John 15

Thanks for hanging with us through this experiment.  You are doing great!  We have made it to day 15 and you are going strong.  Way to go!  Speaking of keeping with it, Jesus continues the "upper room discourse" or conversation with His disciples about some really important things before He gives up His life to save the world.  Since He is about to leave His tight knit group, He gives them a reminder about something that is of vital importance.  Their very existence as a movement, as a group , depends on this passage.  Did I mention it was important?

Jesus tells them "I am the true vine,".  I know, you are saying "Woooo that does sound important!" Maybe not to us but in an environment where your lively hood depends on agriculture, you might change your tune.  The vine supplies all of the nutrients and food that the branches need to survive.  If a branch is separated from the vine, it will die and there will be no fruit as a result.  The result for you?  No food.  Hunger or even starvation.  Not a good thing.

Jesus is telling His people that He is about to be taken away, if they flee and abandon the movement that He has started (ie the Kingdom), they will be separating themselves from the vine.  The result?  No fruit and spiritual starvation.  Their lives will bear fruit if they stay true to the things that Christ has taught them.  They will not if they don't. 

Your life should bear fruit if you are in Christ.  In other words, you should be involved in loving others the way Jesus did.  You should be serving others in some way, hanging out with those who don't know Jesus and telling them about Him.  Helping the helpless.  Giving of your time and resources.  All of these things are fruit.  How does your life look in view of that?

Cool Facts
If someone is angry at the message of grace that the Bible talks about, Jesus reminds us in this passage that they didn't like His message either.  It is a reminder of earlier passages where it is prophesied about (Psalm 69:4).