We see many vines in nature. Jasmine, Virginia Creeper, Grape Vines. More negatively we see poison ivy and poison oak and in the Southeast, we also see another prominent vine called Kudzu.
The Kudzu vine was introduced into the US from Japan in 1876 as part of an ornamental plant exhibition in Philadelphia. The Kudzu vine was subsequently promoted by the Federal government during the Great Depression, as a useful way to slow soil erosion. It has since got completely out of hand. Its roots can grow up to 20 feet long and 5 inches in diameter. Unless the root is killed the plant survives. It can grow 16 inches in a day and as much as 100 feet in a year. It spreads so fast that you can actually watch it grow. The vine now covers an estimated two to seven million acres in 13 Southeastern states. I suppose we could compare kudzu growth to a mega church. However, the kind of vine Jesus in likely talking about is a grape vine, especially in the Near East. Today I want to look at these verses and simply expound on them for the bulk of the sermon.

V1 I am the true Vine…
OT imagery is that Israel was a vine planted by God…
The Vine was like a national symbol of Israel similar to the eagle in the US. But in most every place it is mentioned there is a negative word about the vine being corrupted by practicing idolatry and failing to live by God’s laws…
Is 5:7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel and he looked for justice but found oppression, for righteousness but found a cry.
Jesus was saying particularly to the Jewish people… you think because you belong Israel you are in proper relationship with God… But Israel has become corrupted vine!
Jesus is saying here… I am the True Vine… and the only source of salvation. You must have a personal relationship with me as the source of salvation… it is through faith in Christ for Christ is the True Vine…

V2 branches are cut away if they do not produce fruit.

Commentator William Barclay gives 3 reasons for lack of fruit or lack of abiding.

First, Jews who refused listen…even though they were God’s vine. Jesus wept over the city because they refused to accept him. The temple was destroyed in AD 70.

Second it refers to disciples who only pay lip service and go through the motions of worship but there is no action…in the words of James we have faith without works. And faith without works is “dead”. The vine is dead in this case.

Third it represents believers who were in Christ but when trials and struggles come they fall away. IN golf, the expression is often, “it is not how you drive, but how you arrive”. Many begin well but do not remain because they lose vital connection with Jesus.
Whitfield’s famous statement about believers who were converted in his ministry but were not engaged in discipleship or small groups for accountability. He called his converts “a rope of sand” because so many had fallen away. Often, we find the cares of the world take us away from our vital connection with Jesus. Let’s look quickly at verse 2.

V2 He prunes branches to make them more fruitful
Now on the surface pruning looks bad. Seeing a tree or bush with branches cut off seems unnatural. Our crepe myrtle tree looked like it would not survive the pruning. Someone has called it crepe “murder”. But amazingly, the branches came back even more healthy and strong.
I am not a vintner or expert on horticulture. I was reading about a winery in Napa discussing why they prune the branches. So to the question, “Why do we prune?” One vintner put it like this, Because if the vine is not pruned it reverts very quickly to its wild nature, climbing everywhere with its long, sinewy trunk and tiny, scraggly bunches of uneven grapes. Another vintner put it like this, Every year we need to assess the growth of the vines, and decide whether to prune them back harder, or to let them grow a bit bigger, or return them to the same size and shape they were the year before. So pruning is customized to the plant as to what is needed.
On a recent visit to two California vineyards, author Margaret Feinberg discovered that vintners must adopt a long-term approach to their work. According to Feinberg:
The first year a vintner plants shoots of vines rather than seeds because these yield the strongest vines. At the end of the first growing season, he cuts them back. A second year passes. He cuts them back again. Only after the third year does he see his first viable clusters of grapes. Serious vintners leave those clusters on the vines. For most vintners, it’s not until year four that they bring in their first harvest.
For those growing grapes for winemaking, they’ll bottle their harvest but won’t taste the fruit of their labors until year seven or eight. Most vineyards in Napa Valley won’t reach a breakeven point for their investment until year fifteen, eighteen or beyond.
Applying these insights to her spiritual life, Feinberg writes, Sometimes I look at my own life and wonder, Why am I not more fruitful? And why does pruning have to hurt so much? Why does cultivating a healthy crop take so long? Yet those questions circle around here and now. God’s perspective is much different. Like a good vineyard owner, he knows how to bring about fruitfulness better than I ever will. And he is patient with me, more patient than I am with myself … [Also], as we fulfill our callings … we must recognize that like the vintner’s, our fruitfulness will not come overnight. The first harvest of our labors may not come for three or five years.
As we seek a spiritual application of this we might think of things that need to be pruned or removed from our lives.
Grudges, unforgiveness This is a pests that devour our crops! I had blueberry bushes producing and I went on vacation. I came back and all the blueberries were gone! Birds and squirrels came and ate all the blueberries. Grudges and bitterness are like pests that take away the produce. We can struggle with pests and parasites of unforgiveness or bitterness.

