5th
Sunday of Easter at Epiphany on
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the
gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken
to you. 4 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. 5 "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. 6 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 burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's
glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Lord, help me be the kind of Christian you want
me to be
“Daddy, would you play with me? Just a little
bit?” Daddy looked down at his little girl. He loved her more than anything in
the world. He loved to hold her in his lap with her head cuddled beneath his
chin. He loved to hear her laugh because it meant she was happy. He loved to
tuck the covers around her and listen to her soft breathing in the stillness. He
loved to hold her tiny body close to him and feel her little arms squeezing him
in a child’s hug.
“Daddy, would you play with me? Just a little
bit?” she asked. “Can’t tonight, sweetheart. Daddy hasn’t got time.” “But last
night you said you would!” she pleaded. “Well, I thought I could last night,
sweetheart, but something came up since then. Daddy’ll be sure to play with you
tomorrow night.” The little girl watched her daddy leave the room, picked up her
favorite teddy bear, and walked to her room. “Daddy’ll be sure to play with us
tomorrow night, Chauncey,” she said to her bear.
“Yes, honey, Daddy’ll be sure to play with you
tomorrow.” So easy to say, so hard to do.
Isn’t this the way it is so often in our
service to God? We love him. We believe in him. Yet when it comes to giving him
some of our time … or our money, we don’t seem to have it just now.
“Daddy’ll be sure to play with us tomorrow
night, Chauncey.” No, sweetheart, your daddy won’t play with you tomorrow night.
There won’t be time. Maybe tomorrow.
Some day Daddy will find he no longer has a
little girl. Those precious years will be gone. Passed by.
Some day those precious years of service to God
will be gone. Only regret remains. What a helpless, hopeless feeling to look
back and retrace the years that slipped by so quickly. That is why Jesus reminds
us: “As long as it is day we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is
coming when no one can work. While I am in the world I am the light of the
world.” (John 9:4)
Now! Today, not tomorrow. Today is the time for
love and service to our Lord. Now is the time to make God’s mission your
mission. Now is the time to support ministry with prayers and offerings which
demonstrate that God’s rescue mission is your highest priority. Don’t wait any
longer.
Now is the time to pray, “Lord help me be the
kind of Christian you want me to be. Help me to be even more fruitful. Help me
to be even more loving.”
John 15 is one of those portions of Scripture
that when you finish reading it you are compelled to declare, “Yep, that pretty
much says it.” It’s all right there. God for us! Justification and
sanctification. Law and gospel. Grace and good works. God’s love and the
believer’s love. Wonderful phrases come to mind about our Christianity after we
read this glorious fifteenth chapter of John – Saved to serve; loved to love;
friends are friends; grafted to give; declared to declare; pruned to produce;
cleansed to care.
After reading this portion of Scripture you
want to bear witness to someone, don’t you? After hearing Jesus’ words, you just
feel compelled to give of your time, your talents and your treasure to praise
and proclaim our Savior God, right? Perhaps to even pray, “Lord, help me to be
the kind of Christian you want me to be.”
This morning, let us make a conscious decision
not to wait any longer. We want to be better Christians now. And being a better
Christian means asking God to help us be even more fruitful in our daily lives
as Christians.
Jesus told us, "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.” Now, if you are a gardener, this expression makes perfect sense to
you. But today I want you to consider Jesus’ statement about pruning from the
perspective of the plants. If you are a plant, this doesn’t make any sense at
all.
Imagine that you are a rose bush. You see the
gardener, God, coming closer to you with large, metal shears in one hand and a
bucket of stinky manure in the other. You decide to offer your two cents worth,
so you calmly yell at the gardener, “Hey! What do you think you are doing with
THOSE?!” If you clip me everywhere you will ruin me! You are going to make me
look ugly. And its going to hurt! I don’t like pain! And I certainly don’t like
being surrounded by manure all day. You say you love me, yet you treat me like
this?!”
The Gardener replies, “You don’t understand.
Even though I cut off one of your branches, it is a very sinful, useless branch
that robs you of your strength so that the other branches get less nourishment
for bearing fruit. It is best for you that I prune you.”
Are you the kind of Christian God wants you to
be? Are you loving and kind, giving and forgiving? What’s holding you back? What
is there in your life that needs pruning? Do you find it difficult to trust God
when it comes to money? Are you selfish about how much time you’ll give to God?
Is there fear in your heart about trying something new in the church?
