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JOHN 15:1-11. ABIDE IN ME, A Sermon for the Sunday of St. Mark the Evangelist, April 25, 2010,

April 25, 2010 | 9 Comments

JOHN 15:1-11. ABIDE IN ME, A Sermon for the Sunday of St. Mark the Evangelist, April 25, 2010,
by David J. Miller, Vicar, Redeemer AOC
John 15:1-11  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.  6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.  7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.  9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.  10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.  11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
INTRODUCTION.
The image of the vine, which Jesus uses here, would have been very familiar to the disciples: it had often been used in the Old Testament Scriptures to represent Israel.
 Psalm 80:8  Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
 Isaiah 5:7   For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
But Jesus takes the image to another level: He has said He is the true Vine: Israel was the type; Jesus is the real, the true vine, just as He is the true and perfect Adam, so He is the true Israel, and He is the source of life for all those joined to this vine, that is, for all God’s people.
The concept of abiding is the key to this saying of Jesus: fruit-bearing depends on it; even life itself, prayer, continuing in His love, and ultimately, full joy, all these depend on abiding in the vine, our Lord Jesus.
We could summarize this teaching as a DOCTRINE:
1. The fruit-bearing that glorifies the Father is accomplished as we live in that life-sustaining relationship with Jesus which He called “abiding” in Him.
2. This fruitfulness of life comes about first, by appropriating His words into our life, into our thoughts, desires, imaginations, actions, and deepest hopes; and second, by prayer that is the direct result of His words abiding in us.
3. And all this brings into our lives a glorious fullness of joy, for it is Jesus’ own joy, which He has shared with us.  (It goes without saying, that this is indeed joy as can be had nowhere else!)
There is much more in these verses than we can do justice to in one sermon, but I want to focus on the main points this morning: first, the necessity of abiding in Jesus. Second,  the result of abiding in Jesus: fruit to the glory of God and our full joy. Third, the characteristics of abiding in Jesus: His words and prayer.
ABIDING IN CHRIST IS NECESSARY TO REAL LIFE.
We can easily understand the vital relationship of the branches to the vine; the vine has the roots, and separated from the roots, the branches will die.
The other day I cut some branches off a tree in our front yard. As they lay on the ground, they looked exactly like all the other branches that were still attached.  If I were to pick them up and replace them on the tree, they would look just as they had before. But something essential has changed: their life-giving union with the root has been severed. At first, you couldn’t tell any difference among them, but after a day or so, it became obvious that these branches are no longer living members of the tree!
This is Jesus’ point: we must be joined to Him, if we are to have life, for He alone is the source of life. This much is clear from the metaphor.
In his first epistle, Saint John writes about the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers, and provides some more insight, connecting this abiding with both the anointing of the Holy Spirit (who will teach us), and to knowing and holding fast to the truth:
1 John 2:24   24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
1 John 2:27-28   But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.  28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
 Notice that it’s “that which ye have heard from the beginning,” that is to abide, or remain in you, so that, “ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.”  Also, this “anointing,” or “unction,” that John mentions, is what “teacheth you of all things… and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
This is the key concept of abiding in this life-sustaining union with Jesus Christ. If we analyze what’s really going on here, I think we shall grasp something of what our Lord spoke of when He said, in verse 9 of our text, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”
The Father’s ultimate commandment, perfectly and most willingly kept by the Son, was that He should give His life a ransom for sinners. On the Cross, Jesus kept that commandment to the full, and abides in the Father’s love forever. It was the heart’s desire of the Father to save His people; it was the Son’s delight to execute the Father’s will. It is out of that position of perfect self-giving love that Jesus speaks these words to us.
In other words, we – followers of Jesus — are beginning to imitate, in our lives, the self-less, other-oriented love relationship of the Father and the Son within the community of the Holy Trinity!
“If the beauty of what Jesus did moves you, that is the first step toward getting out of your own self-centeredness and fear into a trust relationship with him. When Jesus died for you, he was, as it were, inviting you into the dance. He invites you to begin centering everything in your life on him, even as he has given himself for you. If you respond to him, all your relationships will begin to heal…Sin is centering your identity on anything but God. We give ourselves to relationships and pursuits that build us up and bolster our efforts at self-justification and self-creation. But this also leads us to disdain and look down on those who do not have the same accomplishments or identity-markers.” (Tim Keller)
Here, then, I think we are getting at the heart of what “abiding in Christ” means: it is taking His word to heart, trusting Him by faith, and so making Him the center of our lives. We can do this  because the Holy Spirit empowers us to stop trying to be our own savior; He enables us to put to death our selves as our own lord, and instead, we can accept His challenge to see ourselves as sinners in need of Him as our Savior. We can also accept His renewing love as the new basis of our identity. Then we don’t need to prove ourselves to others, to try to bolster our fragile sense of self-worth and pride. Selfishness will have been put to death (on the Cross, with Jesus), and we find ourselves alive with His resurrection life, enabled to move out of ourselves toward others, as He has moved toward us!
