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Life in the Vine Part 1

January 7, 2018 Speaker: Brian Wilbur Series: A Vision for Spiritual Vitality

Topic: Christian Life Basics Passage: John 15:1–7

LIFE IN THE VINE: A VISION FOR SPIRITUAL VITALITY IN 2018

A Three-Part Exposition of John 15:1-17

Part 1: The Foundation of Abiding in Jesus

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   January 7, 2018

Series: Vision 2018

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

INTRODUCTION

As a new year is now upon us, it seems fitting to devote a few sermons to basic Christian discipleship, that we might reset or recalibrate ourselves in the ways of our Lord. What does it mean to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? What is the Christian life all about?

We don’t want to be a people who go through the motions of religiosity but remain ignorant of God’s plan for our lives. We don’t want to be a people who play church on Sunday mornings but pursue our own agenda the rest of the time. We don’t want to be a people who live in our own strength. Instead, we want to be a people who are immersed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who walk with Him each and every day, who put Him first in all of our relationships and responsibilities, and who therefore live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

Is your present season of life pleasing to the Lord? In asking a probing question like that, I am not assuming that your answer should be ‘No.’ I don’t have extensive insight into the character and quality of each of your lives, so I don’t know the answer that each of you might give. Which is just as well, because you are not called to live your life in the fear of pastor, but in the fear of the Lord. I am only an ambassador who is called to minister the Word to you, trusting that the Holy Spirit will take that holy and divine Word and conduct holy and divine business in your soul. Is your life pleasing to the Lord?

The apostle Paul wrote:

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:17)

Do you understand what the Lord’s will is for your everyday life? If you do understand the Lord’s will, are you surrendering to it and delighting in it? Jesus said that His food – His nourishment, His delight – was to do the Father’s will (John 4:34). What about you? Or if you don’t understand the Lord’s will, would you like to?

Do not say, ‘I am too old and too set in my ways.’ Do not say, ‘I am but a youth and want to live free from outside interference for a number of years.’ Do not say, ‘I am in my prime years of living and producing and earning and parenting, and I just haven’t the time to invest in my spiritual walk.’ Do not say, ‘I cannot change because you don’t understand how hard it is, you don’t understand my past, you don’t understand my situation, you don’t understand my diagnosis.’ I make no claim to understand! But I assure you that God Almighty is more than able to work profound change in your life, to take you deeper in your walk with Him, and to make the days ahead some of the most fruitful days of your entire life.

And with that word fruitful we come to one of the main ideas in our passage. Dear fellow disciple, the Lord’s will for your life is that you bear much spiritual fruit.

To put the matter in agricultural, fruit is always the objective. The soil is tilled, the seed is planted, the plants are nourished with sunlight and rain, the devouring pests are kept away, and the weeds are weeded out, so that at harvest time you can serve up mashed potatoes and squash soufflé and roasted asparagus and orange-cranberry salad with your meat of choice, then top it all off with blueberry or pumpkin pie. We do it for the fruit! We plant gardens and orchards and vineyards, not mainly for the sake of exercise, but rather for the promise of a harvest of tomatoes, peppers, apples, and grapes. We do it for the fruit! Our enjoyment of the fruit is the wonderful completion to all the activity and anticipation that came beforehand.

What a tragedy, then, that the living God should look upon His people, as He looked upon His people in Isaiah 5, and instead of seeing good fruit sees bad fruit, instead of seeing righteousness sees unrighteousness, instead of seeing peace sees anxiety and conflict and unkindness, and instead of seeing true worshipers sees only greedy and self-indulgent people.

Brothers and sisters, our God has a deep desire to produce spiritual fruit in our lives. Jesus is the True Vine who supplies His people with life and strength. The Father is the Vinedresser who prunes us into greater fruitfulness. We are the fragile little branches who have one basic job: live in the strength of the Vine!

To help us lay hold of these things, we are beginning a three-part sermon series titled Life in the Vine: A Vision for Spiritual Vitality in 2018. We will three looks at John 15:1-17, with each sermon highlighting a different facet of life in the Vine. I encourage you to read and reflect upon this passage during the week, because your own personal engagement with it will help you derive more benefit from the preaching and hopefully motivate you toward the implementation of what God is saying to us through His Word.

In this first sermon we will consider The Foundation of Abiding – the starting point of spiritual vitality. In the second sermon we will consider The Form of Abiding – our role and responsibility in spiritual health. Then in the final sermon we will consider The Fruit of Abiding – the practical effects of a healthy spiritual life.

