I Am the True Vine

 Temple Baptist Church - 4-3-2024

John 15:1-2

 

Introduction:

 

A.  In John 15:1, we find the last of the Seven “I AM’s” of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is openly claiming to be the great “I AM THAT I AM” of the Old Testament, Jehovah God. 

 

1.  The Jews fully understood the ramifications of each of these statements.  Jesus Christ was telling them that it was He who spoke to Moses from the burning bush in the Book of Exodus!

 

2.  This Jews knew that Jesus was a great teacher who did things that could have only been done by one sent from God.  Here we find great accountability!

 

John 3:1-2  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:  (2)  The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

 

B.  The Book of John portrays Jesus Christ as the Son of God which makes Him Divine.  In the Book of John, we find that each of the seven “I AM’s” express a different aspect of Who and what Jesus did.

 

“I Am Bread of Life” – John 6:35.  We need sustenance.                                          

                     

          “I Am Light of The World” – John 8:12.  We need luminance.                                             

                     

          “I Am Door of The Sheep” – John 10:9.  We need entrance.

                     

“I Am the Good Shepherd” – John 10:14.  We need guidance.

                   

“I Am Resurrection and The Life” – John 11:25.  We need assurance.                        

                      

“I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” – John 14:6.  We need salvation.          

 

“I Am the True Vine” – John 15:1.  We need abiding.

 

C.  Each of the “I AM’s” expressed a different attribute of Jesus Christ and these aspects could only be pertain to Almighty God.

 

1.  In the phrase “I AM,” we find singularity.  Jesus Christ, in each of these sayings, is telling the world that these 7 things find their totality in Him and Him alone.

 

 

2.  There is also an unstated truth found in these words.  If there is a “True Vine,” and there is.  His name is Christ Jesus, our Lord.  Then there must also be “False Vines,” and there are.

 

3.  Too often God’s people break away from their attachment to Jesus Christ and become attached to the “vines” of this world.  These attachments stop fruit bearing for God and cause fruit bearing for their worldly vines.  We will deal with these believers later.

 

D.  The analogy:  “I am the true vine.”  I want to look at three aspects of the analogy as to give us the right Biblical perspective of what Christ is telling us in these verses.

 

1.  The Prophetic aspect fulfilled in Christ Jesus.  “I am the True Vine.”

 

2.  The Owner’s aspect fulfilled in the Father.  “My Father is the Husbandman.”

 

Luke 10:21  In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

 

3.  The Spiritual aspect fulfilled in the Believer.  “Every branch in me.

 

Romans 12:5  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

1.  The Prophetic aspect fulfilled in Christ Jesus. 

 

a.  When our Lord gave the truths found in John 15 concerning the relationship of the believer to Christ in abiding in the “True Vine,” these were not unfamiliar words to the Jew. 

 

When speaking to the Pharisees, our Lord told them Who He was!

 

John 8:57-58  Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?  (58)  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

 

Christ was before Abraham making Christ the Great I AM!

 

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

 

Ephesians 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

 

Colossians 1:15-17  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:  (16)  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  (17)  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

 

Revelation 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

 

b.  We find the Prophecy of the True Vine in the Book of Isaiah which was written app. 740 years before the birth of Christ.

 

Isaiah 11:1  And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 

 

A rod: a strong branch; a stem: the trunk or stump; a Branch: capitalized: Christ Jesus, which grows from “his roots!”

 

1)  “A Branch (Christ, Israel’s Messiah) shall grow our of His roots.”  The Branch …His roots!” Christ is both the Root and the Branch that grew from the Root through the Stem of Jesse: of the linage to David.

 

Isaiah 11:10  And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

 

Here, in the same context, Christ the Branch is called the “root of Jesse” from which Christ came.

 

2)  Chapter 11 of Isaiah is also prophetic of the Millennial Kingdom of the last days which will transpire after the end of the Tribulation Period or Jacob’s Trouble.  At the time that the Book of Isaiah was written, this is prophetic of an event that will be 2,740 years in the future (740 BC to 2,000+ years AD).

 

Isaiah, chapter 53, which is prophetic of the Messiah’s rejection and crucifixion, Christ Jesus is called a “tender plant … as a root out of dry ground.”  A Babe is born in the darkness of Israel Who is the almighty Jehovah God, the “Root!”

 

Isaiah 53:1-2  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?  (2)  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

 

3)  In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, we find that Christ Jesus is the “root and the offspring of David.”  As the Root, He bears David and as the “offspring,” David bears Christ.

 

Revelation 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

 

c.  In the Book of Luke, chapter 3:23-38, we find the genealogy of Christ from “(as was supposed) the son of Joseph back to Adam who was the son of God.

 

Luke 3:23  And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,

 

Luke 3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

 

Conclusion:  The Prophecy of Christ, the True Vine, was neither foreign nor was it unknown to the Jews. “I AM the True Vine” simply spoke of Israel’s Messiah, Christ Jesus, being Jehovah God of old.

 

1.  Christ is both the “Root” and the “Vine.”  Revelation 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 

 

Christ is the root from which David, the King of Israel, was born.

 

2.  Christ was the root from which the Messianic Line came.  John 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. 

 

3.  God’s children are the branches that grow out of the vine.  Notice I said “grow out” of the vine because the vine is Christ!