The Promise and Blessings of Abiding in Christ: John 15:1-11

Amen.

Amen.

Thus far we have worshiped through song and we have worshiped through the scriptures.

We have worshiped through offering our prayers and our tithes unto the Lord.

Now let's continue worship as we sit before the Word of God.

And we ask God to speak to us and minister to each of our hearts.

He knows each of our conditions.

He knows the state of each of our hearts.

And we ask this morning that the Spirit of God would go up and down the roads and speak to our hearts.

Scripture reading this morning, if you have your Bibles or your bulletins, you can follow along as found in the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John, chapter 15, and we'll be reading verses 1 through 11 of the Gospel of John.

John 15 · chapter mention

John chapter 15, verses 1 through 11.

John 15:1–11

And it reads as follows: I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the words that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you, as as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, and you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Let us pray.

Father, I am I am reminded of the words of an old hymn.

We need to hear from you.

We need a word from you.

If we don't hear from you, what will we do?

Lord, we don't need to hear from me this morning.

We don't need to hear on opinions or opinions of man.

We need to hear from you.

We ask this morning that you would be here in our midst and that your spirit would speak to us today.

There's someone who needs encouragement.

There's someone who needs to be challenged.

There's someone that needs conviction.

There's someone that needs faith and salvation.

Lord, would you speak?

Would you speak this morning?

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Today we are introduced our promise for the month.

Each month here at APC, our theme for the year is praying in and living out the promises of God.

And each month we take a verse, we take a promise, and that promise is designed for us to think on it, you know, chew on it, meditate on it, memorize it.

Let the Spirit of God do a work in our hearts so that as we think on these promises, then we begin to live out what God has promised in His Word.

And so this morning, our promise is found in verse 5 of this text.

It says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing.

So the promise that we're focusing on this morning is the promise of bearing fruit.

God wants Christians, He wants a church, He wants the body that is a fruitful body that is producing fruit.

And there's a promise here that if we abide in Him, He says, You're gonna bear a whole lot of fruit.

So we want to take a closer look at this and see what's here.

But this is an amazing promise.

But we also need to understand that there's a whole lot more in this text that as we unfold it, it will just, it's just, it's it's like treasures awaiting us.

Let me give you some background to these chapters in the Gospel of John.

John 15 · chapter mention

Chapter 15 of the Gospel of John fits in what they call the upper room discourse.

Jesus is always away from his death.

The hour has come.

It's time for him to drink the cup.

And he's preparing his men for what's about to happen.

They, they're, they're I think there's a spinning at this time.

They're hearing Jesus talking about his death, he's going to die, and and and they can't quite put it all together, but he's preparing them because he knows that that he's going to the cross and and they're going to flee, and he knows that he's going to come again and he's going to go to the Father.

And so he wants to prepare the men.

He wants to prepare them for the work that he has for them to do.

So chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 are that upper room discourse.

Chapter 13, he basically tells them, he says, Look, I want you to understand how you how you are to live, how how the servants of Christ how to operate.

You operate on your knees.

It's because you're apostles.

That don't mean you you wear these fancy suits and and have these fancy hats and folks do what you want them to do.

No, you you take a towel on and you you serve.

Chapter 14 and chapter 16, he says, Look, as I'm gone, I'm not gonna leave you comfortless.

I'm going to prepare a place for you, but but but I'm going to send the Spirit.

I'm going to, and he's going to be, I'm going to be mediated through his presence in your life.

I'm not leaving you comfortless.

And I'm not leaving you powerless.

I'm going to give you all that you need to do the work.

Chapter 17, he prays.

And he prays an incredible prayer.

He prays for you and I in that chapter.

He prays that the Father would keep the disciples and the apostles, but he also prays for those that would believe on his word.

And then chapter 15, as we are, you can hear in chapter 15.

He wants them to know, okay, well, how are you, how are you going to be fruitful?

How are you going to accomplish the things that I have given you to accomplish?

