1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:29,980 All right, we'll go ahead and get it started. 2 00:00:29,980 --> 00:00:59,960 I need to adjust these volumes down. And if you're joining us online, there are handouts available right on the front page of our website, collegeparkcc.com. We're going to take a look at John, the 15th chapter. I'm just going to go ahead and read through this, and then we'll just kind of dive right into it. I'm going to begin with verse 1. 3 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:29,940 My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for a part of the vine. 4 00:01:29,940 --> 00:01:59,920 Apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. And if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have 5 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:29,900 kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is the commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 6 00:02:29,900 --> 00:02:59,880 You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you, these things I command you, so that you will love one another. And so before we dive into this, we need to talk a little bit about what is happening here. So properly speaking, if we want to be very technical, probably not so much a parable as it is an allegory. 7 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:29,860 So a parable is a story with a truth or a spiritual truth to it. An allegory tends to have a little bit more detail. So in a parable, for example, the vine and the branches, they're just generally probably a vine and a branch, right? And then in an allegory, you know, the vine is Jesus, the branches are the disciples, the vine dresser is God the Father, and so there tends to be, in an allegory, a little bit more detail. 8 00:03:29,860 --> 00:03:59,840 Parables, because sometimes we tend to add too many details, and we have to be careful with allegories, because sometimes we don't see all of the details that are there. So this tends to go just a little bit deeper than a parable, and so I want to sort of take a look at the context from two different directions, the first being the context in the ministry of Jesus. So Jesus speaks these words during what is known as the upper room discourse, and so that's 9 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:29,820 John chapter 13 through 17, and these events take place during the Last Supper. So the night they celebrate Passover together, the disciples and Jesus gathers around, and He teaches them extensively. He works to prepare them. Remember, He comforts them. I'm going to prepare a place for you. He promises the Spirit that the Comforter will come. He prays in John 17. He prays for the disciples. 10 00:04:29,820 --> 00:04:46,940 All of these things happen. So we have to understand, and one of the things, all the words of Jesus are weighty, but these are some of the last words of Jesus during His, you know, before He goes to the cross. And so that's part of the context here. 11 00:04:46,940 --> 00:04:59,800 The other part of the context is, and you probably heard it, where Jesus says, "I am the vine." This is one of seven "I am" statements made by Jesus. And that's not just a clever, 12 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:29,780 kind of list from John where, you know, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. I am the way, the truth, and light. I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the bread of life." All of these different "I am" statements. It's not just an interesting list, but it goes all the way back to Exodus chapter 3, and if you remember Moses, he's on the run. He's somewhere between 40 and 80. He leaves Egypt at age 40. He's in the wilderness. He's tending sheep. He looks at a bush, and it's on fire. 13 00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:59,760 which is interesting, but as he watches it, it doesn't get burned up, and so he approaches it. God speaks from the bush, says, "Moses, remove your sandals. The ground upon which you are standing is holy," and Moses realizes he's in the presence of God. God commissions him to go and save his people, and Moses goes, "Well, who do I say sent me?" And he says, "I am," or "I am who I am." And from that, we get the most holy name of God. 14 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:29,740 And so when Jesus says things like, "I am the light of the world," he's not just saying, "I bring light into the darkness," right? He's making a great statement about his identity and his work, that God has come into the world, and he is bringing light into the darkness, and this is a wonderful and powerful thing. And so when we hear these "I am" statements, we shouldn't trivialize them by just thinking, "Oh, Jesus is taking 15 00:06:29,740 --> 00:06:59,720 telling us a little bit about himself." We've probably all been in those meetings or classes where it starts, where everybody gets to know each other, "Now tell us three things about yourself," right? Jesus is doing something that's bigger here, right? He's saying, "I am." And in fact, several cases, the Jewish religious leaders understood it this way because he'll say, "I am the light of the world," and they try to kill him because they understand what he is claiming to do. So the context here is not just, "Oh, I'm divine," and 16 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:29,700 the branches, and we'll put this on a coffee cup to make us feel good about our relationship to Jesus. Jesus is saying something really, really big and really, really wonderful. So we sort of have a scriptural, biblical context of Jesus's ministry and Jesus's claims of who he is. So any thoughts or comments before we go any further about that? 17 00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:59,680 A very significant cultural context. So vineyards for the disciples are pretty familiar, probably not as much so for us as it would have been for a society that was significantly more agricultural. Although I've noticed in the last 10 years, it seems, I think when I first moved here, maybe there was like two vineyards in the area. When mom and I were driving back from Northern Virginia, I guess two weeks ago, I was counting all the vineyards we went by, and there was like nine 18 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:29,660 or ten just on the one road we were on, and it doesn't count, you know, all the others. So they're becoming more and more prevalent now. It