MK040 Sermons
Staying Connected with Jesus (Audio)
Well, it's great to be back with you this morning and to share God's word with you. Wednesday morning I will get on the train in Elizabethtown and travel to the airport in Newark and I'll fly to Mumbai and then from there I'll spend a month in India. What I do primarily is I work with pastors and I foster the unity of the body of Christ in the geographic region. So I'll be in the city of Pune which is one of my locations. I've been there probably this will be my eleventh time in this city and we'll go off from the city with a group of pastors, we'll pray together, seek God together, we'll give opportunity for pastors to confess their sins to one another, their struggles with one another because it's really in our humility. It's really in the place of our brokenness that we find our common unity. We think that if I share with you all of my good things that that will actually bring about unity but that's not true. What really brings about unity is me telling you I'm broken. I'm a sinner, I struggle. And you go, oh, me too, because that's really our commonness is we're struggleers, common struggleers. And then that place God meets us and God says we're brothers and we're sisters. We all find our commonality and the love of God for us and our forgiveness and one of the things that we do after that confession is we quite often take communion and the whole room changes that night, the countenance on the faces of the pastors changes. There are smiles on faces like there wasn't when we started our gathering but because of their ability to be real and that's really what small group, let me give a little plug for small groups as well, that's what small groups are about. Sometimes we come to small groups and we come with our chairs really turned away from each other though we're sitting in a circle but what we really need to do is we really need to turn towards each other and say this is my struggle, this is what I'm wrestling with, this is my pain because in there we can truly meet one another and God can truly meet us. And so then the question is how can we go back into the city and serve the city together as pastors? How can the church work as one? I have become an advocate for John 17 where Jesus prays that the church would be one, we would be one, so that the world would believe that the Father sent the Son, we don't need better evangelistic tools, we need to be one, we need to love one another. And so that's really what I do in India, I'll be in Pune, I'll be in Central India, I'll be in the northeast all the way around by Bangladesh, I'll be down in the south, I'll be in several different places. And one of the things that I was thinking about and I'm glad John asked me to share just a couple of moments about this is if you would pray for me I'd greatly appreciate it. Because over the years I've gone as a pastor of a congregation I had a congregation praying for me as I've gone and this year I don't go as a pastor of a congregation, I have a team of people that are praying for me but I don't have a congregation praying for me. So if you would be willing to pray for me I would really appreciate it, I really want to go as an ambassador of a congregation, not merely some independent going out there by myself individual because that's not what I'm about, I'm about being a part of the body of Christ and so I would greatly appreciate your prayers. I'm glad to be able to step in and to serve John and to serve you and to serve the Lord this morning by bringing God's Word. And this morning I'm going to talk out of John chapter 15 and it was interesting I don't know if John got the message that I was going to be preaching before he got the music together or not but the first two songs were about joy this morning and that's where I'm going to end this morning is I'm going to end where Jesus says I have spoken these things to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made complete. Jesus desires for you and me to be a people who experience joy in our lives but there's a struggle for us as we live our lives is to experiencing that joy because sometimes or so often we attach our joy to our circumstances that if the circumstances are correct then I can't have joy but if the circumstances are difficult if the circumstances are painful if the circumstances are one of suffering then our joy seems to be robbed from us but Jesus doesn't say that it's a matter of our circumstances that enables us and empowers us to have joy. And so we'll get there at the end of the message this morning. Now I'm going to ask you to do something different than you might quite often be asked to do is that when I open the Scripture and read it we often say now take your Bibles and open the Scriptures and it's going to be up on the screen or however we do it you know I'm going to ask you to close your eyes because I want you to experience the board as opposed to looking at each word I want you to hear God speak to you this morning as I read the word and then to have him speak to you as I open up what I believe he's saying to us so just shut your eyes this is how the early church would have heard it actually they didn't have a Bible they would be listening and Jesus is speaking and he says I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you abide in me and I in you as a 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 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 if you abide in me and my word abides in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples just as the father has loved me 