How is it going to be worked out in your life?

Where's the power going to come from?

Where's the where's the ability going to come from?

How are you going to carry out the things that I have called you to do?

So he wants to tell them how they're going to be fruitful in the ministry and the things that he gives them to do.

And this is an important thing.

This is, we all want to be fruitful.

I don't think anybody wants to be unfruitful in their life and in their service for the Lord.

We all want to do and to have success in our serving God.

We want fruit in our ministries and in our lives.

And so he gives them the way in which that is going to be accomplished.

That's also interesting and important for us here at APC because we're in vision 2026.

And in vision 2026, we're talking about using our time, our talents, and our gifts for the kingdom of God.

And we want to be fruitful.

How is it that we as a church are going to produce meaningful, good, and abundant fruit?

How are the deacons and the deacons' ministry and the elders and the things that God has given them to do, and the musicians and all the various different ministries?

How are our families going to be fruitful families?

I want to be a fruitful husband.

I want to be a fruitful wife.

We want fruitful children.

How are you going to accomplish and be fruitful?

And Jesus gives them the way that that is going to be achieved and accomplished.

Look at verse 15.

He begins by declaring verse 1 of chapter 15: I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit that it branch that he that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

So he starts out, he says, Look, I'm the true vine.

And you say, Well, what's all that about?

This is one of the last I am statements in the Gospel of John, all throughout the Gospel of John.

Jesus, John is pointing out way, places where Jesus said, I am, and he was pointing back to Old Testament imagery and old testament figures, and he was saying that what you saw back then, I am the fulfillment of those things.

For an example, when when Moses was before the burning bush, and he asked God, he says, Okay, when I go down to Egypt, what am I going to tell them?

How am I going to explain to them who sent me?

He says, Tell them I am has sent you.

And then Jesus, when he's talking to the Pharisees, he says, Before Abraham was, I am.

And the Pharisees understand what he's saying there.

They're looking.

So he's making the connection that I was there when Moses was talking to the bush.

I am the I am.

He feeds the feeds them in the wilderness of the food and the manner that comes down from heaven, and the people are fed.

And there's another incidence where Jesus in the Gospels, he feeds 5,000 and he says, I am the bread of life.

They ate the bread in the wilderness, and they will eat and they'll be hungry again, but if you eat of me, you'll never hunger.

He says, I am.

And here's the last one.

He says, I am the true vine.

Why did he say that he was the true vine?

Because there was a picture in the Old Testament that the nation of Israel, they were to be the vine.

God had planted them in the land, and they were to be a fruitful vine.

They were to be a vine that brought forth fruit.

Listen to this passage of scripture.

Isaiah chapter 5, verses 1 through 4.

Isaiah 5:1–4

And he says this.

He says, Let me sing a song of my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard.

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruit fruit fertile hill.

He dug it and he cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines.

He built a watchtower in the midst of it.

He hewned out a wine bat in it.

He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

And I will have, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?

When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

Israel was supposed to be the true vine.

They were supposed to be a vine that when God planted them in the land of Canaan, that they were to be a witness, they were to be an example, they were to be a testimony to the nations, that the nations were to see the God of Israel, and they were to be drawn to them, and they were to be drawn to God.

But but all Israel did when they got in the land is that they acted worse than the folks that were there.

Where God had called up kings that were to be true and righteous kings, he had called up prophets that were to be true and righteous prophets, and none of them carried out and did all that God had commanded.

They failed.

And really, that is the story of you and I.

In the story of the gospel is that God, all throughout the scriptures, man fails over and over and over and over to do and to be what God has called him to do and to be.

And what God does in his grace and his mercy, he says, what you cannot do and what you have failed to do, I will do for you.

I can do something, God.

You can do nothing.

And so Jesus says, look, they were to be the real vine and they were to be the source of life, but they have failed.

But I'm the true vine.

I'm the one that when you get hooked into me, life comes.

