Abiding in the Vine
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why did Jesus say, “I am the vine and you are the branches”? Today, Sinclair Ferguson explains how our union with Christ, the true vine, is the source of all our spiritual fruitfulness as Christians.
Get Sinclair Ferguson’s book Love Came Down at Christmas, plus lifetime digital access to his Lessons from the Upper Room teaching series and digital study guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3740/give-today
Meet Today’s Teacher:
Sinclair Ferguson is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow, vice-chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is featured teacher for several Ligonier teaching series, including Union with Christ. He is author of many books, including The Whole Christ, Maturity, and Devoted to God’s Church. Dr. Ferguson is also host of the podcast Things Unseen.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Let His Word dwell richly in our hearts. Just focus on that word richly for a moment. It means to |
| 0:08.7 | soak in the Word of God. It means to leave no room in our lives that are locked to the influence and |
| 0:17.1 | power of the Word of God. And Jesus is saying, this is the instrument that I use in order |
| 0:24.9 | to make my branches fruitful. |
| 0:34.5 | We all want to be fruitful branches, don't we? |
| 0:42.3 | But that doesn't mean we necessarily want the seasons of pruning that that may involve. |
| 0:47.4 | There is so much contained in Jesus' description of himself as the true vine. |
| 0:53.4 | And that's what Sinclair Ferguson will unpack for us on this Wednesday edition of renewing your mind. |
| 0:59.7 | The way God the Father often makes us most fruitful, you'll hear Dr. Ferguson explain today, |
| 1:05.5 | is by the way he cuts away from our lives everything that is extraneous to his central purpose to use us for his glory. This is an important truth when it comes to Christian growth, so please stay with us. |
| 1:13.0 | Before you hear today's message, don't forget that this week only, when you give a year-end |
| 1:17.8 | donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, we'll unlock this series and study guide in the |
| 1:24.3 | free Ligeneer app, plus send you Dr. Ferguson's Christmas devotional. Love |
| 1:29.3 | came down at Christmas. So respond today while supplies last. Well, here's Dr. Ferguson on what |
| 1:36.2 | it means to abide in the vine. Now we've reached the halfway point in these studies in the farewell discourse of our Lord |
| 1:46.6 | Jesus, and for this our seventh study, we're turning to the first half of the 15th chapter |
| 1:52.9 | of the gospel of John. And that chapter begins with words that I'm pretty sure will be familiar |
| 2:00.4 | to all of you, |
| 2:01.8 | a much loved section of John's Gospel, where Jesus teaches the disciples that he is the vine, |
| 2:08.5 | that the Heavenly Father is the vine dresser, and that they are the branches in the vine. |
| 2:14.9 | Let me begin this study by asking a kind of Christian trivial pursuit question. |
| 2:21.3 | What is the most common way that a Christian is described in the New Testament? |
... |
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