Bad habits (idleness/apathy, impatience/anger, etc. Bad habits are like a blight that destroys the fruit as it is developing. My cousin was growing some beautiful tomatoes. They looked so nice as they were developing. But then they were hit by blight. The beautiful produce was taken over and destroyed. Our lives can be destroyed by blights of apathy and anger and other negative emotions and habits.

Sometimes it might be friendships that are a negative influence. This is like plants that are in the wrong soil. Sometimes you must replant vines/plants in better soil. You need potting soil or garden soil to help a plant grow, especially a new plant. Like pruning, replanting can be quite painful but necessary for us to keep abiding in Christ.
Let’s look next at what Jesus says in verse 4.

V4 Abide in Me… We must be in vital connection with Christ to have life

A branch cut from a tree has no life in itself. Cut a branch from a tree and what happens? The branch dies! We may not see this immediately…but soon the branch will wither the leaves turn brown and the branch simply dies. We can talk about a fish out of water. The fish will soon die because apart from the life source it dies. Simply put, a living plant or animals dies without it’s life source. What we learn from the scripture is that Christ brought light and life into our world.
Christ is our Life Source…
Physical Life From creation…. Light and life to all He brings
Spiritual Life… I have come to give life abundant and eternal

Victorious living and effective soul-winning service are not the product of our better selves and hard endeavors but are simply the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We are not called upon to produce the fruit, but simply to bear it. Source: Roy Hession in The Calvary Road
As we think further about this abiding process note verse 7.

V7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you will ask what you will and it will be done for you.
The emphasis of this whole chapter is about abiding in Christ as a branch abides in a vine.

How does this abiding take place? Christ initiates the action here. It is His grace that makes our salvation possible. It is his grace that makes our growth possible. But as disciples we must make an effort to remain or abide in Christ. Remaining is not simply believing in him, though that is crucial, but that is only the beginning point of our Christian journey. Abiding includes being in union with him, sharing his thoughts, emotions, intentions and power. In a relationship both parties must be engaged. The divine must take the initiative and provide the means and the ability for the union to take place, but it cannot happen without the consequence of remaining which brings about the bearing of much fruit (v. 5), but the consequence of not remaining is being cast out, withered, gathered and burned. This may be a reference to eschatological judgment and ultimate separation from God if we do not abide in Christ.
A visitor came to see a famous farm and was deeply impressed with how well the farm was managed and kept. And what beautiful crops were produced. The visitor simply said, “you and God have done a great job with this farm”. The farmer replied, “You should have seen this place when God had it alone”. Now maybe the farmer was bragging about his work overconfidently. But I think there is a measure of how we must cooperate with the work of God in this abiding process to produce the harvest that God really desires.

Any vital relationship requires time and higher levels of communication. I was close with friends in high school many years ago. Most of those friendships ended over time and lack of communication. Similar relationships in my past with people were lost through moves I have made and time and commitments that were given to the new place where I served. Those previous relationships ended because I could not commit the time and energy needed. Relationships like any living thing require time and attention to nurture and promote growth. But here is the most important thing. My relationship with Jesus continued to grow and develop, even as I started new friendships in new places where I served. Christ was the central part of all those experiences. I hope you have found this to be true in your life also.

Let’s look at another imagery from nature which gives a means of how we abide or remain in a relationship with the Lord. Recall Ps 1 Blessed is the person who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinner, nor sits in the seat of the scornful… but his delight is the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night and then catch the next part…. He will be like a tree planted by rivers of water, giving forth fruit in his season and whatever he does will prosper.

Here again we see the imagery of a tree which is associated with a person who is meditating on God’s word…You will notice how unwise and sinful ways are being “pruned” from this righteous person’s life. And there is a real saturation in God’s word.

