Knowing I AM: Gospel of John “The Secret to Life...

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Knowing I AM: Gospel of John “The Secret to Life Change” Kevin Haah John 15:1-17 March 8, 2015

[Slide 1] Vision Statement: Gospel-Centered

I. Introduction and Passage

[Slide 2] We are in the middle of the series on the Gospel of John entitled,

Knowing I AM. We are looking at the last week of Jesus’ life. [Slide 3] Today’s sermon

is entitled, The Secret to Life Change.

I know this sounds like a title of a book in Barnes and Noble. It is a question that

a lot of people are asking.

I think we all struggle with changing our life. Many of us have ingrained habits

that we want to get rid of. Maybe it’s an addiction to a substance. We want to stop but

we struggle. We can’t even remember the times that we promised ourselves and other

than we would quit; but, it comes back time and time again. Some of us are in a

recovery program, and it might not be the first time. So many people are okay when they

go through the program but when they get out, they often end up relapsing. Can we be

really free, truly free? Can we really change?

Maybe it’s selfishness. The more we get to know ourselves, the more we realize

that there is an ingrained sense of selfishness in us. You want to be more selfness but you

can’t help but to think of yourself first. Can a selfish person become unselfish? For

some of us, there is a bitterness in our heart. There is anger, hatred, and racism

embedded in our hearts. We struggle with it. We don’t want to be controlled by anger,

hatred, and racism but we feel it coming out. Can an angry person become patient? Can

a hater become a lover? Can a racist become an includer? Maybe we complain and

whine. It’s just so natural for some of us. Can a whiner become an encourager? Can a

worrier become a rock? Can a cheater become faithful?

The question is: can we really change the way we are?

Last week, we organized a prayer vigil for “Africa,” the man who was fatally shot

by LAPD officers. I believe that every human life matters because every human life is

created in the image of God. So, we try to organize prayer vigil for street death, but this

one was obvious different. The media was all over this. The video looked outrageous.

But, the media was relentless on assassinating the character of the victim. He was

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labeled all kinds of things-convicted bank robber, among other things. I don’t have

problems with people talking about his current issues like mental illness, but I had a

problem the media defining him by his past. I was thinking, we have some convicted

felons in our church. And God has taken hold of them, and change has come to their

lives. They are no longer that person. But, the subtle assumption in the media was that

he was bad, and therefore, he must have been bad last Sunday. Is that right? Can change

really happen to a person?

Let’s see what Jesus says about this.

[Slide 4] John 15:1-17

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in

me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it

will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have

spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear

fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless

you remain in me.

[Slide 5] 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in

you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do

not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such

branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me

and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

[Slide 6] 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing

yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If

you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my

Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy

may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love

each other as I have loved you.

[Slide 7] 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s

friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you

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servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have

called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made

known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so

that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you

ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each

other.

The passage for today tells us that there is hope in Jesus. Change can happen.

Jesus says that he is the vine and we are the branches and if we remain in the vine, or

some translations say, if we abide in the vine, then, we will bear fruit. What fruit is he

talking about here? If you look at the text, the fruit that he is talking about is love. He

wants his disciples and those who follow him to love. The fruit is practiced in

community and it is communal. It is not just being holy by yourself. It is about better

loving one another. The fruit is character change in the context of community and for

community. [Slide 8] Galatians 5:22 says a little more about this fruit: “But the fruit of

the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness

and self-control.” And, Jesus is saying, I am the key to this.

What the Scripture promises us is that we can be a person with these qualities.

Do you want these things? You know, most of us are not greedy for money. We want

money because we think it will get us one of these things—maybe love or joy, or peace.

This is what we all want, but here’s the problem. We don’t know how to get them

So, let’s unpack this passage and see what we can learn. Let’s dig into the secret

to life change. Here is the secret: Change comes organically—by abiding in the vine. If

you abide in the vine, you will bear fruit.

[Slide 9] So, let me talk a little more detail about (1) the wrong way to change—

trying to change apart from him, and then, (2) the right way to change—by abiding in the

vine.

II. [Slide 10] The wrong way to change: “apart from me, you can do nothing.”

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Instead of abiding in the vine, we try to change our lives apart from the vine. It

doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not, a lot of people don’t know the secret to life

change. We think it is to lay down the rules and demand compliance from ourselves via

moral striving or just plain trying harder. This is the way most of us try to change. I am

not saying that we shouldn’t try to be good or try harder, but if our focus in Christian

living comes from moral striving or just trying harder to keep the rules, it’s not going to

work in the long run.

