Remaining in Christ through Fellowship

Scripture Reading

John 15:12–17 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 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 abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Thank you, Nathan.

Good morning everyone.

Recap

Last week was an important Sunday. Last week, we celebrated 10 years as Reliance Fellowship. We also had the privilege of, after a long time, formally sending Grace church to minister to West Pasco. It’s a privilege to be able to do that. God has been working through His people to bear good fruit.

It was also an important Sunday because it was the LORD’s day. The day that Christians have gathered to worship in fellowship through the unity of Christ since the resurrection of Jesus. Last week the gospel was proclaimed and Christ was honored through the preaching of His Word and our worship. I don’t just mean our singing, but our fellowship as believers in Jesus Christ.

Last week, Pastor Jacob reminded us that Christ is the one who builds His church and He is the one we embrace.

Matthew 16:15–16 ESV

15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

When Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter proclaims Jesus as his life and salvation. The messiah. The Christ. The foundation of the church is Christ himself. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Today is also an important Sunday. As will next week and the next and the next until Christ returns because that’s when we gather as the people of God to proclaim Jesus as Messiah and LORD over all creation, and to abide more deeply in Him. Every Sunday matters. Every opportunity to gather in fellowship, worship, and praise matters. Praise God for our fellowship!

This Sunday morning I want to talk about this idea of remaining in Christ. We’ve been using the ESV as our bible translation which will use the word “abide.” It’s a word that can mean to “stay put,” or “remain” but its context in this passage implies more than just idle waiting. It means to “continue existing” or “living.” Our very lives are implied in this word used by John. So whether you use the word “remain”, or “abide”, continue in, remain steadfast, “tomato” or “tomahto”, it’s about nourishment, growth, disciple, and the labor of being a branch on the true vine.

Propositional Outline

This morning I want to look at John 15:1-17 from three aspects:

What it means to abide.

What abiding looks like

Answered Prayer, love, joy

The disciplines of the Christian Life

Loving One Another, Abiding in Christ

Let’s Pray.

Pray

Father, you are so good to care for those that you love. You didn’t merely enter this world to demand our obedience as slaves or servants, though you rightly could. Instead, you ask us to live in your friendship and to show your friendship to us through our love for one another just as Jesus has laid down his life for us. Thank you for the cross.

We don’t like to be disciplined or pruned, Father. We are scared of your discipline because we are so familiar with both giving and receiving the wrong kinds of discipline and so unfamiliar with your compassionate discipline . Forgive us for where we don’t trust You. Forgive us for when we don’t trust one-another. Forgive us when we are too harsh or too soft to those you call us to love. You are compassionate. May we rest in the assurance that our present trials and circumstances are for your glory.

Thank you for Jesus’ love. Thank you for the newness of life that He gives. That we can enjoy the fellowship we have with one another because you chose us to be adopted sons and daughters in Jesus Christ before creation. Thank you for the fellowship we have in his friendship.

I pray that we would grow in our abiding in you. That we would find our nourishment, our growth, our discipline, and the works of our labors to be works of Christ. I pray that as I preach this morning, that whatever words I say would be from you and where my heart, mind, or flesh betray me you would prune me to make your Word more beautiful and nourishing to all of us this morning.

Amen

The Labor of God

There were two young fish having a conversation in a large fishbowl one day when an older fish comes up to them while he was on his way to the office. While he was on his way to work, or whatever, he says, “how’s the water today boys?” As he’s leaving the two younger fish look at each other and one of them asks, “what’s water?”

It’s so easy for us to forget the environment we’re in or simply to not know anything about it at all. Maybe it’s because of our youthfulness or old age, or maybe it’s like when you see something so often you eventually forget it’s there. I’m so prone to accepting things as they are without questioning it. Like how easy it is for me to pull out my wallet to remove a piece of plastic to buy goods from someone I don’t really know using money that exists digitally, so not physically, but I trust that it’s there because the machine before me said “thank you valuable customer.” I don’t think much about the world I’m in in those moments. I just operate in it.

Sometimes I surprise myself at the grocery store though. There’s something unnatural about the meat section or even the produce section. I get struck by a disconnect somewhere in the way that we raise our food in one place, process it somewhere else, and then purchase and ultimately consume it in another place. There’s a loss of connection between people. I don’t know the grower, the processor, or even the cashier at the counter. I know this isn’t the case for everyone, but it surprises me sometimes.

This text this morning is an opportunity to remember just what kind of environment we’re in as Christians. Just like the younger fish asking, “what’s water?” I want to look at what it means to abide in Christ. Sometimes as Christians, we operate so well within the molds that we’re used to, that we forget why we are molded that way in the first place.

It is through the labor of God that we are nourished, grow, and bear fruit.

John 15:1-6

Let’s look at John 15:1-6

John 15:1–6 ESV

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 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. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

This is the setup for abiding in Christ.

