John 15: Abide In Me

We are continuing our series on / / Jesus’ Final Thoughts from the Farewell Discourse in John 14-17.

Last week we looked at John 14, and really the end result was this overarching emphasis on the Father and His great love for us. That Jesus came to bring us home to the Father.

And as we go through these chapters, we will continue to see how this plays into where we are at as a church, talking about discipleship because this is the very conversation Jesus is having with his Disciples to help them plan for his absence.

We have Jesus, but we don’t have Jesus. You know what I mean?

At the point we are reading in Scripture the disciples literally HAVE Jesus in the flesh. He’s been walking with them, talking with them, responding to their questions, actually chastising them and rebuking them when they needed it.

I had this thought the other day. So many people today want to portray Jesus almost like a pushover. But he wasn’t.

Not with those who opposed him.

And not with those who he was discipling.

He was straightforward, he was corrective, he gave discipline and even rebuked at times.

The difference with Jesus is that he does it while maintaining his true character of love, kindness and other-serving humility. He knows his mission. He came to seek and save the lost. He’s about that mission. It’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.

So I said last week, I have been challenged to ask myself, / / “Where in my life have I not taken seriously that Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, has invited me into a life of holiness, righteousness and obedience to follow him and his ways…”

Proverbs 3:6, / / In ALL your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Not in some of your ways, because if you only acknowledge God in some of your ways you’ll end up being like James who says, / / If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5-8)

I’ll acknowledge you here.

I’ll follow you over here.

But you can’t have this area… I’m not ready to trust you over here.

I can’t give you this yet. I’m not ready…

That’s really what we’re saying when we don’t follow Jesus whole-heartedly.

So, I am being challenged in my discipleship to Jesus. / / Am I acknowledging God in ALL my ways?

Which areas of my life

which areas of my heart

which areas of my emotions am I holding on to and not giving access to God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit, to bring healing, love, correction…

And we saw in John 14 this invitation to see God as our Father in the same way Jesus sees God as Father. I was in a meeting many years ago, when we were living in Norway. I had travelled by train way up north to this retreat center and was listening to a message by Trevor Galpin and he asked the question, / / “Do you believe that God the Father loves you just as much and in the same ways as he loves Jesus?”

Remember last week I read John 10:17, where Jesus says, / / “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.”

In the Holman NT Commentary it says this, / / “It is difficult to imagine that either Jesus or John intended to tell us that the Father loved the Son only because the Son willingly died for the sheep. [Gerald] Borchert [New American Commentary] emphasizes just the reverse and reads the text, “‘Because the Father loves me, that is the reason I lay down my life.’ The model of the Father provided the model for the Son, which in turn should provide the model for the followers of Jesus.”

So then when Jesus says, / / “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” DO we hear it the same way?

John would later write in his first of three letters, 1John 4:19, / / We love because he first loved us.

So, what’s the order here?

/ / Loved BY God.

Respond in love TO God.

Follow the ways OF God.

The verse right before that says, and reading this from the NLT, / / Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. (1 John 4:18)

/ / Fear of Punishment

That would be, “If you don’t follow my commandments, I won’t love you…”

That is punishment for not following commandments, and is NOT how God loves.

Humans are really good at that. We give the silent treatment, we ghost people, we treat them differently. If you don’t do things the way I think you should, I might not say it, but you’ll know it. How many have lived with someone that you felt you had to walk on eggshells around? Nobody look around, all eyes on me…. No poking your spouse or anyone else…

Of course I’m just kidding, but you get the point. Humanity punishes for not fulfilling expectations - and let’s be honest, sometimes those expectations aren’t even reasonable. God, on the other hand, loves us INTO fulfilling His invitation… and his invitation is for our benefit, not his… His invitation leads to life!

So is the opposite punishment, or simply the consequence for not following the commandments of God being very evident in our lives?

That is not God not loving us.

When I don’t follow the way of Jesus, the evidence becomes staggering. Loss of peace, loss of comfort, effect in my relationships, effect in my heart, life, health. When Jesus tries to lead me to life, and I ignore it, it’s like the Doctor telling me I’m a diabetic and need to avoid sugar or I will suffer the consequences of being a diabetic, and if I don’t listen and I eat the sugar guess what happens?

I’m constantly thirsty

I’m lethargic

I’m tired and weak

my body has a very hard time fighting off infection and sickness, the reason I ended up in the hospital last year.

