The Evidence of Abiding in Christ
John 15:7-11
Our text today is John 15:7-11. Listen to it in its immediate context:
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 bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 9 As the Father loved Me, I also have 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 remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:1-11).
Jesus has been teaching, comforting, warning and encouraging His disciples on the night He will be betrayed and arrested. Judas has already left to do that devilish deed. The Lord has been saying many things that night to His disciples since Judas left. Because He told them He is going away, they are troubled. But He has given them many wonderful promises—the promise that He would return; they would see Him; He would take them to be with Him. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to comfort and teach them. He promised them the love and presence of His Father and Himself. He promised His peace.
Beginning in John 15:1 Jesus describes His relationship with His true disciples using the analogy of a vine and branches. God the Father is the vinedresser. Christ is the vine, the true vine. There are two kinds of branches. There are fruitful branches, true believers like the eleven who remained; and fruitless branches, like Judas who left.
Jesus’ exhortation to His true disciples is (John 15:4) “Abide in Me, and I in you …” As we said last time, the word means “to remain, to stay, to continue, to dwell.” The branch remains vitally connected to the vine in such a way as to draw its essential life from that vine. The true disciple abides in Jesus and Jesus abides in him. That is what it means to be a true Christian: you have such a vital, living, union with Jesus Christ that you are in Christ and Christ is in you. Jesus says it again in John 15:5, “He who abides in Me, and I in him …”
The apostle John makes this issue of abiding in Jesus very clear in the epistle of 1 John. In fact you might say that the whole letter of 1 John is an explanation of what it means to abide in Christ. I encourage you to read that book again and look for what it means to abide in Christ. Listen to just a few verses from 1 John:
[1 John 2:6, 24, 27-28] 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. … 24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. … 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
[1 John 3:6, 9, 24] 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. … 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. … 24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
[1 John 4:12-13] 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
[1 John 4:15-16] 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
To summarize: Those who abide in Christ are His true disciples. They know Jesus and remain vitally connected to Him so that the indwelling Holy Spirit produces in them the fruit of Christ-likeness in them—Christ-like character, Christ-like conduct and Christ-like converts.
In John 15:7-11 Jesus continues to teach His disciples about abiding in Him. Here He gives us the evidences or results of abiding in Christ. Jesus teaches several results of abiding in Him in chapter 15. Today we will consider those He teaches in John 15:7-11.
Abiding in Christ results in:
1. An effective prayer life (John 15:7)
John 15:7: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” We saw Jesus’ similar promise in John 14:13-14, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” To ask in Jesus’ name means to ask on the basis of who He is and what He has done for us on the cross. It assumes that we’re seeking to do His will and to promote His kingdom purposes.
In John 15:7 the condition for an effective prayer life is that we must abide in Him and His words must abide in us.
Abiding in Christ is a lifelong relationship with Him that grows more intimate over time. Just as marriage is a lifelong relationship where both partners should grow closer to one another over the years, so it should be with Christ. But as those who have been married for very long know, growing closer isn’t automatic. It requires purposefully spending time together. You have to keep working through issues that come up. If you don’t work at it, it’s easy to drift apart. The same is true of abiding in Christ. You can’t put your relationship to Christ on autopilot. If you are not growing closer to Christ, you are backsliding from fellowship with Him.
How do keep this close fellowship with the Lord?
Jesus tells us (John 15:7), “… and My words abide in you …” “My words” refers to all that Jesus taught. But since all of the Old Testament was written to point to Christ (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39) and all of the New Testament is about Him, having His words abide in us means that the Bible is at home in us. The way that Christ reveals Himself to us is through the written Word of God. So if you want to grow closer to Jesus Christ, spend much time in His word, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal more of Christ to you. To grow closer to Jesus Christ, read your Bible over and over until you are at home with it and it finds a home in you.
What will this abiding life result in? Effective prayer.
Jesus says that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, then “you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” Those that abide in Christ with His word abiding in them can be confident in receiving answers to their prayers. The reason is simply that such a person desires the will of Christ over their own. They are praying as Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:10), “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
We have been studying the Lord’s prayer on Wednesday nights. We have learned that true prayer starts with God’s name, that is, what is consistent with His glorious person; God’s kingdom, what is consistent with His glorious plan; and God’s will, what is consistent with His glorious purpose. That is why we must abide in Christ and have His words abide in us if we are to have an effective prayer life. I need to have the words of Scripture, the words that tell me about God and Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom of heaven, and the will of God. I need to have those words abiding in me so that they direct my requests.
The context here is bearing fruit for His kingdom purposes. So “whatever you desire” is not a blanket promise that covers things like, “Lord, I desire a million dollars! I wish for a happy, trouble-free life!” Rather, Jesus is talking about whatever we desire that furthers His kingdom purposes through us.
Jesus’ point in John 15:7 is that if we live closely with Him and His word governs our requests, we should be asking and receiving answers from Him on a regular basis. This is what James calls (James 5:16), “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man” that “avails much.”
John wrote in 1 John 3:22-23 these words: “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” It’s all tied together: believing, abiding, obeying, loving, praying.
