Preached at Markham Baptist Church, February 18, 2001

Today's text is John 15:1-17. If you were here last week you will remember that this is the same text we studied last week. But like a diamond mine there is much more to be gained as we dig deeper into the truth of this text, so we turn to it again this week.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 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 words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my diciples. 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 so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father."
(John 15:1-17) (NRSV)

You will remember that last week we learned that Christianity is all about our relationship with Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is not about a cause but about Christ. The Christian faith is not about programs but a person, the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is not about keeping regulations but nurturing a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We have seen how Jesus depicts that relationship as a vine and the branches. He is the vine and we are the branches; our relationship is to be that close, that intimate - as the branch to the vine.

We also discovered how Jesus depicts our heavenly Father as the gardener who is seeking to strengthen our relationship by pruning us, cutting away all those character traits that are unholy and ungodly so that we may bear more fruit, greater fruit.

I concluded the sermon with verse 5, "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."

With that one sentence Jesus establishes our inability to do anything in our own power and at the same time offers us all the power that we need to do anything.

Now I can tell you that within myself I don't like those words. "Them's fightin' words." You tell me that I can't do something with my own strength and my own ability - well that's exactly what I'll set out to do. I see this character trait duplicated in my children. Here is my daughter Nora with a board and some nails. She is carrying a hammer that appears to be twice her size and three times as heavy. She is going to hammer those nails into that wood. I say, "would you like some help; that hammer is too heavy for you, and that wood is pretty hard to try to drive nails through."

"No thanks daddy, I can do it myself," is the reply.

I say, "okay." In a few minutes she is at my side crying because she has hit her hand with the hammer.

It's a lesson we all need to learn in the Christian life. We cannot do anything without Christ in us. We cannot overcome the temptations of the world without Christ in us. We cannot overcome the trials of this world without Christ in us. We cannot reproduce a Christ-like character without Christ in us. We cannot share the gospel with any sort of effectiveness with our neighbours, friends or the world without Christ in us.

Now some of you, like myself, don't believe that. You may nod in agreement with these words of Christ - but deep down you believe that there are SOME Christians who can do nothing without Christ - but that's not true for you. That's not absolutely true for you.

O, please hear it, if you failed to hear it last week - we can do nothing without Christ.

If you don't believe that, you will strive to be holy, you will strive to evangelize, you will strive to please God, but in the end you will not have anything to show for it. The Christian life is an impossibility to you and to me. It is only possible as we recognize that apart from Christ we can do nothing. It is not until we recognize our own inherent poverty and bankruptcy, in order that we might live in utter and complete dependency upon Jesus Christ, that every-day life becomes supernatural. Where the only explanation for the way you live is that Christ is in you, that Christ is at work in you.

Now this morning I want us to think some more of the nature of our relationship with Jesus Christ. For in this passage there is a warning, "apart from me you can do nothing," but there is also an invitation - and the invitation is repeated over and over. Let me read the text again and see if you pick it up - just to the end of verse 11.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 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 words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my diciples. 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 so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
(John 15:1-11) (NRSV)

Did you catch it? 7 times in 11 verses. The phrase, "abide in me." Or if you have the New International version it reads, "remain in me." That's an invitation issued by our Lord to us, to remain in him, to reside in him, so that he can work in us and through us.

Now what does it mean to remain in Christ, or to abide in Christ? We can't take it out of the context in which Jesus uses it - so with an understanding of the relationship that exists between the branch and the vine, we get a picture of what it means to remain in Christ, to abide in him.

It means, first of all, rest in me. Indeed this is part of what Jesus is saying here. He is saying, rest in me and stop your striving to win God's favour. Just as a branch rests in the vine to reproduce its life through its veins, so we must rest in Christ. You see, we cannot win God's favour apart from him. There is no act of kindness that is good enough; there is no deed of mercy that is pure enough to win God's favour. God's standards are so high, so divine, that we will never be able to meet them. But there is one who has, who can and will, on our behalf - that person is Jesus Christ. And it is as we rest in him, as a branch rests in the vine, that we are saved.

In fact we don't even need to try to win God's favour because Christ has done all the work for us. We have nothing to claim before God.

I once heard Donald Carson preach here in Toronto. He is an excellent scholar and theologian. And he speaks the truth of the gospel with passion and vibrancy. And I remember hearing him say something that struck me right between the eyes. He said that when we come to the throne of grace we will not be able to claim any act of righteousness, or any good deed. Well I agreed with that; we all agree with that.

It's what he said next that struck me - he said looking at the crowd that had gathered, "many of you here believe that when you get to the throne of grace you will be able to make one claim that will win you a ticket into heaven."

I said to myself, "no. Not me."

He said, "it's true. Many of you Christians, when you meet God face-to-face, have your argument all planned out. When God asks you why he should let you into heaven you plan to tell him the date, the time and occasion when you fell on your knees and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, saying, 'I am worthy of eternal life because I accepted Christ.'"

But, says Scripture, it is by grace alone that you are saved. We have no merit - I cannot even claim MY ACT of acceptance of Jesus Christ. I must, you must, rest fully in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who met the full demands of the law and he died in our place. Jesus makes this exclusive claim about himself in verse 6, "whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned."

Abide in me; rest in me. Jesus says stop your striving to win God's favour. Jesus has already won it for us.

Abide in me also brings to mind trust. Jesus is not only saying rest in me and stop your striving, but trust in me and stop your struggling. Stop your struggling to be the good person you think you should be. Trust me to bring my life, my character, about in you. This is what Jesus is saying regarding the fruit. He says in verse 5, "those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit." That is, he will bear the character of Christ himself.

Now, note, nowhere does Jesus say that we are to work to produce fruit. We are not to produce it; we are to bear it. We're not in charge of the production of the fruit - production isn't our responsibility - Jesus Christ is the vine; he is in charge of the producing. As the branches we are to bear the fruit.

