TO BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE (John 15:1-17 April 17, 2005)

Transcription

1 TO BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE (John 15:1-17 April 17, 2005) There is something about wine and doctors. Many if not most of the doctors I know have a climate controlled cellar in their house. Many collect wine and go on wine tours around the world. With one doctor I know the conversation always seems to get around to his passion wine. If you talk with him, he will tell you how several years earlier he and three friends decided to get into the wine business. They scoured the world to find exactly the right grape vines and later spent a massive amount of money buying the vine cuttings they wanted. They searched Australia to find the region they felt was best suited in terms of soil and climate to produce the right grapes. They settled on an area outside Orange in NSW. Having found the right place, they all poured in millions and millions of dollars big money and bought a piece of choice land perfect for growing grapes. They spared no expense clearing and preparing the land and putting in irrigation and planting the vines. They built a bed and breakfast and restaurant and hired the best managers and grape growers they could find. It is where he takes his family for their holidays. Although the vineyard is still young and the vines are still maturing, they are already producing $1.5 million dollars worth of grapes per year and that should only increase. They have used those grapes to produce boutique wines that have already won a number of wine industry awards. Talk to him and his face lights up with pride when he speaks of his wine. What a palate what a bouquet sweet, fresh nothing is as good. But, what if the story had a different ending? What if these four men poured in millions and millions of dollars found the choice land, provided the best irrigation and fertiliser, chose the best vines and hired the best farmers but then found themselves the pound owners of acres and acres of vines that produced only a few spindly grapes? All that nurture and love and care and little worthwhile fruit! What would they do? I ll tell you what they would do. Every fruitless branch would be pulled out. And every branch with poor fruit would be pruned and nurtured and encouraged to develop much fruit. 1

2 Their desire is for that vineyard to bear the choicest fruit and they will ensure that it happens. In the same way God s desire for us is that we become as spiritually fruitful as we can to be all that we can be for Him. If I had to sum up our passage this morning it would be like this. Because Jesus loves the Father and He loves us He desires that we be all that we can be. He desires that in terms of declaring Christ with our words and displaying Christ in our lives that we bear much fruit. On the last night of His life, Jesus passed His consuming passion Glorifying God as a sacred legacy to the church to continue. To fulfil that sacred legacy He empowered us with these blessings: 1. Love (for others) Your testimony to declare God s Glory 13: Life Your opportunity to declare God s Glory 13: Faith Your foundation to declare God s Glory 14: Prayer Your lifeline to declare God s Glory 14: Love (for Christ) Your motivation to declare God s Glory 14:15 6. Abiding Your power to declare God s Glory 14:16-15:17 This morning we finish the sixth blessing Abiding: Abiding Your power to declare God s Glory 14:16-15:17 We have seen that: His abiding empowers our faith 14:16-31 Now we will see that: His abiding empowers our fruit 15:1-17 And these verses are divided into two sections: Because Jesus loves the Father, He empowers us to bear much fruit. vv. 1-8 Because Jesus loves us, He empowers us to bear much fruit. vv First, because Jesus loves the Father, He empowers us to bear much fruit. vv. 1-8 Look at how this develops. John 15:1 I am the true vine. In John 14:34 Jesus said Get up, let us go from here. 2

3 When you get to John 18:1 Jesus and the disciples are crossing over the ravine of Kidron. So most likely when chapter 15 starts they are on their way from the upper room where they celebrated the last supper. Jerusalem was surrounded by vineyards so very likely, John 15 occurs in a vineyard. Jesus points to a vineyard and says I am the true vine. In John we find that there are 7 I AMs that point to Christ as the I AM. 7 I AM statements that show He is the I AM that He is God. This is the seventh and last I AM statement. I am the true vine. Israel was spoken of as a vine many times. In Hosea 10:1-2 God put it this way: But: Israel is a luxuriant vine. He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, The more altars he made; The richer his land, The better he made the sacred pillars. Their heart is faithless; Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars And destroy their sacred pillars. Israel was called a vine and the fruit Israel was expected to produce was to be a light to the nations proclaiming the glory of God and holiness to be holy like God. But Israel failed miserably. The nations were not saying the God of Israel is the true God. Instead Israel had adopted many of the gods of the nations. And instead of being holy Israel lived in the gutter. Now, centuries later, Jesus appears and says I am the true vine. Where Israel failed I will succeed. I will bring the light of the glory of God to the nations. I will produce good fruit. Because I love God, I will see Him glorified. And as we will see, the way Jesus produces fruit now is through believers. 3

