You are in: Sermon Transcripts » All Sermons » 06/11/2005 (9.30am / 11.15am)

The Perfect Church - John 15
A sermon preached by Martin Morrison

Printer Friendly Version | Download the MP3 of this sermon

Once again it’s a great joy for me to be here amongst you

We’re going to turn to John 15 and we’ll look at verses 1 to 17.

We hear a lot these days about productivity. I picked up a report on the net - a British report for 2004 found that of the 235 days the average worker spends at work, 87 days were unproductive! Of the sectors that were surveyed the least productive were the banking and the finance sectors - perhaps that’s where you work? The most productive was the telecom industry. According to this report apparently it wasn’t the workers’ fault, it was mainly due to poor management, poor planning and poor controls. I have no doubt that it’s far worse in my own country. In the passage that we have in front of us here (John 15), Jesus talks about productivity, he talks about vines, he talks about branches. His concern of course is not agricultural or material productivity - his concern is spiritual productivity and in the lives of Christians. In fact the key theme in this passage is the mark or the sign of the Christian. The way that you will know a Christian is that they will be spiritually productive. There will be fruit. In fact Jesus says that if there’s no fruit then quite obviously there’s no Christian.

Notice, v5, how Jesus is enormously concerned about being spiritually productive. He says that

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.

The flip side, v2, the opposite,

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.

So what we have in front of us is enormously important because it deals with eternity. It has to deal with how to distinguish between a true Christian and a false Christian. It’s a passage by which we all need to examine our lives, to see whether we are Christians. If there is no fruit, then Jesus says there is no Christian. Now let’s unpack this passage. I’m going to try to answer 3 questions: let me give them to you so that you know where we’re going, but more importantly so that I know where we’re going!

Three questions:

1) Why is spiritual productivity important?
2) How do we become spiritually productive?
3) What are the signs of spiritual productivity?

Let’s dig in straight away. Notice in v1 the first principle -


First, why is spiritual productivity important?

Jesus tells us there in v1 that the answer is quite simple. Without spiritual productivity you will not get to heaven, he says.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.

Again, look at v6

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 burnt.

At first reading we don’t realise how radical these words are that the Lord Jesus spoke, but it would have been enormously radical to the first, the original, hearers. Throughout the Old Testament Israel is described as the vine, it’s almost the national symbol of Israel, much like the shamrock of Ireland or the protia of South Africa - that was true of Israel, their national symbol was the vine. But the sad thing is that almost every time the Old Testament talks about Israel as God’s vine, it emphasises that the vine has failed to produce fruit. So the prophets in the OT speak of judgement on God’s vine. For instance, in Jeremiah 2:21 the prophet says that Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest.

I had planted you like a choice vine, of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt wild vine?

So when Jesus says, ‘I am the true vine’, it’s actually a word of judgement on Israel, that they are no longer the vine. Instead of good grapes they were producing sour grapes and so God has cut them off, he’s thrown them into the fire.

What Jesus is saying in v1 is that he has come to do what the nation of Israel failed to do. He is now the new Israel. The true people of God are those who belong to Christ whether Jew or Gentile. When Jesus says I am the true vine it’s really a judgement of the nominal religion of Israel. Now of course for us, what we have here is an enormously powerful warning to every form of nominal Christianity.

A colleague of mine was asked to visit an elderly man shortly before his death. He shared the gospel with him - how Christ had died for him, for his sins, to rescue him. After he’d shared the gospel he asked him, “On what are you depending to get into heaven? On what basis should God let you into heaven?” The man asked him to open the top drawer of his bedside table, and to take out an old bible. He was asked to open the bible and in the inside cover there was an old ragged baptismal certificate, He handed that to my colleague - that’s what he was depending on to get into heaven.

Jesus says, No, the old Israel was showing no true fruit, that’s nominalism. That’s not true faith at all. Religion won’t get you right with God. My dear friend, you are not a true Christian merely because you’ve been baptised in the Church of England, or are a member of the Church of England - you may be an office-bearer in this church and that doesn’t make you a Christian. You may be a minister, you may be a bishop, that doesn’t make you a Christian at all. No, says Jesus, you must be part of the vine, you must be part of Christ. Did you notice in v1 the exclusive nature of Jesus’ words?

I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.

Jesus never works independently from the Father. He is the vine, but the God the Father is the gardener. They always work together. What that means of course is that no-one can be part of the true people of God unless they belong to Christ. That’s exactly what he taught us, just look at 14:6, isn’t that what Jesus said?

I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.

Those are very exclusive terms, aren’t they? Many of you will know from church history that Christians and churches have differed over the ages as to what is a heresy and what isn’t a heresy. Churches and Christians through the centuries have differed as to whether it’s in or whether it’s out but the category remained intact. We live in a post-modern world where there’s no right and wrong there’s no truth and error, there are no absolutes, so the category of heresy has disappeared. In our politically correct world no-one can talk about truth and error or heresy. Ironically the only heresy left in our post-modern world is to say that my God is greater than your god - that’s a heresy! Or that there’s only one way to know God, or that Jesus Christ is the only way to know God - that’s the only heresy in our post-modern world, isn’t it?

