Pastor Pat Edwards 2/26/2006
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

I found the following information from a Geogre Barna survey very interesting: Overall, three out of every four adults (73%) believe that it is possible for someone to become holy, regardless of their past. Only half of the adult population (50%), however, says that they know someone they consider to be holy. And that's more than twice as many as those who consider themselves to be holy (21%). The views of born-again Christians are not much different from the national averages. Among born-again adults, three-quarters (76%) say it is possible for a person to become holy, regardless of their past. Slightly more than half of the born-again group (55%) say they know someone who they would describe as holy. And roughly three out of ten born-again believers (29%) say they are holy themselves, which is marginally more than the national norm. The adults most likely to say they know someone they consider to be holy are those who describe holiness primarily as possessing a positive attitude toward God and life. Adults who think of holiness as a spiritual condition are among the least likely to identify anyone they know as holy. In this part of Jesus’ final talk to the disciples he repeats several commands, commands that will help us grow in holiness. Why does he keep repeating himself? Why do we have to hear some of these commands over and over? Is he concerned they won’t get it or is it because these commands are particularly difficult to obey - especially the ones about love? So here are the commands from this week’s passage that we are to obey and be teaching others who want to follow Jesus to obey also.

Remain in me
Ask whatever you wish
Bear much fruit
Remain in my love
Love each other as I have loved you
Go and bear fruit that will last
Remember the words I spoke to you
Bear witness

All of these are additional behaviors that bind us to Jesus. 1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Since we’re talking about being connected to Jesus do believers really get cut off? Or is this just intended as a warning, reminding us not to take Jesus for granted? I don’t think I know any nonbelievers who claim they really, truly once believed and then lost it. But this is one of the big puzzles many Christians are trying to solve and we’re not going to solve it this morning. But I will tell you it’s not wise to develop doctrine from illustrations, especially illustrations that are addressing other issues. Jesus’ emphasis is to make sure you stay connected and he assures them they are already clean because of what he’s done, the word he’s spoken to them.

The way to bear fruit is to remain in Jesus so that his life flows into and through us. Life "apart" from Jesus can’t produce "a part" of Jesus. But there is more. Fruit is not something we hold onto. It’s designed to be separated from the tree or the vine or the plant in order to produce new life. Our connection to Jesus doesn’t exist so we can become a five-hundred pound, purple grape that everyone stands around and admires because we’re fat and juicy. Our connection exists so we can have life and pass that life on to others. Remember God didn’t create seedless fruit - that’s an invention people came up with. God’s people should be full of seeds that planted in the lives of others will produce new life. Also pruning - removing the distracting limbs and twigs of life - keeps the life energy focused on producing fruit, not twigs and leaves. But pruning is traumatic and stressful gardeners tell us. However if we’re willing to go through the pain of having all those hindrances to growth cut away we become empowered to ask for whatever we wish. So what are you going to ask for? Think about it for a moment. You have the mind and spirit of Christ living in you and guiding you. His love and his desires are filling you so what are you going to ask for? Look around with the eyes of Jesus and ask for something right now, something you know he wants and has shared with you.

Here’s another question that comes from these verses; what has the Father pruned from your life? It might not be evil, just something that kept you from fully connecting to Jesus - like the old cliche that good is the enemy of best. So it may have been something okay in your life that was keeping you from something better Jesus had.

When we bear much fruit Jesus tells us two things happen; we bring the Father glory and we demonstrate we are disciples of the Lord. "Whoa, isn’t God good? The Lord has really blessed me through you. I don’t know how I would have gotten through it without the church’s help." Our identification with the Lord brings credit to him. There are those times the Lord works directly to bless someone but generally he works indirectly through his disciples. And remember "you" isn’t always singular. In fact the majority of the time it’s plural in the New Testament, meaning not one believer but the family of believers. We see that very clearly in the following verses. Jesus addresses the group, not just particular individuals when he says "you."

9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other. Let’s summarize the flow of his thinking in this section. I love you and command you to remain in my love by being obedient. You are to love each other as I have loved you, even to the point of death. I chose you and appoint you to bear fruit that will last. The greatest fruit is love. Love is the first fruit listed in the fruits of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Gal 5.22-23 In 1st Corinthians 13 we are told the greatest gift is love. In Eph 5.9 we are told the fruit of God’s light "consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth." Hebrews 13:15 teaches, Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that confess his name. Fruitful lives contain love, praise and obedience. Because of love we should be obeying all the things Jesus has commanded and then teaching others to do the same. Since most if not all of you are remaining in Jesus, what fruit is being produced in your life that you want to praise the Lord for? Don’t answer this question with "nothing" or "I don’t know." Those answers are unbelievably disrespectful of what the Lord has done and is doing in your life. If you are his disciple Jesus is at work in you and when he works things get done. Maybe we don’t feel like we’ve made the progress we should have by now but that doesn’t mean Jesus hasn’t produced fruit in your life so think about it and then thank him for what he’s done.

Jesus next command is to remember the words he has spoken. 18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. He commands remembrance so that we don’t lose perspective or trust. If he faced bad times and he’s leading the way then we certainly should expect trouble when we follow him.

Finally, 26"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. Again, because God is our teacher and we are the students we copy his behavior. The Spirit sent from the Father testifies about Jesus so it’s only natural we would tell others about Jesus as well. Our sharing must flow from a life of obedience and abundance. When it doesn’t others can tell and they’re not going to get interested in something that doesn’t seem to excite us.

So it all comes back to connectedness. Are we really attached fully to the vine and getting the full supply of life flowing into us? That is only possible when through obedience we’re making every contact possible.