“WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING!

TEXT: John 15:1-17; I Pet. 3:7

INTRO: Without Christ, you can do nothing ... just what does this mean
exactly? Isn't it true that there are non-Christians that have done great
things, and if so, then what does this verse really mean?

What is meant in this verse is that “without Jesus we can do nothing of

eternal significance.” We are powerless without Christ to build eternal
things, we are spiritually poor and without power outside of Christ! But with
Christ we are rich in every way, we now have the power to affect eternal
things and leave a legacy that will impact eternity and last into eternity.

ILLUS: A very poor woman worked for a very wealthy man. She acted as
a maid as well as took care of their only son whom she grew to love as her
own. One day the wealthy man's wife passed away unexpectedly. When
the boy reached his teens he became ill one day and died. The father was
heartbroken, as was the maid who worked for him. He was so grieved
that he passed away a short time after his son did. There were no known
living relatives and no will was ever found so the state decided to auction
off all the belongings. The maid who had nothing but her memories of
devotion to this fattier and son all those years scraped together all the
money she had and went and bought a picture of the boy that had been
displayed in the family room of the mansion. She had loved and nurtured
this son for 15 years and to her it was worth the price to have his
picture. Once home, she decided to clean the frame and picture, and she
noticed a lump behind the cardboard backing … it was the lost will! In
the will it stated, “All my wealth should go to the one who loved my son
enough to claim this portrait of him!” Her devotion and love for this father's
son brought her untold wealth and power ... she could now do all
things! And so it is with us in giving ourselves to Christ! -- Source
Unknown
PROP. SENT: The Bible teaches us that only by dwelling in Christ and His love
do we have eternal significance and can reap eternal rewards. Without
Christ, we can do nothing of eternal significance!

I. WITHOUT ME - NO LIFE! 15:1-4

A. Participants 15:1, 3-4

1. Jesus begins to paint a picture to teach us some very important
spiritual truths, He states that He is the vine, and that His father is
the gardener!
a. The point is quite clear, no branch can be fruitful that is not
attached to the vine!
b. “Fruit” here means things that are important and lasting, not
natural fruit but spiritual fruit!
2. Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He is showing them and us that
we must abide in Him to have life, a life that will matter not just now
but in eternity!
a. Jesus describes them as "already clean"… meaning that they
are “grafted in” already ... they are participants of Christ's salvation
and plan for eternity!
b. Jesus says that they will not be able to bear fruit unless
they "REMAIN IN HIM," just like grapes no branch can bear fruit
without remaining in the vine!

B. "Pruning" 15:2
1. Abiding in the vine is wonderful, but the quality of the fruit will also
depend on how well someone "prunes" the branches!
a. Anyone who grows grapes will tell you that the only way you get
high quality grapes and a good crop is to cut away excess growth,
growth that will not produce fruit is only extraneous and takes
away from the all important fruit!
b. The goal of a good gardener is not just to produce any life, but
fruitful life!
2. The work of pruning includes cutting away excess stuff, but with the
right balance!
a. If too many leaves are cut away it could zap the energy of the plant.
 b. But, if too many leaves are left the fruit is compromised!
c. The master gardener knows just where to keep his balance!
3. His goal is to develop healthy life with great fruitfulness! Discipline is
the act of "pruning" in our lives ... we don't like it but we need it to stay
healthy!

ILLUS: A young child accidentally took sleeping pills from the family's
medicine cabinet one day. The doctor instructed the parents to keep the
child awake by any means necessary for the next four hours, including
the pain of slapping if necessary! That pain was necessary for the child's
survival! HEB. 12:11 states, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but
painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and
peace for those who have been trained by it." (NIV) -- Source Unknown

4. “Pruning” is necessary for proper fruitfulness to take place in our lives!

a. Life cannot flow through us if we are not connected to the source
of life any more than a branch can produce fruit if it is no longer
attached to the vine!
b. Without Christ, there is no spiritual life!

