As I was reading through the passage this week, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between what was just read and the passage that we looked at a couple weeks ago from 1 John 3. The onery part of me, the part that I have to keep in check more often than not, thought about reusing that sermon just to see how many people would really notice. But then, the more realistic part of me remembered that y’all absorb every word and take copious notes, so there’s no way I’d actually get away with it. Seriously though, there are a lot of similarities between the two passages. So the challenge, I think, is to ask ourselves if we are really taking it in? Are we really listening to the Word here?
Now, it’s not like the two passage are word-for-word duplicates. So, I want to spend some time looking at the differences, but first, what are some of the common threads? What is it that we come to again in this passage that we were faced with two weeks ago in the passage from John’s letter? Right out of the gate, we come across a familiar word: abide.
Believe it or not, this is not a very common word in Scripture. It’s only found 36 times in the 66 books that we have in our Bible. And here’s the baseball fan in me coming out, what do the stats look like? “Abide” appears in the Old Testament 7 times, and 29 times in the New Testament. Of those 29 New Testament appearances, 2 are in Paul’s letters and the other 27 are found in John’s writings – either in the gospel, or in his first two letters. Three quarters of all appearances of this word in the Bible are found just in the writings of John. So, apart from me having spent 5 minutes of my time looking it up, what does this mean?
It tells me that this is a very significant theme in John’s writings, at least in the course of four chapter of his writings. You see, not only does John use the word 27 times, he uses it in bunches. 23 of those appearances are found in John 15, or the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters of 1 John. And why is it so important that John would refer to it so much thoughout these chapters? Because everything we are and do as Christians hinges on this single word.
To abide in Christ, to rest in Christ, to dwell in Christ is the very purpose of who we are as Christians. It is an important element of having a personal relationship with Jesus. Our lives as Christians need to be shaped by our relationship to Jesus – nothing more, nothing less. And it is out of that relationshiop with Christ that we begin to discern and fulfill our call as individuals and as a congregation. But it has to start with abiding in Christ. It has to start with each one of us committing to read, listen to and be transformed by the Word. Remember, that challenge to spend 15 minutes a day reading Scripture? That is where it has to start. Abiding in Christ begins with us putting ourselves into a postion to be receptive to his Word.
Imagine what we could do if only half of us here were consistently being changed and molded by Christ. After Judas was done hanging around… (okay, that was really bad; read Acts 1 later if you want to know why.) Anyway, after Judas was out of the picture, there were only 11 of the original disciples left, and look what happened. Christianity took off! It became a worldwide phenomenon. Lives were being changed. Unbelievable things were happening. And I know all the excuses – “the disciples have 40 days with Jesus after the resurrection, not to mention 3 years with him before the crucifixion, and THEN the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. We don’t have the kind of advantages that they had. We can’t do something like this.” And my response is, “Why not?”
The Holy Spirit didn’t just come at Pentecost and go away for the rest of eternity. The Holy Spirit is still around, and if God is the same yesterday, today and forever, that same Holy Spirit is available to work in this world, if we would only put ourselves in a position to give over all control. The Holy Spirit still works in this world. And if we abide in Christ, we abide in the Spirit. We can do amazing things for the kingdom of God simply by abiding in Christ and listening for the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is at work all around us. The only question is whether or not we are going to join in. Are we going to allow ourselves to get excited about what God is doing? Are we going to submit ourselves to God and be a part of what He is doing all around us? If we obey Jesus’ command to love one another, and if we continue to abide in his love, then all we need to do is listen and follow where the Spirit is leading us. And it sounds so easy, doesn’t it? But the challenge comes tomorrow morning. When you wake up tomorrow, are you going to make sure you set aside some time at some point in the day to pray and read Scripture? It doesn’t have to be at 5 o’clock in the morning, but it does need to happen at some point in your day. You know your schedule. You know when you can do it. And if we are all being honest with ourselves, we aren’t too busy. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying that I come through every single day. But it is so important. For us to grow as individuals and as a congregation, we have to be doing it. Period. It’s not something that we can fake. We do it because we want to develop our relationship with God, and for no other reason. God doesn’t want our mindless obedience. He wants us to obey out of love.
Jesus tells us in verse 15 that we are no longer servants, but friends. What he is talking about here is a deeper level of personal interaction that had not been broadly available before. In the Old Testament, while David is called a man after God’s own heart, only Abraham and Moses are called friends of God. That’s it. Two people in the entire Old Testament are considered friends of God. This isn’t to say that there weren’t people who were failthful, but that only these two men seem to have the kind of deep relationship with God that is available to us through Christ.
Because of Christ, things have changed. Jesus was God in the flesh – fully God, but also fully man. Jesus was a model for how we can live our lives in total obedience to the Father. The type of obedience that doesn’t come out of fear of punishment, but as a response to the love that one has for the Father. Think of your friends and family here. You do what they ask because you love them, not because you are afraid of the consequences if you don’t do it. And that’s how it should be in healthy relationships. We should act out of love, not fear. That’s the kind of relationship that we can have with God through Jesus Christ, all because Jesus has revealed the Father by his life.
This section closes with another important point. Verse 16 says, “You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” The Greek word for “chosen” here means “to be called out (of something).” We have been called out of the world, friends. We have been called out of the mundane and purposeless lives that we had before Christ, and we’ve been called out for a purpose. That purpose is to go and bear fruit. Maybe you haven’t responded to that call yet. Maybe you are still wandering through life without a sense of purpose, and without a relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. That’s not what you were created to do. You have been called out of the world by Jesus Christ. You have also been called to go and bear fruit.
We aren’t called to sit and wait for people to come to us, but we are called to go to them. Opportunities are all around us every single day. Whether it is with our co-workers, our friends, our neighbors, our classmates, or even within our own family, we have opportunities to go and bear fruit, and we don’t have to go far. Spend some time praying about that this week. Pray that God will open your eyes to the opportunities that are all around you. It won’t take long for you to see them.
Did you know that you are perfectly positioned in somebody’s life to be a witness and to bear fruit for the kingdom of God? You are! You are in a better position than me, or the persons sitting on either side of you, or the persons sitting in front or behind you. People don’t accidently come into our lives. I wasn’t accidently appointed to this congregation. You didn’t just accidently come here today, and there aren’t people in your lives who just accidently happen to be there. We are all called out and appointed to specifically go and bear fruit for the kingdom of God.
So, today, I want to send you out with another reminder. Because you have been called and appointed by Christ, because you abide in Christ and have a deep fellowship with God, and because your obedience to the Father comes out of love, not fear, live out your faith. Remember that you, and only you, are perfectly positioned to go and bear fruit in someone’s life. That’s what we are all called to do.
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