Mining Gold in John Fifteen — E.A. Johnston

Mining Gold Through Deep Bible Study

Bible study is rewarding on several levels, friends. You can casually read your Bible and stumble across some nuggets of gold on the surface, or you can, with a lot of effort, dig deep and go for the mother load.

A God-Centered Reading of Scripture

We are gonna be digging deep today, friends. But before we begin our study of John chapter 15, I'd like to say that how we view God and how we view our Bible will determine how we view ourselves. If you maintain a man-centered view of God in the Bible, then every time you read God's word, it will be about what God can do for you by his blessings and for your benefit.

But if you maintain a God-centered view of God in the Bible, every time you read God's word, it will be about what God can do in and through you by his purpose and for his glory. So implying this to our text today, friends, we see that the object of John chapter 15 is not the believer, but God the Father, receiving glory by his son through the church comprised of believers whose degree of fruitfulness and usefulness is determined by their degree of yieldedness and brokenness to the Father by his Spirit.

Well, that's my little introduction, friends, to this striking passage of Scripture found in the Gospel of John in chapter 15. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. It's a familiar passage, but don't let its familiarity keep you from learning these major truths today.

The Setting of Christ’s Vine Discourse

And this is where Christ is relating to his disciples what it means to abide in him. Well, some scholars believe that the discourse was given while Christ and the disciples were still in the upper room as they lingered over the meal.

And the reference to the vine was a reference to the wine in the cup that they drank. Some Bible commentators state that as Jesus and his men reclined in the upper room, the reference to the vine was because there was an open window there.

And if you looked out from it, you'd see it had a trellis with a grapevine reaching up upon it. Yet other scholars maintain the position that Christ's discourse on the vine and the branches was given after they had left the upper room, mentioned by Christ's words to them, recorded by John 14, 31, where he says, "'Arise, let us go hence.'".

So the discourse was delivered while they made their way to Gethsemane. And as they crossed over the brook Kidron in the darkness of night, lit only by moonlight, and the various fires burning the vine branches, which were customarily brought there to be burned.

Well, that's vivid imagery, isn't it, friends? But the setting of where this discourse was given is not prominent to our story. But the person of Christ is the prominent one in our text today in his relation to his followers.

Christ the True Vine and Believers as Branches

Let's begin by reading John 15 in verses one through five. "'Lord, may your Holy Spirit attend the reading of your Holy Word. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.

And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, meaning prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you're clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

No more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abide in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, ye can do nothing.'". Well, let's take a look at this first verse, friends.

"'I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.'. In the original Greek language, it reads, I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the genuine vine, and my Father is the tiller of the soil.

Well, here, Jesus is declaring that he is the genuine article, and there's none like him. All others who make that claim are fakes and frauds. Only he is the real deal. There is only one sacrifice for sin on Calvary, Jesus Christ, who shed his own blood for pardon of sin.

But then Jesus makes a remarkable declaration. He states, and my Father is the tiller of the soil. Well, this whole aspect of God the Father as the tiller of the soil is something we need to get our heads and hearts around, friends.

Isaiah’s Vineyard and God’s Covenant Care

We cannot fully comprehend John chapter 15 without a solid grasp and understanding of Isaiah chapter five, about the parable of the vineyard. Let us pause and put our thumb in the Bible here and let us turn over to Isaiah chapter five.

We're gonna read the first two verses about God's love and care over his people, Israel. Now, I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved had the vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a winepress therein.

And he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes. Well, let me pause here, friends, to say here in this parable of the vineyard, we see the great care and love that God as the tiller of the soil exercised over his people, Israel.

He planted his choice vine on the most fruitful hill in the best soil. He fenced it in against danger, against wild animals. He plowed it thoroughly to remove any and all obstacles to its growth. He watered it and watched over it.

He had a tower built there so it would be beneath his constant gaze. He even built a winepress therein. Why? Because he had great expectations for it. But what happened? The Jews had a bitter harvest and were a great disappointment to Jehovah God and they brought forth wild grapes, nothing nourishing.

God’s Personal Cultivation of Believers

But this striking parable is a description about the care and love of God toward his people. Does not this striking passage of Scripture declare God's love and care for us as well? This passage is for all believers.

