John 15:9-17 | Abide in the Vine

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Good morning again.

It's good to have you all here.

We're going to pray in just a second, but if you're a guest, welcome.

It is good to have you here.

If you're a Christian, we welcome you as a brother and sister.

If you're not a Christian, we welcome you hopefully as hospitable hosts.

The reason that we do some of the things that we do, the reason we spend so much time singing is because there's this mysterious bond between head and heart that gets connected when we sing.

When we sing, we have what we know connected with how we feel, and we're able to express that in a beautiful way.

And that's why singing is so important to us.

We sing the truths of what Christ has done, what God has done for us.

The reason that we open up our words, open up his word to learn is because what God has done is in the Bible.

It's revealed in here.

The reason we are going to spend some time in prayer in just a moment is because we have access to the God of the universe.

Not because of anything we've done, but because of everything that's been done for us.

We have access to the King like a child coming to him.

So will you join me as we take advantage of that access as we go to God in prayer?

You bow your heads and close your eyes.

An expression of praise.

We sing hallelujah because Christ, you are all we have.

And frankly, you are all we need.

You are the creator of the universe.

You are the sustainer of your creation.

You are the redeemer of your people.

You are the savior of the world.

You are the judge of all nations, and one day every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that you are Lord.

We will have nothing else in that moment if we do not have you, Lord Jesus.

And may these words ring true, not just in this service, but throughout the entirety of our lives.

Lord, if we do not realize our great need for you now, I ask that you break the ground of our stony hearts here this morning.

Humble us under your gracious hand.

Deliver us from prideful thoughts that balk at the thought of our need for you.

Lord, forgive us of our many sins, our thoughts that are impure, our words that are hateful, our actions that are selfish.

And no matter how we try to frame our rebellion against you, it remains rebellious still.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

Sinners in your hand, in need of your mercy and undeserving of your grace.

Yet in Christ we receive your mercy and become recipients of your grace.

We thank you for the great salvation that we have in Christ from our sin.

And that is the greatest thing that we have to be thankful for.

We have much more to be thankful for, Lord.

We we thank you for this church, which is not merely made of brick and mortar.

If this building were to crumble at this very moment, your church would still stand because your church is its people.

We thank you for every person you have brought here today to learn of Christ through your word.

We thank you, Lord, for the new students who have joined us this morning.

We pray that they would experience the hospitality of a Christ-centered church community.

Move in us, those who are part of this church family, move in us to extend a hand, a welcome to them.

Lord, we we pray for those parents who are perhaps empty nesters now.

That's a hard thing to go through.

Raising a child for 18 years and then sending them off to be adults.

Be with those parents, Lord.

Comfort them.

And I pray, Lord, that they embrace this transition in their lives, that they are no longer raising children, but rather mentoring their children.

May they embrace that with grace and humility.

We thank you for the health that you have given each of us here to gather today.

We thank you for your word, Lord, which gives us life to our souls.

We thank you for the gospel of Christ.

Lord, we we lift up many who are sick and are in need of healing.

We ask for that healing in bold faith that you are a God who can and does heal.

We ask for help in difficult situations and decisions needing to be made for families encountering a wide range of issues from health to uh family deaths to uh new babies coming into the world, Lord.

We just pray for your grace and mercy on your people here for those uh for those difficult situations and decisions.

We lift up our teachers and our students and ask for their protection throughout this school year, Lord.

May they honor you and their work.

We have much more to be thankful for.

We have much more to pray for.

But for now, we pray this in Christ's name and for his glory.

Amen.

Well, if you came here this morning expecting the lead pastor, which is Jason, I am not him, but you can forward any complaints that you have uh about my message to PJholm at faith3.com.

So just take advantage of that since he's not here.

So far, everything's gone smoothly, just Web and I.

Um, and so uh, but there's still plenty of time to mess things up.

I'm the student and family pastor.

Welcome.

If you have students uh ages uh from sixth grade to twelfth grade, uh we would love to have them on Wednesday nights.

We hang out in the the building across the road over there uh called the garage.

Um we have one more, or actually we're all done with our uh, or no, we have one more summer gathering, which is from 6 p.m.

to 8 p.m.

