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You know how the story ends, even if you don’t believe it you know how the Jesus story ends.  There’s no surprise ending or artistic license to be taken, he’s alive.  That’s what makes Jesus – Jesus.  Nobody left the Passion and said, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.”

Something has happened – we’ve become too familiar with the Easter story and so miss the point.  We think it’s a great story on how to die really well which doesn’t interest us because we’re not thinking about death.  Living has preoccupied us.  We’ve been too busy following the path to significance, or someone, or peace, or sometimes truth if we have that luxury. We are too caught up in the living and it seems that a man who is known for his death and resurrection probably doesn’t have a lot to say.

1.       Our search for peace.

• We try to follow the arrow for security and see it’s an endless maze.  Inner peace is best defined as your soul being at rest.  Are you ever just wore out after a day of conflict?
• If we can’t find real peace then we sedate ourselves through a myriad of activities such as TV, Facebook, SecondLife, some sort of virtual reality where we don’t have problems or everyone else’s problems wrap up in 30 minutes.

2.       Our search for someone.

• Belonging is a basic human need, this is why there are so many dating services on the internet.  The arrow is constantly pointing at someone else who will make us happy.
• It’s not just romance.  Having moved several times I understand the difficulty of belonging.  Especially for men, it seems like the last time most of us made a new good friend was high school or college.
• We want to belong but we don’t want to be vulnerable.  We want a sure investment for our emotions.

3.       Our search for significance.

• We all want to matter and make a difference.  I think this is why we have so many opportunities to live out what we think will matter.
• We invest our lives in a job or parents enable their children to pursue every option they never had.
• What we don’t realize is that in chasing these pursuits of significance we move away from the someone and the peace we have sought.

4.       Our search for truth.

• This truth often takes a back seat to the seeming more pressing searches.
• This is maybe the most important for it informs everything else.  What we believe to be true guides us in our quest for peace, security and belonging.  After all we can’t have peace with nagging doubt, we can’t be secure in something that isn’t real and we can’t belong to someone on any meaningful level without sincerity.
• We want to know what we know is a sure thing – a real deal.  So we search.

5. Jesus is our way to truth.  (John 14:5-11)

• I must admit, there are some places where we’ve come awfully close.
  • Genesis tells us that we are created in God’s image and Romans tells us that God has put into our consciences truth.  So, when we get a bunch of people together seeking truth and true beauty good things happen.
  • We call these collective efforts of quests for truth and beauty religions.  The world is full of them.  The problem with all of them as you saw in the video is that the labor is entirely up to us.  If we want out of the hole, if we want true direction then we must figure it out and we must do it alone.
  • The problem is that in our human understanding we can’t fully understand the problem.
• I’ve said this before but one step away from eternity, is an eternal step and it creates and unbridgeable gulf between us and God.
  • It requires God to take our place and bridge that gulf.  In other words it requires someone coming into the hole with us.  Only Jesus Christ has done that.
  • Before I’ll defend Christianity, I’ll defend Christ.  Because everything in my life revolves around him.  The rest is our best attempt to please him.
• The way of truth is not over there somewhere, but here pointing up to Christ.

6. Jesus is our way to significance. (John 14:12-14)

• Easter is a day of power.  It is the day that set the 11 cowering disciples running into harm’s way for the sake of spreading the gospel.
• This power enables us to do greater works than Christ.  What does that mean?  It means that if the church truly takes on the mission of Christ, with the Spirit of Christ then the hundreds of us here are able to do more than the one person of Jesus!
• We see that the way to significance doesn’t take us away from truth but in the same direction as it also is found in Christ.

7. Jesus is our way with someone. (John 14:2-3)

• He is someone to love us unconditionally.  The church becomes a family to call our own.
• Relationships that never end – despite death or distance.
• The way of significance that used to take us away from someone, now is in line with it as they both lead us to Christ.

8. Jesus is our way of peace . (John 14:1)

• Jesus recognizes our need for peace and security and says, “I’m coming back to give you this security.  Oh, and by the way you’re not good enough, thankfully I am.”
• We see that peace is found in Christ and we’re at peace because we don’t have to run in seven directions to find satisfaction in life.
• And when you live a life that death can not stop, you find yourself at complete peace.

