Pastor Chris Royce
Sermon Text: John 15:1-8
Sunday May 2, 2021
It’s so easy to stay connected nowadays, isn’t it? Think of how good we have it compared to 50 or 100 years ago. In seconds, you can send text messages across the country. In seconds, you can hear the voice of someone who’s on the other side of the country. But it doesn’t stop there – in a matter of seconds, I could pull up Zoom or Facetime or Skype and have a face to face conversation with someone across the country! With social media like Facebook – I can still keep tabs on people I haven’t seen in years. In 60 seconds spent on Facebook I can find out how my second cousin’s vacation was to the Bahamas, I can see what the girl who sat next to me in 11th grade algebra had for lunch today, I can discover who the guy who lives 3 houses down would vote for if the election were today. Nowadays, it’s so easy to stay connected to people.
But don’t let Facebook or FaceTime fool you – staying connected to others isn’t as easy as it looks. “Keep in touch!” we say. “We should do this more often!” we say – but then weeks, months, years go by. We don’t hear from them, and they don’t hear from us. Because “life”, you know? Kids. Work. Schedules. Distance. You used to be coworkers, neighbors, together in the same city – but now that they moved or you moved, it’s not as easy to connect with them as it used to be. Sure, our tech tools are nice and helpful. But if the connection is going to stay strong – it takes my initiative to reach out to them. It takes their initiative to reach out to me, too. When one or both people lose interest and initiative, the connection weakens.
Today in our John text we’re talking about connections – connected to Jesus. He is the vine, we are the branches. I kicked it back and forth a moment ago: is it easy to stay connected to other people? Yes, and no. What about with Christ? Is it easy to stay connected to him as we go through this life? It is. It’s easy because this is the only relationship we have in life that doesn’t depend on our faithfulness and initiative. Chris Tomlin – popular Christian songwriter has a song where he describes God’s love is like a waterfall. I think that’s a great illustration. Waterfalls don’t flow two ways. We receive one-way love from God every day of our lives in abundance. And that one way love changes our hearts and changes our lives. It’s the only thing that truly can. Jesus lives, all blessings to impart.
If I were to go around and survey the room with the question: What’s the best part about having Jesus in your life? The most popular answer might be: “It’s that I get to go to heaven someday.” And that’s a great answer. It’s what we’re all journeying towards. It’s going to be incredible beyond our wildest imagination. But as Jesus speaks to his disciples in this section here, he reminds us that there’s so much more, too. Right here in this life now, there are so many blessings that come our way because we are connected to him, the living Vine.
The most comforting blessing might be found in the reminder that Jesus gives to his disciples. We know our identity. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. As we read on further, Jesus will talk about consequences and he’ll give warnings. Consequences and warnings are scary. And that might cause you to initially read this lesson from a place of nervousness, doubt or fear. “Which branch am I, the living or dead one?” Sometimes you feel like a faithful, fruit bearing branch, other times you don’t. Sometimes you feel saved, other times you don’t. Sometimes you feel the love and warmth of God, other times you don’t. Feelings can really do a number on faith. So that’s why we don’t anchor our hope in feelings. We anchor in facts. We are who Jesus says we are. Right at the onset of this lesson – Jesus gives us reason for confidence – you are already clean. You are already living, fruitful branches.
How did we obtain this identity? Jesus gave it to us. Because of the Word I have spoken to you. Not our faithfulness, but his. When you were baptized, you were made alive. The word spoken at your baptism – “in the name of the Father/Son/Holy Spirit” gave you life in Christ. And the message of Christ crucified – stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks – has nurtured you throughout your life. You were taught it. You read it. You listened to it. You sang it. That’s what you’re doing right here, right now. Before we go any further in this message, rest assured that as we talk about living and dead branches, your identity is secure. Not because of you and your wavering faithfulness to God, but because of his steadfast commitment to you. Commitment and devotion that journeyed to Calvary to bear the punishment we deserved to pay.
Since we have life in Christ, we bear fruit of faith. What exactly does it mean to “bear fruit” or to live a fruitful life? My mind goes to Galatians 5, the famous “fruit list” of the Bible – the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. So, let’s put it this way – since we are connected to Christ – we can show love and kindness to others, we can be patient and gentle with others, we can be faithful to God, we can have joy and peace. That’s what being connected to Christ enables us to do, in a nutshell.