Call to mind in your own life… people who were most devout in their faith and were very consistent in their Christian witness. If you look closely, you will find that those people have given themselves greatly to God’s word…. That is one of the key ways we remain in Christ or abide in Christ. John Wesly identified means of grace to help us stay in love with God. (prayer, worship, studying scripture, fasting, attending Holy Communion, fellowship with other believers in a small group). I am only focusing on a couple of the means today with the word of God and being in a study/prayer group.

The Early Church in the book of Act devoted themselves to the Apostle’s Teaching (scripture), prayer, fellowship and breaking of bread (Holy Communion) Acts 2:42. And the church was fruitful …it was growing tremendously. It was growing like kudzu!
Colossians instructs us to let the word of God dwell in you richly. Let’s look a little further in this teaching in verse 9.
V9 Jesus said Abide in my Love… And again, he states that he has kept His Father’s commandments and abides in His love. So, the emphasis is on not just knowing God’s word but being obedient to what it says to do. Not just hearing the words but doing the word…

The timing of this is significant because we have been calling our congregation to engage in prayer and study groups. We are doing this a means for our congregation to be more closely connected to Christ and to each other. Although I did not read it in the scripture lesson today. Jesus gives a great reason as to why we do these things. Yes we do it so that we can be fruitful. But let’s look later in this teaching down at verse 11.

V11 The conclusion of this abiding is that we may have joy… completeness of joy.

Sadly, some think Christianity is boring, legalistic overly restrictive with a lot of do’s and don’t. Yes, there are commands to follow. There are truth to maintain. But the truthful reality is that our obedience to God’s word makes us healthy, holy, and essentially happy but not just momentary happiness but deep abiding joy in our hearts because we are faithful to Christ and we are fulfilling the purpose for which God has designed us. And this bring lasting joy!

John Ortberg gives a very personal application of this metaphor of the vineyard from Proverbs:
The writer of Proverbs 24:30–34 says: I was going past a vineyard, and it was a mess. There were thorns all over the place, the grounds were covered with weeds, and the walls were falling down.
To understand the angst behind this proverb … you have to understand that in the ancient Middle East, a piece of land capable of growing crops was one of the most valuable things in the world. To be the owner of a vineyard was to be blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime. And here is the more personal part…
Everybody gets a vineyard. When you were born, you got a vineyard. You got your body, your mind, your will, and some relationships. You got financial resources and the chance to do some good work. You got a soul. Everybody gets a vineyard, and that vineyard is your one and only shot on this planet. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and you don’t even have to care for it on your own. God will partner with you.

Nonetheless, God never forces anybody to take action and care for their vineyard. The writer of this Proverb says, “I was walking past a vineyard, and I thought of what it might have been.” He sees that the vineyard could have been a thing of beauty. It could have been a source of pride, joy, and income to the owner. It could have been a blessing to everybody around it, because in ancient cultures, a place that grew things that people could eat or drink from was a blessing to everybody. But the vineyard the writer observed wasn’t any of those things. It fell tragically short of what it might have been. The writer wonders why: Was there some catastrophe? Was there a drought, flood, fire, or some other disaster? No. It was just sheer negligence on the part of the owner of the vineyard. He had no idea what he had. He was throwing away the opportunity of a lifetime. That’s the strange power of entropy. It’s not even a thing. It’s sheer neglect, and people throw their lives away because of it every day. …

People have these fantasies: I want the perfect marriage, I want the perfect circle of friends, I want the perfect career and the perfect education; if I can’t have that, then I won’t do anything. The writer of Proverbs says we must start with reality. Work the land that is your land—your body, your life, your relationships, your work—because that vineyard is all you have. If it’s ever going to be different, it won’t be because the vineyard fairy comes and sprinkles fairy dust on it. It will be because you asked God to help you. It will be because you’ve asked him, “What’s the next step that you want me to take?” It is allowing Him to be the Vine and receiving life giving instruction from Him as a branch abides in a vine! In closing:

Make sure you are trusting in Christ, who is the True Vine… The only true Source of life both physical and spiritual life… The only One who can place us in right relationship with God.
You will never have real life without Christ!

Allow God to prune your life by removing bad influences or sinful practices

Nurture Your Vital Connection with Jesus (Keep the means of grace)
Read and Study God’s word daily
Become involved in a study/prayer group that helps you abide in Christ.

The altar is open for anyone who needs to pray or perhaps pray about making these commitments in your life.