Abiding in Christ: Fruitfulness | John 15:1-7
Brad O’Dell | January 1, 2023

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to John 15, where we’re going to be not only today but for the next handful of weeks, in various ways.

Before we kick into that, I wanted to use this illustration to open us up. Have you ever had times in your life where you knew you needed to commit to something but you didn’t know all the details and decisions that needed to be made to commit fully to it? But you ended up making a decision to say, “Well, I’m locked in now; I’ll figure out the rest as I go.”

An example of this is an RSVP for a wedding. You know you need to go to the wedding, you know it’s important and you want to go, but you don’t know if you’re going to drive, if you’re going to fly, which one’s most effective, which one works with your work schedule best; you don’t know what you’re going to do with the kids. “Are we going to be able to leave them here and have babysitting for that whole stretch of time, or are we taking them? What’s that look like? Who’s going to take care of the dog?” All that stuff. Right? You don’t have all the logistics figured out, but you’re like, “You know what? We can’t figure all that out; we’ll have to figure it out down the line. We just need to make the commitment now. I’m going to submit the RSVP, and now we know we’re going. We’re not going to bail at the last minute because things got crazy; we’re going to commit, and now that the RSVP is submitted and food is committed and the money that’s associated with that, we know we’re going. Now we know we can figure out the rest as it comes.”

Another example of this was, for Katie and I, we’re thinking about an international trip to go see some friends in England, and we wanted to go. We’ve been trying to do it for a couple of years, and we thought it might be a good season for it, but we weren’t quite sure. There are a lot of logistics to figure out, and we weren’t quite sure what her schedule was going to be, my schedule was going to be—all these things. A buddy of mine, who is also planning an international trip, was like, “You know what I’ve learned? Just buy the tickets.” He said, “Just buy the tickets! You know what? Once you buy the tickets, then you’re going, or else you’re going to lose a ton of money. So, once you buy the tickets, you can figure out the rest as it comes.”

I think that’s a good piece of advice for an international trip. You have to buy those tickets six months in advance, and there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t know that’s going to go into everything else, and you’ll figure that out as you go. Just buy the tickets, make the commitment, step over the line, and commit to the process, knowing that “I can figure out everything in the process down the line.”

I bring up that illustration because, in this new sermon series we’re stepping into for five weeks here, we’re going to be focusing in John 15 and on these core truths of abiding in Christ and experiencing fruitfulness in our spiritual walks and submitting to the Father’s work in that process of fruitfulness and in that process of sanctification. John 15—and really, all of the upper room discourse—is a really dense section of Scripture. We’re going to have to just open different pieces of it week after week. Every sermon you’re not going to get everything that’s in the passage. We’re going to have to select different things in the passage.

Over the next handful of weeks we’re going to be looking at different aspects of what it is to abide with Christ, what it is to prioritize Jesus in our spiritual walks in the new year. We’re going to look at some really practical aspects of what that looks like timewise, what that looks like in studying the Bible, what that looks like in our prayer life, what that looks like for changes we might need to make in some of our schedules and our family life, and what the promises that we have in Scripture are associated with all of that.

We’re going to look at all of that, but in this message I really just want to be that crossing-over-the-line message. I’m asking God to grab hold of your hearts, grab hold of your minds, and when you walk out of here today I want you to walk out with a, “Yes. That’s what I’m about, that’s what I’m here for, that’s what I’m looking forward to in the new year. I don’t know all the details yet, and I haven’t figured out what it’s going to take in my life, what that’s going to look like. It might take me the whole year to figure that out, and that’s okay, because it’s a lifelong process. But you know what? I’m committed to the process. I’m committed to the journey. That’s who I am in Christ, that’s what I’m about, and that’s what I want to see God do in my life.”

My heart is that this message is going to be that moment of saying, as we look at these truths about abiding and fruitfulness, it’s going to be that moment of crossing the Rubicon or flipping the switch in our minds or just that moment of buying the tickets. “Yes, that’s what I’m committed to, and I’m going to start the process this week in a small way as I wait to figure out the rest of it down the line.” That’s my heart for this message as we go to John 15.

