Easter 2025
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. Happy Easter! My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. If you will, grab a Bible and go to Romans chapter 4. We're going to consider just a few verses in the book of Romans this morning. We're going to pick up and look at the text that we looked at on Good Friday if you were with us then. We will be in Romans chapter 4, verses 24 and 25, and then we'll look a little bit at chapter 5.
I want to read this: "It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord." We gather on Easter and we're celebrating that Jesus was raised from the dead, that he was dead and then came alive again, that He was crucified, buried, and then resurrected. His disciples, His mother, those who followed Him, the centurion, the religious leaders—they all saw Him die, saw Him buried, and then came back to life.
There's a story recounted in Luke chapter 24 where Jesus's disciples are together and Jesus shows up after He had been crucified and buried. When He appears, His disciples are frightened and think He's a ghost. I've always thought that was funny that it's included in the Bible, but it makes a lot of sense. If you watch someone be brutally murdered and then be buried, and then you're gathered with people to be sad about it, and then they show up, your response isn't "oh!" Your response is "ah!" You immediately think something's wrong with you, your mind is broken, or ghosts are real. You don't jump to maybe there's a resurrection, maybe you've conquered death.
Jesus shows them His hands and feet and says, "I have hands and feet; spirits don't." He's like, "Ghosts don't have feet, but I do because I'm real." And then He eats food. He verifies that He's been resurrected; He was literally dead and then literally rose back to life. We're going to study a text that helps us understand why that's wonderful because if you don't know much about Christianity, you may know that Jesus died and rose, but we want to know why that's wonderful.
There are people in this room who have things they've done or that have happened, and you're like, "It's happened, it's done, it's sealed, it's final, it's official, it's locked in." But if we follow a God who can rise from the grave, then He can undo things that are sealed and locked in. The most final thing we have is death. You don't go see a judge and they're like, "All right, you're going to be executed today and then you better be at work tomorrow." That's not how it works. The most final thing we have is death. If He can undo that, then He can undo the things that we carry with us.
We will see why it's wonderful. It says, "It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses." That's what we looked at on Friday—that He was delivered up for our trespasses, meaning that we have actual debt, actual sin. One pastor says that sin does something; it literally does something in the world, in spiritual reality. He said it's similar to if I came to your house and broke something.
Let’s say you invited me over to watch something on your television. During our enjoyment, I got very frustrated and threw something at it, breaking it. The party is over; your TV is broken, and I have a debt. I have a guess that you like your TV, since you invited me over specifically to watch it. We have a problem: something is broken, and there are only a few options. I can pay the debt, or you can. Those are our options. I can fix what's broken; the cost can come from me, or the cost can come from you. Even if you said, "Don't worry about it," that doesn't fix your TV. You're just saying you'll pay the debt or incur the cost by never watching TV again or getting a new one.
Do you know who can't say "Don't worry about it"? Me. I can't ruin the party and then go, "Wait, don't worry about it, it's not a big deal, let's pretend it never happened." The one person who can't do that is me. I can't bump into you, spill something on your shirt, and go, "Let's just forget this ever happened. Let's move on. It's not a big deal. It's your shirt, it's not mine. Let's just go about our day." I can't do that.
Y'all realize we do that sometimes with people. We'll say, "Well, I don't know why it’s such a big deal. God just needs to, like, why does He care?" That's us breaking the TV and then saying, "Don't worry about it." We can't do that. There's real debt, real trespass, a real cost.
What we're celebrating is that Jesus paid it—that He was delivered up for our trespasses. That's what we talked about on Good Friday, that He paid the debt. Then it says this: that He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Not only did He take our debt, but when He rose, He was raised for our justification.
Justification is an intentional legal word. It’s very specific, precise, legally precise language. Now if you don't work in law or contracts, you might not see a lot of legally precise language. I think the place we most run into it is on food labels. For example, if you buy Cheese Whiz or something you spray on stuff, it says "processed cheese food" because it can't just say "cheese" since it's not just cheese. It can't say "processed cheese" because then cheese would be a noun. It says "processed cheese food," where "cheese" is an adjective describing the type of food it is. You're like, "What am I eating?" Scientists say, "Food." You're like, "Yeah, but what do you mean?" They're like, "Well, it's a cheese food." So legally precise language.
If you buy Pringles, it doesn't say chips, it says crisps. What is a crisp? Legally, it’s not a chip. That’s about all I know—it’s legally precise language.
One of the places I appreciated this most was on the show The Biggest Loser. On that show, people try to lose weight. It sounds like they just got them together to make fun of them, but actually they lose weight, and the biggest loser is the winner—it's clever and confusing. My wife and I used to watch it, popcorn and Mountain Dew, and they would do challenges.
In these challenges, to win immunity for the week, they'd have to eat a lot of sweets like Pop-Tarts or cupcakes. The trainers would be mad because they were breaking the spirit of the game. But the funny part was: they weren't allowed to say "Pop-Tarts" because they didn't have the rights, so they had to say "sugar-frosted breakfast pastries." It was like a game of Taboo.
