Good morning and welcome to our Sunday school this morning. We'll be looking at John 15 again today, and we look forward to that truth that Christ gave as he spoke of the vine and the branches. Right now, we have our memory verse before us. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to John 15, four, if you have the bulletin, it's also there in the bulletin. So let's work on it together. Saying the verse reference, and then the verse itself, and then the reference again. John 15, four. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, Let's take a little time out now and work on memorizing this verse. Thank you, Professor Han. Oh, you're welcome. I watch YouTube. I don't watch Korean TV. I don't watch it because I don't want to watch people talking nonsense in North Korea. Okay, let's make some attempt at saying it together, hopefully without having to look, but here we go. John 15, four. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. John 15, four. Get that committed. Because the truth is, we cannot bear fruit except we abide in Christ. Let's pray and then we'll look into this text this morning. Lord, we come before you and praise your name. We seek your face. We are following your ways. Guide us now, even as you have said, except we abide in you, we cannot bear fruit. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we looked at the authorship. There are a few more points on that, then we'll dig in to the text itself. John wrote in detail, and he wrote of events that only the apostles would have known. So he must also have been an apostle as the author of the book. In fact, he's identified uniquely as one whom Jesus loved. Let's go to John 13, and we're looking now at when Christ is with the disciples. And Judas Iscariot is there, and Peter's there, and the disciple whom Jesus loved was there. I'll start at verse 21, John 13. When Jesus had thus said he was troubled in spirit and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. So Christ is giving the signal. This is the one that will betray me. He knew. And the disciple whom Jesus loved, leaning on his wrist, there was that closeness, that intimacy there. So, okay, now we have a greater picture of who the author had to be. Who else would know the intimacy of that moment and what was actually going on at that time? Only those that had been with him Only those that had experienced that very thing So we think as well he was in Christ's inner circle Peter James and John Now it says Simon Peter leaned over to him and said ask him who it is so Simon Peter being named as he was in that text and probably wasn't the author. It seems rather unnatural for someone like Peter to be the author because of that. James, well, he was martyred early. So as far as being the author of the text, once all these things were accomplished, James would have been already taken out of the scene before the book was written between 80 and 95 AD. So, one thing we come to is John is the proper author. And, by the way, he served the longest among all those disciples. He was there. In fact, it's something to note. Many of the others were crucified. They were killed. He was exiled. He was sent to the Isle of Patmos. And on the Isle of Patmos, he would be free to write these things. And so that highly recommends John was the author. Now, at the time of writing, though, it's right around the time he was at Ephesus. So it's possible that he was at Ephesus when he wrote this. Anyway, we can be pretty sure John was the author of the book. Okay. Now, there's a Greek word for abide, and I'm not gonna pretend to be a Greek scholar because I'm not. But that Greek word for abide is 105 times in the New Testament writings. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Also, Paul and Peter use that same word. So it's 105 times in the New Testament. And the word means to tent upon or to dwell. So you come to a place and you pitch your tent and you stay there. Now those of you that served in the military know precisely what that would mean. Bivouac, you go out there, you pitch your tent, you stay a while. You may not stay as long as you wish, or you might be there longer than you wish, but the fact is, you pitch your tent and you stay there for a while. Abide in me. Tent upon me. Dwell on me. Okay? So this is the meaning. Now, when that word was used in Matthew 10, well, let's take a look. Matthew 10. Because in the instructions that Christ gives to his disciples, as he sends them out, give us some sense of what this word means. Matthew 10. And he gives the instructions from verses 1 to 15. I'm not going to read all that. But in verse 11 is the use of the word. Matthew 10 verse 11, and into whatsoever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till you go hence. So, he gives instruction. Go to town, ask around, Find out who will receive you, who is worthy. Set up headquarters, stay there until you leave town. Abide, tent upon, dwell. So there is a spot, a place for you to set up headquarters in that local area. So we got an idea now of what this is talking about. Abiding, staying put. not moving around all the while. If you make a headquarters, what do you do? You make one spot where everybody can go, communicate, send communications out from there, secure the area. So this is what we're talking about