would have been even more prevalent, right, in Jesus's day. And additionally, you probably would have had experience with a friend who has a vineyard or helping, you know, in a vineyard, working in a vineyard, seeing a vineyard, knowing somebody who does. And so it was a very familiar thing. It was ingrained in the culture. If you didn't have a vineyard, you wanted one. One commentator said this was like one of the 19 00:08:29,660 --> 00:08:59,640 big cash crops was selling grapes and the products made from grapes. If you remember Jezebel, she really, really wants Naboth's vineyard and ultimately has him killed so she can take his vineyard. So this is a very familiar thing culturally for the disciples. Additionally, it would have been familiar for them spiritually, not just physically. Oh, I saw a vineyard. My buddy Steve, he has a vineyard. You know, my uncle Jed, he 20 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:29,620 works in a vineyard. It's going to be a spiritual picture as well. So throughout the Old Testament, God continually pictures his people as a vineyard. So I'll give you two examples. One is from the 80th Psalm recounting the history of the Israelites, and it will say, "You brought a vine out of Egypt, drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root and filled the land." So the story, as the psalmist portrayed 21 00:09:29,620 --> 00:09:59,600 phrase it, of the nation of Israel was that of a vineyard, right? They were the vine that was brought out. The land was cleared of everybody else. It was planted, and it filled the land. In Isaiah chapter 5, bringing judgment on the people and talking about their sin, it'll say, "Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones. He planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed 22 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:29,580 out a wine van in it, and he looked to it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes." And so you wanted good grapes, and if you've ever had wild grapes, they're not nearly as good as regular grapes. And so the end part of this Isaiah 5 passage is that God comes in and tears down the vineyard, right? He rebuilds his vineyard, brings judgment upon it. And throughout the teaching of Jesus, we've heard about vineyards, right? 23 00:10:29,580 --> 00:10:59,560 the vineyard, the tenants who rented a vineyard, you know, the wineskins, putting new wine into old wineskins. And additionally, in terms of the context of what Jesus has just done, the very immediate context, likely the chronology of the Last Supper. This likely comes probably after he has instituted the Lord's Supper, where he takes the fruit of the vine, right, and celebrates with the disciples 24 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:08,560 He institutes the Lord's Supper for the church. And so on a lot of levels, there is some deep spiritual depth to what is happening here. 25 00:11:08,560 --> 00:11:24,560 Additionally, this was a very common cultural picture. It wasn't just a common job, or a common profession, or a common type of farming. It wasn't just common spiritually, but it was common enough that it became sort of a picture of the Jewish nation culturally. 26 00:11:24,560 --> 00:11:28,620 So just a couple examples. One, 27 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:49,560 Let me try to get over here. So during the Maccabean Revolt, that would be before Jesus in that time. The coinage, if you look at the back of the coin, one of the things you used in coinage, because not a lot of people could read, you did put letters on your coins, but a lot of times it was symbolism. 28 00:11:49,560 --> 00:12:08,560 On the back of some of the Maccabean minted coins was a vine and grapes as a picture. This is our coinage for our nation, just like we put George Washington or the White House or different things that are symbolic to us on our coinage. 29 00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:20,560 Additionally, and this is a reproduction of the temple, a modern model, but around the doors of the temple, Josephus records this. 30 00:12:20,560 --> 00:12:28,560 He says, "The gate which was at the end of the first part of the house was, as we have already observed, all covered with gold. 31 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:37,560 As it was a whole wall about it, it also had golden vines above it from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a man's height." 32 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:50,560 And so this doesn't picture it, but it would have been either in this area or in that area, pictures right in the house of worship of grapes and vines. 33 00:12:50,560 --> 00:13:06,560 And so this is not a picture or an image that would have been unfamiliar to Jesus' audience. It would have had significant depths in terms of his 34 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:14,560 ministry and what he was saying with "I am the vine." It would have had depths that go back through Israel's history with God picturing 35 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:25,560 Israel as a vineyard and vines and culture and all of these things. Any thoughts or comments before we dive into what Jesus says? 36 00:13:25,560 --> 00:13:35,560 So what Jesus does is he talks about vines and fruit and branches. 37 00:13:35,560 --> 00:13:40,560 What he's going to do is he's going to picture a vineyard, and it's a relatable picture, 38 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:50,560 but it's also, as I was thinking about this, there are so many elements in this that this text is almost like a vine. 39 00:13:50,560 --> 00:13:55,560 It goes here, and it twists here, and there's branches here, and there's fruit here. 40 00:13:55,560 --> 00:14:00,560 So not only is it a picture of what Jesus is trying to talk about, but it's kind of written almost. 41 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:07,560 Jesus presents it almost in a way that feels like a vine through its twists and turns. 42 00:14:07,560 --> 00:14:13,560 And so we start with three specific elements in these first two verses. 43 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:18,560 Jesus will say, "I am the vine, and my Father is a vine dresser. 44 00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:21,560 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, 45 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:27,560 and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit." 46 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:33,560 So he identifies, in terms of this figure, three very specific groups. 