Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] John, chapter 15, verses 1 through 11 is where we're going to be today. And this is quite a passage, so I hope that you maybe have read through it already, but if not, we're going to read through it this morning if you haven't been with us already. We've been going through John for some time now. And we concluded Gerald preached through the tail end of chapter 14 last week. And if you see in your Bibles, which hopefully you all are looking at, in verse 31, Jesus is speaking. He says that but I do as the Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father. And the last sentence of verse 14 says, what? Rise, let us go from here. And when you look at that, you're like, okay, what are you talking about? Especially when you read the scripture in context, it's helpful to know what actually is going on. So what has started earlier on is they have had dinner, the Passover is approaching. And so just kind of imagine with me here, the table is laid out. It's. We've talked about this before. It's kind of a U shaped table that they're all sitting at. Jesus is sitting there. We know from a few weeks, well, some weeks ago that there are two people sitting next to Jesus at the table. On one side was John, the beloved disciple. And who was on the other side of Jesus?
[00:01:22] Anybody? Judas. So strange, right? Because an honored position sitting next to Jesus. Jesus is sitting there. John on one side, Judas on the other. And then Jesus says, someone's going to betray me. And all the disciples are like, who could it be? And they find out, well, they'll find out soon that it's going to be Judas. Jesus gives him some bread, he gets up, he says, all right, Judas, you can go. Judas leaves. Disciples are still confused. What is going on? Where is Judas going? They don't assume that he is going to be the betrayer of Jesus. They think good things of Judas as he gets up and he leaves the room. And once Judas leaves, Jesus transitions the conversation from not just what are we chatting about around the table, even the washing of feet that he had just done, but he transitions to a much more significant portion of his teaching. And in this teaching, he's now engaging the disciples and saying, you know, I'm going to be leaving because I just told you that. And your hearts are. There's a word we've talked about quite a bit. It starts with T. Troubled. Their hearts are troubled. And so then Jesus begins to lay out some encouragement for them and also some vital instruction for them before he is about to be betrayed, arrested and then crucified. And so we pick up at, at the tail end of actually Jesus now he's sitting at the table. John 14, he's shared with the disciples as they're sitting around the table. And you can imagine a level of weight on Jesus heart and even probably in his tone of voice as he's sharing with his disciples that he's going to be leaving. But they can rejoice because he's going to come back at some point.
[00:03:05] So he says it's gonna be okay, I will come back for you. And it's almost like this pause happens and perhaps then we read the last verse of chapter 14 where he says, all right, stand up, let's rise up from sitting at this table and let's go from here. And so that's where we pick up. So what happens in John 15, if you look in your Bibles, John 15, 16 and 17, you notice Jesus is still saying quite a bit more, but he's already stood up from the table. Most likely this conversation is happening as they stood up and they are now walking to where, where are they going after this? The garden of Gethsemane. So he now is. We read through the next few chapters, as we read through it in the following weeks is Jesus leaving the table with his disciples and going to the garden. If you look in chapter 18, verse 1, you'll see there that now the arrest is going to happen. He's there at the garden. So that's kind of a picture of where we are here. And so Jesus now he stood up from the table and he begins to share with his disciples something that's key not only for them, but for us as well. He's going to share this analogy with him, with them. Jesus now starts off in verse 15. I'm going to read through the passage, verses 1 through 11 and then we'll pray. He says in verse 1 of chapter 15, look in your Bibles with me. This is the last of the I am statements. Jesus has made statements like I am the light, I am the bread, I am the way. And here he says, I am the true what vine. Alright, cool. We're all in the same place. I'm reading from ESV, verse one of chapter 15. Let's read through this together. He says this, I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. There's a lot of terms that we're going to pick up through here. We will go back through and understand the definitions of all of those. And the picture that Jesus is drawing for us, verse two goes on. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
[00:05:04] 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. Can you say abide?
[00:05:17] Abide in me, it says. Verse 4. 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. By the way, we're going to see the word abide quite a bit through this passage. Verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever, what's the word abides in me, and I in him. It is he that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Just making sure we're all reading together. Still, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.
