Sunday School Lesson on Vine and Branches

Home >> Sunday School >> Sunday School Lessons >>

Sunday School Lesson on Vine and Branches

Introduction

A. You Can't Do It Alone

Whether we like it or not, there are manythings a person can't do alone. You can't sing aduet alone; you can't run a relay race alone; youcan't hold a conference alone; you can't do agroup presentation alone; you can't play catchalone. As much as it may hurt our pride, thereare some things that we can only do with thehelp and support of other people.

In our passage today Jesus adds somethingelse to the list of things that we can't do our-selves: Jesus insists that we can't please Godalone. This is the case because we draw ourstrength for service from our connection toChrist. God also commands us to love other people. We can't love others as long as we are fo-cused on "going it alone."

B. Lesson Background

The three letters that John wrote (namely, 1, 2,and 3 John) reveal sobering news: the churchesand people whom John addressed had experi-enced, or were just about to experience, seriousinternal crisis. John wrote his Gospel around AD85-90 and the letters perhaps shortly thereafter.The 55 years or so since the death and resurrec-tion of Christ allowed ample time for false doc-trines and false Christs to spring up (compare1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7). Church splitswere occurring (3 John 9, 10).

John's letters reveal that he wanted to correctthese situations. A large part of the solution isfound in John's Gospel. There John made sure toinclude Jesus' teaching about the vine andbranches. This reminded believers that theymost remain connected to the true Christ and toone another if they wished to please God.

I. Connected to Jesus(John 15,1-11)

A. Pruning the Vineyard (vv. 1-3)

1.I am the true vine, and my Father is thehusbandman.

Jewish readers would likely detect an allusionhere to Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard. In Isaiah5:1-7 the prophet compares Israel to a choicevineyard that God planted in the promised land.He tended it with special care. Of course God ex-pected a good harvest for His work, as anyfarmer would. Instead the Israelites producedunrighteousness and injustice.

The vine imagery appears in other Old Testa-ment passages as well (see Psalm 80:8-16; Isaiah27:2, 3; Jeremiah 2:21; 12:10, 11; and Ezekiel 15).Here in John 15 Jesus now applies Old Testa-ment imagery in a new way: the true vine, whichwill yield a faithful harvest, is Christ himself.Jesus replaces Judaism as the means by whichpeople are connected to God, the keeper (hus-bandman) of the vineyard.

2.Every branch in me that beareth not fruithe taketh away: and every branch that bearethfruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth morefruit.

The imagery in this verse outlines God's workas the keeper of the vineyard. Jesus is the vine,and He now pictures the disciples as branches.When a branch withers or fails to produce fruit,it most be cut off from the vine to protect theoverall health of the plant. In a similar way the

disciples are forewarned that God expects theistto be faithful; if they are not, they may lose theirprivileged position. Compare John the Baptist'sdire warning in Matthew 3:10: "And now alsothe use is laid unto the root of the trees: thereforeevery tree which bringeth not forth good fruit ishewn down, and cast into the fire."

On the other hand, the vine keeper also tendsto the healthy branches by pruning them back inorder to insure the maximum yield. This imagerypossibly alludes to the persecution that Jesuswill predict for the disciples in John 16:1-4. Seealso the discussion of God's discipline in He-brews 12:3-11. Some will respond to suffering bylosing their faith; others will because strongerand even more effective through these experi-ences. I See question #1, page 224.J

The exact nature of the fruit that Jesus has inmind is not defined here. He may be alludingback to John 14:15. There He said that thosewho love Him will keep His commandments; ifthis is the case, then the fruit here is similar toPaul's "fruit of the Spirit"—a Christian lifestylecharacterized by "love, (oy, peace, long-suffer-ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem-perance" (Galatians 5:22, 23). (See question #2.;•.,ge 224.1

Or it may be that Jesus is thinking more ofJohn 14:30, 31, where He speaks of what theworld most learn. If this is the case, the fruitwould refer to the disciples' evangelizing efforts.Both meanings may be in view, and each is cer-tainly an essential measure of spiritual health.