II. WITHOUT ME - NO LOVE! 15:5-15

A. Producers! 15:5-8
1. Now Jesus turns from the negative -- no life if not attached, to the
positive -- “much fruit” for those who are attached!
a. Jesus now turns attention to the aspect of producing fruit, here
He used the term "MUCH FRUIT."
b. Those who abide in Christ will not only have life, they will
have “much fruit,” and since we know that the fruit of the Spirit
is "love" this is what He means!
2. Jesus' statement of purpose in His teaching comes out
here: "WITHOUT ME, YOU CAN DO NOTHING!"
a. Again, His point is about eternal things, without Him we can do
nothing of eternal significance!
b. This point is made clearer by what He says about those branches
that are not attached, they will simply be picked up and burned in
 a fire, they may give off a temporary flash of heat and then they will
be gone! This is unlike the branch that stays attached which will
give off a continual supply of fruit that will benefit many over and
over again; this has a future to it!
3. Unsaved people always mean well, and indeed they hope one day to
address their spiritual needs, they just don't see why they need to do
it now! They plan to do it someday!
a. The problem with this approach is that they miss out on God's best
for them now!
b. They will miss out on so much by ignoring the present need to be
in Christ!

ILLUS: A man and his wife had their first child two months after he had
been shipped overseas on a 13 month tour of duty. Shortly after he
returned home his wife suggested that he try his hand at changing the
baby's diapers. "I'm busy," he said, "I'll do the next one." The next time the
baby was wet she asked her husband if he was ready to learn how to
change diapers. He looked puzzled by her question for a moment and
then said, "Oh, I didn't mean the next diaper, I meant the next baby!" He
just kept putting it off! -- Source Unknown

4. It is interesting to note that Jesus ties together here the idea of

being "fruit producers" and asking in prayer what we want and it being
done for us! You will note a similar statement in verse 16!
a. I will come back to this point at the end of the message!
b. Jesus now says that "bearing MUCH FRUIT" shows that we are His
disciples!
c. Jesus had made a similar statement in another passage like
this: "by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that you
love one another."

B. Passion 15:9-15
1. Jesus now moves to the area of "fruit"-- which is love!
a. “Remaining” in Christ means abiding in His love, which goes out
toward God and others!
b. One cannot be a true disciple of Christ and be without passion!
 c. Abiding in Christ breeds passion in our souls!
2. Christ's very nature is that of LOVE, thus to be attached to Him will
create a godly love in us!
3. Those who love Him will keep His commandments, we tend to do what
others want when we love them!
4. Notice too that this "love" is not without "joy"!
a. Being a Christian and serving in love is not drudgery!
b. Rather, God's joy will be experienced by those who love Him; a joy
that Jesus says will be complete in Him!
5. For those who are saved this joy and love will be so obvious that others
will think that we are like Christ, the very meaning of the
name: "Christian!"
a. Our love should be so like Christ's that people will know what
Christ is like by observing us!
b. "Abiding in Him" lets His love flow through us!

ILLUS: When the motion picture GANDHI was being filmed it was done
on location in India in the same area where Gandhi had lived. The star
Ben Kingsley had spent a great deal of time visiting the locals and learning
what Gandhi had been like, how he talked, what he did, he even learned
to spin thread on a wooden wheel just as the famous Gandhi had
done. The physical resemblance was so startling to the real Gandhi once
he was done up in makeup, and he had learned so well to put himself into
the real Gandhi that one day after filming a scene in a village south of
Delhi, Kingsley stepped out of the car and an elderly peasant knelt to
touch his feet! Embarrassed, Kingsley explained that he was merely an
actor playing the revered Gandhi. The villager answered, "We know, but
through you he will surely live again!" The man felt he was in the presence
of Gandhi himself Kingsly had done such a good job being him, so should
we be of Christ! -- Source Unknown

6. This is the kind of passion we are to display in our lives, the same
kind of love that Jesus displayed while on earth, and if we are truly
attached to His life we will!

