I Am the True Vine
15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 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. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
The Hatred of the World
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. (ESV)
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
This verse is a great reminder that we need to abide in a relationship with Christ. He gives us the grace and strength to live in obedience and bear spiritual fruit!
Also, if you missed the sermon this weekend or want to hear it again you can watch it here: http://www.compasschurch.org/blogs/sermons/
5″I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
This verse gives us the key to bearing fruit as a Christian…having a living relationship with Christ. When we try to bear fruit on our own, without relying on Christ, we will fall flat. Having a relationship with Christ means that we are in frequent communication with Him. Think about it, can you have a solid relationship with someone that you do not communicate with on a regular basis? The answer is no. We need to be committed to reading God’s Word and praying daily so that we can hear from God and bear fruit through His power. (It seems like many of the ways we can apply what we are reading in the Bible is to read God’s Word and pray daily! J )
5″I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Jesus clearly points out here that apart from Him we cand do nothing. Our sinfull nature automaticly deprives us from doing anything good, and so we need the righteous live of Christ to live through us. We remain in Christ by following His commands (v.10), if we love God than this should be something that we desire above all things, to obey our Lord and Master. Every good thing that we do is from God and not ourselves, with that mindest we can begin to understand God’s grace on a completely differnet level.
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
We can say all we want about our relationship with Christ, but Jesus makes a huge point here: We prove we are with Him by obeying Him. It seems simple but it’s what we need to do to lead by example and glorify the name of Christ. We are to obey Him and this will show the people around us that we act diffeent. This way we can show that Christians are different and don’t conform to the world.
5″I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Each day you and I do many things. However, apart from Christ we can not do anything of eternal value or significance. We are dependent on Him to do anything that matters. Thus, if we want to live productive lives, we must stay connected to Him throughout the day by reading the Bible, meditating on/memorizing verses, and prayer.
5″I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Wow I see this is a popular verse. But I think in some ways it encompasses are christian walk. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” We have to remember that with out abiding in Christ everyday we are not able to live our christian lives. As Dan said we are not able to do anything of eternal value. We may think we are living as Christians, but if we do not remain in Christ we are not. That’s why it is so important to read our bibles and pray and “remain” in Christ everyday because the Christ is our source and Gods word is our truly the Compass of how we should live our lives. If we are not reading and studying Christ how can we abide in Him. This just affirms how important it is that we carve out a time durring the day to study and know Christ more and more.
5″I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
This verse shows that we’re nothing without the Lord and we can do nothing without Him, everything is worthless that we do without Him, We got to mature in Christ by living by His Word and prayer so our branch stays strong and grows stronger and that we are firmly connected and remain to the vine (Jesus) this shows us how important our relationship is with Christ.
This chapter is great because it has soooo much we can take out of it! It’s an awesome reminder that not only God lives in us as Chirstians but we will bear fruit only through him!
5″I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
This verse stuck out to me a lot, just showing that if we have a clear understanding of Jesus Christ and a true relationship with him we will bear fruit. The people around us will know we have a relationship with Chirist by the fruit we bear! I just thinks thats an awesome reminder because we always have to be watching how we are acting at Chirstians and being an example to non-chirstians and our fellow Brothers & Sisters in Chirst!
Looks like verse 5 is where everyone is hitting today! I too am reminded of the fact that as Christians, disciples of the Lord we fruit is the evidence of our salvation. In fact it is by our fruit that those around us will know that we are one of His. But we are reminded here as well that it is only through God our Father and enabler that we can bear this fruit. It is not our works that save us but the redeeming work of Christ on the cross. The fruit/works come after we have turned from our sins and put our faith in Him but there must be fruit in order for there to be salvation.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Okay, this verse definitely stood out to me. Many of us struggle with loving one another at times. This verse is such an encouragement I think, because if you hold a grudge against someone and think of this verse, it will help! Just say these words in your head, “Love each other as I have loved you.” We should love others as Christ loved us! As Christians, we need to be loving to those around us, and to reach out to them!
5″I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Wow this verse stuck out to me the most. Jesus says to us in this that if we don’t have Him and have a strong relationship with Him we will bear no fruit. But with Him and having that relationship we bear much fruit. The last part of the verse it stands out to me that if we are Christians we have to live our lives 24.7 with Jesus Christ or we will be able to do nothing.
13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends
This has always been my favorite verse since i was a little kid. This verse really stuck out to me when i was young because it made me realize Christ love for us was so strong that He did lay down His life for his friends that didn’t deserve anything, but Christ was willing enough to obey His Father and do so just so that we could get another chance.
LOVE JOHN 15!!!!
I have no idea we started John but I guess that just shows I’ve been slackin on being here. But I’m looking to post daily from Cleveland from now on!!
6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
This is a great illustration of not only non-Christians but those who go apostate. It’s pretty clear that Christ says to “remain” in Him. This is clearly evidencing that although we may “say a prayer” or initially trust in Christ, we cannot be the seed that is sowed among the thorns (Parable – Matthew 13) and decide at a certain point in our lives to stop turning to the Bible or praying to the LORD. Our job as Christ’s disciples is to REMAIN (a definite action verb) in Him and Christ makes it clear that if we are not daily focusing on remaining in Him, we will perish because we are separating ourselves from God. We have to realize that God will also punish non-Christians because they did not follow him. Instead of being scared, however, we need to be motivated by this verse to realize the seriousness of our commitment to Christ and rejoice in that fact that when we remain in Him, he blesses us and spares us freely from his wrath!!
