Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (29)

 

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:8.

 

“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain…” John 15:16.

 

One of the things I have always enjoyed about church life is potluck suppers. Whether in a house church setting, or in a park with picnic tables and pavilions, or in a fellowship hall, there is something special about sampling what folks have prepared while enjoying the fellowship of the saints. The idea behind a potluck supper is that everyone contributes, whether large or small, everyone brings something according to his or her means and talents. With a potluck supper, everyone consumes, and everyone produces.

 

A potluck supper is a picture of what church life ought to look like, for it is a picture of how the Bible portrays the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:14 – 16; Romans 12:1 – 13; 1 Corinthians chapters 12 – 14; 1 Peter 4:10). I cannot understand why the chasm between the Bible and our corporate experience bothers so few people, but for now we’ll keep our focus on the “fruit” of John Chapter 15.

 

Are we producers? That is, are we bearing fruit in our Lord Jesus Christ for the glory of our Father and the blessing of other people?

 

When we gather as the People of God, are we bringing the produce of our land to share with others? When we meet brothers and sisters during the week, are we sharing out of our abundance in Christ Jesus? When we go to work or school or are involved in civic life or recreation, are we bringing the fruit of the Vine, Jesus Christ, to share with others?

 

Are we producers? Is producing fruit our natural way of life? Are we cultivating the land of our souls so that the Word of God in Christ will bear fruit? Are we praying to be producers? Are we learning to garden? Are we seeking to learn to abide in the Vine and to allow the Vine to abide within us?  (John 15:4-5; Proverbs 12:11; 28:19).

 

Just as we are to be known by our love for one another, so we are to be known by our fruit; as we bear fruit in Christ we grow into discipleship and are identified with Him. As we bear fruit our Father is glorified. Unlike natural fruit which once consumed is gone, or which can spoil, the fruit we bear in Christ is fruit that remains – the word “remain” in verse 16 (NASB) is the same Greek word translated “abide” elsewhere in our passage.

 

We have at least two challenges in the way we think about fruit; the first is that we have been trained to think of ourselves as consumers rather than producers. The second challenge is that we’ve been trained to think short-term and not long-term.

 

The world has trained us to consume, to spend our money, to go into debt, to covet, to rely on others for things we need. Our creative abilities have atrophied. Our creative initiative has been discouraged. We don’t think for ourselves anymore, we may think we do but we don’t – we don’t have the attention spans to engage in critical thinking.

 

The professing church has reinforced this mentality, fostering a dependence on its organizations and “experts” that discourages organic life and sharing and growth. The average Christian sees himself as a consumer and not a producer, dependent on the experts to tell him about Jesus and the Bible. To be sure we need one another to grow in Christ, to learn in Christ, we are called as a People…a functioning People (1 Cor. 12:12 in context).

 

The teaching offices and callings of Ephesians 4:11 are for the express purpose of “equipping the saints for the work for service…” These callings are not to promote dependence on themselves, but rather interdependence within the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:16). Will we ever learn?

 

Something is fundamentally amiss when folks who have been “going to church” for decades never have anything to share from their relationship with Jesus Christ and His Word. Something is wrong when spiritual potluck suppers are not our way of life as the People of God.

 

We all have something to bring to the Table. One of our problems is that we’ve been convinced otherwise.

 

The Good News is that as we abide in Christ Jesus that we can trust Him to produce fruit in us and through us, The Good News is that He has chosen us to bear fruit that remains. Will we trust Him in this way of life? Will we trust Him in this process?

 

Will we honor the working of the Holy Spirit within us? Will we encourage one another in the fruit – bearing process? Will we offer what Jesus produces within us to others, and will we partake of what others offer to us in Christ?

 

Will we be patient with ourselves and with one another? Are we willing to learn this way of life? Will we see that this is a shared life in Jesus Christ?

 

There is a fig tree growing at the home of one of my fifth great-grandfathers. This tree was planted sometime in the late 1700s. I recall picking a ripe fig from this tree and eating it and thinking that my fifth great-grandfather also picked fruit from the tree and ate it. The tree that he planted has fruit that is remaining, year after year, season after season.

 

Fifty-eight years ago, Howard Wall developed a relationship with me that brought me to know Jesus Christ. Howard has been dead a long time, but his fruit remains. Months after I met Howard, I met George Will. George sowed the seed of the centrality of Jesus Christ within my soul and he reinforced it over the years whenever we connected. George has been dead a few years now, but his fruit remains.

