Memorial Drive
5/17/15
BENEFITS OF GOD’S WORD IN THE FIGHT FOR JOY (Pt. 3)
Various Texts
… THE WORD OF GOD IS THE KEY TO ANSWERED PRAYER (And Other Things)
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7)

There Is a Conditional Statement
IF … THEN (Sometimes the “then” is implied)
One “condition”, not two !
Christ is not alluding here to the possibility that the 2 might be or can be separated … that I might be abiding in
Him without His words abiding in me … or that His words could be abiding in me without my abiding in Him.
o To Be “IN CHRIST” and to “ABIDE IN” Christ Are Different Things
“To ‘be in Christ’ and ‘to abide in Him’ are two different things which must not be confounded (confused). One
must first be “IN HIM” before he can “ABIDE IN HIM.” The former (being “in Christ”) respects (is about) A
UNION EFFECTED BY THE CREATING-POWER OF GOD, and which can neither be dissolved nor suspended.
Believers are never exhorted to be “in Christ”—they ARE in Him by new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). (Exposition of John,
A. Pink, p. 811)
“… Christians ARE frequently exhorted to abide in Christ, because this privilege and experience may be interrupted.
To ‘abide,’ ‘continue,’ ‘dwell,’ ‘remain’ in Christ—by all these terms is this one word translated—always has
reference to the MAINTENANCE OF FELLOWSHIP with God in Christ. The word ‘abide’ calls us to vigilance, lest
at any time the experimental (experienced) realization of our union with Christ should be interrupted. To abide in
Him, then, is to have ‘sustained conscious communion with Him’ (Mr. Campbell).” (ibid)
“Abide in Me, and I in you …” (Jn. 15:4) “The two things are quite distinct, though closely connected. Just as it is
one thing to be ‘IN Christ,’ and another to ‘ABIDE in him,’ so there is a real difference between His being ‘IN us’,
and His ‘ABIDING in us’. The one (His being ‘in us’) is a matter of His grace (it comes at salvation); the other (His
‘abiding in us’) (a matter) of our responsibility. The one is perpetual, the other may be interrupted.” (ibid, 812)

There Is a Desired Outcome
“… ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7b).

The Desired Outcome Begs a Question
o How DO We “Abide In Christ and He In Us”?
“Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” (vs. 5)
o Notice the Parallel
“If you abide in Me ………… and My words abide in you …” (below, vs. 7)
Us Abiding In Christ
Christ Abiding In Us
“Whoever abides in Me …..… and I (“abide” understood) in him …” (vs. 5)
If we understand that the 2 go together, my abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in me, then that sets
up a really critical parallel between vs. 7 and vs. 5 that answers our question.
2
o So How Do We Abide In Christ And He In Us?
As Christ draws the parallel between the beginning of vs. 7 (“If you abide in Me”) and the beginning
of vs. 5 (“Whoever abides in Me”) He also sets up a parallel between His next words, (“My words
abide in you”) and (“I (“abide” understood) in him”.
The parallel sets up an equivalency! Christ equates HIS WORDS ABIDING
IN HIS PEOPLE with HE HIMSELF ABIDING IN HIS PEOPLE!
How does Christ abide in us? He abides in us AS HIS WORDS abide in us!
“I am the vine, you are the branches; HE WHO ABIDES IN ME AND I IN HIM, HE BEARS
MUCH FRUIT, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
o The Holy Spirit Makes Possible Christ’s “Abiding Words”
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all
things, and BRING TO YOUR REMEMBRANCE ALL THAT I SAID TO YOU.” (John 14:26)
Without the abiding process between me and Christ (i.e. without the words of
Christ abiding in me), I can do … NOTHING!
o What Does It Mean for the Words of Christ to Abide In Us?
“Letting the words of Jesus abide in us means letting Jesus himself abide in us … it means that
we welcome Jesus into our lives and make room for him to live, not as a silent guest with no
opinions or commands, but as an authoritative guest whose words and priorities and principles
and promises matter more to us than anything does.” (Piper, 112)
Are the decisions I am making today, is the direction of my life, is the core of my very thinking,
informed by and based upon what Christ says? Or simply what I think and want?
o How Does the Abiding Word of Christ Lead to Effective Praying?
“The reason the abiding of Christ’s words in us results in answered prayer is that it changes us into the
kind of people who love what He loves, so that we ask for things according to His will. This is not
absolute. It is progressive. The more we know the living Christ by communion with him in his Word, the
more our desires become spiritual like his desires, instead of just worldly … Another way of saying it is, if
you want God to respond to your interests, you must be devoted to his interests. God is God. He does not
run the world by hiring the consulting firm called Mankind. He lets us share in the running of the world
through prayer to the degree that we live in fellowship with him and are gladly shaped by his heart and
goals and purposes.” (ibid, 108)
“The key to praying with power is to become the kind of persons who do not use God for our ends
but are utterly devoted to being used for his ends.” (ibid, 108)
Want a life of answered prayer? A fruitful life? It’s all based upon mutual abiding, Christ and me. He
abides in me as His words abide in me such that what Christ thinks and speaks lives within me and
shapes my decisions and my desires. Without this, I can do nothing! But when His words live in me He
is free to answer my prayer (and to make my life fruitful!) for His desires have become mine!