[00:05:56] If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this the Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
[00:06:09] 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.
[00:06:21] Concluding verse. Here in verse 11. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
[00:06:32] Well, Lord Jesus, we are first off grateful this morning as we come, as we've sung songs already declaring that it is you and you alone that have the power to save. It is our God that saves, Lord, and it is you that we trust in this morning as. As the Savior of our souls. It is not our own energy and our own efforts that brought about our salvation, but we praise you and you alone for that work. So thank you as we spend time in your word, Lord, we ask that you would open our eyes and our hearts, keep our ears attentive to what you want to say and do through this passage here. We thank you for your love for us. Thank you for the gift of your spirit that you've put inside of all those who have trusted in you as their Lord and Savior. As we spend time in this passage, Lord, work in our hearts. This passage even says, prune us. Shape us more so to bring about greater fruit in our life for your glory. In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:07:35] So let's step right in, verse 1:1 through 3, the first point in your outline, you could write this in. He sets up this analogy. And if you hadn't picked up, as I read through this earlier, Jesus is just. He's sharing a picture. He's creating a picture, an analogy for them that he wants them to understand. Now, with most analogies, you can only take them so far. And so we're gonna see that as we walk through this analogy with Jesus that he's sharing with the disciple. We're just gonna read through this together and understand what is Jesus saying both to his disciples and to us today. Now, vines, vine, branches, even in our valley here that we live in. Agriculture is not a foreign concept, is it? We're not sitting in the middle of New York or San Francisco. You all have seen plants before, right? You've seen trees before, you've seen orchards before. And so that's important to draw on as we consider the things that Jesus has said. Jesus particularly speaking of vines, grapes, fruit coming from plants. So these are. This is not a foreign concept, both to you all and to the listeners of Jesus in Jesus audience here, he starts off and says, I am the true vine. And some of you might read that and say, okay, hold on a second. Why did he just say vine? He says vine later, but here he says true vine. Why?
[00:08:50] There's a key concept here that we want to just draw it for a moment. And it's this. The nation of Israel was viewed as the vine of God. And the people of Israel were to bring about good fruit. And so what the people of Israel, namely Jesus, disciples would have believed is this. The vine is the nation of Israel. And my job is to stay close to and closely connected to my nation in order to glorify God. Now, here's what Jesus is saying. Who's the true vine? He is. So right out of the gate, their attention is grabbed because they not only know agriculturally what a vine is, but also the nation of Israel is spoken of. Isaiah, chapter 5, Jeremiah, chapter 2 speaks of God saying his nation is this vine. And here Jesus says, actually, it's me. It's now time for you to separate your allegiance from nation to me. That is where your strength is going to come from, not how patriotic you are. That's not who your identity is anymore. Now your identity needs to be firmly planted, grounded in who, in Jesus. So I am the true vine, the authentic vine, not the nation of Israel. And my Father, that is the Father, God is the vine dresser. So right here again we see some other phrases. What is he talking about here?
[00:10:15] Of all the many pictures, we'll get into some terminology. Of all the many pictures that between. We see between God and his people, this analogy of the vine and the branches is probably one of the most special. You consider a shepherd and the sheep. A shepherd and a sheep. Yes, a sheep is dependent on the shepherd, or even a father and a child. Yes, a child is dependent on the father. But even in those pictures, we know that a sheep might wander away and the father will go and bring it back. A great picture, so. Or a shepherd will come and bring them back. So true. So too with a child and a father. But here we get a picture of complete dependence. A branch and the trunk or the vine. And here we see some pictures that Jesus is going to lay out. I put some words on the screen here. Some of it's kind of small. You won't be able to read all of it. I'll read through it. But we have the practical word for what Jesus is saying and the spiritual understanding or the spiritual definition and the practical definition. So practically, we know that a vine holds branches, and because of the vine, these branches can have life. Now, spiritually, he says, I am the vine. I am the one who has life. It's me. Later on, he says, there's also a vine dresser. Who's the vine dresser?
