Sweet Abiding. John 15.1-8

Sweet Abiding.  John 15.1-8 

Click to read: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%20%2015.1-8&ve...

Key verse:  “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.” John 15.5

Greetings~ 

Apparently, it was not unusual for Jesus to spend quiet evenings in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was near Jerusalem.  But on this night, he would take his disciples with him, as they close the door on the Upper Room behind them.  Walking about half a mile out of town to the garden, Jesus uses the time to continue talking to the men.   

As he often did in his parables, Jesus uses familiar, simple things to teach spiritual truths.  On this night, he uses the grapevine and its branches to symbolize the life, growth and fruit-bearing of the life of a Christ-follower.  In Jesus’ words, we see the potential for our lives to be meaningful and productive for God—by abiding in Jesus, the life-giver.  Now the cluster of grapes has no say in the matter, but we certainly do!  Abide in me, and I in you, Jesus says.  To Abide means intentionally getting/staying connected to our Lord.  How?  Jesus’ brother provides the answer—remember Christine T?  ‘Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.’¹

If we want to abide … we choose to go to him, and let him come to us.  We desire not just to intimately know him, but also to be known by him, keeping nothing back from him.  After all, “Father in heaven, what is man without you!  What is all that he knows, vast accumulation though it be, but a chipped fragment if he does not know you?  What is all his striving, could it even encompass a world, but a half-finished work if he does not know you: you the one, who is one thing and who is all!”²

If we want to abide … we treasure his words, as a war-time widow holds to her heart the last letter written by her fallen husband… and we learn what it is to communicate with God in the gift of prayer.

Yes, as Jesus looks from the face of Peter to that of John to Philip and Andrew, to Thomas and James and the others, he gestures to the vines, heavy with the weight of the grapes; what he says to them, he says to you and me- If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. v.7  God, grant us the passionate desire to abide in you, and the courageous will to make it happen.  Amen.          

Simply ... abide~

Christine

PastorWoman.com