These three sermons are not separate and air-tight compartments. All three themes overlap in profound ways, as they are all part of one cohesive unit of thought in John 15:1-17. But the advantage of reflecting on this passage in three parts, spread out over three Sundays, is that it affords us the opportunity to chew slowly on it, think deeply about it, and be transformed through the renewing of our minds.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Now let me read our passage. Holy Scripture says:

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:1-17)

THE LORD’S WILL IS THAT HIS DISCIPLES BEAR FRUIT

Isn’t it clear that the Lord Jesus Christ intends for His people to bear fruit? Fruit is one of the themes that holds the whole passage together:

  • The Father as Vinedresser attends to the branches so that fruitful branches “bear more fruit.” (v. 2)
  • The Lord promises that everyone who abides in Him “bears much fruit.” (v. 5)
  • We glorify the Father by “[bearing] much fruit.” (v. 8)
  • The Lord has chosen and appointed His disciples for the express purpose that they “should go and bear fruit,” and not just the appearance of fruit but actual fruit, the real deal, the stuff that lasts, abiding fruit. (v. 16)

The bearing of good spiritual fruit has always been God’s revealed will for His people. Psalm 1 pictures the righteous man as

“like a tree planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in it season...” (Psalm 1:3)

Then there was the prophet Isaiah who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, looked forward to a better day for the nation of Israel:

“In days to come Jacob shall take root,

Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots

And fill the whole world with fruit.” (Isaiah 27:6)

God’s purpose is that His beauty and glory should be put on display in the whole earth through His fruit-bearing people. What a high calling and privilege! Young people, if your ambitions are not connected to God’s purpose to display His glory throughout the world, then your ambitions are in vain. Now is the time to set your heart upon the Lord and resolve to walk in His ways!

BEWARE OF TURNING FRUIT-BEARING OR ABIDING INTO GREAT RELIGIOUS FEATS

Notice, however, that the command given to us is not to bear fruit. To be sure, there is a promise and expectation that the Lord’s disciples will bear fruit, and there is a divine commission by which we have been appointed in order to bear fruit, but what is the command in this passage? Not ‘bear fruit’ or ‘bear much fruit,’ is it?

Some Christians probably live as if it is up to them to produce good spiritual fruit. Their spiritual life feels like: you’ve got to bear fruit, man; you’ve got to work hard; you’ve got to redouble your efforts; you’ve got to figure this fruit thing out; you’ve got to bear this burden and responsibility that’s on your shoulders alone; you’ve got to discover the right three-step process or three-point checklist that, if dutifully carried out, will guarantee fruit on the other side. There may be people in this congregation who live under the terrible weight of self-reliance, under this impossible burden to produce something – to produce some spiritual or relational beauty in your life or in your home. The morning comes and you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, frustrated and grumpy and irritable, aghast that others aren’t serving your every wish, and since you knowing that that’s not the Christian way, you tell yourself that you’ve just go to work hard at being nice today. ‘I can do it,’ you say, ‘I’ve got this,’ ‘I can pull it off.’

But Jesus doesn’t say to these fragile little branches, ‘Bear fruit, you fragile little branch; find the strength within you, you fragile little branch; reach for the skies, you fragile little branch.’ What does Jesus say? What is the command in this passage?

“Abide in me….” (v. 4)

“Abide in my love.” (v. 9)

The idea here is that you, a fragile little branch, cannot produce anything of any spiritual value on your own:

“… for apart from me you can do nothing.” (v. 5)

No flattery here! If we would be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must experience a complete reversal of the sinfully self-reliant streak inside each one of us. We vainly imagine that we can carry on just fine on our own, or that we can pull ourselves up by our own moral bootstraps, or that we can reach great heights because we have solid feet or brilliant intuition or social charm. But then the truth of the Gospel is proclaimed, and we discover that far from delivering ourselves by our own power, we must actually despair of ourselves. We are bankrupt! We are empty! We have no ability to make ourselves acceptable in God’s sight! We have no power to live a godly life! We can do nothing apart from the Lord!

