John 15:1-11

Hey, friends. Welcome back.

Grateful to have you with us as we get into the gospel of John here.

Starting a new chapter today.

Chapter 15.

A pretty abrupt change of pace as yesterday.

Jesus has a discourse, and today moves a little bit more into,

I don't want to call it lecture, but, a monologue of sorts.

And we get,

remember that we have told you that six

different times so far out of seven total,

Jesus has claimed something about himself with the words I am.

We jump right into number seven with the first verse here.

So, read for a few and then come back and and talk it through.

I am the true vine and my father is the vine grower.

He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.

Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me as I abide in you.

Just 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. You are the branches.

Those who abide in me, and I in them bear much fruit,

because apart from me you can do nothing.

Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers.

Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

If you abide in me and my word abides in you,

ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done.

My father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit

and become my disciples, as the father has loved me, so I have 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.

I have said these things to you, that my joy may be in you,

and that your joy may be complete.

So as we get to this seventh I am statement, I am the true vine,

and this really becomes a sermon illustration of sorts for John

as he talks about the vine and being attached, being rooted, being,

fruit bearers and, this is

maybe one of the least obvious

I am statements that Jesus uses, but it's one of the the most communal.

I think it's very important within the church, this idea

that we are connected to Jesus and to one another.

And in that connection, our calling

is to stay connected to Jesus and to bear fruit.

You know, Michael, you and I, I don't know if we'd agree on this.

I would say John has done his typical thing here, which he has

maybe repeated himself more than he needed to. But,

he makes the point.

Well, makes it often that we are to stay connected and that by ourselves.

You know, that's an interesting twist that we take here as well by ourself.

We are incapable of bearing the fruit that we are called to bear in Christ.

I think that there is, a rather popular

mistake of sort of dividing the gospel

between grace and action.

And I think that texts like this in John teachings like this

from Jesus resists that, because ultimately, what you have

at the end of our conversation yesterday when we looked at verse 31,

you know, do as the father has, I do as the father has commanded me.

So that the world may know that I love the father.

Then he gives this rise. Let's be on our way.

Then immediately we move into this text that is all about bearing fruit.

And it is an image of action, right?

Fruit is the result of life.

And so when we're connected to the vine, then it's possible for the faith,

which is a thing that, begins in the inner work of the spirit.

But it through the life that comes

through our connection to through something that is larger than ourselves,

it will actually result in something you can actually eat fruit you

it can be turned into something that has earthly impact and value.

Right.

And I think the earthiness of this illustration is a very important way

for the church to recognize that it's not just what we believe.

And I think that with all of these red letters

and yes, with some meandering, teaching in here, I think it'd be easy

to think this is all intellectual, it's all theological, it's all philosophical.

No, this is practical.

It comes down to that.

When we're connected to the vine, then fruit will bear.

If you abide in Jesus, then he's binding in us.

And if he's in us, then we can experience the kind of fruit

making life, living action, faith, action life,

which can only come when we are doing that abiding work.

And ultimately we find ourselves in position

then of asking, okay, so how then are

we going to, exhibit what that fruit is?

What what is the result of being in the vine?

Jesus is going to answer that in explicit terms, but I think

you have to remember that this is being delivered to a church.

This letter is being delivered

to the church that's navigating how it exists in the world.

As some of the first generation Christians are passing away.

How how can we be connected to the vine?

Who is Jesus Christ?

How can we be part of this church when that church continues to morph

and change to to not just be in Jewish synagogues on Saturday,

but now worshiping on Sunday in Christian places?

Or, you know, how does the faith move on in this kind of connected reality?

And hear John's recording for us?

Jesus has an answer for that.

Jesus anticipated the day in which

his abiding in the church would be of utmost importance.

When knowing what the fruit of faith looks like would matter.

And here John is relaying that text not just for that church, but for our church.

Not just for those people, not just for those Christians,

but for these Christians, for for Christians today, for

you and me and I think that that's the amazing gift of a text like this.

If you could hang on to it as it moves through.

I think one of the critiques of the American church has been

that we sometimes define faith as what we believe in.

We think about what makes us Christian, as what

we hold on to doctrinally, what we believe about Jesus.

And certainly it matters what we believe,

and it is vitally important what we believe.

But I appreciate texts like this

that give us a very simple calling as well, to be fruitful.

I mean, if you boil this down, Jesus is saying,

stick with me and bear fruit, be fruitful.

And, I think

because that emphasis we've put on doctrine and theology

and arguing over Bible interpretation

and doctrinal stuff, I think sometimes we've shuffled

be fruitful further down the line than it needs to be.

And I appreciate texts like this that put it back front and center.

But stay the course, and bear fruit.

And we could, you know, we could certainly try to parse out what that means.

But Jesus very clear instruction here is

do the work

of the father, do the work of the Savior,

stick with me, be connected to me,

and you will bear the fruits it kindness, generosity.

We again, we could have lots of conversation

about the specifics of that, but this call to action I think is is important.

I think sometimes it has been,

eclipsed by other things.

And I, I very much appreciate Jesus words here to kind of

point us in a direction of having an active and engaged faith

that is connected with Christ, connected with others, and that we could

look at a person's life and say, oh, we see the fruit of discipleship.

We see the outcome of following Jesus in their life,

and hopefully that's the goal that we're all after.

But Clint,

I think a thing that we need to connect here is exactly what you said previously,

how relational the text this is, and it's one thing to say

that you need to practice loving a person from afar.

It's one thing to say, you know, try to think good thoughts about them

or try to pray for them. Even if they might be

not your favorite person or they might even be your enemy.

You know, that itself is hard, but I think the implication here,

and not just what it might lead us to, but the explicit demand here,

is that if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Just I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love and love.

