Where Are Your Connections?
Notes
Transcript
Where Are Your Connections?
Where Are Your Connections?
We are going back to where we left off to hear more of the Last words of Jesus to His disciples before he went to the Cross.
The Sunday before Easter: End of Ch 14
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Love and obedience and life together
The Father and the Son want to live in you
Let’s see how this starts to look
In the first 10 verses of John 15,
“Abide in” occurs 10 times in 10 verses. Incredible!
So what does that mean?
It’s a simple and common Greek word John uses to translate the Aramaic Jesus spoke: meno. It means to stay. To remain. But not like telling your dog to stay. This isn’t as passive as that. It means to Live-where-you-stay; live-where-you-remain. It’s why the translation into the English word “Abide” works so well. If you abide where you are, you don’t just occupy the recliner. No, you cook he meals, take care of the house, do the dishes, you teach the kids, you study what you need to know better, you pray, you celebrate, you play, you do the laundry, you encourage your family, you plan the shopping, you prepare your work, you work from home.
Instead of just “Staying home” during our COVID-19 isolation or quaranteen, “#Safer at home” means you do the kind of things I’ve mentioned with the description of Abide. It where we live and breathe and have our being.
And so you know ABIDE is not designed to be make us think it’s OK to just be a bump on a log. The other 2-word phrase that happens a lot in these 10 verses is “bear fruit” or “bear much fruit” or “can’t bear fruit apart from the vine”. That “bear fruit” phrase shows up 6 times in the first 10 verses of John 15, and 2 times again in verse 16.
These two themes, abiding and bearing fruit are the cornerstone ideas in these first 17 verses of John.
The stage is set with an opening observation that shows us Jesus is talking about ...
A Metaphor of Relationship
A Metaphor of Relationship
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 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.
A Metaphor of Relationship
A Metaphor of Relationship
Who Raises Grapes?
The Mental Picture is not about the grapes:
Jesus’ apostles were mostly fishermen
But they were walking to the Garden
Always About Where Our Life Comes From
The last “I AM” saying in John
Jesus is the True Vine: The Source
Not about the severity of pruning
The piles of deadwood were fuel for homes
Always about the reality of vitality
Love him or leave him, but don’t think you can truly serve God without being connected though Jesus
Only One Way to Be Whom Christ Wants
Only One Way to Be Whom Christ Wants
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.
Only One Way to Be Whom Christ Wants
Only One Way to Be Whom Christ Wants
“Abide in” is where we need to Make our living in Christ so that we are living in the close, life-giving relationship he wants with us. The word of Christ has brought us to life from the death of our sins so that we can live in Him.
Not stuck in him but alive in him. We only stay fit to stay there if we are there, because we Can only bear fruit for Jesus if we live in Jesus
You Have to Stay Connected!
You Have to Stay Connected!
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.
You Have to Stay Connected!
You Have to Stay Connected!
So Jesus uses the Mental Word Photo so we can think about it as we are surrounded by fruit-bearing plants. Where does Jesus fit in the picture?
Jesus says “I AM the vine” That feeds the branches.
A branch on the ground is only a stick.
To Bear Fruit, Get Life from the Source
Hear this next most important phrase in its context:
Apart from Me, You can Do Nothing.
You can still sin. You can be firewood. But
A stick on the ground, fallen or cut from the tree, can’t made oranges. Can’t make apples, or mangos, or papaya or pears or whatever the tree is designed to make.
A person not living in Christ can’t do the work of God
Stay connected to produce what God wants from you.
Read. Pray. Meditate. Sing. Celebrate. Teach. Learn. Tell the story of Jesus. Tell the power of God. See creation and worship the creator. Connect with others. Do your living in Christ to do something for God.
The Alternative Is Not About Beautiful Living.
Dead wood is still good for something.
You can still be firewood to cook someone else’s good fruit.
The Conditions of “Ask for Anything”
The Conditions of “Ask for Anything”
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.
The Conditions of “Ask for Anything”
The Conditions of “Ask for Anything”
Context is Always Important.
Two “IFS” For Productive Prayer
If you make your living in Christ
If you have his living word in you
THEN you can ask what you wish
THEN it will be done for you.
But Wait--- CONTEXT Demands This:
Prayer is Answered to Glorify Father God.
Prayer is Answered to Bear Fruit for the Kingdom
Prayer is Answered to Prove we are Jesus’ Disciples.
So what is the Fruit that Glorifies God?
Love is a Two-Way Relationship
Love is a Two-Way Relationship
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.
Love is a Two-Way Relationship
Love is a Two-Way Relationship
Top-Down Love:
The Father loves the Son
The Son loves his Disciples.
So Live there, in that Love.
Bottom-Up Love:
Do what Jesus Said because you love him.
Jesus DId what the Father Told Him
Why? Jesus was making his living in the love of Father God.
This kind of Abiding in Love Brings Joy
Like it did for Jesus to have joy living in the love of the Father
We will have the joy of living in the love of Christ
That’s a complete, full joy because it comes from a two-way connection of love.
Love is Both Command and Promise
Love is Both Command and Promise
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Love is Both Command and Promise
Love is Both Command and Promise
John 15:12=John 13:34: Jesus Commands Love
That we Love One Another
And that we Love Like Jesus.
A two-way love; it comes from the top, it flows back to the top and it pours out on those we love.
Love always seeks the best for the one that we love.
Jesus tells us our love should be like his
Greater Love Lays Down Its Life for Another
Jesus call us to practice a love that does whatever is needed for the ones we love.
How much would you do for your partner because of love?
How far would you go for your sister or brother?
Would you have any limits on loving your children?
What would you do for another person Because you Love Like Jesus?
Your life looks more like Jesus. You Look Like a Friend of Jesus
Brought Into the Circle of Christ
Brought Into the Circle of Christ
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
Brought Into the Circle of Christ
Brought Into the Circle of Christ
A Disciple Begins as a Servant
Hearing what the Master says
Doing what the Master says
Becoming an image of what the Master wants.
A Friend Shares a Relationship of Love
That relationship goes farther, deeper, is fuller, is more complete
That’s why Jesus Shares the Fathers’ Heart with His Friends
Knowing Whose You Are Makes a Difference
Knowing Whose You Are Makes a Difference
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Knowing Whose You Are Makes a Difference
Knowing Whose You Are Makes a Difference
We are His because Jesus Chooses Us
Not a choice that excludes others
A choice that comes because God So Loves His World
He Sent His Only Son
In Christ, We Have a Mission
Go and Bear Fruit for the Kingdom
Bear Fruit that Lasts for Eternity
Bear Fruit that Comes Through Prayer
You can’t do the work of Jesus
Without the Heart of Jesus
Comes from where Jesus got it:
Pray to the Father Like Jesus Prayed
To Do for the Father what He wants
The “Unconditional Promises of Prayer”
Are for prayers that the work of Jesus will be done through us
So that we Produce the Fruit of Love
In Ourselves and In Others.
Love for God, Love for Others, Love for One Another.
None of that is selfish love.
These Connections Are Not Optional
These Connections Are Not Optional
These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
These Connections Are Not Optional
Jesus tells us We Are Commanded to Love.
Don’t be sidetracked by the power of prayer
Use the Power of Prayer for the Purposes of God
Make your living in the Love of Jesus
Do you living in the love of Jesus
Produce the fruit of loving Jesus.