The reason I mention this is that the word "justified" in this text is intentionally precise, legal language. It's wonderful because "justified" means legally not guilty in court, but actually it means better than not guilty. It means declared righteous, ruled in your favor—that you are made righteous, declared righteous, legally not guilty, and you get to walk out free. It's officially accomplished by God in the highest court.
This is beautiful, legally precise language. When He was raised, it was for our justification, meaning that you have been declared righteous, that He took your sin to the cross, and that when He rose, you have been made righteous. The debt has been paid.
It's not just that Jesus says, "Hey, if you come to me I'll forgive your sins, and you need to go live a good life." He doesn't just wipe the slate clean; He signs your name at the top and turns it in. That has been applied to your account.
Periodically, I'll hear Christians say things like, and they're right in one aspect, "I'm a sinner; I have debt." If you come in and say, "I'm a pretty good person," we want to tell you, "No, you're not." If nobody’s been kind enough yet to point out how not wonderful you are, welcome to Mil City Church. No, you're not. We are so thoroughly unimpressed with you. You're a sinner. You have real debt. You have real trespasses. We want you to be aware that you innately sin—that you sin on your own and then, when you know it's sin, you still do it. Once you learn it was wrong, you still do it. You can't just say, "It's okay because you're offended; you caused the offense; you can't declare it’s okay."
So, you're a sinner, but if you belong to Jesus, you are not. You are justified and made righteous. I hear Christians sometimes say, "I'm the worst, I'm just so terrible, I'm always waiting." And I say, "And then Jesus made you righteous?" If you belong to Christ, no, you’re not. You're not guilty—you’re made righteous. Paul calls himself the chief of sinners in the context of declaring he’s received mercy. He says that so everyone else can know if Paul can be forgiven, so can you.
The hope that we have is that He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification—that we've been made righteous. But there’s a way this happens; it applies this way.
Go back to the beginning of the sentence: It says, "It will be counted to us." What is "it"? It is what Jesus has done, what Jesus has done will be counted to us, accredited to us, put on our account, granted to us, applied to us. It is what Jesus has done.
How will it be counted to us? By belief. That you believe in Christ, believe that God raised Him from the dead, that you believe He paid your debt, that you want it applied to your account. Then it will be applied.
There's a movie called My Cousin Vinny. My wife was out of town, and I was bored, so I watched it again. It's about two young guys from New York going to school in Alabama. They’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, driving the wrong car, and get accused of murder. Because they're from New York, it’s not going well. Then one says, "I’m going to call my cousin Vinny," a lawyer from New York.
Vinny shows up. It’s not going well. There’s tension over whether he’ll represent them. The local guy is worse than Vinny. There's a big moment in court where Vinny says to the local guy, "You’re fired. I want to represent my cousin."
It’s a moment where you can look cosmically at God and say, "I want Jesus to represent me. I want Him to go before me. I want Him to take my debt. I want Him to grant His righteousness to me." And it will be counted if you believe. It will be applied to your account by belief. It will be accomplished not by you but by Him. You trust that His death paid your trespasses and His resurrection justified you before the Lord, declared innocent, righteous, holy, and blameless if you'll just believe. If you'll just look and say, "I want Jesus to pay my debt. I want Jesus to cover me. I trust Him. I believe He’s good. I do not want to represent myself."
That’s what it's saying. It will be counted to us who believe.
So again: "It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith—we're justified by faith.
That's the legal word again: not by works, not by morality, not by intelligence, not by effort—you’re justified by faith, by trusting Him, not yourself.
And that makes so much sense. What doesn’t work before God is for you to sin, fail, then go to Him and say, "Don't worry. I got this. I’m going to be good enough, pay it off, do so well that you can’t help but respond singing my praises." That doesn't work.
Instead, we come and say, "I trust Jesus. I believe He’s good. I believe He’s righteous. I believe He paid my debt. I want Him to represent me. I want Him to cover me." And we say, "I trust that He’s good."
The Bible says there will be nobody who entrusts themselves to Him who is put to shame. Nobody that calls on Him will be put to shame. Nobody who says, "If He doesn’t cover it, I’m in trouble," will be put to shame. Everyone who comes to Him for mercy will receive mercy.
We are to be justified by faith, so you just believe. You just trust in the finished work of Jesus.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
You ever been at odds with someone? You can feel it. You've done something, said something, and you're around them and can feel the tension.
It says there is no tension between those who belong to Jesus and the God of the universe.
Every once in a while, I’ll bust into one of my children's rooms. They're little—wouldn’t do this when they’re older, but I do it sometimes just to mess with them. I say, "Aha!" Just to mess with them. It’s fun because often they just look at you like, "What? I was perfectly innocent. I wasn’t doing anything." Other times, the guilt gets to them. They feel like they’ve been caught.
I had a son hide something one time—a toy. He just needed to hide it; it was nothing serious.
