Christ, the True Light, True Bread, True Vine — William Skates

Christ as the True Light, True Bread, and True Vine

Let's turn to John chapter 1, please. We've appreciated the ministry of our brethren so far. I trust the Lord will continue to give help. John chapter 1, for the context, let's just read in at verse number 6.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

That was the true light, that's the Lord Jesus, that was the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world. Now we'll think about what that means in a moment. Verse 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The True Bread from Heaven

Now over to chapter 6. There we had the true light. Now come to chapter 6, and the Lord Jesus is speaking with the people. Verse 30, remember this is after the feeding of the 5 ,000, and they said, therefore unto him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?

What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not. And so on. Now over to chapter 15. There we had the true bread. Over to chapter 15. Verse 1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Every branch in me that birtheth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that birtheth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are 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 abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch. He is a cast branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Notice verse 11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. The Lord will bless do us the reading from his word with what we've already been privileged to hear this morning.

I want to look with you at the Lord Jesus, first of all, as the true light. Then we'll notice he is the true bread, and in our final scripture, he is the true vine. As the true light, he is full of grace and truth.

As the true bread, he is full of life, and the thought with the true vine is he is full of joy. He is full of joy, and these things he communicates to us as we abide in him, as we feed on him, as we look on him.

Christ as the Substance of the Old Testament Shadows

So come, first of all, to chapter 1. Here he's the true light in verse 9. Now, true is not in contrast to false in these scriptures, but it is the contrast, rather, between the substance found in Christ and the shadow, the figure that has gone before.

So there is one who has sent from God here in verse 6. His name is John, and he bears witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light that was the true light.

So John was sent from God. He was sent to bear witness of the light. John would identify Christ in the flesh as the Lamb of God, verse 29. He will identify Christ in the flesh as the Son of God, verse 34.

And in our verse 9, he is the true light. Now, John was functioning in keeping with Old Testament prophecy, as you know. He was the messenger that was sent before the face of the Lord. He was sent to prepare the way of the Lord.

And John, in his ministry, he was focused on Christ. And later on, the people said in chapter 10, he said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of this man are true. Now, in many ways, we ought to be like John the Baptist.

He was unique in his ministry, but nevertheless, there are principles there that should apply to us as well. More of that in a moment. So the Lord Jesus Christ, then, is the true light. What does that mean?

The True Light Reveals the Father

What does it mean he is the true light? Well, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. So I take it that the Lord Jesus as the true light is one who is manifesting who God is to men. And he does it perfectly, like no other could.

At different times and in different ways, God had spoken on to the fathers by the prophets in the past, says the Hebrew writer, but in these last days, he has spoken unto us in his son. In this chapter, we didn't read it, John 1, verse 18, no man had seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has told him out.

He has told him out perfectly. He's the true light. In Revelation chapter 3, he's spoken off as the true and faithful witness. But in John 1, he is the true light. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

That one who would express the very heart of God to men, the Word, he dwelt among us, says John. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace, full of truth. And he displays the Father in his grace.

We've been hearing about that. And in truth. Now, John was not that light, but John had a personal commendation from the Lord Jesus. Later on in chapter 5, the Lord says that he was a burning and a shining light.

And the word is lampus. It's the word lamp. There's a difference between a lamp and light. A lamp derives its energy from another source, but light is energy in itself. So John was one who was full of the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.

That was his supply of energy. He was a lamp, and he was speaking of Christ in the power of the Spirit of God. Now, you and I, we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. God, in his grace, has put his own spirit within us.

Believers as Light Bearers

And Matthew 5, the Lord Jesus taught, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify my Father which is in heaven. So there is an exercise for us in our lives, that we would manifest good works in the power of the Spirit of God to glorify the Father in heaven.

Now, that is really our calling as sons of God. Paul writes to the Philippines along that line. He says, we are in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. He says, among whom ye shine as lights, luminaries, in the world.

We are light bearers, and we are to shine in this world. We'll never shine in this world for God if we become like the world. The world is diametrically opposed in its system to all that the Father is.

If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. But we will be like shining in the world if we are displaying other worldly qualities. The grace and truth of Christ lives out in our lives in the energy and in the power of the Spirit of God.

I suppose now that in many of our homes, we have those LED lights, lamps and bulbs. And you'll notice on the packaging that they often advertise how many lumens they give out. It's a measure of the light that it gives in terms of lumens.

I wonder what our spiritual luminosity is today. I wonder how many spiritual lumens there is shining in our lives. If there was some kind of gadget that would tell how many lumens we exude in our lives.

Spiritual lumens displaying the grace and truth of Christ to all around in this dark world. It should mark us in our character. Paul writes to the Ephesians, now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

And it should be seen in our conduct. He says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, expose them by abstaining from them, the unfruitful works of darkness.

And so in these ways, we will be exhibiting something of the light of Christ. The one who is the true light and to God who is light and in him is no darkness at all. We should be as well exhibiting something of the light of God to others around.

