Joy | John 15:1-7

Intro

Hey Y’all hows it going?

Everyone good? Cool.

SO here is what I want to do tonight,

As we keep walking through the theme of advent,

I want you to think about Joy.

I think of the four themes of advent

Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love,

Joy is one that we probably don’t think about a whole lot.

When it comes to the Gospel,

We have Hope that the gospel brings,

Peace that the gospel brings.

The love of Christ is shown through the Gospel,

But when we get to joy, do we ever really think about how the Gospel brings Joy?

Or how Christ coming brings Joy?

The Hebrew people were certainly joyful about the coming messiah,

In Luke, Mary’s aunt Elizabeth experiences Joy when her baby leaps in the womb, she knows Mary’s child is the messiah.

but like us,

do we ever describe ourselves as joyful?

If you’re talking to someone and they ask how you are, you’re never like, man I am just Joyful! Full of joy!

We don’t do that, we don’t think in that way. right?

And an interesting thing happened during the election.

The democratic candidate basically tried to run on this idea of Joy.

Did any of you hear that?

Like when Harris or Waltz would make speeches, they would bring out Joy.

You got Tim Waltz, waving his hands, look how joyful this room is.

And that was the messaging they wanted to put out there,

They were bringing the “Joy” back.

At the Democratic National Convention, one speaker called her the President of Joy.

The vibes were all joy.

And at least myself, when i heard that, I kinda had to ask the question.

What is that?

What does that mean?

It sounds good, but like, what does it mean?

Bringing the joy back?

It didn’t make sense, — and it showed on election day, when that campaigned got obliterated.

But if we read through scripture, we see this concept come up a good bit.

This idea of Joy.

SO here’s my question for you

What is Joy?

Is it the same as happiness?

No, joy isn’t just happiness

Happiness is more of a temporary emotion right?

You’re happy one day, sad the next.

But I think Happiness does play in to joy, When you have joy you have some happiness.

It’s kinda like this,

Who likes waffle house?

Big fan of waffle house,

Who is getting the all-star?

Thats the go to order of waffle house, for me.

But happiness is eating the All-Star, you got your waffle, hash browns, eggs, sausage, toast.

You’re eating it, loving it.

And then you’re done. Its over.

And then you’re satisfied, you’re full,

Joy is that, joy is the satisfaction of having eaten at waffle house,

when you leave the waffle house, you still have the satisfaction, you are still full, for the rest of the day.

The waffle house is with you, people know you have been to waffle house, because you smell like waffle house.

Joy comes from being with, being satisfied, being fulfilled. And you want that again, thats why waffle house is great, you’re always gonna go back to it.

See the difference?

Joy isn’t just a deeper happiness, Joy is something else entirely.

CS Lewis in his book, surprised by joy says this about Joy

“All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still 'about to be'.”

Joy reminds us that there is something greater,

Joy creates in us desire.

Joy stays with us.

Joy is really a posture of life, more than a fleeting emotion.

So this is where I want to live tonight

So let’s get in to it.

Context

Tonight we are going to be back in John,

Last week we talked about peace, how advent shows us the hope of the Gospel.

But tonight we are talking about Joy.

And were we are in John is right after what we looked at last week,

We looked at how Jesus gives us His peace which is not like the world gives peace

that his peace is wholly different.

And so tonight we are going to be in John 15:1-17,

mainly focused on verse 11, that is the hinge verse for the passage.

There is a before this verse and an after this verse, and the meaning of the passage is wrapped up in that verse.

So if you have a bible, open up to John 15, if you need a bible throw a hand up, look around for one.

Okay, let me set the stage before we read this,

So Jesus, is speaking to the disciples, reminding to remember all he has taught them.

Jesus is wanting them to understand this,

that part of being a follower of Jesus is to understand these words.

This is such an important verse when it comes to growing in Christ likeness.

in being formed to be like Christ.

So let’s read this whole passage together, but before we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word.

pray with me

We come here tonight seeking after your heart, Jesus go before us in this text and make a way, holy spirit give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and father speak for your servants are indeed listening.

Okay, so let’s read this whole passage together and then let’s talk about to.

Read this with me John 15:1-17

John 15:1–17 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. 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. 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 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.

Okay, so what is going on here?

Jesus gives famous analogy, I am the true vine. Every branch that does not bear fruit is thrown in to the fire, it’s cut off.

And we understand what is going on, but to the tat time and society.

one of the things just about everyone had or had access to was a grapevine, you made all sorts of things from grapes, and so it was a big part of their diet.

And they had to really take care of the vines.

When I was in Israel we saw some grapevines that were cared for in this way.

and to create the highest yield of grapes, to be able to gather the most grapes, they would have to cut away the branches that didn’t produce fruit, or that the fruit was rotting on.

You would have some grapes become infected and you had to cut those away cause the infection would spread.

They had to take care of the fruit.

So the disciples would have heard that and immediately understood, yup, that checks out.

But then in verse 4 jesus brings it around and tells them.

John 15:4 ESV

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.

So Jesus is telling them there is more to following him, there is more to following Jesus than just going and being good, or doing good things.

It is really about being with Jesus,

It is living in the reality of who Jesus is,

and so what is the key word here in this passage?

Through the whole things, there is one word that should stick out. what is it?

It’s this word, abide.

Abide is said 10 times in the passage, and so just a good rule, if you see something repeated in the bible, it means you should pay attention.

If it’s repeated 3 times, def pay attention.

10 times, we should like seriously stop and consider the word abide.

Jesus is basically yelling the word abide now.

P1 - Abide

So what is abide? What does it mean to abide in Jesus?

Well first, what does abide just mean?

So the word here for abide is “meinate”

which means to remain, to dwell.

and here is where it gets interesting,

the word for abide here is used as active verb, which means it is a continuing thing.

