What kind of Christian do you want to be? What godly characteristics do you aspire to in your daily life? Do you want to be a Christian known for showing patience and love? Do you want to be a confident leader within your congregation? Do you pray that God make you a more effective evangelist? Do you look for ways that you can use your talents within your congregation? Do you strive to give generous offerings? Do you want to grow in your Bible knowledge and understanding?
When I ask, "What kind of Christian do you want to be," the potential answers that popped in your head were probably all adjectives – words that describe certain qualities and characteristics of a person. In today’s sermon, I’m going to suggest an answer that isn’t a specific quality, but an answer that encompasses the entire Christian existence. I’m going to suggest an answer that isn’t an adjective, but a chapter of the Bible. The apostle John encourages us to answer that question by pointing us to the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel for today. John will encourage us to turn the words of today’s sermon theme into a simple prayer for our Christian lives: Lord, help me to be a "John 15" Christian. Help me to understand what I am in Christ; help me to understand what it is to love in Christ.
The gospel for today is a rather lengthy section. It would be difficult to impossible to thoroughly cover all 17 verses in as many minutes. Rather than cramming a lot of thoughts into a short amount of time, we’re going to approach this section in a different manner. There are two major thought sections in these verses: verses 1-8 form one group, and verses 9-17 form the second group. In both groups of verses, Jesus’ main thought appears in the middle of each section, and the other subordinate thoughts almost mirror one another from the beginning to the end of each section. This morning we will focus on those key words contained in the middle of each section so that we understand the two main points Jesus shares with us today. We will focus on verse five in the first part of the sermon, and verses 12-13 in the second part.
If you want to communicate an abstract concept to someone, you might use an illustration from everyday life. That’s what Jesus did in the opening portion of today’s Gospel. He used the picture of a grapevine, an illustration that would have been familiar to his disciples living in ancient Palestine, and an illustration that is even familiar to West Coast Californians who don’t live all that far away from wine country. Jesus said, "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."
Christ’s words show us what it means to be "in him." Jesus talks about what we are in him in terms of a connection. Christians have a relationship with Jesus in which he is the ongoing source of our life and strength. Remember the storms we had back in December? With power lines down in much of the area, lamps and appliances were useless without their power source. Christians also need to be connected with their power source, their life source. And when they are connected to that power source, they produce what Jesus calls "much fruit." The broken off branch of a grapevine won’t produce grapes without connection to the vine, its source of nourishment. A broken off Christian can’t produce good fruit, he can’t produce any kind of godly, Christian living, if he has been cut off from his source of spiritual nourishment and life. Others might look at someone without faith and think that that person is still godly or moral or religious, but outward acts of kindness and goodness mean nothing if we aren’t connected to our source of life and strength and forgiveness, our Savior Jesus.
What is the difference between a person who is religious and a Christian? Maybe we first need to ask what it means to be religious. Perhaps it means to help out quite a bit at church, to raise a good, moral family, to volunteer for different things in the community. Did you ever try to share your faith with someone else, and they said, "Oh, no thanks; I’m not very religious"? When people tell me that, I say to them, "Oh, I’m not religious either. I’m a Christian."
There’s a big difference between a religious person and a Christian. If you try to become a Christian by becoming the modern definition of a "religious" person, it won’t work. If you try to be a Christian that way, you’ll see that all you did was really nothing at all. Do all you want, try as hard as you can try, but that won’t change the fact that we came into this world spiritually stillborn, and that our souls are infected by our sinful flesh. Do all you want, try as hard as you can, but no effort will connect you to Christ. In fact, any effort you try to put forward to have a relationship with God will only strengthen your partnership with the devil.
Stop trying to get right with God, and see how God has declared you right with himself. The Holy Spirit has done just that in your life. He performed the miracle of giving you new life with the spiritual electricity and power generated and received at your baptism. Your baptism is the event and the font is the place where God connected you to his Son. Your relationship with Jesus has absolutely nothing to do with any religious effort on your part. Your relationship with Jesus has absolutely nothing to do with some sort of reform that Jesus has worked in your life, because Jesus didn’t reform your sinful nature. He killed it. He drowned your sinful nature in the baptismal font and he breathed new life into your spiritually dead corpse. He breathed into you new life and a forgiven status.
In Christ, God sees us as his perfect sons and daughters because of his perfect Son. In Christ, God’s justice was satisfied because of his Son’s perfect payment. In Christ, we have a brand new relationship with God, not defined by what we have done, but defined by what Jesus did for us by defeating death, and what that stunning victory means for us and now inspires in us. Lord, help us to understand that this is what it means to be in Christ.
The story is told of a pastor who was counseling a particular family in his congregation. He was meeting with the father of the family, and asked him point blank if he loved his family. The father said, "Well, of course I do." And the pastor replied, "Then why don’t you show it?" Saying it isn’t good enough. Loving words mean nothing if they are not accompanied with loving actions. And that’s just as valid for the Christian life as it is for family life. I suppose a Christian could say, "Fine. Jesus died for me. I guess that’s it." But what kind of attitude would that be? No, our connection to Jesus means so much more than that – so much more than a mere bite of knowledge.
So what does our connection to Jesus mean for our daily life? Jesus tells us in verse 12. "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." Jesus also wants us to understand what it means to show love as Christians. The tone of his words emphasize Jesus’ divine authority to direct this command to us, but Jesus isn’t "preaching at us" in the negative sense. He’s encouraging us. He’s inviting us. His instruction to love comes with the inspiration to love. "Love…as I have loved you." He inspires their love by pointing to the fact that he has loved them unconditionally. In fact, he makes a not-so-subtle reference to the magnitude of his love for them with verse 13. I’m going to change the word order from our translation and use a little inflection so that you can more clearly understand what exactly Jesus said in that verse. "No one has love greater than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends."
I’m not sure if the disciples fully understood what Jesus was saying to them at that moment. We have the advantage of looking back and fully understanding what he meant. Jesus’ cross was the ultimate, world-record-breaking statement of God’s love. He laid down his life for his natural born enemies in order to make us his friends. Jesus did it all when it same to our salvation, and he even does it all when it comes to our Christian living. He inspires us, he instructs us, and he leads us to understand what it is to love in Christ.
A man was trying to read a serious book, but his little boy kept interrupting him. He would lean against his knees and say, "Daddy, I love you." The father would give him a pat and say rather absently, "Yes, son, I love you too," and he would kind of give him a little push away so he could keep on reading. But this didn’t satisfy the boy, and finally he ran to his father and said, "I love you, Daddy," and he jumped on his lap and threw his arms around him and gave him a big squeeze, explaining, "And I’ve just got to do something about it." That’s it—as we grow in our understanding of Christ’s love, and as we grow in our own Christian love, we aren’t content with just talk. We’re moved to action. In fact, Christian love is not satisfied with inaction.
Lovingly, but firmly, we declare God’s high demands to others, so that they lower themselves in repentance and can be lifted up again by our God’s loving forgiveness. Joyfully, we make a personal sacrifice of income, so that we can support those who bring the message of Jesus’ sacrifice around the world. Confidently, we turn to God in prayer and ask him to give us more and more opportunities to serve him with our lives in all sorts of ways that will advance his kingdom. Lord, help us to understand what it means to love in Christ.
That’s the kind of Christian Jesus calls us to be: a "John 15" Christian, a Christian who is first and foremost forgiven, a Christian who is connected to the Savior by faith, a Christian who is inspired to show love for others by sharing that faith with the world. Lord, help us all to be a "John 15" Christian, connected to and loving through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.