Evangelism John 15:8-11; 1 Peter 3:13-18a

Treasuring Christ and Proclaiming His Worth

Because God the Father is so delighted in His Son, He designed a masterful plan that stretches across all eternity to honor and exalt Jesus as the centerpiece of all heavenly and earthly existence.

By the working of His Spirit, we too have been enlightened and enabled to enjoy and delight in the work and person of Jesus Christ.

Our goal at First Baptist Church of Roselawn (FBR) is to fully embrace and participate in the Father’s plan to glorify and lift up Jesus Christ as the One worthy of pre-eminence in all things and among all peoples.

We want to learn to treasure Christ more than anything else, and in so doing, to find ourselves compelled to proclaim His infinite worth.

Exalting His Person

Because Christ is treasured above all, reflecting back to Him His worthiness through thoughtfully-passionate, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, and Bible-saturated worship is a priority at FBR.

12 "They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” ()

Because Christ is treasured above all, we commit to

3 "Declare His glory among the nations, His wondrous works among all peoples. 4 "For the Lord is great and is highly praised; He is feared above all gods.” ()

We want to bring to all the people around us a message that is

God-exalting,

Christ-centered,

Gospel-declaring, and

Spirit-empowered,

desiring to see a great crowd of diverse peoples united in worshiping Him around His throne on that Great Day.

With those thoughts in our hearts by God’s Word and indwelling Spirit, let’s look to the text.

7 "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples. 9 "“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 "If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 "“I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” ()

7 "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples. 9 "“As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 "If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 "“I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” ()

The Vine and the Branches. Jesus presents an extended metaphor (vv. 1–8) and explains it (vv. 9–17).

Unlike Jesus’ parables with vines and vineyards in the other Gospels (e.g., ; ; ),

this comparison centers on a vine, and the vine is Jesus.

The vine produces its fruit through the branches (which are believers),

This imagery that unpacks the mutual indwelling in 14:20: “you are in me, and I am in you.”

Think this through a with me a bit…

Since the fruit of believers is a consequence of the Son’s redemptive work,

the result of the vine’s pulsating life (15:4),

and the Son’s response to the prayers of His followers (14:13),

it follows that their fruitfulness brings glory to the Father through the Son.

8 "My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.” ()

Think precisely, the fruitfulness of believers is part and parcel of the way that the Son glorifies His Father.

Do you love Jesus? Jesus desires to glorify His Father.

The way Jesus does this is through our fruit-bearing!

This then is devastating when we realize that only 2%

This ties into the mission aspect of our church.

Our relationships with those outside of Christ.

The mission of God throughout all of history and throughout the entire world is to make His name known through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The call to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is a call to join in this mission.

Watch this. Look at Jesus’ purpose for speaking to us:

3 "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” ()

When we are saved by faith in the gospel () through which God washes us of spiritual defilement (; ; ).

He even tells us how to do that in vv4-7. “Remain in Him” (read the verses)

v11 says something else: 11 "“I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” ()

The phrase “so that” introduces for us the purpose for which Jesus exhorts believers to remain in Him by obeying Him (vv9-10).

“My joy may be in you” Obeying Jesus isn’t drudgery (; )

Many imagine that obedience to Christ is burdensome because it requires sacrificial self-surrender and service (, ).

Jesus teaches the opposite, He connects obedience with joy.

So Jesus connects obeying His commands (v10) so that we remain in His love and imitate Him

as a way of gaining assurance of His love ().

So step back again. We’ve got these commands in vv4-7 to remain in Christ.

How do we do that? v10 is our answer: Obedience.

Obedience is how we remain in Christ’s love: 10 "If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” ()

He taught this in the chapter before as well:

15 "“If you love me, you will keep my commands.” () 21 "The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.” 22 "Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 "Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” ()

19 "Circumcision does not matter and uncircumcision does not matter. Keeping God’s commands is what matters.” ()

1 "Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing—do this even more. 2 "For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” ()

21 "For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.” ()

5 "But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:” ()

21 "Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 "and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 "Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 "The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.” ()

3 "For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,” ()

Obeying is how we abide. This is why in receiving new members we put up a series of commands and patterns that we see in the NT and that we encourage them to follow.

This is going to be how they abide. This is how they are going to be cleansed and find the joy of Christ!

And what happens as we obey Christ? “fruit” (2,4,5,8,16)

Disciples are born by the Spirit to be made into mature reproducers, as described in .

They are to be made in every nation; therefore, every person in the church is a disciple and

has the responsibility and divine ability to be what Christ desires.

There cannot be anything less that your leaders standing before you and calling you, as a true believer, to discipleship.

There is no greater proof of being a disciple than discipleship to Christ in daily life.

Following Christ is the natural expression of new life at work in a convert-disciple.

Each believer should remain in Christ by means of

the Word and prayer,

bear fruit that includes evangelism, and

walk in obedience.

Then he or she will bring glory to God, experience joy, and love others.

Every Christian is to be a disciple.

As a church body, we bring glory to God in seeking to produce healthy Christians described in .

Believers that are cleansed and renewed and filled with joy as they obey Christ, bearing fruit and loving one another.

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 15

Many imagine that obedience to Christ is burdensome because it requires sacrificial self-surrender and service (Rom. 12:1, 2). Jesus teaches the opposite, associating obedience with joy.

This is our aim!

The central purpose of the branches, of course, is to bear fruit, which is a possibility only so long as a branch remains in the vine—

receiving life,

strength, and

nourishment from it.

Separated from the vine, the branch is unfruitful and subject to judgment: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (v 5).

Fruit bearing undoubtedly includes love & joy (two of the fruit of the Spirit),

which is a demonstration of the vitality of faith in Christ (that is a living faith),

with a call to reciprocal love being presented in these verses.

It also includes involvement in mission, bringing men and women to the same kind of faith and love and joy.

For those who believe through the preaching of the followers of Jesus are the fruit of the vine,

and in fulfilling this mission of bearing fruit the followers of Jesus show

that they are indeed his disciples.

So let us give ourselves over to working for that which strengthens and expands Christ’s church [His community].