john3

John’s Gospel
The Father’s Vineyard

Part Three
John Chapter Fifteen

THE VINE AND BRANCHES
“I AM the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every
branch in Me that does not bear fruit He cuts away, and every
branch that does bear fruit He prunes to make it bear even more…
…”

The Vineyard was used by Yahweh God for Israel as a symbol of
the “Kingdom of God” on earth. See: Isaiah 5:1 seq. 27:2-5; Hosea
10:1; Jeremiah 2:21; Matthew 20:1-8; 21:28-31, 33-41; 26:29. These
verses in the New Testament refer to the Kingdom of God also, that
Jesus calls: His Father’s Vineyard which He has restored under a
New Covenant to bear Red Grapes!
  “My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with
the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made
a winepress in it; so He expected it to bring forth good grapes.
But it brought forth wild grapes,” Isaiah 5:1-2
  Well-beloved represents Yahweh, and the vineyard represents
Israel and Judah, v. 7. Good grapes (Red grapes JB): God expected
Israel and Judah to be an obedient, holy, witnessing people… to the
nations. Wild (Sour) grapes: The people produced bigotry, injustice,
and idolatry instead of a true witness of Yahweh to the nations; they
did this in spite of God’s abundant love and care, SFB.
  “Very well, I shall tell you what I am going to do to
My vineyard; I shall take away its hedge, for it to be grazed
on, and knock down its wall, for it to be trampled on.
I shall let it go to waste, unpruned, undug, overgrown by
brambles and thorn-bushes, and I shall command the clouds
to rain no rain on it,” Isaiah 5:6-7. All truth is parallel, Children; if
we love one another and let His words live in us by the Spirit…then
we have all these negatives as positives! Whom shall we fear! We
may ask of Him… and He will do it for us…for He wants us to bear
much fruit!
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  God’s ‘holiness’ separates Him from contaminated things…but in
the Restored Vineyard, which is Messianic, God has transmitted His
holiness to His people through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Father God
is expecting the branches to produce an abundance of fruit…
therefore He prunes, and cuts away every branch that refuses to
bear the fruit of righteousness…which is in His likeness and image.

In chapter 15 of John’s Gospel Jesus uses this symbol of Himself by
being the “True Vine” in His Father’s Kingdom-Vineyard! It is the
Restored Vineyard in His own Blood, which was taken away from
Jewish Leaders and given to others, Jews and Gentiles alike, who
will not disappoint Yahweh God’s expectation of producing good
fruit and not sour grapes. His expectation is for the branch to
produce its fruit at the proper time, “in its season.” This lesson
teaches that the Messianic Vineyard … represents the Kingdom of
Heaven on Earth, as being our Father’s Vineyard, and it is very
timely indeed for you and me. Because the last day, the last hour
laborers are paid first for their labors in the field of the Kingdom, at
the end of the Day! “For the last shall be first!”

My son-in-law and daughter own a small vineyard here in Oklahoma’
s Green Country. They both have been very busy pruning the dead
branches away and piling them in stacks to be burned. I heard
Jerome say to Claudia yesterday, “I’ve burned the branches today!”
And, now, Claudia is tying-up the remaining branches row by row
and Jerome is cultivating the ground!

The fruit of the true branch is that of a life of obedience to the Lord’
s commandments, which is His Word remaining in us and being
active, actually living within our spirits, which have been recreated
by the Holy Spirit, then planted into His Kingdom-Vineyard. When
the Lord speaks of “pruning,” He is referring to “cleansing.”
Speaking to His disciples, He says, “You are clean already, by
means of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, as I in
you; as a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains in
the vine (or part of the vine), neither can you unless you remain in
Me,” John 15:1-4.

There are many fascinating shapes and forms of branches that twist
around the trunk, turning as they reach toward the wires above. The
purpose, Children, is that in the end, “that we may be of One Spirit.
As
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Jesus said, “My Father and I are One…He who has seen Me, has
seen My Father also.”
  When working in the Vineyard, one sees there is an obvious line
that shows the Vine ends here and the branch begins there…but
there is such a oneness in the growth that, as Paul said, “You follow
me as I follow Christ,” as an example to the other branches of the
Vine. This is why Jesus could not have chosen a better illustration of
the intimate relationship and bonding He seeks with His own Body
of believers. He intends us to identify so closely with Him that others
cannot but enjoy the fruits of His death and resurrected life within
the Vine. That LIFE must flow to the branches into the lives of
others…as He intended.

