The Future of the Church
John 15: 15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He [a]cleans it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already [b]clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so [c]prove to be My disciples. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
This morning, I am departing from our study of Genesis because we had a special emphasis during our Sunday School hour. Bob Mills is/was with us today discussing the results of a church survey we took a couple of months ago. The survey is called the Natural Church Development survey, and it concerns the health of our church. And, just to summarize, the survey asked you all about our church, and what you see in our church around 8 areas. These eight areas are the characteristics that are typically flourishing in a healthy growing church, and typically languishing in an unhealthy dying church. These are the eight characteristics; empowering leadership, gift-based ministry, passionate spirituality, effective structures, inspiring worship service, holistic small groups, need-oriented evangelism, and loving relationships.
And the purpose of the survey is this. It is recommended by the designers of the survey that we look at the two areas in which we are lowest, and intentionally work on ways to improve in those areas.
I read the book on which this survey is built, and the long-range proposed plan is that the church work on these low areas this year, and then retake the survey next year. And what will hopefully happen is that those areas of weakness, will get better. They said in the book that often the areas of weakness actually end up becoming areas of strength. Then the next year, we take the survey again and discover new areas to work on. The intent of the process is to start on a course of continual improvement.
During our Sunday School hour, Bob Mills shared with us, that by our own survey results, we have a couple of areas in which we are lower. That means that, of the people who took the survey, they saw these two areas as lacking in our church.
The two areas are gift-based ministry and need-oriented evangelism.
Gift-based ministry can be described as a focus in a church of helping people identify their individual gifts, and find or create ministries through which they can serve using their gifts.
Need-oriented evangelism can be described as a focus in a church on connecting to lost people through their needs, and thus creating opportunities to build a loving relationship which can lead to salvation.
Those are our two lowest areas according to the survey that 30 of our members took. So, the next step would seem to be that we make plans to address those deficiencies. But, I want to step back a moment and take a deep breath. Because, I know that as soon as I start talking about plans and changes, a lot of you immediately think; oh here we go again. Been there, done that. Or worse, you think, it isn’t going to work. It never does. That reminds me of a quote from Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State in the Nixon administration.
More than at any time in history, mankind (insert our church) faces a crossroads--one path leading to despair and utter hopelessness, the other leading to total destruction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, U. S. News and World Report, Jan. 9, 1989.
And I know what you may be thinking. Parkview is right at 60 years in existence. We’ve been around the block before. We’ve heard plans, surveys, seen charts, set goals, made projections ad nauseum. And frankly, our first inclination when we hear it all again, and this is my first inclination as well, is to break out our hard cover edition of “Why it won’t work, and why you shouldn’t even try.”
But all of our pessimistic musings fail to remember one thing. I can’t, we can’t, but God can. The Bible is full of those assurances.
Listen to just a few of these verses.Genesis 18:14Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”Psalm 103:19The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.Job 42:2“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.Jeremiah 32:17‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.Matthew 19:26But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”Luke 1:37For nothing will be impossible with God.”Ephesians 3:20Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,Revelation 4:11“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”When I think of God’s ability in comparison to our inability, I remember hearing about
An interesting map is on display in the British Museum in London. It's an old mariner's chart, drawn in 1525, outlining the North American coastline and adjacent waters. The cartographer made some intriguing notations on areas of the map that represented regions not yet explored. He wrote: "Here be giants," "Here be fiery scorpions," and "Here be dragons." Eventually, the map came into the possession of Sir John Franklin, a British explorer in the early 1800s. Scratching out the fearful inscriptions, he wrote these words across the map: "Here is God."
Unknown.We can’t save this church location, but God can. But again, let me read your mind. God can save this church…if He wills. But does He? I can’t speak for God on all the specifics of our circumstance, but let me point something out. Jesus gave a personal message to 7 churches in the book of Revelations. Some of the churches were faithful, others not so much. They had all kinds of different problems that He spoke to them about. Some of them were pretty bad. Did you know that out of all of those 7 churches, Jesus never said to any of them; “You’re done.” “All hope is lost.” “Say your goodbyes.” “Set your affairs in order.” He told them to repent, He told them to correct error, or remove false teachers, but He never said, “Burn it down.” To every one of those churches He offered hope. And He offered them the same hope that He offers us. He offers us the same hope He offered them. Do you know what that deal is? Repent and I will bless you. It came down to obedience for them. And it comes down to obedience for us. So that is why today, before we start laying out plans and schemes, I wanted to move us toward the right motivation and understanding the source of the power for our church. The main Scripture verse I want to open up for us today is this one.5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.Prayer
Let’s get again to our Scripture for today.
John 15: 15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He [a]cleans it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already [b]clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so [c]prove to be My disciples. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
Read verse 5 again
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit
What is the key to church growth? What is the key to personal spiritual growth? Just one thing. That’s it. One thing; Abide in the vine, and you will grow.
