John 15:1-11: “Jesus Tells His
Disciples He is The Vine, They Are The Branches, And They Are To Abide In Him
And Bear Fruit”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we looked at verses 22-31 of chapter 14.
1.1.1. We saw Jesus continuing to teach His disciples about
the Holy Spirit and the role that the Holy Spirit will begin to perform in the
lives of believers after Jesus has left the earth and gone to be with the
Father.
1.1.2. Jesus continued to dodge the questions of His
disciples because He knew that they didn’t really understand what was soon to
enfold when He is arrested and crucified and they are left with the mission He
began of going to all the nations and
preparing the way for His kingdom through the preaching of the gospel, teaching
the word of God, and making disciples.
1.1.3. Jesus explained to His disciples that when the things
that He has been declaring to them prophetically concerning His death and resurrection
come to pass, and the Holy Spirit comes upon them as the “Comforter”
that in that day they will realize that all He has been saying, His very words,
were right on the money.
1.1.4. We saw that everything
that God does through our lives He does through the person of the Holy
Spirit. After coming to Christ for
salvation, we Christians need to look to the working of the Holy Spirit in all
things in our lives, and we looked at the many scriptures that reveal the
all-encompassing work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers:
1.2.
In our
study today, we are going to look at verse 1-11 of chapter 15.
1.2.1.
Jesus will
tell His disciples that He is the vine and they are the branches, and that by
being a branch they are to go forth and bear fruit for Him. We will look at what “fruit” refers to
in this context.
1.2.2.
Jesus will
tell His disciples that the one who abides in Him will bear “much fruit”
and that apart from Him they can do nothing.
1.2.3.
Jesus will
give His disciples a warning that if they do not bear fruit that they will be
taken out as a branch and thrown into the fire and burned for fruit bearing is
not an option for a Christian.
1.2.4.
These
words by Jesus to His disciples at this time and this place may seem out of
place at first glance, but looking more closely at the context reveals that
these words fit right into place. This
being Jesus’ last night with His disciples we saw how beginning in chapter 13
that He began to prepare them for life without Him. Jesus washed His disciple’s feet
demonstrating for them what true service looks like. He dismissed the betrayer and told Peter that
he would deny Him three times before the cock of morning crowed. Jesus calmed His disciples fears and
anxiousness telling them that He was going away but that He would be preparing
a mansion for them and then one day He would come for them and take them to be
with Him. Jesus taught the disciples
that they would do even greater things than He had done on that day when He
went away and sent the Holy Spirit to them.
Jesus taught His disciples that He would send to them another comforter
in the Holy Spirit, one who would come alongside of them and assist and enable
them in all that they did in serving the Lord.
Now, Jesus begins to tell His disciples that it was for the very purpose
of bearing fruit as a branch connected to the Himself, the vine, that they had
been chosen, and, that it was the Father’s desire for them to bear “much
fruit” for the Lord after His departing from them. O Christian, do you realize that you too were
chosen before the creation of the world to be a fruit bearer for the Lord?
1.2.5.
In the
book, “The Training of the Twelve,” A.B. Bruce has written the following about
this teaching by Jesus found in the first part of John chapter 15, “The first
part of this charge to the future apostles has for its object to impress upon
them that they have a great work before them. The keynote of the passage may be
found in the words: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained
you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should
remain.” Jesus would have His chosen ones understand that He expects more of
them than that they shall not lose heart when He has left the earth. They must
be great actors in the world, and leave their mark permanently on its history:
they must, in fact, take His place, and be in His stead, and carry on the work
He had begun, in His name and through His aid.
To put their duty clearly before the minds of His disciples, Jesus made
large use of a beautiful figure drawn from the vine–tree, which He introduced
at the very outset of His discourse. “I am the true vine;” that is the theme,
which in the sequel is worked out with considerable minuteness of
detail,—figure and interpretation being freely mixed up together in the
exposition.”
1.2.6.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3:9
about how that they were God’s field or husbandry, “9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s
husbandry, ye are God’s building.”
2.
VS
15:1 - “‘I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser’.”
- Jesus tells His disciples that He is
the true vine and that His Father is the vinedresser
2.1.
