We have a seat and let's pray together, shall we?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are today.
And we still ourselves now as we come to your word.
And we pray that you would teach us as we listen to your voice.
Father, thank you that you are good all the time.
Father, thank you that you are the God who has so outrageously loved us.
And we know that you hear our prayer because we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, it's great to see you this morning.
And I'm glad to see that you survived Storm Alley.
Storm Alley wasn't quite the beast from the east, was it?
But she still packed, or he, I don't know, it could be either with Alley, couldn't it?
Still packed a fair punch.
And I was walking to drop the girls off at nursery on Thursday.
And I dropped them off and I was walking home.
And on the walk home, via a park, I noticed that Storm Alley had actually caused a lot of chaos in this park.
So all I could see everywhere in this park was dirt, was leaves, and was a little bit of branches everywhere in this park.
And so you'll forgive me for this, okay?
I had John 15 in my head all week and it was Thursday.
So what I did is I walked over and I picked up one of the branches, okay?
So here's my branch that I found that had come off the tree.
And if you look at it, you can see it.
It's got some little grapes there that are kind of dying out.
We've got some leaves here.
We've got some little buds as well that are part of this branch.
It's a good-looking branch, isn't it?
But the thing is, this branch, its best days are probably behind it.
And so my question to you this morning is, we'll put it on the screen,
is what would it take to get that branch bearing fruit again?
I guess we've got a few options, haven't we?
We could kind of pick up some grapes and kind of tape the grapes to it.
Or we could find some of these leaves, couldn't we?
And we could kind of staple the leaves to it.
Or, my favorite, we could kind of stick it in the ground
and we could cheer it on from the side.
Go on, branchy, you can do it.
Friend, what would it take to get this branch bearing fruit again?
You see, as Jesus, as he speaks to his disciples in John 15,
he wants them to think like that.
As they consider their lives with him,
he wants them to know that they need him.
That's why we chose that last song,
Lord, we need you.
We need you.
Every hour, we need you.
Remember where we are in John's Gospel.
Here we are, John 15.
Jesus has just said to his disciples that he's leaving.
Remember, this is the evening before Good Friday.
And Jesus has just told his disciples that his hour to go has come.
And he is willingly going to go to the cross
with the place where he will go to offer his life as a sacrifice for the sins of his people.
The place where he goes to bear the punishment that they deserve before a holy God
because of their rebellion against him.
And the place where he goes to reconcile them to God.
And the place where he goes to prepare a place for them in his father's house.
All the while telling them that one day he's going to return and he's going to take them to be with himself.
Now this is what I did this week when I was reading this.
Just pause to consider all of that bit of information.
I wonder if anyone has ever asked you that question.
If you found out that you had 24 hours to live,
what are the things that you would fill those 24 hours with?
Has anyone ever asked you that question?
Remember there was a Simpsons episode about that years ago.
What would you do if you only had 24 hours to live?
If you knew that.
You get the usual answers, don't you?
You get kind of skydiving or swimming with dolphins
or spending time with loved ones and family
or an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland or something like that.
What would you do if you found out you had 24 hours to live?
Here is Jesus with less than that to live.
And what is he doing?
Is he thinking of himself?
No, he is serving his people.
Isn't that incredible?
He is serving his people.
He is lovingly assuring them.
He is graciously preparing them for what life is going to be like
when he is not physically there anymore.
And right at the heart of this, you see in verse 5,
is his message to them, really simply.
You are the branches.
And I am the true vine.
You have a great need of me.
You have a great need of Christ.
But you have a great Christ for your need.
That's what he's saying.
Remain in me.
Abide in me.
And the thing for us to understand at this point
is that Jesus hasn't just delved into his imagination
and thought, I need a really good metaphor
to enable me to connect my disciples
and for them to understand what I'm saying.
I know what will work.
Horticulture.
He's deliberately picked this image.
You see, the vine is an image
which is loaded with Old Testament significance.
All the way through the Old Testament story,
we're told that Israel are God's chosen vine.
Now, perhaps you picked it up
as Neil read to us those words from Isaiah chapter 5.
Israel were God's people.
They were the people that he had chosen for himself.
They were the people that he had rescued,
that he had taken,
and who he had planted in their own land.
With the idea that as they lived
in loving relationship with him,
as they radically obeyed him,
as they were different from the watching world,
that the watching world would look in
and see everything that's going on
and think to themselves,
isn't Israel's God wonderful?