So, let’s go ahead and read John 15. I’ll give a short introduction, then we’ll kick into the passage. We’re going to read John 15:1-11. Jesus says this:

“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. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

As we focus on John 15, what we need to recognize right at the outset is that John 15—those eleven verses—-is a short portion of a long teaching of Jesus’, the upper room discourse. It’s the last substantial teaching of Jesus right before he went to the cross.

As is the nature of a lot of Jesus’ teaching, and also as is the nature of John’s composition, the author of this Gospel, these truths that he’s covering in this section of Scripture are not necessarily presented linearly, right? He takes one topic, he establishes it, he gives all the details of it, he answers some questions of it, and then that leads to the next topic; now we’re in that next topical chunk, and he covers that. No, it’s more cyclical. Jesus will bring some things up, some language up, and he’ll speak to it, and then he’ll transition into something loosely related or necessarily related to that; but then he’s going to take that original thing and is going to start speaking to that a little more later on. Then he’s going to take some of these other things and cycle them back in. So it’s a really wonderful thing to just read the whole upper room discourse multiple times. I suggest you do that over these next handful of weeks. Read it all the way through, because you’re going to see lots of things he’s talking about, and he opens up more and more and more aspects of it, some different illustrations as you go.

However, it also makes it difficult for a sermon, because I can’t read to you five chapters of Scripture and say, “Alright, let’s handle it,” right? So, just know that I’m going to have to grab from some other portions of Scripture. I’ll try to direct you to them, especially some portions of John 14 today. That’s because of the cyclical nature of John’s writing.

It also means that I’m going to try to handle these themes in chunks, not necessarily verse by verse in order, as we go today, and that’s because of the nature of the writing and also the fact that this sermon is scratching the surface of what we’re going to unearth and open up more and more over the next coming weeks.

So, in this message on John 15, on abiding and fruitfulness, I have three points, and then I’m going to have three questions associated with each point. Those are questions I want you to write down, and I want you to take them home, and I want you to talk them over with your family. I want you to think over them and pray over them for yourself. It’s kind of that first step of stepping into this process of what it is to really prioritize Jesus in the new year.

My three points are going to be:

1. The Call to Fruitfulness
2. The Command to Abide
3. The Pruning in the Process

I’ll have three application questions for you to kind of take with you, associated with each of those.

1. The Call to Fruitfulness

First point, the call to fruitfulness. Really, the big emphasis of these eleven verses—and outside of that, like I said—is this idea of fruitfulness. We see that God’s main goal, or a large goal of his, and his heart for you is that you would be maximally fruitful in this coming year—not only in this coming year, but for the rest of your Christian walk. But especially at the new year, as we’re in this season of focusing and stepping back and saying, “What does God have for me in this year?” Let’s keep that scope in focus. “What does God want for me this year, 2023?” I’m saying God’s heart for you is that you would be maximally fruitful.

We see this all throughout the passage. We see it right there in verse 2: “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit” he takes away, every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. It’s all about fruit; that’s what we’re getting after here through this passage.

Verse 4, again: “Abide in me, and I in you.” Why “abide in me, and I in you”? Well, he explains it. “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” So fruit is kind of the end goal in view there as well.

He says it again in verse 5. “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.” Of course, the “nothing” there is no fruit in view.

You see it again in verse 8. It says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.”

Then, if you get down to verse 16—I didn’t read this, but it’s kind of a wrapping up of some of what he’s talking about in this—verse 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.”

Fruit, fruitfulness, is a big thrust in this passage. What I wanted to bring to bear on us today is that that is God’s heart for you in this new year, that you would be spiritually fruitful in this coming year.

It behooves us to ask, “What does that mean?” That sounds really wonderful; I’m picturing this cluster of grapes, and grapes are really good. We have one friend that refers to them as little bags of sugar. (She’s a healthy person.) Little bags of sugar—I’m like, “That sounds pretty good! Lots of bags of sugar in my life for the coming year.” Something sweet, something filling, something satisfying.

I do think that image is what Jesus brought to bear for a specific reason. I think he did have something like that in view. But it does take some sanctifying of our minds and hearts to bring ourselves to see what is truly fruitful in God’s eyes, as opposed to what we might envision as fruitful in ours. That’s going to be a little bit of what we’re looking at today in this message.