 

Harry Hanger, Rod Barton, Dan Smick, Bruce Harrison, and Jim Withers all showed me what it means to put Jesus and others first, even in the midst of suffering – they are with Jesus now, but their fruit remains.

 

I could go on and on, telling of folks whose fruit trees I’ve partaken of – men and women who have imparted Christ to me, who have fed me with fruit that remains and that always nourishes. These sisters and brothers knew what it is to abide in the Vine, and they shared the outflow of their Life with me…and with others.

 

We all have fruit to share in Christ; we need opportunities, we need encouragement, we need affirmation, we need to be reminded that Jesus Christ lives in us, and we live in Him. In Jesus, and in one another in Him, we truly have all that we will ever need.

 

Are we consumers?

 

Or are we producers in the Vine?

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (28)

 

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:8.

 

One of the patterns we see in John 15:1 – 17 is of fruit. We begin with fruit in the second verse (15:2) and we conclude with fruit in the penultimate verse (15:16).

 

How critical is fruit? “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (15:2).

 

We saw in verses 4 and 5 that we cannot bear fruit unless we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us (“abiding” is another pattern in our passage). We must have koinonia with Jesus Christ, we must live in Him and He must live in us for us to bear fruit.

 

In verse 8 we see that the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit – not just some fruit here and there, but much fruit.

 

Then in verse 16 Jesus says, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give it to you.”

 

Notice that bearing fruit is connected to prayer in verse 16, also please notice that prayer and fruit are connected in verses 7 and 8.

 

If prayer speaks to us of koinonia with the Father, then we see that just as we must abide in Jesus the Vine to bear fruit, that we must also abide in communion with our heavenly Father to live fruit-bearing lives. This, of course, is how it must be when we consider that the Father abides in Jesus and Jesus abides in the Father…and we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us.

 

“…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us…that they may be one, just as We are One; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” (see John 17:21 – 23).

 

Jesus is to be our Way of life, the Father is to be our Way of Life; in this Way of Life, as we abide in the Vine, as we speak to the Father and the Father speaks to us…we bear fruit.

 

In verse 16 Jesus says that He has chosen us and ordained us so that we would “go” and “bear fruit” and that our “fruit would remain.” Our fruit is to be lasting, not momentary. Unlike the fruit of the natural world which is consumed and gone, or which falls to the ground and rots, our fruit in Christ is to remain – for after all, if we are abiding in the Vine our fruit is produced by the Life of the Vine – by God of very God, then it is inconceivable that the fruit of God would rot, it cannot be corruptible for He is incorruptible.

 

To be sure we do not always see this, perhaps there are times we wonder if we ever see it, but God sees the work of His Word and His fruit.

 

Is it possible that we are attuned to spiritual fast food, that we look to immediate satisfaction without considering whether there is sustainable fruit in our teaching and activities? Are we so focused on producing satisfying Sunday morning experiences that we no longer produce satisfied lives in Jesus Monday – Saturday?

 

A people addicted to instant gratification are not likely to grow in Jesus Christ and they are not likely to bear fruit that remains. It is a rare pastor and church leadership that is able to resist the demand of our culture, including our church culture, to keep us entertained and instantly gratified, distracted from the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ – which calls us to what one author has termed “a long obedience in the same direction.”

 

And this thought leads us to how lasting fruit is produced. In John 12:12:24 - 26 Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

 

Where is Jesus? He says that where He is, we will be. Where is He?

 

He is laying down His life for us (John 15:13), He is falling into the ground and dying, He is producing much fruit for the Father’s glory.

 

Are we with Jesus? Are we losing our lives? Are we dying with Him? Are we falling into the ground with Him? Are we rising with Him?                 

 

Is our way the way of instant gratification and temporary fruit?

 

Or is our Way the Way of the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross?

 

Are we, are our congregations, producing fruit which remains?

 

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (27)

 

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:8.

 

As we continue our reflections in the Upper Room, I’m going to ask us to extend our current passage, John 15:1 – 11, to include verses 12 – 17. As we do so, let’s remember that chapters and verses were not incorporated into the Bible until hundreds of years after the original books of the Bible were written.

 

While chapters and verses are helpful the way house addresses are helpful, I imagine they probably do more harm than good in that we tend to read the Bible verse by verse and chapter by chapter, rather than thought by thought and image by image. This means we don’t have to (though we should!) invest ourselves in discerning images and thought patterns the way we otherwise would, it means we tend to take chapter breaks as reading and thinking breaks and thereby miss the continuity of the inspired text.

 

When Jesus says that “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…” (15:7) what does He mean about His words? What does it mean for His words to abide in us? Peter writes, “…for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). Do we see that Peter uses the word “abiding”?