As not God as the tiller of the soil exercised great care in your life, friend. He chose you out of all mankind before the foundation of the world and sent his beloved son to be your sin substitute on Calvary, on that bloody cross, suffering the wrath of God on sin in your place.

In his Holy Spirit, like God's blonde bloodhound, wooed you and chased you until you first believed. He took your heart of stone with all its rebellion and made it a heart of flesh, one of surrender, sensitive to the things of God and giving you a purpose to live your life.

In light of eternity, he planted you in the best of soul. He gave you certain circumstances in life over others. He watched over you continually. He picked you up when you fell down. He restored you. I'm telling you, the love of God is something else, friends.

He restored you and revived you and blessed you beneath his constant care. And God says to you, what could have been done more to my vineyard than I have not done in it? And he looked for fruit in your life.

And what has he found? Were there good grapes bringing glory to the Father or have you had crop failure and fallen way short of the expected harvest because you put your own interests ahead of God's interests in spreading and advancing the kingdom of God on earth?

Eternal Value and the Judgment of Works

Well, this brings us back to the reality of John chapter 15, where Jesus declares, for without me, ye can do nothing. That means nothing of value for eternity. It means an empty harvest. We get a sense of this, friends, from the apostle Paul's writings over in 1 Corinthians in chapter three, which states, for other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire.

Then the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved.

Yet so as one by fire. Well, what this passage in 1 Corinthians states is the fruit of our lives in light of eternity at the judgment seat of Christ Jesus. When we are there, friends, will our lives on that day reflect the gold, silver, and precious stones of a life lived for eternity to the glory of the Father?

Or will we stand there, knee deep with regret amidst the pile of wood, hay, and stubble of our lives as we lean over to scoop up those ashes and press them into his nail-pierced hands? What do we take away from all of this?

Four Gold Nuggets from John 15

Well, let's take a look, friends. We've dug deep into John chapter 15 as we have contemplated the truths of the Father as the tiller of the soil, and Jesus as the genuine vine, and we as the branches, and there are central truths.

We can haul up from this motherload this rich mind of God's word, and if you fully grasp these main truths, these gold nuggets, as I call them, I promise you, you'll change your whole outlook on how you view yourself, how you view your ministry and life in the spread of the gospel in our generation.

Gold Nugget One: Serious Devotion Produces Fruitfulness

Well, let's take a look at gold nugget number one. God gets serious with those who get serious with him in wanting to spend more time with him so they can be more fruitful and useful to him. You spend time with those you love.

I want to tell you a story about Billy Graham, friends. Billy Graham was saved in a tent meeting under the preaching of Mordecai Ham, and after Billy entered the ministry, he came back to Mordecai Ham for some advice.

He was kind of like his mentor, and he said, Brother Ham, what is the best advice you can give a young preacher boy for ministry? And Mordecai Ham looked him in the eye and said, Billy, don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus.

And that's true, friends. That's the key. How much do we love Jesus? Is it a sacrificial love like the sacrificial love he has for us? And that word abide, friends, in our passage today is the Greek word meno, and it means to dwell in a place, to spend time there.

It means to remain, to tarry. It means to endure, to last. The more time we spend with Jesus, abiding in him, giving him first place and first call and first priority in our lives when we demonstrate our dependence upon him and utter reliance on him, then he can trust us more and give us more to do to advance God's kingdom, to bring glory to the father.

For it is the much fruit of our lives that brings glory to the father. For we read in verse eight, herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. Well, let's take a look at gold nugget number two.

Gold Nugget Two: Bearing Fruit Rather Than Producing It

God never intended us to be fruit producers, but fruit bearers. We see this from verse two. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. In every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it or prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Today, the church operates more on money and manpower, but in former times, the church operated on prayer and holy ghost power. The fruit we produce on our own by our own fleshly efforts will fade away, but the fruit God brings forth through our surrendered lives will live for eternity.

We are to be like a mountain stream. You know, in East Tennessee, there's these beautiful mountain streams where the clear water flows down that mountain, and you get a lot of bad tornadoes up in that part of the country.

And oftentimes, a tornado storm or a high wind will knock a tree over and clog up that stream so it's not running down that mountain anymore. And that obstacle has to be removed. The tree branch and trunks gotta be taken out of there.

