Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE POINT OF IT ALL”
John 15.8
We begin with John 15.1-8:
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 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.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
I will bring two introductions to my sermon.
It used to be that most pastors preached sermons to the congregations they served. However, these days when most men standing on the platform are dressed like they stopped by on their way home from Walmart or Home Depot, there is a corresponding absence in their delivery of anything that resembles a sermon. Their affectations are of someone who seems unprepared to minister to God’s people as His representative.
There are many different kinds of sermons that a pastor can prepare and deliver to a congregation on behalf of God, be they a gathering of hearers come to hear an evangelist preach outdoors (such as during the days of George Whitefield and John Wesley) or a gathering of mostly Church members within the confines of an auditorium. Some preachers make no use of sermon notes or manuscripts, while other preachers use such things. As well, some sermons address a specific topic found in the Bible, perhaps a doctrine that is developed for the benefit of the hearers. Other sermons focus on a phrase, a verse, or a somewhat larger passage, to develop Bible truth for the benefit of the audience.
When an actual sermon is delivered to a group, regardless of it being a topical sermon, a textual sermon, or an expository sermon of a somewhat more extended passage, there are usually three characteristics of every Bible sermon. Sermons typically feature an introduction, the body of the sermon (the sermon itself), and the concluding remarks and application of the truth presented being the conclusion. Using preacher shorthand, this means that a preacher of God’s Word characteristically tells people what he’s going to tell them in the introduction, tells them in the body of his sermon, and then tells them what he told them in his concluding remarks.
Of course, this is a drastic oversimplification of what’s going on in a sermon. Concerning the opening remarks, usually referred to as the introduction, God’s preacher has a serious challenge facing him. Most people who come to a worship service do not come prepared to hear a sermon from God’s Word, are not prepared to worship, are not prepared for a Gospel encounter, and give no thought to considering the claims of Jesus Christ.
An individual who walks into the auditorium and sits down prepared for worship, and the preaching of God’s Word is an individual that recognizes something about himself or herself. That individual knows his mind is rapid to change, and his attention span is of short duration. What is more important than one’s state of mind is the condition of one’s heart, since it is with the heart that someone believes unto righteousness, yet the heart is very slow to believe.[1] This reality ought to figure in a preacher’s sermonizing.
The person who has conscientiously prepared for worship typically has been anticipating the worship service since at least the previous day, and has prayed (perhaps for days) when he prayed that he would be receptive to the message and that the Spirit of God would work strongly in his heart and life. With such a person, the preacher can immediately launch into his sermon without any concern about leaving the prepared individual behind. The prepare listener is ready to go.
But what about the person who comes to Church unprepared for worship and the preaching of God’s Word? That individual might be a believer in Jesus Christ, or that person might be an unsaved individual. With either type of person, it may very well be that he has entered the auditorium concerned about the possible loss of his job, worried about her mother having just contracted Covid-19, stressed about the health of their marriage, or some other issue that is far less important than the worship of God but which lack of preparation has resulted in such things distracting from crucial spiritual matters.
Why do you think I want to get the announcements out of the way as quickly as possible on Sunday morning? So we can get to spiritual matters, such as the reading of God’s Word, the singing of Christian hymns, and the offering. These three activities are conducted before the preaching of the Word of God to be not only spiritual endeavors that are cherished by those who are prepared for worship, but also helpful to bring the spiritually unprepared individual to a consideration of spiritual matters in preparation for worship.
An unprepared person who arrives after the announcements, after the Scripture reading, after the offering, and after the singing remains quite unprepared for an encounter with God. I know when I step up to the platform that I have some heavy lifting ahead of me with regard to the person who enters the auditorium after the service has begun. The person who is excited about God doing something in his or her life, who has prepared for God to do something through the preaching, and who expects God to bless, is the person who very typically shows up earlier rather than later.
The introduction is called for so that the preacher can escort the listener from where they are when he begins to speak to where they need to be at the beginning of the actual sermon. But at the same time, introductory remarks cannot bore the person who is prepared so that he or she stops paying attention. The preacher’s opening remarks, what I have termed the introduction, can be likened to the on-ramp of a freeway, helping people get up to freeway speed for the sermon’s beginning.
Now for my second introduction. The Lord Jesus Christ met with His twelve apostles in the Upper Room in John chapter 13, where we read that He washed their feet, presided over the Passover celebration meal, introduced the communion of the Lord’s Supper, dispatched Judas Iscariot to do his dastardly deed, and predicted that Simon Peter would betray Him three times before the cock crowed.
I think that John chapter 14 is a record of comments made after the Lord and His men left the Upper Room and began walking toward the Garden of Gethsemane, where Judas Iscariot identified the Savior to the men who arrested Him. The way our auditorium is oriented, one can imagine the Lord and His remaining men departing from the West side of our auditorium, to my right, and walking to the East, their final destination is to my left.
