Planting season is just around the corner for many of you, and it’s my friends back in Texas that I’m thinking about, despite your current cold snap. Got those potatoes and onions in the ground yet? ;-). I have a lot of fond memories of my vegetable gardening days when I lived back there, and I often gleaned some good spiritual lessons from that ‘hobby’ along with some tasty produce as well.

While I am not a huge consumer of tomatoes, it probably is my favorite plant to grow. And whether you too, enjoy raising those attractive and tasty fruits from either a seed, or seedlings when the weather warms up, I bet you can confirm the illustration I’m about to use here to help us better understand what ‘abiding’ or ‘remaining in Jesus’ means and looks like; and we’ll be examining John 15:1-8 once again.

But before we dive off into John 15, may I just point back to our lesson from last week where we touched on the ‘parable of the barren fig tree’ (Luke 13:6-9). Jesus tells us of a ‘certain man who had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit and found none’ (6). Do you remember his instructions to the attendant in the vineyard? He told him to ‘cut it down’. He came looking for, desiring, and expecting ‘fruit’. The depth of the roots, the thickness of the trunk of the tree, or the abundance of leaves and branches was not what mattered to him. He came seeking fruit. Fruit really does matter. (Matt. 3:10; 7:17-20)

So it is with great interest that we should pour over the words of Jesus there in John 15 as He tells us how one can see this ‘fruit’ produced. He begins with this word picture by declaring that He is the ‘true vine’ and that His Father is the keeper of the vineyard’(1). You can read the next verse there to see that once again... fruit matters to Him(2). I mean - bearing much fruit is NOT an option for us. And please hear me when I remind us all, there are a lot of things we folks in the ‘church world’ can get caught up in and stay busy with, that is ‘not fruit’. (1 Cor. 13:1-3; Matt. 7:21-23). If you are uncertain as to what this fruit God is looking for even looks like, then you would do well to take heed and maybe start reviewing some of these posts here. But Gal. 5:19-23, John 13:34-35, 1 John 2:6 and 1 Cor. 13:1-8 would be a good place to start.

So now comes the ‘secret ingredient’ as to how one might see ‘much fruit’ produced in their own life. You know... a lot of gardeners out there have their ‘secrets’ they rely on for producing bountiful gardens that one could easily covet, and Jesus is about to share His secret: “Abide in Me, and I in you...” (4). That’s it; that’s the key ingredient in seeing much fruit produced. He goes on to explain that in the same way the branch of a tree or vine or plant cannot...bear fruit on its own, but only IF it abides, or remains...or continues drawing from...the vine . And “neither can we (bear fruit) unless we abide in Jesus”.

Next, Jesus translates His word picture and fills in the blanks by telling us that ‘He is the vine and we are the branches’ (5). And if anyone is still slow in catching on here, He once again doubles down on the main ingredient to being fruitful: “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, or apart from Me...you can do nothing.” I hope you will underline the statement where He says: “apart from Me...you can do nothing”.

Can I just tell you plainly...if we are not truly abiding in Him, there simply can be no good and lasting fruit produced; period. One can have a lot a busy, religious activity in their life (plenty of ‘leaves and branches’ that might make noise and be obvious when the wind blows)...but that is not fruit.

So back to my tomato plants I mentioned in the beginning here. If you have never grown one of these plants, do yourself a favor and try it this spring. You can plant your own seeds but I recommend buying those four packs where the seedlings have already begun to flourish and take root so all you have to do is transplant them into a good spot, nurture them and then watch nature ‘do its thing’. But for those of you who have done this more than a few times, let me ask you this in closing: What if after the first week or two of tending to this new plant... you were to pull it out of the ground and just let it lay there on top of the soil for a few hours, or even a day...then come back and replant it again...what kind of outcome will this plant have? Do you think it will survive, flourish, and produce many tomatoes? And ‘if’...you got lucky the first time and were able to ‘revive’ that plant, but then did this repeatedly over the next month or two, would you really expect this plant to survive at all?

For how many people could this describe their ‘Christian’ walk over the years, where they desire to ‘abide/remain/continue to be rooted in Jesus’(Col. 2:6-7)...but then they just have those days where they really don’t ‘feel like abiding’ so they withdraw or pull out. Oh, they stay close to the garden for safekeeping, but you know...we just have those times where we really don’t want to surrender and do what He says...we need some ‘me time’ to do what we want to do. And as you look back...how many of those ‘reviving’ church services do we think we can attend before something becomes apparent? We just end up walking in a ‘form of godliness’ as Paul writes about in 2. Tim. 3:1-5...and produce little if any fruit at all.