Listen to the audio above while following along in the transcript below which is also available for download at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
I’d like to share a verse from 1 John 1:3, “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you that you may have fellowship with us.” I need to identify who is “us”. You may have fellowship with “us”. Here is the rest of the verse, “Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” So, what I have studied I want to share with you so that you can have fellowship with us, with one another and with the Lord. With that in mind, let’s commit our time to Him.
Our heavenly Father, we thank You for the indwelling Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts and whose joy and ministry and pleasure it always is to turn the eyes of our heart to the Lord Jesus. We commit our session unto You, and just pray that we might behold the Lord in a living way. We thank You in advance that You’re going to over answer our request because we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I welcome you again to our meditation. We’re in the gospel of John, but the point is not to learn the gospel of John; the point is to behold the Lord Jesus. In the history of our Lord Jesus we have come to one day before the cross. In chapter 13 we are only one day before the cross. His public ministry to the world, for the most part, has pretty much ended, and now He is ministering to only His private, to His disciples, those He calls “His own”. Listen as we read John 13:1, “Now, before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing His hour had come, that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world; He loved them to the end.” Now, He is loving them to the end, and He’s displaying that love.
As we pointed out, this last day before His death, the Apostle John, by the Holy Spirit, gives us five chapters—chapters 13-17. Jesus is just pouring out His parting words, “Before I leave, I want you to know this.” That is what the Lord is saying. I believe that though there are many truths in John 13-17, there is one theme that stands out among all the others, and that’s where our focus is. The Lord Jesus is explaining to them what I’m calling the exchanged life. I borrowed that title from Hudson Taylor, because I think it most accurately displays what the Christian life is. Anyway, from the beginning, this is how God intended us to live. Adam blew it, of course, but this was God’s intention from the beginning, to live the Christian life, the abundant life, and what I’m calling the exchanged life. Adam couldn’t live it, so Jesus did. He demonstrated that life, and now just hours before His departure, He’s explaining to them, “This is the life God wants you live, and this is what it looks like, and this is how you will experience it. I lived it first to demonstrate how to live it, and now I’m calling on you, and you’re going to have to live it, as well.” So, in these five chapters He’s explaining that life. I suggested by way of analysis five characteristics that I drew from those five chapters. So far, we’ve only looked at one, and we just began to introduce the second. Let me quickly mention those five and then we’ll pick up where we left off.
Those five principles are characteristic; there can be no exchanged life if these principles are neglected. By the way, everyone is a radical principle. First, there can be no fellowship with the Lord apart from the exchanged life. We’ve already looked at that; that was illustrated by the foot washing. John 13:8, “Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet.’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’” He would have no fellowship with God apart from the principle illustrated by the foot washing.
The second indispensable principle characteristic of the exchanged life, which we only began to introduce last time, can be stated in these words—fruit bearing by abiding in Jesus. That’s how we have fruit. John 15:5, “I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. Apart from Me he can do nothing.”
I’ll mention the other three, but we’re going to be going back to that second one. The third characteristic of the exchanged life is what we call sanctification, holiness, obedience to the Lord, freedom from sin. We’ll develop that after we finish this second one. In my natural heart in my life, we can only produce sin. So, we need the indwelling Lord in order to live a holy life. The fourth characteristic is ministry. He explains true ministry. An awful lot of what man calls ministry is not ministry at all, and He’s going to explain the ministry that He expects from the exchanged life. And then the other characteristic illustrated from John 17, the High Priestly Prayer of the Lord, is worship. A real union with the Lord is going to express itself in worship to the Lord.