The idea is God can look at you and you can just be free. Nothing to worry about, no hint of fear. No "Oh wait." If people announced, "I'm going to come tour your house today," you’d be like, "Hold on. Is it clean? How do I…?" But with God, there’s peace.
We have peace with God through the work of Jesus. We're free.
Some people think Christians are always looking over their shoulders like God’s ready to get them. No. Jesus paid the debt. God’s not mad at you if you belong to Christ, if you’ve trusted Him. He’s not disappointed, upset, or frustrated because the debt has been paid.
Jesus was delivered up for your trespasses. He was raised for your justification.
You’ve been declared innocent, free.
When I was growing up, my dad was self-employed, and sometimes things went well—but other times, it was tight.
My parents would sit my brothers and me down and say, "Money's really tight. If any of you want something, you’re going to be in big trouble." They would say, "You’re going to eat what we give you and be happy about it."
Sometimes, we got to go eat at places with cafeterias. Back then, there was Piccadilly. Let me explain how this works: When you get there, you can see the food, but you can’t access it. The food is in what I call "food prison." There are food wardens who put the food on your plate, and every item you get means debt you’ll pay later.
There were times when we got to go, but beforehand, my dad would say, "Look…" When we got there, he'd tell us what we were allowed. One piece of chicken, two vegetables, some Jell-O. He’d be looking at the cake like, "You know you can’t have that."
We knew the terms in advance, which was good parenting—pre-threaten your children in the truck, then when they try something, just give them the look. Pre-threatening inflates the meaning.
We were supposed to get what we got and be thankful.
Then there were buffets, which were very different. There used to be more buffets—Ryan's, Quincy's, Western Sizzler. We had a place called Fire Mountain. Ryan's had a roll as big as your head.
At a buffet, you pay first and then you’re free. There’s no food warden; you hold the scoop. Nobody protects the food from you. At SNS, you were supposed to get a little and be happy. At a buffet, you’re free.
When my dad took us to buffets, it was so we could hurt ourselves. We were supposed to pile things up, show him, and eat it all—not waste it—try different foods: soft serve, cookies, that weird pink stuff no one liked.
Jesus has been raised for our justification.
Christianity is not the SNS cafeteria; it’s a buffet. I don’t mean license to sin but freedom and joy—a feast.
The debt has been paid. As Christians, we need to repent of sin, mourn the brokenness in the world. But the default mode of the Christian life is joy because Christ is resurrected.
There is no debt; it's all been paid.
We walk with our heads held up, hearts full, rejoicing in the freedom and hope Christ has given, to His glory.
When I piled food on my plate at a buffet, it brought joy to my dad's heart that I appreciated what he had bought.
When we walk as Christians with hope, fellowship, life, joy, and eternity in focus, acknowledging that when we sin, we have propitiation—that Someone stands between us and God—we are not guilty.
We go to Him in grace and forgiveness and say, "It’s never been about me; it’s about You. My trust is in You, the glorious King who saves sinners."
That brings joy and delight to His heart because He already paid the cost.
We walk in freedom.
Galatians says, "It is for freedom that He set us free." I used to read that and wonder, "What does that mean?" It means freedom.
I'm not supposed to think, "I can’t pile two things on my plate at the buffet." I’m supposed to enjoy it, delight, and walk in joy.
That’s what we celebrate at Easter.
If you’ve trusted in Him, you are not dirty, broken, covered in sin.
He was delivered up for your trespasses and raised for your justification.
If He is risen and you've trusted Him, you are free, covered, blameless, and it’s already happened.
We aren’t waiting for the sentence to be dropped. We’re not in court waiting to hear our fate. If you’ve trusted Jesus, the sentence has been passed. He was declared guilty. We have been made righteous.
The band’s coming back up. We’re going to sing.
If you’re a Christian, I remind you Jesus is risen and you are free and made righteous.
If you have not placed your faith in Jesus and plan to represent yourself in court—plan with your own wisdom, morality, goodness, or just declaring, "It's not that big a deal"—I say: Trust Jesus.
Place your faith in Him. Go to the Lord and say, "I want Jesus to cover me. I want Jesus to stand in for me. I want Jesus to pay my debt. When He died, pay my sin. When He rose, give me life."
And it will be counted for those who believe.
Let’s pray.
Jesus, we are thankful for the hope of the resurrection that holds secure through the finished work of Jesus—that all who call on Your name will be saved.
You were delivered up for our sin, raised for our justification, and in You and You alone we have hope.
May Your name be glorified. Amen.
Palm Sunday 2025
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Sermon Transcript
My name is Spencer, I am one of the pastors here. We are taking a break from 1 Samuel to really be in Holy Week this week. We have Palm Sunday today, Good Friday coming up this Friday for our night of worship, and Easter Sunday. So we're going to pause 1 Samuel, and we're actually going to be in John 15 today. If you have a Bible, you can turn there. We'll get there in a moment.
