Month: April 2013

In the early 1990’s death penalty opponent and political activist Sister Helen Prejean published a book called “Dead Man Walking” after Prejean witnessed a total of five executions in the State of Louisiana. The Catholic Sister has become a national figure, a best-selling author, and her work was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. By 1996, the screen adaptation brought her work to a wide audience. That movie earned four Academy Award nominations. I did not see the movie, but her written work was filled with grief – a virtual essay in human suffering – for both prisoners and the families of their victims. The phrase “dead man walking” in the title comes from the announcement of the final walk through the hall toward the place of execution at death row facilities.

I mention the book and the title because it directly parallels a walk we are following in our study of Jesus and the Disciples on the night in which He was betrayed. He was, in effect, a “dead man walking”. The enemy had already planted within the hearts of men – both religious and political, the plot to do away with Jesus. The words recorded in John 13 and 14 were from the “Upper Room” sayings of Jesus, earlier in the evening around the dinner table. The words of John 15 and 16 were reminders of the walk from the Upper Room to Gethsemane where Jesus touched on six subjects (as recorded in John):

• The followers attachment to Jesus – Vine and Branches (15:1-10),
• The follower’s relationship to other followers – Love one another (15:12-17),
• The follower’s relationship to the lost world – expect trouble ahead (15:18-16:4).
• The Holy Spirit – you have a coming helper (16:5-14)
• The coming departure of Jesus – the time for tears is near (16:15-22).
• The power of Jesus’ Word – trust what I have told you (16:23-33).

By John 17, we are invited into the prayer life of Jesus, probably shortly after they arrived at Gethsemane. That is for a later study. For this lesson, we again open John 15, examining the three themes:

• In John 15:1-11, Jesus used the analogy of a vine and its branches in a vineyard to remind His men of the necessity of connection to HIM.
• In John 15:12-17, Jesus turned the attention to the interdependence of branches – how believers were to relate to ONE ANOTHER.
• Finally in John 15:18-16:4, Jesus spoke of how His followers are to relate to the LOST WORLD.

Key Principle: We cannot count on the support of the world, but we must learn to be faithful in the support of one another!

Jesus taught of the follower’s attachment to Jesus Himself (15:1-11)

We have taken a fairly thorough look at the beginning of John 15 in our previous three studies on this chapter. That first part of the chapter detailed the intertwined relationship between God the Father’s tending, Jesus’ life flowing, and our fruit production….It was about a life attached, abundant and abiding. Next, Jesus turned the “branches” toward each other.

Jesus turned to the follower’s relation to the other followers – the other branches (15:12-17).

John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 “Greater love has no one than this; that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you… 17 “This I command you, that you love one another.

Jesus didn’t end with the idea that we needed to be connected to HIM. He also deliberately followed up with the need to be connected to other believers. The simple fact is: Christians need one another. In a culture that teaches selfishness better than arithmetic, it is hard to grasp for some of us – but it is true. Let me offer three direct observations about Jesus’ instruction in these verses:

• First, love for each other was a command – not an option. If you look carefully, you will see the word “commandment” in verse 12, along with the term “command” in verse 14 and again in verse 17. The term, from the word “entolai” is an injunction or an order. It leaves no “wiggle room” to the reader. Jesus said: “Just do it!”

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, though, let me add that in order to obey the command, we have to understand the command. We must define the terms and recognize what is and is not being commanded. What sounds obvious to one generation, may not be obvious to the next. No concept in our society has perhaps been so badly understood as that of LOVE. Love is not unlimited acceptance of bad behavior. Love is not a force that keeps me from discerning right and wrong actions. In other words, I can LOVE a person but insist that they BEHAVE – it is called parenting. Let’s define love Biblically. Love is “acting deliberately to meet a need, because there is a need, expecting nothing in return”. This love is not so much a feeling as an action. It is compassion in sneakers – assistance in gloves.