BUT, when I follow the way I am supposed to, even though I am still human, even though I am still a sinner saved by grace, I live without the effects of sin because I am living rightly.

God’s love never changes, whether I follow all the “way” or not, but my life certainly shows it.

If you love me.

Because you’ve allowed me to love you.

You will trust me, and follow what I’ve told you, because you know it leads to life.

So, John 14 - / / Do you know the Father’s love? Have you experienced the love of your heavenly Father?

/ / The Father is the one who gives true identity.

/ / The Father is the one who gives true purpose.

/ / The Father is the one who gives true security.

Have you invited God to love you in this way? To remove from you those tendencies to act out like an orphan, thinking you need to look out for #1 instead of giving your life over to THE ONE.

So, let’s allow that perspective to lead us into John 15. Jesus didn’t say, “Ok, end this chapter, let’s go into a new chapter.” We can assume this is a fluid conversation that may have taken place with some breaks.

If you noticed the last verse of John 14:31, it says, / / “Rise, let us go from here.”

Now, this isn’t maybe so important, but I don’t want you to walk away from this being confused. And let me say again, if you ever DO walk away from a message, or from reading something and you need clarity, please come and talk to us. Ask me questions. I love that. Even if I don’t have the answer. David is the same way.

So, why at the end of chapter 14 does it say “Rise, let us go…” and then Jesus continues to talk for 2 chapters? Some scholars view this as the moment where Jesus and the disciples leave the upper room and start heading toward the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus continues to share with them for John 15-16, and then John 17 being a prayer, actually makes sense in the context of the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus told them they were going to pray. This could have been along the way, it could have been in the garden. It could have been simply just outside away from the upper room. John just says “gardeN” in chapter 18, and Luke says the garden at the base of the Mount of Olives, but either way, there’s a general agreement that the distance from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane is between half a mile and a mile. And I don’t think they were in a hurry. So maybe that takes them 20-30 minutes to walk there.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all give a pretty similar account of what happens in the Garden. Matthew 26:36-39 says, / / Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed…

So, when we get to John 18 and it says, / / When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.

And he goes right into the arrest, rather than any sort of prayer. There’s an understanding here that John is just describing what has taken place in the midst of this greater conversation and prayer.

But, as we did last week, maybe we can have a bit of a mental picture now as we move from the meal toward the garden. As we read, picture yourself in that moment, walking with Jesus from this house toward the Garden of Gethsemane. And a heads up, this is the last of Jesus’ “I Am” statements in the book of John. There’s 7 of them. Throughout his writing John lists seven times Jesus compares himself to something.

I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world.

I am the door.

I am the good shepherd.

I am the resurrection and the life.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Which we read last week.

I am the vine. Which we are about to read.

And one of the reasons people teach in parables and metaphors is because a picture speaks a thousand words. Pictures, stories, images stick with us. And so in this last I am statement that we are about to read, picture yourself walking from this house where they just finished dinner, down through the Kidron Valley, where there would have been grapevines along the way, so maybe Jesus is even pointing. “Look… See those vines? Let me tell you something about vines.”

So, John 15 is really two larger portions of content, so we will take these one at a time.

First, John 15:1-17, and we’ll go through this, taking pauses along the way.

/ / 1. I Am The True Vine

John 15:1, / / “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.”

The NLT says, / / “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.”

For the disciples, who are all Jewish, this would have had an instant connection to the Old Testament Scriptures. Every Jewish person would make this connection.

Many times in the OT Israel is called a vine. But what’s odd about it is that every time it is in a negative context.

Psalm 80 talks about how the nations have plundered and burned the vine that God had taken out of Egypt and planted in its own land - a clear reference to the journey out of slavery to the Promised Land.

Isaiah 5:5-7 says, / / 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. 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. 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!

Jeremiah 2 says they turned degenerate and became a wild vine…

There’s others, we could go on. But the point is, The disciples would have immediately known what Jesus was talking about. Israel is the vine, or the vineyard, and they never produced the fruit he wanted and so they turned wild and produced bad fruit, and as such were pillaged, burned, torn up, and destroyed.

This is the covenant of God playing itself out over and over again - if you follow my commands in the land that I have given you, you will prosper and live long. If you do not…

And now Jesus is saying he’s the / / TRUE Vine. What does that mean? How is Jesus the vine?