Something that is ongoing.

and the way Jesus is using it is as an imperative.

so here is what this means,

Jesus is telling the disciples, to remain in him, to live in the reality of who Jesus is.

And he is saying not just a little bit, or for only a short period of time, but to keep living there. To remain.

To abide.

To dwell with, continually.

And so what does that look like?

How do you abide in something?

So who in here plays a sport? Okay cool,

how often do you have practice? couple three times a week, maybe high school it’s everyday.

You’re working hard at that.

But is that abiding in that sport? When you go to practice?

no, you’re going to practice, and then you go do something else.

Abide is something else,

so in England, and probably in other European countries as well, here is how they develop soccer players.

and I didn’t really know this until recently,

But like a soccer club will start scouting players from when they really young, like probably 8-10, then around like 13-14 a club will actually sign that kid

and then that kid moves to the city to where the club is, and they will develop that player.

SO that kid then like eats breathes, soccer. They do his school work there with the club, he eats there,

he lives there.

His whole world revolves around soccer.

We don’t really do that here, it be like the braves sign a kid in little league, so he moves to Atlanta and now takes hitting lessons with Austin Riley or something like that.

Matt Olson is helping him do long division.

It’s like a wild kinda of concept.

But that is how they develop player.

And so what are they doing?

They’re abiding in that club, they’re whole live revolves around that.

They get out every now and then, go play a game across the country, but the home base is that club.

And so for us, I think a lot of the time, we kinda get this backwards.

We will visit jesus, sometime some extended stays, you’ll go through a season of having a consistent quiet time

You’ll be in the word, your prayer life is good.

But then you start to get confident in your self.

SO you kinda move out, you’re not spending time with jesus, you’re not listening to what His word has to say.

You get sure of yourself.

Look at who and when Jesus is talking to in this,

the disciples. right before the cross.

jesus is saying abide in me.

They would have known that is what they were supposed to do, but jesus is reminding them right there.

Abide in me,

You might go here for a second, but always return to me.

Continually dwelling with Jesus.

That in doing that, you can survive this world.

Jesus is not someone you visit every now and then or you hit up when times go bad.

Jesus is who you are already with.

You bring people to sit at the table with him.

Spurgeon has this great quote about the bible, and it transfers to abiding in Christ.

He says, “Visit many great books but live in the bible.”

It’s not that Jesus is one part of your life, but Jesus is your life. Your life is jesus’s.

That is what it means to abide.

And so to abide means a shift in focus of what is the center of your life.

It is a shift in priorities.

P2 - Bear Fruit

And so, then you have to ask the question? Why?

Why does Jesus want us to abide in him?

Because this is how you grow as a follower of Jesus.

This how you are formed in to someone who looks like Jesus.

Jesus says in verse 8 John 15:8

John 15:8 ESV

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

A follower bears fruit.

and this is what we mean by bear fruit.

It is “what is your life becoming?”

That is the essential question.

What fruit, what sort of markers does your life have?

How did you know if a plant was healthy?

Does it have form fruit on it?

If you have an apple tree but it doesn’t have apples on it.

Something is probably wrong.

The fruit is the marker, the fruit is not what saves you, but tells you that you have life.

Because here is the reality of the gospel.

It’s not that you’re a branch on life support, or your a branch just kinda getting by.

You’re a dead branch. .

You were dead, Jesus brings you to life.

Christ saves you by grafting you in to his life giving reality.

bearing fruit shows that you are alive.

P3 - Become a Community

And so why? What does bearing fruit and abiding Christ create?

It creates joy,

here i the hinge verse, verse 11

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.

Through abiding, through being made alive, through producing fruit.

We become a fully satisfied person, we become content in life.

We become a steadfast person.

The Joy of Christ creates a community of believer who walk this life together,

weaves together in to a life giving tree, where the fruit of the gospel is life transformation.

That we become something rare in this world, an actual joyful person.

And its a joy that cannot be killed.

Look at the disciples, life is about to get hard for them.

Joy remains.

abide.

Timeless Truth: Christ invites us to live in his reality

And so through the joy Christ gives us, Christ is inviting us to live in the reality of who he is, to live differently.

To live in response to the finished work in the cross.

Truth for our Context: What we abide in determines our life on both side of eternity

So as we go through Advent, we are reminded of the joy that comes through abiding in Christ.

That real joy can only be found in Christ.

Because here is the reality,

Everyone is abiding in something,

everyone has a centralizing thing in there life.

If it is not Jesus, what is it?

What we abide in, what we keep returning to, what we dwell in shapes us.

What are you abiding in?

If you think you are abiding in Christ, what fruit do you have?

Who are you becoming?

What are you abiding in?

if it is anything other than Christ, just know that what ever it is, will fade away.

What ever it is, will not last.

Joy found anywhere but Christ will fade, and ultimately destroy you.

P2 Christ

Christ is inviting you to a different reality.

I gave the boys on Sunday night this quote, but it works here to,

It’s from a guy who has thought deeply about what it means to abide,

he writes,

“God’s desire for us is that we should live in him. He sends among us the way to himself. That shows what, in his heart of hearts, God is really like — indeed what reality is really like.”

That is the beauty and joy found in the Gospel,

That the king invites the rebel to sit at his table.

That Jesus made a way to us, to bring us into the kingdom.

That is the gospel

So this is the invitation.

Come and abide in Christ

Come and sit with Christ.

Let him transform your life.

Come and live in a new way. No matter what you think you have done or that you may be beyond saving, or you aren’t good enough, what ever it is.

Christ died for you.

So if you want to know what it means to abide in Christ, to follow Jesus.

Come talk to me, talk to one of your friends, one of the adults, talk to someone.

Come see Christ as Lord, come see Christ as King.

Pray with me.