Our focus is now on this second principle. John 15:1 is how we introduced it last time, just the first few words, “I am the true vine.” We just read that la, la, la, but to Jewish ears that was shock for them to learn that they were the branches, and Jesus was the vine because they thought they were the vine. Listen to Hosea 10:1, “Israel is a luxurious vine; it produces fruit for himself.” They thought they were the vine, and for them to hear Jesus say, “You are not the vine, I’m the vine, and you’re just a branch and you cannot bear fruit, and there’s no life in a branch apart from the life that flows through the stock, through the vine,” was a shock. The only life that the branch has, it has no independent life, is always through the vine. That was a new concept for them. That’s where we left off last time, fruit bearing by abiding in Jesus who is the vine.
Before we develop this second characteristic, I want to rehearse the big picture, and that is Jesus Himself in His humanity, when He lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, Jesus lived the life He’s now explaining. He lived and demonstrated the exchanged life. The exchanged life is just two lives; I am a life, and Someone lives inside of me. I can live my own life, or I can let the One who lives inside of me live that life. When Jesus was on earth, He had His life, but He also had someone who lived inside of Him. He mentioned it over and over; the Father lived inside of Him. He didn’t live His own life; He lived depending upon the One who lived inside of Him. Listen as we look at John 12:49&50, “I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment, what to say, and what to speak. I know His commandment is eternal life; therefore, the things I speak I speak just as the Father told Me.”
We’re generally accustomed to read the gospel and say, “Well, now, Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount.” Not really, He preached the Sermon on the Mount, but those words were not His. They came from the Father. Everything He said, He waited until the Father told Him what to speak; it was an exchanged life. Listen to John 14:10, “Do you not believe I’m in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does the works. Believe Me; I’m in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Otherwise, believe the works themselves.” I know we say, “Jesus worked many miracles,” but the fact is that He didn’t; it was His Father who turned water to wine, and His Father who fed five thousand, His Father who cleansed the leper and raised the dead. He was depending upon His Father, and all the works He did were the works of the Father. And then He says, “Now, that’s the life I’m calling you to live.” John 6:57, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so He who eats Me, He also will live because of Me.”
He was sent to this earth to live the life that God intended us to live. John 8:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God. I have not even come on My own initiative; He sent Me.” Everything He said and everything He did, He did it in obedience to His indwelling Father. He went where He was sent. John 5:30, “I can do nothing on My own initiative.” Isn’t that an amazing statement out of the mouth of the God-man! “I can do nothing; as I hear, I judge. My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will; I seek the will of Him who sent Me.” That’s how God intends people to live. Adam failed; Jesus lived that way. John 10:37, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me. If I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you might know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.” All of that is to illustrate that Jesus lived the exchanged life; He depended moment by moment on the One who lived in His heart. John 6:38, “I’ve come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” All through His earthly ministry, that was His meat, that was His food, and that was His diet, to do the will of His Father.
Listen to this strange verse, John 12:44&45, “Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me, sees the One who sent Me.’” He came to put His Father on display. Remember His words to Phillip? John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I’m in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative. The Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me; I’m in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Otherwise, believe the works.” “Phillip, if you had known Me, you would have known the Father. I display the Father.” After His resurrection, He appeared in the Upper Room, and here is what He said, John 20:21, “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I send you,’” exactly the way I lived, you are required to live that way. He’s explaining that life in these five chapters. When He prayed in John 17:18, He said, “You sent Me into the world; I have also sent them into the world.” Jesus lived from His birth in His humanity the exchanged life, and now He has created you and me, and has redeemed us, so that we can live that same life. But it needs to be explained; He has to tell us exactly what it is.
In John 15:1, and we did this last week, Jesus called Himself “the true vine”, the genuine vine. In His relationship now to His disciples He is explaining, “You are the branches, and I am going to be the vine, the source of your life. There is no life except through Me. He’s teaching them that they have to depend on Him as a branch depends on a vine, to live and to have life, sap, and fruit. In His relationship to us, He is the vine, but that wasn’t always true of Jesus. In His life on earth, the life that He lived as our substitute, He lived the way God intended Him to live. When He lived on earth, He was not the vine; He was not. It was prophesied that in His humanity while He lived on earth He would be the branch, and not the vine.
