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John 15
verse 1.
I am the true vine,
and my father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear
fruit, he takes away.
And every branch that does bear fruit, he
prunes
that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean because of the word
that I have spoken to you. Abide in
me,
and I in you.
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.
Whoever abides in me and I in him,
he it is that bears much fruit.
For apart from me,
you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me, he
is thrown away like a branch and withers,
and the branches are gathered, thrown into the
fire, and burned.
If you abide in me and my words
abide in you,
ask whatever you wish
and it will be done for you.
By this, my father is glorified.
That you bear much fruit and so prove
to be my disciples.
As the father has loved me, so have
I 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.
These things I have spoken to you, that
my joy
may be in you and that that your
joy may be full.
This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have
loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that
someone lay down his life
for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what
I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for
the servant
does not know what his master is doing,
but I have called you friends.
For all that I have heard from my
father, I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose
you and appointed you that you should go
and bear fruit and that your fruit should
abide,
so that whatever you ask the father in
my name, he may give it to you.
These things I command you so that you
will love one another.
This is the word of God.
Amen. You may be seated.
Well, good morning again. Welcome to Life Connection.
My name is Jason. I'm one of the
pastors here. Grateful that, to be with you.
Peru reminded me that this past week, I
was out of town, all week for a
class.
And, there in North Carolina, there's this chain
of Peruvian chicken
places.
And I eat there like twice, because if
there's anything If you know me at all,
you know, I have a deep and profound
love for rotisserie chicken.
And now you add to it Peruvian
goodness. And it was just awesome. It was
a great time. Anyway, that's neither here nor
there. That's how I spent my last week.
How about you?
Hey. No matter who you are, no matter
what you believe,
I know without a doubt that there are
things in our lives that we wish were
different.
We we wanna see some kind of life
change
in our lives, every one of us. We
we're all hoping for Sometimes it's, you know,
small things that, you know, maybe we just
need some small tweaks here and there. Other
things, maybe they're bigger, they're larger, they're more
important.
But they we we all have within us
a desire
to see change,
in our lives. And
and some of those kinds of changes that
we hope for require more than just simple
habit stacking. You know, habit stacking is this
notion of, like, if you wanna develop new
habits in your life, then attach them to
things you're already doing,
to make it easier and more likely that
you'll you'll follow through. So if you wanna
get more steps in, every day, then you
could stack it on things like when you
go to the office, park farther away from
the front door so that you have to
walk longer. When you go to the grocery
store, park farther away so you gotta get
more steps in. Park.
Walmart is the best place on the planet
to go. And so park on one end
when you've gotta go to the other end
of it. You know, just simple things like
that. You're already doing these things. But some
of the kinds of changes that we wanna
see in our lives, kind of deep character
change,
it's gonna require more than just simply stacking
habits together. It's gonna require,
a a greater work of the spirit of
God in us,
bringing about change
at a profound
level. This is important for us
who desire to follow after Jesus.
Because sometimes, we can look at our lives
and we can think,
I know the person that God has called
me to be. And
and I'm not there yet. And I wanna
see change in my life. And and I
I feel like I'm I'm doing the things,
but the wheels are spinning. I'm not making
a lot of progress. And and I don't
really know why.
We we all, I think at some level
can recognize and and relate to that experience,
can't we?
Like we think if we do all the
things. If I'm reading my bible, if I'm
praying, if I'm showing up for those community
environments, if I'm doing all the things, then
then surely, my life will change. Right?
And yet sometimes, I can still do all
the things
and see bitterness
in my heart.
Not really know how to get rid of
it.
Like, how do I bring that kind of
change?
The apostle Paul in his letter to the
Roman church,
in chapter 7, while he's describing the experience
likely of someone who is far from the
Lord,
it resonates with all of us, where he
describes this internal battle,
knowing what you ought to do,
what you want to be, and yet the
struggle
to see that come about in your own
life.
I know what I I ought to do,
but I'm struggling to do it.
Can anybody else relate to that?
My my guess is if you don't relate
to that, it's because you're doing it right
now. You're lying through your teeth,
and you're struggling right now.
