The Vine and the Branches
sermon by Manfred Schreyer
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. :2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. :3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. :4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. :5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. :6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. :7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. :8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. :9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
As many of you know I just came back from an incredible trip to the West. My boys and I visited the annual conference in Boise, Idaho and we decided to add our vacation to this trip as we had not visited that part of the country. I must tell you I have been in many countries of our world and I had flown over the part of the country we visited many times, but to see the beauty close and walk the ground of ever changing beauty has been one of the best experiences of my life in traveling and if you have a chance I encourage you to visit this gift from God to all of us.
Many of you probably expect me to talk about the Church of the Brethren Annual conference, but this time I would like to talk about a different subject and I promise you Rod and I will present the experience of the Annual Conference at a later time.
Today I would like to share an experience with you that I walked away during my trip:
As we were driving to the Annual Conference in Boise, ID we made several stops at restaurants at the end of a long driving day. Often one of my boys get to chose the place of dining and that day it was Jeremias’ turn. He saw in the distance a "Golden Coral". Many of you may know that restaurant chain, and for those who know you may know that they offer a great variety of food and it is always excellent. My oldest son Little Manfred agreed to Jeremias’ choice and so we made a turn off the interstate to go there before we would stop at a hotel for the night.
As we entered the restaurant I was taken back, because the inside looked like a dump and looking at the food, I wondered if the Golden Coral was in the process of going bankrupt since I had left my home because we were not supporting it while we were on our trip. The cashier told us that the meat would possibly be out in half and hour and to enjoy ourselves. LOL.
We were too tired to shift to another restaurant , so we paid and sat down. . .and the expected dining experience was not good at all. The service was ultra slow, the food was mediocre (if not to say horrible. . ) but we endured. But what was really amazing was that there were lots of people who seemed to enjoy the dining facility tremendously. I looked around and many families indulged in the sloppy atmosphere and the poor food. And everyone seemed to be very happy.
For me this gave me time to think. Were they aware that this was not even close to the real Golden Coral? What were they thinking. . that there is nothing better out there? If the franchise "Golden Coral" was the "branch", how was it possible that this "vine" would prosper so much?
Let me stop here!
One of my destinations on this trip was Utah. To be more precise, Salt Lake City. . and you guessed it: The Mormon Temple. In the past year or so I had studied the Mormons closely, how they had grown in numbers. Their churches are filled with people, because of their compassion for people, their morals (family, their values, etc). I had watched locally the growth of their church and to tell you the truth: Sometimes I was frustrate that their church was able to transform peoples lives and I had such a difficult time to bring the Gospel, the Gospel of Christ to people.
Let me explain: Mormons believe in the New Testament, but they also believe in the Book of the Mormons, which are revelation to Joseph Smith by and angel. Now in this Book of the Mormons, the premise is that Nephi of the Old Testament left Jerusalem and set out to go to the Americas (today USA) Now Joseph Smith receives some Golden Plates from the angel Maroni thousands of years later and the revelation is that the church which is about to be established is the real Church of Christ.
I don’t want to go into much theological details, but here are some of the claims of revelation which present the premises of Mormonism:
Our God is an exalted man of flesh and bone He physically lives with His many wives near the star Kolob Worthy Mormon men can also become Gods, like Him Our God is one of many Gods and serves a God of His own!
God came down to earth in the flesh and was the physical father of Jesus You should not trust the Bible in this matter. It is wrong.
Now I must tell you. . .as mentioned before I speak to many people about our Christ and sometimes God willing the trust our Savor and sometimes they deny Him. But if I should ever have to bring such factious story into the equation of our faith, I believe my conversion of others to God would be null.
Does all of this not seem odd to you? But more then that I want you to know that Mormonism is the fastest growing "branch of "Christianity" today. If you are willing to accept Christianity for this theology.
As I was taking the grand tour. . . an impressive real estate complex downtown of over thirty acres I was stunned. All individuals were clean cut and all the guides were in two. It reminded me of some cults which I had contacts with. Two seems to be the number so there is always control by someone else.
As you may know me. . . I had to ask questions. Questions which arose out of confusion over this whole set-up. I knew that the Mormon church is very wealthy, due to their ownerships of banks, insurance firms, etc. And I was always puzzled that anyone would buy into this whole concept and that the Mormon church was able to prosper and grow so much.
Is what we as Brethren believe so wrong that our vines die off the branch, and that their vines grow richly because they teach the truth? Was it possible that they hold the truth and that we are mislead by our intellect? To be truthful, they are/were the ones who are/were committed, to make public policy, to get engaged in political issues of State and federal government, they care(d) for their people, they are/were what early Christians symbolized at least in the area of caring for each other.
So at the end of the tour I asked these two "missionaries" who donated 18 month to serve as guides for the temple complex: "How do you know you hold the truth? How is it possible that all others are wrong and you know the truth?"
And the one young about 20 year old girl gave me the spill about the revelation of God to Joseph Smith, etc, etc. and the. . .she referred to the verse about the vine and the branches.
Now everyone here knows that I love a good argument and that I not necessarily fail to have my facts together. But I was intrigued by her loving posture, her kind reply and that was the end of the argument I was about to initiate.
Just like at the restaurant. I was unable to argue! People enjoyed their food. . .I did not and the people gave reason that this was a good restaurant.
Well, let me come to the essence of what I want to share with you today:
To know this one place to eat, this one place of worship does never mean that you hold the truth and never is the growth of the vine an indication of the will of God for us.
Why? Because if it were so, the Church of Scientology would bear good fruits as well, because they also grow like weeds.
The true faith is found in the branch of Jesus Christ if we as stated in verse 7 remain in His Word. Yes, churches like ours will be blessed if we remain in His living Word. And that is His word alone. Not the words of Joseph Smith.
Why are they growing? Because people of this word look (a) for success in this word and want to be affiliates with those who are a success in this world so they can live for the success of the world. This though is implied by the doctrine of such cults, because they believe that success is the outward sign of closeness with Jesus Christ. How wrong. . . .Jesus lived commanded us not to admire earthly treasurers as they will be falling away. The idea is a Calvinistic idea and it is wrong according to the Word of God. Jesus tells us not to be of the world. (B) People like Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses trust earthly so called prophets more then our Lord Jesus Christ. But you know He is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the one whom you can be saved by. . .He is the one who is the truth and the light.
Just as the restaurant when people will taste the true Golden Coral, they will leave the old behind and the vine will die, once Mormons would taste the truth of Jesus. . . their branches will die and they will indulge in the living Christ.
Sermon by Pastor Manfred Schreyer
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