December 7, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God Sustains Us"

John 15:1-7

"I Am the True Vine"

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – Donald Grey Barnhouse writes, In Hampton Court near London, there is a grapevine under glass; it is about 1,000 years old and has but one root which is at least two feet thick. Some of the branches are 200 feet long. Because of skillful cutting and pruning, the vine produces several tons of grapes each year. Even though some of the smaller branches are 200 feet from the main stem, they bear much fruit because they are joined to the vine and allow the life of the vine to flow through them. The same is true of the true vine –Jesus Christ (as cited on SermonCentral.com).
    2. Context – This concept of Jesus as our true vine is a hard one to get a grip on. We like the nice sounding theology of it, but how do we remain in Him? How do we draw strength and nourishment from the Vine? Let’s read that passage together and learn how we’re supposed to remain in Him.
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. John 15:1-7 (from the New Living) – (NEW SLIDE) "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. (NEW SLIDE) 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. 5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. (NEW SLIDE) 6 Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!"
  1. Feeding from the Vine
    1. Larry Richards, in The Teacher’s Commentary, comments on this passage: In any living vine the function of a branch is to bear fruit. But it cannot fulfill its purpose unless it remains in intimate connection with the vine. Without that intimate "remaining in Me" relationship, it will never accomplish what it was designed for. How empty will the life of a Christian who fails to remain in Jesus be? As empty as that of a branch torn from the vine; it has no potential for fruit bearing. Its only use would be to serve as fuel to provide momentary warmth; then it must disintegrate into ash. The warning is clear. We cannot become what we are intended to be without having a close relationship with Jesus, with our love for Him expressed in obedience to Him. How tragic if you or I, branches now, fail to experience the joy that comes as we fulfill our potential for bearing fruit. How tragic if, after life is over, we can point to nothing but ashes. But this paragraph is not meant to depress us. It’s meant to excite us and to give us joy. Because we are branches, we can draw life from Jesus the Vine! What we cannot do by ourselves, Jesus can accomplish in us! The fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control—all these are possible now. As we live in Him, we will become fruitful. As we remain in Jesus, we will become the kind of people who can make the new community a reality here on earth. (Richards, Lawrence O., The Teacher’s Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books) 1987.)
    2. Richards does an excellent job explaining the plain meaning of this passage –remaining in Christ enables us to bear fruit and to be transformed into His likeness. That’s one of the foundational truths of the Bible, and one of the greatest promises we’ve ever heard. It gives us a kind of a warm fuzzy to know that we can bear fruit for Christ and become more like Him. It’s gives us hope. But if all we do is feel good about the promise and never partake of the promise itself, we’re in bad shape. We miss out on the best part of the promise – its fulfillment in our hearts and lives. It’d be kind of like waiting and waiting for Christmas to come and then just staring at the beautifully wrapped packages and never opening them up. The gift-wrap of God’s promise is sweet, but the fulfillment of the promise itself in our lives is far sweeter! So how do we remain in Christ? What specifically can we do?
    3. Richards pointed out that remaining in Jesus, or abiding as some translations put it, means staying in continual intimate relationship with Him. The Message translates verse four, "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you." Making our home in Jesus, allowing the core of who we are as individuals and as a church to be in His hands completely, is what He is asking of us. That’s how we bear fruit. That’s how we become like Jesus. (NEW SLIDE) And the only way to live in Him, to remain in intimate relationship with Him, is to spend time with Him in prayer. There is simply no other way.
    4. I’m going to be honest with you. I did not start out for this sermon to be a prayer sermon. I anticipated that prayer would be a part of it because it is a part of remaining in Him. But I know that prayer is part of most of my sermons, and I don’t want to harp on it, and I know that there are other components to remaining in Christ such as Bible reading and study, fellowship with other Christians, Scripture memorization, and accountability. Much to my dismay, due to the fact that this is God’s sermon and that I am called to follow where He leads, I felt His strong urging to talk about prayer this morning as the chief if not only means of remaining in Him.
