John 15:1-17, theme verse John 15:5
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this nineth Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. From last few weeks, as we have been looking at the details of His last exhortations in the farewell discourses of the Book of Glory, this week, we would like to learn few lessons after looking at the parable of the vine.
1) The Gospel of John as the last book of Gospels was written by the Apostle John, around AD 90-100 for the Johannese communities who were faced up with the attack of the heresy on Jesus’ divinity and humanity, while experiencing also the growing persecution from the Roman Empire and Jewish communities, in order that they might believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God and also that by believing, they might have abundant life in His name even in the midst of persecution as written in John 20:31.
2) And John wrote his Gospel in his own unique way, I mean, John structured his Gospel, in the way that between prologue and epilogue, he put the book of signs in which he put seven signs for Jesus as the Messiah and the book of glory in which Jesus’ suffering and death and resurrection.
3) Last week, we looked at the content and meaning of feet-washing through which we learned how to love one another looks like in our daily life so that we would like to look at the details of the parable of the vine as the third topic.
4) As we looked at last week, when Jesus realized that it was the time to return to the Father, (1) after having the Passover meal with His disciples in love, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, saying “Wash one another’s feet”. This was how to love one another looks like in our daily life. (2) And then in His farewell discourses, Jesus exhorted three things to His disciples, I mean, to believe in Him, to pray in His name and to take heart since He already overcame the world.
5) And then in order for them to do and act those, Jesus prepared three enablers, I mean. First, He said the Holy Spirit would come and dwell in them to remind His words and teach their meanings to lead them to His words. And then He Himself would return to them to be with them, even while God the Father would make His home with them. Especially on this subject of His presence with them, John recorded the parable of vine in whole chapter 15,
6) in which Jesus said that He is the vine; His disciples are the branches. As the branches can bear the fruits when they abide in the vine to be provided with the sap, if they abide in Him, then they might bear much fruit. And then He continued that if they abide in Him and His words abide in them, then it will be done for them as they ask whatever they wish, because when His words control their wishes, they became to wish as He wishes so that His wishes will be done for them and they become to be proven as His disciples and glorify God. And then He said that those who keep His commandments to love one another will abide in His love and also enjoy the joy which He felt after He kept the commandment of God the Father.
7) Through Today’s text, we would like to learn few things. Firstly, we would like to think about why our Lord, not saying “do as I said”, instead said “abide in Me” then “you will bear much fruits.” If bearing the fruit is related to the life, then since the life is in the Lord, so that in order to bear the fruit of life, we have to abide in Jesus who is the life, since the Lord said in John 14:6 that He is the way, the truth and the life. In that sense, I think the notion that His word abide in us is the same. I mean, it is important to do in His word, yet more importantly, we have to change what we want as His Word works in us and then ask Him as His Word wishes so that it will be done as He wishes. Secondly then what do you think "My joy" mean? This joy which Jesus had was the joy which He had after keeping the commandments of the Father. As such He wanted His disciples to be filled with the joy He enjoyed by doing the Father’s will. And thirdly, we would like to see why our Lord wants us to love one another and also to abide in His love. 1 Jn 1:5 and 4:8 say that God is light and also God is love and then Gen 1:28 says we were created in the image of God, that is, in righteousness and love, but, since we have sinned, that image of God was destroyed. Therefore, when we are saved and receive eternal life, it restores this image of God and the relationship with God. That’s why John 17:3 says that eternal life means knowing the One true God, the God of love, and having fellowship with God who is love. As such, the salvation is to restore human nature and makes us true human by restoring our righteousness and love, as John Bolt says in his book “Bavinck on the Christian Life: Following Jesus in Faithful Service” that “We are Christians in order to become human. The salvation that comes to us through the person and work of Christ is nothing other than making us whole and healthy human beings. It removes the sin that prevents us from becoming people who bear the image of God as we were created. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ restores fallen human beings to fellowship with God and enables them to live again in the original image in which they were created.” That’s why the Ten commandments can be summarized as love which is God’s will for His people and also that’s why our Lord said “love one another”, and Romans 13:10 says “love is the fulfillment of the law” and John 12:50 says “I know that His commandment is eternal life.” In a word, the commandment to love one another is the commandment to live as a true human being. Then, from where do you think this power to love one another come? As the Lord said, “I have also loved you, so abide in my love” and “those who abide in my love will keep the commandment to love one another”, the power to keep His commandments comes from the love of the Lord. In other words, since the Lord is love, so when we abide in His love, we can have the power to love one another since those who are saved in the Lord who is love cannot but help living the life of love. Therefore I pray that we may abide in Him to love one another and to be proven as His disciples in the world for the glory of God the Father.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to today’s text, when we abide in Him, we can love one another. So after reviewing whether we abide in His love, I hope 23 could share our experience and thought with your team members together to learn from each others.
Q2 And also His sheer grace in which we were forgiven elicits love from our hearts. So after reviewing how big sins we are forgiven, I hope we could share our thoughts with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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