right here in Matthew chapter 10. In particular, verse 11, as the instructions were given. So, abide 105 times to tent or dwell. John 14, 23, Christ told Judas, not Iscariot this time, another Judas, if a man loves Christ, he will obey. So, in 14, 23, we read the text, Jesus answered and said unto him, because Judas, not Iscariot, Ask the question, how is it that thou will manifest thyself unto us? How will you show yourself to us and not the world? Jesus answered and said to him, if a man love me, he will keep my words. Now see, this is a signal. If you love Jesus, you're going to do what he tells you to do. And He will come unto Him, and we will come unto Him and make our abode with Him. My Father will love Him. He will come to Him. We will come to Him and make our abode with Him. So, how is it that you're going to show yourself to us and not to the world? Love me. Obey me. My Father and I, we will come and abide with you. We're going to dwell with you. Now let's consider something a second. From first John, what is it? We love God, but he first loved us. So who does the seeking? God does the seeking. Who does the abiding? Abide in me and I in you. And he makes the promise to Judas. You love me, you keep my commandments, my father and I will come and abide with you. It seems that God always makes the first move. We don't really seek God out. Stop and think about it. The world at large, we see the news, we see various things that people do in our local area, in our neighborhood. Are people searching out for God? I don't get that sense. I don't get the sense that people are looking for God. But God is seeking out those who will believe in him. God is searching, seeking, bringing to himself people. That's how we happen to be sitting here this morning, isn't it? If we have any interest at all, people who go to church do it for various reasons, of But one of those things would be, God has shown himself and drawn us to himself. Why would we choose to worship him? We love him because he first loved us. That's how the thing goes. God, in the Father and in Christ, abiding with us. And when you stop and think about it, that seems a bit strange. Because here's the one, in Genesis 1, who creates. He has the power to make planets, solar systems, galaxies, and he abides with us. Does that impress you? Does that make a difference? This is the powerful one, Al Sharaib, who is able to do whatever he wishes. Elohim. He's able to rule and to reign. And we have that record all the way through time into eternity. Revelation, who is it about? It's about one person in particular. Now, some Bibles say the revelation of John. John isn't the main character in Revelation. He's there. And God tells John certain things, and John writes them down, okay. But the main character isn't John, is it? You read that book, who shows up? Chapter one, Christ. Chapter four, Christ. Later on, the angels, as they do the trumpets and the viols, they're giving out the message from whom? God. And Christ shows up as the mighty conqueror, and in the end, God destroys the universe and rebuilds a brand new one. God does that, central figure, God. And Christ, all who believe in him have the hope and assurance and eternal life and it is shown in full measure in Revelation. By the way, who do we look to as a human author of Revelation? The same one, John, right? You're looking at it, yeah. So John is God's instrument to send out the truth about the life of Christ as Christ walked physically on the earth, and as Christ will come one day and conquer all this evil that we're seeing in our modern world. Uprooting and destroying, overthrowing, the strongholds of the enemy, Satan. Very important. But notice what he says. Now we memorized verse four, right? Abide in me, and I in you. So there's that intertwining of beings. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. You take a grape vine, okay? You can do this experiment. Maybe if you have a small plot of land somewhere, and you have some grape vines growing. Now, my wife's family had grapes in their backyard, and I happened to notice that the vines were planted in the ground, had a root system, all that, and then it went up up the trellis and there the leaves and there was small grapes beginning to develop. And over time, they would grow and grow and be nourished. But if we take one of those little branches and take a knife and cut it off and set it on the kitchen table, do we expect that process to continue? You see how this biology works now I'm not a biologist by any means but You take a look If you cut that branch and stick it on the kitchen table might even be a nice warm house, you know Maybe you put it in a vase of water And for a while it does, okay but you're not going to have the development of the fruit and eventually that little branch is going to say goodbye and It's gonna be done. It can't bear fruit, except it abides in the vine. He uses this kind of illustration in various sermons and teachings of himself, and of his kingdom, and of the reality that God made. And it's seen in such a simple fashion. Even the thickest brain here You can understand it. We have this. The branch in the vine can bear fruit. There's something else. The farmer isn't satisfied with a little bit of fruit. He wants more fruit. Okay, so how do you get more