Gospel According to John 15: 1-17 Pray, Read, Discuss! скачать в хорошем качестве

Gospel According to John 15: 1-17 Pray, Read, Discuss!

Praise God! The True Vine (1-8). The vine- a symbol of Israel- God’s vine. Also Messiah. Also, vines are everywhere. Also, Vines on the Temple. Vines and vineyards are familiar and present to the apostles. But the TRUE vine is Jesus. He is our root- not the church, not Israel but Jesus Himself. The branch depends on the vine. He would always be connected to them as the vine to each of the branches… God as the vinedresser who prunes the fruited branches so they bear more fruit. Cuts off the branches who produce none. Pruning is essential- there could be a lot of unproductive growth. These can be considered growth pains for believers. The apostles, the 11 left, were already cleaned… they would need maintenance of course, but they were already clean. “Washed in the Word, continually.” R. Kent Hughes -When we abide, we set aside everything else from which we might derive strength and merit, to draw all from Christ. . . . Abiding involves a growing sense of our own weakness. . . . Those who learn well to abide will stay put for the pruning. We need the will to abide, the will to get into the Word, the will to associate with other believers, the will to put ourselves into places where we can grow.2 Remaining in Jesus is not an automatic act. We have to work at the relationship through the following things:Praying • Reading and studying the Bible • Worshiping God alone and with other believers • Being accountable to at least one other believer • Serving others “The means by which pruning or cleaning is done is by the Word of God. It condemns sin; it inspires holiness; it promotes growth. As Jesus applied the words God gave him to the lives of the disciples, they underwent a pruning process that removed evil from them and conditioned them for further service.” (Tenney) With Jesus as the vine- the branch, believer, apostle can bear a lot of fruit. Without Jesus- no good fruit can be born. It is a mutual relationship. So, all the good things you may do, as moral as you may be- without Jesus, if you aren’t part of the vine- it doesn’t mean anything in the end. Abiding in Jesus is a choice. This also serves to disconnect the Apostles from thinking of ISRAEL as the vine and instead JESUS. The seeds of fruit also beget more fruit. There is no eternal value to what we do without Jesus. WIthout Jesus, without abiding in Him, the branches are then gathered and cast out- burned up. Abiding in Him is the main thing. Those who abide get answers to their prayer- BECAUSE they abide. Obedience to the authority of His Word. All of this- the fruit, the abiding, the prayer is about giving Glory to God. Long range faithfulness. Love and Joy Perfected (9-17). Jesus loves us like God loves Him. “Beloved, you do not, dare not, could not, doubt the love of the Father to his Son. It is one of those unquestionable truths about which you never dreamed of holding an argument. Our Lord would have us place his love to us in the same category with the Father’s love to himself. We are to be as confident of the one as of the other.” (Spurgeon) John Calvin “Remain in my love.” Some people explain this as meaning that Christ demands a return of love from his disciples. Others better understand it as Christ’s love to us. He means for us to enjoy continually the love he had for us, and so he warns us to be careful not to deprive ourselves of it. JOHN 15:12–13 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. The Father loved the Son with a love: That has no beginning That has no end That is close and personal That is without measure That is unchanging- Guzik Keep His commandments. Obey Him always. Remain and be complete in His Joy. Abide in this Love. Jesus is the best friend we will ever have. “So deeply was thus commandment engraved on the heart of this evangelist that St. Jerome says, lib. iii. c. 6, Com. ad Galat., that in his extreme old age, when he used to be carried to the public assemblies of the believers, his constant saying was, Little children, love one another. His disciples, wearied at last with the constant repetition of the same words, asked him, Why he constantly said the same thing? ‘Because (said he) it is the commandment of the Lord, and the observation of it alone is sufficient.’” (Clarke) You cannot love someone more than giving up your life for them. Jesus models this behavior soon. This is His point to take home. Love is often sacrifice. Jesus' words were to His apostles… but they apply to us too- We should bear fruit. We should love one another. We should love like Jesus. We are friends of Jesus- we do not have to look for God in some far off way- we are not intimate with Him. He is not a stranger- He is our Friend. Jesus commanded his disciples to love each other. It’s the fruit that will make them most attractive to unbelievers.- Johnson #DailyBibleVerse #BibleReading #GospelReading #biblereading #dailybibleverse #gospelofjohn