Jesus says
that He is the ‘vine’ and that His Father is the ‘vinedresser’ and
this Greek word translated ‘vinedresser’ (or “husbandman”) simply
means “a farmer.”
2.2.
Previous to this, in the book of John Jesus had said
that He was the “true light” (John 1:9) and the “true bread”
(John 6:32). Now He says that He is the
‘true vine.’ The emphasis of the
word ‘true’ then in these statements refers to that which is “genuine”
or the “real deal” sent from the Lord.
Jesus had told them in chapter 10:8, “All who came before Me are
thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” There had been many false prophets and false
Messiah’s, but He alone was the Good Shepherd.
Thus, Jesus says here that He alone is the genuine or ‘true vine.’
2.3.
Harper’s
Bible Dictionary has the following entry regarding vineyards and how they were
used and maintained in Bible times in
“Vineyards
required long-term intensive care (Isa. 5:1-7; Mark 12:1). The soil was first dug and cleared of stones
and a wall (or hedge) erected to discourage predators (Ps. 80:12-13; Song of Sol. 2:15). A watchtower and winevat
completed the installation, with a booth for lodging during the harvest (Isa.
1:18). Vines required heavy annual
pruning (Lev. 25:4; John 15:2), hoeing (Isa. 5:6), thinning and support of
fruit clusters, and sometimes irrigation (Isa. 27:3). Intensive labor heightened expectations of
the harvest and made loss of the vintage a bitter disappointment (Isa. 5:2;
Deut. 28:39). Deuteronomic law exempted from military service the man who had
planted a vineyard but not enjoyed its fruit (Deut. 20:6). Flourishing vineyards meant peacetime; war’s
devastation was represented by a ravaged vineyard: walls broken, vines choked
by thorns, branches trampled by wild beasts (Isa. 5:5-6; Ps. 80:12-13). Restoration would be a time of planting
vineyards and drinking their wine (Isa. 65:21), a time when the mountains would
‘drip sweet wine’ (Amos 9:13). …Israel itself was likened to a vine, planted
and tended by God (Jer. 2:21; Ps. 80:8-9).
The nt applies the image
to Jesus and the church: ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in
me…bears much fruit’ (John 15:5).”
2.4.
2.5.
Jesus also taught His disciples other parables that
involved a vineyard. In His parables,
Jesus used the everyday experience of men and women as examples from which to
teach concerning the
2.6.
It is interesting to muse upon what constitutes a
vine. A vine is good for only one thing
and that is to produce fruit. Jesus uses
this metaphor then for us as believers of being the branch of a ‘vine’
to impress upon us the fact that our true good upon this earth is simply to
bear fruit for Him.
2.7.
Having talked much about the future coming of the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and the disciples’ need of the Spirit to lead, encourage, and help them
in their walk and mission as His church, Jesus is now going to teach His
disciples a parable concerning the responsibility of the disciple upon the
earth, the responsibility of bearing fruit.
But, He also seeks to communicate to them the fact that though He will
no longer be with them in physical presence that none-the-less He will be
connected to them spiritually which speaks of having fellowship with Him. It is this spiritual connection and
fellowship with Him that they must learn to maintain in constant dependence and
union with Him. The term “abide”
used in this chapter refers mainly to fellowship.
2.8.
In Matt. 21:38, Jesus taught a parable about the Kingdom
being a vineyard and given to men who would not give the fruit of the vine to
the owner of the vineyard. Then, as the
owner sent to them different men to receive the fruit from the vineyard, those
husbandmen beat, stoned, and killed the
ones who were sent. Finally, he decided
that he would send his son, but him they killed also. Finally, the owner came and had slain the
ones managing His vineyard and he gave the vineyard to other husbandmen to
bring forth the fruit of it. This was a
reference to the
3.
VS
15:2 - “‘Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch
that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit’.”
- Jesus tells His disciples that every
branch in Him that does not bear fruit is taken away and that every branch that
bears fruit is pruned that it may bear more fruit
3.1.