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 these things I've spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full God desires for our joy to be made full let's pray Lord we come before you and we first acknowledge that you are present with us that you are not up there out there somewhere but you are right here you're fully present and Lord we want to enter into the intimacy of your presence with us as we're gathered as your people and Lord I come and I ask you to help me to bring forth your word to these your people so Lord as I am a sinful man and God it's only by your grace that you are forgiveness that I can open up this word and that you can speak through me and these people can hear you and Lord I pray that they hear you and I pray O God that as we hear you that we would repent and we would turn afresh to you and embrace you in all the fullness of who you are in Jesus name amen Jesus begins here with the words I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser you could probably preach a whole sermon on that one verse I am that's a declarative statement it's a word that that Jesus speaks in relation to tying him back to the God who met Moses at the burning bush when Moses asked if the people ask who should I say sent me to them God answered I am who I am and Jesus is pointing out here in a very bold statement that I am that one who was in the bush this spoke to Moses I am God I am Yahweh I am the true vine I am the real vine the authentic vine that says that there's can be false vines that there can be vines that we can attach our lives to that that will not bear fruit that will not bear the kind of life that God has intended for us to experience and to know as we work and walk with him it's a call to attach ourselves to the true vine to the one who gives life it's interesting that here he says that I am the true vine and to attach ourselves to him is life you know in the garden of Eden there were two trees in the center of the garden now we only usually talk about one tree which tree is that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and not the one we always talk about what was the other tree the tree of life so Adam and Eve were alive but there was also a tree of life that they could partake of in that garden and who is that tree of life he was Jesus Christ I believe right there in the garden that from the very beginning Jesus isn't the second option or the option as a result of the fall but Jesus was the option right there in the garden that in order for us to have authentic life it was there in the garden for us to partake of but Adam and Eve said no will partake of the knowledge of good and evil because then we'll know and will be like God and yet he was invited to partake of God himself in Jesus Christ in the garden you see the tree throughout the scriptures there's all these symbolism when Moses takes the rod at what's it made of it's made of wood what does it do it opens the pathway to life when Moses or when Noah gets into what kind of a boat it was a boat made of wood the symbol of life when their water was spoiled and there was the symbol of life is that the branch was laid into that symbol and all those are symbolic of Christ and the cross who gives us life and Jesus says I am the true vine in the Old Testament Israel was illustrated as the vine and Jesus says yes Israel was it vine was a representation of who I am the true vine the authentic vine the real vine I am the true vine and he says and my father is the vine dresser and there's a relationship between the vine and the vine dresser Jesus needs the vine dresser in order for the father to fulfill his plan he needs the vine and so he cultivates so there's a there's a synergistic relationship between the vine and the vine dresser they're better together they present more together than they do as they bring their individual parts to one another and so they are together working with one another and he says and he's my father now that's a term that that wasn't used in the Old Testament to describe God and the relationship and Jesus says it my father my father is the vine dresser how do we often see God how do you often see God oftentimes we see God first and foremost most people see him as what judge judge it's a judicial relationship Jesus transforms all of that for us he says that if you want to know the Old Testament if you want to know understand God look at me and I call God father and he says to us in the Lord's for our father that he invites us into calling God our father to being in relationship with him as father that's God's design from the very beginning that you know God as father not a judicial relationship but a familial relationship God's heart towards you is as a father now does a father judge yes he judges but his judgment is under the relationship his father to children and that's our relationship with God his father it's different than a judge if I was to sit as a judge I would judge differently than as a father because I the intimate relationship with my sons and my daughter so there's this relationship between the father and the son there's a mutuality of the relationship between the father and Jesus and then he says 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 now we read the first part of that verse and we struggle with it I struggle with it every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes it away in me he takes away we get into salvation can you lose your salvation if I don't bear fruit what is fruit what do I have to do to to keep my salvation those are the questions that start to wrangle up again up