More of Why Believing and Abiding Is the Key to the Happy Life John 8:29–36
Believing in Jesus is more than a moment of agreement—it is a lifelong act of trust that must be sustained. In this continuation of last week’s teaching, we examine what Jesus meant when He said that true disciples abide in His Word and experience real freedom as a result. Drawing from John 8, the Parable of the Sower, and multiple Johannine passages, this episode shows why believing without continuing produces no fruit, and why abiding—total trust for total time—is the only pathway to lasting freedom, spiritual maturity, and a genuinely happy life.
This Week: Why continuing in God’s Word—total trust for total time—is the pathway to freedom and a happy life.
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Accept the Challenge
Each week's podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.This weeks call is:
Work the Word until the Word works, that is, continue in looking for ways to apply the Bible in your everyday situations.
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Each week's podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer's life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).This week's question is:
How do you practice abiding in the Word? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
About Emery
Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.
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Podcast Notes:
Review of ‘Why Believing and Abiding Is the Key to the Happy Life’ - Part 1
We’ve already gone over the definitions of believe and abide, so let’s look once again at our text.
John 8:29–36 (ESV) — 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Last week we ended the podcast talking about the Parable of the Sower.
We saw four different kinds of people represented by four types of soil.
Also, we saw that lack of fruitfulness in the soil was in part because of the failure to abide in the words of Jesus.
We saw that the soil which produced did so because that person held fast to the spoken Word.
Holding fast means to heed, hear, or pay close attention to, and then respond in conformity.
After this, we talked a little bit about hearing the Word, slowing down enough to ask questions.
Those four questions were…
What does God want me to understand?
What does God want me to believe?
What does God want me to desire?
What does God want me to do?[9. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/8-questions-to-help-you-understand-apply-the-bible/]
Question four is the most crucial question: what does God want me to do?
Because that question leads to putting the Word into operation.
So asking these questions may be an aid to help slow you down as you read God’s Word.
By slowing down, we are also referring to the Bible disciple of meditating on the Word.
Believing, Abiding and The Meditative Manner
Having this meditative manner as a lifestyle is thoroughly scriptural.
A couple of Old Testament verses helps us here.
Joshua 1:8 (ESV) — 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
The Message translation has this passage.
Joshua 1:8 (The Message) — 8 And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed.
The Psalmist has something to say to us on the topic of possessing a meditative manner.
Here’s the Amplified on this.
Psalm 1:1–2 (AMP) — 1 BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather. 2 But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
You want to succeed in the Kingdom.
Jesus wants you to succeed.
He has your outcome to be full of God’s favor.
Jesus wants you to help you by His Spirit get where you are going.
But, just know, to get to any point of success necessitates lifestyle changes.
So, what attitude changes are you going to make based on what you read today, what you heard in church or Sunday school today, or what connected conversation you had with your circle of friends today?
Can you allow ‘the message of the moment’ to waltz proverbially ‘in one ear and out the other?’
Can Journaling Help You to Abide?
Do you think journaling on what you meditated upon may help you here?
Could that be a step for in the right direction for you?
Lately, I’ve been journaling and asking myself these four questions.
Just today, I was reading Luke 7–8 during my Bible reading.
What does God want me to understand about these two chapters?
Maybe He wants me to understand - how many people Jesus touched just in these two chapters?
Look at the list:
A centurions servant.
A widow's only son - think of the destitution of this women - all alone in an agricultural society - this account went viral through the whole of Judah and the surrounding country.
Many people in an hour's time who were sick with diseases, plagues, evil spirits, and who were blind.
His cousin - John the Baptist - Jesus steadied him in his hour of trial.
Jesus encouraged a sinful woman who had given Him her all to Him.
Three women whom Jesus healed of evil spirits.
His disciples as He calmed a storm for them.
A madman full of demons.
A woman with an issue of blood.
A man with an only daughter who was dying was healed.
That’s one thing God wants you to understand, just how many people Jesus helped.
Another thing He wants you to understand is the compassion that came through Jesus in healing and helping all of these people.
You see that in Luke 7:13.
What about believing? What does God want me to believe?
He wants you to believe that I can help people like Jesus helped people.
That John 14:12 is true.
John 14:12 (ESV) — 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Now, what about the doing part?
I made the doing part an object of prayer by talking to God about this.
The doing part also involves looking.
Looking? Yes, looking to God for opportunities to do what Jesus did.
