Jesus, The Vine
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
4/7/2013 PM
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Text:
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John 15:1-5
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Psalters: |
348, 127, 398, 90 |
- The picture.
- Vines (a common sight to the disciples) pictured Jesus and His people as one plant, one living organism.
- The vine is the means of support to the branches.
- Jesus is the main vine, and His people are the branches joined to Him, living together as one.
- Jesus calls Himself “the true vine,” the real one (over against types and false ones).
- Jesus is the true vine because He is the “I am.”
- The chief point of the figure is that the fertility of the vine for spiritual fruit-bearing by the branches.
- As the vine is the power of the branches to produce fruit, so Jesus is the source of fertility in the branches.
- Jesus is the only power which makes His people “clean” (3.
- Jesus emphasizes this by saying that without Him they can do nothing!
- What is the fruit which Christ produces in us?
- The Husbandman (Jesus’ Father) cares for the vine and its branches.
- He tills the ground, tends the vine, busies Himself with the branches.
- Those branches which do not bear fruit, He takes away and burns.
- Those branches which bear fruit He purges/prunes, for they too are yet sinful.
- Thus the admonition to “Abide in me and I in you.”
- The Spirit equips the sinning saint to be active in bearing fruit and in abiding in Christ.
- Remain in conscious union with Jesus; stay consciously in fellowship with Him.
- Remember that the purpose of God in making us branches is so we might bear much fruit.