December 7, 2003 •  Pastor Randy Smith

Last week we examined the beautiful allegory of the "Vine and the Branches." If I were to summarize the lesson in one word, I would choose the word "abide." Just as a branch cannot survive unless it abides in the vine, neither can we unless we abide in Jesus. If we wish to bear spiritual fruit for the Father, we must abide in Jesus (Jn. 15:4). On Jesus we must continually depend and rely for the nourishment, growth and production required in the Christian life. For our Savior bluntly said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5).

So if the theme and primary purpose of verses 1-8 is abiding, I must personally ask myself, "Where is my abiding place?" All of us as humans have something or someone we turn to for strength, hope, comfort and success. But am I, as a good branch, abiding in Jesus to meet all of my needs? Am I losing myself, seeking to be embraced by His love and strengthened by His grace, or do I turn elsewhere? I believe all our other abiding places, whether they be shopping, people, drugs, alcohol, sex, computers, food, materialism, leisure, or television can be boiled down into one. If I am not abiding in Jesus, I am abiding in Self. It really comes down to this. Do I abide in the false god of Self or the true God of Jesus? Am I depending on self-sufficiency or God-sufficiency? Am I compelled by self-love or God love? Am I strengthened by self-effort or God-effort? Am I pursuing self-esteem or God-esteem? Am I fulfilling self-gratification or God-gratification? What is the vine in which I abide? Is it God or is it Self?

Hannah More in Practical Piety said, "The idol Self has made more desolation among men than ever was made in those places where idols were served by human sacrifices. To worship images is a more obvious idolatry, but scarcely more degrading than to set up Self in opposition to God. Self is the ever-flowing fountain of all the evil, which deforms our hearts, of all the boiling passions, which inflame and disorder society; the root of bitterness on which all its corrupt fruits grow."

Apart from the Holy Spirit, we as rebellious creatures always turn to Self and bear fruit for corruption. Contrary to the teaching of this age, the Bible is not very flattering when it comes to describing our human nature apart from God. In Romans 3 the Apostle Paul said, "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes’" (Rom. 3:9-18).

Now the question before us this morning is, "How does the Lord get a no-good, selfish, God-hating individual to love Him with all his heart and then see that love overflow in a sacrificial way to His children?" Or, stated another way, "How does God get someone in a state of depravity to love His most treasured creations (His children) with the same love He demonstrated for them on the cross?" Or, stated another way, "How does God enable one to apply verse 13?" "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

We’ll seek to answer that question from this morning’s text as we prepare our hearts for Communion. And by way of caveat, if we believe that loving other Christians is not important, allow me to include 1 John 3:14. "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death." Since I believe verses 9-17 applies the allegory in verses 1-8, I’ve reflected last week’s message in the outline and have entitled this sermon: "Loving the Branches."

1. LOVED BY THE VINE

First of all, as we move down this unbreakable chain, in order to love God’s children we must look to Jesus. Specifically, for salvation and ongoing discipleship, we must "comprehend…the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" (Eph. 3:18-19). This great love that Jesus Christ has for lost sinners like you and I is spoken of twice in this morning’s text.

The beginning of verse 16 speaks of His love for the elect that stretches to eternity past. Jesus said, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." Though some believe they initiate the redemptive love for Christ based upon their wise decision to trust Him, I believe the Bible teaches that God chooses to set His redemptive love upon us from eternity past. Ephesians 1 states, "In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will" (Eph. 1:4b-5). Therefore, since I did nothing to earn or merit this love, there is nothing I can do to lose it. Since His love for me stretches to eternity past, I believe it will also stretch to eternity future. The Scriptures as we have seen in John, give us tremendous security that His affection for His children will never disappear. I love Him "because He first loved (me)" (1 Jn. 4:19)!

Specifically, the present ongoing love that Jesus has for His children is witnessed in verse 9. Jesus said, "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you" (Eph. 5:2). Ponder this verse for a moment! Jesus knows your worst sin and still loves you! Jesus loves you to the same degree that the Father loves him! How’s that for an infinite, perfect and never-ending love?

Yet this love is not something I am merely to keep to myself. Rightly understanding His love for me increases my love for Him and then serves as a catalyst for action. I found a few other places in the New Testament that speak of Christ’s love for His children. Interestingly, each reminder of His love is accompanied by an expectation. In other words, the love of Christ "compels us" to obedience (2 Cor. 5:14-NIV). Ephesians 5:2a, "And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you." John 13:34a, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you." Romans 8:37, "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us."

David Brainerd, a godly man and missionary made the following observation when he preached to the Indians of Crossweeksung, New Jersey on August 9th, 1745 regarding the understanding of Christ’s love which leads to obedience. "There were many tears among them while I was discoursing publicly, but no considerable cry: Yet some were much affected with a few words spoken to them in a powerful manner, which caused the persons to cry out in an anguish of soul, although I spoke not a word of terror, but on the contrary, set before them the fullness and all-sufficiency of Christ’s merits, and His willingness to save all that come to Him; and thereupon pressed them to come without delay" (Edwards, Jonathan. The Life of David Brainerd. Works, v. 7, p. 310).

