The prophet Isaiah once sang a “love song” to God’s people. It’s quite unlike any love song you’d hear today. I must warn you, you won’t soon forget it. It’s found way back in Isaiah 5. Isaiah 5:1-2 says, “I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines [choicest vine]. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes. . .”
When have you ever invested yourself so deeply, and loved something so deeply? A while back I was at Lincoln Memorial Gardens—reading one of those placards about life on the frontier. Settlers face unimaginable obstacles. It is true that we live on some of the most fertile soil in the world. But to get to it men had to bust through the thick roots of the prairie grass. By the sweat of their brow, at great peril from sickness, disease, hunger, wild animals, and isolation, they trailblazed through thick brush, thorns, and thistles, unhospitable woods. And when they found the perfect spot, they would subdue the earth. They tilled the hard soil, one spade at a time, until it was made soft. They teamed up their horses to haul off rocks. They split rails, built homes, and established the boundaries of their homesteads and fields. They dug wells and built barns.
No American generation has toiled so deeply and profoundly for something they loved… no generation has expected so much, then our American forefathers. Adam and Eve were put in the garden to work the ground, and produce fruit. But this isn’t a song about any man. “The One I Love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill (verse 1). . . but it yielded worthless grapes (verse 2).”
God planted a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to Himself on a very fertile hill indeed—the land of Canaan, the land promised to Abraham—the finest in the world. God labored with great love. He nurtured the greatest of expectations. He endowed them with every imaginable blessing, every benefit. But all God’s efforts yielded worthless fruit!
Isaiah 5:3-4, “So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could I have done for my vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?” Isaiah 5:5-6, “Now I will tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.”
This is a song of heartbreak, no? Despite all God’s labor of love, what other recourse does he have? This isn’t like the seed that fell along the path, and Satan snatched it up. This isn’t like the seed that fell on rocky soil, or among thorns. This was prime soil, God established a vineyard there, and a plant. In Isaiah 5:7, Isaiah tells us “7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah [is] the plant he delighted in. He expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness but heard cries of despair.” God is the frustrated vineyard owner, and vinedresser, and judge, and his harvest wasn’t so plentiful.
This isn’t even the saddest, most prophetic part of the song. Isaiah 5:8-10, “Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is no more room and you alone are left in the land. 9 I heard the Lord of Armies say: Indeed, many houses will become desolate, grand and lovely ones without inhabitants. 10 For a ten-acre vineyard will yield only six gallons of wine, and ten bushels of seed will yield only one bushel of grain.”
Do you understand what God’s people began doing in their desperation? They began building bigger and bigger things. Joining houses to houses, fields to fields. They started building even bigger vineyards, bigger winepresses, and greater trellises. But the more they built the less return on investment they received. Ten bushels of seed would yield only one bushel of grain! They received back a measly 1/10th of all they would build or invest! Instead of “greater things than these thou shall do” it became “lesser and lesser than these you’ve received.”
All over Judah these massive houses, fields, and “grand and lovely” vineyard projects became desolate. They fell under the judgement of God. They didn’t produce fruit that glorified the Father.
This isn’t just a song of heartbreak about Judah—it may as well be a song of heartbreak about the once grand and lovely European Church. The once grand and lovely American Church. The Western Church has built the grandest and most lovely cathedrals and buildings in all the earth. But did you know that the absolute most fruitful churches… barely yield 10% return on invest for energies? A church of 100 would be EXCEPTIONAL if it yields just 10 new disciples a year. A church of 1000 would be EXCEPTIONAL if it yields just 100 new disciples a year. But in REALITY a church of 100 is lucky to yield just 1 new disciple a year, while losing 3-4 to death or attrition, for a negative net growth of -3%. This vast, grand, lovely European or American homestead. . . even as it mass consolidates, joining smaller houses of worships, and campuses one to another, into mega spaces. . . spending billions… our “ten bushels of seed will yield only one bushel of grain.”
I thought we were in the gospel of John, why are we talking about some sad song from Isaiah? It’s because the Church—not the American Church—certainly not Lakeside Christian—certainly not any of us—should be breaking the Father’s heart, reliving Israel’s failed, fruitless history!
In John 15 Jesus says. . . Actually, wait a minute. What if Jesus actually sings and John just doesn’t tell us? What if Jesus has Isaiah 5 in mind. What if instead of a song of heartbreak, Jesus has in mind an inspiring song of hope? John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”
Adam and Eve failed to cultivate Eden. Israel failed to cultivate Canaan. But now the Father is doing a new thing! He’s established a new and promising vine in his vineyard… a “true vine”, a “choice” vine! And that vine is Christ Jesus. And the branches are Christ’s Church! Not the people of Judah, but you and me! John 15:2, Jesus says, “Every branch in me that does not produce fruit He [Father] removes, and He [Father, Vinedresser] prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.” In a way God is doing a new thing, but in another way, he’s doing the same thing he’s always done.
