John 15:4-8
Sunday Morning Bible Study
September 22, 1996
Introduction
We are in the time of the last night before Jesus' death.
:1-8 Abiding in the vine
:4 Abide
I used to have a hard time with this verse.
It's obvious that this is one of the most important, profound passages in all of Scripture.
No one wants to be cut off and cast into the fire.
We all want to be producing fruit, lots of fruit.
And it looks as if it all revolves around this word, "abide".
I used to wonder if it meant something really incredibly secretive and only certain people knew just how to do this.
I kind of had it in my head that maybe it was some kind of meditation thing.
Maybe if I would just close my eyes, clear my mind, and think the right things, somehow I'd magically be able to do this "abiding" thing.
not.
abide - meno - to remain, abide.
It can carry the idea of not moving from where you're at, or the idea of sticking it out, or not to try something else.
Summary: It means to just stay put.
As a vine grows, little buds sprout along it.
If you don't trim the buds, eventually they turn into branches.
For a branch to "abide", it simply meant that it stayed where it developed, not jumping to something else, like a cat.
In Jesus' day, the practice of grafting was often used in vineyards.
The idea of grafting was to take the branch of one vine, cut it off, and transplant it onto the vine of another plant.
For a branch to abide, it meant that it didn't get up and go anywhere, it just stayed put, connected to the branch.
:4 in me, and I in you.
Here's the secret to the power of abiding.
It's not just staying put anywhere, it's staying put in Jesus.
It's maintaining a living, active connection with Jesus.
The thing about the picture of the vine and the branches is that there is a living relationship between the two.
The vine draws from the soil and gives it's strength, it's nutrients to the branches, and makes them grow.
It's because the branches are connected that things are allowed to flow from the vine to the branches, giving them life.
And as the branch grows, it begins to bear fruit.
Lesson:
Abiding in a living relationship.
Jesus doesn't want you in a herky-jerky relationship with Him, but one that is continually filled with His life giving power.
Illustration:
If you cut off a stem of a rose and put it on the table, it will soon wither away.
If you take that cut stem and place it in water, it will absorb some of the water and stay fresh a while longer, but will still eventually wither away.
But if you take that stem and graft it into another living, healthy rose bush, it won't just "stay fresh", it will live, grow, and produce more flowers.
I'm afraid that for some of us, when we come to church, we may for a time "plug in" to the vine and receive life and nourishment from the Lord.
But after we go home, as soon as we go out the door, we sever the relationship with the vine, and because of the dry environment we choose to life in, we whither quickly.
Others of us leave church, and know we have to be careful about dry places, so we try to create for ourselves a "wet" environment, like putting the flower in a vase of water.
We try to avoid TV and movies, we try to stay away from bad people and bad influences.
And hopefully the flowers will last through the week.
But God wants us to stay connected to Jesus.
It's not just having a "family oriented" environment at home.
It's not having a "Christian" environment at home, playing KWVE, etc.
It's being with Jesus.
:4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
We talked a little last week about what this concept of "fruit" entails:
The Scriptures often use the term "fruit" to describe the natural product of a person's life:
Good fruit includes:
1) The Fruit of the Spirit. (Ga 5:22-23)
2) People brought to the Lord. (Ro 1:13)
3) Good works (Col 1:10)
4) Praise (Heb 13:15)
Perhaps some of us were thinking as we were going through those ideas, "Gosh, I need to work a little more at that ... I sure need to work at being more loving, at doing more good things ..."
WRONG!
It's okay to understand that we need to grow more.
But we are not the ones to produce it.
Our only responsibility is to abide, to stay where we are, connected to Jesus.
Lesson:
Producing fruit is not your job.
The branch's job is to abide, the vine's job is to produce fruit.
We need to keep our eyes on Jesus and abiding in Him.
By ourselves, we are powerless to produce any good fruit.
Illustration:
Picture one of the tires on your car getting a little flat.
The tire looks at the other tires and says, "Gosh, I'm a little low right now, I need to be a little more inflated".
And so the brave little tire starts to blow itself up ... not.
A tire that need a little air needs to be connected to an air pump!
If you're a little low on fruits right now, you need to be connected to the "fruit pump", which is JESUS!
A branch by itself cannot produce anything.
We are totally helpless.
There's nothing you can do, except just stay with Jesus.
Yet when we are connected with a living relationship to Jesus, He can produce all kinds of changes in our lives that we wouldn't even begin to dream about.
Illustration:
Charles Finney was a lawyer before he came to know the Lord. He loved being a lawyer, he loved doing his job. But he had this fear that if he were to become a Christian, he would have to give up his job and become a preacher.