III. WITHOUT ME - NO LEGACY! l5:16-17; I PET. 3:7

A. "Picked" 15:16a
1. Jesus now reverses the usual method of discipleship of that day,
normally you picked a teacher you wished to emulate and you followed
that man for several years.
a. Jesus had already reversed the relationship a few verses back, no
longer calling them "servants" but "friends."
b. Here again Jesus adds a twist, they had not chosen Him, He had
actually chosen them ... chosen them to go and bear fruit!
c. Jesus had not just chosen them to benefit them only in this
lifetime, but for eternity ... this is the meaning bearing fruit,
something will remain after they are gone!
2. Jesus had "picked" them to bear eternal fruit, not just follow the
course of this world and live for the moment!
a. It is important to understand how this statement will fit in with
the next about answered prayers!
b. Jesus says here, "fruit that will last."
c. Their service will benefit others, they were chosen to give
something to the world besides momentary existence, they would
serve the world and show it love much like Christ was about to do!
3. They were to demonstrate to the world what character God calls us
to!

ILLUS: Years ago on the stagecoaches in the old west you could buy one
of three types of tickets. You could either buy “FIRST CLASS, SECOND
CLASS, OR THIRD CLASS” tickets. The difference was discovered when
there was a problem like a breakdown in mud or a broken wheel that
brought everything to a stop. If you had a "first class" ticket you could
stay on board and would have to do absolutely nothing to help, you just
sat there until the problem was solved. If you had a “second class” ticket
you were expected to get off the coach while it was being attended to, you
had to simply watch as it was being fixed but you did have to stand to the
side and not be permitted to sit on the coach. Now if you had the "third
class" ticket things were different, third class holders had to not only get
off, they were expected to do whatever it took to fix the coach, if it meant
getting dirty and holding up the coach while a new wheel was put on, so
 be it! Third class ticket holders were the workers, the servants to the
others, they got things moving again! God give us “third class” ticket
holders in the church and in the world! -- Source Unknown

B. Petitions! 15:16b-17; I Pet. 3:7

1. Notice please that Jesus' statement here to "ask the father and He will
give you anything we ask in Jesus' name" follows the statement about
being fruitful!
a. Jesus here paints the picture that it is not just prayer that God is
moved by but also the fruitful lives who pray!
b. This same principle is found in I Pet. 3:7 where Peter states that
many men had their prayers hindered from being answered by God
because they were not in a proper relationship with their wives –
asking alone was not enough in prayer!
c. The Pharisees were good about making many prayers, but they
were not answered because their lives were unfruitful!
2. This mentioning of prayers being answered is followed also by the
command again to "love."
a. There is a direct correlation between answers to prayers and how
fruitful our lives are!
b. Fruitfulness puts us in a place of asking God and having answers!
3. Where there is no legacy of fruitfulness, there will be little evidence of
answered prayers!

ILLUS: The 9th U.S. circuit court of appeals recently rejected the petition
of William Jefferson Walker, sentenced in 1983 to serve 10 years in
an Arizona prison for aggravated assault and leaving the scene of an
accident. Walker had argued, as he had in four other petitions filed with
state and federal courts, that he was deprived of a fair trial because no
one in his jury pool had a last name with either W X Y or Z! Walker claimed
that people with surnames late in the alphabet have an increased
tendency toward, "ALPHABETIC NEUROSIS" a mental illness brought on
by the constant waiting for one's name to be reached in the classroom and
in other situations! He lost his petition, his lack of fruitfulness in his life
won no sympathy from the judge! And so it is with us, those who are
 fruitful have a wonderful legacy of answered prayers; their lives have
eternal consequences from abiding in the vine! -- Source Unknown

4. Without Christ, there is no legacy, no privilege, no eternal dimensions

to our life!
5. It is true, "WITHOUT HIM, WE CAN DO NOTHING!"
a. Are you doing nothing?
b. Are you abiding in the true vine?
c. Is your life “fruitful?”

CONCLUSION: What did Jesus mean when He said, “Without me, you can do
nothing!”? Isn't it true that even sinners do good works from time to
time? What Jesus was saying was "Without me, you can do nothing of eternal
significance, nothing that affects both time and eternity!" Without Christ we
might live for the moment, but with Him we live forever, our actions have
everlasting consequences when we abide in Christ! Nothing like this is done
without Him!