I Am the Vine

Well, if you have a Bible, and I hope you or somebody around you does, that you can look on with, let me invite you to open with me to John 15. This story I am about to tell you is true. I’m hesitant to tell you this story for a number of reasons, including the fact that some of you are not going to believe it’s true, but every single detail of the story I’m about to tell you is true.

When I was in eighth grade, I was a little four-foot-nothing runt, smallest kid in the class. And eighth grade at my school was the first year you could try out for the school basketball team, and everybody who was cool was on the eighth-grade basketball team. So I thought, “I really want to be cool, so I need to be on the eighth-grade basketball team.” The only problem was, I’m the shortest kid in the class, which is not good for basketball. Every time you throw the ball up, it comes back in your face.

So one day, I’m sitting up in my room. This is right before tryouts are about to start, and I was reading the Bible, and I came across Luke 1:37 that says, “For nothing is impossible with God.” And in that moment, it was like the words of Scripture left off the page and into my heart, and I knew exactly how I could make the team. If nothing is impossible with God, then that means I could dunk the basketball. And if I could dunk the basketball, coach would have to put me on the team.

So I left my Bible sitting there in my room. I went outside to our driveway, where we had a basketball goal. I grabbed a basketball, and I went to the back of the driveway. I got down on my knees, and I said, “God, you said in your Word, nothing is impossible to you. I believe, with your power, I can dunk this basketball.” And I stood up, and I wanted everything to be perfect. I was at the far back of the driveway. I wanted to get as big of a running start as I could.

And my plan was, I counted out how many steps it was going to take to get from the back to the front, and then my plan was, when I was two feet away, I was going to close my eyes. I was going to close my eyes, take the last two steps with my eyes closed. That way, I could picture the angels lifting me up to the goal. The next thing I was going to feel was the rim. I was going to throw the ball through the rim, and then my plan was to hang up there for a little while, because never been up there before.

So I go back to the back of the driveway one more time, back down on my knees, “God, you said in your Word, nothing is impossible. I believe with your power. I can dunk this…” I mean, people are driving by, walking by. I’m having revival in the driveway. I stand in my feet, and I get ready to go. Now, before I tell you what happened, I just want to ask you, be honest, how many of you think that on that day, I actually dunked the basketball? It’s a 10-foot goal, that I actually dunked it. Does anybody? And be honest. Okay.

In this entire room, five, maybe 10 people who have faith. True story. I get up off my knees, and I start to run. I had every step counted out. I get two feet away, and I close my eyes. I take the last two steps, my eyes closed, and I jump. I could feel something on my right and on my left, and the very next thing I felt was that basketball pole right in my forehead.

I want you to imagine yourself walking by my house that day. You see this little kid get up off his knees, supposedly in prayer, and then go running as fast as he can with his eyes closed and jump into a basketball goal. So apparently, I needed to learn a few things about understanding the context of Scripture. Luke 1 is about the incarnation of Jesus, not the elevation of my vertical. I needed to understand a few things about learning the will of God and what it means to pray according to the Word of God.

But I share this story with you from the start, because my prayer is that you will walk away from this journey through the “I am” sayings of Jesus a few minutes from now with childlike boldness and confidence, and faith and hope in the power of our God to do truly impossible things in and through your life. So that’s where we’re going. I cannot wait to show you this last “I am” statement, because I know, I’m speaking right now to many women, to many of my sisters in Christ who, if you are honest, you feel exhausted in your life.

If I were to ask you if you feel tired, many of you would say, “I feel like that’s where I live.” If I were to ask how many of you are struggling with some sort of discouragement in your life, I’m guessing many of you would raise your hands. Maybe many of you struggling in marriage, in parenting, in singleness. If I were to ask how many of you struggle in some way with worry or anxiety or fear, I believe most of you would probably raise your hands. And I believe that in part because I’m like you.