 

When we drive by houses, we usually don’t know the people who live in the houses, we don’t know the people who abide in them. Now to be sure, there are cultures in the world, even in areas of the West, where this is not true, but it is true for most people reading this who live in high density settings. Even if we don’t know the people abiding in a house, there are times we can tell something about the inhabitants on the inside by what we see on the outside. There are also houses which have been abandoned, no one lives there anymore, and as the seasons change this becomes more apparent – how sad to mark the deterioration of a place that once contained life.

 

The Scriptures are concerned about what lives within us, about who lives within us, and about who we live within. Because we tend to focus on the outside of things and people, on externals, on the way things appear, we often miss the things that matter – the Bible teaches us that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7; see also 2 Cor. 4:18).

 

Peter and Jesus tell us that God’s Word is to live within us. Peter describes this Word as imperishable “seed,” as living and abiding within us. No matter what our outsides may look like, within us is to be the very Life of the Word of God. When others encounter us, when they come to our “houses” of flesh and blood, within these houses they are to find the Presence of God and His Word.

 

In our extended passage of John 15:1 – 17 there are interwoven themes and images, and to be sure we find them throughout the Upper Room, and indeed in all of Scripture. The interplay of these images and themes, the way the Light shines through them is, I suppose, endless - just as the potential arrangements of the musical scale are endless. And so we read our passage again and again, we ponder our passage throughout our days and weeks and months and years, and we keep seeing Jesus, we hear Him, we touch Him, we are touched by Him, we speak to Him – we have koinonia with Him and with one another in Him.

 

What images, patterns, and themes are you seeing in the Upper Room? As you consider 15:1 – 17 what do you see? How do words and images play off one another? What relationships do you see?

 

Consider the idea of “abiding”. We began our reflections in John 15 focusing on verses 4 and 5, the nexus of the first movement. As you read 15:1 – 17 can you trace the idea of abiding? Don’t just look for the word, look for the image, for the idea. For example, in verse 16, in the NASB, Jesus says, “…that your fruit would remain…” The word “remain” is the word in Greek that the NASB translates as “abide” in other verses in our passage.

 

Do you see the idea of abiding leading up to Chapter 15? Do you see it in Chapter 14?

 

What about the image of fruit? Can you trace the image of fruit in our passage?

 

What other threads do you see in John 15:1 – 17?

 

 

 

 

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (26)

  

As we continue to reflect on John 15:7, here is another thought from George MacDonald, which C. S. Lewis titles, Corrective Granting:

 

“Even such as ask amiss may sometimes have their prayers answered. The Father will never give the child a stone that asks for bread; but I am not sure that He will never give the child a stone that asks for a stone. If the Father says, ‘My child, this is a stone; it is no bread,’ and the child answer, ‘I am sure it is bread; I want it,’ may it not be well that he should try his ‘bread’?” George MacDonald – An Anthology, C. S. Lewis, Day 105, page 55.

 

I have to say that this is not something I have thought much about…if at all; it is certainly another perspective on the possibilities of prayer. C. S. Lewis thought it was important enough to include in his Anthology.

 

As I ponder MacDonald’s words, I see that the principle of relationship is valid; whether of parent – child, teacher – student, mentor – mentee, employer – employee, pastor – parishioner. Do we not learn when we, at times, get exactly what we ask for? Are there not some things which only experience can teach us?

 

There are times we need to be allowed to fail, to come up against harsh reality, to recognize that our perceptions were wrong, our values were wrong, that we were in error. Sometimes we can superimpose our illusions and wants and desires onto situations and deceive ourselves, and the only way to have the bubble burst is to jump into the pool and find there is no water – it can hurt.

 

Yet, in the Father our painful learning is nevertheless a secure learning. That is, we learn in the security of His love and not in an environment of condemnation. I used to tell my congregation that we ought to be the safest place on earth, that we ought to be the place, the people, where we can get on the bike and fall off and get on again with encouragement from one another.

 

As a pastor, and as an employer in business, I’ve watched folks go down roads that I pretty much knew were dead ends, but I knew that the roads needed to be traveled because the lessons needed to be learned and that there were no shortcuts for the lessons. I also knew that when harsh reality hit and disappointment enveloped folks, that I needed to be with them to encourage them to learn and try again – to figure out the difference between bread and a stone.

 

Sadly, most of us live in a world of condemnation – and this often includes church environments. Failure often leads to harsh criticism and ridicule rather than constructive coaching and learning. However, our heavenly Father want us to be secure in Him and secure with one another – loving one another as Jesus Christ loves us, being tenderhearted, laying our lives down for one another. (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 17; Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2; 1 John 3:16).