Listen to Jeremiah 33:15, “In those days at that time, I’ll cause a righteous branch of David to spring forth. He will execute justice and righteousness on the earth. He was a branch of David in His humanity. Zechariah 6:12, “Say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is branch, He will branch out from where He is, and He will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord. He will rule, He who will bear the honor, and sit and rule on His throne.”’” As a man, He was the branch. In His humanity, He lived as a branch, and in His divinity, He is now the vine. Isaiah 11:1, “A shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” Isaiah 11:2&3, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He’ll not judge by what his eyes see, His own life, nor will He make the decision by what His ears hear.” He’s going to live an exchanged life. So, when Jesus lived on earth, He lived like He’s calling His disciples to live. He lived like a branch depending upon the One who lived in Him, His Father. Now He lives inside of us, and we are to depend on Him the same way a branch depends on the vine for life and for fruit. We are to abide in Him in order to bear that fruit. Now He’s inviting His disciples, and He gives His own testimony, “That’s how I live, and that’s how I want you to live.”
As Jesus explains the exchanged life, He’s declaring in every principle how radical it will be. Everything about this Christian life that Jesus explained goes against the natural grain; it goes against human understanding; it goes against the human will. It’s radical. Radical means different, and comes from the word “root”, and it means different from the root up. Jesus was giving these principles that absolutely contradicted everything. For example, in that first principle, if you don’t allow the Lord to wash your feet, the principle was that the Lord must serve you; the Lord comes to minister to you. If you don’t allow that because your natural heart says, “That’s not right; I should serve Him. He’s the God of heaven and earth. What in the world is He doing washing my feet? I’ll wash His feet.” But He said, “No, if you don’t allow Me to serve you, to minister to you, to refresh you, to wash your feet, you’ll have no part in Me. You can’t experience the exchanged life.” That is so radical, and yet He said, “That’s the way it has to be, and if you don’t allow that…”
I was taught as soon as I came to the Lord, “You are saved to serve the Lord.” Nobody ever suggested that I’m saved to be served by the Lord. That was so contrary to reason, but that’s the fact. I’m not saved to serve; I’m saved to be served in order to serve. In other words, that will come out in service, but I can’t wash your feet until He washes mine. You can’t wash my feet until He washes yours. I must delight in the Lord; He must delight in me before I can share that with you, and vice versa.
That’s the same thing with the second principle. It was radical when He said, “I am the vine, and you are the branch.” That’s not how we think; we think, “I’m the vine. God expects me, and I have responsibility. I have duty. I have obligation. I’ve got to live and produce fruit. I’ve got to live a righteous life.” That’s what we think. But He said, “No.” Listen to John 15:5, “I’m the vine, and you’re the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing.” He gives a condition and says, “If you don’t meet that condition, you can’t live the Christian life. Apart from abiding in Me, you can do nothing.” That’s such an absolute statement. It’s not optional at all. The word “abide” just means to remain and stay where you are. If I don’t abide in Christ as a branch abides in the vine, He says, “You can do nothing.” That expression “abide in Me”, there’s so much involved in this, so many questions. What is “in Him”, and what does it mean to abide in Him, and what does it mean that He abides in Me, and what does it mean that I can do nothing if I don’t abide? And what is fruit? All of those questions and many more perhaps are in this explanation, and some of them are very mysterious.
Let’s begin. I want to take apart some portion of this precious passage, and I hope it will become clear. When I say clear, what I really mean is that you are going to know clearly what He’s saying, but to understand it you’ve got to be taught of God. This is going to go against human reasoning, but God has promised that He would lead us and teach us.
