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Preached in Markham Baptist Church, February 3, 2008
 

As many of you know, I have been influenced a great deal by the writings and teachings of Charles Price. In one of his books he relates how, when he first became a Christian, he thought of Jesus Christ as the patron of Christianity – its emblem, its figurehead – rather than its life.

He imagined that when he became a Christian he was given three things. A ticket, a certificate and a catalog. It is a belief that many in Christianity hold.

First, there is the belief that they have received a ticket – the ticket states, “A free trip to heaven.” Through your confession of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour you are given eternal life. Jesus is seen as a ticket to heaven.

Then there is a certificate. The certificate states: “This is to certify that you have had all your sins forgiven … signed, God.” It is believed that you have to have this certificate in order to get the ticket. No certificate, no ticky, no ticky, no heaven. There is a great deal of gratitude for the certificate to be sure – I mean, it is by the blood of Jesus, His Son, that we are purified from our sin.” (1 John 1:7) So we are grateful and we live our lives in such a way as to express this gratitude.

The third item is a catalogue. It is called the Bible. It is imagined that God is in heaven and has exclusive rights to the Costco franchise in heaven. It is thought that God owns a great big heavenly Costco with shelves stacked high with spiritual goodies. The delivery boy is the Holy Spirit – it is His job to keep the shelves stocked and the customers happy. It all operates fairly simply – you casually read through the catalogue and you discover that the heavenly Costco has something called love. You haven’t been feeling so loving lately so – through prayer – you put in your order – “God make me more loving”. And somehow the Holy Spirit comes along and applies it to your emotions like we put on sun tan lotion in the summer – and we become more loving. But of course it doesn’t last that long – and like sun tan lotion we need to reapply it every 6 hours, after every time we go swimming – but with love, it’s after every time we get angry with our kids.

Then you read through the catalogue again and discover something called joy – and you say, “I could use some of that – I’ve been a bit miserable lately,” and so you put in your order – through prayer – “God make me more joyful”. And once again the Holy Spirit comes and douses you with joy so that your mind and emotions are completely covered with joy.

And so it goes – each time you read through the catalogue you discover a new need and simply ring God up and place your order – whether it be for faith or power, or gentleness, whatever. But what we discover is that none of these things are long-lasting and you keep having to come back to the Heavenly Costco for more. It can be tiring and is always short lived.

A ticket, a certificate, a catalogue - that’s what many think Christianity is all about. But then we read John 15 where Jesus talks about being the vine and we are the branches and we discover that Christianity is not about receiving a ticket, a certificate or a catalogue. Christianity is all about a relationship with Jesus Christ. We learn that God does not own a heavenly Costco that dispenses wonderful spiritual commodities. No, no, God doesn’t give us those things alone, - saying delivery of joy to this person – a delivery of love to this person – No, no, no. Here’s the truth God gives us Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus says in Verse 5, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  With that one sentence Jesus establishes the fact that he is the life source for every Christian. That doesn’t mean that we will stop breathing if we are separate from Christ – but it does mean that we will not be able to reproduce the character of the vine – who is Jesus Christ – without being intimately attached to the vine – who is Jesus Christ.

With that one sentence Jesus establishes the fact that the love that He has – which is patient, kind, which does not envy, or boast or is proud, rude self seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth – always protects, always trusts always hopes always perseveres – that love of His is only had, only gained, only produced in our lives through an intimate relationship with Him.

With that one sentence Jesus establishes the fact that the peace that He has – a peace that passes all understanding – is only had, only gained, only produced in our lives through an intimate relationship with Him.

God does not give us a ticket, a certificate, and a catalogue.  He gives us something infinitely better - He gives us Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.

Do you see why this? This is infinitely better than having to come to God with a list of our needs because in Christ we have been given everything we need to live the Christian life. We don’t need to place an order for more love or more patience – we have all that we need – in Christ.

This is what Peter writes in his second letter – “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1:3)

Jesus is the vine. All that we need to live the Christian life is in the vine. There isn’t one of you who need access to more love. You have all you need in Jesus Christ. There isn’t a Christian in this room who needs to get more patience, peace, gentleness, goodness, or kindness – you already have access to all that in Christ. He is the vine!

Do you ever wonder how Paul is able to say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) How is he able to say that? Can you say that?

We say – of course not – only super Christians can say that – hogwash. You can say that. You should be able to say that – why? Because Jesus Christ is in you, you can do all things because Christ is in you.

It doesn’t mean that you can jump over the moon of course, but it does mean that you can be loving toward that cantankerous neighbour. You can forgive that person who hurt you, you can have a more Christ-like character because Christ – the source of all life is in you.

To say that we need more love – is as silly as a branch saying “I need more sap.” It has all the sap it needs – as long as it stays attached to the vine. And as the branch allows the life of the vine to fill and sustain it – it has all the sap it needs. And so with you and the Christian life – Jesus is the Vine – is the source of the Christian life.

Now Jesus emphasises this in the next part of verse 5, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”   With that one sentence Jesus establishes our inability to create the nature of the Christ in ourselves.

