What Abiding in Christ Looks Like — John 15

0:00 Good morning, everybody. Alright. I'm pretty excited to talk about this because like Devin was saying, we've probably read this chapter 35 times to 125 times. So Devin did a great job talking about the first half of the chapter, which really was just how we abide in Christ. And then he sort of transitioned to the second half, which I'm gonna pick up on.

0:26 But the second half is more about what that really looks like in this world, when we're living in this world, what abiding in Christ looks like. So that's what I'm gonna talk about the second half. And I really have three points in the second half that I want to focus on. And I'll tell you guys the points, and then we'll read the second half. But the first point is that we are friends of God.

0:51 Like Devin was saying, we are friends of God. The second point is that we are the light of the world. And the third point is that darkness hates light. So those are the three points. We are friends of God.

1:07 We are the light of the world, and that darkness hates light. And, let's just read the second half, and maybe you guys can look for the points, or you don't have to. I'll tell you about them afterwards. But we'll read the second half starting from verse 14. Verse 14 says, ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.

1:28 Henceforth, I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what what his lord doeth, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you that you love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own.

2:02 But because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. Remember the remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

2:26 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sinned, but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sinned, but now they have both seen... Now have they both seen and hated both me and my father. But this come into pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law.

2:53 They hated me without cause. And verses twenty six and twenty seven are kind of a four point that I'm not gonna get into, because the next chapter actually describes this comforter, the spirit. But we'll read the the verses. It says, but when the comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the father, even the spirit of truth, which proceeded from the father, he shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning. I'll just say a quick prayer for the reading of the word.

3:27 Heavenly father, we thank you so much that we're able to read this living word that is alive and powerful and cuts to our heart, Lord. And we ask that you just give us the ability to discern and to understand what you're teaching us today and, to just be able to talk about truth right now. In your name, we pray. Amen. Okay.

3:48 So to our points... Before we get to our three points, which is we are friends of God, we are the light of the world, and darkness hates the light. I just wanted to, mention a quote from a book that we're reading. April and I, we were doing this couple's bible study in Akron, and we read a book by a w Tozer called the pursuit of God, which obviously from the title, you can tell it's about pursuing God. So Devin and I are reading this chapter, and the beginning of this chapter, abiding in the Lord, is really about pursuing God.

4:47 And, obviously, that can't happen unless Christ, the son, came down and died for us. But because he did, we can do this. So in this quest, there's a quote. He says, in determining relationships, we must begin somewhere. There must be somewhere, a fixed center against which everything else is measured, where the law of relativity does not enter, and we can say is and make no allowances.

5:14 So he's essentially saying, to figure out the relationship, there has to be a center to the relationship, and we have to be able to say, the center is this, And there can't be any exceptions to that. The center is this, and that's final. So we can all say the center is God, and there's no exceptions. There's no exceptions to God being at the center. It's not the center is God if he does good for us or the center is God if he does this.

5:41 The center is simply God. And you see the... When you keep reading the chapter, you see the epitome of God being at the center was when Moses came to that burning bush. And Moses came before that burning bush, and the Lord was calling him to go and to free those people from... Free the people, the Israelites, from the Egyptians.

6:03 And Moses eventually comes to this point where he asks, what if the people ask me who sent me? What should I say your name is? He's asking God this. And God responds and says, I am that I am, which is pretty scary. And people didn't even say those words back in the day because it was so scary.

6:21 And then god continues and he says, tell them that I am has sent you. So we see that God is the center and that he is I am. And then we come fast forward centuries when we come to John 15 where we have seven I ams, and this is the final I am. So it's pretty important that we understand the center and that we understand who I am is. And here, I am is the true vine.

6:50 So we're looking at the true vine, and we're looking at how to abide in him. And as we abide in him, we eventually come to this point where we become friends of God. We're friends of God as we abide in him. And that's verse 15 really. It says, henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what the Lord is doing.

7:14 But I have called you friends for all things have I heard... That I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. So what it means to be friends of God is that, God, the father, and the son, they have a game plan. Like, things aren't just happening and playing out in whatever way. They have a game plan, and things are happening for a purpose.

