Theme: I Believe that Jesus is My Lord
1. Who He is and What He does
2. What it means to believe in Him
John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
This past week we had VBS, but as it is with many things in the world today, it had to be different. Our VBS series was entirely online, and it’s still on our website for those who missed it last week – I’d encourage you to check out our series – adults can probably learn a lot from it too.
One of the things we love most about VBS is spending time with the little kids. Every year, it’s fun to see how inquisitive, unique, and spontaneous they are. You have to be ready with little kids because you never quite know how they’ll respond to something. I missed that about our online VBS this year, as I’m sure many of you can think of things you miss about seeing people face-to-face and spending time with them. God-willing, we can return to normal VBS next year.
But despite the format we had, I still had some interesting conversations with my own kids. One example of that – on the last day of VBS we studied the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. After the lesson, I looked at Lukas’ picture of Jesus and asked him who it was. “Jesus” he said. Good, then I asked Lukas, “What did Jesus do?” He stared at the picture of His Savior on the cross and he said, “He died for my sins.” Good, finally I asked, “Lukas, is Jesus still dead?” He replied with a quick, “Yep.” Well, I thought, we were 2 for 3, not bad for a 3-year-old.
As amazing as it is what a little child can retain and learn, sometimes you just don’t quite know what they’re going to say. But that’s part of the process right? Today, we follow our custom of recapping the VBS week in our Sunday service. Our series this year was “I believe in Jesus as my Lord.” Each story focused on an important part of Jesus’ life and work as our Lord and Savior. Although our series was all about what Jesus did, with good reason, we kept a little question in the back of our minds throughout the week too. That question was, “What does it mean to believe in Jesus – for Him to be my Lord?”
That question is just as important as anything about what Jesus did, because many people know what Jesus did, but they don’t know what it means for them, or how to believe in Jesus. Now, considering these questions, you might think we’ve drifting from VBS lessons to the existential questions of Christianity. These questions involve some of the most pondered sentiments in our faith that have been debated over and studied by philosophers and scholars from the beginning of time.
And yet, we answered both questions this week – who is Jesus and what does it mean to believe in Him? We answer these questions by using the simple and clear Word of God. We did it in such a way that a 3-year-old could confess Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We did it in a way that the youngest among us can sleep soundly at night with full assurance that they have a home in heaven. How did we do this? It’s not a testament to our ministry or skills, but it’s the reality of using the Word of God as He has presented it to us. And for children, that comes quite naturally. They believe. They trust. They rely on those who are stronger and more powerful than they are. And that’s why children are the model and example for all of us.
The passage before us today summarizes God’s answer to both of those questions, and also provides a nice summary of our VBS week. And on top of that, it’s perfectly suited for young children. The imagery of Jesus as the Vine and believers as branches is one of the easiest to understand in the entire Bible. And it’s a good thing too, because what God teaches through this image is the most important piece of information in the history of the world. With this one passage, Jesus tells us who He is and what it means to believe in Him. May God give each of us a childlike faith to accept and trust His Words before us today.
1) Who Jesus is and What Jesus does
Who is Jesus and what did He do that was so important. Well, as it is with many people, their reputation follows their name. We identify people by their names, and with that comes indications of what we can learn about them. Sometimes those names because titles because they are so closely connected with what a person does. God designed this same feature into the way that He described His Son in His Word. Every name of Jesus indicates also what He does.
And so, we see the name Jesus gives to Himself in this passage – the Vine. The Vine always has a relationship to the branches, and then consequently also to the fruit. We’ll consider that thought a bit more as we get into part two, what it means to believe in Jesus. But, for this first part – who Jesus is, the image of the Vine always teaches us something important about Him, namely that we are connected to Him. Jesus became one of us through His incarnation – the fancy term for Him taking on a human body. Now, that idea isn’t all that strange – everyone of us is born with a body, it’s quite a normal thing for humans.
But this was special for Jesus because He is also God. A human with a body is ordinary – God with a body is unbelievable – it’s miraculous. And yet, to be connected to us in such a way as to give us spiritual life, Jesus had to become like us in every way. He had to allow us to become branches grafted into the Him, the Vine, by faith. We were not able to rise to His level, whether it be in righteousness or in being, and so He came to us.
Now, within the very same thought we also see Jesus’ divinity as God. In order to be the life-giving support system for our faith, He also has to be the one, perfect God. In terms of the birth of Jesus, which we covered on day 1 of VBS, we might think of Isaiah’s prophecy of the Savior, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Again, the names of Jesus also tell us about what He did. When He is given the name, Immanuel, meaning “God with us” it shows that the Savior to come for humanity had to be fully God. This part of Christ’s nature was also integral to His work of giving us life.
