Abiding in Jesus Together
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on September 27, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
Years ago, Linsey and I helped care for a little boy after school while his mother worked. One day he looked at me and asked, “Matt, do you have God’s phone number?” He was four. Four-year-olds ask profound questions.
I laughed and told him, “No, but you don’t need it. God is always a prayer away.” I tried to explain that God is all around us in a way a four-year-old could understand, and I probably failed at that.
But the question appears in many forms: Where is God, and how can I reach him? It might come from a curious child or from deep pain: “God, where are you?” Sometimes we ask it amid the ordinary happenings of life. Where does God dwell?
John 14 tells us God makes his home among his people. John 15 tells us what happens when his people make their home in him. The result is a community shaped by his love.
Before the cross, Jesus prepares his disciples for a time when he will no longer be physically with them. They cannot imagine that. He is the Messiah, right there with them. But he knows what is coming.
He tells them, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” The Father tends the branches, removing what does not bear fruit and pruning fruitful branches so they bear more.
The life we share begins in God. Jesus invites the disciples into the relationship shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the Spirit will come as their Helper.
Jesus’s first message is “Remain in me.” The disciples need to understand that their relationship with him will continue after his departure. He remains the source of their life together.
Christian community has a foundation deeper than common interests, similar personalities, compatible preferences, politics, or organizational structure. If you’ve been in church very long, you know we don’t all share a personality. We each have our own.
The branches have life because they are connected to the vine. We are creatures whose very life is received, given, and dependent on God.
Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” He is the vine; we are the branches. “Without me you can do nothing.”
Our life is from Christ. The things we do for him grow out of the life we receive from him. Abiding comes first.
“As the Father loved me, I also have loved you; abide in my love.” That love becomes the pattern and source of Jesus’s relationship with his disciples, including us.
We are called to obedience, but this is also participation: working with God, walking with him, doing this together because the life he puts in us flows through us. Through the cross and the gift of the Spirit, he brings us into that love.
How can imperfect humans do this? The Spirit makes the abiding life possible.
Jesus doesn’t die, rise, and say, “I’ve given you all the knowledge and tasks. I’m heading to heaven. Good luck.” Yet sometimes that is how we live.
In John 14, he promises another Helper who will be with the disciples and in them. He will not leave them as orphans. The Father and Son make their home with those who love him, through the Holy Spirit.
It isn’t that we wake up and see the Father and Son holding a council in our living room. That would be amazing. But through the Spirit, we are invited into God’s life.
God dwells in us; we dwell in Christ; and we learn to dwell together in love. The Spirit forms people capable of loving one another in a way that shows the world something distinctive.
Paul describes the Spirit’s fruit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Love comes first and holds the rest together.
I’m not always easy to love. I don’t want to hear too many amens, though I know you’re thinking it. I was waiting for my wife to say something. You probably recognize times when you’re not easy to love either.
God gives us the ability to love one another. It’s a gift to the world to see that love among his people.
Romans 8 says the Spirit of God dwells in those who belong to Christ. The same Spirit who raised Jesus gives life, and we become God’s children. Paul’s word for dwelling gives us the picture of living in a house: God’s people are the home where his Spirit lives.
The Spirit makes us children of the same Father. Understanding who God is helps us understand who we are together.
Jesus then names the fruit he is looking for: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” He tells them of a love that lays down life for friends.
Jesus could have written a big neon sign across the sky: “I love you. Signed, God.” That would already be more than we deserve. But he came into our experience and offered himself, bearing our guilt and sin.
He calls his disciples friends because he shares with them what he has heard from the Father. How do you know someone is your best friend? They know things about you nobody else knows, and they still want to be around you.
Jesus shares the Father’s heart and invites us to give ourselves for one another. The love we receive becomes the love we give.
Christianity brings us into fellowship with God. The command to love expresses that life. It goes far beyond learning to moderately annoy each other, or put up with each other until we leave earth.
The church’s loving community and fruit-bearing mission belong together. Jesus’s love, made possible in us through his Spirit, joins them.
The movement is this: the Spirit dwells in us, we abide in Christ, we love one another, and together we bear fruit. We learn to live together by learning from the life of God.
That has practical consequences. In our thoughts, remember where our shared life begins. In our words, ask how we can speak life into a brother or sister. How do we talk about each other and about the church, including people whose personalities differ from ours?
In our actions, ask what we can do to show love this week. People are homebound, sick, facing family challenges, or carrying personal crises. How can you give someone the look of love?
When we do that, we participate in God’s love.
If you want to begin this life with Jesus, turn toward him, trust who he is, confess where your path has departed from his, and make him Lord. He invites you to submit to him in baptism and begin walking in the new life he gives.
