John 15:1-17 : “Remain in Me and Bear Fruit”

Presented to Nipawin Corps, 1 February 2009,
Presented to Weetamah Corps and Stony Mountain Penitentiary, March 2007
By Captain Michael Ramsay

I remember when I was in Training College – The Salvation Army equivalent to (or at least our closest approximation to a) seminary – a number of the fellows joined a Salvation Army hockey team that played in the city league in Winnipeg and one day something really exciting happened:

We won a game. One game. Really. We actually won a game. It was the second to last game of the season and we actually won one whole game. I can tell you that there was celebration that night. The game ended past midnight and people could actually hear phones ringing in the residences – particularly at the houses of the guys who weren’t at the game that night. The season was almost over and we finally won our first game. We only won one game but it felt as if we won the playoffs.

I say ‘us.’ I never went anywhere near the arena. Growing up in a place that never really gets any snow, let alone ice. I never did learn how to skate – led alone play ice hockey. I wasn’t on the team but you know how it is? Like when the Roughriders won the Grey Cup the other year, we all like to celebrate successes of ‘our teams.’ And the next day after our team’s victory, every one of us in our class was celebrating with the players as they told their stories.

We back our teams. We stick together. Some people at the College (not me!) even headed out to watch a lot of the late night games. They were our team. They are our friends and we are apart of them. When they win, we win. We stick with them. And they stuck with their hockey right from the beginning and in the end it produced fruit: they won; we won.

In the chapter we read from earlier, John 15, Jesus tells us a parable about staying with Him and producing fruit. He does it in an interesting way too.[1] He speaks about a vine.

Jesus tells his disciples, his friends, (verse 1) ‘I am the vine’ and ‘my Father is the gardener.’ And (verse 4) you must remain in me to bear fruit. Now this passage here, in Chapter 15, is part of what is known as his farewell discourse (John 14:1-16:33). This is when Jesus is alone with his disciples and this is his final big talk with them before he is arrested, tried, and ultimately executed. It is probably either taking place at the last supper itself or maybe even after that. It could be taking place even as they are walking en route to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will actually be arrested.[2]

Now, at this time, Israel is an agricultural society and the grape vine is a very important part of its culture: so much so that their national symbol at this time is actually a golden vine.[3] There is even a golden vine on the Temple itself.[4] The Israelites here know gardening and how vines work. Jesus may even have had a vine beside him (as an object lesson of sorts) while telling this story as he is walking to Gethsemane. This passage here is part of his last good heart-to-heart talk with his disciples. This is where he is giving them their final instructions before He dies. This is his final discourse and as such we know that what he is saying is important.

What is he saying? He is saying, stick with me. Remain in me. Abide in me (verse 4), abide in my love (verse 9, verse 10, verse 11); remain in my love to produce fruit, to produce works of love. [5] Remain in the vine and I will do it, Jesus says. I will produce my fruit in you.

Now, this isn’t just a neat story. This is also warning. Take a look closely. Look with me at Verse 4. Unless you remain in Christ you cannot bear fruit. If you do not bear fruit, GOD will remove you (verse 2) and you will be thrown into the fire and burned (verse 6). Remember that these are his closest disciples with whom Jesus is speaking right now; it is even after Judas has already left to betray Jesus. It is the remaining 11 disciples and Jesus is telling them as he’s about to be handed over to die and that if they don’t stick with him even they may be cut off and burned.

How much more so for us, a few generations later? We too have to stick it out, if we don’t want to get burned. I don’t know how many of us follow hockey too closely but do you remember the Quebec Nordiques in the early 1990s? Now I know there aren’t a lot of Quebec fans on the prairies but in their last few years there they had what I thought was potential – and I can remember even cheering for them for a season or two – and I can remember feeling burned.

I remember that they picked the number one draft pick over all – a young Eric Lindros. He was a player with great promise. He is picked to be a part of the team as they pursue the Stanley Cup. But Eric Lindros refuses to stick with the team. He refuses to remain with the team that drafts him. He demands to be traded because he says he only wants to be on a team that has ‘realistic chance’ of winning the Cup.

So the Nordiques trade him and you know what happens? Shortly afterwards, the Nordiques become the Colorado Avalanche (one of the greatest teams of the 1990s) and they bear fruit. A lot of fruit: in their first year there, they win the Cup and they win more than one Stanley Cup – without Eric Lindros!

And you know what happens to Lindros? He never enjoys that fruit. They produce it without him. He is retired now and he never won the Stanley Cup. He, even though he was the first picked of all those picked that year, he didn’t remain. He didn’t stick it out. He was cut from the team and metaphorically speaking, he was burned. Likewise If we don’t remain with the team –or the vine- we will be burned.

And even the disciples – Jesus is telling them if don’t remain on his team; if even they, his closest friends and followers; if they don’t remain in him, they will be cut off and burned. Look at Verse 16: Even though Jesus chooses them, he has to remind them that they need to remain to bear fruit. Jesus isn’t speaking to outsiders here, he is speaking with his own chosen disciples, member of his own team. Like Lindros was chosen but he didn’t remain and so bears no fruit for the team. Jesus is telling his disciples if they don’t continue to play for the team, if they don’t remain in him and bear fruit then they too will be cut.

And even more than that, look at this. Verse 2: It is not only those who don’t stick it out that are cut in our story. It is also those who do remain. They are pruned. You know what being pruned is? It is getting cut! So both those who stick it out and those who don’t stick it out are cut in this story; so ultimately then who can remain? Who can do it? Who can abide in Christ? Who can last?