4 He lives in us, abides in us and indwells us and the result is fruit. The end of verse 1 and verse 2: And My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. Christ is the true vine. There are branches that claim to be in Him but only some are truly in Him. And the way to tell is to look for fruit. The idea is that any branch that is truly in Christ connected to Him, being nourished by Him will bear fruit. There is no such thing as a fruitless Christian. Jesus came that we might bear fruit. If He is abiding in us we will produce fruit. His life will flow into the vine and it has to produce fruit. The picture is this. Imagine a balloon. You blow into it. That air goes in and it has to blow up. The nutrients the life of Christ is flowing into us it has to produce fruit. To understand this section, perhaps the key question to ask is what is this fruit in the lives of believers that will bring glory to God the Father? Some have said it is fruit in the sense of declaring Christ with our words a desire to share the gospel of Christ evangelistic fruit. Others have said that it is displaying Christ in our lives fruit in the sense of God working in the life of a believer to produce Christlike character. The fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol. Scripture uses fruit in both ways. And in the very passage we are looking at the fruit Jesus describes seems to be both declaring Christ with our words and displaying Christ in our lives. This whole Upper Room discourse has the underlying context of passing on the passion to declare the glory of God to the world. Earlier in this gospel, in John 4:36 Jesus is speaking of evangelism and says: Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal. Then in verse 16 He says: 4

5 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit. At the end of this chapter, verses 26 and 27 we read this: John 15:26-27: When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning. Those in Christ are to go into the world and witness of Jesus. So most certainly the emphasis on fruit in terms of declaring Christ with our words - witnessing evangelism leading others to acknowledge the glory of God through the Son is here. But, there is also the idea of displaying Christ in our lives godly character. Look at verse 12: This is my commandment, that you love one another. Obedience and selfless, sacrificial love for other Christians is a mark of Christlike character. So the fruit mentioned here is both declaring Christ with our words and displaying Christ in our lives. But, we must not forget that they are linked. One of the main ways we see evangelistic fruit is through the fruit of transformed lives displaying Christ in our lives. In John 13:35 Jesus said: By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. At homegroup recently we were sharing about how we came to the Lord. One of those there shared that as a teenager her parents came to Christ. And their lives were so transformed, so changed that the gospel they shared was empowered. It was a major factor in her conversion. So as we work through here, bear in mind that the fruit is both declaring Christ with our words and displaying Christ in our lives. And this whole section is saying that because Jesus loves the Father and us, He wants us to bear much fruit. However, the point of this section is that God isn t content to let us just bear a little fruit. Jesus died, He sent His Holy Spirit, He empowers us to bear much fruit. 5

6 So God the Father looks for fruit. Those branches that are fruitless they cannot be in Christ He takes them away. They might look like they are in Jesus for a time but finally they will be taken away disciplined, apostasy, sin or if they aren t removed in this life Jesus will declare to them I never knew you. But, those branches that bear some fruit those truly in Christ He prunes them that they might bear more fruit. What does this mean? Look at verse 3: You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. The word clean here is the same root word as prune. So the sense of is: Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He cleanses it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. In John 13 Jesus told the disciples that they were clean because they had trusted Him. Their sins were washed away. Jesus has already told them they are clean they are those He chose to be in Him. Now He wants them to know that God desires they bear much fruit. You cannot be saved and not bear fruit. Ephesians 2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. But neither God nor Jesus will be content to let the disciples or any who are in Christ bear just a small amount of fruit. God didn t save you and me just to bear a measly crop of fruit. He saved us and sent us into the world so that we bear much fruit. Jesus saved us for a purpose to bear much fruit to reach many lost, to show the love of God in our lives, that God might be glorified. So the idea here is this. The Father and the Son want us to bear much fruit. Anyone without fruit they are removed. 6

7 Anyone with some fruit they are pruned. God cleanses them so that they will bear more fruit. Jesus is not satisfied with us having the occasional prick of conscience to share the gospel. He wants it to be a regular and natural part of our life. Jesus is not satisfied with a little love, peace, joy, patience He wants to empower us to live in a way that shouts to the world that He lives in us. I am not very agriculturally minded. No let me rephrase that I am totally nonagricultural. But I do understand the concept of pruning. If you go home and plant a vine in your back yard and leave it to its own devices what happens? It grows and you get a bit of fruit and a lot of leaves. The vine grows leaves to gather sunlight and feed itself. It would rather pour energy into leaves than fruit. It takes the easy way. But, if you skilfully prune it back, cut off a lot of the leaves what happens? Much of the energy in the plant goes into producing fruit. The pruning leads to more fruit. This is a great analogy for Christians. Jesus left us here to produce much fruit. He wants us to dedicate ourselves to regularly declaring His glory in the world to seeing many lost men and women come to worship God. He wants us to grow in godliness. He wants our character transformed so that our light shines before men. Our growth in Christ is progressive. He takes us and cleans us. He shapes and hones our lives so that declaring the glory of God is a passion desiring to obey Christ and be like Him becomes a passion. A crucial verse to understand this is Philippians 2:12-13: So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Notice that we have to work out our salvation bear fruit but we can only do it because God is in us. Apart from Him we can do nothing. God prunes. We respond to the pruning and declare Christ with our words and display Christ in our lives. And He enables us to bear much fruit. How does God prune us? By reading the word. Through prayer. By sermons. Through the challenge of brothers in Christ. By reading the biographies of the saints. By the Spirit of God. 7