For that we have to go all the way back to Genesis and hear what God says to Abraham. This is the Abrahamic covenant that God made, and he says in Genesis 12:2-3, / / “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This is two things. First, we know it is / / pointing forward to Jesus who would be the descendent of Abraham that would save the world. This is the basis of OT prophecy from the very beginning. It starts in / / Genesis 3:15 when God promises the serpent that Eve’s offspring will one day bruise his head. There is a long distance idea there.

But if you read the Old Testament story, if you read the law, if you read the invitation that God is continually giving to Israel it is to follow God’s law and commandments and essentially everyone who comes in contact with them would benefit from the fruit growing in Israel, the vine. God’s intention was the world be blessed through Abraham’s family line.

Unfortunately, that was something they continually failed at. Instead of having a positive impact on the nations around them, the Israelites continually fell into allowing the nations around them to have a negative impact on them.

Rather than drawing people toward God, they were allowing others to draw them away from God.

So when Jesus says / / I am the Vine, what is he really saying? I am the vine in which God intends to bless the entire world through. He’s pointing to the reality of all nations being blessed through Him, who is a son of Abraham, a son of David, and the Son of God. Not only that, but he is / / the TRUE Vine. The word there is / / alethinos and it means that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name, in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name, real, true, genuine.

Jesus is not created. He is not made in the image of God, Jesus is the one in whom we are made in the image of. / / He is the real, the genuine, the original. He is the true vine. So, that is verse 1.

/ / 2. Every Branch In Me

So He goes on to say, (2-5) / / “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. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 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. 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.”

Alright, there are / / three people in this section.

/ / The vine - “I am the vine…”

The branches, which are split into two groups

/ / Those who bear no fruit. - “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit…”

/ / Those who bear some fruit. - “and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes…”

You may argue that there are those who have been pruned that are bearing more fruit, or as he says in verse 5, those who bear much fruit.

And really, what he’s saying is pretty simple. You’re either bearing no fruit, or you’re bearing some fruit, and if you give yourself to the pruning process and you’ll bear more fruit. And then he encourages his disciples in verse 3:

He explains they’ve already been going through this process: What have they said yes to in following Jesus?

Matthew 16:24, / / “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

Matthew 7:14, / / “…the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Luke 14:26, / / “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

These are the disciples of Jesus who have given up everything to follow Him.

But there’s an important distinction here. He says, / / every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes… and then he says, / / you are clean…

/ / prunes is the word kathairo, and clean is the word katharos. Same word. the word kathairo comes from the word katharos and they both mean to cleanse or prune.

Essentially what Jesus is saying is, You’ve already allowed the Father to narrow your life by accepting the invitation to follow me.

You’ve born fruit, and allowed that pruning to take place. What does that mean. It’s a veiled way of saying, / / “You will bear more fruit.”

Remember what he said in John 14 that we read last week, / / greater works will you do! More fruit!

Jesus is encouraging them for the road ahead.

He’s encouraging their maturity.

How many times has he had to correct them?

How many times has he had to explain again what he has said?

But now he’s encouraging them. “Guys, you know all that stuff you gave up to follow me? That was the Father’s invitation to prune you so that you would would bear even more fruit!”

Now, he’s going to continue talking about this. But what do we do with this first group. The ones that bear no fruit?

John 15:2 says, / / “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away…”

First thing you should noticed. He says, / / “Every branch IN ME…”

Some commentators point to Judas, who had just left to betray Jesus. / / He was with Jesus. He was in Jesus, in that sense. He had gone out with the 12, and the 72. We can assume he had done miracles and seen God’s work in and through his life, / / but at some point he no longer chose to abide in the vine…

This is a difficult passage to wrestle with. Much like some of the Old Testament. There are some who want God to be only loving and only merciful, forgetting that He is also a God of justice, righteousness and holiness, which involves a separation.

Another way to look at this is to think in the simple terms of / / this vine. We already addressed that this would have made sense to the disciples because they are Jewish and the Old Testament uses this terminology to describe a wild and degenerate Israel.

Is Israel not God’s chosen people? We know they are. And yet, Jesus is saying there is a time coming when God will sort those who truly abide in Christ and those who do not.

In John 10 when he talks about being the Good Shepherd he says, (16) / / “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

These are the branches that are IN him. That’s what he says in John 15:2, / / Every branch IN ME… These ARE his people. They are the people of the covenant, the people of promise, yet they have a decision before them, will they see him as the long awaited Messiah?