All that we looked for is in Christ, answered by his teaching and satisfied in his person.  When we live a life like this that’s when death can’t stand in the way.  Because we know how the story ends we almost miss the point, the resurrection isn’t the end it’s the climax.  Jesus resurrection says this to us, “When you live a life like me, then death is no obstacle.”  The resurrection is not a story about dying well, it’s a story on how to live.  The life the resurrection calls us to is the life that death can not hold down.

Wine was more than a treat or delicacy in the ancient world – it was a necessity.  Water was unpalatable and often unsafe.  So they drank wine, which for them meant mixing wine with the water which made the water safe via the alcohol. Wine was a necessity for social occasions, a groom was liable to a lawsuit or a dissolved marriage if he couldn’t provide enough wine for his guests at a wedding feast and so Jesus’ first miracle saves some newly married man’s marriage and savings.

The fruit of the vine is…

1. The Father’s passion. (1-3)

• He cuts away dead branches.
• He prunes productive branches.
  • This really describes sanctification or purification.  He starts to cut away the parts of us that aren’t fruitful.
  • This could mean trimming away sinful habits that require the blood of Christ for forgiveness.  This could mean trimming away areas that aren’t our giftedness so that we can focus on the mission God has for us.
  • Christ tells us in verse three that it’s the word that does the pruning and it does for it certainly is the sharp double edged sword as scripture describes.
• What determines the difference?  Fruit and it’s bore in a variety of ways.
  • Fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22)
  • Fruit keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8)
  • Fruit will last (John 15:16)
  • Saved souls are considered fruit (1 Corinthians 15:23; Colossians 1:6).  It’s this last fruit I want to focus on this morning because no other fruit displays the full redeeming power of Jesus quite like this fruit.

2. The expression of the Son’s power. (4-7)

• Apart from Jesus we die – as we do not have his blood flowing into us.
  • Walk around the campus today and see the trees that had limbs pruned.  You can see the sap where the saw has been.  When you cut a branch off a tree or vine you see the sap literally bleeding out from a plant.
  • It is this sap that flows from the vine to the branch and into the fruit.
• With Jesus we thrive – living in his purpose, filled with his power.
  • How do we best do this?  Remember back to John 6 where Jesus tells his followers that those who do not eat his flesh and drink his blood have no part in him!
  • This is why communion is so important.  It puts us in constant contact with Jesus’ life giving blood.  This is what centers us then sends us out with his power!
  • We miss some of the necessity of the connection being people not plants.  If there’s no food at home then I’ll go to the store or a restaurant, but what recourse does the branch of the vine have?  None, it’s got to make things work with the vine.
  • In this light the phrase, “Ask whatever you wish” has a deeper meaning.  The branch won’t ask for anything that isn’t good for the vine.  Why?  Because to hurt the vine is to hurt the branch, but to bless the vine is to bless the branch.

3. The glory of the Father. (8)

• The connection for life and the requests granted ultimately come back as glory to God.  No vine tends itself, so a well pruned vine and a healthy plant testify to the goodness of the gardener.  The vinedresser receives praise along with the vine.
• This gives purpose to the Son’s blood – Christ’s blood symbolized by the fruit of the vine was poured out why?  So that we could bear more fruit for the vine.
• When a grape is crushed the Old Testament calls the juice the blood of the grape.  So, the blood of the grape is what brings life very literally to the ancient world by providing potable water.
  • Christ tells us that it’s the blood of the grape or the fruit of the vine that represents his own sacrifice and that every time we take communion we ought to remember that.
  • Just as the grape is crushed and pours out its life so too was Jesus who poured out his life in the cup of our hearts and fills us to overflowing so that we might in turn be crush and pour out into the lives of others.
• Jesus’ life was poured out so that we might have life connected to him and bear new life by bringing others to him.  All of this is powered by Christ’s blood and bringing glory to the Father.
• Realize we bear fruit, we don’t make it.  The vine, Jesus he makes it we bear it.
  • The problem is that so many of us are too weak to bear fruit.  We’ve neglected the call to go and make disciples.  We’ve settled for inviting people to church.
  • Yet, inviting people to church is a step in the right direction, and it could be the first step for someone to discipleship.  Our responsibility does not stop there but we are to hold them up and pour into them the life of Christ.