Let me explain; let’s look at why we change our behavior.

We change because of fear or pride.

• Fear that if we do this we are going to get arrested, or it’s not good for business or

our spouse is going to leave us, we are going to get hurt, etc. There’s the lawyer’s

model: if you don’t do this, we are going to sue you. If you don’t do this, you’re

going to make less money. You’re going to get a bad grade. It’s going to make

you sick. If you don’t do this, you are not going to be accepted, you are not going

to be loved, you are not going to be included.

• Or we change because of pride. I’m better than them. You don’t want to be like

those people. Your identity as a person is based on thinking of yourself better

than other people; so, you have to live up to it. That’s your motivation for being

good.

• Now think about it: why do you want to change? What is your real motivation

for change? Is it fear? Is it pride?

• Now, the world would be a horrible place if there weren’t moral compliance due

to fear or pride. It’s very useful. But, if you are moral out of fear or pride, you

have not done anything to root out the self-centeredness of the heart. You’ve

actually appealed to it. Ultimately, moral people who are moral do it for

themselves. They don’t do good for others or in it of itself. The morality is

actually nurturing the self-centeredness. When you nurture for example, honesty,

out of fear or pride, it is a house of cards because sometimes it is not worth telling

the truth—because it was done for yourself in the first place. When morality does

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not pay for it, you don’t do it. You might be shocked by your behavior (I can’t

believe I actually did that, stole that, lied to him), but you WERE nurtured to

do it.

Charles Spurgeon story:

• Once upon a time, a gardener grew a great garden. He grew the best and the

greatest carrot and gave it to the prince, and said, “I want to express my

esteem and affection for you.” The prince discerning his heart that he just

wants to express his love and admiration, thanked the gardener and said, “I

happened to own the garden next to you and I want you to have it so that you

can go out there and be twice the gardener.” And the gardener went home

rejoicing.

• A Nobleman heard about this. And he thought if gardener gives a carrot and

he gets 3 acres, what might he give if I give him something much more

valuable. So, he went to the prince and said, I raise horses and this is the best

and the greatest horse that I own. I want to express my esteem and affection

to you and gave the prince the horse. The prince discerning the nobleman’s

heart, said, thank you and walked away. The nobleman said, wait a minute,

did you hear what I said. The prince said, “Yes I did. The gardener gave me

the carrot but you gave yourself the horse.” Spurgeon said: unless you

understand the gospel, all of your virtues are a sham and it won’t last and

in the heart of your morality, you are nurturing self-centeredness.

Some of you have asked me this question: “if we are saved and accepted by God through

faith in Jesus Christ, and not by works, what incentive do we have to be a good person?

Why not just go on sinning?” This gospel of love does not change us, you imply. It

actually gives us an excuse for continuing to live in sin. If that’s your question, here’s

my answer. If the punishment is taken away and you said you lost your motivation to be

good, then the only reason you were good is because of fear. And what I am saying is

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that moral compliance based on fear is essentially selfish, leading us to darkness in our

hearts and ultimately depravity in society.

So, external change, while it seems good on the surface, is superficial and

ultimately does not work to change us at our core.

III. [Slide 11] Then, what is the right way to change?

You have to get to your heart. Your heart has to change. That’s what God is

after. And the passage says that right way to change is abide in the vine, which is Jesus.

Why? Because Jesus, through what he has done, works to change our heart, and

therefore, our character. It’s an inside-out transformation. The vine changes the very life

of its branches, and empowers them from the inside, and therefore, producing fruit.

So, I want to talk about two element of abiding in the vine: (1) it is to be smitten

by the love of Jesus, what Jesus did for us (that is the gospel); and (2) it is to live in him

through spiritual practices. In other word, it is the gospel and spiritual disciplines.

Let me talk about the gospel first.

The only way to change your heart is to be smitten by the love of God and the

gospel of grace and truth. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus is full of grace and truth. We must

fully grasp grace and truth, which is the gospel.

The truth of how messed up we are has to click in our heart: that I have been

running away from him. In other words, I am apart from him. I am a fallen branch. I

have been selfish even in my goodness. That I’ve been out of control or trying to control

too much. That my life is messed up. That I am more sinful than I can ever imagine.

My heart is deeply selfish and prideful even in the things I was doing right. If we truly

understand this about ourselves, humility sets in and pride is destroyed. If you know how

messed up you are, you are humble.

But, truth without grace is not truth at all. It’s only self-condemnation. Or some

people might say, bad self-esteem!

