Union With Christ

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0:01Yeah, it is a joy and a privilege to be here with you guys. We've been praying for you and we're excited that God continues to plant churches around the Richmond metropolitan area and we started in a cafeteria just like this back in 2005. Had all the animals on the wall and everything and all the setup and all that takedown every single week. So I just would encourage you guys to persevere. It is meaningful and it is impactful to your community, your neighbors, and for one another. So just keep doing what you're doing. It's a beautiful thing. This morning we're going to talk about our union with Christ. It's going to come from John 15, 1 through 5. So if you have a Bible, you can turn there, John 15, verse 1. And it's neat to know that the women are getting ready to do a study on abiding and that it's one of your core values. So we're going to talk specifically about that word. The passage I'm going to read today is very, it's just loaded with stuff to preach on. So I'm going to kind of focus in on the word abide, but we'll get there in just a second. So let me go ahead and read the passage and then we'll keep moving here.

1:28So John 15, verses 1 through 5. And this is Jesus speaking to his disciples. I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and die in him. He it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you for this morning and just for your grace and mercy that's new that we can. Lord, we are able to put the past behind us because of what Jesus has done on the cross to pay for our past, present and future sins. And so we're just thankful that we get to be together, to worship together, to encourage one another, and to find out more about you, Lord, and our relationship with you and how it grows. And Lord, just how we can really come to know you better. And I pray that you'll speak to us this morning through your word.

3:19In Jesus' name, amen. So we're sitting here today, this morning, January 7th, 2024, and we're gathered to worship, to sing, to celebrate, to confess, to repent of our sins, to listen and to learn how to follow and get to know Jesus. That's kind of what we're about here, right? I'm guessing that's what you guys are about. So, and we do this because Jesus is the central figure in our faith. He's the one. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have made Jesus central. It's how God is designed to draw us into a relationship with himself. And so, therefore, this is the most important relationship that we have, is with Jesus. And I've spent my entire life, at least since I was 15, trying to learn how to relate to Jesus. I've read tons of books. I've been to countless seminars and conferences. I've listened to great speakers on the subject, continued to go to church as often as I can. And it was even in, I've been in full-time ministry for most of that time. And there always seems to be a tension, though, in between knowing about Jesus from an intellectual side and knowing Jesus from a relational side. So, I want to kind of talk about those two things and bring in this idea of abiding. So, do we get to know Jesus in the classroom? Or do we get to know Jesus as we live out our daily lives, experiencing circumstances and just serving others? How does it happen? And I think the answer is that knowing Jesus carries both an intellectual side and the relational side. I think they both feed off of each other. It's not much different than getting to know another person. You will sit down

5:26with them. You'll ask them questions about themselves. You'll find out about their family, what they love, what they hate, what their passions in life are. You'll also go out and experience life together as well, though. You'll serve alongside them. You'll work alongside them. You'll go hike. You'll go shopping together. And so, in doing those things together, you become better friends, right? You watch how they speak and engage with other people in daily life, in the mundane experiences. You see how they make decisions. You see them at their best and at their worst. So, as we go through this sermon today, I want you to think about getting to know Jesus as you would think about getting to know a friend.

6:16Now, hanging out with Jesus sounds a bit irreverent. I understand that, but that's kind of what the disciples did, didn't they? They hung out with Jesus. Each day, Jesus would lead the disciples into some life lesson as they walked along the road as they encountered crowds or lepers or religious people or irreligious people. But we also know that at some point, Jesus would just sit down with his disciples and teach them lessons about theology, about the kingdom of God, about principles, living life to the fullest of biblical truths, and how all of that is done for the glory of God. And so, today, we're going to talk about the key theological truth that binds together our intellectual knowledge of Christ and our relationship with Christ. And it's called union with Christ. So, there have been a lot of books written on the topic about union with Christ and so forth, and we're going to try to unpack some of that today. So, just from an intellectual side, we would say that union, a union is obviously the bringing together of two things. So, in this case, it's us and it's Christ. But how do I, someone who is nothing like Christ, who is imperfect, and because of my sin, I am not fit to be in the presence of Christ, Christ? How does someone like me become united to Him? Well, to become united to Christ begins by understanding the gospel, okay? And the gospel tells us that we have alienated ourselves from God.

