WARM-UP
“‘Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.’… ‘If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.’” — John 15:4;6
In the first session, we focused on getting connected to Jesus, but this initial connection is not the finish line. Rather, it is merely the starting line to the beginning of an eternity-long pursuit of remaining in Jesus.
Q: How do you model persistence for your athletes?
Q: What strategies do you use to help them stay committed when challenges arise?
WORKOUT
Remain
In the first seven verses of John 15 Jesus uses a derivative of the word remain eight times. When something is repeated it is important. The English word remain is a translation from the original language meaning “dwell, stay” or “persist.” The main idea here is that Jesus wants us to remain, to persist and stay connected in intimate relationship with Him. Why? The sole source of fruitfulness is remaining in Jesus and Him remaining in us. The consequence of not remaining is to be removed and thrown into the fire, a word picture used throughout the Scriptures to vividly represent God’s final judgement. The intensity of Jesus’ words here should cause us to pause and ensure we are intently listening to what He is saying.
What does it mean to remain in Jesus, practically? If we get into Jesus through faith and repentance, then we continue remaining in Him through faith and repentance. As Paul says, “the righteous will live by faith” (Roman 1:16-17). We exercise faith in the person, work and teachings of Jesus. Then we demonstrate that faith through obedience. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to reorient our whole self: mind, body and spirit under His Kingship. We live this out by practicing the faith through prayer, studying the Scripture, building community with fellow believers, serving and giving to name a few.
Tests & Temptations
The road to remaining is narrow and filled with pot holes and tight turns. Jesus’ teaching in John 15 comes in the timeline of His ministry where He’s headed toward rejection from Jewish leadership and a gruesome death on the cross. Jesus knew His team would be heading through the most significant test of their lives. Even though He had to tried to explain the coming events they could not understand that the Messiah, the long-awaited King, would suffer defeat at the hands of His enemies. (Because that is what do you call being killed by the other side: defeat.) Jesus is emphasizing the need to remain because He knew they would be facing a lifetime of tests and temptations to quit.
We all face tests, trials and temptations that threaten to undermine our faith and allegiance to Jesus. We experience hard things, conflict, strife, disease and death. Even after coming to Jesus, we battle the sinful nature that desires selfish gain through greed, lust, jealousy and pride.
WRAP-UP
We are proven as disciples when we remain in Him through faith and repentance.
Jesus emphasized the importance of remaining in Him for fruitfulness. Failure to remain results in just judgement.
We remain in Jesus through ongoing faith, repentance and obediently reorienting our lives under His Kingship.
We will face tests and temptations and want to quit but we must remain in Him
Key Action
Take an inventory on your current practices/spiritual disciplines? In which area would you like to grow?
Journal about a current or past test, trial or temptation. Reflect on how you are or were remaining Jesus in the midst of these hard seasons.