Unleashing the Dominion Power of the Holy Spirit IV:
The Peace of Abiding in the Spirit
Introduction:
- Jesus is preparing His disciples for His soon departure.
- He is explaining that He is leaving them physically, but that He will return to them spiritually.
- He is saying that His leaving will actually speed up even greater works of power than ever happened while He was physically on the earth.
John 14:12-18
- Jesus is saying that this power to do greater works comes through the “abiding” Spirit of truth.
- It is learning to walk with, listen to, and abide in the Holy Spirit.
John 14:25-28
- Ominous things are about to happen…peace is the premium thing! The world is always looking for peace.
- The world would love to see the end of the Middle East crisis with peace, but it will not happen until the rise of the Anti-christ.
- Ex. Imagine…Hawaii, no faxes, no phones, no cell phones, drinking an Arnold Palmer.
- But Jesus is speaking of a deeper peace.
- There is the peace of God and the peace with God.
- We have peace with God when we accept Christ and begin a relationship with Him.
- But there is also the peace of God.
Philippians 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
- This is the Spirit-filled life, the Holy Spirit wants to give us peace.
- This peace that “surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds.”
- We can’t understand it! If you could understand it, you would be God, and you’re not!
- It is not a peace that understands everything that is happening! It is a peace that is above our circumstances and problems.
- But this is the peace we are all seeking after! This is why you became a Christian:
- To have peace with God, and
- To have the peace of God.
- This all leads up to one of the great passages of the Christian life; no passage so explains the Spirit filled life.
- Abiding in Christ is about abiding in the power and leading of the Holy Spirit!
- This is about how to live in this peace daily!
- Jesus explains that this is the only way to abundant living and a fruitful life!
Vs. 29-31
- This is so you understand that when all these things begin to happen, you will understand that it is coming from Me.
- This is why prophecy is so important! So you can anticipate the moves of God even before they happen.
- “Arise, let us go from here.” This is a challenge to each of us. Do you want to “arise” and step out into a greater peace with Christ?
- This can only happen through learning to abide in the dominion power of the Holy Spirit.
- If you learn to abide in Christ, you will learn of the peace of the Lord!
- If you will learn to abide in Christ, you will understand the prophecies of the Lord!
- Even with everything happening in the Middle East, in Iraq, in America, God is not out of control…God is sovereign!
- The “Prince of this World”, Satan is at work, but you can have peace!
- “The world, the flesh and the devil” are always working against us, but the dominion power of the Spirit can empower us to overcome the enemy.
· So where are they going now? Are they headed from the Upper Room to the Kidron Valley and Gethsamene?
· Are they going to the Golden Gate in the Temple?
· Josephus tells us that at the Golden Gate of the Eastern Gate of the Temple, they would have seen these 6 foot vines overlaid with pure gold on the doors that were a picture of the nation of Israel.
· Could be that Jesus stopped here, in front of the doors and taught.
Lets read the first 17 verses: John 15:1-17
· This is one of the most powerful passages in all of scripture.
o The phrase, “abide in Me,” is mentioned 4 times and is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible…”abide” is mentioned 12 times in this chapter.
o “Abide in My love” is mentioned 3 times and not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible,
o Three great abiding commands given:
1. Abide in Me
2. Abide in My love
3. Abide in the Word
And then 3 great rewards or results are promised:
1. You will bear much fruit in your life (6 times)
2. You will have your prayers answered (twice)
3. You will have joy in your life (twice)
Vs. 1
- This is the time of the Passover and the vines are being harvested and cut back/pruned. The vineyards are bursting forth this time of year.
- The branches that did not bear fruit were cut and bundled up and burned in the valley of Hennum, and no doubt, they could see the smoke from that valley as they walked to the Kidron Valley.
- Ex. Unlike the vineyards in the Napa Valley in California, where they grow very high on the trellises, in Israel they would let the vines grow along the ground.
- And if a vine was bearing grapes, the husbandmen would take that bunch, put a rock underneath it, and wash the grapes off from the dirt.
- That is what the Lord does in our lives; He washes you and lifts you up!
- And those that were not bearing fruit were cut back and put into a bundle to be burned.
- Jesus says, “I am the true vine.”
- The original, the root of all vines, the genuine vine!
- In scripture there are 3 kinds of vines:
1. Israel is pictured as a vine (in Psalms, Isaiah and Ezekiel).
2. Rev 14: the vine of the earth and the angels of God are sent out with a sharp sickle to gather the people of the earth. This is the world systems and many people abide in that system, shadows and types of things to come.
3. Jesus is the vine, the true vine, the genuine vine, this is LIFE! This is the LIFE!
- It is only through an up-to-date, intimate, ongoing relationship with Jesus that we can bear fruit and find joy in our lives.
- Simultaneously, we have the Father who is tending to the vine and its growth. Don’t try to understand the organic differences within the trinity, but here we can see the different roles they play.