8:15Hasn't always been that way. Originally, Adam and Eve in the garden were created in God's image to live in this perfect relationship with Him, right? It was literally paradise with God. And yet, they chose to rebel and go their own way. And that relationship was broken. And we followed in that pattern. We have broken our relationship with God by rebelling against Him, wanting to live life the way we want to live it versus the way He would have us live it. We call that sin, obviously. And this broken relationship, though, it ruins our lives both now, but it has eternal consequences, as I'm sure you've heard about that. But here's the, that's the bad news of the gospel, right? The good news is that God is gracious and merciful, and because He is gracious and merciful, He has acted upon our rebellion by sending Jesus to fix that broken relationship with us. And He's done that through Christ living a perfect life, dying on the cross to cover and pay for our sins, and then He was raised from the dead to show us that He has the power to conquer evil's greatest threat. So, we get to be united with Christ when we put our faith in Christ as the one who has done all of those things for us, who has saved us from ourselves and our sin. That's when we come into union with Christ. Our faith unites us to Christ in an inseparable bond that can never be broken. And that's one thing I want you to, to really think about when you think about your union with Christ, being connected to Christ. It is what we call an

10:19inseparable bond, and it cannot be broken. Now, here's the thing. Human relationships can be broken. Marriages can end in divorce. Friends can disown one another and turn on one another, but not so between us and Jesus. We can never divorce ourselves from Him. He will never abandon us or forsake us once we are connected to Him in that inseparable union. You can and you should hold on to Christ for dear life, okay? There's no doubt about that. But even if your hand slips, Christ still has a death grip on you, and He's not going to let you go, okay? Let me read two of the verses that have already been shared this morning from Romans 8, because it's just a beautiful representation of our union with Christ and how it never ends. The Apostle Paul says, For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul kind of covers everything. He finally says, death can't even separate us from God, from this inseparable bond that we have in Christ.

11:43Now, if we're honest, though, there are a couple of issues that we feel that make this biblical truth difficult for us to understand, okay? The first one is that I think we feel as though when we sin or rebel against God that He will punish us or that He'll just give up on us eventually, especially if we're stuck in some habitual sin or pattern of living that doesn't glorify Him. We feel that way. Or, secondly, our union with Christ is spiritual in nature, okay, rather than physical. So not being physically present with Jesus seems to make our relationship with Him not as real and sometimes distant or just abstract. Well, the short answer to these questions of our feelings and the fact that we have a hard time understanding the spiritual union that we have with Christ.

13:00The short answer is that we just need to believe in Christ's sufficient atoning sacrifice for us and believe that Christ Jesus actually walked this earth as a person. He was a real physical person just like you and me and that He was fully God and able to send His Spirit to unite us with Him. So that's the short answer, okay? Now, I know there's a lot to go through to kind of get there, but, you know, I just want to make sure we understand. So that's sort of the intellectual side, right? There's these theological truths that we get to understand from the Scriptures and so forth about being united to Christ. But relationally, what does union with Christ look like?

13:47And I think we find a little bit longer answer to these questions in John 15, which should give us a constant encouragement with our relationship with Jesus. That it is just as real and true as the person sitting next to you. That's what I hope you'll see this morning. That our union with Christ is just as real as the person sitting next to you. So let's read, I want to read this passage again, just so we go over it in our minds and we understand what Jesus is trying to tell us.

14:21So He said, Jesus is, remember, Jesus is, He really wants the disciples to get it. He really wants them to understand about their relationship with Him. And so He comes up with this beautiful illustration of what it looks like and how it's supposed to be. And He says, I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit.

14:52Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. So Jesus is the vine, we're the branches, right? Jesus chooses to use this illustration to really help us understand our relationship with Him. Now remember, at the time of when Jesus told this to His disciples, this illustration, He had already spent three years with Him. So a little context, we're at the end of the life of Jesus. We're in the last week in John 15, okay? And Jesus knows He is about to go away. He's about to die on the cross, be raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, and then He's no longer going to be physically present with them. So as He's about to tell, He's telling them He's going to go away, but not completely. So the disciples have been with Jesus physically for three years, and they've been following Him for three years, but now they're not going to have His physical presence.

