ABIDING IN THE VINE V
Series on John 15 pt. 14
John 15:4-5
3/25/07
Most of you I am sure have heard the expression that you need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact some of you have heard it from this pulpit. But what does it mean? What exactly is the Christian saying when they use those terms? Are we saying we have a relationship with God in the way Abraham had a relationship with God? Or Moses? Or Isaiah? These men had a very close walk with God. Actually talking to God. Is that what we mean? Of course not.
I believe that in our study of John 15 we can see what it is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us realize that the phrase “personal relationship” is not found in the Bible. But that is not to say the Scripture does not reveal to us how it is that we may have a close a union with Christ. That we might have a relationship with the Lord that goes beyond just an acquaintance. A relationship that goes beyond just knowing about Christ, but knowing Christ, and what is equally important, Christ knowing you.
You see I know Jeff Burton. He is race car driver. I know he lives in NC. I know that he shares the same birthday as my wife, June 29th. I know his wife’s name, Kim, the names of his two kids, (Paige and Harrison). I know he likes to golf and fish. I know all kinds of things about Jeff Burton. But do we have a personal relationship? No. Why because Jeff does not know me.
In order to have a personal relationship with someone, you must know them, and they must know you. That is true with Christ. If you want to have personal relationship with Him, you must know Him and He must know you. That is what our passage for today talks about. And as we look at this portion of Scripture, I pray that I would give you a greater insight into what it is to have personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Let us turn to our passage for today. You have heard this passage of Scripture over and over again over the course of the last few weeks. John 15:4-5
Several weeks ago we began to take a look at these two verses of John 15, 4-5. What we saw was in order to fully understand with these verses are telling us we have to have and understanding of what “abide” meant and what Jesus means by “fruit”. So we spent some time looking at what it is to abide in Christ and also what Biblical fruit is.
So now we will continue our expository look into John 15:4-5.
Please turn with me to John 15:4-5,
"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. "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 we see in vss. 4 & 5 that these two verses strengthen one another. We see from vs. 4 that branch cannot bear fruit of itself. It must abide in the vine. That is we cannot bear fruit unless we are abiding in Christ. Vs. 5 on the other hand states that when we do abide in Christ we WILL bear fruit. Then the last phrase reinforces what vs. 4 states. That we can do nothing apart from Christ.
So then branches (us) without the vine (Christ) will not bring forth fruit. But branches (us) in the vine (Christ) cannot help but to produce fruit. Kind of like a math formula. Us + Us = 0, Us + Christ =fruit.
What we see then is the test that determines if we are truly in Christ and that Christ is truly in us, is fruit. Just as 2 + 2 always = 4, us + Christ will always produce good fruit.
I want to look at the details of verse 4. Christ tells us first to “Abide in Me…” We already have discovered what the word abide means. It is the Greek word “MENO” and it means to dwell with.
Remember when you where in school and you had to take grammar. If you were like me would think to yourself how grammar was useless information. Well I finally reaches a point in my life, it took 46 years, where I actually found a use for grammar. I comes in handy when you trying to uncover the fullest sense of Scripture.
You see this phrase here, the “abide in me” is what is called an “active voice” What that tells us is that when our Lord Jesus Christ says “Abide in me” it comes with the sense of a continuing kind of action. It is not a one shot deal. We are to continue in Christ, continue to produce good fruit. The life of a Christian is not just professing faith in Christ and that’s it. The Christian life is one of continuing in Christ. The true Christian, the truth branch, will continue in Christ.
A couple of verse that show this. Listen to 1John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
Notice what the word of God states true Christian do. They continue in the body of Christ. John says that if these people where true believers they would have continued in the their walk with Christ. But they left the church, they left that walk of Christ, thus proving that as John states, “none of them were of us.” There were not true Christians.
I also want to point out that that Greek word “continue” there in 1 John 2:19, is “MENO”. The same word translated “abide” in John 15:4.
Another passage to point out, again from 1 John. This time 2:24; “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.”
Once more we see this sense of continuing in Christ. Those things which we heard from the beginning, they need to continue in us. What is cool about this verse is that once more we have that word abide, Greek “MENO”. But in that passage we have three tenses. We have a present tense, we have the same tense as we see in John 15:4, and we also have the future sense.
That is to say we abide in Christ, that which we have from the beginning of our walk with Him. We are to abide with Him presently, we are to continue to abide in Him, and we shall abide with Him in the future.
And in verse 25 of 1 John chapter 2 we are told of the outcome of all this abiding; “And this is the promise that he made to us––eternal life.”
The point then is that when Christ says “Abide in Me” in John 15:4 He is saying that it is a continuing thing.
Let us continue now with Verse 4. “"Abide in Me, (active voice, something we are expected to do) then Christ states, “and I in you.” Ready for some more grammar? This is the what is called “passive voice”. In other words we are passive here. There is no action on our part. Our part comes with Abide in Christ, and what we are told is basically that as we abide in Christ we can fully expect Christ to abide in us. These are inseparable.
