Discipleship—Created To Be Like Christ

John 15:1-17

Discipleship is costly. Following Jesus is hard work. As churches and as individual Christians we should continually acknowledge the difficult task before us. If we don’t acknowledge the high standards, then we are liable to lower God’s standards. Several years ago the Army discovered that only 12 percent of female recruits could toss a hand grenade beyond its burst radius. In other words, in a live combat situation, nine out of ten women would blow themselves up if they threw a hand grenade. So what was the army’s solution to this obvious dilemma? Did they take women out of such situations? No, they lowered the standard. Women recruits no longer have to be able to throw hand grenades beyond the safe distance where they won’t blow themselves up.

Each of us is like those women Army recruits—we do not meet the standard before us. None us is where God wants us to be in our spiritual growth. Therefore we have two options: either lower the standard or strive to reach the standard. If we lower the standard we may feel good about ourselves for a while. That’s the beauty of it—when you lower the standard everyone gets a passing grade, and who doesn’t feel good about that. But lowering the standard is the equivalent of a spiritual hand grenade—it will inevitably blow up in your face. Discipleship is not lowering God’s standard, but allowing God to love us to the standard. Notice I said he that loves us up to the standard. God will not drag us to the standard—we would resist that. God does not lower his standard to meet us where we are—that would diminish his glory. Rather God comes alongside of us and lovingly walks with us until we get closer and closer to his standard.

Discipleship is hard work—but we are not alone. This passage in John 15 explains that God is active in our obedience.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ^2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ^3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ^4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

^5 “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. ^6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ^7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ^8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

^9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ^10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ^11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ^12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ^13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ^14 You are my friends if you do what I command. ^15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ^16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ^17 This is my command: Love each other.

Discipleship is costly and following Jesus is hard work. So why should we want to go through all of that effort to be like Christ? Isn’t it easier to simply attend church, put our ten dollars in the offering and go home? Yes, in a sense that is easier, but it is not better. It’s like planting a garden and saying, “Why do I have to till the ground and plant the seeds at the right soil depth--isn’t it easier to simply lay the seeds on the ground?” Yes, it is easier, but it is not better. Discipleship is costly—but it is always better.

In this passage Jesus uses another agricultural analogy and weaves truth all through it. I am the vine and my Father is the gardener. Right from the start we know we are in good hands. First, we are connected to Christ. If you are a Christian, then you are linked to Christ like a branch is linked to a vine. This connection to Christ is a vivid picture of our salvation in the past, but it is also absolutely necessary for future spiritual growth—what Jesus here calls bearing fruit. Verse 16 gives the end goal of this connection to the Christ vine: ^16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. We were specifically chosen by God for a single purpose—to bear fruit. God did not save us—he did not transfer us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light just so we could sit in this new kingdom and do nothing. It’s not just that God wants us to grow—it’s even more than that he expects us to grow. He saved us so that we would grow. Spiritual stagnation is not an option.

Jesus is the vine to whom we are connected and the Father is the gardener who lovingly tends us so that we will grow. This is a nearly perfect analogy because, as a gardener, the actions of the Father tending to us in the spiritual world are identical to tending a vine in the material world. He has two primary actions—cutting off dead branches that are not fruitful and pruning fruitful branches. Did you notice the fate of those dead branches that are cut off? Verse six tells us that they are destined for the fire. The question here is, how does a branch that is connected to Christ suddenly die and cease producing fruit? In the previous verse Jesus said that the key is to remain in him—to purposefully and intentionally stay connected to the vine. Judas is a good example of one who seemed to be connected to Christ, but chose not to remain in Christ.

What do you think it means for a dead branch to be thrown into the fire and burned? This obviously symbolizes eternal destruction in the flames of hell. This is severe warning to everyone who considers themselves connected to Christ. If you do not remain in Christ, if you do not persevere, if you do not choose to stay connected to Christ, then that is evidence that you were not connected in the first place. Do you know what the statistics are for high school graduates who go off to college? For every ten students to attend college, seven of them lose their faith. Seventy percent of those branches fail to remain connected to Christ and die off. Why are these numbers so high? Because these young people fail to make their parents faith their own. A decision to receive Christ when you are six does not guarantee a fruitful life when you are sixty.

