Under The Gardener’s Knife
About this series
At the start of 2022 Russ, our Lead Elder, spoke about this being a year of ‘pruning for fruitfulness.’ The imagery comes from John 15 so we are going to preach through this chapter over seven Sundays.
The vine and branches are a wonderful and inspiring image but comes at a very intense point in Jesus’ journey to the cross.
There is also a clear Old Testament connection. In the OT “the vine” or “the vineyard” was a common picture of God’s people, and a symbol of the fruitfulness God intended for them. God had done all that was necessary for his people to be fruitful - chosen them, loved them, planted them in ‘fertile’ conditions - yet they continually turned away from him, and failed to be a prophetic witness to the nations of the one true God.
Fast-forward to John’s gospel where Jesus says, “I am the true vine” - I am the truly fruitful one sent by my Father, who himself is the gardener; stay intimately connected to me and dependent on me; your fruitfulness is directly related to that connection. It is by remaining in me that you will be enabled to be the distinct and faithful people of God and a prophetic witness of him.
We have a danger of immediately thinking of fruitfulness in terms of output, usefulness, and productivity - which is certainly part of what it means to be fruitful. But fruitfulness for God is the result of a life rooted in faithfulness to him. That is surely why God’s people produced bad fruit throughout the OT - because they had been unfaithful. Bearing good fruit is a matter of growth in godliness and character; it’s a holiness question as much as a usefulness one.
This series about abiding is not a set of seven ways to be fruitful but is a careful study in John 15. However, we hope that it is extremely practical, with the thread of abiding (as the way to be fruitful) weaving through it all. Each part of the series should help us consider how we can abide in Jesus.
For example
Through staying conscious of him at all times
Submitting our decisions to him
Keeping his glory as the goal
Connecting to fellow believers
Ensuring that we’re carving out time to be alone with him in personal devotions (prayer, Bible reading, worship, etc)
Growing in our understanding of who he is and who we are in him.
About this talk
Scripture: John 15:2
Much would have been understood by Jesus’ disciples and by those who heard this teaching passed on which escapes us in our largely non-agricultural society. The gardener does many things - planting, watering, digging, protecting - but Jesus mentions only two here: “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.” Essentially he removes dead wood (in winter) and prunes healthy branches (in spring), both of which involve taking his knife to the vine, but with different aims.
We can make some sense of pruning - most of us understand the concept and have made an attempt at trimming plants, however unskilled, to remove unwanted growth and to encourage further growth. It is sometimes amazing to watch an experienced gardener seemingly come close to destroying a plant with severe pruning. But they know what they’re doing and are not indiscriminately hacking at the plant, but are enabling the plant to focus its energy where it is most needed to maximize fruitfulness.
For the disciple, pruning is most likely to be a painful experience: restricting in some ways or removing aspects of their experience. Other passages that come to mind in connection with the idea of pruning might be the story of Joseph; Psalm 119:65-80; 2 Corinthians 12:1-10; Hebrews 12:4-13.
But what are we to make of, “He cuts off (or takes away, cuts out) every branch in me that bears no fruit”? There’s plenty of debate about who such branches are. While we should be cautious about pushing the analogy too far or trying to be overly precise, here are some of the options proposed for who these fruitless branches are:
i) These are people who have only appeared to be among his people. They are fruitless, nominal believers who are shown in the end not to have had his life flowing through them after all; they never were true believers connected to the vine. If so, this could be a reference to Judas (who has left the group to betray Jesus) in contrast to the 11 others who, v 3, “are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” The issue with this view is that these are branches who are “in me” and that elsewhere in John, the phrase “in me” refers almost always to those who are positively connected to Jesus, not those who only appear to be.
ii) They are people who were genuine disciples, but have failed to remain in Jesus, have drifted away from him, and thus have lost their salvation. However, this would be contrary to Jesus’ teaching in, for example, John 10:28-29 and to the assurance of salvation (based on Jesus alone) that runs throughout the NT.
iii) They are genuine disciples. Here, the clue is in the fact that they are branches “in me.” These are disciples who belong to him, from whom the Father is cutting out those parts that are dead wood so that the fruitful parts can grow unhindered to bear more fruit. However, v 6 goes on to say, “If you do not remain in me (note “in me” again), you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned,” which seems, in the language Jesus used elsewhere, to speak of eternal judgment. See notes on v 6 in no. 4, below.
It is certainly a difficult verse (as is verse 6, which appears related to this one) but we can at least say that we should expect the Father to lovingly and graciously work in us to make us more fruitful for his glory, pruning us where Christ’s life is already flowing through us and even removing unhelpful things from us.
We look at:
What might pruning look and feel like in our lives? Can we give some personal illustrations of where we have experienced this?
How can we be sure to maintain a humble submissive attitude to the Father’s pruning work?
And how can we discern when the pain we are feeling is his pruning work, as opposed to just the toughness of life or the opposition from the devil? Or can they at times be one and the same thing?
Audio only
