We're going to read verses 1-17. John 15, beginning with verse 1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. The branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments. and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. Okay. Guys, if we could look at verses 7 and 8 very quickly. I just want to take notice of a few things there. Verse 7. Jesus says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, now that's conditional. If this happens, then something's going to follow. What is it that follows? Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. I've mentioned this before, but I want to mention it again. Let's think about the things that are conditional, that flow out of abiding in Christ and His Word abiding in us. He mentions that there will be powerful effectual prayer. He says that there will be the bearing of much fruit. He says that there will be the undeniable, invisible demonstration that we are indeed the disciples of Jesus Christ, and all of this will glorify the Father. Now, my question to you is, to whom is Jesus speaking in this address right now? Who's He talking to? That night. The eleven disciples. Judas has already departed. So, His focus is very narrow. Eleven disciples. Now, what do we know? In fact, Pastor Charles mentioned it this morning in his sermon, if you happen to be listening, which I was. What do we know that these disciples are going to do in just the next couple of hours of their lives? Now, before I say that, let me set the table. We do know this. During the Lord's Supper, they were arguing among themselves about what? Who is the greatest? They're arguing about that, okay? Now, what do we know they're going to do in the next couple of hours as they go to Gethsemane and then Jesus is arrested? What are they going to do? Okay, they're going to go to sleep three times. When Jesus asks them to keep watch with Him, He finds them sleeping three times. What else? Okay, they're going to flee when He's arrested. They desert. And then Peter's going to deny Him three times. The point that I'm making is that these were flawed men. They're like us. They're like us. They've got weaknesses, they've got deficiencies, just like we do. They were common, ordinary men. But they're going to do what no other men had ever done in history. You know what they were going to do? They were going to live out New Covenant, New Testament, post-resurrection, Spirit-filled, Jesus-honoring, God-glorifying Christianity. That had never been done before. You say, well, what does that look like? We don't know. No one had ever done it before. Right? Now, think about this. They had followed Jesus for three years. Now, there had to be a certain comfort level with Jesus being there physically every day. I mean, they didn't have a lot of worries. They were following Him, He was right there. But now, He's getting ready to depart. He's getting ready to leave. What are they going to do? If they're going to live this new life, what are they going to do? Well, you say, well, they just need to go find a good church. There isn't one. Well, they need to sit under some good preaching. There isn't any. Well, they need to get their New Testament out and read it and study it. Hadn't been written. You know, when you start thinking about that, you think, wow, they've got some challenges in front of them. But here's the reality, guys. These 11 men, flawed as they are, they're going to be the human pioneers of a way of life that will transform their world and life on this earth until Jesus returns. And isn't the way they live, isn't it still affecting life on this planet? It still is. It is in India, right? It still is. They were the human pioneers of this way of life. Now, the question is, how? How are these flawed men, with Jesus leaving, How's this going to happen? Because the book of Acts records that it did happen. Okay, so it did happen. Now, I want to think about it, especially in relationship to this text. We know this, that John 13 through 17 are the last words that Jesus spoke to these men before He went to Calvary. So that means that these words are pretty important words. They're the last words that He speaks to these men. And not only were they the last words that He spoke to them, but they were the words that the Holy Spirit inspired to be recorded for our benefit. We also know this, Acts 1 tells us, that for 40 days Jesus appeared to these men and He spoke to them about His kingdom. That's what it says. But none of that's recorded. We don't know what He said. Okay? And so, we ask this simple question. We looked at John 7-8, powerful effectual prayer, bearing of much fruit, undeniable visible demonstration that you are disciples of Christ, and glorifying the Father. Did all four of those things characterize these men in the book of Acts? Did they demonstrate powerful effectual prayer? Yes. Was there the bearing of much fruit? Was there an undeniable demonstration that they were the disciples of Jesus Christ? And did they glorify the Father? They did. And so, using our reasoning, we've got to say, wow, then John 15 must have been pretty pivotal, pretty important in their lives. It had to be. It had to be a central foundational blueprint for how they lived. And consequently, it needs to be a central foundational blueprint for how we live, because we're here in the inner city of San Antonio, Texas, and we want to see the same things happen that they saw happen. We want to see powerful, effectual prayer. We want to bear much fruit. We want to demonstrate that we're disciples of Jesus Christ, and we want to glorify the Father right here, right now. So, we look to the blueprint. And I just want to make, I mean we read 17 verses, obviously we can't look at all 17 verses, but I want to make five general observations about this text. Looking at it as a blueprint. And you know what the basic theme is? The basic theme is the bearing of fruit. The bearing of fruit, okay? Now, first observation. Jesus is the vine. Okay? Verse 1 says, Jesus says, I am the true