| << | Contents | >> |
Articles 2021-2023
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
The fact that Jesus is the true vine does not mean that at one time there had been a false one, but that what had come before Him had foreshadowed Him. For example, consider when He said that He was the true bread. He had multiplied bread and fish to feed a multitude (John 6), but the people wanted to see more. “Multiplying earthly bread is certainly a wonderful work, but Moses gave us bread from heaven.” Jesus’ response was that it was not Moses who gave them bread from heaven but rather His Father who in sending His Son was now giving them the true bread from heaven. And whoever ate of this true bread would live forever.
It was not that manna was in any way false. It was quite real; it gave strength and sustenance to those who gathered it and ate it. But as awesome a miracle as it was that manna came daily from heaven, yet it was not God’s main point. It foreshadowed and pointed to Christ.
So also, when Jesus said that He was the true vine, He wanted those listening to recognize the vine that had come before and whose calling it was to point to Him.
You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground before it, and it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shadow, and the cedars of God with its boughs. It was sending out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River.
Israel had been God’s vine. And though He had done many wonderful works in and through her over many years, yet the time had come for the next phase of His purpose.
Over the centuries, when He had sent His servants looking for the fruit of faithfulness and godliness in His people (Micah 7:1 - 2), the response of many had grieved Him. And so, He asked the question, “What more could I do to see greater fruitfulness (Isaiah 5:3 - 4)?” The solution was that He would become His own vine.
The fruit that God had always sought among His people would now only be found in Christ.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes (Greek, KATHAIRO – to cleanse) it so that it may bear more fruit.
God does not seek just fruit in us: He seeks more fruit. Until the day we die, His desire for us is that more of His Son would be revealed in us. Spiritual fruit is not about the size of our sphere of ministry but about Christ increasingly manifest in and through us.
We love the verse that says: Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs. for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left (Isaiah 54:2 - 3). To us, bigger surely seems better and certainly looks more successful. And that might very well be God’s intent for us. But we must never confuse either the amount of influence we have or the numbers of people we serve with the development of Christ’s character in us. Too often, when believers have sought the former without the commensurate development of the latter (true humility), they have made shipwreck of their lives.
And today, many local churches that came into existence and then grew in both numbers and influence over the last fifty years have become alarmed in recent years as they have experienced Heaven’s pruning. “We have to do something to stop this process!” And indeed, if there has not been an increase of the revelation of Christ among us, we really should stop and turn wholeheartedly to our God. But if our concern is simply that we need greater numbers of people and greater diversity of age and ethnic groups, then we have possibly been influenced by the expectations of people and tempted to turn our eyes away from the beauty of the unfolding revelation of Christ. Certainly, God does intend His house to grow in both numbers and diversity. But the increase of Christ is Heaven’s priority. And everything else – all ministry with all the ensuing results will then be built upon Him, the proper foundation of the house that He is building.
You are already clean (Greek, KATHAROS – pruned or cleansed as branches) because of the word which I have spoken to you.
From the beginning, Jesus was bringing to His disciples the work of pruning their lives through His words. When He called them to follow Him, James, John, Peter, and Andrew had their fishing careers pruned from their lives (Matthew 4:18 - 22); Matthew had the lucrative job of tax collection on behalf of the Romans removed (Matthew 9:9); James and John had their reaction to Samaritan rejection exposed and excised (Luke 9:54 - 56). Our Lord consistently brought to them adjustment and removal of attitudes and priorities that simply did not fit His purpose.
And now that we have begun to follow Him, the pruning we experience is not about the removal of dead wood in our lives but the cutting back in us of what has been living and has borne fruit. After all, God’s objective is more fruit. But the process just seems wrong and feels counterproductive – not only to us but to those who are affected by the Vinedresser’s work of trimming in us.
Perhaps that is why Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb. Should He not have been smiling? “Wait till you guys see what’s gonna happen next. This is gonna be one of the best days of your lives!” But He wept. Why? I think it was because He saw the pain that Martha and Mary experienced when He did not come to them when they thought He should. “I know that You loved Lazarus, but it seems as though You didn’t. It feels like You didn’t care, like You had more important things to do than to respond to us. It feels like rejection.” But it wasn’t; it was obedience.
Sometimes our obedience will bring pain to those we love. At the heart of true discipleship is that our response to Heaven must always be our first priority, and our response to all others must come after that. Heaven’s pruning in us will affect our relationships with others.
And so, He calls us to abide, to dwell in Him (John 15:4 - 5). Since we were immersed into Him when we were baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, our purpose now is to simply live where He has placed us.
If we do not, we lose our identity as branches.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Jesus’ different parables about the identity of His people teach different truths about us. For example, sheep are vulnerable on their own. If they wander, they put themselves in danger of being devoured by a wolf. On the other hand, branches, by the very definition of the term only retain their identity if they are attached to the vine, if they live connected to their life source in the larger plant.
So, we must drink daily of and participate in the active flowing life of our God. If we do not, we will wither. Dry, hard, bitter, unforgiving Christians are a testimony of the truth of Christ’s warning. Next will come the fires of His disciplines, His judgments. But let us rather be those who turn quickly to Him, our source of eternal life.
Would it not have seemed more appropriate for Jesus in His last hours with His disciples to speak with them about Heaven’s army and of them being His soldiers in the great spiritual war for the planet? Instead, He chose to talk about an agricultural plant. Such a subject seems anticlimactic. Have you ever watched a plant grow? Similarly, it sometimes seems like God’s kingdom is hardly advancing at all.
But for the last two thousand years, He has been extending His vine’s branches into every nation.
So, here is a question – if it is ok to mix my metaphors a bit. Is it possible that many of God’s people have begun to conclude that He is not really that great of a farmer? If His field is the world (Matthew 13:24 - 30, 37 - 40) and there are so many tares in it, is He really doing that good of a job? “Maybe the Lord should just return and take us out of here.” But is such an attitude not a settling for the idea that the world is a tare field with some wheat in it rather than a wheat field with some tares?
Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that the whole world will be saved. But I do believe that many more lost souls will be coming into a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus before this age is over. Many more.
Even so Lord God, arise by the power of Your Holy Spirit in these days, visit our nation with the rain and the seed of heaven. Continue to prune your Vine and increase the revelation of Christ among us. And at the same time, continue to bring forth much wheat in Your field. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Donald Rumble – January 2022
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0102 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page