Abide In My Word

We are in a series on Christian discipleship called Following Jesus and next two weeks we’re going to look at the vital role that the word of God has to our growth as disciples, so please turn with me to:

John 8: 28-32

ILL: My youngest son Matthew is going through a stage – and I’ve gotten his permission to share this with you - where he says “I know” all the time. No matter what instruction or information his mom or I have to share with him, he has already anticipated it …he knows. The other day he was outside playing with his buddy Benjamin and I called out to him that dinner would be ready in five minutes. “I know”. He knew already! I thought this was hot-off-the-press information, but he already knew. It reminds me of Psalm 139:4 Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely. Makes me wonder which side of the family omniscience runs on.

Of course saying I know is just a habit for Matthew (and something we’re working with him on). But you and I can have a similar response when we come to a subject that we feel pretty familiar with such as the importance of the word of God to our growth as disciples and automatically we can assume I know. I knew that. Yep, knew that too.

The word disciple means learner (I’m sure you knew that), and that’s the posture we should take as disciples, the posture of a learner. So as we pray together, let’s ask God to help us have hearts and minds that are ready to learn from God’s word about our desperate need for His word. Pray.

I. The genuine disciple abides in Christ’s word

In the conversation leading up to the passage we read Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah and in verse 28 he alludes to the cross – when you have lifted up the Son of Man ¬– and though the Jew’s could not have grasped his full meaning, yet as he’s speaking, many who are hearing him believe in him. If we were there, we would probably be very excited to see many believe in him – and we would probably want to be very careful that we didn’t do anything to challenge the genuineness of that belief. But Jesus turns to these new believers and does exactly that: he presses on the genuineness of their belief: if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples. It’s a warning to them: the mark of a true disciple isn’t that you believe in me at some point in your life, the mark of a true disciple is that from that point forward you abide in my word. You abide in that belief.

In the gospel of John the word believe is used to describe a range of very different kinds of belief, from a saving belief to a shallow belief that is quickly abandoned. In chapter 20 John writes that he wrote his gospel so that we might believe in Jesus Christ and by believing we may have life in his name. So there is a kind of believing that leads to eternal life.

But John also describes a kind of believing in Jesus that does not save. In the second chapter John writes that many believed in his name, but that Jesus did not entrust himself to them because he knew what was in the heart of man – their faith was not a saving faith. In John chapter six the crowds declare Jesus to be a Prophet and want to make Him king. But a few verses later Jesus says some things that were hard for them to accept and John writes: After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him (6:66).

And if we were to continue reading in John chapter 8 we would see that they don’t either. In fact, in a very short time these same people who believed in Jesus are offended and accusing Jesus of having a demon.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. The mark of a genuine disciple is that he/she abides in Christ’s word. So what does it mean to abide in Christ’s word? That’s what I want to take the rest of our time looking at this morning, and then next week we will look at the results of abiding – you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

II. What does it mean to abide in Christ’s word?

One of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible is John 15, where Jesus speaks a lot about abiding. We are to abide in Christ and He is to abide in us. If we do, we will bear much fruit for His glory. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. Christ must abide in us. But in verse 7 Jesus says his word must abide in us. It’s not a different thought: Christ abiding in us and His word abiding in us is in some sense the same thing.

The word abide literally means “place” and it carries the idea of a home or residence. From that comes the sense of living in, remaining in, continuing in. We are to find our home in, and live in, and continue in Christ, and He will find His home in and live in and continue in us. “Abide in me and I in you.” We are to find our home in and live in and continue in His word, even as His word has found a home in and lives in and continues in us. When Christ abides in us, His word abides in us. And when His word abides in us, Christ abides in us.

Discipleship must always be vitally and consistently connected to the word of God. The spiritual health of a Christian (or a church) is dependent on their being firmly rooted in the word of God. If a Christian or a church strays from the word of God, spiritual disease and barrenness will eventually be the result. And if a person or church that professes belief in Christ permanently strays from the word of God, the hard truth of what Jesus is saying here is that they were never genuine disciples in the first place. The word of God is absolutely essential to our growth as disciples.

This is where I want to commend you as a congregation – you make it easy to preach God’s word because of your hunger for God’s word and commitment to sound biblical truth. Thank you for your love for God’s word! But this is also where I want to warn us. This is exactly where our minds can clog up with this thought: I know. I know this. Word of God is important to my life - I know that. And we can miss the fact that what Jesus means by his word abiding in us is far more than just knowing that the Bible is important and having a few verses memorized. It means that God’s word finds a home in us – in the words of John Piper, “it fits, it belongs.” We might need to move some furniture around – might even need to throw some junk out, but God’s word is at home in us. And we are at home in God’s word.

