5/10/20 John 15:1-8 “Ask and You Shall Receive!”

08 May 5/10/20 John 15:1-8 “Ask and You Shall Receive!”

5/10/20     John 15:1-8    “Ask and You Shall Receive!”

This has always been one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  It tells so much and it has also been the source of much controversy.  I have some friends who are Baptist and they are wonderful people.  Over the years we have had some delightful conversations about this Scripture.  In the Baptist tradition, they feel that once you have the saving grace of Jesus you cannot lose it.  Hence the saying, “Once saved, always saved.”  They are quick to point out that John doesn’t mean that we can lose our salvation here.  On the other side of the coin, many feel that this is exactly what John is saying here.  He is telling us that we can lose our salvation if we fall away from Jesus.  It’s our choice.  I have a tendency to believe this second way.  However, I will leave that argument to those who are much smarter than me.  Today we are going to take a look at what Jesus really expects from us and how we are to achieve this.

As we begin this reading, we find out that we will probably all be pruned.  Now I know a little about pruning and why we do it.  But I learned a lot more from Thomas Bowen as he told of pruning tomatoes.  Some of you may know this.  I love fresh tomatoes.  I will put them in salads, hamburgers and tomato sandwiches.  Late July and August are my favorite months because I can eat fresh tomatoes.  We used to grow a few in our back yard.  However, after reading Bowen’s article, I realized how little I knew about raising tomatoes.

I learned that when you transplant them in the spring, you should put them deep enough so that just the tops are above the soil.  Then as they are growing, you should be pruning the shoots that come out of the main stem.  This will really help the yield to increase.  The one that really got me, and many of you already know this I’m sure, is that just before we get our first frost, you should strip all the leaves off of the plant.  By doing this, all the water and nutrients will go to the immature tomatoes and help them to mature quickly.  I love a sermon where I can learn something.  Maybe we can all learn a little more here.

As we begin, we have Jesus talking about grape vines.  Everybody of the time knew about grape vines.  They understood about pruning and caring for the vines.  They also understood the symbolism here.  They understood that before Jesus, Israel was considered to be the true vine.  There are many references to this in the Old Testament.  God had given Israel everything.  They had it all, but they lost it due to all of their disobedience and sin.  If you read the Old Testament you see that they would slowly turn away from God time after time and lose it all.

Well now is the time for a new vine and that new vine is Jesus Christ.  This was a conversation that Jesus was having with his disciples at the last supper.  Chapters 13-17 are John’s writings of this event.  The things that Jesus talks about here are important, very important as they are basically the last instructions that He gives to them.  Unfortunately, we have a translation problem in this passage.  In verse 2, the NIV tells us that he cuts off branches that don’t produce.  I have read a little on this and I think that the original language was not to cut off but to lift up though it may also mean to take away.

But lift up makes more sense.  In verse 6 Jesus tells us what happens if we don’t stay connected to the vine.  I really don’t think that Jesus is repeating from verse 2.  Here is what I mean.  Parts of the grape vines want to grow close to the ground.  Here they get very little sun and often times they get covered with dirt and other things.  So, the gardener has to lift up these branches and usually he will tie them in an upward position somehow.

This meaning makes a lot more sense.  Jesus will not leave us behind just because we are lying in the ground and covered with dirt.  This often happens to young Christians who are not nurtured in their new faith.  Often times they get left behind because they don’t always understand the language we speak.  They know nothing about this book we call the Bible and yet I get up here every Sunday and talk like everyone knows what love is or what sin is or what salvation is.  People don’t know this stuff but Jesus will help you and he will brush off this dirt of not understanding.  You will not be condemned just because you are the unfortunate branch that is close to the ground.

Before we continue, I think that it is important to know what our fruit is.  Our fruit are the things that come as a result of the lives we live in Jesus.  Our fruit comes from our prayer time.  When we are really talking with Jesus and we allow Him to talk to us in return, then the things He talks to us about will be the fruit.  The same thing can be said when we read our Bibles.  When we really read and absorb the message on a daily basis, then fruit will result.

And the last way that I am going to mention today is that we bear fruit when we allow God to renew us through His Holy Spirit.  If we live by the fruits of the spirit, we will be fruitful.  If we live in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, fruits will follow.  Things will happen, good things.  There is a grape plant near London that is over 1000 years old, its main vine is over 2 feet thick, and one branch is over 200 feet long.  This plant still produces many sweet grapes.  I hope that this gives you a little idea of what is expected from us.  Good fruit comes from a good vine.

Then Jesus talks a little about pruning.  Once again, I’m not real sharp on this.  On grape plants, which incidentally my dad used to say that grapes grew on fence posts, we find that often times we have branches that do not grow fruit.  These branches are cut back so that they can develop better and grow fruit in the next season.  And this pruning works for grapes and many other plants.

This also works for us.  We are not physically pruned by cutting off our arms or legs but we are spiritually pruned.  However, sometimes we are pruned in a physical sense so that we may be spiritually pruned.  For example, years ago Sharon and I would have been perfectly content to stay at Flame of Faith UMC in West Fargo.  But God had other ideas.  He created in us a reason to go to Triumph Lutheran Brethren Church in Moorhead where we learned many of the skills necessary for us to be here today.  God is pruning us all the time and sometimes this pruning is not much fun for us, but it is necessary so that we may produce fruit.

