WestonWilliams.com

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.

Continue reading

Jesus makes this statement, “I AM the Light,” during the feast of tabernacles where they would celebrate at night by lighting torches throughout the city.  When there is light the night can be a very peaceful and beautiful place.  Total darkness brings about confusion and fear, try navigating in the dark.

Jesus in John 9:4 tells us that we are now in the night.  There are patches of light where believers gather shining the light of Christ, but it seems that there are more patches of darkness.  Perhaps where you work or even your home is abysmally dark.  It’s frustrating.

Jesus = Light, Jesus in John 8 says, “I am the Light of the World.”  What does that mean?

If you were to survey the word “light” throughout the book of John, you would find it 16 times.  They come in five clusters and this cluster, where Jesus declares, “I am the Light” is the center, it is the apex of these occurrences.  These five teachings the outside four correspond with each other and you see a present truth about light and a future occurrence of light.  It’s this text that separates the present from the future, because when you come to Jesus everything is new.  For the disciples it was seeing the incarnate Lord, for us it will be seeing the returning Lord.

1. The light has dawned and the light will set.

• John 1:1-4, 9 – Jesus is the light of the world that shines and gives life to everyone.
  • This passage of scripture is written to call to our minds Genesis chapter one, one of the very first descriptors of the world is that it is dark.  So, God’s very first creation is light.
  • Jesus is the light of all creation.  John says everything was dark before Christ.  Christ even predates our physical light because in the beginning he was God.  It’s as thought John is saying, “If you think the sun is bright – look at Christ.”
• Just like the sun the light of Christ was fleeting.
  • John 12:35-36 – Jesus tells the disciples that after he leaves the world will become a very dark place.  There is no mistake that John makes a point in John 13:30 to tell us that Judas left to betray Christ he says, “It was night.”
  • We see even in our passage John 9:4 that there is a double or perhaps deeper meaning to night.  The night is not just when Christ is absent, but when this life is over.  This is why we are admonished to work while it is light – work today.

2. The light has revealed and the light will judge.

• Without light we can’t see things or know things.  Colors for example can’t be seen by the eye in the dark – it’s physically impossible.  The light reveals things as they are, not as we wish for them to be.  This is why surgeons work with bright lights not mood lighting.  (John 3:19-21)
• The light has two effects, one present and one to come.  That’s why in the first point we see that the light has dawned, but in the future it will set.  Here we see that the light has revealed, but soon the light will judge. (John 11:9-10)
• How is it that the light judges?  How is it that following Christ now as the light of the world will prepare us for eternity?
  • We see in John’s final book, Revelation that Christ is light of eternity.  Revelation 22:5, “And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
  • You see there are two places: one of light that’s heaven, the other of darkness.  Complete eternal brightness or complete and eternal darkness.  The light of Christ is preparing our spiritual vision for an eternity of brightness or if you choose and eternity of darkness.
• Think about this in everyday terms.  When you come out of a movie theater in the middle of the day, you squint because your eyes hurt at the light.  When you leave a bright day and go into a dark room you can’t see because your eyes strain at the darkness.
  • Eventually your eyes become accustomed to the light or to the dark and you can see in the light or the dark.  But you can’t see in both and you can’t switch back and forth with perfect vision.
  • So it is spiritually.  There are those of you here who are so accustomed to the light, that when you go to be with Christ you won’t barely squint because your spiritual eyes are used to the light.
  • There are those of you here, who are so accustomed to the dark that when the eternal light of Christ comes you will squint at it and choose darkness because that’s what you can see.  You’ll be able to see with perfect clarity all of the evil and pain that is kept in eternal darkness.

3. The light is calling – will you follow?

• Unfortunately we are by nature children of darkness and but we have been called out. In the middle of the dawn and the set, the revelation and the judgment Jesus stands out in: John 8:12, “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
• The surest test to know whether you live in light are in darkness is by where you stumble?
  • Do you stumble when you’re in the world?  Do you squint at the violence of society?  Do you feel awkward when dark talk creeps into conversation?  If so, you’re a follower of the light.
  • Do you stumble when you’re around other believers?  Is it awkward?  Are you out of place?  Do you squint with shame because you know what you did in the darkness the night before?  If so, you’re not in the light.
• Being in the light produces radiant people, full of life.  People whose eyes are wide-open staring into the brilliant light of Christ and who shine that light throughout the world.

Proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

- 1 Peter 2:9b

Yesterday our youth minister Jared Graves started our new sermon series, “Jesus =.”  His text was John 6:22-59 and through it he explored how Jesus satisfies our greatest hungers in life.  I’m linking to his blog and notes on this sermon for those of you who want to follow this series along you can view his web post on this by clicking here.  This next Sunday we’ll look at Jesus’ statements in John 8:12-9:5 where he boldly declares, “I AM the Light.”