We are only branches and the Lord will make us perfect
Published by Pudjo Sudibjo in 2010 · 14 March 2010
Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, I think all of us surely know what is called a grape, correct? Yes, maybe some of you have seen the vine and maybe you yourself have planted that vine in your yard at home.
This grape vine is a type of plant that clings to something. In America the way you plant this is by using a Kniffin system, which means that you plant the vine such that they can cling to wires that are stretched out like a long fence.
But in Indonesia generally the way to plant this is to let it grow clinging to a rack (or in Javanese this is called ‘anjang-anjang’), up to heights of 9 -12 feet.
Now alongside this wire fence or along this rack you then have branches that come out of the main vine of the grape plant. These branches grow from the main plant to become secondary branches and so on. And from these secondary branches come tertiary branches which often are called the tops of these branches where eventually the grapes will appear and grow.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the reading of the gospel of John 15:1-8, the Lord Jesus uses this grape vine as His parable, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
“2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Brothers and sisters, in verse 5 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
My brothers and sisters, every branch of the vine receives everything that it needs to live from the vine itself. Branches only can live well; and even bear much fruit, if that branch receives its sustenance from the vine.
Because of that all the branches at all times require and always have to be connected to the vine itself. Without being connected to the vine to stay alive and to grow is impossible, let alone to bear fruit.
There is a story that really happened. In a town that is far away, lived a young child whose desire was to play the piano well. The child had started to take lessons to play the piano not long ago.
And then one day there was a famous pianist, a maestro, that was coming to town who was a very famous piano player at that time named Ignace Paderewski. He was invited to that town to play in a piano concert. And that little boy was invited by his father to come to that piano concert.
Even though the recital had not started and the stage curtain was still closed and the spotlights were not even turned on, the audience had arrived and they filled up the auditorium. They sat in their respective seats even though there were still a lot of children running around and looking in and around the stage.
A few moments before the show was about to start, suddenly from the stage you could hear the piano and the melody of the song “twinkle twinkle little star”. Quickly the stage hands opened the curtain and turned on the floodlights. They thought that the show had already started. All eyes of the audience were focused on the stage.
In the middle of the stage that was open and well lighted, you could see a large and stately piano and a little child sitting and playing ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ in a very simple way.
And also at that moment the maestro Ignace Paderewski appeared on stage. He quickly placed himself right behind that little boy while whispering to him, “don’t stop playing, Son, keep on doing what you are doing.”
And so Paderewski placed his left hand on the piano keys and started playing the bass notes. And at the same time he put his right hand around that little boy’s body while playing the high notes. Now the song ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ that was played so simply by that little boy was made perfect by the maestro.
The result was that the song ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ became a symphonic masterpiece which mesmerized the whole audience. When the song ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ was finished, the whole audience clapped wildly. And everyone thought that this was a very special opening piece that was specifically planned for that piano concert.
Brothers and sisters who are loved by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus is our grape vine and we are His branches! Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus really wants that each branch stays connected, and stays in place and stays dependant on Him, our grape vine.
So that we the branches can grow well and produce much fruit, Just like that little child that is willing to give Paderewski the opportunity to play together with him to make that song ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ perfect, so should we depend on Him.
When we are serving others, when we are building up the fellowship of the congregation, if we truly want to depend and hope on HIM, and are willing to let the power of Christ work in the midst of us, the Lord Jesus Christ will perfect each service making it extraordinary in every way.
Just as in the story of the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 fishes, as written in the gospel of John 6:1-14. When a little boy in that story was willing to give his 5 loaves and 2 fishes to the Lord Jesus, then miraculously the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 fishes were perfected by the Lord Jesus to feed 5000 men and their families.
So my brothers and sisters, what is the situation now with the followers of the Lord Jesus who live in this age? Last week, Pastor Stanley Pouw reminded us all to not remain spiritually stagnant, or to stop growing spiritually, instead we need continue to grow by laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking.
Pastor Stanley also asked each one of us to be introspective, to check to see if we are still growing. My brothers and sisters, let us be real honest, maybe we can quickly see that in this age there are many Christians, as branches of the grape vine, who are spiritually stagnant and are not growing.