[00:11:31] God, the father. The vine dresser, practically speaking, is the farmer. And some of your versions might actually say the farmer. And that's the one who cares for the vine, for the plants, without the farmer, without the vine dresser, these plants can get kind of crazy. And you might have driven, even not far from me, you might have driven through some vineyards before. Have any of you seen vineyards that have been recently pruned? Yeah, you drive through that, you know that somebody went through there and they were pruning it. Now, most of the time, when you see recent pruning that happens, they don't look too lovely, do they? It looks kind of rough. You're like, what happened? I look kind of dead over there. But in reality, a good vine dresser, a good farmer, says, I need to prune, I need to go through this and clean up these plants. Because the purpose is not for them to be crazy and have lots of green. What's the purpose for them to produce fruit. And so a good vinedresser, his job is to bring about more fruit in the life of his plants. So namely here, spiritually, God, the definition. There is one who brings about healthy branches that Is his goal to bring about greater fruit? Go to the next slide. There we see a couple other definitions. And we see in verses two and three, every branch, he says, you are the branches. Verse five, practically the branches, they are connected to the vine or to the trunk, for example, of a tree. Spiritually, we're talking about those who are professing Christians, and maybe you want to jot that down somewhere. Now, there is some discrepancy in interpretation. I just want to lay this here before you. Some say, now the branches are all Christians, and others say that the branches are those who are professing to be Christians. And the reason this is significant, a little later on, he says, those who don't bear fruit, those branches who are abiding me, who don't bear fruit, they are burned up or they are taken away. We'll get to that in a moment. But here, for this moving working definition, we're going to have those professing Christians. And that is someone who says, yes, I am following Jesus. That's here and me. And then he says, bearing fruit, that's important. That's the whole purpose. Practically speaking, that's why a vineyard exists, so that fruit can be brought about. Bearing fruit proves that something or someone is connected to the vine. All right, are you with me so far? Maybe you're thinking about that vineyard you've driven by. The pruning has happened. You know, there's a farmer. It's not all crazy there, but you know, the purpose is to bring about lots of good fruit. Now, spiritually speaking, what is this fruit? There's a few passages that speak about fruit in the life of the Christian. And maybe you could jot this down. I put a couple of these on the screen. 1 Ephesians 2, 10 says that God has prepared good works for those whom he has saved. Some might say, yes, this is good. This is fruit of the Christian. He saved you. And now here's things that I want you to do. Or what is going to be a natural byproduct of your relationship with me? Many of us know in Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit. And there's a list there. Yes, most definitely. As a byproduct of spending time with Jesus, we're going to see in our life more love and more joy and more peace and more patience and more kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self control. That's a byproduct of. Of spending time in connection with Jesus. Romans chapter 1, verse 13 speaks about how new converts are fruit. Hebrews chapter 13 speaks about how the praise of God is fruit.
[00:15:09] So we see here that Jesus desires fruit to come from those whom profess to be his followers. We also see something else here that he not only wants to see fruit, but also what does he do? Go to the next slide. There, I think, is there's pruning that happens. He cuts back, he trims back. The reason is to produce more fruit. And spiritually speaking, in the life of the Christian, how many of you know that your life can get pretty scattered? How many of you know that there's a lot of people that want your time, want your attention? They're looking to draw, hey, can you do this? Can you sign up for this? You should do more of this if you want to be a good Christian. And then the list can go on and on and on and on and on. And here's what God does, is he comes along and he says, I'm going to cut back parts of your life that are not actually producing fruit. Just because you're busy doesn't mean that you're fruitful. And many of us can look at plants and say, there's a lot of green there, but I don't see any fruit coming off of that. Sometimes there needs to be pruning that happens so that the plant is more productive. This is true in our life. Even in considering leading in various organizations or in your personal life, if you're doing lots of things, you're probably doing few things well.
