Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

John 15:12-17 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 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. 16 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. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.







INTRODUCTION







One thing common to all people is the need to make sense of the big questions in life.







Who am I? Why am I here? Is there any ultimate meaning? Why is life hard? What is good and evil? What happens after I die?







We’re not always conscious that we’re trying to find consistent answers to these kinds of questions, but it is a phenomenon universal to all mankind. It is a track that is perpetually running inside of us. That’s part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Not having answers is part of the restlessness that is common to all apart from Christ, even as having answers is a part of the peace of the Spirit for all who are in Christ.







Another of the big questions in life relates to our wills. Am I free? Why do I desire the things I desire? Is there anything outside of me that has influence on me or authority over me?







The heart of this passage is part of the answer to this last set of questions. To be clear, this passage does not give the final word on free will or answer every question we might have on the relationship between God’s sovereignty and our freedom. What it does do, however, is give us a clear statement on the lordship of Jesus and the fact that it shapes our choices in significant ways. Jesus has and uses authority to choose a people to follow Him as well as to determine the purpose of our following. Let’s make sure we don’t read more into this passage than what’s in it, but let’s be equally sure not to miss what’s there.







In other words, the big idea of this passage is that Jesus chose His followers (they didn’t choose Him) and He did so in order that they might bear lasting fruit among all mankind. Throughout the six verses, Jesus named five specific kinds of abiding fruit: love, obedience, friendship, teaching, and prayer. Consequently, the main takeaways are to abide in Jesus and out of that, give ourselves to love, obey, befriend, teach, and pray.







Before I pray, I’d like to quickly remind you that we are in the last quarter of John’s Gospel. His overall purpose for recording the things he did concerning Jesus’ life and ministry is to convince his readers that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, so that his readers would believe in Jesus and be saved (20:31).







To that end, John spent eleven chapters recalling the first three+ years of Jesus earthly ministry and then the final nine chapters recalling the events of the final week of Jesus life on earth. We’re in chapter fifteen, the events of which (along with all of chapters 13-17) took place on Thursday evening, the night of the Passover meal, the night of His betrayal and arrest, and the night before His crucifixion. Our passage consists of Jesus’ words to His eleven disciples (Judas had already left to betray Him), His closest followers.







The main thing for us to get our heads around in the way of background is that our passage records some of Jesus’ final words on earth.

John 15:1-11 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 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. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.







INTRODUCTION







What started out as a single sermon (in my mind) is now on part four, spread out over six weeks. While it was not exactly the route I imagined, it has been good for my soul to have more time to marinate in the awesome truths and blessings of this passage. I hope the Lord has encouraged you in a similar way.







With that, welcome to the final sermon on John 15:1-11. We’ll do a brief review and then look at the last five blessings that belong to those who are united to Jesus.







The big idea of this passage is that the Christian life is about being united to and abiding in Jesus in such a way that His mind, heart, and actions flow freely out of us, and all according to the superintending grace of God. The main takeaways are to pray in faith, actively abide in God’s Word and love, and to seek fullness of joy in Jesus.







Let’s pray.







REVIEW







If you’re just joining us, or if you’ve forgotten where we are in light of the two weeks we’ve been away from the passage because of mission week, you should know that we’ve already considered the first six verses of this passage. In them we saw that Jesus is using the metaphor of a vineyard to describe the relationship between God the Father, Him, and His followers. The Father is vinedresser, Jesus is the true vine, and we, Jesus’ followers, are the branches. In addition, we considered eight of thirteen blessings that Jesus come to branches connected to the vine.







In simplest terms, regarding the Father as vinedresser, the key idea is that God graciously superintends our spiritual lives from beginning to end in perfect wisdom, power, and goodness. Regarding Jesus as the true vine, it is through Him, through abiding in Him, that all spiritual life and fruit comes. And regarding God’s people as branches, we saw that our primary responsibility, perfect hope, and great blessing is to come to and remain in Jesus.







DISCIPLES AS BRANCHES – THE BLESSINGS OF BEING UNITED TO JESUS







With all of that, I’m going to name the first eight blessings of remaining in Jesus that we’ve already considered and then turn to v.7 for the remaining five. Again, for those of you who are trusting in Jesus, as you hear me read these blessings, remember that they are yours. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you live more fully in light of them—to help you abide in them. And for those of you who are not hoping in Jesus, know that the very fact you are hearing them right now means that God is offering these th...