I'm the one that when you're tied into me, power comes.

I'm the one that when you're tied into me, transformation and change comes.

Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

You see, the the first thing we have to understand about this promise is that that you can't experience this promise if you ain't connected into the vine.

You can't experience fruit if you're not connected into Jesus.

Jesus did not save us to set you and I loose to do our own thing.

You don't have the power, you don't have the ability, you don't have the skill, you don't have anything that is necessary to carry out what God would have us to do.

You've got to be plugged in to Jesus.

Because he's the true vine.

And so the first thing we need to understand is that God, Christ, is our source of strength.

Christ is the one who gets you up in the morning.

You woke up this morning because Jesus woke you up.

You didn't wake up because you're healthy.

Jesus tapped you on your shoulder.

You're thinking this morning because God makes all that stuff in our heads fire.

And you're thinking clearly.

And so he says, I am the true vine.

And so if there's going to be any strength, if there's going to be any power, if there's going to be any fruitfulness in our lives, is only coming because we are connected in to Jesus Christ.

You would have thought that he would have, especially when he's talking about changing the world, that he would have come up with, you know, you got to go to school, I want your education, I want you to, you know, you know, you all these various different things to be able to be successful.

That's not what he said.

He said, if you want to find fruitfulness in your life, if you want to find fruitfulness in your marriage, if you want to find fruitfulness with your families, you need to be in me.

In him.

That's one thing I like about Jesus.

I mean, it's it's deep, but it ain't complicated.

It's ain't complicated.

You don't need a college education to figure this out.

In him.

In him.

Now not only are we in him, but we're also there's a pruning process that goes on in the lives of the believers.

You see, because notice what he says here.

He says, every branch in me, verse 2, that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch in me that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

You see, there's a pruning process, and and he we're supposed to be producing fruit.

Christians aren't supposed to be dried up twigs spiritually.

There ought to be some fruit.

There ought to be some change, some flowering, some foliage in our lives, spiritually.

If there's no fruit, there's a question about whether or not you're in him.

If there's no fruit, there's there's there's questions about, well, why isn't there fruit?

What's the fruit that that we are to produce?

I think he doesn't say it here, but I I think you can go to Galatians chapter 5 and that fruit talks about the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

He says, but the fruit of the Spirit, this is fruit, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fruitfulness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things, there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

One of the things that ought to be happening in our lives and the fruits that ought to be producing in our lives is that God, that we ought to become more loving.

We ought to become more kind.

We ought to become more gentle.

Those are the qualities, those are the things that ought to start showing up in our lives.

It's not okay for us to say, well, that's just who I am.

You know how we do?

Especially do that with our family.

You know, you know, well, they just know me.

I get cranky in the morning.

You know, I got a little attitude, and everybody just knows this is just how I am.

No, that ain't just how you are.

Not now that you're in Christ.

The fact that we are in Christ, there there ought to be change, there ought to be transformation, there ought to be a difference in our lives, and so fruit that is to be produced is a fruit of a transformed life.

He says that if you are in me, then you will bear much fruit.

But not only that kind of fruit, but also fruit of others, of sharing the gospel with others and making disciples, because he tells the disciples go into all the world and make disciples of them, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, so that so there's other kinds of fruit in our lives that are to be the fruit of lives that are being transformed because we're sharing the gospel and their lives are becoming the Christ.

They're coming to Christ because of their interaction with us as fruit.

Because we are abiding in Him.

And He's promising you.

He's promising us if you do this, if you abide in me, then you're going to bring forth much fruit.

Now, understand that we can serve God, and there can be a lot of stuff going on, but that doesn't mean it's the right kind of fruit.

Notice what he says in verse 5.

He says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I him, he it is that bears much fruit.

He says, For apart from me you can do nothing.

And you say, Well, I do stuff all day long.

You should see my to-do list.

I get a lot of stuff accomplished.

He's not talking about your to-do list.