What? Im not sure what college people are doing on here :P :) haha jk matt… its awesome to see you repping from Cleveland!!!!
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
This is a simple verse but with great meaning…. Christ is calling his followers, his disciples, his friends… If we are called His friends, it means that we love him, and he loves us. So the way we show our love for Him is by doing what He commanded. This is an encouraging verse to know that we can show our love for Christ outwardly by doing what he says :)
20Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
We know that since Christ was persecuted, we who proclaim Him will be persecuted as well. But one thing that we might not think about as much is that just as people responded correctly to Christ’s message, God promises to use us to bring genuine believers to Him as well. So even though we face trouble and persecution, we shouldn’t become disheartened because we can take comfort in knowing that our efforts are not in vain because we are still brining Him Glory and that He will bring people to Him as He promises.
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
This verse shows me how important it is to stay connected with God so that we can be fruitful and alive. Without Him we are nothing
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
This is an encouragement to obey what Christ has commanded… If you obey what He says you can have a personal friendship with Him the almight God! That is awesome, and it should motivate us to tell more people about Him.
18″If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
I think this verse is a great encouragement when we are out evangelizing becuase if we get shut down or ridiculed, we will know that we are in the father because the world is hating us. We also have God to turn to obviously because he has been hated by the world and knows the answer.
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
I totally agree with Dillon on this………..How cool is it that we have a personal friendship with Christ!! When someone says that i am a close friend or just a friend for that matter, it means a lot to me, so the fact that God is saying that is just mind blowing!
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
i really liked the first sentence of this verse… we are physically incapable to choose Christ; that pretty much blows the idea of the “accept Jesus into your heart” conspiracy out of the water… its encouraging knowing that God is the only one who choose us and appointed us to be His children.
8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
What a great verse about what our lives totally come back to! We bear fruit and do good works for God’s glory not our own. It is for the sake of His name that we live holy lives!
2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
I like this verse because it’s saying that the Lord will rid you of all your sinful ways and nourish your life as a Christian.
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
this verse was very encouraging because we should love everybody for christ loved us. i know that sometimes when i am mad or somebody it is hard to love them, but if we are living are lives for god we should want to obey his commandment’s and thaat is very encouraging, there fore we should be excited to love everybody
23He who hates me hates my Father as well.
This verse is just saying that anyone who hates the Lord hates the Father as well. If anyone hates a Christian on this world then they also hate the Father. If anyone hates Christianity then they hate all Christians including the Father. You can think of this as persucution. You can face lots of this when your evangelizing. So anyone who persucutes a Christian would be someone who hates the Father. It is very sad
8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
I would have to agree with Matt Cox on this one!! At times, i think we all need to focus on our motives and who we are representing throughout the day. Are we representing a life for Christ or a life living for this world?? We got to give God the glory in EVERYTHING that we do! :)
I would like to follow up on what Bobcat said. He said it pretty clearly.
20Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
We, as Christians, are going to be persecuted for God was persecuted. Even though God had no faults, He was beaten and put on a cross. We, as these sinful people, probably deserve some of the persecution that we get but God didn’t deserve any of it. We also can be good examples for those who don’t believe though. If we follow what the teacher says for you to do in school, something as simple as that, some students might follow your example and obey as well. If we tell them about a sin that is wrong in their life, they might listen and take that to heart so let us continue to confront people who need to be confronted because I know that I appreciate it when people confront me about a sin in my life because then i can change it for the better. :D I also noticed how Jesus told us twice to love one another as I have loved you. He emphasizes it because it is His most important commandment and yet, we have issues with it. Let us remember what Jesus has commanded and love one another! :)
This chapter has a lot of “happy” verses :D
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
If we say we’re a Christian, we would strive to be his disciples. We should also live to bring god glory. In this verse, it says we can do exactly this by bearing much fruit and following His commandments. Because I’m claiming to be in Christ, I need to make sure I’m bearing good fruit all the time and setting a good example.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
And so… if we do all this, Jesus says: You are my friend. This is an AMAZING thing. Something that we should all want!! I know I do :D
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
17 This is my command: Love each other…
Whatever is written in the Bible is obviously important…”love each other” is written twice in this chapter….so its got to be REALLY IMPORTANT!!….It is imparative to love each other….that is what God commands….He loved us enough to give His only son as a sacrifice! (John 3:16)….that is LOVE!! We have to be willing to love each other to the point that we would give our life for them…..love brings people closer together…..as Christians we need to love each other…God commads it.
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
We have to remember to humble ourselves before God because we are nothing without Him. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to bear good fruit. Our human nature doesn’t produce good fruit ,but sine we have the Holy Spirit in us we are freed from our nature of sin.
20Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
This verse stood out to me because we have to remember and know the costs of being a christian. Always stay strong and be bold for the Lord and never be afraid and fear others but still fear God.
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
I like this verse because Jesus is saying that we need to have a good relationship with Him.It dosent matter what are friends think of us we just need to live for Christ!And if we do what He wants then we our glorifing Christ.
Chew I liked verse 16 too because it is important to know that one day we were not like hhmm Jesus sounds cool how bout I follow him. Without God himself there is no posible way we could follow him.
Also I liked verse 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
This stuck out to me because it really reminds me of how people don’t like to get told they are a sinner…(not fun)…They don’t want to here well Jesus says homosexuality or abortion and other stuff is wrong because they are too caught up in what they like/want and don’t want the guilt of the truth.
2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
It would not be a good thing to be the unfruitifull branch! We need to be always bearing good fruit in the Lords name!!!!!