Some people, I suppose, will even turn this activity of abiding into a great religious feat full of dos and don’ts, principles and programs, rules and regulations. Before you know it, the Lord is all but forgotten beneath a complex religious system. You work hard at bearing fruit, and I’ll work hard at abiding! Well, that’s not quite right. True, “Abide in me,” is a command we must obey, an activity in which we must engage. But spiritual abiding is actually a way of life that should characterize our whole life. And as we shall see next week, there is a simplicity to it. When Jesus says “Abide in me,” He is saying ‘Stay close to Me,’ ‘Stay connected to Me,’ ‘Draw strength from Me,’ ‘Rely on Me at all times,’ ‘Trust My life-giving words,’ and ‘Walk in the power of My Spirit.’ The call to abide is the call to believe in and hold onto Jesus every single day – and this exercise of faith, though it costs us everything, is not a complex religious system.

Be assured that it is the Lord Himself who produces good fruit through us, and He produces this fruit as we abide in Him. Next week we will have much more to say about the nature of abiding.

THE FOUNDATION OF ABIDING IN JESUS

But now we need to focus our attention on what I have called the foundation of abiding. Perhaps the simplest way to highlight the fact that there is a foundation to abiding, is to show you where the command to abide arises in this passage:

Is the command to abide in verse 1? No.

Is the command to abide in verse 2? No.

Is the command to abide in verse 3? No.

Is the command to abide in verse 4? Yes.

What this helps us to see is that there is a necessary foundation to the spiritual life. Our abiding in the Lord isn’t the first thing to say about spiritual vitality – in fact, by my count, it’s only the fourth thing. Bearing fruit is the fifth thing, abiding is the fourth thing, and if we were to just camp out on the fourth and fifth things, we would be missing the first, second, and third things. That doesn’t seem very wise, does it?

So then, let’s really seek to understand how Jesus introduces the concept of abiding and fruit-bearing. Your spiritual life will be helped tremendously if you can lay hold of these realities and let them define and shape your spiritual walk.

Foundational Reality #1: Jesus is The Source of Life

The first foundational reality is this: Jesus is the source of true spiritual life. This is where our passage begins:

“I am the true vine…” (v. 1) (note also “I am the vine…” (v. 5))

The idea here is that life and vitality, power and strength, and the capacities for nourishment and productivity, are found in the vine, not in the branches. Which means, of course, that life and vitality, power and strength, and the capacities for nourishment and productivity, are found in the Lord Jesus, not in us. Do you believe this?

Branches don’t support the vine; the vine supports the branches. To confess that Jesus is the true vine is equally to confess that we ourselves are not the true vine, that we aren’t capable of self-support, that we don’t have life coursing through our veins of our own accord, and that we are unable to muster the strength needed to produce fruit. True life is not found inside of us, but rather comes to us from the outside, from Jesus the True Vine. We are fragile little branches supported by the Vine.

Over and over again in John’s Gospel, Jesus declares to us that He alone is the source of true life. Let our Lord’s words sink into your hearts:

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37-38)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep… If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:7, 9-10)

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Your soul is athirst, and He is Living Water. You hunger, and He is Life-giving Bread. You are a wayward and wandering sheep, and He is the Way to true and abundant life. You are subject to death, and He is the Resurrection and Eternal Life. You are a fragile little branch, and He is the True Vine who will supply you with nourishment and then send leaves and flowers and fruit soaring through your branch into the vineyard. Why won’t you come to Him? Why won’t you stay close to Him? Why won’t you live in the liveliness of His faithful care and strong support?

Jesus is the source of true life and, consequently, the source of true fruit – because it is the nature of living things to produce fruit. As I indicated earlier in references to Isaiah 5 and Isaiah 27, Israel was called to be the Lord’s fruitful vine, but it utterly failed. And whereas Israel proved to be an unruly and unproductive vine, Jesus is by contrast “the true vine” who effectively produces good fruit in the fragile little branches that are connected to Him through faith. In words spoken through the prophet Hosea, the Lord says to His people:

“I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.” (Hosea 14:8)

And the humble disciple replies, ‘Amen.’ 

Friends, if you would have spiritual life, if you would have your thirst satisfied and your heart full, if you would participate in the divine beauty that will fill the universe with everlasting fruit, then you must go to Jesus and lean on Him, listen to Him, live in Him, and be loved by Him. He is everything, and we are nothing – but He promises to pour His everything into our nothing and make us alive in the very life of God.

Foundational Reality #2: God’s Work is The Primary Work

The second foundational truth in John 15 is this: God’s work toward us is the primary work and it comes before our spiritual activity. Notice that there is a whole range of God-mandated human activity in plain sight in our passage: there is the activity of abiding (v. 4, 9), there is the activity of obeying (v. 10), there is the activity of loving one another (v. 12, 17), there is the activity of going forth to make disciples (v. 16), and there is the activity of praying (v. 7, 16). However – and this is a big however – all of this good and necessary human activity is secondary. For our spiritual activity is fundamentally response and submission to God’s prior activity. In other words, God’s work enables and energizes our work. God’s work is primary!

