The Pathway of Discipleship — E.A. Johnston

John 15 and the Vine-and-Branches Discourse

I believe one of the richest passages in the New Testament is found in the Gospel of John in chapter 15. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 1 through 8. This familiar passage of scripture is visual of the vine and the branches, and it describes the life of discipleship as spoken of by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 15 we see Jesus describe the demands and expectations of a life of discipleship. Regarding this passage in John chapter 15, scholars disagree on the location where the discourse was given.

Some scholars believe that this discourse took place while Jesus and his men were still in the upper room, and the vine spoken of was the vine of the cup they were drinking, and this was the illustration used to drive the point home.

Other scholars say that perhaps a tendril of a creeping vine came up the trellis by the open window where they sat, and this was the reference made to the vine. Other Bible scholars point to John 14 .31 where Jesus says to his disciples, Arise, let us go hence, inferring that they had already left the upper room while this discourse was made along the way to Gethsemane, where as they crossed the brook Kidron they saw the bright fires lighting up the nighttime sky from the vine cuttings which were burned.

I like that imagery, don't you friends? And I like to think that this discourse occurred as they were walking along in their little band with Jesus leading the way and the disciples keeping up with him and hanging on every word that fell from his lips as they made their way to Gethsemane where Jesus would be taken from them and crucified as their world came crashing down.

Allow me to read us this striking passage of scripture from John chapter 15 now, friends. It's our framework for our message today. Hear now, use the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his 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, 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 you can do nothing. I will stop there, friends. Here in our passage, Jesus compares the life of discipleship in terms of abiding, a pruning, a bearing, and a reproducing. Jesus is continually working in our lives to make us more useful to him for the Father's glory.

Jesus Christ as the Genuine Vine

I want you to look at verse 1 again. Verse 1 of chapter 15 is very interesting in the Greek language where Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. In the Greek, it reads, I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the genuine vine.

Jesus is announcing his distinguishing and utter difference from mankind. No one else is quite like him. All others are fakes compared to him. He is the genuine vine, the one true God, the real Messiah, and the Savior.

There is no other way to heaven but by him. He is stating that he is entirely different from us. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. Now notice what Jesus states about the Father.

The Father’s Pruning and the Believer’s Sanctification

My Father is the husbandman. In the Greek, it is translated, and my Father is the tiller of the soil. This entire passage speaks of agriculture and farming, of growth and fruit production. God the Father, as the husbandman, as the tiller of the soil, it is God himself who holds the divine pruning knife with skilled hands that perform the masterful work on the branch, pruning it and stripping it to make it more productive.

To be a disciple of Christ means that we are constantly under his eye and under his care. As a gardener would keep a garden, he has our best interests at heart when he sovereignly places us in trials and afflictions in order to prune us and strip us and purge us to make us more like Jesus and more fruitful for him, all for the glory of God.

Persecution, Suffering, and the Cost of Discipleship

I believe we hold false viewpoints as to what it was like to be a follower of Jesus back then. We tend to think that the disciples and Jesus were a happy little family going about and doing good, but the path of discipleship was altogether different from that.

I like what my friend William MacDonald had to say about this. Bill said, We often think that it must have been a wonderful experience to travel with Jesus when he was here on earth. We can see him and his disciples sauntering along, enjoying a continual Bible conference.

But it wasn't like that. It was more of a scalding experience in which the disciples learned their own sinfulness and failure and in which they were called to a pathway of persecution, suffering and death.

Well, I agree with Bill 100%, friends. The Christian life for some isn't always honey blossoms and sunshine, for the pathway of discipleship can often lead to persecution, suffering and even death for the cause of Christ and the sake of the gospel.

I was rereading lately the story of Jim Elliott, the missionary martyr who was killed by Alka Indians and who wrote in the fly leaf of his Bible these words, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Peter’s Stripping and Spiritual Formation

The disciples of Christ were learning the cost of discipleship as they painfully passed through various growth stages while continually being stripped and pruned by the master. Take Peter, for instance.

Here's a big likable guy who's always putting his foot in his mouth and boasting and bragging just like the rest of us. Jesus has to strip this disciple down to nothing. The tiller of the soil has to get out his divine pruning knife on him and peel back all that hinders Peter from becoming who Christ knows he can become before he could become the preacher of Pentecost.

He had to undergo a stripping, a pruning, a scalding of his flesh and self. Jesus skinned Peter like Peter would skin a fish in his former occupation. That's what it was like to be a disciple of Jesus.

You were a fish continually under the knife and being skinned. And that's the way it has to be for any follower of Christ today. On the path of discipleship, a self has to go the way of the cross. I believe one of the greatest injustices of the church in our day is failing to teach the cost of discipleship from a biblical standpoint.

The Cross and the Call to Follow Christ

The cross and the life of the believer is an unheard doctrine today. We preachers would rather honeycoat the gospel to make it sweeter and easier to swallow and leave out the hard teachings of Christ so not to offend anyone.

But the path of discipleship is a cross. There's a cross there, friends, as well as a crown. Christ said to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. Let me ask you, friends, should not a crucified Christ have crucified followers? If you want to be a disciple of Christ, we must count the cost of following him.

We must count the cost of being a disciple and be prepared for a scalding, a stripping, a skinning, a pruning, and a purging until self is taken to the cross and executed there. But also be prepared, friends, for one of the most exciting adventures of your life as you abide in him and become more like him, as you bear fruit for him and win souls for him.

All for the Father's glory. Let us pray.