This week we are addressing the distorted view of God as the
cosmic slot machine. Yesterday, we talked about the reality that this distorted
view of God is the result of two different dynamics that we can experience as
we live out our day to day life. The first dynamic involves the mystery of God.
The second dynamic involves the uncertainty of life.
So for many people, the mystery of God and the uncertainty
of life lead to the view of God as the cosmic slot machine. For many people,
both God and life are viewed as being one big gamble. God is viewed as the
cosmic slot machine, where life has little to do with love and instead is all
about luck. God is viewed as the cosmic slot machine where you win sometimes,
you lose sometimes, and, at the end of the day, the best you can hope for is to
break even at the end of your life.
However, this image of God as the cosmic slot machine damages
our perceptions of who God is and damages how we live out our day to day life
here on earth. You see, when we view God as the cosmic slot machine, the seeming
randomness of God will lead us to hedge our bets and play it safe for fear that
we could lose it all.
And to view God as the cosmic slot machine that views life
as being one big gamble that we hedge our bets on is a distorted view of God.
We see this reality revealed in a section of an account of Jesus life that is
recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. And it is in this
section of this account of Jesus life that we discover a timeless truth that
can help us rid ourselves of the distorted view of God as the cosmic slot
machine and replace it with an accurate view of God. So let’s jump into this
section of the gospel of John together, beginning in John 15:1-3:
"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 bears
fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. "You are already clean
because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Now to understand the word picture that Jesus is painting here, we first
need to understand a few things. The first thing that we need to understand is
the context of Jesus words here. At this point in the gospel of John, John, who
is the author of this account of Jesus life, is giving us a front row seat to
the final conversation that Jesus had with His closest followers before He was
arrested, which would occur shortly after this conversation.
In that conversation, Jesus provided the timeless promise that His
followers would have an eternal connection to Him. Jesus promised His
disciples, and followers of Jesus throughout history, that our confident trust
in Him would provide an eternal connection in the relationship with God we were
created for. Jesus promised that He will reveal Himself and connect Himself in
an intimate relationship with whoever places their confident trust in Him. And
it is in this context that Jesus provides a word picture of this reality to the
disciples in John 15:1.
Now that leads us to the next thing that we need to understand, which
involves vines and how they grow. You see, vinedressers, or gardeners who grow
grapes understand that pruning is necessary for any vine if it is going
to bear fruit. And vinedressers, or gardeners understand that dead wood is dangerous
for the vine, as dead wood can harbor disease and decay.
And because of that reality, in verse 2 Jesus explains that the vinedresser, or
gardener, removes everything that is not a true branch that would bear fruit. You see, just because a person professes that they are a follower
of Jesus, that does not mean that they are a follower of Jesus. Just as a
branch that produces no fruit is obviously dead, it is the fruit, or the results
that are produced in our lives, not our profession, that serves as proof of our
rescue and that we possess a relationship with Jesus.
In addition, a vinedresser, or gardener, understands that an
untrimmed vine will develop long rambling branches that produce little fruit
because most of the strength of the vine is given to growing wood instead of
fruit. And because the vinedresser, or gardener is concerned that the vine be healthy and
productive, they will prune the vine so that it can bear more fruit.
Jesus uses this word picture to explain that God removes the
dead wood from His church and is at work in the life of followers of Jesus so
that they will reveal and reflect Jesus in their day to day lives. And the
message and teachings of Jesus are the means by which He works in our lives to
prune and clean away areas of our lives so that we can be more fruitful. The issue that Jesus is primarily concerned
with in this word picture is the issue is fruitfulness, not salvation. We see Jesus reveal this reality
as He continues to unpack this word picture in verse 4-6:
"Abide in Me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the
vine, so neither can you unless
you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me
and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries
up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Here we see Jesus
command the disciples to abide in Him. Jesus is commanding the disciples, and
followers of Jesus throughout history to remain connected to Jesus. Jesus then
reveals the reason behind His command: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide
in Me”.
You see, the issue for
Jesus is fruitfulness. The issue for Jesus is that His followers reveal and
reflect Him. And to reveal and reflect Jesus we must remain connected to Him,
because as Jesus makes unmistakably clear in verse 5, apart from Me you can do
nothing. In other words, we are unable to reveal and reflect Jesus in a way
that advances His kingdom and makes much of Him apart from remaining connected
with Him.
Now for a long time, I
viewed the idea of abiding or remaining connected with Jesus as though I had to
chase Jesus around and suck the life out of Him. There was once a pastor who
worked with college students who said that to abide in Jesus, we as Christians
needed to be sap suckers. He further stated that for us to grow and bear fruit
for Jesus, we as Christians needed to latch on to Jesus and suck out the sap
that He has for us.
Well,
after the pastor finished his talk, a student who majored in botany, which is
the study of plants, came up to him. The pastor said hello, to which the
college students said “You’re wrong”. The pastor, taken aback, said “How am I
wrong”? The student then replied, “that’s not how plants feed.” The student explained that, through the
process of homeostasis, the branches don’t suck the sap out of the vine, the
vine forces its nutrients into the branches”.
Now
think about that for a second. How does that impact how you view remaining in
Christ? As followers of Jesus, we don’t need to suck the life out of Jesus,
like that is even possible. The image that Jesus is conveying to His disciples
and us today is one of openness. Just as a vine forces life and nutrients into
the branches to cause growth, Jesus wants to pour Himself into us so that we
can grow and bear fruit for Him. What Jesus is asking us to do by remaining in
Him is to simply be open to receive from Jesus what He wants to pour into us.
Think
about the idea of God as the vinedresser, or gardener, that prunes the branches
so that they bear more fruit. What happens when you prune or cut back a branch?
Is the opening where I cut bigger or smaller? It’s bigger. When God prunes and
cleans us through His word, He makes us more open to receive what Jesus desires
to pour into us.
Jesus
desires that we remain connected to Him so that He can pour Himself into us so
that we reveal and reflect Him in our character and conduct in a way that
enables us to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal Himself to the world.
Friday,
we will see Jesus unpacks this for us...
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