If you are between the ages of ten and 16 you are in the process of deciding whether or not you will remain in Christ. Why do so many 18 year olds seem to fall away from the faith so quickly? To the parents and other observers it may seem like it happened quickly, but these 18 year olds had already decided that following Christ was not all that important to them. Perhaps since the age of 16 they had just been playing church. When they head off to college and experience their new found freedom, they appear as if they suddenly abandon the faith when actually they are just acting on a decision made several years prior. I am not suggesting that these young people are forever lost and cannot turn back to Christ. As long as you have breath of life, there is always an opportunity to turn back. But the fact is that Jesus intended this to be a warning to all people, young and old, to remain in Christ. If you don’t remain then you may be a dead branch and the only thing left is the raging fire.

This is why it is so important for parents to be diligent in the spiritual training of their children. On recent study by Christian pollster George Barna highlights the importance of discipling our children. His research found that “most people’s minds are made up and they believe they know what they need to know spiritually by age 13.” In other words, if children aren’t properly discipled, once they reach the teen years you have increasingly less influence upon them. Parents—grandparents—if you are not bearing fruit, how do you expect your children and grandchildren to be bearing fruit?

(Barna Research Online, 10/17/03

http://www.barna.org/cgibin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=153&Reference=F)

Thankfully the Father-gardener does more than just cut off dead branches that are not bearing fruit, he also prunes branches that do have fruit. Now to understand the Father’s work in our lives, we must make sure we know exactly what it means to prune a vine. An expert pruner literally cuts off live branches that have buds. In other words, if the branches were not cut off, these buds would produce fruit. But if the Father-gardener chose us and appointed us to bear fruit, why would he cut off the fruit in our lives. Because he knows that, just like a vine, cutting off some fruit will make us even more fruitful.

Another way of saying it is that God prunes away some good things in our life to make room for even better things. This is God’s way of producing even more spiritual fruit in our lives. Now I understand that this makes sense from an intellectual standpoint. We know that vines need to be pruned and therefore God prunes us to make us more fruitful. But when you are the one who is being pruned it doesn’t always make sense. Pruning hurts! If a grapevine could speak, when the pruning shears cut through it, it would say “Ouch!” The best I can tell this is what happened this week with Tim and Robin’s house. This was not a punishment! A loving God does not say things like, “I’m mad at you so I am going to burn down your house.” Instead God says, “I love you and I see the fruit in your lives. I know it’s going to hurt, but I am going to prune away these good things to make room for something better.” So we could say that God pruned away their house. Even if Satan himself lit the fire, God can use that as a divine pruning tool.

But pruning hurts. I can’t even imagine what it feels like to have nearly every last possession you own go up in smoke. The pain of losing three dearly loved animals is great. This is an enormous trial in their lives. But I would guess that the rest of us also are being pruned. If you have health problems you are being pruned for greater fruitfulness. If you have marriage troubles you are being pruned for greater fruitfulness. If you have parenting woes you are being pruned for greater fruitfulness. If you have job difficulties you are being pruned for greater fruitfulness.

This week I was going through our new church directory and it struck me how many people and families are being pruned right now. It’s like our entire church is being pruned for greater fruitfulness. The Father, as the perfect, divine gardener, has a sovereign vantage point of our church. The Father has great plans for us. He chose you and appointed you to bear much fruit. So he lovingly prunes away in each life, in ach family, in the whole church collectively. He sees the fruit in our lives. He is pleased with the fruit in our lives, but he also sees perfectly into the future and knows that we could produce ten times the spiritual fruit we now have. This is no exaggeration. How would you like to have ten times the amount of love showing forth in your life? How would you like to have ten times the amount of patience and kindness? Of course these things won’t happen overnight, but they can happen because God is a God of multiplication. He doesn’t just want to add a little fruit here and a little fruit there. God wants to multiply spiritual fruit in our life. God has great plans for our lives. He has planned your spiritual growth from before the foundations of the world. But more fruit requires more pruning. Pruning is good. Say that with me—pruning is good.

