Grace Fellowship Church Pastor/Teacher Jim Rickard Tuesday, April 6,

Doxology Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.— Amen.

Memory Verse John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:4 Abiding In Christ!

John 15:1-4: 1) Establishment for fruit production in verse 1: the Vine – Jesus Christ and Vinedresser – God the Father.

2) Encouragement for fruit production, growth, vs 2: Divine Discipline and Undeserved Suffering inside the Plan of God the Father.

3) Environment for fruit production in verse 3: Eternal Security - Positional Sanctification.

4) Empowerment for fruit production in verse 4: Abiding in Christ.

MENO - Aorist, Active, Imperative, 2 nd PP - “Abide, remain, stay, live, dwell, last, endure, or continue.”

The Aorist Imperative is for a command in regards to ongoing action, with the force of urgency and priority.

EN EMOI: Prep. + Pronoun in the Dative of Sphere = “in the sphere of Me”. We are commanded to reside in the sphere of / to have fellowship with Jesus Christ the Vine, our spiritual sustenance.

KAGO EN HUMIN, “and I in you”. When we have positive volition we will take in God’s Word and build our Edification Complex of the Soul which will lead us in application of Bible Doctrine to life.

John 15:4a, “You all abide in the sphere of Me, as I want you to, and when you do I will abide in you.”

“Abide(s) in me” is used four times in this passage, John 15:4, 5, 6, 7, and only once elsewhere, 6:56.

Principles: 1) In 6:53-58, eating and drinking is a metaphor for faith, which anyone can do.

2) When eating and drinking you need to accept something into your body. At salvation it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ, see verses

3) In verse 56, Jesus changes the discussion from eternal life to “abiding” in Him, yet both require faith, “receiving.”

4) Comparing the Greek of vs. 53 and vs. 56, we see the difference between “receiving” for salvation and “receiving” for abiding.

5) In verse 53, Jesus uses the Aorist, Active, Subjunctive of ESTHIO for “eat” and PINO for “drink”.

6) In verse 56, eating and drinking are Present, Participles indicating continuous action. And ESTHINO is changed to TROGO which means, “to gnaw or crunch”.

7) Vs. 53 focuses on Positional Sanctification, while verse 56 is talking about Experiential Sanctification.

8) “Abiding” indicates the potential to discontinue fellowship.

9) In Experiential Sanctification the potential to break fellowship exists, but in Positional Sanctification there is no potential to lose salvation.

10) How do we “abide” in Christ? By the application of John 15:7, 9-10, 12.

11) It is having God’s Word resident within your soul and applying it through brotherly love on a consistent basis through the filling of God the Holy Spirit, John 14:26; 15:26.

Grace Fellowship Church Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Tape # Abiding in Christ, Part 1 Upper Room Discourse, Part 355 John 15:4; 6:53-58 Grace Fellowship Church Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Tape # Abiding in Christ, Part 1 Upper Room Discourse, Part 355 John 15:4; 6:53-58 James H. Rickard Bible Ministries 2010