Jesus commanded: “Love each other as I have loved you.” Let me make a simple point about the command here: If you can’t see where you are loving others as Christ loved us – you probably aren’t. It isn’t hard to see when it is really being accomplished. Love isn’t complicated – it is just hard to do. Our modern world licenses self-esteem, self-awareness and self-protection in proportions beyond reason, but is slow to call us to care more about those around us more than we care for ourselves. Love is humility in action. It is doing what is needed for another, even if inconvenient to us. It is about sensing the need of another instead of being satisfied when my own need has been met. That was the love that drove Jesus from Heaven – and that is the love He called His followers to show one another.

• Second, Jesus said that our love for each other was measured against a standard – His love. He noted the love was “as He loved His followers”. What did Jesus’ love look like? Where can we see it?

His love was seen in His coming. As Paul told the Philippians, He sat in the throne room of the Most High. He was clothed in splendor; His every word bringing immediate obedience and action. His every need met. His every thought holy. His every desire fulfilled. Yet, in obedience to His Father, He clothed Himself with the skin of a baby. He felt hunger, cold, a wet bottom and the pain of cuts and bruises. God adorned the skin of man – because of love.

His love was seen in His healing. There He walked among His creation –bent over with age, blinded by disease, broken by sin-sick deprivation. Lame sat and cried for His kind attention, and then rose from the power of His word. Blind sat in darkness until the spittle mixed with mud covered their eyes, and Siloam’s clear water opened them. He carried the weight of the broken upon Him – releasing them as He walked among them – because of love.

It was seen in His rescue of a sinful woman. Tossed to the ground by angry men who saw her as nothing, she cried and whimpered – a caught animal in a trap of her own foolishness. He spoke and the angry men peeled away, dropping one stone after another. Through tears she heard Him say, “Go and sin no more!” His caring voice made clear the absolute truth – because of love.

All these places – and many more – were the displays of His love. Yet, nowhere was it more graphically depicted than at the cross of Calvary. No painful device of man has ever surpassed this one. The nakedness, the nails, the searing pain of the lash, the sickening smell of death and excrement were all his partners in demise. Jesus endured the death of murderers and thieves. He hung there, beaten, bruised and broken – and He did this for love.

Don’t turn and walk by now. Stop and gaze. That is the love we are called to have one for another….the kind that sacrifices; the kind that bears pain for another. The kind that so considers another’s needs that we are a distant second. Brothers and sisters, can we not admit it? In these days, we simply do little to show that kind of love to one another.

• Finally, our love for each other was a marker – submission to Jesus Himself. That is the point of 15:13. At the same time, the end point of the teaching was that we would emulate His work. What should mark the church, more than any other symbol or logo – is the fondness and caring we have for one another. We exhibit this when we use our gifts to their fullest and see other believers as our family. We do this when we invest in other lives, and bear another’s burden.

Consider for a moment three implied hindrances of the relationship between branches. Each of these are works of the flesh (according to Galatians 5), and each dry up the life blood of the church:

• Jealousy: some people speak of other believers with a personal animosity that is rooted in a burning jealousy of what God has put in their lives.
• Selfishness: some come into the assembly to be seen, to be affirmed, to feel loved. It never occurs to them that others in the room need from them. They talk, but they don’t listen.
• Rebellion: some make up their own rules. Scripture doesn’t move them – their desires do. Respect for others means little – self-gratification and self-rule mean everything.

Now stop and listen to what Jesus told the Disciples as they graduated to take the reins of leadership in the work of the church. They were about to begin BINDING and LOOSING regulation on the lives of others – Jesus was leaving.

John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 “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 of the Father in My name He may give to you.

Jesus told the men:

• Slaves follow orders – brothers know both purposes and principles.
• Slaves know only the next step – brothers have the Father’s revealed plan.
• Slaves make no requests of the Master – but sons anticipate the Father’s desire to show His love.

