03.16.2014 John 15 - How to Abide in Christ - Getting the Most out of Your Bible Reading

03.16.2014 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

John 15:1 “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 bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are 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 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Lord, thank You for Your word – You are a holy God that we can come to, who loves us and gave His life for us. You are well-pleased with us – you are satisfied because of what Jesus did on the cross. Our relationship is secure – we are forgiven and free to live with a clean conscience and to serve you wholly with our lives. Our desire is to be Your faithful servants and to accomplish Your will here on earth as in heaven. In our church, may we be a glimpse of the eternal kingdom and would have a taste of what it means to be in relationship with God.
This is a famous passage – I am the vine – you are the branches. This is a metaphor – and the language comes directly out of the Old Testament. The vineyard – there is a lot of conversation about the vineyard and it always, or, for the most part, represents the nation of Israel. The problem, even in the Old Testament we see this to be true, the vineyard has failed to produce fruit, so something needs to be done. There is always a rejection of the vineyard – there is something wrong with the vineyard – and in this passage, it is the rejection of the nation of Israel – they have had so many chances and now it has come to an end.
I will spend about 10 minutes looking at some of the theology of this passage – and then there are several really good practical things we can draw from this. However – it cannot be taken out of its context.
I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener.
What does this mean to them? They believed that to for one to be part of God’s family, one must be connected to Israel – either by birth or by conversion.
What Jesus is saying – I am the true vine – the only way to get connected to God – the only source of salvation – is Jesus. It is not a matter of being born into a certain race or who your parents were – He is saying – anybody – up until this point – no matter what has happened in the past – all you have to do is connect to Jesus. Become connected to Jesus.
On the other hand, this is bad news for some – simply being raised in a Jewish family – or for us, simply being raised as a Christian – is not enough. You have to come to a point where you connect with Jesus personally – to secure your salvation.
My father is the gardener. The father and the son are intimately connected, working together as one in all things that are taking place – and here as He tells the story of the vine and the branches – the father and Son work as one – they are equal in the task – God in three persons, blessed trinity!
When Jesus talks about being one – having this relationship – we understand it as the trinity – all three being completely God – and they had no concept of this. It was so radical of a claim that it led to His crucifixion – that is why they killed Him –because of Who He claimed to be.
We will look later at the practical part about fruit – the relationship between the father and son is very relational – they are very connected in a deep and abiding relationship – and that is the key to bearing fruit – because God is relational.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Now – looking at those verses could cause some problems – they can be scary and confusing – it can look like – it is saying – okay! Some branches stop being branches, so they are taken away and are thrown out. We can believe that this is speaking of losing one’s salvation – maybe this is talking about eternal security – and maybe we shouldn’t be so secure in our eternity!
I will say this. This is a metaphor. A parable. And we are not to read too much into a metaphor or parable. There is a theme/main point or two, but the details are there to make the story come alive – this passage is NOT a teaching about eternal security – that is not what He is talking about in this passage. This passage is talking about the nation of Israel. It is saying that some from Israel will not be a part of it. Some will. And Gentiles will. And this passage is also about bearing fruit. The point of the parable – the metaphor – if a person is really a part of God’s family, he will demonstrate that by being transformed into the image of Christ and acting like a Christian in the way he or she lives life. If a person is NOT bearing fruit and not acting like a Christian, then they are not part of God’s family – and that theme runs throughout the New Testament. What we know to be true in our own existence – there are plenty who claim to be part of the Christian faith who aren’t really part of the Christian faith. If their lives don’t demonstrate it, you can probably say – there is not true faith there. True faith produces a following of Jesus – being transformed into His character and doing good works that Jesus calls us to do.
Weeds don’t produce fruit we can eat!
He is not speaking of eternal security on one side or the other.
This gives us something to look at – am I doing good works.
Now for the practical –
John 15:1 “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 bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
Fruit bearing – the first thing to understand is God’s role – Jesus is the vine – the Father is the vine keeper/tender/dresser – God is the source. God is the source of our transformation – and our fruit. What is fruit? Anything that makes us more like Christ – obedience to Christ – being the people God calls us to become – and what this is saying – that is something that God initiates in us. That is God’s job to do in our lives – He is actively involved in your spiritual growth – every day. He is initiating and getting involved in us growing. He has plans and things He is doing in us to begin the process of growth. He is watering, fertilizing, pruning – all for the purpose of us bearing fruit – to accomplish His purposes in our lives.
God is the initiator in this fruit bearing process - and fruit happens when we are connected with the vine. The key is relationship. Abide. Remain connected. Stay attached to the vine. As long as you do that, the natural result is fruit – transformation – change, accomplishing what God calls us to do.
That will happen – not based on your willpower or how hard you try, but your ability to remain connected with God. As you remain connected, He is able to unleash the power to cause growth. The vine is the source of all nutrients – like the roots of a tree – bringing nourishment to bear fruit.
A mistake we make – we focus on bearing fruit – I need to learn to bear fruit – Patience, patience, patience – and we fail.
What we need to do – engage in our relationship with God and make that our focus – and as we do that, the patience begins to flow from God into us.
The more you focus on the fruit, the more it disappears – the more you focus on Jesus – the more fruit you bear.
You can’t focus on the steps- even though they are good steps, you must focus on Jesus.