Sure, we may struggle in different ways, to different degrees, and different circumstances, but if you could see my journal each morning as a husband and as a dad and just as a follower of Jesus, you would see so many mornings that just start with, “God, I’m tired. God, I need your help. God, I don’t understand why this is happening,” or “God, I don’t know what to do,” which is why I’m so excited to dive into this text, because for anyone who struggles in any of these ways or more, I want you to know there is great hope.

I want you to know that the peace that you lack that feels impossible to find, the strength that you need that feels impossible to find, the joy you desire that feels impossible, the life you long for that feels impossible, all of these things are possible through an intimate relationship with Jesus Himself. So let me show it to you. Let’s look at, listen to the Words of Jesus in John 15:1-11, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me 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 that I’ve 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, and 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 that I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

So there’s no way I can do justice of this entire passage and all that it includes, up until just a few minutes ago. I needed to be just subtracting, because I have too much material, but I just kept adding. So we’re going to go pretty fast, because I want to get… I wasn’t able to subtract, so I’m just going to give it to you all faster. So I want to show you the big picture of what it means for Jesus to say, “I am the true vine.” But what does that mean, and why is understanding that statement absolutely critical for your entire life?

The vine is a picture of the channel through which the fruit of God’s life flows.

In order to answer that question, I need to take you back to the Old Testament, where we see what this metaphor of a spiritual vine means, because in the Old Testament, the people of God, the people of Israel, were described as a vine, and what that means is God had designed them. So when you think vine in the Old Testament, God had designed His people to be the channel through which the fruit of His life would flow. So biblically, this picture of the vine is a picture of the channel through which the fruit of God’s life flows.

That’s almost an exact quote from Andreas Köstenberger’s commentary on John 15. He defines the vine in John 15 as the channel through which God’s blessings flow. I’m using life here instead of blessings, but basically saying the same thing, that God created and called His people, Israel, to be the channel through which His life, His love and goodness and justice and righteousness and everything that emanates from God would flow to the nations.

Remember how God calls Abraham and Isaac and Jacob with the same language, saying, “I’m going to bless you. And through you, channel, conduit, you and your offspring are going to be a blessing to all the nations. Through you as my people, the fruit of my life, my love, my Word, my justice, my righteousness, my wisdom is going to flow to all the peoples.”

Then let me show you some of these places where this image of a vine becomes a picture of that calling. So Psalm 80:8, talking about when God brought His people out of slavery in Egypt through Moses. God says, “You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and you planted this vine. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root and filled the land.” So God planted Israel as a vine among the nations, and its purpose was to bear fruit.

Verse 10 says, “The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its branches to the sea, and it shoots to the river.” But then it’s noteworthy in Psalm 80:12, where we begin to hear how this vine didn’t bear the fruit that God designed it to bear, “Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.”

So this begins a theme where every time we see this imagery of Israel as a vine in the Old Testament, we see that was planted by God to bear fruit, to be the channel through which the life and love and blessing of God would flow to the nations. But every time Israel is mentioned as a vine in the Old Testament, God is pointing out how Israel failed to bear fruit.

Look with me in Isaiah 5:1, “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He had dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it. And he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, fruit, why did it yield wild grapes?” In other words, bad fruit.

Then you jump down to Isaiah 5:7, and you read, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.” The vineyard is Israel. “And the men of Judah are his pleasant planting, and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry.” So Israel was supposed to be this channel for God’s justice and righteousness, but instead, they were filled with bloodshed. And the word for outcry here is the same word that’s used in Genesis 18:21 and Genesis 19:13 to describe the sin of Sodom before God.

So the vine was not a channel through which God’s justice and righteousness were flowing to the nations. It was the exact opposite. Similarly, Isaiah 27 says, “In that day, a pleasant vineyard, sing of it! I, the Lord, am its keeper. Every moment, I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day.” So this is really similar imagery to Jesus calling the Father the vinedresser.

