|
The Covenant and the Vine
Text: Sermon
Text: John 15:1-17
Scripture
Reflection: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80; Ezekiel 17:1-24
Introduction
The Gospel of John is rich in OT
imagery. In John 15, the Apostle John records our Lord Jesus using the Vine
to describe his ministry and his relationship to his disciples, using a
metaphor taken from the covenantal life of faith in Israel.
What is a covenant? Bond in blood, sovereignly administered.
We must understand this concept in order to fully understand Christ's good
news to his apostles, and to us today in John 15.
This is not an individualistic passage, but concerned with a covenant unity
and community symbolized metaphorically by the Vine imagery.
Remember: What was the purpose or goal
of the covenant God made with his people? It is summarized in I shall be
your God and you shall be my people. The essential purpose or goal of the
covenant was to establish oneness between God and his people. A covenant
speaks of oneness. By God's covenant with his people, he intends to achieve
unity.
I.
The True Vine, the Vinedresser, and the Branches (15:1-3)
- Covenantal Story- "The Vine has deep
roots"
- Israel in R-H- [Isaiah 5:1-7]- Israel was called "the vine" in God's
vineyard
- Close relationship between Israel and the Land
- Blessings for obedience, or
"fruitfulness"/ Curses for disobedience, or
"barrenness" being "cut off"- Deut. 28:
Deuteronomy
28:1 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of
the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I
command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all
nations of the earth. 2 "And all these blessings shall come upon you
and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: 3
"Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the
country. 4 "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of
your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and
the offspring of your flocks…"
In fact,
Jeremiah 2:20-23 describes Israel's covenantal disobedience and calls them to
repent: " For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; And
you said, 'I will not transgress,' When on every high hill and under every
green tree You lay down, playing the harlot. 21 Yet I had planted you a
noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me
Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? 22 For though you wash yourself
with lye, and use much soap, Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,"
says the Lord GOD. 23 "How can you say, 'I am not polluted, I have not
gone after the Baals'? See your way in the
valley; Know what you have done: You are a swift dromedary breaking loose
in her ways…
- Covenantal God- "The Vine depends upon
care from a gardener"
- God's covenantal promises to his people
- God preserved a remnant of branches in the
OT
- Christ is the True Vine, the only faithful
Israelite!
- This is an invitation to the
genealogies-to see God's faithfulness in every generation just as he
promised Father Abraham. Genealogies provide us with a portrait of
the Vine and its progressive growth throughout Redemptive-History.
- Covenantal Fruit- "Branches are pruned
in order to be more fruitful"
- Promises of God- Dt.
30:1-6; Ezek. 36:25ff- "cleansing by God's Spirit" (OT
rituals at Temple were symbolic of cleansing by the Spirit that was to come in
the fullness of time)
- Cleansing- Kingdom coming in Jesus- power
of regenerate-resurrected life!
- As Jesus speaks of the branches "cut
off" so in the Exile in the OT, many of the Old Covenant
branches were cut off from the covenant community. But there were
those who were faithful that still remained when the Messiah came in
the fullness of times, such as Simeon, Anna, Mary, Elizabeth, and many others who would be later
baptized by John the Baptist.
- Remaining/Abiding in the Vine (15:4-8)
- Covenantal Union- Union with Christ- All of
the benefits of Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension are
ours by faith alone in Christ alone!
a. Word of God
- "Deep roots in God's promises in
Christ"- We must depend on God's sovereign promises to his
people in his Word. Heb. 11: "Certainty of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen."
- "Vital food for growth in
Christ"-We must allow God's Word to sustain and mature our
spiritual lives. Heb. 5:
11 …of
whom we have much to say, and hard to explain,
since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought
to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of
the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13
For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of
righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are
of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil.
Our goal is
maturity and unity in Christ! Meditation upon the Word of God, more than
mere memorization of the Word of God. Allow the memorization and knowledge
of the Word to penetrate and deeply nourish our roots.
b. Prayer- "Intimate union of the Vine and the
branches"- Read John 14:13-14. Close relationship to Christ- - from him we depend upon for all
of our needs. We reach up with empty hands to a Father who supplies all
that we need in Christ!
c. Love- "Union of the branches on the Vine"- One Vine, many branches, but
unified by One Vine, which is Christ. The love we have for one another
ought to be the love that Christ had for the father. Loving obedience and
selfless giving (i.e. laying down our lives for one another).
As a covenant
people, we must keep in mind that God covenants corporately and not simply
individually. The concept of covenant (or vine here) presupposes a people
with whom the covenant is established. The communal aspect of the covenant
relationship is forever present.
- Bearing Abundant Fruit (15:9-17)
- Covenantal Blessings- Obedience to God's
Word
§
Abundant
Spiritual Fruit- Holy Spiritual Fruit- fruits of the Spirit because of the
Work of Christ- Ezek. 36:25ff.
- Because of Christ's Spirit we have the
ability to bear abundant fruit. As Jesus said earlier in John
14:15-22 {Read}. The Spirit writes God's Law upon our hearts in
order that we might obey and keep the covenant made with our God.
- This is because Jesus took the curses for
our disobedience to the covenant upon himself
and blessed us with covenantal abundance by his Spirit! The Spirit
has circumcised our hearts, given us a believing and obedient
heart!
In Jeremiah
32:38-42, the prophet promises God's gracious intentions of keeping the
covenant with his people: 38 'They shall be My people, and I will be their
God; 39 'then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me
forever, for the good of them and their children after them.40 'And I will make
an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing
them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not
depart from Me. 41 'Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I
will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My
soul.' 42 " For thus says the LORD: 'Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring
on them all the good that I have promised them."
§
The Wine of
Full Joy- Joy comes from true obedience and living according to God's
standards taught in his word. We must understand and draw all of our joy
from our knowledge of what God has done in Christ on our behalf (cf. Dt. 28:45-48- serve joyfully and obediently).
- Covenantal Growth of the Vine- the Vine has
progressed since the True Vine has come in the fullness of time.
§
From Slaves
to Friends-
- We were taken (like Israel) from a land of sin and bondage, and
slavery to the devil, and our own passions, and we were transferred
into the Kingdom of the Son by God's grace.
James 2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says,
"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness." And he was called the friend of God."
Exodus 33:11
says: "So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his
friend…"
- Like Abraham and Moses were called
"friends of God" because of their intimate knowledge of
God and his plans and promises to his people, so the Spirit of God
gives the Apostles knowledge to pen Scripture and to understand the
mysteries of the ages in Christ. This informs us intimately of what
God has promised to come. What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those he
loves!
- We have gone from being slaves who merely
work for a Master, to being friends who know their Master's plans
because of the Spirit of God/the Comforter, and the Word of God
inspired by Him, written by the Apostles.
Our Hope in Christ: In his Person and
Work on our behalf, the justice of God and the mercy of God kissed!
|
