WWUTT 957 You Are the Branches?

John 15: The Vine, the Branches, and Abiding in Christ

In John 15, 5, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. When we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily study in the word of God that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. Visit our website at www .utt .com. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.

Reading John 15:1-11 and the Meaning of Abiding

We come back again to our study of the gospel of John chapter 15. And as with yesterday, I'll begin with reading verses one through 11. Jesus said to his disciples, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. So we come back to where we left off yesterday and that is in verse four with Jesus saying, abide in me and I in you.

This word abide comes up more in John 15 than any other chapter of the Bible. So let's get an understanding here of what it means to abide. What does that word mean? To abide is to stay or to remain, to dwell with.

You might also consider it as a state of being or where one's being resides. Some of the verses where we see the word abide come up. Well, the very first word we find, the very first verse where we find this word is Genesis 6, three.

This is right before the Lord is about to destroy the world in a flood because of the wickedness of man. And he says, my spirit shall not abide in man forever for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years.

Another place we find this word abide is in the Psalms. Psalm 25, starting in verse 11. For your namesake, oh Lord, pardon my guilt for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.

His soul shall abide in wellbeing and his offspring shall inherit the land. This is the person who fears the Lord. His soul shall abide in wellbeing. The way the soul exists shall consider itself blessed by God because of the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of knowledge, of course, as we read in Proverbs.

Consider this one, Psalm 91, right at the start of the Psalm. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. Very clearly, we're talking about living in, residing in.

Right at the start of Psalm 125, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Its state of being or its existence is forever. And this is, of course, the dwelling place of God.

Wherever God is, that's where we will be, all of us who are in Christ Jesus, and we will dwell with him forever. So even now on this side of heaven, we are to abide with God and he will abide with us.

Rejecting Compartmentalized Christianity

So anything and everything that you do, you should consider it as if God is there. Don't try to compartmentalize your life into various segments or sectors. You don't have your church life over here, and then you've got your job here.

You've got your personal life over here, family life, hobbies, friends. You know, these are kind of your compartments. And you try not to let those things intersect with one another. Whenever I see a person living their life in that way, they tend to fall into a lot of trouble.

They think that they can live their life one way, probably not very Christian, or they think they can let certain aspects of who they are as a Christian go, as long as I'm in this particular compartment.

But if I don't carry that over into the segment of my life that is my church life, then no harm, no foul, right? But such a person is not truly loving the Lord God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, and with all their strength.

They're compartmentalizing everything. God, you have your little segment over here, and then I can have my little thing over here. And as long as I don't let my worldliness infiltrate the sacred, then I'm not doing anything really wrong.

That's probably the way that a person is trying to justify that particular behavior. See, the church stuff, all that spiritual stuff, that needs to be kept sacred. And as long as I don't bring all my worldliness into the sacred, then they think they're doing God a favor.

But loving the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength means that we love him with everything that we are. And we behave the same way in the world as we would behave in church. Now, you're gonna interact with unbelievers different than you're gonna interact with Christians.

Of course, your brothers and sisters in Christ have a certain priority that everyone else in the world doesn't have. And then we're taking the gospel to the people of the world. We're not expecting them to live like Christians.

They're lost. They're wandering around in darkness. They've been ensnared by Satan. Whereas our brothers and sisters in the Lord know the truth. They know the gospel. And so we might encourage and admonish them differently than we would anyone else.

There's certainly gonna be ways that we interact with one another that are different, depending on the different sphere or sector that we are in. But the way that we ourselves behave should be the same no matter what.

Because we know that the Lord our God is with us wherever we are, wherever we go. And we have been called out from the world not to live like the world, but to live as citizens of the kingdom of God. And so in this way, we come to understand what it means to abide with God.

We live with God and he is with us always, all the time, no matter where we are, no matter where we go. So it's not about having a religion somewhere, a religious part of my life. But the faith that you have in Christ is your life.

It's everything. Everything you say and do, may it be conformed to the image of Christ. Everything that you are is to be about Christ. This is abiding in Christ and he abiding in you. Don't you know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God, as the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.

The Holy Spirit dwelling within you. So you are to honor God with your body. Romans 12 one, in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. And this is your spiritual act of worship.

Everything that we are, the way we live with our bodies, the thoughts we think with our mind, the words we say with our mouths, the actions that we do, the places where we invest ourselves, all of these things need to be in submission to Christ.

This is what it means to abide with Christ. Abide in me, Jesus says, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. So let's go back to the compartmentalizing your life analogy, okay?

So a person has the church compartment, and then they have their hanging out with friends after work compartment. And they're gonna behave a certain way with their church family, that they're not gonna behave with their friends.

They behave with their friends a completely different way. And this person expects that their church life will be a blessing to all their other areas of life. See, because I worship God, here he is, right here.

I have a spiritual life, I have my religion, therefore it should bless all these other areas of my life. But if that's the way that a person lives, they actually don't have God at all. God is not gonna play second fiddle to anybody.

And he's not gonna be manipulated by anyone like that. As we read in Romans chapter 11, who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid. Have you done something for God that God is now somehow obligated to give you this thing?

Oh, well, okay, as long as you have your church life, well, I guess I'll bless you in all these other areas of your life. No, you really don't have God at all because you're not abiding in God. And God is not abiding in you.

Abide in me and I in you, Jesus says, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. So by yourself, you can't bring the fruitfulness that you think that you're getting from your church life into these other areas of your life and expect yourself to be fruitful, can't be done.

You're actually living as a branch apart from the vine. So a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. And then we go on to verse five with Jesus saying, and this is of course the most famous verse really coming out of John 15.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. You can try to compartmentalize your life in all of these different segments, but apart from Christ, you can't accomplish anything in any of those areas.

