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Text: John 15 I love that Jesus is so good at painting pictures with words. He will take what could easily be complicated theological truths and simplify them with a word-picture so just about anyone can understand. As we continue in our Journey to Easter from the Gospel of John, we are going to look today at the relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and those who follow Jesus. In John 15, Jesus teaches about these relationships using the image of a grape vine. He first describes the relationship between himself and God the Father. Then he teaches about his own relationship to us. Finally, he breaks out of the word picture to speak directly to the way that he connects us to the love of God. It is a vivid and compelling picture and helps us understand what it means to be followers of Christ. The FRUIT: Vine and Vinedresser (vv. 1-4) Jesus begins with a picture of Himself and the Father: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” (v. 1) Now it is important to not try to over-do the metaphor. We don’t need to figure out everything there is to be known about vines or vinedressers. Jesus is not offering a comprehensive explanation of who he is or who God is. Rather, he tells us exactly what this image is to teach us, and in these first verses it’s all about the FRUIT. And there are two specifics here for us: The vine-dresser is interested in fruit and prunes the branches that don’t bear any. (v. 2)The vine is necessary to the fruit-bearing capability of the branches. (vv. 3-4) What is the “fruit” in which the vine-dresser is interested? What is the fruit that is produced because of the connection with the vine and how does that connection work? Jesus drops the metaphor in v. 3 and reveals those things. The fruit is being “clean” before God – another metaphor, but one more easily understood as being cleansed of sin… that is, being made right with God. And Jesus says we are clean because of the Word he has spoken to us… God’s message, the truth, the Good News about the Kingdom and about Jesus. So cleansing from sin is Jesus’ work (good thing!); but we experience and accept and appropriate that work through listening and obeying God’s Word, written and Living. As Jesus says – there is no fruit apart from Him! (v.4) We reflect that in our order of worship. We listen to God’s Word and then we confess our sin and accept the grace of God in Christ. It’s like regular tending and maintenance of the grape vine. It’s also why we worship regularly: to be nourished, fed, and cultivated by God through scripture and Christ. Jesus is describing how God works in us! The CONNECTION: Vine and Branches (vv. 5-8) Back in the vine image in verse 5, Jesus explicitly focuses on the CONNECTION in the vine and names us as “branches.” Now he says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” And now he explores in more detail the relationship between himself and us. Though already stated once in v. 4, he now makes clear that branches do not bear fruit apart from the vine. He also says it explicitly, “…apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5) and “[he/she] dries up.” (v. 6) There are some other intriguing details in this middle section. There is the frightening imagery of being “thrown away… and cast into the fire” (v. 6) – that is not describing a capricious God, but the results of rejecting Christ and his Word. On what seems like the other extreme is the promise of “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (v. 7) But again, this is not a capricious genie-God, granting wishes to the faithful; rather, it is the natural blessing of living in God’s will. Leading up to Easter, we looked at how rooted Jesus was in God’s Word and seeking God’s will. That is the same thing being described here in the first part of v. 7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you… THEN ask… and it will be done.” What do you ask for with that kind of abiding in Christ and His Word? You ask for God’s will to be