inside of us and it's a good question to ask it's that we wrestle with this now there are two ways of looking at this every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away I was reading Bruce Wilkerson's little book the true vine he's more famous for his book J. Bass prayer or the prayer of J. Bass but in his book the true vine he says this word he takes away can also be translated he lifts up and what he says in the book is he says that that the vines in the days of Israel were on the ground now we have stakes today we put them our grape vines up on stakes and we have wires that run across them and we wrap the vines around the the stakes but in the days of Israel in the days when Jesus was writing here that what they did is that when they were growing their grapes they would take stones and they would put them under the vines and when those stones got down into the water when it was muddy they would take the stones and place them under the vines so they would be clean and they would be outside of that dirty water that would destroy them and what he's saying it's the act of love here of a father he says it's an act of love of lifting those vines up so that they can grow and become what he wants them to become he says when you're when you're not bearing fruit the father doesn't hack you off but the father lifts you up so that you can grow and produce the fruit you want to become I like that it's a much easier understanding but I think we also need to say well what does it mean if he takes us away he says the father's care is there it's like the father who loves his son and cares and loves and works with him and works with him and the son says I don't want it though you're in me you don't want it the father says to the prodigal son then go then go if you want to go go I'll let you go because that's what love does love let you go if you don't want to walk in the family then I'm going to let you go it's your choice I love you my heart towards you has not changed but you can go and so we can live with the tension of these words themselves now we have to ask the question when he says well every tree that doesn't every tree that does not bear fruit he takes away and those that bear fruit he prunes what is fruit what does it mean to to bear fruit so often we hear that it's to are we used to hear anyway when I was a kid that you had it was about evangelism that to bear fruit was about winning souls that it that if I'm going to be a good follower of Jesus Christ I had to be winning souls then I'm looking gosh god I don't qualify I lived in a city where two percent of the people attended church on a Sunday morning it was hard to leave people to Jesus Christ I probably let a handful of people in over many many years to Jesus Christ I'm not very fruit bearing according to this passage if I read it that way then I was sitting with a friend of mine very early on in my seminary days and he began to show me what fruit was you see you got to go back to John chapter 13 verses 34 and 35 John chapter 13 verses 34 and 35 Jesus says a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another Jesus speaks these words in the upper room and he and he says this is the new command that I give to you that you love one another and after he gets done saying these words he gets interrupted one of the disciples asked a question he doesn't go on and explain it he just gets asked a question after that Simon Peters the first one erupt that was normal Peter was that was kind of his role was to interrupt Jesus to to get in the way of what Jesus might really be trying to accomplish and after Peter interrupts Jesus then then Thomas asks a question in verse 14 and then Philip asks a question in verse 14 and so there's this dialogue that goes on this happens in sermons all the time we start chasing rabbits and or we're in a conversation somebody asked a question and all of a sudden we're off the trail of what we want to get to and so that's what's happening here is people are asking questions Peter Thomas Philip are asking questions and Jesus is answering those questions and Judas who's not as scary at down there later in verse chapter 14 ask a question and so it's not until we get back to John chapter 15 when Jesus again is if we can use this we're in control of the conversation that he gets back to what he wants to talk about because remember it was if you are just my disciples you will love one another well if we go down further in verse 8 of chapter 15 he says my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples how do you prove to be a disciple by bearing fruit how did you prove to be a disciple in John chapter 13 by loving one another and so Jesus finally gets back to the subject that he wants to get back to is that what we are to bear fruit what we are to do with our lives is we are to love one another doesn't that relate to what Jesus said the great commandment is that the greatest commandment is this that you love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself Paul writes in Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23 that this is the fruit of the spirit love joy and I believe it's love and then joy piece patience all those other eight are really examples of love expressions of love that there's only one fruit authentic fruit and then in Matthew's gospel when the people come to John to be baptized he says go and bear much fruit go and bear fruit of your baptism what was it it was the way you treated other people and so throughout the scripture fruit is an expression of love and so Jesus is saying to us that we are to bear love in