When you are in the middle of a painful pruning time, it is tempting to think, “this is not love—God must not even like me if he would allow this to happen in my life!” Look at v. 9 where Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. What kind of love is being expressed through Christ? Christ loves us as much as he is loved by the Father. The Father’s love for the Son is perfect, infinite and exhaustive. Therefore Christ’s love for you and I is perfect, infinite and exhaustive. In his perfect love for the Son, did the Divine Gardener ever take out his pruning shears and prune the Son? The cross was the most painful pruning act in history. The Father knew his Son was perfect and his fruit was eternal, yet he sent his Son to the cross to bear even more fruit. The spiritual fruit that resulted was multiplied a million times over. We benefited from this as his love and forgiveness was poured out on us. The Father also has benefited as he has received ever increasing glory through the glorification of the Son.

As Jesus said, his love shown to us is equivalent to the love shown to him by the Father. Then he simply added the phrase—remain in my love. Why would we want to go anywhere else? What would possess us to leave his love? So how do we remain in his love? Look at v. 10, ^ If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. This is a conditional phrase—IF we obey his commands, THEN we will remain in his love and bear fruit. But it is not conditional like so many human relationships are conditional. How many children long for approval and love from their parents? Even as adults many of you still try to earn favor and approval from your parents. All your life your parents have subtly, or not so subtly communicated in this way: If you do this (succeed at sports, get good grades, etc) then I will love you. But with God love is not what is conditional upon our obedience. First he loves us, then we obey—then by our obedience we remain in his love.

Through our obedience and our connection to Christ, God the Divine Gardener multiplies spiritual fruit through us. One of those fruits is the fruit of joy, as v. 11 says, ^ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete  This past week I had the privilege of talking with someone who has experienced the joy of giving. Most of you know that for the first three years at Grace, part of my salary was funded through my own support raising efforts. A few months after we moved to Viroqua I began to receive support from a woman in Prairie du Sac whom I had only met one time. The first year she gave me $140 of support. The next year it jumped to $900 and the last year it jumped again to $1600. Since we had not known one another, I asked her why she had been motivated to give so generously. She explained to me that God had placed my young family on her heart and that it had been a true privilege to give toward our ministry. Apparently, the more she gave the more privileged she felt. Since I don’t need to raise any more support, I had to literally talk her out of sending more money! You see the fruit of her obedience in listening to God’s promptings had spilled over into tremendous joy in her life. The reason she wanted to keep giving money was she was afraid of losing the joy.

Another fruit of our obedience is answered prayer. How many times do we long for our prayers to be answered? But did you see v.7? ^ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. If you take this verse out of context it reads—ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. But there is a very important conditional clause attached—IF you remain in me and my words remain in you, THEN your prayers will be answered. That is a BIG “if”. If we are obedient to Christ, if we remain in his love, if fruit begins to spill out from our lives—then God will give us what we ask for in prayer. How can God guarantee such an enormous promise? Simply because if we remain in his love and his word remains in us—the things we ask for in prayer will be completely aligned with the will of God. A person in that state of spiritual state could never ask for something that did not match the will of God. That is why God can absolutely guarantee an answer to every prayer. You see, pruning hurts, but the spiritual rewards are awesome.

Discipleship is costly. Following Jesus is hard work. God so desires our lives to be increasingly fruitful that he is willing to prune away the good fruit to make room for more and better fruit. In any church some people have just a little spiritual fruit in their lives and others have more. But the process of discipleship is you taking your fruit to God and saying, “Lord, this is all I’ve got—I don’t have much to offer. I have stumbled so often in my obedience. I have not remained in your love—in fact I have walked the other way. I only have a little, but if you prune me, I will have more fruit to offer you. This is discipleship: we obey—God prunes—we get the joy—God gets the glory.

Rich Maurer

March 14, 2003