The Gospel Means Connecting

Scripture: John 15:1-17

Introduction

• The Gospel means “good news” and the good news is meant to be shared.
• At the very root of the creation of the universe is a relationship, a connection.
• From the very beginning, the Creator God is a nucleus of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• In the Gospel of John 1:1-3, John reveals the true nature of the Trinity of God

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

• And this Trinity of God lives in a constant state of CONNECTION.
• Jesus said in John 14:10:

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

• Jesus revealed to us just how tight is His connection to the rest of the Godhead.
• How did Jesus demonstrate this? PRAYER
• Jesus prayed on many occasions, and He showed this to His disciples.
• Perhaps the most endearing session is right before He is betrayed in the Garden.
• From Matthew’s Gospel 26:36-39:

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

• We know from Genesis 1:26-27 that God created man in Their image:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

• God is the Creator existing as three entities in constant connection and relationship.
• Since They created us in Their image, don’t you think they meant for us to be creatures in constant connection and relationship with others of our kind just like them?
• And if we are to be in constant connection and relationship, what should that look like?
• Let’s turn to what Jesus says about that from today’s Scripture.

1. The Vine

• What you must consider from Jesus’ stories is the times they lived in.
• Theirs was an agrarian society; it was all about raising food to eat and/or sell.
• It was into this context that God created His system of repentance and sacrifice.
• He demanded from His people sincere repentance and demanded an animal sacrifice that would be a sacrifice from them of something that was valuable to them.
• Livestock and grain were the capital in that time, the form of barter for other things.
• Gold and Silver and precious spices and ointments were also items used for trade.
• This explains why Jesus uses the vine to represent connection.
• We have a snowball bush in our front yard that Leslie’s daughter Rachel gave her.
• This thing has been scrawny and looked half dead for the past several years.
• Only there was this one huge branch that stuck out about 3 feet to the side.
• Kind of like that cowlick used to stick up on Alfalfa’s head in the Little Rascals.
• Well, early in the spring I pruned that thing waaaay back to match the shorter branches.
• And you know what? That bush is now huge and healthy and flourishing.
• This is what Jesus was talking about when He said that the Father is the gardener and “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.”
• God wants the Jesus plant to be huge and healthy and flourishing.
• Why? So that as in verse 2: “it will be even more fruitful.”
• Jesus says in verse 4: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you.”
• It’s all about that connection; Jesus wants us to stay connected with Him.
• Is being a Christian just about making a profession of faith and then you’re done? NO
• No, Jesus wants us in the kind of relationship that the Trinity has with each other.
• Jesus prayed for this in John 17:9-11:

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.  I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

2. The Fruit

• Continuing with Jesus’ grape vine analogy, the goal of the vine is to produce fruit.
• The only way for the vine to produce fruit is if it remains connected to the branch.
• It’s through the branch that the plant draws in nutrients and water from the soil.
• Jesus said in verse 7 that if we stay connected “we can ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for us.”
• He will provide all the nutrients and resources we need through that connection.
• Seems like a pretty simple formula if we would maybe … just remember to do it!
• What is the fruit Jesus wants us to produce? He tells us in verse 8:

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

• Let me see if I have this straight: the goal, the whole point for us being connected to Christ is so that others will see that we are connected to Christ. Did I get that right?
• Jesus said the purpose of showing that we are His disciples is to glorify the Father.
• And how do we show that that we are His disciples and connected to Him?
• By connecting to each other.
• We show we are connected to Him by how we connect to each other.
• What are some ways we show we are connected to each other? Church, missions, social.
• Do you think it’s enough just to tell people we are Christians?
• I don’t think most people will trust us.
• A lot of people in this world have gone around saying they were Christians and then doing things that really didn’t look very Christian.
• Saying you bear fruit is a lot different than showing that you bear fruit isn’t it?

3. The Love

• Ultimately, the way we show fruit is through love.
• Love is not just some human emotion that makes us feel all giddy about someone.
• Love is an energy source that is a fundamental power in the universe.
• Just like the power of the sun that sustains all life on earth, there is love.
• Just like the power of gravity that holds everything together, there is love.
• Just like the power of the atoms and molecules that are the building blocks, there is love.
• You might even say that the connection that holds us in the vine with Jesus, is love.
• Well, at least I think that is what Jesus is saying in verse 10:

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

• Love is the key to the whole plan.
• It’s more than just love though – it’s also obedience to Christ’s commands.
• It’s in our obedience that we show our love for God by doing His will.
• Even still it all comes back to love.
• In God’s love we have perfect joy – unlike anything that can be found in the world.
• Jesus said in verse 10: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”
• What are Jesus’ commands? There are two of them.
• A Pharisee confronted Jesus with the question: “which is the greatest commandment in the law?” in Matthew’s Gospel 22:36-40:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

• Jesus commanded them in verse 12: “Love each other as I have loved you.”
• There you have it: we show ourselves as Christian disciples by how we connect with each other and through the love we show to each other.
• By this point in John’s Gospel, Jesus knows He will soon go to the cross.
• Perhaps it was a bit of foreshadowing since He knew what was coming.
• He knows that He is about to lay down His life for His friends, so He says in verse 13:

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

• In the eyes of Jesus, the disciples (and us) have moved from “servant” to “friend.”
• He makes three distinctions that qualify them (and us) as friends:

1. You are friends because you do what I command.
2. You are friends because you know everything that I learned from my Father.
3. You are friends because I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit.

• Because we are friends, in verse 16-17, Jesus says: “whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you if you obey my command and love each other.”
• Jesus summarizes the question of connection and love when He prays in John 17:25-26:

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

The Gospel is about CONNECTION.