“Many people in the world do not have a home like you do.” Those words, which my parents spoke to me as I was growing up, were now echoing in my mind as I stood there in unbelief. I simply could not believe that someone lived there. I was staring at a cardboard box, which was barely larger than the smallest closet in my house in San Jose, Costa Rica. I was there on a mission trip during a Spring break while I was attending Union University. I had been walking down the road staring at these cardboard boxes lying on the side of the road when a young boy and one who looked to be his dad came crawling out of what was their home. After composing myself from the shock a bit, I spoke to them with my broken Spanish and went on my way. But I kept hearing my parents’ words in my mind, “Many people in the world do not have a home like you do.”

It’s easy to hear something again and again in life and eventually the phrase become so common to you that it means nothing. Often my parents would tell me that people lived in situations I could not imagine when I would begin complaining and coveting others’ situations which appeared more luxurious. But eventually it came to mean nothing to me. It was only their response to my complaining. They had a series of them. When my sisters and I would argue on a road trip, my dad would say, “I’ll turn this car right around and go home.” When I would sit five inches from the television my mom would say, “Scoot back or you’ll go blind.” When I would cross my eyes simply to annoy my sisters and get a response from them, my parents would say, “If you keep doing that, they will stay that way.”

But I knew that these phrases were in many ways meaningless. They all simply meant, that I should stop what I’m doing and obey. So, I thought my parents’ statement that many lived without homes fit the same category. It was simply another way of saying, “Quit complaining and be thankful.” A trip to San Jose, Costa Rica made clear in my mind that those words were more true than I (and maybe even my parents) ever realized.

This kind of thing is also a danger with our reading of Scripture. Often times we read over statements that should hit us with great magnitude. They should challenge, convict, comfort, or scare us; but because we’ve read them so many times, we have become hardened to them and they mean little to nothing. The result is that eventually Jesus’ command to take up our cross daily simply means be willing to sacrifice my precious time to read the Bible and pray for a bit.

Our text this morning I think is full of these kinds of statements. Reading this text we should be amazed, challenged, comforted, and moved in a great degree. But my fear is that we can read over the things in this text and be utterly unmoved because these truths and commands have become so familiar to us that we have allowed them to become meaningless. Therefore, this morning I want to point out some of these statements that Christ makes in the midst of his final discourse with his disciples in the hope that we will understand and be moved by them to worship as they apply to us.

Only in our union with Christ, our Master, do we have life – and that life is shown forth in our obedience to him (5:1-16)

Jesus begins this section with one of those statements that we have too easily overlooked. He says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser” (v. 1). He then goes on to say to his disciples that they are the branches. Now, probably for most of us this is simply a good analogy Jesus came up with to show their need for him. We picture Jesus’ thoughts running along the lines of saying, “What can I use to show their need for me? I could say, ‘I am the electric outlet and you power tools,’ but they won’t understand … Let’s see … Oh, I’ve got it; I am the vine and you are the branches. Yeah that will work. Hey guys, check out this analogy.”

But that’s not what Jesus is saying here. He is saying much more than that. The vine had been a common symbol for Israel (Isaiah 5:2; Jer. 2:21), the son, servant, and people of God. Yet, when it had been mentioned that Israel was the vine, God also pointed out their failure to produce good fruit. Therefore, when Jesus says he is the true vine, he is saying that he is the true Son, the true servant, the true Israel. He is saying, “It doesn’t matter what your genetic makeup is, if you’re going to have life (i.e. bear fruit), you must be united to me. I am the true vine which produces life.”

Being attached to Christ is the only way we have life. And the blessing is that for those of us who are his children, we are indeed united with him. There is a closeness we have with Jesus. I think this text does point to our intimacy with Christ. He tells us that he loves us even as the Father has loved him. He says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” He does call us his friends as well. He says, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus loves us and we are his friends. That indeed should move us. However, we need to guard against two mistakes. The first mistake is pride. We do not need to think that God calls us his friends because somehow we are better than those around us or have earned his favor. Jesus clears that up with his disciples in telling them, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” (v. 16).

The second mistake we should avoid is in thinking that because Jesus loves us and calls us his friends, somehow disobedience is permissible. It is not. In fact, we are told that to abide in Christ’s love we must keep his commandments (v. 10). We cannot claim to be united with Christ and not obey, or else we should not be sure that we have life. Some kind of stated attachment to Christ by one who does not bear fruit means nothing, and Jesus says that such branches are thrown away and burned (v. 7). Only those branches that remain attached and bear fruit will “prove to be [his] disciples” (v. 8).

Does this mean that these verses teach one can be saved and then lose salvation? No. For Jesus has already affirmed that everyone whom the Father gives him he will keep and raise up on the last day. But these verses do teach that true conversion, true salvation “is not measured by the hasty decision but by the long-range fruitfulness.” ¹

This morning all of us need to hear how crucial it is that we remain attached to Christ, continually hoping in him, obeying him, and keeping his commandments. This does not mean we do these things so that we might have eternal life, but it does mean that if we do not see the fruit of faithful continuing obedience then we are showing no signs of life and should question whether or not we are attached to the vine.

Also, though Jesus calls us his friends, he tells us, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (v. 14). To be Christ’s friend does not mean that we are now excused from obeying him or that the relationship ceases to be one in which he is our Lord. No, to be friends of the King still means we obey, but that we get the behind-the-scenes picture of why. He has told us his redemptive plan of summing up all things in Christ. We have been told why obeying and remaining in Christ is so important: it is only in union with Christ that one has eternal life.

So, we must be attached to Christ to have life, and we see evidence of our attachment to him in the long-term fruit of obedience to his commands. And yet, let me end this section by pointing out that this truth is not binding and restricting us from having great joy. In fact, Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (v. 11). I think any believer knows the great joy that is found in obeying Christ’s commands and how miserable it is when you disobey.

