The Gospel of John: Abiding In Christ Part 2

Abiding In Christ Leads to Power in Prayer

So we ended our time last week starting to look at the four results that Jesus shows us about what abiding in Him gives us. The first one we looked at was that abiding in Christ delivers us from judgment. Jesus warns us in John 15:6 that branches that do not abide in Him (false professors of faith) are removed, dry up, and are thrown into the fire of God’s judgment. But those that abide n Christ will be delivered from God’s judgment because they abide in Him and bear good fruit.

The second result is abiding in Christ leads us to power in prayer. John 15:7 Now this result is essentially the same promise that John gives in John 14:13-14. The difference here is that Jesus adds the nuance of His words abiding in us. Jesus is purposefully connecting the ability to pray and ask God anything in His name, and He will do it, to we must pray with His Word abiding in us. A. W. Pink explains that Jesus refers to a life that is “regulated by the Scriptures.” He goes on to say that Jesus speaks of His “words,” which refer to “the precepts and promises of Scripture personally appropriated, fed upon by faith, hidden in the heart.... It is … constant and habitual communion with God through the Word, until its contents become the substance of our innermost beings.” In other words, Matthew 12:34, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” When we abide in Christ and His words abide in us, then our prayers will be filled with His Word. And, as Richard D. Phillips points out, “According to Jesus’ promise, whenever we pray for the priorities He has taught in Scripture, we should pray with an absolute certainty of divine answers.” The best way to have your prayers answered is to pray Jesus’ own words back to him, in the context of His teachings.

But, you might ask yourself, why do my prayers seem weak and and ineffective? We have no further to look than verse 7, perhaps it stems from a lack of abiding in Christ and in His Word. A. W. Pink again writes: “Why is there so little power of prayer like this in our own times? Simply because there is so little close communion with Christ, and so little strict conformity to His words. Men do not ‘abide in Christ,’ and therefore pray in vain. Christ’s words do not abide in them, as their standard of practice, and therefore their prayers are not answered.” So what is the “secret” to power in prayer? It is to live in such close communion with Christ that our own thoughts and desires, that come out in the prayers that we pray, have been shaped and grounded by His Word.

Abiding in Christ Glorifies the Father

The third result is that abiding in Christ glorifies the Father. Question 1 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks us what is the chief end of man (to glorify God). John 15:8 How does Jesus say we glorify God in this passage? By proving our discipleship in the bearing of much good fruit to the Lord. So if the chief end of man is to glorify God and if we glorify God by bearing much fruit, then our we must be very concerned with the way that we live. Has God transformed our hearts and lives? A transformed heart and life is more than just speaking praise to God and singing hallelujahs. It is, as Paul wrote in Philippians 2, a life of obedience to Christ’s Word and a working out of our own salvation with fear and trembling, all while once again realizing that the Father is the gardener, the vinedresser, who is working in us “both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” And it is God working in us, corrupt sinners who were undeserving of salvation, to bring about “much fruit” that glorifies Him more than anything else to the world.

Many professing Christians lacj assurance and peace in their salvation, some living with great doubt and fear, because they are careless about abiding in Christ. J. C. Ryle observes, “Men are content with a little Christianity, and a little fruit of the Spirit, and do not labour to be ‘holy in all manner of conversation’ (1 Peter 1:15). They must not wionder iof they enjoy little peace, feel little hope, and leave behind them little evidence.” If you want to receive the maximum benefit from your faith, then we must be of maximum usefulness to the Lord by abiding in Christ and bearing much fruit so as to both glorify the Father and prove our discipleship.

Abiding in Christ Fills Us With Joy

John 15:11 This is a very important point that we as Christians today must understand. The world bombards us with advertisements of sinful pleasures. It pushes the narrative that you will never be more happy than when you are doing what makes you feel good. The lie of the world is that you will only find true fulfillment, true joy, if you can love anyone you want, be whatever you want, and have whatever you want. Jesus here insists the exact opposite is true. The only way to find true fulfillment and joy is by abiding in Him. Young people, you must believe this. I know it doesn’t seem that way on the surface, but this is reality. What the world offers you is counterfeit, it is not real. It’s fake. The world offers you fake love, fake identity, and fake security. Worldly distractions will actually keep you from experiencing the true joy that is found only in fellowship with Christ. Disobedience and rebellion to God and His Word robs you of true contentment and fulfillment. David prays this is his great prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:11-12 “Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” Sin actually kept David from the spiritual joy he had previously known. He plea here is not just for forgiveness, but a restoration of God’s presence which gives him great joy. In John 15:11 Jesus speaks of His joy being in us.

What was His joy? It was in pleasing the Father through obedience. And He tells that only by abiding in Him will our joy be full. The problem we have with this type of joy is that we have a worldly mindset when it comes to joy. We think joy is accomplished when all of our dreams come true or we get all we want or we succeed in everything we put our hand to. Hebrews 12:2 speaks of Jesus’ joy in enduring the cross because it was through the cross that we obtained eternal life. For the Christian, death doesn’t have victory over us, because death brings us face to face with our Lord and Savior and ushers us into the eternal life we gained through Christ. Richard D. Phillips writes, “Abiding in Him, as a living branch in the true vine, we experience His life flowing into us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, so that our deep experience of blessing matures into the rich wine of spiritual joy as we abide in Him.”

Do you find that you long for the fullness of Christ’s joy in your life? Jesus longs for us to experience it. You can live a life free of judgment and condemnation, full of the power of a life of prayer, glorifying God in all that you say and do, and being full of real and everlasting joy. All you need to do is abide in Christ, dwell in His love for you, response to His love by obeying His commands, and then abound in the divine joy that only He possesses and gives to those who abide in Him.