WHEN LESS YIELDS MORE

I grew up in suburbia in a family that had nointerest in landscaping or beautification. I can'tremember either of my parents ever planting anyflowers or even maintaining houseplants. Wehad a happy home, but developing a greenthumb was just not part of our family activities.When my wife and 1 bought our first house, itwas on a small lot in a major city, and the previ-ous owner had planted a rosebush just in front of But even I could tell that the rosebush, whichcarried very few blossoms, was overgrown. Thenext spring I decided to cut back the plant. Therewere a lot of branches clustered in the center ofthe bush, and they were bending across eachother.

So I cut out some of the excess branches inthe center while thinning some of the outerbranches. To my delight that summer the rose-bush was covered wills blossoms! There were farnuare blossoms than I would have assumed,even though I knew that was supposed to be theresult.

That's the principle Jesus is talking abouthere. Even healthy plants need to be pruned formaximum productivity. Sometimes Jesus needsto cut some of the "stuff' out of our lives so thatwe can produce issuer and better results for Hiskingdom. We should expect Him to do so.

3. Now ye are clean through the word which Ihave spoken unto you.

The word clean refers back to the pruningprocess in verse 2. The disciples have beencleansed—prepared to serve and to witness—through their constant exposure to Jesus' teach-ing. Earlier, Jesus had referred to them as cleanin order to distinguish them from Judas, whosemotives obviously were impure and ungodly(John 13:10, 11).

B. Bearing Fruit (vv. 4-8)

4, 5. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branchcannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in thevine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Iam the vine, ye are the branches: He thatabidelli in me, and I in him, the same bringethforth much fruit; for without me ye can donothing.

The ideas of "that which should abide in us"and "whom we should abide in" are very impor-tant to the apostle John (see John 5:38; 14:17;15:7; 1 John 2:14, 24, 27). The emphasis is on re-maining faithful. This can come about onlythrough closeness and unity with God.

The first statement in verse 4 is a promise tobelievers. A good paraphrase might be, "If youremain faithful to me, then 1 will remain faithfulto you"—Christ will not abandon us. This chargeis especially important in light of verse 2. Just asa branch cannot bear grapes without the nourish-ment provided by the vine, so believers cannotlive lives that please God without the strengthavailable through Christ.

If we lose that connection, then we lose ourpower to serve. And once we lose the power toserve and bear fruit, we are in great danger. Thedanger is not just in being pruned back a littlebut in being pruned away permanently (Luke13:6-9). Jesus emphasizes this point here in verse5 so that there can be no misunderstanding:without me ye can do nothing. [See question #3,

6.If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth asa branch, and is withered; and men gatherthem, and cast them into the fire, and they areburned.

After the keeper of the vineyard prunes awaythe dead branches, he throws them into a pit andburns them. The wood from vines is useless foranything but burning (compare Ezekiel 15:1-5).Jesus alludes here to ultimate judgment of thosewho fall away: they are separated from the faith-ful and cast into eternal fire (compare Matthew 13:37-42).

7.If ye abide in me. and my words abide inyou. ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall bedone unto you.

Jesus informs His hearers of one way that Hewill continue to empower them: through Hiswords or teachings. By learning what Jesus com-manded while on earth, believers will knowwhat they must do to please God. Is there any-thing more important than learning what Jesusdesires of us?

It is important to stress both the context andthe condition of the promise in this verse. First,in context Jesus is speaking about our ability tohear fruit through obedience to Him. Thus weare invited to ask for the power to serve, and Jesus will give it. We are not necessarily beingpromised that physical health or material bless-ings await just for the asking. In fact the refer-ence to "pruning" in verse 2 may suggest thatGod will ask us to do without such things attimes in order to increase our faith.

Second, the condition of our successful askingis stated in the first part of the verse: we mustabide in Christ and allow His Word to abide inus. If we remain closely connected to Jesus andmeditate on His teaching. then we can have aproper perspective on God's will for our lives.This perspective should focus our prayers onthings that please Him rather than ourselves(compare James 4:3).

8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bearmuch fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

God receives glory when we bear much fruit inthe sense that our actions reveal His power atwork in the world. When we do the right thing.our witness to others shows that we recognizeGod to be worthy of our service and worship.Jesus' entire earthly ministry has been focusedon the glory of God (John 17:4). We show that weare His true followers when we attempt to do thesame thing in our own lives.

