"Grace" - Finding Grace 11-2-25
Overview
Finding Grace in the True Vine
Grace can be defined as a loving disposition and unmerited love—and both pour out of Jesus' final "I AM" statement in John 15:1-8. Spoken on Maundy Thursday as Jesus and the disciples made their way from the upper room toward Gethsemane, these words come on the eve of the cross. When Jesus declares, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser," He sets Himself in deliberate contrast to Old Testament Israel, who was called God's vine yet proved faithless and fruitless. Passages like Psalm 80:8, Jeremiah 2:21, and Isaiah 5:2 lament a vine that yielded only wild grapes. Jesus is the true vine that bears what Israel could not.
The branches that bear no fruit and are removed (v. 2) are unbelievers attached to the visible church—echoing the wheat and tares of Matthew 13 and John's own words in 1 John 2:19 about those who "went out from us" because they never truly belonged. Fruit cannot grow apart from faith; it is a life rooted in Christ, reflecting His character, and producing the fruit of the Spirit named in Galatians 5:22-23—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. There is no such thing as a fruitless Christian, because fruit flows from the gift of faith God Himself gives.
And here grace comes flooding in. "You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you" (v. 3) points ahead to the cleansing of the cross, where Jesus bears our sin and wins our forgiveness. "Abide in me as I abide in you" (v. 4) reminds us that we can only abide because He abides in us; apart from Him we can do nothing. Even the pruning of verse 2—whatever shape it takes in our lives—is the loving work of the Gardener, not something to be feared. And when Jesus invites, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish" (v. 7), He shapes our very prayers by His Word, transforming what we ask for into what aligns with His will.
The closing verse holds a tender word of grace: "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples" (v. 8). The verb tense looks forward—we are disciples, made so in the waters of baptism, and we are always becoming disciples. We will not arrive on this side of heaven, but God's grace is continually at work in us through Word and Sacrament. That same truth governs how we treat one another: our brothers and sisters are also in the state of becoming, and what they need from us is the grace extended to them in the middle of that becoming. Because of Jesus, the true vine, every day we find grace—and grace finds us.
Transcript
What you open your Bibles, please, with me to the 15th chapter of the Gospel of John. 2s
If you're using a few edition of Holy Scripture in front of you or underneath you, you're 7s
going to find that in the New Testament page 95. 12s
John, the 15th chapter for a time of study this morning. 15s
Grace was the secretary at the church that I interned at when I was in seminary. 26s
Grace had a career in the army and when that had concluded she went into working on the administrative 36s
side of things at the church. 42s
She was a good secretary. 46s
She was married to a man by the name of Chuck. 52s
Chuck and Grace never had children, but they adopted all of us interns as we would come. 57s
Your internship year in seminary is an entire year in which you follow your supervising 66s
pastor literally around where you do pastoral things. 72s
You preach once a month, but literally you're following the pastor around. 77s
And Grace adopted each one of us. 85s
I was about intern number nine or so in that congregation. 91s
There were those that came before me. 95s
Those that came after me and what we all found was that Grace lived out her name. 97s
That term is so beautiful, isn't it? 114s
And we see it continually in scripture. 118s
Your different kind of pictures, different kind of images, different kind of words that 125s
you can put around to flesh out Grace. 129s
I want to highlight two this morning. 132s
Loving disposition and unmarited love. 137s
Loving disposition and unmarited love. 146s
And what those interns before and those interns after and what I discovered too was Grace. 152s
She just lived out her name. 163s
As we turn to the last of the IM statements this morning. 173s
What we see arising from the text is Grace. 178s
What's the setting? 189s
The setting is what we would, the turgically call Monday Thursday. 190s
When we get to holy week that begins with Palm Sunday, we remember the triumphal march 195s
of Jesus into Jerusalem. 201s
He was headed to the cross. 203s
And then we come to Monday Thursday. 205s
Monday Thursday, then good Friday, the day of the cross and then Easter, the day of resurrection. 208s
Monday Thursday, we see scripturely. 216s
Is when Jesus was in the upper room with His disciples. 218s
Here's a second member of the Trinity. 222s
And what does He do when He washes the stinking feet of disciples? 224s
Talk about an example of servanthood. 228s
And also the institutes, the sacrament of holy communion for the first time. 232s
The implications of what we see in John 14 is that the setting of this is that Jesus and His disciples 239s
have left the upper room and they're headed to the garden of Bethesda Mani. 246s
And Jesus teaches. 253s
Notice what He says. 255s
Chapter 15, verse 1. 257s
I am the true vine. 260s
Let's pause there. 265s
What we see in the Old Testament is we see it's real being portrayed as the vine of God. 269s
And Jesus here says, He's the true vine. 279s