The words of Jesus have been clear. We must abide in Him. We must love one another. Let me ask you… How are you doing so far in the commands of Jesus? If you are like me, this is more fun to cast at others than apply to self.

Jesus finally remarked about the follower’s relationship to the lost world (15:18-16:4).

Now we turn our eyes out to the world. We don’t look longingly at what they are doing, wishing that we could live the dead end life of experiences and stuff to fill the God shaped hole in our hearts. We look out and ask this question…How should I relate to the world around me? Jesus offered…

Seven truths Jesus offered to His Followers:

1: Plan on being unpopular and unloved (18).

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before [it hated] you.

Jesus went into the pool of the world’s hatred first. The water that was cold when He jumped in is still cold. That shouldn’t surprise us, but it often does. We are offended that our world doesn’t want a Creator in the classroom. They don’t want a Judge in the bedroom. They don’t want an Inspector on the shop floor. They want nothing of a god that watches in horror as His very richest gift – that of our children – are brushed aside into trash cans of inconvenience. The world doesn’t hate a toothless god that offers salvation, wealth, comfort and health – and asks for nothing but an occasional Easter and Christmas visit. At the same time, they want nothing of an owner, or a holy one to whom they should feel obligation or reverence.

America has shaped its own god, and He is nothing like the God of the Bible. He is a feel good God, a mushy and sentimental entity who applauds our liberty, blesses our troops and feels moved by our leaders standing on the steps of the Capitol calling on Him for blessing after the shock of 9/11. That god is our totem pole, our Baal. He is made with our hands, and limited to our desires. The problem is: he isn’t real. The bigger problem is: while we worship the unreal, we neglect the Real.

Brothers, you can tune in to TV church and hear a preacher tell you that you can “realize the dream within you”, or you can hear that as a siren song of a pagan priest of a powerless puppet God. His words will sell millions of books – to a generation that WANTS a God that will give them what they already desire. Why preach of Heaven, when I can live like I am already there. It is time for the church to stand up and tell the truth: those preachers are charlatans and their message comes from Hell. Too strong? I wonder what Paul would have said. I suspect I am being kind. Would you prefer popularity in this life, or praise in the next?

2: Count on feeling like you’re on the outside (19).

John 15:19 “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, because of this the world hates you.

We all have a need to be loved, but we don’t all learn where we are supposed to look to get that need met. The right place is our Father above – not our world around. The issue is, simply put, we don’t belong here. We are more than we appear. Our bodies are not – but our bodies are not all we are. We are children of the Great King. We are chosen and adopted, taken from our cold and dark chambers to be placed in His magnificent banquet hall. We are not BETTER, we are CHOSEN. Our hearts are no longer chained to a world of flesh and its temporary lures. We have a taste of the eternal, and the things of earth no longer captivate us.

All that sounds fine, but it has startling implications. The world from which we have come has no place for us. We are not only called to lose interest in satisfaction here, we are warned that we will no longer be wanted here. In the best traditions of religious teachings of our day, we are told to love the comforts of this world, and to seek health and ease here. Here is the problem: Jesus said we won’t fit anymore. They won’t want us here, and we shouldn’t wish they did. Our hungers for Heaven should replace our needs on earth, and our brothers will be so deeply a part of us, they will be as family is to those who live only in the physical world, but remain dead in the spirit.

If we are to navigate the “foyer” of life – our time on earth – we need to accept two things. First, if I am walking with God, there will be a marked change in appetite from earth to Heaven. Second, if I am serving God, there will be a reaction by lost men around me.

3: Don’t seek to be treated better than Jesus (20).

John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

Better than instruction, let me offer this illustration:

A large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But of course this was America and there were no hall servants. Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and determined not to embarrass his brothers. He mentioned the need to some ministerial students who were there, but met with only silence or pious excuses. Moody returned to the dorm, gathered up the shoes, and, alone in his room, the world’s only famous evangelist began to clean and polish the shoes. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret. When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were shined. They never knew by whom. Moody told no one, but his friend told a few people, and during the rest of the conference, different men volunteered to shine the shoes in secret. Perhaps the episode is a vital insight into why God used D. L. Moody as He did. He was a man with a servant’s heart and that was the basis of his true greatness.” -Gary Inrig, A Call to Excellence, (Victor Books, a division of SP Publishing, Wheaton, Ill; 1985), p. 98.

