Living the Fruitful Life - Remain with God

"Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing."
-Jesus of Nazareth, speaking to His disciples, 1st century
John 15:4-5 in The Tree of Life Version

[This is the 3rd lesson in this series]

Jesus spoke in parables (everyday stories) and He normally compares and contrasts familiar or everyday things (earthly things) to heavenly things.

He is the One who came from heaven, all others only speak of things they know about. He talks of things He has first hand knowledge of. But He has to say it a way that we can understand.

New Life

We have already mentioned in the previous lesson that our new life in Christ is meant to be a fruitful one.

Jesus was illustrating that just as a branch is able to bear fruit, believers can too. But only if the branch is attached to the vine.

Cut off the branch or if it is broken in any way, this branch will not bear fruit. It actually will still look fresh for some time but if not reattached, it will eventually wither and then later on die a natural death.

Grafted

The same thing with a Christian who has been grafted into the family of God.

If attached to the vine (Jesus) and tended to by the vine dresser (God the Father) then as a grafted branch, the Christian (little Christ, co-heir with Christ) will bear fruit. Dettached, the branch will wither.

Humans have learned to graft branches together and put back together broken branches. And once reattached, the branch that was broken or grafted in has the ability to stay alive, grow and bear fruit.

Broken branches cannot receive the necessary nutrients when detached from the vine. In time, it will lose more and more water, and will struggle to stay alive much less bear fruit. The bible talks of the Holy Spirit as Living Water.

Abiding

So many do not bear fruit because of this. They simply have not abided in Christ, they have not remained in Christ.

They call themselves Christians but they have no connection with Christ. They do not call on His Name. They do not pray to Him. They do not stay in the presence of the Spirit of Christ. They do not recognize His voice, His words. They have no desire to read the bible. They do not sing Him praises. They do not wake up or go to bed thanking Him, glorifying Him. They have no personal relationship with Him.

The First Christians

For more than three years, the first disciples of Jesus was with Him close to 24 hours a day. And then when Jesus ascended back to heaven, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and was with Jesus 24/7.

This is what it means to abide in Christ. For apart from Him, no one can bear fruit. And all labor is in vain.