Well, in the Old Testament, we read. 284s
In Psalm 80, you brought a vine out of Egypt. 288s
You drove out the nations and planted it. 295s
Jeremiah too. 299s
Yet I planted you as a choice vine from the purest stock. 301s
People of Israel that understanding that they were God's vine. 308s
But we also see that the people of Israel, Scripture tells us was faithless. 314s
They were fruitless. 320s
Scripture tells us in Jeremiah too, as it goes on, how then did you turn degenerate and become a wild vine? 324s
Or in Isaiah the fifth chapter. 332s
When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 335s
Jesus didn't refer to Himself as the true vine. 340s
So he's making comparison. 346s
He's making comparison of Himself with the fruitless vine of Israel. 347s
Look again at verse 1 of chapter 15. 356s
I am the true vine. 361s
And then he says, and my father is the vine grower. 364s
Now the words, the father is the gardener. 370s
And one of the functions of the gardener, we read this in verse 2. 375s
He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. 380s
Who the branches here that are not bearing any fruit? 390s
Jesus is referring to unbelievers here. 396s
Unbelievers. 399s
And notice the wording. 401s
He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. 403s
This is the parable of the wheat and the tears really in Matthew 13. 408s
When Jesus talking about the church says that in the church there are the wheat and the tears. 413s
In other words, the translated, there is going to be in the church all time. 418s
There are going to be believers. 423s
And then there is also going to be in the church attached to it. 424s
There's going to be unbelievers. 431s
There's going to be wheat and tears. 433s
Jesus says. 435s
And actually that's going to be separated. 437s
So when Jesus says that the father, the gardener removes every branch in me that bears no fruit, 440s
that's the removal of the unbelievers that are attached to the church. 447s
The same thing that John talks about in John 1st John 2nd chapter. 454s
Where he says those that went out from us they never belonged to us. 459s
And so when he says he removes every branch in me that bears no fruit, 466s
who's he referring to. 472s
He's not referring to the believers. 474s
He's referring to unbelievers that are attached to the church. 476s
And an unbeliever cannot bear fruit. 481s
Because fruit comes from faith. 487s
Well, what's fruit? 491s
We see in Scripture that fruit is a life that's rooted in Christ. 494s
We see in Scripture that fruit is the reflection of who God is his character. 502s
What's important to him? 510s
We see in Scripture that fruit is the fruit of the spirit, 513s
what the spirit produces in the lives of the believer. 517s
Galatians 5, love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 521s
gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. 524s
That's all the fruit of the spirit. 527s
So when Jesus says he removes every branch in me that bears no fruit, 533s
as he's talking about the unbeliever, it's really a statement of judgment, isn't it? 539s
It's echoed then, looked down at verse 6. 544s
Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch, 548s
and withers such branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burn. 553s
So where are we so far? 562s
Let's sum it up. 564s
Jesus says he's the true vine in comparison with the fruitless vine of Israel. 566s
So exemplified in the Old Testament when Israel was faithless and fruitless. 574s
Jesus says I'm the true vine. 581s
And then he is lifting up judgment upon the unbelievers. 585s
So exactly where is the grace that arises? 596s
From this text. 602s
Where's the grace that arises? 607s
It was early on in my internship. 616s
In grace and chuck took me to a really nice restaurant. 620s
It's kind of one of those restaurants where an intern on an intern stipend in seminary you don't need that. 626s
They said you really got to try this fish. 639s
I said okay. 642s
When the fish came, it was cooked in this parchment. 644s
And so you had to take your knife and cut the parchment and open it up and the steam came up. 650s
And there's this grouping of different kinds of fish in this sauce. 656s
It was incredible. 662s
It was incredible. 665s
We had such a lovely evening. 668s
Wonderful dinner. 672s
Arrizing out of the day was this grace. 676s
This expression on grace and chuck's part of this loving disposition toward me. 685s
This unmarried hit love. 694s
They didn't really know me. 695s
But they loved me before I even came. 697s
It was this lovely expression of grace. 701s
Not too long after that. 710s
Grace said told me, say myself in a couple of the ladies, 713s
we want to take you to the ballgame this coming Thursday. 718s
She said, now bring your coat. 723s
She said grace, it's 80 degrees outside. 726s
Why am I going to bring my coat? 729s
And she looked at me with that look of my L.A. roots. 731s
And all. 735s
And she said, in turn, this is candlestick park. 736s
That wind comes right off of that bay. 743s
Bring your coat. 746s
Said, okay, I'll bring my coat. 748s
So grace and her unit here. 750s
These ladies that were particularly close to her in the congregation. 752s
They took me to the baseball game. 757s
I found out that it was a tradition that they had with all the interns. 758s
That this group of ladies, Grace and her posse here, 764s
would just kind of take the intern out to a ballgame. 769s
Those are really good seats. 773s
