Sermon: Abiding

This morning we are looking at John 15 verses one through five as we turn to God's word John 15 verses one through five.

Would you join me in prayer? As we pray for God's blessing of his word this morning, let's pray together.

Our Father, we do come before you this morning and we ask that you would quiet our hearts and our minds would not be distracted, that our souls would not be cold, that our affections would not be indifferent. We pray that all of the different voices which call out in our mind or our heart, even over these next moments that they would be silenced, that we would find that we are quiet before your throne, your throne of grace this morning.

But we pray that it would not be quiet this morning, but that as we are quieted that you would speak loud,

that your voice with thunder in this room, that it would thunder in our ears, that it would thunder in the recesses of our souls, that we would know that as we hear the word red, the word preached. But indeed we have heard from our maker that you speak to us, we pray as you have promised and we pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. John chapter 15 verses one through five. This is the holy er, sufficient word of God.

I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you

abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is that bears much fruit or apart from me. You can do nothing. Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks speed to God. Amen.

We are jumping right into the middle of the book of John here in John chapter 15. So let me try and give you a little bit of context uh, of the book. Uh, if we were to go to the chapters right before we would see that Jesus was in the upper room with the disciples and it was there that he washed the disciples feet, it was there that they celebrated the Passover together and it was there that he warned the disciples that one

of them was going to betray him. And you'll remember that they all looked around at one another wondering who it was, but Jesus knew who it was and he pointed out that it would be Judas and told Judas that he needed to leave quickly and go do what he was about to do. And it is on the heels of that that we have John chapter 15 we don't know is when he had this discourse, when was he saying these things or where was he saying these things?

But I am guessing though I don't want to be dogmatic that as it follows on the heels of that upper room discourse, that it's very likely that Jesus is having this discourse of John chapter 15 as they are leaving the upper room and as he is on his way with the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane and as he is on his way to the garden of Gethsemane, they would've been passing vineyards and would've been passing different trees.

And so he is using them as an object lesson as he points at them and says to the disciples, I am the true vine. I wanna look at that this morning in three ways. First, life is found abiding in Christ. Second, a life abiding in Christ produces fruit. And third, a life abiding in Christ produces more and more fruit. So first life is found abiding in Christ abiding. That's a strange word. It's not a word that you and I will use when we're just talking to one another.

So what do we mean when we say abiding? We are saying that life is found living in Christ abiding is living, living in Christ. And that will sound strange to some life is found living in Christ. There are a lot of people in this world this morning that are on a vacation or they are on a trip or they are walking a golf course or they have risen this morning working a job in hopes of finding life. Are those in East Lansing this morning that are sleeping in

because they are sleeping off? They're drunken stupor that they fell into last night or some that have rose risen early this morning to go and work out and jog and run and go to the gym and they are seeking to find life. There are some of you in this room this morning who are here because you're wanting to find life and you think, well maybe it will happen as you interact with others here and you have a conversation here,

Jesus here is making it clear that it is not things. It is not a place, it is not even people that give life. It's a person he alone gives life. Life is alone found in him. In John 10, one of my favorite passages in the Bible, Jesus speaks about himself as the good shepherd. And he says of himself as the good shepherd, he said, I came that they meaning the sheep I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. He came for this reason that his sheep might have life

and not just any life but life abundant. Full life, complete life, true life.

Jesus makes the same claim. In this passage I am even as he said, I am the good shepherd. He says, here I am the true vine and there's actually a world of meaning in that little statement, I am the true vine. He's saying it to the disciples. And the disciples are good Jews. And as soon as he said I am the true vine, their minds would've fired immediately. All kinds of bells and whistles would've gone off because they would've known

that throughout the scriptures in the Old Testament that Israel is referred to over and over again as the vineyard of God. So for example, Isaiah five, seven for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And there are, there are times that they're not only referred to as the vineyard, but as the vines in the vineyard. Som maie, you brought out a vine out of Egypt,

meaning Israel. You drove the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root and it filled the land. When Jesus says I am the true vine, he is saying, I am the true Israel. I am Israel personified what Israel was to be the very people of God. I am that personified as it was to be holy as God is holy. I am holy as he is holy. I am the true Israel.

Matthew and his gospel makes this very clear. It's a gospel that is written to Jews and he shows this of Jesus, Jesus to be the true Israel. In his opening chapters in chapter one, Jesus like Israel is forced to flee from Palestine and to go down into Egypt just as Israel was in chapter two of Matthew, just like Israel was called forth from Egypt. So Jesus comes forth from Egypt in Matthew chapter three. Just as Israel when it came out

of Egypt was led through the waters. So in Matthew chapter three, Jesus enters into the waters of his baptism in Matthew chapter four, just as Israel when it emerged from the waters of the Red Sea was led into the wilderness. So Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted and tried and just as Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years. So he is in the wilderness for 40 days and then Matthew chapter five to seven, just

as Israel was led before Mount Sinai. So Jesus ascends the Mount and he gives a sermon on the mount. This is what it looks like to be a disciple. Just as Israel received the 10 commandments on the mount, this is what it looks like to be a disciple.