One of the things I try to do with my children is I try to look for teaching moments, to really build their life on the right truth, to build their life on the right words and phrases about who our God is and how that shapes them. And I'm looking for those opportunities when they come. A year and a half ago, my son… we're trying out different activities. He started karate and gave that a run. Now, I didn't do mixed martial arts as a kid, but I was like, "Alright, we'll give this a go." So I'm watching him, and there's this one day where he's just kind of halfway going through the motions. I appreciate his instructor because his instructor didn't play around. He told him, "Just sit down. If you're not going to participate, just sit down." He got back up again, just kind of halfway through the motions. And then I was done. We were done with that. I put him in the car, and we're off to community group.
I'm looking for just this moment to teach him what I've been trying to teach him for a few weeks at this point. I was just like, "Hey listen, buddy…" What I was trying to teach him is the theology of work: the idea that we work unto the Lord, that everything we do, we do to the glory of God. I wanted him to understand that this may seem small, but it's actually a picture of bigger things. Like, you need to actually listen. You need to work hard. You're there for an hour; do the motions, do all the things. I don't really know what to tell him, but I'm sitting there watching him. You pick it up, do the things that you need to do in order to do this well, because we work unto the Lord. And I'm driving, and I can see in the mirror looking back, his eyes are just kind of glazed over. I'm like, "Are you listening?" And then finally I just said, "Hey buddy, why are you doing karate?" I'd set up the moment where he's just like, "I'm doing it to the glory of God, Dad!" Like, I'm waiting for some smaller version of that, that at least captures what we've been talking about. And he was deep in thought. And then he just said, "To protect women."
And I was like… and it dawned on me that when he started karate just a few months before that, that was one of the things that we had talked about. I was like, well, you know, karate, this will give you the opportunity for self-defense and to grow. And I remember that I had said something about… you know, I was trying to teach him that we as men, we're called to protect and take care of women, and that in our household, yeah, you should learn what it takes to, like, if someone's going to come in, to be able to fight them, to be able to put them on the ground. I think I did some version of that. That's what he took away: that karate was to protect women. And I was like, you know what buddy? Honestly, count the W. Like, I mean, just we'll work on the theology of work stuff on other things, but if you have it in your brain that this is how to protect women, like we're getting somewhere. But I said that months ago, I hadn't even thought about it.
But that happens. We take words, we take ideas, and we build our lives upon them. He had built karate on top of this idea that "I will fight for my sisters, I will fight for my mother." And I was like, yeah, that's good. But we do that. That's something that happens as we build our lives upon ideas and truth and words. And today as we look at this passage, we're going to focus on this teaching from Jesus that teaches just that: the importance of words and how they shape us.
You see, on Palm Sunday, what we just celebrated in the songs that we sang and the liturgy that we read, we celebrate that Jesus came into the city celebrated as Hosanna, the Savior King. And then a whole bunch of things happened between him entering into the city and Good Friday. In fact, when you read the Gospels, they slow down a bunch. The gospels cover the three-year ministry of Jesus, but they really slow down at the end. And a lot of it does cover this final week where we get teaching after teaching of Jesus talking about what it means to be one of his followers, what the kingdom of God is like. And John 15 is one of those teachings. It's actually on the night of Passover when he's teaching his disciples. And we're going to see what he is getting at.
Now, we're not going to see it in its entirety. To do this passage justice would take three or four weeks. I mean, there's a lot going on in John 15. We're only going to do 11 verses. And even to do that, it would take some time because there's a lot of really wonderful pictures of God and some good, wonderful theology packed into this. So I'm not going to be able to answer and do all the things. That's actually part of why we have community groups. If you're in our groups this week, you'll be able to discuss this and go a little bit deeper into some of the other areas. But we're really going to focus and zoom in on one idea that comes out of this text. It's the idea of Jesus's word at work in us and how that has profound power to shape us. Because we live in a world that is offering so many different things you can build your life on, so many different phrases and words and ideas that you can build your life upon. But I want us to see so clearly that Jesus has this invitation to build our life on something better, and that matters immensely. So that's just the one thing we're going to pull from this today, and I want us to sit in this and see this so clearly.
So let me pray for us that we'd have hearts to receive this, and then we will move into this. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us ears to hear. I pray that we would receive your word and not just be hearers of the word, but be doers. And that comes through believing the gospel. That comes through course-correcting our life, moving away from sin and more towards you. And we can't do that without your power at work within us. So we ask that you would do that. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Alright. So in John 15, just a little bit of context because we're jumping into the Gospel of John. This is a teaching called, in a series of teachings called, the "I am" teachings. And John, as he's telling the story of Christ – and John's really explicit about how he's written this gospel – it is to explain Christ as God and that you should believe in him. And so he's got seven different teachings he's lined up, these "I am" teachings, that Jesus is telling them who he is. He says, "I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life." And then we get to this final "I am" teaching here in chapter 15. So I want to read it all in one clip and then we'll work through this.
He says, "‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 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 I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.’"