our lives and those that are bearing love those that are expressing love he prunes why does he prune so that we'll love more and pruning isn't a fun example now when I was a young man I young pastor I became a pastor of a church when I was 25 years old way too young today I'll tell you because there's so it's so different than it was back then but I thought I loved people or I pretended I loved people but I to be honest I didn't and let me tell you I still don't love like I should I still don't love like I should loves hard loving my wife is hard not because of her but because of me loving my children is hard not because of them but because of me loving my grandchildren is hard not because of them well sometimes because of them but more because of me because of what's going on in my life what's going on in the deep recesses of my soul and so God keeps pruning it's painful you know as a young man it's when I was sitting counseling sessions with with younger Christians broken Christian Christians that didn't have the privilege of going up in a Christian home like I did and hearing their stories the pain that they had walked through the suffering that began to have a greater heart of love and the Lord was gracious and as he began to to show this to me he also began to reveal to me not the outward shell of who I was because I was pretty good outwardly but he began to open up the inward recesses of my heart and I began to see the ugliness of my own heart the selfishness the pride the lust and I began to see that God I needed God's grace and God's mercy as much as anybody else didn't really understand it but what it gave me is a heart that grew in love for people you know as I see people struggling with sin I can embrace them why because I know my own struggle with sin my own struggle with temptation I was sitting with one of my associate pastors one day and you know I think I shared this last time in the here that my struggle is is wanting the approval of people and he says well why don't you just stop it I would if I could I wanted to turn to him I wanted to this by wanting you know my wanting to be nice and having people were seeing me I didn't say it to him but what I should say to him why don't you stop doing and whatever he was doing all of us was stop doing it if we could but we're bound by the passions of our life and by the temptation that Satan brings upon us and so God allows us to see those things and they're hurtful and they're painful but what do they do they enable us to love people the greater heart of compassion forgiveness and mercy who am I to judge who am I to judge another person and Jesus says in verse three you were already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you that again relates back to to John chapter 13 when Jesus is in the upper room and he and he shares the the Lord's Supper the Eucharist with the with the disciples in that upper room and he speaks a word from me he says you were clean not all of you who wasn't clean Simon wasn't clean says but because of the word that I've spoken to you you were clean and he says in verse four 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 Jesus says here that here's the way to bear fruit abide in me and I in you for me that's that's not a metaphor that's not a picture that's a living reality that my life abides in Christ and Christ abides in me that's the reality I can't understand it I can't explain it it's by faith that I say I am living in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is living in me how can that be how can I be in him and him be in me how can you know because isn't it that one is inside the other it can't and you can't have the other one inside the other one if the one is inside the other one there's only one who can be inside I mean if we have to explain it that's what we get to it's paradoxical I don't need to explain it I need to live in to it I lived need to live into it by faith that Christ lives in me and I live in him that my life is hidden with God in Christ Jesus can I explain that no that I am already seated in heavenly places oh I'm standing up here in in the auditorium this morning how can it be that I am already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus how can that be it's a mystery it's paradoxical why is it so paradoxical because Jesus Christ himself is paradoxical he is God he is man how can he be God and how can he be man I don't know it's paradoxical but it's both are true he is man he is God he is one oh sounds a little bit like the Trinity we have the Father we have the Son we have the Holy Spirit they're three but they're one how can that be it's paradoxical and if Jesus Christ is in all then we should expect paradox everywhere we look in life you know these arguments we have over theology free will predestination lose your salvation keep your salvation faith works all these things they're all in the scriptures we like to divide them out we like to choose one because then we can explain it our faith is not about explanation it's about faith it's about living into the realities and so we see paradox in these things why because Jesus himself is paradox if you see in the movie the good lie no I haven't seen that one you have to see that one it's on HBO I think right now if you get that on your TV it's it's about a some Christian Africans who come to the United States and the one brother ends up going back to Africa giving his passport to his brother and let's his brother come to the United States and that's with the good that's the good lie and we would say well how can a lie be good it's paradoxical