When people think of fruit in this passage, some people immediately think, “This is obviously the type of fruit that Jesus is speaking about in the spreading of the seed parables, where God will produce thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold through others. This is other souls that are brought into the kingdom through our gospel-spreading efforts!” I think that’s in view. I think in the upper room discourse he has that in view; but it’s not all that’s in view.

A lot of people immediately think of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. That is called the fruit of the Spirit—surely that’s the fruit in view. That’s nice when you have the whole testament of Scripture; I’m not sure if all of that was directly in view with the original disciples who heard this. I do think that idea of stable Christian character that represents the kind of person Jesus is, I think that’s also in view, the fruit of the Spirit that we see in Galatians 5.

I think if we take either of those and say, “That’s it,” it’s a little reductionist, it’s a little reduced from what is in view. I’m going to say this—I’ll put a statement on it, and then I’ll try to show you where I get it in the passage. The fruit in view is all of the actions, affections, and outcomes—that’s the fruit—that result from knowing and loving God and living in accordance with his character and will. When we do this, it manifests in something particular—particular actions, things we do; particular affections, things we love and desire; particular outcomes, effects we have on other people’s lives around us. These are the fruits that come.

That’s a pretty broad thing, right? I’ll show you where I get it in the Scriptures here.

When I said knowing God, I get that from all the focus on commandments and knowing God’s word or abiding in God’s word that we see in this passage. It says, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. If you abide in my words—” All of this is focusing on the word of God holistically and saying, if you abide in this or if you focus on this, if you prioritize this, if you put yourself into this and know it, then what you’re doing is you’re really actually getting a revelation of God himself. That’s what the Scriptures are to us. They do have rules, they do have commandments, they do have truth, but it’s not primarily just a fact book or rule book or anything like that. It is a revelation of God’s character, his purposes, and his plans.

What we do is, as we come to know that and also love it, we are shaped in a particular way. Where do I get loving? I actually get that from John 14, where it takes all these focuses on the commandments and the words of God, and every time there it associates it with loving Jesus or loving God. In verse 15 it says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” In verse 21, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” In verse 23, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.” In verse 24, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the words that you hear are not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.”

So, love and knowledge are necessarily related. That’s an important thing for us to get, because it’s not just we would know God through his word, but that we would actually love the God that is revealed. This isn’t some type of intellectual grasp only; that’s necessary, but it’s not complete in itself. There’s also this affectional response, where we love the revelation of God that we’re seeing.

As we do that, we also seek to live in accordance with this revelation of God, with his character and his will. Where do I get that? I get it from verse 7 in these verses, but again, we have to look at a few other verses to see what Jesus has in mind. In verse 7 Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

“Ask whatever you wish.” Everywhere else in the upper room discourse that he speaks in that language, he always says “in my name.” “Ask in my name.” You see this right down there in verse 16, right? “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 will give it to you.”

You see it again in John 14:14: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” “If you ask me anything in my name.”

So I think that’s an understood statement there when Jesus is speaking in chapter 15 as well. This was a solid teaching; they had already heard the other utterances of this.

“In his name.” What does praying and living in Jesus’ name mean? We do this all the time; every time we end our prayer, we say, “In Jesus’ name, whatever I just prayed,” throw that stamp on it, and it’s good. That gets it up to heaven. Not really—I’m not saying you really think that way! Sometimes you might. But what does “in his name” actually mean?

A better way to think of the translation might be “for his sake,” for Jesus’ sake. What’s Jesus’ desire? That the Father might be glorified in the Son. We just read that in John 14; that the Father might be glorified in the Son.

As we know God through his word and as we love him in the revelation of himself, and as we seek to live and pray in Jesus’ name, for Jesus’ sake, to the glory of the Father and in line with his call and his commands and his desires in this world and in our lives—as we do this, something happens in our lives. Something manifests in our lives in a number of different ways, and that is a change in our affections and our actions and the outcomes in our lives. That is the fruit we have in view.

That’s a pretty broad idea. Let me put a couple other definitions on it that other people have said.

D.A. Carson said the fruit is everything that is done in conformity to the will of Jesus Christ. Colin Cruse says the fruit refers to the entire life and ministry of those who follow Jesus’ teaching and experience his presence in their lives through the Spirit. Everything done in conformity to Christ, the entire life and ministry.