But this is the reality that we find
ourselves in. Right?
Sometimes just stacking spiritual habits together isn't going
to bring about change that we need because
we need something more.
We need the power of the spirit of
God
to bring about change and transformation of the
heart.
The kind of change that you and I
need at the deepest levels
are not changes that we can bring about
ourselves.
The change of character is not primarily going
to be brought about by myself in myself.
It's gonna be the Spirit of God
working in us
through those spiritual habits
to bring about the kind of change that
we hope to see.
And this is important then, as we look
to John 15 once again this morning,
to consider what place does obedience have in
the life of a disciple?
Obedience,
commandments,
it's kinda fallen on hard times in our
culture. Right?
Those aren't things we like to think about
or talk about.
And yet, if we're going to flourish into
all that God's made us to be, then
it's gonna require that we walk in obedience
behind Jesus.
And so, as we look to John 15,
the starting place and what I hope The
thread that I hope we'll see that runs
throughout is friendship with Jesus is life changing.
Friendship with Jesus is life changing. If we
wanna experience change and transformation in our lives,
if I wanna become the kind of person
who walks in obedience after Jesus,
then I have to understand the radical friendship
of God.
That's where we begin. I think the We're
gonna be looking at 8 through 17 of
the passage that was read this morning. I
think the centerpiece of that passage is 13
through 15.
Jesus says, Greater love has no one than
this, that someone lay down his life for
his friends.
You are my friends if you do what
I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for
a servant does not know what his master
is doing. But I have called you friends.
For all that I heard from the father,
I have made known to you.
A radical friendship of God is what enables
us to walk with Jesus.
And this should make sense to us because
the triune nature of our God is at
the fundamental,
is at the foundation of all created reality.
Like, God is
foundational. He's fundamental to everything.
And our God exists in,
in a triune nature. Father, son and holy
spirit. He's existed for all eternity
in an everlasting way,
in a glorious relationship in the Godhead.
And so it should make sense to us
that there are relational needs that we experience
and that we have. In fact, I would
argue that the scripture actually contends that you
are required to walk. And if you're going
to flourish in this life, you're required to
experience relationship
because our God is relational.
And so,
we we shouldn't be surprised by that. And
then in in the experience of loneliness, it
we start to understand why it's so painful.
Because it's demonstrating that there's something off in
our world.
This is not what we were made for.
We weren't made for isolation. We weren't made
for loneliness.
And so that's why that experience becomes so
painful for
us.
You see, we need to understand
that experience of friendship that we have with
others, the experience even of loneliness,
it ultimately points away to it, from itself
to God.
It reminds us of our ultimate needs
for God.
That longing for companionship, that longing for relationship,
that desire
to put away loneliness.
It leads us to realize
fundamentally
at rock bottom,
what we need above all other needs
is God.
We need more than just human companionship,
human friendship,
because the reality is, we're going to let
one another down, aren't we?
Hear me.
It's not just that you're going to be
let down.
You and I are going to let people
down.
And so in that, like we need something
more.
We need a long lasting
friendship with someone who never fails us and
never leaves us and never turns his back
on us. And this is the invitation of
Jesus
to find friendship with God through him.
That we can know the God of the
universe.
The one who made everything we see and
don't see. That we can walk with him
in friendship
because of what Jesus has done for us.
He said he laid down his life for
his friends.
And the invitation then is to trust Christ
by faith.
To turn from those old ways of life
where you live for yourself,
and instead to live for Jesus.
To give your allegiance over to him.
That
that you might trust him at his word,
and thus follow
after him.
That's the invitation this morning. So if you
haven't yet
started a friendship with God, that's the invitation
right now.
And nothing else that we say is going
to be able to work itself out in
your life until that gets settled.
We have to have friendship with God through
Jesus.
And this friendship
with God then is the foundation for our
life with Jesus.
Because of friendship with God, we can rest
in Jesus' love.
Greater love has no one than this, that
someone lay down his life for his friends.
And because Jesus did that, verse 9, we
can now, as the father has loved me,
so have I loved you, abide in my
love.