Here's an excerpt from this 19th century evangelist's autobiography:
When I was first convicted, the thought had occurred to my mind that if I was ever converted I should be obliged to leave my profession, of which I was very fond, and go to preaching the Gospel. This at first stumbled me. I thought I had taken too much pains, and spent too much time and study in my profession to think now of becoming a Christian, if by doing so I should be obliged to preach the Gospel. However, I at last came to the conclusion that I must submit that question to God; that I had never commenced the study of law from any regard to God, and that I had no right to make any conditions with him; and I therefore had laid aside the thought of becoming a minister, until it was sprung in my mind, as I have related, on my way from my place of prayer in the woods.
But now after receiving these baptisms of the Spirit I was quite willing to preach the Gospel. Nay, I found that I was unwilling to do anything else. I had no longer any desire to practice law. Everything in that direction was shut up, and had no longer any attractions for me at all. I had no disposition to make money. I had no hungering and thirsting after worldly pleasures and amusements in any direction. My whole mind was taken up with Jesus and his salvation; and the world seemed to me of very little consequence. Nothing, it seemed to me, could be put in competition with the worth of souls; and no labor, I thought, could be so sweet, and no employment so exalted, as that of holding up Christ to a dying world.
Our job isn't to change ourselves, that's Jesus' job.
Our job is simply to abide in Jesus.
:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches:
Again, He's the source of our strength.
He's the source of our life.
It's here that Jesus spells it out plainly for the first time that we as individuals are the branches.
:5 He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:
Much of what Jesus says in this verse, He's already said.
The thing that really stands out in this verse is the word "much".
He's talked about bearing fruit.
He's talked about how we can bear more fruit (by pruning, vs.2)
But here Jesus promises that we would bear "much" fruit.
Is there any key here to bearing "much fruit"?
He that abideth in me -
Note on translation: throughout this passage, the word translated "abide" is always an aorist tense, except for here.
This means that the emphasis has been placed on the fact that at a particular point in time, a person has abided in Christ.
But here, the tense is different, the verb is a present tense, indicating continous action.
The idea has been so far that when you take that step of committing yourself to Jesus, and you are then abiding in Him, that at that point you will bear fruit in your life.
But now the idea is that if you not only make a step of committment to Jesus, but keep on committing yourself to Him, continually keeping your relationship with the Lord alive and flowing in Him, that you won't just bear fruit, but you'll bear MUCH fruit.
Lesson:
Much fruit comes from much abiding.
I think we can become discouraged at times when we don't see the kind of results, or the kinds of fruit in our lives that we had hoped for.
Perhaps the peace doesn't last quite as long as we were expecting.
Perhaps certain people didn't respond to your witness and they haven't accepted Jesus yet.
If we want to see much fruit, we must abide much.
I didn't say that we needed to work at producing fruit more.
I said we need to work at abiding more.
We need to work at getting closer to Jesus.
It's the longer you spend with Jesus, the closer you get to Jesus, that you bear much fruit.
Paul writes:
Ga 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (AV)
Illustration:
In 1923, as Russian-born engineer Vladimir Zworykin worked on his latest invention, he was told to "spend your time on something more useful." But Zworykin didn't -- and in 1929 he obtained the first patent for his invention, color television.
Among his many achievements, Zworykin also helped perfect the electron microscope and other devices that greatly advanced medical and biological research. He retired as director of electronic research for RCA in 1954, and in 1966 was awarded the National Medal of Science.
Zworykin's track record makes his employer's criticism seem foolish.
For some of us, our friends or family members may ridicule us for sticking it out with this "Christianity" stuff.
But stick it out.
Keep on continually abiding.
You'll see much fruit.
:5 for without me ye can do nothing.
On the other hand, the opposite is also true.
Paul writes:
(Phil 4:13 KJV) I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
: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.
This fire stuff, is this hell?
Could be.
Some have tried to make this to be some kind of cleansing fire, burning away the bad stuff.
But you don't replant a dried, burnt vine.
It's finished.
John the Baptist said:
Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (AV)
Jesus said:
Mt 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (AV)
We saw last week:
(John 15:2 KJV) 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.
Perhaps this is just talking about those who tell you they're Christians, but never have a real relationship with Jesus.
In the end, they will end up in the fire.
But perhaps this is talking about those who think they have had a real relationship with Jesus at one time, and for one reason or another have fallen away.
If you do not have a living, active relationship with Jesus Christ this morning, perhaps you need to consider a little bit with me about eternity.
If there's no fruit in your life, you need to think long and hard about whether you are saved.
