Stay in Jesus, the Vine, the Son

[0:00] You get that tickle and it's like, go away. And then it's like, now you can't cough because people are like, oh no, is that person sick?

[0:15] Oh no, you get all freaked out and you're all freaked out. It makes you cough more. It's like so anxiety driven. Okay, we're just having a conversation here, thank you. Take your Bibles and please turn to John chapter 15.

[0:28] John's gospel, John 15. There's a black Bible and a chair in front of you if you need a Bible. And you can go to the back of that and find page 85 in that black Bible.

[0:39] John 15. John 15. Probably one of the most well-known passages in John. Had a friend of mine talk to him Friday.

[0:51] He said, oh, it's one of my favorite passages is John 15. John 15, one through 17 this morning, page 84. John 15, one through 17 this morning.

[1:02] This is what we'll study. We could do this message probably in three, four different sermons, but we'll do it in one. John 15, one through 17.

[1:14] Let me read. I am the true vine and my father is the farmer. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes it away.

[1:27] And each one that bears fruit, he cleanses it, nor that it may bear more fruit. Now you yourselves are clean because the word which I have spoken to you stay in me and I in you.

[1:43] As the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself, if it does not abide in the vine, not you, if you do not stay in me.

[1:55] I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who stays in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not stay in me, he's thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and it burns.

[2:19] If you stay in me and my word stay in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and be my disciples.

[2:35] Just as the father has loved me, I have also loved you. Stay in my love. If you keep my commands, you will stay in my love. Just as I kept my father's commands and stay in his love.

[2:47] These things I've spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. This is my command, that you love one another just as I have loved you.

[2:58] Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life before his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves for the slave does not know what his lord does.

[3:14] I've called you friends for all things that I've heard from my father, I've made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you in order that you should go and bear fruit and your fruit may remain in order that whatever you ask of the father in my name, he may give it to you.

[3:38] This I command you, that you love one another. I'm talking about vineyards. Since we're on the subject of vineyards, did you know, there's some fun facts about vineyards.

[3:56] Every vineyard acre produces roughly one and a half to 1.7 tons of grapes. Every ton of grapes makes roughly 150 gallons of wine.

[4:13] One barrel of wine contains 60 gallons, which is about 295 bottles of wine as 24 cases. There are about 30 pounds of grapes per case of wine, and in one bottle of wine there's about 2.5 pounds of grapes.

[4:31] Kind of crazy. Listen to these fun facts. Table grapes and wine grapes are different. There's two separate things. There are 8,000 different varieties of grapes.

[4:47] That's weird. I had no idea about that. Here's something else. 29,292 square miles are devoted to grape growing. Wow.

[4:59] I should have looked up to see how big that size is. Like, over 29,000 square miles. I wonder how big that is. You should look it on your phone, right? And here's another one. Fun fact. Grape skins naturally host yeast.

[5:13] Probably why they ferment. I don't want to mention the sugar. There's this thought that they're going to turn cottonwood into the Napa Valley of Arizona, right?

[5:27] Here's a commercial. If you want to get your degree in viticulture, you can go to Yavai College and get your degree in viticulture. You can. It's really there. You see vineyards around here and there.

[5:41] It's familiar to us and yet Jesus uses this agrarian illustration because this is agrarian culture. They were very familiar with this. They grew wine all the time. That's what they drank. You wouldn't dare drink the water.

[5:53] You'd probably get some sickness. They would actually water down the wine and the enzymes would kill all the bacteria in the water. That's what they would do. It was not grape juice. It was real wine, folks, okay?

[6:06] But Jesus uses this because they were familiar with it. This agrarian illustration to illustrate his relationship with the Father and his relationship with his disciples.

[6:23] So we have the phrase here. Oh, did I not get it? Hey! Come know Jesus. And remember, this is for those of you who don't trust Christ.

[6:36] You should come to know Jesus. But for those of you who already know Jesus, you continue to know Jesus in a deeper relational way and that's what you see here in John 15. Actually, what we'll see is this, John 15, 1 through 17.

[6:50] Stay in Jesus. In the vine. In the sun. Stay in Jesus. Or stay in the vine. Or stay in the sun.

[7:03] That's how you can sum this up. Stay in Jesus. Stay in Jesus. Remain or abide. I like that phrase, stay. Stay. Stay in Jesus.

