Abide in Me; Abide in Love John 15:1–8; 1 John 4:1–11

Last Sunday we celebrated as Garret was confirmed in His Christian faith.  As Garrett confessed his faith in our Triune God, we re-affirmed our faith in Christ.

As we said last Sunday, it was timely that Confirmation this year fell on Good Shepherd Sunday.

The Sunday following Good Shepherd Sunday is what we might call Abide Sunday, based on our Gospel from John 15.

Jesus said,  Abide in me, and I in you.

We were looking at this verse in Bible Study a few weeks ago, and we talked about what it means to abide, and what a nice word it is.

What do you think of when you hear the word abide?

There are hymns with the word abide, like Abide with me, fast falls the even tide… and one we’ll sing next Sunday, Abide O dearest Jesus, among us with thy grace.

To abide can be translated as to remain, or to stay, or to live, or even more deeply, to exist.

Exist in me, and I in you, Jesus says. Apart from me you can do nothing.

God is our very existence, our power to live. and our purpose to live.

As Acts 17:28 says, In Him we live and move and have our being.

Jesus illustrates this with one of his many farming analogies. 

Last Sunday we heard an analogy about herding sheep. Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd.

Today, Jesus uses an analogy about growing grapes. He says, I am the true vine.

It seems we’re getting to have more and more grape farms and wineries in the area.

Jesus says in our Gospel, I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Nothing godly in the pure sense of the word, nothing that’s nothing that’s of Christ.

We might be able to imitate some of those things without God living in us, but the real thing comes from Jesus.

He gives us Himself to abide in us in our Baptism, His Spirit within our spirit, to be our power to believe and to love others in the way He loves us

In our Epistle reading today, we continue with the book of 1 John, and its’ theme of godly love.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

From this comes the second half of our sermon theme: abide in love. To abide in Christ is to abide in love, because Christ is the Son of God, and God is love.

John makes it clear, that’s it’s not our love that keeps us abiding in Christ, but His love for us and in us.

Verses 9 and 10, In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

This sounds very similar to what God says in His Gospel, chapter 3, verse 16, our theme verse last Sunday, For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Or to put it another way, For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that we might abide in Him, and His love.

Verse 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Or as Jesus puts it in our Gospel, That you might bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

Jesus said, My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away.

When we fail to do the good we’re called to do, then we’re like dead branches to be cut off and thrown away.

Jesus says in verse 6, If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

It’s only by abiding in Christ, that we stay spiritually alive. When we disconnect from Him, we cut ourselves off from the only One who keep us spiritually alive.

We cut ourselves off from Him by neglecting the gift of His Word, by disregarding our Baptism, and by refusing worship Him, and failing to gladly receive His body and blood to regenerate our faith, and His absolution, His forgiveness to keep us endeared to the One who died for our sins.

The result is that our faith and love for Christ slowly withers away. Or as Jesus puts it, we become like dead branches that can’t bear godly fruit. When no longer bear the fruit of godly love, we prove that we’re no longer His disciples; we no longer abide in Him.

If we no longer abide in Him, the true source of life and love, then we can no longer fulfill our true purpose for living, to share His life-giving love in the world.

Then the only thing we’re good for, as Jesus says, is the fire of destruction.

But God has a different kind of fire that He wants for us; the fire we’ll speak more of in two weeks as we celebrate Pentecost, the fire that rested over the heads of the disciples, revealing the Holy Spirit.

This is the fire of God’s holy love in us; to burn away the sin and selfishness that would cause us to disconnect from the Vine, the Gospel that gives life.

Speaking of fire, sometimes you have to burn away the old growth, so that the new grass can thicken and grow. Burning ditches...

Many years ago, before the prairies were plowed and farmed, the native grass grew up to six feet high.

One of the reasons for that abundant growth was the occasional prairie fire that would burn off the old vegetation, fertilize the ground, and make way for new plant life.

One of the things the Word of God does in us is to burn the sin out of lives.

Now this never happens completely in this life, we still sin every day, but it’s a process where God is always at work in us, to make us less selfish and more like His Son.

This happens when we abide in Him and He is us; then, as we bear the fruit of godly love in the world, we show that faith is alive in us.

May God always bless you to abide in Him, and Him in you. Then His love will renew your spirit, and His peace, which passes understanding, will guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.