John Ch 15. The Vine and the branches. JOH 15:1-17.

Truth In Scripture Pastor Rick Kabrick Sunday June 15, 2025 John Ch 15. The Vine and the branches. JOH 15:1-17.
Pastor Rick Kabrick PO BOX 595 Tiverton RI 02878
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The means to obtain salvation is not a process (it is a one time decision), it is a Person. Yeshua is “the way, and the truth, and the life”. Arriving at our spiritual destiny is our goal, but it is not a matter of seeking that goal on our own terms. It is a question of whether we know the Person Who is and has the ultimate truth: Yeshua!
This is a personal relationship the unbelieving world cannot know, since it rejects GOD.A recurring theme in this Gospel is Yeshua reminding HIS Disciples that some of HIS Words won’t be fully understood and make sense only after the Death, Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, arrival of the H.S.
Branches that aren’t legitimately part of the true vine are barren, dry and eventually they are cut off, and destroyed.This is not about a loss of salvation: the discarded branches were never meaningfully part of the life of the vine in the first place.
15:1 “I AM the true vine (ἄμπελος ampelos), and MY Father is the vinedresser.2 Every branch in ME that does not bear fruit HE takes away; (αἴρω airō lifting as in taking away) and every branch that bears fruit HE prunes (αθαίρω kathairō), that it may bear more fruit.
Also, after the Passover meal, Yeshua and the Disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane. That route would have taken them past the main gates that led into the temple.
On those gates carved into those gates were two large six-foot long clusters of grapes hanging from a vine. They were made of pure gold. Yeshua and the Disciples would have walked right past those gates: I imagine that the grapes were glistening in the moonlight. Remember it is a full moon.
They looked at this wonderful golden carving of the vine and branches and grapes.That was a symbol of Israel (PSA 80:8,14; 128:3; ISA 5:1-7: JER 2:21; EZE 15; 17:8; 19:10; HOS 10:1; JOEL 2:22; ZECH 8:12; MAL 3:11).That symbol goes back to the OT, to the early part of their history where the children of Israel under Moses were outside the Promised Land.
That symbol goes back to the OT, to the early part of their history where the children of Israel under Moses were outside the Promised Land. Moses sent spies into the Promised land and in NUM 13, they came back with these large grapes and vines! BUT there are giants in there. When they finally came in, they found it was a land of vineyards, juicy grapes, and so it became the symbol.
If GOD is to obtain from us what HE desires, HE is going to use the knife on us constantly. This is a disturbing thought, but it is a surgeon’s knife: It is to make us healthy, able to produce good fruit. Think of what this means: If we abide in HIM, look at the things that follow: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control! That is the fruit of the Spirit.
The freedom, the forgiveness, the Grace and Mercy of Yeshua does not give us a license to sin, rather it gives us a license to serve.
The Hebrew wordגֶּפֶן gep̄en = vine used throughout the OT. In PSA 80 for example Israel is the vine which GOD brought out of Egypt and planted in the ground which he had cleared to make room for it.