John 15: 1-8

I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. 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 a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.

I. Greetings from Pastor Paul

Praise the Lord! Can we all stand up and greet a couple of neighbors. Remain standing and let’s pray for this time of worship. I just want to share this, be an active participant of worship, not passive observers. So many Christians remain as observers. You see it in the bible and you see it in the Church. Worship is well portrayed in Romans 12: 2, “Therefore I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your body as a living sacrifice.” That’s what worship is. I want to encourage you this last Sunday of 2001. Do you realize we are moving into a new year, the third year of the twenty-first century, which will be your last century? We want to live this life bearing fruits. I look forward to next year. I don’t want to make this passage threatening or negative. I look forward to next year. God will bear fruit through this ministry. (Amen!) I’m telling you, there are only two types of fruits, fruits that last and fruits that don’t. I pray that you’ll live for the fruits that will last forever. That’s biblical wisdom and I pray that you will hear it. There is only one type of fruit that will last and I pray that you will live for it. Pray that you will be an active participant. Don’t be a cool observer, a living sacrifice. Let’s try to come to worship on time. I know I give you this kind of rebuke all the time, but do you go to the movies late all the time? Then how come worship? There’s something grossly wrong with that! I say that with love. How would you be successful with worship when you’re late all the time? Do you honor God? God loves the world so much that He gave His Son and He pours His grace upon your lives. And we’re late to worship service all the time. There’s something grossly wrong with that kind of church. God will prune this church, cleanse this church, so that we may bear fruit. It will be more fruitful. As a father disciplines his child, precisely because the father loves his child. He will do that to this church. I pray that you will hear that. Let’s bow before the Lord. Pray that you will hear something from the Lord.

II. Prayer

III. Introduction

“I am the true vine and My Father is the true gardener.” This is the seventh and the last “I am” statement of John’s gospel. John’s gospel has many distinctive features and one of them is that Jesus referred to Himself as “I am.” That’s a very important statement because the phrase stood out sharply to people since God had been known as “the Great I am” to the Jews. We see that in Exodus chapter 3. Moses asked God, “What is Your name? What if the people ask me what the name of your God is?” God said, “I am who I am,” That self sufficient, self-existent, Creator God. It’s interesting that Jesus comes along and says, “I am the good shepherd. I am the door. I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the gate. I am the true vine and My Father is the true gardener.” Jewish unbelievers recognized that Jesus was claiming to be God. The special distinctive feature of John’s gospel is that Jesus is claiming Himself to be God. If you read the gospel carefully, He places Himself on the same plane as God. For the Jews, they didn’t even call God’s name outright because they feared the Lord. If you read the Old Testament, if you made a little mistake, what happened to those people? They were struck dead. That wasn’t uncommon. People feared the Lord, literally terrified. I think that component is lacking in our generation. Do you fear the Lord? Brothers and sisters, God who is in control of the universe, the God who is here, do you fear the Lord? I think that component is missing. When Jesus said, “I am the true vine,” it is the last and seventh “I am” statement of John’s gospel and the Jews didn’t like that.

The reason they didn’t is because the vine is the preeminent symbol for Israel. For us Americans stripes and stars symbolize America. The vine symbolizes Israel. So when He said, “I am the true vine,” the people of those times knew right away that He was saying, “I am the true Israel.” But the striking feature is this, let me quote Psalm 80: 8-10 first, “You brought a vine out of Egypt and You drove out the nations and planted it,” this is talking about the Exodus. So Israel is referred to as the vine or the vineyard. OT prophet, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea referred to the Israelites as God’s vine or vineyard. That’s pertinent information for us to understand this parable carefully. Here’s a striking thing about this parable, every time the vine or vineyard is mentioned in the Old Testament, it was brought forth as a symbol of Israel’s fruitlessness rather than her fruitfulness. In this context Jesus comes and says, “I am the true vine.” Jesus is the true vine that brings joy to the gardener through the fruits.

IV. Body

This is the only “I am” statement with a predicate. “My Father is the gardener,” who is He referring to? God. “My Father 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.” Right away He mentions two types of branches, those branches that bear fruit and those other branches that do not bear fruit. What does the Father do? Father does cutting on both of them. He picks up His knife and He cuts off those branches that do not bear fruit. What happens to those? They are collected, they wither and then they are thrown into the fire. That’s biblical teaching my brothers and sisters. What happens to those that bear fruit? The gardener also picks up a knife and He prunes. If you look at the original text, “cut off” and “prunes” are similar words. “Prunes” is a compound word of “cut off.” They are related terms. In other words, you bear fruit? He picks up His knife. You don’t bear fruit? He still picks up His knife.

