THERE IS A STORY told about a young pastor, fresh out of seminary, who was to give his first sermon to his new congregation. He had graduated with honors, and everybody who knew him was sure that he was on a fast track to notoriety as a great preacher. His congregation watched as he entered the pulpit with an air of self-importance. They listened as he read his text. And they waited. There was silence. What they didn’t know was that their young pastor had forgotten what he was going to say. He read his text again, hoping that something would come to him, but it didn’t. He still couldn’t remember what he had prepared. He read the text again, but it was no good. Nothing would come to him. His mind was totally blank. Finally, he said to his people, “I’m sorry. I have nothing to say.” He left the pulpit with a bowed head and a downcast spirit. After worship, a seasoned elder found the young man. He put his arm on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “Son,” he said, “if you had gone up to the pulpit the way you came down, you would have come down the way you went up.” This young man went into the pulpit full of himself. And there’s one thing for sure: When you’re full of yourself, you can’t be full of Jesus.
Jesus tells us here in John 15, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5). What he means, of course, is not that we can do absolutely nothing. We can do many things, but, apart from him, we cannot do anything that will endure. You may be a parent, and you want to raise your children to know and love Jesus, but you think you can do it without his help. You may be an employer, and you want your business to have an atmosphere of grace and mutuality and team spirit, but you think you can bring that about with your own charm. You may be an elder, and you want your church to be a setting in which people are built up in faith and engaged in serving others with a sweet spirit, but you think you can make that happen by voting that it be so. You may be a pastor or a Sunday School teacher, and you want to have an enduring influence on others for the sake of the Kingdom, but you think all it will take is some hard work on your part. Jesus says you can’t. He says to the moms and dads among us, to the employers, to the elders and pastors and teachers – he says to all of us – “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
But he also says, “Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit.” It’s like a vine and its branches, he tells us. Branches that abide in the vine not only produce fruit; they produce “fruit that will last” (v. 16). I can’t help but believe that – whatever you do, whether you’re a parent or a boss or a church leader or a teacher or whatever – I can’t help but believe that you want your efforts to amount to something. I do too. And I believe that what Jesus says here in John 15 – what he says about abiding in him – can help us with that. And the way I want to approach this passage is to ask and answer three questions. The first question is What? What does it mean to abide in Jesus? The second question is Why? Why is abiding in him important? And the third question is How? If we’re convinced that abiding in Jesus is something we want to do, how do we go about it? How do we do it?
So, let’s ask the first question, the what question: What does it mean to abide in Jesus? When Jesus says in verse 4, “Abide in me,” what does he mean? What he means is: “Take your life from me.” “I am the vine, you are the branches” (v. 5). And, as a branch receives life from the vine, you are to receive life from me. We know how this works. A branch has to remain organically connected to the vine or…what? It will die. Cut a limb off a tree, and it won’t be long before the leaves will turn colorless and shrivel up, and the limb becomes brittle. But as long as the limb “abides” in the tree, it takes its life from the tree.
It’s the same way with Jesus and us. There is life in him. And, if we take our life from him, as a branch does from the main stalk, what we will see in our lives is an abundant yield. It doesn’t mean, of course, that we will be successful in everything we do, but it does mean that we will see Christ’s desires for us come to fruition. That’s what it means to abide in Jesus.
That’s the first question. Let’s go to our second question, the why question: Why is it important that we abide in Jesus? Is it in fact important? How you answer that, I guess, depends on whether you want your life to amount to anything or not. Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit” (vv. 1f.). He then goes on to say, “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers” (v. 6). Is that what you want out of your life?
There’s a principle at work here, and it’s a principle that will help us to see why it’s important that we abide in Jesus. The principle is simply this: No root, no fruit. That’s it. It is Jesus who, like a root in the soil, draws from the life-giving stores of grace the nutrients and the moisture, as it were, that are needed for bearing fruit.
So, you might ask, what is this fruit that we are to bear? It is simply this: The fruit of being in Jesus is being like Jesus. And what does it mean to be like Jesus? It means that we love others the way Jesus loves us. Check out verse 12. In that verse our Lord says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another” – how? – “as I have loved you.” Here’s the thing: What flows into us flows out of us. What we have received we give. What comes to us shows through us. We have been loved, so we in turn love. We might even put it this way: Jesus in, Jesus out.
