FFMC Core Values – "God Dependent" (Sermon at FFMC on 9/8/20)

¹“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. (John 15:1-11)

Introduction

We are starting a new series on the core values of FFMC this week. Core values both express what we are now and what we aspire to more fully become. Core values are the fundamental principles that guide how we as a church think and act as a community. They determine what are important for us as a church.  No one value is emphasized over the others.  Each serves a purpose, and together they guide us in our mission of disciple-making.  The core values are corporately owned by the church and are to be owned by individuals in church.

They:

–        Guide us to our mission.

–        Express and build the culture of our church

–        Influence leadership in decision-making.

–        Influence ministry plans.

–        Help us in staff deployment.

–        Guide our budget and program prioritization.

 

Google has 10 core values

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

 

Today’s passage covers the first core value: FFMC is “God dependent”. Joshua covered it more than a month ago. Then, Joshua looked at the life of a disciple. Today I want to consider how the passage applies to a disciple-making church. It gives a perspective on successful disciple-making centred on the word ‘abide’. The Greek word (‘meno’) has a range of meanings. The church must abide:

- in duration/time – to continue to be, to endure, to last, to survive

- in place - to be held, kept, to be continually present

- in position/condition – to remain, not to become another or different.

So Christ’s call to abide carries overtones of endurance, persistence, loyalty, stability, permanence, steadfastness. This means we must first be then we continue to be and to become in increasing measure what we already are.

 

Jesus does not address individual Christians in this passage. The Greek ‘you’ is first person plural. So the passage speaks to us not only as individuals, but as members of a community. We can see that by how the Lord starts by saying that He is the ‘true vine’. We have heard that every time the imagery of the vine is used in the OT, it speaks of the community of Israel (Is 5:1-7, Ps 80-8-9, Jer 2:21, Hos 10:1, Ez 15:1-8, 17:1-6). It is a story of corporate failure to be all God called them to be. Now Jesus says, “I will succeed where Israel failed. You are part of me – in union with me, the new community of God’s people that will never fail. This is power and assurance to us. Unlike a commercial enterprise or a social club, the true Church of God does not have to worry about failure in its mission. We have Divine life, and so we have Divine success in our mission, and our mission is making disciples!

When we look at the structure of John 15:1-11, we can see that Jesus has expressed a sequence of ideas involving ‘abiding’ that is partially repeated for elaboration two more times.

 

The word I have spoken to you (v.3b)	My words abide in you (v.7)	Keep my commandments as I have kept my Father’s commandments (v.10)
Already you are clean (v.3a)	“ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (Jn 7:17)	If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (Jn 14:15)
abide in me and I in you (v.4)	You abide in me (v.7)	Abide in my love as I abide in the Father’s love. (v.9-10)
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes (v.2)
Bear more fruit (v.3) Bear much fruit (v.5)	ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you (v.7) Bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples (v.8)	That my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
neither can you (bear fruit), unless you abide in me v.4) Apart from me you can do nothing (v.7)	By this my Father is glorified (v.8)	As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. (v.9)

So from the passage I want to draw out lessons about being God-dependent:

 

1. The meaning of God-dependency

The passage tells us at 3 interrelated truths about abiding

• Abiding means experiencing the cleansing work of Christ (v.3).

“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.“  Verse 3 seems out of place – intruding in the flow between v.2 and v.4. But the Greek points to continuity because the words for ‘prune’ and ‘cleanse’ sound very similar. Pruning is a kind of cleansing - you take away something to make what’s left better. We are already cleansed and God prunes (or cleanses) us further as we abide in Christ. Jesus had told Peter exactly the same thing 2 chapters earlier “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you (plural) are clean” (Jn 13:9-10)

 

We abide because we are already forgiven and secure in Christ. It makes no sense to ‘remain’ in a place where we are not already present. We can only depend on God when we already belong to God and are united with Him. Christ’s power and life flows into us as we are connected to Him. The ability to abide does not come from our own will or power – it comes by the power of God accessed by faith. So Paul can say,

 “I (pray)...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph 3:17)

 

If you are a true disciple, you will find divine power to minister and witness because you abide in Christ. There is a fullness of experience that helps us to God and away from temptation daily. We rest in our happy union with the Lord and trust in His finished work. And day by day we fight the fight of faith to experience that union in Him in increasing measure. We must be what we really are!

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.(1 Cor 5:7)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is (Col 3:1)

...you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (Eph 5:8)

 

But there is a stern warning here. In the Gospel of John there are believers who are not true believers (2:23). And there are disciples who are not true disciples (6:66). Judas was one of the chosen 12. There are those who are ‘in Christ’, who experience the power and reality of the Kingdom of God, but whom the Lord never knew. It is very possible to have a false idea of our salvation (“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Mt 7:21-23) Their end is destruction (Heb 6:1:8). They are regular church goers, faithful pledgers, perhaps serving actively, even ministering effectively – but they have no attachment to the Vine. They have never been cleansed by the word of the Gospel, and Christ does not know them. Their fate is to be taken away (v.2) and thrown away like a branch to withers; then to be gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned (v.6). So each of us must ask if we truly have been cleansed – we are called not to ‘hope’ that we are saved, but to be assured of our salvation.

So the first implication of God-dependency is that the God-dependent church must be a gathering of true disciples of Christ.