 

Life together in the Trinity ought to be the safest place on earth.

 

When our Father answers our prayers with what C. S. Lewis terms Corrective Granting, we can be assured that He does so in His deep love for us – and we can trust Him to walk with us through the experience.

 

 

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (25)

 

 

As we continue to reflect on John 15:7, I want to ponder more of George MacDonald’s thoughts on prayer.

 

“And there is a communion with God that asks for nothing, yet asks for everything…He who seeks the Father more than anything He can give, is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss.” (George MacDonald – An Anthology, C. S. Lewis, page 54).

 

This is, I think, a wonderful adjunct to the Upper Room prayer passages (John 14:13 – 14; 15:7; 16:23 – 24), for these passages are set within Jesus’ invitation to us to live in koinonia with the Trinity and with one another (John Chapter 17). Nor should we forget the extended setting, which leads us into the Garden, the Betrayal, the Trial, and the Crucifixion. O yes, and let us not forget the Resurrection!

 

But what do we have in the Garden? "Let this cup pass from Me, yet not My will, but Your will be done." Ought we to not read and ponder the prayer passages in light of the Garden? Might not Jesus in the Garden inform our understanding of what Jesus says in the Upper Room about prayer?

 

Was not Jesus seeking the Father in the Garden, more than anything the Father could give?

 

Are we seeking the Father in our prayers, or are we focused on the things our Father can give us?

 

“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.” (Psalm 103:7).

 

Are we learning the ways of our Father, or do we still only know Him, perceive Him, externally? Are we only looking at the things our Father does, or are we learning to live in His Presence, to have our hearts joined to Him? In a sense this takes us back to the question of whether we think in terms of prayer lives, or lives of prayer…lives of unbroken communion with the Holy Trinity.

 

If we “see” Jesus in the Garden, then we see that our lives, including our lives of prayer, are to be cruciform, that is, they are to be in the shape of the Cross. In cruciform prayer we draw near to the heart of God, we are transformed into the image of the Firstborn Son, and we become broken bread and poured out wine for others. In this holy intimacy we can find that we simply do not know exactly how to pray, but we can be assured that the Holy Spirit will lift our hearts and souls and minds into prayer, and we can trust Him to lead us and guide us…even if we have limited cognitive understanding of the heavenly realms (Romans 8:26 – 27). The understanding that matters most is the understanding that we are in the hands, arms, and heart of the Holy Trinity – and that we can rest secure in the Holy of Holies – which of course is God.

 

Well…as you read the above quote from MacDonald, what do you think? C. S. Lewis thought it important enough to include it in his Anthology, but what do you think? What do you feel about this?

 

 

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (24)

 

 

As we continue to reflect on John 15:7, I want to return to some thoughts from George MacDonald.

 

“For the real good of every gift is essential first, that the giver be in the gift – as God always is, for He is love – and next, that the receiver know and receive the giver in the gift. Every gift of God is but a harbinger of His greatest and only sufficing gift – that of Himself. No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best: therefore many things that God would gladly give us, things even that we need because we are, must wait until we ask for them, that we may know whence they come: when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things.” (George MacDonald - An Anthology, C. S. Lewis, page 48). 

 

When we read the prayer passages (John 14:13 – 14; 15:7; 16:23 – 24) of the Upper Room in isolation, we miss them and we miss our Father. The context of these passages is relationship with the Trinity, it is koinonia with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Folks ask me about the prayer passages, but when they ask me about the passages they do not ask me about relationship with the Father. I am asked, “Why doesn’t God answer prayer?” I am not asked, “How can I know God better? How can I experience intimacy with our Father?” I am asked, in essence, how we can get God to answer prayer – as if our Father were a pagan deity; I am not asked how we can know Jesus.

 

When I respond with Jesus’ Upper Room invitation to koinonia with the Father, folks usually tell me that once their prayers are answered that they will have time to get to know God better. We think God is an ATM machine – we want His bank card to get what we want, and maybe after we get what we want, the way we want it, we will spend a little time with Him before we move on. We think God will be so grateful to us for using His bank card at His bank that He will thank us and appreciate anything we do for Him and any time we spend with Him. Why we might even read a Bible verse every day to show Him that we haven’t forgotten Him.

 

As we read of Jesus in the Upper Room, as we consider the wonderful things He says to us, the beautiful message of our Father’s love for us and His desire for us to live in Him – let us also remember that Jesus is shortly going to be betrayed, suffer, and die – bearing our hideous sins and the depths of our sinful selves, so that His Word to us in the Upper Room might become an eternal reality in our lives.