We can rest in the love of Jesus
because of friendship
with God.
Jesus is that friend who will not fail
us.
He is the friend who always lets us
in.
No longer do I call you servants, for
a servant doesn't know what his master is
doing, but I've called you friends
because everything I've heard from the father, I
have made known to you. He lets us
in.
And verse 13 shows us he never lets
us down.
And that's the fundamental
friendship
that we need if we're going to experience
transformation
in this life. Because
love is a change agent.
Like, what you love
and those who love you, it has an
effect on you.
It
When, when you are loved by someone else,
it does something in us. Doesn't it?
It causes you to, to want to, to
care about the things those people care about.
To love the things those people love. Now,
when God, the ultimate
friend,
places his love on us by Jesus,
it has an effect on our soul
to bring about change and transformation
over time.
I was reminded of this old movie,
that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, As Good as It
Gets.
It is a quirky movie.
Jack Nicholson plays
this really interesting character.
But there is this scene. He has this
thing for Helen Hunt's character, and they have
this this kind of date at a restaurant.
And he is trying to express his love
for her, and she is beginning to care
about him more and more
significantly.
And he's bumbling around trying to give some
sort of compliment to her, and he's failing
massively along the way.
And he pauses,
kinda composes himself,
and he says to her, you make me
want to be a better man.
That's the kind of thing that love does
to us.
Love has a power. God's love
in us, for us, has a powerful ability
to affect change.
When we rest in that kind of love,
it has the ability to affect our minds,
our emotions,
and our way of life.
Friendship with Jesus is life changing. And this
friendship with God that we can have through
Christ, it leads to flourishing.
Look again at verse 9.
As the father has loved me, so have
I loved you. Abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments,
you'll abide in my love. Just as I
have kept my father's commandments and abide in
his love.
These things I have spoken to you that
my joy may be in you and that
your joy may be full.
This is my commandment that you love one
another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that
someone lay down his life for his friends.
You are my
friends
if you do what I command you.
If we're gonna understand
the significance of God's love for us in
the place of commands and
obedience in the Christian life. We have to
reframe
our understanding of obedience to commands.
Commands and obedience
have a bad rap in our culture.
I mean, we we read these verses and
this idea that you can experience
and walk in Jesus' love if you obey.
That seems like a weird combination
to a modern ear.
Like, what do love and obedience have to
do with one another?
Like, in your friendship with someone, you don't
think that they're obeying you. Right?
We have this growing
care for one another.
Now you need to do what I say.
Like that seems weird. Like, so we hear
these words and we wonder what's going on.
They don't seem related.
And I wanna say that's because of the
way that our culture has formed us to
misunderstand
the very nature of God's commands for us.
In fact, I want to contend that that
our misunderstanding
of the goodness of God's commands actually goes
back all the way to Genesis chapter 3.
The great lie of the enemy
is that if
there is a command, something is being withheld
from you.
And so we think commands are weird because
something is being withheld from us. That's a
great lie of the enemy that's existed
for all time.
No. Commands instead should be rightly understood as
the gateway to human flourishing.
The Westminster
Shorter Catechism says
that the goal of humanity,
the chief end
of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy
him forever.
That that's the sum and substance of what
you've been made for.
And that has all kinds of implications and
entailments that if we would love God and
we would enjoy him, that it will affect
the way that we live in this world.
It will affect our relationships with one another.
It will change the way that we view
everything.
Because
loving God and enjoying him forever, that is
the place of human flourishing.
Flourishing is just a fancy word of talking
about human thriving.
And I know we're Americans, and so we
have be careful to not just merely equip
flourishing with economics.
You're flourishing if you're moving up the ladder.
If you're moving into different neighborhoods. No. God
has something far more important
at heart here.
That flourishing
is about your well-being.
That you're growing to become a man or
woman who loves God and enjoys him
and now cares and loves other people.
That's what he has in mind and rightly
understood then, commands are not things that God
are using to withhold something from you.
It's the gateway to human flourishing.
He has made you. He has designed you.
He knows what's best for you.
He does nothing arbitrarily.