And through Israel,
God would do what he said he would do through Abraham.
He would bless the nations.
This is what he was going to do.
But Isaiah, more often than not,
we find when he speaks about Israel
and the other Old Testament prophets
that they do as well,
they speak about Israel being the vine,
and it's a negative thing.
Okay?
It's a negative thing.
God looks for good fruit.
What does he find?
He finds bad fruit.
Israel, instead of being marked by fruitfulness,
are marked by fruitlessness.
And because of that,
they deserve God's judgment
for the rebellion against him.
Israel meant to be God's true vine,
but he looks for good fruit,
he finds bad fruit.
And that's the backdrop that Jesus comes with
into John 15,
and he declares to his disciples,
I am the true vine.
Do you see it?
In other words,
he is being everything that Israel failed to be.
Unlike Israel,
the fruit of his life,
the one of his God-glorifying obedience,
the fruit is going to be love,
righteousness,
and faithfulness.
And if his disciples are going to bear any fruit in their lives,
they need to be found in him.
He is the true vine.
And so as Jesus prepares his disciples for life in his absence,
he wants them to know that he is this true vine,
and they are the branches.
And what Jesus wants them to do,
I don't think we can miss.
It's already been a lot.
I love it when people give your sermons away
before you even stood up.
It's great.
Don't need to do any work.
You can't miss what he's saying,
can you,
in these verses?
You can't miss it.
He says it 10 times in these 11 verses.
Remain.
Or, Maggie,
I assume you're reading from the ESV.
It says,
Abide.
Abide in me.
10 times in these 11 verses.
Now,
from this point on,
okay,
because I realize we're living in a Brexit-filled world,
we'll talk about abiding rather than remaining.
Okay?
So just so you're not sitting there thinking,
I told you Jesus was all about remaining.
Okay?
He wants them to abide in him.
So everybody hold up 10,
10 fingers,
two hands,
okay?
This is what he's doing here.
You can't miss it.
Count with me.
Okay?
Abide.
Say it.
Okay?
Abide.
You can't miss what he's saying.
Sounds like some kind of French verb test,
doesn't it?
You can't miss what he's saying.
He wants his disciples to abide in him.
That's what he wants them to do.
Now think about it logically.
Jesus, what has he done?
He's drawn his people to himself.
Right?
They didn't choose him.
He chose them.
He's drawn them to himself.
He's paid for their sin on the cross.
He's made them clean.
He's taken away the barrier to God that existed because of the rebellion against him.
And he's made a way for them to be adopted as sons and daughters of the living God.
And he's given them his spirit.
And every believer is united to Jesus.
That's our identity.
It's the one that the New Testament says all the time.
In Christ.
That is the believer's identity.
In Christ.
He has made us his own.
He is ours and we are his.
This is what he's done.
He's made us his own.
And so Jesus says, stemming from that union with him,
every day live in a fruitful and joyous communion with me.
And I've been walking with Jesus for something like 16 years.
And I know that many of you have been walking with him way longer than that.
Probably way longer than I've even been alive.
And I've read these verses of John 15 countless times before.
And every time I read them,
I'm struck by both the beautiful simplicity of what Jesus says here.
And also how these words are wonderfully profound.
This is the Christian life, is it not?
What Jesus says here.
And invite you afresh to let these words from John 15,
as God would speak through his word as we hear his voice,
let these words impact you afresh.
Because some of us here, I know, may have grown cold spiritually.
Okay, we've just stopped thinking.
We've just stopped in our affections for the Lord Jesus.
Some of us will be here and we've drifted spiritually.
Jesus used to be a massive deal,
but as life has gone on, he's just going to move to the periphery.
Some of us may have settled spiritually.
Some of us may be nowhere spiritually.
And everything probably in between those four.
But friends, I hope that as we look at this passage together now,
as we look at the claims that Jesus makes about himself,
and as we think about the claims that Jesus would make about all those who would follow after him,
that we would be struck once again by how beautiful he is,
but also how much we need him.
So let these words impact you afresh from John 15 this morning.
It was Puritan Andrew Murray who famously said,
A soul that is filled with large thoughts of the vine will be a very strong branch.
And all I want us to do this morning and the time we have remaining
is just to walk through these 11 verses together.
There's so much in here, so can I encourage you to go home after this and read these for yourself?
Go to your small group this week, having read them, and bring fresh thoughts.
We don't have time to cover everything this morning,
but we're going to make a few pit stops as we walk through these 11 verses this morning.