47 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:36,560 First of all, he identifies himself. 48 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:41,560 And notice what he says. He says, "I am the true vine." 49 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:46,560 And so when somebody says "true" in front of something, 50 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:50,560 that generally implies there's people who are not the true vine. 51 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:54,560 And so Jesus is sort of setting himself apart when he says, "I am the true vine," 52 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:59,560 that I am the real vine. I am the true one. 53 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:03,560 This is the one that you want to be attached to. 54 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:08,560 And then he pictures his Father, God the Father, is the vine dresser. 55 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:13,560 And so, not a word that we use a lot when we talk about the vine dresser. 56 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:18,560 It doesn't mean you're putting clothes on the vines, but rather that you're caring for the vines. 57 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,560 His purpose was to protect the vines, to train the vines. 58 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:30,560 So as you have your trellises, and the vines are supported by, to make sure that the branches are winding through, 59 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,560 so that when the fruit comes, everything is supported properly. 60 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:42,560 But also, part of his job was to prune, and in some cases, to cut off unfruitful parts and discard them. 61 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:51,560 And one of the interesting things about this upper room discourse is you clearly see, throughout it all, the work of the Trinity. 62 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:54,560 God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 63 00:15:54,560 --> 00:16:00,560 Now, in the parable of, or the allegory of the vine and the branches, you see the Father and the Son, 64 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:08,560 but surrounding it, both in the verses before and in the sections after, you see the work of the Holy Spirit, 65 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:15,560 that Jesus pictures that, you know, all of the Godhead is involved in this. 66 00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:24,560 And then, in verse 2, he says, "There's two kinds of branches. Every branch that is in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, 67 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:28,560 and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it may bear fruit." 68 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:36,560 So, to keep in mind the characters that are at work here, you have the vine, you have the branches, both the fruitful and the unfruitful, 69 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:47,560 and then you have the vine dresser whose job is to prune and to protect and to remove and to train the vine in the way that it should go. 70 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:51,560 Any thoughts or comments about what Jesus has said so far? 71 00:16:51,560 --> 00:17:04,560 All right, let's take a look at what he says, and one of the things you'll find sort of over and over throughout this, 72 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:09,560 and you've probably heard it, there's two words that are repeated very often, and we'll kind of take a look at both of them. 73 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:17,560 One is the word "abide," and it just simply means not to depart, to leave, and to continue to be present. 74 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:25,560 Now, we understand it, especially in terms of the picture of the vine, that if a branch is attached to that, it stays attached. 75 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:32,560 Branches don't just go, "Well, I like this vine, but I'd rather be part of an oak and get up." 76 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:37,560 It's there and attached, or it's not, and it's dying. And so when he talks about abiding, 77 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:44,560 he's talking about remaining and being nourished and supported and protected by the vine, 78 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:49,560 because that's what the big vine does, right? It supplies all the nourishment from the roots. 79 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:58,560 It supplies all the support. It supplies the protection by the strength of the vine. 80 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:04,560 And so he says, "Abide." And we see it over and over again. "Abide in me." 81 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:10,560 "You abide in me." "I abide in you." "Abide in the Father." This is a theme that is repeated. 82 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:16,560 Jesus doesn't want us to miss the fact that we've got to be attached to the vine. 83 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:25,560 There are no, I guess the way we would say it, are there's no Lone Ranger Christians. 84 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:40,560 Hi, hey Will. "You're not upstairs." No, not. "I was invited upstairs." Oh, by who? "By your wife." Oh, okay. 85 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:45,560 You can go up, there's lights right there around the corner if you want to. "Is she up there?" I don't know, I don't think so. 86 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:51,560 I haven't heard her come in. So, you can go knock on the door of the house. "Okay." Anyway, see what's up. 87 00:18:51,560 --> 00:19:08,560 Alrighty. So, Jesus calls us to abide. And so, look at what the effect of the abiding is sort of throughout this entire text. 88 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:18,560 It's simply bearing fruit. Everything else you see throughout these verses supports the fruit bearing and the abiding. 