ABIDING IN THE VINE I
Series on John 15 pt. 6
John 15:4
1/21/07
That hymn we just sang “Abide in Me” has a story behind it. It was written by a pastor by the name of Henry Francis Lyte. Orphaned at age nine, Henry was of ill health for most of his life. He was told by his doctor that he should go to a warmer climate and rest if he was to live. He did recoup his health somewhat and married at age 25. Marrying the daughter of a minister. He himself entered the ministry. His last parish was Brixham, on the south coast of England, where he was a minister for twenty three years. He was greatly loved by his parishioners, mostly poor fishermen and their families. He took a great interest in their welfare and they looked forward to his many visits to their boats when they returned to harbor. He wrote a book of hymns and prayers for the sailors to use at sea, as well as the sea shanties that sailors love. However because of his frail health he made many trips abroad to avoid the cold damp English winters. During his last serious illness he wrote the manuscript of his last hymn, "Abide With Me." He sent the finished manuscript to his wife, as he knew that it was very unlikely that he would ever return home to see her. Henry died on Nov. 20th 1847 at the age of 54. It was at his memorial service in Brixham that "Abide With Me" was sung for the first time.
Listen again to the first verse; “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me.”
That is a powerful prayer. As Christians that should be the desire of each one us, for the Lord to abide in us. When all seems to be falling apart around us, whether it be poor health, financial struggles, relationships, what have you, our prayer should be just that, Lord abide in me, for He indeed is the help of the helpless.
But just as we desire for Christ to abide in us, we must have a desire to abide in Him. That I believe is a mark of a true believer, a true branch of the true vine, that you desire to abide in Christ, and have Christ abide in you.
This bring us to our passage this morning which is John 15:4. That is page 935 in your pew Bibles. It is there we see the call for us to abide in Christ, and Christ will abide in us. Keep in mind that this is the central teaching of the passage, of John 15, that is we must abide in Christ.
John 15:4 “"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
What is interesting is that within the Scripture there are about 10 places that speak of abiding in Christ. (They may be more depending on if you include phrases such as abide in His love, or abide in His word), but out of those 10 places 7 of them are reciprocal. That is to say they have language very similar to vs. 4. “Abide in Me, and I in you.” I do not believe you can separate them. Those who abide in Christ, Christ will abide in you. In fact that is why we do abide in Christ because He does in fact abide us.
But abiding in Christ cannot be separated from Christ abiding in us. If you are not abiding in Christ, it is because Christ does not abide in you, and if Christ does not abide in you, then you in fact cannot abide in Christ. But what does it really mean to abide in Christ?
Before we look exegetically at this passage I believe it is important for us to define just what abide or abiding means.
The Greek word here in verse 4 for abide is “MENO”. It means to “to remain” or “dwell”, to stay in a certain place.
It is at times used literally in Scripture as in Matt. 10:11 where we read, “"Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out.”
That phrase “stay there” is the Greek work MENO.
That is what we are to do in relationship with Christ. We are to stay there, stay in Christ, dwell with Christ, dwell in Christ. Remain in Christ, live in Christ, abide in Christ.
Now that is all well and good. I can say you are to dwell in Christ, remain in Him, stay in Him. But again, what does that really mean? How do we apply that in our lives? Christians are at times great at throwing out phrases like that, but short on application. That is what we need to know. How do I abide in Christ? Give me something I can put into practice.
I believe that best way for us to understand how we are to abide in Christ is to look at the word of God. I want to look at some passages of Scripture that show us what it is to abide in Christ. And as we look at these, let us also be examining our lives.
So what is it to abide in Christ? Let us first look to our passage, what is it to abide in Christ in John 15.
Take a look at verse 5; "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing...”
What this passage tells us very plainly is that those who abide in Christ will bear fruit. The more we abide in Christ the more fruit you will bear. So we can ask ourselves, is my life producing fruit? You may say well that does not tell me how to abide in Christ but if I am abiding in Christ.
Might I suggest that the answer to those two questions is the same. How do I abide in Christ? By living a fruitful life. How do I know I am abiding in Christ? By living a fruitful life. The point is that abiding in Christ is fruitful no matter what angle you look at from. Fruit is one of the ways by which we abide in Christ, and it is one of the ways by which we are marked as abiding in Christ.
We must understand as well that the fruit that we bear through abiding in Christ is brought forth by God through our obedience. As we will see when we begin to look at what this fruit is, it comes as a collaboration between God and us;
A good verse to keep in mind in this respect is Phil. 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
So we see that abiding in Christ in John 15 includes living a fruitful life. Doing those things that bring glory to God. As John 15:8 tells us, (and we will be examining this passage later on in this series); “"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Abiding in Christ also includes love. Listen to verse 9 , “"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
We see two loves here that are being compared for us. First we have the love that the Heavenly Father has for the Son. Then we are told that this the love which the Son has for us. Then we are told to “abide in” Christ’s love.
