JOHN CHAPTER 15 - ABIDE IN THE TRUE VINE

Wed 6/22 - John 15 – Lesson 1

I Am the True Vine

John 15:1 (ESV) “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Jesus now gives his disciples and us a portrait of Himself as the source of life and of those who are in relationship with him as recipients of this life. Jesus gives this in agricultural terms they would understand. Jesus was authentic, the real deal, God’s only Son. Jesus’ stating that He is the TRUE vine indicates that there were false teachers trying to pull people away from following Jesus, teachers who indicated they were the way or knew a better way. We encounter that today with the myriad of religions and cults claiming to have a clear path to their version of paradise. But as we learned in John chapter 14, Jesus is the ONLY way. This is the last of the seven I AM statements of Jesus found in the book of John, a clear claim of deity. Jesus is the true vine, and the Father is the one who cares for the vine along with all its branches. He supplies all we need in order to thrive.

John 15:2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

There are branches on vines that do not bear fruit. On tomato vines these are called “suckers,” and they must be removed to allow more nutrients to go to the fruit bearing branches. We liked this explanation of the branches to be removed:

The MacArthur Bible Commentary:

The picture is of the vinedresser (i.e., the Father) getting rid of dead wood so that the living, fruit-bearing branches may be sharply distinguished. This is the picture of apostate Christians who never genuinely believed and will be taken away in judgment, the transforming life of Christ has never pulsated within them.

God will never cut off and burn a true believer, one chosen by the Father whose life is surrendered to Jesus. However, He will prune believers. He will remove things from our lives that would keep us from fulfilling His purpose for us. That may be a sin, a habit, a possession, or even a person. His goal is that we will bear more fruit just like I pruned the suckers in order to have more and better tomatoes. What is the fruit Christians are supposed to bear? We are to produce the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) within our own lives; and we are to cultivate new believers, make disciples of them. As we allow the Holy Spirit to mold us into people bearing His fruit, we will draw others to us and be able to teach them to grow in Christ – and the fruit will remain and be multiplied.  

John 15:3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

The disciples, the eleven faithful, had listened to Jesus with the intent to obey. In John chapter 13, Jesus had told them they were all clean except the one who would betray Him. This would indicate that Judas Iscariot never truly believed in Jesus as the Son of God. Therefore, the listeners who truly believed what they heard were cleansed by the words of Jesus.

John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

If a branch breaks off the tomato plant, it dies and, of course, does not make any tomatoes. Anyone in this world who is not connected to Jesus is a dead man or woman walking around. They are not connected to the vine, to Jesus, to life. Once a person experiences salvation, they are permanently grafted into the vine. It is impossible to bear fruit if the branch is not connected to the vine to receive the nutrients carried from the roots through the stem. If one is not truly IN CHRIST, surrendered to Him, it would be impossible to consistently exhibit the fruits of the Spirit or to cultivate new believers. Without Jesus, we are powerless, limp, and lifeless. The lamp just won’t turn on unless it is plugged into the power outlet (switching analogies). However, if you abide in Jesus, you can do everything God has called you to do.

John 15:6 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.

Where you abide is where you make your home, where you dwell, where you reside. We can only abide in Christ if we truly trust Him for salvation, for life, for everything. The non-believer is not in Christ. They cannot abide. The people who reject Christ become the rejected branches thrown into the fire. Hell is not a popular subject, but it is real. Hell is not propaganda to scare people or make-believe; it is a real place. People choose to end up in Hell when they choose not to trust Jesus.

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Take a look at this verse in the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition:

John 15:7 (AMPC) If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

This does not mean the believer can ask for frivolous or self-indulgent things. The person who is truly in this kind of intimate relationship with Jesus will not be praying for “me, me, me” but will be asking with the intent of pleasing the Father and bringing a smile to His face. Children are born to be a blessing to their parents and naturally seek to please them. As children adopted into the family of God our desire is to please Him. Many people, even believers, fail to realize that following God’s commands is for their benefit as well. If we solely go God’s direction, we will be happier than we have ever been because it is what we were created for. When we are truly abiding in Jesus, having an intimate relationship with Him, we will ask only for the things that will bring glory to God. Therefore, God will answer those prayers with the best action for us.

John 15:8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

We prove to be Jesus’ disciples when we are acting in line with His will. When we are obeying His word, bearing the fruit of changed lives, and helping others to do the same, we bring glory to our Father in Heaven. As His children, that should bring us great joy!

Q – Are you abiding in the Vine?  Do you have the life of Jesus flowing through you? If not, or if you are not sure, please contact us via the Contact/Prayer Requests tab on this website. We would love to pray for you and answer any questions you might have. This tab generates an email that is private and seen only by us, Susan and Susie. If you are already a believer, submit to the Lord’s pruning in order to bear much fruit!