Let me unpack this truth by way of a brief walk-through of our passage:

  • Jesus is the True Vine. The work of the vine is primary: the vine’s work enables and energizes the activity taking place in and through the branches. (v. 1a)
  • The Father is the Vinedresser. The Father’s work is to watch over the vine and look after the individual branches. The specific point that Jesus makes in verse 2 is that the reason why fruitful branches are able to become even more fruitful is because of the Father’s pruning work. (v. 1b-2)
  • Jesus is the Revealer of truth. The only reason His words can abide in us (v. 7), is because He has spoken them. The Son of God has spoken words to us! John 6: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63) John 15: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (v. 11) And a few verses later: “… all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (v. 15) Our rightful response is to cherish and comply with His life-giving words, but His is the primary work of speaking those words in the first place and opening our minds to understand them.
  • Jesus is the Pattern of faithfulness. He calls us to abide in His love, but He has broken the trail for us by abiding in His Father’s love. (v. 9-10) He calls us to love another, but He has set the supreme example by laying down His life for us. (v. 12-14)
  • Jesus is the Initiator of our discipleship and service. “You did not choose me,” Jesus says, “but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.” (v. 16) Our relationship with Jesus doesn’t rest on any decision that we made, but instead rests on the decisive action that Jesus took to choose us and incorporate us into His joyful, global, and fruit-bearing enterprise.

What shall we say about all of these things? We are not in the driver’s seat, we are not out in front, we are not the producers, we are not self-made disciples, and our work is not the primary work. Instead we are the beneficiaries of His bountiful supply, the heirs of His infinite grace, the recipients of His great generosity, the fragile little branches who owe everything to the True Vine and to the faithful Father who cares for us.

A Sober Warning

Be assured that everyone who receives these riches of God’s grace bears good fruit in their lives. But then a question arises: what about those who consistently and perpetually fail to bear good fruit. Well, at this point it is necessary to hear the warning that our Lord gives in this passage. The warning is that the consistent and ongoing failure to bear good fruit indicates that a person is disconnected from the Vine – and this disconnection results in judgment. Jesus says:

“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he [the Father] takes away.” (v. 2a)

“If anyone does not abide in me [note the disconnection] he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. (v. 6)

This removal of disconnected, unfruitful branches for the burning fire is clearly the language of judgment. This is meant to be a sober warning to people who profess to know Jesus or who have a lot of religious experience under their belt, but who are not savingly united to Jesus through lively faith. You may have a good bit of Bible and church and morality and tradition in your life, but you don’t have Jesus – you don’t have His life-giving transforming fruit-bearing power at work in your life. Jesus is the True Vine, but you are not a true branch. You appear to be branchlike to the untrained eye, but the Vinedresser knows, and the clock is ticking. There is only one thing to do in such a case:

“Seek the LORD while he may be found;

call upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)

For today is the day of salvation, and today you may be grafted into the vine, if you come to Him with a believing heart.

Foundational Reality #3: The Wash Before The Walk       

Having sounded the warning, we now proceed to the third foundational reality, which is this: the Lord graciously washes away our sins before He calls us to abide in Him. In verse 2 Jesus tells us that the Father prunes the faithful branches so that they will “bear more fruit.” The Father is continually pruning, cleansing, refining, deepening, purifying, and sanctifying us in our day-to-day lives, so that we will grow in our love for Jesus and be more faithful to display His character and wisdom. But that isn’t the only thing Jesus tells us about life in the vine. Whereas in verse 2 he tells us that we are in the process of being pruned by the Father’s skilled hands, in verse 3 he tells us that we already clean:

“Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” (v. 3)

It is difficult to overstate how important this truth is in the lifelong journey of abiding. If we don’t know that we are fundamentally and decisively clean, forgiven, and holy through the declarative word of the Lord, then we will live in the up-and-down volatility of our own performance. When we perform well, or when we perceive that we have borne good fruit, or when we suppose that the Father is pruning us (which, knowing verse 2, means that we are already on the right track), then we might be tempted to feel good about ourselves; we might even be tempted to regard ourselves as holy and pure. And why? Because we have done well.