He's not talking, he's talking about are we producing fruit?

Are we producing works that that that matter to God?

Are the fruit, is the fruit that is coming out of our lives, fruit that will last.

Let me tell you what what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 in verses 10 through 15.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

He says this, he says, according to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it.

Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.

Now, if anyone builds on the foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, straw, each one's works will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

But if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only through the fire, only through fire.

You see, there's a whole lot of work that's going on in the church today.

There's a whole lot of stuff that we do.

But is the stuff that we're doing, are the the works that we're doing, are there works that that that are being done for the glory of God and for the praise of God and for the betterment of those around us?

Or are they being done so that people can look at you and say, What a, what a what a Great person, she is.

What a great guy he is.

Oh, how how generous they are.

You see, there are works that we can do that that won't last.

And that's why Jesus says, apart from me, if you're not abiding in me, if you're not connected in me, if you're not resting in me, then the works that you and I will produce have the potential of being works that will be burned up and worthless when we stand before Him.

And so He says, apart from me, you can do nothing.

So we have to ask ourselves that question Am I depending on Christ or am I depending on myself?

So he says, this whole idea of about abiding, he says all throughout this passage, he talks about abiding.

So how do we how do we abide?

He says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you will ask and you will, all these things will happen and there will be fruit.

How do you abide?

What does it look like for us to abide in Christ?

Well, we we we know how to do that too.

It's not real complicated.

Let me give you some ways and some examples of how you abide today.

Okay?

We abide in Facebook.

You say, what do you mean, preacher?

Be in there all day long.

Looking at Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

I mean, we abide in our phones.

Right?

I mean, they're almost they're almost a part of us.

They're like our third leg.

And you do it naturally.

You don't even think about it.

You're just in there, you just respond, you just you read your emails, you you're in TikTok, you watch YouTube shorts, you're in the news, you're in sports, you're just in it.

It just takes a part of you.

And that's how you abide.

You already do it.

We're just doing it in the wrong places and for the wrong reasons.

To abide means that you and I are spending time and we're setting aside time where we are we are we are absorbing and we are allowing the word of God and the spirit of God to wash over us and to and to embody us into the work of our minds and on our hearts.

And and that is how you abide.

You abide through the hearing of God's word, you abide through allowing the word of God through songs and and hymns to wash over you.

How much let me let me let me let me just put it this way an hour on Sunday ain't abiding.

That's all you do for the week.

That's not abiding.

That's not enough to change you.

That's not enough to bring about real transformation.

If you and I just spend an hour on Sunday, maybe another couple of days during the week, but the rest of our time is taken up with all the things of the world, all the other stuff.

There is no way that you and I can produce meaningful fruit because there's not enough juice in there to bring about the fruit that needs to be done.

There's too much crowding in and taking up space in our hearts and in our lives.

You gotta cut some of this stuff loose.

The Spirit of God one time, just recently, the Lord said, Man, there's too much noise going on in your head.

I love podcasts, I love to listen to sports, I love the, and and and it was like the Spirit of God says, I can't get through because there's too much noise up there.

You can't hear what I've got to say because you got too much going on.

It's like the Spirit of God was saying, cut it back.

I'm not saying that you did cut everything back, but you need to cut back.

I went to the doctor the other day.

You bought a couple of months about, I see I went to the doctor.

He told me, you know, people know me, they know I love ice cream.

The doctor said, Man, you gotta cut that out.

I mean, I was hitting it hard.

Okay, anybody knows me.

I was hitting that ice cream hard.

I could do a pint a day, I could get me a uh uh gallon, and that would be mine.

My grandson called me greedy one time.

He said, grams, pops ate all the ice cream.

I said, Well, I bought it.

I bought it, I bought it to eat.

That's why I bought it.

The doctor said, You gotta cut that out.

You gotta cut it back.

So I've had to cut it back.

I can't keep putting that in my body and and think that I'm gonna stay healthy.