7:35 And as friends of God instead of servants, we get to know what that game plan is. And more than even just knowing what the game plan is, we get to be a part of the game plan. So as friends of God, we're a part of the plan. We're a part of the game plan. We're not just servants that does whatever the master tells us.

7:56 We're friends, and the master tells us his plan, and we're a part of that plan. So what is the plan? The plan here we see is... In verse 16, it says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the father in my name, he may give it to you. So we see that this game plan for us on this earth is to go and to bear this fruit, to bear not just any fruit, but a fruit that remains an eternal fruit, a lasting fruit, bringing people to the kingdom of God.

8:35 And as we go and we bear fruit and we abide in him and we're part of this game plan, it says here that we can act... Ask whatever we want of the father in in his name, and it'll be given to us. So there's a caveat there in that if you're abiding in Christ, if you're abiding in the true vine, I'm probably not gonna be going to the father saying, can I have a Lamborghini and and 30 houses and a lot of money? That's not what I'm gonna be asking the father. I'm gonna be pretty much asking the father things that are in line with his game plan.

9:10 And, obviously, the father's gonna respond by saying, of course, can have it because that's my game plan. You know? So you're not... He's really, really guiding it all. But there was actually...

9:49 And I got this email from him, and it said that in every person's life in this world, there's two very important days. And the first day is the day that you're born because that's pretty important because without it, you wouldn't be in this world. So day number one, the most important day of your life is the day that you're born. And then day number two, he says, that everyone would agree is the day that you figure out why you were born. So the day that I figure out this is why I was born.

10:20 This is what I meant to do. And then in the email, he continues and he goes on, and he says that it's the same in a believer's life. There's two very important days. Obviously, the first day is the day that you're born again because that's when you're in the true vine. That's when you, experience intimacy with God, and that day is so important.

10:42 But the second most important day in a believer's life is the day that you figure out why you were born again. Like, why I'm here... Why was I born again? Why am I here? And what we see in these verses right now is that the father is telling us, this is why you were born again.

11:00 It's so that you can go and you can bear this lasting fruit and that you can abide in me and that you can have these blessings and that you can serve others in this world. So that's being a friend of God. Being a friend of God is going and bearing lasting fruit and knowing the game plan and being part of the game plan and asking whatever it is in his name and and gaining those things. So point number two... Speed it up to you, but point number two is that we are the light of the world.

11:35 So verse 17, I actually read this this chapter many times. And the first time we met with... Devin and I met with Ray to talk about the chapter, I was gonna skip over this verse. It took me maybe reading this 30 times to realize that this is an extremely important verse. Verse 17, it says that these things I command you that you love one another.

12:01 So if we if we go to John chapter 13... Well, you don't have to turn there. John chapter 13 verse 34, it says the very same thing about loving one another. It says, a new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have loved one to to another.

12:31 So we can also look in John 15 verse eight that we just talked about this concept of bearing fruit in the world and being a part of the plan. Verse eight says, here is my father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. In the ESV version, I believe it says, so you shall prove to be my disciples. So we see that this is bearing a fruit, and we see that this loving one another becomes proof in this world to prove that we are disciples of Christ and so that all men will know. All men will look at us and see these things, and they'll know that we are disciples of Christ.

13:26 You will be my example in this world. You will be Christ to those people that you see each and every day. You will be Christ to them, and that will bring them to to the kingdom. So we have this great opportunity to, just bear fruit, to love one another, to follow his commandments, and to love God. And through it all, we become this light of the world that's shining in darkness all around us.

13:53 So the the meat of the chapter is the next point, which is that darkness hates the light. So now we're abiding in the Lord. We're friends of God, and then we become this light of the world that's that's really sweet. It's really awesome. We get to do this.

14:08 But then Christ is encouraging them, and saying that he's warning them, I guess, or helping them anticipate that darkness hates the light. So the world will hate you. So verse eighteen and nineteen, it says, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore, the world hated you.