[00:16:33] Sometimes it's worth doing three things well and not doing 13 different things that you only kind of do halfway. And God's desire is to bring about fruit, which means there's going to be times he's saying, I'm going to cut back parts of your life so that you can be more productive in the life of where I've called you, of who I've called you to be. And then we see in verses 2 and verse 6 that there's this throwing away or this removing, this being burned. And this is true of plants. If there's a branch sitting on the ground or a branch that is dead, then the farmer says, you're just taking up valuable space. I'm gonna remove you and you're going to be burned. This is true in the farming context of a vineyard. But also, what about the Christian life? And this is where kind of that divide happens that I talked about. One camp says, these are Christians. These are actually Christians. So does that mean then that they lose their salvation because they're not bearing fruit? We're gonna get to that in a minute. But here's the short answer is no, you don't lose your salvation. But what we do see is this is those who are these branches. What we see is these branches are not abiding. They're not actually connected. Many of you might have seen, for example, a tree that's growing and you see branches on the ground. Like, that's pointless. There's nothing there. It looks like the branches on the tree, but it's not actually the branches on the tree. There's nothing that's going to come from them. No life going to come from them. Scripture is clear. There's many people who exist next to Christians, next to there's wolves in sheep's clothing, right? There's the parable of the 10 virgins, some of whom are going to experience rejoicing in, others who are not. There are not pleasant to think about here. But there are people who exist in the life of the church not because they're holding onto Jesus, but because they're holding on to community.
[00:18:32] And it's not that community is bad, but community doesn't save you. Jesus does. And so as we consider the people, the reason we're doing this, we call Christianity. We say it's not a religion, but it's a relationship. That's literally what we're talking about here is he's saying it's not about you following the rules and looking the part, but. But rather it's those who actually know Jesus, have a relationship with Jesus and are walking with him. Those are the ones that experience life and the rest. There is judgment coming. We see this picture of being burned. So we have this laid out before us that Jesus sets up these terminology. It's important for us as we move forward. And a lot could be said about. There's a lot of sermons about this, a lot of notes that I don't have time to kind of walk us through. But the key for us to understand is this. Jesus wants us to hold tightly to him. Let's go to the next point. He's going to now give us this instruction. And he's saying this, hold on to me. And he uses the word abide. We use words like hold on, cling to a little bit more than abide. I don't know if any of you have, like, you went to work this week and your coworker used the word abide. Anybody, most of the time not. You're hanging out with your kids and you're like, you need to abide with me. You probably don't say that to your 10 year old. It just doesn't really fit into the context of most of our conversations. But we do say things like, stay close to me, don't we? Hey, follow me or shadow me, Stay with me. In order for you to do well, here's what Jesus is saying. He's emphasizing a mutual relationship. Go to the next slide. Abide in me, and I in you. He's already promised that he will stick with them. And he's saying this. Stick with me, stay under with my shadow. Know where I'm going, and stick next to me. We have this picture, again, not of a sheep that can choose to kind of be cared for by a shepherd or a child and his parent, but we have a picture of complete dependence. And that's what he's saying.
[00:20:45] You're gonna miss me. It's gonna be hard. I'm leaving. I know, but you can still stick with me like this. Even though I'm gonna be gone, I will not actually leave you.
[00:20:57] Jesus wants fruit to come from us. And so he tells us, stay with me. This is a choice that you and I can make. And that's what's key for us to understand here this morning, is this. This is a choice you and I can say, you know what? I don't want to. I would rather depend on my own way of life. How many of you ever depended on yourself for something, right? All of us have said, I'm gonna do it my way instead of his way. And usually that doesn't bring about anything good and God glorifying, We try it and then when it doesn't work out for us, we go, oh, I should have did what Jesus said I should do.
[00:21:35] Abide. That's the word we see here. Let's just unpack that for a moment. This idea of abiding, it's on the screen. This term here is this. It's remaining. It's staying connected. Just like a plant or a vine or a plant or a branch stays connected in order for fruit to be produced. So too with us, unless the Christian stays connected with Jesus, here's what he says, you can do nothing.
[00:22:02] We're like, well, I stay really, really busy. Does that mean I'm doing nothing?