Just after the Passover meal, Jesus and his disciples step out from the meal where they ask Jesus about where he’s going off to, not knowing or believing that he will soon be killed. This is a dialogue known as Jesus’ farewell discourse. In this interaction with his disciples, Jesus informs them of the nature of his relationship to the father and our relationship to Christ.

Jesus is telling us that the water we’re swimming in as Christians is actually a vine. We’re not like fish in a pond, disconnected from one another and maybe even trying to eat each other, but branches that are attached to the vine, which is Christ. We are connected as an organism with Christ at the center holding us together. A vine tended to by a loving God. A vine with branches, people, that bear fruit. That’s the nature of the church.

There’s a play on words here. The same words for “takes away,” “prunes,” and “clean” are similar in how they sound. Jesus is communicating that the cleansing power of the Word that He has spoken to His disciples is equivalent to the life of the vine pulsating through the branches. This isn’t magical power, this is the Word of God at work in the life of the believer.

Throughout the old testament, a vine is used as a symbol for Israel. A major difference though is that whenever a vine is used for Israel, it describes its inability to bear good fruit, and the threat of God’s judgment.

Isaiah 5:1–7 ESV

1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

But Jesus claims to be the True Vine! What Israel portended, Jesus fulfills. Where Israel was God’s people, those who are in Christ are God’s people.

Psalm 80:14–17 ESV

14 Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, 15 the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself. 16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face! 17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!

That man is Christ Jesus, the Son of God. The labor of God is to tend to the branches of the vine that they may bear much fruit. This is a living intimacy, a mutual indwelling that produces good fruit.

What about the branches that don’t abide? The ones that are cut off and burned?

It’s never wise to push interpreting an analogy beyond its intent. We read from earlier in John’s gospel that the believer has an eternal security an assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ.

John 10:27–29 ESV

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

John isn’t being inconsistent here. He’s sticking with the vine imagery to refer to those who appear to believe in Christ, who appear to be fruitful branches on the vine, but aren’t. They’re dead. The point of the analogy is that those who experience mutual indwelling bear fruit that demonstrates their salvation.

Application

There never was a time and never will be a time when we don’t need the LORD. We are a finite, dependent people, who not because of sin, but by God’s design are wonderfully and joyfully created to be dependent. Our children depend on their parents to care for and nurture them and one day our parents will depend on their children for the same. God made us to be dependent on Him not because he is capricious or arrogant, but because he knows that the fullness of life can only come from him because he knows it best.

Transition

That’s why this analogy continues on what it means to abide. What it looks like. It doesn’t look like us examining God independently, but sustained by the same vine as other branches, as other believers.

The Branches of Christ

Prayer

John 15:7–8 ESV

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

I lived on the West side of the state when I was younger, before my mom remarried and we moved back to Colorado where I was born. When I was maybe ten or eleven years old I had a routine where I would get home from school, maybe do my homework, and then for what felt like 3-4 hours I would shoot hoops in my driveway. Before I would go out though, I would put on my Shawn Kemp jersey from the Sonics, with matching Sonics socks, and a sweatband I had. I looked pretty awesome with my bifocals and bowl haircut on.

I was highly insecure as a kid. There are probably a myriad of reasons for this, but regardless of what they were I struggled to make decisions. Like any decisions. Even dumb stuff like which way I wanted to walk to school. One of the ways that I would “make decisions” was by predicting my future based on my basketball shots. If you remember the story of Gideon in Judges 6, he was basically testing God to determine his will by laying out a fleece. This was a kind of casting of my fleece to determine the LORD’s will. I really wanted to be a scientist like the blue power ranger or Kobe Bryant. So, I would say, “God, if I make this shot, then I’ll be in the NBA.” I’d shoot, miss, and be like, “ok, best 2 out of 3.” I never really believed the outcomes though.

I don’t think that’s what the “ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you” part of this means.

My ten year old brain asking was more out of my flesh, something that needed pruned, rather than a mind that sought to glorify God. We’ve all done that though. Our asking doesn’t come from desires apart from the vine, but from the Words of Christ abiding within us. God’s Word is crucial to our abiding in Him. Listening, reflecting, holding it with a high value and ultimately obeying it.

When we ask God in this way, we are praying. Look at what he says that He’ll do. He says “it will be done for you.” And then he begins talking about bearing much fruit.

Answered prayer accomplishes three things for God:

It’s a form of the branches bearing fruit.

Branches that bear fruit are in an active relationship with God and the fruit is measurable of that relationship.

This doesn’t mean that God answers every single prayer. But when God answers the fruit is unmistakable.

Answered prayer maintains a close relationship with Jesus

Christ draws our dependent selves back to him when he answers our prayers.

The faithful believer can see where Jesus has proven himself over and over by answering our prayers.

