Remain

John 15:1-17 – Remain!

A.    Context and setting

Allow me to give you some idea of the context and setting for this passage.  Jesus was alone with his disciples, possibly still in the upper room where they had enjoyed a Passover meal together.  Judas Iscariot had already departed to betray Jesus to the authorities and Jesus wanted to comfort and teach his disciples before his departure to the cross.

Jesus was explaining their relationship with him and each other and in the verses after this passage goes onto talk about their relationship with the world.  The passage we are looking at forms part of what is known as Jesus’ farewell discourse. John tells us that in the passage before this one Jesus claimed that “he was the way, the truth and the life” and now Jesu states that he is the True vine and the great I am – in other words Jesus states his equality with God.

B.     Application of this passage.

There are three things about this passage that have practical meaning for us today; 1st.Our Relationship with Jesus and continuing in it; 2nd. The results of Continuing in Relationship; 3rd. The extent of our relationship with Jesus and its effect on us.

1.      Our Relationship with Jesus and continuing in it.  In Verse2 we see that there is talk of branches being joined to Christ in relationship, God is our Father and desires to prune us and make us fruitful.  We are to be attached to the vine, which is Jesus.  In verse 3 we are told that we are clean.  How are we clean?  It is by the Word of God, the gospel that we are clean.  Because Jesus is the true vine we can place our faith in him and have life and this comes about by hearing the gospel and responding appropriately.  As we allow the word of God to impact us and change us the Gardener is pruning us into what he wants us to be.

The Pruning is painful and necessary, a rose plant if pruned correctly will have a nice shape and bear beautiful roses. If it isn’t pruned it is nothing but a wild plant. In the same way God is our gardener and carefully cuts away the dead stuff and shapes us into something beautiful.

We see throughout this passage that we are to continue in our relationship with Jesus.  The word remain is used 10 times in the NIV text in V4, 5, 6, 7, 10 We are told to remain in him.  What does this mean?  The word Remain is sometimes read as abide in some Bible translations.  The word means to stay with or continue and Jesus means his disciples to stay or continue in relationship with him.  Not only this but Jesus makes a claim in verses 4 & 7 that if we remain in him then he will remain in us.  We are told to remain or stay with Jesus.  Why?  Because we are to be like Jesus and bear fruit as I will explain in my next point.

So how do we remain in Jesus?  Today we have the words of Jesus in the Scriptures so this is part of the answer, the reading and meditation upon them.  Doing the words of Jesus is also important but this is also part of God’s work in us as we come under his word and allow His Spirit to work and change us.  Importantly we need to communicate with Jesus just as we would want to communicate with any other person in whom we have a relationship with.  This we do in regular prayer and confession.

It is important to remember that our remaining in Jesus is not just based on our effort alone. God is active in both our initial coming into relationship with Him, and our going on in the faith. Have a look at verse 16; it states that he chose us. This is consistent with Scripture and demonstrates God’s great love. Not only this but it is a purposeful love, for we are chosen to bear fruit which leads to my next point.

2.      The results of Continuing in Relationship.  We are told that we are to bear fruit in Verse 2, 4-5, 8.  Remaining in relationship with Jesus results in fruit. Verse 8 tells us that the Father receives much glory when we bear fruit. This is if you like one of the purposes of being a disciple of Jesus.

There is a wonderful analogy of the vine used here because as the branches are attached to the vine and draw sap to grow and produce the grape, then we similarly are to be so attached to Jesus and dependant upon him.  It is only in our close union with him that we can bear fruit.  After all the purpose of a fruit tree is to produce fruit.

In verse 4 Jesus says that if we remain in him then he will remain in us and this is a great promise to hold onto, but then there is the negative statement that unless we do remain in Him then we can’t bear fruit.  In verse 5 we have the positive where we are told that if we remain in Jesus we will bear much fruit and again this is immediately followed by the negative of “apart from me you can do nothing”. Without Jesus Christ we are lifeless branches who can bear nothing.

Associated with continuing in Jesus there are Warnings and Promises about our relationship with Jesus.  As I said earlier verse 8 speaks of God receiving glory from us bearing fruit.  What happens if we don’t bear fruit?  Verses 6-7 give us a terrible warning about this along with a great promise.

We are told in verse 6 that if we don’t remain in Jesus, then like a branch that is unconnected to the vine and consequently withers, we likewise will wither apart from Jesus.  We draw our strength and life from our master and I’m sure there have been times when we know how terrible we feel when we are out of fellowship with our Lord.  There is a terrible warning here about branches being burnt up because of a lack of usefulness.  This is a difficult verse to sort out but if you weigh up what the Bible says about our salvation, that it is assured, and Jesus himself says that he will lose none that the Father gives him.  However, it is a serious thing not to remain in Jesus for when this happens we are pretty much useless in terms of showing fruit for God’s glory. But it also makes us think whether we do belong to him in the first place.

Verse 7 gives us another look at Jesus’ promise from verse 4 that if we remain in him then he will remain in us.  And also there is the promise that what we ask of God; verse 7 & 16, it will be given.  The key to this is again in verse 8 and it is in terms of our fruitfulness for God and for His glory.  If we ask in accordance to God’s glory and it is in terms of our bearing fruit then of course our prayers will be answered.

3.      The extent of our relationship with Jesus and its effect on us.  In Verses 9-11 we have the extent of Jesus’ Love and what our love should be for him.  The love that the Father and the Son share, that special union that they share is what Jesus shows us.  He loves us to the same degree that he loves the Father and the Father Loves us to the same degree that he loves the Son.  This love was ultimately demonstrated at the cross in Jesus’ sacrificial death.  We are surely to have a similar love and Jesus tells us in verse 10 that just as He showed his love to the Father by obeying the Father then we too show our love for him in our obedience to him.

One of the ways we show our love for Jesus is demonstrated in verse 12 & 17 in our showing love to others.  If our Vertical relationship is correct then this will bring our horizontal relationships into proper perspective. If we are in right relationship with God then we will want to please God and have right relationships with each other.  We show our love to others in obedience to Jesus to the same extent that Jesus demonstrated his love for us.  The extent of his love is shown in verse 13 in the laying down of one’s life for another.

Also because of our relationship with Jesus we see it as a new type of relationship- that of Friendship.  In V14-15 we are now considered friends of Jesus instead of only being likened to servants.  We know his business and show an interest in it.  We don’t just follow blindly but know what pleases God and want to obey and please him.  This is part of being a friend of Jesus.  Look at the end of verse 15, Jesus has made the Father known to us in himself and now we are to be like Jesus and obey the Father’s teachings.  We do this by obeying Jesus’ commands in the Scriptures.

C.    Conclusion

In summary we see that Jesus is the true vine, he is the source of life and the starting point of our faith.  Jesus is equal with God and if we have relationship with him we have relationship with God.  We are to remain in close relationship with Jesus and bear much fruit.  We are to obey Christ and in so doing show that we are his true disciples.  Jesus was obedient to the Father and we can be God’s true children as we remain in Jesus and show our love for him and his people.