I would suggest to you that as they were walking and talking, the Lord Jesus and His remaining men passed in front of the entrance to Herod’s Temple, which would have been to their left as they were walking, to the North of them. Imagine me standing on the Temple mount. Andreas J. Köstenberger informs us that the “vine” metaphor that begins in John 15.1 was occasioned by the golden vine overhanging the temple’s main entrance.[2] No wonder, then, the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 15.1 as they passed by,
“I am the true vine.”
Thus begins our eight verse passage dealing with fruit and fruitfulness, the Lord Jesus Christ using what is variously described as an allegory or an extended metaphor to explain vital truth about the Christian life and ministry to His remaining apostles. In some respects, their relationship with Him is likened to branches attached to the vine, with branches having a more than superficial attachment to the vine being branches that bear fruit.
My text is John 15.8, the final verse of the comparison of Christ to the vine and Christ’s apostles to branches that bear fruit. This verse, then, is the summary statement of the allegory. In so many words, this is where the Lord Jesus Christ told His men the point of it all:
“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”
Look back to verse 7 with me so that we will have our immediate context established beyond doubt. The Lord Jesus Christ said,
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
The word “if” in verse seven is not the specific word found in a first-class conditional sentence, but the Greek word indicates a third-class conditional sentence, referring to a probable future condition.[3] Thus, it is likely but not guaranteed that a believer will abide in Christ.
Observe that, though the word “prayer” is not found in verse 7, our Lord Jesus is referring to the abiding Christian’s prayer life. If we abide in Him and His words abide in us (and it stands to reason that the believer will abide in Christ if he is diligent to make sure Christ’s Word abides in him), we have both liberty in praying and results in those prayers being answered. What a tremendous encouragement to pray.
With context assured, we turn to our text. Here in verse 8, we have three phrases that bear directly on what our Lord Jesus said to His remaining apostles about what the Christian life is all about. I see no reason in verse 8 to suggest that our Lord’s comments are not still related to the praying of His disciples:
Look with me to the three phrases:
PHRASE #1: “Herein is my Father glorified”
To what does this word “herein” refer? Does it look back to verse 7? Or does it look forward to the rest of verse 8? Or does it wrap up everything said in verses 1-8? It is likely the Lord was referring not to one and not the other, so much as one more prominently than the other, as well as everything said in this eight verse allegory. To that end, the Lord Jesus Christ is about to inform His disciples, who are ever more becoming disciples (because that’s what discipleship is, is it not?), what glorifies the Father. Isn’t that very important? Should that not grab the attention of every believer in Jesus Christ, how the Father is glorified?
In this Gospel account written by John, it can be observed that reference is made to the Son being glorified and to the Father glorifying Himself. Here, however, He makes reference to the disciple of Jesus Christ glorifying the Father, which is, in a sense, the Lord Jesus Christ glorifying the Father through those who abide in Him. Since Revelation 4.11 informs us that the very purpose of our being is to glorify God, the sensible Christian should be all over this:
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
However, do not forget the Church in all of this. In Ephesians 3.21, we read Paul’s clarifying declaration about glorifying God in the congregation:
“Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
So you see, Christian, that your purpose for existing, the reason God made you and has to this point preserved you on this side of the door leading to eternity, is about to be outlined in convenient terms. And if you have not yet grasped that those very practical means for glorifying God requires abiding in Christ as well as membership and ministry in a Church body, you are not very familiar with what the New Testament teaches about the Church.
PHRASE #2: “that ye bear much fruit”
Since failure to honor the Son by being a disciple is failure to honor the Father, one must bear in mind that fruitlessness not only threatens eternal Hellfire but robs God of the glory that is rightly His. This is because fruitlessness is likely an indication of a lost condition when all is said and done.
Arthur Pink observes, “There are four relationships which need to be distinguished. Life in Christ is salvation. Life with Christ is fellowship. Life by Christ is fruit-bearing. Life for Christ is service. The ‘fruit’ is Christ manifested through us. But note the gradation: in 15:2 it is first ‘fruit,’ then ‘more fruit,’ here ‘much fruit.’ This reminds us of the ‘some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some an hundred’ (Mark 4:20).”[4]
The question that most of the commentators seem unwilling to address is what fruit is. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, fruit is money given to advance the Gospel, Romans 1.13 and 15.28, or one’s conduct, Romans chapters 6 and 7. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, 5.22-23, fruit is personality characteristics produced by the influence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. But what about here?