    5. Tuesday Kim and I went to a meeting up at the conference grounds. On the way back we stopped at Kaiser to have our blood pressure checked and to pick up some drugs. While we were waiting at the pharmacy we saw Bud Tusant, a retired elder in our conference and a member of Salem Evangelical. Now keep in mind that they just moved into their new thousand seat sanctuary about six weeks ago. When I asked him how things were going there, he said, "You wouldn’t believe what God is doing." He went on to say that they are now running between thirteen and fourteen hundred. He said seekers are coming to their church and coming to Christ. A seventy-seven-year-old man and his wife who had never been to church before came to Christ. Then he said, "You know what’s making all this happen?" I already knew the answer before he said it, and you know the answer, too. He said, "Prayer. Our Sunday evening prayer time is the most important thing we do, and we do it before we do any other Sunday evening activities. (NEW SLIDE) Prayer comes before programs."
    6. Know what’s really sad? Before I really thought about what Bud said I have to admit I felt a little professional jealousy. Why should things be going so well there and their church be growing by leaps and bounds when we work hard here, too? But the truth hit me between the eyes – we’re where we are at because we do not pray. Now I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I am not trying to beat us up or make us feel bad. And I’m not trying to make light of the many great things God has done and is still doing among us. What I want to do is open our eyes to the possibilities of what remaining in Christ as a church can do for us.
    7. (NEW SLIDE) What Jesus requires of us as a church is to recognize our total dependence on Him. "Apart from me you can do nothing." A literal translation from the Greek reads, "separate of me not have power to make or do nothing." That means that anything we do in and of our own strength amounts to nothing for His kingdom, but everything we do by His power and His enabling because we are connected to the True Vine will amount to something significant. There is a direct correlation between dependence and power. What is our primary way to demonstrate our dependence on Him? Prayer. What is our primary way to remain in Him? Prayer. What is our primary way to allow Him to remain in us? Prayer. We as a church have got to pray, and pray together if we’re going to see God’s power poured out on our church. The life of our church, the vitality of our church, and ultimately the success of our church by God’s standards, depend on whether or not we pray as a church.
    8. There are lots of ways for us to pray as a church. (NEW SLIDE) Prayer meetings do not mean that we sit around mumbling half-felt words while trying to keep from snoring and falling off of our chairs. I’ve been to a few prayer meetings like that, but that’s not a true prayer meeting. What happens at a true prayer meeting, one where connection to the life-giving Vine takes place? Here are some possibilities that will help us understand that meeting together for prayer is anything but boring. Spontaneous singing throughout the prayer time. Planned or spontaneous reading of Scripture. Weeping and crying out to God. Laying hands on and praying for those in need. Everyone praying out loud at once about the same things. Everyone praying quietly by themselves in their seats or at the altars. Taking turns praying for known needs. Praying for people who don’t know Jesus. Prayer-walking the building or property. Prayers of praise. Prayers of thanksgiving. Prayers of confession. Prayers of worship. Prayers of consecration, of setting ourselves aside for God’s plans and purposes. Does a prayer meeting that includes some or all of these things sound boring to you? Not to me. I’m sure that many of us in this room have been in prayer meetings like that. (NEW SLIDE) How we do it is not the important issue, because the possibilities of appropriate prayer to God are almost limitless. The fact that we gather together to pray is the most important issue.
    9. So why do all this? Why put forth the effort to come out on a Saturday or Sunday evening or Thursday morning and pray? The pay-off is in verse seven: "But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!" Or as The Message puts it: (NEW SLIDE) "But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon." If we as a church will remain in Him by praying together fervently and consistently, and if we as a church allow Him to build His truth into our hearts and lives to the extent that it colors everything we do and every decision we make, then look out! Our desires will be for His kingdom and His glory, and our prayers will be for His kingdom and His glory, and He will do whatever we pray for. That’s powerful news! I’m not talking about prosperity theology here, naming it and claiming it. I’m talking about having such a heart for God and like God’s that everything we pray is in line with His will. (NEW SLIDE) God delights in doing His will, and God delights in us when we pray according to His will, so He delights in answering our prayers that are according to His will. If we remain in Him as a church and if we allow Him to build His truth into our hearts and lives, we will see a miraculous outpouring of His Spirit like Salem Evangelical is experiencing.