Ephesians 5:9 says it like this: “The fruit of life is found in all that is good and right and true.” You see that comprehensive statement of all the wonderful things that happen when we live in Christ and seek to live according to his name, or in his name.

I think that’s what the fruit is in view in this passage. The difficulty is that it's so broad, what does that even mean for me? “What does that mean for me today, preacher?”

I listed a few things, but what I really want you to do is take this question home and talk it out with your spouse, talk it out with your family, think about it in prayer, and really see what God is particularly putting on your mind and heart for this new year. Here are a few things I listed just to kind of help us put this into pictures here on the ground.

What might fruitfulness look like in 2023 for you?

Maybe all through the year it looks like having devotional times that more often than not fill you up with spiritual vigor, vitality, and focus and that aren’t dry or unfocused. Not all the time—things are going to happen, right? But more often than not we’ll be able to look back on the year and say, “Man, my time with the Lord was sweet, and I was just filled up to fullness in Jesus, and it changed my life.” That’s maybe what fruitfulness might look like in the coming year.

Fruitfulness might look like prioritizing Jesus day after day, prioritizing time with Jesus day after day, especially in the busy seasons of the year or the crazy seasons of the year; those times where time with the Lord seems to get pinched or fall off the plate. It looks like prioritizing that and having it there.

It might look like consistently being a godly example to your kids in your spiritual walk and also in your marriage, and then seeing God use that to grab hold of their hearts and call them to the same. That would be wonderful spiritual fruit to see over the coming year, wouldn’t it?

It might look like God giving you increasing victory over those particular sins that you’ve struggled with for years. When you come to the end of this year and you look back, you say, “Boy, I see the fruit of abiding in Christ, prioritizing Jesus, because I’m growing in victory over those sins—all praise to God.”

It might look like God using you to draw that friend or family member to faith in Christ that you’ve been praying over for years. Maybe that’s the kind of fruit God will begin to produce in your life. Who knows? Maybe it’s this year, maybe it’s some other year down the road.

It might look like this: it might look like loving well those in our lives who are really hard to love. Do you have people like that in your life? I love them, I want to show them the love of Jesus, I want to serve them, but it’s so hard to love them! Honestly, I just don’t know how. So spiritual fruitfulness might also look like having the discernment, the godly discernment, to know how best to love them in the seasons that you’re walking with them, and what that looks like in this season. That would be a wonderful spiritual fruit.

I think because of the broadness of what’s in view with fruit here, it’s innumerable, all the things we could list that could go there. But what I want you to do is ask yourself this question—write it down, think about it this week—“What kind of spiritual fruit do I think Jesus is calling me and my family to this year?” It’s not just this year, it’s for the rest of your Christian walk, but let’s put it in focus. “Lord, what are you calling us to this year? What can I pursue, what can I pray for, what can I desire before you and praise you for as I see you respond?” I would love to have fruitfulness in my spiritual walk in the new year, because that is the wonderful, wonderful promise before us in these Scriptures.

2. The Command to Abide

Also, we see the command to abide. We see that in verses 4-5. Jesus says,

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.

We see this core aspect of abiding. Now, some of your translations might say remain. “Remain in me.” I think that’s a good translation of the word as well. We’re going to unearth a little more specifically what’s in view there, but I think we need to see this imagery of the vine and the branches first, and understand what Jesus is doing there.

When he says in verse 1, “I am the true vine,” that kind of sets off this whole discourse. He hasn’t been talking about vines and fruitfulness not much else in this upper room discourse yet, and he says, “I am the true vine,” and that kicks off this illustration. “I am the vine, you are the branches.” What does he mean there?

Well, first, I think he means that “I am the source of life and vitality, spiritual fruitfulness.” This fruitfulness that we have in view, “I am the source of it. If you’re not in me, the life-giving principle that feeds you, that actually produces in you, will not be present. So I am the true vine.”

But also he has a background in mind from the Old Testament. You see, Israel was the vine of God in the Old Testament. Numerous places in the Old Testament it speaks of Israel as God’s chosen vine.

In Isaiah 5:2 it says that God planted this vine, and it was a vine that he cared for, but you know what? That vine became unfaithful.