If we hunger for ease and health, we need to ask one simple question: “Why do we feel we are more deserving of these than our Master?” It is the echo of the words of the Lord when He said: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you as well.” Though we do not seek troubles, is it possible that by hungering to “fit” in this world and “taste” all of its delights, we betray our true inner desire? Could it be that we want satisfaction in this world and its goods more than we desire our coming life with Jesus and His words of praise?” Why do we think we are too good for the treatment Jesus got?

4: Don’t take rejection personally (21, 23).

John 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me… 23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.

Many of us are like the aged Samuel when people reject our message of life. When the people clamored for a king, he took it as a rejection of himself and his family (1 Samuel 8:7). The text is clear – they HATE our Father, and they HATE our Savior.

Someone in the room just bristled. “Hate is TOO STRONG A WORD,” they are thinking. The problem is, hate is the word in the text. If you haven’t been paying attention – that is what they are doing.

You can see it in the protests. You can hear it in the shouts. You can pick it out from the placards. You can recognize it on the broadcasts. Jesus kept us down. His people held back our freedom to love who we want how we want. His church kept us from doing things we feel will make our lives more full…

Don’t take it personally. They see your Father in you, and they don’t want to see Him… ever. Let me show you what you CAN DO by offering this story from 1990:

After the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, no person in all of East Germany was more despised than the former Communist dictator Erich Honecher. He had been stripped of all his offices. Even the Communist Party rejected him. Kicked out of his villa, the new government refused him and his wife new housing. The Honechers were homeless and destitute. Enter pastor Uwe Holmer, director of a Christian help center north of Berlin. Made aware of the Honechers’ straits, Pastor Holmer felt it would be wrong to give them a room meant for even needier people. So the pastor and his family decided to take the former dictator into their own home! Erich Honecher’s wife, Margot, had ruled the East German educational system for twenty-six years. Eight of Pastor Holmer’s ten children had been turned down for higher education due to Mrs. Honecher’s policies, which discriminated against Christians. Now the Holmers were caring for their personal enemy—the most hated man in Germany. This was so unnatural, so unconventional, so Christlike. By the grace of God, the Holmers loved their enemies, did them good, blessed them, and prayed for them. They turned the other cheek. They gave their enemies their coat (their own home). They did to the Honechers what they would have wished the Honechers would do to them. (Reported by George Cowan to Campus Crusade at the U.S. Division Meeting Devotions, Thursday, March 22, 1990.)

5: Recognize the Word has given them a choice (22).

John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin… 24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 “But [they have done this] to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.‘

Because many pulpits have gone soft, and critical thinking isn’t a norm in the modern church, it is possible that some will be sucked into wrong thinking. Notice what Jesus said, and then mark out these two truths:

• Believers can get a misshapen view, out of compassion, that the lost are unjustly lost.

I have heard this more and more often. Rob Bell isn’t the only one that has gone soft of hell – many have. They cannot except it in their understanding of God, because they do not acknowledge the depth of darkness in the mutiny against God. They are skipping spiritual stones across the top of the pond. The deeper truth is that the enemy of God planted mutiny in the Garden of Eden – and that dark grasp despises God and all that He stands for. The lost are lost because of the mutiny of soul, not simply the daily actions of their lives. If it were not so, Jesus need not have come as the Lamb to substitute for us. Don’t be deceived. God didn’t send people to hell – they chose to look at Him and walk the other way. If that is not true, then the Bible isn’t true.

• Believers need to recognize that God is working the plan that includes His own people suffering.