Vs. 2
- There are two options: be washed and pruned by God or be burned in hell.
- A true believer bears fruit! If people say they are a believer in Christ, that they are Christ’s disciple, but there is no change in their lives, no passion for holiness, you can be assured that they really don’t know Christ.
- Ex. Many church goers will be shocked on the Day of Judgment that the Lord will say, “I never knew you” even though they went to church every week, worked in Sunday School, cast out demons and healed the sick.
Matthew 7:15-23
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
- But Jesus also says that those who really know Him, those who really desire to be filled with the Spirit, will be “pruned” by Him. He prunes good branches!
- He wants us to understand, “I am the vine.” He will bring forth life, and He wants us to bear even better fruit.
- Ex. Some of you have roses or fruit trees. For those trees to be healthy and bear beautiful fruit in the future, they must be cut back and trimmed. I imagine if you could talk to the apple tree or rose bush, you might hear, “Ah, oh, that really hurts, quit cutting man, that hurts!”
- Prune in the Greek is kathairo, where we get the word “katharsis” which means to cleanse or purge.
- God breaks us so that we will bear more fruit in our lives!
- He takes a personal interest in your life.
- This is what the husbandman would do. He would pick up those good grapes, wash them off, and place them on the rock.
- If we have good fruit, He will prune us to bring forth great fruit.
- What bore fruit in the last season, is not going to be good enough for the next season of your life.
- The Husbandman reserves the right to prune us away from the fruit of the past, to get us ready for His next blessing.
- Ex. We see this in David’s life, as he is pruned away from his father, from Samuel, from Saul, and from Jonathan.
- God has great things for you!! He really does, but He will chasten and discipline you, and it will hurt.
Hebrews 12:5-11
"My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives."
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons… 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
- God is breaking our outer man, our soul, in order for the Spirit to come forth more fully.
- His purpose is that we would be more usable for His purposes and bear fruit, spiritual fruit, not soulish fruit!
- He is the One who produces fruit in our lives.
- His fruit will remain and not pass away.
- This is the fruit from the inner spirit man that will produce fruit, see our prayers answered, and be filled with joy!
- It is the “lesson of brokenness.” For the more Christ breaks us of our soulish nature, and the more we place our trust in Him, the more His life can shine through us.
Vs. 3-5
- You are already judicially clean because you have given your heart to Christ, but the peace with God must become the peace of God.
- Whenever Jesus repeats Himself, watch out: He’s trying to communicate something!!
- 5 times Jesus says, “Abide in Me.”
- There are so many things we can abide in. The word means to “remain in, stay connected to.”
- All of us are “abiding” in something! We might be abiding in our hobbies, recreation, our jobs, etc.
- That which occupies our thoughts and controls our actions is what we are abiding in.
- He is saying that a branch cannot bear fruit if it’s not connected to the trunk.
- It is the trunk that brings forth the water and vitamins from the roots.
- Ex. A rose bush cannot bear beautiful roses without the branches being connected to the trunk of the bush.
- Ex. But it is not in straining and pushing that fruit is brought forth. This fruit is natural and normal; as the branches stay connected to the vine, the fruit will naturally be produced.
- Grape vines produces grapes! Apple trees produce apples! Grape vines don’t produce lemons! You see, you can tell who or what a person is connected to by the fruit they bear!
- When you see someone who is bearing the fruit of bitterness, anger, and jealousy, you can know that they are not abiding in Christ.
Matthew 11:28-30
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
- This really takes effort! Abiding in Christ is mental, emotional, and spiritual. You must stay focused throughout the day: but the focus is to be a grape!
- Grapes just hang there and abide.
- The sap moves slowly to the grapes…not fast, not instant, it is slow and daily.
- I love these older men and women who have learned to walk with the Lord, they just abide and you see the image of Christ… Corrie Ten Boom, Billy Graham!
- Ex. It is praying throughout the day: “Lord, fill me with your Spirit, empower me to stay connected, stay grafted to you…”
- This is the only way to peace!
- “Without Me you can do nothing.” This is one of the greatest lessons of the abiding life…that you really can’t do anything without Christ!
- When you lose self confidence and begin to really grow in God confidence, you are learning the walk of faith.
- There are seasons of care by the husbandman.
- There are seasons of great fruit and little fruit.
- Ex. I have seen people who are always up and moving, looking for something new. Like the guy who plants a tree, but doesn’t like it there, so they move it and move it again, and the tree just dies.
- Abide! Stay connected and the peace of Christ will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
This is the only way to lasting peace in our daily lives!
We must constantly say in our spirit, “I will abide in Your Spirit right now, fill me, empower me right now!”
How do we abide:
1. Abide in God’s Word (next week more on this)
2. 2-3-2 Plan
3. Abide in Prayer
This sermon was produced at Mountain Springs Church in Colorado Springs, with Senior Pastor Steve Holt. www.mountainsprings.org
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