The Vine and the Vine Dresser | June 1, 2026

Start your day with a short, Scripture-centered devotional from Paul Michael. In about seven minutes, you will hear the Word, reflect on its truth, and be encouraged to live it out in everyday life.

John 15 | Part 2

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Transcript

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Welcome to your daily devotional with me, PMV. Although for right now, I'm doing this on Monday mornings to help you start your week in God's Word. In the future, we do plan to expand it back out again. What I want to do today is follow up on something we looked at last Monday, on Memorial Day. We are in John 15. Jesus is with his disciples. They're in the upper room. He's about to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, be crucified. And we looked at John 15 verses 9 through 17 last Monday. But I want to back up and look at John 15, verses 1 through 8 today. And then the plan is next Monday to look at verses 18 through the end of the chapter, which is verse 25. So we'll kind of spend three Mondays in a row on John 15. So join me today at John 15, verse 1. John 15, verse 1 says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. So this is Jesus speaking in saying that he's the vine. We're going to see more of what that means in the next verse, but his father is the vine dresser. The vine dresser is the one that tends to the vine to make sure it's bearing fruit, producing what it's supposed to produce. So verse 2 says, Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. This is a symbol of judgment. We see this in other places in Scripture. So to not bear fruit is to not be abiding in the vine, to be remaining in Christ, to be in this relationship with him. But then it says, in every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. So what's interesting is the branches that are bearing fruit, they're not just left alone. They're pruned. To be pruned is to be cut back. They're trimmed, they're shaped. They're shaped according to the Father's design. You know, if you walk with Jesus, there will be pruning that will take place in your life. God will remove things, he will shape you, he will do what you need done in your life so that you might walk in and fulfill the purposes that He created you for, that you might bear the fruit that He made you to bear. Then verse 3 says, You are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Now again, this is in the context of Jesus telling his disciples, He's about to leave them. But again, this is in the context of Him leaving, of Him preparing them for Him to leave. And in that context, He says, So abide in me. Well, how can you abide in someone that's about to leave you? Well, Jesus is telling them, Look, I have changed you. You are different because you have received my word, you have me, and even though I am leaving to go to the Father, you can still abide in me. You continue, remain in me. How is that possible? Because He's going to send His Spirit, His Spirit to be with all who believe. And we know that one day Jesus Himself will return for us. But what's key to this is it's saying, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. There's nothing about the Christian life that Jesus says, just go do that on your own, in your own strength, by your own power and your own wisdom. Nowhere. Jesus says, I am everything you need. Stick close to me, look to me, depend on me, and you will bear the fruit that I desire for you to bear. My purposes in your life, the Father's will for you will be fulfilled as you look to me. It's not about us going, okay, I got it now, I'm gonna go do it on my own. It is about us continuing in a walk of dependence upon Jesus Christ. Next, verse 5 says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. But do we really believe that? Jesus says that apart from him, we can do nothing. The context is the nothing is in bearing the fruit that God desires. I think sometimes we think we can do things for God. We can just do things on our own, in our own strength, in our own power. No, Jesus is saying, apart from me, you can't do anything. You can't bear the fruit the Father made you to bear apart from me. Do we really believe that? Do we understand that? Verse 6 says, if anyone does not abide in me, he's cast out. Again, this is a symbol of judgment, as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. There's the judgment. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, this is what's so interesting. Jesus equates his words with himself. Stay in my word, and you are abiding in me. That's what this is all about. That we receive Christ, we receive his word, we receive it into our hearts, we are changed by his word, and we walk in a way that is pleasing to him. We continue and remain and abide in him as we continue and remain and abide in his word. There's no other way. This is the way Jesus has laid it out. He says, if anyone does not abide in me, and then he talks about his word. Again, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, and you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. Now look, if you're walking with Jesus and you're truly abiding in him and walking in obedience to his word, what you ask will also be according to that. And so, of course, God is going to, it's going to have the appearance, so to say, or you could just say, I guess, God answering your prayers, but it's more than that. The reason I say appearance is it's much more than that. When we are truly abiding in Jesus, and God's will is our will, we surrender to Him, our prayers become aligned with what He's already doing. Our prayers become aligned with what He wants to do. Our prayers become aligned with His purposes. Therefore, of course, they're going to be answered. They're going to come a pass because we're praying according to His will. We're praying according to what He's doing and where He's at work already. But we won't even know how to pray. We won't know where to focus. We won't know what to do or even the right thing to ask for unless we're first abiding in Jesus. Does God answer prayer? Yes. But more so often, prayer is about aligning our will with His. That's the point that I'm getting at. It's about aligning our will with His. And that comes through His Word. Then if we continue on, verse 8, our last verse says, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. Again, it comes back to the Father. It starts with the Father, ends with the Father. Jesus is bringing honor and glory to the Father. The Father honors and glorifies the Son. Jesus sends the Spirit. The Spirit gives glory to the Son. It's this beautiful relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And what Jesus is saying is that as you abide in my will, as you do what I've called you to do, as you abide in my word, the Father will be glorified, and you will bear much fruit, and you'll be my disciples. You'll be walking with me. You will be found as my own. But what's interesting is the disciples that Jesus is referring to are defined by two things: a relationship with Him and obedience to His Word. They go together. They absolutely go together. The reason they go together is because He is God. We are not. So therefore we recognize His word as authoritative in our lives, and we say, it doesn't matter what I think or feel, this is what God has said, therefore I orient my life around Jesus, and in so doing, I become his disciple. I am following him, and my prayers follow him, and my prayers are according to God's will, and I see God moving and working because I'm immersing myself in who he is. And all of that is possible, not because of our own strength or our own goodness, but because of Christ and His goodness and the grace of God. That Jesus stepped down from heaven to earth. He died on a cross in our place for our sins. He rose again from the grave on the third day, just like he said he would. He ascended to the right hand of the Father. He gives a spirit to all who believe. It is all about who Jesus is, what he has done, what he is doing, what he has promised. It's all about him. And the amazing thing is he wants to take us, weak, broken, sinful people, and make his glory known through us. That God can be glorified in us. If we will surrender our lives to him, if we will look to Jesus, love Jesus, walk in obedience to his word, we can have a life that is completely different than anything we could produce in our own strength. It is the life of God in us. Thank you for joining me today. I pray this has been a blessing and encouragement to you. For more information, you can go to pmvministries.org. As always, I hope you have a great day.