Day of Prayer

big idea: remain in Jesus - the only path to fruitfulness - and it’s guarantee

Intro me

If you’ve been with us a while, you’ll know we’ve gradually been working our way through Matthew’s gospel, his telling of the story of Jesus - but in December we took a break to focus on the Christmas story, then last week we were thinking about thankfulness as the year closed and a new one began. This week we have one more special before we get back into the thick of it as we’re focusing our day together on prayer.

Jesus once said this: “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” How’s that for an invitation to place at the heart of a day of prayer, right? What power, what potential there is in prayer. It’s like a blank cheque ready for us to plug anything in and go cash it! Or if you’re a younger person, it’s like God handing you his iPhone with the banking app still open! Ready to get asking?

But we have to grasp the context of this incredible promise before we can experience it’s power. In that same conversation with his first followers, he also warned them “apart from me you can do nothing.” so it’s not a total free-for-all.

Let’s explore what Jesus has to say to us at the start of the fifteenth chapter of the book of John. And fittingly enough, Johnny is going to be reading for us this morning. So, John chapter 15 - page 1083 in these blue Bibles and let’s hear what Jesus has to say:

John 15:1–8 NIV

“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.

Jesus is using a picture to explain something critically important here - and a whole lot of gardening stuff tied up in that: vines, branches, pruning, withering, and fruit - first no fruit, then fruit, then more fruitful - finally much fruit. Who’s a keen gardener here? Who’s say they have a bit of a green thumb? Well you definitely have an advantage today. Who’s not even capable of keeping a cactus alive? You might need a spot more help here.

But the core of what Jesus is telling us is very very simple indeed - simple, but critical. Let’s unpack this in three steps: the vine, the fruit, the promise. First, the vine

The Vine

You might not know it, but this picture of a vine is used a bunch of times in the bible before Jesus picks it up. As soon as Jesus mentioned a vine, his original audience would immediately be thinking of God’s chosen people, the Jews - because they’re pictured as a vine repeatedly in the Old Testament, the first part of our Bible. Psalm 80. Isaiah 5. Jeremiah 2.

When Jesus emphasises that he’s the true vine, he’s throwing some shade on that other vine. Why? Because God the Father, God the gardener in this picture, had a purpose for His vine, His people. He didn’t choose and bless a people just so they could have his special attention. He wasn’t growing it for fun, or as a low-maintenance pet - you don’t have to walk a vine, right?!

In the picture, God the gardener plants the vine, cares for it so that it would bear fruit. God had a purpose for his people, from the very beginning: that they would be a blessing to the world, a light to the nations. Gen 12:2

Genesis 12:2 NIV

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

Genesis 22:18 (NIV)

through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed

Only they weren’t. Although the gardener watered, tended, pruned, that vine was fruitless. Instead the people let go of God’s ways, his heart. They let go of God himself. No fruit from them, no light from them, no blessing through them.

That’s why Jesus calls himself the true vine - over and against this failed people - because he would be the one through whom God would finally bring that fruitfulness, that light, that blessing into the world. He’d be the one through which God’s purpose for the world, his project in it, would finally begin to take root.

John 15:5 NIV

“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.

He is the vine - we are the branches - God’s people made new. And this time, God’s people rooted in God himself - remember the name Immanuel given to Jesus in the Christmas story? That word means God-with-us. Jesus, the true vine, is literally God-with-us. We are the branches stretching out from this good root, this God-root.

And God has a purpose for this true vine too: he’s planted us, rooted us in Jesus, so that we bear fruit. That’s what He’s about, that’s what He’s working for in Jesus. That’s what He’s working for in us and through us, tending and pruning. This vine is His plan for restoring and renewing our broken world.

The Fruit

So what’s this fruit that we’re planted for? What’s our part in God’s plan for restoring and renewing our broken world?

