Abiding John 15:4-6

Every restaurant has it: the secret sauce. It’s the thing that makes their restaurant unique! It sets them apart and you can’t really enjoy the food unless you have the sauce with it. Imagine Foosackly’s without Foo sauce or Big Bob’s without white barbecue sauce. It’s impossible! You can try it, but it’s just not quite right. That’s what we are talking about today, the secret sauce that makes the Christian life possible and fruitful. The secret sauce of the Christian life is abiding in Jesus.

-Genuine Fruitfulness is Impossible Apart from Christ

I. Abiding in Christ requires a mutual commitment (What is abiding in Christ?)

Jesus gives us an instruction in this passage that feels a little foreign: abide or remain in Him

How do you do that? It requires a mutual commitment

When we believe the Gospel, we gain a new life that is connected to the vine, to Christ: This was the Father’s intent!

This happens as a result of Christ’s work on the cross for us

The work that allows us to abide in Him is completed by Him

This is precisely why He died, so that we could live in connection with Him

Further, the ongoing work of connecting us to Christ so that we will abide is accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit

He empowers us for righteous living

He convicts concerning sin

He grants us wisdom to know the plans of God

What responsibility do we have then? It is the responsibility to stay rooted in the position He has planted us: in Christ

We have a couple of dogs in our family: Dixie and Bay. They are both pretty good dogs and relatively smart. They can follow some basic instructions, but there’s one that neither of them seem to obey at all: Stay! That’s exactly the instruction that Jesus is giving us here. We must stay in Him and not wander off to follow our own way. It’s just that simple, even if it’s not always easy to do.

II. Abiding is an act of contentment and dependence (How do I abide in Christ?)

How, then, does a person remain in Christ?

On one level, it is about contentment:

I have to learn to be contented with the life that I have in Christ

His calling, His provision, and His purpose are more than enough for your life, but we tend to scramble to find “something better”

A spirit of discontent that is frustrated with the Lord and His work, marked by impatience, arrogance, and bitterness will disconnect you from the life of Christ flowing into you

When we live out a healthy Christian contentment, we will be satisfied to live in line with His character and His design

Likewise, it is an act of dependence

You cannot remain in Christ and do things your way and in your strength

You must become dependent on His direction, His way of doing things, and His provision for your life to abide in Christ

In some ways, this feels terribly limiting, but it is in line with what we understand about His identity as Lord!

When you recognize Jesus as Lord and submit your life to Him, you can stop being afraid of losing your life; instead, you will find an even better one!

Mark 8:34–37

[34] And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [35] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. [36] For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? [37] For what can a man give in return for his soul? (ESV)

Colossians 3:2–3

[2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (ESV)

Matthew 11:28–30

[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV)

III. Abiding recognizes our need for the life and power of Christ (Why should I abide in Christ?)

As we close this morning, I think that it’s critical that we understand the why:

We must abide in Christ because the consequences are impossibly high

If we are not abiding in Him, our lives, we see are on a path to isolation and destruction

The life of a disconnected branch from the vine is practically no life at all, but when we feed discontentment with Christ, reject His authority over us, or try to operate in our own strength, it will lead us to ruin, even the best of us

The second truth here is equally important: We cannot bear fruit apart from Him

This can be incredibly difficult to grasp, but you cannot do the work of the Lord in your own strength and expect it to bear fruit

When you reject His instruction, His character, and His purpose, you cannot be surprised when you also forfeit the power that brings life from death and changes everything

You will only bear fruit as the life of Christ is lived in you.

How should I respond to this truth?

Am I content with what the Lord has provided for me and called me to, or am I struggling against Him out of a sense of dissatisfaction?

Am I intentionally connecting with Him so that I will renew my strength and know Him better?

Am I trusting in His ability to care for me, resting in His character?

When we do this, powerful things happen!

A couple years ago I got to take a tour of the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California. The name is a bit misleading because what they are most known for are their amazing gardens. And so we were on this tour and I got to learn something about the history of roses. And it goes something like this.

There have been roses since we have been on this planet, but the wild roses in Europe, while all different colors and quite beautiful, would only bloom once a year, and so for most of the warm months you would be looking at a bunch of ugly green canes with thorns, no flowers. But then, some botanists in the late 18th century began experimenting by grafting the Chinese wild rose, which was only green, but bloomed all summer, with the European rose, and after a bunch of testing, created what we know to be the modern rose, which blooms from June through October, but not only in green, but in a myriad of colors.

Isn’t that interesting, so roses as we know them are really a modern invention, and because of the grafting of the wild Chinese rose with the roses of Europe, we have this stronger, much more beautiful flower than we ever had before.