And then uh next week, uh September 1st, we are going to uh switch to our um our fall schedule.

And so we would love to join you if you have questions about that.

Please come talk to me after a service.

I'll be up front.

Uh I want to open up with a story.

Everybody loves a good story.

This one was particularly inspiring uh because um like I like to run enough to get me a little winded, but not that much.

But in 1983, Australia hosted its ultra marathon.

What is an ultra marathon?

I'm glad you asked.

It is a 573.7 mile foot race from Sydney to Melbourne.

Yeah, I don't understand.

I have a car, okay?

When that breaks, I ride a bike.

But apparently, this is something you do for fun.

This is a race that takes days to run, and professionals from all over the world come to participate.

Shortly before the race began, again, this is in 1983, there's a 61-year-old farmer named Cliff Young who approached the registration table, wearing overalls and goulashes over his boots.

He walked up and requested a number to enter the race, and the people at the registration table thought it was a joke.

I probably would have also.

That somebody was maybe setting them up.

So they laughed, but Cliff Young said, no, I'd I'd really like to run in serious, seriousness.

So they gave him a number and pinned it on his overalls.

Cliff walked over to the start of the race, the starting line, and all the other professional runners, you know, they got their spandex on and their tight shirts, and they've got their headbands and their nice shoes, and then there's Cliff with overalls, boots, and goulashes over him.

The crowd laughs.

All the other runners look at him like he's crazy.

And because all those professional runners had sculpted bodies and beautiful strides, not Cliff Young.

He didn't even run like a runner.

He ran with an awkward, goofy-looking shuffle.

And all through the crowd, people were laughing, and finally someone called out, get that old fool off the track.

Five days, 14 hours and four minutes later, at 1.25 in the morning, Cliff Young shuffled across the finish line of the 573.7 mile ultra marathon.

He had won the race.

Yeah.

He's 61.

I don't know if I put that in there.

He was 61 when he did that.

Yeah.

Take heart.

You I'm not going to say older saints, but wiser saints.

Take heart.

He had won the race and he didn't win by a matter of minutes or even an hour or two.

Uh, the second place runner was nine hours and 56 minutes behind him.

He had set a new world record for the ultra marathon.

This is a true story.

The press mobbed him, wondering what kind of special running shoes he must have.

They rummaged through his backpack, wondering what he'd survived on, but all he had were pumpkin seeds and water.

They discovered the secret to his success shortly after.

Cliff Young had shuffled his way to victory without ever sleeping.

Five days and fourteen hours without sleeping.

The other runners would run for 18 hours straight and then stop and sleep for three or four hours.

He endured running again for five days and fourteen hours at the ripe old age in his prime as 61.

The key to this man's success endurance.

Endurance.

Not stopping, not ceasing.

Keep going.

And I can imagine the torment of just running for a 24-hour span of time.

Of just maybe I should stop and take a little break, or I'm feeling pretty winded, my legs are hurting, my body is tired, but not Cliff.

He kept going.

Endurance in a continued course of action until he accomplished his goal.

Endurance through ridicule and criticism.

Endurance through pain and thoughts of giving up.

Endurance through the temptation to turn to the side and just sneak in a quick nap.

Endurance is what kept this man going, and endurance is what helped this man finish.

There's a word in our text this morning that I want you to think of in terms of endurance.

We're in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

If you haven't turned in your Bibles yet, please do so now.

John chapter 15, we open up our Bibles to see that I'm not trying to make up religious nonsense and throw it at you and heap it at you, but rather what I have to say is from God in his word.

John 15 · chapter mention

And there's this word in John 15, specifically verses 1 through 17, that Jesus repeats over and over and over again.

And that word is abide.

Abide.

Now, if you take the word abide and look it up in its lexiconical sense, okay, kind of what other words related to it mean, you can conclude that abide also can be uh coincide with endurance, remaining, sustaining, keeping going.

To remind you of where we are, we're going to be in verses 9 through 17.

We are in a portion of Scripture called the Upper Room Discourse.

This is a series of teachings that Jesus gives before he goes to the cross.

This is his famous last words.

The last things he wants to communicate to his disciples before he goes to his death.

And it's not that his death takes them by surprise.