And if we’re honest, this is exactly where so many of us struggle. I’ve talked to solid and sincere believers and they’ve shared the challenge it is for them to be in the Word consistently. I know that challenge too. For many years now I have, by the grace of God, had a consistent time in the early morning when I spend time in God’s word. But I know that it is often shallow, my mind often distracted, my abiding often more like a quick visit. So I want to share two brief points to help us not only understand what Jesus means by abiding in his word, but I really pray will give us practical help to grow in this area. Matt reminded me that just telling people, "Read your Bible" isn't really helpful (and I agree), so I am going to try and say a few more words so that you get confused and not realize that what I'm really saying is...read your Bible!

a. Abide in Christ’s word by making the time to read the Bible every day

Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Our souls need the word of God more than we need food. The problem for many of us is that of all the things we feel like we need, the word of God is low on the list, and so we don’t make the time for it. What do I do if I don’t want to read the Bible? What do I do if I just don’t have an appetite for the Bible?

Well, my telling you “read the Bible” probably won’t help, cause it doesn’t address the heart. But you know what will help? Reading the Bible. We need to read the Bible if we want to have an appetite to read the Bible

ILL: Every February about mid-way I stop thinking about football until August. Really don’t miss it (much). But when fb season starts and I start watching a game or two – then something happens and pretty soon I’m checking ESPN every day, and reading analysis of games that have already been played and predictions of games that are yet to be played and team standings to see where my team ranks. So I know this morning that the Giants are ranked 15 in the power rankings. And I can tell you the rankings of the other teams in their division: Redskins are 11, Eagles are 14, Cowboys are 19. Why? The appetite that lay dormant for 7 months is being cultivated again.

Maybe you’re thinking, I don’t care about football – can we get off of sports? OK, but I guarantee for you it’s something else. For you ladies, it might be chick flicks (for some of you guys too, but don’t raise your hand – keep that to yourself). It might be afternoon soaps or CSI or 24 or Lost. You watched one and now you can’t stop. You’ve cultivated an appetite for food. Maybe you’ve developed an appetite for greasy cheeseburgers and fries, or for chocolate or ice cream, and some of you have cultivated an appetite for healthy food. Our hearts can also cultivate dark and secret appetites – like lust or greed or a desire for power or prominence.

Point is, we have a say in what our hearts desire and we can cultivate a hunger for reading God’s word by reading God’s word. Start by setting aside 10 or 15 minutes at a certain time of the day (whatever works consistently for you) and then, knowing that your soul needs it, whether you feel like it or not, read God’s word. Feed your soul with the truth of God’s word. Connect with God’s word, get it in your heart and mind. Mine it for truths, memorize it for strength, meditate on it for wisdom, apply it to your life. Make God’s word at home in your life, and make your life at home in God’s word. Every day.

b. Abide in Christ’s word by obeying His word in action and attitude

There is no doubt that obeying God’s word is intrinsic to abiding in God’s word. In John 15 Jesus says, If you keep my commandments you will abide (live in) my love. James admonishes us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Abiding in God’s word involves obeying God’s word.

But again, we need to be careful that we don’t think, I know. We need to seek to obey God’s word in both action and attitude. There is a danger we can get some outward obedience happening – we don’t do certain things, we don’t watch certain things, we don’t go certain places, we don’t say certain things. And we do certain things – we read our Bibles, we pray a half hour every day, we go to church, we tithe, we raise our kids a certain way. And we can think that we are obeying – and feel pretty good about ourselves.

The Pharisees perfected outward obedience – but their obedience missed their hearts. So God’s word didn’t abide in them. It had no place in them. We can look pretty good on the outside and yet be filled with pride, self-righteousness, religious pettiness and judgmentalism, critical spirits, ungracious attitudes, unloving attitudes on the inside. All of this goes on in the current of our heart – yet the Bible speaks powerfully to these currents.

• Love as Christ loved – speaks to the current of unloving selfishness.
• Humble ourselves – speaks to the current of pride and self-promotion.
• Speak with grace – speaks to the current of harsh impatience or self-righteousness.
• Show compassion – speaks to the current of apathy and indifference towards others.
• Avoid hypocrisy, doing acts of righteousness just to get the applause of men. Speaks to the strong current of doing our religion for the approval of men instead of the approval of God.

Over and over again God’s word speaks to the strong currents of disobedience in our hearts and gives us strength to repent (change direction) and obey. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free – abiding in God’s word sets us free from the bondage of sin to obey God.

Conclusion: 

We’ve been saying that this series is going to be focusing on action – call to discipleship is a call to action. But there is an inherent danger there and that is legalism.

ILL: Last night I was working on this message on the laptop and needed to transfer it to PC, but every attempt to attach it to an e-mail failed. So I tried saving it on a memory stick, but when I opened it up on PC, found that it had been corrupted and was unusable.

Legalism corrupts any effort we make by causing us to rely on ourselves instead of relying on God’s grace and power. So we can read our Bibles out of a legalistic duty, we can attempt to obey the Lord out of legalistic motives. So let me close with this: this abiding is about our dependency on Christ and His word to do in what and through us what we could never do ourselves. Apart from him we can do nothing. We draw our lives from Him, and we draw our life from his word, and that word takes root and has an effect on how we think, how we act, what we love, what we don’t love.

Abiding connects us vitally to Christ. His life and grace and love and joy and power flow through us, not because we’re doing certain things, but because we’re connected, we’re abiding. Abiding in his word is being vitally connected to Christ himself, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to change.