Now I know that I just mentioned 8 characteristics of a healthy church. So, after having listed them, we may think that we’ve got to add all kinds of things to our church life. We need more committees, or better musicians and preachers, we need small groups meeting in homes, we need a hospital visitation program, or fall festivals and Easter egg hunts. But that’s not what Jesus said. Listen to what He said.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Does it say there anywhere that a church needs bells and whistles, doodads and programs, websites and holy hardware hanging on the walls? No, it says that a church needs a membership that is abiding in Christ. So, what are these 8 characteristics? The eight characteristics we mentioned are simply the evidence that the church is abiding in Christ. They are the outward Spiritual works that are evidence of the inward faith. So, if you are abiding in Christ, you will produce much fruit. So, we don’t need to first concentrate on the characteristics, we need to concentrate on abiding in Christ.
Now obviously if we are going to abide in Christ, we need to know what it means. What does it mean to abide in Christ? I am going to share with you 5 things from this passage about what it means to abide in Christ. You have to be in the True Vine. You have to abide in the True Vine. You have to understand your dependence. You have to submit to pruning. If you do all that you have to get ready for fruitfulness, love and joy.
I. You have to be in the True Vine.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower.
Jesus is using a word picture here. This is almost a parable. He is describing Himself and His relationship to His followers as a grape vine and its branches. He is the vine sprouting out of the ground, and each individual follower is a branch off that vine.
And what He is describing is a symbiotic relationship. The vine is what connects the branches to nutrients and moisture from the soil. He is their source of life. But He isn’t just any vine. He calls Himself the “true vine.”
What that means is that there are other vines that are not true. They are false. On other occasions Jesus is called the true light, the true bread, the true witness.
What that tells us is that there are false vines to which people are attached, false lights that they follow, false breads to which they go for spiritual nourishment, and false witnesses that they believe. Jesus is the true vine. But what did that mean in the day that Jesus said it? We need to think about it in the context of the nation of Israel and salvation. In Jesus’ day, and even today, some Jews believed that they were members of God’s family, part of God’s kingdom, bound for God’s house, based entirely on their being born a Jew.
Let me illustrate that out of Scripture. Did you know that Israel was referred to as a vine in the Old Testament?Psalm 80:7-9 O God of hosts, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, that we might be saved. 8 You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the [a]nations and then You planted it. 9 You cleared the ground before it, And it took deep root and filled the land.
Isaiah 5:1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He hoped for it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. “So now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Please judge between Me and My vineyard.
A frequent analogy for the nation of Israel in the Old Testament was a vineyard and a grapevine.
Before Christ, in the time when Israel regained its independence under the Maccabees, they minted coins with Israel represented as a vine.
And many Jewish people in that day thought of their position with God was like that of a vine. For them, Israel was the vine. If they were born as a Jew, they were automatically patched into God. They were already God’s people.
So, what is Jesus saying here to his 11 Jewish disciples? Israel is not the vine, I am the true vine. Being connected by birth to Israel doesn’t guarantee you a place in God’s family. Being attached to me does.
And that truth is graphically illustrated for these 11 disciples. You see, Jesus had 12 disciples. But when He made these statements about the vine, one of them had defected. This chapter comes immediately after the Last Supper, when Jesus identified Judas as a traitor, and Satan entered Judas, and he left the 11 to set up Jesus betrayal and arrest. And from what we learn about Judas in Scripture, he would be eternally condemned.
But hold on, Judas was Jewish. So, he was a shoot off of the vine of Israel. But Israel was a false vine. And Judas is condemned because he was not in the true vine. The true vine is Jesus. The first thing you have to know about how to abide in Christ might seem obvious, but it has to be stated. You need to look at what you have attached yourself to. Isaiah 44:6Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.John 3:36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.John 14:6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.Acts 4:12And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”Romans 6:23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Timothy 2:5For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,1 John 5:11-12And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.Revelation 1:5-6And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Let me say this. Many of us are affiliated with a number of groups. I am affiliated with the Hays clan. I have a political affiliation. I count myself as an educator. I am an American. And I could go on. But my number one affiliation, if I am truly to say that I am right with God, has to be with Christ. That loyalty to Him and His word and His commandments has to be Supreme. I am afraid that there are far too many professing Christians who have Christ second, or third, or tenth on their list of loyalties. To follow our analogy, they have attached themselves to another vine.
And, thinking again about this survey we just did. We can revamp our service. We can search for ways for people to discover their gifts, and we can host outreach events every month, we can structure all kinds of programs in our church to try and produce the fruit of more believers within the walls of this building, but if we are not individually plugged into the true vine, if we are not serving Christ, but rather we are serving Parkview, this building, our own pride or egos, or whatever, we are not abiding in the true vine.