I Am the Vine: Living in Christ's Life

Well, are y'all ready to look in John chapter 15 tonight? We're going to do

John 15 · chapter mention

one verse, believe it or not, one verse, and it will be in context.

John 15, and we're going to look at verse 5.

And we're really looking, if you want to look at it this way, the life of the vine.

And somebody would like to read that verse for us. I can read it,

but if somebody has it, go ahead. I'll read it again, too.

Thank you. You know, these words were spoken during the final hours before Jesus went to the cross.

Judas had actually had departed to betray him.

Jesus was preparing the remaining disciples for his death, his resurrection,

and eventual return to the Father.

But those were about, they were about to lose the physical presence of Jesus.

They would face fear. They would face persecution, responsibilities far beyond

their natural abilities.

And before sending them into the world, Jesus actually taught them the secret

of spiritual life and fruitful ministry.

You know what it is? According to this verse, they must remain completely dependent upon him.

He said what? I am the vine.

Jesus begins by saying, I am the vine. And throughout the Old Testament,

Israel, as you know, was sometimes pictured as a vine that was planted by God, right?

Psalm 80 actually describes God bringing a vine out of Egypt and planting it in the promised land.

Isaiah chapter 5 actually describes Israel as God's vineyard.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

But instead of producing good fruit, Israel, as you know, according to God's

word, frequently produced the bitter fruit of what? Unbelief, rebellion, idolatry.

But John 15 verse 1, if you go back in that chapter, Jesus actually declares

John 15:1

there in verse 1, I am the true vine.

In other words, Jesus is everything that Israel failed to be.

He is the faithful son who perfectly obeyed his father.

Spiritual life is no longer defined merely by belonging to the nation of Israel

or keeping religious traditions.

Life with God is found in a living relationship with Jesus.

And so the vine is the source of everything the branch needs.

The vine actually supplies the life, the nourishment, the strength,

the ability to actually what? Produce fruit.

And a branch, which we're going to see what we are in just a moment, right?

But a branch has no independent life within itself.

Its usefulness comes entirely from its connection to what?

The vine. And Jesus, I want y'all to know tonight, is not simply one helpful addition to our lives.

He is the source of our spiritual lives.

He's the source, church. you though are the branches we're the branches he's

the vine jesus doesn't say that we are the vine does he he says that we are what again.

The branches and i really believe that distinction is important because the

branch doesn't create life does it it actually receives life the branch does

not produce fruit through determination alone,

but it what according to this verse it bears fruit because the life of the vine

is flowing through it, flowing through it.

And that really confronts our natural tendency, I think, in our culture today

towards self-sufficiency, right?

We often act as though everything depends upon our intelligence,

our planning, our talent, our experience, our effort, those things can be useful,

but none of them, don't y'all miss this tonight, none of them can produce genuine

spiritual fruit apart from Jesus Christ. None of them.

I tell you what, I have seen it, y'all. You probably have too.

You have all these, that's why I say I want to see something only God can do

because he's the only one that produces lasting spiritual fruit, right?

And God gets all the glory when this happens, y'all. He gets all the glory.

Don't build your life around a personality. Build it upon Jesus.

Build it upon Jesus. A branch may appear impressive, though, for a short time, right?

After it's been cut from the vine. You can even see this like in beautiful flowers

you like to get, like at Publix or something, right?

You know, they look so beautiful. I mean, wow, that is impressive.

You know, things may still have leaves, retain some of its color,

but the moment it's disconnected, you know what has happened?

Death has begun. It's cut off from its life source.

May look good for a while, but what's going to happen in the end when it's all said and done?

Nothing of eternal value will be there. It'll be all withered away.

So it may preserve the appearance of life temporarily.

But again, it's been separated from its source because Jesus is our source.

And I think in the same way, it is possible to maintain the outward appearance

of Christianity while neglecting fellowship with Jesus.

We can attend church, get this, we can even perform ministry,

we can sing songs, we can preach sermons, teach Sunday school classes,

remain busy with religious activity.

While becoming spiritually dry inside.

Because I want y'all to know something tonight. Activity is not the same thing as abiding.

You know what he says right here? Look at the passage. He says,

whoever abides in me and I in him.

That word translated abides, it actually comes from the Greek word minnow.

And it means to remain, continue, stay, and dwell.

So to abide in Christ is to remain in conscious, trusting dependence upon him.

It means, y'all, that we continue believing his word.

We continue receiving his grace, obeying his commands and enjoying fellowship with him, right?

Abiding, it's not a brief emotional experience, is it?

It's not visiting Jesus occasionally when life becomes difficult.

It is making our home in him.

That's what it means to abide in him, making our home in him.

Notice also in this verse, the mutual nature of that relationship.

Whoever abides in me or makes his home in Christ and I in him.

The Christian life is more than trying to imitate Jesus from a distance,

in other words, because through the Holy Spirit, Christ shares his life with those who belong to him.

We're united with Christ. His word actually shapes us. His spirit gives us strength.

His love transforms us from the inside out. His power actually works through us.

And that doesn't mean that we become divine. It just means that we live in continual

communion with the one who is divine.

And you know what he says when this happens? Look what he says in the passage.

He it is that bears much fruit.

I got to say it again. He it is that bears much fruit.

The result of abiding or making our home in Christ is fruitfulness.

Jesus doesn't say that the branch manufactures fruit.

He says that it what? It bears fruit.

See, fruit is the visible result of the invisible life of christ working within us,

and in the surrounding passage fruit includes several things i want to list

them out for you in this in context of this verse,

one is christ-like character,

Another is obedience to God's commands. Another is love for other believers.