Let me tell that the love which the Father has for the Son is a perfect, holy, flawless love. We obviously could talk about this love for quite awhile. I could preach numerous sermons on it. But I just want to say that because the Father and Son, along with the Holy Spirit, are one in unity, one in purpose, one God in three persons, the love between them is perfect. It is an indescribable love. A love that as mortal beings we cannot even begin to fathom.
But it is this perfect love that Jesus Christ has for us. Think about that for a moment. The love which the Father has for the Son, that is the love that Jesus has for those branches that abide in Him. That is the love that He has for the Church, those whom He as purchased with His blood.
As Jesus tells us in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” There is no greater love than the love the Father has for the Son, and that is the love which Christ as for us.
So to abide in Christ is to abide in that love. That perfect, holy love. To abide in Christ is to live in that love, remain in it. To meditate on it. To let the love of Christ dictate how you live and how you act. To abide in Christ’s love also has to do with how we love each other, and we are going to get to that next week.
But I just want you to understand that abiding in Christ, abiding in His love is to have peace in your life that can only be know by abiding in Christ. To abide in Christ then is to enjoy the peace that comes through His love.
We are told in Phil. 4:7 “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Why do we have that peace? It comes through knowing and abiding in the love of Christ. Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So what is it to abide in Christ? It is to rest in the love that He has for us. It is to live in the peace that that love brings, knowing that there is nothing, NOTHING! That can separate us from that love.
To abide in Christ is to know that Christ loves me like the Father loves Him. And because He does love me in that way, I know that He will never leave me, that He will care for me, that He will give me strength to get through any trial. To abide in Christ is to believe that He has this kind of love for me. There is no fear in the love of Christ, no hopelessness. Only peace and comfort. Abide in that love.
We can also see from John 15 that abiding in Christ has do with obedience. Listen to John 15:10; “"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.”
I want us to notice that Jesus here connects the abiding in His love, and thus abiding in Him, with keeping the Father’s commandments. Jesus has abided perfectly in the Father’s love through perfect obedience. Through perfectly doing the will of God.
As John 6:38 tells us, This is Jesus speaking, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Also we read in the gospel of John 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”
We can see from here that Jesus comes down from heaven to do the perfect will of the Father, and that is exactly what He does. And in doing so He demonstrates that He is abiding in the love of the Father.
And just as Christ stated in verse 9 just as the Father loved me, I love you, He is saying hear just as I obey the Father’s commandments and abide in His love, so you are to obey my commandments and abide in my love.
So to abide in Christ is to obey Him. You cannot abide in Christ and not obey Him. To abide in Christ is to have Him as Lord of our lives. To acknowledge Him as master. Some folks just want Christ as Saviour yet not Lord. They want the ticket to heaven. But they don’t want to carry the cross. You cannot do it. Christ will not be, nor can He be separated.
I am a husband and father, you cannot divide me. I have a wife, that makes me a husband. I have children that makes me a father. I am a husband and father.
Jesus is both Saviour and Lord. Luke 2:11 “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Jesus Christ is our Saviour.
Phil. 2:9-11; “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus Christ is Lord. Unto Him all authority has been given. You cannot divide Him up. If He is your Saviour He must be your Lord, if He is your Lord He must be your Saviour.
If you say you abide in Christ then you must obey Him as Lord of your life.
Listen to 1 John 2:3-5 “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.”
How do we know that we are in Him? How do we know that we are abiding in Him? How do we know that we are remaining in Him? We obey Him. We do what He says.
One more passage 1 John 3:24; “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” We are going to talk a little more about this verse next week.
But if you have any questions as to what commandments we are referring to, I point you to Matt. 22:37-40; “Jesus said to him, "‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ "This is the first and great commandment.” “"And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."”
So we have begun to examine what it is to abide in Christ. We have seen just from John 15 that to abide in Christ means to bear fruit for Christ. To abide in Christ means to bear fruit to and the glory of God.
To abide in Christ means abiding in His love. That perfect, holy love. To abide in Christ is to live in that love, remain in it. To meditate on it. To let the love of Christ dictate how you live and how you act. To abide in Christ’s love is no enjoy the peace that only His love can bring.
To abide in Christ means to obey His commandments. To abide in Christ means to live with Christ as Saviour and Lord. To submit to Him. To obey His commands.
There are three more passages of Scripture I want us to look to as we examine what abiding in Christ means. They all come from 1 John. So I encourage you to read through that book this coming week.
I believe that we have seen some practical ways that we must abide in Christ. Ways that we apply to our lives. Practical things that we can look to and do as we abide in Him and He in us.
In closing I will say that abiding in Christ begins with faith in Him. It begin with a belief in His gospel. The gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. That Jesus died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day.
To abide in Christ means recognizing that you are in fact a sinner in need of Saviour, and Jesus Christ, and Christ alone is that perfect Saviour. HE alone can save us from our sins. He alone died for those sins, He alone rose again from the dead to sit at the Right hand of the Father as our mediator.
I pray that you believe that gospel. That you have placed your faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour. I pray that God has indeed opened your heart that you truly may abide in Christ.
LET US PRAY.