Do you know what centrifugal and centripetal forces are? Who knows? Well, if you’ve ever been on a roundabout you do know what they are at least from an experience point-of-view - particularly driving at my speeds! Centrifugal force is what makes you get thrown outwards, squished up against the car window as we screech round the corner. Centripetal force is what stops you going out the door and keeps you in the car! Centrifugal - going outwards; centripetal pulling inwards. Got that?

The fruit that Jesus is talking about has both centrifugal and centripetal parts: it’s outbound and inbound. Shining and stretching out. Calling and drawing in.

First, bearing fruit is living lives that reflect God’s character, lives that shine God’s righteousness and goodness out into the dark world around us. Perhaps you’ve heard of the fruit of the Spirit? Well, that’s definitely baked into the fruit that Jesus is talking about here: Gal 5:22-23

Galatians 5:22–23 NIV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

This is what should grow out of us as God works within us by his Spirit. This is what should shine out from us to the world around, making God’s goodness and His righteousness known through what He’s done and He’s doing in us.

This is what the old vine, God’s people the Jews were meant to do: to be a demonstration of God’s righteous ways and His good design in the middle of a dark world. And this is what we really can be through Jesus the true vine - this is what God intends for us: to bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: love joy peace. forbearance kindness goodness. faithfulness gentleness self-control.

But second, bearing fruit is calling and drawing people into this new life that God is giving us through Jesus.

We talk a lot about multiplying at Hope City - our vision and hope as a church is to be a humble family under God engaging everyone in multiplying followers of Jesus. Multiplication is at the heart of what we’re about.

Did you notice that this picture of fruit that Jesus is using has multiplication built in? Because you know what’s in the core of an apple? Apple seeds of course - seeds for a whole new tree growing apples containing seeds for a whole new tree - fruit carries a seed - that’s the definition - that’s why tomatoes are a fruit! Yep I know we’ve made mutant plants which grow seedless grapes but I checked with Miriam Webster just to be sure, and fruit is “the usually edible reproductive body of a seed plant”.

This picture of fruit has reproduction, has multiplication built into it’s nature - and that’s the inbound partner to this outbound shining of God’s goodness and righteousness growing in us. Fruit works both ways - means both things. Just like God’s original design for his people, we are here to be a light to the nations, and to call and draw those around us in towards Him.

The Promise

Ok, so we’ve talked about the vine. We’ve talked about the fruit. What about the promise? Well, actually there’s a whole pile of promises in this short passage and we won’t get to them all today. But I want to highlight one big negative:

John 15:4 (NIV)

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

John 15:5 (NIV)

apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus is pretty clear here, right? This fruit we’ve been talking about, we can’t make it by ourselves. We can fake it, but we can’t make it. We can’t do this by ourselves, independently. We don’t have within us the raw ingredients for either kind, either direction, of fruitfulness: for the transformation of our own hearts and lives which would make us shine out; for the transformation of others, opening their eyes to Jesus as they’re drawn in.

Promise #1: Apart from me you can do nothing. Not “apart from me, it’ll be a real struggle” or “apart from me, your mileage may vary” - but “apart from me you can do nothing”. Zip. Zero. And that’s a promise. No fruit that will last is possible without Jesus. And a fruitless vine is a pointless vine. This is why God is gardening - this is what he is aiming for. If we’re not bearing fruit, we’re totally useless, entirely missing our purpose in life.

But let’s not stop there - let me give you the counterpoint too: Promise #2: John 15:5

John 15:5 (NIV)

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit

It is actually impossible to be fruitless when we remain in Jesus. That’s a promise, plain and simple. He doesn’t say “you could” or “you might” bear fruit. He promises you will bear fruit - and not just fruit, a bumper crop. You will bear much fruit. Fruit outbound, shining from your own transformation; fruit inbound as God uses you to call others towards Jesus. You - and I - will bear much fruit if we remain in Jesus. Promise #2.