fruit? Brother, let me tell you. My mother had tomato plants. And those tomato plants would grow up as tomato plants do. But she would take scissors and cut parts of the tomato plant away. Now, wait a second. We want tomatoes. Why are you cutting that plant? If you take certain pieces away, that allows the other parts to grow and produce more fruit. So you remove those unnecessary parts, those parts that aren't bearing fruit. And the fruit bearing branches come out in bare fruit. And you can get more tomatoes off of that tomato plant now because it has a greater energy, a greater nutrition flow for all the rest. Abide in the vine. Bare fruit. Everyone that bears fruit, he purges it that it might bear more fruit. So trim, cut, cut, cut. Have you ever in life had the cutting action? You know what that is, don't you? That cutting action, unpleasantness. Seems like harm. What is God doing? But he's purging. See, you have to remove all those elements of the world that are useless. You have to remove those things that would hinder and hamper the growth of the fruit. And God knows which parts, and so he starts snipping, snipping, snipping. He who bears fruit is gonna bear more fruit. How? Through purging. Get rid of this, get rid of that, get rid of that. And you know, sometimes it might be our favorite things that he starts snipping away at. What? Why are you removing that? There's a grander purpose. Trust in the wisdom of God. Lean not to your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him. He shall bring it to pass. He knows what he's doing. As I have said to people many times, if God does not know what he is doing, we're all in trouble. Plain and simple. Now, verse five goes on. He's already established this, but he says it again. Now, if he says something more than once, brother, it's important. I am the vine. He are the branches. So it gets established. I'm the main trunk that brings up the nutrition and feeds the branches. I am the vine. Now, who's the branches? We are. Okay. He's the vine. He brings the nutrition, the help, the wisdom, all that we need. are the branches. We don't go backwards somehow. We got that straight. So he's the vine, we are the branches. And the branches, by the way, are where the fruit shows up. You ever notice the main trunk of the vine doesn't produce fruit? Go back to that grapevine. Where are the grapes? It's not on the main trunk, right? It's on those branches. So the vine carries up the necessary stuff, the branches then produce the fruit. The flowers, the flowers get pollinated, the fruit comes out on the branches. So this is where it comes in. And we have the great privilege of being the branches and bearing the fruit that otherwise we would not bear. But he says, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. At the end of the verse, though, he says something that seems somewhat radical. For without me ye can do nothing. Nothing? Nothing. He didn't say, without me you can do just a little bit. He said, without me you can do nothing. And you just have to think about this. In the ages to come, we will all stand before his throne in judgment. And what will he do? He'll burn up the chaff that the fruit of the vine, the things that are produced through godly conduct and the leadership of the Holy Spirit remain. You can go to 2 Corinthians 5 on that. But that which is gold, silver, precious stones remains. The wood, hay, and stubble, they get burned up, the useless stuff. So what is it then? Without me, you can do nothing. In that day of judgment, the things that we counted on, the things that we looked to, those developments, building our empires or whatever we want to do. If it's wood, hay, and stubble, it's gone. What are we left with? Nothing. Without me, you can do nothing. Verse six. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. Hmm. Not only does this not produce fruit, he withers up. He's cast out. Men gather and cast them into the fire and they're burning. Useless. In fact, these parts don't even produce that much heat to give you warmth. They're just burned up. as useless articles. If you abide in me, verse seven, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. So we have a contrast here. If you don't abide, you're cast out, men gather you up, toss you in the fire, you're burned up. But if you abide in me, what does he say? You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. You abide in Christ, you're gonna have the same thinking. God will straighten out your brain. You'll be able to focus on what God wants and want the same things. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask who you will. Now, what would you like today? Obviously, And this illustration has been used many times by different people. If I go to God and say, you know, God, I'd kind of like to have a Lamborghini. Yeah, that was my wife laughing, I know. We both laugh at that one. Why? It's not the purpose of God to give us a half a million dollar car. Now, it might be nice, I guess, but I mean, think about the practical terms here. God's gonna give us what we need. But there's another verse, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. But see, you're delighting in the Lord. You're not delighting in the Lamborghini, you're not delighting in the world. You're delighting in God. And see, this is what makes the difference. Where's your focus? What's your attention on? What are you aiming for? We have his promise. You will ask what you will, and it will be done to you. Why? You're lined up with God. You're thinking his thoughts after him as he's able to do for you. And you're aiming in that direction God is going. Of course He's going to bless that. It's right in line with what He wants. Yeah. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. Notice, we're tied right in with the glory of God here. How is God glorified? You bear fruit. That's how God is glorified. It kind of blows your mind a little bit. I mean, think about it again. How big and important would we be without God? Nothing at all. Our existence would be meaningless. But if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you ask what you will, and herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. And you can't bear that fruit unless you abide in Christ. So it all comes together. And he ends that verse eight with this, so shall you be my disciples. Now you stop and think. You have this martial arts culture, particularly here in Asia. You have the students who come in, they come into the dojo, they come into the house, they come into the place of practice and development and growth. They come in to study under the sensei, the teacher. What do they learn? How to do the moves, what it means, how to use it, when to use it, when not to use it, All these things come into play. But what is it? They follow. They are disciples of the sensei, following him, doing his moves, learning his ways, getting the thoughts and the philosophy of the sensei, the teacher. So we have this here. Bear much fruit. Glorify the Father, so shall you be my disciples, followers, ones who study, who learn. Now why do you go to church? How about it? You go to learn something new? Oh, I already know that stuff. Really? How much do you know, really? If God were to give you a quiz today, how would you do? My words abide in you. Well, part of it is this memory work, isn't it? We've been challenged to learn more than one verse, actually, this month, so let's see how we do. You know. Yeah. Verse nine. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. The love flows from the Father to the Son to us. God caring for his people. God is good to his people. Why? It's part of his nature. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves us. Verse nine. And what does he say? Continue in my love. Now this, intimates that we could walk away. No, not interested. Have we seen people do this? I fear I have. People who knew God's love and rejected it. Now, later today, it's our task to go out and talk to people. Not everybody's going to accept what we say to them. What? The love of God is born in the gospel. And when that gospel is given, people make a choice. Actually, as I consider it, they've made the choice before we ever show up. But we go, we talk to them, and they make known to us their choice. Now, it isn't very often that they'll take a track and crumple it up and throw it on the ground. But in my humble experience, I have noticed tracks left on the ground, people not taking them home and reading them. It's a sign, a signal. I don't want that. I don't need that. But people don't always know what's going on, do they? Because you see, when we read in the Holy Scriptures what God is going to do, those who just throw the tract on the ground, if they throw it down on the ground every chance, and they never accept it, God will not accept them. Now, they don't seem to know that. But I would challenge you, if you're that type of person that takes a tract and just throws it on the ground, consider what you've just done. You've set up the system for rejection. Instead, take that tract, read it, see what God has to say. I challenge you. The world isn't gonna tell you those things. You're not gonna get it from some other place. God's gospel comes from God. So when he talks to you, take the opportunity, listen, read, learn, and enjoy the blessing. There's a difference there. Now, obedience brings that love. Abiding in the love. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Now it says, continue in my love. If you're gonna keep my commandments, you're gonna abide in my love. You're gonna continue. What's he saying? He's saying, listen to me. This is what I want you to do. Listen. Some of us are teachers. What has our experience been? We stand in front of a classroom of students, however many there may be. We see three different types, don't we? Those who are vitally engaged in what we're saying, and they look at least interested in what we're telling them. They stay awake, they take notes, they learn, They can get the good grades on the tests. Some of them are quite bright that way. But then there's the second group. You're there, okay. Government says I have to go to school, so I'll be here. They stay awake. But their interest lies somewhere else. And when given the opportunity, the freedom to express thoughts or give actions, they act out their desires. which don't always line up with what we're telling them, oddly enough. And then there's the third group. They come, plump themselves down in the chair, have bad posture, and go to sleep. Like, well, what you're gonna tell me isn't important, so