He knows it's coming, and so he takes this opportunity after he serves them the Lord's Supper, he takes this opportunity to teach them things that they need to know before he leaves.

Here in chapter 15, they're actually on their way out of the upper room.

They're on their way to the garden to pray.

And in chapter 15, Jesus makes a statement in verse 1, I am the true vine, which is the illustrative language he uses to set the stage for everything else he is about to say.

Jesus uses the picture of a vine and how a vine works to communicate to his disciples important truths for the relationship with him.

He explains that he is the vine and God, the father, is the gardener.

That's in verse 1.

If Jesus is the vine in this picture, then he is the conduit and the source of life for every single person who is connected to him, which would be the branches.

The father as the gardener is the one who cares for both the vine and the branches, so that his vineyard might produce fruit.

The fruit that is produced by the branches, those connected to Christ, is the growth of righteousness and goodness in their lives.

Christ commands his disciples to abide in him, to remain in him and endure in him, in their relationship to the vine, so that they would bear fruit.

They can't bear fruit unless they endure in being connected to the vine.

In light of everything that lies ahead of them, Jesus says, don't go anywhere else for life and salvation.

Everything that you need is in me.

So regardless of the circumstances, regardless of what happens, or some pretty bad things are coming their way in the years to come, don't stray, don't go anywhere else.

Endure.

Abide.

Those who remain connected to Christ will be pruned.

That's in verse 2.

Pruning is a process that inflicts a necessary wound to the plant in order for that plant to be more productive.

So as Jesus says that his plants, his branches will be pruned in order to bear more fruit, the disciples would immediately think of that process of being cut back and cut away so that they would bear more fruit.

And in that, Jesus promises that there will be pain and hardship for those who are in Christ.

And anybody who guarantees you otherwise is a liar.

The Christian life is not a path to a better life.

It is not a means of getting healthy and wealthy.

Jesus says over and over that the path of following Him, the path of discipleship, is hard.

It is long.

It can be weary.

And you will be pruned.

But for those who are in Christ, it is the divine gardener working in our lives to make us more fruitful for his glory.

Branches that don't bear fruit are taken away and thrown into the fire, which is a euphemism for eternal condemnation in a real place that we believe in called hell, which Jesus speaks of more than anyone else in Scripture.

Then lastly, he tells us that bearing fruit is proof of your discipleship.

And with the context of the vine, the gardener, the branches, and the fruit, Jesus begins to focus his attention on what it means for the branches to abide in Christ, because he says this over and over abide in me, endure in me, remain in me.

But what does that mean?

What does it mean?

I'm a simple guy.

I am not that smart.

Okay?

I can put on a facade that makes me look smart, but once I get into my Monday meeting with Webb and Jason, I'm just like I'm a simpleton.

I need things unpacked for me and explained.

And Jesus does just that.

He tells us what it means to abide.

He turns his attention to what it means to abide in him.

Verse 9.

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

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you 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.

This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

The call to abide in Christ is a call to abide and endure in his love.

Let's take a look at what that means to abide in Christ's love, starting with abiding and enduring, and what that looks like with relation to Christ's love.

Abiding in Christ, abiding in his love models the example of Christ Himself.

Look at what he says in verse 9.

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

Abide in my love.

Jesus Christ makes a bold assertion here that he is the object of God's love, God's special divine love.

You and I don't bat an eye at that statement because we throw around the word love like it's meaningless.

Like I love my wife, I could say I love my wife and children, and I love Chick-fil-A in the same sentence, and nobody cares.

Which I do love me, some Chick-fil-A.

Okay.

Pastor Appreciation Month is in, I think, November.

We don't bat an eye at the statement that God loves us because even when it comes to God, we think about God loves me.

We don't think about, we think of all the reasons why God should love me.

I'm not a bad person.

I don't cuss.

Um, I don't watch R-rated movies unless they're about Jesus.

I don't do any of those things.

And so God should love me.

But we never ever spend any time thinking about the reasons why God shouldn't love us.

I don't know what God's been doing in your life, but I've been spending a lot of time the past week looking at this text and thinking of the many reasons why God shouldn't love me.

There's a lot.

