Deo Gloria
Sermon for May 2, 2021
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: John 15:1-8
Theme: Stay Connected to Jesus!
- Through the Word
- Enjoying the blessings
- Bearing abundant fruit
She lay there in the hospital bed, her body racked with pain, her eyes filled with fear. Bonnie was dying. She knew she was dying. And she was afraid. She didn’t know what was going to happen to her when she died. In fact, she was afraid of what might happen. She was afraid she wouldn’t make it to heaven. She was afraid she would end up in hell.
What a striking contrast to the scene some 50 years earlier when she stood before the congregation with the other members of her confirmation class and confessed her faith in Jesus as her Savior and pledged to remain faithful to him for the rest of her life! Of course, a lot had happened in the meantime. During her rebellious teenage years Bonnie had stopped going to church. She thought it was boring and stupid. 17 and pregnant she had dropped out of school and gotten married. Sadly, the marriage only lasted a couple of years before her husband split and left her to raise their child alone. Bonnie did get remarried a few years later, but he turned out to be a drunk and an abuser. Of course, she was not exactly an angel herself. She did her share of drinking over the years and drugs too on occasion. She said it helped take her mind off the problems in her life and the emptiness she felt inside. She had tried suicide once, but the doctors pumped her stomach and saved her life. Then, just a couple of years ago, she had been diagnosed with cancer. She underwent surgery, but they couldn’t get it all. She went through chemotherapy but that only slowed it down. Now the doctors were saying that it was only a matter of time—a week, maybe two–and she was afraid.
How could such a thing happen? we might wonder. How could someone who once had been so close to Jesus have drifted so far? Or better yet, what can we do to prevent such a thing from happening to us? Jesus answers that question for us this morning in the verses of our text. His encouragement to us is to stay connected to him. Stay connected to Jesus!
The words of our text take us back before Easter, back to the evening of Maundy Thursday, the night our Savior was betrayed. Earlier that evening Jesus spent some time instructing his disciples, preparing them for the time when he would be gone and the work of the kingdom would be entrusted to them. To comfort and encourage them he told them about the Father’s house and reminded them about the way to get there. He told them about the challenges and persecution they would face as his disciples. He told them about the Holy Spirit, whom he would send to help them carry out their work. And here, at the beginning of ch. 15, he told them about the importance of staying connected to him. He did so using the familiar picture of a vine and its branches.
I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.(vv. 1-5)
The picture is easy to understand, even for people like us who don’t happen to live in wine country. In order for branches to remain healthy and strong and produce lots of fruit, they have to remain connected to the vine, which is the source of their life and nourishment. If they get cut off from the vine, they will wither and die.
The vine is Jesus. He is the source of spiritual life. The disciples are the branches. They were connected to Jesus by faith. How had they come to believe in Jesus? Through the hearing of his Word. In fact, as Jesus says, it was through the hearing of that Word and through faith in him as their Savior, that they had been made clean. They had been cleansed of every sin and made holy and righteous in God’s sight. Jesus urges them to remain in him, to stay connected to him. As long as they do, they will remain spiritually healthy and strong and will produce lots of fruit.
Jesus says the same to you and me. You too are a disciple of Jesus Christ. You are a branch connected to the vine. For many of you, you were connected to Jesus at the time of your baptism, when through the power of his Word God created faith in your heart, faith to trust in Jesus as your Savior. For others it happened later on in life when you heard the good news about Jesus Christ and through his Word God created faith in your heart, to believe in Jesus as your Savior. Not only that, but through the waters of Holy Baptism Jesus cleansed you. He washed away your sins and made you holy and righteous in his sight. He made you one of his holy, precious children. Since that time God has nourished and strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ through his Word—through the Word you heard at home from mom and dad or from grandpa and grandma, through the Word you heard here at church in our worship services, in Sunday School, in confirmation class, in Bible class. Through his Word Jesus has fed and nourished and strengthened your faith and kept you connected to him.
Do you think Satan wants you to stay connected to Jesus? I don’t think so. Satan’s goal is to get you to turn your back on Jesus Christ and to stop following him. Satan’s goal is turn you into one of those branches that gets cut off from the vine and ends up on the eternal brush pile of hell. And he will do anything and everything he can to make that happen. Maybe he’ll he use a sinful lifestyle to try to undermine your faith in Christ. Maybe he’ll use worldly wisdom and worldly values to try to lead you away from Christ. Maybe he’ll use money and clothes and material things to steal away your love and devotion to Christ. Maybe he’ll use trouble and hardship and persecution to tempt you to turn your back on Christ. It doesn’t matter to him. He’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish his goal: to separate you from Christ in this life and in eternity.
Don’t let that happen! Don’t let Satan lead you away from Christ and separate you from your Savior. Stay connected to Jesus. But how? How do we stay connected Jesus? By staying in his Word. It was through the Word that you were connected to Jesus in the first place. And it is through the Word that God keeps you connected.
