God Is Saying Something Series

GOD IS SAYING SOMETHING

John 15: 5-8 (p764) February 26, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

I ‘ve got these roses that are on my Island in the Middle of our Kitchen…here’s a picture of them. (show picture)

Our Valentine’s banquet here at church was on the 11th…the speaker, Tony did an excellent job…towards the end all the guys got up on stage and sang “you are my sunshine”.

And then each of us get to give our wives, girlfriends, friends a rose from a vase on the table…They told us if we have daughters at home we could take one to them…So I did (I’m cheap, huh?)

After a couple of days they opened up and were beautiful…but not too long after that…bad things started to happen to the Roses…I had water….I even put an aspirin in there (whatever that does)…but here’s what they looked like just 2 weeks later…(picture)

Cut flowers begin to die the minute they are separated from the stalk…at the very minute the clippers snip, and the resources stop flowing…roses begin to decline for 2 or 3 days they’ll look amazing…at their peak…but separated from the source of real life…they begin to die.

It’s exactly that truth Jesus is trying to communicate in John chapter 15….

I A PART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING

Jesus makes a bold statement…”I AM the true vine…it’s so important he repeats it again… “I am the Vine” (v5)

The picture Jesus paints is a simple one He is the main Vine of the vineyard…He is the original and essential source of life.

The original disciples…branches…anyone who’s come to accept Christ is Savior and Lord through their message…branches.

And God the father…He’s the gardener…He’s the one who’s going to plant, prune, and water…He’s the one who’s going to lay out the garden and tend to it…His purpose, like any real gardener or farmer is have the most plentiful and healthy crop possible.

The reason the garden exists…the purpose for planting a vineyard is…are you ready for this amazingly deep truth….To produce a Crop…whether it’s roses or fruit…the gardener’s goal is to harvest a crop.

The world is God’s garden…he planted it and the purpose for planting this garden was the same! He wants a harvest, a crop…

And Jesus…The true vine is the source of all the crop…”through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life… (John1: 3, 4)

Does anyone remember how the Garden of Eden came to be? How everything that was created came into existence?

God said…”Let there be…” He spoke the word and it was created…

That’s exactly why John says that Jesus is that word…”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God He was with God in the beginning” (John 1:1)

That same word according to John 1:14 “Became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”

The word that created all life…the true Vine… (Original) that produces all the fruit in the garden…Jesus…God’s purpose for the garden hasn’t changed! Bear fruit…produce a crop… And what is the crop of the Church...God’s field? Disciples! What grows out of disciple of Jesus...other disciples of Jesus.

“No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain connected to the vine…disciples cannot produce other disciples unless we remain connected to Jesus.

[Here’s a picture of one of the oldest grapevines in the world after 400 years its branches are still producing grapes…why? They/re still connected to the Vine] (Slovenia, the town of Maribor)

SHOW PICTURE

It’s been over 2,000 years since the word of God walked this thorn infested garden in the flesh…since the seed died on Calvary was buried in a tomb and became the first fruit of the resurrection…the resurrection is indeed God’s harvest…I Cor 5: says on Easter Sunday it’s what we were created for”

But fruit is still being produced in and by those who remain connected to the true Vine.

How do we remain connected?

II WE MUST RELY ON THE WORD TO DO THE WORK

I love to read…I think David Platt, Frances Chan, Jim Cymbala and Mark Lucado are amazing, Holy Spirit lead godly authors…but none of their books are “radical” enough to be called “the Word of God”

They contain words from God…they motivate and challenge us to become biblical people.

But only the Bible is “Living and Active” only the word of God is “Breathed by God” Only the words of Jesus are words spoken by God through a human mouth.

Isaiah 40 verse 6 through 8 we hear “A voice says, ‘CRY OUT’ And I said what shall I cry?”

All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them…surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever.”