Abide in the Vine - John 15
Vine - Grapes (Teaching by Brad Gray)
Find the Video Teaching Here
Grapevine - (hebrew) gefen
Vine is used in Hebrew culture to represent prosperity and security.
- Deut 8:8 - primary flora of land of Israel
- Micah 4:4 - everyone will sit under his own vine
- Psalm 80:7-9 - You transplanted a vine from Egypt
Israel connected to the VINE
“A fruitful vine was symbolic of an obedient Israel, while wild grapes or an empty vine spoke of Israel’s disobedience." -Todd Bolen
Isaiah 5:3-5 - “Song of the Vineyard”
Israel producing bad grapes = I will break down it’s walls
Jesus' Walk to the Mount of Olives
John 14 going into this chapter ends with last supper and Jesus says = “Let’s Go!”
The next thing we see is Jesus crossing the Kidron valley to the mt of olives
Jesus leaves last supper and ascends to temple and then stands from the temple mount looking over to mt of olives which requires crossing the Kidron Valley
Above the door of the temple, there were huge grapevines carved from gold. Even most likely grapevines were on the pillars of the door of the temple. It’s possible that the disciples were looking at some of these as Jesus told John 15.
John 15 launches with the 7th “I Am” statement in the book of John.
Question to Ponder in John 15
- Who is who in the passage?
- What does Jesus want?
Who is who?
Jesus is the vine while the Father is the gardener.
The disciples were the branch that bears fruit.
What does Jesus want?
For the branches to produce “good fruit”
Parts of a Vine
Stump - Vine - Branch - Fruit
Branches are required to bear fruit. The vine does bear fruit except through the branches.
Translation of "cuts off"
“cuts off” is probably mis-translated
Cut off - (greek) airo = to lift up or take away
101 uses in NT, but never again translated “cut off”
In most basic understanting it means to “lift up” or “raise up”
This is a branch that actively WANTS to be in the vine. They want to bear good fruit.
Probably a better translation would be every branch that is lying on the ground and is not bearing fruit will be “lifted up”. In the ancient world vines grew on ground, not on trellises. That can lead to funguses causing the fruit to be rotted. The gardener would LIFT UP the vine to get them off the ground and get them sunlight and away from disease. This is more and more the translation of “airo” in John 15.
Pruning of the Vine
When we are stunted in our growth he wants to “lift us up” to become healthy and when we are healthy he wants to PRUNE us.
Pruning is painful to the branches!
The gardener prunes not only dead branchees and leaves, but even some GOOD leaves and branches that create an obstacle to the BEST FRUIT. He will sacrifice the good things in life in order to bring the BEST!
Abide = (Grk) Meno - remain, stay, abide