The True Bread Gives Fullness of Life

So the true light. Then we come to the true bread that we've read off in John chapter six. I'm writing over this fullness of life. It's amazing to me to read there in verse 30, how that the Jews were still looking for a sign.

It's after the feeding of the 5 ,000 and they have eventually found the Lord. He has crossed over the sea with the disciples. You remember the storm on the sea and so on. And he has gone over to Capernaum and they eventually track him down and there they find him.

And they're engaged in conversation with him and they're asking now for a sign. What sign does he do? In spite of the fact that it is well known he's fed already the 5 ,000 men beside women and children.

And furthermore, they not only are looking for a sign but in verse 31 they actually quote the Bible. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert as it is written. And now they quote from Psalm 78 verses 24 and 25.

He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Now the Lord will correct them in their thinking. They're thinking that Moses gave them the bread from heaven. But he will correct them in that it was God who gave them the manna from heaven.

Came from heaven. Came from God. And then he says, my father, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. You see what they were looking for was physical bread, weren't they? And they're thinking in terms of physical loaves.

But the Lord is correcting them and he's showing that in their desire for physical food they should be thinking more of spiritual food. That's more important. And so he says now verse 33, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth light unto the world.

So the Lord is showing now that he is the bread of God that giveth light unto the world. There's a superiority of the bread of God compared with the manna that was found in the wilderness. That manna was actually limited in its provision, wasn't it?

It was a provision that was made for Israel and it met the need of Israel, but it did not impart life. It only sustained physical life, enabled them, just a nation of Israel, to move through the wilderness.

It was not intended for the whole world. It was only intended for Israel. But the true bread now comes down from heaven and gives light, life to men, not just to one nation, but he says to the whole world.

I am come a light into the world that they that they that believe on him should not abide in darkness. So the Lord Jesus is that true bread that comes down from heaven. He says in chapter 10, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

Isn't that wonderful? That the Lord Jesus has given us life, real life, spiritual life within us, and he gives us the capacity and the energy and he is the source to enable us to live out the qualities of everlasting life right here in this world.

Now verse 34, they say unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread. They're still looking for that physical, those physical loaves, but verse 35, Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

So does that mean that a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will never know what it is to be have dissatisfaction in his heart and never be hungry in his soul? No, but notice what he's saying. He that cometh to me not to get technical, but it's the present tense, middle voice.

It's he that keeps on coming to me in his own interests shall never hunger, and he that keeps on believing in me shall never thirst. So as you and I come and feed on Christ and keep on feeding on him, there will be true satisfaction in our souls, because he is the true bread and he gives full satisfaction to those that keep on coming to him, keep on feeding on him.

That's what we've come to do at this conference. As our brethren have already been pointing out, that our focus should be on Christ, and we've come to have our souls fed from Christ. But you know we can't be at a conference every day of the week, and we can't be among the Christians every day of the week.

So here's a challenge for our hearts. How much are we feeding on Christ every day of our lives? At home, in the car meditating upon him, when we converse with other believers, do we speak of him? Are we taken up with Christ or are we distracted with other things that don't satisfy?

This world cannot satisfy the heart of a believer, but as we are feeding on him, as we are abiding in him and enjoying him in our souls, he will enable us to live our lives for him in this wicked world.

And our lives will be actually full of life, life that really matters, living for God, living for Christ. And as we feed on the bread, the true bread, we will have the ability, we will have the energy, we will have the enthusiasm, we will have the encouragement to live our lives for him.

The True Vine and Israel's Failure

So the true bread, the thought of fullness of life. I want to come over to chapter 15 now, and we'll take a look at the true vine. Right away in verse 1, the Lord says, I am the true vine and my father is the husband man.

Now if we were to go back to the Old Testament, we would find that the vine was one of those trees or one of those plants that spoke of Israel. And all that Israel should have been for God, fruitful and good.

But in Psalm 80, we read, he brought a vine out of Egypt, he cast out the heathen and planted it. In Isaiah 5, the Lord planted his vineyard with the choice's vine. But we read there that instead of bringing forth good grapes, it brought forth wild grapes.

So Israel, instead of bringing obedience and love and devotion to God, they turned away in disobedience. They rebelled against him. They turned to idolatry. They brought forth wild grapes. Jeremiah 2 speaks of a noble vine, but it then became a strange vine.

Wild and unpruned. Any of you that have a vine in your yard, you'll know that if you leave it from year to year, it'll just grow wild and not produce grapes. Hosea 10, Israel is an empty vine. They had become idolaters.

Nothing there for God. They were taken up with that which was physical instead of that which was spiritual. So against that background now from the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus says, I am the true vine.

My father is the husbandman. That's the last of the seven great I am's in John, witnessing to the Savior's deity. And so he is the one that will bring forth true fruit to God his father, that which Israel lacked.

He will bring perfect fruit to his father God, in perfect obedience, in perfect love, in perfect worship, and in devoted service. He will glorify God in all that he does, so that by the time you come to chapter 17, he can say, I have glorified thee on the earth.

