Jesus speaks His last words to His disciples in John 15. The events recorded in John 15 come near the end of “the days of Jesus’ life on earth” (Hebrews 5:7). They probably occurred after Jesus left the upper room, where He participated in His last Passover meal with His disciples. In John 15 they are headed down to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will be betrayed by Judas.
On the way, as they are passing through a vineyard, Jesus seizes the opportunity to summarize His ultimate plans for His disciples. In this powerfully visual passage, Jesus gives us a picture of His desire for you and me, also, as He speaks of four levels of fruit-bearing: no fruit, fruit, more fruit, and much fruit.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also 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. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:1–8)
In this parable, the four levels of fruitfulness correspond to the four chairs. Chair 1 represents “no fruit,” as the lost person can do nothing to yield a harvest for God. Chair 2 represents “fruit,” because a new believer begins to grow a harvest for the Lord. Chair 3, the worker, represents “more fruit.” But Chair 4 represents “much fruit,” the disciple-making disciple.
According to Jesus, the Father’s ultimate goal for every one of us is to move us to the “much fruit” level, so that we can prove we are His disciples and thus bring Him glory. “By this my Father is glorified,” Jesus claims, “that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8 ESV). However, not every believer ultimately bears much fruit. There is a definite progression of fruit-bearing with some definite barriers between each level. Fortunately, Jesus also exposes barriers that keep us from getting to the next level, and gives His Father’s remedy.

BARRIER 1: SIN
The first barrier I see is the barrier of sin. Jesus states, “He [my Father] cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit” (John 15:2). The word translated “cuts off” is the Greek word airo, and it is used over a hundred times in the New Testament. But only here is it translated “cuts off.” The word literally means to “lift up” or “move to a different location.” In Matthew 9:6, for example, after Jesus heals the paralyzed man, He tells him to airo his mat and go home—to lift it up and take it someplace else.
If you ever have the opportunity to visit a vineyard, you will find the vines carefully lifted up and placed on wire trellises. If a gardener sees a vine that has fallen from the trellises, he will lift it up (airo) out of the dirt, clean it off if necessary, and place it back in the sunlight so that it can eventually bear fruit. If it is left in the mud, it will become like a branch that withers, and will be thrown in the fire to burn (John 15:6).
The barrier between no fruit and fruit is simply the barrier of sin. Sin causes us to fall out of the sunlight (Son) and into the dirt. If we are left in the dirt, we will shrivel up and become unproductive. But if we are lifted up (airo), cleaned off if necessary (Jesus said, “you are already clean”), and placed back into the Son light, then we can move from no fruit to fruit. Jesus makes it clear: we cannot bear fruit apart from Him (John 15:5). And in the same way, we cannot bear fruit if sin is controlling our lives. We must deal with known sin, and then the Lord will cleanse us from “all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Sin is the barrier that keeps us from bearing fruit. Every day spent in sin is a day we fail to bear fruit.
Because of this, it is critical that we teach our disciples how to immediately and completely repent of any known sin. Granted, we all need to repent initially of our sinfulness. But I love what the Christians in Romania call each other—Repenters! For them the Christian life is a life of repenting. Confessing known sin, by faith claiming Christ’s cleansing, and then moving forward in the power of the Spirit. This is a Repenters’ lifestyle.
This passage raises the question, If someone produces no fruit, are they even a Christian? Some would like to argue that if there is no fruit there must not be any real life. And while there is some truth in this statement, let’s be careful about making quick assessments. In this passage, we are told the Gardener cuts off every person (branch) “in me” that bears no fruit. Up to this point in the gospel of John, whenever anyone is referred to being “in me,” that person is a Christian. You cannot be in Christ without having Christ in you.
We have to ask ourselves, Has there ever been an hour we have lived in sin and failed to bear fruit? Has there been a day? Or a week? Or a few years? All of us would have to answer yes. You can be in Christ but still have unconfessed sin in your life. It doesn’t change our status as a Christian, but it does affect our ability to bear fruit.
The real question, I think, is, Can you be in Christ for a long time and still bear no fruit? To this question I would have to answer no. Because God’s clear agenda is to get all of us to the place where we bear fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. And He will do whatever that takes to make this happen. He is jealous for His glory.
Hebrews 12 tells us that as a loving Father, God will take us through a process of discipline in our lives if we fail to deal with sin over the long haul. God’s process of correction is gentle. It begins with a rebuke and is followed by discipline (Hebrews 12:5–6). If we still fail to respond to His loving discipline, He will punish us (12:6). Be assured, God will not tolerate sin in His child’s life for long. God’s agenda for us is holiness, which leads to fruitfulness, and sin keeps us from that. If we never experience the discipline of God, then we are probably not sons of God but sons of this world.
No matter how you interpret the text, sin is a barrier to bearing fruit. For the non-Christian, it is a life of sin. For a Christian, it is a persistent lifestyle of unconfessed sin that the Father will address.