Jesus
refers to a disciple as being a ‘branch’ that is attached to Him as ‘the
vine’ and life source, and Strong’s Greek Dictionary has the following entry
for this Greek word that is translated ‘branch’ in this chapter:
2814 κλῆμα [klema /kaly·mah/] n n. From 2806; TDNT 3:757; TDNTA 441; GK 3097;
Four occurrences; AV translates as “branch” four times. 1 a tender and flexible branch. 2 spec. the shoot or branch of a vine, a vine sprout.
3.2.
On a vine there are two kinds of branches, those that
are bearing fruit, and those that are not bearing fruit. Likewise, there are two kinds of people,
those who are bearing fruit that is pleasing and glorifies God, and those who
are not bearing that fruit unto God.
Jesus states that the branches who once were attached to the vine but
had disconnect themselves and are now not bearing fruit, the Father cuts out of
His vine and they will be burned with the fire of eternal destruction. Those who reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah
and refuse to let Him be the Lord and Savior of their lives will be cut off
from heaven for eternity.
3.3.
However, just as a vinedresser would do, Jesus states
here that the Father will also cut back and ‘prune’ every branch that is
bearing that fruit unto God that is pleasing to Him, with the purpose in mind
that through the process of pruning the branch will then bear more fruit.
3.4.
Strong’s
Greek Dictionary has the following entry for this Greek word translated as ‘prunes’
:
2508 καθαίρω [kathairo /kath·ah·ee·ro/] v. From 2513; TDNT 3:413; TDNTA 381; GK 2748;
Two occurrences; AV translates as “purge” twice. 1 to cleanse, of filth impurity, etc. 1a to prune trees and vines from useless shoots. 1b metaph. from guilt, to expiate.
3.5.
The reason why the Father will prune every branch that
is bearing fruit is so that it will bear more fruit. All branches of a vine need pruning and
attention in order that they will bear the maximum of fruit, and in like manner
every disciple needs regular pruning and attention by the Lord. A branch starts out healthy and begins to
grow in a healthy manner but sometimes it begins to grow out of proportion or
some shoot off of it becomes unhealthy and must be cut out. In the same way, the Lord sometimes has to
allow trials and difficult circumstances occur in our lives in our to cut off
from our life the unhealthy parts in our lives.
I have been fired from jobs because the Lord knew that the job was
unhealthy for me. I have had the Lord
remove friendships from me that were unhealthy.
I have had the Lord move me completely across the country in order to
put me in a new context where I could grow in a much more healthy manner.
3.6.
Pastors
are sort of like comedians because they are always looking for good material
that they can use. I saw a comedian
being interviewed once on a talk show and he was discussing this and saying
that the other night a guy was carrying a bag of groceries and slipped and fell
on the ice. He ran up to the guy with a
smile on his face and the guy said to him, “What do you think this is
funny?” He replied, “I sure hope it
is!” Today, as I was meeting a brother
for lunch, I happened to notice from the restaurant that there was a
maintenance man at a nearby hotel that was pruning the large hedges around the
motel. I hoped that I would be able to
glean some illustration from this man and his pruning technique. However, he only pruned the outer hedge which
had grown up to the level of the roof, and when he was done the hedge was
lop-sided and looked hideous. I pointed
it out to the brother with me and he agreed.
I was thinking, man I had hoped that this incident would yield to me an
illustration but the man evidently didn’t know what he was doing and ended up
doing a horrible job of pruning. Later
on in the day I realized that that was the illustration. The Lord does not just prune us, He is a
master at pruning and He has a perfect plan in mind with each and every one of
the trials and difficulties that He causes us to go through in the pruning
process. Each one is calculated to the
ninth degree for its effect. The end
result of each pruning of us by the Lord will not be some lop-sided ugly
hatchet job of a life but the beautiful and perfectly formed character of
Christ in our life.
3.7.
We Christians need to be thankful that the Father cuts
back and prunes off areas of our life that are unfruitful, for in the end we
will be blessed as we are bearing much more fruit for God than if He had just
let us go on doing what we are doing with no pruning. James wrote the following in James 1:2-4, “2
My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let
patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing.”
3.8.