 

Are we ignoring such love?

 

How are we truly reading the prayer passages in the Upper Room? How are we living them?

 

How do you see yourself when reading MacDonald’s words?

 

How are we responding to the love of God in Jesus Christ?

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (23)

 

As we consider prayer in John 15:7 – 8, I am drawn to some insights from George MacDonald as recorded by C. S. Lewis in, George MacDonald – An Anthology – 365 Readings. In his preface, Lewis makes the point concerning MacDonald, “The Divine Sonship is the key conception which unites all the different elements of his thought.” I think we see this in the excerpts below. I also think that we can say that Divine Sonship unites the Gospel of John, and certainly the Upper Room. We see the Divine Sonship of Jesus Christ in the Father, and we see our Divine Sonship in Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Good News of the Father calling His sons and daughters Home.

 

From Day 91: Why Should It Be Necessary?

 

“But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?” I answer, What if He knows Prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God’s idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need – the need of Himself?...

 

Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of prayer…

 

So begins a communion, a talking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases. We must ask that we may receive: but that we should receive what we ask in respect of our lower needs, is not God’s end in making us pray, for He could give us everything without that: to bring His child to his knee, God withholds that man may ask.

 

Do you think this passage is appropriate in our consideration of John 15:7 – 8? Can we see its emphasis on relationship? Our dear heavenly Father wants to draw us into deep relationship with Himself, He wants to set us on His knee, He wants us to know joy and peace and security in Him, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the blessed Holy Spirit.

 

The Gospel of John begins with the Father calling His sons and daughters home (1:12 – 13) and we see this theme unfolding throughout the Gospel; we also see the Sonship of Jesus Christ attacked again and again (for example see John 10:33). Just as the Sonship of Jesus Christ was attacked 2,000 years ago, His Sonship in us and our Sonship in Him is attacked today – the enemy is always attempting to rob us of our identity in Jesus Christ, if the enemy cannot stop us from coming home to the Father, he will attempt to rob us to our inheritance, blind us to our identity, and do his worst to have us arrive at that City beaten and bruised and bleeding and disoriented – arriving as paupers when we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ in our Father.

 

Can we hear Jesus saying, “…go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’”? (John 20:17b).

 

Can we hear Jesus saying, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love”? (15:9).

 

Can we hear Jesus saying, “…that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me”? (17:23b).

 

O dear reader, see how God loves you!

 

The Father truly does want you on His knee.

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (22)

 

 

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove [become] to be My disciples.” John 15:7 – 8.

 

This is one of three passages in the Upper Room in which Jesus speaks to us concerning prayer; the other two are 14:13 – 14 and 16:23 – 24. Jesus has spoken of abiding within us, and of the Father and Holy Spirit abiding in us (14:16 – 17, 23), and now He speaks of His words abiding in us. The motif of the Vine and the branches, “Abide in Me, and I in you,” (15:4), is the motif of the Upper Room, indeed, it is the motif of the Christian life.

 

How tragic that many Christians live with an image of God being “out there” or “up there” rather than being joined to Him in intimate koinonia. How often we are as the people of the Gadarenes, imploring Jesus to leave us (Mt. 8:34), we are uncomfortable in living in proximity to Jesus Christ.

 

The prayer passages of the Upper Room cannot be separated from the motif of intimacy with the Trinity and the words of the Trinity (see also John 17:8). Communion and communication, communication and communion, with the True and Living God (and with one another in Him) is our calling and our destiny; it is to be our center of gravity and our gyroscope. Communion and communication with the Trinity is to be our biosphere, the air we breathe – at home, at work, in the broader community, at school, when we gather to worship, at play.

 

Just as Jesus glorified the Father on earth (17:4), even so we are called to glorify the Father during our time on earth, accomplishing the work which He has given us to do (17:18; Eph. 2:10). We can only experience the fulfilling of our calling as we live in koinonia with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with the words of the Son abiding within us.

 

There is a sense in which “asking” our Father and Jesus is to be our Way of Life. In 14:14:13 – 14 Jesus tells us to ask Him. In 16:23 Jesus tells us to ask the Father. As we live in the Trinity we learn to talk to the Trinity and to listen to the Trinity. As we speak to the Trinity and listen to the Trinity, we learn to live in the Trinity.

 

The “asking” of John 15:7 is literally rooted in 15:4 – 5, as we live in union with the Vine we commune with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; as we commune we communicate, and as we communicate we ask.

