The Fruit of Abiding in Christ

Last week I asked a rather provocative question. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do? What would you say? This is the context of the last two I AM statements of Christ. It is his last night with his disciples before he is betrayed, arrested, and hung on a cross. He is sharing some final words of instruction and comfort as they prepare to step into a day in which he is not present.

Last week we saw Jesus say he is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no way to God but through Jesus Christ. He was assuring his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them, and when he returns he will come for them. In the latter half of chapter 14, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit. He describes a little bit of who he is and what he will do., bringing us to chapter 15.

John 15:1–3 NASB95

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Jesus uses a metaphor here of a vine and vinedresser. Every skilled gardener knows about the pruning process. In this illustration, Jesus is the vine, his followers are the branches, and God is the vinedresser. The vinedresser examines the plant to see if there are any dead branches, then cuts them off to allow the healthy, living parts of the plant to grow. We do the same thing when we trim trees. We cut away the parts that are no good. The disciples are called clean. This could also be rendered as pure. Pruning has already taken place.

The key word in the next section and the essence of the message today is abide. The word appears eleven times in this passage, but only in six verses. The word means to remain, stay, or persist. Don’t let go. It is Christ’s desire that his followers remain connected to him at all times. To abide in Christ means to maintain a deep, continuous, and life-giving relationship with Him, resulting in spiritual fruitfulness, answered prayers, and a life marked by love. To abide in Christ is to bear fruit. Today, we are going to look at the fruit of abiding in Christ.

Abiding in Christ results in spiritual fruitfulness.

God did not create us to be lazy. God did not create us to merely show up on Sunday and listen to a guy speak on the Bible. Those are components of what we do, but he called us to produce. He called us to work. Even Adam had a job in the garden of Eden. The point is we cannot produce if we are not connected to the one who will produce the work in us.

John 15:4–8 NASB95

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

Craig Etheredge is the pastor of Cross Creek Church in Colleyville, Texas. We writes about his experience as a young pastor in Oklahoma City where two older men approached him and began mentoring him. This relationship began something in Craig that focused his ministry on making disciples. He studied the life of Christ trying to understand how Jesus made disciples, and built a ministry around what he found. Today, decades later, Craig has personally discipled tons of men who have gone on to disciple more men, and the ministry he has begun has impacted churches all over the country and the world. It is true when I say Craig Etheredge has borne much fruit.

You see, we are called by God to be producers. Bearing fruit is more than exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit. It is multiplying disciples. When we see the purpose of church as disciple-making, we see it as more than church attendance and more than living a good, moral life. We see it as intentional relationship building that produces godliness in other people.

What sort of spiritual fruit are you producing in your life? Are there people you are intentionally investing in so as to pass on the faith? 2 Timothy 2:2

2 Timothy 2:2 NASB95

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

What i want you to see here is there is four generations of followers here. First you have Paul, who invested in Timothy, who is investing in faithful men, who will invest in others. When we abide in Christ, and place the mission at the center of our lives, we will produce spiritual fruit.

Abiding in Christ results in answered prayer.

There is a promise contained in verses seven and sixteen, that are reminiscent of the promise we saw in chapter fourteen, verses 13-14.

John 15:7 NASB95

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 15:16 NASB95

“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

Remember, this does not give us the right to approach God as a cosmic genie or vending machine, where we get to voice our prayer and he spits out the answer we want. That’s not how God works.

Rather, the secret sauce to prayer is this concept of abiding. As we abide in Christ, we are cultivating that relationship. When that happens, the line between our will and his will begins to blur. The things I pray about and pray for begin to change. What we pray for begins to better align with his will.

At the end of last year, Marci and I were thinking seriously about buying a new car. We spotted a Robin’s egg blue Bronco on the Ford dealer’s lot. It was a nice looking car, and Marci loved it. We were traveling to Houston, and I said if the car is there when we get back, we’ll go look at it. It was there, but it took us a few weeks to find the time. When we had the time, the car had been sold.

A couple months later, I took my car in for an oil change and Marci called me and told me to look into the Edge sitting on the lot. I looked out the window and said, “That looks like Patty Reagan’s old car.” Sure enough, it was. Within days, we saw what they were offering, what my trade in was worth, and we bought the car free and clear. No car loan. Now we have a nice, dependable car we will use to transport our two girls in for years to come. That was an answered prayer. We didn’t end up with what we thought we wanted, but we did end up with what we needed.

I encourage you to deepen your prayer lives and align your requests with God’s will. One way to do that is to simply pray scripture back to God. It has been a while now, but I handed out a book called Praying the Bible that addresses that subject. If you read it before, but still find yourself needing to deepen your prayer life, consider reading it again. Secondly, build in margin for listening for God’s voice. Sometimes we have a hard time listening because we don’t take the time to slow down and listen. For me, this looks like finding a place to be by myself, free of distractions, where I can sit and listen.

Abiding in Christ results in a life marked by love.

The word used most often in this passage is the word abide. The second most used word in this passage is love. It is used nine times, and is a result of abiding in Christ.

John 15:9–17 NASB95

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. “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. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. “You are My friends if you do what I command you. “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. “This I command you, that you love one another.

What Jesus has received from the Father, he has passed on to us. If we are cultivating a deep, continuous, life-giving relationship with Christ, a life marked by love is the result. You cannot love Jesus and hate others. That is impossible. A love for Christ and obeying his commands produces love for self and love for others. This is one of the fruits of the Spirit. This love is modeled after the love from God and the sacrificial love he has exhibited for us. He was willing to lay down his life for his friends. The Bible says we were enemies of God, yet Christ voluntarily gave his life for us anyway.

I was watching a movie about two brothers. The older brother managed to keep himself out of the street gangs, but his younger brother did not. As the younger brother began to realize the street life wasn’t what he thought it was, he reached out to his older brother for help. There was one way to leave the gang. The younger brother watched as the gang members beat his older brother within an inch of his life. The older brother survived, but he submitted himself voluntarily to this beating to save his brother.

Love is costly. Our love for others will cost us something. It costs us our comfort. It costs us our time. It costs energy. It costs us our convenience. But when love is sacrificial, it is always worth the price.

Perhaps you need to evaluate your love for others today and take steps to demonstrate Christ’s love in practical ways. You can participate in our food bank ministry once a month. You can make goodie bags for teachers for the start of the next school year. We can organize a day where we pick up trash around the city. If we stop and look around, I’m sure there is no shortage of opportunity around us.

APPLICATION

We see that abiding in Christ, remaining connected to him, is to maintain a deep, continuous, life-giving relationship with him resulting in spiritual fruitfulness, answered prayer, and a life marked by love. Let us commit to abiding in him so we can experience a life of fruitfulness. There is no greater joy than a life walking in step with Christ.

Which of these is an area in which you need work? Is it being actively involved in the mission of Christ? We are still developing a disciple-making culture in our church. We have spent this year working on evaluating tools and processes, but disciple-making is simple. It is investing your life into another so they may reproduce theirs in others. Is there anyone you are personally investing your life in? If not, will you begin praying for God to give you someone?

It might be that your prayer life is not what you think it should be. It may be that you need to evaluate the motivations behind your prayers. Rather than ask God for something, start by asking how that something can best be used to glorify him. That is a prayer I know he will answer.

Finally, how are you loving your neighbor? How are you loving the body of Christ? So many times we look to the church as something we can get something from. We should focus our thoughts on what we are contributing to the church. Can it be said of you that your life is marked by one of sacrificial love?

Let us ask the Lord to speak to us as we commit ourselves to him.