For some of you, this may sound rather disturbing, that I would raise questions concerning your salvation.
But I'd rather make you disturbed now, and make you seek out Jesus for real, than to make you disturbed on that day that you are cast into the fire.
I'd rather give you a few sleepless nights now, and cause you to seek the Lord until you find Him, than send you away with no idea that anything is wrong.
Lesson:
Are you right with Jesus?
Perhaps you need to make it the purpose of your heart to get right with God.
You can do that right now, this morning, before you leave this place.
: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.
We've talked about "abiding" in kind of a vague way, but now we can get a little more specific and practical.
We've talked about it not being some kind of state of altered consciousness.
We've talked about it being closer to Jesus.
Just how do we stay connected to Jesus with a living, vital relationship?
This verse kind of sums it all up.
Lesson:
How to abide.
1. God's Word stays in you.
Jesus said:
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,
He was saying that they're kind of one and the same, that abiding in Him is kind of accomplished by His words remaining in us.
Does God's Word abide in you?
Does it stick around in your heart?
Does it have access to your heart?
The Bible says:
(Psa 1:1-3 KJV) 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. {3} And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Two words to describe God's Word abiding in us:
delight - God's Word is our pleasure, we have a desire for it, we long to hear from God.
meditate - God's Word is often a subject of our thoughts as we turn it over and over in our mind, thinking of how it applies to us.
2. Prayer expresses your desires.
Jesus said:
"ye shall ask what ye will"
Part of the function of a branch is to draw it's strength and nutrients from the vine.
It gets most of all it needs from the vine.
And that's where prayer comes in.
Part of prayer is learning to come to God with your needs, and looking to Him for your answers.
Illustration:
What do you do when you're thirsty?
Do you go to the refrigerator for something to drink?
Why?
Because you know there will be something there to satisfy your thirst.
Do you believe that God will really meet your needs?
The proof of whether you really believe it or not, is whether or not you come to Him in prayer, asking Him for your needs.
Prayer is a part of abiding.
I wonder how many of us really grasp this.
How much do we really pray?
3. Receiving from God
We can see this as one of the rewards of abiding.
But be careful to note the conditions for receiving answers to your prayers!
You must have a vital, living relationship with Jesus.
Jesus' Words, God's Word, must be living in you.
And then I think you'll end up only asking for the things that God wants you to ask for in the first place.
But I see this as more than just a reward for abiding.
I think this is part of the process of abiding.
Come to Him.
I think God wants us to grow to the point where we learn to come to Him for everything.
So often, when we have a need, we start worrying about it, and soon we've cooked up some kind of scheme to get things done.
Perhaps God wants us to learn to come to Him first for our needs, to learn to develop such a vital relationship with Him, that we realize we can't do ANYTHING without Him.
Receive from Him.
I think God wants us to come to the point where we not only come to Him for everything, but we RECEIVE from Him everything.
God is looking for people who are willing to be used by Him to show His love to the world.
In a sense, the vine "needs" the branches, because it wants the world to see it's fruit, and it's fruit is produced through the branches.
The Bible says:
(2 Chr 16:9 KJV) For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
Illustration:
George Mueller was a man who desired greatly to show others that God was faithful and that He answered prayer. He established a great orphanage work in England during the 19th century, primarily to prove to others that God answered prayer. He wrote:
"All these exercises of my soul, which resulted from the fact that so many believers, with whom I became acquainted, were harassed and distressed in mind, or brought guilt on their consciences, on account of not trusting in the Lord; were used by God to awaken in my heart the desire of setting before the church at large, and before the world, a proof that He has not in the least changed; and this seemed to me best done, by the establishing of an Orphan-House. It needed to be something which could be seen, even the natural eye. Now, if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained without asking any individual, the means for establishing and carrying on an Orphan-House, there would be something which, with the Lord's blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted, of the reality of the things of God."
During the next 64 years he established several orphanages, handled over $8 million, ministered to thousands of children, led countless people to the Lord, even though most of the time his ministry was right on the edge financially, and when he died his own possession were valued at only $800.
"God is faithful still, and hears prayer still."
:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Herein - in what is the Father glorified?
The word "herein" is pointing back to something, to the previous verse.
God is glorified when:
1. Our prayers are answered.
2. We bear much fruit (and some of that fruit is answered prayer).
3. We start acting like Jesus' disciples.
By staying in His Word, and by praying.
Lesson:
Is God being glorified?
Do people look at your life and stand in amazement at our wonderful God?
Or do they look at your life and stand in amazement at you?
Or do they look at your life and say, so what?
Jesus said:
(Mat 5:16 KJV) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.