For every one thing I do with the intention of honoring him, I do five more that dishonor him.

You and I only think about those reasons.

But rather, God, there is no reason that God should love us.

Ephesians chapter 1 or chapter 2, verse 1 through 3 says this you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Every single person was a son of disobedience, dead in our trespasses and sins, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature, by our very nature, children of wrath.

Wrath is God's anger towards all that is evil, all that is unrighteous, all that is wrong with the world, and by this what Scripture says, I was part of that problem.

You were part of that problem.

Why are we children of wrath?

Well, Paul also writes in Romans chapter 1, verse 25, that we exchange the truth about God for a lie, and we begin to worship things in this world rather than worshiping the Creator.

Romans 1:25

The reality is, is God shouldn't love a single one of us, and it's terrifying.

Yet, yet, here comes the good news.

I am comforted by Jesus' words here in verse 9 that he loves us as God loves him.

How does Jesus love you?

All we need to do is look at how the Father loves Jesus.

God's love for his son is perfect, immeasurable, eternal, complete, pure, and holy.

Mark chapter 1, verse 11 says, A voice came from heaven.

Mark 1:11

This is at Jesus' baptism.

He comes to John the baptizer and he gets baptized by him.

And as he comes out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, and then a voice from heaven calls out, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

God loves the Son and speaks to him.

He publicly declares his relationship with him, and he publicly expresses his pleasure in him.

John chapter 3, verse 35 the Father loves the Son and has given him all things into his hand.

John 3:35

The Father's love for the Son is conveyed in what he gives to.

His Son.

He doesn't hold anything back.

Everything is given to Jesus because he is the object of God's love.

John chapter 5, verse 20 for the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he is doing.

John 5:20

And greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel.

God loves his son and therefore reveals his will to him.

God's love for his son again is perfect, immeasurable, eternal, complete, pure, and holy.

And when we abide in Christ, we are modeling his example of being loved, and we ourselves can rest in the fact that Christ loves us as God loves him.

Every single person who abides in Christ is a recipient of that love.

Abiding in Christ models the example of being loved, but also models, here's the flip side, the example of being obedient.

Abiding in Christ models the example of being obedient.

Look at verse 10.

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.

Now here's the catch, you might say.

Notice the connection between God's love for Christ and Christ's obedience to the Father.

There are two forces working together simultaneously at the same time.

That is God's love and Christ's obedience.

Neither precedes the other.

God loves Jesus, and Jesus obeys God the Father, both at the same time.

God's love is not dependent on Christ's obedience, and Christ's obedience is not dependent on God's love, because they are both working together simultaneously at the same time.

Jesus again uses this relationship to convey to his disciples what it means to abide.

To abide, endure, remain in Christ.

To endure in his love means to obey his commands.

Keeping the words of Christ is the outward demonstration of our endurance in his love.

Again, it is not a means of earning God's love.

It is the outward expression that we are possessing God's love.

Obedience to Christ demonstrates his love in your life.

There is a difference between an outward validation of what you already possess and an outward performance of something you're trying to earn.

Followers of Christ do not need to obey him in order to earn and merit his love, but rather obey him because they already have it.

And in the same way, disobedience proves the same thing in the opposite direction.

When we disobey Christ, we are showing that we are not abiding in his love.

Brothers and sisters, I want to ask you this question.

A very, very plain point of application.

Are you enduring in the love of Christ?

And if you are, is that evident in your obedience to him?

You cannot claim to abide in the love of God and live a life of disobedience to him.

It's incompatible.

Why?

Because Christ is loved by God, and Christ obeys the Father.

That is the model.

And as he obeys God the Father, he calls us to abide in his love and obey his commands.

1 John 1, verse 6 through 7 says this: if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

1 John 1:6–7

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, that's not to say you're perfect or you're nailing it all the time.

You're not a sinless person.

But if we walk in the light, if we abide in the love of God as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

It's a substance that brings us together and connects us.

But more than that, the blood of Jesus' Son cleanses us from all sin.

Even seeking to abide in the love of God and obey him brings us to him and reminds us that forgiveness is found only in Jesus.

Later on in chapter 2, John writes this.