And so, as Jesus finishes the illustration in John 15, He reminds the listener that anyone disconnected from the Vine withers away and perishes. In our verse Jesus says that no one can produce any fruit – to do one good and righteous thing – apart from Jesus. Jesus isn’t speaking here of ceasing to be human when He warns of being disconnected from the Vine. These statements are not in terms of His humanity or how our humanity is affected by unbelief. Rather, Jesus is speaking of His creative work as God and how our spiritual lives are lost without Him. So, within this simple verse we have nice summary of the person and work of Jesus as our Lord.
2) What it means to believe in Him
Moving on to the second question – what does this verse say about what it means that Jesus is your Lord – or in other words, to believe in Him? To answer, we recognize a feature of Scripture that is at work in this verse. Here’s what that feature is: What we know and believe about our lives comes from what God reveals about Himself. To put this another way – God’s truth applies to our lives. So, in action, the best thing we can do to understand ourselves, especially with respect to God, is to determine the effect of what He says about Himself to our lives. In order to do this, we need to track the same points that we discussed in seeing who Jesus is and what Jesus does.
In simple terms, because Jesus became Man, what He does applies to you. And because Jesus is God, He is sufficient and able to take care of every need you have. These are truths, and they are important, but they don’t quite help us learn what it means to believe in Jesus. We find this point out by looking more directly at the illustration, but keep in mind that this illustration is built of those two basic points about Jesus.
So, when taking the illustration of Jesus to heart, and applying that truth to our lives, we see these clear facts:
·
Spiritual life only comes through Jesus.
·
If I disconnect from Jesus, I wither and
die spiritually.
·
I can only produce fruits of faith
(think, thoughts and actions verified to be done in true righteousness before
God) through Jesus.
·
Faith is a living and active
relationship with Jesus – He says that “He is in the believer and the believer
is in Him.”
These basic applications, all from our single verse of Scripture, give us a picture into what it means to believe in Jesus. But, part of the confusion is also because there are many false ideas out in the world today – so let’s apply these applications to those.
·
Faith is not my work. At no point in the
continuum of faith, from beginning to end, am I the active force. In fact, I am
passive, as passive as a branch and a piece of fruit is in relation to the
Vine. The word passive does not mean dead, it simply means you are not the
cause.
·
This also applies to my thoughts, my
freedom, and my will. I cannot choose Jesus. Faith is not making a
decision for Christ. There is a knowledge to faith. Faith is certainly not
rejecting Jesus. And through faith I can understand things about Jesus, but
this wisdom is founded on the Word of God, is taught by the Holy Spirit, and is
produced by God.
·
Anyone can have faith. If believing in
Jesus is not about our works or our will, then it’s not dependent on our age,
gender, race, experiences, feelings, or intuition. We think specifically here
of little children, even infants, since many churches today teach that they
cannot really believe in Jesus. Again, trusting the straightforward words of
Jesus keeps it simple. To believe in Him is to be connected to Him. He can make
that possible and He promises to when the gospel is given in Word and
Sacrament.
·
To believe in Jesus also means to obey
Jesus. The branch does not seek to become the vine. We cannot tolerate
any religion or teaching that claims that Jesus is not the only true Savior. As
it concerns our human relationships, we cannot love others while supporting
their unbelief or false notions about Jesus – no matter what society tells us
about diversity and tolerance.
·
As a summary of all these points, perhaps the best way to describe
believing in Jesus is that it means we are with Him. That seems like
such a simple thing, but it’s not when you consider our situation. We are born
into this world without knowing Jesus. He knows us but we are not with Him, in
terms of the illustration, we are stray branches – lost and disconnected from
the one true Vine.
The miracle of God’s grace is that Jesus overcame the obstacles that keep us from being with Him. He leveled the valleys and demolished the mountains that kept us from Him. He did that by standing in our place and keeping the demands of justice that hung on our shoulders. He made the payment for our sins, by offering the human body that He took in our place. All of this – so that we could be with Him, and to believe that is to have faith – to have Jesus as your Lord.
James 1:21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save you.
So when you get down to it, this really is a message for children. Because there’s no better example of helpless individuals who need someone greater and stronger to provide for them – than a little child. And that’s what we are with Jesus – thanks be to Him for His love. Amen.
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