FURTHER WORDS IN THE UPPER ROOM. JESUS IS THE TRUE VINE, THE SPROUTING OF THE NEW ISRAEL, THE SUPPLIER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. One of the dangers of our division of the Bible into Chapter s and verses is that sometimes we can overlook the continuity. In chapter 14 Jesus has been revealing the full truth... [ Continue Reading ]
“I am the true vine”. In Psalms 80:8 Israel is likened to a vine which God planted, but although its beginnings were promising and it seemed to flourish, the Psalmist goes on to say, ‘the stock which your right hand has planted, and the branch which you made strong for yourself, is burned with fire... [ Continue Reading ]
1). JESUS IS THE NEW ISRAEL, WHICH IS TO ACT AS THE NEW WITNESS FOR GOD IN THE WORLD. IF WE WOULD ENJOY HIS BLESSING WE MUST DO SO BY LIVING CONTINUALLY IN HIM IN TRUST AND OBEDIENCE AS BRANCHES REMAIN IN THE VINE (15:1-11). Jesus now wishes to encourage His disciples further before finally leaving... [ Continue Reading ]
“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he cleanses it that it may produce more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you”. The branches are those who ‘attach' themselves to Jesus by an outward form of beli... [ Continue Reading ]
. “Remain dwelling in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it remains fruitfully connected to the vine, so neither can you unless you remain fruitfully connected to me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who remains dwelling in me, and I in him, the same bears much... [ Continue Reading ]
“If a man does not remain dwelling in me he is thrown out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and toss them into the fire, and they are burned up.” The branch whose connection with the Vine is not fully functional, which is not abiding in Him, will soon reveal its fruitlessness by the... [ Continue Reading ]
“If you dwell continually in me, and my words dwell continually in you, ask whatever you will and it will be done to you. In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so you will become my disciples.” Note that He does not speak of dwelling in His words, but as dwelling continually... [ Continue Reading ]
“Even as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Dwell (aorist imperative) in my love. If you keep (‘meditate on and obey' - aorist subjunctive) what I have commanded you will dwell continually in my love (future), even as I have kept (‘meditated on and obeyed') what He has commanded me (perfe... [ Continue Reading ]
“These things I have said to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” Jesus assures His disciples that He wants them to live lives filled with joy, and that if they keep what He has commanded they will be able to do so. This is not ‘happiness', which is transient and depen... [ Continue Reading ]
2). AS THE NEW ISRAEL THE DISCIPLES ARE TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER (JOHN 15:12). The fruit required of the branches of the vine is now clearly expressed. As branches of the true Vine they are to love one another, just as He Who is the vine has loved them. This is something that He had already emphasised i... [ Continue Reading ]
“This is what I command you (my commandment) that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things which I command you”. It is extremely important to recognise that Jesus, having i... [ Continue Reading ]
“I no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you”. It had been no accidental lapse, or careless slip of the tongue, that had made Him call them friends. He has... [ Continue Reading ]
“You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give it to you”. Not only are they His friends, but His chosen friends. He has chosen them and He wants them to be conscious of the fa... [ Continue Reading ]
“These things I command you in order that you may love one another”. ‘In order that you may love one another.' One purpose of His commands, included in the command that we be fruitful, is that we love one another. Note how He keeps coming back to this need to love one another. This is the end resul... [ Continue Reading ]
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, that is the reason why the world hates you.” The disciples had already seen the response of men to... [ Continue Reading ]
3). THE DISCIPLES MUST NOT BE SURPRISED IF THEY ARE HATED BY THE WORLD (JOHN 15:18).... [ Continue Reading ]
“Remember the word that I spoke to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his lord' (John 13:16). If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours as well. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent m... [ Continue Reading ]
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.” This is the crux of the matter. Jesus has come as a light into the world (John 3:16; John 8:12). His words have shone like a searchlight piercing into men's innermost being (compare John 7:7). Bu... [ Continue Reading ]
“He who hates me, hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works like no other has done, they had not had sin, but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” There must be no doubt about this, Jesus says. He who hates the One Who is a true revealer of the Father also... [ Continue Reading ]
“But this is so that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause' (Psalms 35:19; Psalms 69:4).” Here we have the continual testimony of sacred history. That those who are truly righteous are continually hated. So the very hatred of Jesus by His contemporar... [ Continue Reading ]
4). THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE DISCIPLES MUST BEAR WITNESS TOGETHER (JOHN 15:26). The disciples, however, need not fear. They will not be left without assistance. For Jesus will send to them from the Father the Spirit of Truth Who will Himself bear witness to Jesus through them. They will thus be... [ Continue Reading ]