He is Israel personified the true Israel of God, holy as God is holy. Where the nation failed. Jesus has victory. I am the true vine, but it's more than that. He's also the second Adam. You remember the great mandate that God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden? He said, be fruitful and multiply. But when Adam and Eve chose to eat from that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their ability to be fruitful, disappeared.

They could no longer be fruitful. And so Jesus is saying right here I am the vine. Be fruitful. I am fruitful.

No one can truly be fruitful. Now in this world, be holy as I am holy. Only Jesus be fruitful. Only Jesus I am the true vine. Abide in me. He says in verse four, why abide in him? Because it is impossible, impossible to be who you were created to be, to be what you are supposed to be apart from Jesus.

You can't be holy, you can't be fruitful apart from Jesus. It is only found in him

and he doesn't mince words. The argument is one clearly evident in nature. If you are walking through a field or you're walking through a forest and you find a branch on the ground, you don't expect, you know that that branch, it cannot produce fruit. Why? Because as Jesus says in verse four, it cannot bear fruit by itself. It cannot. He says unless it abides in the vine, it must be attached. It must draw life from that which is living.

It has to be nourished and fed by that which actually has life in and of itself. No vine, no life. And so Jesus says, he brings the analogy home in verse four, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, neither can you bear unless you abide in me neither can you.

Who is he addressing? And he says, neither can you everyone. It's universal, everyone neither can you

unless you abide in me.

It's impossible otherwise.

It is true from the youngest to the oldest, from the tallest to the brightest, from the least gifted to the most gifted impossible.

And we attempt to live apart from his nourishment and strength. We either produce nothing or we produce nothing that actually lasts, that has eternal value. Now don't get me wrong, I would much rather live next door to an unbelieving social worker than to an unbelieving serial killer. There are some that are better than others, but you and I are not about better. We weren't created for the better. We were created for the good, for the eternal good.

You were created for eternity. We are after everlasting fruit, eternal fruit. And that only comes, can only come by abiding in him.

So there's a warning here He's giving. It's not a mistake that this happens right on the heels of the upper room discourse because you're to have Judas in the back of your mind.

Jesus is here saying, if we were to go on in verse six and following, we would see that there are branches that are thrown away, that are burned up because they are not abiding in Christ. He's not saying that there are those who have come to faith in him. They were saved and somehow they were abiding in him. And somehow no longer are they abiding in him and they are no longer people that are saved. That's not what he is saying.

But what he is doing is he's warning the church, he's warning us that there can be those that are in the midst, that can be at the table, that can look the part, look like they have life. They can be busy about the things of Christ. They can know the language

and they could not be abiding in him.

Are you? Are you abiding in him?

Have you placed your faith in Christ and are in Christ by faith?

There's no life apart from it.

Bite in me he says

it has been said every person must believe for themselves because every person dies by themselves.

Are you abiding in him?

Riter boss, a wonderfully wrote about this passage in the 20th century saying this. He said, what makes Jesus the true vine is that as the one sent by God, he gathers a community, a fellowship of life and which his word exerts are redeeming life, creating continually purifying and dividing effect. For that reason, he can say to his disciples, you are already clean. Which does not mean that they have already attained a degree

of spiritual moral perfection, but that he is so deeply bound them to himself by his word, that in virtue of that fellowship they are able and ready to do his word and to bear fruit life abounding life. It's found only by abiding in Christ.

Second, a life abiding in Christ produces fruit. A life abiding in Christ produces fruit. Life produces. How do you know that your tree in your backyard has survived the winter? Well, when you go out in the spring, you expect to see buds on it. Life produces. How do you know that the bees in that hive are healthy? Because honey is flowing. Life produces. When we come to faith in Christ, we are united to him. We are abiding in him. He is abiding in us. He is life.

We are tied up with him. Abide in me and I abide in you there there's a a mutual indwelling what theologians will call union with Christ. Us in him, he in us. In some ways it is very similar to what we see in the triune Godhead, what we will call the para caresses in theology where the father and the son from all of eternity have been in one another. The father is in the Son and the Father is in the Spirit and the son is in the Father and the son is in the spirit.

And on we go. Not in an identical way but in an analogous way. You and I, when we come to faith in Christ, we are in Christ and Christ is in us. So much so that we are called his body and he is our head, he is our bridegroom and we are his bride. We have become one flesh. Even now this morning, if you are in Christ, you are sitting here bodily. But we are told in the New Testament that you are not only here, you are seated in the heavens

with him because he's in you and you are in him. We've become one. He is the vine. We are the branches.