A.B. Bruce in “The Training Of The Twelve” writes the
following about how that we as Christians must cooperate with the Lord in the
pruning process in our lives if that process is to produce the fruit in us that
the Lord desires, “Though the Father, as the husbandman, wields the
pruning–knife, the process of purging cannot be carried on without our consent
and cooperation. For that process means practically the removal of moral
hindrances to life and growth,—the cares of life, the insidious influence of
wealth, the lusts of the flesh, and the passions of the soul,—evils which
cannot be overcome unless our will and all our moral powers be brought to bear
against them. Hence Jesus lays it upon His disciples as a duty to abide
in Him, and have Him abiding in them, and resolves the whole matter at last, in
plain terms, into keeping His commandments.”
3.9.
Though the initial pain of pruning can be great, it is
much preferable to be wholeheartedly serving the Lord than serving Him with a
half-hearted attitude.
3.10.
A vine will often actually die if its unhealthy areas
are not cut off, and likewise we may fall completely away from the Lord if He
does not cause us to go through the fiery trials of His pruning. Besides, if we truly know the Lord we have
the desire to see Him be fully glorified through our lives!
3.11.
When I lived in
3.12.
We Christians need to learn to give thanks in all
things as Christians, even in our prunings.
We need also to realize that every pruning is done out of love for us by
the Lord, for as
4.
VS
15:3 - “‘You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to
you’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that they are already clean because of the word He has spoken to
them
4.1.
The disciples had no sin in their life at this point
in time, however Jesus’ exhortation in this parable is for them to continue to
abide (or remain) in Him after He departs from them to go to heaven. When Jesus leaves them they will need His
cleansing.
4.2.
Notice that Jesus states here that it is His word that
He has already spoken to them that has cleansed them from any sin. God’s word cleanses our hearts and minds of
sin and begins a transformation process of all of our very thought patterns.
4.3.
We Christians need to be constantly in God’s word,
because we also receive cleansing from His word as we seek Him and spend time
in His word and in prayer.
5.
VS
15:4 - “‘Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine,
so neither can you unless you abide
in Me’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples to abide in Him and He in them because a branch cannot bear fruit
of itself unless it abides in the vine, and neither can they unless they abide
in Him
5.1.
The Greek word translated ‘abide’ here is “meno” which means according to
Strong: “to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy):- abide,
continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry.” Jesus tells His disciples to remain or
continue to constantly abide in Him and look to Him as the source of all of
their very live.
5.2.
I don’t want to get sappy here but bearing fruit is
the simple result of abiding in the vine as it is the natural process that
occurs simply by that connection through which life flows. Branches don’t strain to produce fruit for
fruit is the natural result of simply abiding in the vine. Jesus tells His disciples that just as a
branch will never bear any fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine for its
source of life, that evens so they will be able to bear no fruit for the Father
unless they learn to abide in Him for their very life.
5.3.
We Christians need to look to Jesus and be dependent
upon Him and His resources as much as is practically possible. We ought to pray to Jesus about every
decision we make. We ought to be like
the apostle Paul who said in Phil. 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but dung,
that I may win Christ”. We ought to
be people who seek the Lord every day as we spend those rich quiet times with
Him. Jeremiah, in 29:13-14, said to what
degree we should seek the Lord, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all
your heart. And I will be found of you,
saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from
all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the
LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be
carried away captive”
6.
VS
15:5 - “‘I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears
much fruit; for apart from Me you can do
nothing’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that He is the vine and they the branches and that everyone who
abides in Him bears much fruit, for apart from Him you can do nothing
6.1.
As was mentioned, fruit is the automatic result
produced in a branch by simply abiding in the vine, for fruit is merely the
nature of the vine coming through and producing the fruit.
6.2.
A branch’s job is simply to abide in the vine and thus
be a conduit for the nature of the vine to flow through it and produce that
fruit that is characteristic of the nature of the vine. Likewise, the disciple who abides in Jesus
will bear ‘much fruit,’ fruit that flows from the nature of Christ
within Him overflowing in the fruits of the Spirit, fruit which is pleasing to
God.
6.3.
In the opposite sense, a disciple who does not abide
in Christ will not bear any fruit at all, at least none of which is of the type
that is pleasing to God.
6.4.
