September 17, 2023
Fuel For The Fire
“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.” John 15:4-6 (NASB)
When I was a kid, we raked all the fallen leaves in the yard. When we raked them all, I asked Dad, “Can we play in them?” He let us for a few minutes, then he would set them afire. It was a great fire indeed! They shaded us in the summer, but when they died and fell to the ground they were worthless. They served no other purpose. They were just fuel for Dad’s fire.
MacArthur shares: “… believers cannot bear fruit on their own, because as He plainly stated,”[1] “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.” “There may be times when believers have lapses when they fail to be faithful to their life in Christ. But true branches, through whom the life of the vine flows, cannot ultimately fail to produce fruit (cf. Ps. 1:1-3; 92:12-14; Prov. 11:30; 12:12; Jer. 17:7-8; Matt. 13:23; Rom. 7:4; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:9; Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:10; James 3:17).”[2] When the branch does not receive life through the vine it will wither and die. Jesus is the vine. The flowing of sap represents the Holy Spirit and His ability to flow into the believer’s life. Currently, Judas left, and the disciples are about to be sifted like wheat by Satan. They must listen to Jesus before He leaves so they will stand strong in the days ahead. If they, “do 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.” Again, the purpose of the vine is to produce fruit. To fail, the vine is only good for one thing; fuel for the fire. Ezekiel 15:2-5 shares the worthlessness of a vine without bearing fruit: “… how is the wood of the vine better than any wood of a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Can wood be taken from it to make anything, or can men take a peg from it on which to hang any vessel? If it has been put into the fire for fuel, and the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything? … How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything!” Without the presence and power of God in the believer's life, Jesus said it is no better than fuel for a fire. It serves no other purpose.
In the believer's life, we are wired to be used by God. It is God who saves us. It is God who forgives us; we add nothing. It is also God who empowers us to do His work. Anything else is counterfeit. When we operate without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, two things happen: 1) We get tired easily. This is because we lack the energy to move forward. It takes God-sized energy to perform spiritual work. 2) Frustration occurs. When we work in our energy, we become frustrated because we have no peace. Peace is a person. Without the Person of Christ, we get frustrated and struggle. If you find yourself with either of these conditions, it is you, not God who is the problem. I encourage you today to go back to the Vine for your energizing sap.
[1] (John MacArthur, 2006), 149.
[2] Ibid.