The point I believe that Jesus is making when He states, ““"Abide in Me, and I in you.” Is that it takes both to be a fruitful Christian. He does not say abide in Me and you will produce fruit. He does not say I will abide in you and you will bear fruit. No, we must abide in Him and He in us in order to be fruitful Christians.
This reminds us of what we are told in 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.”
That passage states basically the same thing as John 15:4. The aspect of salvation that Paul is referring to in Phil 2:12 is sanctification. The process by which we are made holy. But we must strive to live holy lives. That takes effort! Paul equates the Christian life as running in a race. Running toward the prize. “The prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” And it is a long race and long races are not easy.
That race is us working out our salvation. But we will win the race, why because it is “God who work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
Abide in Christ and Christ will abide in you and if you take one away you are left with a fruitless life.
The point is very clear in this passage, we must know Christ and Christ must know us.
Listen to what Jesus states in Matt. 7:20-23; “"Therefore by their fruits you will know them. "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. "Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ "And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Once more we evidence of this abide in Him and He in us. Jesus is basically saying to this group of people, you claim to know me. You claim to have good works. But in reality these works are what Jesus terms as “lawlessness”. They weren’t good fruits. Why? Because Jesus does not know them.
We have here those who are claiming yes we abide in Christ. But Christ is saying, but I don’t abide in you. Your missing something. And in reality they were not really abiding in Christ because if they truly were Christ would be abiding in them. They would truly know Christ, and Christ would truly know them.
It goes back to the personal relationship thing we were talking about earlier. In order to have that we must know Christ and He must know us. We must abide in Him and He must abide in us.
Notice the next line in verse 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.”
Here are Lord Jesus gives us the perfect illustration of our live in Christ.
I have in my hand a branch that I picked off the grape vine in my backyard. Let me ask you all a scientific question. Will this branch produce grapes? Will in produce any fruit? No. But why?
Because it is no longer attached to the vine. What does the branch get from the vine? Live itself. Not only will this branch not produce fruit apart from the vine, but it will die. It will become a dried up twig that will be good for nothing except kindling.
From the vine this branch took nourishment. It took strength, again it had live in the vine.
The same is true with us in Christ. It is from Christ we get Spiritual nourishment, to grow in Him. By abiding in Him, by abiding in His Word. It is through that abiding and that abiding alone that we can get the nourishment we need to, as 1 Peter 3:18 states “ …grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” The branch cannot grow without abiding in the vine, the Christian cannot grow without abiding in the true vine.
It is by abiding in Christ that we are strengthened. How weak is the world because they do not abide in Christ? But as Christian we are strengthened through our Lord. Listen to Phil 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
As branches who are abiding in the true Vine we are strengthened by the Vine.
Also just as the branch finds its life in the vine, so do we find our live in Christ. I could quote to you an abundance of verses that proclaim that it is in Christ we have life, in Christ we have eternal life.
I just want to give you a couple; Rom 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Col 3:4 “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
Just as with the branch there is no life apart from the vine, there is no life for man apart from Christ.
Further, what is it that shows that this branch is abiding in the vine. The fruit that it bears. Fruit is the evidence that this branch is alive and growing.
Jesus uses this perfect illustration to teach us that fruit in our live too shows that we are alive in Christ, alive in the vine. It proves we are living in the vine. Remember fruit in our lives is not what saves us, it is what shows that we are saved.
This branch does not get its life from the fruit. it gets its life from the vine, and then, and only then will it produce fruit. And that illustrates for us the fruitful Christian life.
In closing I will say that I am aware that there was a lot of redundancy in this sermon. That is the case because there is a lot of redundancy in the Lord’s words here in John 15. Why is that?
Because I believe Jesus wants us to understand how vitally important it is for us to abide in Him and He in us. Our very souls depend upon it.
As you leave here this morning please take this question with you. Take it with you and pray about it. Ponder it, mediate on it. The question is am I abiding in Christ? And what is there in my life that shows I am abiding in Christ?
Because if you are not abiding in Christ, then Christ is not abiding in you and you cannot have the personal relationship with Christ that we spoke of at the beginning of this sermon. As I said you must know Christ, and Christ most know you.
The beginning of us abiding in Christ comes when we believe in that blessed gospel. It comes when the God of all creation opens our hearts and we see the beauty of Christ. It comes when we see our sinfulness and God’s holiness. Do you believe in that gospel? That Christ die for your sins, that He was buried and that He rose again on the third day.
My pray is that every person here today as trusted Christ. That every person here has the personal relationship with Christ by which you know Him, and He knows you.
If you wish to talk about your salvation please see with me following the service and we can arrange a time that we can look to God’s Word.
LET US PRAY
