Abide in Me

I have a fairly large garden, and when people ask me what I grow, my answer is, “I grow dirt.” I have learned over the years that gardening is not about growing plants but about growing dirt. Plants need the right conditions to bear fruit, and it starts with the soil being good. Once we have prepared the soil, we then plant, weed, prune, feed, and water the plants. But God causes the growth and causes the plant to produce fruit. Jesus uses the analogy of a fruit vine growing in a garden as a way for us to understand what it means to abide in Him.

““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 bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.””   John 15:1-11

Introduction

What does it mean to abide in Christ? Some of the standard answers to this question include maintaining a relationship with Jesus, remaining dependent on Him, being in God’s word regularly, praying regularly, having regular fellowship with other believers, bearing fruit, obeying God’s word, participating in worship, church attendance, service, giving, etc. These are all correct answers, and there are many others, but it is possible to do these things and not actually be abiding in Christ. These activities can become a list of things we do to check off. We can find ourselves doing these things but realize we do not have an intimate, daily, minute by minute relationship with Jesus. How do we abide in Christ? What does it mean to “abide in Him”?

Parable of the Sower

One way to get a better understanding of this passage is to look at the parable of the sower.

““Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”” Mark 4:3-9

The disciples did not understand the parable, so Jesus explained it to them:

“”The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.””  Mark 4:14-20

In this parable, Jesus is showing us how to abide in Him and bear fruit. He warns us of three things that will cause us to not abide in Him, and one that will. The first seed falls along the road, and the devil snatches it up. The second seed falls on the rocky ground and withers because it has no depth of root. The third seed falls in the weeds and is choked out. But the fourth seed falls on the good soil, and bears fruit. Abiding in Christ is being good soil.

Sin and Satan

First we see that there is an enemy who will oppose us even getting planted in Christ. Satan will steal the word of God from our hearts and minds the minute we hear it if we let him. The first thing we must do to abide in Christ is to resist the devil. We are told that if we do this, he will flee (James 4:7). Often satan uses the sin in our lives to keep us from being born again. We want to continue in the sinful lifestyle we have been living apart from Christ and we say no to the gospel message. We must let the word be planted in our lives, just as the seed must be planted in soil, in order to germinate and become a plant. Without being planted, the seed remains a seed and never becomes a fruit bearing plant. This is a picture of us being born again. We must hear the gospel message and believe it in order to start abiding in Christ.

But the devil does not go away once we are born again. He prowls around like a roaring lion seeking ways to destroy our walk with Christ and ruin our ability to bear fruit (1 Peter 5:8). Just think of some of the people whose ministries have been destroyed by sin and the devil over the years. Bill Hybels and Ravi Zacharias come to mind as recent examples of this, both men falling into adulterous affairs that destroyed their ministries. We must resist the devil and his attempts to destroy us. If we do not, we could lose everything , and might even lose the ability to do ministry in the future as well.

Not only can satan prevent us from being born again by stealing the word from us before it is planted, but he can lure us into a trap that can completely wipe out our witness. Like a full grown lion crouching in the corner of our room, a beast that could pounce on us and kill us at any moment, sin in our life can kill our spiritual life, and prevent us from abiding in Christ and bearing fruit. We must remove sin from our lives, putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:12-14), in order to safeguard the word of God that has been planted in us. We do this in order to live and to be a living witness of the gospel of Jesus (Romans 12:1-2).

The Two Foundations

The seed on the rocky ground warns us that if we do not develop some depth to our faith, it will not stand. Once we are believers, we have to learn about God, learn Jesus’ words, and build our life on them (Matthew 7:24-27). It is the word of God that prunes us, removing the things from our life that would keep us from being fruitful. The disciples had Jesus speaking words directly to them, and this is what He refers to in John 15:3. Today we have the Holy Spirit speaking to us through God’s word, the Bible. It is critical that we put God’s word into our heart and minds and let the Spirit prune our lives. By doing this, we develop deep roots and we will be able to bear fruit.

Weeds

As a gardener, weeding is one of the primary activities that we do once the plants are in and growing. It is a constant effort to keep the garden free of weeds. Failure to weed the garden usually means we have a weed garden by the end of the summer, with no fruit at all. The same can be said of our walk with Jesus – if we fail to keep the weeds out of our life, we may get to the end of our lives and only have a life full of weeds, with no spiritual fruit to show for our life.