Man, there's a lot going on there. A lot of wonderful truths. Now, to even begin to understand what he's getting at, we need to understand that he's using a metaphor to teach something greater. He's using the example of a vine to help teach that he is the vine and we are the branches. Now here's the problem: Many of us are not growing vineyards in this area. It's just not happening. And they would have been very familiar with this language, and we are not. So I think it's helpful to actually see what he's talking about. So this is a typical vineyard vine. And what Jesus is getting at here is that he's the main vine that goes across the trellis, and that we are the branches that flow out of this vine. So there's one main vine that's going across, and there's branches flowing out of this.
And there's a lot packed into this. But one of the things he's trying to clearly teach is that his people are in him. We are a part of him. This is something that you read throughout the New Testament. This is what Paul is getting at when he's teaching that Jesus is the head of the church and the church is the body. It's all one. This is where we get teachings about Jesus is the cornerstone, the foundation of our faith that the house is built upon. It's these same ideas that we are in Christ, that when you're a Christian, you are connected to him. And it's a helpful visual to explain what he is getting at.
Now, there also is quite a bit packed into this passage that we don't have time to get into. There's a whole thing on the Father pruning branches, branches thrown into the fire. There's some things on needing to understand being known by spiritual fruit and the importance of that, the importance of the commandments. There's all types of stuff that is going on here. But again, to be able to do this and do this well… I have one option: I could be here for like 60 minutes, which is frowned upon because Kid City has children that have a ticking time bomb. So I'm not going to do that. And I'm not going to stretch this out for three or four weeks. I do think that you'll find some helpful study in this in groups this week. But I do want to focus on this one main idea here: that Jesus, the Word incarnate, this is our God, and we get to abide in him, and we get to be in him and him in us. And I just want us to see this so clearly.
So let's work this going back to the top in verse one when he says, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser." Now, Jesus is teaching his disciples, and his disciples are Jewish, and they would have been familiar with this language of the vine. This is not something that's foreign to them, not just because they have lots of vineyards where they were living, but also this is language that flows out of the Old Testament. When you read the Old Testament, you read Psalm 80, Israel is described as a vine taken out of Egypt and planted in the promised land. Isaiah 5 talks about the people of God being described as a vineyard, as a vine. Jeremiah 2 talks about the people of God being called a choice vine. Ezekiel chapter 15 talks about Jerusalem being a vine. We see this over and over again. So much so that in the 100-200 years before Christ, in what's called the intertestamental period between the last book Malachi being written and the gospels happening and Jesus coming, the period of the Maccabees, this period a few hundred years before Christ, they had coins in that time period that had on the back of them a vine from a vineyard, symbolizing Israel. So they were familiar with this. And this was not neutral, that Jesus just took something that they were unfamiliar with that had no loaded language, no loaded meaning in it. He took something that had meaning and also some meaning that we may not see. If you read those Old Testament passages, when it usually talks about Israel as a vine, the people of God as a vine, it speaks negatively. Calls them a wild vine, a useless vine, pictures of disobedience and deserving judgment. So this is not a neutral example that they've been given. But what Jesus is doing is he's taking something that is familiar to them and he's redefining it. He's helping them see this in a different way. And he says, "I am the true vine. I am the vine." And then he says, "My Father is the vinedresser." This is the farmer. This is the gardener, is the one who tends to the vine.
And then he continues in verse two. He says, "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." Verse three: "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." So there's a lot that he's… I mean, again, if you read the Gospel of John, you see so many of these themes that are connecting together. But John 1 begins with Jesus being declared as the Word who became flesh, the incarnate Word. This is the idea that as God created the world through the power of his spoken word, this God is the Word who became flesh. And this Jesus, this Word, goes to work in his disciples, bringing them to faith. And then they are called, we'll see this later, to live by his words, by his teachings. So we got both pictures here: Jesus the Word who saves and sets apart his people, and the words that he's given for his people to live by, the teachings of the gospel. So he's telling this to his disciples, and it's to 11 disciples, minus Judas. You see, at this point in the Passover meal, Judas has already left. So it's just the 11 that he's talking to when he looks at them, and this is supposed to be unbelievably encouraging, and he says, "You are clean." He looks at 11 men that he's invested three years of his life in, teaching them the kingdom of God and the gospel, helping them see who he is over and over again. And this is the Word that is going to work in their heart to bring them to faith, to be the people of God that he builds the church through, so the people of God may abide in him. He says, "You are clean." This is the power of the word, the power of the word to save us through faith, to set us apart, to make us clean, and to live out his teachings.