8 He works in us. We are pricked and challenged that we are here for more. Jesus didn t save us to just coast through life. He saved us to declare the glory of God. And He will work in us. But, notice that the pruning can only be successful if the branch is connected to the vine. Verses 4 and 5: Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. The branches that abide or remain in Christ will bear much fruit. He will prune us and we will bear much fruit. Because Christ is in us we will grow in grace and godliness and a desire to proclaim Him. The life of Christ flows into us and we bear His passion. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. Without His life we can t bear fruit. Apart from Him we can do nothing. We need Christ abiding in us. In chapter 14 we saw that we need His abiding for our faith. He opens our eyes to the truth of who He is and we believe. But now, in chapter 15 we see that we need His abiding for our fruit. He makes us like Him and He gives us the passion to proclaim Him. Brothers and sisters fruit is a miracle. We can t make ourselves godly. But we can call on Christ to help us grow in grace. We can t make ourselves long to proclaim Christ. But we can call on Christ to inflame that passion within us. Verse 6: If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. A fruitless Christian is an oxymoron. 8

9 There is no such creature as a Christian someone filled with Christ who slides through life without fruit. Without growing in grace and holiness without a care for souls without a passion for God s glory. It won t happen. Jesus is in us. If you are in Christ you will bear fruit. Because He loves the Father, He will empower us. But, this means that if there is no fruit it means He is not in that person. If there is no passion for souls, no growth in grace then how can Christ dwell in them? Brothers and sisters, this is a sobering verse. Jesus tells us that some think they are in Him but since they don t care for souls or the glory of God they don t belong to Him. Jesus says: If there is no fruit you cannot be My disciple. Depart from Me. No fruit and they are thrown into the fire and burned. This is judgment language. If they have no fruit they are not in Christ and if they are not in Christ they will face judgment in this life and the next. Verse 7: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. But if Christ is in you you will want to see God glorified by sinners repenting and your life moving to satisfaction in worshipping God. But we don t bear fruit through our own efforts. Apart from Him we can do nothing. It gives God the glory to produce the fruit in us. So we pray. We call on Christ, we ask for the divine help we need to grow godly and reach the world and bring glory to God. Then, verse 8, this crucial verse: My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Do you see the argument here? Jesus desires that God the Father be glorified. So He abides in us and causes us to bear much fruit. And this fruit proves we are in God. There is no such thing as a fruitless Christian. There is no such thing as a Christian who God is not pruning and shaping to bear more fruit. 9

10 If God is in you there will be fruit and this fruit proves you are a Christian. In verses 1-8 we have seen that because Jesus loves the Father, He empowers us to bear much fruit. Now in verses 9-17 we will see that because Jesus loves us, He empowers us to bear much fruit. We can understand why Jesus love for the Father leads Him to desire that we bear much fruit and glorify Him. But why does His love for us drive Him to encourage us to bear much fruit? Because this is where we find real joy and satisfaction. It is the best thing for us. Verses 9 and 10: Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also 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. Here is the argument. Jesus loves us. Because Jesus loves us He wants us to receive the blessings that come from obedience. So He tells us to remain in His love by keeping His commandments. Abide in My love. Remain in my love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love. For many this verse is a hard one to get their heads around. Jesus says if you want to abide or remain in My love you have to keep My commandments. But isn t the love of Jesus unconditional? Doesn t He love the disciples unconditionally? That depends on which love you are talking about. Don Carson says that Scripture speaks of the love of God in five distinct ways. Some are unconditional. Some are conditional. The electing love of God is unconditional He chose us for salvation not based on anything we do. But there are conditional loves. Jude 21 says: Keep yourselves in the love of God. 10