Two types of branches. Obviously it refers to two types of Christians, those who bear fruit and those who don’t. Some of you may be asking Christians who do not bear fruit can be cut off and thrown into the fire? I’m going to talk about that. Hold your thought for a moment.

I want to mention what “pruning” is. That’s a scary word because pruning is a painful thing. The gardener picks up the knife and he cuts off those branches so that it will be more fruitful. Do we need pruning? I want to explain that with this illustration. I don’t know if any of you are gardeners, any good gardener knows that beautiful roses require careful pruning. If you want to see beautiful roses, it takes careful pruning. What’s pruning? Pieces of a living plant have to die. Did you hear that? Pieces of a living plant have to die. It cannot just grow wild. We cannot simply say, celebrate growth. Pieces of us, by intentional action, need to die if we are to become the person that is in God’s vision. I think that’s right on! If you are to be a person that God desires you to be in your life, pieces of you have to die, living pieces. And it has to be intentional. Pruning is not accidental. The gardener, with reason, picks up the knife and cuts off. That’s what pruning is. Pieces of a living plant have to die if we are to see any roses blossom in our lives and it has to be intentional. Pruning is purging, cleansing, to make clean or purify. It is the process of cutting good branches, not only bad branches, lessen the quantity so that the tree will bear fruits that are better in quality. That’s a little scary isn’t it? And God does that to you and me so that we may bear fruit.

In spiritual terms pruning obviously speaks of God’s work, removing that which is detrimental to a given Christian life. What are those? I want to mention just a few areas. What are some areas of your life and mine that needs to be pruned? Can I mention a couple of them?

1) Habits. I don’t know what’s pertinent to this congregation, this audience. I don’t know how many of you are into violent video games. Don’t underestimate that habit. Can you imagine feeding your mind and soul with two hours of your spare time with violent video games and adding that up for ten years? What’s going to happen to your life? You will reap that fruit in your life. It will be shown through your character. It will be shown through your conversation, your words. It will be shown through. Don’t tell me it will go in and then just go out. If you continue to feed, whatever goes in, it comes out. Don’t underestimate habits. We need some pruning. We try to do ministry and people who are so into the world and so into these types of habits, they come to worship service for forty-five minutes, not even one and a half hours, and we’re fighting the battle like that. Do you think we’re fighting a winning battle like that? Think about your life. If you are to bear any sort of fruit that will last, you’ve got to think about these types of things. Habits.

2) Relationships. If we are to bear any fruits in our lives, our relationships need to be purified and cut away. I remember when I was in high school, I would hang out with friends every single day. I can’t believe it. There were days I wanted to stay home but I just couldn’t resist. They would call me and say come out. I would go out and hang out every single day until I went to college. Until my life is pruned out, there is no fruit. Any relationship that is questionable needs to be pruned out if you are to bear fruit that will last in your lives. Do not underestimate that.

A few observations.

1) Both kinds of branches the gardener deals with. The branches that do not bear fruit, God cuts off and throws away. Other types of branches that bear fruits, God prunes. But the striking thing is, God deals with both so none of us are exempted from that. I don’t think any of us, including myself, are exempted from this pruning or cutting away.

2) The pruning process or procedure is painful yet necessary. God the gardener picks up His knife and prunes so that the branches bear more fruits. In other words, if we are to bear any fruit that is meaningful to Him to glorify God, pruning is painful but it is a must. It is a must. Everybody will be dealt with and it is a must. It is necessary.