89 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:29,560 So, just to walk through it. Verse 2, "Every branch that is in me does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit." 90 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:39,560 And then verse 4, "Abide in me, and I in you." So you hear the abide. "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." 91 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:50,560 "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." 92 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:58,560 But this is my Father, by this my Father is glorified. Verse 8, "That you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples." 93 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:07,560 Verse 16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, 94 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:12,560 so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." 95 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:20,560 And so, the two big themes throughout this are that you abide, you stay attached, and secondly, that you bear fruit. 96 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:30,560 And sort of to understand the seriousness of this, in verse 6, "If anyone does not abide in me, he is like thrown away like a branch and withers, 97 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:35,560 and the branches are gathered and thrown of the fire and are burned." So, I don't have a lot of experience 98 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:41,560 with grapevines, with the exception of, we used to go to this church in Vermont when I was younger, 99 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:46,560 and the guy who was a preacher had some grapevines, and at all the big church gatherings, there'd be an announcement, 100 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:54,560 "Stay away from my grapevines," right? But my experience, like, you're not going to build furniture out of grapevines, right? 101 00:20:54,560 --> 00:21:00,560 You're not going to run it through the lumber mill, and so any branches that come off the grapevine, 102 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,560 and almost every commentator points this out, the only use for those branches is to be burned, right? 103 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:10,560 They're not even really that good for burning, because they're small and they burn quickly. 104 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:15,560 And so the point is that this is a serious thing about abiding and bearing fruit, 105 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:22,560 because if you do not do this, what awaits for you is this picture, biblically, of judgment. 106 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:29,560 So what do we think it means to bear fruit? Any thoughts? 107 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:41,560 Because he was specifically talking to the disciples at that moment, I think that bearing fruit is spreading the gospel and building the gospel. 108 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:46,560 And I think a big part of that, he's getting them ready for exactly that, because their world's about to fall apart, 109 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:53,560 and he wants them to remember what ultimately they're, yeah, absolutely. 110 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:57,560 Any other thoughts about bearing fruit? 111 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:02,560 I think the other picture we see biblically, you know, I think there's two big pictures biblically of bearing fruit. 112 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:10,560 One is that we go and make disciples. It's a very common picture throughout Scripture that we, you know, the harvest comes. 113 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:16,560 In fact, when we started the book of Acts, the church begins on the day of Pentecost, which is the day you celebrate the harvest coming in. 114 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:25,560 The harvest is brought in. So there's that aspect, but there's also the aspect, I think, too, of Christian growth and character, 115 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:32,560 leaving behind sin, moving into righteousness. Jesus will talk a little bit about obedience in a moment, 116 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:38,560 which applies to both, right? It applies both to sharing the gospel and to growing. 117 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:45,560 For example, we talk about, you know, the fruit of the Spirit, the description of what the Christian life looks like. 118 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:52,560 And notice that Jesus is very clear that these things in the Christian life are not an option, right? 119 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:56,560 You know, we're used to having all kinds of options. 120 00:22:56,560 --> 00:23:01,560 When we order something, when we go somewhere, and you say, "Well, what comes with that?" 121 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:03,560 You know, you order a meal. What comes with the sides? 122 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:07,560 Well, it comes with broccoli and potatoes. Well, can I just have all potatoes, right? 123 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,560 And we're used to changing our options. 124 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:21,560 Notice that Jesus is very, very clear here that bearing fruit in the life of the Christian is not something that we can sort of see as optional. 125 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:26,560 It's something that we just go, "Oh, yeah, well, it'd be nice if I could. It'd be nice if I would." 126 00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:31,560 But it's not...this is a serious, serious thing. 127 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,560 Any other thoughts or comments? 