Sermon for Easter 5: "The True Vine Abides"

 + Easter 5 – May 2, 2021 +

Series B: Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:1-11; John 15:1-8

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

 

God is the God who abides with his people. God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the garden. God sat in the midst of Israel upon the mercy seat in the tabernacle. God was with Moses in the burning bush and atop Mt. Sinai.

 

The Scriptures proclaim over and over that God is not absent, distant, impersonal or aloof. But he is the God who abides with his people.

 

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 

 

Back in at the beginning of his gospel, John reveals God as the God who abides with his people. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth” (1:14). How remarkable, that the holy, almighty God chooses to abide, to dwell among His people. Throughout John’s gospel, we see this wonder unfold. 

 

Jesus enters into places and engages in conversations with people. He sits at the side of a well in Samaria. He walks along the Sea of Galilee. He shares the joy of a wedding and the grief of a funeral. That Jesus dwells among us is a wonder. Though we are lost in sin, He comes to find us in grace. He comes to a well in Samaria and along the Sea of Galilee. Wherever you are, whoever you are, Jesus brings forgiveness to you. He has come to dwell among us, to abide with us, so He might call you to be a disciple, speak to you in grace, and guide you as you follow Him in the world.

 

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 

 

The obvious truth about a branch is that branches have no life of their own. Their life flows from the vine. a branch severed from the vine withers and dies. So, too, we have no life of our own. 

 

This is part of what it means to be God’s people – his branches. To be joined to him, receive life from him. Be fed, nourished, forgiven, and strengthened in him. This is why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper weekly where Jesus abides with us and we abide with him in Holy Communion. This is why God gathers us here Sunday after Sunday – that we might abide in the words of Jesus; and that in those words, in this bread and wine, in these gifts, Jesus abides with you

 

Apart from Jesus abiding with us in his word. Apart from Jesus the true vine we wither and die. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. And yet when Jesus abides with us, as he promises to do, we have everything. When Jesus promises to abide with his disciples that means he promises to abide with you as well. 

 

I am the vine; you are the branches…whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. 

 

To abide is to dwell, to reside, to have your home and place somewhere. To abide in Christ is to live in Him through faith. It’s a baptismal way of speaking. You have been baptized into Christ. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. You have been grafted into the true and living Vine. By the Holy Spirit, you’ve been given the gift of faith, that grafts and unites you to Christ the Vine. In Christ you receive all that He has to give you – His forgiveness, His life, His love. Christ is your life. There is no life apart from Him. 

To abide is not a sporadic thing, something that happens once a week for an hour or so. Abiding is not sticking one foot in the water, it’s diving in the deep end. It’s a fruitful communion where Christ feeds us and makes us fruitful. Where Christ prunes us, disciplines us in his love to live as his branches.

To abide in Him, Jesus says, is also to bear fruit. And here’s where Jesus’ Vine and Branches analogy works so beautifully. Love flows from the Father through the Son by the Spirit to the branches who are alive in Christ. It flows from the wounded side of Jesus, the water and the blood, from the font and the Supper, from the words that flow into your ears, that love of God for the sinner in Christ flows to you. 

And it doesn’t just stop with you. Nice green leaves are a sign of a healthy branch. But fruit is how the branch is known. “By their fruit you will know them.” That love of God in Christ that flows through you produces fruit for those around you.

“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and be my disciples.” Not “prove to be” as some of our English translations say, just “be.” Abiding in Jesus, being his branch, his disciple, isn’t about proving, but about being. The branch shows itself for what it is by the fruit it produces. We don’t become branches joined to Jesus the Vine because we bear fruit. It’s the other way around. We bear fruit because we are branches joined to Jesus the true Vine. Because Jesus abides with you and you abide in him.

Jesus is the true Vine. You are his branches. Rooted. Alive. And fruitful in Jesus who abides with you.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.