Jesus is the vine. Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have heard that Jesus is the bread of life. That Jesus is the light of life. That Jesus is the door of life. That Jesus is the good shepherd who preserves life. That Jesus is the resurrection and the life. But there is something more. One more superlative. One more proof of his divinity. And that is, Jesus is the vine of life. Now I know many of you have enjoyed good grape juice. Or maybe aged grape juice. And it made you happy to be able to enjoy that. But before you enjoyed that grape juice, new or aged, it had to be part of a branch. And that branch had to be part of a vine. And not just attached to it in a fake way. It had to be joined to that vine And that vine had to have sap growing, moving in it. So the branches would be nourished, so the grapes would be juicy and sweet and bring joy to the eater. And so too with Christ. He is the vine who supplies life to his children, who are the branches, so they could live and so they could produce fruit. This is what you will see today, and our headings are two and very simple. Jesus is the vine, the true vine of life. And in second, what are the implications of Jesus being the true vine of life? Our goals are that you'll be thankful for the true vine, that you will draw from that true vine so that you will be productive and help others, even wild branches, to be grafted in to that true vine. when they see in your life the blessings of being part of that true vine. Now, how is Jesus the true vine? How is Jesus the true vine? Well, Jesus declared that he was the true vine. the true vine who had come down from his Father in heaven. And this was one of the easiest ways to prove his divinity and show the Jews that he was the infinite God-man who was that perfect sacrifice for sins. Now, he uses illustration, these two practical illustrations, to help them see that he was the true vine. We're using this to teach because it's easier to understand if you have good illustrations. then people get the story better. So why did he use this particular illustration? Well, Israel was known for producing a lot of grapes, especially in the Jordan Valley. So they would have been accustomed seeing grapes. So to use this illustration made sense. But more than that, in the past, King Solomon was known for not just loving a lot of grape juice, the aged kind, But he also brought in many varieties of grapes and introduced them so they could have a variety of juices that he could enjoy. And at the same time, too, wine was not just something like we do it for recreation or just a social situation. They drank wine every day because there wasn't a lot of fresh water around. So wine was almost, for them, water. Now, so they could get this. But there was also the time when the vine was used in a beautiful way in the Passover. The Jews celebrated the Passover. And this was a practical way. And they had just done it again here. The Jews had gone. Jesus had broken bread with them. And he said, this is the bread. When you break it, this is my body, which is broken for you. And this is the cup of the New Testament in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. He was reminding them, he had just done this, so it was a good time to say, let's talk about this true vine from which you get this wine which represented my blood. So, very practical. This is the wisdom of the wonderful teacher. He also said something more that we must get before we get to the substance of the text. He also says, he used the definite article. He says, Jesus is, I am the true vine, meaning I am the only true vine. If you're grafted into anything else, you would be no good because he is the one who gives the life giving substance. Now, How did Jesus, the true vine, provide for the branches? He said he's the true vine, but the big argument was how? How do we get from Jesus what he promised? Well, he provided sap, first of all, for the branches so they would produce fruit. The branch is not the source of the fruit. It's that sap that comes from the root up through the vine to the branches. And that vine that we read of, there's no weakness in it, there's no barrenness in it. Sap is always there flowing to the grapes, or to the branches, and then to the grapes. So he provides the sap, but then something notable here, he said he also prunes the good branches that are producing fruit. So the ones who are doing well, the ones who are part of him, he clips. And then it grows even better. It seems, in a way, counterproductive. And I always struggle with doing that to a rose bush or something. How do you, if you cut it, it will be better? It doesn't seem to make sense. And yet, that is true. Because when you cut it to the right place, it actually grows better. That's what Jesus does to the branches. That's what a farmer does. It might seem like it will hurt. Just like in life, it might seem that there are heartbreaks, there are unemployments, there are people who are sick, and it seems hard, and yet that's part of your pruning process, so you will be better. He also removed unproductive branches. The unproductive vine is then withered, or the branches are then withered, and then they're burned up in the fire. Who are these? Or what are these? These are people who are unproductive, who pretend to be part of the church, pretend to be part of Christ, but they're actually only there religiously. And that's so much of North America, where people go to church every week, but they don't know Jesus, they don't truly believe in Him. They have not received what He has done by faith. They're Christians by tradition. That's why when you hear, as you heard last week, people talk about Christmas time. How many focus on the incarnation of Jesus? You hear, oh, Christmas is all about the kids. Oh, Christmas is all about family. Oh, Christmas is all about friends. They forget. Because they're only religiously Christians, not Christians in the heart, or truly Christians in the heart. But look at what will happen if you have your sermon notes handy, 2 Peter 2, verse 1, together. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction." So whereas with the Christians, there's a clipping, so you will prepare, you will bear more, you'll be more productive, you will flower better, you will give more grapes. The ones who are fake, who are attaching these parasitic plants will be cut off because they're destructive. They're not doing anything good. And that's how Jesus is saying, I am the vine and you are the branches. The good branches grow from me. The bad branches or the sucker branches are cut off and thrown into the fire. Now, this doctrine did not develop out of thin air. This doctrine was alive and well in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Look how Christ describes his people. Well, first of all, he said, you're all part of me. And then I am the vine and you are the branches. But then in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, he talks about being so close to his people. Protecting them as they traveled from Egypt to Canaan. How He provided them with shelter. How He provided them with water. How He provided them with fire. He gave them the things they needed in order to do so. But He used interesting pictures and one of them is in Psalm 80, verse 8 through 10. And let's read this together. You have brought a vine out of Egypt. You have cast out the nations and planted it. You prepared room for it and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs." Now, this is where he used the church as part of the the church as a vine, like he described himself. But it's the same idea, the same relationship. And in fact, during the Maccabean period, that's about 200 BC, around that time when the Maccabees ruled, Israel was representing it in the coin as a vine, a beautiful vine, a productive vine, a vine that gave joy and hope. And this vine of the Lord that he called out of Egypt was pure, but that vine became corrupt, and it had to be clipped off. And you see some of this clipping off when the Assyrians came in 722 BC and took many of the northern tribes, ten and a half tribes captive. And then again, in 586 BC, when the Babylonians came and took the southern one and a half tribes captive. God always kept the remnants, so we'll keep growing. You can say this was a major pruning, a major cutting back, because it had become corrupt, and he had to deal with that. That's what you see in a couple of passages. First of all, let's look at Isaiah chapter 5, verse 1 and 2 together. Now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst and also made a wine press in it. So he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes." Now, Isaiah spoke just before the northern tribes, the ten and a half tribes, were taken into captivity. And you see what happened. Instead of producing what it should, the vine was not very good. Then Jeremiah, who spoke just before the southern one and a half tribes, taken captive by the Babylonians, said this in Jeremiah 2.21, together, Yet I have planted you a noble vine, a seed of the highest quality. How then have you turned before me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?" See what happened. They start producing sour grapes or wild grapes. Just was not good. But the idea here is to show the picture of God used that vine picture to show that the vine was being nourished by Him and how the vine, instead of producing what it should, even though it received good sap, it had gone wild. One more positive picture of this is in Genesis 49, verse 11. Let's read together. Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes with the blood of grapes." Now, this was a picture of hopelessness long before they were sent into captivity. This was long before even they went into Egyptian slavery. God had promised them. And this is the tribe of Judah, that their clothes will be covered with wine, meaning you will be rich, you will have an abundance. That's the promised hope, a flourishing thing. When you see the blood of grapes, don't panic there. It doesn't mean blood, blood. It means the juice of grapes. You will have so much, it will be pouring over you. And that would come through Jesus Christ, who would be the son of Judah. Judah's son would be Jesus, and it would bring joy and prosperity So this picture of the vine was there all along, what Jesus would do for his people. It was even in the New Testament. The next week we'll have the Lord's Supper, Lord willing. And you will see there, we'll talk about the bread and the wine. Jesus declared that the fruit of the vine they drank was a picture of his blood. 1 Corinthians 1, chapter 11, verse 25, together. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it. in remembrance of me. This is a really pulling back from that last supper where Jesus would break the bread and he would pass the cup and say, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. And the Apostle Paul says, this is what we have to continue to do to remind ourselves that God will give us the things we need, the nourishment we need. to do the work He has called us to do. We must remain in that vine, because Jesus is that vine. The issue then is, what are the implications of the true vine of life, or being in the true vine of life? What does that mean to me? First of all, That Jesus is the true vine, that you are the branches. Picture a close relationship with the Lord. It's not a distant relationship. It's not a master-slave relationship like other religions teach, that there's that fear, God is there and I'm here and I ought to be afraid of him. No, it brings us close. That's why Jesus said, when you pray, say, our Father. Not just my father, but our father. And note that Jesus is not the vine of denominations. He's the vine of Christians, all Christians. Maybe we disagree with them on some aspects of their understanding of scriptures, but they're all part of that vine, and we must care for them like we pray for those, the persecuted church. We don't ask, are they reformed or not? We ask, do they believe in Jesus? Are they drawing from the same vine? Are they close to Jesus? It means they're close to us. And we must pray and care for them. Second, there's that closeness. But there's the implication then that you must be joined to the true vine in order to live, to receive his life-giving properties. Not the fake join where you kind of look close like the ritual Christian or what I like to call cultural Christians. But those who truly are joined into the vine. Because if you're not truly joined to Christ, you