When you look at a tree, you can't tell where the, where the trunk ends and where is it that the branches begin. How do you, how do you determine that? It's just so intertwined. It's it's life together.

There's union. We're united with Christ. There's such union that when soul is persecuting the church and acts and he is persecuting the church, that Jesus will thunder from the heaven, soul, soul. Why are you persecuting me? There is such an interconnectedness, such a mutual indwelling that Jesus says in that discourse in Matthew, he says that when you and I are serving the least among us in the church, we're serving him.

He says Truly, truly, I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these brothers, you did it to me or united. And there is such union, organic union. We are in Him. Who is life that it necessarily produces fruit.

It bears fruit.

Verse five, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

Paul will wrestle with this in Romans chapter six and he's wrestling with this idea. He's saying, look, we we're united to Christ. We're in Christ. Christ is in us. We're in union with him. And so Paul is asking the question, he is saying, look, should we intentionally and willfully sin?

And it's a good question because for the Christian, for the person that is in Christ, you know that when you sin, there is grace for you because you're in Christ. And so Paul is saying, well you, you know it's, it's a question. If there's more grace, when there's more sin and grace is good, then maybe we should just keep on sinning intentionally.

And his answer is absolutely not. May it never be. He says Why? Because it's not good fruit and life produces fruit. His argument in Romans six is that the Christian died with Christ and the Christian was raised with Christ Union. And that union with Christ that we have as Christians, it literally changes everything.

When Christ died, Christ died to sin. And because the Christian is united to Christ, when Christ died, we died. And so when Christ died to sin, we also died to sin. And the same is true of the resurrection. Christ was raised a life. And because the Christian is united to Christ, we were raised a life with Christ. We have life. And life produces fruit,

produces fruit. And it is the great desire. It's, it's the great longing of the Christian to produce fruit 'cause we have been showered with such love to be united with this sun. What love. In fact he says it a little further down in this passage, what I, what in my opinion is the most shocking verse in all of the scripture. Verse nine where he says, as the father has loved me, so have I loved you, abide in my love.

If I had hair that would blow my hair back every time it should shock you. Has the Father has loved me. How has the Father loved the son?

It's an eternal love. It's an unmatched love. It's, it's an never flowing love. It's a pure love. It's a full love. It's a complete love as the father has loved me.

So I love you

that love flows upon the Christian and the implication. He says, it's abide, abide in my love.

And what does that look like? Well, he goes on to say obeying his commandments bearing fruit.

Now does that mean that the Christian no longer sins? Good night. You can ask any Christian in this room that that is not the case. But it does mean that with our new life we have a new desire, we have a new longing, we seek to honor him and we seek to produce good fruit. A life abiding in Christ produces fruit. Not perfectly, not always well and surely not as we desire, but it does produce fruit.

How? How does it produce fruit? Well it does so through in in the power and work of the Holy Spirit who takes up residents in the Christian. When we are given that gift of faith and we are united to Christ, the spirit comes and takes up residence in us. And by the power of that spirit, we now in faith seek and are able, are equipped to produce good fruit.

In the very next chapter, John 16, verse 14, Jesus says this, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He meaning the Spirit will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. The Spirit in the immediate preceding chapter John 14 verse 20, he says this, in that day, meaning the day of Pentecost, in that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. And he goes on to speak about keeping the commandments.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. It's not a mistake that the chapter before and after abiding in him is filled with testimony of the spirit coming upon the believer and the spirit working in us. And by that power and by that energy of the spirit that you and I are now able to abide in Christ and produce good lasting, eternal fruit to his praise is what it looks like.

Life is found abiding in Christ. Second to life, abiding in Christ produces fruit. And now finally a life abiding in Christ produces more and more fruit.

This is the Christian's life.

This is our aim. This is our pursuit to produce more and more eternal fruit for the glory of our God because it's his aim. Verse two, his aim is that we quote bear more fruit. Verse five, his aim is quote that we bear much fruit.

What is that fruit? Well he makes it clear that it is keeping his commandments obedience. But we should surely point out a number of things from this and all the surrounding chapters as Jesus gives these imperatives, not only obedience to Christ but living in joy, evangelizing, loving others, prayerfulness, embracing truth and on and on we could go. But it's really not one thing where a group of things that would be as one theologian said reductionistic.

What Jesus is pointing out is that he wants us to bear more and more fruit as we abide in him. And he abides in us in a sense that our whole lives, our whole lives are caught up with him. Our whole lives are oriented to him that our minds are set upon things above that we're seeking to present our bodies as living sacrifices before him. That whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we do to the glory of God. That we know that all things are from them

and through him in order to be to him. That we can say with Apostle Paul at some point for me to live as Christ.