And and beloved, if we're gonna abide in Christ, there are there are things that the Spirit of God may be saying to you and saying, look, you gotta, you gotta let it go.

You gotta let some of this stuff go.

Because you can't be abiding in Christ.

And Him bring about transformation in our lives if we're only doing it sporadically.

How do we do that?

How do I, how do I, how do I bring about those changes in my life?

Well, first of all, it's it's on our knees confessing to the Father that Lord, I I have been drinking from broken sisters for for too long.

I've been in I've been enjoying and and filling my mind and my life with stuff for too long.

And I need a transformation on the inside.

I need you to transform my mind.

I need you to change my appetites, I need you to change my desires, I need you to change my passions, I need you to go inside because I can't do it on my own.

I I I've been I've been eating that stuff for too long, I've been drinking it for too long, it just seems normal to me.

And Lord, I need you, through the power of the Holy Spirit and through your word, to do a work in me to transform and change me.

I need to believe that, as the psalmist says, that your word is sweet, and I ate them, and they were like honey to the honeycomb.

I need to believe that your word is is greater than than gold and more precious than fine gold.

I need I need you to move in my life so that so that what matters to me is you and you alone.

You see, this this transformation, these changes aren't going to come just by you and I um, you know, sort of, you know, buckling down and saying, okay, I got it.

No.

This is Holy Spirit work, beloved.

This is the Spirit of God that has to do this work in our lives.

But not only that, if we abide in Him, here's just a couple of things as I close out, and I don't have time to explain or move, go into the more deeper, but if we abide in Him, we will have the blessing of answered prayer.

He says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and I will be done unto you.

That's almost that's amazing.

Now understand what happens that is I'm abiding in him.

He's changing me.

I'm not what I wanted, what I liked before, doesn't matter.

I want what he wants, and now my prayers are lined up with him, and so ask, ask.

And he says, I'll do it for you.

This is the best the blessing of abiding in his love.

Look at verse 9.

As the Father has loved me, this is an amazing verse.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.

The blessing of experiencing and being in the love of God in Christ.

He's promising us that.

He's promising you, if you abide in me, you will experience that.

And those verse 10, he says, if you keep my commandments and you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

And this ain't gonna happen by you just doing your own thing.

You you've and that may be why some of us don't experience the love of God, because we're now walking in obedience to God.

And then finally, he says this in verse 11.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

You abide if we abide in him.

He says, if you do this, this is amazing.

He says, My joy will be in you.

And he says, Your joy will be full.

Listen to it again.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

What things abide in me.

Abide in me.

Hey young people, this isn't just for the old folks.

Okay?

The young folks that are sitting here in this in this in the sanctuary, this isn't for the older Christians, and you wait till you get to be however old you think old is.

You know, you might think 40 is old, 35, yeah, whatever.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

This promise is for you.

It's for you.

If you would abide in him, joy.

Answered prayer, abiding in his love.

Fruitful life.

Now, as I close, the tendency when we hear a flourman like this is to think and say, hey, you know what?

Okay, I would like some fruit.

I would like some blessings.

I would, you know, things are going kind of rough right now.

I would really like God to sort of spruce up my life.

And so if this is the formula, I'll do this.

And and the problem with that is that now you are making, we are making God or Christ a means to the end.

We want the joy, we want the love, we want the peace, we want the the answer to the prayer and the fruitfulness, and so we we follow him so that he can give us those things.

And beloved, ultimately, all that all that this text is saying is that Jesus is all.

Abide in him.

Let us pray.

Father, this is an amazing promise that you have given us.

That if we would abide in you, you have promised that there would be much fruit.

Lord, would you help us not to seek this for the fruit itself?

Or for the the answered prayers, or for the joy, or for the abiding in your love.

Those are those are the those are the fruits of a of being with you.

Oh Lord, would you give us a hunger and a passion and a desire to be with you?

Because you're the altogether lovely one.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.