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The Sermon for May 10th, 2026, Rogation Sunday
The Lessons: Psalm 148; Isaiah 41:17-20; St. John 15:1-11
The Text: John 15:1-11
The Topic: Abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that you may bear spiritual fruit
INTRODUCTION
C.S. Lewis wrote:
A car is made to run on petrol [gas] (today we would add “or electricity”), and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food on which our spirits were designed to feed. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us happiness apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.[1]
– S. Lewis: Mere Christianity. Macmillan, 1952
JOHN 15:1-11: ABIDING IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
In today’s Gospel Lesson, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us the command to abide in him, so that we may produce much spiritual fruit. At the beginning of this passage, Jesus states:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
(John 15:1, KJV)
The Lord Jesus uses the grape vine, an ancient symbol of Israel, in a new way to show how Christians need to stay spiritually connected to Him, if they are to bear the fruit that God requires. This extract from Psalm 80 shows the vine as representing the whole nation of Israel:
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. It is burned with fire; it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
(Psalm 80:14-17, KJV)
This extract ends with a prayer for God to strengthen “the son of man” and it prophetically connects the vine with the son of man.
In this symbolic discourse here in John 15, our Lord begins by setting a new definition for this ancient symbol of Israel by saying that He is the true vine, and his Father is the vinedresser (John 15:1). The vine is no longer the nation of Israel given over to disobedience and fruitlessness as the Lord complained about it in Isaiah 5:1-7. The Lord Jesus Christ is himself the true Vine, and God the Father the vine dresser (“husbandman,” KJV) responsible for the pruning, care, and growth of the Vine.
It is necessary for us to realize the meaning of “true vine”: here “true” means archetypal, genuine, and utterly dependable, and real. Just as the nation of Israel was described as the vine that God planted, so the Lord Jesus Christ is the true vine, incorporating in himself all the genuine, truly faithful people of God. God the Father tends the vine. What does this mean? Every branch in the vine that does not bear fruit he takes away (John 15:2). Instead of the whole nation of Israel being consigned to judgement, each individual is held responsible for bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Whether you are a Jewish Christian or a Christian of any other nation, if you do not bear the spiritual fruit God requires, God removes you from the vine. But every branch that bears fruit, the Father works to prune, so that it may bear more fruit. The rules for pruning are applied to Christians: dead wood has to be cut out, and branches with too many buds have to have some of those cut away so that bigger fruit may result. God is interested in spiritual productivity. The word of the Lord that Jesus speaks, and the Apostles and Prophets have preached and taught, which we have heard and received, that word cleanses us, by exposing everything hidden in our hearts and by building us up in all the truth of God, so that the Lord Jesus can say of us, as he said of the Apostles:
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
(John 15:3, KJV)
But hearing and receiving God’s word through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures is not enough. We are commanded to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will abide in us. Just as a branch of the vine cannot bear fruit unless it remains on the vine and organically draws on the sap of the vine, so Christians cannot bear the spiritual fruit God requires, unless they remain united to the Lord Jesus Christ. This must not be merely a theoretical or structural union with him, but an organic, experiential one, in which we grow daily, as we pray, listen to him, and read his word. In verse 4, the Lord emphasizes that just as a vine branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains in the vine and draws from the sap of the vine roots, so the Christian cannot bear fruit for the Lord unless he remains rooted in the Lord. Our connection with the Lord Jesus Christ must be established, strengthened, and expanded. The person who abides in the Lord, who feeds on his life spiritually, bears plenty of spiritual fruit, for apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot bear good fruit (verse 5).
On the other hand, the one who does not abide in Christ is thrown away like a dry vine branch that is good for nothing except to be burnt (as Ezekiel 15:1-8 makes clear. This is Christ’s solemn warning to believers. You cannot count on the past, or on your status. If you do not maintain a living connection with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be cast out of God’s kingdom and consigned to hell.
CONCLUSION
But if you abide in the Lord Jesus, and his words abide in you, that is, you obey them, Jesus states that you can ask God whatever you will, and it will be done for you. Notice the two conditions for God to grant your request: you must abide in the Lord Jesus, and his words must abide in you, that is, you must obey his commandments. This is the secret to abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his love: one must obey his commandments (verse 10). Only by abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ through keeping his commandments will we both be spiritually fruitful and productive and full of the joy that flows from the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
[1] Quoted on p. 407, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.