Life with Each Other
Living in the Vineyard Series
John 15:12-17
Introduction
What is this? (show plant from window and wait for answers)
I’m not so sure where the actual name is, you may…I call it an anomaly…a plant that I haven’t killed.
Remember, I have the black thumb of death.
What I want to focus on is this little vine of ivy.
When we brought it home it was only a couple of inches long, my goal is to get it long enough to start weaving through the blinds and around the kitchen window treatments.
Notice the make up of the vine.
It is grounded, it has roots…like what we talked about 2 weeks ago about being rooted in Christ.
John 15:5.
If I break part of this vine off, that part dies.
Or if it is not properly planted, it will not grow and die.
There are times, especially with grapes, you have to remove the leaves…the pretty stuff, so that fruit will grow.
That is called pruning and it is necessary.
One more thing about pruning, you have to know what to do…too much or too little may be detrimental.
Was in a church once and I was told “We’ve had a lot of pruning take place recently.”
She was right, but the pruning wasn’t done by the owner of the vineyard who knew what He was doing…meaning God.
The pruning had been done by the people, and as a result the vine was actually dying…down to the roots.
The grounding was now in question.
Back to our vine, notice how it has one huge leaf.
(wait a second) Right?
Of course not, it has leaves all the way down the vine.
Each one a little different, yet similar.
This is a picture of a local church.
A body of born again believers, each with different gifts, backgrounds, talents and shapes…yet there is something that goes beyond the uniqueness that makes them similar.
That is salvation.
Read Eph. 4:4-6 (put on slide).
We are all different, God broke the mold after each of us was lovingly and fearfully created by His own hands.
Yet we are united and made one…secured into the vine and living life together.
God has called us to live in the vineyard, His vineyard, and part of that means living with each other.
Let’s read about that life together this morning.
Read John 15:12-17 and pray.
Transition
What does life with each other in the vineyard look like?
Jesus gives us 4 aspects of this life in the vineyard in our text.
First of all, notice…
1. The Command: Love
Vs. 12
Notice the words Jesus uses again, “This is my commandment”…and I want you to understand what exactly that means.
If you do a search through the gospels on the word commandment, you won’t find many references with that word.
In the HCSB, which is what I am reading from this morning, you will only find 11 references in the 4 gospels.
In 10 of those 11 references you will find that they are related to previously stated commandments that are found in the OT, or in the case of the first and greatest commandment, a restatement of something from the OT.
Here in John 15:12 you find the ONLY time Jesus says, “This is my commandment.”
This is the one time Jesus says to His disciples, to us, “This is what I want you to do, and this is what I expect you to do.”
And that commandment is to love one another.
This is so vital and important that He actually repeated Himself in vs. 17.
What this should say to you and me is that if there is one thing we should do, other than loving God, it is loving each other.
Not just saying it either, but showing it.
How sad is it that love is one of those many words that we have allowed to be watered down in this generation.
I guess it is understandable considering we have also allowed Christian to be watered down to the lowest possible standard.
The word “love” today is thrown around today like it is just another word.
• I love fried fish
• I love those shoes
• I love that song
• I love this, that or another…and we just suck the true meaning out of the word.
Love as defined here is that Greek word that many of us are familiar with, “agapeo”…a love that comes from God.
The definition is “to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly”
But get this, the root for “agape” is “agan”…which means “much”
We are to love, and have much love.
And Jesus tells us just how much we are to love at the end of vs. 12.
Let me ask you this, do you love those you worship with like Christ loved you?
Can you sincerely say that you really love those that God has placed in this vineyard with you and called you to share life with as Christ loved you?
Makes you wonder though, just how much is that love that Christ showed.
That takes us to our 2nd aspect of life together…
2. The Commitment: Sacrifice
Read vs. 13.
It is no mystery to us, or should be how much Christ loved us.
He loved us so much that He gave up His life for us.
Romans 5:8
God’s love for you was so strong that He gave…He made the sacrifices of all sacrifices.
John 3:16
Jesus was the gift, the sacrificial lamb that was offered for the remission of sins.
And for Jesus, it was an act of love for Him.
No one killed Christ, He gave Himself.
Read through the Gospel accounts and see this to be true.
When He was arrested Christ didn’t fight…He willingly went.
And when He was drug from kangaroo court to kangaroo court…He didn’t proclaim His innoncence and their guilt, because He was paying for their crimes.
And on the cross, rather than calling down heaven…He cried out, “It is finished” because the work had been done, redemption had been won.
That was the commitment Christ made…a sacrifice.
And for us, we are expected to make a sacrifice for each other.
This doesn’t mean we have to give up our life for another, but it does mean putting others before ourselves.
Rather than needing to get our own way, we have to focus on what is best for all of us.
And when it comes down to me, it should always fall behind you.
You might remember last year when we studied Philippians, I spoke about how to have joy in your life, using “joy” as an acronym:
Jesus first
Others second
You third
It takes a sacrifice.
It takes giving up and giving in when others might benefit.