And then you jump down to Isaiah 27:6, where God says what His purpose for the vine was, “In days to come, Jacob shall take root. Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.” That was God’s desire, for the whole world to be filled with the fruit of this vine. But Isaiah is prophesying in a day when that was not happening, same with Ezekiel. Ezekiel says the same thing in Ezekiel 15 and Ezekiel 17.

Then look at the language in Ezekiel 19:10, “Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard planted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water. Its strong stems became rulers’ scepters. It towered aloft among the thick boughs. It was seen in its height with the mass of its branches. But the vine was plucked up in a fury, cast down to the ground. The east wind dried up its fruit. They were stripped off and withered. As for its strong stem, fire consumed it.”

So now you’re starting to see where this imagery of branches from the vine that aren’t bearing fruit are being thrown into the fire and burned. Let me show you one more place in the Old Testament, Hosea 10:1, “Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased though, the more altars he built. As his country improved, he improved his pillars. Their heart is false. Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars.”

So here’s the picture we have all throughout the Old Testament. God planted Israel as a vine with the purpose of yielding fruit, the fruit of God’s life in the world. But over and over again, Israel turned to idolatry and immorality and injustice and unrighteousness in such a way that they were not the channel through which the fruit of God’s life was flowing to the world.

But even still, this is how the people of God saw themselves, as the vine of God, to the point where in Jesus’ day, God’s people had carved a massive vine of gold over the porch of the temple, with large clusters of grapes on it. It was like the national symbol of Israel. And many commentators believe that in this discourse with His disciples in John 15, Jesus could have been walking with them from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane, and He could have said these words in the temple courtyard with this golden vine glistening in the moonlight behind Him.

Jesus is the only source of true life.

So now, in light of all that background, hear the words of Jesus, and feel their weight as Jesus looks at His disciples and says, “I am the true vine.” Jesus just said, “I am the channel through which the fruit of God’s life flows. I am what Israel never was. I am the channel through which the life, the love, and power and justice and righteousness and blessing and goodness and glory of God will flow to the nations.”

Do you see it? John 15 is making very clear, Jesus is the only source of true life. This is who He is. He makes life possible that is impossible apart from Him. And then watch this. So Jesus says to His disciples, “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Each of you are a branch that is in me, like attached to me, and I am in you.”

Jesus has already used language like this in John 14 to describe how He would send His very Spirit to live in each of them, and now He is using this imagery of a vine and a branch to say, “We’re united together in such a way that you remain in me and I remain in you. And when you do that, you will bear much fruit. You will experience my life flowing through you in a way that’s impossible apart from me, because apart from me, you can do nothing.”

Don’t miss what this “I am” statement in John 15 is teaching loud and clear. You cannot do anything that is truly good apart from the life of Jesus in you. You can’t do anything that is truly good apart from the life of Jesus in you, and that is a shot to our pride. But it is such good news. You know why? Because if this is true, then this means you can do all things that are truly good with the life of Jesus in you. Maybe another way to put that, in a bit shorter form, independent of Jesus, you cannot truly live. But in dependence on Jesus, you can truly live.

So what does that mean, truly live? And what does that mean, to truly live? Well, here’s how I would summarize it. Two descriptions of true life that flow from this reality that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.

1. We can experience abundant supernatural life in Jesus every moment of every day.

So what this means, first is, as a branch, you can experience abundant, supernatural life in Jesus every moment of every day. Are you feeling the wonder and the weight of this imagery?

Jesus is saying right now through His Word to you and me as we’re listening, just think about you, right where you’re sitting right now, Jesus is saying, “I am in you.” Jesus is saying right now, “I live, dwell, reside in you.” That will knock you out of your seat if you really think about it. Jesus right now is really, spiritually, actually dwelling in you?

Assuming you’re a Christian, assuming you’ve repented of your sin and believed in Jesus as the Savior who died on the Cross for your sin, and the Lord who rose from the dead and victory over sin, Jesus died for you not just so that you could be forgiven of your sin, as if that was the end of the story. No. Jesus died for you so that you might be filled with His Spirit. Jesus died for you so that He might live in you.