C. S. Lewis has said this idea well:
“In self-giving, if anywhere, we touch a rhythm not only of all creation but of all being. For the Eternal Word also gives himself in sacrifice. When He was crucified He “did that in the wild weather of his outlying provinces which He had done at home in glory and gladness” from before the foundation of the world…From the highest to the lowest exists to be abdicated and, by that abdication, it becomes more truly self, to be thereupon yet the more abdicated, and so forever. This is not a law which we can escape…What is outside the system of self-giving is simply and solely Hell…that fierce imprisonment in the self…Self-giving is absolute reality.”
Or, to put it another way, 1 John 4:8, He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Ultimately, abiding in Christ means knowing God, and that means knowing ourselves truly, as well. John Calvin had said that the knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves are intimately bound up with each other, and he was right.
The writer Flannery O’Conner wrote, “To know oneself, is above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against the Truth, and not the other way around.” And when we know in our hearts that Christ Jesus is that Truth, and entrust ourselves to Him, repenting of our sins, we “abide” in Him by faith.
FRUIT IS THE RESULT OF ABIDING.
John 15:5   I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Now, what does Jesus mean by “fruit?”  Fruit is used throughout Scripture in a variety of ways as an analogy of the life of a child of God, the character of God, a reflection of His nature in the everyday lives of His people.
Bearing fruit is inevitable, if the plant is healthy; it’s part of the very nature of the vine to bear grapes. In the same way, it is part of the very nature of one who is joined to Jesus to bear, in his or her life, the character traits, the same qualities that were manifest in the life of Jesus.
This is a supernatural operation: it is the Holy Spirit who implements this transformed character in the practical everyday lives of those who are joined to Jesus by faith.
 Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Psalm 92:11-15    12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.  13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.  14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; 15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
In Proverbs 11:30, it represents a whole lifestyle lived so as to be an attraction to others and win them to the Lord:
Proverbs 11:30  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.
Saint Paul writes of fruit as people converted to the Lord, the result of his ministry among the Romans:
Romans 1:13  Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was let (prevented) hitherto, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
“Fruit” is used of a life lived which displays the evidence of Christ’s life in those who are transformed by the Spirit of God: Henry Scougle called it, “the life of God in the soul of man.”
Romans 7:4-5   Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.  5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Ephesians 5:9-10  (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)  10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
Hebrews 12:11   Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
John 15:8,  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
 John 15:11  1 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
Jesus is speaking of actual life experience here. Notice how the Lord doesn’t minimize or belittle experience: it is not made the first thing; it is not the test of reality or the standard of the reality of our spiritual life, but neither is it of no consequence. Jesus means for us to experience joy! He even tells us that this is why He has spoken these things! The words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism are a reflection of this declaration: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” (WSC, Q.1).
ABIDING IS CHARACTERIZED BY JESUS’ WORDS AND PRAYER.
But what’s the nature of this “abiding” of which Jesus speaks?  We know that when a branch abides in its vine, life-giving sap flows to nourish every part of the branch, but how do believers abide in Christ.
First, to abide means essentially to stay with, to live with someone. The main idea is to remain permanently in a particular place, or with a particular person or people.

Psalm 91:1   He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Mark 6:10   And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide …
John 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.
 Acts 27:31  Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
Romans 11:23   And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
Philippians 1:24-26   Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.  25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;  26 That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
1 John 2:24   Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
Second, Since Jesus is using the analogy of the branches connected to the vine, it is these two factors of appropriating His words and prayer that provide that life-giving connection to the Source of all life, the Son of God. The two aspects always go together: you cannot have one without the other.
 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 
Notice once again, the place of the Words of Jesus; and again, in verse 10, He refers to keeping His “commandments.” Remember, this can never, ever be mere legalistic conformity to moralistic rules, a keeping of a code of ethics.
The Christian life is neither a moralistic life of self-righteousness, nor is it a pragmatic life, living outside the norms of any morality, in a false definition of “freedom.” Rather, it is true holiness of life, a living relationship to the living Christ, who bears the fruit in us, just as surely as the grapes grow on the vine when the branches are in that vital connection to their vine.
But what does this mean for us in a practical sense? How do Jesus’ words abide in us? Is it by practicing memorization of Scripture? Yes, that certainly may be part of it, but I think it’s more than that.
Third, to appropriate our Lord’s words, we need to meditate on those words.
Psalm 1:1-2  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
David speaks of meditating on God’s law, God’s instruction. This is more than memorizing; it involves “chewing” it over (as a cow chews her cud, repeatedly). We do this in our minds, actually thinking about how God’s Word relates to our practical lives, in all its aspects. We are called to both “think and act biblically.”
