He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
5 sermons cite this verse
… idea. It's an organic metaphor that we grow and we are fruitful when we are working together. John chapter 15, verse one and five, here on the screen, Jesus said, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener and you are the branches. So we are God's garden. Now in God's garden, and write this down, my life becomes productive. When I'm connected in God's garden, now all of a sudden I start becoming fruitful. The Bible calls it being fruitful, being productive. It's called bearing fruit. I'm able to make a contribution. Everybody I've ever met wants their life to count. Everybody I've ever met wants to make a difference. They want to make a contribution with their life. Where can you best do that? in God's garden where you will be productive. But here's the key, again, you have to be connected. John 15, four and five on the screen says this. A branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine. And you cannot be fruitful. …
… Somebody say pruned. John 15 verse 1 and 3 says, I am the real vine and my father is the former. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes and every branch that is great bearing. He prunes back. so it will bear even more you already pruned back you are already pruned back by the message i have spoken literally here jesus is teaching his disciples that there are two times that god will cut he will cut number one to correct fruitlessness or he'll cut number two to create fruitfulness. why am I hurting so bad it might be because God's been checking your limbs for some fruit and sometimes God will cut us off and sometimes God will cut us back when we get cut off it's because it's fruitlessness but when we get cut back it's because he wants some more fruitfulness You know the Bible doesn't tell us why God does a lot that God does But this week get another biopsy right here in John chapter 15 Because literally here we understand why we've been cut sometimes And sometimes we're not cut because we've done anything wrong Sometimes God cuts us back so we're pruned Because if you want more fruit You've got to go through some cutting If you want things to grow healthier sometimes they have to be cut back. …
And this is slightly different from what he says in the first verse, where there he calls himself not merely the vine, but he said, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. So we have two things going on here in this I am statement that is very important. The second one has to do with our productivity as Christians of bearing the fruit that God calls us to bear by virtue of our remaining closely connected to Christ as branches are connected to the vine. And that's a very important element of this text, which we will look at in a moment. But the first part of the text, which is often overlooked, is the very first statement that Jesus makes when he says, I am the true vine. Now, usually when somebody makes a statement like that, he's making a statement that stands in stark contrast to something else, and in this case, it would be the false vine or the corrupt vine. And obviously, the hearers of Jesus would recognize the illusion that he was making on this occasion when he calls himself the true vine, because the metaphor of the vine was not something new for his hearers, new to the ears of Jewish people, because it was an important metaphor that was used in the Old Testament to describe the relationship between God and Israel, between God and His people, where God was the vinedresser and Israel was the vine. But let's take a look, if we might, briefly at some of the Old Testament …
As long as you live in sin you do but cumber the ground, you are wholly unprofitable, and live in vain. He that refuses to live to the dory of God, does not answer the end of his creation, and for what should he live? God made men to serve him; to this end he gave them life; and if there will not devote their lives to this end, how just would it be in God if he should refuse to continue their lives any longer! He has planted you in his vineyard, to bear fruit; and if you bring forth no fruit, why should he continue you any longer? how just would it be in him to cut you down! As long as you live, many of the blessings of God are spent upon you from day to day; you devour the fruits of the earth and consume much of its fatness and sweetness; and all to no purpose, but to keep you alive to sin against God, and spend all in wickedness. The whole creation does as it were groan with you; the sun rises and sets to give you light, the clouds pour down rain upon you, and the earth brings forth her fruits, and labours from year to year to supply you; and you in the mean time do not answer the end of Him who has created all things. How just therefore would it be if God should soon cut you oft, and take you away, and deliver the earth from this burden, that the creation may no longer groan with you, and cast you out as an abominable branch! Luke xiii. 7. “Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” John xv. 2 and 6. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” …
7. Indeed were we wholly to separate ourselves from sinners, how could we possibly answer that character which our Lord gives us in these very words? “Ye” (Christians, ye that are lowly, serious and meek; ye that hunger after righteousness, that love God and man, that do good to all, and therefore suffer evil; ye) “are the salt of the earth:” It is your very nature to season whatever is round about you. It is the nature of the divine savour which is in you, to spread to whatsoever you touch; to diffuse itself, on every side, to all those among whom you are. This is the great reason why the providence of God has so mingled you together with other men, that whatever grace you have received of God may through you be communicated to others; that every holy temper, and word, and work of yours, may have an influence on lo them also. By this means a check will, in some measure, be given to the corruption which is in the world; and a small part, at least, saved from the general infection, and rendered holy and pure before God. 8. That we may the more diligently labour to season all we can with every holy and heavenly temper, our Lord proceeds to show the desperate state of those who do not impart the religion they have received; which indeed they cannot possibly fail to do, so long as it remains in their own hearts. “If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men:” If ye who were holy and heavenly-minded, and consequently zealous of good works, have no longer that savour in yourselves, and do therefore no longer season others; if you are grown flat, insipid, dead, both careless of your own soul and useless to the souls of other men; wherewith shall ye be salted? How shall ye be recovered? What help? What hope? Can tasteless salt be restored to its savour? No; “it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out,” even as the mire in the streets, “and to be trodden under foot of men,” to be overwhelmed with everlasting contempt. If ye had never known the Lord, there might have been hope, — if ye had never been “found in him:” But what can you now say to that, his solemn declaration, just parallel to what he hath here spoken? “every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he, the Father, “taketh away. He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit.” “If a man abide not in me,” or do not bring forth fruit.” “he is cast out as a branch, and withered; and men gather them,” not to plant them again, but “to cast them into the fire.” (John 15:2, 5, 6.) …