Just like God chose to place Joseph in a prison to train him to be a prince, and just like He chose Naomi and Job to lost in order to gain – so God has written His plan to include times of pain for us as we follow Him. If you hear someone preaching otherwise, they are skipping the story of the book.

6: Rest in the Helper God is sending to you (26-27).

John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, [that is] the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you [will] testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

We aren’t reaching into the world alone – we have unseen help. The Spirit of God is working in the hearts of people even when THEY are unaware of it. The movement of the Gospel is not JUST in our hands. We carry the message, but God’s Spirit is there to work beside us. He is called beside to prop us up, push us forward, and empower our hands and feet. He stretches our resources, protects our weak, and energizes our yielded hearts. Smile, you have a lot of help doing this!

7: Recognize the religious spirit of rejection (16:1-4).

John 16:1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. 2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. 3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. 4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Jesus made it clear that a time would come that people would be RELIGIOUS about persecuting those who championed a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus. Their reason: they never knew Jesus – nor His Father.

How can that be? Why go into religious life without a personal and dynamic relationship with God? That’s a fair question. The truth is, many people do. In fact, more and more are pouring into “ministry” without a serious consideration of the truth of the Scriptures.

Dr. Albert Mohler wrote on Wednesday, August 29, 2012: “This past Sunday, The New York Times Magazine told the story of Jerry DeWitt, once a pastor in DeRidder, Louisiana and later the first “graduate” of the Clergy Project. He is now the executive director of a group known as Recovering from Religion, based in Kansas. DeWitt told the magazine of his struggle as an unbelieving pastor. “I remember thinking,” he said, “Who on this planet has any idea what I am going through?” As the story unfolds, DeWitt tells of being the pastor of a Pentecostal church. What readers will also discover, however, is that even by the time he assumed the pastorate, DeWitt “espoused a more liberal Christianity.” Though he never earned a college degree, he educated himself by reading authors such as Carl Sagan, an atheist astronomer, and Joseph Campbell, a proponent of the mythological. Later, he read Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, key figures in the New Atheism. By the time he had read Dawkins and Hitchens, “even weak-tea Christianity was becoming hard to follow.” When he found that he could no longer pray for his own parishioners or preach a coherent message, DeWitt resigned … The magazine also told of Teresa MacBain, once a Methodist preacher in Tallahassee, Florida [who]… “resigned from her pastor’s position in Tallahassee and went public as an atheist.” … On March 26, 2012, she stood before the American Atheists convention in Bethesda, Maryland and told the 1,500 attendees, “My name is Teresa. I’m a pastor currently serving a Methodist church — at least up to this point — and I am an atheist.” As NPR reported, the crowd hooted and clapped for more than a minute.

I don’t want to be unduly harsh on anyone, but it seems to me that preaching what you do not believe is simply public hypocrisy. The sad truth is that these dear folks will both hurt people in this life, and then face the Savior in the last day. Jesus said some very forward things about those who “deny Me before men.”

It is a sobering thing to lead people away from God…

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Victorian preacher, said it ever so well in a sermon entitled ‘Secret Sins’ preached in 1857: “…Tell God there is no God now; now laugh at the Bible, now scoff at the minister. Why, men, what is the matter with you? Why can’t you do it? Ah! There you are: you have fled to the hills and to the rocks. ‘Rocks hide us! Mountains fall on us! Hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne.’ ‘Ah! Where are now your boasts, your vaunting, and your glories? Alas! Alas! For you in that dread day of wonders!’ (C. H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit 1857, Pilgrim Publishers, 1975, p. 80. From a sermon by Matthew Kratz, The Signs of Divine Judgment, 7/24/2010)

We cannot count on the support of the world, but we must learn to be faithful in the support of one another!

When I was starting out in my career, I read many books about managing people. I was fascinated with the “One Minute Manager” – a book I have recommended over the years to countless people who manage the work of others. We have many books about LEADERSHIP, but far fewer books on FOLLOWING. I think it is because we believe it comes naturally. Someone leads, you follow them. Yet, clearly any study of people work will show that is NOT the case – there are principles of following that must be much more deliberately engaged to do it well. Today’s lesson is the story of Jesus uncovering principles of the follower.