And this changes everything about you, about how you view yourself when you look in the mirror every morning. Do not look in the mirror and see all the spots and blemishes and imperfections and stains of past sin or pains of besetting sins that you continually struggle with in ways that lead to guilt and shame, and you’re never feeling like you’re enough before God. By the grace of Almighty God, stop it.

Romans 8:1, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s you. You’re in Christ Jesus. So there’s no condemnation for you. The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. You are in Christ. He’s in you. Look in the mirror and see. Galatians 2:20, you’ve been crucified with Christ. You don’t even live anymore. Christ now lives in you. And the life you live every day is the life of faith. You don’t live in the flesh. You see yourself through the eyes of faith in the Son of God, the King who loved you and gave His life for you. This is who you are.

Can I just speak God’s Word over you sisters right now, just run through all the ways God describes you with the words in Christ or with Christ? It’s like the whole New Testament is a commentary on the wonder of being a branch in the true vine. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “In Christ, you are a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come.” You’re a whole new person.

2 Timothy 3:12, you have life in Christ Jesus, which frees you. Philippians 4:4, “To rejoice in Jesus always.” You have supernatural, unshakeable joy in Christ. Rejoice in the Lord always. Philippians 2:1, “You find encouragement in Christ, comfort from His love, and participation in His Spirit.” Ephesians 6:10, there is strength in Christ. You have the strength of His might dwelling inside of you, and you can do all things through Him who strengthens you, because the power of Christ, 2 Corinthians 12, rests on you.

So you can delight in even weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. Why? Because when you are weak, He’s strong, and He’s in you, so you are strong. You have supernatural strength. Philippians 1:14, you have supernatural confidence in Christ. Galatians 2:4, you have freedom in Christ. You’re no longer a slave to sin. Do not buy the lie from the adversary that you’re a slave to that sin. You’re in Christ. You are no longer a slave to sin. You’re a daughter of God.

Philippians 4:7, you have supernatural peace that defies all understanding, that is guarding your heart and your mind. Where? In Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 4:10, you have all the wisdom you need in Christ. Ephesians 1:11-12, in Christ, you have an inheritance, which means no matter how dark this world gets, you always, always, always, always have hope in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3, you are blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Sisters, you’ve been united with Him in His death, which means you will be united certainly with Him in His resurrection. You are no longer dead in sin. You are now alive together with Christ right now. That’s who you are, Colossians 2:13. Ephesians 2:6, you have been raised up with Him, made alive together with Christ. You are seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And though you may suffer with Him in this world, where is it? You may suffer with Him in this world, at Romans 8:17, this world of sin and death. One day, you’re going to be glorified with Him. Are you hearing this?

Yes.

Do you realize what it means to be a branch of Jesus, to be in Jesus, to have your life united with Jesus? I remember when Heather and I were engaged to be married. She’s a year older than I am, and I was finishing college during that year. She’d gotten a job teaching, which meant I was living the college life of ramen noodle meals, most every meal, no cash flow coming in. She was employed, which meant she had cash flow.

It was all the way up to our wedding day when we stood at the front of that church building, united our lives together. And I received so many wonderful things on that day, most importantly being a beautiful, godly wife. Do you know what else I received? Cash flow. It was amazing. One minute, I had no cash flow, nothing in my bank account. I said two words, “I do.” All of a sudden, I had everything from her bank account.

And it was great. I didn’t have to go teach her little kindergarten kids. I didn’t have to do a thing. Simply by the fact that my life was united with hers, everything that belonged to her now belonged to me. Do you realize this? If you have united your life with Jesus, you don’t have to do anything to earn this, deserve this, work for this. Simply by being united with Jesus, everything that belongs to Him, He says, “I give to you,” which means, dear sister in Christ, you do not have to be afraid of anything anymore, because the King who conquered death is literally in your life.

