East Baptist Church – Denison, TX

The Upper Room Teaches Jesus Is the I AM; the True Vine

John 15:1-8

Today we will be celebrating the graduation of three of our students, two from High School one from college. I think our Message from the Word today is very applicable to them as they will be making a huge choice on the kind of fruit they will bear. (We lose many of our young Christians between getting their driver’s license and college. They face many woke teachers in college and have their faith challenged in a big way.)

I can almost see the little band of men as they are passing through Jerusalem after leaving the Upper Room. As they passed the Temple gates noticing the beautiful golden vine sculpted upon them, I can almost hear my Lord Jesus turn to His disciples and say, “I am the true Vine.” The emphasis would be on the word “true.” 

We need to see at the start of our time this Lord’s Day that Christ emphasized His Deity and that this Name is the very same that He used when He first revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush in the wilderness, as the great I AM. Exodus 3:14 (NASB) ¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

So now we come to the answer. Jesus turns to His followers and says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” and so He pictures Himself as the Vine proper, and then all those redeemed to God by His precious blood who have found in Him their Saviour and Lord, as the branches in that living Vine here in the world to bear fruit for the Father.

“and My Father is the vinedresser.” Pruning is always painful and never easy but is necessary if the plant is to be healthy and produce fruit that is healthy and sweet. We have to trust the Father to cut away the sinful rot that will destroy the whole plant and suck the life out of the vine. 

They were clean, and now they were to abide in Him, cleansed by the Word, made conscious of the importance of fellowship with and in Him. “Abide in Me, and I in you.” “Abiding” speaks of “communion.” “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine. The evil one will do his best to make us drift away from fellowship in and with Christ. 

⁶ “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” This verse is one that makes many of us squirm in our seats, it is uncomfortable to address. Some theologians say that the -barren branches are carnal Christians. Others say fruitless branches represent unbelievers. 

Each of these characters played a part in our Lord’s metaphor. The Vine is Christ: the vinedresser is God the Father: the fruit bearing branches are the eleven and all true followers of the N.T. church age. The fruitless branches are Judas’s who were never true disciples.