You know happens in your office - you can talk about God, you can talk about the Church, you can talk about religion, or Ghandi or Mohammed and no-one objects, but talk about Jesus, talk about the exclusive nature of the cross of Christ, and what happens? Everybody screams blue murder, don’t they? Is that what you find in the classroom, on campus? And yet Jesus still says to us, v1, I am the true vine, the only vine. There’s no other way to know the gardener, there’s no other way to know God, there’s no other way to bear fruit, by the way, says Jesus. Every other religion or belief is false. You won’t bear true fruit. Notice there, ‘without me you can do nothing,’ certainly nothing that lasts or nothing that matters. And the proof and the evidence that you belong to me is Christian fruit. Notice again, v5,

If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.

Much fruit - notice that, it’s quite clear, isn’t it? If someone remains in Christ, and Christ remains in him then he will bear much fruit. It’s the indispensable mark of a Christian - no fruit, no Christian. That’s what Jesus is saying, isn’t he?

Back home we have a couple of fruit trees in the back garden, one is a plum tree, the other is a peach tree. In winter when we prune the trees and there are no leaves and no fruit, I can’t distinguish between a plum tree and a peach tree. They look the same to me. I don’t know much about these things. It’s only when the leaves come out or when the fruit comes out that I can distinguish. Well, isn’t that how it is? I can’t look into people’s hearts and minds, I don’t know who is actually a Christian, I can’t even depend on what people say (many people say they are Christians) - we actually have to wait for the Christ-likeness, the transformed lives, for distinctive lives - that’s what Jesus is talking about. If there’s no fruit, well, obviously, says Jesus, there’s no Christian. You will know them by their fruit. So the first question, the first principle, ‘why is spiritual productivity important?’ The answer is, without fruit you’re obviously not a Christian and there’ll be no heaven.


Principle no 2: , how do we become spiritually productive?
(just to give you hope, the 1st principle is by far the longest! Preachers must always give their people hope.)

If that’s the mark of a Christian, if that’s the sign of a Christian, how do we become spiritually productive? Well, Jesus says, the answer is quite simple,

Remain 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. (v4)

It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? No branch has life in and of itself. It needs to be attached to the vine - that’s where the life comes from, that’s where the growth comes from. So if you want to live a different life, a transformed life, a Christ-like life, that’s really what the fruit is. If you want to bear fruit, says Jesus, you need to remain in Christ. That is the key. The key is Christ, remaining in Christ. You may say to me, what does it mean, to remain in Christ? Have a look at v3, where Jesus speaks about the entry point of remaining in Christ. He says there:

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

So the key to becoming a Christian, to start the life of remaining in Christ, says Jesus, is hearing his word, hearing the words of Jesus, hearing the gospel. That’s why it’s so important that people hear the gospel, that they hear the good news that king Jesus came to die, to rescue us. That’s why it’s so important that we invite people to church, to the carol services, to the Globe café, so they can hear about Jesus and what he’s done for us. They need to hear the words of Jesus, they need to hear the gospel. That’s the power, says Jesus in v3, to cleanse people, they need to hear my words. It’s quite extraordinary.

I sometimes wonder when I preach, what am I doing? (Perhaps other people wonder as well.) But all I’m doing is speaking words, it’s only breath, it’s only air. How’s that able to change lives? And yet what happens is that the Spirit of God takes the word of God and applies it to people’s minds and their hearts. And it changes people. It’s supernatural. It really is. I can’t change people’s hearts or minds or thinking. I can’t get there. I’d love to but it’s the work of the Holy Spirit, he takes the word of God and applies it to people’s minds, their thinking, their hearts, their being, their will and it changes people. That’s what happens - supernaturally. It changes people. It converts people. It cleanses people. Isn’t that what Jesus said, that his word will cleanse them?

Last Saturday morning at our church we had a ladies’ breakfast. One of our members spoke at that breakfast, she gave her testimony. She’s a professor at one of the universities and she shared how before her conversion she and her husband were devoted to their careers. That was their god. That was the reason they lived. That was the reason they got up in the morning. Because of her pursuits in her academic life she had an abortion. She said at that meeting last Saturday morning, she lived with this unbelievable guilt. “It was an unbearable burden,” she said, “I killed my child.” And then she heard the words of Jesus, she heard the gospel. She heard that there’s forgiveness in Christ, who died for all your sins, including that sin. And almost overnight, she said, the burden was lifted, the guilt was gone, she was cleansed. It’s really supernatural and it’s the word of God, the word of Jesus. It’s the gospel. God takes the gospel, he takes these words of mine and he applies it to people’s hearts and minds and he brings new life and forgiveness and cleansing. It all starts when you hear the word of Jesus - that’s how it begins. But notice v7, that’s also how it continues:

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you.