But here's the question that I want us to really get to grips with today.
What does it mean to abide with Jesus?
What does it mean, rather, to abide in Jesus?
Because I think as we walk through these three verses this morning,
I think we kind of can categorize them under three headings.
Okay, here's the first one.
Abiding means knowing.
Look at verse 1.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
So you see that Jesus doesn't want his disciples simply to know his identity.
He wants his disciples to know the identity of his Father as well,
because his Father is intimately involved and committed to the lives of his people.
And who is the Father?
What does he say?
He is the gardener.
If you have an ESV, he is the vine dresser.
And he does two things.
Verse 2.
Firstly, he takes away fruitless branches.
As a loving gardener, he will see to it that the branches who are not living will be cut away
and thrown into the fire and burned.
See, it's a great warning in these verses as well, isn't it,
when we think about what it means to remain in Jesus, abide in Jesus.
Because John's gospel is full of followers of Jesus who would start off keen,
who would appear to be following him, but as time goes on,
and as they come to terms with the cost of what it means to follow Jesus, they turn away.
Of course, in the immediate context of John 15, who's just left the building?
Judas.
And I assume that as the days go on, as the disciples live their lives when Jesus isn't here,
and they watch many people claim to follow him,
but decide after a while that it's not worth it anymore,
I assume these words are meant to give them great confidence,
because they shouldn't panic, because what is going on there is the Father being the vine dresser,
that they can leave it with him.
He's the Father.
He's the good vine dresser who cuts away,
and secondly, he is the vine dresser who prunes branches that are producing fruit,
so that they will produce more fruit.
So good is God this vine dresser,
so committed is he to his people,
and so sovereign is he over all things,
that he will use every means possible
to achieve the goal for those who are abiding in Christ
of pruning them,
so that they will produce more fruit for the glory of God.
Now, I don't know how you react when you hear that word pruning,
but as I study John 15 this week,
again, it reminded me of how painful a word that is.
And it's often painful, isn't it,
when it happens in our Christian lives,
when God exposes my faults,
when God questions my desires,
as God puts his finger on things in my heart,
the thorns that need to go.
It's painful.
But it makes all the difference in the world
that as I seek to follow him,
as I seek to abide in Jesus,
that I know that the vine dresser
is my loving Heavenly Father,
and he wants me to be pruned
so that I can bear fruit in my life
for his glory as I'm transformed more
into the image of Jesus Christ.
There's a godly American woman called Joni Erikson-Tada.
Some of you may have heard of her.
At 17 years old,
she was involved in a tragic diving accident
that left her a quadriplegic.
She was consigned to life in a wheelchair,
and she's consigned to not being able to use her hands
for the rest of her life.
And someone once asked her
what she says to God
each time she wakes up every morning.
I imagine you might be thinking two things.
Is she going to say,
I hate you, God?
Or is she going to say something else?
Here's what she said.
She responded to that question.
My weakness, that is my quadriplegia,
is my greatest asset
because it forces me to run into the arms of Christ
every single time I get up in the morning.
I hate you, God.
No, no, no.
I need you, God.
You know, in John 15,
I wonder if in the hours to come
whether that will be Peter's experience.
Is he painfully comes to terms
with his own failings
as he denies Jesus three times.
And remember,
at the end of John's Gospel,
we get this wonderful scene
as Jesus reinstates him,
restores him,
teaching him,
Peter, don't rely on your own strength.
Don't look to your own understanding
to figure life out.
Look to me.
Come to me.
Because that's the sting
at the end of verse 5, isn't it?
It's the warning.
Without him,
we can do nothing.
It's a love and warning
about the complacency
that can so easily creep
into our Christian lives.
That is,
we run around prayerlessly
trying to accomplish things,
even religious things,
you know,
doing job after job,
running from person to person,
running from meeting to meeting,
trusting in our own skills
and abilities,
all the while failing
to abide in Jesus' words.
Friends,
we need the comfort
that we are Jesus's
and he will never let us go.
And we need the warning here
that without him,
we can do nothing.
We need both.
There's someone that once asked
Charles Spurgeon,
famous Baptist preacher,
how he dealt with the trials
and hardships that came his way
in the Christian life.
And he famously replied,
I have learned to kiss the wave
that throws me back
against the rock of ages.
Friends,
abiding for us will mean knowing.
And secondly,
abiding will mean doing.
Look at what he says
to his disciples at verse 7.
If you wish,
and it will be done for you.