That's his aim. Just more and more nourishment from Christ, more and more life oriented to Christ so that there is more and more christlikeness about me. That's the Christian's pursuit.

What is a chief end of man? You good Presbyterians and chief end is to glorify God, enjoy him forever. It becomes our delight

and we can only do that by abiding in Christ

more and more to Christ. That's our life. So that even a message like what Jesus says here in verse two is encouraging rather than devastating for the Christian. He says, God prunes the branches. Wait. Whoa, aren't we the branches? Yes you are eclipses. And he cuts, brings hard providences into our lives and we can rejoice

'cause he doesn't do it to bring sorrow. He does it to bring everlasting joy. He doesn't do it because he is harsh. He does it because he's loving, because he is much more concerned with that which is lasting. Where we are often caught up in our immediate earthly comforts, he is focused on our eternal comfort and joy that we would have life and life abundant.

A gardener knows what he's doing. He's worthy of our trust.

John Newton, the pastor who wrote that wonderfully wonderful hymn, amazing grace, uh, I think besides Pilgrim's progress, uh, outside of the Bible, I think what you should read the most is John Newton's letters. He wrote some of the best letters you will ever read. And in one he wrote to a woman who was struggling in the midst of trial to find strong feelings of warmth for Christ. And Newton orients her to what is occurring in the trial both in her life

and also in her heart. And I want to read to you what he says. If you'll bear with me, I want to read a paragraph.

You have good reason madam to suppose that the love of the best Christians to an unseen savior is far short of what it ought to be. If your heart be like mine and you examine your love to Christ by the warmth and frequency of your emotions towards him, you often be in a sad suspense whether you love him at all, the best mark to judge in which he has given us for that purpose is to inquire if his word will have a prevailing

governing influence upon our lives and our temper. If we love him, we endeavor to keep his commandments. It will hold the other way if we desire to please him. We undoubtedly love him. Obedience is the best test. And when amidst all our imperfections, we can humbly appeal concerning the sincerity of our views. This is a mercy for which we ought to be greatly thankful. He says, we endeavor,

we don't do it perfectly. We don't always do it, but we endeavor to keep his commandments. Why do we endeavor to keep his commandments? Because we desire to please him. And why do you desire to please him? Because you loved him, because you love him because he first loved us. So you endeavor where there is life, there is fruit. And more and more

Newton goes on to say this,

he that has brought us to will, that is that will that desire, that endeavor to obey his commands. He he's given us that will, if we abide in Christ, we we have that desire

E that has brought us that wi to will, will likewise enable us to do according to his good pleasure. I doubt not, but the Lord whom you love, on whom you depend will lead you in a sure way and establish and strengthen and settle you in His love and grace. Indeed, he has done great things for you already. The Lord is your shepherd a comprehensive word. The sheep can do nothing for themselves. The shepherd must guide, guard, feed,

heal, recover well for us, that our shepherd is the Lord Almighty. We can do nothing, nothing for ourselves apart from me. You can do nothing but in In him you have life.

Life, abundant,

abiding Christ, keep after him.

Are you abiding in Christ you

and are you continuing to abide in Christ where you're producing more and more fruit?

The Christian life is not mystical. It doesn't just kind of happen.

Know we abide in Christ and we seek to produce more and more fruit by the power of the Spirit at work within us. And the spirit works, but the spirit works through his means. It's not mysticism. He's given us his means. The spirit chooses to work by his word. So that means you have to be in his word so that it governs your thoughts and your heart and your mind and your affections so that you will more and more obey his commands.

You have to be on your knees in prayer regularly have a true regular habit of sustained prayer because the spirit chooses to use the means of prayer to conform us to the likeness of our savior. You have to come and enjoy the fellowship of the saints. Be here week in and week out in worship because the spirit chooses to work and the body gathered together. That's how he works. It's not a mystery and it's not mysticism.

He works by his means.

So abiding in Christ looks like attending to his means. And if you abide in Christ, you have life. You have life abundantly

and Him as life so that we can get to the place where we can sing. Jesus. I am resting, resting in the joy of what thou word. I'm finding out the greatness of thy loving heart. Thou has bid me gaze upon thee. Thy beauty fills my soul whereby thy transforming power. Thou has made me whole

in Him his life, life abundant. I hope you know it. We pray for us

Jesus, we give you praise this morning as the true vine, as the very Israel of God. The second Adam who's loved us with an everlasting love.

We say, what a gift you have given us that we might abide in you and no life, life abundant. And be a knowledge that every soul in this room knows by experience, not just today but all on into eternity. And may it be to the praise of the Father and you, the dear Son and the Holy Spirit are one triune God for you are worthy. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.