Now I expect some of us, perhaps many of us, are in danger of reading these promises backwards and thinking “well, I don’t see much fruit, so am I really in Jesus?” But before we freak out, it’s important we notice another part of the picture Jesus is using here, another aspect built right into his imagery.

Anyone know what this is? A Christmas present for my wife last year - it’s called a “click and grow” auto garden, our own little hydroponic installation feels like we’re on a space station: it delivers just the right light, just the right water, just the right nutrients to help plants grow all year round.

Only here’s a tomato plant I plugged in on Friday. Ummm … not a lot to see yet, is there. Here’s the thing: Fruit takes time - no seed, no vine bears fruit immediately as it is planted. Or bears new fruit every day. Fruit comes over time. And Fruit comes in season not continually. Jesus’ promise to us is that it will come. Much fruit will come. Make sense?

So the last thing we need to dig into as we’re thinking about prayer today, and as we’re moving into a day of asking God for things, for fruit, is the condition for Jesus’ promise: “if you remain in me”. What does he mean? What would it mean to remain in Jesus? How do you, or I, actually do that?

Well, think about the opposite: the opposite of remaining in Jesus is leaving Jesus. The branches in Jesus’ picture don’t go anywhere by themselves, of course. They gradually extend outward from the vine but they never leave it - they’re always connected.

Unless something, someone outside acts on them, of course - perhaps I rip a branch off being the hooligan I am. Imagine that branch - one removed from the vine, the source of its life. How much fruit could it bear? Think of cut flowers - even in a vase, even if we treat them well, even if we shake in that tiny fiddly pack of nutrients, it’s not long before they wither. That branch is definitely not going to be bearing any fruit.

Now we’re not nearly as sensible as a branch - we have our own two legs, our own mind, our own will. We’re surrounded by the pull of others, the pull of the world. Sadly, we’re perfectly capable of leaving instead of remaining: of walking away from Jesus’ teaching, his words, his ways, his life. But when we leave, we leave behind our potential for fruitfulness. God’s project for His world isn’t going anywhere through us without His life flowing into us.

So do you feel like you have left Jesus rather than remained in him? Or are you at best barely connected, just hanging onto the vine by a thread? I expect all of us have been there - I expect many of us feel that today.

One of the great truths of the gospel is that Jesus is not scowling disapprovingly at the mess we leave behind us, arms folded in rejection - he’s always glad we’ve turned back toward him, ready and willing to graft us back in as we return. To bind up what’s been shattered, to make new what’s been broken. The next part of our gathering will be an opportunity to reach out to God in prayer for exactly this, confessing where we’ve left him, where we’ve broken or weakened that connection, and to seek his pardon and assurance.

But perhaps you’ve never felt or known the life of Jesus flowing through you, making you fruitful? Well it’s God’s plan that you are here this morning. Perhaps you are part of the fruit he’s been cultivating this vine around you to bear. Perhaps it’s your time to join it. That’s a big step - but not a complicated one. You don’t need to get it all in order to get started. All you need to do is to tell God you’re ready to turn away from going your own way, then ask Jesus to come remain in you, and commit to remaining in him instead. You can do that right now, talking to God inside your head. He’s ready and waiting for you.

Is this your day? Don’t miss this opportunity - being fruitful is what you were made for, what your life is about. And it’s only truly possible in the vine - in Jesus. Take that step right now - and tell someone you’ve done that today. Tell someone you came with. Tell me. If you’re online, click the button to tell our chat host privately.

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Jesus wants to pour his life into us by his Spirit and make us fruitful, have us bear much fruit - but for that to be possible, we have to remain in him, not leave. And that’s the place the promise about prayer that we started with stands. That’s where we close.

John 15:7–8 NIV

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.

The more we are in Jesus, and he is in us, the more this will be true of what we wish for - of what we pray for. The more our prayers will be aligned with the Father’s glory, the more our prayers will be for the very same fruit that He intends to grow in and through us. That’s how this works.