Just as the love of Christ brings an "attractiveness" to obey the gospel, the love of Christ is the impetus to lovingly obey Him from the heart as a disciple. Hence the conclusion could be drawn: The degree and desire of our obedience is correlated to our comprehension of His love for us. The more we understand His love, the more we will love Him and the more we love Him, the more we will obey. It’s no wonder Christ repeatedly said one chapter earlier, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (Jn. 14:15).

3. ABIDE IN THE VINE

Moving to the second point, as expected, the love of Christ compels us to obedience. But in this case, the call to obedience is specifically a call to abide in Christ. Allow me to read the entirety of verse 9. "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love." Just as the branch must abide in the vine, Jesus is commanding the believer to abide or remain in His love. Now how is that done? How do I abide in the love of Christ (cf. Jude 21)?

The next verse, as we move down this chain, supplies the answer. Verse 10, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love" (Jn. 15:10a). The expectation upon us is very clear. If we desire to abide in His love, we do so not through some mystical experience, but rather through simple obedience empowered by the Holy Spirit.

This past week I was reading about the Great Awakening when the Holy Spirit revived many of our nation’s Christians in the mid 1700’s. One night when Jonathan Edwards was presiding over a massive prayer meeting of 800 men, a woman slipped him a note asking the men to pray for her husband who in his spiritual pride became unloving and very difficult. After some thought, Edwards read the note before the men and asked if the guilty man could raise his hand so that the whole assembly could pray for him. It is recorded that over 300 men that night raised their hands, each convicted of his sin, longing to confess and pursue obedience.

The command to obey Jesus is very clear, but not always very easy, especially when we consider the gravity of our Lord’s requirements. Remember, we are working our way toward that lofty commandment of loving the branches with the same sacrificial love we have received from Christ. Well, in this section our Lord provides some encouraging comments that should assist us in obedient living.

First of all, we have been given the perfect example to follow. As we look to Jesus and His love for us we should also look to the model He has left us to emulate. The entirety of verse 10 reads, "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." Jesus Christ, in His perfect obedience to the Father (Jn. 4:34; 6:38; 8:29, 55; 12:27-28; 14:31) has provided us an example to follow. Christianity is God coming down to us in a Person to see and follow. God has not left us without a role model.

Second, we are reminded that obedience is directly linked to our joy. Sandwiched between two verses that speak of His commandments is verse 11 where Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." We have already learned that His love (Jn. 15:10) and His peace will be in us (Jn. 14:27). Should we be surprised that we will be blessed with another fruit of the Spirit, His joy?

According to verse 11, Jesus wants us to be filled with His joy. How is this accomplished, and what is the relationship between joy and commandment keeping? As we keep the commandments of God, we are walking in the Spirit. As we walk in the Spirit, the Spirit produces fruit, specifically joy in our lives (Gal. 5:22). Like Jesus, it soon becomes our delight to treasure His commandments and obey the Father. The more we obey, the greater our joy, and the greater our joy in obedience, the more God is glorified, exalted, and lifted up in daily worship. John Piper is so often quoted as saying, "The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever" (Piper, Desiring God, 15). What more could be asked for? God is honored through our cheerful obedience, and we are filled with the fullness of Christ’s joy! I believe that is what Jesus was alluding to in verse 11 when He said that our "joy may be made full."

Thirdly, the last encouragement to obey comes in verse 14. Jesus said, "You are My friends if you do what I command you." Only two people, Abraham (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; Jas. 2:23) and Moses (Ex. 33:11) have ever been called a "friend of God" in the Bible. Now Jesus boldly declares that all of His children are His friends (Lk. 12:4; Jn. 11:11) if (conditional clause) they do what He commands them. Please don’t misunderstand. I am not trying to say that obedience makes us His friends; rather obedience characterizes us as His friends. A disciple, a child of God, a friend of Jesus is each marked by one thing: habitual obedience. When we have an ongoing desire to obey, we show ourselves to be a friend of Jesus.

So where have we been so far? In order to love others with the love of Christ we first must look to Jesus. We must understand His infinite love for us. Then we must abide in His love. Verse 10 teaches us that we abide in His love through obedience. Though keeping His commandments is a lofty standard, Jesus Christ has given us the perfect role model in Himself, joy and the status to be called His friends when we obey.

Moving on, when we abide in obedience through the Holy Spirit, Christ produces fruit through us. We witnessed this continually last week. Take verses 4 and 5 for example: "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. 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" (Jn. 15:4-5). All true Christians will produce spiritual fruit. Verse 16 also declares this truth. "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." Though two fruits are mentioned in this verse, evangelism and prayer, the primary fruit produced in this abiding relationship is love. As you know, love is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Paul in Romans said, "The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5:5b).