3) The last observation, no fruit bearing branches is exempted. I want to take you to Hebrew 12: 5, which is about pruning in a different word. This is what the author of Hebrews said to his son, “My son do not despise discipline of the Lord and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines those He loves and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons for what son is not disciplined by his father?” What these verses are saying is that what disciplining or pruning is what a father does to a son. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It’s a great thing actually. It’s painful but it is what a father does to his son. Why? Precisely because the Lord disciplines those He loves. I other words, discipline is a sign or an expression of love for a child from the father. In other words, if you’re not seeing any discipline from the Lord in your life, you must ask, am I a legitimate child of God? The bible clearly says the Lord disciplines those He loves. Disciplines that you are facing right now or in the past and future are signs or expressions of the love of a father to a child. That’s what it is. Without that we will never grow. I have three children. They’re not here right? I have to be careful what I say because they’re all grown up and my Timmy complained a couple of years ago, “Daddy, how come you talk about my personal life in front of other people?” I have to be careful. All my kids don’t like studying. That’s a true statement. What if I let them just play all the time? I asked Tim the other day, “How come you don’t like studying?” He said, “Hey daddy, no kids of my age like studying. Get real.” I asked him, “What do you like to do then?” “Playing.” Since they don’t like studying and they only like playing, what if I let them just play all the time? Is that love? What’s going to happen to that child? He’s going to become a brat. Nothing in his mind. I had to take them upstairs, put them in their own rooms and declare silence. Two hours of no talking, no more mommy and no more daddy. You just go to your rooms and start studying. That’s discipline. They’re in fifth, fourth and first grade. The first grader is the trouble one, she doesn’t like studying. So I had to put them in their rooms and discipline them. Brothers and sisters, if I don’t discipline them what’s going to happen. If I just discipline the two boys and not the girl, what’s going to happen to the girl? I’m not treating my daughter as a child.

God is saying that God disciplines those He loves. I talked to some of you this week or the past week; some of you are going through major, big-time hardship right now. And you know what? Consider it pure joy because when the troubles and tribulations come, God draws you near to Him. Search your heart; see if there are any filthy things in your life. Use this opportunity to be drawn near to God instead of turning bitter, turn better. It’s time to get better. Do you realize when we are so weak, that’s when we learn to depend on Him. I think the problem of this age group is that everything is so smooth. It’s like sailing, without any difficulties. There’s no reason to trust in anything because you trust yourself. But biblical truth is trust in God and God alone. That gets done through difficulties, trials, discipline and pruning. I want to ask you brothers and sisters, if we are to bear any fruits in this ministry, we need pruning? (Amen!!) Say it by faith. Scary isn’t it? Scary to me too. Do you know who is disciplining us? Do you know who is doing the pruning? Father. Isn’t that comforting? It’s not one mean, irrational, powerful person who’s disciplining us but it’s the Father who is disciplining us. Why? Precisely because He loves us so that our lives will produce something that will last. Don’t you want that? I thought about and it is so encouraging and exciting. Do you know why? Because do you know who is going to prune and discipline this ministry? God will. God will do that because it is His ministry. I pray to God, Lord, whatever it takes, and I say it with caution because I know what He could do, cleanse and prune this ministry, purge this ministry, not only your life but our lives so His glory may shine through.

Let’s talk about the fruit. One of the main things in this passage is the fruit. The vine is good for nothing unless it bears fruit. Isn’t that the case? What good is a vine when there is no fruit? Jesus said in verse 4, “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 think that statement is very clear. You want to bear any meaningful fruit in your life? You need to remain in Me. The striking thing is that Jesus never demanded us to bear fruit. Jesus is not telling us, “You branch, bear fruit! You’d better bear fruit or else I’m going to cut you off!” He’s not saying that. What’s He saying? Remain in Me. Abide in Me. And the fruit will be natural; it will be the byproduct of remaining and abiding. It’s not a mean thing to say from the Father. Jesus is saying remain in Me. Abide in Me, rather than do something, bear fruit. In these seven verses, Jesus mentioned, “remain or abide” eight times. Do you think Jesus is trying to make a point here? Yes, He is. Remain in Him and you will bear fruit. Brothers and sisters, if you can take this message to your life, that’s it! You want something meaningful in your life? Remain in Christ. Do you go to school so that you can bear some fruit in your life? Remain in Christ. (Amen!) If you want to do anything meaningful in your life, you need to remain in Him. Outside of Him, no branch can bear any fruit. Do you get that brothers and sisters? God’s Word. Only when we abide in Christ, the source of life, we will have life, let alone fruits, meaning purpose and destiny in life. The fruit is the byproduct of the process. You remain in Me and you will have fruits. That’s how simple it is.

I want to ask you, what are the fruits? We read this well known passage, we are to bear fruits in our lives but what are the fruits? That’s a natural thing we ought to ask. If you don’t know what kind of fruits we’re looking for, how are you suppose to know if you are bearing any fruits or not? What are the fruits Jesus is speaking about? If Jesus is the true Israel, what has Israel in the Old Testament failed to produce. I think that’s what Jesus is talking about. Do you agree? If Jesus is the true vine, which symbolizes Israel, what happened to Israel in the Old Testament what has it failed to produce?

