'Last Sermon of Jesus'
John 15:1-2 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit."
Every tree will have branches which look stunted and cannot branch out. While the other branches grow stronger, taller and have many more branches, the stunted branches remain thin and weak (suffering from malnutrition) and stay at the bottom of the tree. They cannot bear any fruit.
Brethren, these are those who have accepted the Lord but are stunted because:-
- Hardly read the Bible
- Keeping worldly lifestyle
- Still following own will
- Still led by worldly wisdom
- Refused to follow Jesus' example
- Rejected His teachings in Mat 5-7
- Filled with distorted truth (heresies)
All the above will not bear fruit unless they repent and change their wicked worldly ways. Only a lifestyle of compliance to our Lord's teachings and godliness will bear fruit. In any case, they will be rejected (cut off) by the Father and eventually thrown into the lake of fire.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Godly Christians who keep His words will bear fruits. The Father will trim the fruit bearing branches to propagate more branches into multiplying more fruits. Trimming is painful, for it is the process of crucifying the flesh.
Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Grapes on tree of life in heaven
Mark 4:25 "Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
One day, an old, godly illiterate widow from our church told me that she saw grapes on the tree (tree of life) in heaven, I was taken aback as I could not correlate the significance of what she had narrated. After much pondering, the understanding was unveiled in Mark 4:25. She had undoubtedly visited heaven because she had no forethought about vine in heaven. I was greatly encouraged and grateful to God for the revelation
Gal 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Brethren, unless we crucify our flesh we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Harvest of the children of Satan
Rev 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.
Since our Lord Jesus is the true vine bearing sweet grapes, the bad vine will bear sour (bad) fruit. These are the children of Satan, who will be condemned to the wrath of God.