Once again it’s perfectly simple, says Jesus, remaining in Christ. If you continue remaining in Christ it’s exactly the same as when you started, which is listening to the words of Christ, hearing the word of God. So Jesus is saying, if you want to now grow as a Christian, grow in holiness, grow in godliness, you don’t need some special event, you don’t need some mystical experience, or magical experience, you just need more of the same. It’s the word of God which causes us to join the vine and it’s the word of God which causes us to grow in the vine. You don’t need anything different at all. That’s why it’s so important that we all daily read God’s word, that we sit under the authority of God’s word, that we feed upon it. That’s why it’s so important that we go to our midweek home groups so that we can study God’s word together. That’s why it’s so important on Sunday that we come to church, that we sit under the authority of God’s word. It’s the means by which we grow, it’s the means by which we bear fruit.

Just by the way, notice the end of v7; Jesus says, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. Same thing v16,

… 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.

Now obviously that’s not a blank cheque for a Ferrari, a Porsche, a holiday in South Africa, (the sun’s shining, by the way!). No, the promise is made in the context of bearing fruit. If you ask God to make you more and more fruitful, ask whatever you wish to become more like Christ and it will be given to you. You see, it’s the mark of a Christian, isn’t it, to want to grow? to want to know more, to want to obey God more? We get disappointed with ourselves, don’t we? We get so discouraged at times. We say, ‘O Lord will you help me to grow in my faith and grow in my obedience’ - that’s the mark of a Christian. There’s a longing, there’s a yearning, that we want to know God better.

I discovered many years ago that a non-Christian can be generally satisfied with their spiritual condition but they are dissatisfied with their material or financial condition. A Christian is just the opposite; generally speaking a Christian is satisfied with their material or financial condition, but they are dissatisfied with their spiritual condition. Isn’t that what Jesus is saying? We want to know him more, we want to grow in godliness. That’s our longing, that’s our yearning, that’s why we get depressed with ourselves when we fall and fail. We want to know him better, don’t we?


Thirdly and lastly, what are the signs of spiritual productivity?

There are a number of signs in this passage, but let me just pick up 2 of them.

v10: Obey my commands

Jesus says

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (v10-11)

Jesus said ‘just as I obey the Father’s commands, so those who belong to Jesus are to obey his commands’. When we become Christians, when we remain in Christ, we take on the family likeness. That’s what Jesus is saying. And Jesus said, if you say that you love him, well the proof isn’t something it doesn’t have to do with your feelings or you emotions, no, if you love him, you will obey him, you will obey his word, you will obey his commandments. I’ve discovered that the most miserable person in the world is the Christian trying to live like a non-Christian. A non-Christian can be happy as a non-Christian for a while. You can be happy as Christian, but you cannot be happy as a Christian trying to live as a non-Christian. There will be no joy. Isn’t that so?

If you’ve been a Christian for a while you will know that, if you’ve drifted from God, from his word, from his people, you’re playing with sin, you’re trying to find meaning and purpose in the things of this world, but ultimately they don’t satisfy. They don’t satisfy the yearning of your soul and there’s no joy. Nothing tastes good any more. What does Jesus say in v11? If we obey his commands the consequence is that ‘my joy will be in you’. My dear friend, my dear brother and sister, if you are playing with sin and trying to find purpose and meaning in the idols and things of this world you will never be satisfied. You will be miserable. You were recreated by Christ to know him and love him, and then your joy will be full. Isn’t it time to come back to Christ, to stop your ducking and diving, your excuses. Come back to Christ. There’s no other source of joy.

Secondly, not only must we obey Christ but we must love one another (v12).

My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you.

v17 (same thing)

This is my command: Love each other.

The Christian life is never lived in isolation. There are no spiritual Robinson Crusoes in the New Testament. No, spiritual productivity occurs in community, in relationships, with one another. That’s why this week your theme in 40 days is ‘growing together’. We don’t grow spiritually in and of our self. No, we’re part of the community, the church family. We’re in relationship with one another. That’s how we grow. In fact, one of the marks of a Christian is that you love to be with other Christians, you love them. When you’re perhaps away from church or perhaps you’re on holiday or travelling on business and you can’t go to church and meet with God’s people, you miss them. There’s an emptiness, there’s a void, you long to be with God’s people. It’s the mark of a Christian. My dear friend, if you don’t feel like that, if that’s not your experience, chances are you’re not a Christian. The mark of a Christian is someone who loves other Christians, Of course we’re not perfect. We blow it and we fall and we fail and but nevertheless there’s that longing, that yearning to be with God’s people. That’s an indispensable mark of a child of God - we love one another. It’s one of the signs that we are in Christ, that we love his people.

Let me close. What we have in this passage are some of the marks, some of the signs of a true Christian. Let me say to you that if you are no different from your non-Christian friends or colleagues, or relatives, chances are you’re not a Christian. These are the marks, these are the signs. Not perfectly so, because we never do it perfectly, but nonetheless these are the things that distinguish you from those around you. If these things aren’t true of you, chances are you’re not a Christian. Isn’t it time to get right with God? Isn’t it time to come to the end of yourself and call on him for mercy? Isn’t it time to have done with those trifling things that don’t satisfy ultimately? Won’t you come to Christ, or come back to Christ if you’ve wandered from him?

Printer Friendly Version

TOP OF PAGE