Father, I call Your name tonight because, as always, I want to submit myself to Your direction. You know what I do but I acknowledge that I am handling a very holy thing when I do so – Your Word. Use me as You would to touch those who know You and those who do not, may they be drawn to Your light! Amen!
John 15:1-8 (<<click here to read the passage)
There is a cousin on my wife’s side who before his retirement decided to become a vigneron…oh, you don’t know what that is? (I didn’t either – I had to look it up!) OK, how about a viticulturist? No? Well, the more common term is a grape grower or a grape farmer!
A few years back he started getting it all set up. He did his homework in figuring out all he needed to do to get started. He readied 2½ acres and got his arbors up, and then got his plants in the ground. It was a lot of work, for sure! (And, it still is!) But you can tell, it’s his passion!
The above picture shows this year’s harvest for just one of the six varieties he grows! They picked and loaded and delivered 2,140 pounds of Niagara grapes. That’s over a ton! Now that’s passion!
God is passionate about His vineyard, as well!
First of all, this is the seventh and final “I am” statement of Jesus, “I am the true Vine…” But He finishes that statement by saying, “…and My Father is the vinedresser.” v1 AMP It is the Father who cares for and tends the vine. God’s sole purpose in being the “gardener”, as the New Living Translation puts it, is to provide such care for the Vine that He, and His many branches – us! – become prolific producers of fruit!
This is probably going to be a two-parter because there are a couple of ways to go with this passage!
The first “branch” we’ll go down is to establish that all true followers of Jesus are individual branches – we are attached directly to the vine. My Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation uses the phrase, living union. Our living union with Christ enables us to produce much fruit.
Bringing others to a living union with Christ is one fruit, but there are many others. At the beginning of this chapter alone, joy (v11) and love (v12) are mentioned. Galatians 5:22-24 mentions those, as well as peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
2 Peter 1:5b-8 states,
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is much fruit to be born because of our living union with Jesus! It is our calling as His followers to be prolific producers of fruit!
Sept 20th, 2021, Mon, 7:08 pm