In Ezekiel 19 it says God planted a vine and he cherished it, and he went to see what kind of produce came from it, and it produced wild grapes, not the grapes that it was supposed to produce.

But also, I think the core passage is Psalm 80, which speaks about how God took a vine out of Egypt, he delivered from the people of Israel from Egypt; we saw that in the Exodus series. He planted it and it started to grow and expand, and it was fruitful, and it was blessing other people; but you know what? In due time, because of the people’s sin, people were coming and they damaged that vine, they attacked it, they ravaged it. The psalmist is lamenting, “Lord, turn again and look at this vine that you have planted, and re-root it, protect it, trim it up. Bring it health and goodness.”

Then, at the end of that psalm he says in his prayer that God would restore this vine. He says, “Please do this through the son of man, whom you have chosen.”

What we see is Jesus standing up and saying, “I am the true vine,” just as he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” just as he said, “I am the shepherd,” “I am the door.” He says, “I am the true vine.” This desire that you’ve had for growth and fruitfulness and for blessing the lives of others, “I am the source of true spiritual life.”

What he’s saying when he says that the disciples are the branches is, “You are ones who are part of a different vine, and yet you have been taken from that vine and you have been grafted into the true vine, so that you might experience true life that lasts, not only in this life but eternally.” Jesus is the true vine.

You know what? It’s not just the people of Israel, the disciples, who were taken out of a false vine and put into the true vine. That’s all of our stories, right? This is the gospel. We all were trying to get our life and our vitality and our fulfillment and our joy—we were trying to get all of our good things from things outside of Christ. By God’s grace he came and he says, “That’s not where true life is found, and by my grace, because I love you, I’m taking you from that and I’m grafting you into the true vine.” This is the picture of salvation by God’s grace. Our responsibility is to rejoice in that, respond to it, and say, “Okay, I see the change of heart that you have wrought in me and this new vine I’m in, and now I’m going to try to press into what it means to be in Christ, and press into this true vine that is Jesus.”

What does it mean to abide in this vine? That’s what we’re called to, that’s where our life is found. What does it mean to abide?

I’m going to say it like this: I think it has in mind a constancy in our spiritual walk. Constancy is a word that we don’t use a ton these days, but I think it’s the right word, it’s a very important word. Constancy has the idea of faithfulness, steadiness, dependability, but especially the idea of continual and unbroken existence.

That’s what we’re called to, this constancy. Our walk with Jesus, our relationship with Jesus, is supposed to be constant. It is supposed to be something that, no matter what life throws at us, no matter what seasons we’re in, no matter what the dispositions of our heart might be, we are constant in our walk with the Lord. We don’t step away from it, we don’t pull back, we don’t draw away; we are constant. That’s what it is to abide.

It’s a constancy of devotion. Lots of things in this year are going to call for you to give your attention to them, your focus to them, your devotion to them. Those could be really good things, but they cannot supplant the core thing, and that is Jesus, your walk with him, your time with him, rejoicing in him, worshiping him, learning from him, following him. A constancy of devotion.

It’s a constancy of fellowship. There are lots of good relationships to pour into in this coming year, lots of people that you need to give your time to. God has given you those people to serve and to pour into, but they are not meant to supplant your core relationship. You cannot get fruitfulness and you cannot bring fruitfulness to those relationships unless you abide in the true vine. That’s where the life comes from, that’s where the joy comes from, that’s where the fruitfulness and blessing comes from.

It’s a constancy of service. There are lots of things you’re going to have to engage in in the coming year, lots of ways you’re able to serve. But constancy in your service to Jesus, what he’s called you to, to his church, to his specific plans for your life; that is foremost.

A constancy of devotion; this is the core of the Christian life, this in-ness reality. We are in Jesus, and only as we walk alongside him in constant devotion and fellowship with him do we actually live in the life that he has called us to through the gospel.

One commentator says it like this: “So central is this abiding reality to the Christian life that whatever leads to this is good, whatever hinders this is bad; whatever does not bear on this is futile.” It’s an interesting benchmark to bring on the things that you’re devoted to in life. Whatever leads to good constancy of devotion and time with the Lord, prioritizing Jesus, is good; whatever hinders that is bad; whatever doesn’t bear on it at could just be futile.