BARRIER 2: GOOD THINGS
Moving from bearing no fruit to bearing fruit (Chair 2) is just the beginning of the Lord’s plan for His followers. Jesus goes on to say that “He cuts of every branch in me that bears fruit, while every branch that does not bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (Chair 3) (John 15:2).
Sometimes churches accidentally encourage people to stay in Chair 2. We make the Christian life a La-Z-Boy with cup holders, soft seats, and a footrest. We make Chair 2 so comfortable that no one wants to move on. We challenge people to come and see, but we never challenge them to take the next step. As a result they sit, soak, and eventually begin to sour.
In John 15:2, Jesus explains that the way we go from “fruit” to “more fruit” is through pruning. Simply put, a vine will fail to produce an abundant harvest year after year if not carefully pruned. Pruning is what produces the maximum harvest.
A number of years ago I had the privilege of visiting the Biltmore Estate on 125,000 acres of beautiful woodlands in Asheville, North Carolina. It’s the largest home in America, with more than 250 rooms—35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. It boasts a vineyard of over 100 acres. There I had the privilege of meeting the primary caretaker of the vineyard, who had earned his PhD as a horticulturist, with a specialty in pruning. I never knew there was so much to learn about pruning!
According to this horticulturist, one of the most critical times to prune is early in the branch’s history. Failure to prune early will result in a weak root system, which can cause the branches to become a tangled web of foliage unable to produce enough sap to bear fruit. If not pruned, a branch will eventually die a premature death. But if pruned carefully, though, its life span and fruitfulness dramatically increases.
A typical young branch will surface ten to twelve buds that can become clusters of grapes. But early on, it will need to be pruned back to two or three buds, in order to produce rich, luscious clusters of grapes. Two or three luscious clusters is preferable to ten or twelve mediocre clusters. Interestingly, the gardener is never closer to the branch than when he is pruning it. Each branch is unique, so each branch needs to be carefully analyzed in order to be pruned most effectively. The gardener scrutinizes each branch, because he knows that an abundant harvest is at stake.
As I think about this process of pruning, several questions surface in my mind about the process of moving from Chair 2 to Chair 3. First, since the barrier to “more fruit” is stuff that must be pruned, who then gets pruned? According to John 15:2 it is every branch! You don’t have to pray for pruning—it will come! Another critical question is, When do you get pruned? Again the answer is found in God’s Word. It always comes before the harvest. Hebrews 12:11 tells us that though pruning is a painful experience, “later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness.” But why do I need pruning? The answer is simple: to be more fruitful. But perhaps the most illuminating question of all is, What gets pruned? The answer to this is hard to believe. What gets pruned are not the bad things but the good things. A gardener removes a flower—a good thing—from the branch to make room for fruit. And this is what makes pruning so painful.
Many people struggle with pruning for this very reason. Good things are taken away—a job, a loved one, one’s health—but to what end? During these experiences, we may be tempted to question God. We begin to doubt God’s goodness and His care. A life that was once peaceful becomes painful. A life of fruitfulness now seems to be falling apart. Faith is replaced with doubt. And unfortunately at this stage of the process, many choose to go back into Chair 2. It is too painful to continue in this pruning, so people simply slip back into Chair 2. We’re comfortable with that lifestyle. We know what to expect.
Hebrews 10–12 speaks to this journey from Chair 2 to Chair 3. It is addressed to Christians who were enduring great suffering—being thrown in prison, losing their property, and comforting others who had experienced the same. The writer of Hebrews encourages his readers in the midst of this pruning not to “throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded” (10:35). Persevere so that you can receive the harvest (10:36). Don’t shrink back; lean into this tough time with faith (10:38–39).
Pruning is a struggle. It is painful. It demands submission and a willing spirit, but it is ultimately for “our good” (Hebrews 12:4–10). Even so, it causes us to be weary and weakened and seemingly unstable (12:13), causing us to need a level path and encouragement. In the midst of this pruning we need God’s grace. The Bible’s warning is very clear. “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (12:15). If at any time in this painful process we see that bitterness springing up, we must get on our knees and ask God where we missed His grace.
Some of the most veteran disciple-makers in history, men like Leroy Eims, Dawson Trotman, Robert Coleman, or Carl Wilson, have clearly stated the number one destroyer of disciples is bitterness. Making it through Chair 3 is tough, and bitterness can settle in if we fail to allow His Spirit to give us His grace. Once bitter, we become victims to unfruitfulness. But God’s grace is sufficient, and He again and again will help us to move from “grace to grace” as we grow in fruitfulness.
Chair 3 barriers are not easy to break through. But overcoming them brings great joy and an increasing harvest. We begin to share in both the “power of his resurrection, and participation in his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). And the only way I know to get to Chair 4 is through the rich lessons associated with going through the barriers of Chair 3.