[7:17] Stay in the vine. Stay in the sun. Here's another way to put it. Short phrase, short sentence. Sentence is, the way to stay in the vine is to stay in his love. The way we stay in his love is by obeying his commands.

[7:32] And his first command is to love one another. The way to stay in the vine, to stay in Jesus, to stay in the sun, is to stay in his love.

[7:46] Well, how do you stay in his love? The way you stay in his love is by obeying his commands. What's his first command? Love. He's gonna define all this for us.

[7:58] He's gonna unpack all this for us. There's a way we can put this, a short phrase. How we can sum up these 17 verses. Here's another way we can sum this up.

[8:12] A little bit more enhanced. First, we are a new, Christ-loved, loved-focused community built on the love and joy that is between the Father and the Son with an outward focus of bearing fruit so that the Father's glorified.

[8:36] It's another way you can sum this up. We're a new community, a Christ-loved community, a love-focused now community. We're built on the love that's between the Father and the Son and the joy that's between them.

[8:53] And yet, we have an outward focus. We have a mission, if you will. And the mission is bearing fruit. And when we do that, the Father's glorified.

[9:04] Another way to put it, we're commanded to stay in the vine, to stay in the sun, to stay in His love. The goal of the stain is fruitfulness.

[9:17] The means to achieve His goal is prayer. And the guarantee of the goal's success is love. Stay in Christ.

[9:30] He's the true vine. Stay in Christ. He's our source of purposeful fruit. He's our true joy. He's our only means by which the Father's love is embodied, embodied in the local church, and then proclaimed to this lost, unloved, and unloving world.

[9:54] We stay in the vine to bear the fruit of God's mission given to us, which is to spread His message of love to this world. What guarantees the success to this mission is our love for each other.

[10:12] Why? Because we exemplify the love between the Father and the Son. We display that in the way we love each other, or at least we should.

[10:25] Because Jesus says, as I have loved you, so that's how you're supposed to love one another. And that love is based upon the love between the Father and the Son. So the love that we have for each other is between the Father and the Son.

[10:39] The love that we have for each other is the love that Jesus has for us. That's what guarantees the success to this mission of proclaiming of this love to the world.

[10:52] We stay in the vine to bear the fruit of God's mission given to us which is to spread his message of love to this world. So how are we going to sum this up? Two points for you.

[11:04] Stay in the vine or the Son, stay in his love. And if you miss anything, these aspects don't miss this. Stay in the vine, stay in the vine or stay in the Son, stay in his love.

[11:17] What's the goal of disdain? Fruitfulness. What's the means to achieve his goal? Prayer. What guarantees the goal success?

[11:31] We love one another. Why? Why does it guarantee the goal success? Because we exemplify that love towards each other. We're displaying that love that Christ has for us.

[11:45] So again, what's the goal? Fruit. Fruit. What's the means? Prayer. What guarantees it? Love. Why? We're displaying it. These are other ways to try and sum this whole thing up, these 17 verses.

[12:00] I'm trying to unpack that for you. And then we're going to go through the verses individually to see how this unfolds for us, okay? So point number one, which I told you, I gave it back, I gave it to you here.

[12:16] Stay in the vine, stay in the sun. The goal is fruit. The means is prayer. The guarantee is love. Stay in the vine, stay in the sun.

[12:27] Verses one through eight. Verse one, I am the true vine. This is the seventh of John's seven I am statements.

[12:39] And they're given to describe Jesus' identity and mission. And for these people, this is common language, they knew exactly what Jesus was talking about because vineyards were all over. They were very much aware of being an agrarian culture.

[12:54] And Jesus says, I'm the true vine. Not only were they familiar with this because it was an agrarian culture, but also they were familiar with it because they were familiar with the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, vine was used to describe Israel.

[13:09] Israel was the vine. Yet, they failed to be God's vine. Why? Because of their disobedience. Yet, Jesus is, notice he calls himself the true vine in that he took on himself their failure and he achieved where they failed.

[13:34] Israel did not thrive or produce fruit. They failed as God's covenant people. But the true vine bore fruit. Christ thrived and produced fruit.

[13:46] So, he's the fulfillment of Israel, the one who completed God's mission. So, he says, I am the true vine. And notice, next part of verse one, and my father is the vine dresser or the farmer.

