AUGUST 5, 2018
THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES
INTRODUCTION:
1. In this and the following chapters our Lord proceeds to give instruction rather than consolation. Having comforted His disciples in chapter fourteen, He now presses on them certain great truths that He would have them to remember after He was gone. He begins by urging the absolute necessity of close union and communion with Himself by means of an illustration of a vine and its branches.
2. We must remember that the passage we are considering is a parable, and a parable must be interpreted. As in all parables, we must understand the great lesson which it contains, rather than try and press each clause to the limit. The old saying is true, “that no parable stands on all fours.”
3. The meaning of the parable is simply this: the relation between believers and Christ is that of a vine and its branches. Christ is the true vine, that is, the true source of all their life and spiritual vigor; and they are as entirely dependent on Him as the branches of the vine are on the parent stem; and the close union between Christ and His disciples is like that of the vine and its branches.
4. It is generally agreed that Christ’s discourse in this and the next chapter was at the close of the last supper; the night in which He was betrayed, and what He chose to speak about was very pertinent to the occasion of His leaving. He first stresses the necessity of their adherence to Him, and abiding in Him, by use of this parable of the vine and the branches.
I. NOTICE FIRST THE DOCTRINE OF THE SIMILITUDE, WHICH SHOWS OUR RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST AND THE FATHER.
A. CHRIST IS THE VINE, THE TRUE VINE. (VERSES 1, 5)
1. He is the vine planted in the vineyard, and not a spontaneous product.
a) He is planted in the earth. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)
b) The vine is a spreading plant. (Gen. 49:22; Psa. 80:11)
2. He is the true vine.
a) As opposed to a counterfeit, or a pretense, which bear no fruit.
b) As opposed to a wild vine, which deceives those who gather of it. (II Kings 4:39; Hab. 3:17)
c) As the antitype of the figures of the true in the Old Testament. (Gen. 49:11, 22; I Kings 4:25)
B. BELIEVERS ARE THE BRANCHES OF THIS VINE. (VERSE 5)
1. Their life is in the vine, the root of which is unseen, as our life is hid with Christ. The root bears the tree. (Rom. 11:18)
2. The branches are many, some on one side of the wall, others on the other side, yet meeting in the vine, they are all of one root.
3. All true believers, though in places distant, and in opinions differing, yet, meeting in Christ, Who is the center of their unity.
4. Believers, like the branches of the vine, are weak and insufficient to stand on their own, but are borne up. (Ezek. 15:2)
C. THE FATHER IS THE HUSBANDMAN. (VERSE 1)
1. He is the “land-worker.” Although the earth is the Lord’s, it yields Him no fruit unless He work it.
2. God has the care of the vine and all the branches. He plants, waters, and gives the increase, for we are God’s husbandry. (I Cor. 3:9; See Isa. 5:1, 2; 27:2, 3)
3. Just as He planted Christ, and made Him to “grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground,” He has an eye upon the branches, and watches over them.
4. Never was any husbandman so wise and so watchful about His vineyard as God is over His Church.
II. NOTICE NEXT,THE DUTY TAUGHT US BY THIS SIMILITUDE, WHICH IS TO BE FRUITFUL BY ABIDING IN CHRIST.
A. WE MUST BE FRUITFUL. (VERSES 2, 4, 5)
1. From a vine we look for grapes (Isa. 5:2), and from Christians we look for Christianity; from believers we look for the fruit of the Spirit.
2. See here the doom of the unfruitful: they are taken away. (Verse 2)
a) It is here intimated that there are many who pass for branches in Christ who yet do not bear fruit. Were they really joined to Christ by faith they would bear fruit. But, being only tied to Him by the thread of an outward profession, though they may seem to be branches, they will, in time, be seen as frauds.
b) It is here threatened that they shall be “taken away.” This is done in justice to the false professor and in kindness to the lively branches.
c) Judas was just such a pretender, and he was taken away.
3. See here the promise made to the fruitful: “He purgeth them that they may bring forth more fruit.”
a) Fruitfulness is a great blessing to the branches, and the Husbandman desires that their fruit may abound more and more, therefore He prunes them.
b) To clip away all superfluous shoots is the duty of a faithful husbandman. This procedure prevents the useless “suckers” from robbing life from the branches, preventing greater fruit-bearing.
