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.