I’m going to quote several verses. John 15:2, “…every branch in Me,” verse 4, “Abide in me and I in you,” verse 4 again, “Abide in Me, abide in the vine,” verse 5, “Abide in Me, and I in Him,” verse 6, “Abide in Me,” verse 7, “Abide in Me,” verse 10, “Abide in My love.” Seven times in six verses He says, “Abide in Me.” Let me begin by asking this; what does He mean by “in Me”? Let’s start there. Let me give a couple of Bible study principles. You’ve got to remember that we’re looking an allegory, or a similitude—the word picture, and not the reality. It’s a picture. Jesus is not a literal vine, and I’m not a literal branch. It’s an object lesson. It’s an illustration. It’s a picture. So, we need to interpret pictures in terms of what they’re picturing; they are not the reality. The second principle is this; when you come to a picture in the Bible, look at the context; what is He talking about because that picture is going to be understood in the context. And then, the principle is wider; it’s the larger context of the whole Bible. In other words, you can’t take a picture, an allegory, and pull something out that is going to contradict another part of the Bible. So, everything has to be in the balance of scripture. This is an allegory. So, with those two safeguards, it’s a picture and we need the context, what does it mean to be in Christ?
I think there is a clue; I think there is a key in John 15:3, “Jesus said, ‘You are already clean because of the word I’ve spoken to you.’” Well, you remember at the Lord’s Table He used that same expression, and we know exactly what He meant by “clean”. John 13:10, “Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet. Otherwise, he’s completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you.’” When He said, “You are clean,” you can substitute, “You are Christian; you are saved; you are believers, but not all of you,” because He was talking about Judas when you read the context. So, clean refers to a Christian, a real Christian, a genuine Christian. The branches in this allegory that are joined to the vine pictures real Christians—in Christ, everybody who is a Christian is in Christ Jesus.
Now, that causes a problem in the minds of some people, and that’s because what do you do with verse 6, “If anyone does not remain in Me, He’s thrown away like a branch; he dries up, and they gather them and throw them into fire and they are burned.” Some look at that verse and say, “Well, it’s like somebody can lose their salvation. They were in Christ, the branch was in Christ, but it didn’t bear fruit. So, it’s no longer in Christ, it’s cut away from Christ and thrown away, and not only thrown away but it’s gathered into bundles and it’s burned in the fire.” So, many take that passage and say, “See, the Bible teaches you can lose your salvation.”
Once again, the branch is in Christ Jesus. Let’s interpret that; what does that verse mean, then, if it doesn’t mean you can lose your salvation? First in the context, in this parable, allegory or similitude or word picture, is He talking about heaven and hell? The answer is no; He’s talking about bearing fruit by abiding in the Lord Jesus. So, that’s a figure of speech in the context, and to suggest that all of a sudden He says, “Alright, if you don’t abide in Me to bear fruit, you are going to go to hell,” He’s not talking about hell; He’s talking about fruit bearing. How, then, do we interpret that verse? As I said, this is a picture, an allegory, a word picture; fruit bearing by abiding in Jesus. If you don’t abide in Jesus, you’re as worthless as a branch that is separated from the vine that’s worthless for fruit bearing. That’s the entire picture, worthless as far as fruit bearing is concerned. It has nothing to do with eternal destiny. He’s just saying, “Like a branch is worthless to bear fruit if it doesn’t abide, so you are worthless.”
Some have suggested that the fruitless branches are hypocrites; in other words, every branch it says “in Christ”, but there are some that are just attached and they’re not really in Christ; they’re faking it and they’re just hypocrites. They’re not real. In other words, they profess to be Christian but they don’t possess; they don’t have Christ in their heart. I don’t doubt that the visible church is pictured in places with hypocrites in it. When you go through the Bible you’re going to see that. Isaiah 29:13, “The Lord said, ‘Because this people approaches Me with their words, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. Their reverence for Me consists of the commandments of men that they’ve been taught.’” So, I know there are hypocrites. We can read about the tares and about the leaven and about the sheep and the goats, but in this allegory, the vine and the branches, they’re all connected to the vine; they’re all Christians; they aren’t hypocrites and they’re not going to lose their salvation. They’re in the vine, even the ones that don’t bear fruit. They’re in Christ Jesus, which brings us to the next question. Can somebody be in Christ and, yet, not abide in Christ? The answer is absolutely yes; Christians can be in Christ Jesus, and they’re going to go to heaven when they die, but if they are not abiding in Christ, they can’t live the life that God intends them to live. May God help us as we go through some of this. Two sets of branches—that one beautiful branch that is abiding in the vine, and they have a living and an organic and a real and vital union with Christ, as the branch has with the vine, and they draw from that vine. They draw strength and vigor and beauty and vitality and fruit because they’re drinking from that vine. So, then that life produces the leaves and the buds and the blossoms and the fruit.