ROOTED AND GROUNDED
Jerome has just planted two more rows of…new grapevines! It will
take two to three years of careful cultivating these young grapevines
before Jerome will have a good harvest. But, he tells me, that he
does not want the branches to bear grapes too soon! If the branch
bears too soon the fruit is not that good; so he prunes it carefully and
tenderly for the first two years and keeps it well watered.
   But, since the Lord Jesus has likened His Father’s Vineyard to the
kingdom, that is, to a nation of His children…there is only One Vine
with many branches stemming from the One Vine! These branches
cannot bear fruit without water…which the Lord refers to as “Rain.”
Not just a sprinkle of Rain on the surface, but flooding the Vineyard
with deep watering. As commanding the clouds to rain an abundance
of early and later rains!

This deep-watering forces the roots to grow deep instead of
lingering, spending to much time near the surface! Therefore, the
Lord Jesus was given the Water (Spirit) without measure! In Jesus’
account of the Vineyard, He is rooted and grounded Himself and if
the branch remains in Him and is pruned without resistance, the life-
giving nourishment of the Holy Spirit’s water will cleanse the branch
to bear an abundance of fruit! Then, says the Vine: “You may ask
whatever you please and you will get. It is the glory of My Father
that you should bear much fruit (more literally reads in other verses)
you prove to be My disciples, in this way the Father is glorified in
His Son,” John 14:13; 21:19; and15:7-9. Since we are the Body
(Branches) of God’s Son, the Father is glorified in His Son’s
Branches!
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  Otherwise, if the individual branch rejects the Father’s pruning and
receives no nourishment from the Vine it withers away…Then the
Lord states: “A branch cannot bear fruit of itself…Anyone who does
not remain in Me is cut away like a branch; these branches are
collected and burned in the fire,” John 15:4-6. This is a terrifying
statement, Children. Once every year Jerome and Claudia begin their
Spring Pruning, collecting the withered branches to be burned, and
plowing the ground…making sure the Vineyard is well watered.
  “I have loved you just as the Father has loved Me. (You) Remain
in My love. If you keep My commandments you will remain in My
love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in
His love,” vv. 9-11. This is a statement made on the condition that
we keep His commandments just as … What do you think would
have happened if the Lord had not kept His Father’s Words?

“I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and your joy
may be complete.” When I hear from you, Children, the souls that
are being saved, those who are being delivered and your growth in
the Lord…even the battles that you are fighting, the Joy of the Lord
rises-up within me, for it is the Joy of the Holy Spirit Himself! You
see, our Joy is completely different than the world’s joy, isn’t it?
  “This is My commandment: Love one another as I have loved
you,”
vv. 11-12. How difficult this commandment is to keep, at times, don’
t you think? I find in some circumstances I must call on the Holy
Spirit to release this special Love into my spirit.

Children, don’t expect the world to love you! “If the world hates
you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of
the world, but I chose you from the world, the world hates you
because of this. You must continually remember the message, which
I spoke to you... If they persecuted Me, then they will persecute
you: if they kept My word, then they will keep yours. But they will
do all these things to you because of My name, because they have
not known the One who sent Me…” John 15:18-23. When the
Comforter comes (to you) Whom I will send to you from the Father,
the Spirit of Truth, the One who goes out from the Father, He will
testify about Me: and you also are witnessing…” as we are to bear
witness, because of the words which the true disciples of

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Jesus have written in the Gospels and guided us in their epistles with
dreams and vision imparted to them.
  This is the word, yea, the promise of the Lord Jesus, “If someone
would love Me, he will keep My Word, and My Father will love him
and We will come to him and We will make a “dwelling” for
Ourselves with him,” John14:23. While traditionally translated
‘dwelling’ or ‘home,’ this not speaking of a building, but of a place
for each of us to fit into the heavenly spiritual Body of Christ’s
Kingdom. The Father and Son by the Holy Spirit actually dwells,
lives within each of us…for in My Father’s House are many
dwelling places, mon-ai, this word has a primary meaning of staying,
tarrying, abiding. In other words, Jesus is saying He is making a
ministry for each of us in His heavenly plan, an assignment for each
one.

We will not have a house in heaven that will resemble our earthly
homes (thank God), although some have declared otherwise.
However, Jesus went to prepare a place for us…and He has…but
He has also prepared a place for the Father and Himself by the Spirit
within our bodies, and from there, within us, is the source of life and
the works of the kingdom of God! It is from within us that He
reveals Their abode!
You and I are never, ever alone, Children. If we would practice
Their presence within…I dare say…we would not be so double
minded, “for a doubled minded person is unstable in all his or her
ways,” say James.

Children, don’t be afraid of God’s pruning, His cleansing; it is only
to make us more fruitful; it will fill us with His glory that will pierce
the veil of our flesh into our clothes, our faces and our hands…on
into the things that we touch and handle.

May we be Anointed for His service and blessed with every need
fulfilled.

I love you in Jesus’ name.
Shalom, SheepShed of Sent Ministries

SheepShed Publications

Lessons

John Three