Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers.
And here is today's presenter, Bruce Novelly.
My sermon today is the parable that Jesus gave to his disciples in the garden just before his arrest. And I hope that you will find this study just as helpful. But look, we're just gonna have a word of prayer and then we'll get right into the study.
Our loving and gracious friend and Redeemer, we have come seeking your companionship and a personal connection with you here in Sabbath this Sabbath morning. Please accept us just as we are. We have come praying for the Spirit to minister to every need and every longing of our hearts.
As we open your word together, may we find healing for our wounded hearts, our troubled souls, our broken lives and our flagging spirits. May we hear the soft and gentle voice of Jesus breathing you hope into our hearts. And may your name be uplifted and honoured and glorified this morning because we ask it, please, in Jesus name.
Amen and Amen. Ancient historians tell us that the Temple of Christ's day was one of the most magnificent and breathtaking wonders of the ancient world. Visitors came from all over the then known world just to see and marvel at its beauty.
Herod the Great was probably one of the most outstanding architectural builders of his time. When he became ruler of Palestine, the temple clock complex had been in service for something like 500 years. It was in serious need of repair.
And so he set about rebuilding it and adding to its beauty. And to do this he employed 10,000 workmen just on this one project. Reconstruction began about 20 years before Jesus was born and building activities continued there throughout all of Jesus life.
The whole temple complex covered some 35 acres. But the actual sacred temple building itself took up only just a small portion of that area. According to God's direction, the Levites were the only ones that were allowed to work on or in the temple building.
And so Herod had a further 1,000 Levites trained as stonemasons just so that they could carry out this special work. It was constructed of giant blocks of beautiful precision cut white marble. The building was considered so sacred that these huge marble blocks were cut and shaped in quarries that were away from the temple site.
And then they were transported there and fitted into position without any construction noise whatsoever. It was Herod's two sons. First Herod Archelaus and then Herod Antipas that carried on the building programme after their father had died and the work was finally completed about A.D.
62. Large exterior portions of the Temple complex were lavishly covered in beaten gold and Corinthian mirrored brass. And together with the white marble, it reflected and shone with spectacular brilliance in the hot Israeli sun.
Visitors, as they climbed that steep and winding road from Jericho up to Jerusalem, came to the brow of the hill overlooking the city and the first thing that came into sight was this magnificent, jaw dropping, awe inspiring view of the Temple. Its presence overshadowed the whole of the city and its surroundings. Two huge doors clearly defined the holy place of the Temple from the outer courtyard where the sacrifices took place.
These two doors were almost 30 metres high and each door was 11 metres across. And they were overlaid and ornately decorated in pure beaten gold. Just in front of and on either side of these golden doors stood two giant marble columns that went up as high as the doors.
And at the top of these columns was a large marble beam that stretched across and joined these two columns together. Starting at the base of these columns and winding their way upward and upward and around were two huge grapevines of pure gold. At the top of these columns, these vines reached out across that top beam and met together in the centre of the doors.
From these but stunning, spectacular vines with their intricately crafted green leaves, hung large bunches of pure gold grapes. Many of these clusters were taller than the height of a man. Herod himself had generously gifted much of the gold for this exquisite work of art.
Skilled craftsmen had moulded and shaped these impressive golden vines with their gilded branches, leaves and fruit and many spectacular gems. Precious gems were also inlaid in the artwork so that the whole scene was one of absolutely breathtaking beauty. My few words here cannot begin to describe the magnificence of this place.
If you were a wealthy Jew, you could make a gift of gold or precious gems to the Temple and have your gift added to this magnificent site. Many prosperous Jews brought their gifts along, believing that they were secure in God's favour. For centuries, Israel had understood through God's prophets that they were a nation, that their nation had been chosen by God to receive his special blessings and privileges.
King David had called the nation a vine brought out of Egypt and planted in a good land. Hosea the prophet had called Israel a luxuriant vine. Jeremiah had described the nation that God had established as a choice vine.
And Isaiah had told them that God was in love with his vineyard and had done everything for its Security, prosperity and growth. And it was for this reason that Israel believed that they were indeed God's exclusive and favoured people. They had set these magnificent golden vines at the doorway of the temple as their national symbol.
They had placed them there with immense pride, as a continual reminder not only to themselves but to all the nations around them, that they were indeed God's choice vine, his privileged nation, that they would be forever favoured and approved by God above everyone else. It was to this temple that Mary had brought the baby Jesus to be dedicated. And it was within these porticos and halls that as a growing young man, Jesus himself had met with the teachers of the law.