Lower bowl first base side. 776s
And as the innings went along and that wind came off of the bay. 780s
I was glad I had my coat. 784s
In fact, I was also glad that the ladies had their blankets with them. 786s
There's a wonderful night. 792s
It's just a wonderful night. 794s
Just a rising out of the day. 802s
This group of ladies just is loving this position. 807s
For yet one more intern who's going to be there a year and then just going to be gone. 815s
This unmarried love. 821s
I cut my preaching teeth at that congregation. 835s
And grace after every sermon would encourage with a big smile on our face. 845s
A rising out of the day. 858s
Was this loving disposition this unmarried love? 865s
A rising out of this the last of the I am statements. 884s
Look at me please. 895s
It verse three. 896s
Jesus says, you have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 900s
What's the cleansing here? 909s
He speaks of what is going to effect through the cross. 912s
When he takes all of our sin upon him and wins the word of forgiveness through his shed blood. 918s
And we are cleansed by his blood. 926s
That's that expression of Jesus on the cross that loving disposition, that unmarried, 930s
A rising from the text is grace. 942s
Look at verse four. 945s
Jesus says, abide in me as I abide in you. 947s
Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. 954s
Neither can you unless you abide in me. 959s
I am the vine. You were the branches. Those who abide in me and I end them very much fruit because apart from me, you can do nothing. 962s
And that grace that arises here. 977s
When he says it to be getting a for again, abide in me as I abide in you. 980s
The only way you see that we can abide in Christ is because he abides in us. 988s
The only way that we can bear fruit because left to ourselves, Jesus says we can do nothing. 995s
The only way that we can bear fruit is because of the abiding Christ inside of us. 1000s
There is no such thing as a fruitless Christian. 1008s
For the fruit just manifest itself from the gift of faith that God gives us and arising from the text is this grace. 1013s
Look at the second part of verse two. 1030s
Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 1037s
Because of his sovereign love for us, because of his loving disposition to us. 1045s
We need not fear whatever form the pruning takes. 1052s
For we are under the care of the gardener, God Almighty. 1059s
And we can rest in his work in our lives. 1067s
What arises from the text is grace. 1073s
Look at verse seven. 1077s
If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. 1080s
And the grace that is just saturated in that text, where our prayers become formed by God and His words to where we then pray. 1090s
In accordance with His will, because He gives us that which to pray for, our very prayer life is transformed by His grace. 1105s
Arising from the text is this grace. 1117s
I am the vine in you are the branches grace grace. 1123s
The call came one after noon. 1146s
It was one of Grace's posse. 1151s
She said, Grace isn't doing well. 1156s
Doesn't look like she'll be with us this side of heaven much longer. 1162s
I have got her new phone number. 1170s
I know she would love to hear from you. 1172s
Would you call her? 1175s
She was now 97 years old. 1183s
She sounded a little older, but still that was grace. 1188s
We reminisced, we laughed, we prayed. 1197s
And as we talked, that grasp of the Lord upon her was so apparent. 1206s
And in the end, when the Lord transferred her into His very presence, in the end, there was for grace. 1216s
Grace, as the Lord brought her into His presence, this loving disposition of God manifest. 1232s
This unmarried love of God. 1248s
As He welcomed into eternity, grace. 1253s
In the end, there was grace. 1262s
And when you come to the last verse for our text this morning, what does one find? 1272s
Look at verse eight, please. 1288s
My father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciple. 1291s
The tense there is a future indicative. 1307s
That's a future fact here. 1312s
And we know from scripture that we're made disciples of the Lord Jesus in the waters of baptism. 1316s
When we are washed in the victory of the cross in the empty tomb, we're made His disciples in the waters of baptism. 1322s
And the future indicative here of become also reminds us that we're always becoming His disciple. 1330s
We are His disciple and we're always becoming His disciple. 1343s
That's a word of grace for us, isn't it? 1351s
When we reflect on our lives, when we reflect on our lives and so often we see how far we fall so far short of a being who Christ wants us to be. 1355s
What a word of grace that is for us. 1370s
That we are disciples and that we are always by God's grace and His work in our lives, becoming disciples. 1374s
And we'll never ever arrive this side of heaven. 1383s
But the grace of God continually at work in our lives through Word and through Sacrament. 1390s
And that gracious word is a gracious reminder to us. 1401s
As we look at our fellow brothers and sisters, 1407s
that's a reminder to us that our fellow brothers and sisters, they're also always in the state of becoming. 1411s
They are disciple and they're always in the state of becoming a disciple. 1423s
And that's a gracious reminder to us. 1430s
That what they need to hear from us is our grace extended to them amidst their becoming. 1435s
I am the vine, you are the branches, grace. 1453s
Because of Jesus every day, we find grace. 1468s