[13:57] Also familiar in the Old Testament. Yahweh was the vine dresser while Israel was the vine. So, you begin to see Jesus begins to unfold and he's done this. John's done this throughout his gospel as the evangelist.

[14:10] The close significant relationship between the father and the son. It's the basis of everything Jesus will say because the relationship between the son and the father is the basis of the relationship between Jesus and his disciples.

[14:29] the basis of the relationship between the son and the father is the basis of the relationship between Jesus and us.

[14:43] You want to know what this relationship is like? Look to the father and the son. You want to know what your relationship should be like between Jesus and yourself?

[14:56] Look at the relationship between the father and the son. Look at verse 2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes it away and he's one that bears fruit he cleanses it that it may bear more fruit.

[15:11] Jesus' disciples are the branches. He'll bring this up in verse 5. I'm the vine you're the branches. So, our existence and productivity as branches is completely tied to the vine.

[15:25] If you have a vine you have branches everything that comes from your existence and your productivity is from that vine. It's not from you. You don't come up with this on your own any more than a branch from a grape vine comes up with its fruit on its own.

[15:43] It's grapes. It doesn't happen. Only as a branch truly participates in the vine will it produce fruit and the vine produces its fruit from the connected branches.

[15:59] So, this means Jesus is the cause of us being branches. Friends, already Jesus teaches us the doctrine of election. Christ chooses us to be his branches you'll see that in verse 16.

[16:13] And by the way fruit here we have to define fruit. Fruit is not not not the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

[16:26] Don't read that into the text. You're taking what Paul says in Galatians and you're reading that into here in John 15. That's not what this means. It means participating in God's mission through the church Christ's body to this lost world.

[16:41] Or if you want to put it in short as Carson puts it it's new converts. People coming to Christ. That's the fruit that Jesus talks about here in John 15.

[16:52] Not the fruit of the Spirit. Don't read that into the text. And notice he says every branch in me that does not bear fruit for the vine can only produce fruit through the branches.

[17:06] This concept is called a mutual indwelling. and is further portrayed by this imagery of the connection between the vine and the branches.

[17:17] So the question is if a branch is in Christ but is fruitless then it truly is not in the vine. If a branch is in Christ but it's fruitless then it's truly not in the vine.

[17:33] How can a branch be unproductive if it's in the vine? It's not truly in the vine. But notice what Jesus says each one that bears fruit he cleanses it or prunes it.

[17:46] Who is the who here? Who does this? It's the farmer the father. He tends to each of the branches cleansing them pruning them so that they be produced more. He cuts off the dead wood so that the fruit bearing branches will produce more fruit and have more room to grow.

[18:03] So notice here understand though that fruit here is not required for faith fruit is a symptom of true faith.

[18:18] It's not required for faith. It's a symptom of true faith. Or to put it practically speaking Judas was not producing.

[18:31] He was not truly in the vine. The others were. True Christians are fruitful Christians. To not produce fruit means you may not be a real Christian.

[18:49] And notice what Jesus says here about the 11 verse 3 already you're clean. Why? Because the word which I have spoken to you they were already clean. He said this in chapter 13 verse 10 they're truly in union with Jesus because of the word which he spoke to them.

[19:07] His word or message of his identity and mission was made known to them. His words his teaching gave life by means of the spirit as the spirit gives life the flesh profits nothing.

[19:19] Chapter 6 verse 63 of John's gospel. You must be born of the spirit John 3 verse 5. And look at what Jesus says now in verse 4 stay in me or abide in me and I in you.

[19:34] What does it mean to stay? It means to remain to abide. Here's this idea stay is make this your top priority. Make Jesus your top priority.

[19:47] Make Christ your top priority. Make the gospel your top priority. That's what it means to stay. continue to live in me. Notice as the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself if it does not stay in the vine so not you if you do not stay in me.

[20:13] As a branch or disciple makes this their top priority so they the vine Jesus will do that. It's a mutual indwelling between them because there's love. So staying means we find our very existence and meaning in Christ and his provision we're totally dependent upon him.

[20:34] That's what it means to stay. I'm staying because I'm totally dependent upon you. To what degree? Like a branch is connected to the vine.

[20:46] To that degree. He's sufficient. We exist in the grace and love of God and depend upon the grace and love of God.