vine. Verse 5 says, I am the vine. So that's pretty simple. Jesus is the vine. Now what does that mean? It means this. All the life necessary to produce fruit in your life is in Jesus. All the life necessary. Whatever it is that you need. Do you need power? Do you need wisdom? Do you need discernment? Do you need victory over sin? Do you need spiritually enabling grace? Do you need Christian character? Do you need forgiveness? Do you need repentance? Do you need humility? Whatever it is that you need to produce fruit, it's in Jesus. Because Jesus is the source. Jesus is the vine. And we sang this morning, He is our all-in-one. Now, that's one way of expressing what it is for Him to be divine. That means that He is all we need in all circumstances. Jesus needs to be the biggest thing in our lives because He's the source of life. He needs to supersede any other interest, delight or pleasure. Jesus needs to be supreme. That's why the writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 12 says, fix your eyes on Jesus. Where else do we want to look? What else can we look to? Except Jesus. Now, can we real quickly just turn to one verse, second, Peter. Three, 17 and 18, real quickly, I just want to look at this verse. Second, Peter is after first, Peter and first, Peter is somewhere in the New Testament. That's about as close as I can get. OK. Second, Peter 3, 17 and 18. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. Verse 18 is what we're after, but grow. That's a fruit word there, guys. Grow. Grow in what? Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wow! That is so simple. But we're not to lose our stability. We're not to be influenced by lawless men. But we're to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Why? Because He's the vine. He's the source of life. Where else can we turn to for growth? Except Him. Because He's the vine. Jesus should be big in all of our lives. Okay? That's the first point. Second, the Father is the vinedresser. We see that in verse 1. I'm the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. The Father is committed to making you more fruitful. He's the vinedresser. That's His job. That's his job. That's his commitment in your life to make you more fruitful. Now, how does he do it now? Think with me. I'm going to quote a verse. You're familiar with this verse. Listen to it, though, and think about it. This is James one to James says this. Consider it all joy, my brethren. When what when you face trials, of various kinds. Why? Why would I consider it joy to be facing trials? Listen to what he says. Knowing, okay, this is something that you know. If you're a Christian, this is something that you know. This is not something you're wondering about. This is something that is foundational. It's rock solid. You know this, that the testing of your faith produces. Produce, that's a fruit word, right? That's a fruit word produces steadfastness or endurance. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect. and complete, lacking in nothing. Brethren, that's fruit. Perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. That's fruit. But how does that occur? Through our trials. Through the testing of our faith. And who's orchestrating that? Is that just something happening haphazardly? God is working out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, including the trials that are in your life for your good to produce fruit and make you complete. Why? He's the vine dresser. That's what He does. That's His commitment to you. If you're His, that's His commitment to you. He wants you more fruitful. And He's committed to that. And He's working those things out. What's one of our favorite verses in the entire Bible? Romans 8, 28. And we know. Here's it again. And we know. Paul says again, this is what we know. We know that for those who love God, to those who are lovingly united to the vine, all things work together for good. Why? Why do all things work together for good? because our Father is the vinedresser. And He's the omnipotent, sovereign ruler of this universe, and He's working all things together for our good. That's His commitment to us. Amen? Boy, that's an encouragement, brethren. It is to me. All right, thirdly. Genuine Christians are branches that by abiding in the vine bear much fruit. And that's verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. We're branches. What are we supposed to be doing? Bearing much fruit. Not just fruit. He says bearing much fruit. Now, turn to Colossians, please, the first chapter. Let's look at another verse. Stay in John 15, but flip over to Colossians. Colossians, the first chapter. We're going to read verses 9 and 10. Listen to what Paul says here. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the, there's that word again, knowledge. This is something we know. The knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Verse 10, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Bearing fruit in every good work. Brethren, we should be bearing fruit in every sphere of our lives. Every area. His husbands, his fathers, his wives, as mothers, as churchmen, as employers, as employees, personal finances, personal character. The list goes on. We should be bearing fruit. Brethren, who should be the best husbands on the earth? Can we conclude anything else? I mean, if we're going to bear the fruit of God in our lives, if we're serious about our Christianity, should we not be bearing fruit that the world can't bear because they don't know Christ? And not just in one area. He says bearing fruit in every good work, every sphere of life. God's fruitfulness should be present because of who He is and what He's called us to do. Now, because we've got to say this, Christianity is a fruit-bearing endeavor. Now, when I was in Owensboro, back where I lived, I was in the landscaping business. But I had a friend, his name was Billy Reed. Billy Reed had one of the biggest orchards in the tri-state area. He produced fruit. Now, I didn't know a whole lot about fruit trees, but sometimes