Key Principle: Following Jesus is an intentional act of continual and deliberate surrender – with special attention to allowing Him to work through our lives to produce things that will honor His Father.

We are in the final study of three that was designed to look at John 15:1-11, the teaching on the Vine and Branches. The walk from the Upper Room to the place of Gethsemane was the setting. The Disciples of Jesus (minus Judas that was off getting the guards at the Temple ready to arrest Jesus) were walking along the roads from the southwest part of Jerusalem to the east side – where the grove of olives trees and public olive press stood on the edge of the Kidron Valley. Jesus said:

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 “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. 3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and [so] prove to be My disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full.

Imagine walking down the alleys of Roman period Jerusalem. Most every villa on the western hill had a trellis of wines, where grapes hung every autumn. This was spring, and the vines lay against the trellis with thin branches that were deeply pruned away now beginning to pop open with green buds – the beginning of leaves. Some of the branches followed the tops of the walls along the street. Maybe Jesus pointed as He spoke about the relationship they had to Him. With each step, He grew closer to the coming agony. What would begin as a prayer time would end in captivity and pain. He knew, and He kept walking…

The vine was so familiar to everyday life in the Bible, prophets of God frequently symbolized Israel with the image. Psalm 80:8 celebrated God’s favor to Israel: “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it”. Jeremiah reminded them of the metaphor: “Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?” (Jeremiah 2.21). Isaiah 5 and Ezekiel 19 both referred to Israel as a well-tended vineyard that was judged for treachery – particularly because of unfaithful rulers. When Jesus claimed He was the “True Vine,” he was speaking in very familiar terms.

Jesus told a story with three players: His Heavenly Father (the Vinedresser identified in verse 1), Jesus Himself (as the Vine identified in 15:1) and a disciple or follower (as the branches identified in 15:5).

When we looked at the same verses two times before – we sought to understand the works of our Heavenly Father as the Vinedresser, and then the Lord Jesus as the Vine. Now we look again one last time – to see ourselves as the Branches.

We have already observed that:

1. Our Heavenly Father is ACTIVE in our lives, fulfilling a work He long planned to do.
2. Jesus is ACTIVE at work on our behalf, flowing into our lives life that does not originate with us – but with Him, through a connection to Him.

Now we look again, and see a third truth:

3. We have are called to be ACTIVE – we have a DIRECT SET OF RESPONSIBILITIES as a follower in order to live a live woven into the braid.

Branches are NOT passive. They are not only acted upon – they are deliberate in a number of areas in order to bear fruit for the Master. Here is the truth again…

Key Principle: Walking with Jesus is an intentional act of continual and deliberate surrender – with special attention to allowing Him to work through our lives to produce things that will honor His Father.

Jesus described the work of the branch as a follower (15:5) in five ways, we will call them “laws”:

Law One: Branches must respond to the prompting and attention of the Vine dresser (Father) to help the branch bear maximum fruit (15:2).

John 15:2 “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.

God IS at work in His vineyard. He supplies the Vine with nutritious soil, while the Vine supplies it to the branches. He pulls the weeds that steal from the Vine. He prunes, ties and repositions the branches to give them every advantage to bear fruit. At the same time, the Vinedresser does not bear fruit directly – but through the branches. There are four underlying truths that will help explain the BRANCHES’ RESPONSE TO THE VINEDRESSER:

• First, the response includes recognizing a primary purpose is to bear fruit.

