Salem Christian Union Church
For the past few weeks we have looked at Love. Love move us and love motivates us. Today we are going to talk about no greater love.
Consider a grapevine today. Many of us grew up around grapevines . They are not hard to imagine. Jesus uses the image of a grapevine in the scripture today. He used the illustration of being the vine and we are the branches. Just like the branches without the vine, we can do nothing without Christ in our lives. Can you picture Jesus and his disciples walking along on a sunny day coming to a vineyard full of grapevines. He uses those vines a visual aid. There have been pretenders and imposters claiming to be the Messiah before. He used the picture to speak of his disciples and the world. His Father is the vine dresser.
We need to abide with God. The branch on the grapevine abides with that vine. But for us it is not enough simply to live. If a branch sss becomes separated from the vine it will die. It is not a part time thing. We are those branches. Abiding means a full time thing so that we can be strengthened and grow in Him. The branches grow out of the vine. Some of the branches will fall off by themselves. Those branches are gathered and disposed of. Many of the branches that remain start to produce fruit however there are some do not produce fruit and take nourishment away from the fruit bearing branches. They are clipped off and thrown away so that the vital nourishment can get to the branches bearing the fruit.
Jesus is the vine. He has come to give us life. We are to abide in Him always so that we can produce fruit, the best and the most abundant. The type that will change the world. Those that do not bear fruit will be cut out. If we abide in Jesus, then His words abide in us. If we make the decision to keep Jesus word’s in our hearts and stay close to him, we can ask anything of Him and He will answer us. We can not take this verse out of context though. We can’t simply ask for anything and expect that God will give it to us. We are to ask what we will according to God’s word-it shall be done for us. We all ask for different things. We ask for the opportunity to witness to others, for His peace in troubled times, to be a good witness for Him. These things will be done for us. Ask what we will concerning the purpose for bearing fruit and God will take care of it. The more fruit we bear, the more God is glorified and the more His word goes out.
Keep his commandments -that we love one another. Work together as we abide in Him. Much will be accomplished in the Kingdom Jesus told his disciples that His joy would be made full when we keep his commandments. We are to live our lives in such a way to bring joy to Jesus after all that He did for us. Jesus was going to leave his disciples soon. They were to abide in Him, love one another as He has loved them, etc. They have not seen the extent of His great love yet at that time. “Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus knew what was coming.
We need to ensure we have the reputation of loving those in the community and telling the story of Jesus to the rest of the world. We need to assess our lives and get rid of the branches that are robbing us of strength we need to have in order to produce and carry out the mission He would have us to tell to the world.