are not saved. You need to be joined to him to get his life-giving properties so you can live and be productive. And don't be ashamed of being needy, recognizing that you need to be joined to others. In our modern society, we're being trained to think, I don't need anyone. I've got money, I've got science, I've got technology. I don't need anyone. Well, this is saying, God is saying to you, this is the only hope you have to be joined to Jesus Christ or you are lost. So it's time to swallow your shame if you're not a Christian and realize that you are needy and you don't have salvation in yourself. You need to be joined to Jesus. Third, not only do you need to be joined to Jesus, you know, we started off with being close to Him, but you need also to be joined to Him, and then you also need to remain in Him to be sustained. God sustains you by His Son's blood. That's pictured by the fruit of the vine. That's why we share the Lord's Supper. This is why you should be regular to receive the Lord's sacraments. This is why you listen to preaching, because you're reminded of His love, and that's a source of nourishment to your soul. This is why you go through some pruning, so you can become more productive, like the farmer. And God describes Himself as a farmer who must prune you, so you're not to rebel against the pruning and say, why did this have to happen to me? Because God is pruning you. He will make you better. The troubles in your life, he will use for good in the future. I don't know how many times I've been able to use the illustration of my own father dying when I was 15 years old. 40 some years ago, he passed away. And I didn't like that. I thought God made a mistake. But pruning, that has helped me to help so many people who have struggled with sickness and troubles in their lives. Death. That's how God uses us. So don't despise discipline. Submit to it, because it's part of what keeps you alive, keeps you drawing from Christ. When you remain in Christ, then, you come to him, you're joined to him, you remain in him, you will produce fruit to nourish others. I know the picture of this in a little tendential ways out of Psalm 1 of the tree that's planted by rivers of living water, where Christ is there, picture is the river, and the plant is able to draw from that water of life and live and give shade and nourishment to others. You have to be fed by Him. You have to hold on to Him. Look at Philippians 4, verse 13. It says, together, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's drawing from that sap. It's being nourished by that sap that comes from God. That's where the nourishment comes. Galatians 5, verse 22, together, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." So here now you've got the fruit. What are you going to get when you remain in Christ and you're nourished by Christ, by His sacrament, by preaching, by Christian discipline? Then you're able to bear these fruits. And what do you do with fruits? One of the good things about it is it can be enjoyed. And you can share with others. And what are the fruits that you show? Look at them. Love. And this is not some emotional feeling. Love is duty. Love is caring. Love is obeying God's law regarding that person. And then people will see that peace and the patience you have and the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, the self-control. All of these are fruits that bear. And those of us who are from tropical countries and know what good fruits are like, you know when you pick those fruits and enjoy them, and they're juicy and they're sweet. And you know the joy you have when you get a good, real, ripe mango. Imagine when people are able to get life-giving fruit. You know, you eat a good mango, and an hour later, you're looking for another ripe mango. But when you get the fruit from your life, you're leading people to eternal life. Because they will see, wow, look at the peace in the midst of trouble. Look at the calmness God's given to them. I got to find out about that. You're bearing fruits that lead to life. Imagine that. It's nice to give people gifts, give somebody money or a present, and they're happy. How long will that last? This is life-giving fruit. So ask yourself, am I producing good fruits? Am I producing fruits of righteousness, fruits of the Spirit, so others can see and receive from them? Draw from Christ the true vine and you will do this. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5 says, together, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. The source of the joy and the peace is not yourself. Remember the sap that comes through the vine? Our sufficiency is in Christ. Number five, don't be contented with being in the same spiritual place. being in the true vine. That may require that you put off or clip off some things that are unproductive so you can bear more fruit. And you say, practically, what does it look like? I'll give you a couple of examples. First of all, if you're spending too much time on things like the internet or sleeping too much, these are good things, but in and of themselves, not sleeping too much, but sleeping, these are good things, but they're not to be done in excess. So if you should stop spending time on things like gossiping, wasting resources, spending money unwisely, these are bad things which need to be stopped in order for you to produce good fruits. These are the weakness that we struggle with in our lives, of course, but we need to stop these things. Don't be contented having the same problem even as we come to a new year. But we don't follow the same trend, but we endeavor by the grace of God to live more victoriously, more productively. And here's the other side to that. Putting off these things then opens up the door to be productive for Christ's kingdom in the future. You see, if you're not spending time and too much time on the internet, too much time sleeping, too much time or gossiping or wasting resources, then it opens up the door for you to be trained to do other things. You can put time in reading good books or listening to good lectures or learning from others how to be a good wife, how to prepare to be a godly husband, how to prepare to be a good leader in the church. We need leaders in the church. Are you preparing? Are you spending time getting the training you need in order to be effective? That's what God expects from you. You know, there's a picture of the Egyptian fig tree that bears seven times per year. Some of us in the tropics know some fruits will bear twice a year. That's about it. There's one that bears seven times per year. That's the idea, that you're continually producing good fruit. Number six, if you remain in the true vine religiously but not spiritually and do not produce, you will degenerate. If your bodies are in the church but your souls are not, you're useless, even harmful to Christ's kingdom. There's no ground in Christianity for remaining still, for not growing in grace. That's what God has called us to do. Look at the Ezekiel chapter 15, verse 6 and 7 of what God will do to those unproductive religious vines, but not truly converted vines. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem and I will set my face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know that I am the Lord when I set my face against them. See what will happen to the vine? They'll be thrown into the fire. And when they come out from one fire, they'll go into another fire. That's the one who pretends to believe in God, but will only do so in a farsaic, religious manner, but not truly in the heart. See, a soul that is dried up is useless to God. Look at what God's other warning is. In 1 Corinthians 11, 27, together, Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." There's the warning. Take that wine. Receive it by faith, let it nourish you so you can bear good fruits. Otherwise, that vine, that branch is torn down and burned. Two more. Seven, you are not in an uncomfortable, isolated or dangerous place when you're resting in the vine. In fact, you have other dependents with you. We all depend upon Christ and we're all joined together to support and encourage each other. And no one can look down on you. It doesn't matter if you're a millionaire or you have nothing. In Jesus Christ, you are something. You're brothers because you are joined to the same vine. It doesn't matter the color of your skin. You know, every race here was a family would have been a slave at some time or the other. And sometime they were very domineering and had empires that crushed others. What is it that brings us together? One blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. We have the same cup, that wine comes from the same vine, and we're all able to drink of it and be nourished. You know what this means? When you're all joined together, you can face opposition. You ever seen the picture of what these little fish would do underneath? When a big, there's sometimes when a shark approaches, and you've got these little fish, tiny fish, they'd actually form themselves into a bigger shark. It's the most amazing thing, to scare off another shark. And then that shark would go away. But they will form all these fish together into a picture of a bigger fish. That's the idea with us, where we are able to be working together to stand up to encourage each other, we can face difficulties. You see, you're receiving the divine sap. That makes you brave. And you work together for good. Eight, that Jesus is a true vine proves that though you might have free will, you don't have free ability. And this is where doctrine comes out very nicely from this. You need him. You need Him to work in you. You need that sap to work in you, otherwise you're dead. That shows you're totally depraved. That shows that you're preserved by Christ. That shows you're sustained in your inner man by Him. Let's conclude. Jesus is the true vine, the source and the sustainer of life. He sent His Son to nourish the dead souls of this world. And those who are not of the true vine will have no life and are only fit for the fires of hell. So beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, know the blessings you have in Jesus, the son of God. He strengthens you as his branch with the word and the sacraments and with discipline. What more could you ask for? You don't need anything more. Everything you have is in him. And the more you realize that, the things of this world will become dimmer and dimmer. You won't be fighting so much in the rat race of life, but you will be fighting to live a godly life, receiving and being strengthened by Him. That will lead you then to produce more fruit. Fruit in abundance, works of righteousness that bring praise to God, that lead men to God. So the question is, how do you reflect Christ in this world. Remember, who you are is reflected to the world. What do they see in you? Do they see Christ in you? How well do they see Christ in you? Do you bring shame to the name of Christ by your words and your actions? Or do you bring praise to him? Do you lead others to him? Do people look at you and say, how do you have peace in the midst of turmoil? Tell me about what you believe. See, that's why we have to live, that people will come and ask. And you will give them the reason for the hope that you have. You will tell them how they can be grafted into Christ. And they can receive the sap of life as well. And finally, if you are not in the true vine, you will eventually dry up and be burned in the fires of hell. But God has a way out. He is so loving that he could justly have let you go to hell. But he didn't do that. He offers you that way out. What is that way out? He offers to graft you in to that true vine. The price has been paid. The way has been made clear because Jesus took on flesh. He became one of us so he could live and die for us. And then God would accept Jesus. And he'd say, come into my family. Come in and take of Jesus and live. I hope you will make that choice today. Let us pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the good nourishment of the Lord Jesus Christ. He brought us close to Him. He engrafted us into Him and gave Him life. He sustains us day to day and He makes us productive so we can be a blessing to the world. Help us then, as we come to a new year, that we will come with that in mind, that our lives will reflect Jesus Christ more and more, that the world may eat of that and live. Hear us, Lord, we plead. that we have our own weakness, but we plead for the strength that comes through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.