He is, this 1 John chapter 2, he writes, He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

Those are harsh words from the Apostle of Love.

That sounds kind of nice, right?

The Apostle of Love.

Harsh words from the Apostle of Love.

Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word in him truly, the love of God is perfected.

By this we may know that we are in him.

Whoever says he abides, remains, endures in him, ought to walk in the same way that Christ walked.

What does abiding in Christ look like?

It models the example of Christ.

It models how Christ Himself is loved, and we ourselves rest in that love.

As Christ is loved, he loves us.

It also models obedience.

As Christ is loved and thus obeys, we are loved and we are compelled and thus obey.

It changes us too.

Abiding in Christ also changes us.

It changes our perspective and it moves us to love.

John chapter 15, verse 11 says this These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

John 15:11

This seems kind of like a random statement thrown in to the middle of a logical argument Jesus is making.

He talks about loving us and how God loves him and then abiding and obeying, and then he throws in this sentence, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

I think he includes this statement because you and I have a natural reaction when we're told to obey, right?

Really, we're we're still children.

We still have, we still have like when I tell my kids, don't do that.

Don't touch the stove.

It's hot.

And I have little kids who are like, oh man, no, no, all I want to do is touch it, you know?

Let's see how close I can get until uh, oh wow, that is hot.

Okay, they weren't lying.

We do the same thing.

We we balk at commands.

We don't want to obey.

We have this idea that commands weigh us down.

They hinder us from experience the fullness of life.

We should live life completely free of all rules and commandments, and that's what's going to bring us joy.

And yet I have yet to find a single person who says that living life on my terms has truly brought me happiness.

It's a life full of disappointment as you seek pleasures over and over and over, and one by one they begin to fall down and disappoint you.

Jesus tells us these things so that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be full.

Christ's joy.

Not my joy, and not your joy.

And if your name is joy, I'm sorry to get you confused.

The joy of Christ being in you.

What sort of joy does Christ have?

It's a joy that completely undermines the human thought of what it means to be joyful.

Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2.

Hebrews 12:2

In a call to endure, the author of Hebrew says this that we are to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Looking at this, we can conclude that the joy of Christ that is promised to be in us in our obedience to Christ's commands as we seek to abide in his love.

It's a joy of love.

Christ didn't go to the cross just because he was bored one day.

He went to the cross for the joy of those he loved.

He was preparing for himself a bride, his church, those whom he loves.

He went to the cross.

It is a joy of sacrifice.

Jesus gave up his own life out of joy.

And he didn't just say, Yeah, I'll volunteer.

He was betrayed by a friend.

He was beaten.

He was taken to a trial where false witnesses accused him over and over.

He was shuffled from one place to another, mocked by the Romans, stripped naked, flogged, and with what was remaining of his life, forced to carry a cross to Golgotha, where he was nailed there.

Alone, depleted.

And he did that all for joy.

Joy.

It's the joy of sacrifice.

It is the joy of possession.

He's seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He's been given the nations as a possession.

He's been given a seat at the God the Father's right hand.

It is the joy of fulfillment.

This was the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan from the beginning of time.

It is a joy that transcends the human experience because once things get hard, you and I find a lot of reasons not to be joyful.

Not Christ, not once did he open his mouth to complain.

Not once did he rebuke his accusers.

Not once did he say, hey guys, can you let me off?

For the joy set before him, he experienced a cross that transcends human experience.

Christ tells us these things not so that you can be temporarily happy in a religious experience.

Christ tells you these things so that his joy can be in you, the type of joy that is lasting, that is full.

That no matter what happens in your life, you can say with absolute certainty, it is well with my soul.

It's so that Christ's joy may be in us.

But also, look at also what he says, it's so that our joy may be full.

Again, joy is much different than happiness.

Happiness is a fleeting feeling.

It's only full by what we experience.

When people are nice to me, I feel full of happiness.

When people are mean, my happiness goes away.

When people drive slow on the right hand on the left hand lane, and like my joy just starts going down, or you know, when no traffic is on the road and I'm able to cruise completely unimpeded, I'm pretty joyful, right?

We're not talking about happiness, the kind of joy that Jesus gives, the joy of Jesus Himself, the joy that fills us, the joy that lacks nothing.