1) Israel, as the people of God, needs to represent God, as the spouse of God. And yet they were disobedient and they failed to represent God’s people. They lust after other gods; other husbands and lived as a disobedient husband. But if you look at the life of Christ, according to Hebrews, He lived a perfect, obedient life. I think that’s it. Philippians 2: 7, “He was obedient unto death.” Brothers and sisters, if we are to bear fruit in our lives, we need to be obedient unto God. Some of you guys get a negative connotation as soon as you hear the word obedience or submission. If you look at verse six, do you know what obedience is? Obedience is to love. If you love Me, you will obey My commandments. In other words, obeying commandments and loving God is the same thing. A lot of times, obedience and submission arises such negative connotation. You hate that. Some of you say that’s too “Korean.” No, it’s not! Some of you say that’s too authoritative. No, it’s not. It’s biblical. Obeying His commandments and loving God is one-thing brothers and sisters. I think it is our sinful, rebellious nature that gets us turned off when we hear the word obedience or submission. Think about it, what’s wrong with obedience? What’s wrong with submission? The bible says if you love Me, you will obey My commands. What are the fruits we need to have in our lives? A life of obedience. Jesus was obedient unto death, death on a cross. That’s how we fulfill the purpose of God and bring glory to God. How are you going to bring glory to God? Being obedient unto God unto death. That’s Christianity.

2) Character. Brothers and sisters, are you growing in character? We’re all growing old, whether you like it or not, but if you’re not growing inside, what’s happening to your life? Do you know how many elders never really grow as people? So many people are like that. When I talk about character, I’m talking about the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and remote control. No, self control. J Are you growing in these areas? Don’t you want to grow? If we’re getting the sap from the vine that is Christ, we ought to become more like Christ every single day. Hopefully by the time you get married, by the time you have a child, by the time your child goes to college, you’ll be a little bit more like Christ. Isn’t that what you want. I desire that so much. What I’m learning these days, it’s not how well I perform up in the front. It’s how real I am before the Lord. That’s what matters. It’s not how well I perform on the pulpit; a lot of people can do that. It takes the grace of God to be real before the Lord and people. How long do you think I’ll last if I just perform and when I turn around I’m a different person? How authoritative is my word going to be if I live that kind of duel life? Think about it. It applies to you and it applies to me.

3) The other area is spirituality. I don’t know what comes to mind when I say spirituality. I’m talking about love for God. Are you growing in that? Love for people. If you go to verse 16 of this chapter, Jesus says, “I chose you so that you may go and bear fruit- fruit that will last.” I thought about that. What kind of fruit will last in your life? What will last? Will your Ph D last over a hundred years? I don’t think so. What about your musical ability? What about your handsomeness and your beauty? Do you think it will last over a hundred years? In the book of Job it says we came naked and we will depart naked. Don’t you forget that. No matter how much you put into your savings account, you will leave naked. Biblical truth is, you will take none of those. That gives me such perspective. So what do we mean when the bible says live for something, fruits that will last? What will be in heaven? I think what’s in view is clearly people, souls, disciples. You bear fruit? It shows that you are My disciples. I’m asking you to invest your life in people, souls. That’s what will last. Souls matter, so much so that the bible says one person, soul, is more important than the whole world. Who really cares about Ph D, if you live like a pig? So many people do. Invest your life in one person. I think with that goal, we’re doing Small Group Ministry. Why are we doing Small Group Ministry? So that we could get together and have a good time in a smaller size? No! The true goal is to produce true disciples, fully devoted Christian disciples. That’s what Small Group Ministry is. For you to invest your life, pour your love and everything you have, so that you will produce Christians. By the time you’re old, they will in turn produce others and then others. As you do that, God’s redemptive river flows. That’s what Small Group Ministry is. I pray to God when I grow old, people will say Pastor Paul discipled me. I pray to God my children will say to me when I grow old, “My father was my true discipler.” I mean it! If I fail in that, what’s left? I pray to God someday when I grow old, when I’m gone, “Pastor Paul, he was a man of God, he discipled me. He poured his life into my life.” I pray that I will leave those kinds of fruits in this life. How about you? What are you living for? What are the fruits in your life? Why do you go to medical school? Why do you go into law school? What’s the purpose? To bring some fruits that glorifies God and meaning.