D.A. Carson says it like this from this passage: “The point is clear: Continuous dependence on the vine, constant reliance upon him, persistent spiritual imbibing of his life; this is the essential condition of spiritual fruitfulness.”

God calls us to fruitfulness in this new year. It’s a wonderful reality. It’s a sweet promise to grab hold of and to pursue. The only way we’re going to experience that is if we prioritize our time with Jesus, learning from him, following him, obeying him, rejoicing in him, worshiping him, serving in his name. That’s where life is to be had in the new year.

My second question for you is just an assessment. It’s not a sense of condemnation, right? It’s just a sense of learning from the Lord and looking forward with expectation and hope. It’s this: What other priorities tend to regularly squeeze out my time with the Lord?

I’m not saying take those things away, I’m saying there might just need to be a reorganization, a reprioritization. We’re going to put some flesh on that, some practical tools of how best to do that, in the coming weeks. But right now it’s just good to make an assessment. What things tend to do this regularly? Let me just seek the Lord’s grace to reorganize and find the ways to prioritize Jesus in the new year, because I want life, and I want him to be honored in my life. I want God’s name to be glorified in my life, and I want that fruitfulness that magnifies his name.

3. The Pruning in the Process

Last point, really quickly here, and that’s the pruning in the process. This is focusing on the Father’s pruning work or vinedressing work. We see it in verse 1-2. Jesus says, “I am the true vine,” but he says there’s also another vital character in this: “My Father is the vinedresser.” Here’s what he does. “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.”

The Father’s pruning knife is what we see. This is the process of sanctification. If being grafted into the true vine was the process of justification or salvation by grace, this is the process of sanctification; that is, growth into the fullness of what has been accomplished for us by God’s grace. Growth into the fullness; the Father’s pruning knife.

Here’s the thing I want us to notice. Notice how the Father’s pruning knife is used regardless of who you are; regardless of whether you’re a true Christian—that’s a true Christian, those who abide in Jesus; if they are truly a Christian, then they surely will abide. That’s something that God will accomplish through them, not something we accomplish in our own power and will. If they are not a true Christian, then that means they never did abide in the vine. We can speak into some of those things in the coming weeks, but that does for now.

The reality is that the Father’s pruning knife is used regardless. This is something we need to come to terms with and prepare ourselves for in the coming year, because the pruning knife is used to cut back and remove.

The pruning process in that day and age, there were a couple times a year that they would prune the branches that were on the vine, but these things were always to try to say, was growth happening too fast? We need to prune that back and make sure that the true growth, the full growth comes. It could be that when the winds came by it would snap those branches off, because they weren’t strong enough yet to bear out the fruitfulness that they were already experiencing early on.

It could be that there were other things that would try to come up and sap life from the vine and from the branches, and it was pruning those things back, because they were actually stealing the vitality that was existent in the branches to produce fruitfulness.

Then the last pruning of the year was when they said, “What was fruitful, what wasn’t? We’ll remove the branches that weren’t.” Then the ones that were fruitful, they actually cut those back as well to prepare them for more growth in the coming year.

Here’s what I want to see in this process. First, there are seasons of life to submit to the Lord’s cutting us back and resetting and shaping us, shaping the plant for the growth that is to come. I don’t know if that’s the season right now for you, but I think at the new year it’s a good time to step back and ask this question: What is the Lord calling me to cut back in my life or to let go of? It could be good growth, it could be things that I like, it could be things that I love and that bring me a lot of comfort and joy; but if I really listen to the Lord, I know that it’s not the type of things I need to hold onto, because it’s inhibiting true growth in my life.

I don’t know what that looks like. I think we’re going to put a little more flesh on that, find a few more answers over the coming weeks, maybe over the course of the year, but it’s a good question to ask. What is the Lord calling me to cut back or let go of completely?

There are obvious things, bad things that are stealing the life from your spiritual walk. But there are things that are not so obvious, things that bring you a lot of comfort and joy and that you love. Maybe the Lord’s saying, “It might be best to trim those back a bit so that you can refocus on the core things and trust me in the process.”