God is paradox and so I abide in him and he abides in me and through that relationship I can bear fruit and unless you abide in the vine you can do nothing you can do nothing you can't love you can't bear fruit you can't love without abiding in Jesus Christ you can't why you can you can you can try you can do good things but it's always going to be motivated by a selfish desire as well it's going to be it's going to be motivated by by what you can get as well again I was sitting with the young pastor who took over as pastor of the church that I I passed her for years and and we were sitting one day and he said to me he said Bill have you ever done anything with a pure motive I didn't take a long no no I've never done anything in my life with a pure motive it's always been mixed that's the brokenness of my humanity that still remains in me that God is working on that God is removing that God is that I'm dying to so that I can love authentically so that I don't have to look at what am I going to get out of it but I can look fully at what someone else is going to get out of it so that I have that mind of Christ living and dwelling in me whoa would be that kind of person if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away verse six as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned there's not love because there's no relationship with Jesus Christ it's not like the father says oh boy I get to go get him and burn him now but the father cannot work with them the father can invite them embrace them into the relationship of love because they've rejected love they've rejected his love they've rejected the love of others and so the relationship is broken it is lost but he says if you abide in me and my word abides in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you whoo-hoo we can ask anything we want we're going to get it no if you abide in me now what's going to happen if you abide in Christ is you're going to what have love and so what's your heart always going to be focused on it's always going to be focused on others not yourself so if i'm abiding in Christ my focus is always on others thinking of others more highly than myself and then when I pray who am I going to be praying I'm going to be praying their best and because I'm going to be listening to God and embracing and expressing his words very words back to him of what his will is but it begins with abiding in Christ if you abide in me and my word abides in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you verse eight my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit how is God glorified he's glorified by you bearing much fruit by you loving by you loving loving one another that's what happens in the small group that's what happens in the workplace that's what happens in your neighborhood everywhere you go you just being that loving person what happened when when the early Christians began to love one another and care for one another the world said what oh how they love one another so world's saying that about the church today are your neighbors saying that about you are the people in your workplace saying that about you are you running to the workplace and saying let me tell you how my church has loved me this week are you going to your neighbor and saying let me tell you how my church loved me this week no we go to our people and say you know what you need to know Jesus Christ no what we need to be telling is how my church family is loving me wow oh how they love one another and this is how they'll know that we are his disciples if we love one another he doesn't say they'll know we're disciples by what we preach at them he says they'll know that we are his disciples by our love for one another how we treat one another that the church ought to be such a different community than the community out there that does not know Christ that the world is in awe of the church that those that have lived and broken families those that have suffered the pain of fathers who have left homes that those that have suffered the pain of seeing their families ripped apart by divorce look into the church and say there's real love there's something authentic there's something that i want to be a part of it has to flow through you and it has to flow through me it begins with us as persons persons abiding in Jesus Christ that's the foundation for this love is us abiding being constantly aware of the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives but i'm so easily distracted i can turn on the tv and i can watch a football game for hours and not think about Christ i can go out and i can play golf and i can enjoy that and not think about Christ i became consumed in my own head with my own desires and passion that i not think about Christ and i failed to abide constantly with the presence of Jesus Christ in my life and that's the goal of my life is to abide in Jesus Christ at all times because that is salvation a relationship in union with Jesus Christ constantly living in his wonderful presence and abiding in him i'm running to your arms i'm running to your arms how often i'm running away from his arms in my life because i'm distracted by the things the world rather than bringing him into every sphere every relationship of my life constantly being aware of his presence just as a father has loved me i have also loved you what is the relationship between the love of the father and the son it's perfect the father is constantly pouring out for the son and the son is constantly pouring out for the father they're living in this mutual love feast with one another that's