In our self-focused age, it is possible that many were brought to faith in Christ without any other message but self-interest in view. A relationship with Christ is NOT just about Heaven when I die, nor just about a secure walk in life while I breath – it is about being seized with delight when my Father is honored, and being giddy with the prospect of bearing fruit fit for the King’s table. This was a major part of the reason I was lead to Christ, and His Spirit worked on my heart. In John 15:16, just a few verses after our section, Jesus said:” 16 You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you (ek-leg’-om-ahee: selected), and ordained (tith’-ay-mee: placed) you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain (meno): that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.” God stands ready to provide us the needed tools to reach into the lives of people. He is eager to have us bearing fruit. The Vine chose us with that clearly in mind.

Sadly, many believers today have forgotten that God WANTS SOMETHING TO BE PRODUCED THROUGH YOUR LIFE. This isn’t just about skating through and getting the prize – it is about gathering fruits to present the King. We need to KNOW that was His purpose from the beginning. Fulfilling our purpose will fill our lives with JOY! Let me ask you: Is this a primary concern of your life? Are you thoughtfully engaged in how to produce fruit in your life?

• Second, our response as a branch includes understanding what produce (i.e. what fruit) is intended.

You and I were created to do our Master’s bidding – and that is our fruit. We were created FOR Him. We were intentionally chosen and purposefully tended because God knows we can reach people and produce fruit both in our lives and through our lives. Yet, fruit isn’t limited to evangelism. Fruit may be produced by caring for one who is alone (a shut-in) or loving the unloved ones (a shelter). It may be discipling one who comes behind you in their walk – training them to be faithful. Is it your deliberate intention to produce for the Master this week? Grape vines that produce nothing take from the soil but all no particular value. In the end, the best vinedresser is measured, not by the intentions, but by the fruit.

• Third, our response includes identifying the prompting and positioning of the Vinedresser.

I will only produce fruit when I am able to understand what the vinedresser is doing to me. He prunes and repositions – and I dare not resist Him. My job is to reckon His work as RIGHT and trust that He knows what I do not. When He moves me from something that is comfortable and comforting to the something that is harsh and difficult – that repositioning may well be to produce fruit in my life in an area long neglected. When a dear friend is taken away, the comfort of their shade is gone – but light falls on areas that may have been unproductive in the past.

Has God been repositioning you? Are some of the former comforts gone, and the harsh sun now burns a bit? You have several things you can do, but I would ASK THE VINEDRESSER what He is doing. James reminded us that if there were trials in our lives, we could ask of God who would not upbraid you, but open up His intention to you. Comfort is only good when it is productive – don’t forget that.

• Finally, our response includes expending effort in planning our right response to the Vinedresser’s hands.

Don’t wince at God’s work. He knows what He is doing! If He cut it, it was for a purpose. No branch can decide its own position – it will be placed by the vinedresser. We must grow and mature to treasure the touch of God – even when it brings new challenges. Bearing fruit saps our energy. It isn’t easy – but it is valuable.

Planning to respond to God’s tending looks like this:

1. I study the ways of my Vinedresser, to recognize His touch when it comes.
2. I make it my most important mission to produce for Him – and not take up energy on pursuits that will only make me happy.
3. I put my heart into popping out fruit. I expend myself for His honor, for His happiness.

There are too many resistant branches today. Among these are the branch that has not been trained to KNOW that FRUIT is the objective – and they live for comfort and ease. Among these is the branch that resents the Vinedresser’s hand – and they live in bitterness over some pruning work or repositioning that God has done to them. They see themselves as the point – not the fruit, and not the honor of the farmer. They are wrong, and as such they are resistant. They bear little, and they take energy from the vine with no benefit to the farmer. The sad part is, after a time, they no longer seem to care about that!

Law Two: Branches must abide in the vine to be fruitful (15:4). This abiding includes:

John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me…”

• Abiding requires getting connected by the cleaning found in His Word (15:3).

3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Without being redundant to our previous studies here, let’s just remember that you and I are only connected to the Vine because we have heard the Word and given our lives to Him. We recognized that we couldn’t grow fruit for Him without getting our life from Him. We couldn’t EARN a place on the Vine by religious performance or morally correct behavior. We needed to believe what He said – that we are lost without His love. We accepted the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. We asked Jesus to save us – and that is how we were cleaned of the sin that kept us from being joined to Him.

