Let’s Abide in Christ Together
Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,
I hope this edition of Parent News finds you walking closely with the Lord of Glory!
God has led me this week back into the 15th chapter of John, and a return to a book I enjoyed many years ago, “Abide in Christ”, by the 19th c. South African pastor Andrew Murray.
This book is a classic, and I highly recommend it as an antidote to the superficial Christianity that is so prevalent today.
This classic book, available here, provides a devotional look at the famous “I am the Vine” section of John 15.
I’ll be unpacking this chapter over the next few weeks as a lead up to Advent season starting in early December.
First, a bit of context.
In John 13 Jesus performs the washing of the disciples’ feet, the announcement of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, one of the twelve disciples, and Peter’s famous vow to never deny Christ.
Then, in Chapter 14, Jesus (amazingly) tells his disciples, and by extension us, to not be afraid or troubled, and proceeds to talk about His identity as the Son in unity with HIs Father. After this He announces the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will help them/us live as Jesus did on earth and seal our redemption forever.
Finally, in chapter 15 Jesus begins to share some of the deepest truths He ever uttered on earth.
We are told that it is literally possible to so abide/remain in Jesus that we can live in victory i.e. produce much fruit, right in the midst of our daily lives, no matter how rough they get – even to the point of persecution.
The Holy Spirit of Jesus will be with us, and His love will be in us as a guiding and sustaining force.
I believe that this is a crucially important truth for us. Many of the people I speak with in a given week are trying to connect the dots of the Christian life, and frankly not being very successful at it. I feel that in my own life as well, even as a veteran leader of a great Christian ministry. In fact, I need it more than anyone!
Andrew Murray’s book is predicated on the idea that this abiding is available to all believers/disciples of Jesus. The whole point of the Christian life is to “bear much fruit”, which, rather counterintuitively, we cannot do without His operation in real time through us.
Let’s let Jesus speak to us through John 15 speak (quoted from www.biblegateway.com, CSB:
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be[a] my disciples.
Christlike Love
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. 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 these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master[b] is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.
Persecutions Predicted
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates me also hates my Father.
24 If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled: They hated me for no reason.
The Counselor’s Ministry
26 “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Let me suggest in closing that we commit together to spend time together in this glorious chapter of God’s word over the next few weeks.
Perhaps a good way for us to begin is to read the whole chapter aloud, at least once a day (and preferably 2-3 times) this week, asking the Spirit to illuminate His truth to you in a new and deeper way.
You may want to get the Andrew Murray book as well, since he is a proven and trusted guide through this passage
There is so much more to this Christian life than most of us ever touch. And the way to find that Reality is to return to the Source.
As for me, I am desperate for this passage to seep into my pores, to begin to change me from the inside out.
I want to abide in Christ so deeply that the daily grind of work and ministry and life cannot drag me down, cannot overcome His joy in me, cannot crush my peace in Him. And I want to serve Him out of that overflow.
Would you join me on that journey?
Now may God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from them, receive all of the glory as we continue to move step by step toward becoming a truly extraordinary school, for the greater glory of God.
For CCS and the Kingdom,
Tom