Abiding in Jesus

We are all Disciplined in something

What comes to mind when you think of a disciplined person?

Likely someone who has a pretty ordered life.

They get up early, workout regularly, maintain a healthy diet, keep a clean and uncluttered house, have hobbies that help them grow and develop...things like that.

I don’t consider myself a disciplined person.

I get bored quickly, am easily distracted, and am often pretty last minute with things.

But as I have spent the last couple of weeks thinking and praying on discipline in our spiritual lives, I have come to realize that I am quite disciplined some some areas of my life.

For instance, outside of a few days I have been sick, I have not missed drinking a cup of coffee in many years.

Outside of Fridays when I mow and try to accomplish some home projects, I shower every morning.

I do not go a day without checking my email at least 10 times a day (often more).

I don’t erase the app off my phone, I will spend too much time scrolling social media.

I rarely miss a UK basketball game and have been quite disciplined in watching the NBA playoffs.

You get the picture, I am a disciplined person, just not in all the things that make a difference in my life and in my relationship with God.

We are all disciplined in something, likely many things, but are we disciplined in our pursuit of the Lord?

What are the disciplines we should be engaged in?

Why should we be disciplined in those things?

And how are we to be disciplined in them?

We are starting a series today on the Spiritual Disciplines that make up the Christian life.

The practices/habits/rhythms of the life of a Christ that help us to grow deeper in our relationship with God and to walk more faithfully with Him.

We are going to start in John 15, as Jesus is teaching His disciplines hours before He goes to the cross, preparing them for what is about to happen to Him and to them.

John 15:1–8 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.

John 15:1–8 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. 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.

John 15:1–8 ESV

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.

I read this passage in the ESV because the CSB (my usual translation) doesn’t use the word “Abide”, it uses “Remain”.

Though “abiding” does mean “remaining”, it also means much more.

To Abide means to live in/make a home in something.

Jesus uses the word “Abide” 7 times in this short passage.

Jesus wants us to see that our relationship with Him is an “Abiding” relationship.

A continuous, intentional, and ever growing relationship.

A relationship that is dependent on pursuing Jesus through Spiritual Disciplines/Habits.

Though a list isn’t given in this passage, through the life of Jesus, the witness of the early church we read in the book Acts, and the letters that make of the rest of the NT, we have been given a guidebook for what it looks like to Abide in Jesus.

Over the next several weeks we are going look at a discipline/habit and seek to understand the why and the how of each of them.

And through this, my prayer is that we are challenged and strengthened as we seek to make these habits a bigger part of our lives.

Before we get there though, I want to point out 3 truths Jesus is highlighting in John 15 about abiding in Him.

1. We are SHAPED through DISCIPLINE.

John 15:1-2

Abiding with Jesus requires a good gardener, or vinedresser.

The image Jesus gives us of a grape vine with its branches would have been one his disciples would have been quite familiar with.

The strong, central vine of a grape plant is the piece that feeds and provides for all of the fruit producing branches.

Without the vine, the branches are fruitless and pointless.

Jesus calls Himself the “true vine”. We will get into this more later, but Jesus is distinguishing Himself as the only true vine, separate from and superior to all other vines that might exist.

He then calls His Father, the first person of the trinity that we often refer to simple as God or Father God, as the vinedresser, or the one in charge of maintaining the vineyard.

As the vinedresser, His job is to determine which branches are bearing fruit and which are not.

I know enough about gardening and horticulture to know that dead or fruitless branches rob the healthy parts from the nutrients they need to continue to survive.

Fruitless branches are those that may claim to be Christians, but they have never truly given their lives to Him.

But Jesus also says God the Father is in-charge of pruning the fruitful branches as well.

Even as believers, we are branches that require pruning to foster continued growth and fruitfulness.

God uses both the trials and struggles we face in life, as well as our disciplined pursuit of Him to shape us more and more to who He created us to be.

God uses our Spiritual disciplines as tools that facilitate God's work in shaping and refining us, and drawing us closer to Jesus.

There are habits, attitudes, motives, and missions that we are pursuing in our lives that God wants to cut out of our lives.

John 15:11 CSB

11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

God’s desire for us isn’t to make our lives miserable, but to lead us to joy, a joy-filled life

John 10:10 CSB

10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

2. We GROW where we are PLANTED.

John 15:3-5

I love the word “abide”, partly because it is a rarely used word, but also because it is a word with rich and dynamic meaning.

It is a word that maps out our journey as followers of Jesus.

And yet, we often fall into 1 of two ditches on that road.

We either over simply our relationship with God down to the moment we prayed a prayer and were baptized.

We know Jesus, we believe in Him, and come to church regularly.

You would say you are a Christian, saved by the grace of God, and yet your pursuit of Him is weak or altogether missing.

The spiritual disciplines play little of any part of your everyday.

On the other hand, we have a tendency to over complicate our relationship with God.

Seeing the spiritual disciplines more as laws than a pursuit of relationship.

They become to practices we use to either feel better about ourselves, or to make God happy with us.

But Jesus’s message/invitation doesn’t match with either of those ditches.

To abide means to intentionally, expectantly, and enthusiastically pursue Jesus.

Reading and studying God’s Word to know Him more completely and to hear the voice of Jesus more fully.

Praying in order to built a relationship with God and to see His power on display in our lives.

Fasting, worshipping, serving, and sharing, not to manipulate God into giving us what we want, but in order to see, hear, and know God in a real, genuine and intimate way, which will transform us more and more.

Jesus says “apart from me you can do nothing.” That might sound brash and arrogant, but Jesus is saying that fruitfulness comes from being connected to Him.

We cannot bear fruit in our lives unless we are abiding (making our home in) Jesus.

When we think of spiritual discipline as duties and drudgery we rob them of their desired affect of growing us deeper in relationship with and submission to Jesus.

As we intentionally pursue Jesus, through the disciplines/habits of faith, we are are making our home in Jesus as He is making His home in us.

There is a fruitfulness that comes from that pursuit.

3. We are PROVEN by our FRUITFULNESS.

John 15:6-8

Jesus gives us the negative reality next in verse 6.

What would happen to a branch that doesn’t stay connected to the vine?

It withers, like a plant that hasn’t been watered in weeks, or like an animal that isn’t properly fed (the ASPCA commercials).

If we are honest, this is us at times in our lives (maybe even right now for some of you)

We feel empty, dull to the things of Jesus, and the hope He offers.

Jesus isn’t pronouncing judgement over the fruitless branches, He is pointing to a reality that we all know to be true.

How can we have a growing, thriving, and hope-filled faith in Jesus if we never feed ourselves from His word, never labor in prayer, never reflect on Him in fasting and solitude, or never serve or share with others?

Jesus is inviting believers to embrace the fullness of life He offers through an abiding relationship.

There is a joy and fruitfulness that result from spiritual discipline, that inspire us to live with purpose, faith, and intentionality in our daily walk with Christ.

Verse 7 isn’t a promise that if you do enough to please God he will do whatever you ask Him.

It is a promise that if you pursue Him, you will know His heart and He will know yours, so what we pray and seek we will find are also close to His heart.

Verse 8, we don’t prove ourselves by working hard, we prove ourselves genuine when our pursuit of God produces the fruit of genuine discipleship.

When the Word of God changes our attitudes and actions.

When Jesus rightly takes the throne in our lives over whatever else has help that throne for far too long.

These spiritual disciplines we will walk through over the next weeks are life giving when we see them as means by which we grow closer to God.

My challenge

Practice the disciplines

Find someone to journey with you (family/friend)

Don’t grow weary