 

When Paul writes that we are to “pray without ceasing” (1 Th. 5:17), he is simply stating the way we are called to live – in uninterrupted communion and friendship with God.

 

If God is going to spend the day with us, ought not we to spend the day with God? Would it not be rude to spend the day with someone and not communicate with them?

 

If we will “see” that we are called to be Christ’s Presence to others, if we will “see” that we are called to do the work which our Father has given us – in all spheres and venues of life, if we will “see” that our dear Father wants to transform us into the image of His Firstborn Son and that He employs all elements of life to do so, if we will begin to see these things then we will begin to commune with God in all that we do, for all that we do will be for His glory and we will need His grace, wisdom, love, light, and life…we will need Him…in everything. When Jesus says, “…for apart from Me you can do nothing”, He means “nothing.”

 

Note in the prayer passages of the Upper Room that not only is the Father’s glory in focus, but our joy is also in focus (15:11; 16:24). We have joy in fulfilling the will of our Father, we know joy when His grace and life flow through us to others, we shout with joy when others come to know Him. Most of all, we have joy in friendship with Him.

 

O dear friends, prayer has different expressions and seasons to be sure, but prayer is to be the fabric of life when it is understood to be every breath we breathe – for we are to abide in the Vine. To speak of a “prayer life” has its place in our growth in Christ, but hopefully we come to a place on our pilgrimage where we transition from a “prayer life”  into a “life of prayer.”

 

Can we see the distinction?

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (21)

          

 

How might John 8:30 – 59 help us understand John 15:2a and 6?

 

“As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.” (8:30).

 

Leading up to 8:30, Jesus is speaking of being the Light of the world and pointing to Himself as the “Light of life” (8:12). There is tension throughout Chapter 8, it begins with the woman caught in adultery (where was the man?), it continues in 12 – 30, and it culminates in 59 with, “Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” It is critical to allow the ebb and flow of John 8, with its tension, to soak into us in order to “see” the play unfold on the stage.

 

The idea in verse 30 that “many came to believe in Him” is amazing in that Jesus says some difficult things in 12 – 29 and is pressed by the religious folks – it must have been quite the exchange to witness in the Temple. I hope you will take the time to read 12 – 29.

 

In spite of the hostility that Jesus encounters from the Pharisees, in spite of the hard teachings of Jesus concerning Himself and His Father, “many came to believe in Him.”

 

Now if Jesus had been properly trained He would have known a good thing when He saw it, but once again we see that Jesus had deficient training, for rather than welcome everyone into His group of followers and leave well enough alone, what does Jesus do?

 

“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, “You will become free”’?” (Jn. 8:31 – 33).

 

Now the tension shifts in John Chapter 8 from between Jesus and the Pharisees to between Jesus and the people who have just expressed belief in Him, and things unravel quickly. As you read verses 31 – 59 what do you see? How is this scene playing out?

 

In verse 43 Jesus says that “you cannot hear My word,” and then in the next verse He says, “You are of your father the devil…” (Now it is important to see the dynamics of what leads up to these statements, for Jesus is giving the people an opportunity to truly come to Him and know Him, but they are rejecting Him.)

 

By the time we arrive at verse 48 the people of verse 30, the “many who believed in Him” are now accusing Jesus of having a demon!

 

If Jesus had only been trained in seeker – sensitive ministry, if He had only been trained in how to attract and retain people. I wonder if the elders and deacons and trustees will have a meeting with Jesus and ask Him to tone things down? How can a responsible preacher attract people one minute (verse 30) and then before the service is over the same folks want to kill Him? I don’t think the church leadership is going to give Jesus a good review.

 

But back to how this passage can help us understand John 15:2a and 6. When we read in 8:30 that “many came to believe in Him,” the word “believe” does not necessarily mean what we at first think it means. When we first read the word “believe” we likely think it means belief in terms of commitment, trust, reliance; perhaps of being “all in” for Jesus. However, as we see in the rest of the chapter these people not only soon abandoned their belief, but their belief turned into murderous hate – they tried to kill Jesus.

 

So we see that the term “believe” has shades of meaning, just as in our previous reflection in John Chapter 6 we saw that the term “disciple” has different shade of meaning – for in John 6:66 we saw that “many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”

 

When we read in John 15:2a that, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He [the Father] takes away…” these branches can be thought of as “apparent branches” as opposed to branches who are truly joined to the Vine. In other words, they are branches in appearance just as the many disciples of John 6:66 were disciples in appearance and just as those believing in John 8:30 were believers in appearance.