BARRIER 3: SATISFACTION
Sitting in Chair 3 is a position of more fruit. Those who are not dismayed by the process of pruning can become caught up with the joy of the harvest. We can become satisfied with all the fruit. We are busy enjoying the increased fruit that we are experiencing. But our satisfaction still isn’t the goal of our journey. Jesus makes clear that His goal in each of our lives is to get all of us to Chair 4 and so prove to be His disciples (John 15:8).
Something amazing happens in Chair 4 that hasn’t happened before. The “much fruit” is so abundant that everyone who looks at our life knows without a doubt it is God who is reaping the harvest! They know us too well. They know we aren’t capable of this! It must be God who is doing it! And because of this, He is glorified (John 15:8).
Eight different times in John 15, Jesus uses a powerful word picture that gives us the key breakthrough found between Chair 3 and Chair 4. While I’m suggesting that often the barrier is our satisfaction with more fruit, the breakthrough is the simple phrase meno, a Greek word translated as “remain” in the New International Version of the Bible. Elsewhere meno is translated as “abide” or “dwell,” “continue” or “tarry.” It is a beautifully rich word that means, in this context, to “make Jesus our permanent dwelling place.” I love how the psalmist says it: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). Dwelling in Christ, making Him our permanent dwelling place, brings great rest and security. It is a lifestyle that needs to be cultivated and can only be learned over time. It is a sign of maturity, a sign of Chair 4 living. It produces much fruit—not because of who we are, but because of what He can do through us.
In breaking this barrier, we become a true friend of God. No longer performing, we settle with a balance between striving and resting. Paul describes this balance in these terms: “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me” (Colossians 1:29). God gets glorified as we rest in Him.




 1. What aspect of this chapter is most interesting to you?





 2. Why would it be easy to settle into the “more fruit” chair?





 3. Look up the passages mentioned under “fruit” and discuss your observations about what fruit looks like.






Dann Spader, 4 Chair Discipling: Growing a Movement of Disciple-Makers (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014).