John #35: Vine and Branches (John 15:1-17) - a podcast by Rob Woodrum & Others

This Sunday we’ll be looking at another, very likely familiar, passage from the Gospel of John. We’ll be reading John 15:1-17, Jesus’ famous discourse on the Vine and branches.

In our study last week, we considered how Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and live in us. In this section we’ll be reversing that, and we’ll consider how we are called to live in Christ. Jesus employs a metaphor that is pretty straightforward to understand the principle of, but a little more tricky to identify how to apply it.

Before digging in to that application, it’s really important that we ground this text within the larger scope of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament as we’ve called it). Read Psalm 80, Jeremiah 2 and 12, as well as Ezekiel 15, 17 and 19. Also Hosea 5…oh, and don’t forget Isaiah 5. (I linked a few of them…I’ll leave you to look up the rest) The thing is, a grapevine or a vineyard was often employed by the Hebrew prophets to describe Israel and her connection to God.

What might it mean that Jesus is now applying that same metaphor to himself, even identifying himself as the true vine? How might that help us understand how his word pruned his disciples? Does that shed any light on v6, where Jesus warns about not remaining in him. Clearly, Jesus intends a shift in perspective about who God’s covenant people are.

On a more localized level, we can apply this metaphor to our own lives. Still, how do you understand the idea of remaining in Jesus? What do think the practical meaning of bearing fruit is?

Note that v12 and v17 bracket everything Jesus talks about with a repetition of the command he gave back in ch 13. In fact, v9-17 have a repeated word, what is it? How does Jesus describe love in v13? Does this give us any indication as to what a fruitful life might look like?

While this may be a familiar passage, I really believe we can discover a lot in Jesus’ words to us. I’m looking forward to digging into this together – hope you can join us!

Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.

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