who our god is that's why there's a trinity and not a unitarian god because he's a god of relationship he's living in this beautiful union with himself and he says oh i want to create man i want to create man because i want him to enter into this relationship this union of love that i am experiencing within myself as father's son holy spirit i want you to come in and i want you to come in through jesus christ by the holy spirit into the trinity whoa isn't that with jesus praise in john chapter 17 that we would be one with him not that we get to be part of the trinity not that we become god ourselves but in christ by the holy spirit the fullness of god dwells within us paul says that we take on the divine nature peter says not in ourselves but in christ by the holy spirit so he invites us to take on this love and if you want to know the love of jesus christ just look at the cross and reblack be said in his book experiencing god just look at the cross just keep your eye on the cross when you wonder about god's love and i wonder every day i got to keep looking at the cross and abiding in him and he says 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 how many of you like commandments you go yeah commandments baby i love them we reject them again because we look at it from a judicial perspective rather than a relational perspective i was i was thinking one day about this i i was going through a list of sometimes in prayer i use a list and i was going through the alphabet to declare who god was you know a god you're awesome i you're you're adoring you know all these things and bc i got to d and i'm thinking d d god you're demanding and i went through that for a while and then i go i think the holy spirit said whoa whoa where does it say i'm demanding well the command no no no no no so i went back and i looked at the word command what is the first part of the word command this is true in the greek and in the hebrew as well come come what is come it's invitation come is invitation god isn't demanding of us he's inviting us to join him in his mandate in the world of expressing the love everywhere we go isn't that beautiful man it changed my whole thinking it changed my my whole grasp on who god is you know because i looked at these words and in the old testament that ten commandments excuse me man and i was thinking i got to do these things no god is saying come and join me in my mandate by doing these things come because i love you i'm giving you these things because i love you not because i demand something of you but i'm inviting you into this awesome relationship with me it's about relationship command commandments and obedience are relational not judicial obedience is relational it's expression of love jesus said in john chapter 14 verse 15 if you love me you will keep my commandments i see they're checking the clock i must be over time am i over time okay i'm gonna wrap it up here real quick because we're getting to joy here we go um it's relational it's relational obedience is relational if you love me you will keep my commandments if you'll buy it in me you'll keep my commandments it's relational we need to understand that our god is first and foremost a relational god of love who is inviting us into this glorious command with him then he's this relationship with him and the way that we express our love is through obedience then it says in 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 how is our joy may be made full by keeping commandments through obedience through living into the expression of this union with god is the experience of joy it's through relationship that obedience is the opportunity to give expression of the union of my life with god's life it's the physical expression the physical application of the union that is present in my life are you following me there did you get it so when you're saying when you're obeying god you're saying to god i love you oh if we get parents could grasp this and get it with our children that the release and that i'm inviting you into obedience with me is because it's an opportunity for you to express love and as the one giving the command my command is in a command of love it is for your good now all of his parents know that our children don't understand it they think our commands are because we like to control and we push that off to god too that he just likes to control no our commands as parents and the commands of god are all loving and relational and when we obey there is authentic joy and i'm not sure i even know how to interpret explain joy i i you know it just is it just is it's just a sense of wholeness a sense of completeness a sense of peace i mean i have to use all the other words to describe joy it's a sense of settledness it's not that i'm happy oh there is a sense of happiness to it but it's not happiness it's a sense of fullness it's that well that rises up in my soul as that old song says that joy that that springs up in my my soul can't explain it just is and god wants you to experience that but it begins with abiding in him and abiding in him leads to obedience of his commands and obedience is the fruit of it the fruit of it is joy let's pray the lord we thank you that that there is joy for us and god even though we can't put our finger on what it is we know it when we have it we thank you father that circumstances don't have to determine our joy the lord our obedience is what does lord i pray that you would seal in the hearts of each person here what you want them to take home today god you would refresh in them what you want to refresh in jesus name amen