14:39 So to describe... Better define the conscience of a world, we can describe it as, the system that's directed by Satan. And and Ray helped me flush that out a little bit. But it's essentially sin and evil and flesh and darkness, but this whole system in this world around us that's directed by Satan. So that means that, like, the trees don't hate me and and, like, the animals don't hate me.

15:05 Some animals might hate me. But, yeah, not everything in the world hates me, but this system that's directed by Satan definitely hates me. And you can see why in John chapter three, the most famous chapter of John. But if you read past the four God so loved the world verse, in verses 18 to 21, it says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

15:49 For everyone that doeth doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. So we see simply that men love darkness. We love sin. And until light came into the world and we accepted the savior, we accepted the son and what he did for us, we were in love with darkness. And now that we accepted him and he lives inside us and he's working through us, we get to be the light.

16:17 We get to bear this fruit, but then the darkness around us now hates us. So we see that play out perfectly through Christ's relationship with the world. Christ came down into the world, and we see in these verses that he literally proved himself. He proved that he was the son of God through miracles and through many things and through his words. He proved that he was a son of God and that he and the father were one, but they still rejected him.

16:46 They still hated him. And it was simply because in the background, in the nonphysical sense, darkness hated the light. So as he as he continued in this world, we see that he was rejected, and we see that they rejected him without earthly cause. And it's kind of ironic because they fulfill their very own law, which is in Psalm. It says, in the law, it says, they hated me without cause, and in the same way, they hated him without cause.

17:16 So inadvertently, they fulfill their very own law by hating Christ. And we see that we become this... We become friends with God. We are the light of the world. And then in the same way that Christ was hated by the world, he's saying that we too will be hated by the world.

17:36 And there's... We too will be hated by the world because we were chosen out of the world, and we're not of the world, and because we're of a light. And you can also... If you take it a step further, can also say that the feeling really probably wasn't mutual. Right?

17:53 The world hated Christ, but in the same way, Christ hated the system of the of the devil. You know? Christ hated the system of Satan. He hated sin, and he hated the flesh. So, if you turn to James chapter four, it makes that...

18:11 It makes it really clear that James chapter four verse four says, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. So we see that friendship of the world is enmity with God, and you can conclude that friendship with God is enmity with the world as we saw in John. But we see nonetheless that Christ calls us to this purpose of... And to this plan of going and bearing forth fruit.

19:11 Alright. He is. Yeah. So we'll talk about the spirit in the next chapter. But just to sum it all up and to have something that you could take away, we we can say that the goal here today, and the goal in our life really, is to be able to say the center of my life is God, without any exceptions.

19:34 That the center of my life is God, is Jesus Christ, the living God. And the challenge is really to just abide in him and to know that he's the center of your life and to have all your actions draw out from that center. And the world may hate us. The world may persecute us. The world may despise us and reject us.

19:59 And even in extreme cases, the world may even physically torture us or kill us. And while all of that is happening, we can take heart in the fact that we have a true vine that unconditionally loves us, a god, a living god that created everything around us that will call us friends. And we have a spirit that will live inside us and empower us. And our brothers and sisters that are experiencing the same thing will love us as well, and our joy will be completely full. We see that in verse 11.

20:36 These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. Let's just praise the Lord for his goodness and for the joy that he has given us. Heavenly father, we're so grateful to be able to come and talk about your word today and to to just look at it and think about it and to, parse through it. And we're grateful for your great sacrifice on the cross and that example that you were in this world. And we know that as you have gone physically from this world now, that we get to be that same example to everybody around us today.

21:13 And whatever persecution, whatever suffering we might face, we are completely filled with joy simply by the fact that we get to abide in you in the true vine that is never ending and everlasting and filled with love, and we get to experience all of it, and we get to have this intimacy which... With you that is indescribable, Lord. We ask that you just give us strength this week to go out and to go forth and bear fruit and bear witness and to live in this world for you and you alone, Lord. Please allow us to make you the center of our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, pray.

21:49 Amen. Amen.