The pruning of a vineyard is the most
important aspect of producing quality wine from grapes.
What transpires in the pruning process will determine
the quality of the wine.
Jesus often used striking imagery from nature, and
in John chapter 15, Jesus talks about the
pruning process in the life of a believer.
In the opening of chapter 15, Jesus makes
a startling statement.
I am the true vine, and my father
is the husbandman.
In the original Greek language, the sense is
more powerful as seen in the following words.
In contradistinction to anyone else, I am the
genuine vine.
Here Jesus declares his uniqueness.
He is unlike any other.
All else are frauds, fakes, or poor imitations,
compared to him, the genuine vine.
And then he says of his father, and
my father is the tiller of the soil.
And it is here, friends, I want us
to linger in these first two verses of
John chapter 15 this evening, until we get
a true sense of just what Jesus is
really saying here in regard to the heavenly
father being the tiller of the soil.
You may as well replace the letter I
in that last word and insert an O
there and restate it.
My father is the tiller of the soil.
The striking imagery here, friends, is of a
gardener keeping a garden with divine care and
intense interest in how the crop will turn
out.
Like the owner of a vineyard would take
immense pains in the pruning of his vineyard,
knowing full well that it is here, in
the pruning process, that determines the quality of
the harvest.
So, too, God has a minute interest in
each of us, friends, and how we will
turn out for him in regard to our
fruitfulness to him and our usefulness to others.
I cannot underscore this principle of spiritual development
any better than from the following story.
Many years ago I was preaching the Monday
evening class of the School of Preaching for
the Stephen Oldford Institute in Memphis, Tennessee, the
same institution where I myself learned how to
preach.
With that particular evening, as I addressed a
roomful of local pastors, my text that evening
was from John chapter 15, and I was
hitting it pretty hard on this aspect of
pruning.
My message that evening centered in the activity
of the Father, who holds a divine pruning
knife in his hand, and how he fully
intends to use it.
I talked about how sharp he kept that
knife with his whetting stone, and how deep
it can cut, and for what purposes God
takes that knife out on us as his
followers.
What that group of pastors didn't know that
evening was I had brought with me to
that meeting two men who I made sit
on the back row in silence.
They were two men I was discipling at
the time, and I had invested a great
deal of time in these two Christian men,
and before that meeting began I told these
two men I needed them at a meeting
with me, and I was bringing them along
for one purpose, and one purpose only.
Their job was to be in constant prayer
to God in heaven.
Well, I addressed those pastors there that night.
I told them, don't pay any attention to
what I'm saying.
I want you both to be absorbed in
the activity of prayer for that hour or
so.
These men were choice men, and they were
praying men, and they went to praying while
I went to preaching out of my text
from John chapter 15, and by the time
I got to the second verse and I
read it, every branch in me that beareth
not fruit he taketh away, and when I
said those words the faces of those pastors
changed from smiles to intense solemnity.
A couple of them even physically moved to
the edge of their seat with alarm in
their eyes.
Then I gave out the rest of the
verse, and every branch that beareth fruit he
purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit, and I told that group of pastors
that if they truly wanted more usefulness to
God than a knife would have to fall
on them and their ministry.
I believe that group of pastors got serious
with God that night, and God got serious
with them.
For when the meeting was over, and as
a line had formed to talk to me,
I spoke with those men one on one,
and I saw they were intent on being
more useful to God.
One man stands out in my memory, an
elderly black man who was well-dressed in
a immaculate suit.
He waited his turn to talk to me,
and when it was his time, he threw
his arms around me, and with tears in
his eyes, this is what he said.
I've been a pastor now these last 40
years, but after what happened here tonight, I
want you to know I'm gonna go home,
and when I get there, I'm gonna go
kneel by my bed and ask God to
get out his pruning knife on me and
my ministry.
I believe that man got serious with God
that evening, friends.
How about you?
Do you hunger for greater usefulness to God
for his glory?
Are you willing to submit to the sharp
cutting edge of that divine pruning knife?
Are you ready for God, brother pastor, to
use you as an instrument of revival in
your church and your community?
The degree of the cutting will determine the
quality of the degrees of fruitfulness of that
harvest.
I believe, friends, we have a God who
gets serious with those who get serious with
him.
Let us pray.