Worship

“As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.”-1 John 2:24. The Greek word for remain is the same word for abide. Remember, New Testament teaching is not just a set of principles, New Testament teaching is almost always presented to address a need. John’s audience needed to hear how important it is to love Jesus every day. The verb menō (“abide” or “remain”) appears about 40 times in John’s Gospel. John implores his audience to stick with the plan of abiding in Christ, in good seasons and bad. It’s expressed clearly when John says: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”- John 15:5-8. Our task as followers of Jesus is to get up each day and remain in Christ.

And there is a great promise from God when we are abiding in Christ. Hear this Word: “And this is what he promised us—eternal life.”-1 John 2:25. It’s fascinating to peek behind the Greek words for eternal life. The word zōē means “life” – it is not just biological existence (bios), but the deep, spiritual, God-given life that Jesus speaks of. It points to real, abundant, and divine life, now. The aiōnios is usually translated “eternal,” but its root meaning is “of the age” or “age-long.” In Scripture, eternal doesn’t just mean “never-ending time,” but life of a different quality—life that belongs to the age of God’s kingdom, the life of the coming age that breaks into the present through Christ. Put together, eternal life is “the life of the age to come”—a life that begins now through knowing God and continues forever in His presence. John’s Gospel in John 17:3, eternal life is described not just as living forever, but that we might “know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This is why Jesus says in John 15:5 “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus wants us to know Him better so we can know God better and thus be fruitful right now! and share in all the benefits that come with His provision. So biblically, eternal life is both quality and duration—the unending, God-filled life that begins the moment we abide in Christ. Did you catch that? Anyone who is longing for heaven, can get a glimpse of it today, if only we abide in Christ.

So abiding in Christ, accepting the hand of God reaching down to us in the here and now, offers us the path to a higher quality of life, even when the world tempts us to give up or look elsewhere for our strength. But elsewhere we look, and we look often. The temptation for believers today is not so much to reject Jesus, as to just get bored with Him, and try to replace Him by looking for joy and purpose in all the wrong places. The key is to work through that. Don’t walk away from the plan of becoming more like Jesus, whether things are going well or they’re going bad. There is no joy or purpose that will sustain you, that will help you to persevere, like abiding in Christ. I have three quick real-world stories that I think do a great job of illustrating how abiding in Christ allows us to not just persevere, but to live a different kind of life – a higher quality of life — than we might imagine.

Tony Dungy, a former NFL coach and current football commentator, and his wife Lauren have been married for over 40 years. They’ve faced the pressures of public life, raising ten children, some of them adopted, and the heartbreak of losing a son. Through it all, they’ve said the foundation of their relationship isn’t football, parenting, or even ministry—it’s abiding in Christ together. When their son James passed away in 2005, it was the darkest valley of their lives. Instead of letting grief pull them apart, they leaned into prayer, scripture, and worship, reminding each other daily of Jesus’ promise in John 15:5: “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” Their purpose became clear—to let their marriage, even in pain, bear fruit for God’s kingdom. Today, Tony and Lauren speak openly about how abiding in Christ has given their marriage resilience and mission and allowed them to persevere and as a part of that they have encouraged many other couples and mentored many young families. In their own words: “When our lives are rooted in Jesus, everything else—our love, our family, even our trials—finds its place in Him.”

Another couple, Andrew and Norine Brunson, were American missionaries who spent over two decades serving in Turkey. Their marriage was deeply rooted in their shared calling to Christ, but their faith was tested when Andrew was arrested in 2016 and falsely accused of espionage. For two years, he endured imprisonment, isolation, and uncertainty, while Norine stood by him, advocating for his release and encouraging him through prayer and letters. What carried them wasn’t only love for each other, but their shared decision to abide in Christ. Andrew later admitted there were moments he felt abandoned by God, but daily he and Norine clung to scripture, worship, and prayer — even when it felt dry. Norine often reminded him: “Andrew, we are branches. Christ is the vine. If we stay in Him, we will have life, even here.” Their marriage is a testimony that abiding in Christ will reveal a purpose and provide us perseverance even in the darkest seasons imaginable. Today, the Brunson’s speak about how Christ’s presence in their marriage turned suffering into witness and fear into a deeper union with Jesus and each other.

The theme I mentioned earlier of eternal life being both now and in the future is powerfully illustrated in the story of Elisabeth Elliot. She and her husband, Jim, went to Ecuador in the 1950s to share Christ with the unreached Waorani people. The tribe, located in the Amazon, the Waroni people were skilled hunters, incredibly resourceful, and led lives that took care of their own. Tragically, Jim was killed by the tribe in 1956, leaving Elisabeth a young widow with a baby. She could have gone home in grief and bitterness, and frankly who could have blamed her, but instead she chose to keep abiding in Christ and returned to live among the very people who had killed her husband. That decision showed the quality of “the eternal life now” — a life filled with forgiveness, peace, and love that is simply not possible by human strength alone. Her choice to abide in Christ made her a living witness to God breaking into this world. Many Waorani came to faith in Jesus, and reconciliation took place between the tribe and the missionaries. And Elisabeth continued to live with her eyes on the eternal future. She often said that Jim’s death wasn’t the end, but that they would meet again in the presence of Christ. For her, eternal life was not just length of days beyond the grave, but both the holy present and the unshakable hope of being with Jesus forever. Her story shows how eternal life means both living differently now through the Spirit’s power and living forever with God. Think about the quality of that life! That is our promise friends! Because of Jesus, we can choose, hard as it may be, to flourish with Jesus right now, and also hope in Him for the future: “This hope does not disappoint, for the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to us.”-Romans 5:5.

Do you have friends or family members who are rarely shaken? Who are almost always able to see the light of the end of the tunnel? People you turn to for strength when your own strength is waning? If you do, I’d bet that most of them share a faith in Christ; that they abide in Him and experience now some part of the eternal life that is to come. What would it take to claim that kind of faith for yourself? The invitation today is simple but powerful: Abide in Christ. It is the most important thing we have to do every day. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” And the good news is, you don’t have to do anything on your own. Christ Himself promises to be with you, to live in you, and to carry you, both now and in eternity. Choose today to abide fully in Christ and let Him transform your life and how you live it.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.