4. Our joy and purpose. (9-11)

• Our purpose and joy of fulfillment come from obeying Christ’s command to love.
• When was the last time you loved the world?  When was the last time you poured yourself out for the sake of sharing Christ’s love with the world?
• This isn’t easy, but what happens when you crush grapes?  Blood flows out, along with life.

“One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.” – John 19:34

Now we understand what happened when Jesus was pierced and blood and water flowed out.  John is telling us that in Jesus death life flowed out!

There is a divine mystery that plays out this time of year, Jesus the Good Shepherd is remembered for his transformation into the lamb that was slain for the sins of the world.  Conversely an equally strange miracle plays out in believers.  We who are the sheep under the Good Shepherd are asked to partner with him in becoming under shepherds leading lost sheep back home.

But before we become shepherds we must become sheep and we must follow the voice of the ‘Good Shepherd.’ We don’t talk a lot about being great followers – but that is the primary activity to which we are called.  Jesus said, “Follow Me!”  But, why should we follow Jesus?

This is a fair question and one we should ask.  Jesus previously criticizes the Pharisees for not being good leaders and bringing great harm to the people.  Jesus condemns them as bad shepherds – shepherds who hurt and destroyed the sheep.  Not so different from today, presently there is a rise of literature about spiritual abuse and how to cope with the damage spiritual leaders can leave.  Maybe some of you have experienced damage at the hands of spiritual leaders.  If so you’re hesitant to agree to follow anyone, or anyone’s interpretation of Jesus.  Why should we think Jesus trustworthy?  I think Jesus is aware of the damage the Pharisees had done to the Jewish people and what damage has been done to us.  So, he tells, why he is the Good Shepherd, why he’s trustworthy.

1. He is good because of his sacrifice.(11-13)

• This is the definitive action of Christ that proves his goodness.  It is what sets him apart from all other leaders.
• In the OT hired hands who tended sheep were not responsible for loss by wild animals (Exodus 22:13).They worked for a wage and didn’t own the sheep so they didn’t risk their lives or limbs to keep them safe, at least not the way the Chief Shepherd did.
  • The Pharisees were these cowardly shepherds who wanted the wage but were unwilling to pay the price.  (Jeremiah 23:1; Ezekiel 34:6)
  • A spiritual leader whose looking out for themselves, will not make sacrifices because it costs them something.  Jesus isn’t looking out for himself, he’s looking out for us and so he makes sacrifices that cost him everything.

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1. Jesus is salvation for sheep. (10:9)

• Jesus replaces the closed door to life in Genesis, previously an angel with a sword stood in the way, now Christ opens the way.
• Hebrews 10:19-20 tells us, “Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),”
• Christ made the way to salvation possible by his own death.
  • If we want to be shepherds, if we want to test shepherds we must be willing to suffer as Christ suffered. We must be agents spreading salvation.
  • Jesus is the gate – the only way to salvation.

2. Jesus is the standard for leaders.

• One time while moving I forgot my keys and was met by the police in my front yard. I had to enter the house through a window and the neighbors called the police. You see they thought that because I entered through a window I didn’t belong in the house. Doors provide more than entrances – they provide a standard.
• Thieves and bandits enter from another way. (10:1)
  • Jesus was sent from the Father, so he comes with God’s blessings. Armed with the Spirit and right intentions.
  • The Pharisees were not sent from the Father – if they were they would have recognized Jesus.
  • They were not armed with the Spirit – their intentions were repeatedly recognized by Jesus as bad.
  • Ezekiel 34:1-4, 11 – gives us a picture of the shepherds that don’t come in the way, the standard of Christ.
• The godly under-shepherd enters from the gate.
  • 1 John 4:1-6 – Reveals the first and ultimate test for all under-shepherds, do they point back to Christ?
  • Even Jesus didn’t point to himself but back to the Father who sent him.
• Therefore any under-shepherd must follow Christ’s example, 1 Peter 5:1-5. Here are some of the characteristics: willing to serve, serve as Christ and not serve not for money or power.
• John 21:15-19 we see a very moving statement about following Christ’s example. Jesus tells Peter that tending sheep involves sacrifice.
  • Under-shepherds are called to the same sacrifice as Jesus.
  • Jesus’ sacrifice is our standard for spiritual leadership.