128 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:40,560 Well, also, I guess then it ties to, like, the individual's spiritual gift. 129 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:42,560 Yeah. 130 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:47,560 Yeah, I think the fruit of your spiritual gifts, yeah. 131 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:54,560 Yeah, and I had not thought of how that, you know, fits in, but yeah, the exercise of the gifts that God has given us, 132 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,560 which, you know, Jesus is pretty specific when he talks about the parable of the talents, 133 00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:02,560 what you're gifted with should be used to bear fruit. 134 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:08,560 Any other thoughts or comments? 135 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:14,560 All right, so in the last few minutes, what I want us to do is take a look at what this text says, 136 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:19,560 and as I was thinking about this, one of the reasons I feel like this is kind of like a vine 137 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:24,560 is because it just kind of goes everywhere in terms of how much there is. 138 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:29,560 You know, it's such a big text in terms of its theological implications that Jesus is the vine. 139 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:36,560 It's a big text in terms of seriousness, that if you are not connected and abiding and bearing fruit, 140 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:39,560 that you are cut off and you face judgment. 141 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:46,560 But it's also a big text in terms of all the things Jesus says that help us to bear fruit. 142 00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:53,560 And almost every one of these we could dive into individually in depth and spend a lot of time in. 143 00:24:53,560 --> 00:25:00,560 And so the first thing I want us to take a look at, the way that we are fruitfully able to abide and bear fruit, 144 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,560 is because of the words of Jesus. Look at verse 7. 145 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:10,560 "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you." 146 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:17,560 And Jesus says part of bearing fruit and abiding, and we'll talk more about the second half of that, 147 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,560 but the first part he says, "My words have to abide in you." 148 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:25,560 That's not a new theme for us. Remember the parable of the wise man and the foolish man? 149 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:32,560 The one who hears the words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who dug down deep and built his foundation. 150 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:39,560 Upon the rock, that God's word directs us, it protects us. 151 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:49,560 Verse 3, it says it cleans us. Verse 3, it says, "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." 152 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,560 And I always thought that was kind of weird, right? 153 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,560 You've got vine, branches, and then right in the middle of it just goes, "Well, and now you're clean because I've spoken to you." 154 00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:00,560 But remember the context of this. This is sort of one big thing. 155 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:05,560 He's already a dress cleaning. Remember He went, they got there for dinner, 156 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:10,560 everybody's feet smelly because they're walking around, you know, in agricultural society in sandals. 157 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:17,560 Nobody washes anybody's feet because they're all kind of arguing for position, and Jesus gets down and cleans their feet. 158 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,560 And use that picture of cleanliness, and He says that His words clean us. 159 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:26,560 It means it, you know, convicts us of sin. It moves us to righteousness. 160 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:35,560 That part of the way that we are fruitful is by continual attention to the words of Jesus. 161 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:41,560 Additionally, the picture you have that sort of supports our fruit and helps our fruit is, in verse 9, 162 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:48,560 "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love." 163 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:52,560 And then you have this long section, 12 through 17, 164 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:58,560 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, 165 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,560 that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 166 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:08,560 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I call you friends. 167 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:15,560 For all that you have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. If you did not choose me, but I chose you, 168 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:20,560 and appointed you, you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should abide. So whatever you ask in my Father's name, 169 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:25,560 he will give it to you. These things I have commanded you, that you will love one another." 170 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:31,560 And so love, it's sort of what directs our attention and holds it. 171 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:37,560 So if you ever, I was thinking about this with our dog, what he loves, he chases, right? 