Life in Jesus
John 15:1-8
April 29, 2018 – Redeemer
You’ve started haven’t you? You went out in the yard this week. Dug a little in the garden or flower beds. Picked up dead twigs, raked a few leaves. Looked for signs of life after the dead season of winter. Are the perennials coming up? Are the trees budding? Did that shrub survive the winter? You’re looking for life.
Jesus is your life in this dying world. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Jesus speaks these Words on the Thursday night He is betrayed. He has instituted the Lord’s Supper and is about to head to the Garden of Gethsemane. In 24 hours he will be dead. He is preparing His disciples not only for His death, but also for their lives after He has risen and ascended. His Word to them is quite simple – with Me life, apart from Me death.
“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.
What we see on the night Jesus was betrayed is exactly what Jesus said. In the next 36 hours the disciples would be pruned, clipped, cut, and thinned, but Jesus remained with them. Eleven of the disciples would remain in Jesus. Unbelieving Judas would be cut off and cast into the fire.
Were the 11 better than the one – than Judas? No. Judas betrayed Jesus for money. Peter denied him three times. Mark ran for his life in the garden. Thomas initially refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead because dead people don’t live again.
Judas and the eleven were all sinners. They all failed Jesus. Each in his own time thought only about himself – Peter loved his reputation, Mark feared for his life, Judas trusted money, Thomas believed his experience. What do you love? What do you fear losing? What do you trust for life? Apart from Jesus the disciples would all be dead and so would you. Apart from Jesus you can do nothing – a branch that does nothing is good for one thing – the fire. Trust me, I know – in my yard I have about twenty oak trees and the dead branches burn well.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit the Father takes away. The Father takes away unfruitful branches. Do you know the very same word is used for when they took Jesus off the cross to lay Him in His tomb? They took Him away. They removed Him from the cross. That is what Jesus did so you wouldn’t be taken away. He was taken away. He became the unfruitful branch. His Father regarded Jesus as an unbelieving sinner at the cross, as the Unbelieving Sinner. Jesus received from His Father at the cross – what you deserved for your sin. He got cut off from His Father – forsaken. He endured the fire of God’s wrath. He was the unfruitful vine, chopped down, taken away, dead and burned, for you.
Today is the 5th Sunday of Easter, the 5th Sunday of proclaiming, “Christ is risen!” which means Jesus didn’t stay dead, didn’t remain cut off, that the fire burned itself out on Him. He rose again from the garden tomb in which He was planted. Jesus is the True Vine. Nothing, no one else gives us life – only Jesus.
It isn’t the quality of the branches that gives them life. It isn’t your works that save you. The best works of an unbeliever may serve God’s purpose, but those works are not fruit that glorifies God. Apart from Jesus we are all dead. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23) We are all born dead in our trespasses and sins. (Eph 2:1) There is no one among us who does good, not even one. (Ps. 14:1) Jesus said it, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Your life is in and with Jesus.
You were grafted into the True Vine in your baptism. Through His Word and Sacrament you remain in Him and He remains in you. Why do you need to go to church? Because this is where you remain on the vine and in Jesus and this is where He comes into you. Life is here because Jesus is here.
Because you live in Jesus you also produce fruit for the glory of God. Note that the fruit isn’t your fruit. You produce fruit because you have life from Jesus and the fruit you produce is to God’s glory. There are many fruits we could talk about – faith, repentance, worship, sacrifice, love, joy, peace, patience – but there is one fruit in particular that the text talks about – prayer.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. One of the fruits of faith in Jesus is that Christians pray – like little children ask their dear Father.
What were the most common requests you made to your father as a little child? You didn’t ask him to work 60 hours a week or to buy a house so you had a bedroom. You didn’t ask him for meals or clothes or to love your mom and your family. You knew your dad would take care of the big things, so you probably asked for little things – a bag of Peanut M&M’s, a new ball glove, to take you to a Twin’s game on bat day, or play with you, or simply to go along with him somewhere.
Mostly in our prayers we ask for little things, the insignificant things. We ask for health, a new job, help on a test, that our kids stay out of trouble. Little stuff when you consider keeping the planet spinning and the sun shining and saving the world from sin and death which God alone can and does do. (Little things idea – credit to Pastor David Peterson)
But in asking for the little things we actually do give glory to our Father. By faith we know He has taken care of the greatest need we have – life. In Jesus He has forgiven our sin, defanged the devil, and destroyed death. As Saint John proclaims, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome (those who are against Christ), for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Little children trust that their dad loves them and will protect them and grant them all things necessary for life. You don’t ask for the big things because you know your dad is big enough for all that. In Jesus Christ you know that your Father in heaven is big enough – Jesus’ forgiveness is more than your sin, His life is greater than your death, His resurrection will spring you from any cemetery, no matter how you ended up there. Because He who is with you is greater than the world, because the Holy Spirt has grafted you to the true Vine Jesus you give The Father glory by living, by the fruit you produce, even with your little prayers and your little works. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
April 28, 2018 anno Domini