So when we abide in Christ His words will abide in us and it will result in an effective prayer life. Secondly, a life that abides in Christ will be,
2. A God-glorifying life (John 15:8)
John 15:8: “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” As we saw last time, the purpose for which God saved us is that we would bear much fruit. The point of planting a vineyard is not to grow pretty leaves, but to grow fruit. While God has given each of us different gifts, we are to use those gifts to bear fruit for His kingdom.
Jesus said (Matt. 12:33) “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.” People should be able to look at your life and say, “Aha! That’s a Christian!” They should know by our fruit of Christ-likeness that we follow Jesus.
Jesus says that we will glorify God when we bear much fruit. As others see what God produces in and through us as we live closely with the Lord Jesus, they will get a glimpse of what He is like.
God is gloried when we bear fruit for Him. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” It’s a different metaphor, but same idea. The glory goes to God.
For a true disciple, you are not the explanation for your life. It is God in you that explains the fruit of righteousness in your life. If there’s any love in me, it is simply the love of Christ in me. If there’s any joy in me, it is the joy of Christ in me. If there’s any peace in me, it is the peace of Christ in me. I do not deserve any glory for the fruit in my life. God does.
Notice there is also a benefit when you glorify God by bearing fruit. Jesus says, (John 15:8) that you “…so you will be My disciples.” J. C. Ryle writes, “Fruitfulness in Christian practice will not only bring glory to God, but will supply the best evidence to our own hearts that we are real disciples of Christ.” When you see God work through you and you realize that the results are not because of your cleverness or hard work, but rather, because God worked through you, it assures your heart that you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
So the Christ-abiding life results in an effective prayer life and a God-glorfying life that assures us that we are true disciples of Christ. Thirdly, abiding in Christ results in,
3. A love saturated life (John 15:9)
John 15:9: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” What a staggering statement! Just as the Father has perfectly loved the Son throughout all eternity, never wavering in His love, so Jesus loves us! That’s the greatest motive for why we should want to grow closer to Christ: He loves us with infinite, inexhaustible love! As the hymn puts it, “O, the deep, deep, love of Jesus! Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.”
Jesus’ command “abide in My love.” Jude put it this way, Jude 21: “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” What does he mean by that? Stay where you can be showered with His love.
Remember how the Lord Jesus wrote to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2? They were serving Him. They were persevering under persecution. They were upholding sound doctrine. But the Lord said, (Rev. 2:4), “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Our first love is our love for Christ. But the way you keep your love for Christ fresh is to remember His great love for you. Never get over the wonder that the eternal Son of God loved you and gave Himself for you!
John 13:1 says, “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” He loved them as infinitely as God is infinite. His love for us is stunning; it is perfect; it is unconditional; it is sovereign; it is unfailing; it is eternal; it is sacrificial; it is gracious; it is merciful; it is generous; it is lavish; and it is unbreakable. Romans 8:39 says that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Abiding in Christ results in an effective prayer life, a God glorifying life, a love saturated life, and fourth,
4. An obedient life (John 15:10)
John 15:10: “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.” Jesus doesn’t let us think that abiding in His love is just a warm, fuzzy feeling. The Christ-abiding life is an obedient life.
How do you demonstrate your love for Christ? By keeping His commandments. Jesus said it before (John 14:15), “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” and (John 14:21), “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.”
God pours His love out in our hearts through His Holy Spirit who dwells in us (Rom. 5:5), and that the deluge is connected to our obedience. The more you obey, the more you know lavish love of Christ. And who is the example of obedience? John 15:10, “… just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Jesus perfectly obeyed the Father, and the Father poured out perfect divine love on Him. The more like Christ we are, the more of God’s love we experience. The more we follow the obedience of Christ, the more lavish the love of God becomes on us.
The Christ-abiding like brings an effective prayer life, a God-glorifying life, a love-saturated life, an obedient life and finally …
5. A joyful life (John 15:11)
John 15:11: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and [that] your joy may be full.” Jesus has just told us that the Christ-abiding life is a life of obedience. I think obedience often gets a bad rap. If I were to ask, “What word pops into your mind when I say, ‘obedience’?” what would you say? Duty? Drudgery? Rules? No fun? How about, “joy”? or “fullness of joy”? Jesus associates obedience not only with love but also with joy in Him (John 15:10-11).
The Christ-abiding life is not a life of miserable drudgery, unhappy legalism, or tireless struggle. Peter writes that our love relationship with Jesus causes us to “… rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” Jesus to His sorrowful disciples that night (John 16: 22), “… I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”
This joy is permanent because we are abiding in Christ. All these things are permanent: a permanent salvation, a permanent sanctification, permanent access to God in prayer, permanent assurance, permanent love, and permanent joy.
So abide in Christ. It will result in an effective prayer life, a God-glorifying life, a love-saturated life, an obedient life and a joyful life. That is what Christ promises for those fruitful branches that abide in Him. For those unfruitful branches who do not abide in Christ He warns us (John 15:6), “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw [them] into the fire, and they are burned.”
Jesus is the True Vine. His desire is to live through your life so that you might bear fruit to the glory of God. Consider these questions as we close today:
- Are you “in the Vine”?Have you ever been saved and grafted into Jesus? If not, believe in Him today, turn from your sin and turn to Jesus. He will save you now.
- Are you “abiding in the Vine”? Are you drawing your strength from Him so that He is able to produce His fruit through your life?” All true branches abide in the vine and bear fruit to His glory.