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You see, God’s love and grace has to click in our heart as well: that he loved us so

much that he left the glory of heaven, came down to this dusty place, forsook his riches,

lived in poverty, was stripped naked on the cross, was whipped, spat upon, humiliated,

and ultimately suffered separation from his father—he was so much in agony that he

cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He was forsaken, so that we

can be accepted, so that the price of justice can be paid. He became our substitutionary

atonement, or put another way, someone who paid the debt that we could not ever pay.

He paid it with his life. Because of that, we are unconditionally accepted by God not

based on my performance, but because of his grace and unconditional love. So, we are

not motivated by fear. We are motivated by deep love and gratitude. Romans 5 says, we

love him because he first loved us.

The gospel destroys pride and fear, and changes our heart to gratitude and love.

That’s why there is so many command to remain in his love so that we can love one

another. Because when we experience an undeserving acceptance, our hearts are

transformed, and so, we obey.

Let me give you some examples from the Bible, showing you the wrong and the

right ways to change.

2 Corinthians 8:9. In most churches, when we try to get people to give money:

you do it this way: pride—you want to be one of the persons that gives away a lot. This

is God’s command: You put pressure on the will. He says he is not commanding them.

Paul says: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet

for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty you might become rich.”

He is bringing Jesus salvation into the realm of money. Think of what Jesus has done for

you and it should move you. The solution of stinginess is the reorientation to Christ’s

generosity. The gospel goes after the root cause of stinginess.

Ephesians 5:25: Paul is speaking to husbands, who often came up from pagan

society. Marriage was a business relationship but Paul wanted them to cherish, honor,

and love their wives. Paul does not appeal to morals. Paul shows them the salvation of

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Jesus. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself to us.

Again, it is motivated by the gospel.

Faith in the gospel restructures your heart. Behavior compliance is superficial

and fleeting.

Suffering: If we have been trying change the wrong way: through moral striving:

you either hate God or hate yourself. You either say: "I must be bad to be suffering" or

you say, “what did I do to deserve this?” If you feel like you’ve done pretty well living

up to God’s standards and obeying God, you are going to be angry at God if suffering

happens. You feel entitled to God’s blessings in the form of less suffering. (this is

essentially the elder brother’s approach to suffering)

Another wrong way to approach suffering is to try to avoid suffering at all costs--

lying, cheating, and broken promises are OK (this is the younger brother’s approach to

suffering). But when suffering does come, you blame God, claiming that he’s either

unjust or impotent.

Gospel: on the one hand, the gospel humbles us out of being mad at God. Jesus

suffered terribly but he died in suffering. This demolishes the idea that good people live

good lives and bad people live bad lives. What makes us exempt if Jesus suffered?

Whatever the reason for suffering, it can’t be he does not care. It might be a

wakeup call. It might be that God is using the suffering to prune you so that you will be

more fruitful. Whatever problem it is it can’t be punishment. Retribution fell into the

heart of Jesus. There may be millions of reasons, but it can’t be for your sins.

When you focus on the gospel, your heart changes to something like this: “Jesus

suffered not that we might not suffer but when we suffer, we might become like thee.”

So, the first element of abiding in the vine is to allow the gospel of Jesus Christ to

penetrate deeply into our hearts.

The second element is to engage in spiritual disciplines. That’s what we do

connect ourselves to the vine. We can’t produce the fruit on our own but we can do our

best to be connected to the vine. The things that we do to connect to the vine are called

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spiritual practices, or spiritual disciplines. They are friend are reading and studying the

Scriptures, meditating on the words, spending time in prayer, spending time alone with

God, fasting. It’s not just things we do by ourselves. It is like belonging to the life of the

church—getting involved, becoming regular in worship gathering, developing

relationships with other Christians, serving one another in community. All of these

things help us abide in the vine. Jesus said the Church is His Body. To abide in the

church and the life of the church, serving in the church, developing relationships within

the church are some practical ways in which we can abide in the vine.

Of course, we can do a lengthy sermon series on each of the ways in which we

can abide in the vine. In fact, I have done one related to spiritual practices, and maybe

we can do one again later.

But, here is the point: allowing the gospel of Jesus to penetrate deeply into our

heart and creating rhythms in our lives that connect us to Jesus are what changes our

hearts and compels changes in our lives.

Conclusion: note the organic nature of our growth. Our character change—our

fruit production is organic. It takes time. It is a process. God is working on your even

when you don’t think he is. It might be through pruning. You might feel the furthest

away from God because of a trouble or difficulty—because of pruning—that is

happening to your life. But, it might be the most important thing that causes more fruit—

character transformation—in your life.

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