172 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:42,560 So he sees a cat, he chases it. He sees a kid walking around with a cheeseburger at home, 173 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:47,560 which is why you guys got to sit at the table, because he's right there waiting for it. 174 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:57,560 And the same thing with us, our love directs us, and so God calls us to love him, but he also reminds us that he loves us. 175 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:07,560 And I think that's probably more important for us to realize that we are loved for holding us to the vine, that God's love has brought us in. 176 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:16,560 We generally don't run away from places where we are loved, and so he calls us to be reminded that we are loved. 177 00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:24,560 Third, we see obedience to the words of Jesus. Look at verse 10. "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love." 178 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:33,560 There's the theme of being told something, the theme of love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 179 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:41,560 In verse 14, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." That part of bearing fruit is simply taking what we hear and putting it into practice. 180 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:53,560 Not just hearing it, but actually doing it. Any thoughts or comments before we jump into the next little section here? 181 00:28:53,560 --> 00:29:03,560 Alright, I want to just take a look at this, and I like this so much, because it can feel like a heavy thing when it comes to bearing fruit. 182 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:10,560 You say, "I don't know if I can do it, or if I'm strong enough, or I have the energy, and it's so serious, because if I don't, I'm cut off and thrown into the fire." 183 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:20,560 Look at what it says that the power of God equips us for that. "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, it will be done for you." 184 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:28,560 And then in verse 16, the second half of that, "So whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." 185 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:39,560 What he's doing is emphasizing, and not in a small way, you know, whatever you ask, and whatever you wish, 186 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:46,560 God will give it to you. Now, this has been taken kind of by two extremes by Christians, right, in terms of prayer. 187 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:54,560 One extreme sort of treats God as a genie, right, where you rub the lamp, comes out, you just give you whatever you want, right? 188 00:29:54,560 --> 00:30:00,560 And so that's not a right way of thinking about prayer. The other prayer is where we put so many, 189 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:08,560 the other error is where we put so many qualifications on it. God doesn't, you know, he says whatever, but he doesn't really mean whatever. 190 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:13,560 And so we overqualify it to the point where this loses its power. 191 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:21,560 So one case sort of tries to take advantage of the power that we are given through prayer, and the other side sort of minimizes it. 192 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:28,560 And what you find is that this is a big, big promise, but it also is, in some ways, qualified, right? 193 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:33,560 So God's not going to give us something that will hurt us or cause us problems. 194 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:38,560 So, I guess it was yesterday, Rachel was trying to open a package and goes, "Hey, I need a knife." 195 00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,560 And Luke's like, "I want a knife!" Right? 196 00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:46,560 Not giving my two-year-old a knife, right? No matter how much he wants it, right? 197 00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:50,560 Because he, like, at this point in his life, he'll probably use it on his sisters. 198 00:30:50,560 --> 00:31:00,560 And so, right, there are some things, but the point here is that God gives us whatever we need, no matter how big it is, right? 199 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:06,560 You know, it's one of those times we've had people working on the church, and they say, "Well, you come and work." 200 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,560 I said, "I'll go get whatever you need." You know, and they say, "Well, this is what I need from Lowe's." Right? 201 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:14,560 That's what God's saying. He's saying, "I'm not going to leave you where you're trying to do this under your own strength." 202 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:19,560 That my power, no matter how big your need is, he's like, "I'm going to meet it." 203 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:23,560 In fact, you see it a little bit. I was thinking of this on the day of Pentecost, right? 204 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:26,560 Here are these people from all these different languages. 205 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:31,560 And the Holy Spirit descends, and they begin to speak in all of these different languages. 206 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,560 And what's the amazing verse in the first part of Acts chapter 2? 207 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:41,560 We hear them telling the mighty works of God that here's what they needed to bear this fruit of the harvest, 208 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,560 was they need to be able to talk to all these different people. 209 00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:50,560 And what did God do? Miraculously gave them that power. 210 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:55,560 And so we want to be careful not to minimize this, but we also want to be careful not to try to 211 00:31:55,560 --> 00:32:05,560 treat God as simply, you know, a vending machine where we put our prayers in and get, you know, get blessings out. 212 00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:07,560 Any thoughts or comments? 213 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:24,560 So the Greek word that's there, that no answer ever you wish, is the Greek word, is it really, is that a literal translation? 