially have it. But, whatever amount of the gift I’ve been given I want it to produce fruit in me, and you guys too. If it doesn’t or worse if I cause division with it, I need to stop doing it, no matter how much growth it produces in me and you. If that growth isn’t fruit it is counter to what I want and the Father wants. It is all about the fruit.

The fruit of the Spirit is not up front at all. It is under cover of the leaves, but it is there. And it is the fruit of the Spirit that is compelling to our friends and neighbors. When the food pantry is held downstairs, we are not living out our gifts, we are offering our fruit to the Father so he can use that to feed and care for our neighbors and friends who come for physical food and we hope they do go home with spiritual food too. We don’t preach, or prophesy, or speak in tongues (although I could use some Spanish and Mandarin to be understood), but we do want to serve them with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Grace Fellowship, be present in Jesus. dwell in Jesus. continue in Jesus. And bear fruit. If you need help. Ask for it and you will be given grace to abide in Jesus and because you abide you will bear fruit.

Preached at Grace Fellowship Community Church on May 12, 2019.
Preached at Sequim Holiness Church on November 10, 2019.