[00:22:08] According to Jesus, you want to do something that's of eternal work. The only way that happens is by staying connected with him, is by walking in obedience to Him. Not because I'm doing this out of duty, because I need to be the good Christian person, because I have this list of rules that's the religion piece of it. But because I. I'm staying close to him, he's pressing things upon my heart. He's convicting me. He's leading me, he's pushing me in one direction or another. That's why I'm doing what I am doing. Later on, we see a great phrase. I love this. We're gonna see this in just a moment. He says, not just abide in me, but here's what he says. He says, abide in my love.
[00:22:56] Abide in my love. He doesn't say, abide in my rules.
[00:22:59] He doesn't say, abide in the direction, if you will, of everybody else in your life. He says, abide in my love. He doesn't say, abide in the guilt that you have felt or abide in shame. Stay connected to all of that, but rather fall back on I love you. I love you. Our main. Maybe write this down somewhere. Our main effort as Christians should not be to do good, but to be with the One who is good.
[00:23:32] Our main effort shouldn't be to make ourselves strong, but to hold tightly to the One who is our strength. And that's what Jesus is calling them to do when he says, abide, stay connected with. Hang out with me regularly through your day. Now, how do you do this? Right, that's the question. It's a nice picture, but how do I do this?
[00:23:56] Here's what we see. And this again, powerful question, vital question. One of the things that we see is this. He says, if you obey my commands, you will abide with me and you can obey my commands if you abide with me. You're like, wait a minute, which one is it? Do I abide so that I can obey or do I obey so that I can abide?
[00:24:21] Yes, exactly that. Because here's what he does. He calls. He said, come close to me. Is that not a command? Yes. Abide with me. How do I do that? Obey that command. Come close to him. He says, here's the command. Meditate on my word. Is that a command? Yes. How do I abide with you? By meditating on my word. Now, he also says things like worship me, sing songs of praise. Is that a command? Yes. How do I abide with him? Do that?
[00:24:52] He says, like, walk in the Spirit. That is to take every step, asking God, what do you want me to do? That's the command. How do I abide by doing that command? It's this back and forth relationship. He's already called us to do the things that are bring about a healthy Relationship with him. The key here, and this is the challenge, friends, in the life of the church. It's the.
[00:25:14] Is we get so stuck on these commands that I forget that it's for the purpose of knowing Jesus. I know I'm supposed to read my Bible more. I don't read my Bible enough. Those other Christians, they read their Bible more. So they're better Christians than me. Wait a minute. You forgot why you're supposed to read the Bible.
[00:25:33] It's the abiding part. Not so you feel shame about not reading the Bible. Cause that's not abiding in my love. Oh, I know I should pray more. I'm supposed to pray more. That's the good Christian thing to do. Wait a minute. What's the purpose of prayer?
[00:25:47] So that you can abide with him, so you can stay connected with him. It's not a matter of. Here's the list of the rules. Just for the sake of being a good Christian and having the list of rules. It's because he's saying, I've laid out those things so that you can know me, so that you can have a relationship with me. And this walks us into the next point on your outline. He says, what's the result of you abiding in me? Of you? Of doing this so that you do this and doing this so that you do this. What's the reason for that? So that you can bear fruit. Look at point three on your outline. The results of abiding. The results of abiding. Look at verses five and then verse seven and verse eight. He just really clearly lays this out. He says again, I am the vine. You are the what?
[00:26:31] The branches speaking to his disciples as they're journeying from the table to the Mount.
[00:26:37] Whoever abides stays close with me and I in him. This is that mutual dependence back and forth. It is he that bears much fruit. You can write that in point A on your outline. Bearing much fruit. For apart from me, you can do what?
[00:26:49] Nothing. Nothing. Go to the next slide. There you can see that on the screen. You can do nothing. If you want to have eternal impact in the world, which I think most all of us do. Most of us want to be able to say, I am working not for my own gain, but for the glory of God. Why do we do this? Why do we do that? For God's glory. He says, you want to do that? You want to glorify me. The way you do that is by this relationship first, and then after that we go from there. But everything's born out of this relationship.
[00:27:21] So bear fruit. This is a relationship he's talking about with God the Father, that we can have. We can do nothing from eternal value outside of that. We just become busy, exhausted people who run the organization, if you will, of the church and have people who are far from God. And that's a scary thing, isn't it?