The other thing with fruit bearing – it is a progression – you will bear fruit – more fruit – much fruit.
It is not an issue of where you are in the fruit bearing process – all that matters – are you bearing SOME fruit? Something that you are doing that is accomplishing what God has called you to do – becoming the person He wants you to be. If you have any fruit, He will come in and do His work and you will bear more. No matter where you are – if there is some good – some transformation taking place, you can be assured that God will work to bring about more and more.
IF there isn’t ANY, then we have a problem. I think we can all look and say, well, there is this, at least. You can be confident that God is at work in your life – focus on that and then you will see more transformation taking place.
The way that tends to happen, in this passage – is pruning –
We have viburnum growing up – and we cut them down – because they are covering the Sunday school windows. And people say – you killed it. But just wait.
Interestingly – an unpruned grape vine will produce a TON of foliage – but little fruit. So it is with our lives – God has to prune us through trials, suffering, grief and loss – a boss, a spouse, sickness, sometimes through rebuke and confrontation. He has ways to cut – to removes stuff – from our lives. And your bearing some fruit, more fruit, much fruit – is largely based on how we respond to the pruning process. Normally – what I like to do – when the pruning process begins, you want to run, to hide, to put up every roadblock to it happening! What Jesus is saying – we need to allow God – to give God freedom – He is going to take it anyway – so we need to give Him the freedom to start pruning us.
When you think you are going through pruning – learn to examine your life – not with guilt, but with humility and without guilt, to be able to acknowledge – yes, I have issues – I know that – and what are some of those issues that God might be revealing to me through this.
The problem, we let guilt take over. But we are forgiven – I am His beloved child and He is pleased with me. So to be able to do this guilt free is transformational.
Pruning clears away negative stuff in our lives – Sin – bad habits, disobedience – to rip it out of our lives because it is hurting us. Also, to rip out useless things in our lives - this is a lot harder to see – things that aren’t necessarily evil, but useless – time wasters – things that don’t promote spiritual health and growth – it may be legitimate – and there is nothing sinful about it – but it doesn’t produce a healthy relationship with God.
There are things that are not unlawful – but are not beneficial.
He uses pruning to reveal where we are vulnerable and weak. These are not necessarily areas of sin – but fatal flaws before they can inflict a fatal wound. If we are receptive and willing to examine ourselves, when we are experiencing God’s pruning, then God is able to reveal to us, Hey! This – which you are unaware of – needs to go.
15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
God is the source – the one working – the one transforming – producing the fruit – but we still have our part to do in it. He is the source and initiator – but we have a responsibility also. First – to remain in Him – to daily choose to be connected in our relationship with Jesus. It is not easy. We have talked about Mary and Martha – Jesus is there for dinner – Martha is serving – and Mary is connecting in relationship with Him – and Martha is worried and bothered about many things – She is not pulling her weight! I am doing the cleaning and serving. Martha, Mary has chosen the good part – to remain connected in relationship with Me. So our part – is to daily choose the good part.
In our young adult group last week – we were talking about prayer. “I have made a pendulum swing – I hope not too far – I used to have rigid prayer times – but now I am trying to more naturally pray throughout the day – it needs to be part of my life to connect with God” –
To abide – that is what that means – to focus on God throughout the day.
…and my word abides in you…
The gospel needs to be part of our life. The story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection has been taken to heart and that is the controlling influence and focus in our lives. Live life through that. Let that story influence every aspect of our lives – continually focus on the gospel.
Live a life of faithfulness and obedience to His word. Memorizing is great – I have memorized parts, and have forgotten a lot – but it is more than that – it is being faithful and obedient to what God tells us.
Third – it is a matter of listening and pondering – letting His word fill our lives.
Here is a plan – a strategy to accomplish this. This is what we have been doing in our young adult group. We want to read the Bible – but it doesn’t always speak to us like we hope –
“I really do have regular times, but I am having a hard time pulling stuff out of it”
You need a strategy when you go to read the Bible. You can’t just – read it – and that’s that. Here is the strategy – the Series of Questions Strategy. The guy who worked with me as a young Christian taught me this.
Read the passage –
1) What does the passage teach about the nature of God? – So instead of just reading – take this passage – the vine – what does it teach? He is actively involved in our growth. He is the gardener, taking care of me, the branch. If He is the caretaker, He is concerned. He is not leaving me on my own. And it shows He is wise – He knows exactly what is best for me! He knows when to prune – what branches to trim – He knows how to produce the most fruit from that vine. Yes, this is a cool passage – but asking questions about it really opens up the passage.
From that, what do I need –and what is going on in my life that God is wise and knows when to prune and water – what is going on in me – that this applies to. You read and understand what it means and you have moved it into your circumstance – your life situation.
2) Is there a command to obey, or some specific instruction in that passage? Here it is: remain in me and my word – and ASK! There are at least three command s in this passage – be connected to Jesus?
3) Is there a sin to avoid?
4) Is there an example to follow? This works best with a narrative/story passage. How does it relate to my life? How do I fit into this story – where do I become a part of God’s story in that story?
5) Is there a promise to claim or a word of encouragement? I always try to relate these passages to my life so I can relate it to your life. Bearing fruit  More fruit  much fruit.