And so when he gives us a command,
it's for our good
and our joy
Not to withhold.
And so commands,
rightly understood,
are lights to the path of human flourishing.
You see, God's goal for your life and
mine
is that we would find we would identify
ourselves with Jesus in such a way
that we would follow after him as his
disciples.
That we would entrust our life to him,
and we would start a journey with him.
And that journey is headed toward human flourishing.
That we might grow to become the kinds
of men and women God made us to
be.
Men and women who love God and love
others.
Jesus himself said, all the law and the
prophets hang on those two ideas.
You can sum up the whole book
with those two ideas.
And God now has made a way in
Jesus for us to walk that path that
we might grow
in, in, in human flourishing. That we might
thrive
in this life. That we might experience the
abundant life that he has for us.
So commands aren't
God withholding something from us. They are the
very pathway for flourishing.
God has our ultimate good in mind.
And this then is why Jesus can say
this absolutely
insane idea,
verse 11. These things I have spoken to
you that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be full.
Your joy can be found in Jesus and
made full in him as you walk in
his way,
as you live obediently
after him.
Because obedience
is not about
like, white knuckling it. It's about experiencing the
fullness of life that God has for you
in Christ.
And so now,
now we can start to understand why it
is that living obediently to Jesus could actually
lead me
to joy.
Because that's where flourishing
is found.
And so we walk with Jesus by walking
in obedience to Jesus.
You wanna experience and rest in God's love
for you? Then walk in obedience after Jesus.
You wanna experience joy in this life?
Then walk in obedience after Jesus.
You wanna experience the full life that Jesus
has promised?
Then walk in obedience
after Jesus.
Friendship with Jesus is life changing.
So what does this mean for our daily
lives in trying to follow after Jesus?
Well, I can't I can't help but think
that we need to start
by asking the question, what happens when I
fail?
Because the reality that you and I both
know is we're gonna fail.
Like, I'm not always
going to be a good friend.
There is this picture
in communion with Jesus, abiding in the vine,
that shows a closeness and a depth of
relationship
with our God.
There can be a disruption
to that communion,
that friendship.
And when there's a disruption, what we can
know
is that it's always because of me.
God has not distanced himself.
God has not let me down.
God has not failed to come through.
If there is a disruption
in friendship with God,
it always comes because of me.
Because of you.
He is the perfect friend who never fails.
You and I are not.
So where do we go when we fail?
Maybe you're even thinking about this past week,
and we're we're talking about walking in obedience
after Jesus, and you're thinking about moments where
you didn't do that.
Where do we go? What do we do?
Well, the invitation of Jesus is is quite
simple.
Repent and return.
Repent.
Turn from that sin,
that wayward action,
that wayward way of thinking,
and return to Jesus by faith.
Confessing your sin to him, knowing that he
is faithful and just to forgive us.
I couldn't help but think
of the apostle Peter, just a few short
chapters after this,
who denies Jesus
on 3 different occasions when Jesus needed him
most.
He's on trial,
headed towards execution.
And one of his closest friend
Jesus had the 12, and then he had
the 3.
And Peter was one of the 3. And
Peter let him down
in a royally massive way.
But what did Jesus do?
John chapter 21. Jesus restores
Peter.
He receives him back.
He embraces
and includes
him as a friend.
See, Jesus is inviting us when we fail
to
repent and return.
Now, we might experience
the fullness of life that he has
for us. And these things need to get
worked out for us also
in community.
I mean, Jesus says that this friendship with
God has been given to us that we
could be good
friends to others, that we could love and
care for others well.
I mean, that's what he says his command
is, that you would love one another.
So our friendship with God is not just
about me and Jesus. It's about us and
Jesus.
And so this has tremendous impact as I
think about those community environments that that I
might be a part of. Like that that
small group that you're a part of. That
gospel community, or maybe you're a part of
the class.
These are opportunities
for us
to learn how to love one another well.
As I think about community environments, just a
side note. After this service, we have that
picnic here on the ground.
Grab lunch,
come hang out,
let kids enjoy the new playground. There'll be
ice cream truck, all that kind of stuff.