But I want us to pause and don't miss this point: That means that the word is powerful. That words in general are powerful. Like, we undersell so often how important it is. We unknowingly build our lives upon words and phrases. We just got done about a month ago with our recovery cycle. Recovery is a 10-week program that we do every year. It's offered for those who are working through any bit of suffering or sin or brokenness. And every year I get to watch, I get a front row seat as a pastor to watch God change people and help them see that they've built their lives upon the wrong words in ways they don't even realize. Because this is what we do. I mean, it's not uncommon in recovery to have someone that remembers a time where their parent years ago said, "Why can't you be as good as this sibling?" And that phrase took root in their heart. And they spent the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years working and striving and proving themselves with an unending work ethic, trying to please others, trying to be the best because years ago they built their life on this idea that they heard so long ago. It's not uncommon in recovery for someone who's been bullied in school growing up or in the workplace to finally make a decision: "That's not going to happen again." That they're no longer going to be in a position where someone overpowers them. They will be in the seat of power. And they build their life upon that idea where everything becomes a power dynamic, and it's beginning to crush their soul. There are positive things we build upon in the wrong ways. It's not uncommon in recovery to hear someone that heard some version of "You're so pretty," "You're so smart," "You're so strong," "You're so dependable" for so long that it went to their head. And instead of that being a place where they turned over thanks to the Lord, it became a place of pride or a place of identity. And the rest of their days has been spent trying to live up to this expectation where "I have to stay the prettiest or the strongest or the smartest or the most dependable." And it's exhausting. And I so love recovery because I get to watch people discover this and then encounter the gospel and a word that is better, that changes them to where they're no longer living under this identity, but they've been given a new one.
But that helps us, I hope that helps us see, that is how powerful words are. And the power of the gospel is immense to change our lives and become a foundation that shapes us. 1 Peter 1:23 says, "since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God." What he is preaching there is that we, through the word of God, are born again. It comes to live in us, and God implants this imperishable seed, this seed that will never die, spoil, or fade. It begins to grow in us, and it changes us through the living and abiding word of God. This is the power of the word, and it's the power of the word at work in us.
And that's something that we should have front and center in our souls, that we should remember how powerful the gospel is. And that's what we celebrate this week, y'all. We just sang songs that celebrated "open wide the gates" and that Jesus comes into the city. We celebrate that he, on Good Friday, as we'll sing so much about on Friday, goes to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin and to absorb the wrath of God that we deserve. That as Romans 6 says, "For the wages of sin is death." The good news of the gospel is that we have sinned against a holy and perfect God, but Jesus lovingly goes to the cross to pay that penalty for us. And the next Sunday, we will celebrate that he walks out of the tomb and makes a way for a new life in Christ, for us to be born again through the imperishable seed that gets implanted in us, that brings us to life. And then we celebrate that Jesus ascends to the right hand of God the Father, where he rules and reigns as King and Lord. So that we look at Jesus not just as Savior, not just as conqueror of death, but as the Lord who says "do this," and we do it; "don't do this," and we don't do it; "be obedient here," and we say, "Yes, Lord." This is the gospel that saves us and sets us apart. That's the power of the word at work in his people that saves us.
But also, I don't want us to miss this: it's a continual invitation to us as Christians to abide. Because in verse four he says, "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 I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." So Jesus looks at his disciples and he tells them, "Abide in me." Which means to remain, to stay. Abide in me. It's an invitation, but also it's an encouragement because what does he say? "Abide in me, and I in you." That it isn't this effort and toil to just try to stay connected to him; He's at work within us. Which, y'all, makes him the main character here. He's the vine. He is the vine. He says, "Apart from me you can do nothing. A branch apart from me cannot bear fruit. It withers and it dies." He says, "I am the vine. I'm the one that gives life to the branches. I'm the one that sustains the branches. I'm the one that gives you the fruit. It is me at work within you." And the disciples need to hear this. And y'all, we so deeply need to hear this as Christians. We so deeply need to believe this.
Because so many of us are so deeply trying to be vines when he's called us to be branches. We may not say that, but our actions display this: that we want to be the vine. And my question is, are you tired? If you're honest, are you tired of trying to be the vine? It's not the way it's supposed to be. Matt Freeman, our pastor who oversees worship and other things, he's getting ready to take a sabbatical. He's going to be gone for three months, which I'm excited about for him. I'm excited about for him because this is going to be good for his soul. Um, I got to do a sabbatical last year, and I needed it. Um, I needed the time to rest and and to do some soul work. I'm thankful as a church that we get to do these sabbaticals. I'm thankful that we have the time and space and we have the team that can be able to do this. But I needed this because I've realized that so much of my pastoral ministry and my life as a Christian is this endless attempt to be the vine, and it just shows up over and over again. And that's no way to live. And as a pastor, that's an easy way to burn out. I mean, pastoring is a joy, and I love it, and it's wonderful. I wouldn't want to do anything else. But it is hard. There's a spiritual weight to it. And the burnout rate in pastoral ministry is high. I mean, it's high. There's a whole cottage industry devoted right now to trying to understand all the different factors for why pastors are burning out, why they don't last longer than five years. And it's, you know, there's a lot that's going on there. And like many things, these problems are multifaceted, multifactorial. There's a lot of things going on. And there's also trying to figure out how to inspire people to jump into pastoral ministry because there's fewer people jumping into pastoral ministry. So they're all trying to figure this out. But I know one of the factors good and well of this type of burnout is self-inflicted. It is forgetting that you're not the vine, that you're a branch. And my sabbatical taught me that so much, that so much of my effort is from me. And I had to grow in prayerfulness. There was an immense lack of prayerfulness in my life. And I've had to learn to just, when I'm feeling burdened, to just go outside and just walk down Holland Avenue in the sun and see the invisible attributes of God and his glory of his creation and just talk to God and just pray and cast my cares upon him to sustain me. Like, I need this. Well, you need this. Like, as a Christian, you need this.