Fri 6/24 - John 15 – Lesson 2

ABIDE in His Love

John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

The Father loves Jesus completely and unconditionally. They are one, they are in perfect unity. Jesus wants us to be one with Him and the Father. Reside, live, dwell in Jesus’ love. The place where you live, your home, is where you feel safest and most comfortable. We should feel safe and comfortable in Jesus’ love. Home is also the place where you can most be yourself. There is no need for pretense with Jesus. When we abide in Him, we can be completely at ease. But how, exactly, do we achieve this state of abiding? We arrive at this state of being completely secure in our Savior’s love through obedience. The obedience that we are talking about is willing obedience because of our love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because we love them we desire to keep God’s commandments. We do not earn our salvation through following the commandments, but our obedience is one evidence that God has saved us. The Apostle John would later write:

1 John 4:19 (NIV) We love because he first loved us.

Jesus set the example of obedience for us by obeying the Father even to the point of dying on the cross!

Philippians 2:8 (NIV) And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

That is obedience to the nth degree! There is no greater obedience than being willing to lay down your life to fulfill another’s will, even someone you love. The other three Gospels tell us that Jesus prayed asking the Father if this cup (His taking the sin of the world to the cross) could pass from Him. Then He prayed for the Father’s will to be done rather than His own in the Garden of Gethsemane.  (Matthew chapter 26 and Mark chapter 14)

John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

What things? The truth about abiding and obeying. When our lives are completely intertwined with Jesus, we are most at peace and have the greatest joy. When we are receiving life from the Vine, His joy and vitality flow through us and is a light and witness to others. Our joy is not dependent upon our circumstances but rather our connectedness with Jesus.

John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

The action of love is the lifestyle to be lived out by the disciples. The admonition set forth by Jesus, namely the order of daily living for Christian disciples, is that they demonstrate an active love toward one another in imitation of the love Jesus had lavished upon them. As children imitated their parents, we are to imitate the Lord. How did Jesus love and to what extent? Jesus loved sacrificially, unconditionally, and purely. He loved with everything, His heart, mind, and soul. He went so far as to die for those He loved. And now, He continues to make intercession for us at the throne of God.

Romans 8:34b Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Jesus continues demonstrating His love for us forever!!!

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

The word for friends used here could be interpreted “beloved ones.” This indicates an intimate friendship, a family relationship. As stated in Proverbs 18:24 (NIV) “…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” An important reflection on the theological implications of this verse is that Jesus addresses His friends, the community of faith. Further, the price of this love is illustrated in the crucifixion, although it was not restricted merely to His sacrificial act of death, but was mirrored in the activity of His life and ministry. Even before Jesus willingly laid down His life on the cross, He had set aside the splendor of Heaven to be born to a humble couple and live life as a man that we might understand the Father’s love. He also came to provide an example for us to emulate.  

John 15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

The disciples’ designation and elevation to friendship, that is, mutual familial love, is found in their willingness to actively practice the commandments which Jesus has given. If one is the friend of Jesus, he or she will take on as their style of living obedience to the charges of Jesus.  John views obedience as the measure of true Christian discipleship. The reason Jesus gives for calling the disciples friends, or beloved, is because everything He has heard from the Father He has shared with them. A servant does not know what his master intends to do, but the disciples, on the other hand, were given knowledge of their Master’s intent. Jesus brings them into intimacy with Himself when He shares what the Father has shared with Him.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

The knowledge of the disciples’ friendship to Jesus could cause them to become arrogant. Jesus quickly dispels the possibility in the mind of the disciples that they might have somehow earned this great privilege. It was at the initiative of Jesus that these were chosen as beloved. This is true of us today as well. We are unable to reach God until He has reached down to us and quickened us, made us alive, to His calling. The going out of the disciples and the production of fruit are proven through the results of what remains. The will of the Father has been revealed to the disciples, and through these actions His will is continually fulfilled. Therefore, their motivation is in conformity to the Father. For this reason, He is enabled to answer their prayers. This applies to us, also. We cannot frivolously ask anything in the name of Jesus and expect a positive answer from God. Asking “in Jesus’ name” implies that we are asking in accordance with His will and for His glory. Those prayers will be answered. These prayers which Jesus promises the Father will answer perpetuate God’s mission in the earth to proclaim the gospel and to raise up disciples which are living epistles through the development of Christian character.

John 15:17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

God’s grace and care to bring about the reality of family is a refreshment in the present day situation of so many broken and dysfunctional families. May the church continue to rise up and grow into one unified expression of God’s family through His love. This will result in peace and joy for all who trust in Jesus.

