Sermon Tone Analysis

Benefits of living with my wife (abiding with her)- just imagine what the benefits of learning to abide with Christ are like.

1. Christ abiding in us

Manifest = Abide

For Christ to abide in us means that Christ is revealed in a clearer way than ever before.

How?

John 15

Christ abiding in us = Christ’s words abiding in us

Manifest = Abiding = Words Abiding in Us

John 14.

Manifest = Abiding = Words Abiding in Us + Illumination of the Holy Spirit

Illustration: Abiding with my wife- learning her likes and dislikes

2. Abiding in Christ

John 15.

Abiding in Christ = Abiding in His love = Keeping His commandments

Keeping his commandments the same way Jesus kept the Father’s commandments and abided in His love.

How did Jesus do this?

Abiding in Christ = Doing exactly as Christ commands (reveals Himself)

Illustration: Doing the things that I have learned my wife likes, not doing what she dislikes- learning to live with each other.

Not about getting my own way, but joyfully sacrificing for the needs of the other.

This is like the vine abiding in the branch and the branch in the vine.

What does this kind of relationship produce?

I.

An abiding relationship produces much fruit (v. 5)

If we are abiding in Christ and He is abiding in us, then we will bring forth much fruit.

What kind of fruit are we talking about?

There has been considerable dispute over the nature of the ‘fruit’ that is envisaged: the fruit, we are told, is obedience, or new converts, or love, or Christian character.

Fruit is the outcome of persevering dependence on the vine.

If:

Manifest = Abiding = Words Abiding in Us + Illumination of the Holy Spirit

and

Abiding in Christ = Abiding in His love = Keeping His commandments

Then I think fruit is any thought, any action, any word in the life of a person that is transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

Isn’t that one of God’s purposes in saving us?

Do you remember what Jesus said to Philip in ?

John 14.8-

The works that Jesus did, He didn’t do them just for the works sake.

He did them because they were the works the Father wanted Him to do.

The words that Jesus spoke, He did say them just for their own sakes, He said them because they were the words of the Father.

Fruit then is not just going out and witnessing to someone.

Fruit is being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

It is witnessing to someone because that is exactly what Jesus wants you to do.

Fruit is not just treating your wife with kindness.

Fruit is loving her as Christ loved the church, because that is exactly what Jesus would want you to do.

Jesus reveals Himself to us through His Word and the HS, we receive that revelation as His love, and we respond with love of our own by doing exactly what He wants and in the process we become more like our Savior.

If we are living a life of constantly abiding in Jesus Christ and He constantly abiding in us so that we are transformed into the very image of our Savior- so much so that His works become our works and His words become our words, how can we do anything less than bear much fruit?

Ron Hamilton wrote a song and He said it this way:

When I enter heaven's glory

And I see my Saviour's face,

I will offer Him ten thousand years of praise.

Then I'll find that special one

In whose life I saw God's Son,

And through tears of joy with trembling lips these words I'll say:

I saw Jesus in you,

I saw Jesus in you,

I could hear His voice in the words you said-

I saw Jesus in you,

In your eyes I saw His care,

I could see His love was there,

You were faithful,

And I saw Jesus in you,

That is biblical fruit.

Have you born much fruit lately?

Notice the end of the verse- For without me you can do nothing!

Apart from the abiding relationship with Jesus Christ we are entirely barren, void of absolutely any kind of spiritual fruit.

II.

An abiding relationship protects us from God’s judgement (v. 6)

(v.

5b) for without me ye can do nothing.

Based on the context this passage is given to believers

So, we know (interpreting Scripture with Scripture) that this doesn’t mean it is possible fore believers to be cast into hell fire.

There are many other Scriptures that prove that to be impossible.

Rather I think this verse means that the branches (Christians) that do not abide in the vine, and they do so for an extended period of time (how long does it take for a branch to wither after you sever it from the vine?), so we are talking about the believer who makes it his practice to refuse to abide in Christ and he goes on for such a time that he becomes nothing more that a withered dried up fruitless husk, that one faces God’s judgment.

What kind of judgement are we talking about?

Not wrath of God for sin- that has been forever dealt with by the blood of Jesus Christ.

But there are other forms of God’s judgment or chastisement.

I think this verse most likely refers to God’s chastisement and removal from service.

III.

An abiding relationship assures us of answers to our prayers (v.

7)

This brings us back to the idea of praying in Jesus’ name.

John 14.13-

What does it mean to ask in Jesus’ name?

It does not mean to add a tagline at the end of every prayer- “In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

What it means to ask in Jesus’ name is the connected to the idea of abiding.

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

What are we talking about here?

Abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us- means that Jesus makes Himself know to us and we become conformed into His very image.

It means living with an awareness of His presence.

It means know Him, adoring Him, honoring Him, and seeking to please and to delight Him in all that we do.

It means that we are not interested in getting our own way, but like the loving husband and wife dwelling together, it means living to please our Savior, it means an ongoing process of joyful surrender to His will in order to delight Jesus Christ.

And it is a process that goes on and on for the rest of our lives.

In fact, when we have lived with Jesus Christ for a while, and we have learned to do whatever delights Him when someone else looks at the works that we do, they will not see our own works, but the works of our Savior.

And when someone hears the words that we say, they will not hear our own words, but the words of our Savior.

So when we pray, if an abiding relationship with Christ is at the heart of our prayer life, then whatever we ask for will be the exact things that Jesus wants us to have.

We will be asking for only those things that genuinely delight Him.

Therefore, Jesus can say, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

So abiding in Jesus is really the heart of our prayer life.

It is the foundation upon which an effective prayer life is built.

In a certain sense, it is itself prayer, for what could be more fundamentally prayerful than communion with Christ Himself?

What does James say about unanswered prayer?