Sermon26-13 Jn15 Guide

John 15:1-17 theme verse John 15:5

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this eighth Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we looked at that love goes with truth through the second John. Yet, this week, through John 15, we would like to learn few lesson together looking at how to abide in Jesus to live in His word and love.

1)    Today's text comes out from Jesus' farewell sermon, which is written in the chapter 14-16 of the Gospel of John. I mean, on the night before His passion, after He shared his final Passover meal with his disciples in love, He washed their feet and comforted them, to promise to send them the Holy Spirit, and gave them a new commandment to love one another. And then He provided this parable of True vine to command them to abide in Him, in which the Lord said since he is the true vine and his disciples were the branches, so only if they abide in Him, they could bear fruit.

Today’s text can be divided into two parts. I mean, in verses 1-8, using this metaphor of the vine, saying that He is the vine and we are the branches, as a branch cannot bear fruits without being connected to the vine, we have to abide in Him to live a fruitful life through which we can glorify God. And then, in verses 9-17, Jesus command them also to abide in His love, saying through this, His joy will be in them and makes their joy complete.

Through this text, Jesus told us that by abiding in Jesus, we can not only maintain spiritual life and bear fruit to glorify God, but also live a life filled with joy by obeying His commandments and practicing love in the Lord's love.

2)    Through today's text, we would like together to meditate on three key points about "becoming a Christian."

I mean, first, becoming a Christian means being grafted into Christ—in other words, we belong to Christ. Second, after we become Christians, as a farmer pruns, we will be cleaned by the Word of God. In other words, we grow, or in theological terms, we will be sanctified. And third, and as this grafted shoot receives sap, that is, moisture and nutrients from the rootstock to grow and bear fruits, we, Christians, also have to abide in Jesus to live a fruitful life.

3)    To elaborate more, first when we are born again by the Holy Spirit and believe, we become united with Christ. The Bible speaks of this as being grafted into Christ, or being united with Christ, or be in Christ or becoming Christ's.

This being in Christ allows believers to participate in Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension (Romans 6:2-11) (Ephesians 2:4-6) to receive all the benefits which Christ has earned for us through His life and death.

I mean, we receive forgiveness of sins, justification by faith, reconciliation with God, adoption as God’s children, eternal life with God, the kingdom of God, eternal bliss, and the privilege of reigning with the Lord forever. Yet this grace is received passively as a one-time even and can be understood as a change in our positional relationship with God or a change in our status.

4)    However, after grafting onto the rootstock, pruning of the branch is done.

In today's text, it is said that there are two purposes in pruning, I mean, to remove the branches that do not bear fruit, and to cleanse the branches that do bear fruit so they can bear more and better fruit.

For the first case, it is said that the branches that do not bear fruit, which is the fruit of inner transformation or/and the fruit of life are pruned, removed, gathered, and consumed by fire. This means that within the church, there are those who believe Jesus after seeing signs (John 2:23), yet since they have a false faith, they fail to follow the path of true faith, I mean, true discipleship. So, they cannot bear fruit, and on the last day, they will be burned in hell as children of the devil.

But, true believers who will bear fruit also will be pruned, but this pruning has a different purpose than the first group of people. It involves removing excess, crossing, or rubbing branches or dead, dying, diseased, or broken branches to improve light penetration and increase wind resistance as well as  providing more nutrients to the branches that bear the fruits. D.A. Carson describes this as Christian training, through or in which Christians can achieve sanctification or growth into maturity or moral purification, by the Word of God, as our Lord prayed in John 17:17, that "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."

5)    And after that, our Lord told another unique command, "Abide in me."

Here the Greek word "meno" (μένω), which is translated ”to abide" here, means "to remain" or "to stay," signifying to live in an ongoing relationship with the Lord. And the use of this verb in the aorist active imperative not only implies continuing an activity or state (LN, Louw & Nida's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains) but also suggests that this act is an act of will, as a conscious decision to remain in a present relationship with Jesus (NICNT2, Ramsey Michaels).

Therefore, living in this ongoing relationship with the Lord means a) first, holding fast to the Lord's teachings, that is, His Word (verse 7), b) second, knowing and loving the Lord more through ongoing fellowship with Him (verse 9), living with Him in eternal joy and happiness (verse 11), c) thirdly, receiving His continuous provision of life, through continuous trust in Him and relying more and more onto Him, and obeying Him, and also fourthly, living in love for one another according to the new commandment He gave us (verse 12), and e) finally always seeking His will, and doing His work for Him with the power He gives so that we may be known to the world as His disciples and give glory to God (verse 8).

6)    In regards with the fruits which we bear, first, here, we need to consider the difference between ordinary grafting and grafting in Jesus. In ordinary grafting, the rootstock provides moisture and nutrients, while the grafted shoots bear the fruit appropriate to its kind.

Yet, when we are grafted into our Lord, as v1 said, our Lord is true vine while we are the branches who are totally depraved so first of all, we need to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit so that our nature should be renewed. And then, we are grafted into the Lord, and our character will be transformed to be humble and meek, as we follow our Lord, taking His yoke. Here the humility refers to character of total dependence on God, after recognizing our inability and meekness refers to character of total obedience to God’s Word.

And then when this humble and meek Christians keep in step with the Spirit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control will be revealed. Furthermore these Christians bear the fruit of righteousness, which is the moral life of righteousness and also they have a right relationship with God and the neighbors. Finaly, they bear the fruit of life by making His disciples through evangelizing and  discipleship.

By the way, through today’s text, our Lord gives us a special teaching regarding how to bear the fruits. I mean, in verse 7, as He said, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, then it will be done for you,” it is said that the way to bear fruit is to abide in the Lord and also make His words abide in us, then, when we pray, we will be given the fruits as we pray for.

This doesn't mean we shouldn't strive. Yet, it is said that since God is the source of all our fruits, when we pray in humility and gentleness, then God makes us bear the fruits in us.

7)    And then this life of true discipleship makes us bear much fruits in our lives so that it is said that we not only can live a life of joy, but also a life that glorifies God.

I mean, as our Lord did, His joy came from total surrender and obedience to God, sacrifice of Himself, and also from carrying out the work the Father has entrusted to Him. So His joy was not mere emotional satisfaction, rather a joy that came from deep within, independent from circumstances or external conditions, because His joy was rooted in His relationship with the Father.

As such, when we abide in Christ, from deep within our hearts, we can enjoy the heavenly joy that comes from our relationship with the Lord, regardless of external circumstances or conditions. The reason why our Lord tells us to keep His commandments and to abide in His love is so that His joy abides in us and our joy will be complete.

Furthermore, the reason why our Lord tells us to live the life of true discipleship and to bear fruits, was because through these, we can become known to the world as His disciples and glorify God.

8)    We human beings are inherently filled with selfishness. Even we, Christians too, if we are not filled the Lord, due to our flesh, I mean, our sinful nature which remains within us, as being crucified on the cross, may live a selfish life, pursuing only our own salvation and happiness.

However, our Lord said, if we abide in Him, being filled with His word and love, they we can enjoy the joy of heaven and glorify God. Therefore, I pray that this year, we may all abide in the Lord, being filled with His Word and love, to experience true joy of heaven to the glory of God.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that after being grafted into our Lord, as we grow through pruning, we have to live the life to bear fruit by abiding in Him. So, after reflecting our life and checking whether we abide in Him, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that this kind of life to abide in Him is the life to glorify God and enjoy the joy of heaven, by holding fast the Word and loving one another. So after reflecting our life and checking whether our life is full of joy and glorifies God, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.