Or, Pruned Up for More Produce
Scripture: John 15:1-4
Date: October 6, 2013
Speaker: Sean Higgins
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When we think about sanctification, what do we picture? How would we describe the life of a Christian who is growing in holiness? We would not be wrong if we considered a believer’s behavior, if we anticipated his purity and obedience. We expect a sanctified man to be disciplined, to be distinct from the world in his passions and practices. Jesus Himself told His disciples that if they loved Him, they would keep His commandments. That assumes a man knows the commandments well, that his sentences are grammatical in doctrine. These are all true and they may not go far enough.
Why do we put gas in our cars? It isn’t so that the engine will have fuel to burn. We gas our cars so that we can drive. Why do we plug a lamp into the electrical outlet? Yes, we do it because a lamp won’t work without power. But we plug it in to light up the room. Why does the Father send the Spirit, why do the Father and Son take up residence in us? What does Jesus want as He teaches His disciples on this night of His betrayal? The eternal Three-in-One saves us from sin and death and for fruit.
John 15 continues the final discipleship preparations before Jesus’ crucifixion. He spends His final hours with 11 men, encouraging them and equipping them with tools they will use later. This chapter begins with a well-known, and possibly the most obvious, metaphor Jesus ever used: the vine and the branches. Even though we’ve heard it and understand it, I think we do underestimate how valuable it is. Rather than trying to sip some syrup while we pedal our bike by the maple tree, we’re going to slow down just a bit to get a bigger gulp.
Chapter 15 is so rich, so obvious, so stark, so gospel. It reveals the who and how and why of discipleship to Jesus. This is why we are saved, this is what we should picture when we think about and describe sanctification. These verses demand only what God has the right to command and, at the same time it, they remove the burden of the command in ways only the gospel could. We’ll see specifically three things about fruitful sanctification: a figure for it, the prerequisite to it, and the means of it.
In the first two verses Jesus mixes figures of speech and reality, providing the identity of the key characters with an emphasis on the Father’s practice and purpose.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. (John 15:1–2, ESV)
Jesus returns to the “I am” formula for the seventh and final time in John: I am the true vine. Unlike the previous six “I am”s, He immediately adds His Father to the cast: and my Father is the vinedresser. The word vinedresser translates a word meaning farmer, one who tills the ground, but because the metaphor is vines, a vinedresser is the one who tends the vine. The father is a “husbandman” (KJV). Verse 2 is entirely about His husbandry and aim, so we’ll hear more about Him in a moment.
Jesus is the true vine. The imagery stems from the Old Testament. Vines and vineyards were typical illustrations that God used God to describe His people (see passages such as Psalm 80:9-16; Isaiah 5:1-7; Ezekiel 15:1-8). In numerous places Israel was referred to as God’s vine. The problem, however, was that Israel regularly failed to produce righteous fruit. Though they were God’s chosen people, they could not, so they did not, yield a harvest of faithful fruitfulness.
Just as Jesus claimed to be the true temple in John 2:19-22, so now He claims identity as the true vine. He is not true as opposed to false or counterfeit. He is true as in real, the genuine, the original vine. He is Abraham’s seed, and the true Israel. We do believe that Israel has been replaced in one sense, but it isn’t the church that replaces Israel, it is Jesus. Fruit grows from Him.
Fruit is the Father’s concern. Note that the illustration doesn’t emphasize the Father’s ownership, though we are His. The emphasis is on His involvement, His two activities, and His overall purpose.
His two practices are 1) to remove the fruitless branches and 2) to prune fruitful branches.
First, every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away. I think it puts too much onto the metaphor to say that these branches are “in Him” as if these were true disciples who stop bearing fruit. Instead, these are branches that have some apparent connection with the vine and their fruitlessness is evidence that they are not truly His. This applied first to the Jews, both in Jesus’ day and those John writes for, those who considered themselves part of the national vine. By application this hits church-goers today. Many hang around. But being around is not enough. If they aren’t abiding in the vine (see verse 6), the Father takes away, He removes them altogether. God “gets rid of the dead wood so that the living, fruit-bearing branches may be sharply distinguished from them, and have more room for growth” (Carson, 514-515).