Q – God chose to love us and then enabled us to love Him and one another. We are empowered to obey and to love when we abide, are living in, the Vine, Jesus. Do you have your home in Jesus? Are you resting securely in His love? Are you bearing fruit as evidence of your relationship with Him?

Mon 6/27 - John 15 – Lesson 3

The Hatred of the World

John 15:18 (ESV) “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

If you are not with Jesus, you are against Him. This may sound strong, but to be “of the world” is to be on the devil’s side. Worldly people do not necessarily see themselves as hating Jesus, but in reality everything they stand for works against Him and His chosen ones. They do not follow, nor do they intend to follow His kingdom principles. Jesus was and is hated by the world, those who do not believe Him to be the Son of God, equal with God. The disciples would be cherished by the family of faith but persecuted by the world. It stands to reason that if we are the offspring of God; and the world hates God and Jesus, His firstborn Son, then the world will hate any son or daughter adopted into God’s family.  Jesus chose us out of the world to be “in the world but not of it” (see John 17:14) Our lives should stick out as drastically different from the non-believers around us. The world hates those who do not conform to its way of life, and we are told not to conform:

Romans 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I particularly like the way J.B. Phillips rendered this verse:

Romans 12:2 (Phillips New Testament) Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Our lives should be so transformed by Jesus that we stick out like a sore thumb. Our lives should be so changed by the Lord that we are unrecognizable to our friends and loved-ones, truly a new creation after trusting Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP) Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].

Reformation Study Bible notes on 2 Corinthians 5:17:

In Christ. Union with Christ summarizes our experience of redemption. Believers are elected (Eph. 1:4, 11), justified (Rom. 8:1), sanctified (1 Cor. 1:2), and glorified (3:18) “in Christ.” Here Paul focuses on the momentous significance of the believer’s union with the Savior. Because Christ is the “last Adam,” the One in whom humanity is recreated (1 Cor. 15:45; Eph. 2:10) and who inaugurates the new age of messianic blessing (Gal. 1:4; cf. Matt. 11:2–6), the believer’s spiritual union with Christ is nothing less than participation in the “new creation.” Translating “there is a new creation” instead of “he is a new creation” draws this conclusion more clearly, but the thought is there either way.

Other believers will recognize this change as coming from the Holy Spirit and will welcome us into the family of faith. Worldly friends will wonder what made us “weird,” and may confront us about our manner. An excellent opportunity to share the gospel!

John 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

Jesus is our Master and was persecuted to the point of death on the cross. We are not better than our Master. It would, therefore, be foolish to expect better treatment than our Master. Jesus does not say that we might be persecuted but that we WILL be persecuted. Today we think of the persecuted church as those in communist or Islamic countries far away. However, I believe persecution is beginning in America. If we are living a life that is completely different from the main worldview, we will be ostracized, have difficulties, and someday (maybe soon) suffer true persecution. However, those who are faithful to Jesus will remain faithful to Him and their brothers and sisters in Christ. The power of the Holy Spirit within us will enable us to stand firm in our faith and persevere to the end. The persecution is a result of the world not knowing Father God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit.

John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

If Jesus had not come, men would not be guilty of the sin of rejecting His message of salvation. But because He had come, taught publicly, and performed many miracles, they were guilty of rejecting the truth. The men of His time and those today who have the entire word of God, have no excuse for this sin. If you reject Jesus, you reject not only His message but the one who sent Him who is the Father.

John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

If Jesus had not proven Himself to be equal to God and to have the authority of God by performing miracles, their unbelief would be understandable. But they saw and hated both Jesus and His Father with no cause except that He complicated the Pharisees’ political agenda. This was all in fulfillment of prophecy, but those who hated without cause were still responsible for that choice. Like the Pharisees, many people see Jesus as someone wanting to take things from them – the Cosmic Killjoy. If only they could see that He truly wants to give them more than they could ever imagine.

John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Everything that Jesus had taught the apostles would be brought into focus when the Holy Spirit came. He is still the part of the God-head who clarifies God’s word and will for the believer as He indwells us. The apostles, the eleven faithful, had been with Jesus since the beginning of His ministry. They had been present for all of His teaching. His plan was for them to be the initial witnesses to the truth of His sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection. They would be the beginning of His church. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us today to actualize what Jesus taught them, and through them, taught us.

Q – Sometimes we are led to believe that becoming a Christian will immediately solve every problem we have and bring us prosperity as the world thinks of prosperity. However, Jesus promises us persecution. Are you suffering some difficulty as a direct result of following Jesus? If so, do not despair. Keep following. He does not keep you from hard circumstances, but He promises to be with you in the midst of them. This life is but a breath. We will have eternity in His presence, a presence of pure joy.