Let's think of the image of the vine and the branches again. Let's pretend for a moment that I could talk to a branch on a vine and the branch was able to talk to me. I approach the branch:

"Good day branch. Isn't it a wonderful day we are having?"

"You talking to me?"

"Why yes, I am. I saw you there and I just couldn't leaf you alone."

The branch doesn't appreciate my humour.

"Well, branch, why so grumpy? I see you don't have too many grapes on your branch. Perhaps you are grumpy because you are not doing what you were made for. You are not bearing much fruit."

"I know," says the branch. "All the other branches on the vine seem to be bearing so much more fruit - try as I might I cannot produce more fruit. I grunt and I struggle, and I try, but I cannot produce the fruit. I'm tuckered out."

And I say, "silly branch, if you ever listened to the garden show on CFRB Saturday mornings between 10 and 12 you would know that you are attached to a very strong vine. You would know that that vine has strong roots that sink deep into the soil, drinking up the nutrients that in turn course through the veins and feed the entire plant. And you would know that attached to those strong primary roots there are millions of tiny tendril roots that drink up the earth's moisture turning it into a life-giving sap that travels to the very tip of each branch. And you would know that the vine has leaves that reach up to the sunshine and pull its life-giving light into the body of the vine."

"Silly, silly branch, there is nothing that you need to strive to do, because you are part of the vine. The vine produces the fruit; the branch bears the fruit."

And so with the Christian. Jesus says, I appointed you to go and bear much fruit - don't try to produce the fruit. Jesus is the root that gives us our life; he is the stem that keeps us steady; he is the leaf that brings the sunshine; he is the vine. So let Jesus the vine produce the fruit. You only need to bear it.

Notice also that we are not responsible for the performance of the fruit. I don't know about you, but I find it much easier to perform than to remain. I like to get stuff done. Part of that has to do with the society we live in. We are constantly being evaluated by the bottom line, how much we have earned, how much we have saved, how much we have done, the contacts we have made. Our value in the world is often based on performance.

But it's not that way with God. I find it so refreshing, so liberating, to worship a God who does not base his love for me and you, his acceptance of me and you, on our performance. I love the picture of the waiting father in the parable we call the prodigal son. You know the end of the story - how the rebellious son comes home and how the father runs toward the son and welcomes him home. What had the son done to deserve that? Nothing! He had nothing to show for his time away from home, yet the father welcomed him home with a party.

So is God with us. We have done nothing, can do nothing. We are called to trust Jesus to reproduce his character in us.

Fruitfulness follows yieldedness.

So, what have we learned? Remain in me - it means rest in me and stop your striving to win God's favour. It means, trust in me and let me produce my character in you. It means also this: depend on me to be your strength.

Just as the vine depends on the branch to give it strength, so we must depend on Christ to be our strength.

Now, here is something I am in the process of learning - when you pray, do not ask God to give you strength. The truth is that if you are in Christ, just as a branch is in a vine, you have all the strength you need. The vine is the strength of the branch.

What does Scripture say? It says repeatedly, "the Lord is my strength." Now there's all the difference in the world between the Lord being my strength and the Lord giving me strength.

Exodus 15:2, Moses says, "the Lord is my strength and my song." Psalm 28, "the Lord is my strength and my shield." Psalm 118, "the Lord is my strength and my song, he is my salvation." Isaiah 12:15, "the Lord is my strength." Habakkuk 3:19, "the sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of the deer; he enables me to go to the heights."

He doesn't simply give us strength; he is our strength.

So I say again, the Christian life is an impossibility to you and to me. It is only possible as we recognize our own inherent poverty, bankruptcy, inability, and weakness - in order that we might live in complete and utter dependence upon God - that every-day life becomes super natural.

Where the only explanation for the way we live is that God is within us, that God is at work within us. That's why Jesus said, in Matthew 5, "let your light shine before men so that they see your good works." And then what did he say? "That they may pat you on the back?" No. "That they may make a video of your good works?" No. "Write a book about your good works?" No. "Ask you to come and tell us about your good works?" No. "Let your light shine before men so that they may praise your father who is in heaven."

Why praise your father when it's your good works? Because they recognize the origin of your good works is God, working through you and in you. As Paul said, in Philippians (2:13), "it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure."

Are you depending on Christ for your every decision? Are you depending on Christ to guide and direct your life? Are you depending on Christ? One way to show dependence upon Christ is prayer. It is as we pray and bring to God our thanksgiving, our adoration, our requests and our burdens, that we show that we are depending on him.

Hudson Taylor, that great missionary to China, speaks of how he spent the first 15 years in China utterly frustrated by his own failure to serve God effectively, to produce the fruit he felt God was asking of him.

He prayed; he agonized; he fasted; he tried to do better; he made resolutions. He read the Bible more carefully; he ordered his life to give more time for rest and mediation. But all this had little effect.

It was then that he discovered what he termed the exchanged life. As he wholly surrendered his life to Christ, Christ gave his life wholly to him. Now it was not what he could do for Christ, but what Christ could do through him.

It was as he meditated upon our text this morning that he found the secret to a fruitful life.

"How great seemed my mistake," he said, "in having wished to get the sap, the fullness out of him. I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of his body and that apart from him I could do nothing. The vine now, I see, is not the root merely, but all - root, stem branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit - and Jesus is not only that; he is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh the joy of seeing this truth."

Abide in me, says Jesus. To rest in him and stop our striving, to trust him and stop our struggling, to depend on him to be our strength, to obey him for he is, all we need. He is the soil and sunshine, the air and the showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed.

So we are invited this morning to rest in him and stop our striving, to trust him and stop our struggling, to depend on him to be our strength.