 

Also, the way both John 6 and John 8 play out with respect to the “apparent” disciples and the “apparent” believers may help us understand in some measure the Father’s working in John 15:2a and 6 – for in both instances the rejection of Jesus is a manifestation of false branches being removed from the Vine and burned.

 

Let us also remind ourselves of the everlasting assurance we have in Jesus Christ, as seen in John 6:37 – 40 and 44. This must have been a deep consolation and hope for those who held fast to Jesus at the end of Chapter 6, those who knew that Jesus had the words of eternal life. Those are the folks who ask, “To whom shall we go?” They know, they always know, there is no one but Jesus.

 

While at first glance the idea of the Father removing branches may seem confusing, once we look at other areas of John’s Gospel I hope we will gain a better understanding of what we see. This is not about those who are in Christ being taken out of Christ, it is not about those joined organically to the Life of the Trinity being removed from that Life – it is rather about the chaff being separated from the wheat, and the tares from the wheat (Matthew 3:12; 13:24 – 30)

 

We also see elements of the Parable of the Sower playing out in John chapters 6 and 8. There is seed which the birds quickly eat, and there is seed that quickly springs up but lasts only briefly (Matthew 13:3 – 9).

 

I suppose I could argue that the Upper Room provides the believer in Jesus Christ with the most overwhelming assurance of salvation and security in the Trinity that can be found anywhere in the Bible – and that we must read John 15:2 and 6 in that context.

 

We can say this when we consider two things. The first is that Jesus is about to be abandoned by the very men He is speaking to. The second, is that in spite of the impending abandonment, Jesus is affirming them over and over in the Father’s love and the Father’s glory. Jesus is even speaking of the disciples keeping His word (John 17:6 – 8). Clearly Jesus is seeing things that the disciples are not seeing, just as He sees glorious things in us that we tend to miss. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, sees beyond our appearances, He sees us in the Father’s glory and love, He sees us redeemed forever by His blood, He sees us forever living in Him and with Him.

 

God our Father desires us to live in the blessed assurance of Jesus Christ, secure in Jesus forever and always. Insecure people are fearful people, they are fruitless people, they are self-centered people – for they can never rest in their relationship with God, they are always trying to be good enough, to measure up – no matter what they may say about being saved by grace and faith in Jesus Christ. When we are secure in Jesus then we can be ourselves in Him and forget about ourselves in Him. We are free to live for Jesus and others, and with joy we can anticipate eternity.

 

I hope that looking at John 15:2a and 6 along with John chapters 6 and 8 will remind us of how we need to read the entire Bible, and the entire book of the Bible in which a passage is located, in order to fully ponder that passage. No passage ought to be read in isolation. No passage was written in isolation from other passages and no passage is meant to be understood in isolation from other passages. We are called to live in the holistic Word of God.

 

As we live in the assurance of our union with the Vine, let us do all we can, by Christ’s grace, to introduce others to our Lord Jesus, our Vine and our source of Life. Don’t we want everyone to know Him? I hope so.

 

Living in Jesus, Abiding in Him (20)

 

 

Having already pondered John 15:4 - 5 (in reflections 3 – 5 in this series), we are now going to consider verse 6 as well as the first part of verse 2.

 

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He [the Father] takes away…” 15:2a.

 

“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them into the fire and they are burned.” 15:6.

 

The reason we first spent time in verses 4 and 5 is that they are the core of our passage, they are the center of gravity, they are our stabilizer, our gyroscope. If verses 4 and 5 cease to be our center of gravity, then we will lose focus and perspective and likely not view 15:2a and 15:6 in a healthy fashion. I think there are at least two reasons for this.

 

The first reason is that 15:2a and 15:6 are not about us; the rest of the passage is about us, abiding in Jesus and bearing fruit in Him and the Father’s pruning are about us, but 15:2a and 6 are not about us; we will try to understand, in some measure, who they are about, but they are not about us.

 

The second reason why we can lose perspective in considering 15:2a and 6 is that most of us have a propensity to look at other people and speculate about them – we judge others, and we tend to categorize them. We like sorting people out and labeling them. Keeping our focus on verses 4 and 5 reminds us that Jesus is to be our focus, not only in the sense of my relationship with Jesus, but just as importantly…in our relationship with Jesus. We are all in this together…in Jesus.

 

How are we to understand 15:2a and 6? What does it mean when Jesus says, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit”? What does “in Me?” mean?  In verse 6, to whom is Jesus referring when He says, “If anyone does not abide in Me”?