CHANNELS OF PRODUCTIVITY

We all enjoy the result of fruit trees' produc-tivity. Fruit, however, is not always automatic. Iremember we had an old apple tree in our yardwhen I was a youngster. We did nothing to en-hance the fruit, and the result was not very good.There were a lot of apples. but they were wormy,misshapen, bletnished, and not worth eating.Much later I learned that fruit trees require agood deal of care. Spraying controls the wormsand blemishes. Pruning the trees helps produc-tion. Fertilizer and special applications aid thewhole process. Fruit growers spend a lot of timeand go to considerable expense to increase theyield of their trees.

But there is one thing that never happens inthe process of producing fruit: the tree branchesthemselves don't have to go to extra effort to pro-duce. Imagine tree branches hunkering down,grunting and groaning like a weight lifter doing adead lift. Imagine tree branches working up asweat while trying to increase the size of theirfruit. Ridiculous, isn't it?

Yet we often attempt the same thing in tryingto produce spiritual fruit. We strain as if the fruitcomes from us. It doesn't. It only comes when we(the branches) are tapped into Jesus (the vine).Perhaps that's why Jesus says that the Father isglorified when we produce fruit. We aren't the producers—God is. We are channels of His pro-ductivity, if we allow ourselves to be.

C. Abiding in Love (vv. 9-11)

9.As the Father bath loved me, so have Iloved you: continue ye in my love.

Love is the bond that unites the Father and theSon. It is also the bond that unites the brancheswith the vine. Jesus' entire ministry has been anexpression of God's love for Him and for theworld, and Jesus has shown the same love to thedisciples. Continue is another translation of theGreek word for "abide": Jesus' love is our home,the place where we live. Verses 10 and 11 (next)will spell out two effects of this abiding love inour lives.

10.If ye keep my commandments, ye shallabide in my love; even as I have kept nay Father'scommandments, and abide in his love.

Jesus now explains exactly how it is possibleto continue living in His love. When we see whatChrist has done for us, we should respond byobeying His teachings. This could include all ofHis ethical commands, such as we see in the Ser-mon on the Mount. But the focus Isere is proba-bly on the "new commandment" that Jesus hasjust spelled out at John 13:34. He will repeat it in15:12, below—"love one another." By showinglove for one another, we imitate Christ's love forus. (See also 1 John 5:2.)

11. These things have I spoken unto you, thatmy joy might remain in you, and that your joymight be full.

The thought of Christian service, love for oth-ers, and obedience to Christ's commands oftenseems overwhelming and impossible. Yet Jesushighlights the benefit of obedience: joy. Thephrase any joy refers to the satisfaction that Jesusreceives from knowing that He perfectly fulfillsGod's will, despite the difficulties He faces.Such joy remains with us when we know thatwe also are following Christ's commands andbearing fruit despite circumstances. Of coursethis is not to say that we always will be happy inthis life; we can, however, always be confidentin the knowledge that God is pleased with ourwork.

Connected to One Another(John 15:12-17)

A. New Commandment (vv. 12, 13)12, 13.

This is nay commandment, That yelove one another, as I have loved you. Greaterlove bath no man than this, that a man laydown his life for his friends.

Love one another is Jesus' "new command-ment" of John 13:34, as noted above. Jesus' loveis the model for the relationships we are to havewith other believers.

Jesus illustrates this love by referring the disci-ples to what He has done for them already (as Ihave loved you). Up to this point in time, He hasallowed them to enjoy a special, privileged rela-tionship with Him. He has provided for theirneeds. He has protected them both physicallyand spiritually, as they have allowed Hint to.Jesus also illustrates the kind of love He istalking about by referring the disciples to whatHe is about to do in the very near future. He willprovide the ultimate sacrifice by laying down hislife for them on the cross.

Such sacrificial love is the purest expressionof the fruit that Christ empowers us to bear. Thisdoes not mean that Jesus calls us to die upon across as He did. That was a one-time event, notto be repeated. Yet if the type of love that is evi-dent in the cross is not evident in our lives aswell, then we clearly are not drawing our powerfrom the Christ, who died for sinners.

B. Friends of Christ (vv. 14-16)

14. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever Icommand you.