I'll just go to sleep and ignore the whole thing, because I know, in an hour, it'll be over, I'll get up, I'll go to the next class. Or if you're in elementary, they don't go to the next class, they're still in your room. So have fun with that, right? But God is able to work, so don't despair. Nonetheless, we have some of the same stuff going on in the preaching of the gospel, don't we? Those who say, I accept. Those who say, well, I'll think about it. Another day, I'll make a choice. and those who outright reject. Same three. Hmm. Okay. But here we have the promise, if we obey, we abide in his love, we abide in him. Verse 11, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. I didn't just say these words to say some words. I spoke to you. I told you. Listen to me. Obey me. Abide in my love. If you obey me, you will abide in my love. Abide in me and I in you. The branch can't bear fruit unless it abides in the vine. You can't bear fruit unless you abide in me. And if you bear fruit, you're gonna get snip, snip, snip, snip, perched. Why? To bear more fruit. not just to go through pain. See, there's another purpose here. And because of this, these things have I spoken unto that my joy might remain in you. We see this word joy now. What? That inward working, that is more than just mere outward happiness. If there's joy in your soul from God, whatever happens out here in the great wide world will not damage that. You will have the joy and it will be from God and it will be something that remains. My cousin, he found out he has cancer. That is not a good thing. But that does not destroy my joy in God. Doc says, I have an incurable disease that will kill me one day. My joy is undisturbed. It comes from God. These things have I said to you. that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. It's the kind of thing that outward circumstances will not change. Have you experienced that? Have you seen that? I can't sell my property. I want to make some money here and I can't do it. Is your joy destroyed? Or do you still have joy in God? Because you understand these earthly things are for now. But there's coming a day when your property will clearly belong to God. And you won't have any concern for that. Why? Because you'll be in a far better place If I go, I will prepare a place for you that you may dwell with me. He doesn't say and bring a million dollars because I want that for that plot of land. No, he didn't say that. You will be with me in my place. And there's no discussion of you having to pay the bill or pay the rent or the utilities or the upkeep of that place. And it's through the blood of Christ that we have this. Someone did pay the price. Jesus paid it all. When we use that phrase, This is the outcome. We have a dwelling with Him. We'll abide in Him perfectly in that place. Abide in me, and I in you. Wow! The fulfillment of that in time to come. In the timeless zone, where time is no more. What do we have? Perfect abiding. You want to talk about abiding Christ? There it is. That his joy might be full in us. Now, does he owe us anything? No, really. He created us. He sent his son. His son died for us. So if anybody owes anything, we owe him. He doesn't owe us. Hmm That his joy might be full so he's giving us even more delight yourself in the Lord He'll give you desires of your heart And if you abide in him These things have I spoken what that your joy might be full And where's the joy coming from my joy Christ Might remain in you Wow There's a lot here when you unpack it, when you stop and think about it. So then what? One of his commands, verse 12. This is my commandment. Just so you don't miss it, here's my commandment. Okay, you ready to hear this? Here we go. That you love one another as I have loved you. Yeah, you know that guy he annoys me can't stand him This is my commandment That you love one another He didn't say you like one another you didn't say that There's some people you will not like I Have people that don't like me Okay I'm good with that. All right But if you're obedient to the command of Christ, that you love one another, there's gonna be a care, a family spirit, if you will. Love one another. As I have loved you. Boy, does that put a face on it. How did Jesus love us? How did Jesus love us? He gave everything. He gave his life. Now, this is a tough question. Are we ready to give our lives for these others whom he said love one another? I don't know. You know, I'm an imperfect human being and I have sometimes Reservation's about giving my life for another person because, you know, that's a pretty deep commitment. But this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Talk about giving a definition. Wow. Okay. And he repeats it. Verse 17, these things I command you, that you love one another. If we were gonna miss it somehow Okay The time passes by we have more here But in time to come give thought to these things Let the Spirit of God talk to you as he does through his word That you abide in Christ and abiding means staying put, not moving around. So, let's pray and wrap it up. Lord, we praise you for today. We thank you for your kindness. We ask for your blessing now, guiding and directing, giving wisdom, empowering us to love when it's beyond our natures. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen.