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https://youtu.be/ik3l4U_17bI

Nat Geo introduced the video just viewed with the following text...

“Sam Van Aken, an artist and professor at Syracuse University, uses "chip grafting" to create trees that each bear 40 different varieties of stone fruits, or fruits with pits. The grafting process involves slicing a bit of a branch with a bud from a tree of one of the varieties and inserting it into a slit in a branch on the "working tree," then wrapping the wound with tape until it heals and the bud starts to grow into a new branch. Over several years he adds slices of branches from other varieties to the working tree. In the spring the "Tree of 40 Fruit" has blossoms in many hues of pink and purple, and in the summer it begins to bear the fruits in sequence—Van Aken says it's both a work of art and a time line of the varieties' blossoming and fruiting. He's created more than a dozen of the trees that have been planted at sites such as museums around the U.S., which he sees as a way to spread diversity on a small scale.”

In this video we see a knowledgeable man’s fascination with grafting, who then uses his skill to turn stone fruit trees into beautiful, productive works of art.

With this imagery in mind let’s turn to Romans...

Romans 11:16  For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Romans 11:17  And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
Romans 11:18  do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

From being wild to tame – From being weak to healthy – not comparing

What or who is this root?

John 15:1  "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
John 15:2  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Christ immediately gives us the bad news, so let us put this into perspective first...

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

Luke 13:6  He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
Luke 13:7  Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?'
Luke 13:8  But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.
Luke 13:9  And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.' "

So, we can receive some encouragement in our frailty related to producing fruit by remembering the parable of the fig tree, remembering however there is a limit to God’s patience, but what does it mean to be pruned when being productive?

PROP (vine branch and vine section, pruners)

Going back to John 15, starting in verse 4...

John 15:4  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.
John 15:5  "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.

So, remembering what Paul wrote in Romans we see the gentiles being once wild, are grafted to the olive tree, which is maintained and cared for. If they had remained on their (own) original olive tree, nothing they would have produced would be lasting. They would be on their own roots, unmanaged, and eventually the olive tree would die; totally subject to the natural order.

As Christ likens Himself to the vine, this vine is everlasting, so, though we may be grafted onto it, producing fruit as we might have on our own vine, we become lasting and the fruit we produce does also, being sourced and supported by all godliness and righteousness.

The fruit from the wild plant would outwardly look the same as that of the tame, but the tame is fed by something that cannot perish.

Continuing in verse 7...

John 15:7  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
John 15:8  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Going on to verse 16...

John 15:16  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Remember I said that if we had remained our own olive tree, before we were taken and grafted onto the olive tree which is Jesus Christ, our fruit and our life would not have been lasting. Let’s turn to First Corinthians, chapter 2 for clarification...

1 Corinthians 2:11  For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
1 Corinthians 2:13  These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:14  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:15  But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

Judge = anakrinō

an-ak-ree'-no

From G303 and G2919; properly to scrutinize, that is, (by implication) investigate, interrogate, determine: - ask, question, discern, examine, judge, search.

As soon as we are attached to the true vine, our understanding goes from the natural to the spiritual, and the fruit we produce is spiritually developed. Without that attachment we cannot understand true godliness.

It’s probably good here to be reminded of what the fruit of the Spirit is... Turning to Galations, chapter 5...

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Galatians 5:23  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

On this special spiritual day of remembrance called Pentecost, we reflect on what it means to become a part of the body of Christ, and so here we have viewed that relationship through the analogy of being grafted branches on the True Vine, Jesus Christ. What is left is to go forward as one, not comparing ourselves to each other, but always remembering to compare ourselves to Christ, relying on the Father to maintain us toward salvation.

We will conclude in John 17...

John 17:11  Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
...
John 17:20  "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
John 17:21  that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
John 17:22  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
John 17:23  I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Let us thank our Father in Heaven who watches over and cares for us, we being directly attached to true righteousness and holiness in Jesus the Christ, us in Him and He in us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, becoming one with God and each other. God bless you on this holy Feast of Pentecost.