[00:27:42] We have busyness and we don't have relationship.
[00:27:47] We also see something else, again, bound up in relationship with Jesus. Point B on your outline is this is answered prayer. Here's what he Sundays. And John 14:14 says a similar thing as well. You can put the next that verse on the screen.
[00:27:59] Verse he says this. He's like, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Here we see a promise of Jesus. If you are doing the thing that I've called you to, that is staying connected to me, sitting under my shadow, if you will, staying close to me and you're obeying, that's how you're doing that.
[00:28:16] My words are abiding. They're connected to you. They're a part of who you are. You know my nature. You know my heart. Ask what you want, Ask whatever you wish and it will be what.
[00:28:27] That's a huge promise.
[00:28:29] That's massive.
[00:28:33] Is it true?
[00:28:36] Well, Jesus isn't lying, so yes. But how do I know?
[00:28:42] When I'm walking with God and he with me, my heart is in union with His.
[00:28:49] I'm in rhythm with. I love the things that he loves and he loves the things that I love. I hate the things that he hates and he hates the things that I hate. Why? Because we're in relationship with one another. You know this for close friends. Maybe a best friend that you have, or a spouse, a close family member. I know what they don't like, and I know what they like because you're in relationship with them. The same is true here. The abiding Christian is also the praying Christian. It's communion with God. The prayer is not done out of duty, but out of devotion.
[00:29:22] Devotion to the one who you find complete love, a love relationship in.
[00:29:30] See on your outline. You could write this in a third thing. And there's more, but we'll just look at these three. Is God is glorified. The result of abiding God is glorified. Put verse eight on the screen, if you would. The mature Christian realizes that my aim is to glorify God. And the methodology of doing that is by doing what he has asked me to do, the way I know what he wants me to do. Is because I'm spending time with him. The mature Christian praises God for the grand work that we see in our life, not assuming that I bring it about for myself even. I hope you can look back in your life and say, I used to drink more milk. Or I used to not be able to do the things that I'm doing now. I have found growth to happen in my life. And here's the thing, friends, is the mature Christian says this. I see fruit in my life, and it's not because of what I've done, but it's because I hung out with God. And he said, I want you to do this, and I want you to do this, and I want you to do this. And we can also confuse good fruit with good activity.
[00:30:32] Here's an example. Some of us might look and see somebody else, let's say celebrity pastor, person or whatever, if it's a pastor looking at it and saying, look how big their church is. They're doing something right. I should try to do the things that they're doing so that I can bear more fruit. Or one Christian looks at another Christian and says, look how successful they are. Look how many friends they have. Look at all the good work that they're doing. I'm gonna do, do, do so that I can be like them in reality. Here's what we see. God's not glorified by you trying to mimic everybody else. God's glorified by us walking in obedience to what he's called us.
[00:31:08] And that's born out of that abiding relationship. Point four in your outline, you can write this in. For those who are not connected to him are those who are not in relationship with Jesus, that is, those who have rejected him. I may want to look like these other people. I may like the concept of trusting in Jesus. That is, to have someone I can rely on, so I have someone I can reach out to. But I'm not actually going to commit my life to Him. Verse 6 says this. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire. Notice what it says there. It does not say, those who do not produce fruit are burned. It says, those who do not abide. And here's the fear is we can have this belief inside of myself that if I don't do enough for God, he won't like me or he won't work inside of me. And that's not what we see here. I have to do enough to create enough Fruit so that God will be happy with me. Here's what he's going to be happy with is us sitting in relationship with him. And whatever happens after that is God's choice.
[00:32:21] It's not saved by association. There's no such thing as being grandfathered into heaven because of family members around us, because I kind of look like them or I have the same last name or I went to that church with those other people. All of those kinds of things. It's relationship with Jesus. The consequences of rejecting Jesus is clear and present.
[00:32:43] It's rejection from eternal relationship with Jesus. That's hell, friends.