The seed that fell among the weeds warns us that even if we are born again and put God’s word into our hearts and minds, the word can be choked out by the things of the world. Money, possessions, sex, fame, power, comfort, etc. are some of the first things we think of when we read this. But there are many other things that can choke out the word and keep us from being fruitful that are harder to spot, like legalism, licentiousness, lust, peer pressure, idolatry, addictions, excessive time spent watching TV or surfing on our phones, etc. 1 John 2:15-17 describes them for us in a unique way:

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”  1 John 2:15-17

 The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life are the three main categories of the weeds that will choke out the word of God that is in us, preventing us from bearing fruit. Just as weeding a garden is a daily thing that we must do constantly if we want to have a fruitful garden, weeding our life of the things that will choke out the word in our life is also a daily thing we must do, in order to abide in Him and bear fruit.

Source of Life

Another aspect of “abiding in Christ” addresses the source that we are looking to in order to provide life. Jesus is to be the source of our life, the way to the fruit that we seek and want in our lives. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are things we all need and want in our lives. But often we do not look to Jesus for these things. We look to other things in our life, thinking that if we had them we would have the fruit we want. Let’s just consider the first three – love, joy, and peace.

Many of us think that if we have the right mate, the right career, the right car, the right house, the right children, the right amount of money, the right lifestyle, etc., etc., etc., then we will be happy. Often we look to these things to give us the fruit that we long for in our lives. We think to ourselves “If only I had enough money I would have peace of mind” or “If only I had the perfect mate I would feel loved” or “If only I had that car then I would really be happy (joy)”. On and on the list goes, of the things we think would provide the fruit in our life that we crave. When we get those things in our lives, they never deliver, they are never enough. Look at the lives of people who have made it to the top and they will tell you that it does not provide the love, joy, and peace that they thought that it would.

There is only one who can truly create the genuine version of the fruit in our lives that we crave, and it is Jesus. Through abiding in Him, having a personal relationship with Jesus, the fruit of love, joy, and peace (as well as the other fruit of the Spirit) begin to become a reality in our lives. And the fruit that He grows in our lives is not dependent on circumstances. We can even find ourselves having joy and peace in the middle of a storm in our life, for example. The weeds block the life of the Holy Spirit from being able to bear this fruit in our lives, just as the weeds in a garden block the sun and choke out the plants, keeping them from being fruitful. We must look to Jesus to be the source of life in us, the creator of the fruit of the spirit in our life. He alone has life. Nothing else on earth can provide us with the life that we seek.

Birth of the Church

Jesus is also telling His disciples that He is about to release God v5.0 so to speak. The old Mosaic law is coming to an end, and it will no longer be a source of spiritual life. The Holy Spirit is about to be released into the world at Pentecost, and the church will be born. Jesus is the new temple of God, and He is the only source of life. He is the True Vine. Jesus is the only way to God, the only way to true life. And we, His followers, are the new temple here on earth until His return. (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19-20)

When He was crucified the veil of the temple in Jerusalem was torn in two (Matthew 27:51). When He entered Jerusalem and cursed the fig tree because it had no fruit, the tree died (Mark 11:12-14 and 11:20-21). This is symbolic of God coming into the world to find faith being produced by Mosaic Judaism. Finding none, He removed the branch (of Mosaic Judaism) from the vine. The fig tree represents Mosaic Judaism as it was being practiced. That branch has been removed from the vine and we are now free from the law of sin and death if we are abiding in Christ:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4

We can no longer get to God through the practice of Judaism. That branch has been removed from the vine. Jesus is the only way to God now. That is not to say that God is finished with the Jewish people though. Israel is His possession forever and the Abrahamic covenant is still in force. Romans chapter 11 makes it clear that Israel has not been rejected by God. It is only a temporary hardening of their hearts that has occurred. When the times of the gentiles has been fulfilled at the end of this age, all of the Jews who remain at that time will be saved. But this is a message for another post.

Conclusion

Simply stated, we have to stiff arm sin and the devil, get the word of God in us, and remove the things from our life that are keeping us from being fruitful. We must look to Jesus alone for life. This is how we abide in Christ, how we become good soil. Jesus is our life, He is the source of all life. If we do these things, the Holy Spirit will be a river of living water pouring through us into the world (John 7:38-39). By stiff-arming sin and the devil, we are planted in Christ and avoid being taken out by sin. By getting in the word of God we build a firm foundation in our life that can support our growth in Christ and carry us through the difficult times of life. By weeding our lives we remove the things that will choke out the word and we bear the fruit in our lives that we all want. When we become good soil, the Holy Spirit will flow through us and bear fruit in our lives. The Holy Spirit will lead us, teach us, put to death the deeds of the body, and the very life of God will course through us like sap in a fruit vine (Romans 8:1-17). This is abiding in Christ.