You think that God is gonna be a blessing to you in these places, but if you're not abiding in Christ, nothing's happening, no fruitfulness is taking place. You're not actually growing in Christ. You're not truly growing in knowledge of your creator.

As Paul says in Colossians chapter three, that we are to put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator. Well, if you just kind of have your church life, but you're not interested in how you can live for Christ in all the other areas of your life, then the church life part is not a benefit to you.

There is not any growth, any fruitfulness that is taking place. There's no growing in love for your brothers and sisters in the Lord. They're just kind of a segment of your life and they exist to benefit you somehow.

You're not considering how you can be a service to the body of Christ as we're supposed to take the gifts of the spirit that we've been given and use them to benefit the entire body, to grow the whole body.

So unless we abide in Christ, we cannot be bearing fruit. We will not be bearing fruit in growing in the knowledge of God. We will not be bearing fruit in growing in holiness. We will not be bearing fruit in the way we love one another.

We are not producing anything. You just kind of have your own little religious segment of your life and really is no benefit for you at all. As a matter of fact, it's a time waster. Why do you have this portion of Sunday morning that you're waking up and attending church when you could just be watching football instead?

That's eventually the way that a person will come to rationalize that. When a person decides not to attend church anymore, it's because church is not doing for them what they expected it to do for them.

They had an unrealistic expectation of church because they were not truly abiding in Christ and Christ was not abiding in them. Part of being a Christian and being a part of a church family means that you're gonna be growing in love with one another and they are gonna be growing in love with you.

If that's not happening, if you are not looking for ways that you can invest in these person's lives and finding ways that, you know, opening yourself up so that they can invest in you and you're growing one another in the spirit, in the Lord.

If you're not finding ways to do that with one another, growing in love for each other, then you're not obeying Christ. Because Ephesians 5 .21 says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

We need to submit to one another. And Colossians 3, I think Colossians 3 is one of the best places that explains the love and affection that we should have for each other. Colossians 3 .12, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. What a beautiful dynamic is being presented for us there regarding the body of Christ, how we should regard one another, being compassionate toward each other, growing in love for each other, encouraging and even admonishing one another.

We find ways that we can build each other up. And there's even gonna be times when we're gonna have to call one another to correction so that we may grow in holiness. And to admonish means to correct with goodwill.

We do this with the intention that we would be growing a person, helping a person grow more and more into the image of Christ. And all of this is the command of God. This is what Christ has commanded of us to do.

This goes back to the beginning of this exchange with Jesus' disciples in the upper room. In John 13, when Jesus washed his disciples' feet, he said to them, what I have done for you, you must do for each other.

With all these other things that Jesus says in this discourse, that's the way he starts. What you have observed and seen in me, you must do this for one another. And in so doing, we're helping build one another up in the body of Christ.

And by the way, this all comes back to abiding in Christ. Verse 10, I'm jumping here, but let me get to verse 10. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. And recognize Jesus is talking to his disciples. Don't read John 15 verses one through 11 as though it were some personal message to you.

Yes, indeed, there are certainly things that Jesus is saying directly to you, but this is in the context of you, my disciples, which is plural. You are not the only disciple of Christ. There are others that we are to be growing with.

Others who are the branches connected with the vine and together we are growing and producing fruit. John 15 five, once again, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. And if you are a part, like separated, if you are separated from the body of Christ, guess who you're also separated from? Christ, who is the head of the body. You separate yourself from the body, you are separated also from Christ.

Warning Against Separating from Christ’s Body

Verse six, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. One of the what videos that I've done, I'm planning on remaking this video, just kind of update the intro and the outro, but keeping the script the same.

Anyway, one of the what videos that I've done begins like this. If you call yourself a Christian and you don't go to church, you're probably going to hell. That's been one of the most controversial videos that I've done that has received the most about a backlash probably.

I haven't, you know, I don't tally all of that, but I do believe that that video has received the most backlash from both sides, whether a person is a churchgoer or not. They're like, hey, you're talking about works of righteousness here.

Going to church does not make you a Christian. If that's the argument, then you're missing the point. If you're not attending church, you're separated from Christ's body, which means you're not part of the head who is Christ.

And if you don't love the body of Christ, you don't love Christ. You cannot say that you love God and hate your brother, because if you do not love your brother whom you see, you cannot love God whom you do not see.

John goes into that in 1 John. So abiding in Christ means that we will be a part of his body. And if we are separated from Christ, we're also separated from the body. We're good to be gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.

Verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. If we abide in Christ, we know the will of God and desire to do his will. And so if we ask for God's will to be done in our lives, Jesus is promising it will be done for you.

Verse eight, by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Not that bearing fruit is the thing that saves you, but it shows that you are saved. It shows that you are truly a disciple of Christ when you do as Christ's disciples should do.

As the father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

These things are not burdensome to us to read this. This isn't eye rolling. This isn't for us to go, oh man, I don't wanna do this. God does not want your begrudging submission. He wants you to be delighted to serve him because you know that you have been rescued from the flames.

You have been delivered from death. You have an inheritance with God in his eternal kingdom. So it excites us to obey the commands of Christ. These things are not burdensome. They are our delight to do them, that we get to be a part of this work and that we are in fellowship with God in doing this work.

Whatever we do in Christ, he is in us and we abide in his love, that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be full. The greatest joy that we could have is the joy of the Lord. And as we read in Nehemiah 8 .10, the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Prayer and Closing Exhortation

Let us conclude with prayer. Our wonderful God, I pray that as we go from this lesson today, we consider more what it means to abide in Christ and have Christ abide in us. Forgive us our sins and our tendency to try to stick everything in its own little sector or compartment and not wanting those things to intersect with one another.

But rather we need Christ to reign over all of it and let us be in submission to Christ no matter where we are or what we are doing. May we do all things to the glory of our God and King. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.