My sister in Christ, you don’t have to worry about anything, when the one who sovereignly rules the world is with you. And not just with you, Colossians 1:27, Christ, the image of the invisible God, the one who, by and through and for whom all things were created, who’s before all things, in whom all things hold together, the preeminent one in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. He lives in you. You have His energy powerfully working within you. Do you realize this?

Got a little illustration up here. Here’s where I want to encourage you, and I should give the caveat. This is not a perfect theological picture. It’s just an illustration. So don’t read too much into it. Don’t build a theology based on these Tupperware bins. So, all right, this is going to be you. Can you see that? That’s you. Oh. Okay. All right. This is you. This is you. Okay?

And what we’re seeing is, we’ll put you right there. What we’re seeing is, what the Bible is saying in Colossians 1 is that Christ, when you trust in Him, He comes to live inside you, and He’s never going to leave. He’s in you now. He’s in you forever. But that’s not all, because the Bible also talks about, we just read it over and over again, how you are… Let’s write it again. You’re in Christ, so you got Christ in you and you in Christ. Feeling pretty good.

But then you look over in Colossians 3, and you read about how… It’s a big one. You read about how your life is hidden with Christ in God. So now, we got a fuller picture of who you are. Now, here’s the deal. There’s an adversary who doesn’t want you to experience full, supernatural life, doesn’t want you to experience supernatural peace, strength, joy, the life of Jesus. So he’s coming at you every day. The beauty is, if he’s going to come at you, well, first, he’s got to encounter God the Father, which he does not have a good track record with.

Then if he were to get past God the Father, he would meet the Son, which he thought he had won, until three days later, he was breathing again, rose from the dead. Colossians 2 said, “He made a spectacle of the rulers and authorities of this world, put them to open shame.” So that’s what Christ did, and you are in Christ. And, oh, by the way, inside of you is Christ Himself. I’d say you are pretty secure.

Sisters, this is who you are. And if Christ is in God and you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, then nothing can stand against you. You are not defeated. You are a victor in Christ. In a world of sin and suffering and evil and death, you have nothing to fear. Why? Because Jesus Christ has taken the worst thing that could happen to you, death, and He’s turned it into the best thing that will happen to you, life forever.

So just see yourself through the lens of Tupperware, and picture it like, if this is true, then that means the way is open, wide open, for you to experience the impossible: abundant, supernatural life in Jesus every moment of every day. And I want to exhort you, don’t settle for anything less than that. So how do you not settle? Listen to Jesus in John 15, “Remain in me. Remain in me. Remain in me.” 10 different times in 11 verses, we see remain, or abide in some translations. Remain, abide, stay in Him. Seek after Him. Pursue intimacy with Him. Remain in His Word.

Sisters, don’t just read this Word, remain in it. Meditate on it. Memorize it until this Word remains in you. That’s what the language is, this Word remaining, staying in you. Pray according to it. Prayers all over this chapter, not just here or there, whenever you get time. Set aside time for solitude with God. Don’t rush time with Jesus. Remain with Jesus.

Ask and keep on asking Jesus to do the impossible in your life and others’ lives in the world. Belong with Him in the morning, then rise and keep running to Him throughout the day in prayerful dependence on Him in everything you do, because you can’t do anything apart from Him. God, forgive us for our prayerlessness that exposes our pride. If we are not praying, we are saying to Jesus, “We can do this without you.” And we can’t.

2. You can bear everlasting supernatural fruit with Jesus all around the world.

Did you know that in certain times in church history, in certain parts of the church around the world today, it has been or is common for just a regular churchgoer, not a pastor, church leader, just a regular churchgoer, including women and men, to rise before dawn for extended time in private prayer and meditation on God’s Word, to be followed by family prayer and meditation on God’s Word in the morning together, to be followed by time set aside in the middle of the day for prayer and meditation on God’s Word, either alone or with others, to be followed by family prayer and meditation on God’s Word in the evening, before personal prayer and meditation on God’s Word before going to sleep?

