#3 (THE "WITHOUT"
SERIES)
“WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING!”
TEXT: John
15:1-17; I Pet.
3:7
INTRO: Without
Christ, you can do nothing ... just what does this mean exactly? Isn't it true
that there are non-Christians that have done great things, and if so, then what
does this verse really mean?
What is meant in this verse is that “without
Jesus we can do nothing of eternal significance.” We are powerless without Christ to
build eternal things, we are spiritually poor and without power outside of
Christ! But with Christ we are rich
in every way, we now have the power to affect eternal things and leave a legacy
that will impact eternity and last into eternity.
ILLUS: A very
poor woman worked for a very wealthy man. She acted as a maid as well as took care
of their only son whom she grew to love as her own. One day the wealthy man's wife passed
away unexpectedly. When the boy
reached his teens he became ill one day and died. The father was heartbroken, as was the
maid who worked for him. He was so
grieved that he passed away a short time after his son did. There were no known
living relatives and no will was ever found so the state decided to auction off
all the belongings. The maid who
had nothing but her memories of devotion to this fattier and son all those years
scraped together all the money she had and went and bought a picture of the boy
that had been displayed in the family room of the mansion. She had loved and nurtured this son for
15 years and to her it was worth the price to have his picture. Once home, she decided to clean the frame
and picture, and she noticed a lump behind the cardboard backing … it was the
lost will! In the will it stated, “All my wealth should go to the one who
loved my son enough to claim this portrait of him!” Her devotion and love for this father's
son brought her untold wealth and power ... she could now do all things! And so it is with us in giving ourselves
to Christ! -- Source
Unknown
PROP.
SENT: The Bible teaches us that only by
dwelling in Christ and His love do we have eternal significance and can reap
eternal rewards. Without Christ, we
can do nothing of eternal significance!
I. WITHOUT ME - NO
LIFE!
15:1-4
A.
Participants 15:1,
3-4
1. Jesus begins to paint a picture to
teach us some very important spiritual truths, He states that He is the
vine, and that His father is the gardener!
a. The point is quite clear, no branch can be fruitful that is not
attached to the vine!
b. “Fruit” here means things that are important and
lasting, not natural fruit but spiritual fruit!
2. Jesus is speaking to His disciples
and He is showing them and us that we must abide in Him to have life, a life
that will matter not just now but in eternity!
a. Jesus describes them as "already
clean"… meaning that they are “grafted
in” already ... they are participants of Christ's salvation and plan
for eternity!
b. Jesus says that they will not be
able to bear fruit unless they "REMAIN IN HIM," just like grapes no branch can
bear fruit without remaining in the vine!
B.
"Pruning"
15:2
1. Abiding in the vine is wonderful,
but the quality of the fruit will also depend on how well someone "prunes" the branches!
a. Anyone who grows grapes will tell
you that the only way you get high quality grapes and a good crop is to cut away
excess growth, growth that will not produce fruit is only extraneous and takes
away from the all important fruit!
b. The
goal of a good gardener is not just to produce any life, but fruitful
life!
2. The work of pruning includes
cutting away excess stuff, but with the right balance!
a. If too many leaves are cut away it
could zap the energy of the plant.
b. But, if too many leaves are left
the fruit is compromised!
c. The master gardener knows just where to keep
his balance!
3. His goal is to develop healthy
life with great fruitfulness! Discipline is the act of "pruning" in our lives ... we don't like it but
we need it to stay healthy!
ILLUS: A young
child accidentally took sleeping pills from the family's medicine cabinet one
day. The doctor instructed the
parents to keep the child awake by any means necessary for the next four hours,
including the pain of slapping if necessary! That pain was necessary for the
child's survival! HEB. 12:11
states, "No discipline
seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest
of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."
(NIV)
-- Source Unknown
4. “Pruning” is necessary for proper fruitfulness
to take place in our lives!
a. Life cannot flow through us if we
are not connected to the source of life any more than a branch can
produce fruit if it is no longer attached to the vine!
b. Without Christ, there is no
spiritual life!