The last question, how do we abide in Christ? How do we remain in Christ? I think the key text is verse 7, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be given you.” Very clear and simple. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you. He said a similar thing in verse 3, “You are already clean, you are already pruned because of the words I have spoken to you.” Verse 2, Jesus speaks about pruning. Verse 3, Jesus talks about cleaning. They are the same words. What cleanses? What prunes? The Word. Do not underestimate the daily intake of the Word. I gave that example, two hours of violent video games versus twenty or thirty minutes of God’s Word every single day. Do that for ten years. What kind of difference will you have in your life? My prayer to you is bring this book, the bible, closer to your life. So many people look at this book as a holy book; you treat it so holy you never touch it! J Bring this book closer to you. Many times looking at your bible I could tell where you are spiritually. It’s so clean and so holy, I worry, not a good sign. Your bible needs to get wet with tears. Did that ever happen to you? When you read the bible and you go back and forth in the cross references… I remember just breaking down before the Lord when He reveals His truth, His heart, His perspective, His wisdom. That is so precious. Not just a few drops, but enough tears to drool down. I’m not exaggerating. If you don’t believe me, come and take a look at this bible after the service. Bring this book closer to your life, it is your lifeline. If you remain in Me, I will remain in you, ask whatever you wish, it will be given to you. What does that sound like? It sounds like an incredible promise doesn’t it? Ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. Who is saying that? Jesus. What is He talking about? He’s talking about prayer life. Do you know what happens? When your mind and heart is filled with God’s Word, it will facilitate your prayer life. Do you know why your prayer life is so cold? It’s because there’s nothing in your mind. Praying and Scripture is the same thing. My pastor always taught me that; I didn’t understand what he was talking about years ago. Now I do. You read God’s Word prayerfully and you pray Scripturally; it goes hand in hand. How else can you pray? Jesus said whatever you ask it will be given to you. Sounds dangerous doesn’t it. You could ask for boats, yacht, vacation…that’s not it. If you understand the Scripture and the heart of God, you will ask for what He desires in His heart. Do you think He’ll answer that? Of course. Pastor Han always says something like this, “God, always answers my prayers, everything.” I don’t think he’s lying. I dare to say, God answer all of my prayers. I’m not lifting myself of his plane, but God answers my prayers. Do you know why? Because I began to pray, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness first.” I don’t remember asking the Lord to fill my checking account. Ever since I graduated, I never had to ask for that, never. As long as I live with that principle, Matthew 6: 33, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.” God answers my prayers. It is through the daily intake of the Word, our minds and hearts get purified. Decisions and plans as well as dreams get proper direction. How do you make your decisions? How do you know what kind of job to go for? How do you know whom to marry? How do you know what major to take? Through the intake of God’s Word. It leads to and produces a fruitful life. Do you want fruits in your life? Bring the Word of God closer to you and pray through it. Remain in Him. Abide in Him and you don’t have to try to produce fruits, they will be given to you. God’s perspective, God’s wisdom revealed in His Word. God’s Word is His perspective. God’s perspective is His wisdom. You miss His wisdom? You miss it all I think. You miss the cross in my opinion, and you miss everything. You don’t understand anything about this history, if the bible is true. And it is.

The last point I want to make. What is all this about? So you bear fruit, so what? Fruitful life and ministry, what does that do? Verse 8, “This is to My Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.” You bear fruits in your life, two things will happen, God will be glorified and it is the evidence that you are the disciples of Christ. That’s an incredible statement. This is what a picture. A gardener, in a time of harvest, with a fruitful vine in His hands, rejoicing and the joy of the Father, the gardener. Who produce the fruits? You and I. How do we do that? Simply by remaining in Him so all the glory goes to Him but our lives will be fruitful. Or else, nothing. Christ-like character, loving God and loving man, spirituality, simple life, life of obedience by abiding in Christ. That’s what we need to do. “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. You are the branches so remain in Me.” Let’s pray.

V. Closing

Our Father desires to have fruit in our lives. That’s not a threat. Pruning is not a threat; it is an expression of love. We need to simply ask and receive, Lord I trust in you and I pray that you will simplify and prune my life so that I may bear any fruits that will bring glory to You. We need to pray that prayer. I pray that you will pray that prayer. Do not be afraid of that. The One who does the pruning is your Father and mine. That’s not a punishment. That’s love. If He leaves you alone, you become a brat. That’s what’s going to happen to your life. Let’s bow before the Lord. You need to pray this prayer as I do.