II Thessalonians 2:1-9 John 15:1-8

Today, the first Sunday of Advent, I am beginning a new sermon series on the “Great I AM” passages of the Bible. The phrase I AM, you may recall, was the way God answered the question to Moses when Moses asked who he was speaking to as he stood before a bush that was burning but not being consumed. God introduced Himself as the Great I AM. It is actually a shortened form of I AM WHO I AM or sometimes it is translated as I AM THE BEING or it can also be translated as I AM THE CREATOR. All of which would be correct translations of the I AM definition of God Himself that He has given us.

When Jesus was here on the earth, He used that designation for Himself. That was shocking to the Jews. In fact, the Bible describes that Jews who heard Him use the I AM phrase picked up stones to throw at Him with the intent to kill Him. So they understood what it meant, that He took on the identification of being God Himself. In another place, the disciples were said to be asking Jesus, “When are you going to show us the Father?” And Jesus' surprising answer was, “How long have I been with you and you have not known Him? I and the Father are one.” Jesus rightly can take on the phrase I AM as the divine designation. We find in John's Gospel seven times when He identifies Himself using the phrase I AM and then He adds to it so that we understand even a little better who He was and who He is, what His mission is all about and how He reveals the character of God to all of us. As we prepare for Christmas this year, I want us to think about Jesus not as an infant baby but to think about the Lord who came who was the Great I AM, who as Paul said, “did not think it proper to cling to His divinity but giving up all that became human for us, identifying with us in our own humanity.” I would like you to think about the grown-up Christ who was bold enough to identify Himself as the Great I AM. In fact, as we register that, does it make you shudder? The Great I AM who created the entire universe, who created everything that there is, came to earth. It is an astounding mystery how God could even pull this off but He did it because as the Bible says in John 3:16, He so loved us that He became man for our sake.

This morning, we are looking at the passage where Jesus says, “I AM the true vine.” In this passage, He shows that the Father is the vine-dresser or the gardener. We are the branches and if we join with Christ, we bear fruit. God as the gardener does some fascinating things. The Greek word for pruning, which the Bible says God the Father does, is areo. Areo has two meanings. The first meaning is to take away and the second meaning is to lift up. So as it is applied to a vine that grows grapes, it has great significance. If grapevines lay on the ground, they don't produce anything. But if they are lifted up and put on an arbor of some kind, a fence or some method of lifting it up off the ground, then it will bear great fruit. So the first thing God as a gardener does for us is lift us up. He emboldens our spirit. He fills us with grace. He forgives us our sins. He lifts our spirits.

The second thing is that He takes away that which produces no fruit. He cuts away the dead branches. How does a branch become dead? The answer is&by severing itself from the source of sap. Here is where we have Christ's designation of Himself. “I am the vine. You are the branches.” So if we are not connected, the word that Jesus used is “abide”. If we don't abide in Him, then we die. He says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” As we think of Him as the Great I AM, we understand that truth. It is His thought that keeps us in existence. It is His thinking that keeps the universe, the planets, the stars, and even our cellular makeup operating. So if we were to completely cut ourselves off from Christ, we would cease to be. It is astounding when you think about it.

We are not to be just takers. We are to not just absorb the power of life that Christ gives us, the sap that the vine pours into the branches. We are to do something with that power that is given us, that grace that is given us. What are we to do with it? We are to bear fruit. What is fruit? Fruit is the good works that we can do. Fruit is how we behave towards one another. In other places in the Gospels, fruit is identified as loving one another, caring for each other, bearing one another's burdens. It is keeping the commandments of Jesus. It is leaning on Him. It is resting in Him and all of that is a way of abiding in Christ. Paul frequently talks about being in Christ in his epistles. So being in Christ is allowing Christ to fill us, allowing Christ to operate through us, and therefore we are able to do good works for others. There is a progression here. The first thing Jesus says is, “Come follow me.” Then He says, “If you follow me and believe in me, I and the Father will make our home within you.” Then He reveals that He will send the Holy Spirit to dwell in each of us. So that, in a sense, is the sap of the vine. We can be imbued with power. Isn't this an incredible thing to think about? It is an incredible mystery how the Great I AM can dwell in each one of us! If we fathom that, if we understand it, we have to be enlivened. Jesus says, “I have come to give you life and give it more abundantly.” Imagine that. We can be filled with divine life which is the power behind the whole universe. When I think of that, I'm just overwhelmed. So Christmas as we think about the incarnation and the coming of Christ as the Christ child, I don't want us to get lost in the idea that Christ is here as a little baby. He is not here as a little baby any more. Yes, He came over 2000 years ago as a little baby, but He is here now as the Great I AM who can infuse your life and give you the ability to bear fruit.

As you know, I look for examples of people who understand this. One person who came to my mind was Ann Graham Lotz. She is Billy Graham's daughter. Ann, as you may know, was a rebel. She didn't like being the daughter of the famous Billy Graham. When she turned eighteen years old, she bleached her hair blonde, took up smoking, left the family, quit high school and went out on her own. But at some point, this rebel had a conversion experience. And was it at one of her father's great crusades? No. It was while she was watching a movie! While she was watching a movie, suddenly it all came together for her and she realized, “This is for real! We get only one go-around in this life. Now Christ was real to her. “I have to somehow be grafted into Christ. He is the vine. I am a branch.” After she made that decision, she began to bear great fruit. She has written many books. She has created what she calls her “angel ministry” which consists of running retreats and conferences for women. Like her father, she now goes around the world giving these presentations to women and bearing much fruit.

So that I don't leave the men of our congregation out of the picture here, I found a great example in the football world of a Christian who bears fruit. No. It wasn't one of our Bengals. In fact, you as I may be a little discouraged about them with a record of 1, 9 and 1. We are hoping for maybe 2, 9 and 1 today. The example I found of a Christian football player is the quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. His name is Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner wears his Christianity proudly. He uses his stardom in football as a platform to let other people know about his faith in Christ and his Christian religion. This season, he is having an outstanding year. So far, he has attempted 434 passes and has completed 302 which has resulted in twenty one touchdowns. Not only that, he is apparently in line to be named the Most Valuable Player in the National League this year for the third time in his career. And he is only the third football player in the entire history of the National Football League who has achieved that possible honor. Interesting fellow. But how does he bear fruit? He says that it is not his football playing. His football playing simply gives him the platform to show others what his Christianity means to him. He has his own personal ministry helping handicapped children. He raises money to support disabled children so that they get the medical supplies and the prosthetic equipment that they may need. He personally goes in to hospitals and visits with them. Of course they are thrilled to see a great football star come to visit them. So here is a person who takes his Christianity seriously. He does his work with excellence, and because he does his work with excellence, he is able then to show the world that Christ lives in him. Through Christ, he bears fruit. All of us can do this. Not all of us can be great football stars or become an Ann Lotz, but all of us, in our own way, as we allow Christ to abide in us, can bear much fruit. All of us can have some kind of a ministry of our own where we do good deeds and take care of others. We can love others and express and share the loving kindness of God, the gardener, with other people.

Ann Lotz wrote this. I am going to end with it this morning. Listen carefully because it is a beautiful almost poetic way of seeing how to be connected to that vine and let that vine bear fruit. She says, “I want more of His voice in my ears. More of His tears on my face. More of His praise on my lips. More of His death in my life. More of His dirt on my hands. More of His hope in my grief. More of His fruit in my service. More of His love in my home. More of His courage in my convictions. More of His nearness in my loneliness. More of his answers to my prayers. More of his glory on my knees because when you love someone with all your heart, you just can never get enough.”