[00:32:50] Quite literally. Quite literally. It's a clear warning of Jesus to his friends followers. Those who choose to reject me as their vine and maybe even particularly as the disciples are thinking they thought the vine was Israel. You might hold to your political ties stronger than me. Jesus says I am the true vine. I am the true life source for you. You hold on to me. You have life, you have rejoicing. You have an eternity promised in heaven if you choose to reject me as the true life source.
[00:33:23] Thrown away and burned is what we see.
[00:33:26] That's a severe judgment, isn't it?
[00:33:30] But one in which that is not a secret. When we read through the Bible, is it not a secret at all? The necessity of love. We see though that this relationship between us and God the Father should not be born out of shoulds and ought's, but out of. He loves me and I love Him. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. 0.5 on your outline. Is this the necessity of love? The necessity of love.
[00:33:57] As the Father has loved me, verses 9 and 10. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. And this is see John 3:16, right? For God so loved the world, the motivation in life is love. So I have loved you. Abide in my. What's the word? 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. Again we see the love necessity is what brings this kind of relationship about. This is surely Christ's really premier word concerning his own love towards us is his recognition that this same love that God has for me, that's the kind of love that I have.
[00:34:41] What's the love that God has for you and I? It's the love that God the Father has for him. What is that? It has no beginning and no end.
[00:34:50] That's the kind of love that God has for you today.
[00:34:54] It's a love that is close. It's a love that is personal.
[00:34:59] It's a love that is without measure.
[00:35:02] It's a love that is unchanging.
[00:35:05] This is the kind of love that God has for you and I.
[00:35:10] This is the love that he calls us to, between us and himself. Love me, love me. He says, earlier, if you love me, you will obey my commands. He says today, love me because I have loved you. You can love because I have first loved you. Here's the thing. We see this as well. God's commands are to point us to his love. If you love, you will obey. But his commandments display his love. When we live in the obedience of God's commandments, we see, oh, you did that because you love me.
[00:35:46] Any of you watch parents telling their kids to do something, whether that was you or somebody else. Any of you parents. Everyone's seen, yeah. Parents have said, do this. Most of the time it's because they love their child, though the child may not feel like it at that moment. Why can't I do that? And the parent could say, because I love you. Which every child loves to hear, I'm sure. Because I love you. That's why you can't have a third cookie tonight. Your bedtime is in 30 minutes. No, you cannot. Because I love you. Because I know that in the parental perspective, I know that if I let you do this, this will actually bring more harm to your sleep than good. So the answer is no. So it is with us and God. Sometimes God says, do this. Why? I don't want to. I don't want to. That's not gonna be fun. He's like, I know it's not gonna be fun right now. It'd be really pleasant if you could do that. But here's the reality. Because I love you, I see the big picture. And so by walking in obedience to me, you then will realize later how much I loved you. And that's why that was there. But when we choose to do things our own way, we see, oh, doing things God's way truly can bring about a healthier, joyful, peaceful kind of life.
[00:37:01] Look at point six on your outline, the purpose of this instruction. And remember Jesus, he has gotten up from the table. We saw that earlier. He says, rise, let us go from here. And they're about to leave, or they're on their way as they're walking. And remember, the disciples are hurting. They're sad, they're confused. They're troubled. Jesus is going to leave. And here's not only the Instruction that He's given them to abide. But he says, I want you to have some joy.
[00:37:28] These things he says in verse 6, the purpose of the instruction, I.e.6, is this the purpose of the instruction. Verse 11 says, these things I have said to you. Why, that my. What's the word? Joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. That your joy may be full. Jesus has a good heart towards them.
[00:37:52] He doesn't want them to be in bondage to slavery, and neither does he want that for us. He wants freedom. He wants joy. And so he lays out this instruction of, stay close to me, stick with me. He's speaking also to confused and sad men, and he's promising joy if they hold tightly to him. Sure, they're going to be sad that he's gone, but also they're going to be able to rejoice knowing that Jesus is one who has actually never left. In Matthew what, 28, the end of that, he says, surely I am with you always. I will not abandon you.
[00:38:33] As we shift into kind of a conclusion for this, at the bottom of your outline, you have some words that say application. In a minute you can write some things there, if you haven't already. But before that, as we consider this passage, we sung this song earlier, appropriately so. I'm going to read some of the lyrics of a song we sung that really brings this passage to life, if you will, about what we're talking about.