Again,
he asks them to do two things.
Firstly,
to abide in his words.
As they abide in him
and as Jesus's words
abide in them,
this is how they will abide in him.
This is what he's saying.
So Jesus wants them
to build their lives
upon his words
and to allow his words
by his spirit
to shape how they live,
to inform how they think
and to guide how they act.
So in his absence,
it's by living in
and by living by his words
that his disciples
will abide in him.
See,
later on at verse 10,
Jesus says,
if you keep my commands,
you will remain in my love
just as I have kept
my father's commands
and remain in his love.
So do you see
what Jesus is calling for here
from his disciples
is nothing other than
an all-out radical obedience
and a joyous commitment
to his word.
And of course,
that's going to be
the primary means
by which the father
shapes and prunes
his children.
As his word does
its shaping and moulding
and convicting work
in our hearts.
Jesus says,
abide in my words.
Friends,
I think we need to ask ourselves
this morning,
as followers of this man,
what are we doing
and are we
abiding in his words?
You know,
Sunday night
in the Shanks household
is omelette night.
Okay?
I take a turn
at the cooking,
light cooking omelettes.
If I'm honest,
it's because it's easy
and it's quick.
Okay?
It doesn't taste great
but we just do omelettes
in the Shanks household.
I remember the first time
I ever tried it.
I remember Alex sitting there
and she's screwing up her face
and it's a lovely bit of shell.
Okay?
A lovely bit of shell.
Contrast my cooking
to Alex's cooking.
The best meals
that she makes
are the ones
that she makes
in the slow cooker.
She makes a big batch of it
and we normally have it,
puts it,
it cuts up the meat,
marinates it,
puts it in the slow cooker.
In the morning,
we have it in the evening.
She normally makes enough of it
that it can last two or three days.
First night when we have it,
it's brilliant.
Second night that we have it,
the day after,
it is incredible.
See the third night
that we have it,
it blows your mind.
Do you know why?
Marination.
This is what happened.
The flavor
has gone from just being
on the meat
to being in the meat.
The flavor
has permeated
and has transformed
everything about the meat.
Now,
I don't know
what you think of
as you think about Jesus
as he says,
abide in my words,
but it seems to me
that what he's saying here
is a lot more slow cooker
than it is Omelette.
Right?
Abiding in his words.
And it challenges me
and it's convicted me
this week
that how often
that I just settle
for Omelette.
Friends,
are you abiding
in his words?
You're abiding
in his words.
It was John Bunyan,
the man who wrote
Pilgrim's Progress,
whose peers used to tease him
that every time
you would cut him open,
every time you would cut him,
he would bleed Bible.
Incredible thing to say.
Imagine if somebody,
wouldn't it be lovely
if somebody joked
and teased you about that?
That there was a man
who bled Bible.
Friends,
are you abiding
in his words?
The second thing
at verse 7
he asks them to do
is ask.
Can I go back one?
Is that right?
Is to ask.
Is to pray.
That as Jesus' words
abides in us
and as it shapes us
and it hones our desires,
our hearts should be
more and more conformed
and in harmony
with his desires.
And it's with that attitude
and possessing that heart
that Jesus invites
his disciples
to ask their Heavenly Father
to pray to him.
This is a wonderful invitation.
And to come before
this loving Heavenly Father
with confidence
that he hears
because you make your prayers
through the name
of Jesus Christ.
I don't know about you,
but I want God's desires.
I want God's word
to shape my prayers.
Now what I've found
has really helped me recently
and I give it to you
this morning
is to use scripture
to base your prayer life on.
Now Paul's letters
for example
are full of prayers.
Great exercise
to do this week.
Maybe take one of them
that you find
in Ephesians
or Colossians
or Philippians
or something like that.
Take it
and use it
to order
and structure
your prayers.
Tim Keller
in his great book
in prayer says
our prayers should arise
out of an immersion
in scripture.
The wedding
of the Bible
and prayer
it anchors your life
down in the real God.
Jesus invites
his disciples
to dedicate themselves
to abiding
in his word
and he asks them
to commit themselves
to seeking the Father
in prayer.
Read your Bible
and pray every day.
Someone should write
a kid's song
about that.
That's what he's saying here.
And thirdly
abiding means bearing.
See it?
Verse 8
This is to my Father's glory
that you bear much fruit
showing yourselves
to be my disciples.
See the goal
of the Christian life
God's ambition
for our lives
and our hearts
is that we would know him
and that from
that glorious relationship
we would bear more fruit
so that through us
God's name
would be glorified
in the sight
of the world.