On the other hand, when we perform poorly, or when we perceive that we have borne bad fruit, or when we suppose that the Father is pruning us (and, ignorant of verse 2, assume this means we are on the wrong track), then we might be tempted to feel bad about ourselves; we might even be tempted to regard ourselves as unholy and impure. And why? Because we have done poorly.

If we are thinking in these terms, then what will we do to get from ‘I am unclean because I have done poorly’ to ‘I am clean because I have done well’? What will we do? We will turn abiding into a self-purification effort, and we will continually reflect on our performance, our progress, our piety. But what does Jesus say? He says, “Already you are clean.” And on what basis? Did you clean yourself up? Did you decide to be holy? Did you successfully complete the sin detox program? What does Jesus say?

“Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” (v. 3)

The sovereign Lord Jesus Christ speaks to you, and that changes everything. It changes everything before you have done a single thing. He speaks to you and claims you as His own. He speaks to you and pledges to pour His everything into your empty cup. He speaks to you and declares that your sins are forgiven. He speaks to you and imparts life into your dead soul, and you come alive to God. You haven’t done a thing. But He who spoke galaxies into existence speaks grace over your life: He takes away your sin, He cleanses your soul, He transforms your affections in the light of His glory, and He incorporates you into Himself – a fragile little branch is grafted into the True Vine – and the Lord Himself becomes your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, and your redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). You are clean because you are His! You are holy because you are part of the holy Vine!

CONCLUSION

Abiding Involves Resting in the Foundational Realities

All this means that abiding is not a self-purification effort. Instead, abiding involves resting in the sweet gospel knowledge that you are already pure and holy by the gift of God’s grace. Shortly after Jesus says “you are clean” He says, “Abide in me, and I in you.” (v. 4) This must mean, among other things, that abiding involves trusting Jesus as the sure foundation of our holy status as branches in the vine. We didn’t earn it, and we can’t improve upon it. But do you know what we can do? We can walk with the One who has given us everything, and we can make it our aim to honor Him. 

Will we abide in the Lord Jesus? I hope so. But it matters greatly how we abide. We don’t abide in the Lord in order to perform or produce. We don’t abide by mastering a complex religious system or a demanding regimen, as if our work is the primary work. Instead we humble ourselves as fragile little branches, and stand in awe that the True Vine offers Himself fully and unreservedly to us, that He is supporting us with an infinite supply of divine resources, and that when He called us into the Vine, He cleansed us and set us apart as holy. Stand in awe of these things, receive them gladly, rest in His work, come and drink this Living Water, feast on this Life-giving Bread, and lay yourself down in the quiet pasture of God’s grace.

“Life in the Vine: A Vision for Spiritual Vitality in 2018” begins with the joyful recognition that any vision for spiritual vitality must begin with Jesus, and not with us.

Preparation for Communion

This whole message is fitting preparation for Communion, because Communion pictures the very things we have been reflecting on from John 15. We come to the Table because we need life, nourishment, and strength from outside of ourselves. Jesus is our Life! He laid down His life for us (v. 15), offering Himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His broken body is the bread that gives us life. His shed blood is the cup of salvation and eternal life. Come, eat! Come, drink! Come, be strengthened by the grace that is in our Lord Jesus Christ!

After He died for our sins and was buried in a tomb, God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day! The Lord Jesus is the Victor over sin, Satan, and death! The risen Lord Jesus Christ is with us now through the presence of the Holy Spirit, and He offers Himself to us even as we draw near to Him at His Table.

If you are one of the Lord’s disciples, if you are trusting in the Lord and seeking to walk with Him, then you are welcome to participate in this holy meal – to partake of the bread and the cup which are emblems of the Gospel which you cherish. 

If you are not a believer, then you shouldn’t participate in this meal. But you shouldn’t do nothing! Instead, you should consider the precious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that He offers you. He promises to satisfy you forever with true bread and true drink, if only you will come to Him in true faith.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Calvin, John. Calvin’s Commentaries. Accessed online at Bible Hub: http://biblehub.com/commentaries/calvin/john/15.htm. Read some of his comments on John 15.

Carson, D. A. The Gospel according to John (Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991: p. 510-524.

Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel 11-21 (Commentary on the New Testament series). Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2008, 1942: p. 1031-1032. Accessed online at Google Books. Read a brief portion as part of my study of John 15:3.

Witherington, III, Ben. John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth Gospel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995: p. 254-260.

More in A Vision for Spiritual Vitality

January 21, 2018

Life in the Vine Part 3

January 14, 2018

Life in the Vine Part 2