It's not dependent on experience or circumstance.

It's a joy that endures and abides regardless of what's going on around us.

To endure and abide in Christ means to obey him.

To obey him means to experience a joy that is incomprehensible and lacking in nothing.

Obeying the commands of Christ lead to joy.

Why?

Because it assures us of his love for us and it assures us of our perseverance in him.

At the end of the day, if I have nothing else but I abide in Christ, I have more than what I'm going to take with me out of this life.

Abiding in Christ changes us in that it matures our perspective.

It also moves us to love.

It moves us to love.

Now, with all this talk about obeying the commands of Christ, Jesus gives us an explicit command that we are to obey as we abide in his love.

Look at verse 12.

This is my commandment, he says, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Again, Jesus is grounding his statement in his example.

When Jesus says, love one another, like that's pretty easy, I can do that.

I can be cordial and nice to you.

I can help you out on a move.

I can uh bring you over baked goods.

We can get together and have a good time, get our kids together and call it love, but that's not what Jesus is saying.

He's not just saying, just love each other.

I can certainly love you in a way that I know how, but Jesus does not base our love for others in our understanding of love.

We are to love others as he loved us.

And therein lies the difficulty.

How do we as followers of Christ love one another like Christ?

Look at verse 13.

Verse 13.

Greater love has no one than this.

That someone lay down his life for his friends.

I have a sneaking suspicion of who that someone is in this text.

The love of Christ is exemplified in the cross as Christ Himself lays down his life for those whom he now calls his friends.

We're going to get to that in a minute.

If we look to the cross and what Jesus did for you and me there, then we can begin to examine how we ought to love one another.

The love of Christ is sacrificial.

It gives to others when others do not give back.

It is bearing the burden of another while being spat on.

It is a love that is patient and kind.

It's a love that doesn't envy others or brags on itself.

It's a love that isn't arrogant or rude.

It doesn't rejoice in evil, but celebrates in truth.

It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It is a love that never fails.

That is the kind of love that we are called to have for others.

What would it mean for you, then, you and I, to love others in the same way that Christ has loved us?

Just being honest.

It's hard to look at the love of Christ for me and think that I can love other people in the same manner without being inconvenienced.

Loving others as Christ has loved me almost requires that I be inconvenienced.

That I be interrupted in what's important to me.

It's hard to look at the love of Christ and think I can turn a blind eye to suffering and hardship of my brother and sister in need.

It's hard for me to think that I can't be inconvenienced while loving the other peop others in the same way.

But what would it mean for you and I to love others in the way that Christ has loved you?

What would that mean?

Only the example of Christ can show you.

Now, if we want to love others, love as Christ commands, let's look at what the love of Christ means to those who follow him.

The first thing we see when it comes to Christ's love is another reminder is that our love for Christ requires obedience.

He begins to use this phrase, my friends, no greater love has anyone than this than he who laid down his life for his friends.

That is the model that we are to strive after when it comes to loving others.

But now there's a shift where Jesus begins talking about his friends.

And it tells me that there is a transformation that happens, that Christ's love transforms the people who are the object of his love, from servants to friends.

Look at what he says in verse 14.

You are my friends.

That's a definite statement.

But then he says, if you do what I command.

Why?

Because you cannot abide and endure in the love of Christ.

You cannot be closely connected to the vine if you refuse to be uh stay in him, to remain in him, to obey him.

And I'll say this again, as I said earlier, in case you weren't listening, your relationship with Christ is not earned in your obedience to Christ.

That's not at all what Jesus is saying.

Your relationship status is revealed in your obedience to Christ.

It's revealed.

Our obedience to Christ ought to assure us that we are indeed in a right relationship with Him.

What is that relationship?

It's not that of a servant, it's that of a friend.

Look at what he says in verse 15.

No longer do I call you servants.

You're no longer servants.

Why?

Because the servant does not know what his master is doing.

This entire time, Jesus reveals some things, but not all things.

But now Jesus lays it all on the table and says, You are my friends because everything God is doing, I am laying it out for you.

And a master doesn't do that for his servant.

A master does that for people he calls friend.

And that's what the love of Christ does for you.

The love of Christ, remaining in Christ, abiding in Christ, transforms you from servant to friend of God to friend of Christ.

Jesus calls us friends for all that he has heard from the Father, he has made known to us.

Let's land the plane here.

Because we see here the great promotion because of the love of Christ from a servant to a friend.

Servant to a friend.

You are my friends again if you do what I command you.

There's the call to obedience in Christ, abiding in his love by doing what he commands.

We also have assurance of Christ's friendship in what we know of God.

Verse 15, and the assurance of Christ's friendship is not in our choice of him.

Here's verse 16 that's going to kind of really help you with this whole idea that God's love and Christ's love and a relationship of friendship is not something that's earned.

Look at verse 16.

You did not choose me, but I chose you.

Just sit on that for a moment.

The disciples were minding their own business three years prior to this.

Doing what they always do, fishing.

Some of them were collecting taxes, carrying on with life.

And one day, a Galilean, a Nazarene rather, named Jesus, shows up to them specifically.

Out of all the other people around, he shows up to them specifically and tells them, follow me.

This is a truth that we can't get around.

And I'm not going to explain all the ins of outs of what we call election, right?

God's choosing of us.

Here's what I know of election.

If God had not chosen me, there's not a chance in the world that I would have ever chosen him.

My sin is so deep, and I love it so much that I would not at any point in my life ever think of turning to God.

If that's the nature of the human condition, as we read earlier, by nature, children of wrath, children of disobedience, by our nature.

It requires God's divine intervention in our lives.

I was reading a quote from Charles Spurgeon.

There's a lady who was deeply troubled by a passage in Romans, I believe it's Romans chapter 9, where Paul writes uh writes this, he quotes from Genesis saying, Esau, I Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

There's a lady who came up and asked him about that and said, I can't wrap my mind around the fact that God hated Esau.

Charles Spurgeon looks at her and says, That is not my problem, Adam.

My problem is that God loves Jacob.

The problem is not in who God does not choose, the problem is in the fact that God has chosen peace.

He has chosen me.

He has chosen you if you're in Christ.

And I prayed this morning that God would choose some more.

We don't choose God, He chooses us.

And if you're here this morning, I want to invite you to respond to God's choosing this morning.

It's not something that you do, it's something that is done to you.

God chooses those who become his friends.

And yet we have this call also in Scripture to respond to that choice, to extend out in faith and receive what he has given us.

In this verse, he says that he chooses his friends so that they should go and bear fruit, and that our fruit should abide, and that whatever we ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

There's a complete transformation in what happens to us once God chooses us, once Christ chooses us, and we become his friends.

We're chosen to go out into the world.

Look at verse 18.

He talks about the world hating them.

They're about to go out into the world, to a hostile world.

Christ didn't choose them so that they would stay in the confines of safety, but rather they're chosen to go.

They're chosen to bear fruit, to reveal their connection to him.

They're chosen so that their fruit would last, not so that they would uh hurry up and do some religious practices, but rather so that obedience to him and abiding in him would remain for the entirety of their lives.

And they're chosen so that their relationship with God would change.

That's why he says, Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he would give to you.

That's what happens when you are changed and transformed by the love of Christ that he gives you.

Christian, I want you to respond to that this morning in a commitment of obedience to him.

God already knows that you're going to fail.

You're going to mess up, you're not going to bat a hundred.

The call is just to abide and remain and endure.

Friend, if you are outside of Christ right now, in this moment, Christ calls you to come to him and abide, not so that you could try and earn his love, but so you could receive his love.

Receive his love this morning in faith.

Let's pray.

You are not an angry God up in the clouds who looks down on humanity just eager and waiting to judge them.

You are a patient and loving God.

You love so much that you are willing to send your Son, Jesus Christ, to be with sinners and to take sinners and make them friends, to become the recipients of your love.

We have this assurance if we abide and obey your commands.

Lord, for the weary heart who is wandering and wondering, am I abiding in Christ?

I can't be sure.

I pray that you give them conviction of heart, give them resolve in their inner being to abide and remain in you.

And as they abide and remain, compel them to obedience.

And may they see their obedience as not the measure of their acceptance, but rather as the proof of your love.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.