Fruit in this teaching of Jesus refers to souls won to
Christ, disciples made for the kingdom, and the Lord glorified through our
lives. Fruit also refers to the flow of
the Holy Spirit through the life of the believer producing the fruits of the
Spirit which enable a harvest in the souls of men.
6.5.
Are you bearing much fruit for the Lord in your
life? If not, then you are not abiding
in Jesus as you should, for the Lord says that to abide in Him will cause us to
bear ‘much fruit’ as the natural result.
6.6.
Also, we Christians ought to settle it once and for
all in our minds that apart from abiding in Jesus there will be no fruitfulness
(fruit of the Spirit) in our lives.
6.7.
So, this means that we are to look to the Lord in the
big things in our lives and take care of all of the rest ourselves, right? NO!!!
We need to abide in Christ and
seek Him and His resources in every little thing that we do on in our life
because we know that apart from Him we can ‘do nothing.’
7.
VS
15:6 - “‘If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and
dries up; and they gather them, and cast
them into the fire, and they are burned’.” - Jesus tells His disciples that if anyone does
in Him that he is thrown away as a branch, cast into the fire, and burned
7.1.
Jesus
states here that the disciple that refuses to abide in Him as the vine is ‘thrown
away’ as a branch and dries up and then is eventually ‘cast’ into
the fire and burned, and this Greek word that is translated in this verse both
as ‘thrown away’ and also as ‘cast’ has the following entry in
Strong’s Greek Dictionary:
906 βάλλω, ἀμφιβάλλω [ballo /bal·lo/] v. A primary word; TDNT 1:526; TDNTA
91; GK 965 and together with Strongs 293 as GK 311; 125 occurrences; AV
translates as “cast” 86 times, “put” 13 times, “thrust” five times, “cast
out” four times, “lay” three times, “lie” twice, and translated miscellaneously
12 times. 1 to throw or let go of a
thing without caring where it falls. 1a to scatter, to throw, cast into. 1b to give over to one’s care uncertain about the result. 1c of fluids. 1c1 to pour, pour into of rivers. 1c2 to pour out. 2 to put into, insert.
7.2.
In this verse, Jesus speaks a stern warning to the
ones who are bearing no fruit in their life.
That person who does not abide in Christ will be thrown away as a
branch, and dry up, and ultimately, he/she will burn eternally in the “lake
of fire” prepared for the devil and his angels.
7.3.
This verse ought to cause those of us who consider
ourselves to be Christians to do some inventory. If there is no fruit in our lives, we ought
to think about the fact that we need to repent of our sins since the word of
God says that we aren’t bearing fruit because we aren’t abiding in Jesus and
because we aren’t abiding in Jesus we won’t escape the punishment of the wicked
for eternity!
8.
VS
15:7 - “‘If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it shall be done for you’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that if they abide in Him and His words abide in them that they
may ask whatever they wish and it shall be given to them
8.1.
The disciple who continues to abide in Jesus and His
word will also pray according to the will of God, and therefore his prayers will
be answered for he shall have been led by God in his prayer.
8.2.
Jesus again uses “limitless language” as He
teaches in this parable about prayer.
The abiding disciple may ask ‘whatever’ he wishes, and no prayer
shall be too unreasonable or difficult that the Lord will not answer it.
8.3.
We Christians ought to be encouraged by this verse
both to abide in Jesus and in His word, and also to pray to the Lord. By abiding in Jesus and in His word each and
every one of us shall be used of the Lord in a mighty way and as well we shall
see the Lord answer prayer in such a mighty and powerful way.
9.
VS
15:8 - “‘By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so
prove to be My disciples’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that His Father will be glorified by their bearing much fruit and
that in fruit-bearing they will prove themselves to be His disciples
9.1.
Fruit produced by the vine (the Father) through a
branch (His disciple) shall bring glory to the Father, and, bearing ‘much
fruit’ shall bring much glory to God!
Fruit bearing is proof that one is a true Christian, for Christ said in
Matt. 7:17-20, “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a
corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
9.2.
God desires for each one of us His children to not
only bear fruit, but to bear “much fruit.” That is His design for us, and that is the
way that will bring Him the most glory.
As a result, each one of us ought to commit ourselves to be not only
fruitful for Christ as we abide in Him, but also to bear much fruit as this is
His desire for us!