We're going to talk about that more Sunday morning. I'll tell you more about that in a minute.

Another one is effective prayer, faithful witness, lasting spiritual influence.

In fact, y'all familiar with the passage, but Galatians 5, 22 and 23 describes

the fruit that is produced by the Holy Spirit. You know what it is?

Love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control,

you don't just get one piece it says the fruit.

So if you got the fruit you got all of it fruit's not primarily about appearing successful,

it's about becoming like jesus and allowing his life to bless others through

us and we should also notice here in part of that description that god desires how much fruit,

much fruit right the father is not content merely to keep us alive he works

to make us increasingly fruitful,

and that's why i think john 15 verse 2 speaks about something else it speaks about pruning,

John 15:2

right? Y'all have heard of pruning, right?

Pruning can be painful because God, you know what happens when you prune? What happens?

That's right. It removes, God removes attitudes, habits, distractions,

and sometimes even good things that hinder greater faithfulness.

And pruning is not evidence that God has abandoned you or me,

it may be evidence that the gardener has been carefully preparing us to bear more fruit.

Because after all, don't miss this part, he said, apart from me, you can do nothing.

That's one of the strongest statements Jesus ever made about human inability.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Jesus doesn't mean that unbelievers are physically incapable of working or building

successful businesses or raising families or accomplishing impressive things to the world.

He just means that apart from him, we can produce nothing of lasting spiritual value.

In other words, nothing that glorifies God transforms the heart and bears fruit for eternity.

That's the kind of legacy I want to leave y'all. What about you?

You want something that lasts. You don't want a temporary flash in the pan, right?

And the only way to have that is by abiding in Jesus.

We can organize without Jesus. We can perform without Christ.

We can attract attention without Christ. We can even conduct religious activities without Christ.

But you know what we cannot do? We cannot produce spiritual life without Christ.

And that truth, I think, y'all, protects us from two dangers at least.

Here's the first one. It protects us from pride, first of all.

If genuine fruit appears in our lives, the glory belongs to who?

You got it. Because the life came from where? From the vine in Christ, right? He's the vine.

And then number two, not only does it protect us from pride,

number two, it protects us from despair.

The burden, think about it, of producing fruit does not rest upon our limited strength.

You know what our responsibility is?

Our responsibility is to remain connected to Jesus and trust his life to work through us.

The Christian life is not about gritting our teeth or trying harder.

It's lived by trusting more deeply, surrendering more fully,

and drawing continually from Christ.

So how do we abide how do we do that well i think we abide first of all by remaining in his word,

that's our source of truth y'all the moment the very second that we turn our

back on god's word or say i know better than god does we're in trouble we abide through prayer.

We abide by confessing our sin and repenting, right? Rather than allowing it

to interrupt our fellowship with him.

And we abide through obedience to what his word says, through worship and fellowship

with his people like we're doing tonight.

We abide by bringing every responsibility we have, every fear,

y'all, every decision and weakness even to who?

Jesus. Abiding, I just think it's like this daily confession that says something

similar to Jesus, you're the vine.

I'm only a branch. I cannot produce spiritual life on my own.

Live your life through me today. That's it.

You know, John 15, 5 calls us to stop treating Jesus as an occasional resource,

and begin recognizing him as our continual resource.

Remember I said that word in Greek means to make your home with, to dwell, right?

If we make our home in Jesus, we're going to be plugged in because we're making

our home with him, right? That's where we live.

The question, though, is not merely how busy am I or how much am I accomplishing?

The deeper question I'm going to leave y'all with tonight is, am I abiding in Christ?

Am I abiding in him? Is that where I'm making my home? A branch does not become

fruitful by struggling harder.

It becomes fruitful, again, by remaining in the vine.

Stay close to Christ. That's the challenge to all of us tonight.

Depend upon him. Draw your strength from him.

And as his life flows through you and me, he has promised he will produce the

fruit that brings glory to the Father.

You want to leave behind that kind of legacy?

Don't leave the legacy for someone, leave the legacy in someone.

This, he's telling us here, you want to know how to have this kind of spiritual

life that I'm going to bless and that's going to last for eternity is by abiding in me.

And y'all, I think so many times, man, we take our eyes off of that or we get disconnected.

We, you know, we try to pull away, we get distracted and we end up seeing that,

hey, the things that we think are important are not important.

Are they the things that are lasting for eternity? Sometimes people don't think about, do they?

We all think about today in our culture, what we, you know, for today, right?

That's how it is. But man, if you want something in your life to last forever,

make an impact on your generation forever, make an impact at Eastwood Baptist

Church, make an impact in Baymanet, Alabama, this is how you do it.

You let Jesus live his life through you by making your home with him. That's it.

And you know what? When you do that, yo, those of you that are teachers or leaders

of any kind, it's not about you.

In fact, nobody's going to build a ministry around you or your personality,

because if they do, it's going to crumble and fall.

But if you're abiding in Jesus and you're making your home with him,

what you do will last for eternity.

You will impact people's lives forever, not just in this world, but in the world to come.

So trust the Lord. Abide in him. He's the vine.

You're the branches. We're the branches, right? He's the vine.

Make our home with him. He wants to bear much fruit through all of us here tonight.

Surrender to him to do that.

Stay connected. Don't just look pretty on the outside.

Don't look like you're busy, but really be connected to that life so you have

his life flowing through you.

Because you don't want to shrivel up and die, do you? You don't want to shrivel

up and die that way spiritually. The stuff you've done just crumble like ashes,

because that's what will happen if you become disconnected from that source.

You may look good for a little bit, but you're going to shrivel up and die in everything with you.

All the stuff, it won't last apart from him. Thank you.