It's a lesson we all need to learn in the Christian life. We cannot do anything without Christ in us. We cannot overcome the temptations of the world without Christ in us. We cannot overcome the trials of this world without Christ in us. We cannot reproduce a Christ-like character without Christ in us. We cannot share the gospel with any sort of effectiveness with our neighbours, friends or the world without Christ in us.

Now there is a “how” question here, isn’t there? How is this life of Christ resourced? I mean, once I am a Christian, how is this life of Christ tapped into? Again, verse 5 – “I am vine and you are the branches – if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”

Do you hear the invitation of those words? It is an invitation that is repeated over and over in our text. What is the refrain in this text? Anyone?

Yes, “Abide in me.” (NRSV) or “Remain in me.” (NIV) - 7 times in the first 11 verses. That's an invitation issued by our Lord to us, to remain in Him, to reside in Him, so that He can work in us and through us.

Now what does it mean to remain in Christ, or to abide in Christ? We can't take it out of the context in which Jesus uses it - so with an understanding of the relationship that exists between the branch and the vine, we get a picture of what it means to remain in Christ, to abide in Him.

It means, first of all, rest in me. Indeed, this is part of what Jesus is saying here. He is saying, rest in me and stop your striving to win God's favour. Just as a branch rests in the vine to reproduce its life through its veins, so we must rest in Christ. You see, we cannot win God's favour apart from Him. There is no act of kindness that is good enough; there is no deed of mercy that is pure enough to win God's favour. God's standards are so high, so divine, that we will never be able to meet them. But there is one who has, who can and will, on our behalf - that person is Jesus Christ. And it is as we rest in Him, as a branch rests in the vine, that we are saved.

In fact we don't even need to try to win God's favour because Christ has done all the work for us. We have nothing to claim before God.

Some time ago I heard Donald Carson preach here in Toronto. He is an excellent scholar and theologian and was recently at the Toronto Spiritual Life Convention. But I remember hearing him say something that struck me right between the eyes. He said that when we come to the throne of grace we will not be able to claim any act of righteousness, or any good deed. Well I agreed with that; we all agree with that.

It's what he said next that struck me - he said looking at the crowd that had gathered, "many of you here believe that when you get to the throne of grace you will be able to make one claim that will win you a ticket into heaven."

I said to myself, "No. Not me."

He said, "It's true. Many of you Christians, when you meet God face-to-face, have your argument all planned out. When God asks you why He should let you into heaven you plan to tell Him the date, the time and occasion when you fell on your knees and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, saying, 'I am worthy of eternal life because I accepted Christ.'"

But, says Scripture, it is by grace alone that you are saved. We have no merit - I cannot even claim MY ACT of acceptance of Jesus Christ. I must, you must, rest fully in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who met the full demands of the law and He died in our place. Jesus makes this exclusive claim about Himself in verse 6, "whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned."

Abide in me; rest in me. Jesus says stop your striving to win God's favour. Jesus has already won it for us.

Abide in me also brings to mind trust. Jesus is not only saying rest in me and stop your striving, but trust in me and stop your struggling. Stop your struggling to be the good person you think you should be. Trust me to bring my life, my character, about in you. This is what Jesus is saying regarding the fruit. He says in verse 5, "those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit." That is, he will bear the character of Christ himself.

Now, note - nowhere does Jesus say that we are to work to produce fruit. We are not to produce it; we are to bear it. We're not in charge of the production of the fruit - production isn't our responsibility - Jesus Christ is the vine; He is in charge of the producing. As the branches we are to bear the fruit.

Let's think of the image of the vine and the branches again. Let's pretend for a moment that I could talk to a branch on a vine and the branch was able to talk to me. I approach the branch:

"Good day branch. Isn't it a wonderful day we are having?"

"You talking to me?"

"Why yes, I am. I saw you there and I just couldn't leaf you alone."

The branch doesn't appreciate my humour.

"Well, branch, why so grumpy? I see you don't have too many grapes on your branch. Perhaps you are grumpy because you are not doing what you were made for. You are not bearing much fruit."

"I know," says the branch. "All the other branches on the vine seem to be bearing so much more fruit - try as I might I cannot produce more fruit. I grunt and I struggle, and I try, but I cannot produce the fruit. I'm tuckered out."

And I say, "Silly branch, if you ever listened to the garden show on CFRB Saturday mornings between 10 and 11 you would know that you are attached to a very strong vine. You would know that that vine has strong roots that sink deep into the soil, drinking up the nutrients that in turn course through the veins and feed the entire plant. And you would know that attached to those strong primary roots there are millions of tiny tendril roots that drink up the earth's moisture turning it into a life-giving sap that travels to the very tip of each branch. And you would know that the vine has leaves that reach up to the sunshine and pull its life-giving light into the body of the vine."

"Silly, silly branch, there is nothing that you need to strive to do, because you are part of the vine. The vine produces the fruit; the branch bears the fruit."