The term friends is used to refer to peoplesharing the same social status in the ancientworld. Viewed in this light the disciples must seethis comment as something of a paradox. Techni-cally, a servant (one who follows commands) isnot a friend (an equal) to his or Iser master. Weare friends of Christ in the sense that we areprivileged to know His thinking, as was Abra-ham (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:0; James 2:23)and Moses (Exodus 33:111. See the next verse.IS, question 05, pa,_ '4 I

15, Henceforth I call you not servants; for theservant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but Ihave called you friends; for all things that 1have heard of my Father I have made knownunto you.

The slave or servant does not need to under-stand the naster's orders; he or she simply needsto obey them without asking questions. Jesus isour Lord, and He does not invite us to questionHis commands. Al the same lime, however, Hehas not simply left us with a code of laws .drules. Rather, Jesus has openly revealed the Fa-ther's will and purposes to the disciples. He hastaught them the importance of revealing God'slove to the world.

We should therefore be able to understandwhy it is so important for us to bear fruit and

se not necessarily beinghealth or material bless-asking. In fact the refer-erse 2 may suggest thatwithout such things ate our faith, of our successful askingrt of the verse: we mustsc His Word to abide in• connected to Jesus andng. then we can have akid's will for our lives.

PRODUCrIVITY

While we can enjoy the privilege of friendship with Jesus, we must never forget that He is theboss. Christ is the one who initiates a relation-ship with us, and we should not take His offerlightly.

At the same time, however, we should feel se-cure in the knowledge that Jesus has not set usup to fail: He has not ordained that we should bepruned away and cast off (v. 2). He has cleansedus instead (v. 3). He tells as everything that weneed to know to bear fruit. Because of our rela-tionship with Him, we can expect not only God'sfavor but also His power for service.

C. New Commandment Reprised (v. 17)

17.These things I command you, that ye loveone another.

Jesus closes by repealing the essential ele-ment in bearing fruit: that new commandmentto love one another. By the time the apostle Johnwrites his letters, this new commandment be-comes an old commandment (2 John 5). Yet itbears repeating!

The disciples will have to depend on one an-other for support once Jesus is gone. The churchwill not he able to grow if it is divided. Strangely,Christians often take the command to love one'sneighbor (Mark 12:31) more seriously than thecommand to love one another. That makes usprey to easy criticism from nonbelievers. Whowants to join a divided church?

Conclusion

A. Friends in High Places

Everyone knows that there are a lot of thingswe can't have access to unless we know peoplein "high places." I am devoted fan of NASCAR,and recently I was able to secure a garage pass toa race in Indianapolis. This pass allowed me fullaccess to all the behind-the-scenes areas at therace. These included the garages where the carsare serviced and the areas where the drivers andcrews meet to discuss strategy.

I saw many of my favorite drivers up closethere, as well as some other celebrities who hadcome to the race. All this was possible solely be-cause my cousin's husband works as a member

of the crew on one of the NASCAR teams. With-out his help I would have been watching fromthe stands or on television.

Our passage today applies that principle to ourspiritual lives. If we follow Jesus' teaching, Hetreats us as "friends," and with Jesus, you reallydo have "a friend in high places"! With Him onour side, there is no limit to what we can do—provided that we stay connected.

How sad it is to see an unconnected Christian!Ironically, it seems sometimes that it is preacherswho are in the most danger of losing their con-nection to the true vine. Preachers are undertremendous pressure to be involved in all themajor and minor activities of the church. Theyscurry from one meeting to another, trying tokeep all the programs going. Under all this timepressure, it's tempting for them to start cuttingback on their prayer and devotional life.

The cure for the Christian who is relying onhis or her own strength to get things done isZechariah 4:6: "Not by might, nor by power, butby my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."

B. Prayer

Lord, we know that You have called us to loveone another the may that You loved us. Butsometimes our pride and feelings get in the way,and we don't treat each other the way that weknow we should. Help us to see the importanceof unity in Your church. Help us to bear fruit bystaying closely connected to You and to one an-other. In Jesus' name, amen.

C. Thought to Remember

When we bear fruit and love one another weshow that we understand Jesus.

Home :: Contact Us :: About Us :: Privacy Policy :: Terms of Use :: Site Map