In this context, the kind of love that is bore out

is the kind of love that only exists in relationship.

So there is no shortcut path here.

This isn't about just wishing well on others.

So this is about actual lived faith fruit in actual Christian community,

with lived people, with the hard people,

with the people that you'd prefer not to have in that community.

Christian love that is growing, that's bearing

fruit, is leading to the creation of something real and tangible.

And I think that Jesus, his words here, could easily be passed over

as some kind of spiritual teaching, which they certainly are,

but it's a spiritual teaching that is intended to lead to

physical transformation and to life change.

And if you want a frame for that, you know, if you read first John,

which is, I think a letter to a Christian community with this theme

at the center of it, I think you'll see that, that this is a costly kind of love.

It's a demand ding thing to be asked to grow into, because ultimately

the abiding in the father is going to lead Jesus to sacrifice of self.

The kind of love that Jesus has for you and me led Jesus to give up everything

so that we might have eternal relationship with he and the father,

the kind of love we're going to have for one another, the kind of abiding

in the father that Jesus invites us into,

will inevitably cost us something, too.

And I think this text is

an invitation to move, much like we saw the beginning of it.

Right?

Jesus says in 31 of, chapter 15.

Let us be on our way.

Let's get moving. The moving of faith here.

The action of faith is being connected to the vine, abiding in the father

and then letting those real life fruits of love grow in us.

And then that be the thing that creates the reality of Christian community.

It's hard to know where to draw these lines in terms of the study,

and I don't want to take anything away from the next time we're together.

But if you look here at verse 12, which we haven't read yet,

you know, Jesus is above saying, keep my commandment,

I keep God's commandment, you keep my commandment, then you abide in me.

Well, we might wonder what commandment is, and Jesus does us the favor here,

that you love one another as I have loved you.

So that's going to ultimately be our our North Star.

That's going to be our compass heading.

But before we move on to that or to our next study tomorrow,

I want to just back up Michael to verse 11,

because I think it's significant that where Jesus

points us

to in this keeping of his commandments in this life, of staying connected,

in this bearing of fruit, is ultimately joy.

I've said these things to you, that my joy might be in you,

and your joy may be complete.

I think this is important because sometimes when we have

the conversation about discipleship and about doing the work,

it can sound like trudge or trudging up the mountain, right?

We can say, oh, I got to go love people.

Oh, I got to be giving. I got to be generous.

I got to forgive that person who hit it is it is intended

not to be easy, but it is intended also to be joyful.

It is doing the work of Christ.

It is bearing the fruit of Jesus that releases in us

a holy kind of joy, a Christ like joy.

And to the end here, that our joy may be

what complete, it may be full, it may be finished, it may be

overflowing in us.

And I think that can that can get lost.

You know, we can sometimes hear these through the,

through the, the filter of, of maybe guilt.

Oh, I don't do enough or I've got to do a better job.

And of course, we all do need to do a better job, but the idea here

is not to just slog our way through life, hopefully bearing some fruit.

It's to bear fruit and then embody the joy of Christ as we do it.

And I think it it matters a great deal that ultimately

where Jesus takes us in this section is the idea of complete joy.

I think that's a wonderful message.

I think it's easy to forget, and I think we should definitely hold it close.

The gift that Jesus is giving us,

and we're going to discover this, I think, in more explicit details.

We continue that study.

I certainly hope that you'll subscribe to join us for that conversation.

But I would say that the gift of finding joy

here in the middle of this whole passage about love is unmistakable.

This sticks out because so much of this is about remaining and abiding,

which has with it this idea of about understanding the will of the father,

and then also this idea of a being present to the Spirit's work in our life.

Right.

So just being aware that God is within us and sort of being wrapped up in that,

and then the idea that that leads us to these kind of explicit fruits

that we're going to be growing,

that discipleship is a moving part of our realities.

Okay.

This inclusion of joy, I think, should be surprising

and it should stand out to us, because at the end of the day, the love that

Jesus gives for us in the gospel of John, Jesus is not tricked.

Jesus is not overwhelmed.

Jesus is not surprised by the cross.

Jesus is talking about joy in full knowledge of crucifixion,

in full knowledge of the pain and of the guilt.

He would bear the forsaken

as he would experience Jesus at this moment, knowing all of that

is speaking of joy.

And so this command that we receive, which is to abide in love,

and then ultimately will be to love one another, it is a joyous command.

It can work within us, a spirit

of of jubilance of thanksgiving.

Now, that's not to say that it's always an easy thing to live into,

but that's the ultimate promise, is that when we bear the yoke of Christ,

we are going to experience the joy of Christ,

the kind of vitality of Christ living within us.

It is a radically de sorry, a radically different way

of experiencing the world that God has given to us.

It's not, an endless series of tasks of us

trying to be a little bit more moral as people who follow Jesus.

It is an invitation to a new form of life

which has Christlike vitality, which leads us to love others.

And as we love them, to discover the source of joy in our lives.

I think anybody who has spent some time

around Christians in churches would say that

we have room to grow in the area of joy.

No, you know, perhaps if there were more joyful believers,

there would be fewer angry nonbelievers.

And this is a good challenge for us.

It's a good invitation to remember that the

the end product of bearing fruit, it is not

just, you know,

slog it out obedience.

There are moments in life where that's true, but that that in following,

in being connected to the vine and being connected to Christ,

not only do we produce fruit,

but that produces in us a complete joy.

Your joy may be made complete.

That's a it's just such an important message for all of us

as we try to be faithful and try to be faithful in the right ways as well.

I think the text we're going to read

tomorrow is a pivotal text, and I think it's a well remembered

command from Jesus himself, which has far reaching implications.

So I hope you'll join us for that conversation.

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And that being said, we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, everybody.