Sermon Tone Analysis

Proof is in the Abiding

A few years ago, NPR did a short blip of the origins of the idiom, “The proof is in the pudding.”

Steve Inskeep notes that “In Britain, dating back centuries, pudding meant more than a sweet dessert.

Back then, pudding referred to a kind of sausage, filling the intestines of some animal with minced meat and other things - something you probably want to try out carefully since that kind of food could be rather treacherous.”

He goes on to say, “So, over the years, the original proverb has evolved.

The original was the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

It was shortened to the proof of the pudding, and then here in America, it morphed again to the proof is in the pudding.

Apparently, the proof of the listening is in the correcting.”

One knew the pudding was good and ok to eat by the way it tasted.

If you want proof that the pudding is good you have to eat it.

If you want to know something is right, you have to try it.

For example, Devon Allman said in an article in the St. Louis Dispatch,

“I'm making music with my friends, and it just so happens that the three of us are the next generation of the Allman Brothers Band.

But at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is that record.

Once the world hears that record, they'll realize we really have our own thing going on.”

— Devon Allman, quoted in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 Dec. 2018

If you want to know if something is good, you have to test it for something.

The proof is in the pudding.

In the same way, the world will know you are a true believer by the way you abide in Jesus.

John says as much in

You prove that you are a disciple of Jesus by bearing God-glorifying fruit.

You bear fruit by abiding in Jesus.

The proof is in the abiding.

it is important for us to know the dynamics of abiding in Jesus.

On the one hand, Jesus is the one who empowers you to abide in him, and yet, he commands you to abide in him.

This morning I want to explore what it means to abide in Jesus and its implications for our church.

Understanding abiding is important for us because we need what does real abiding looks like.

Jesus makes clear distinctions in the text.

There are some who abide and some who like like they do, but really don’t.

The proof is in the abiding.

Jesus empowers you and commands you to abide in Him.

Jesus graphs you into the Vine (John 15:3)

At first, this seems out of place.

One minute he is talking about branches bearing fruit, but then he seems to take a turn he declares the disciples clean because of the word that Jesus spoke to the them.

What is Jesus saying in verse 3? What does being clean have to do with being in the Vine?

Verse 3, is a vote of confidence for his disciples.

They are in the are “cleansed” and therefore are grafted into the vine.

How does this work?

If look closely at verse 3, and the context of John 15, there are three points to consider.

Jesus Chose You (John 15:16)

In Jesus’ day it was common for students to go and search for a rabbi to study under.

In this case, the disciples did not choose Jesus.

Jesus came for them and chose to reveal himself as the Messiah to them.

He initiates the whole thing so that none of them can boast as being wiser or better than anyone else.

And what Jesus did with them, so he does with all of his disciples.

He explains this more several chapters earlier.

Jesus explained in John 6 the inner process of how a person comes to Jesus.

If you turn back to John 6, Jesus is explaining who he is and how one enters the kingdom.

In this context of John’s Gospel, Jesus feeds the five thousand and then tells them he is the Bread of life, the true manna from heaven.

It’s Passover time, so Jesus tells the people that he is the true Sacrificial Lamb.

Jesus says crazy things like, “You must eat of my flesh and drink of my blood to enter the kingdom, which is metaphorical for believing in Him.

The Jews grumble at this because they presumed they were guaranteed to enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus corrects their understanding of things when He tells them,

The Father must draw you to the Son.

The idea of draw is likened to dragging a net in the sea to catch fish.

Or, it is likened to a Roman guard dragging a prisoner.

R.C. Sproul describe it like God putting you in a headlock and dragging you toward the Son.

No one comes to the Son unless the Father draws them to the Son.

The Father works a special grace to regenerate your heart, that is make it alive-born again.

Its what Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about in John 3. The Father must take your heart of stone out and put in a heart of flesh so that you will be able to be spiritually alive.

Ezekiel says God will give you his Spirit and cause you to walk in his ways (Ezek 36:25-27).

The Father draws you to the Son for eternal life by giving you a heart of flesh that pulsates with life to see the Son.

Jesus says the same thing to his disciples a few verse later in chapter six when they were grumbling.

Many people stopped following Jesus in chapter six because his teaching was to hard to accept.

So, Jesus confronts their heart and says to them,

The flesh is no help because the flesh cannot give life.

Going back to Nicodemus you see that the flesh is no help.

The flesh is your natural sinfully depraved heart.

It can only beget more naturally depraved hearts.

The Spirit of God must come and give life to your heart.

Therefore, regeneration does not happen when you confess Jesus as Lord.

It happens before so that you can confess Jesus as Lord.

The Spirit must give you life first.

You are empowered to live in the vine because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, have worked a special grace in your life to remove your heart of stone and given you a heart of flesh.

It is the sovereign grace of God that empowers you to abide in Jesus.

Jesus Loves You (John 15:12-14)

Jesus loves you.

He loved you with such depth and conviction that he died on the cross to save you.

It was the Father’s love that sent the Son to redeem sinners, and it was the Sons love for the Father that he obeyed his will to die a sinners death that he did not deserve, and it was both the Father and the Sons love that secured your salvation and “grafted into the Vine.”

What kind of love are speaking of here?

It was a before the world existed he chose to adopt you kind of love.

Its a “while I am a sinner and enemy to His kingdom, he kept his love for me to save me” kind of love

It is a “never stopping, never giving up, never separating” kind of love.

It”s his love that motivates Him to draw you to the Son.

It’s His love that moves him to give you life in the Son.

He loves you through the Son.

He promises to never ever leave you and sustain you because you are forever connected to the Son, i.e the true Vine.

It is the lavishing love of God that empowers you to abide in Jesus.

Jesus Justifies You (John 15:3)

The word “clean” means you have been freed from sin, or, you have been pruned or purified.

It refers to justification.

Their sins have been forgiven and they are part of the vine.

They are ready to bear fruit.

The word refers to Jesus’s teaching; everything from the gospel message to keeping his commands.

The disciples have been made clean because they have believed the gospel.

John said at the beginning of his letter,

His disciples received his word and believed.

They trusted that Jesus was the Messiah.

However, how does believing the message make you clean before God?

I think the footwashing scene in John 13 helps us understand what Jesus means by “being made clean.”