11 Here, in John 15, Jesus says if you keep My commandments, you will abide or remain in My love. This is speaking about the blessings that God sends for obedience. This language of blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience is found throughout the Old Testament. In a sense even the love of God for Jesus had a conditional element. Jesus obeyed and remained in the Father s love. If we want to remain in Jesus love we will keep His commandments. My love for my children is both unconditional and conditional. I have chosen to love them and nothing can change that. If they reject the faith and bring disrepute on God I will still love them. But, many of the blessings that flow from my love are conditional. If they obey me there is reward. If I tell them to clean their rooms and read their Bibles and feed the dog. If they don t do this I will still love them but I may not lash out on McDonalds for them. Their obedience shows that they love me and I respond with some blessing. This Wednesday is a big day for me. Heather turns thirteen. I am quite unsure I am ready to be the father of a teenager but that is beyond my control. However Heather knows that she is still my daughter and I have commandments and she knows she has to remain in my love. We have rules: Dress rules Internet rules TV rules Friend rules If Heather wants to remain in the love of Dad she will keep the rules. Why do I desire Heather remain in the love of Dad and keep my commandments? Because I am a puritanical ogre? No. Because I want what is best for her. I don t forbid her to talk to strangers in chat rooms because I a kill joy. I do it because I love her and want the best for her. And if she loves me she will trust me and obey me. Jesus wants what is best for us. 11

12 He wants us to abide in Him and bear much fruit not only: Because He loves the Father, but also because He loves us. What is the blessing that is ours for keeping His commandments and abiding in His love? Verse 11: These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. We were created in such a way that our joy is made full in obeying God. When we abide in Him and obey Him the result is joy. Jesus wants us to have joy His joy. He wants us to have the best. That is why His love for us drives Him to encourage us to produce much fruit. Verses 12-13: This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Jesus gave us the ultimate example of fruit obeying to the point of death. Dying for His friends for us. What type of character will bring us full joy? The sacrificial love for friends. But this type of love doesn t come from us it comes from Jesus abiding in us. Verses 14 and 15: You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. At first glance, this verse doesn t seem right. You are My friends if you do what I command you. If I said, Dave D Amour is my friend if he does what I command him it doesn t make much sense. It would make more sense to say Dave D Amour is my slave if he does what I command him. The problem is our understanding of friendship. We run into trouble when we try and impose a human understanding of friendship on our relationship with God. When I say 12

13 Dave D Amour and I are friends you think of a reciprocal friendship. I am His friend He is my friend. But when God is in the picture the equation changes. Scripture talks of men like Abraham and Moses as friends of God. Never is God spoken of as anyone s friend. He can choose to choose to treat someone as a friend. No one has the right to treat God as a friend in the sense of a mutual relationship. He is so far beyond us. We are God s friend He has chosen to relate to us in this way but this is not an equal relationship God is not our friend we don t choose Him as a friend. So who is it that Jesus chooses to have as friends? Jesus chooses as friends those who keep His commandments. Now understand the sequence here. It is not that keeping the commandments makes us saved and makes us friends. No! It is Jesus choosing us and saving us and empowering us to keep His commandments that shows we are saved and shows we are His friends. And as friends Jesus reveals His will to us. What is that will? Verse 16: You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. Jesus came to bring glory to God the Father. He has done that in His life and is about to do it in the cross. But then the flame passes to us. He chose us and appointed us to go and bear much fruit declaring Christ with our words and displaying Christ in our lives. And that He desires that fruit would remain and endure. So to this end He answers our prayers and helps us. And finally, because Jesus loves us and desires that we be all that we can be He finishes with these words verse 17: This I command you, that you love one another. God enables us to obey to show the world His power and in so doing we might enjoy every delight in Him. 13

14 But alone we can t do it. We can t love each other as Jesus loved us. That is why Jesus keeps saying ask God to help you bear fruit alone you can t do it but with God aiding you then you can work out your salvation in fear and trembling. Look the point of this passage is not unless you have the desire to proclaim Christ like a George Whitefield you aren t saved. The point is not that unless you display the Christian character of a Robert Murray M Cheyne you aren t saved. The final amount of fruit is up to God. The point is that every Christian will bear fruit because Jesus is in us. And because we love Him, we will desire to obey Him. We will work with Him. We will ask Him to help us bear more fruit. And because He loves us He desires to empower us to bear much fruit. And the result is God is glorified and we receive the blessings of obedience. I love my children. Nothing can alter that. I look at them and see so much potential. They can be far greater for the kingdom than anything I have done. I can t enable them to fulfil that potential but I know who can. I would be terribly disappointed if they walked away from the Lord and lived a life where they were satisfied with a spouse, a house and a dog. Because I love them and want the best for them I discipline them, I command them, I encourage them, I meet their needs, I guide them and shape them and pray that they would be all that they can be for Jesus. That is Jesus desire for you. Because He loves the Father, He empowers you to bear much fruit. Because He loves you, He empowers you to bear much fruit. 14