Referred to five times in John chapter 15, fruit cannot specifically be a reference to new Christians because the Christians that produce the fruit are in this allegory identified as branches. For the concept of spiritual reproduction to be exact, a branch would produce a branch rather than a branch producing a cluster of grapes. Therefore, from one perspective fruitfulness is very obviously spiritual productivity, which does, in a sense, result in more believers. However, one cannot limit the fruit referred to in this chapter as only being souls brought to Christ. It is somewhat more complicated than that. Perhaps the fruit referred to here is best termed Christ-likeness.
Two examples that support this understanding of fruit in our text, one from history and one from the Bible. Was Adoniram Judson an unfruitful servant of God, being a pioneering 19th-century missionary to Burma, who saw only one convert in his life of service in that country? No one I know who is familiar with his life and ministry would draw that conclusion.
Then there is First Corinthians 3.5-15:
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Paul here alludes to the Judgment Seat of Christ. But in so doing, he points out that it is only God who gives the increase and that judgment of believers’ works will be based on the focus of our labors, the quality of our labors, and the abiding of our labors as factors in determining our reward.[5] No mention is made of the numbers of people who have come to Christ through our efforts.
My conclusion? I rather think the fruit the Savior speaks of in John chapter 15 symbolizes conduct that reflects devotion and a concern to make much of Him, rather than conduct that magnifies much of self and shows concern for self. Will the byproduct result in conversions? Certainly.
PHRASE #3: “so shall ye be my disciples.”
May I rehearse a conversation I had with our good friend Dr. Samuel Rai about disciples and discipleship to rather poorly illustrate our Lord’s thrust? Samuel Rai once likened Christ’s approach to discipleship in contrast to the typical Western approach to discipleship as somewhat like the difference between Maoists and communists.
Remembering that Samuel Rai was once a Maoist, he pointed out that Maoists are communists, with this distinction: Maoists are all about Mao. His point to me was that Biblical discipleship is more than being a good Christian; it is all about exalting, magnifying, worshiping, praising, following, obeying, declaring, and pointing people to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think Samuel Rai’s analysis suggests an appropriate improvement in our traditional Western Christian approach to being a Christian disciple of Christ. We ought to be all about the Lord Jesus Christ. I am reminded of a 20th-century pastor I never had the privilege of meeting, who summed up his philosophy of preaching and ministry as “making much of Jesus.”[6] He was spot on.
By being all over this notion of being Christ’s disciple, which demands abiding in Christ, you will succeed in your purpose for existing, which is to glorify God.
Do you remember how a sermon is constructed? The preacher begins by telling you what he is going to tell you. That’s what usually happens in what is called the introduction. The goal is to get hold of a listener at the beginning of the sermon and bring his or her attention away from distractions and to spiritual matters. After attempting to do that with our Scripture reading, hymn singing, and offering, I attempted to do that when we read John 15.1-8 after reminding you of the events in chapters 13 and 14 that led up to our text.
I then delivered the body of my sermon, the three-part explanation of the verse, taking each of the three phrases in turn. In the first phrase, the Lord indicated to His men that He was about to remind them precisely how God is to be glorified. How important for you and me to grasp. This is done, He said in the second phrase, glorifying God is accomplished by bearing much fruit. Whatever fruit is, it is not produced except the believer abide in Christ. In the third phrase, He concluded by pointing out to them that this is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about.
So, here we are, in conclusion, with me now telling you what I told you. The point of it all for the Christian, for you, even if you are not a Christian, is to glorify God. This is the meaning of life. Apart from this a person’s life is adrift and unmoored, directionless and wandering aimlessly.
You already know that you exist to glorify God. The Lord Jesus Christ here tells us that glorifying God is accomplished by bearing fruit. This is the essence of discipleship since fruit is not produced in the life of someone who does not abide in Christ, and Christ’s Word also abides in him.
The main difference between preaching a sermon and teaching the Bible is its goal. The goal of teaching the Bible is to impart truth. The goal of preaching a sermon is to call someone to action, to challenge the listener to respond to the truth, to take a decisive step of action.
This message is about how to glorify God. It is very simple. It is extremely straightforward. One glorifies God by bearing fruit. One bears fruit by being Christ’s disciple, abiding in Him, and His Word abiding in you. This cannot take place unless and until you are a Christian.
I challenge you to trust Christ.
Are you already a Christian? Then I challenge you to become a Church member, where, with other Christians, you can bear fruit that will glorify God.
If you would like to discuss any of these things, please reach out to me.
__________
[1] Romans 10.10; Luke 24.25
[2] Andreas J. Köstenberger, John - ECNT, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), pages 446, 450.
[3] Summers, page 109.
[4] Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1-vol. edition 1968), Vol 3, page 14.
[5] See John S. Waldrip, The Church of Jesus Christ: 28 Truths Every Christian Ought To Learn, (Monrovia, CA: Classical Baptist Press, 2019), Appendix B, pages 339-347.
[6] The late Dr. Jack Hudson
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church