If you have ears to listen, listen carefully. John 15:3-5, “3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”
Afford me the luxury of torturing this metaphor. Instead of a giant vineyard, substitute our “grand and lovely” church buildings. Substitute our “grand and lovely” homes. Instead of fields, our sprawling homesteads. Instead of a giant trellis, substitute all the ministries and programs and things we Christians do hoping to produce fruit. We don’t just do Program Church… we do Program Home. We program our lives, filling them with all these activities, and priorities, and good things thinking they will bear fruit for God. But the more and more we spend, the more and more we invest, the lesser return we receive.
What if, for all our Vineyard and Trellis-making, what’s really happened is we’ve been neglecting the True Vine? We have a funny way of doing Church, and doing life, all the while, growing disconnected from the TRUE VINE who is Christ Jesus our Lord. What if the church… and I am talking about you and me… what if we were as consumed with abiding in Jesus as we are with building up our church estates, and home estates, and family estates?
Adam and Eve’s branch died, because they thought they could be cut off from God and still thrive! Israel’s branch died because they wanted to be like all the nations, instead of being God’s holy nation. Should we suppose our branch will thrive when for all practical purposes, we’re cut off from Jesus, the True Vine?
John 15:6-7, “6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.” What hope is there for a wordless church? Let me be blunt. Where in the vineyard is your Bible? When is the last time you opened Christ’s word, to more fully abide with Jesus? I’ll tell you most every church that shutters its doors, due to failed discipleship and disciplemaking. Most every home that shutters its doors—most every marriage and family. Most every soul (every branch) that has ever withered up and died a slow death has this one thing in common—a failure to abide in Christ’s words. How can you ever thrive, or produce fruit, if Christ’s words don’t remain in you? If Christ’s word is far from your heart?
John 15:8-10, “8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples. 9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” What hope is there for a disobedient Church? If God’s Spirit, if God’s Words, if Christ’s Spirit never holds sway over your life—how will you produce much if any fruit… and far less prove yourself to be one of Jesus’ disciples? It’s not just a love for the Word (hearing, learning). It’s also a love for God (repenting, trusting, obeying, yielding to the Spirit.)
John 15:11-14, “11 I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.” In Isaiah 7:5, God “expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness but heard cries of despair.” In the modern church God expects love, he expects righteousness, peace, and joy. He expected to be glorified by our love. But what does God see? Does he see all the social media hashtags of pain? What does God hear? Does he hear the cries of despair… cries of despair in places the church should have faithfully proclaimed hope yet neglected? I want you to honestly ask yourself this question: Are you a loving person? Not just do you see yourself as a loving person… but do others see you as a loving person… most importantly… does God see you as a loving person? The only way we get to Christ’s love is by abiding in Him, abiding in his Spirit. Else we cannot produce love.
Do we abide in Christ, by abiding in his word? Do we abide in Christ, by loving God, by keeping Christ’s commands? Do we abide in Christ, by letting his love freely form its fruit in our very life? God fill us with love!
I’ve got one last question. Do we abide in Christ by loving God’s mission?
John 15:15-17, “I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.” [AH, the GREAT COMMISSION!]
If we’re abiding in Christ, we’re braving Jesus’ mission daily. Jesus said, “Look, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth workers!” Has any generation more fully neglected the mission of Jesus as this current generation? Has any generation been more prayerless and fruitless? Open your eyes! There is a vast harvest. There are more people than ever before disconnected from Christ…and instead of getting on our knees we’re sitting on our hands, idle. Our forefathers…yes here in America…built vibrant Word-loving, Christ-loving, Christ-obeying, Spirit-filled, people-serving, people-loving, mission-faithful congregations. But now these churches stand desolate, vacant vineyards, defunct trellises, dotting every community as far north-south-east-west as the eye can see.
What greater love can we show our fellow man than to hold out Christ’s righteousness in an unjust world, to announce hope where only cries of despair can be heard? We’re not hired hands, we’re not servants, we’re not a bunch of over-programmed under-utilized church urchins.
We’re friends of God. Friends don’t just talk together, they sing together. They share the same hopes and dreams as one another. If God is really your friend, do you take joy, and sing about his Dream? I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines [choicest vine, the True Vine, that is Christ]. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes. . .
“And,” not “but…” AND we were faithful. God’s seed didn’t fall on hard soil, nor rocky, nor did it get choked by thorns. But we began to abide in Christ, by remaining in his Word… by remaining in his love, obedient, keeping his commands… by proving ourselves to be His disciple, by becoming a loving people… falling in love with God Dream of a flourishing Vine, and Branches, a Christ-abiding, God-glorifying, ever-fruitful, ever-disciple-making church.