For some Christians, this has been or is now a normal routine, collective hours throughout the day in prayer and meditation on God’s Word, remaining in Him. But let’s be honest, it’s not true for us. It’s not. We can always not even fathom that, not amidst everything else going on in our busy lives. Right? I mean, how is that possible, from the moment we rise to the moment we go to bed, all throughout the day, to always be looking at God’s Word, to always be turning to God in prayer? We can’t.

Well, wait a minute. Can we imagine having something that we look at first thing in the morning and right before we go to bed, and collective hours of our day in between? Apparently, we can. The average person in our country spends five hours and 24 minutes a day on this thing, from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, and everywhere in between.

We check our phones an average of 96 times a day or once every 10 minutes. We’ve disciplined ourselves to do so, to always be looking, scrolling, typing, reading, sending, listening. And it is evident in the quality of our spiritual lives, in our mental and emotional states, in our relationships, and, in some ways, even our physical conditions. And in this moment, Jesus is telling us, “Stop. Stop running to your phone, and start remaining in me so that you can live in my love.”

Did you hear John 15:9? He said, “As the Father has loved me, that’s a lot of love, so have I loved you. I love you that much, so remain in my love. Abide in my love.” Who doesn’t want to obey that command? Yet, we’re so prone not to. We’re so prone to doubt Jesus’s love for us. So much of the spiritual battle in our lives is a battle to believe that God actually loves us as much as He says He does. When He prunes us, as Jesus talks about here, through trials and tribulations that come your way, it’s a battle to believe that He actually loves you and you can trust Him.

In a weary world of hurt and heartache, it’s a battle each day not to believe the lies of the adversary, that you’re not good enough. You’re not attractive enough, smart enough, successful enough, strong enough, spiritual enough. It’s a battle to believe that what He thinks and says about you is more important than what others think and say about you, and even what sometimes you think and say about you.

So sister in Christ here, I’m speaking to you right now, just like He spoke to the woman at the well in John 4. He knows you. He knows everything about you. He knows your past, your present, and your future. He knows your highs and your lows, your joys and your sorrows, your hurts, your pain, your sin, and your shame. He knows the things you wish you hadn’t done or thought or felt or said. He knows the things you wish had not been done to you.

He knows you fully, and He loves you deeply. He loves you so much, not just the person beside you, in front of you, behind you, right where you’re sitting right now. He loves you. He meets you right where you are. You don’t have to cover anything up. You don’t have to clean yourself up. You don’t have to look a certain way. You don’t have to pretend like you got it all together. He meets you right where you are, and He says, “I am for you.” God in the flesh is for you. He formed you fearfully and wonderfully, and He loves you with a love that you cannot fathom.

So remain there. Live every day there. Remain, stay, stay, stay. Don’t buy the lies of the adversary. Stay in His love. Live every moment of every day in His love for you, to communion with Him and His Word, and obedience to it in such a way that you experience the impossible, His life becoming your life, His peace becoming your peace, His power becoming your power, and His joy becoming your joy. You can experience true, abundant, supernatural life in Jesus every moment of every day, which leads to the end, because this is not the end of the story, this point right here.

And if we miss this last one, we’ll miss the whole point, because the point of a vine is to do what? To bear fruit. To bear fruit. Over and over again in this chapter, you see fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit. The problem is, Jesus is the channel through which the fruit of God’s life flows, and the whole picture in John 14 through 16 is He’s about to leave.

So how is the world going to experience the life of God flowing to them? Through the branches, through you, Sister. You and you and you and you. How amazing is this, talk about impossible, for you and I and our sinfulness to be made clean by Jesus, pruned and purified by the Father in such a way that you can bear everlasting, supernatural fruit with Jesus all around the world? You can bear everlasting, supernatural fruit with Jesus all around the world.

