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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Chapter 3 Abiding in Jesus (John 15.1-6).

The vine is a strange kind of tree. To outward appearance it is nearly all branches. But that is not fully true, for underneath the ground its roots will travel long distances in order to find the sustenance that it needs in order to bear fruit.

In John 15 Jesus likened Himself to such a vine. And He said that Christians were His branches. Thus, He says, if we are truly His we are His branches, and just as the life of the vine flows into its branches, so His life continually should flow into us and through us, and should be producing abundant fruit.

Just think what this means. He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15.5), and the branches are a part of the vine! That means that when we once become true Christians we become a part of Christ. From then on we are in Christ, and He is in us (John 17.21). What can be more wonderful than that? In the same way elsewhere in Scripture Christ is seen as the body and we as the limbs which are a part of the body (1 Corinthians 12.12-27). We are the visible means by which Christ lives in the world. We see from this that once we are His, our oneness with Christ is total.

But then consider the consequences. As a part of the vine the branches receive their life from the vine. While they remain fully open to the vine the life will flow and the fruit will be abundant. But let the branch shut itself off and it ceases to receive its life from the vine, and becomes withered and fruitless, fit only to be burned (John 15.6).

So if we are to continue to bear fruit the one vital thing is to be open to continually receiving life from Him Who is the Vine. We must ‘abide in Him’. We must constantly be looking to Jesus, we must constantly be expecting Him to live out His life through us, we must let Him come with us wherever we go, and it must not be we who choose how to live but Christ Who chooses how to live through us.

And, of course, this involves much Bible reading and prayer. For only as we study His word will we know how He wants to live through us, and only as we pray will we keep our channels open to Him. And it will mean dealing with sin immediately by coming to Him openly about it, by coming to His light, and letting it shine on our lives, and then we will immediately be cleansed in His blood (1 John 1.7). And once we have done that we are to hand the reins back to Him (Psalm 109.13). But we must remember that essentially the purpose of these wonderful things is to keep us in constant touch with Christ. For He is to be all. In the end it is our contact with Him that matters. We must therefore let Him fill our lives. Thus as we read His word and pray we must remember that we are a part of Him. We do not leave Him behind in the prayer room, He walks out with us so that He might live His life through us. And we must say, ‘Live out your life in me, O Lord my Saviour’.

Every day Jesus Christ goes with us, to work or to school or to our pleasures, but does anyone ever know except us and Christ? Are we ashamed of His being with us, and quietly keeping Him hidden. Or do we let Him live through us there too? Can the branches of the vine ever be ashamed of the vine? What folly that would be!

There are two further things that we need to recognise about the vine. The first is its long, unseen roots which go down and down until they find water. There was once an ancient vine that was a marvel to all who beheld it. It grew in barren land and all around it was dead. But the vine lived on. And one day someone dug down to find out why, and they discovered a huge root that reached on and on until it had discovered an underground water supply. And that was the secret of its life. In the same way the roots of Christ in me reach right out into the source of all water, into God Himself, and ‘The river of God is full of water’ (Psalm 65.9). Thus as we live our daily lives we can live them in the confidence that the almighty power of God Himself is linked up to our lives and is flowing through us, and we are receiving His sustenance and life moment by moment through Christ. And it is eternal.

Has your car ever run out of fuel? When we jump into our cars and drive along the motorway we constantly have to watch the fuel gauge. What a nuisance it can be. But imagine what it would be like to be permanently attached to a continual fuel source. That is the dream of the inventors of the sun-fuelled car. And yet in Christ that is precisely what we are. We are constantly receiving life from ‘the Sun of righteousness’ (Malachi 4.2). We can never run out of fuel for the source of our fuel is eternal and unceasing. Like the branches of the vine we are permanently resourced.

The second thing to realise about the vine is that its branches are hollow. Once they are separate from the vine they are useless. Their only function is to be a channel. Let them remain open and attached and they will continually flourish and produce fruit. But let them cease to be open and attached and they will be good for nothing. They are fit only to be destroyed. In the same way we live because we are attached to Christ. We have been made one with Him (John 17.21-23). It is necessary therefore for us to remain constantly open to Him, by avoiding sin, by regular daily prayer and reading of His word, and through snatches of prayer on our spiritual mobile phones, as we live our lives, looking for Him to flow through us day by day, and then we will have life indeed.

And what fruit will then be produced from our lives? Paul makes this clear in Galatians 5.22. ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, humility and self-control.’ Imagine what the world would be like if all Christians were allowing Christ’s love to be revealed in their daily walk. If His compassion flowed from every Christian heart. If His joy radiated out from our lives. If people saw that we had His peace. If we were as longsuffering as He was. If His gentleness was apparent in all we did. If His pure goodness radiated from our lives. If we had His faith, and humility and self-control. And yet that is precisely the fruit that should be resulting from the life of the Vine as it flows through us.