in my landscaping I would come across people who had a problem, and I'd always call Billy. And you know what? Billy always had the answer. You know why? Because he was in the business of producing fruit. Brethren, we're in the business of producing fruit and we better have some answers. We've already read that word knowledge several times. This is what we know. Knowledge is at the root of our fruitfulness. We have to know this business and we have to know it well, because God has called us to that. He's called us to bear fruit. Fourthly. Fruit bearing is a process. Initiated by God. And it redounds to his glory. And we're going to have to look at a couple of verses, look at verse 16. In John 15. Jesus says, you did not choose me. But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide or should last or should remain. Okay? Who initiated this process? Whose idea was this? It was God's. He chose us. He appointed us to what? Go and bear fruit. And if we look at verse 8, what's the outcome of that? By this is my Father glorified. That you bear much fruit. So this process, this process of bearing fruit, it's initiated by God, and it redounds to His glory. In other words, that's the ultimate fruit. We glorify the Father. Guys, Brethren, can we do anything greater on this earth than glorify? We can't. We can't. There's nothing. We can't go any higher. If our lives are glorifying to God, we can't go any higher than that. And that's exactly what he's called us to do. That's why he's chosen us, appointed us, that we might bear fruit unto the glory Of the father. Amen. Now look at let's go to first Peter again for first Peter to. Verse nine. We're going to read several verses here, but beginning with verse 9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. Oh, brethren, isn't that wonderful language? We are chosen. We're a royal priesthood. We're a holy nation. We're a people that God has separated for His own possession. Wow, praise the Lord. That's what God has done. That's almost unbelievable, but He's done it. Why? You know what it says? That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He's saying that you may glorify. by proclaiming His excellencies in terms of what He did for you and calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Brethren, would we be in this room today if God hadn't done that? We wouldn't. We wouldn't even be here. Some of us wouldn't even be in San Antonio. Some of us may not even be alive. But as it is, we are alive and we are the people of God. We are the body of Christ. Why? He chose us. He did it. He did that. But listen, what else? Verse 10. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Verse 11, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Brethren, where did this verse start with? Verse 9. It started with us being a chosen people. Where does it end? It ends with us bearing fruit in such a way among the Gentiles, among the unbelievers, that what? What happens to them? What's that last verse talking about? that they see our good deeds. They see the fruit that we're bearing. And they are brought to Christ by it, and they glorify God on the day of His visitation, on the day of judgment. It's talking about conversion of souls. We can't do anything. There's nothing more miraculous, there's nothing more glorious than when a hell-deserving, God-hating, rebel sinner is brought to faith in Jesus Christ. There's nothing greater than that. And who does God use to do it? He uses us. He's chosen us. We're a chosen people. We're a royal priesthood. We're a people belonging to God. And as a result of the fruit in our life and the witness that we give to a lost and dying world, there are going to be some that see. They're going to see that we're different. They're going to see that there's something in us that they don't have and they want it and they come to Christ and God is glorified on the day of his visitation. That's what it says! That's what it says. So fruit-bearing is a process initiated by God, and it redounds to His glory. And finally, the fifth observation I want to make. Christians are warned They cannot bear fruit of themselves. It's versus four and five, that's exactly what he says, and. Failure to bear fruit. Results in judgment. Let's read versus five and six. I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for here's what we're after. For apart from me you can do nothing. Secondly, verse six, if anyone does not abide in me and consequently does not bear fruit, what happens? He is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. Now. Two aspects I want to talk about. The first one. is that we cannot bear fruit of ourselves. Now, within the context of verses 1 through 17, twice Jesus mentions the concept of prayer. Now think about this for a moment. Twice he says, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. You pray and I'll answer. He says that twice. So that makes that concept pretty important. Now, why would you pray? You know why we pray? We pray, and we pray most earnestly if we understand that apart from Christ, we can do nothing. Now, I'm not talking about giving lip service to that and saying, oh, yeah, yeah, I know, apart from Christ, I can't do anything. I'm talking about when you really understand that and when you really believe that, you know what it does? It drives you to your knees to call out to God for mercy, because you know you can't do anything without Him. He's your source of life. All you are is a branch. You're not the source of life. He is. So you pray. You know what? Do you want to put your hand on the heartbeat of a church? Do you want to gauge the health and vitality of a church? You know what you do? You go to their midweek prayer meeting, and you listen to them pray, and you see whether or not they're serious about prayer. There was a story Spurgeon told, and some of you may know this, And maybe I'm going to mess up a few of the details. I was a little fuzzy on it. But there was a man that came into the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Anybody familiar with this story and really know it? I'll let you tell it. David, do you know it? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Gathered prey. Yes, right. Yeah, he wanted to see. I've heard about this Metropolitan Tabernacle. I've heard about God's blessing here. What's up with that? How does that work? Took him down to the boiler room, filled with people, praying. Why? They understood this. They understood that apart from Christ, we can do nothing. And so brethren, we should be praying as individuals. We should be praying corporately as a body. Prayer should be a major influence in our lives. It should be a major activity that we give ourselves to. If we really believe what that says, that apart from Christ, I can do And it drives me to seek after Him who can do all things. You read those verses this morning about all that God is able to do. Oh, praise God. Those were wonderful. But He's able to do that. And through prayer, we have contact with Him. We're not omnipotent, but He is, and we've got contact with Him through prayer. That's unbelievable, almost. No, it is believable. It better be believable. Yes. And finally, yeah, and this is a very sobering thing to think about. That if you bear no fruit, that brings judgment on you. I want you to think about a passage of Scripture. You remember when John the Baptist was baptizing at the Jordan? And all of these men and women were coming to be baptized for their sins, to be baptized for repentance. That was in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. They were repenting. And there was a day when a group of Pharisees and Sadducees came down to the river, and they were kind of standing off to the side watching. You remember what John the Baptist said? He said, You brood of vipers. produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And don't suppose that you can say, we have Abraham as our father, because I tell you out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham. But the ax is already laid at the root of the tree. And every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. It's all about fruit. He said, don't you dare come around the things of God if you're not willing to produce the fruit of God. And that was a sober warning. You come among the people of God and you begin to associate with the people of God. You better realize, you better realize that there has got to be some fruit in your life. This is no game and you better not trifle with God. Because if you do, you'll be cut down, you'll be eliminated, you'll be exposed and you'll be cast into the fire. That's exactly what He says in verse 6. Now, that's a very, very sober warning. We need to take that very, very seriously. And we need to realize, brethren, God calls us to bear fruit. That's what we need to be doing. We need to examine our lives. And those areas where we're not bearing fruit, we need to deal with those areas before God. Now, I want to look at one other passage in closing. I want to again turn to 2 Peter. 2 Peter, the first chapter. We're going to look at verse 8 in closing today. Peter has just mentioned, he's just given a list of fruit that has been produced in the lives of these believers. And he says, he mentions faith, he mentions knowledge, he mentions self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. And then in verse 8, here's his conclusion. In light of the fruit of Christian character produced in the lives of Christians. Verse 8, what's he say? For if these qualities are yours, or if this fruit is yours, if it's been produced in your life, and is increasing, it's growing, it's being multiplied. Why? Because that's what we're in the business of producing fruit. And he's saying, if that's going on in your life, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in what? In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, this whole thing just kind of works together as we produce fruit, which is what God calls us to do. In turn, we gain knowledge. We gain knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We gain knowledge of how fruit is produced. And in turn, we produce more fruit that produces more knowledge, that produces more fruit. And it just kind of keeps going, because that's how we're called to live. And that's what we see in the book of Acts. We started with these 11 common, ordinary men. That it really doesn't look too good. But we find that they did uncommon, extraordinary deeds. They produced fruit, brethren. And the book of Acts bears that out. And so, what is our book of Acts going to say? Hey, it already says some stuff, doesn't it? Praise the Lord, it does. But we're not through writing, are we? We got a lot more to write. A lot more to write. And praise God, if we'll take John 15 seriously, We'll apply these things, we'll become even more fruitful, and we'll write our own book of Acts to the glory of God. Amen? Alright, let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your overwhelming goodness to Your people. We thank You that on a Sunday afternoon, we're in here. We could be a thousand other places, but we're not. We're here because You chose us to go and bear fruit, to demonstrate that we're Your disciples, to glorify the Father. These are glorious realities, O God, and we pray that we would come to know them, each of us, individually and corporately as a church. We would come to know these realities in greater measure in the coming weeks and months and years. We pray that we would become more fruitful in our individual Christian lives, as fathers, as husbands, mothers, wives, employees, Lord, every facet, every sphere of influence, Lord, may it be touched by your call, your divine call on our lives, to bear fruit. And may we not turn back, Lord, but may we press on, even as Paul did. May we press on. And may we be committed with greater intensity to this challenge, to this endeavor of bearing much fruit, that You might be honored and glorified in our midst. Oh, we praise You and we thank You. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.