16:15But Jesus says that they will still be with Him. And how is that going to work? So Jesus tells us, and Jesus tells the disciples, that we are to abide in Him, and that He will abide in us. So what does this word abide actually mean? We don't really use it much in our daily language today, abiding, unless you're in a Bible study or whatnot. And it's actually not used a lot in the New Testament. John is, I think, the only writer that uses that word. But if we dig it out, the definition of abide is this, an inward, enduring, personal communion. So I had a slide. Okay, so I want you to remember those four words, and we're going to go through these words in just a second. So it's inward, it's enduring, it's personal, and it's a communion. That is, you know, we go to some of these words, these ancient words or words in another language. And so when we translate them, we try to translate them word for word, but that doesn't always work. So we have to kind of dig it out and see what the definition is and understand it. And that's what we're going to do right now. So Jesus wants us to have an inward, enduring, personal communion with Him. And this is relational abiding. This relational abiding is the foundation to knowing Jesus on that personal, relational level. So let's take a look at these four characteristics of abiding in Christ. The first one is inward. Our relationship with Jesus happens inside of us, in our spirit, in our hearts, and in our souls. So, but even though we don't exchange rings like we would in a marriage with Christ, and don't have an outward physical

18:16connection to Him, we still have this inward connection, again, that is just as true and as real as an outward connection. Colossians 3.3 says this, for you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Again, he's trying to show us about the inwardness that we are connected to Jesus and that it's inward. Have you ever felt anxious? I would imagine most of us, probably 100% of you, including myself, have felt anxious at some point. Anxiety is very real, and it seems even tangible at times, yet it's happening inside of us, right? We sense it, we feel it, and we know it's there, but we can't, like, reach out and touch it, right? Even though our relationship with Jesus is inside of us, it is still real, and we can sense it, we can feel it, and we can know that it is there. So, abiding in Christ is internal, it's inside of us, but it's also enduring. So, our relationship with Christ lasts forever, this inseparable bond will never end, and I don't just mean for the 80, 90, or 100 years that we live here on this life, on this earth, but forever, okay? It's forever, even after we die a physical death. Enduring also means that it continues no matter what happens. Nothing can break our relationship with Christ. We just read that in Romans. It endures through pain and suffering, through our sin and through our rebellion, through any circumstances that come our way. Again, think about it this way. Your child, if you're a parent and you have a child, they will always be your child,

20:22right? That's why I think God uses the illustration or the sense that we are, that He is our Father, and we're His children. He tells us that. Your child will always be your child. They can walk away, they can be disobedient, they can even curse you at times, but they can never get out of that relationship of being your child. It's always there, okay? We can never get out of being a child of God. It endures. Jesus has His hold on us. As Jesus teaches His disciples about following Him and abiding in Him, He says in John 10, listen to this, this is from John 10, 27 and 30 to 30. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. Our abiding in Christ is enduring because of the character and the authority and the power of Jesus, not because of what we do or don't do. Here's a quote. Maybe I would imagine that Joel has shared this with you once or twice because in our circles we use this quote a lot. If not, here's something new.

22:01And I'm not sure who said this. It might have been Jerry Bridges. I can't remember. But listen closely. It's worth writing down. There is nothing you can do today to cause God to love you any more than he does now. Did you get that? There's nothing you can do today to cause God to love you any less than he does now. And there's nothing you can do today to cause God to love you any more than he does now. And that's because God loves us based on what Christ has done for us. It's what Christ has done for us. Living out the will of God perfectly. Bearing the penalty of our sins and being raised from the dead. Romans 8.1 says it beautifully. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We are no longer condemned because we are united together in Christ and that cannot be taken away. It endures. That is what abiding is about. Our Christ relationship with us endures forever and we're able to endure in our relationship to Christ because of what he has done and continues to do in our lives. So it's inward. Abiding is inward. It's enduring. And then thirdly, it's personal.