I would like to add one more thing.  You are all important to God.  There is not a person in the world that is not important to God.  After we get ourselves connected to the vine and we become branches, things change a little.  While we are still important it now becomes just as important that we bear fruit.  Our fruit is important.  We are not saved by our works or our fruit.  However, once we are saved and we are part of the vine, then our works for Jesus become natural and important.   We read in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  And this whole process is a life time process.

The next thing that Jesus is saying is that if you remain in Jesus and Jesus in you, then you will bear much fruit.  However, if you don’t then you will be like the branch that is thrown into the fire.  This, my friends, is a dire warning.  This is the part that the feel-good preachers like to skip.  How can someone preach about only the good things when Jesus talks about us being thrown into the fire?  As a society we have become so shallow that we want to include everyone in heaven.  We don’t dare stand up and say that witchcraft is wrong.  We don’t dare stand up and say that divorce is wrong.  And when we stand up and say that something is wrong, then the secular world comes crashing down on us because they think they are always right.  But remember, there is nothing wrong with these people but their acts are wrong.

We live in a world that has good and evil.  As long as we are not allowed to tell of the evil, then we are only playing into the hands of evil.  All the teachings of Jesus Christ pointed to truth followed by grace.  We cannot survive in a world where we only have grace.  This is where our country is at today.  Everybody is beautiful.  Everybody is good.  Everybody is right.  Only a fool could go along with an agenda like this because if everybody is right, then the perpetrators of 9-11 were in the right as to what they did.  And what they did was a terrible wrong and sinful act.  Now 20 years later, we have all but forgotten what happened.  Branches will be thrown into the fire.

We don’t want to confuse this with verse 2 where we have the pruning.  Pruning is done in love so that we may produce.  This is more like punishment.  I am a firm believer that God doesn’t have to punish us in this world; He only has to withdraw from us.  He will only withdraw from us if we tell him so through our rejection.  And even if we reject Jesus and he withdraws from our lives, He still loves us.  He will keep trying to bring us back because of his love for us.  In a sense, He wants to graft us back on the vine so that we may have life.

As we look back to verse 4, we find that we cannot have life without the vine.  We cannot have life outside of Jesus.  Jesus is the way and He is the only way.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  There are not a hundred other ways to get to heaven.  Just because you are a good person, doesn’t mean you will get to heaven.  There is one path and Jesus is the way.  Jesus is the vine.  He is the vine of life.

The last thing that I want to bring up today is something that I talk about quite a bit.  Actually, I talk about this whole passage a lot anyway.  I think that I could make these 8 verses into several sermons but you would probably tire of them before I would.  Now for the good news.  Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”  These are great words and they really help us to feel good.

Jesus isn’t telling us that we can have whatever we ask in a normal sense.  However, it seems that is exactly what He is saying.  Let me explain.  We have to be connected to the vine before we can have whatever we ask.  I would like you to remember now that one of the things that Jesus does best and he does it every day even in our modern world is that He changes lives.  And He changes them for the better.  When you connect to the vine, you are changed.  And when you are changed, you cease to ask for things for your sake.  You will not ask for a million dollars or a mansion or a fancy car.  These are things of this world and if you are indeed part of the vine, you will not ask for them.  So, if this is what you are asking for in your prayer life, chances are it won’t happen.

We are changed people and if you are asking for these things, maybe it is time to check to see that you are connected to the vine.  And if you are not, then ask Jesus to live inside of you.  We can fall away at times but it is important that we come back.  As Christians we are to be asking for things that will further the kingdom of God.  We can have any of these things if we only ask.  I just mentioned the fruits of the spirit.  We can have these if we ask.  We can have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control if we ask.  We can have many things if we ask.  We read in James 4:2 “You do not have because you do not ask God.”

Let’s see in the weeks ahead if we can turn this around.  Let’s spend our summer getting closer to God in prayer and reading of the Bible.  Let’s ask for peace.  Let’s ask for kindness.  These are the things that we can have if we are in Christ.  This is what Jesus was talking about here.

I would like to illustrate this with a story from Roger Thompson.  He writes, “I am told that there is a shrine in France where people go to pray for healing. A war veteran who had lost a leg appeared at the shrine sometime after World War II. As he hobbled his way along the street to the shrine, someone said, “Look at that silly man! Does he think God is going to give him back his leg?” The young man overheard the remark, turned toward the speaker and said: “Of course I don’t expect God to give me back my leg. I am going to pray to God to help me live without it.”

These are the requests that Jesus loves to honor.  Many times, in the process of God answering our rightful prayers, we may stumble into a mansion or a lot of money or the car of our dreams.  These things would be a byproduct of our prayers, not the main focus.

Jesus Christ wants the best for us and that is all that He has ever wanted.  The best for us starts with us being connected to Him.  As long as you are connected you will ask for the right things because it will be your nature to do what is right.  When you are doing things right, then you are bearing good fruit for our Lord Jesus Christ.  It all works together.  On this Mother’s Day, make her proud by being a branch of the real vine.  I am glad that we have a God who is so powerful that He can do all of these things at once.  I am also glad that we have a God who loves us so much that He is willing to do all of this for us.  I don’t deserve it and neither do you.  Just accept it.  Thank you, Jesus, for your love and compassion.  And thank you for first loving us.  Let’s pray.