214 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:29,560 Like, whatever you want on the, you can think of on the top of your head, or is there a difference? 215 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:37,560 I think that, and I didn't dive into that part of the Greek as much, but I read a bunch of different translations, 216 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:43,560 and some of them, it kind of has more of a picture of need or maybe want for the task. 217 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:48,560 You know, I need to go back and look it up a little more deeply, but I don't think it's simply like, "Well, I want a motorcycle." 218 00:32:49,560 --> 00:33:02,560 Less desire. Yes, what you need for, you know, here I'm asking you to bear fruit, and to do, you know, obey, and yeah, yeah. 219 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:06,560 Any other thoughts or comments? 220 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,560 All right, two more things that I just want to take a quick look at here. 221 00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:16,560 This is not a have-to thing, so like when we ask our kids, it's like, "Hey, we're gonna do something fun later, 222 00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:23,560 but before we do that, we need to clean your room." And they go, and it's just like, you know, grumpiness the whole time. 223 00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:33,560 That's not the picture here, is that this is not a sort of a heavy obligation. It is heavy obligation, but it's not an unjoyful one. 224 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:39,560 These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full, right? 225 00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:48,560 Not that you're just going to be a little bit joyful, or a trickle of joyful, but rather an overflowing fountain of joy. 226 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:55,560 Like I talked about earlier, Ezra and bread. Just like an overflowing fountain of joy that comes in. 227 00:33:55,560 --> 00:34:04,560 This is not just simply commands, but they're commands filled with the good news of the gospel, that God brings us joy. 228 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:14,560 And I want to go back to verse 2, "Every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." 229 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:21,560 So one of the things that the vine dresser does in terms of the vine, I don't know how that is for modern vines, 230 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:30,560 but in that time it was generally the newish branches that would bear fruit, so you had to continually keep pruning and pruning to keep the fruit to be born. 231 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:37,560 And so some branches that never bear fruit, they just get chopped off, and the branches that would sprout, they would continually be pruned back, 232 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:49,560 so that the energy from the plant, from the branches that attach to the vine, those branches, the energy from them wouldn't just be given to growing the branch bigger, 233 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:56,560 but be given to grown fruit. And so one of the pictures here is that God will be continually pruning his people. 234 00:34:56,560 --> 00:35:06,560 And pruning is not necessarily a pleasant thing. God can do that through refocusing our energy and our desires, 235 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:12,560 through taking things away, through the difficulties of life, from the correction of our brothers and sisters in Christ. 236 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:20,560 But to notice that part of God's discipline to make us fruitful is that there will be times we will face pruning. 237 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,560 Any thoughts or comments? 238 00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:36,560 On the finish to the 13th through 17th, the high priesthood prayer where you praise for your disciples. 239 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:42,560 And so when he lays all this on them, he doesn't just say, "You're going to do this." 240 00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:43,560 Right. 241 00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,560 Or you're going to get chopped off and he's going to pray. 242 00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:50,560 And he's going to equip and to, yeah, yeah. 243 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:56,560 Yeah, that's one thing that we have to be careful because we can be really discouraging when you put all this burden. 244 00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:01,560 It's like, "Well, you've got to bear fruit. You better bear fruit now, and you better bear a lot of fruit." 245 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:07,560 The picture here is that, yes, we have to bear fruit, but yes, that's through the power of God who equips us, 246 00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:13,560 who gives us joy, who gives us strength, who brings us nourishment, and who protects us. 247 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:21,560 Sort of like what, you know, Paul talks about, you know, God works in us. 248 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:29,560 We work out what God works in, that it's not just, we're not simply passive, but we're also, you know, equipped by the power of God. 249 00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:33,560 So it's our effort, with God's effort, we're strengthened by the gospel. 250 00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,560 It's the only way that we can bear fruit is by holding on to the vine. 251 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,560 Any other thoughts? 252 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:50,560 Let's have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to be here this evening. 253 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:59,560 Thank you for these words from Jesus. Encourage us, help us to be strengthened, give us what we need. 254 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:05,560 We know that you will, and you have promised to give us strength and hope and courage and joy.