What does First B Jackson teach about abiding in christ?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on abiding in Christ starts with a simple but weighty claim: the vine is Jesus, not us. Whether it is Brad Yates preaching his first Sunday morning message, Matt Litzelman filling the pulpit while Pastor Ray was away, or Carl opening a new year from John 15, the same conviction keeps surfacing. A branch produces nothing on its own. Apart from Jesus, nothing we do carries eternal weight, and the life we are looking for is found only by remaining in Him.
The images the teachers reach for are concrete ones. Matt described a daisy his wife clipped the evening before a Sunday message. It still looked fine the next morning, but it was already dying. That slow fade, he said, is what drifting from Christ actually looks like. It does not happen overnight. A person can look fine for a long time before what is happening on the inside becomes visible on the outside. Carl told a similar story about snapping a flowering stem off an orchid and dropping it in a glass of water hoping it would survive. It died. Severed from the vine, there was nothing left to draw from. Pruning, the teachers are careful to say, is not punishment but the Father's way of clearing out pride, false identity, unbelief and selfishness so that real fruit can grow.
Deborah pressed the same truth from a different angle, drawing on the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Jesus did not tell Martha her responsibilities were unimportant, she said, but that Martha was so consumed by temporary details that she was missing the one thing that mattered. Mary had already tasted how good Jesus was and would not let anything pull her away from listening to Him. That hunger, Deborah said, is what the whole call to abide is trying to stir up. Brad pointed to the Greek meaning of the word abide, describing it as continuing to dwell, to remain, to stand, an active waiting rather than a passive one. He was honest that his own tendency is to rush, but said that when he does root himself in the Word and in prayer before moving into the day, he gets just as much done, and does it with joy and for God rather than for himself. Genuinely joyful Christians, Deborah observed, are rare, and that absence of joy may itself be a sign that a person is not actually remaining in Christ.
Taught from John 15:1-8 · John 15:4-11 · Luke 10:38-42 · Philippians 3:8-11 · Galatians 5
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- September 20, 2023 Women's Bible Study - September 20th, 2023 Deborah teaches First Baptist Jackson women how spiritual disciplines close the gap between us and Jesus, turning belief into real, lasting change.
- January 8, 2023 Apart From Me, You Can Do Nothing Brad Yates opens John 15:5 to show why Jesus alone is the vine, what it truly means to abide in Him, and how that rooted life produces lasting fruit.
- January 8, 2023 I Am the Vine, You Are the Branches Brad Yates teaches John 15:5 at First Baptist Jackson, exploring what it means to abide in Christ as the true vine and how that produces lasting fruit in our lives.
- October 30, 2022 Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing Matt Litzelman teaches from John 15 on what it means to abide in Christ, bear fruit, and live as a disciple who loves God and loves people.
- October 30, 2022 Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing Matt Litzelman opens John 15 on abiding in Christ, bearing spiritual fruit, and what it actually looks like to follow Jesus as his disciple.
- January 4, 2022 Remain in Jesus Carl walks through John 15, where Jesus calls himself the true vine, and shows why remaining connected to Him is the only way we bear lasting fruit.
Mentioned along the way
- February 18, 2015 Filled Up to All the Fullness of God Paul prays for the inner person in Ephesians 3, asking that God's power, love, and fullness would transform believers from the inside out into lives of worship.
- September 28, 2014 Remain in Me Steve Landis walks through the Gospel of John asking one question: do you truly know Jesus, or have you, like the Pharisees, learned to look right past Him?
- March 3, 2013 John 15, Traditions (3) Jesus traces the vine metaphor from Abraham through the prophets to John 15, showing how three relationships shape a believer's life: with Christ, with each other, and with the world.