Sometimes people think that once they are confirmed, they don’t need to be in the Word anymore. I mean, after two years of confirmation class, they know it all, right? They don’t need to grow in their faith anymore. That is just another one of Satan’s lies. Whether you’re 14 or 44 or 84, we all need to be in the Word. We all need to hear and read and study God’s Word on a regular basis so that we continue to grow in our faith and our faith remains healthy and strong. So be sure to do that. Be sure to come to God’s house every week to hear his word and receive his Sacrament. Be sure to read God’s Word on your own at home or together with your family during the week to nourish and strengthen your faith. Stay connected to Jesus!
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ, being a branch attached to the vine, does have its benefits or blessings. We see two of them in these verses. Jesus says that if we remain in him, he also remains in us. Think about that for a second. The Son of God, the King of heaven, promises not only to be with you. He says that he will be in you. Sometimes I think we picture Jesus as watching over us and guiding and directing the affairs of our world from his office in heaven. And maybe once or twice a day he brings us up on his computer screen just to check on how we’re doing. But that isn’t the way it is at all. Jesus doesn’t have to bring you up on his computer screen to know how you’re doing. He always knows because he lives in your heart. He knows when you’re happy. He knows you’re sad. He knows when you’re on top of the world, and when you’re down in the dumps. He knows when you’re hurting or lonely or scared. And he is always ready to help. In fact, he’s only a prayer away.
Which brings us to another blessing: Jesus promises to answer our prayers. Notice again what he said in v. 7: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” Suppose you tried to call the While House and talk to the president. Do you think you would get through? Do you think you would actually get to talk to the president? Fat chance, right? And even if you did get through, do you think the president would do what you asked him to? Do you see what a tremendous blessing you have in prayer? In prayer you get to talk to the President, to the King of heaven and earth—no waiting in line, no waiting on hold for hours and only getting to talk to a customer service representative. You get to talk to Jesus. And he not only promises to listen. He promises to answer, to act on your behalf.
Now if we ask foolishly or selfishly for things that are not good for us, do you think our loving Lord will give them to us? No, he loves us too much to do that. Or if some kid at school was making fun of us and giving us a bad time and we prayed that he would get into an accident on the way home, do you think Jesus would do what we asked? No. If, on the other hand, we pray for things that are God’s will, as we learn it in God’s Word, that he would forgive our sins, that he would help us in our struggle with sin, that he would help us forgive others when they sin against us, that he would give us comfort when we’re hurting or strength when we’re weak, that he would help us bring comfort and encouragement to others, that he would help us share his Word with others and tell them about their Savior, do you think Jesus would answer those prayers and do whatever we ask? Absolutely. “This is the assurance we have in approaching God” John says in his first letter: “that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him”(1 John 5:14,15). Stay connected to Jesus and enjoy the blessings!
And bear abundant fruit as well. That’s what branches do, right? Branches on a vine bear fruit, lots of big, juicy, purple grapes. Sometimes, though, the farmer has to trim the branches. He has to cut away the suckers and the unhealthy shoots so the branch will be more fruitful. If, however, there isn’t any fruit, the farmer does more than simply cut off the suckers. He cuts off the branch and throws it away on the brush pile.
As branches connected to the vine, you and I are designed to bear fruit. The fruit that Christians produce, of course, is not grapes or apples or cherries, but good works, the things we do out of faith and love for God. Gathering together to worship our Lord and hear his Word—that is a good work. Honoring and obeying your parents and your teachers and your boss and the local police officers—that is a good work. Being kind and helpful to your neighbor or to your classmate or to a stranger in need of help—that is a good work. Treating your spouse and children with kindness and love—that is a good work. And I could go on and on. The list of fruit is almost endless. There are so many things we can do out of faith and love for our Lord. We can bear abundant fruit. And that’s exactly what God would like to see in our lives—lots of fruit, abundant fruit.
Sometimes, though, there are things that get in the way, things that keep us from producing fruit. So God has to do a little pruning. Maybe it’s a sin we have fallen into that keeps us from be very fruitful. Maybe it’s some mixed up priorities. Maybe it’s worldly pleasures and world treasures. Maybe it’s the friends we hang around with who are not a very good influence. What is it in your life that needs to be trimmed away? What is it that is getting in the way of your relationship with God and keeping you from being a fruitful branch? Whatever it is, don’t ignore it. Don’t think of it as no big deal. Unfruitful branches don’t remain on the vine. They get cut off. Once they’re cut off, of course, they wither and die. And ultimately they get picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. Don’t let that happen. Whatever it is that is getting in the way, take care of it. Get rid of it. Confess it to God and ask for his help to prune it out of your life, so that you might always remain connected to Jesus your Savior and that you might bear abundant fruit.
There was another lady I visited in the hospital. Her body too was racked with illness and pain, but unlike the first her eyes were not filled with fear. Oh, yes, she knew that she was dying, that her time in this world was short. But she also knew where she was going. In fact, she looked forward to the day when she would leave this life because she knew she was going to heaven. Had her life been a prime rose path, a life free of sadness and trouble? No, she had experienced her share of trouble and heartache too. The difference is that she had stayed connected to Jesus and now she was ready to go to be with him. That’s my prayer this morning: that through his Word God would help you and me stay connected to Jesus throughout our lives until he brings us safely home to heaven. For Jesus’ sake and your own eternal good, stay connected to Jesus. Amen.