Who can last? I can remember some other struggles of trying to last. I remember many years ago, when I am training to be an elementary school teacher, it is a rigorous programme. We all work really hard and a number of us are chosen. We are chosen, based on our grades and other criteria to be part of the special programme. We are told that we are among the best, the chosen ones.

Janet is my friend. She works really hard. She has as much talent as anyone else in that programme but she is cut. She is cut from the programme for whatever reason. She is pruned. She is cut and she does not bear fruit that year. She does not even graduate then. Even though she was especially chosen for this elite programme, she does not complete university with her session mates. So, if some of those who are chosen don’t last, who can last? Who can survive the cut?

The remaining 11 disciples lasted. They did. They lasted until the very end. Even though they faced imprisonment, they remained in Jesus. Even though they faced torture, they remained in Jesus. Even though they faced death, they remained in Jesus. They even lasted in the face of death. They remained and what happened when they remained? Jesus (the vine) bore the fruit of ‘works of love’ through them (the branches). Acts Chapter 2 says that even shortly after Jesus went to be with the Father, more were added to their numbers daily. He was bearing fruit in them, his disciples. They remained. This is great news.

Recorded in our passage of scripture today, Jesus is actually comforting his disciples; he is not condemning them. Jesus is about to be led away to be executed, to be crucified, and he is telling them not to worry. Don’t worry. He assures them. If they remain true to him, he will still bear the fruit of love in them even as he has gone on ahead.

How did they remain in Jesus? How are they able to be branches bearing fruit even while they are imprisoned, tortured and killed – see Verse 9 – how? By keeping his commandments. And what does Jesus command? Verse 9 that they abide in his love; Verse 10, that they remain in his love; and Verse 12, that they love one another. Love God and love your neighbour (Luke 10:27) and what is the greatest way to show that you love someone else? It is, Verse 13, to lay down your life for your friends. And that is what his disciples did for him. And that is what Christ first does for them. And that is what Christ does for us too. We can have his love show through us precisely because he loves, lives and died for us.

Christ chose the disciples to remain and they did and the Father grew the vine and Jesus produced the fruit of love through his disciples. This is good news but it isn’t new news. In the OT Law, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 declares, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” And Jesus says, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31-33, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14). Remember that the disciples can’t produce fruit by themselves anymore than a branch off a vine can produce fruit - but Jesus can produce fruit! The vine can and Jesus does produce this fruit of love and so much fruit…there is still fruit being produced from this vine today. Isn’t this amazing?

And we too can have that fruit produced through us. There can be Jesus’ fruit produced through me. There can be Jesus fruit produced through all of us. As we turn to him, as we remain in him, we will obey his commandments, we will remain in his love, we will love one another and he will produce his fruit of love in us.

This is good news: There is good news (Verse 16): I chose you, Christ says. And I appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Whatever you ask for me, - on my behalf - Jesus says, God will give you. The Father will not deny the son anymore than the gardener will deny his prize vine, even if he has to cut some branches…cutting?

What about cutting? – Do you remember those branches in Verse 2? Remember Jesus says that even those that do remain in Him he will cut. He will prune them. This is significant. And this is good news too – believe it or not. Let me explain it in terms of a story I told you earlier here.

Recall Janet –my friend- she was one of the chosen few from the teachers’ college. She was one of the elite, she worked really hard but she was cut anyway. She wasn’t allowed to graduate with everyone else…well Janet applies to redo her practicum. Janet goes back to Teacher’s College the next year. Janet was pruned and Janet grows backs. She becomes a teacher. She does. She is cut and she grows back.

This is exciting. In verse two it is evidently an intentional play on words in the original Greek between the branch that is removed and the branch that is pruned. The key difference though is that the pruned branch, though it is cut, it remains.[6] The pruned branch, it grows and it bears fruit.

We all must go through times of pruning in this life but, remembering this, as we remain in Jesus, as we abide in him, as we show his love for God and our neighbours, we will bear his fruit of love. We will bear Jesus’ fruit. We will represent the fruit of Christ himself. We will bear fruit of his wonderful works of love and life and so much so that even though we may even die, yet we shall live.

Are we bearing fruit? Do we want to bear fruit? Do we want to bear more fruit? Do we? This is exciting. All we have to do is remain true to Jesus. Seek ye first His kingdom. Love our neighbour as ourselves and keep our eyes upon Jesus, remaining in his wondrous grace.

Appeal:
Jesus is here and he is the vine. If you have never been a part of Jesus and would like to be we have this place of here called the mercy seat where you can come and be grafted into the vine and show these acts of love.

Jesus is here and he is the divine. For those of us here today who are already a part of the vine, it is okay. Maybe you are being pruned; it is okay. It will be all right. Somehow. Remain in Jesus and it will be all right. He will never leave you nor forsake you. If you have made that commitment to Jesus (or if you would like to), I invite you, if you would like someone to pray with you, to come forward and show your acts of love before God. Jesus loves you. Keep your eyes upon Jesus. Remain in his wondrous grace.


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[1] Cf. Frank H. Caldwell, “‘Contact!’: a homily on John 15:1-12,” Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 1, no 1 (Jan 1947): 63-66. And Cf. Frances Taylor Gench, “John 15:12-17,” Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 58, no 2 (Apr 2004): 181-184.
[2] Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1995), 730. Cf. Lenski 1029.
[3] Merrill C. Tenney Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/III. The Private Ministry of the Word (13:1-17:26)/B. The Last Discourse (13:31-16:33)/2. The discourse on relations (15:1-27)/a. The relation of the disciples to Christ (15:1-11), Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Cf. R.C.H. Lenski, “The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel” (Ausburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1943), 1025.
[5] Gail O’Day, 757.
[6] Gail O’Day, 757.