3. LOVE THE BRANCHES

As we move to point number three you can see that we are getting close to our goal of how to love other Christians. We ask the question, what do we do with this love that is produced by the Holy Spirit? I believe the answer is found in the primary purpose of this section. The love command "frames" our verses this morning. Near the beginning, verse 12, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." At the end, verse 17, "This I command you, that you love one another." This repeats the great love commandment articulated in chapter 13. "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" (Jn. 13:34-35).

I am not saying that love for other believers should be greater than our love for God (Mt. 22:37). What I am saying is that a deep love for God not only enables us to love His other children, but it also gives us a desire to love His other children (the branches) as well. That which is special in God’s eyes becomes special in ours because we become men and women after God’s own heart (cf. 2 Cor. 11:11; Eph. 1:15; Col. 1:4; 1 Thes. 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thes. 1:3).

We need not fester up this love. It is not mechanical! Rather God’s love that has been poured out into our hearts vertically overflows to others horizontally. It is a natural overflow of abiding in the Vine and indirectly being linked to the other branches. We are all contained in one body "knit together in love" (Col. 2:2), baptized by and united in one Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17; 12:13; Eph. 4:4; Phil. 1:27; 2:2). The Son’s love flows to us and our love flows to other believers. That’s how and why Christ continually commands us to love others with the same love we have received from Him.

As a matter of fact, if you need an example of this sacrificial agape love, Christ provides it in verse 13. "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

Just as Jesus was to soon demonstrate His great love for His friends by dying on the cross for their sins, we too should demonstrate Christlike love for one another by loving someone to the point of losing our own life if necessary. John even repeats the call for this sacrificial love in his epistle. "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn. 3:16).

However, laying our life down for another, obviously something none of us have yet done, involves much more than a physical death. I believe the Lord, as He did with the foot-washing example (Jn. 13:5-17), is calling us to an ongoing standard of humility and surrender. He is commanding us to love one another whereby we die to self, considering a fellow believer and his or her needs more important than our own (Rom. 12:10; Phil. 2:3). If we love God enough, we’ll do anything for Him. And if we love the brethren enough, we’ll do anything for them as well.

It’s amazing what we will do in the name of love. I can remember when I first began developing an interest for Julie. Back in 1995 she invited me to a Christian Halloween alternative called a Hallelujah party for intercity kids in Chicago. She said I needed to come as a Bible character. After spending much time in the fabric store (imagine that!) I personally constructed an elaborate outfit resembling John the Baptist, complete with camel hair and wild locusts! Other than one man dressed up as Abraham with a bathrobe, I was the only individual in a costume! You should have heard the comments the received from those intercity kids! Nevertheless, my point, love compels us to do anything for the beloved!

To bring this message full circle, loving another with this degree of love is the testing ground that I am abiding in God and not in self (1 Jn. 4:16). God’s great love for us motivates us to abide in Him through joyful obedience. Abiding in Him produces fruit, the primary fruit being sacrificial, Christlike love for His children (1 Cor. 13:13). Could John have made this point any clearer in his epistle? "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 Jn. 4:11-12, 20).

Rick Gray, a missionary from Uganda, said it well: "Unless I maintain a Jesus-centeredness in the midst of ministry, I will be unable to love people well and bring glory to God. Only as I realize my self-worth is determined by how awesome is the Savior’s love for me, and not by how productive my work is for Him, will I be free from my drivenness and need to accomplish tasks. When I gaze upon His nail-pierced hands and believe that they are actually reaching out to embrace me, then I am empowered to reach out with similar compassion and care to those around me" (Gray, Quoted in: Chapell, Bryan. Holiness by Grace, 79)

As we transition to Communion, allow me to ask one simple question by way of application. Can you identify one thing in the past week you have joyfully done for another in this church that would qualify as self-denying, sacrificial love? The past month? The past year?

Imagine with me for one moment a church where everybody loved one another as Christ loves them. Visualize with me: No backbiting, no bickering, no complaining, no sarcasm, no gossip, no rudeness, only gentleness, selflessness, service, acceptance, kindness, patience, and humility. How such a church would be a refuge for those who get abused by a persecuting and vicious world. How such a church would demonstrate to unbelievers the power of love as the solution to child abuse, abortion, divorce, crime, depression, racism, drug trafficking, pornography and terrorism. How such a church would adorn the gospel to people who are desperately seeking to find radical, genuine and faithful love.

Do you understand the necessity of this love commandment? If so, where is the process being short-circuited? Where is the chain broken? Maybe you don’t have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ? Maybe you don’t understand the beauty of Christ’s love for you? Maybe you aren’t abiding in this vital union by an obedient life? Maybe you aren’t depending on the Spirit to produce fruit? All of these must be present and when they are, the branches will be engulfed in Christlike love, your joy will be full (Jn. 15:11) and God will yield through your life a bountiful harvest of spiritual fruit for His glory (Jn. 15:8)!