Hebrews 11:8-19 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.







INTRODUCTION







Good morning, Grace Church. Welcome to the final event of missions week 2024. For those of you who are not sure what that means, let me briefly catch you up to speed. At Grace Church we believe that the Bible is God’s Word. In it, God reveals to us everything He requires of us. One of the things He requires of us (which Mat highlighted in his sermon last week), is to bring the good news to all mankind that all mankind might be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ, our resurrected savior and king. Within that, we see that God’s Word tells us that missions is pleasing to God.







For that reason, every year for the past eleven (?) years, the missions team at Grace Church has put together something we call “Missions Week.” The missions team’s aims for Missions Week are clear and constant—to keep God’s commands to call the entire world to follow Jesus in front of us, to encourage all of us to more fully obey them, and to help us better support those who already are. That’s a fair summary, right, missions team?







Again, you’ve found yourself at the tail end of this year’s missions week this morning. Last week, in the Sunday school hour, we kicked Missions Week off with Krista taking a look back with us at her time in France and then forward at the next leg of her missionary journey in Scotland. During the worship service, Mat preached on the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Then, many of us came together on Wednesday evening to hear a bit of the heart of the missions team, to learn more about the part of the world most in need of missionary work, and to pray for our church’s missionaries. This morning, Mat and Miranda shared about their move to Etheopia in Sunday school and I’m about to preach on the role of faith and obedience in missions from Hebrews 11.







Before I get to the sermon, though, I want to do two things. First, I’d like to publicly and enthusiastically thank the missions team for another Word-driven, God-honoring, faith-encouraging, practically-focused missions week. They don’t typically see the Grace Church missions needle move a great deal for all their effort,

Matthew 28:19-20 (translation by Mat Adams) Go, therefore, disciple all the nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; 20 teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days unto the end of the age”







Introduction







Before we get to our text this morning. I want to back up and provide some historical context for a shift we have seen in the mission of the church over the past 100 years. Today, the missions industry is driven by a short-term mindset with a goal of rapid multiplication; not the long-term, slow-growing, from-the-ground-up, training-in-theology, and building-institutions-that-last mindset that characterized our theological forefathers.







For example: Missionaries like John Eliot, David Brainerd, William Carey, Adaniram Judson, and David Livingstone; Theologians like Charles Spurgeon, B.B. Warfield, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine; RC Sproul. Recognize those names? These are the heavy hitters and these are just a few among thousands.







In fact, it seems like missionaries and theologians who made the greatest impact in human history not only held optimistic beliefs about God working presently on earth to disciple the nations, but were driven by them, were motivated by them.







Renowned theologians and missionary pioneers from the past two thousand years have believed that Christ is holistically (both spiritually and tangibly) expanding his kingdom reign on earth now through his church. Pre-twentieth-century missions dramatized this optimistic outlook on the world stage. They performed their beliefs for all to see.







Let me give you two examples of my favorite missionaries…







John Eliot







John Eliot (1604–1690) arrived on the scene on the coattails of the greatest revival of Christian doctrine the world has ever seen—the reformation of the 1500s. This Puritan pastor believed, “the Lord’s time is come to advance and spread His Blessed Kingdom, which shall (in his season) fill all the Earth.” [1] So, this pastor and missionary labored his whole life for the salvation of Massachusetts and the Algonquian Indians living around his settlement.







In 1660, he earned the title Apostle of the American Indian. Eliot himself traveled on foot and on horseback, taxing his strength to the utmost, sometimes drenched by rain, facing much sickness, all to bring the gospel to the Indians.







Because the gospel was so successful among the Algonquian, these spirit-filled natives were no longer welcome inside their corrupt and pagan society. They asked Eliot to help them establish new communities entirely founded on Scripture—the culture, arts, music, ways of living, schools, medical facilities, and even their government was founded on the Law of God. Together, they built up entire towns of Christian Indians who prayed together, worshiped together, and centered their entire lives around the glorious kingdom of God. After years of toil, teaching, and evangelism he had trained several Algonquian Indians to aid the work. And by 1675, there were fourteen towns made up of believers, called “praying towns”! (May our towns become praying towns!) These towns were dedicated to “Christian fellowship, learning to read and study the Scriptures, the training of pastors and evangelists, and general human flourishing.”