(1) This is what sin does in the life of a believer. It robs him of spiritual vitality. (See Gal. 5:17)
(2) The purging process may be painful, but it is for the Christian’s own good. (See Gal. 5:24)
c) The purging of fruitless branches, in order to their greater fruitfulness, is the careful work of the great Husbandman for His own glory.
B. THE CLEANNESS THAT ALL HAVE WHO ARE IN VITAL UNION WITH CHRIST. (VERSE 3)
1. Their society was clean now that Judas had been removed from the Vine.
2. They were subject to purging, but not to removal.
3. The agency of their cleansing was the Word of the Lord. They were sanctified through the truth. (John 17:17)
4. All who hear Christ’s words and heed them shall be cleansed from sin, and thus, made fit for the Master’s use.
C. THE GLORY THAT CHRISTIAN FRUIT-BEARING IS TO GOD, AND THE HONOR THAT IT IS TO US. (VERSE 8)
1. “Herein is my Father glorified.”
a) A fruitful, beautiful garden is the pride and joy of the gardener.
b) Therefore the great Husbandman is glorified when the branches He has spared and pruned and dressed brings forth much fruit.
c) This ought to be our greatest incentive to bear the fruits of righteousness.
2. “So shall ye be my disciples.”
a) This is a high honor, to be known as Christ’s disciples by the fruits that we bear. (Matt. 7:16, 20)
b) It is the highest of honors, to be owned by our Lord and Master. “Then shall ye be my disciples.”
III. NOTICE NEXT, IN ORDER TO BE FRUITFUL, WE MUST ABIDE IN CHRIST. (VERSES 4-6)
A. THE DUTY COMMANDED. “ABIDE IN ME, AND I IN YOU.” (VERSE 4)
1. We must abide in Christ by faith, and He is us by His Spirit.
a) If we abide in Him, we need not fear but that He will abide in us.
b) The communion between Christ and believer never fails on His side.
2. We must abide in Christ’s Word by a regard to it, and it shall be in us as a light to our feet.
3. Our communion with Christ is to be constant, maintained on our part by abiding in His Word and continuing in prayer.
4. What wondrous grace that the great God and our Savior enters into fellowship with us, and never wishes to break that fellowship. Let us not allow our sin and neglect to interfere, but let us be constant in our faith and love for Christ, and let us live upon His promise.
B. THE NECESSITY OF OUR ABIDING IN CHRIST. (VERSES 4, 5)
1. Abiding in Christ is necessary in order to our bearing any fruit. Just as a detached branch cannot bear fruit, no more can we apart from our union with Christ. (Verse 4)
2. By our abiding in Christ and He in us, we shall not only bear fruit, but much fruit. (Verse 5)
3. Without Christ, i.e. apart from Christ, we can do nothing.
IV. NOTICE LASTLY, THE FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF FORSAKING CHRIST, COMPARED TO THE BLESSED PRIVILEGE THAT COMES FROM ABIDING IN CHRIST. (VERSES 6, 7)
A. THE FATAL CONSEQUENCE OF NOT ABIDING IN CHRIST. “IF ANY MAN ABIDE NOT IN ME, HE IS CAST FORTH AS A BRANCH, AND IS WITHERED…” (VERSE 6)
1. They are cast forth as dry and withered branches, which are plucked off because they cumbered the vine.
2. They are withered as a branch broken off from the tree.a) Some may flourish for a while in their profession of Christ, yet in a little while they come to nothing.b) We see them losing zeal and devotion, while their gifts begin to wither, followed by their credit and reputation. The fruitless fig tree had nothing but leaves, but then its leaves withered too. (Matt. 21:19)
3. At last, men gather them and they are cast into the fire and are burned. (Compare Matt. 13:30)
B. THE BLESSED PRIVILEGE WHICH THOSE HAVE WHO ABIDE IN CHRIST. “IF YE ABIDE IN ME, AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, YE SHALL ASK WHAT YE WILL…” (VERSE 7)
1. See how our union with Christ is maintained. We abide in Him and His words abide in us.
2. See how our communion with Christ is maintained – by prayer: “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done…”
3. The context of this promise is quite clear.
4. How blessed we are to have God’s favor and Christ’s mediation so that we shall have answers of peace to all our prayers.
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