[21:00] That's why he says as the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself unless it stays in the vine in the same way not us unless we stay in Christ. The vine is the cause of our existence and our productivity.

[21:11] We must stay in him. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself. And then notice he unpacks the illustration again verse 5.

[21:21] I am the vine now you are the branches. The one who stays in me and I stay in him or her. This one bears much fruit. Why? Because without me you can do nothing.

[21:35] There's a mutual indwelling. You stay in me I stay in you. There's a connection here a mutual indwelling that we have the Christ our Savior. Notice verse 6 the negative part.

[21:51] If anyone does not stay in me look at the verbs. He is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and it is burned.

[22:07] Jesus causes the mutual indwelling and he's also the cause of the departing. There's no other option. It's so John. John's so like that's how he is.

[22:20] Is he here or here? You're either on this side or this side. And it's true. It's not just because John wants to be like this. It's true. One either remains or is thrown away and burned.

[22:38] This is what happens to a branch that's not truly connected in a mutual dwelling relationship with the vine with Jesus with the Son. So what happens it's not real. It's fake.

[22:49] It's thrown away. They gather it. They cast it out. It's burned. Face is judgment.

[23:01] Look at what Jesus says in verse 7. if you stay in me and my word stay in you ask whatever you wish whatever you want it'll be done for you.

[23:13] Jesus' identity is exactly tied to his words. So these words of Jesus are lodged in a disciple's heart and mind so that conforming to Jesus and obeying Jesus is what she or he super naturally does.

[23:31] They do it automatically. It's part of who they are. Why? Because they're connected to the vine. They're staying in the vine. So if a disciple stays in Christ which is displayed by Jesus' word staying in that disciple then notice what Jesus says that one has missional authority from Jesus she or he will have help to accomplish God's mission.

[24:01] That's where we get the phrase or the question what's the means to achieve his goal of fruitfulness prayer. It's a prayer based on the mutual indwelling and relationship the branch has with the vine between Jesus and his disciples so that we can ask whatever in his name according to that mission God and God will do it God will save that person God will convert that person according to the mission and the will of Jesus the authority of Jesus the name of Jesus and look at what Jesus says this section stay in the vine verse eight closes this part off by this is my father glorified how is the father glorified how is the farmer the vine dresser glorified how is he honored two ways when the branch or branches branch bears fruit and is

[25:06] Jesus disciple it's production and established as Jesus own glorifies the father because remember there's the question what's the goal of staying in Jesus fruit that's the goal our fruit fruit fruit fruit is the way the son glorifies the father and it's not the only way don't say that this is the only way that no in this text what Jesus says here our fruit fruit is the way the son glorifies the father fruit produced out of our loving obedient union with Christ is how Jesus glorifies his father and establishes we belong to Christ.

[25:55] The New American Standard translated and even ESV, goodness gracious, I looked at every stinking translation and they put prove. It's not even in the text.

[26:06] It's become. It's genomai. It's be my disciple. Or you can put will be my disciple. It's another way possible. But it's become. Be my disciple.

[26:17] You establish you belong to Christ. It's established. It's there. You belong to Him. You follow Him.

[26:30] So this, verses 1 through 8, here's this phrase. It sums it up. Staying in the vine and the sun. Now, point number two, staying is love.

[26:42] The metaphor now is explain. Jesus explains what this vine and the branches, what does it look like specifically, practically.

[26:56] Verse 9. Just as the fathers loved me, I have also loved you. Stay in my love. What's the relationship like between the vine, Christ, and the branch, the disciple?

[27:16] What's it like? Like the father loves the son. That's how much Jesus loves his branches.

[27:28] That's how much Jesus loves his disciple. Christian, that's how much Jesus loves you. We get that love.

[27:45] So we see, to stay in the vine is to stay in his love. And it's like the father loves his son. That's how much Jesus loves his branches.

[27:59] That's how much he loves his disciples. Stay in that love. The father's love for the son is the pattern of Jesus' love for us.

[28:12] This is remarkable. Based on that relationship between the father and the son, stay in this love. The relationship between the father and the son is the paradigm for our relationship with Jesus.

[28:27] Stay in that love. Remain in that love. Abide in that love. The Trinitarian love. It's brought to us by God himself.

