PRUNING & Chastening: How Does God Make Us Fruitful?

Jesus is talking about grapes. Nothing was clearer in the 1st Century Judea than vineyards to these men. They lived, walked, slept and ate often in the very shadow of the vine. The seasons of each Israelite's life were marked by the heavy clusters of fall grapes, the joys of harvest; the winter pruning of the vines; the first buds of spring; the vigorous growth of summer; and the joys of fall's harvest again!

Jesus sums up everything about His relationship to us in John 15. All we need He has supplied (that is a summary of His teaching from John 1-14).

Now in John 15 He describes the delivery system. A promise is only as good as the delivery system.