• Abiding means obedience to God’s Word. (v.7)

 “Abide in me and I in you” (v.4) parallels “Abide in me and my words abide in you” (v.7).

Jesus said to the Jews who were opposing Him, “You do not have [God’s] word abiding (Gk ‘meno’) in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.” (Jn 5:38). Jesus says, “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.” (Jn 8:37) To have Jesus’ words abide in us is more than memorizing Scripture. It means the word fits in us – it finds a welcome and a home. We love the Bible, we make time for it, and most of all, we obey it - because Scripture applied is the primary way in which we are made into the image of Christ. We are transformed as we obey. Truth without application is useless. Hearing without obedience is useless. So James says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves... But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (Js 1:22-25)

 

Some people don’t like to talk about obedience in the Christian life – they would rather talk about ‘love’. And we shall later! But love and obedience are inseparable – obedience to God’s Word is the expression of love. We can tell if the love of a Christian is genuine from that person’s works. We must not become careless because we trust in the wrong way in God’s ‘grace’. Some hear sermons like they hear music – for entertainment, comfort and a sense of inspiration. We must seek to obey every command we hear, and to learn guide our lives by Scripture instead of our own ideas or others’ advice.

 

A God-dependent church obeys God’s word.

 

• Abiding means knowing the love of Christ

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (v.9b, 10a) “Keep my commandments” so that you can “Abide in my love” (v.10a) just as Christ keeps His Father’s commandments and abides in His Father’s love (v.10b).

Jesus roots His call to abide in His love for us. Certainly we get it that abiding in Christ means loving Him. But I want to highlight the truth Jesus starts with: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you”. This is such a stunning statement! There is no greater love in the universe than the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father. And here the Lord tells us that this is just how much we are loved! And in case we say this is too good to be true, He says it again in Jn 17:26:

I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Before Jesus asks us to love Him, He tells us how much he loves us. We are very deeply loved – loved much more that we deserve, loved to death and beyond! We are cleansed in love, we abide in love, we obey in love. Let us seek to feel and be assured by this surpassing love of Christ!

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father... that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  (Eph 3:14-18)

A God-dependent church knows and feels the love of God in Christ Jesus.

 

2. The purpose of God-dependency

Jesus asks us to ‘abide’ in order to bear ‘more’ fruit (v.3) or to bear ‘much’ fruit (v.5)

He tells us that if we do not stay in connection with His life, we will be fruitless (v. 4). This warning is reemphasized in v.5b “apart from me you can do nothing”. “Nothing” here doesn’t mean we cannot do “anything”. He means that the fruit He seeks cannot be organized or planned or budgeted into experience. It is a spiritual product that only arises out of spiritual life. Certainly we can run programmes, grow in attendance and have a large budget. But we will be unable to do anything of eternal significance – anything of real value in God’s eyes.

What is fruit? Joshua helpfully defined it as “that which is visible to all, a witness to the world of who and whose we are, and an expression of authentic faith”

We could say it is the outward expression of inner spiritual reality.  A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.(Mt.7:18)

It is not only for individual Christians to bear, but also for the church. We are to grow in numbers (“As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Mt  13:23) and conduct of life:

for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), (Eph 5:8-9)

“It is my prayer that.. you may...be...filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Phil 1:1)

“... walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Col 1:10)

So the church is to grow in numbers, and we are to grow in Christ-like character, works and the understanding of the ways of God. Let me put this in another, more familiar way – we are to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all Christ has commanded. (Mt 28:19-20). Yes - fruit-bearing is not only about personal growth – it is about the mission of the church to make disciples!

How does the Father prune us so that we bear more fruit? He brings loving discipline in our lives by giving us difficult circumstances.

 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:11)

The circumstances in and of themselves are not meaningful. It is when we submit to the direction of the Word that the discipline helps us grow in godliness. The harder the pruning, the greater the pain, but the greater the fragrance and beauty to be released. The cuts can be deeper than we will wish for, but the Lord will do what He needs to do in His wisdom.

The God dependent church will bear fruit by making true disciples of Christ.

 

3. The blessings of God-dependency

Look at the blessings Jesus promises to the fruitful church!

1. He promises increased fruitfulness:

Our prayers for fruit will be answered (v.7) “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” Let me pause and make the observation here that “we do not have” as a church, “because we do not ask” (James 4:2). We are happy to plan, but not to pray, to have meetings, as long as they are not prayer meetings. I would see the day when all of us, pastors and laity unite in prayer.

2. We will ‘prove to be (Jesus’) disciples’.

We will have assurance of your identity and place in the plan of God (v.8).  The absence of fruit is an indication that you are not abiding in Christ and are not really His. Fruitfulness, on the other hand, leads to assurance of salvation. So Peter says,

 ^“Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” (2 Pe 1:10)

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Cor 13:5)

3. Finally, Jesus says that “The Father will be glorified” (v.8) in our fruitfulness.

 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 5:16)

How good it will be, not when Fairfield is glorified, but others in Chinatown and beyond can look beyond what we do and how we do it, to our great God. This is the difference between a social enterprise or a political party – they do things for others and people can praise them. But we need supernatural power at work in us so that people look beyond our actions and methods and praise God.

So may we as a church walk secure in the love of Christ, obey His word with all diligence and bear fruit that will last in our ministries.

Video here