[28:41] How do you do it? You may ask. Let's have you say this. So stay in that love. You're supposed to say, how? Go ahead. Go ahead. Say that. Ah, good job. How do you do it?

[28:53] Look at verse 10. If you keep my commands, you will stay in my love. Just as I kept my father's command, and stay in his love.

[29:04] How does a branch or disciple stay in that love? Obey Jesus. What pattern is set for us?

[29:16] As the son kept the father's commands, as the son kept the father's commands, and stayed in his love. What was the command? What? Well, which command did Jesus keep?

[29:29] He went to the cross. His death. I mean, it's the greatest way that the son kept the commands of the father.

[29:40] The greatest way was the cross. I mean, he went to the cross, and it was a cup that he drank. He bore our sin on himself.

[29:53] He faced hell on our stead. To that degree, you obey like that. Wow.

[30:07] To stay in God's love, then, is not some mystical thing. It's not some ecstatic experience. It's not some emotional high.

[30:23] Simple. It's active obedience. Which springs from love being a response to that love from Jesus. I mean, we don't obey to receive Jesus' love.

[30:39] We obey Jesus because we've received God's love in Jesus. That's why we obey. We don't have to obey to receive God's love.

[30:51] No. You've received God's love. That's why you obey. It's the response. And it's this obedience that is enabled by the Spirit enables us to do that, John 14, 16.

[31:04] Patterned by the life of our Savior. Obedience out of love and because of love is our MO. It's our way of life.

[31:15] Because obedience out of love and because of love was Jesus' MO, His way of life. So obedience is a demonstration of the reality of that love, says Carson.

[31:33] Jesus' obedience to the Father is the pattern for our obedience to Jesus. I mean, did Jesus go, oh, man, I'm gonna go to the cross.

[31:45] I don't want to. I don't want to. Did he cry all 33 years? Of course not. It was a struggle though, wasn't it? In the garden? Allow this cup to pass from me, but not what I will, but what you will.

[32:02] To that degree. Look at verse 11. These things I've spoken to you. What things? What he just said. I've spoken to you of two reasons.

[32:16] That Jesus' joy may be in His disciples and us and our joy will be made complete or full. To participate in God involves both love and joy. It's not a burden.

[32:30] It's a blessing. I go to my wife. I say, I love you. Gosh. Because I have to. Oh, she would just be, oh, sweetie, you're so romantic.

[32:45] Right? Of course not. If I go, oh, Chris, I just, I love, she's not here so I can talk about her. Oh, Chris, I just love you. You're just so wonderful. You're such a wonderful wife.

[32:57] You're just amazing. She'd be like, oh, oh. Oh. Milk like Buddha. Right? But there's just joy.

[33:08] I enjoy you. I love you. Why do we think it's different with the Father? Why do we think it's different with Jesus? It's not a burden. It's a blessing. Love finds its source in the love between the Father and the Son and joy is fulfilled given according to the joy between the Father and the Son.

[33:29] Oh, the Father enjoys the Son, doesn't he? This is my Son with whom I'm well pleased. I love my Son. I love Him.

[33:40] I enjoy my Son. The basis for Jesus' joy in the Father is obedience to the Father. and Father, I just enjoy you because I'm going to obey you.

[33:56] Love and joy is found within the Godhead, the Trinitarian God. They love each other and find such great joy in each other and we share in that joy because guess what? God wants us to be happy in Himself.

[34:11] God wants us to be happy in Him. The Son's joy which stems from Him obeying the Father is the basis for our own joy.

[34:26] Joy in this world is shallow, it's temporary, it's incomplete. But man, when God's love in Christ overtakes you, there's true joy.

[34:39] So we obey God's commands experiencing love because of the gospel and joy based upon the gospel. Our obedience in this loving relationship finds its source in love and joy.

[34:51] We enjoy Jesus. Now look at what Jesus does in verse 12. This is my command. I told you about obeying.

[35:03] Obeying my command since I kept the Father's commands. This is my command that you love one another. A primary expression of obeying Jesus' commands is obeying this command.

[35:14] Love one another. How, you may ask, as Christ loved us, as I have loved you. Here's the deal.

[35:26] Christ, excuse me, God's love for us is God's love between us. God's love he has for us is now God's love between us.