You need to read the scriptures, not just for the utility of checking a box or doing a thing or completing a task or what, but to actually just gaze upon the beauty of our God and his word. We need this. We need this because we're so trying to be vines, and we're not. We're not capable of it. We're not designed to be the vine. We're not designed to be the source of life, of strength, of identity. No, it comes from him. And there's this invitation to abide in him. And we just miss it, y'all. We miss it. So many of us are trying. So many of us, our Christian faith is like a phone. It's like a phone where it's just going. It's got all... like my wife, when she for a long time she didn't realize that on the iPhone you have to like close out the windows. And then one day I was like, she's like, "My battery keeps dying." I was like, "Let me see it. Have you closed out your windows?" And she's like, "What?" I was like, "You've had a hundred windows going for years! Like, you got to like get rid of these." And so many of us have so many windows open all the time. We're so many things that are happening all the time. And, you know, we'll switch to low power mode and try to stretch the life out of it, and all of a sudden it starts shutting down. And the problem is that it's meant to be connected to the source of power. It's got to be recharged. You can't endlessly use the phone and expect that it's going to function like it's supposed to.
And that's us. We just, we miss this, y'all. We try to work jobs and raise children and pay rent and be good friends and family and clean up our house and be good neighbors and stay healthy and pay debt and be a better spouse. We try to do all the things without ever charging the battery. And we wonder why we are anxious and depressed and sleepless and overmedicated and overstimulated and overwhelmed. And it is because we have underwhelmed our souls by trying to be the vine when he's just saying, "Be a branch." Just be a branch. And we reject this offer to abide in the vine. And we as Christians live lives a million miles a minute. And then when we have the time to truly abide, we will doom scroll and we will distract. And there's this invitation from our Savior that's saying, "Would you abide in me? Would you abide in me?" And we wonder why our faith is so bland and God seems so foreign and our worship seems so boring. And it's because we live lives trying to be vines instead of branches. The power to live the life we're called to live flows from him. It does not flow from ourselves. And some of us, myself included, need to be so deeply confronted by that reality this morning.
And then Jesus continues in verse six. He says, "If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." So he says, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, it'll be done for you." Which is a wonderful invitation that has been so deeply hijacked and marred by prosperity preachers in America, who have just tried to actively ruin that passage every chance they can. As if that's some invitation to fill the desires of your heart. As if that's not connected to the immediate context, what Jesus just taught in John 14. In John 14 he says, "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it." So he just taught that, and he's teaching it again. It's this idea of we ask for things in the name of the Lord, in his name, that his will would be done to his glory and not the exaltation of self. And there's a lot of prosperity preachers in America that took that and made that about our own selfish enriched desires, and they've ruined that. And hell is hot, and they're going to see it one day because that is a wicked way to twist this passage. Because what's so beautiful about this passage is to have such a sweet communion with God, to so deeply abide in him and him in you, that he so shaped your desires to be so heavenly and kingdom-motivated, that what flows out of your heart in this deep abiding relationship is things that make much of him, in his name, to his glory, and not our own. And that is a way to live. That is an invitation to a much sweeter, much better life when we live inside the vine.
And then he, we'll finish here in verses 8 through 11. Says, "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Now goodness, there's a lot in that passage, which again, if you're not part of a group, stop by our connect table today, jump in a group. You could study this this week in your group. So I can't get into all of this. But I do want to end on this idea here, that following the ways of God – and that's keeping his commandments – that following the ways of God is abiding in his love, and that's where joy is found. Like, y'all, we need that so deeply. Our souls need that so deeply. Because our instincts from the flesh, when God says "do this," "don't do this," our instincts say, "Ah, did you say that? Ah, is... I don't know." We don't want to do this. But what he's trying to help us see is that if you're abiding in me, if you're abiding in my love, you'll see this is where joy is found. And maybe against your instincts, but it's better for you because you'll actually discover something that is better.