The other thing I want us to see is this, that the pruning work, the work of the Father’s knife can bring a lot of pain. I think we’re supposed to see that. I think it can bring a lot of pain, it can bring a lot of doubt, it can bring a lot of confusion. From our point of view, when we’re being cut back we just know, “That hurts, and that’s a change, and I didn’t expect that.” We might even be drawn to think, “Boy, this seems unfair, or it even seems unproductive.”

I’m telling you, if you look back on your previous years, you know that this is a reality, and it’s going to come this year. There are going to be seasons where you’re confused and you’re doubting and you don’t understand what God’s doing in your life, because it seems like the things that you are pursuing and the thing that you are desiring should be happening, and it’s not. In that moment, we’re called to say, “Yes, the knife hurts, but I’m not going to let it lead me to despair,” because you know why? “I’m not focusing the knife, I’m focusing on the hand that holds the knife.” I got that from Sinclair Ferguson; I think it’s a sweet and encouraging focus for us, because who holds the knife? It’s the Father who knows, who cares, he’s intentional, and he’s intricately and intimately working in each and every one of our lives to bring us to our maximum fruitfulness, and that is our maximum good in this life.

I think that’s why Jesus finishes with verse 11—he doesn’t finish, but he wraps up this section. He says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Joy; fullness of joy is the promise on offer when we submit to this process. Yes, the Father’s pruning might hurt and it might be confusing; yes, it’s a difficult thing to let go of other things and to reprioritize, to put Jesus as the forefront of our lives. Yes, it’s a difficult thing to say, “Where am I not obeying?” and to bring my heart into repentance and confession and to say, “I need to start obeying Jesus in these areas, and it’s going to require something of me.” That’s a difficult process, but the promise is fullness of joy.

The thing is, guys, we need to understand that this process of sanctification, this process of being brought into full fruitfulness, can be difficult, but it is a process in which we find full joy. That’s a promise we need to hold onto.

I want to read a couple quotes for you to finish. One is from 2 Corinthians, another one’s from Amy Carmichael. I think we see this in the language of these authors.

First from Paul. He says this in 2 Corinthians 4:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

Having death happen because we know that there is more life to come through it is an experience of the Christian walk that will come up in various moments in this coming year. Prepare yourself, and know that the Father’s kind hand and heart and behind the knife that cuts, and trust him for what he’s doing in the future.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Amy Carmichael. She says:

Rid me, good Lord, of every diverting thing. What prodigal waste it appears to be to see scattered on the floor the bright green leaves and the bare stem, bleeding in a hundred places from the sharp steel! But with a tried and trusted husbandman there is not a random stroke in it at all; nothing cut away which would not have been loss to keep and gain to lose.

My heart for us in this coming year is that when we face those hard moments, that we would bring them to the Lord, we would confess and lay out our hurts and our pains, that we would mourn truly before the Lord—he Lord delights to receive that—but that we would also look forward with expectation and hope and trust that the tried and trusted husbandman holds the knife and he knows what he’s doing in our lives. The promise is full joy, full fruitfulness, and my responsibility is to prioritize and keep Jesus as the focus in all I do.

Our three questions are these:

What is God calling me to cut back or let go of?
What priorities tend to regularly squeeze out my time in the Lord? I try to work through that with Jesus.
What kind of spiritual fruit do I think Jesus is calling me to in this new year? Let me start praying for it, pursuing it, thanking him for it, and looking for it with expectation for what he’s going to do in my life as I seek to prioritize him in the new year.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for life. God, we do not have life in ourselves. God, we seek to draw life from false vines all the time, but how faithful and good you are, that you keep us, that you hold us fast, that you draw us back to yourself, you give us seasons of the year to step back and to reassess and to seek fresh life and growth in you, to reprioritize, to reset, and you give us sweet, sweet promises to hold onto. God, our heart, our desire is that today we take a step and commit ourselves more fully to this process, because we want to see your name magnified in our lives, we want to experience the goodness of the fruitfulness, not only in our lives but in others, in our spheres of influence. God, we really want to look back on 2023 and say, “A lot of things happened, but I can say that I prioritized Jesus and I sought to do that. What a sweet year it was with my Lord.” God, we need your grace day by day, moment by moment, for it. We ask you for that in Jesus’ name and for his sake, to your glory, amen.