Fruitless and Withered Branches

I finished the work that thou gavest me to do. Now there are three kinds of branches here mentioned. You'll notice, ye are the branches, verse 5, but there is the fruitless branch in verse 2, and again in 2, there is a fruitful branch.

Fruitless and then fruitful. And when you come to verse 6, there's a withered branch, which is totally severed from the vine already. Verse 2, the fruitless branch. Every branch in me that birth not fruit, he taketh away.

Now some have tried to make this verse say that it's possible to be saved and to be lost again, but that would contradict the Lord's own teaching. In chapter 10, I give on to my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish.

So it can't mean that. But there's a clear distinction between this verse and verse 6 that we'll come to in a moment. In verse 2, as we come to it, this branch that is not bearing fruit as it should, is still actually attached to the vine.

You notice that. There's union with the vine, but it is not bearing fruit. In verse 2, as we come, sorry, in verse 6, as we come to this branch, we find that this branch is not attached to the vine. The grammar would indicate it's already a cast branch.

It's not attached. There's no union. But in verse 2, this fruitless branch is in the vine and we find it has the attention of the husband man, which is God the Father. Notice what he does. It says that he take us away, says the King James.

The verb can equally mean to lift up and it's used in that way in chapter 17 of the Lord Jesus when he lifted up his eyes to heaven. So here the Father is lifting up a branch that has become drooping and it's down on the earth and when a vine branch comes in contact with you, it'll actually put out roots and start to take nourishment from the earth instead of relying solely on the vine.

And then it will not bear fruit. So the Father is seen as coming along and lifting that branch that has become earthbound so that it will now bear fruit. That would be a good test for us as well this morning to ask our own hearts, how earthbound have I become?

The Father's Pruning and Spiritual Fruitfulness

How deep have I got my roots into planet earth, into this world? How earthbound have I become? In that measure, I'm not bearing fruit for God. Now notice verse 2 again, the fruitful branch. Every branch that birth fruit he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now pruning is necessary if you're going to have grapes and you have to prune a vine at the right time. I the sap was running out the end of the branches and so we didn't have any grapes this year. So pruning is necessary done in the right way and at the right time.

The pruning here would suggest to us that the Father will come alongside us in discipline when necessary and he'll deal with us as children in the family. That would be the truth of Hebrews chapter 12.

It's not always punitive. It's not always because of wrong that has been done by the believer that the Father disciplines his child, but it can be preventative to preserve us and it can be formative. That's the design of it.

It will be for our spiritual good. Now says the Hebrew writer, no discipline for the present seemeth joyous, but rather grievous. Yet how often we shrink from the purging and pruning, forgetting the husband man knows that the deeper and closer the cutter cutting and pairing, the richer the cluster that grows.

Oh, how well does he know that afflictions are needed. He has a wise purpose in view and within the dark valley he whispers to comfort. Hereafter you'll know what I do. So to bear fruit there must be number one union with the vine and there must be communion of the life of the vine in our souls.

Abiding in Christ for Fruitfulness and Joy

The branch in the vine, verse 2, has union with the vine, but the earth is interfering with it and so fruit bearing is hindered. And the lesson is clear, the believer joining himself to this world still has union with Christ, but his ability to bear fruit is hindered because of lack of communion with Christ, the fruitful one.

Verse 3, he says, now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. So there's a source from which you and I can be cleaned, pruned, if you will, by being in the Word of God. That cleanses us, that keeps us pure in our minds and hearts as we read it, as we obey it, it'll keep us pure in our lives.

Verse 4, 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. The word abide means to remain in the same place and so by grace we have been united to Christ, we are to remain in the enjoyment of that, to explore through the word all that it means to be in Christ, to allow those great truths to our souls, and to stay there enjoying those things, abiding in Christ, and so we will be fruitful for God.

Now verse 6, let me come to that before we sit down. If any man abide not in me, he's cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire and are burned. There's no abiding here because there is no union with Christ.

It's a cast branch. There's no union, therefore there cannot be communion of drawing life from the vine, no union, no communion, and therefore it's impossible for that branch, cast branch, withered branch, it's impossible for that to bear fruit.

In other words, a person that is not linked with Christ, an unbeliever, and likely Judas is in the background as you think of that. So abiding in Christ then is the lesson for us. And verse 11, that my joy might remain in you and your joy might be full.

The joy of abiding, the joy of bearing fruit for God, the joy of communion with him, the joy of obeying his word, carrying it out, and letting that joy be expressed by our love to him, so that we will have fullness of joy as we abide in Christ.

Fullness of Grace, Life, and Joy in Christ

So we've thought of the true light, one who is full of grace and truth. Those are virtues that we should also be manifesting in our lives. We've thought of the true bread, one who gives perfect satisfaction, fullness of life for God as we feed on him, and we have the true vine and the thought is fullness of joy as we abide in him.

The Lord bless his word to our hearts.