And it was from these temple, the Temple's outer courts, that he had driven away the money changers. And now, for the last time, only hours before his crucifixion, he had spent the day at the Temple blessing and teaching the people. Leaving the city that afternoon, as the sun began to dip, just begin to dip towards the west, they were all together sitting in the garden of the olive press.
We know it as Gethsemane. They were quietly discussing all the activities that had taken place during the day and reviewing and brooding over the things that Jesus had been sharing with them. Out through the branches of the olive trees and over the Kidron Valley, filled with filled with its cultivated vineyards, they could see the beautiful blazing golden and marble structures of the temple catching the last rays of the late afternoon sun.
There, spread out before them, was the temple complex, all lit up with the glowing festive lights for the Passover celebrations. And above them was the Passover moon shining from a cloudless sky with pride. Their souls could not help but soak up the whole splendour of what lay before them.
The Temple was truly the lifeblood of the Jewish nation. Every part of Jewish life and society revolved around the Temple, its services and its traditions. Jesus was the master of figurative language.
He used stories to share great truths. He told parables, he painted word pictures and he referred to things that were around him in order that he might underscore extraordinary and eternal truths. And tonight was no different.
Please follow me in your Bibles, if you will, to John the 15th chapter. And we are going to read together these important words that Jesus spoke to those who are his disciples. Just five verses and look, let's put these verses up on the screen, shall we, so that those of you who do not have a Bible close by, we can all read them together.
Verse 1 of chapter 15. I am the true vine and my father, he's the gardener Every branch of mine that does not produce fruit, he removes. And he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that they will produce even more.
You, my friends, have already been shaped and pruned by all the principles that I have taught you. And so abide in me and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit unless it is connected to the vine.
And you cannot be fruitful unless you abide in me. Verse 5. Yes, I am the vine and you, you are the branches.
Those those who abide in me and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If you were a first century Jew, you would have been very familiar with the symbolic meaning of the vine and the vineyard.
The Jewish nation believed that they were not only God's choice vine, but but they believed that they were indeed the whole vineyard of God. And here, in one bold, unadulterated, undiluted, unreserved claim, Jesus sweeps aside the superior, self righteous, proud, narrow minded exclusiveness of the Jewish nation. And he says to those listening, no, no, no, no, you've got it all wrong.
All that you see down there, those spectacular buildings, the worship services, the sacrifice, the ceremonies, the rituals and practises, all that feverish activity that you see going on down there. As much as you would like to believe that that is why God favours you, in reality, the purpose for all of that, the reason behind it all is that it points to me, it has always pointed to me. I am the genuine, I am the faithful and authentic, I am that I am.
I am the true vine. Israel, as God's hand picked vine had never achieved her intended goal. The nation had failed time after time after time in the purpose that God had intended.
And because of this, the nation could never lay claim to being this special vine. The nation had based its privileged position on the promises that God had made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and to the descendants. But tonight, Jesus revealed to them that their birthright could never hope to provide them with the deliverance or the future that they desperately wanted.
Jesus pointed out to them that he had come as the true vine and now he would accomplish all that the nation had been unable to achieve. Jesus claim to being the true vine was a claim to being Messiah, the anointed of God. In him, the true destiny of Israel would be fulfilled and consummated.
But Jesus does not stop there. He tells those listening that as the vine, he represents only one single feature in this parable. He told them that as the vine, he was there only to accomplish the desire and will of His Father.
Who was the gardener, the person who planted the vine, the vine dresser. The gardener is the one who is responsible for the nurture and the care of the vine and ultimately to whom all accountability is directed. It is the vine dresses.
It is the vinedresser's role to provide everything within his power to make sure that the vine flourishes. Fruit is not a byproduct of the vine. In actual fact, it is the very reason why the vine exists.
The vine is there to produce fruit. The vinedresser plants the vine, watches over it and tends to it and meets its every need, then receives and rejoices in its fruit. Jesus said that he was the vine of God's planting.
He was himself entirely dependent on the vinedresser every day for his wisdom, strength, and divine power in doing His Father's will. The very life of the vine and all that he was and all that he did was due to the vinedresser, and in everything he sought only to do His Father's will and glory. In this passage, we need to keep three things in mind as we begin to unpack its meaning.
Number one, God is the gardener, and number two, Jesus is the vine and we number three are the branches. The vine is dependent upon the gardener for its care and nurture, and every branch then is dependent upon the vine for its life and nourishment. Both the attention of the gardener and the life of the vine are only there for the welfare of the branch.