    10. Now I’m probably like a lot of you – the thought of being part of a church that big isn’t that appealing right now. And I’m not saying that our church will ever get anywhere near that big. We will grow as people come to know Christ and become His disciples through the ministry of our church, but size is irrelevant. It’s up to God how big He wants to grow our church. It’s up to us to decide whether or not we as a church will remain in Him and allow Him to remain in us. It’s up to us to decide whether or not we as a church are going to enable His Spirit to be poured out on us and miraculously transform lives all around us. It’s up to us to decide whether or not we as a church are going to pray.
    11. Illustration – Steve Winger writes, On a recent ski trip, I saw to my surprise a blind person skiing. The blind skier, wearing a bright pink vest, stayed directly behind an instructor, listening for directions on how and when to turn. Over the next several days I saw many blind skiers, invariably following the person who gave them the information they needed to make it safely down the mountain. Remaining, or abiding, in Jesus means following him in the same way (as cited in PreachingToday.com). Prayer is our ticket to remaining in Jesus so that we will see His Spirit poured out on our church. Will we choose to do it? Will we choose to open up that package instead of just looking at the pretty wrapping paper?
    12. Illustration - Brent Curtis, in The Sacred Romance, writes, If I'm not abiding in Jesus, then where is it that I abide? I once asked myself. I began to notice that when I was tired or anxious, there were certain sentences I would say in my head that led me to a familiar place. The journey to this place would often start with me walking around disturbed, feeling as if there was something deep inside that I needed to put into words but couldn't quite capture. I felt the "something" as anxiety, loneliness, and a need for connection with someone. If no connection came, I would start to say things like, "Life really stinks. Why is it always so hard? It's never going to change." If no one noticed I was struggling or asked me what was wrong, I found my sentences shifting to a more cynical level: "Who cares? Life is a joke." Surprisingly, by the time I was saying those last sentences, I was feeling better. The anxiety was greatly diminished. My comforter, my abiding place, was cynicism and rebellion. From this abiding place, I would feel free to use some soul cocaine—watching a violent video with maybe a little sexual titillation thrown in, having more alcohol with a meal than I might normally drink—things that would allow me to feel better for a little while. I had always thought of these things as just bad habits. I began to see they were much more; they were spiritual abiding places that were my comforters and friends in a very spiritual way. The final light went on one evening when I read John 15:7 in The Message. Peterson translates Jesus' words on abiding this way: "If you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon." Jesus was saying in answer to my question, "I have made my home in you, Brent. But you still have other comforters you go to. You must learn to make your home in me" (as cited on PreachingToday.com). God is calling us today as individuals and as a church to drop all of our other comforters and make our home in Him through prayer. Will we make the choice to do it?
  1. Conclusion
    1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Satan will always try to sidetrack us from doing whatever God is calling us to do. And today is no exception. I’d be very surprised if there aren’t some folks here who are fighting the battle of "do I want to get involved" or "how can I possibly be more involved" right now. But this battle is never going away, and neither is the truth we’ve talked about this morning. If we pray together as a church, God will move powerfully. If we don’t, He won’t. We’ll see splashes of Him here and there, just like we’re seeing now, but not a major outpouring of His Spirit.
    2. Satan doesn’t want us to have the blessing of opening up the gift and living with the power of the promise of God being fulfilled here at Sodaville. But God wants it with all His heart. Do all of us want God to pour out His Spirit on us and transform us, with all our hearts? This morning I’m asking you to make a stand with me. A commitment for us as a church to remain in Him and allow Him to live in us by praying together. If you’re willing to join together with me at corporate prayer times consistently and pray for God’s will and the outpouring of His Spirit on our church and our community, please stand. And then, as Nike says, "Just do it." If you’re making that commitment to praying together as a church, please stand.
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