This is perfectly inline with verse 8. It glorifies God! It proves that we belong to Christ.

Attached to the true vine, we see answered prayer. We see the fruit of God.

Love

We also see God’s love expressed here. This extends all the way from God the Father to His Son and from His Son to us. We’re commanded to abide in his love by keeping his commandments.

John 15:9–10 ESV

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

The love of God isn’t just this sentimentality. It’s not less than something experienced, but that’s not all there is. See here, in this passage, love and obedience are intertwined.

Application

Some of us believe that love is only this emotional experience that is based on affection and desire. It’s experiential, it’s ethereal, it’s like being baked inside of a loaf of bread. It’s warm and it smells amazing, it’s tangible, and it’s wonderful. I have some weird thoughts about swimming in Jello too. These experiences about love are true, but they’re not complete.

Some of us believe that love is only expressed in our actions. Like, we’ll fellowship with other people, serve in whatever ministry we’re in and go to the event but we do it begrudgingly and ultimately grumble and complain about it and the other people we’re around. But we were obedient! We showed love! Love through obedience only is true here, but it’s not complete either. This isn’t real obedience because our heart has no attachment to our service.

The truth is that our obedience stems from our affections for Christ. When we rest in, abide in, recognize our life comes from Christ’s love that was given to him by the Father, and then keep his commandments the love given to us is proved!

Attached to the true vine, we see love expressed in obedience.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Joy

But what is love’s aim?

John 15:11 ESV

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Jesus is sharing all of this with his disciples for their benefit. It’s for their joy.

Apart from the vine, joy cannot be found. Attached to the vine, joy abounds. Our obedience doesn’t result in a complaining spirit, neither does our love result in vain idolatry. Our love and obedience result in full joy. This isn’t joy that comes from a life of ease, but a life that is shared with devotion to Jesus Christ.

There is no satisfaction in life without joy.

Love One Another

Fruit is important to the owner of a vineyard. It is his economy. Food, livelihood, and joy come from a vine bearing a good fruit. The Labor of God is to tend to His vine, and its branches. The mark of a Christian is to show that they are connected to Christ. They must bear fruit. A branch that is detached from the vine, yet claims satisfaction and nourishment is illogical to branches attached to the vine. It can’t be sustained. It can’t be full, because it is completely disconnected both from the true vine, but also from the other branches. While individual branches are removed from the vine, each branch is connected through the vine, which is where Jesus directs our attention next.

John 15:12–15 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

The standard for as branches on the true vine is nothing short of Christ’s love. Since these are some of the last moments he will have with his disciples, John is forshadowing what Jesus will do for his friends. Those attached to the vine are not mere servants, or slaves, who don’t understand their purpose. They know what the master is doing because Christ, through his love, revealed it to them.

John 15:16–17 ESV

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 abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Unless the disciples are tempted to think that it was their work apart from Christ that display the love of Christ, He reminds them that He is the one who chose his branches. He chose them that they should bear fruit.

I don’t think these verses are disconnected from the vine analogy Jesus uses previously. In verse 16, he reiterates the bearing of fruit and that it should abide. Then he reiterates almost as bookends to this section beginning in verse 12, to love one another.

Abide in Him

I think I was just thinking a lot about fish this week or something. There was a time, when I was a part of the church, but disconnected enough to be able to poke at it without any kind of repercussion. I had superficial friendships that allowed me to be critical of other people, leadership, programs, worship music, preaching, theology. Whatever it was. I was a branch, connected to the vine, but my critical spirit towards the other branches left me friendless and I wasn’t able to grow in my faith, or help others grow in theirs.

If you are like how I was, you have a tendency to be a kind of person who lives outside of the fishbowl. It’s easy to live outside of the community of God and poke at the glass with your finger, but satisfaction isn’t found by poking at fish. Satisfaction is found by enjoying what’s going on in the fishbowl, even when the water is a little dirty. Maybe you have perspective on things. Share it! But, don’t be afraid or angry when things don’t go your way. Love those you are around. Love the church, flaws and all. Jesus didn’t lay down his life out of joyless duty, but out of obedient love!

Abide in that love. Abiding requires reading and studying God’s Word, meditating on it like how a cow ruminates its cud. It is loving fellow believers, having a regular and realized prayer life and practicing spiritual disciplines.

Do you want to see how well you are abiding? Examine your fruit. Pray confidently, see the assurance of Christ’s love and joy that surpasses pain, pleasure, or the muindane. Make way to cultivate new depths of fellowship with fellow believers. Evangelism. Sharing the gospel of Christ with those you love.

The depth of a relationship with Jesus who has called you his friend.

On our own, we cannot do these things and expect to see the fruit of God. But, God shows us that fruit as He works in us. He proves to the world that we are his disciples. That he loves us. That he calls us friend.

Let’s pray