So what fruit was Jesus talking about here? One thing we all know is that fruit reflects the character of the plant to which it is connected. When you go to an apple tree, you can expect to find apples. And when you go to a pear tree, you can expect to find pears unless they're out there in the kitchen.
Grapevines are grown to produce grapes. And a follower of Christ, who by definition is somebody who is connected to Jesus Christ through a relationship with him, is going to produce Christlikeness. That then raises the question, what does it mean to be Christlike? We don't have to wonder.
The Apostle Paul talks about the fruit that comes from being intimately connected with Jesus Christ. In Galatians, chapter five, he tells us that the fruits of a Christlike character are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. When we produce these fruits in our life, we are reflecting the likeness of Christ.
Our Heavenly Father is the master gardener. He loves us so much that he will not allow anything to come into our life that will not produce in us the fruits of a Christlike life. And that will give us the opportunity to live significant, meaningful lives.
Sometimes this can be a very stressful experience. I'll tell you something that you already know. Pruning is painful.
Pruning hurts. Pruning wounds. But always remember this.
The hand of the gardener is never closer to the branch than when he is pruning. Whenever the gardener is pruning, it is because he considers the branch important and he wants to maximise the fruitfulness of of the branch. Sometimes we get the idea that troubles, trials, heartaches and difficulties are a sign that God isn't there and he doesn't care.
When in reality they are a true sign of his loving concern. Do you and I want to be everything that he wants us to be? Do we want to do everything that he wants us to do? Do we want to come to the end of our life, minimising our regrets and maximising our journey? Then we need to focus our attention on Christ exclusively and our connection with Him. And we need to take this next step.
The most important thing, the crucial thing that matters, Jesus tells us in this passage, is to abide. In him. The word abide means to remain or to stay connected.
What it simply means is that throughout the crammed and pressure packed busyness of our daily lives, we need to make Jesus the centre of our thoughts, the focus of our life and the passion of our hearts. This word abide describes a profound, intimate and enduring relationship. The only time that we can bear any fruit is when we are abiding.
However, abiding is not a casual contact or a fleeting touch. It is absolutely critical that the branch remains in constant, obedient relationship with the tender direction and life giving essentials the that it receives from both the vine and the gardener. This connection can never be based on our emotions or on our flighty feelings.
Yes, we are all human and we do have feelings and emotions, but it is far, far deeper than that. The branch must have a profound and abiding belief. That and trust that both the vine and the gardener know what is best.
What he was saying there that evening to those who are his followers, just hours before his arrest, was that no matter what was to happen, no matter how bleak the future may look, no matter how anxious we may feel when all the world seems to be against us, the most important thing, the number one priority was always, always stay connected, always stay abiding in him. The vine cannot force the branch to produce fruit. I cannot be commanded to produce fruit.
I cannot manufacture or be manipulated to produce fruit. We do not have to work at it, we don't have to agonise over it. We need not struggle and strain to generate it.
Our only endeavour, only endeavour, must forever be to stay connected to the vine. Eleven times in this chapter 15, Jesus tells us, abide, abide, abide. Quite frankly, this is where so many people get church confused with true Christianity.
So many people today have an organisation or an institutional attachment to Christ. They belong to a church or they belong to a Bible study group, or they are part of some religious organisation, but that no way indicates that they are a fruitful branch. It may be possible to have all the outward appearances of a healthy and flourishing part of the vine for us to even believe that we are connected to the vine.
But if the gardener comes by and looks and finds no fruit, he will determine a true attachment to the vine is missing. There are many people today that imagine the Gospel. The good news is all about their obedience to a set of doctrines or creeds.
But this is not the case. Yes, our 28 fundamental beliefs, our 28 fundamental pillars are important. But more important than that, it's about our unbroken relationship with Jesus Christ.
My dictionary defines the word relationship as an emotional connection between two persons. You cannot have a relationship with a set of doctrines. You can only only have a relationship with a person.
The Gospel has always been the good news about a person, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. We must have a genuine and personal connection and relationship with him to bear fruit. So the important question that we need to answer is, how do we develop this intimate connection with the vine? How do we abide? It's not enough to tell a person that they must be connected or to tell a person what the fruit should look like.
It's more important to know how we are connected and how we are to remain connected. We can only make this connection to the vine when we rest our complete faith in Christ. His life then becomes life for the branch.
When we place our trust in him, we unite our weakness with his strength, our emptiness with his fullness, our frailty with his enduring power. When our humanity is connected to his divinity, we are then able to become a flourishing part of the vine and grow the fruit of a Christlike life. Both the gardener and the vine, the Father and the Son, are in love with every branch.
