Focus: Jesus calls his followers to anchor their lives in him.
Function: To move the people to stand firm in their faith in Jesus.
Text: John 15:1-8
Calvary Church is a Christian community of faith with a distinct mission: we believe that God calls us to lead people into a growing and committed relationship with Jesus Christ and his church. As members of Christ’s church, we are being shaped and formed by Christ’s Spirit to be salt on the earth, to be light in the world, and to be ambassadors of God’s heavenly rule here on earth. This is our mission as individual Christians and members of Calvary Church.
The baptisms that you witnessed this morning and the public professions of faith you heard are signs of God at work in this community. In baptism God comes to us, claims us as his own, gives us his Holy Spirit and calls us to live for him as his child. As such our baptism is a sign and seal to us that we belong to God and are set apart as his people in this world.
By professing our faith publicly, we respond to God’s claims and promises in Christ Jesus. And joyfully we declare that we welcome God’s promise of salvation in Christ and that we submit to God’s claim on us. We will live for him. We will show our colors—we are Christians!
In our baptism God reaches out to us in Christ Jesus and
says: “You are mine. I shall be your God.” And in our public profession
of faith God moves our hearts and minds to say: “Yes Lord! I am yours. Now
and forever!”
Today, in
the gospel of John, the Lord Jesus calls us to anchor our lives in him. “Stand
firm!” is the message. “Anchor your trust in Christ!”
Listen: (vs.4) “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”
Jesus speaks these words on
the night that he is being betrayed. Jesus knows that his time with his
disciples is short. Death on a cross is near; resurrection and ascension into
heaven are just around the corner. It’s time for solid, solemn, and serious
talk.
A careful reading of this gospel passage shows us a very simple structure, where Jesus makes a claim, issues forth a call, and states the motivation for his call.
Here’s the claim: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” This claim is a figure of speech that enables us to relate to Jesus’ call and motivation.
Here’s the call: “Remain in
me, and I will remain in you.”
And here’s the motivation or the reasons for the call: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
The Niagara Region in Ontario, Canada has many vineyards, where you will see vines upon vines planted firmly in the soil. Not one of these vines walk around, like cattle in a field. These vines and their branches are solidly connected and remain stationary, rooted in the soil. The sap of the vine runs through its branches, and the sap gives the branches the energy and nutrition to produce grapes in due season.
It really is not hard to figure out, is it, what Jesus means when he says: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”
Let’s focus on Jesus’ call to us today: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” Actually, the force of Jesus’ call is this: “continue to abide or dwell or remain or stay put in me.” Anchoring our faith and trust in Jesus is an ongoing activity, a conscious, Spirit-empowered work in our hearts and minds.
As the branches draw from the sap in the vine, so Jesus calls us to draw upon his life-giving energy and strength, so that we can bear the fruit that speaks of Christ in us and through us. “Love, joy, and peace,” testify of Christ’s Spirit at work in us. Patience, kindness, and acts of mercy and justice point to Christ in us and through us. The fruit we bear as Christians emerge through our position in Christ. We must continue to remain in him, and he in us.
Note that Christ remains in us through his Word and Spirit. His Word is inspired and comes to us as Scriptures, but Jesus also embodies in the flesh the Word of God. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” so says John in his gospel.
In other words, when Jesus says that we must remain in him and he will remain in us, he is talking about nurturing a personal, as well as communal relationship with him that is based on the Scriptures and nurtured by the good news: God—in Jesus Christ—saves us and makes all things new. Therefore, anchor your life in him.
On June 4, 1989, the Chinese government violently broke up demonstrations by students on Tiananmen or Red Square. Armed soldiers and a column of tanks entered the Square to snuff out the rebellion. As the column of tanks entered the Square, a lone protester advanced forward, and placed himself squarely in front of 4 huge tanks. The tanks stopped. And for 30 minutes this lone protester held up the Chinese army. He remained on the spot. Unmovable, driven by an energy of conviction that change is needed, this lone protester stayed put—until he was violently removed.
Jesus calls us to stay put in him, to abide, interact, and remain in his sphere of influence, so that we shall bear fruit. Be and remain, therefore, anchored in Christ all your lives!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.