What are some of the things that are keeping you from abiding in Christ? what are some of the things you have looked to for life? For joy? For love? For peace? Have you been born again, or did the devil snatch the seed of the gospel out of your life, preventing it from ever being planted? Do you have a solid foundation in your spiritual life, or have you failed to put God’s word into your heart and mind? What are some of the things that are choking out God’s work in your life? What is a way that will work for you to get the word of God into your life daily? Where in your life do you need to stiff-arm the devil and resist his efforts to prevent the gospel from doing its work in your life? Are you seeing the fruit of Christ in your life increase (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control) or are the weeds in your life choking out God’s work in your life? Are you being led by the Holy Spirit, or are you drifting away from God, being led by the culture or something other than God’s Spirit? What or who are you looking to for life?

My garden requires a lot of work for it to be fruitful. There have been years that I lost control of it because of travel for work. I remember one year all I had by the end of the summer was a garden full of weeds that were 4 to 5 feet tall. I had to wipe everything out and start over, just like the John 15 passage says he removes the unfruitful branches and casts them into the fire. Have you lost control of your walk with Jesus? If so, what can you do to get back on track and begin abiding more fully in Him? What are three things you can start doing today that will make the garden of your life become more fruitful?

Lord God almighty, our Father in heaven, we come before You now in the name of Jesus and ask that You would show us how to abide in Christ more fully. We pray that the life of Your Holy Spirit would course through our lives, putting to death the things in our life that are hindering us from fully abiding in You and preventing us from bearing fruit. Deliver us from the evil one when he comes to steal from us the joy, peace, and love You have given us in Christ Jesus. Do not lead us into temptation, and help us to avoid sin that could take us us out of the game. Give us a hunger and a thirst for Your word, opening our minds so that we can understand it more fully and come to know You better each day. Help us to practice Your presence daily. Speak to our hearts and our minds and lead us in the everlasting way. We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.

Judas

When we read the John 15 passage, it can make us nervous regarding whether or not we are saved. We sometimes ask ourselves, are we a good branch that is bearing fruit or are we one of the ones God removes and burns up. Most pastors will tell you that if you are worried about this, then that means you are a good branch and are abiding in the vine, because if you were not, you would not care about it at all. So that is the first thing to know about this passage of scripture in this regards.

We also must remember that Jesus is telling this to His disciples right before Judas betrays Him. We might even conclude that He is letting them know that Judas is one of the branches that is going to be broken off, explaining it to them so that they are not confused when it happens. Plants have many branches, and some of them are not helping the plant be fruitful. We have several large oak trees in our yard, and you can see dead branches that the tree itself has decided to let go of because they were not doing their job. They were sucking the life out of the tree, robbing the other branches, so the tree lets them go.

There are people who attach themselves to Christ and the church who are not born again. I remember a testimony someone gave years ago where he told us that he had just been hired by an insurance company, and the boss told them each to join a different church so they could make business contacts and sell more insurance. Judas was stealing money from Jesus’ ministry. He ended up selling Jesus out to the people who wanted to kill Him. If you are stealing from the offering plate in church or doing something like that, then yes, you need to be concerned – you are probably a branch that is going to be removed and burned up. Otherwise, you are probably like the other eleven disciples. When Jesus told them one of them was going to betray Him, they each wondered if it was them. In Matthew 26 we read:

“Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶ And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

¹⁷ Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ¹⁸ He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” ¹⁹ And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

²⁰ When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. ²¹ And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” ²² And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” ²³ He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵ Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.” Matthew 26:14-25

The other eleven disciples all wondered if it was them, just as we wonder. But Judas knew it was him. If we are one of the branches that will be broken off and burned, we know it, and that is the point. Judas was never on board, he was just there to take advantage of the situation for himself, just as those insurance salesmen were in churches just to sell insurance. Judas was so not a branch that he was actually plotting to turn Jesus over to the Jewish leaders – he was turning the vine in to the authorities so to speak. In John chapter 10 Jesus is speaking to the Jewish leaders and when they ask Him if He is the Messiah He says to them:

 “Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”” John 10:25-26

If we hear Jesus’ voice, we are His sheep, and no one can remove us from the vine of abiding in Christ. We are His forever. There are many verses on the security of the believer. If we are wondering “if it is us”, then we know we are His. If we know “It is us”, then we are not His and are headed for the eternal fire of hell. You know if you are not His.

I hope this is helpful.