We must continually hope in Christ, our Master, obeying him and knowing great joy.

We have been sent into enemy-occupied territory (15:17-16:4)

Jesus ends his section concerning obeying his commandments and abiding in him saying, “These things I command you, so that you will love one another” (15:17). We talked about this last week, so I will simply stress once more the need to pray for one another, fast and pray for the salvation of one another’s children, and labor to make sure our brothers and sisters are being conformed to the image of Christ. There simply must be great love among the Christian community, and if there is not then the community can hardly be said to be Christian.

Yet right after telling his disciples that they must love one another, Jesus tells them that the world will hate them. He says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin², but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: 'They hated me without a cause.'”

Because we are united and identified with Christ, the world hates and will continue to hate us (vv. 17-18). The world hates us because we do not conform to its standards (v. 19). The world hates us because we expose its sin (vv. 22, 24). The world hates us because it does not know the Father (vv. 21, 23). The world hates us for no good reason at all (v. 25). But the message is clear: the world hates us. And if we think that the world hates only Christians who really don’t understand how we are supposed to live, then we should consider Christ, whom they hated and crucified. We are not better than he.

Jesus says clearly that the world will hate us, and in fact, there will be times of great persecution. He says in 16:1-4, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”

So what does the world’s hatred and persecution mean we should do? Does it mean that we should withdraw to some isolated place so as not to be threatened by them and endure their hatred and persecution? No. Rather, Jesus tells us that we are to go into the very world that hates us and be Christ’s witnesses. He says in 15:25-26, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” He sends his disciples, and ultimately all who will believe in him, into the world to be his disciples.

We are sent out to “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in [Christ]” (Acts 26:18). We are sent out as soldiers into hostile, enemy-occupied territory with the sword of the Spirit, by which men might be transferred from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. And we should expect that mission to be difficult and filled with hatred and persecution against us.

Yet, we are not sent out empty-handed. For, Jesus reminds his disciples that they are equipped for the mission.

Christ has given us his Word, the Spirit, and prayer (16:4-15)

Imagine the fear these disciples must have had. They were sent out without Jesus at their side, without the possibility of turning to him and asking a question, and to a task that only God could complete. Yet Jesus tells his disciples that they will have his truth, the Spirit, and the gift of prayer.

So, it is true with us. We have God’s Word. When Jesus tells his disciples that he will guide them into all truth (16:12-15), I think this is a promise seen in the Word of God. That is, this is not a promise to ignore God’s Word because we want the Spirit to teach us all truth. Rather, the Spirit brought to mind Jesus’ words and opened their minds to see so that his teaching might be preserved for us in this book at which we are looking this morning. The disciples could no longer hear Jesus speaking to them, but when we read the Bible we hear his very words.

Jesus also told them that the Holy Spirit would do what they couldn’t do. That is, when we evangelize, we cannot convict the world of sin and change their hearts. And yet that’s what must happen for our mission to succeed. So, what is our hope? Our hope is the Holy Spirit who will convict the world of sin, showing their condemnation; show their righteousness to be empty, as Christ did by his presence among them; and show the world their judgment is false, as the one whom they are following has already been judged (16:4b-11). In short, we will speak the gospel and the Spirit will do all that we cannot do, as he wills.

Finally, we have the gift of prayer. It is simply hard to preach this text and ignore it. Jesus says in 15:7, 15:16, and 16:23-24 that we can ask things of him, and he will do them. Now, we all quickly will point out that this does not mean we can pray and get everything we want, for it must be in accord with God’s will. And that is right. But it does mean that prayer is powerful and effective. It does mean that prayer can change men’s hearts. And it does mean that if we do not pray, it might be said of us that we have not because we ask not.

Therefore, we have Christ’s Word, his Spirit working in and through us, and the gift of prayer, by which we might ask the Father to move his hand in the world.

Finally, our mission will not be a failure. For Jesus ends with the assuring message of the cross.

We can be assured of God’s love, our need, and Christ’s triumph (16:16-33)

Jesus ends telling his disciples that he will die, rise from the dead, and ascend back to the Father’s hand. He tells them they will see him no more, their hearts will be filled with grief, will see him again, and their hearts be filled with joy.

Then he tells them that the Father himself loves them (v. 27). That should be a great comforting reality as we obey Christ in a world that hates him.

He warns them not to be confident in themselves but in him, for they will soon prove their weakness in scattering from him when he is betrayed and arrested (vv. 29-32).

Yet he also assures them that though they will have tribulation in the world, they can take heart, for he has overcome the world (v. 33).

So, too, with us, as we leave and go out into a world that hates us, might we obey Christ, knowing God’s love and the victory that is ours in Christ. The gates of hell indeed will not prevail against the church. We will ultimately be successful and all of God’s people will come into the kingdom.

Therefore, let me end simply asking each of us a series of questions.

1. Are you attached to the vine or do you claim Christ while giving no evidence of the fruit of obedience?

2. Are you carrying out the commission of bearing witness to Christ in the world or, out of fear of hatred and persecution, withdrawing from the world?

3. Are you meditating on the precious words of Christ that you might know and worship him as you should?

4. Are you praying that the Spirit might open the eyes of the lost, praying for your brothers and sisters in Christ, and obeying Christ in areas where you need the Spirit to convict the world?

5. Are you reminding yourself of Christ’s ultimate triumph that you might hold loosely to the treasures of this world and labor in all things for the sake of his great name?

May God give us grace for great obedience to his Son. Amen.

CHALLENGED, COMFORTED, AND SENT OUT TO WAR