That obstruction has to go so the water can begin to flow again. And likewise, in our lives, all obstacles and obstructions must be removed so the living water can flow freely as God works through us as a means of blessing to others.

Gold Nugget Three: Yieldedness and Generational Fruit

Well, let's take a look, friends, at gold nugget number three. Our degree of our fruitfulness is tied directly to our degree of yieldedness. Notice our text speaks of varying degrees of fruitfulness. There's fruit, more fruit, and much fruit.

And then Jesus talks about fruit that remains. Well, this last aspect of fruitfulness, fruit that remains, is generational fruit. Look at a good example of this, I think, are the works of the Puritans.

Their writings still have a holy anointing upon them and they're a great blessing currently to this present generation. Although they lived several hundred years ago, all you have to do is get out your Matthew Henry's commentary and be blessed by it, for it's as fresh today to the believer as it was when it was written several hundred years ago.

In the aspect of this fruit that remains, this aspect of revival and preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, it's where you will see the aspect of much fruit. It is the much fruit that brings glory to the Father, but it all comes down, friends, to our willingness for self to go the way of the cross so Christ can be prominent in our lives and our fruitfulness to God regarding our usefulness to our generation will be correlated to our yieldedness to the Spirit of God, to where we know the fullness of the Spirit.

Gold Nugget Four: Pruning, Pain, and Greater Usefulness

And lastly, friends, oh, I've been saving the best for last and sometimes it's a harder saying to accept, but I got a real gold nugget for you here in number four, friends. But it comes with a warning.

It states the truth that if you want to have greater usefulness to God in a life of more fruitfulness to Him, then be prepared for pain because God will get out His divine pruning knife on you. The reality of this is seen in verse two of our passage.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. In every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it or prunes it that it may bring forth more fruit. Well, this is the law of the harvest. A productive vine will feel the cuts of the pruning knife, that sharp pruning knife in the hands of the tiller of the soil.

It must be stripped back for further growth to occur. And this is true with anything worthwhile in life. There must be a sacrifice, whether it's learning a trade or getting a higher education or competing in sports and excelling what counts costs and what cost counts.

This is more true, however, in the spiritual realm. If you want to see revival, friend, then be prepared to suffer. Look at the glorious revival under Jonathan Edwards, where the whole morality of the town of Northampton was altered.

Then read a little further in Edwards' life, his biography, and see him terminated from his own church and congregation and cast upon the world with a large family with no support. See him in the wilderness of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, preaching to a handful of Indians under harsh conditions.

And then he lays ill and is taken with a serious illness and he's bedridden for the next eight months. Then after that, he gets a new job opportunity as the president of what would become Princeton. Yet he dies suddenly from a bad reaction to a typhus vaccine.

But lest, but lest I fail to mention, at this time, a great suffering in Edwards' life was also a time of some of his greatest productivity, for it was God during this time that helped him write much of his written legacy to the church.

The Pruning Knife in Pastoral Ministry

Well, before I close my message today, friends, I want to share a little story with you that kind of wraps all this up about these gold nuggets we've been talking about, particularly this last one, about the pruning knife.

I was addressing a group of pastors one night years ago and I was preaching to them out of John chapter 15, which I call the pruning chapter. And as I was explaining to those men that God has a divine pruning knife, and if you want to go deeper with him and more uselessness to him, then he will bring out his divine pruning knife on you.

And we had a little touch revival that night for before my message was done, the faces of the men became altered as they were gripped with eternity and the God of that eternity, God was doing business with those men that night.

And when I was through speaking, a line formed to speak to me. And at the end of the line was a elderly black pastor. And when he got up to me, saw tears in his eyes and he threw his arms around me and he gave me a big hug.

And he looked me in the eye and this is what he told me. He said, you know, I've been a pastor for 40 years, but tonight when I get home, I'm gonna kneel by my bed. I'm gonna get down on my knees and I'm gonna beg God to get out his pruning knife on me and my ministry.

Oh, well, that man was getting serious with God. But if you want to get serious with God, friend, and go deeper with him, then you better be prepared for the divine pruning knife to begin the cutting work on you.

Going Deeper in Christ for His Glory

Oh, well, we've been digging for gold in John chapter 15 today, friends. And I hope this little study has encouraged you to dig deep into God's word as you go deeper with him in a life of further usefulness to him for his glory.