That’s one reason why abiding in Jesus is so important. No root, no fruit. But there’s another reason. When we take our life from Jesus, there is fruit, and when there is fruit, God is glorified. Isn’t that what Jesus says in verse 8? “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit.” You and I were created as image-bearers of God. We were designed to reflect God’s glory. Of course, in our sin we have distorted this reflection. But, in his great mercy, God has redeemed us. We are now a new creation, and, because we are, we are able to bring glory to the Father by “bearing much fruit.”
So, abiding in Jesus is important because if you’re not abiding in him, your life is not bearing fruit for God. And there’s only one way your life can produce fruit for God: You must abide in Jesus. You must take your life from him.
So, we come to our third and final question: How do you do this? How do you abide in Jesus so that you bear fruit for the glory of God? And Jesus tells us. Now, what he says may surprise you. In fact, you may find it too simplistic, and, for that reason, you may despise it. But it’s what Jesus says. So what does he say? How do we abide in him? How do we, as branches do from a vine, take our life from him? There are two ways: Scripture and prayer.
See, I told you that you might be surprised, perhaps even disappointed. You may have wanted something more elaborate, something a bit rarified, something novel. Surely the answer to a meaningful life is not in something so commonplace! But here it is, right from the lips of Jesus. Let me show you.
You recall how Jesus says that the Father is the vinegrower, and, as the vinegrower, he “removes every branch…that bears no fruit, [but you recall how Jesus also said] every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit” (vv. 1f.). How does the Father go about pruning the branches? It is by his Word. In verse 3, Jesus says, “You have already been cleansed” – that is, you have already been pruned; how? – “by the word that I have spoken to you.”
Have you ever seen a pruning knife? It is a mean-looking thing. But in the right hands, it can be used to bring health. The Father’s pruning knife is the Word. With it he takes to the branches and cuts away the dead parts. He shapes the plant by controlling the direction of growth. He prunes to preserve the vitality of the branch and to maximize its yield. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is like that. It is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” That’s what the Word does to you. It exposes areas of your life – thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors that inhibit your spiritual growth – and it cuts them away. It also shapes your patterns of thinking and living through the commandments it contains. In verse 10, Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” – which is the same thing as abiding in him. The Word of God, you see, shows you what to do and what not to do. It teaches and corrects. And when you saturate yourself in it, you abide in Christ.
The second way we abide in Christ is through prayer. Twice in this passage, Jesus speaks of prayer. In verse 7, he says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Again, in verse 16, Jesus says, “The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” This is prayer.
Now, this is a bold promise, and it must not be misconstrued. Jesus is not portraying God as some sort of cosmic bellhop, eager to indulge our every wish. Effectual prayer is dependent upon obedience – that is, keeping Christ’s commandments. Reread verse 7. There is a condition: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you” – that is, if you live out what you learn in the Word – “ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” The key to prayer is that we are to want what Christ wants and to ask for that. That’s what it means to pray in his name. It is to pray as he has authorized us to pray. When we pray for what he wants, we will receive it. And what do we pray for? We pray for God’s glory. And how is God glorified? By the fruit we bear. And how do we bear fruit? By abiding in Jesus. He is the vine; we are the branches. Apart from him we can do nothing. No root, no fruit.
But, Jesus says, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit” (v. 5). So, is your life bearing fruit? Let’s find out. Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to try what I call the sponge experiment. Someone has said that, when you squeeze a sponge, whatever is inside will come out. So, what I want you to do this week is: I want you to pay attention to the times when you get squeezed. Whether you’re at home with your family or on the job or here at church or wherever you are. I want you to notice the times when things press down on you. And I want you to watch for this: I want to watch what it is you say in that moment – even if you only say it to yourself. I want you to notice what rises from within you? Is it cursing or blessing? Is it grumbling or gratitude? Does it reveal bitterness or sweetness of spirit? That will be your clue as to whether you’re abiding in Jesus or not! Remember: What flows in flows out.
So, what do you do if you discover you’re not exactly abiding in Jesus? You get squeezed, and your first impulse is to gripe. Or you get angry. Or you curse the person who puts you in the bind. What do you do when you learn that about yourself? You do this: You begin again to saturate yourself in God’s Word. Remember: it’s his Word that cleanses you. And what you learn from his Word you apply to your life. That is, you keep his commandments, and you do this because this is how you “abide in his love.” And, in time, when something happens that squeezes the life out of you…it will also squeeze the love out of you. And that’s the fruit you want. How did we put it earlier? Jesus in, Jesus out!
