Sunday Sermon
John 15v1-17
In this passage Jesus furnishes the church with an image that will last us for ever.
It is a simple every day image of a vine and a vinedresser / gardener.
But the teaching that comes from it is really all that we will ever need to know about how our spiritual life is to operate.
It is important to know how things operate because as we have noted before our salvation is all about relationships with God.
And relationships only work through knowledge and will.
We can only ever get things to work if we have a knowledge about how to work them and that applies to our relationship with God.
I cannot have relationship with someone unless I know them and then actively pursue that relationship by act of will.
Where my will is in line with Gods will then that relationship will be rich.
But we only know Gods will through getting knowledge of God.
That may seem obvious to state but there is no other way of getting to know God but through the information that He has in grace revealed.
Thus knowledge is so important, applying our minds to the revelation of God is the greatest thing we can do.
Possibly as Jesus presented the disciples with this image they were passing by a vine?!
V1-4 are quite simple. Jesus uses the image of the vine to represent himself and the branches to represent disciples and the Father to represent the Gardener / Vinedresser.
We will look at each part of the image for our thoughts this morning:
1) First we have the Vinedresser:
The work of the vinedresser is to cut and prune in order to promote growth.
Thus: the Father works to promote growth. That is what he is interested in: Growth.
Unfruitful branches are cut off the vine because they are using sap for no good reason. Fruitful branches are pruned so that more of the sap gets to the fruit.
It’s a painful process no doubt but, the result of good fruit is worth the pain.
Note : the only active party at the human level is the gardener. The vine is just doing what it is naturally designed to do. The Gardener is the one going around making all the adjustments!
App:
It this not a great comfort? God is in control. There will be no failed harvest with Him at work!
The role of the Father in our salvation:
He is working to promote our growth in the faith! He is making sure we are fruitful!
Doesn’t this give meaning to our new lives also. We are made children of God, not just to bask in that salvation, but to go on in maturity and produce fruit!
2) moving on to Branches:
Jesus moves on to speak to the branches!
There is a warning for the branches!
They need to produce fruit or else be taken away by the Gardener!
But to go back to the illustration - how can a branch do anything on its own?
Produce fruit or otherwise? It cannot. It can only remain in the vine.
It must remain part of the vine.
App
Thus the work of the branch is to stay with Jesus; v4-5.
To remain in the vine - v4
To remain in the vine so as to bear much fruit v5
To ask from the vine v7
To bear fruit to Gods glory v8
To love each other as Jesus has loved us v12 , 17
To do what is commanded v14
3) finally we have the Vine Himself: the Lord.
The vine is to supply what is necessary for growth.
And what is need for the branches to be fruitful?
The Vine - the Lord Jesus Christ; He is needed!
His work:
We start at the end!
To chose the branches v16
Salvation we see is in the hands of God.
To clean the branches through the word, v3. Thus making them fruitful.
To feed the branch - thus making it fruitful
To love the branches v9
To love the Father and obey Him v10
To give his joy to the branches v11
To give commands v12 , 17
To teach v13 etc
To be friends v15
sunday evening 28th september 2008
Gen 18v1-15
Context:
We have just seen in chapter 17 God come and speak again to Abraham after a period of silence for 13 years. We noted Abraham’s response, he worshipped, prayed and obeyed.
Now into chapter 18 we have another encounter with Yahweh.
This time of a different sort. The focus is on the physical appearance of God.
V1 lets us in on the secret of this encounter right from the start.
This is a dramatic announcement by the author - the Lord appeared to Abraham!
It seems Abraham was just sitting there sheltering from the heat of the day.
In that plain everyday happening God appears!
V2 tells us what happens from Abraham’s perspective.
He suddenly sees three men standing there. There is a note of surprise, perhaps because they were out in the heat of the day, or more possible because they looked different than the normal look of man! Or to put that another way they looked holy!
Whatever the case Abraham goes and bows before them.
V3 he then pleads that the ‘men’ not pass by. He asks them to stop.
V4-5 he asks them to partake of water for washing and food for eating. They accept.
V6 - Abraham goes off to delegate the work: gets Sarah to bake bread
V7 - gets a servant to prepare the calf.
V8 - then he himself waits on the visitors as they eat.
V9 - then the visitors speak. Where is Sarah they ask.
V10 then the Lord pronounces that a child will be born to her. Sarah is listening in.
V11 - notes the detail about Abraham and Sarah being well past it!
V12 - Sarah laughs at the thoughts of childbearing at such an old age.
V13 - the Lord questions Sarah’s laugh.
V14 - ask rhetorically “is anything too hard for the Lord?”
V15 - Sarah denies the laugh. Must therefore have come from a lack of faith.
V16 - the men get up to go to Sodom.
What can we learn from this incident?
1) faith desires God! V2-5.
God appears to Abraham and then when Abraham notices he jumps to attention.
We live in an age where there is very little desire for God.
Somehow through all our doctrine and theology we have managed to keep God at a distance!
Our faith has very little life about it. If we have experienced God once we think that is enough and so we no longer seek Him!
Or worse still we live off the experiences others have had of God.
We play piggyback on others life of faith!
But this will not do.
Our own personal faith needs to experience God for its own good.
We need to desire God.
God has revealed himself to us, Immanuel, God has spoken and now we are left to seek him. But how do we seek him?
What does Abraham do?
a) V2 - he runs toward God and bows before Him.
That is the starting point.
Our running and bowing before God is all about diligently seeking God in prayer, study and worship.
More specifically we could apply it to our Sunday worship practices.
Do we come to church running and ready to worship?
b) v3-5 then Abraham pleads with God for Him to stay.
This is Abraham at prayer. He longs for God and his presence!
Do we long for his presence? How easy it is to ask God to bless this and that.
To be with family and friends, to give us all our needs.
But do we pray simply for the blessing of Him being with us, for no other reason than the fact that we simply love and enjoy him?
The blessing that comes from this for Abraham is that God does indeed tarry!
The encouragement for us is the same.
If we diligently desire God simply for who he is, He will come! V5
2) But then what do we do when we receive the blessing of Gods presence?
How easy it is to lose God again!
What does Abraham do? V6-8
He attends to the Mans needs then waits upon them.
We keep the blessing of Gods presence by likewise attending to Gods needs!
His needs are that his will be done on earth.
And that will gets done largely through the church as she follows Gods will.
The point is we keep Gods presence by seeking at all time to do His will.
Note: a large part of that is simply waiting upon him!
How desperately we need to wait upon Him because that keeps us from running off on our own agendas.
Abraham stood near the Men as they ate!
That is the heart attitude that we need, we need to long to be near Him! Just waiting upon Him!
3) in so waiting God then speaks to Abraham.
V9-10 The blessing of a son is reaffirmed
V14 The way the son will be brought into the is revealed. He will be a miracle child!
What blessing does God have to bestow upon the faithful who are willing to wait upon him?
We will only know if we get that close to him.
One thing is for sure: those who have diligently sought God, desired God earnestly have never regretted it!
Finally be encouraged to seek God. He does not hide himself. He longs for us. He simply appeared to Abraham. He is near all of us. We may think that great sacrifice and monastic like discipline will be required, but the truth is, all we need to do to start with is take notice of Him. Simply recognise He is there! Standing at our tents.