 I believe it was the Dutch prime minister of the nineteenth century, Abraham Kuyper, who said that we are called, “to think God’s thoughts after Him.” When we truly meditate on the Words of Scripture, we ponder and pray it through to the thoughts and actions that shape our daily lives.
This is exactly what the Moses had commanded Israel to do:
Deuteronomy 6:4-9  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:  5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:  7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.  9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
The LORD’s command to keep His words in their hearts, to teach them to their children, to talk of them, to bind them on their hands and between their eyes and to write them on the door-posts of their houses. Notice the verbs: keep, teach, talk, bind, write. All this is a way of saying that the LORD’s instructions are to permeate all that they are: their hearts and minds. God’s words are to be the dye, as it were, that their lives soak in, so that it colors all they think, say and do!
In other words, God’s Words were to become part of their thinking! God’s Scripture was to inform their world-view, to become the lens by which they were to view and interpret and interact with all of life. All their dealings with their families, their neighbors, indeed, with all people, were all to be informed and guided by the Scripture!
Obviously this means more than simply knowing the Bible intellectually – being able to answer the questions of the catechism or get a good grade in a theology class, as important as that kind of knowledge may be. Although head-knowledge alone is not sufficient, yet faith must be grounded in knowledge of God’s Word.
Likewise, this meditating that appropriates God’s Word is exactly what Jesus’ mother did:
Luke 2:19   19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
 Luke 2:51   And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
We find this same practice among the Berean people who heard the Apostle Paul:
Acts 17:10-12   And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.  11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.  12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
The longest Psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119, is entirely about meditating on God’s written Word:
Psalm 19:9-11   The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.  11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
Proverbs has much to say about focusing on God’s written Word:
Proverbs 4:4-5  He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.  5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
An incident from the life of King Josiah provides an example of God’s Word taking hold in a believer’s heart. The priests had found a copy of the Book of the Law as they were renovating the temple. Notice how it led to action, especially prayer and a seeking of further understanding from God’s appointed minister: King Josiah took God’s Word seriously!
2 Kings 22:11-13   And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
 12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king’s, saying,  13 Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
In Jesus’ discussion of His words abiding in us, it is important in this day and age, to make it clear we are talking about God’s written Word, the Bible. In the Reformation of the sixteenth century there were people who believed they had an additional “Word from the Lord,” beyond the words of the Bible, so today there are people within the Church who think the Lord is giving extra-biblical revelation directly to individuals.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote:
“If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God’s Word; and if we be uncertain of God’s Word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or a synagogue of Satan.”
I mention this in passing, but I do think it’s important that we don’t fall into the dangerous idea that we can be “listening to the Lord,” but not spending time with the Bible. May this be “a word to the wise.”
Prayer is equally essential:
John 15:7   If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Jesus’ instruction here is focused on our asking, that is, on requests, arising from needs and desires. Sometimes I’ve heard people express a problem with this verse, as if Jesus were saying we can ask for just anything our hearts might desire. Well, He is!
 BUT, we must never forget the condition, the if clause that precedes the promise.
The key is “If ye abide in me.” Abiding in Jesus changes our desires; it re-orients our whole life-direction. When we abide in Christ, we are defined by the Cross, that is, by the Gospel of grace, by Him who died for us, and whose service is worth everything, even our very lives. When Jesus says we may “ask what ye will,” He is touching a chord that goes to the very depth of our beings. A discussion by C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity may shed some light here:
“Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.”
Lewis finally concludes: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world [something supernatural and eternal].”
Lewis has actually echoed a profound observation of America’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards:
“God made the world that he might communicate, and the creature receive, his glory; but that it might be received both by the mind and the heart. He that testifies his having an idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.”
“God is glorified not only by his glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in.”
To put it another way, there’s a difference between having an intellectual appreciation of honey: how it’s made, what it is nutritionally, but it’s quite another thing to actually taste it, and thereby appreciate it!
Believers have tasted the honey; and when they articulate their desires for more of it, Jesus has promised that they shall have it!
 “The great end of all study – all theology- is a heart for God and a life of holiness. The great goal of all Edwards’ work was the glory of God. And the greatest thing I have ever learned from Edwards … is that God is glorified most not merely by being known, nor by merely being dutifully obeyed, but by being enjoyed in the knowing and the obeying.” (John Piper, in God’s Passion for His Glory)
Indeed, we may “ask what we will,” when we abide in Him, for then what we ask for will not be the satisfaction of mere worldly “felt needs;” but will go way beyond that; we will ask, with all our heart: “thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  All we ask for will ultimately come down to this: we want God! And Jesus promised that, because of His death on the Cross and His resurrection, that we shall have that desire, and with Him, the joy of the LORD!
David J. Miller, Vicar, Redeemer AOC. 04/25/2010.

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