Sermon Tone Analysis

That you may Believe and have Life #41

John 15:1-17

 

We are continuing in our walk through John.

Jesus has been in the Upper Room of the home owned by an unidentified man.

They have shared a dinner there.

Jesus has washed the disciples feet there.

Jesus comforted his disciples with the word that though he would be leaving them to return to the Father, he would return for them after preparing a place for them.

And in the meantime he would send another comforter to be with them and in the, The Holy Spirit.

Now he has left the house and walking with his disciples.

The don't know it, but he is taking them to the Mount of Olives, where he will pray and then be betrayed by Judas, arrested, tried, and crucified

 

So picture Jesus walking with his disciples in the evening, in this setting, and let's pick up our reading …

Read 15:1-17

 

What does it Mean to Abide?

If we see nothing else today we must think for a few minutes on this thought of abiding in Christ …

 

Your notes that you have are going to give you something to take with you, but I will just spend the last little bit of our time there.

So don't be worried if I don't get to your notes for a little while don't be worried I'll get there AND get us out of here …

 

So …

Think with me for a minute about abiding in Christ, Remaining in Christ is the English word used in the NIV

 

The call to COME to Christ is always a call to ABIDE

Jesus does not invite us VISIT him, he calls us to ABIDE to REMAIN

The Greek word her is /meno - to remain, abide, tarry, not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, continually/

 

Jesus Christ calls us to come, abide, tarry, CONTINUE TO BE PRESENT, held, continually

 

When Philip and Andrew were followers of John the Baptist, John pointed out Jesus as "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World" … they followed Jesus and in 1:38 they asked "Where are you staying" … and Jesus replied "Come, and you will see" … so it says in verse 39 they WENT and they Saw where he was STAYING

 

To Abide means to come and STAY …

 

Praise God that when it comes to our Salvation, the staying, is dependent on Christ.

He saves us and he keeps us!

However, as his children, his branch, his followers we are still called to ABIDE, REMAIN IN HIM … why IS that?

Because we have a level of responsibility.

We must make it the desire of our heart and the conviction of our lives to stay where he is staying, to do what he is doing, to be committed to HIS plans, purposes, and ways and NOT to our own.

In John 6:27 - Jesus said /do not work for food that spoils, but for food that ENDURES (abides) to eternal life/

 

We do not cause ourselves to REMAIN … Christ does that … but our response to REMAINING or ABIDING life that comes from God is for us to live out the Abiding Spirit, he has given us, with an abiding life committed to him.

In that Difficult to hear passage of John 6 Jesus gives a glimpse into our grace given life in Christ that can understand what it is to abide in him

V 56 says /whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me/

 

What is this image?

This image is like our communion.

It is the broken body of obedience and the selfless pouring out of his blood.

When we are fully committed to the plans and purposes of Christ to the point of uniting with Christ in his body and blood then we are understanding what it is to ABIDE or REMAIN in Christ

 

When we walk like he walked, we abide in him

When we live like he lived, then we remain in him

 

John 8:31~/32 says /if you HOLD /(abide~/remain~/meno)/ to my teaching, you are really my disciples 32 and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free"/

 

Paul explained it to Timothy in 2 Tim.

3:14 - / but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it /

 

1 John 2:27,28 / … as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit - just as it has taught you, remain IN him  28 and now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming /

 

1 John 3:24 /those who obey his commands LIVE in him, and he in them … /

 

 

Everything about the Branch is determined by its relationship to the Vine

 

If it continues … it is fruitful

If it fails to continue … it is barren

If it continues … it is useful

If it fails to continue … it is useless and cut away, gathered, and burned

 

Why a Vine~/Branch?

The resident of Palestine in Jesus' day would have resonated well with the words of Jesus.

Cultivating vines for grapes was a regular part of the hearts desire of every resident of Palestine.

In 1928, Herbert Hoover was running for president with the slogan, /"A Chicken in every pot, a car in every garage."/

Well every Jewish home wanted a Fig Tree and a Grapevine.

The Grapevine provided grapes of course, but it also provided shade for the house.

It was a status Symbol … it was a symbol of blessing and fruitfulness and stability  It was helpful in the diet as well.

a picture of the process of planting and cultivating a full blown vineyard

/Isaiah 5:1-2 (NIV)/

/I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.

2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.

He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit./

A vineyard is a commitment and a dedicated process for the farmer.

The production was very dependent on the work of the farmer and the blessing of God.

In the arid countryside water, soil, were not naturally conducive to good production of this crop.

Animals and thieves would damage the crops.

So, a good place was selected.

Then it had to be prepared by the farmer, stones were dug up to make the ground fertile … I'm sure it was somebody's Son digging up and stacking those rocks …

 

I was in upstate New York several years ago and the ground is rocky and there are farms with long long walls that are 4 feet high and 2 feet wide and nothing but rocks.

And as I passed I thought, someone's son stacked all those rocks and hated every minute of it.

/Matthew 21:33 (NIV)/

/33 //"Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard.

He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower.

Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey./

Where do you think that wall came from?

Stacking those rocks …

So they would plant choice vines and then build a summer house for tending to and caring for the vines.

The house would have a second story that served as a watch tower.

In our text here in John there are Four Main Characters or items of focus …

There is the Vine - Jesus

The Branches - Us as Believers

The Gardener or Vinedresser - The Father

The Fruit - which is the product of the Vine through the Branches

 

VINE -  There are two other vines mentioned

1) the Past Vine - Israel was in Ps 80 a vine that came out of Egypt and was referred to in Isaiah 5

2) there is a future vine the Vine of the Earth mentioned in Rev. 14 when the world Gentile system is reaped and do not be discouraged believer, this World without Christ WILL reap what it sows.

3) then the PRESENT Vine is JESUS CHRIST, he says he is the TRUE VINE.

Aren't you glad we have the TRUE VINE not the Past Vine or a Fake, Substitute Vine, but we have the REAL DEAL … ABIDE in the VINE

 

Christ as "the Vine" speaks to the divinity of Christ because only God could be the SOURCE of all that the branch needs

We are the Branches - the word, /klema ~/kaly-may~/ a tender and flexible branch / - tenderness and flexibility - the branch that stays IN Christ is NOT one that is proud, stiff but one that is tender and flexible.

The farmer that had a vineyard would bend and shape the branches against the trellis.

He would make THEM fit his structure.

We are the branch, shooting out from Christ our vine, tender and flexible to the touch, training, of the Farmer, the Vinedresser …

 

Abiding in Christ is what a tender, flexible, responsive Branch does … it is hearing and doing … The branch that comes from the vine has tendrils that come out and under the leading and pruning of the Gardener, the Vine forms itself to the direction of the trellis, wall, fence …

/Luke 6:49 (NIV)/

/49 //But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.

The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."//

/

 

Jesus said, "you are already clean" … now … REMAIN in Me

Abide in Me

 

Will you abide in him?