And so with the Christian. Jesus says, I appointed you to go and bear much fruit - don't try to produce the fruit. Jesus is the root that gives us our life; He is the stem that keeps us steady; He is the leaf that brings the sunshine; He is the vine. So let Jesus the vine produce the fruit. You only need to bear it.

Notice also that we are not responsible for the performance of the fruit. I don't know about you, but I find it much easier to perform than to remain. I like to get stuff done. Part of that has to do with the society we live in. We are constantly being evaluated by the bottom line, how much we have earned, how much we have saved, how much we have done, the contacts we have made. Our value in the world is often based on performance.

But it's not that way with God. I find it so refreshing, so liberating, to worship a God who does not base His love for me and you, His acceptance of me and you, on our performance. I love the picture of the waiting father in the parable we call the prodigal son. You know the end of the story - how the rebellious son comes home and how the father runs toward the son and welcomes him home. What had the son done to deserve that? Nothing! He had nothing to show for his time away from home, yet the father welcomed him home with a party.

So is God with us. We have done nothing, can do nothing. We are called to trust Jesus to reproduce His character in us.

Fruitfulness follows yieldedness.

Remain in me - it means rest in me and stop your striving to win God's favour. It means, trust in Me and let Me produce My character in you.

Now notice that Jesus says “Remain in me”. He doesn’t say remain in self. No the focus of our remaining is Jesus Christ, the focus of our abiding is Jesus Christ. So while abiding means we are to rest in Christ, we are to trust in Christ – it also means that we are to die to self. We must die to self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is a plague that is ripping through our churches. And it’s all fuelled by good intentions. We want our church to have good leadership so we take the courses and say yes to being a deacon. We want our kids to know the love of Christ so we say yes to teaching Sunday School. We want our neighbours to know the joy of sins forgiven so we make pies and visit with each one. We believe our church needs this program and that program – if we only did this in our church – we would be a good church – wonderful intentions all – but be careful – if it is done in self-sufficiency there will be nothing to show for it.

Jesus says, “I am the vine and you are the branches … apart from Me you can do nothing.”  But if you remain in Him and He in you – you will bear much fruit.  With full reliance upon Christ there will be a great harvest.

Now understand that none of those things I mentioned is bad – they’re all good things – that’s not the point. The point is that Jesus Christ “calls us to a task not that we might do it for him – but that we might become the means through which he does it.”¹  Listen carefully – it’s not dedication that God wants from you – as wonderful as that is. God does not want your dedication – He wants your death.

I thought He came to bring me life?  He did – He came to bring you His own eternal life. And He is the only source of that life – so you have to die to self. You have to die to your agenda, you have to die to your goals, you have to die to your self-sufficiency.

Some of you women who are in the Tuesday night study group studied Abraham and Sarah this past week – you discovered how God promised that he would make Abraham great – he would father a large nation and many nations would be blessed through him.

And you discovered how Abraham and Sarah – while looking at the mirror one day began to worry a little bit – as they said to one another, “We’re really old. And we can’t wait for God to do this thing.” And Sarah says, “Abraham I want you to take Hagar and through her we’ll get this great nation thing going.” And Abraham being a man says, “Um, okay”. Talk about dedication. They were going to make this promise a reality. They were going to help God. Talk about dedication.

But God says no – I don’t want your dedication – I want you to die to your plans and your schemes and how you think things should happen. Don’t try to do my work for me. Simply trust me Abraham and I’ll do my work through you. Is anything too hard for God?

Jesus Christ “calls us to a task not that we might do it for him – but that we might become the means through which he does it.”²

My friends, this is what makes Christianity far more than just another religion. This is what makes Christianity far more than a never-ending struggle to live a quality of life that seems humanly impossible to reach. This is what makes Christianity a joyful, living faith – for we are given everything we need to live lives of godliness as we remain in Christ as a branch remains in a the vine!

Hudson Taylor, that great missionary to China, speaks of how he spent the first 15 years in China utterly frustrated by his own failure to serve God effectively, to produce the fruit he felt God was asking of him.

He prayed; he agonized; he fasted; he tried to do better; he made resolutions. He read the Bible more carefully; he ordered his life to give more time for rest and mediation. But all this had little effect.

It was then that he discovered what he termed the exchanged life. As he wholly surrendered his life to Christ, Christ gave his life wholly to him. Now it was not what he could do for Christ, but what Christ could do through him.

It was as he meditated upon our text this morning that he found the secret to a fruitful life.

"How great seemed my mistake," he said, "in having wished to get the sap, the fullness out of him. I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of his body and that apart from him I could do nothing. The vine now, I see, is not the root merely, but all - root, stem branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit - and Jesus is not only that; he is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh the joy of seeing this truth."

Abide in me, says Jesus. To rest in Him and stop our striving, to trust Him and stop our struggling, to depend on Him to be our strength, to obey Him for He is all we need. He is the soil and sunshine, the air and the showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed.  

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - February  2008

ENDNOTES:

1. to come when available

2. to come when available