[00:38:58] When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds or bestows on our way while we do his goodwill, that is the obeying commands. He abides with us still and with all who will trust. I'm abiding in him. I'm trusting your way is better. And obey. Here's the command part. Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy. What's that last verse? 11, right. Joy in you and joy to be full. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. In fellowship suite, that is with Jesus, we sit at his feet. Maybe for you, friends, this looks like I'm going to get on my knees, I'm going to sit down in a chair. I'm going to find time to sit with Jesus, sit with his words and experience the sweetness of God coming over me. Then in fellowship suite, we sit at his feet or we walk by his side in the way. That's that picture of we're going to do life together. We're gonna go to the store. I'm thinking, how can I Be praying for those people in the parking lot. I'm walking through the store, that cashier, they're having problems today. Can I pray for you or. I'm praying for them on the way out. I'm hanging out. I'm getting ready at home. I'm hanging out with the kids. I'm praying for them. I'm thinking about a particular verse. I'm walking in fellowship with him. We walk by his side in the way it's taking him with us wherever we go. What he says we're going to do, of course we would.
[00:40:32] Where he sends, we will go most definitely. Never fear, no matter where you might go Might be fear driving, might be fear creating. But I won't have fear because I can trust and obey friends. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, to rest upon his promises, Just to know that even when it doesn't make sense, Thus saith the Lord.
[00:40:59] Just a few verses of that song that we sung earlier. I want to give you just a few things that you can write in. In the application part. What do I do with all of this? What do I do?
[00:41:08] Because of what I've read and what I've heard, I will. This is that. That's the concept of an application. What am I going to do with this? And the reason I put that on the screen is this because Jesus says that his Father is the vine dresser and he prunes those. One of the primary ways that God prunes us is Pastor Les read this passage earlier is with the Word of God says, shaping us, correcting us so that we can be more of the person he desires us to be. So when I read through this, maybe a question that you can write down, consider as an application is do I? Because of what I've read, I will. I will interact with God's word, intending and expecting to be shaped by God.
[00:41:55] That's what I will do. That is God's purpose when he shows me things in the Word. It is for the purpose of shaping me, of pruning me so that I can bear more fruit.
[00:42:06] Because of what I've read and heard. I will focus on my relationship with Jesus, not my activities for Jesus.
[00:42:14] Because of what we see in this passage, I will praise God for the things that are transforming inside of me. Because of what we see here, I will encourage others to have a relationship with Jesus instead of forcing right action from them because that's a very easy switch. You need to do these things rather than how are you and Jesus because of what we see here, I will reevaluate what a good Christian really means based on the Bible.
[00:42:44] Because of what I've read here, I will insert reminders into my life to help me invite Jesus and his words into my thoughts and my actions as we consider the things here before us. Jesus wants to shape us because of what we see in His Word. And maybe the most important thing is this. Because of what I've read here, I have now realized that I've actually never connected myself to Jesus. I just am friends with a lot of his people and I look like the other branches. But I've never actually trusted in him as my Lord and Savior. And if that's you today, choose today to say, I'm gonna trust in him. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your love and your grace for us. We thank you that you desire a relationship.
[00:43:34] You are not a God sitting high up in the clouds looking to slap us with a ruler and tell us we're doing something wrong, but rather one who's calling us close to you to transform our hearts to be in rhythm with yours.
[00:43:48] You want us to stay connected because you know that's the best thing for us. That's what's going to give us strength in hard times, what's going to give us joy when we're troubled, what's going to give us peace when we're anxious. It's staying close to you.
[00:44:03] And I pray that you continue to work in our hearts. Show us reminders and things in our life that we can do to help us run back to you over and over again and experience the promises that you've laid out for us in your word. For any here today that may not have trusted, that have never trusted in you, done a lot of things, but never trusted in you. But I pray that today would be the day that there's true confession, true trust in you as the Savior and Lord. You say that you are, that you truly are in Jesus name, amen.