II. WITHOUT ME - NO LOVE!
15:5-15
A.
Producers! 15:5-8
1. Now Jesus turns from the negative
-- no life if not attached, to the positive -- “much
fruit” for those who are attached!
a. Jesus now turns attention to the
aspect of producing fruit, here He used the term "MUCH
FRUIT."
b. Those who abide in Christ will not
only have life, they will have “much fruit,” and since we know that the fruit
of the Spirit is "love" this is what He
means!
2. Jesus' statement of purpose in His
teaching comes out here: "WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO
NOTHING!"
a. Again, His point is about eternal
things, without Him we can do nothing of eternal
significance!
b. This point is made clearer by what
He says about those branches that are not attached, they will simply be picked
up and burned in a fire, they may give off a temporary flash of heat and then
they will be gone! This is unlike
the branch that stays attached which will give off a continual supply of fruit
that will benefit many over and over again; this has a future to
it!
3. Unsaved people always mean well,
and indeed they hope one day to address their spiritual needs, they just don't
see why they need to do it now! They plan to do it
someday!
a. The problem with this approach is
that they miss out on God's best for them now!
b. They will miss out on so much by
ignoring the present need to be in Christ!
ILLUS: A man and
his wife had their first child two months after he had been shipped overseas on
a 13 month tour of duty. Shortly
after he returned home his wife suggested that he try his hand at changing the
baby's diapers. "I'm busy," he said,
"I'll do the next one." The next time
the baby was wet she asked her husband if he was ready to learn how to change
diapers. He looked puzzled by her
question for a moment and then said, "Oh,
I didn't mean the next diaper, I meant the next baby!" He just kept putting it
off! -- Source
Unknown
4. It is interesting to note that
Jesus ties together here the idea of being "fruit producers" and asking in prayer
what we want and it being done for us! You will note a similar statement in
verse 16!
a. I will come back to this point at
the end of the message!
b. Jesus now says that "bearing MUCH
FRUIT" shows that we are His disciples!
c. Jesus had made a similar statement
in another passage like this: "by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that
you love one another."
B.
Passion
15:9-15
1. Jesus now moves to the area of "fruit"-- which is
love!
a. “Remaining” in Christ means abiding in His love,
which goes out toward God and others!
b. One cannot be a true disciple of
Christ and be without passion!
c. Abiding in Christ breeds passion in
our souls!
2. Christ's very nature is that of
LOVE, thus to be attached to Him will create a godly love in
us!
3. Those who love Him will keep His
commandments, we tend to do what others want when we love
them!
4. Notice too that this "love"
is not without "joy"!
a. Being a Christian and serving in
love is not drudgery!
b. Rather, God's joy will be
experienced by those who love Him; a joy that Jesus says will be complete in
Him!
5. For those who are saved this joy
and love will be so obvious that others will think that we are like Christ, the
very meaning of the name: "Christian!"
a. Our love should be so like Christ's
that people will know what Christ is like by observing
us!
b. "Abiding in
Him" lets His love flow through us!
ILLUS: When the
motion picture GANDHI was being filmed it was done on location in India in the
same area where Gandhi had lived. The star Ben Kingsley had spent a great
deal of time visiting the locals and learning what Gandhi had been like, how he
talked, what he did, he even learned to spin thread on a wooden wheel just as
the famous Gandhi had done. The
physical resemblance was so startling to the real Gandhi once he was done up in
makeup, and he had learned so well to put himself into the real Gandhi that one
day after filming a scene in a village south of Delhi, Kingsley stepped out of
the car and an elderly peasant knelt to touch his feet! Embarrassed, Kingsley
explained that he was merely an actor playing the revered Gandhi. The villager answered, "We know, but through you he will surely
live again!" The man felt he was in the presence of Gandhi himself Kingsly
had done such a good job being him, so should we be of Christ! -- Source
Unknown
6. This is the kind of passion we are
to display in our lives, the same kind of love that Jesus displayed while on
earth, and if we are truly attached to His life we
will!