But here’s where you might get a little confused. Can’t anyone do these things? Non-believers can display love and kindness, right? Unbelievers know what things like joy and patience are? Why does Jesus say “Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” or “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Because without faith, it is impossible to please God. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. If you are not connected to Christ, every act of kindness, love, etc is “meaningless, meaningless.” But remember, you are connected to Christ. Every ounce of patience you give to your family members, every kind word or deed you share with your neighbor, every faithful minute you give to your family, job, or Lord – all of these things are done under a Father’s smile. You can’t pour from an empty cup. Our lives outpour love for God and others – because that waterfall of love filled us first.
How else does Jesus, the living vine, bless us here and now? Through pruning. We jump back to verse 2. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Jesus is the Vine, God is the gardener. God doesn’t just give attention to what needs to removed, God tends to the living branches, too. In other words, God is actively, constantly at work in our lives – making us better and drawing us closer to him.
Right when you drive into our parking lot, you clearly can see that all of our trees have been pruned and cut back. Initially when you see those trees you might be like, whoa…what happened here. Maybe the trees aren’t as pretty right now as they otherwise could be. But pruning them and tending to them will make the trees vibrant again and give them new growth and health in the long run. God’s pruning shears at work might not always look pretty from our perspective. When we experience loss – of a loved one, of a job, of a marriage, of a friendship, of health, of money, of confidence, security, stability, whatever – from our angle it’s not pretty. But so often, when we’re at rock bottom, God is using hardship to draw us nearer to himself, the Rock of our Salvation. There’s a short book in the OT called Ruth, we studied it recently. One of the main characters, Naomi lost her husband and two sons. She walks back to her old hometown and the locals give her the “yikes, what happened to you?!” look. But throughout the book of Ruth, Naomi is drawn nearer again to the LORD through Ruth’s presence in her life. There’s a great Christian song called “Blessings” by Laura Story. Look it up later. It has a beautiful line: “What if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?” Connection to Christ blesses us even when it doesn’t seem like it. God draws us nearer to him.
Not to be lost in here is the blessing of prayer – we have an audience with the King. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. I generally don’t like to make a lot of sports illustrations, but bear with me here. So, credit to my upbringing, I’m a Green Bay Packers football fan. They do this thing that’s kinda cool and yet kinda strange – you could buy stock in the team. They’re the only team that does this. So for $250, you get a certificate that says you “own” part of a NFL franchise. It comes with virtually no power or dividends, you’re basically buying a piece of paper and bragging rights. Now, the pro football draft was 3 nights ago. Suppose I owned one of these shares. I have a connection to the team. Yet, there’s no way I get to have a say in who gets drafted. I’m not invited to call the GM and coach and give my two cents. I’m certainly not welcome to go and sit in the draft room. I have a connection to the higher-ups, but nothing comes of it.
You are connected to Christ. Which means, you have more than your name on a membership on a membership roster of Messiah, Olympia, WA. You have even more privileges than being on the exclusive Thursday morning Anointed Announcements list. In all seriousness – you have access to the throne of God. The same Creator who sculpted the beautiful landscapes we savor out here – you have a direct line to him. Not only do you have access, but he wants you to make use of it! He wants to hear from you! He wants to know what’s on your mind. You have cloute with the boss – the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. That is yours, mine, and ours.
He lives all blessings to impart. We talked about all of these wonderful blessings for here and now. Oh, and by the way…we get to go to heaven too. How blessed are we to have all of this. And how sad it is that Jesus needs to put the consequences in this beautiful section – what happens to those who don’t want to be connected to Christ. Jesus is honest about the sad reality – there are some who remove themselves from these blessings. There are some who started out to be connected but then it turned brown. There are some who were raised in Christ and said “not enough for me”. There are some who experienced Christ and said “nah, I’d rather do life on my own. I can make it on my own”. Every time this happens it’s the greatest tragedy this world will ever know. I’m not faithfully giving this sermon unless I draw serious attention to these verses. Just like discipline and warnings are signs of love, that’s what this is too. Know what the alternative is. Know what can happen apart from Christ. Nothing. Death. Why anyone would willingly walk away from all these blessings we talked about is unfathomable. But it can happen. It does happen.
But like we said earlier, this section isn’t here for you to be afraid or for you question your identity. God has given you your identity. Christ has won your salvation. The Holy Spirit will lead you there. God is pleased with you. God works in you. God hears you.
No wonder we’re so drawn to waterfalls. There’s something about a mighty, one-way cascade that makes us just want to stop, stand and savor every ounce and drop of it. Remain. Remain in him and he will Remain in you.