Once again, verse 5, “I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, or abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” There’s no production without abiding in Jesus. Let me discuss that for a moment, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” What does that mean? Is that true literally, that apart from Christ we can do nothing? I think the fact is that many Christians who are not abiding in Christ do an awful lot; they’re doing a lot of things. Many ministries exist, and not because they are abiding in Christ, but because of programs and projects of men. You can start a ministry, you can be an elder, you can be a Sunday school teacher, you can sing in the choir, and you can be a pastor, and do many things apart from Christ. You can be an officer in the church, and people go to the mission field and they go there in their own strength. It’s not because the Lord called that they’ve gone there. Christians write books that are not guided by the Lord. You can write Christian songs that are not guided by the Lord. You can become a Christian artist, and it’s not because you are abiding in the Lord. You can have a very productive, so called, busy life, and visit the sick and the orphans and the prisoners, and just do it for another reason, and it’s not because you are abiding.
What did Jesus mean when He said so clearly, “Without Me you can do nothing.”? And yet, it looks like you can do a lot without Him. Let’s go back to the context, “Without Me you can do nothing that God calls fruit.” That’s what the nothing is. You can do nothing called “fruit”. You can do many things that are called “works”, but it’s not fruit. Fruit bearing comes solely by abiding in the Lord Jesus, and apart from that, nothing is done. That which is flesh is flesh, and will always be flesh. You can’t start with flesh and end with Spirit. Flesh is flesh is flesh. So, apart from abiding in Christ, there can be no real fruit.
Let me give one caution in terms of that. Some have gone to the other extreme, and said, “Since I can’t do anything without Christ, I’ll just wait for Him, and I’ll do nothing. I’ll just become indolent, and I’ll sit back, and I’ll just rest in the Lord until He prompts me to something. You are going to see as you go on in an actual union with the Lord, rest is not passive; rest is very active. We’re to labor to enter in. We’re to strive. We are to wrestle. We’re to repent. We’re to confess. We’re to proclaim. The One who lives inside your heart is Jesus, and it says that He’s always working, and if you’re really abiding in Him, you’re going to be very busy, but doing things that bear fruit.
Let me begin to show you what it means to abide. We use that word, and the Lord uses it so many times here, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” What does it mean for me to abide in Him? And then, what does it mean for Him to abide in Me? The answer is quite simple, actually. I believe we are to abide in Him as a branch abides in a vine. Then, He promises that He will abide in us as a vine supplies the branch. That’s all it means, that He will take His place as the vine and give you life, if you will take your place and abide in Him. This is wonderfully illustrated, I think, in John 7:37-38, “On the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink, and the one who believes in Me, as the scripture says, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” “Come to Me; believe in Me.” That’s what He said. And then He explained what He’s now explaining in John 13-17. In John 7:39, “This He said in reference to the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.” He’s talking about the day when the Holy Spirit comes into your life. If you come to Jesus, believe in Jesus, then that vine will release rivers of living water. That’s still a word picture, and we’re going to get into all that means in another connection. But if any man thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. John 7:38, “The one who believes in Me, as the scripture says, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” To put it in simple words, the vine is the Giver; the branch is the receiver. Don’t ever turn that around. You are a receiver; I am a receiver. The vine is the all-sufficient Giver.