But but as I think about my ongoing
involvement
in those community environments,
what might it look like for me to
start thinking outside of myself
that I might care for others?
Like what what might it look like this
week?
If you're in one of those you're in
a community environment. If you're not, you're you're
gonna be with some co workers, or with
some classmates, or with some peers.
What might it look like to to think
about how you could ask questions to get
to know this other person?
Not questions that are gonna set you up
to talk about yourself.
You you know what that looks like. We've
all been there, and we've all done it.
You see the wheels turning. You're having this
conversation. The wheels are turning in that other
person's mind, because they're figuring out how they
get to now set themselves up to just
talk.
People love to talk about themselves, right?
What if you and I
try to find one person this week
to exhibit some relational curiosity
to get to know them better?
For their good and their benefit, not for
you.
What if you what if you tried to
practice that this week?
Just one person.
Not every person. We're not getting crazy here.
One conversation this week.
Introverts in the room, like, hey, you gotta
have a conversation this week. You know, that's
what I'm
I'm one of you. That's what I'm telling
us. We gotta have extroverts in the room,
you gotta not just talk at people.
You gotta have a conversation with people.
Like, we all have work to do. We
all need to practice these things.
What might it look like for you to
do that this week?
And now imagine the kind of impact that
we could have in our community.
If we became known as a people
who cared about others,
who are doing things to try to help
others become known.
There could be a place
for men and women outside of this local
church
to come to know friendship
with God through Jesus,
could have brothers and sisters
that they're walking together with.
What if we practice these things? I can
promise you this.
That would have a tremendous impact in our
culture, because that is unknown.
There are not many environments that you step
into outside of,
the local church,
where men and women are striving to know
others for their good.
But if you step into that space,
and that's how you live,
imagine the kind of impact it could have.
People are craving to be known.
Craving to be seen.
And now, you and I have an opportunity
to do just that. And here's
the kicker.
This is what Jesus is calling us to.
Verse
16. You did not choose me, but I
chose you and appointed you that you should
bear fruit,
and that your fruit should abide. So that
whatever you ask the father in my name,
he may give it to you. Jesus is
turning.
He's tweaking the metaphor of bearing fruit now
to talk about the fruit of evangelism,
the fruit of mission,
the fruit of gospel advance.
He says, you have been chosen to be
disciples of Jesus
so that you can be a blessing to
others.
And this, in light of the command to
care for one another well,
this could be one small tangible means for
us to live as a gospel witness.
The reality is
none of this is possible apart from Jesus
laying down his life for his friends.
And so that's why every week we take
part in the Lord's supper.
Because we need those regular reminders of what
God has done for us in Christ.
He has made a way through Jesus. His
life, death and resurrection
that we could know him.
That we could rest in his love.
That by the power of the spirit of
God at work in us, be transformed
to look more and more like him,
that we could grow to care for others
well,
that we could become the kinds of people
who are looking outside of ourselves
to help people
connect to Jesus,
to grow up in Jesus.
It's only possible because he laid If you're
a disciple of Jesus,
what you need to understand is you're his
friend.
And he has laid down his life for
you.
And so in these moments then, we get
an opportunity to reflect.
To meditate on those great truths,
to think about what God has done for
us in Christ.
What what we sang about earlier, like, how
undeserved
that kind of love is.
That kind of grace and mercy is is
so undeserved. But God, out of his lavish
love,
has made a way for us in Christ,
that we might flourish and grow into all
that he's made us to be.
Friendship with Jesus is life changing. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your word.
That in your kindness
and grace and mercy, you have spoken to
us by it.
That we could know you.
That we could become your friends,
so that our lives could be changed and
transformed into the kinds of people you've made
us to be,
people who love you and love others.
Help us in that regard.
Spirit of God in these moments, would you
impress upon us
the steps that we need to take personally
to follow in the way of Jesus this
week.
That it can't happen by us trying harder,
doing more,
doing better.
But ultimately, it comes because of your spirit
at work in us.
And so would you help us to keep
our eyes fixed on Jesus
that we might be changed and transformed
to look more and more like him. And
we pray this in his name. Amen.