We are facing some serious money issues in the
church and synod. Prune your selfishness. We are trying to reach more and more
people with God’s gospel. Prune your reluctance. We are living in a world of
bitterness, anger and resentment. Prune your hostility. We all need to hear,
read, and study God’s Word more in church and at home. Prune your resistance.
God our Gardener prunes the selfishness, the
worry and the pride that robs us of the gospel’s nourishment: “God disciplines
us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant
at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of
righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews
12:10,11)
The expert Gardener prunes our sinful branches
with His Law. He makes us feel guilty and rotten. We feel terrible about the way
we treat God with our pitiful gifts. We feel horrible about the lack of time we
spend working for His Kingdom. We feel disgusted about our lack of sharing our
faith with others.
The expert Gardener prunes away our sinful
branches. Then He feeds us with His Son’s forgiveness. We are loved and cared
for and nourished. We are attached to the most beautiful Vine of Jesus. We are
then transformed into plants of unequaled beauty.
Jesus said, “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.” Jesus promises that we will bear fruit, if we
remain in Him. The
What will be the fruit you will bear? Will it
be an increase in faith? Yes! Will it be an increase in offerings? Yes! Will it
be an increase in ministry for you and this congregation? Yes! Will you be more
loving, more forgiving, more honest, more trustworthy, more friendly? Yes! Will
you be less grumpy, less worrisome, less greedy, less selfish? Yes! You will be
more fruitful! God will be pruning you into the kind of Christian He wants you
to be – that you need to be. You will be pruned to produce.
A native from a remote mountain village had the
opportunity to visit a large modern city for the first time. He couldn’t bring
much home with him, and he had little money. But he was amazed at the electric
lights which he saw everywhere. So he bought a sack full of electric lights
bulbs and sockets with switches so he could turn them off and on.
Arriving home he hung the light bulbs in front
of his home and on his trees. Everyone watched him with curiosity and asked him
what he was doing, but he just smiled and said, “Just wait until dark – you’ll
see.” When night came he turned on the switches, but nothing happened. No one
had told him about electricity. He didn’t know the light bulbs were useless
unless connected to the source of their power.
Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Is the life you are living useless? You have an education. You have a job. You
have a family. You have a home. But when the sun sets and night comes and you
reach for the switch, does anything happen? Do you remember that there is a
source that makes everything light up?
Jesus is that source. He is the one who lights
up your life. He lights it up with his love.
Jesus said later in John 15: “Greater love has
no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus isn’t just a
perfect example of love, He is love. He laid down His life for us – His friends.
Though Jesus was innocent of any wrongdoing, He suffered and was killed. Because
He was God, He took our guilt upon Himself on the cross. He showed His love by
giving up His life for us. Then He showered us with even greater love by rising
from the dead and securing a home for us in heaven.
Now He wants us to do the same for others.
“This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to
be my disciples.” We bear fruit connected to the Vine of Jesus. It is the
harvest of love.
We show love to others when we share the
precious gospel with them. We are giving them a way out of hell. We show love to
others when we teach little children about Jesus and His great love for them. We
are training them in the way they should go so that they do not depart from it.
We are showing love to others when we increase our offerings to the Lord. Our
offerings aren’t just a way to show thanks to God, they are also a means of
reaching out to others in our community. Love is demonstrated by gifts of time,
gifts of talents, and gifts of treasures, all given to our loving Lord and to
His people. We show love by encouraging, praying for, and helping our Christian
brothers and sisters. We show love by encouraging, evangelizing, praying for and
helping our brothers and sisters who are not yet Christians. This is Jesus’
command: Love each other.
As we love each other our faith in God will
grow. As we love each other our church will grow. As we love each other our
personal ministry and our congregational ministry will grow. As we love each
other God’s kingdom will grow. “Lord help me to be the kind of Christian you
want me to be by making me even more loving.”
Some day we will no longer have the chance to
be more fruitful. Some day we will no longer have the opportunity to become more
loving. Now! Today is the day! Today is the time for love and service to our
Lord. Today is the time to bear fruits of faith. Now is the time to make God
number one in our lives. Now is the time to set pride and selfishness aside and
give God love and honor and glory and praise. Now is the time to pray, “Lord,
help me be the kind of Christian you want me to be.” Not tomorrow. Tomorrow may
be too late. Amen.
“Grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus
Christ with an undying love.” Amen. (Ephesians 6:24)