Crossing a Dark River

In the 15th chapter of John, we find Jesus' discourse on the vine and the branches, yet to become intimately familiar with this text, we must place ourselves in the actual surroundings of that particular night where Christ had just finished His last meal with His disciples and declares in the last verse of chapter 14, Arise, let us go hence. Scholars disagree on the location where the discourse was given. Some scholars believe that the discourse took place while Jesus and His men were still in the upper room and the vine spoken of was the vine of the cup they were drinking as the illustration used.

Other scholars suggest that perhaps a tendril of creeping vine came up the trellis by the open window where they sat and this was the reference made to the vine. Other Bible scholars point to John 14, 31 where Jesus says to His disciples, Arise, let us go hence, inferring that they had left the upper room while this discourse was made along the way to Gethsemane where, as they crossed the brook Kidron, they saw the bright fires lighting up the nighttime sky from the vine cuttings which were being burned. Either way, friends, it's striking imagery, isn't it? But the backdrop to this discourse on the vine and the branches goes much deeper than that and for us to fully appreciate its richness and significance, we must take a walk through our Bibles back a ways to that awful dark night of Saul where Christ is imparting to His men one of the most significant teachings, He can leave them, for He is about to leave them by being violently taken from them by an angry mob filled with the malice of Satan.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is Crossing a Dark River. My text can be found in John's Gospel in chapter 15. In the night before His crucifying, Jesus begins the journey of His face set toward the cross.

The sufferings ahead of Him begin here on this dark night as they cross that cold river on their way to Gethsemane. In John 18.1 we read, When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook had drawn, where there was a garden into which He entered and His disciples. It is the backdrop of the story which so colors it with many layered hues like a Renaissance master's oil painting.

I believe this discourse was given by Jesus while walking with His disciples as they slowly made their way to Gethsemane. And it was here in the first part of the night where Christ went over the brook had drawn as He had to cross it to get to Gethsemane. Some regard the brook had drawn to signify the many cedar trees that grew there from the darkness of the valley.

So Cedar signifies darkness. Psalm 110.7 speaks of this prophecy. He shall drink of the brook in the way, meaning by the brook of torrent, suggesting the wrath of God and the malice of man, the very afflictions to befall the Christ.

Afflictions are understood by waters. This imagery is very frequent in scripture. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of Belial made me afraid.

And also, save me, O God, for the waters are coming to my soul, as seen in Psalm 69.1. So waters speak of afflictions, and there will be many afflictions which Christ would pass under the next 24 hours. So here, in the darkness of night, He has to wade into the cold waters as He crosses through the brook Kidron, that dark, sorrowful night where He knows that those closest to Him will soon flee and abandon Him. He's crossing a dark river.

He is weighed down as if the entire world which He created is now heavy on His shoulders. He has to impart an important truth to His men about the vine and the branches, for He knows the only way they will survive without Him once He is finally taken from them is to remain vitally joined to Him. So we read in John chapter 15, I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

This is very interesting in the Greek language. In the Greek it reads, I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the genuine vine. Here Jesus is announcing for all the world to hear that He alone is the genuine article.

He's the real deal. Everyone else who makes that claim is just a fraud, fake, or phony. There's no one else quite like Him.

Then Jesus declares about the Father, and my Father is the tiller of the soil. This entire chapter speaks of agriculture and farming, growth and fruit production. God the Father has the husbandman, the tiller of the soil, for it is God Himself who holds the divine pruning knife, and with skilled hands He performs the work on the branches.

We read in our text, every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

No more can ye abide, except ye abide in me. That word abide in the Greek is an interesting word. It's the word meno.

It means to dwell, to remain, to tarry in one place. What Jesus is conveying to His men is the deep truth that when He is taken from them, when He is crucified, buried, and resurrected, when, after He ascends back into the very heaven He came out of, the only way any follower of His will survive and make it is to stay connected to Him in a life of abiding in Him for power over sin, strength under persecution. They must continually abide in Him by His Spirit to live the Christian life.

Any breakdown in our walk with God starts here, for when we abide in Him like a branch in the vine, we will have the constant flow, the continual source of divine power necessary through the Holy Spirit coursing through a clean and empty channel maintained by unbroken fellowship with the Father through a close intimate walk with Him. And as we bear fruit from this union of the vine and the branches, ye will be the husband and man who will get out His divine pruning knife on each of us to strip us back and purge us so we can be even more fruitful for Him and for His glory. And because of this pruning process, we will be made more like Him as we abide in Him by a close walk with Him.

We will become more and more like Him, more and more useful to Him by producing more fruit for Him. Jesus knew the dark waters He would have to pass through on the way to Calvary. Jesus also knew the dark waters that His own disciples would have to pass through as the world would persecute them for their faith and testimony as they would die a martyr's death for Him and the sake of the gospel.

This teaching of the vine and the branches, so significant, had to sink down into their very souls that would be their source, that would be their source of power to boldly proclaim the gospel to a hostile world, to stand before magistrates and boldly stare death in the face under severe threats of imprisonment. Did we not straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name? Then Peter and the other apostle answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. Jesus knew it would be this principle of the abiding that would get them through to the end.

And it is this same principle, friends, for us today, for we can do nothing apart from Him. Oh, we can do much in our churches today with money and manpower, but it'll all perish as wood, hay, and stubble burned in a fire. Only what God has wrought through us by His Holy Spirit will remain as gold, silver, and precious stones for eternity.

In these end times in which we live, some of us may face some dark times, some deep waters we may have to cross our own dark river of affliction for our faith. Some may pass under severe persecution and even face the penalty of death. It will be our abiding faith in Christ and our testimony of abiding in Him that will get us through as well.

If we are called to cross a dark river, we can wade through those cold waters with Christ by our side, like the psalmist declared, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff shall comfort me. I made a promise to God years ago I would willingly lay down my life for Him since He laid down His life for me.

I don't know if I'll ever be called to face a martyr's death, but if things get bad enough and hot enough here to where I have to choose between either Caesar as Lord or Jesus as Lord, I know whom I will choose because I know whom I have believed.