Another Believing and Abiding Trait from the Parable of the Sower
Let’s get back to the Parable of the Sower and pick-up a few last nuggets.
Luke 8:15 (ESV) — 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Listen to the second characteristic of a fruitful abider: As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart.
The first characteristic was ‘hold it fast’ meaning to heed, hear, or pay close attention to, and then respond in conformity.
This second trait Jesus points us to is an honest and good heart, did you hear that?
Believing, Abiding and the Honest Heart
The word ‘honest’ used by the ESV here means pertaining to being in accordance at a high level with the purpose of something or someone.[10. William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 504.]
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament carries a sense of honest as being healthy, serviceable, beautiful, attractive, lovely, and good.
All these senses may be brought together under the idea of ‘what is ordered or sound.’[11. Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey William Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1985), 402.]
We could say that good soil is a person whose heart has a high level of beauty and soundness.
This person has a ‘right insides.’
That’s what the word the translated word ‘honest’ means here.
Believing, Abiding and the Good Heart
The next word ‘good,’ that is ‘an honest and good heart,’ the translated word ‘good’ means moral excellence.
So, this ‘good soil’ person is a ‘morally excellent, honest, sincerely good right down to the core of their being’ kind of person.
Is that you?
It is if you are in Jesus.
If any man is in Christ, He is a new creation.
The Amplified has it as.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP) — 17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
Those whom Jesus was speaking to in John eight were not new creatures in Christ.
Jesus hadn’t died yet.
He wasn’t risen yet.
The new birth was not available yet.
Yet in this context, Jesus was still saying that the Jews that believed in Him could and should hold fast to the Word in an honest and good heart.
Now that you are in Christ, you can do this at an even higher level.
Good is who you are on the inside.
And, good is what you need to let out on the outside.
Romans 5:5 (AMP) — 5 Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
What stands in the way of letting ‘the good’ out is the ‘flesh nature,’ the sin nature.
It is the ‘old life,’ the selfish life, ‘the me life,’ the ‘my time life,’ that tries to rise up from the dead and rule.
The old man is dead, leave it dead.
When selfishness arises up, tell it to lay down.
Tell those wrong and sinful thoughts that they have the wrong address.
Cast them down; they are part of the old sin life and not part of the new creation life.
The Last Believing and Abiding Trait from the Parable of the Sower
So, for the person represented by good soil, we’ve looked at hearing the word, holding it fast in an honest and good heart.
And now, the last trait: bearing fruit with patience.
Patience is the last word we need to define in Luke’s passage on the Sower, and it means steadfast endurance.
It means the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty.
Synonyms for it would include patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, and perseverance.[12. William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1039.]
The word ‘patience’ or steadfast endurance or perseverance is the exact point Jesus is making to those ‘who believed in him’ in John 8:31.
To those Jews who believed in Him, Jesus' message is to endure with steadfastness and to persevere with patience.
Romans 2:7 (ESV) — 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, abide, that is total trust for total time.
Hang in there with the Word you’ve heard.
Don’t throw it down when it ‘seems like’ - and I’m using this phrase loosely’ because God’s Word always works - things are not going well.
Work the Word until the Word works for you.
The blessing is in the press as the colloquial saying goes.
More Johannine Admonitions on Abiding
Now, there are some more scriptures on abiding in John’s gospel.
As mentioned before, it’s a favorite Johannine word.
John 15:6 (ESV) — 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
To be a faithful follower of Jesus, you must entrust yourself with complete confidence, with total commitment, and afterward, continue in that state or activity.
The lack of holding fast, of steadfast perseverance, of continuing and remaining leads to a withered state.
These types of believers eventually fall away.
Romans 11:22 (ESV) — 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off.
Did you hear Paul’s’ Spirit-anointed words, continue in His kindness?
Continue - Total trust for total time - that’s the litmus test of effective discipleship and fruitfulness.
So, are you trusting Him today?
Thank God if you are, but what about tomorrow?
Will you trust Him tomorrow?
Total time speaks of longevity in believing.
Abraham believed God for twenty-five years for the fulfillment of God’s promise to Him for a son, Isaac.
Be encouraged to hang in there in your circumstances with your eye looking toward the Throne while holding and standing on the Word of God.
🎧 Suggested Episode
If you found this teaching on end-time perseverance helpful, check out “Who Makes It Out of the Tribulation?” — a clear biblical look at who endures, why they endure, and how God preserves His people.
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