23:32Our relationship with Christ is personal and relational. We really, really need to think this way about Jesus. He's not just someone that we go to in emergencies. He's not someone we pray to a couple of times a day. Jesus is our constant companion. That's why the disciples didn't just listen to Jesus teach for a couple hours a day and then go back to their old way of life. They lived together. They ate together. They worked and ministered alongside each other. They had a very personal relationship with Jesus as they followed him and so should we. Remember, we just said, we just read, Jesus says, my sheep know my voice and I call my sheep my own by name and I lead them out. Jesus knows you personally and he wants you to know him personally. I was, my wife and I were babysitting our two grandkids a couple weeks ago and I was trying to get my seven-month-old grandson down to sleep for the night. So I'm rocking, singing softly, you know, trying not to make any big noise so that he would go to sleep because he's not good at going to sleep real well. You know, everything is quiet and he just starts to doze off and I can sense that. Okay, I'm like, yeah, this is going good. But then his mom came home and was in the other room and I can hear whispering, just whispering to my wife. But of course, Elliot, he just, he just snaps up, right? He's like fully awake at this point, you know, immediately sits up, fully awake. He heard his mother's voice in the other room and he no longer wanted to be with me, he wanted to be with her, right? It's just how it was, you know? He, he

25:44heard his mother's voice and he wanted to be. Jesus wants you to hear his voice, right? He wants you to hear his voice and be, come to full attention in this personal relationship that we have with him. Abiding is about wanting to just be with Jesus. Have you ever just wanted to just be with someone? It's not, I don't have, you know, we don't have to go out to dinner or go hiking or whatever. I just, we just want to be together. Let's just enjoy one another's presence. It's not, it's not just doing something for Jesus. It's simply just being there with him, enjoying his company, listening to his voice through the scriptures. So abiding is inward, it's enduring, it's personal. And then finally, abiding is about communion. Our relationship is one of communion, being united to him. It is about us coming together with Christ. 1 Corinthians 6, 17 says, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. It is a communion that we have. And this communion is initiated by God to unite us to Christ. But there's also, there is this expectation that we will participate in communing with Christ.

27:36We pay attention to his presence. We speak to him in prayer. We listen to him in the scriptures. We worship him through the sacraments. I mean, think about why we call the Lord's Supper communion. We are partaking the bread and the wine as a part of our abiding in Jesus. It's a coming together. Right? So it's, it's a communion that we have with, with Christ. There's one more aspect I, I just want to mention. I don't have time to really go to go into it, but our union with Christ and our abiding in him, that we are united to him. So since we are united to Christ, I'm united to Christ. You're united to Christ. What that means is that we're united to one another, right? We're all brothers and sisters in the family of God. We're all connected united as believers. Our union with Christ brings us into communion with others who are believers in Christ. First Corinthians 12, 27 says, now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Yeah, we're individually members united to Jesus, but what that does is it brings us together as the body of Christ. And that makes up his church. And then we get to go out to, to love and care for this world that God's given us and serve other people for his glory. Go to places like going back to your old neighborhood in Honduras or wherever it is and sharing the love of Christ. So abiding in Christ is, again, I understand it's one of those words that we don't normally think about, but I hope this morning as we've tried to think about it as being an inward, enduring, personal communion with

29:48Jesus, that maybe you'll get a good picture and that will carry you on as you continue to walk with him and get to know him better. It's hard to come up with another illustration, but I'm going to try to end with this one. It's like breathing. Okay. You can't see the oxygen in your lungs, but it is there and it is giving you, it's, it's providing you with life giving sustenance. And that's what the spirit of Jesus does. We breathe it in. Just take a deep breath. Just, we feel the life giving sustenance of oxygen.

30:39And Jesus wants us to feel the life giving sustenance of his spirit in us as we are connected to him in this inseparable bond, in this union with him. Let's pray. Jesus, we do thank you that you have been gracious and merciful to us, that we are not left to live life on our own, that we have to, we're not left to have to try to work our way into your good graces or to worry about you being disappointed in us. Lord, you've united yourself to us. You live inside us. We, we live and breathe because of your spirit that is alive. And I pray that we will continue to, um, to just enjoy your presence and enjoy this relationship to grow in it together in deeper, deeper ways to get to know you on a level maybe that we've never experienced before as we, um, see you in the scriptures as we pray to you and just sit with you. So we thank you again for your kindness and for this gospel that you bring to us of good news. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.