 

At the outset I’ll say that we see through a glass dimly (1 Cor. 13:12), and I think that is good. I would much rather see the love of God in Christ clearly, and see the Cross clearly, than see certain other things clearly…tragic things. There are some things we really can’t bear, and if we only have glimpses then let us be thankful. Our kind Father knows what is best for His children.

 

When seeking to understand a passage it is best to begin within the Biblical book in which we find the passage. This is like looking at a complex piece of jewelry that has many gems, each gem has a role to play in complementing the other gems, as does the precious metal in which the gems are set. We can learn so much from a setting.

 

Jesus gives us great assurance in John’s Gospel, an assurance that leads us to the glories of the Holy of Holies in the Upper Room, particularly John Chapter 17. We have previously seen, in Chapter 14, how we are called into the koinonia of the Trinity, how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit come to live within us.

 

In John Chapter 6 we read:

 

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out…This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day…No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37, 39, 44).

 

As the author of Hebrews says, Jesus is indeed the “Author and Completer of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).

 

We see this assurance introduced in John 1:12 – 13: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

 

However we may understand the various elements of John 1:12 – 13, the ground of the passage is “but of God.” The source of our new life is God – no matter how we see anything else, we ought to begin and end with God and His action and will as our center of gravity and our blessed assurance. As John 1:9 declares, He [the Word] is the Light – we can’t produce our own light, our own understanding, we can’t see anything spiritually or morally…we are blind without God.

 

But now let us ponder two passages with a fair amount of nuance, ones in which we may see dimly. You will need to read these in their context to gain the most from them, but we’ll get a start on them.

 

“‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, ‘For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.’

 

“As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.

 

“So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and come to know that You are the Holy One of God.’”

 

The above scene occurs at the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching on the Bread of Life. I hope you will read John 6:26 – 71 to gain a sense of the tension and challenge that Jesus presents His listeners.

 

Can you see the two distinct responses? On the one hand “many of His disciples” turn away from Him. On the other hand, Peter affirms the belief and commitment of the precious few, "Lord, to whom shall we go?”

 

I suppose that if Jesus were a pastor that His church would fire Him and call Him an idiot. After all, what kind of pastor preaches a sermon that drives people away? Apparently Jesus was uninformed about being “seeker sensitive.” I don’t imagine the session or elders or deacons would be pleased at the offering that morning. Someone should have done a better job training Jesus to preach and teach.

 

But you know, well of course you know, that when a brother or sister simply says, “To whom shall we go?”, that the sister or brother “gets it” concerning Jesus. The brother who asks, “To whom shall we go?” knows that living in Jesus is a matter of life or death.

 

When a professing Christian says to me, “To whom shall we go?”, I know he or she means business with Jesus, that she or he is all in for Jesus. They know that Jesus is indeed the Bread of Life, that He alone has “the words of eternal life.”

 

But note in 6:66 that “many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” In 6:60 – 61 these disciples are grumbling and Jesus meets their complaining head on, He does not sidestep the thrust of His teaching, He does not cater to them so as not to lose them – but rather continues His confrontation (O that someone would have trained Jesus better! He could have built such a nice church and congregation.)

 

The people “not walking with Him anymore” are not the crowds, they are disciples.

 

One of the things that I want us to see is how the term “disciple” is used. When we think of the term “disciple” we tend to think of those not only being taught by Jesus, but of those committed to Jesus. However, as we see in John 6:66 this is not necessarily the case. For that matter, when we read in John 13:5 that Jesus “began to wash the disciples’ feet” we know that Judas Iscariot is included in the term “disciples,” and he was hardly a committed follower of Jesus.

 

Can you see a correlation between the way “disciple” is used in John’s Gospel and the idea we find in John 15:2a and 6 of “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit”?

 

In other words, just as not all disciples were truly disciples, so not all who appear to be branches in Jesus are truly branches in Jesus. In both instances we are dealing with the distinction between appearances and the reality beyond the appearances.

 

Not only that but consider the progression (or regression?) in John 6:60 – 71 with respect to the many “disciples” who turned away from Jesus. Might this not be an example of the Father “taking away” branches that appear to be in the Vine because they are not bearing fruit? And consider, in this light, that in 6:65 Jesus reiterates that “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” Jesus is emphatic in His teaching, even if it means a diminished congregation and a meagre offering (O that He might have had better training and been more practical!).

 

In our next reflection we’ll ponder, the Lord willing, a similar passage, John 8:30 – 59. As you read John 8:30 - 59 what do you see? Do you see similarities between this passage and the scenario of John Chapter 6? How might John 8:30 – 59 help us understand John 15:2a and 6?