The Words of Jesus

A message from John 15:1-8 by Phil Rogers 4/02/07

To listen to Phil's message click here mp3

The Lord drew my attention to this passage at the beginning of this year when I was asking him for direction and vision for 2007. Many of you will have heard my message on 7th Jan on Bearing Fruit. Today I want to continue in this passage by looking at what the words of Jesus can do.

Jesus compares himself with a cultivated vine, his Father with a vine grower and us, members of the local church, with branches in that vine. In verse two there is a play on words in the Greek. Every new branch that is not mature enough to bear fruit he raises up, (Greek - airo) and every branch that does bear fruit he lowers down (Greek - kathairo) so that it may bear better quality fruit. Which is exactly how grapes have always been grown. New branches are tied in high up so they get lots of sunlight, while the year old fruiting branches are tied in low down so that the bunches of grapes have room to hang below the vine and develop. But the play on words comes with the word kathairo. It is probably a rare Greek word derived from katharos - clean, meaning to prune. This is not used anywhere else in the bible, but occurs in other literature for pruning plants. Just as the English word ‘prune’ can mean cut back or a dried plum, 'kathairo' can mean lower or prune. Both meanings are possible here, lowering or pruning - both will aid the production of top quality fruit.

v3. Pruning is the preferred translation because the very next verse Jesus says ‘You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.’ Clean, katharos, refers to kathairo in the sense of pruning. How does the Father, our vine grower, prune his vine? The disciples were cleaned or pruned by thewords that Jesus spoke to them. Through his words, they were ‘already pruned’, cleaned up, ready to produce great fruit. Think of the Lord’s words like a sharp pruning knife. (cf. the sword of the Spirit) In Father’s hands it has can prune us, it can cleanse us. This morning we will look at five ways that a vine grower gets the best fruit out of his vine.

1. He prunes out the old wood.
In winter the branches that have already fruited are pruned out. Let’s look forward to the time when our fruiting days are over. Father will cut us from the vine and take us home to glory and will say to us “well done good and faithful servant, enter into your Lord’s joy”. Are we all ready for this? It could happen at any time, young or old. Are we ready to meet our Saviour and rejoice in all the luscious fruit we have produced in this life? (cf The Cross)

2. He lowers every fruit-bearing branch.
Phil shared with us a few weeks ago about taking the lower place, humbling ourselves under God’s mighty hand and repenting of all pride It is deeply humbling to recognise that ‘Without Christ we can do nothing’. But only in a place of humble servanthood can we bear the best fruit. Only in the low place does fruit have room to grow & develop. In a cultivated vine, new young shoots get all the sun and absorb lots of energy. This is carried by the sap into the lower branches where the fruit grows. A church with very few new shoots is a vine in danger of dying! New converts bring life, vigour and energy into the local church - they keep us on our toes and, in time, they mature to become fruit bearing branches. We need lots of new shoots. In a cultivated vine, new shoots grow out of the main stem, not out of other branches. So we may feel growing new shoots has nothing to do with us; it is God’s work. But all anologies break down at some point. This is no excuse for passivity. New shoots grow on a healthy vine full of sap. At Longleat last weekend, our youth leaders were exhorted to devote them -selves fully to the Lord, the closer we are to the Lord, the more effectively we will influence others. But this has to be pro-active, doing all we can to see people come to Christ, praying for the Lord to send us out as workers in to his field which is ripe for harvest. This is a time for reaping! (Read article in News & Notices)

3. He prunes new shoots to contain them.
This stops them rambling all over the place and intruding into other vines. As we’ve seen new shoots need raising up and tying into the vine, lest they ramble all over the place. They need one-to-one care to learn how to pray, how to read scripture, how to become a functioning part of the local church and not wander here and there. God’s word prunes us back and helps us know where we are in the vine. Many of us will need to take responsibility for a new person and come alongside them, give them time and help them become established in the Lord. It is hard work but what a joy to see them flourishing in the Lord! So let us prepare ourselves for this work and look out for newcomers.

4. He prunes out dead, damaged and and diseased wood.
After the first flush of enthusiasm at becoming a new branch, we can too easily get damaged or diseased. Such things need pruning out of our lives. The truth of the Lord’s word that the Father speaks into our hearts by the Holy Spirit prunes out the damage and disease that Satan’s lies bring upon us. God’s word brings healing and wholeness. “He sent forth his word and healed them” His word is near us, in our ears, in our hearts to heal us and purge us from all damage and disease. As we spend time talking scripture over with the Lord it cleanses us and even more than that it energises us! Jesus said ‘My words are Spirit and life’. Often Word and Spirit have been separated, but they cannot be separated. We don’t need to keep the Word and the Spirit in balance, they are inseparable. The Spirit works through word, prophecy, words of knowledge, even tongues are words! Jesus healed ‘with a word’. Paul preached the word in a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. But sadly there are lots of words out there that lack life and power, sermons that convey no life or faith at all, theological books and Christian magazines that enter into fruitless speculation and argument. Let’s avoid all such things. When we live in the Spirit we will know the words of God and when we meditate on scripture and let his words live in us, the Spirit makes it come alive to us. The word changes us. We don’t have to try and apply it, it is not about trying to change ourselves, trying to line up with it and do what it says! God’s word has great power in itself to change us from inside out! If we only fully realised what power there was in the pages of this book, we would hardly ever put it down! It cleanses us, prunes us, cuts out all deadness, damage and disease and heals us and makes us whole. Praise God for his precious Word!

5. He prunes for the best fruit.
As we saw before the Father pinches out all the surplus fruiting buds to focus on a limited number of bunches. This is restrictive but its purpose is that we might produce the best quality fruit not loads of inferior fruit. I produce my fruit on my branch, you produce on yours, but all together the Father gets an incredible harvest which so pleases him and he gets him glory. All heaven says “What a magnificent harvest, what wonderful grapes!” Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. Let’s concentrate on what we can do really well, what we have faith for, and not spead ourselves too thinly and produce inedible sour grapes!

God is calling us at ABC in 2007 to be a fruitful vine, whose branches run over the wall, so that God gets all the glory.