Every branch, in fact. Further on in this chapter, Jesus tells us that he loves us just as deeply as the Father loves Him. And together they want nothing more than for each of us to bear abundant fruit.
God's greatest blessing is that he seeks out our company and our companionship. What a shame and embarrassment it must be then when we do not seek out his companionship. We pray so little.
There are so few of us that understand the true magnitude of prayer. We should make it our habit and our first priority to lift up our souls to God. He is deeply interested in our joys and our sorrows, our longings and the deepest desires of our heart.
Daily prayer is essential to abiding and for continued branch growth and existence. We also need the constant life giving nourishment that we find revealed to us in God's Word. I was surprised to learn the other day that only 39% of Adventists read their Bible every day and this figure is decreasing.
This is life nourishment for the branch. Amid the increasing darkness and confusion of the storms that are around us, we need the clarity and certainty of God's Word saying this is the way. It's only through daily prayer and the daily guidance from God's Word that we can exist and be fruitful.
None of this will ever happen overnight. All of this takes time. And herein lies the challenge for we people of the 21st century.
We are all time poor. We don't have 25 hours in a day. We cannot hope to form a lasting attachment with the vine unless we prioritise our time during each and every day.
We need unbroken and unobstructed time with God. Our Heavenly Father knows this better than we know ourselves. And he has created this time, this special day, the Sabbath for us so that amid the busyness of our life, we can spend this time right here in company with Him.
But even this is not enough. We need to hourly practise the presence of God in our lives, in our day to day living and activities. This is how we abide and this is how we stay connected.
This is the only way that there can be life for the branch. Abiding in Christ in its most simple form is having a relational connection with the vine at any cost and allowing him to live out his life through us. Do you realise that this makes Christianity the most unique faith in all the world? No other faith, no other religious system, offers its followers a personal union and connection with its founder.
The Buddhist does not claim to be joined to Buddha. The Confucian does not claim to be joined to Confucius. Muslims do not claim to be joined to Muhammad.
Catholics do not claim to be joined to Pope Francis. But a follower of Christ is connected to, joined to and is a branch that is connected to Jesus Christ. There's only One command in this entire passage of Scripture.
And it is found there in verse four. And it says, abide in me. And I want you to imagine in your mind for just a moment as I begin to close this morning.
What if. What if for one day Jesus were to become you? What if for 24 hours he wakes up in your bed, walks in your shoes, lives in your house and assumes your schedule? Your boss becomes his boss, your mother becomes his mother, your ikes and pines become his ikes and pains. With one exception, nothing in your life will change.
Your health doesn't change, your circumstances don't change, your schedule isn't altered, your problems are still all there. Only one change occurs. He becomes you.
What if for one day and night, Jesus lives your life with his heart? Your heart gets the day off and your life is led by the heart of Christ. His priorities govern your actions, his passions drive your decisions and his love directs your behaviour. Would you still do what you had planned to do for the next 24 hours? Pause and think about your schedule, your obligations, your outings, appointments, your time, your tv, watching your music, listening, the places you go, your use of media.
With Jesus taking over your heart, would anything change? Keep working on this for a moment. Adjust the lens of your imagination until you have a clear and focused picture of Jesus living your life. Frame the image and then snap the shutter.
What you now see in your picture is what the gardener wants to see in you. He wants to see a branch that bears all the fruits of a character that is Christlike. Abiding in Christ assures each of us an intimate relationship with him that cannot happen any other way.
Abiding in Christ offers us a fruitful life of happiness and peace right now and the joy and promise of a glorious and eternal future. Abiding is our task. Abundant fruit is the gardener's responsibility.
Jesus invitation for you and for me this morning is to stay connected. He says, abide, abide, abide in me. And the final result will be the fruit of a character that bears my likeness.
God bless. Dear Heavenly Father, we are about to step out into a world that is hostile and dangerous. And we ask that you will go with us.
Help us to stay connected to you, abiding in you. If we are to be like Christ like, then we need to have you with us hour by hour of every day. We know that we have a responsibility to reach out to others in our community.
But we cannot do that unless we are connected to you. So we pray that you will go with us, guide and direct in our lives. May we honour your with our lives.
May others be able to see the difference that being connected to you makes in our life. May we be a light set on a hill and may you keep your May we be held in the hollow of your hand. This week we pray in Jesus name, Amen.
This message was made available by the Bunbury Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube Bunbury SDA. it's been a pleasure bringing you this programme here on 3 ABN Australia Radio.