Jesus doesn’t say how it happens, and in most cases it probably isn’t ceremonial (like, say, church discipline). The Father takes them away through the choking cares of the world. Their involvement slips before it terminates. From our perspective a man may say he’s just too busy, but it is the Father who removes him.
Second, every branch that does bear fruit he prunes. Why wouldn’t He? He knows what’s best for the plant to bloom. It doesn’t always look like it; sometimes a just-pruned bush looks butchered. Jesus doesn’t say how the pruning happens either, but we certainly need the attention. We can surmise from other passages that pruning includes conviction for sin and discipline and suffering for sake of the peaceful fruit of righteousness. He reproves, rebukes, and corrects us. But here the emphasis is on who, the Father, and why, that it may bear more fruit.
Pull out your 5-gallon bucket, tap the verse 2 tree, and let the spile flow until its filled. Lick off your fingers if they get sticky.
Pruning feels painful, for the moment at least (Hebrews 12:11). It hurts. Pruning does not look better in the morning. Pruning may not appear, at first and for a while, to be anything better than a chainsaw haircut. But the Father finds every fruitful branch and desires more. He cuts off the things that hinder the branch’s health, even if the branch thinks it knows better. Father knows best, and the Father wants more fruit.
What is the “fruit” He wants? “Fruit” can be found eight times in verses 1-16 and only two other times in John’s gospel, yet no one summary statement comes from the passage. We’ll keep developing it as we drink in the chapter. But fruit seems to include anything good, including our love for God and others (13:35; 15:13), our joy (15:11), our witness, and our friendship with the Trinity (15:14). He wants more fruit (verse 3), much fruit (verse 5), much fruit (verse 8), and abiding fruit (verse 16). The Father is after our fruitfulness! He’s serious about yield, and I mean “yield” as a noun and a verb.
The Father wants AMFAP: as much fruit as possible. In verse three there are three mentions of fruit. We are pruned up for more produce.
Jesus was speaking to His disciples but He was speaking beyond them. Now He reassures them directly.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. (John 15:3, ESV)
He told them that they were “clean” in chapter 13 verse 10, before they started the Passover meal when He washed their feet. Without using the word, Jesus speaks about their justification before God.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. The disciples are not in danger of being taken away, though they will still need to abide as the next verses explain. What Jesus explained in general, verses 1-2, now becomes more personal. The gospel cleans the guilty, it raises the dead. And when it does it is not done.
Here is one of the great gospel commands.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. (John 15:4, ESV)
The key word in verses 1-7 is abide, sometimes translated “remain.” I wish there was a fantastic Greek definition for μένω, but it means, “remain,” or “abide.” That said, it’s not hard to get the point. Jesus tells His disciples that they must stay connected to Him: Abide in me. The second half of the statement probably means “and I will be in you” just as the mutual indwelling was described in chapter 14.
He goes back to the illustration. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. This is self-evident. A disconnected branch is a dead branch. A disconnected lamp is dark. A car with an empty gas tank is a parked car. He’ll say in verse 5, “apart from me you can do nothing.”
What does it mean to abide? “Abide” is used 10 times in verses 4-10. As with “fruit,” though, “abide” also isn’t summarized by any one statement in the passage. Though I think there are some indications, I’m going to save a more detailed answer for next Lord’s day, Lord willing. In the meantime, we all must ask ourselves, “Am I consciously, continually staying connected to Christ?” Are we incorporated in Him toward fruitfulness?
Perhaps we are not urgently, consciously depending on Christ because we do not seriously, passionately care about fruit. We may forget what vines are for. We’re glad to be grafted in, but isn’t justification enough? Or if we do deal with sanctification, we define it as keeping distance from sin (which it is), but that tends to result in passivity not productivity.
If we don’t care about fruit, we don’t know the Father very well. If we are irritated by His pruning, we don’t know what the Father’s purpose for us is.
God cares about our fruit. He chose us and appointed us to bear fruit (verse 16). More than that, He is glorified as we bear fruit. “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” (verse 8). If you truly desire for God to be honored, then you must truly desire for your boughs to bend with fruit, with bushel-baskets-filling fruit. And as soon as we feel that bearing fruit is a burden, we have forgotten that our productivity depends on abiding in Christ. He brings the vitality, the sap, for sake of fruit.