It means swallowing some pride and seasoning it with love…making a sacrifice because that is how Christ showed love.
Is your love sacrificial?
If not, is it really love?
This takes us to our third aspect of living together, what makes it worth it…
3. The Compensation: Relationship
Read. Vs 14
Jesus is pointing out the importance of relationships here, and how one is tied into the other.
Both vertical and horizontal…if our horizontal relationships (with each other) are healthy, then our vertical relationship (with Christ) will be healthy.
We are created for relationships.
First of all with God.
Go back to the garden in Genesis, we read that Adam and Ever walked with God…they knew Him on a first name basis.
Yahweh was not a covenant name that was never spoken out loud, it is what they knew God by.
At least until they ate the fruit, and that relationship was damaged…it was broken, the vine was separated from the roots.
And did you notice what happened after that?
Read Gen. 3:12-13
They turned on each other…their relationship was broken.
And then look in Gen. 4:8…continued broken relationships.
And as we read through Scriptures we see broken relationships with each other as a result of a broken relationship with God.
And today we see broken relationships with each other…because we too have broken relationships with God.
I know someone is asking, “If I don’t have a good relationship with others in the church, then I don’t have a good relationship with God?”
No, I’m not saying…Christ is saying it.
Read vs. 14 again.
If you do what He has commanded, which is to love each other sacrificially, then He will call us friends.
But, to not love each other sacrificially as He commanded means we aren’t keeping His commands…so can we say we are right in that relationship with Him?
I’ll answer that for you, no.
When we live life together as we have been commanded, we are the ones who benefit because it draws us closer to God.
Show image used during marriage counseling.
The dynamic is this…as we draw closer to each other as born again believers (horizontally) we move closer to the Savior (vertically).
To move further apart from each other is to move further from Christ.
So when we simply love, as Christ has commanded and has He has shown us how to love, we grow closer to Him.
Our relationship with Christ is the compensation we receive.
How is your relationship with Christ today?
How is it in light of your relationships with others.
If you are not in right horizontal relationships, you cannot be in a right vertical relationship.
You want to draw closer to Christ…it has to start here (with us).
And that takes us to our final aspect of living in the vineyard and life together…
4. The Conclusion: Fruit
Read vs. 16
If we are rooted and planted in Christ and are securely part of the vine…fruit is inevitable.
If we are doing what God intends for us to do, there will be fruit.
We don’t will it, we don’t have to create it, we don’t even have to hope or wish for it…it will happen because God will make it happen.
And if we are bearing fruit, it is only because we are doing what is necessary to bear fruit.
But also notice that this fruit bearing is not an option.
The word “appointed” used in our verse is the Greek word “tithemi” which means to set, put or place.
Its root comes from the Greek word “theo” which is the root for God in Greek.
Meaning that God has put us into place to bear fruit.
Remember what Christ said back in John 15:8…we honor and glorify God in our fruit bearing.
In this God is glorified if we bear much fruit.
Not just any fruit, or a little fruit, but in much fruit.
I have to ask, what is blooming in your life?
What fruit is evident in your life?
Like we discussed 2 weeks ago, are the fruit of the Spirit evident in your life?
Love, joy, peace…
How about fruit in bearing disciples?
Are you part of the chain of grace where disciples are being multiplied in the local church?
Closing
Most of you have heard me mention Larry Goff, he was my college campus minister in junior college…and it was Bro. Larry who first saw something in me and invested in my life.
He was my discipler, my mentor, my father in the faith.
He took over the BSU at JCJC in 1991 and served in the role of director there for the next 10 years.
Prior to serving as BSU director he was a long time pastor…a calling he accepted after serving multiple tours in Vietnam as an Army helicopter pilot.
Many feel it was his time in Vietnam and exposure to chemicals like Agent Orange that led to him losing an eye to cancer prior to becoming our BSU director…but spent many years in remission until 2001.
In December 2001 he was rediagnosed with cancer, and he was given very little chance of recovery.
In February 2002, knowing his time was short, Brigitte and I had planned a trip down to Ellisville to visit him, probably for the last time.
A week before our scheduled trip I was subbing at the Oldham County Middle school when Brigitte called my cell phone to tell me Bro. Larry died.
We did make our trip down to see him, but not as I had hoped…it was for his funeral.
I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest during the trip down and even as we drove to the church for the visitation on the night before the funeral…and then I saw John 15:8.
The line of visitors wrapped around the church and the outside of the sanctuary, and stayed like that for about 3 hours…lives touched by BL.
After we left the funeral home Brig and I joined a bunch of friends from my time in the BSU for an impromptu fellowship at McAllistors deli in Laurel.
Over 20 of us sitting around a table laughing, crying, joking and loving on each other…all impacted by BL.
We were seeing John 15:8 in action…much fruit for God’s glory.
This morning, the fruit we bear begins here in this sanctuary.
It begins with us living life together, doing life together and loving each other.
Do we love each other?
You can’t truly love God unless you love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
More important…do you know Christ as your Lord and Savior?