Starting right where you live, you have the Spirit of Jesus in you to do justice and righteous in Jesus’ name, to spread the good news of Jesus’ love. You have supernatural power inside of you to lead people from eternal death to eternal life. So do it in your home, and then through your church, and your neighborhood, and don’t stop there. In a world where over 3 billion people are unreached by the Gospel, they don’t even have a Christian near them who can share the Gospel with them.

So let’s pray, seriously pray, intercede alone, in our families, around our tables, in our churches, for God to do the impossible, for God to change hearts and lives by the power of the Gospel, in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in North Korea, in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, so that all the nations know the only source of true life. Give your resources toward that end. We live in one of the wealthiest places ever to exist in the history of the world.

Let’s spend our resources on the spread of spiritual life to the nations. Let’s be channels. Let’s keep giving it out for the glory of our God, and let’s go. Do you see it? This picture of a vine over the temple at the place where the glory of God dwells? Now, it’s all different when Jesus comes. The true vine changes all that. Now, we are the temple. We are the place where the glory of God dwells, and we take the glory of God to the nations.

So let’s go. Isaiah 26, let’s fill the whole world with fruit. And do we realize we can actually do this? We have more opportunities today in our generation to spread the Gospel to all nations than ever before in history. Paul never could have fathomed the access to world travel, technology, urbanization, migration of peoples, globalization of the marketplace. Sisters, the impossible is possible right now.

We can actually get the good news of Jesus to every person on the planet if we will abide in Him, and He in us, and we will allow His heart to become our heart. We will bend our wills to His will. So let’s do this. Let’s resolve. By the grace of God, by the power of Christ in us, let’s live the impossible life. Let’s experience abundant, supernatural life in Jesus every moment of every day, and let’s bear everlasting, supernatural fruit all around the world in eager anticipation of the day when our fruit is complete and our faith turns to sight, and we will gather together with branches from every nation, tribe, people, and language, fully and finally in and with the vine.

Face-to-face, we will behold the one in whom we have believed, and we will worship and enjoy His life for all of eternity. So can we pray together? And I just want to pray this over you. Father in heaven, I pray for my sisters in Christ before you right now. I pray that they would feel and know the wonder of what it means to be a branch in the vine and the source of all life flowing to us.

God, I pray that they would remain in your Word, remain with you in prayer, remain in your love, and I pray that your life would flow through them, in their homes, in their churches, in their neighborhoods, and to the nations, until people from every tribe, tongue, nation are gathered into the vine. I pray all of this in the name of Jesus, the true vine. And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

Observation (What does the passage say?)

• What type of writing is this text?
  _{(Law? Poetry or Wisdom? History? A letter? Narrative? Gospels? Apocalyptic?)}
• Are there any clues about the circumstances under which this text was originally written?
• Are there any major sub-sections or breaks in the text that might help the reader understand the focus of the passage?
• Who is involved in the passage and what do you notice about the specific participants?
• What actions and events are taking place? What words or themes stand out to you and why?
• Was there anything about the passage/message that didn’t make sense to you?

Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)

• How does this text relate to other parts of the Scriptures
  _{(e.g., the surrounding chapters, book, Testament, or Bible)?}
• What does this passage teach us about God? About Jesus?
• How does this passage relate to the gospel?
• How can we sum up the main truth of this passage in our own words?
• How did this truth impact the hearers in their day?

Application (How can I apply this to passage to my life?)

• What challenged you the most from this week’s passage? What encouraged you the most?
• Head: How does this passage change my understanding of the Lord? (How does this impact what I think?)
• Heart: How does this passage correct my understanding of who I am to the Lord? (How should this impact my affections and what I feel?)
• Hands: How should this change the way I view and relate to others and the world? (How does this impact what I should do?)
• What is one action I can take this week to respond in surrender and obedience to the Lord?

[Note: some questions have been adapted from One to One Bible Reading by David Helm]