There’s almost this sense of, “You tried to be the vine yourself, and failed, will you see that I AM the true vine, / / abide in me so that the Father can work in and through you and you will produce the fruit you have always been meant to produce?”

Remember when Israel cried out for a king. It was because they wanted to be like every other nation. Samuel gets so upset with the people, but 1 Samuel 8:7 says, / / And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”

God’s intention was always to lead his people. But they rejected him then, and they rejected him in Christ.

Jesus comes in, “It hasn’t worked well trying to be the vine all on your own, has it? Let me offer you the way we desired from the beginning… abide in me.”

This was a prophecy given by Simeon in the temple while Jesus was a baby, Luke 2:34, / / And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

Even in Luke 19 when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem he weeps over the city and it’s coming destruction.

There’s a lot going on in these words that Jesus is saying. Let’s read verse 6 and take one more approach and then we will get to what matters most. John 15:6, / / “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.”

Some argue this is a different scenario than vs 2 which says, / / “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away…”

So we focus here on these two little words at the end, “takes away”. John Boice points out that the word ‘away’ is the greek word / / airo, and it means to take away, but it also means to raise up, to elevate, to lift up. Now, most, if not all the translations I went through say takes away, but Boice makes a compelling argument - Jesus is talking about his loving Father (remember John 14 last week), who he says is the gardener, the one who cares for and WANTS the vine to produce fruit. Would the first course of action on a branch that is not bearing fruit be to chop it off, or lift it up to give it better access to sun and rain? In 15:6 when it says if a branch does not abide in Jesus it will be thrown away. Not the same word. Those words literally mean thrown, or cast out. And it is not until they are cast out that they wither and die.

Why is that something we should bring up?

I want to challenge us in something. God is a God of justice, yes, but he is also a God of mercy and love. God’s ultimate goal is that ALL should come to repentance. John 3:17, / / “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

The world! All of us. That’s the goal.

Unfortunately, that is not the reality, right? Some choose not to believe.

Jesus says in John 3:18 , / / “…whoever does not believe is condemned already…”

So, although we don’t want to use fear to get people saved, coming to the end of our lives without God should be the most terrifying thing anyone experiences. But we always have to remember, and I mentioned it earlier, Paul says in Romans 2:4, / / God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

So, is this branch Judas? Is this branch Israel? Is this branch anyone who does not believe? Do those who bear no fruit run the risk of being cut off and thrown into the fire?

Although any and all of that may be true or not, what we really want to focus on is the invitation that Jesus is making…

/ / 3. If You Abide In Me

John 15:7-11, / / “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I 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, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

This is a beautiful invitation.

In John 15:1-17, the first half of this chapter, Jesus says the word abide 11 times. / / What do you think this chapter is really about?

So, what’s that mean? / / What does it mean to abide?

/ / abide - to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy

Ok, so four things there. Abide means to stay in a given place, to stay in a given state, to stay in a given relation, and to stay in a given expectancy.

/ / To stay in a given place - Jesus says abide in me and I in you. We believe the Spirit of God is IN us.

But also, let’s call this discipleship, right?

To BE WITH JESUS… To BE WITH THE FATHER... To BE WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

To model our lives around being close to God. This is the spiritual disciplines. This is crafting our lives around His presence and purpose. Doing everything to be close to Him.

Remember what I’ve said about the invitation of the Great Commission, to baptize in the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit, name being character and all that it means and who they are. We are continually immersing ourselves, abiding in, making our place, our home in who God is.

/ / To stay in a given state - a state, or condition, a state of mind… So, what state are wein? (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually)

Saved by grace

Forgiven

Set free

Redeemed

Given the Spirit of God

Called Sons and Daughters

Co-heirs with Christ

Ambassadors of the kingdom

I could go on and on, but you get the point…. abide in Christ, to stay in the state of what He has done in and for you.

/ / To stay in a given relation - Your position, how close you are

he will never leave you, or forsake you

where can we hide from his presence? nowhere

Where can we go that his love will not find us? nowhere

/ / to stay in a given expectancy

expectancy is the state of thinking or hoping that something, especially something pleasant, will happen

Our Hope is in Christ Jesus. To abide in him is to hope in him, to have a confident expectation that the salvation of Jesus Christ is at work in us as we follow after Him.

SO, if you notice this is a three step process.

/ / Abide in Jesus Christ (5) whoever abides in me and I in him…

/ / Produce much Fruit (5) he it is that bears much fruit.

/ / Bring Glory to the Father (8) By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.