III. WITHOUT ME - NO LEGACY! l5:16-17; I PET.
3:7
A.
"Picked"
15:16a
1. Jesus now reverses the usual method
of discipleship of that day, normally you picked a teacher you wished to emulate
and you followed that man for several years.
a. Jesus had already reversed the
relationship a few verses back, no longer calling them "servants" but "friends."
b. Here again Jesus adds a twist, they
had not chosen Him, He had actually chosen them ... chosen them to go and bear
fruit!
c. Jesus had not just chosen them to
benefit them only in this lifetime, but for eternity ... this is the meaning
bearing fruit, something will remain after they are
gone!
2. Jesus had "picked" them to bear eternal fruit, not
just follow the course of this world and live for the
moment!
a. It is important to understand how
this statement will fit in with the next about answered
prayers!
b. Jesus says here, "fruit that will
last."
c. Their service will benefit others,
they were chosen to give something to the world besides momentary existence,
they would serve the world and show it love much like Christ was about to
do!
3. They were to demonstrate to the
world what character God calls us to!
ILLUS: Years ago
on the stagecoaches in the old west you could buy one of three types of tickets.
You could either buy “FIRST CLASS,
SECOND CLASS, OR THIRD CLASS” tickets. The difference was discovered when there
was a problem like a breakdown in mud or a broken wheel that brought everything
to a stop. If you had a "first
class" ticket you could stay on board and would have to do absolutely nothing to
help, you just sat there until the problem was solved. If you had a “second class” ticket you
were expected to get off the coach while it was being attended to, you had to
simply watch as it was being fixed but you did have to stand to the side and not
be permitted to sit on the coach. Now if you had the "third class" ticket
things were different, third class holders had to not only get off, they were
expected to do whatever it took to fix the coach, if it meant getting dirty and
holding up the coach while a new wheel was put on, so be it! Third class ticket holders were the
workers, the servants to the others, they got things moving again! God give us “third class” ticket holders
in the church and in the world! -- Source
Unknown
B.
Petitions! 15:16b-17; I Pet. 3:7
1. Notice please that Jesus' statement
here to "ask
the father and He will give you anything we ask in Jesus' name"
follows the statement about being fruitful!
a. Jesus here paints the picture that
it is not just prayer that God is moved by but
also the fruitful lives who pray!
b. This same principle is found in
I Pet. 3:7 where Peter states that many men
had their prayers hindered from being answered by God because they were not in a
proper relationship with their wives – asking alone was not enough in
prayer!
c. The Pharisees were good about
making many prayers, but they were not answered because their lives were
unfruitful!
2. This mentioning of prayers being
answered is followed also by the command again to "love."
a. There is a
direct correlation between answers to prayers and how fruitful our lives
are!
b. Fruitfulness puts us in a place of
asking God and having answers!
3. Where there is no legacy of
fruitfulness, there will be little evidence of answered
prayers!
ILLUS: The
9th U.S. circuit court of appeals recently rejected the petition of
William Jefferson Walker, sentenced in 1983 to serve 10 years in an
4. Without Christ, there is no legacy,
no privilege, no eternal dimensions to our life!
5. It is true, "WITHOUT HIM, WE
CAN DO NOTHING!"
a. Are you doing
nothing?
b. Are you abiding in the true
vine?
c. Is your life “fruitful?”
CONCLUSION:
What did Jesus mean when He
said, “Without
me, you can do nothing!”? Isn't it true that even sinners do good
works from time to time? What Jesus
was saying was "Without me, you can do
nothing of eternal significance, nothing that affects both time and
eternity!" Without Christ
we might live for the moment, but with Him we live forever, our actions have
everlasting consequences when we abide in Christ! Nothing like this is done without
Him!