[35:40] This, my friends, is true body life. This is what body life truly looks like. This is necessary to our existence and sufficient to maintain our existence.

[35:54] It's the foundation of our life together as Christ's body. This is what it means for us to live together life on life. This is true love and true love for God ensures true love for Christ which ensures true obedience to Christ tested by staying true to his command to love like he loves us.

[36:16] So, love for God then is verified by our love for other believers within the body. I mean, we've been going through this in 1 John, right? We've seen this.

[36:26] We finished up 1 John chapter 4 this past Wednesday. So true. John reiterates this in his first letter. So, because we're united to Christ by his love for us, we are now a new community, a new community of love where we love each other like he loves us.

[36:46] Friends, we exemplify this love to the world. we put this love on display. We show what it's like.

[36:59] What is it like the love between the Father and the Son? What's it like? They should see how we interact with each other. Oh, that's what it's like.

[37:13] Come join us. Look at what Jesus says in verse 13. He brings it out even more. Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends.

[37:26] He described this kind of love he had for them. He laid down his life for his friends. We once were his enemies, but now by God's own choosing, remember he caused it, we became friends.

[37:37] Friends of God. Christian love proceeds from recognizing that God showed his love by giving himself in the death of Christ. God is so full of generosity.

[37:51] His love reached its apex. It expressed itself at an apex. The climax of God's love is the death of Christ at the cross. If you're here, you don't know Christ, you haven't responded to Jesus, you should come and trust Christ and he'll save you, he'll forgive you, he'll show you mercy.

[38:11] That is the display of God's love. He lays down his life for sinners. Come, he'll save you. Look what Jesus says in verse 14.

[38:24] You are my friends. Define an evidence by their obedience if you do what I command, which is love. We show our love by obeying which displays this relationship with Jesus.

[38:38] The character of Jesus' friends is obedience because of his great love for us. That's why we obey. We obey from love. Not of drudgery. Those who are Jesus' friends, disciples, reciprocate by giving ourselves to God through love and obedience.

[38:56] We love, we obey because we're friends. He calls us friends. Look, he defines that even more in verse 15. No longer do I call you slaves.

[39:07] Slaves do what they're told. No, we have a unique relationship, friendship between us and God. Obedience is a trait of slaves.

[39:18] They do what they're told. But notice, he says, for the slave does not know what his Lord does. They just obey not knowing their Lord or his plans.

[39:32] We obey because we are loved. No, I've called you friends. friends. Why? For all things I've heard from my Father I've made known to you.

[39:44] Oh, we know God. We know the purposes of God. We know the plans of our Lord. We know the plans of our Master. We know our Lord intimately, relationally. We know his thinking and his heart and we enjoy his confidence.

[39:56] Jesus made himself known to us. All things you heard from his Father about his identity and mission, it's personal, it's gracious, it's love. That's what he gives to us. That's why we obey.

[40:09] It's like we can't get enough of it. And just to make sure, just to make sure it's clear that Jesus or God caused this relationship, you didn't cause it.

[40:22] And just to make sure that you're privy to knowing Jesus, not because you are better, not because you're wiser, not because you're smarter, look at verse 16. You did not choose me, I chose you.

[40:35] You cannot get any clearer than that, folks. This is the doctrine of election. You don't choose God, he chooses you.

[40:47] Jesus chooses, and notice, it goes farther. I chose you and appointed you for what purpose? in order that you go and bear fruit and fruit may remain, may stay.

[41:03] Same verb. Again, fruit means mission or in short, new converts. So the, here's the purpose of election. The purpose of election is so that we would go win others to Christ.

[41:16] Christ. The purpose of election is that you go win others to Christ who are also elect. It's not so that you can sit there and be like, oh, I'm part of the elect.

[41:31] That's what Israel did. That's why they failed. The purpose of election is that you go and win converts, produce fruits, give people the gospel.

[41:46] That's the purpose of us going. Fruit bearing and fruit remaining, that's what the purpose is. Oh, wait a minute, what is the purpose of going and the fruit bearing and the fruit remaining?

[41:58] Look at what he says in the next part of verse 16. In order that, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you. The purpose of going, of fruit bearing and fruit remaining, is that we may ask whatever in Jesus' name in reference to God's mission and when we do, the Father will give it to us.