Then he brings it back around to obedience and following as the key to abiding. Abiding takes intentional living. Abiding takes purpose, intention, action. In vs 10, / / If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

/ / 4. Love One Another

John 15:12-17, / / “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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. 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. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

This is what Jesus said in John 13:34-35, right? / / “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

What does that look like? To love each other as Jesus loves us? (13-14) / / “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Now, we often equate that to the death of Jesus. Which is not wrong. Romans 5:8 says, / / But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John repeats this thought in 1 John 3:16, / / By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

But I want to challenge us all this morning to live out of what John writes next in that first epistle. 1 John 3:17-18, says, / / But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

/ / It is one thing to say you would die for someone, but the real question is, will you truly live, continually giving your life to others more than yourself?

Jesus said in Luke 9:24, / / “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Paul says in Acts 20:35, / / In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

We saw this last week as we passed through John 13 and the description of Jesus washing his disciples feet. What does that mean for us today when we do not need to have a bowl of water at our front door for our guests?

John is the only one who mentions Jesus washing the disciples feet. And get this, it happens before Judas leaves. Which means Jesus washed the feet of the man who was just about to betray him.

Do we love like that?

Is that the kind of love we have for each other?

I’m not saying we should be suspecting betrayal here, but I am asking if we have learned this kind of servanthood.

We love to read, “I no longer call you servants”…but, have we learned to serve?

Jesus is the king, and yet, became the servant of all.

/ / “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends… but Jesus follows that up with, / / You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Jesus paid the ultimate price so we don’t have to. Does that mean there are not martyrs? No, there definitely have been, and will be. But many who “say” they are willing to die for their faith are barely willing to live for it.

How many people who say they would put their lives on the line for the ones they love actually commit to changing who they are so that the person experiences real and true, genuine love while they are still alive?

Remember Romans 12:1, Paul encourages us to / / present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.

A living sacrifice. / / Do you see Jesus’ invitation to lay down more of your life to the pruning of the Father so that you can bear more fruit in your life to the Glory of the Father?

/ / So, what is this fruit? That’s a whole series in of itself, but I think we are safe to start with two simple passages. / / The Fruit of the Spirit and the Fruit of Love.

Galatians 5:22-24 says, / / But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Meaning, we narrowed our lives more and more as we continually choose to abide in Him, thus producing this fruit.

And the Fruit of Love, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, / / Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…

If we started there as a marker for the fruit we want in our lives we would do well.

So Jesus finishes that section with (17) / / “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” This is the point.

Alright, you’re all thinking, “It’s getting pretty late and he’s only at vs 17…”

Don’t worry, we aren’t going to go through all of vs / / 18-27, I’ll give you the cliff’s notes, and I want to focus on one particular verse.

For this next part Jesus is continuing to encourage his disciples because the road is going to get hard. He tells them flat out that the world will reject them like they are about to reject him. They will kill them, thinking they are serving God. But their actions will condemn them because they did not listen to the truth about their sin.

But in the middle of this section, in vs 20, Jesus says, / / Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ And he stops there, but in this I want to bring your attention back to Luke 6:40, / / A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

The disciples are coming to the end of their training. This is it. No longer servants. No longer students. But the invitation does not change. Abide. In vs 26 he says, / / “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”

He’s reminding them of the promise we read from last week in John 14:17 was, / / “…the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

We will see as we continue through chapter 16 and chapter 17 that this theme continues on. I in Him, Him in me, Him in the Father, the Spirit sent to us, in us, Jesus will pray in John 17:21 / / “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us…”

The goal is abiding in the eternal presence of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

In Conclusion

So, if we bring this back to the metaphor of the vine, I really want you to see this.

/ / Takeaway #1: Pruning is part of our maturity.

God invites us to give up more of ourselves so we can have more of Him in us.

By accepting the cutting away of some branches, the branches that remain gain more nutrients from the vine and as a result bear more fruit.

/ / Takeaway #2: The Qualification for Remaining is Abiding, Not bearing Fruit

BUT, when we abide, we WILL bear fruit. If we are not bearing fruit, we are not truly abiding.

Go back to the definition of abiding, does your life look like those things?

But that’s the process: We abide, then we bear fruit, and that gives Glory to the Father

Without abiding, we bear zero fruit

Apart from Jesus you can do nothing!

/ / Takeaway #3: This will bring Joy and Faithfulness

(10:11) “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

(16:1) “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”