Why is that brother and sister? It is because as a branch, we often do not remain, we are not even connected to the grape vine that is the Lord Jesus.
Brothers and sisters loved by the Lord Jesus Christ, from all the many branches or all those followers of Christ that are experiencing spiritual stagnation and are not growing as I said, there are two groups that stand out and are often found in congregation fellowships everywhere at this time.
The first is a group of branches that feel that their talents are not enough and too small, they even feel that their talents don’t mean anything. And because of that, this group always feels that they do not have the ability to serve the congregational fellowship they are in.
In fact many followers of Christ if they are asked to help in different service tasks they quickly find an excuse. “Oh, I can’t do much. I just have small and simple talents. And if I have to, I can at most be just greeting at our service.”
My brothers and sisters, why do you call that task of greeting visitors for the church service as ‘just greeting’? As if the task of greeting visitors for the service at the front door of the church does not mean anything and is such a worthless job! No!
If we welcome every visitor at the front door of the church while we continually depend and hope for Christ, then when we greet every person that comes to church while smiling and saying, “Good evening Sir, good evening Mam, please come in!” the Lord Jesus will perfect that greeting and smile to become a greeting that will deeply touch hearts.
Visitors to the church that maybe in the beginning felt strange will be changed by the Lord Jesus to feel comfortable and called to worship and to have fellowship with us in this place. And brothers and sisters, these empty seats also will be filled by the Lord Jesus until they are full! The lord is the One who will bring in a lot of people through every greeting and every smile of the greeter when it is perfected by the Lord Jesus Himself.
My brothers and sisters, if many branches or followers of Christ feel they are not able to serve and subsequently avoid doing it as we described, what actually is happening is that they do not really believe in the Lord Jesus.
They do not believe that the Lord Jesus is able to perfect whatever task in serving others that they are performing. And that is the reason that these followers of Christ experience spiritual stagnation and do not grow. Because as branches they maybe really not connected anymore to their grapevine.
The second group is just the opposite. This is the group of branches which are followers of Christ who realize that they have been graced with many talents. Usually these followers of Christ or this group of branches always starts out serving others very well. And often they accomplish a lot and are praised a lot.
But when these results accompanied with much praise come out, be very careful brothers and sisters. Because the door that very moment is opened wide by the devil to let pride and arrogance in.
The devil will praise you with smooth words that will test you, “Oh wonderful, you are so great! There is no one like you! Go on and be number one!” And when these results and the praises flatter you, many followers of Christ become trapped in pride and arrogance.
There is another story: On a certain train trip, an older pastor happened to sit next to a young associate pastor. And this young pastor in training was a very smart and clever man.
He preached very well and he was liked very much by many people. He served tirelessly and he was very creative. He had good leadership abilities and he shepherded his congregation well. In short, this young associate minister was well respected and received a lot of praise from his congregation.
In the beginning, the old pastor began to tell about the story of his calling. After that, he asked that young associate pastor, “Now describe to me how you were called to the ministry.” The associate minister looked for a moment at the old pastor’s face and replied, “My story is very simple, Pastor. The Lord needs me.”
Very surprised the pastor answered, “Oh ya? Wow that is incredible! As much as I remember from the Gospel there is only one time where the Lord Jesus said that He needed something, and that is when the Lord Jesus wanted to enter Jerusalem for the last time. The Lord Jesus said that He needed a donkey!”
My brothers and sisters, when there are a lot of results or successes that the Lord has graced you with in building up the congregation and in many church service projects, which result in much praise and flattery, many Christians will become like that associate pastor that we just described.
When building up the church has great results, the question quickly becomes, “Is it not because of me that the congregation has grown this fast? If it wasn’t for me, surely this church would not have grown this well. If it wasn’t for me would these programs have worked with as much success?
There are many more statements that sound similar, which would show pride and arrogance. But brothers, if this success and these results have made you feel as if you are able to do things based on your own strength, actually that shows that we have forgotten the Lord who is able to make things perfect.
And, God forbid, as branches we are not connected anymore to the Grape Vine. So it is justified that we then are spiritually stagnant and are unable to grow.
Brothers and sisters, this evening the Lord Jesus wants to remind every one of you, all of His followers that are here tonight: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Amen.