Friends,
Andrew said
that is what
always encourages me
most as your pastor
to see some of you
grow.
Now it never looks
spectacular does it?
Never looks spectacular
in your life
but I hear some of you
talk about how
you're telling your friends
about Jesus
and two years ago
that's something
you could never have
thought about doing.
That I see some of you
loving somebody
in a quite selfless way
and I know that
wouldn't have happened
two, three years ago.
I see some of you
growing.
And this is what
he's talking about here.
When your whole life
becomes worship
your whole life
becomes bearing fruit
for the glory of God
and as the world
looks in
and as it sees
the fruit in our lives
fruit that's only
explainable because
of the life-giving sap
that is running
through the vine
to the branches
that the world
looks in and exclaims
I don't get that.
Isn't there God
great?
Because I think
that is the thrust
of the fruit here
that Jesus is talking about
I think that's what
it's supposed to lead to.
That as his disciples
abide in him
as his disciples
just in the verses
after this
as they radically
love one another
and as they bear fruit
the world will see
this radically
counter-cultural
community in action
and they will sit up
and take notice
about how glorious
this God is.
You know I've got
a friend called Nick
I studied with him
last year
and Nick goes to
Govan Free Church
over in Glasgow
if you've never
been to Govan
let's just say
it's a little bit
different from Brunsfield
okay?
A little bit different
and Nick was telling me
recently when I was
speaking to him
about a guy
who's been coming
along to his church
who's called Robert
and Nick described
to me how Robert
in his former life
was a very dangerous guy
and Nick is bald head
35
he looks mental
okay?
If he's saying
Robert is a dangerous guy
I'm going with
he's a dangerous guy
but he told me
how Robert
from a life of drugs
and gangs
had become a Christian
and Nick said
that as he looked
into that man's life
the transformation
was absolutely
and I quote
breathtaking
and if you want to
check it out after this
Robert's testimony
is on the Free Church
website at the minute
let me just read you
just a snippet of it
as we work towards
a close this morning
and particularly listen
for how he describes
the Christian community
that he came in touch
with okay?
He says this
as I attended
lots of recovery groups
in Glasgow
I heard about
the Free Church
work in Govan
there's a lot of respect
for what is happening
through this fellowship
and right away
I felt as if
I had come home
up until six months ago
I had been addicted
to street and prescription drugs
as well as alcohol
for a period of 30 years
30 years
but now I'm free
and I'm working hard
at building new godly habits
into my daily life
given the epidemic
of drug abuse
in our scheme
I see that my own background
actually helps a wee bit
in getting alongside others
who are enslaved
to using like I was
Govan Free Church
is like a family to me
and it is a community
I have come to love
and one that I see
God is working through
and a wonderful story
a testimony
and a wonderful example
of the attractive fruit
that Christ produces
through his people
as they abide
in his word
this is to my father's glory
that you bear
much fruit
showing yourselves
to be my disciples
abiding means bearing
now as we close friends
I know our time is gone
let me take you back
to my branch
okay
here's the branch
not going to take some grapes
not going to staple some leaves
not going to jab them
in the dirt
okay
how is he going to grow
how is it going to bear fruit again
the only hope for this branch
is it gets connected
and receives the life giving sap
from the vine
and Jesus says to his followers
this morning
abide in me
if you are going to produce fruit
God glorifying eternal fruit
in your lives
then it's only going to be
by abiding in me
that that's going to happen
friends I wonder what that's going to look like
for us in our own lives
this morning
so before we finish
and before the busyness
of the rest of the day
and the rest of the week
kicks in
let's just be still
for a moment
and let's pause to reflect
and absorb
everything that God
has been saying to us
in his word this morning
let me just put the verses
up in the screens
Jesus says
I am the vine
you are the branches
if you remain in me
and I in you
you will bear
much fruit
apart from me
you can do
nothing
let's be still
for just a minute
our heavenly father
so often we find
abiding to be so difficult
and so it's my prayer
for us this morning
as you are people
that you would
help us to abide
in the words
of Jesus
and I pray
that this week
in every situation
that you would
help us
know you
and that through us
you would do
your work
in our hearts
and bear fruits
for the glory
of your name
in this nation
father thank you
that this is only
a possibility
because you first
loved us
so we pray
and ask today
that Jesus
would become
even greater
as the days go on
in our sight
in his name we pray
amen