9.3.
In my home state of Arizona, where there is very
little water, I discovered early in my life the fact that vines, hedges, and
trees will often develop incredibly large and involved root systems in order to
go down deep enough into the soil to pull out the moisture and nutrients that
it needs to live. Many times you might
plant a tree in your yard and then twenty years later after it has grown up you
are fixing the foundation of your house because of the incredible root system
that has grown from that tree in search of water. In the same way, we Christians ought to be so
intent and focused upon seeking the Lord that we cannot be deterred from
abiding fellowship with Him. After all,
He is the One of whom Paul wrote to the Colossians, “in whom dwell all of
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
10.
VS
15:9 - “‘Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love’.” - Jesus tells His disciples that just as the
Father has loved Him, so also has He loved them, and now they are to abide in
His love
10.1.
In the last days of His life, Jesus constantly brought
His disciples back to remembering that paramount in all that they did they must
keep His commandment to love each other.
In this verse, Jesus tells them that with the same fervency of love that
His Father loved Him, He likewise would love each of them. And to the same degree they were in turn to
love each other as they were abiding in His love.
10.2.
We see the Father speaking out at Jesus’ baptism and
His transfiguration with words of love towards His only begotten Son. We surely know in our hearts that the Father
loved Jesus with a unfathomable amount of love.
But, do we live our life as if Jesus loves us with the same degree of
love that the Father loved Him? And do
we love our brothers and sisters and the people of this world with that same
degree of love that the Father had for Jesus?
If we abide in Jesus, He will begin to produce such a quality of fruit
through our lives.
11.
VS
15:10 - “‘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’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that if they keep His commandments they will abide in His love
just as He had kept His Father’s commandments and was abiding in His Father’s
love
11.1.
Jesus had told His disciples a few times before this
that if they loved Him, then they would show their love for Him by keeping His
commandments. In this verse, Jesus tells
His disciples that if they will keep His commandments, then they will abide in
His love. The keeping of God’s
commandments involves walking in love for if you truly love others you will not
break God’s commandments.
11.2.
In the mainstream church today there is a real
movement towards “antinomianism,” which is the resistance to the keeping
of any kinds of laws or maxims. Many in
the church today think that referring to the keeping of any commandment of the
Lord is to promote “legalism” and that is to be avoided. However, this is not the way that Jesus
lived, nor is it how He taught His disciples to live. When Jesus refers to His commandments He as
the law giver of the Old Testament is referring to the moral law of the Old
Testament (not the ceremonial laws which were given to be observed only for a
time) as well as the things He commanded His disciples upon the earth when with
them. Keeping the Lord’s commandments is
not ‘legalism’ if we are being led of the Spirit in the keeping of
them.
11.3.
Obedience to God is required if a disciple is to abide
in Jesus, and abiding in Jesus will cause a disciple to abide in Jesus’ love,
i.e. to love with the same agape love with which Jesus loved men. Jesus kept the Father’s commandments, and He
was always abiding in the Father’s love, and His disciples will abide in the
Father’s love if they keep His commandments.
11.4.
Obedience has its own reward in our lives as
Christians, namely that we shall come to know and abide in the agape ‘love’
which dwelt in our Lord Jesus. We should
never let such a blessing slip through our fingers due to our disobedience!
12.
VS
15:11 - “‘These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full’.”
- Jesus tells His disciples that He has
told them these things so that His joy may be in them and that their joy might
be made full
12.1.
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples here in
chapter 15 so that He might be able to transfer the ‘joy’ that He
experienced in His life to His disciples.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and here Jesus promises to give to His
disciples not just joy, but ‘His joy’ which is to overflow in the life
of a disciples as he is filled with the Holy Spirit.
12.2.
We Christians ought always seek to be filled with the
Holy Spirit so that His joy may overflow our cup in blessing.
13.
CONCLUSIONS:
13.1.
Are you
abiding in Jesus, daily spending time with Him and in His word, daily praying
about each need that you have and every decision you make?
13.2.
Is your ‘joy
made full’ as a Christian? Is yours
a full cup? If not, this can only be
because you have not truly learned to abide in Christ in everything as you
should do! Abide in Jesus.