The two verses we just quoted, John 7:38&39, emphasizes two things. First, coming, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come. Come to Me and drink.” And then it says, “He who believes, as the scripture says, out of his innermost being will flow rivers.” “Come, to Me.” I want to take those two words and just connect it to another verse. This one is not only controversial today, but it was controversial when Jesus said. I’m talking about John 6:56, “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides or remains in Me and I in him.” He’s describing what it means to abide. You’ve got to eat His flesh and drink His blood. I’m not going to read the full context, but that was a hard saying. You know what it sounded like to human ears, “In order to live the Christian life, I’ve got to be a cannibal and a vampire, eat His flesh and drink His blood. In fact, we read in verse 66, “As a result of this, many of His disciples left Him and would no longer walk with Him.” Because He said, “You’ve got to eat My flesh and drink My blood, otherwise you can’t live the Christian life,” and they said, “That’s too much to take; we can’t handle that.”
Let me give you what He meant by that because He explained it in an earlier verse, same chapter, John 6:35, “He said, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me’” there it is again, come to Jesus, “’will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never thirst.” Hunger/thirst—eating has to do with hunger, and drinking has to do with thirst. He who comes will not hunger; he who believes will not thirst. Eating His flesh is coming to Jesus; drinking His blood is believing in Jesus. That’s the simplicity of it; every time you come to the Lord and believe Him, you’re abiding in Christ. Over and over again that’s what we do; we come and we believe.
The simplicity of it, as we get ready to close, let me take you to Colossians 2:6, “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” I love those two words—as and so—as you receive Him, now for me I have to look back 66 years ago, “as you received Him, so walk in Him.” How did you receive Jesus? I don’t know the details, but I’ll tell you how you did it; you came to Him and you believed in Him. You were hungry and you were thirsty and you came and you believed. Of course, you probably came as a hell deserving sinner at that time, and you were hopelessly lost, and you need salvation, but you came to Him and you believed Him and He entered your heart. You didn’t have drop of strength to offer to Him; you came, you believed, and so walk. The Christian life is exactly that. I’ll tell you point blank without clearing my throat that it will never become more difficult than that. As you received Him and you came and you believed, now that’s your walk. Come to Him every day, every moment, every hour; come to Him and believe. That’s abiding, eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Come as you are and trust the Lord.
I told you over and over again why the Holy Spirit prompted John to write this gospel. John 20:31, “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. He wrote the gospel for three reasons, so you would know the Lord, so you would trust the Lord, and so that you would enjoy the Lord.” That’s why He gave us this gospel. Let’s take that theme to know the Lord, trust the Lord and enjoy the Lord, and apply it to this allegory, the vine and the branches. We’re to know the Lord. Who is the Lord in this story? And the answer is that He’s the vine, He’s the source, He’s the giver of Life. We’re to trust the Lord. What’s faith? It’s abiding, coming to Him and believing in Him. That’s faith. What’s life? It’s fruit, more fruit, much fruit, abiding fruit. That’s life. You come to the Lord, you believe in the Lord, and Jesus is the vine, and abiding is faith, and the life is a fruitful life.
One more verse and then we’ll wrap this up. Colossians 1:27, “To whom God willed to make known the wealth of the glory of the mystery among the gentiles, the mystery that is Christ in you the hope of glory.” I want you to focus one moment on those last words “the hope of glory”. I’m going to ask a couple of simple questions. What is the glory of an apple tree. The glory is apples. What’s the glory of a peach tree? The answer is peaches. What’s the glory of a grapevine? The answer is grapes. The fruit is the glory. What is the glory of a Christian life? The answer is fruit. What’s the hope of glory? Now you go back to the verse, Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” That is our only hope for fruit.
Up to this point we’ve mentioned the word “fruit” and we’ve talked about fruit, but we haven’t described it. Jesus is going to explain it. What is fruit? Lord willing, we’ll begin there next time.