It’s vital to realize that these towns must not be compared to the Indian Schools that would come about later intended to remove the “indian” from the Indians, and convert them to civilized white folk. John Eliot fought against that notion his whole life.

John 15:1-11 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 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. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.







INTRODUCTION







While Christmas gets more cultural hype, and while Easter isn’t possible without Christmas, Easter is the pinnacle of the Church calendar. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (and the fact that we can join Him in it, by grace, through faith) is the good news and great promise and ultimate hope of all mankind. Whatever else Christianity is, it is rooted in the reality that Jesus defeated death by actually, physically rising from the dead.







As always, in considering the best way to go about helping all of us rightly recognize and respond to that, see and celebrate it, in the context of a sermon, I was faced with the question of whether to continue in John’ Gospel (with the third part of a sermon, nonetheless) or do a stand-alone Easter message. The more I thought about it, the easier the decision became. Our passage is essentially a description of resurrection blessings. That is, John 15:1-11 names many of the gracious gifts of God that were purchased by Jesus with His death and resurrection. And those gifts eternally belong to all who believe in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.







The big idea of this passage is that the Christian life is about abiding in Jesus in such a way that His mind, heart, and actions flow freely out of us, and all according to the superintending grace and unlimited blessings of God, all of which flow freely out of all that Jesus accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection.







I’m hopeful that on this Easter Sunday, the Holy Spirit would be pleased to help all of us grasp the truth that abiding in Jesus is what all of us were made for. It is God’s command to us and our duty to Him. At the same time, it is the only place of true fulfillment and joy and it is the greatest reward.







Indeed, and I really invite you to consider this, everything everyone does in life (everything you do in life) is done in an attempt to get what abiding in Jesus offers and alone can give. Every good and bad pursuit in your life, whether you know it or not, is aimed at that which nothing but abiding in Jesus can provide. Lots of things in life promise the love, joy, peace, belonging, acceptance, purpose, healing, redemption, significance, victory, and satisfaction you were made for and long for, but only abiding in Jesus can truly deliver those things.







If you are a Christian, it’s because you have come to recognize that abiding in Jesus is what you were made for, but also that it is not what you wanted, definitely not what you deserved, and that it was completely out of your power to achieve.

John 15:1-11 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 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. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.







INTRODUCTION







Happy Palm Sunday. We read about that back in chapter 12 in John’s Gospel. It is the day in which Jesus rode into Jerusalem in a way that most clearly revealed that He is the Christ. He did so in a way that began as everyone was expecting—riding on a donkey in fulfillment of Zecheriah 9:9, to the praise of the crowds. And yet, while it began in the way everyone was expecting, it didn’t end that way. Instead of rallying a King David-like army to lead the people to a decisive, King David-like military victory, Jesus made it increasingly clear that He had come to die. Thus, the initial enthusiasm that swept through the Passover crowd, faded as quickly as it began. In fact, it completely dried up to the point that those same people will soon be yelling, “Crucify Him!”







Chapters 13-17 in John’s Gospel tell of Jesus final words of preparation for His disciples before His crucifixion. Again, our passage for this morning describes events that are mere moments before Jesus will be betrayed and mere hours before He will be beaten and crucified. I’m thankful for God’s providential timing in bringing us to this point in the Gospel at this point in the Church calendar—on Palm Sunday, a week before Easter.







With that, welcome back to John 15:1-11. This is part two (of what’s now at least a three-part sermon on this passage). If you weren’t here last week, don’t worry, I’ll bring you up to speed in just a bit after I pray.







The big idea of this passage is that the Christian life is about being united to Jesus in such a way that His mind, heart, and actions flow freely out of us, and all according to the superintending grace of God. That was the banner which needed to fly over all they did to carry on Jesus’ message in Jesus’ physical absence.







After a quick review, we’ll get right back to the nature and benefits of abiding in Jesus. And all of that to help us live as Christ intends. That is, the main takeaway is to read God’s Word in order to know what it means to be united to Jesus, and then to strive with the Spirit’s help to fully abide in Him, and all so that we might do good works for the glory of God. All of that was a big part of Jesus’ final message to His closest followers.







Let’s pray for God’s insight, conviction, and transformation.







REVIEW







Last week we looked at the setting, the Father as vinedresser, Jesus as the true vine, and the first two blessings that come from being branche...