[42:19] The means to accomplish the mission, friends, pray. Pray. Pray. That's the means. You ask the Father.

[42:30] Father, we need you to do this. We depend upon you. We must do this through you. Only you can save sinners. We can't do this. We give them the message, but only you can save them.

[42:40] We depend upon you. Pray. That's the means. That's what that means. Friends, when you read this part, verse 16, and he brings it up earlier, what, in verse, I can't see it.

[42:56] Anyways, when he brings this up, it has nothing to do with asking for some type of healing in your body. This has nothing to do with good health. This has nothing to do with asking for a better job.

[43:08] This has nothing to do with helping a relationship like your marriage or your friendship or anything like that. It has nothing to do with that. You're reading that into the text. It has to do with God's mission of spreading the truth of Jesus to the world.

[43:21] That's what it has to do with. That's the asking. That's what, when he says, whatever you ask, I will do it and the Father may give it to you. That's what he's talking about. When Jesus chooses us to bear fruit, that fruit will remain because it's built upon the relationship between the Father and the disciples through Christ and the Spirit is by the Spirit.

[43:40] That's why. So we can ask, in the name of Jesus, anything according to Jesus, will for the purpose of this mission that we've been given from God.

[43:52] We're confident of that. And then look at, he ends here, verse 17, with this command as a way to show we belong to and participate in the vine that we are staying in his love.

[44:04] Verse 17, this I command you, that you love one another. We love as Christ loved us because as we're going out on mission, the world needs to see what that love is like.

[44:16] What is that love like? When the church body is loving each other the way we should. That's what it should look like. So, sum up.

[44:31] We are a new Christ-loved love-focused community built on the love and joy that is between the Father and the Son.

[44:42] We have an outward focus of bearing fruit so that the Father's glorified. That's what this has to do with. That's what it means to stay in Christ. Another way to put it, we stay in the vine to bear the fruit of God's mission given to us which is to spread his message of love to this world.

[45:00] What guarantees a success to this mission is our love for each other because we exemplify that love of God towards each other. We display it in our attitudes and our interactions with each other as a body or at least we should.

[45:16] The way to stay in the vine is to stay in his love. The way we stay in his love is obeying his commands. His first command is to love. And what a great display of that in the Lord's Supper.

[45:29] I didn't even purposely do that. It's kind of neat where I should get to drink. It's not wine though. It's only grape juice. But still the idea is this represents the blood of Christ for us.

[45:49] Represents him giving his body on our behalf. And this is what binds us together. It's why we take it together. We just don't go and take it and then you go do your own thing. That defeats the purpose.

[46:01] We take it together because we're one. We're one body. We're the display of his grace. We're the display of his love. And so we remember the gospel through the elements.

[46:14] Remember we've been forgiven. Me individually and us corporately have been forgiven. And it's a continue to challenge us in staying in Christ and displaying that love that I have for Christ and our love for each other.

[46:29] Which is why if you're here and you have someone something against someone else Christian or non-Christian but especially Christian that's why you shouldn't partake of the elements. Why?

[46:41] Because Christ has shown you love he's reconciled with you but you can't reconcile with somebody else. That's why our Lord says no first you go reconcile with that person then come and partake of the elements.

[46:57] But again it's for those of you who like faith and practice our preference caught with Bible you've been baptized by immersion. Come if you're a church of like faith and practice join us to remember what our Lord has done and to remember the call to love him to stay in the vine and that we would display that love to each other by the Spirit.

[47:18] Let's pray for that. Father we take this moment to thank you for your love and to thank you for the joy that you give to us in our salvation in this love salvific love may we remember this love may we remember your grace as we remember as we remember your love and as we remember your grace may it bind us together as a church as a body and that we will display the same love to each other our world needs this our world is so full of hatred despising each other our world needs this so may we be a display of this we remember who you are

[48:28] Jesus your identity we remember what you've done your mission dying for us and I encourage you to take these few moments examining your heart preaching the gospel to yourself reflecting the truth of the gospel maybe you want to reflect on this passage stay in the vine Jesus help me to stay in you remain in you to keep your commands out of love for you take these few moments less than a minute and James she begins to play softly take these few moments between you and the Lord preparing your heart as we partake the Lord's Supper together do that now please Jo became downpest forward on he thats

[49:50] I all