When my wife and I got married, we had a few different interests. I love sports, I still do. She was a musical theater minor. And to this day, she teaches dance and musical theater for a middle school. So she loves musical theater. And I, when we got married, did not like musical theater. I wasn't raised on it. I saw Oklahoma one time as a kid, and I was like, "That's a glimpse of hell." This is like, I don't love this. But she does. And so I had to finally start to see things from her perspective. And the first musical that finally started to make sense to me is I listened to Les Mis and I saw Les Mis, and I went, huh. I love stories. I love good film. I love music. Okay, I see. And I started to… and then my buddy texted me and said, "Hey, have you heard about this Broadway that just hit called Hamilton?" And I just was like, "No." It's like, I went on Spotify and I listened to it. I went, "Oh my goodness." And then we started going to see Broadways together. We started going up to Charlotte and then, you know, Colombia, and just we started seeing these things. It's like, "Oh, okay." Like, I'm starting to get some of this. And there's some that I truly have begun to enjoy. There's some I still don't enjoy, and I say, "You should go see that with your friend." But there are others where I'm just like, "No, this is a wonderful story. I'm captured by it. I'm captured by the music. I see what they're doing in the first act, how they pull this into the second act. I see this. And now I see how good this is." Now, it was against my instincts; would have never thought I'd be a person that would show up to a Broadway and enjoy it. But I see how some of them, there's a lot of joy in this, and there's joy with her and enjoying this together.
And it may be against our instincts to see the commands of God that we don't want to follow. But if you in faith will trust the vine and trust what he is saying, that this is where joy is actually found. If you do this, you will experience true joy, not the fleeting happiness of this world. Because the world offers us so many things that we can chase after that we think are good, and those things will never satisfy. We have to believe this. We have to believe this wholeheartedly.
A couple days ago, I got to do something that I have so wanted to do for so very long. I got to go to the Masters, which has been a bucket list thing for me to do. Like, I just, I've so badly wanted to go, and I finally got to go. And I got there, and it was awesome. This is probably going to show up in 10 sermon illustrations in the next couple of years because it just was a profound experience for me. But I know some of you don't like golf. It's fine. But stay with me. I was there, and I was enjoying it. I was enjoying all the things that I've wanted to enjoy for years. But I also realized there's a crowd that shows up to the Masters, it's a little different. I thought that, you know, everyone's going to be there and they're going to be enjoying this the whole way to the finish. And by the time we're at 18, the final hole in golf – there's 18 holes – on the final hole, we're there, which is a big deal as you see them finish in the biggest golf tournament in the world, but stay with me. We're there, and there's only like three or four hundred people still left. Like, there just, that's it. I was like, "What in the world? There were thousands of people here earlier, and we're on the final hole of the biggest golf tournament in the world." And what I realized is, is for a lot of people, this is just a social thing. This is a thing. And there's a… I went up to where all the fancy houses are, and I saw all the fancy beautiful people and all the things. And I just had a moment of clarity, not from a position of self-righteousness, but just from a position of just God-given clarity. That's like, there's so many people that want to be in those houses. There's so many people where that's the good life, that that's everything the world offers: money, status, fame, luxuries, riches, all of it. Everything is aimed at that life right there. To be able to do this, it's just a social thing that you do for a minute and go on to the next big thing. And I had such clarity to go, "That's not joyful. That is fleeting worldly happiness. And it's not where joy is found."
And we have to examine our souls to realize where true joy is found. It is found in living a life that abides in the vine. It is found in joyously listening to our Savior and living a life that is pleasing in his sight because that's where ultimate joy is found. And y'all, that invitation is so clearly given to us as the people of God. But we have to have the ears to hear it, and we have to have the eyes to see it. And that's my hope. There are some of you that if you're honest, you've been looking for joy in all the wrong places. That so much of your life has been filled with, "If I can just get to this point in life, if I can just get this, if I can just obtain this, I'll finally be happy." And Jesus so clearly is saying that's not where joy is found. But there is an invitation to you, there is, to come and abide in Christ and have him abide in you, and to live a life connected as a branch to the vine. And my hope is this: in this Holy Week, as we walk through this into Good Friday and we celebrate what he did at the cross, as we walk into Easter and celebrate the empty tomb, that you would have your eyes open to what this invitation is. And you take it, and you'd believe.
And there are those of us that have truly tasted and seen that the Lord is good, that we actually are Christians, we love Christ. But what you need to hear this morning is that some of you have so strived and worked and labored like a vine. And my hope this morning is that you'd hear the invitation so clearly to abide, that you'd see that you are a wonderful branch that God is pruning and doing stuff with. He's trying to bear fruit in. But things need to shift in your life. My hope is that in a group this week, you begin to see that even more clearly, that things need to shift in your life to be a Christian that actually takes the invitation to abide and remembers that you're a branch and he's the vine. Let me pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us see this invitation this morning. God, help us see that you are the source of life and hope and joy and fulfillment and identity. It's you. God, I pray that you'd compel our hearts to believe that. There are those here that have never truly believed that. That has not been their story. They've lived life trying to find joy everywhere else. And God, I pray that you pierce through their heart right now to help them see where true actual joy is found. It is found in you. And there are many of us, God, that we've believed that, we've forgotten it. And we've lived lives trying to be branches. And God, may you pierce through our hearts this morning to help us see who we are actually called to be. And that we begin and remember and rediscover what it means to be a branch connected to you, our wonderful vine. In Jesus' name, Amen.