Bible Passage: John 15:1-8
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: April 28, 2024

Bulletin April 28, 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

We are a culture that is obsessed with connections.  And most of it has to do with that little thing we carry around called a smartphone.  That phone is our connection to the world.  It is our connection to family and friends.  It is our connection to information.  It is our connection to music.  It is our connection to social media.  Because of this, we are constantly after better connections, faster connections, cheaper connections, more powerful connections.  For most of our younger people, they cannot conceive of living even one day without a wi-fi connection.

Jesus wants you to be obsessed with being connected.   But for Jesus, the most important connections in your life are not the ones you make with the smartphone in your hand, but a connection made with him with your heart.   Six times in our text today Jesus will use some form of the word “remain.”  Six times in our text Jesus will use the phrase “in me.”  The reader cannot miss the point Jesus is making!  He wants us to remain in him!  To stay connected to him!  For when we are connected to Jesus, we are truly Well-Connected.

Jesus speaks about our connection to him using terms the people of his day would easily understand.  Just the same as you could relate to smartphone talk a moment ago, so Jesus’ hearers would understand talk about grapevines.  He says, I am the true vine. (v. 1)  He is the real deal!  The genuine article!  And in verse 5:  I am the vine; you are the branches.  The figure is easy to understand.  A grapevine has a main vine that comes out of the ground and winds itself around a trellis as it grows.  Coming off that main vine are the smaller, individual branches – or vine-sprouts – on which the grapes will grow.  Jesus is that main vine; we, Christians, are the vine-sprouts.  And faith in Jesus is the point where vine and branch touch and connect.

What is the point of this metaphor?  It’s quite simple, really.  Life!  A branch that is connected to the vine is alive.  A branch disconnected from the vine is dead.  Connected to Jesus we truly have life!  It is the life John talks about in chapter 1 of his Gospel:  In him [Jesus] was life. (1:4).  This is the life Jesus talks about in chapter 10 of this Gospel.  Speaking about his sheep, Jesus says, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)  In short, connected to Jesus we have “Easter life.”  Our new life connected to Jesus is a life where guilt is replaced by forgiveness, where fear is replaced with peace, where sadness is replaced with joy, where death is replaced with life, where hell is replaced with heaven!

Through Jesus the Vine the Holy Spirit now flows into our lives.  And where the Holy Spirit works, there is fruit.  In our text Jesus says, If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. (v. 5)  What kind of fruit results from a connection with Jesus?  Paul wrote to the Galatians:  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)  Martin Luther once remarked that you don’t have to go up to an apple tree and say, “Hey, apple tree!  Produce apples!”  It will do it naturally because that’s what apple trees do.  The same goes for the Christian.  You don’t need to harrassed and harangued to produce fruit.  You’re a Christian!  You’re connected to Jesus!  It’s what we do!

Jesus adds another layer to this whole metaphor.  He says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He 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. (v. 2)  First of all, the Father cuts out fake, fruitless branches.  The Father knows who really trusts in his Son.  But he also prunes the branches that do produce fruit so that they produce even more fruit.

Pruning is an interesting thing.  Pruning is cutting away unhealthy, unwanted growth.  I’ve never grown grapes, but I’ve grown tomatoes.  Tomato plants get what are called “suckers.”  Suckers are little sprouts that begin growing right where the main stem and branches meet.  You have to get in there and “pinch” out those little suckers.  They will rob the branch of nutrients.  You don’t want that little sucker to grow, you want your branch to grow because that’s where the tomatoes will develop!  The Father does that with us.  He comes in and he “pinches” away the little suckers, those little sprouts in our lives that are unhealthy growth.  Maybe you can think about things in your own life that are kind of “suckers,” things that cause you to divert time and energy and focus and resources away from fruit production.  The heavenly Gardener steps in and in some way removes or “prunes” that unfruitful growth.  In our text Jesus says his words had already pruned the disciples.  Pruning looks hurtful.  But in reality it is good for the plant.  Spiritual pruning works the same way.

This connection that we have with Jesus is EVERYTHING.  Jesus says, No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me…apart from me you can do nothing. (v. 4-5)  Nothing.  That is what we can do apart from Jesus.  This puzzles people sometimes.  “We can do NOTHING?  I know of non-Christians who seem to love their families, and are patient and gentle.  That doesn’t seem like nothing; that seems like something.”  The non-Christian can do things that look like fruit.  But disconnected from Jesus, it is not “fruit of the Spirit.”  It does not do what Jesus says the fruit of Christians does:  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (v. 8)  These are the things that make Christian fruit “something” instead of “nothing.”  They are done to the glory of God out of love for Jesus!

So remain in him!  Feed and fertilize your faith.  Remain in God’s Word.  Use your smartphone for something truly useful – download a Bible app and listen to God’s Word wherever you go!  Reflect on what your Baptism means.  Approach this altar and connect often with the life-giving and life-sustaining body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion.  In this way you will remain in him, and he in you.  In this way you will remain truly well-connected!

Amen.