• Abiding demands staying protective of the connection with the ever-renewed flow of life. (15:6a).

6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.…” The heat and dryness of life will wither us – apart keeping an open and unhindered attachment to the vine.

We must recognize that OUR CONNECTION TO THE VINE is vulnerable to Aphids and other life-sucking bugs that like to lodge there. Fungus will attack there. Parasites go to where the best of life is – and that is near the vine. Think with me about the connection of the branch to the vine. If a parasite can get connected there, part of the flow of life will be drawn off.

I see it all the time. A young man sat in worship beside me, his life shattered because his wife left him. He came to Christ – or at least appeared to. He fellowshipped, worshipped, and prayed with us – until SHE came into his life. His loneliness was filled, not by the flow of Christ into him – but by an unbelieving but beautiful woman at work. She pulled him from Christ and His people. His life went back to practices that were there from before his public commitment to Jesus. I haven’t seen him since. Did following Christ mean he couldn’t have a relationship with a woman? No. It meant that woman would be found IN CHRIST. It meant that he would not have a physical relationship that dishonored Jesus by intense sensuality outside of marriage. In the end, the man (if truly a believer) will produce little fruit before the Master.

Adjacent to the church property is a home that once belonged to a man who is now with Jesus. He was called to preach as a teen, and he walked away from God. He knew his call, but he wanted life to be about him. He came back to Christ when the alcoholism that dulled the pain of his life had destroyed his liver. I sat beside him as he died, lamenting that his life was a waste. It wasn’t – because God used it in this message to teach you and I about fruit bearing. Don’t forget, we must understand the alternative – be used continually or only a single and limited use (15:6b). His life is used as an illustration of what NOT to do – and the fire uses him only for one purpose. God purposed him for SO MUCH MORE.

• Abiding involves getting direction in obedience to His words (15:7)

7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you… 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love;

Note the focus of Jesus on WORD and OBEDIENCE. It is easy to get distracted in the world in which we live. We can INTEND to know and follow His word, but as the ad says: “Life comes at you fast!” There are many believers who INTEND to listen to the Word, but they are distracted to their own hurt. SOME THINGS REQUIRE SINGULAR FOCUS:

(CNN REPORTED) – A helicopter runs out of fuel midair after its pilot was evidently flying with one hand and texting with another. The chopper crashes, killing everyone on board. It sounds incredible, but it’s true. We live in a multitasking society. That’s a reality. Now some experts wonder whether that reality is clashing with the safe operation of our nation’s aircraft. Distraction in the cockpit was a key element of testimony delivered Tuesday on a deadly 2011 medivac helicopter crash. The pilot was violating Federal Aviation Administration rules and company policy by using his phone in flight. … “You can’t multitask everything,” said John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is the nation’s top aviation investigation agency. “To think that you can text and fly, especially a helicopter, is ludicrous. Helicopters require concentration, even more so than many airplanes.” Medivac chopper pilots fall under the same rules for electronic communications devices as commercial airplanes. Goglia and other experts favor stricter FAA rules for all aircraft, including helicopter ambulances. Under a newly proposed FAA rule, commercial pilots would be banned at all times from using “a wireless communications device or laptop computer for personal use while at their duty station on the flight deck while the aircraft is being operated.”

Now I am going to be very pointed in asking something: Are you growing in your knowledge of God’s Word? Can you pick out specific things you have been learning recently? I am hoping some of you will be saying YES! For those, here is a follow-up question: Are you growing in OBEDIENCE to Jesus. Are there issues you are focused on yielding to Him? Abiding DEMANDS hearing, considering and obeying the direction of the Vine.

• Abiding also entails becoming constantly absorbed in experiencing His love (15:9).

9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

You and I are not called to “gut out” our walk with Jesus. This isn’t supposed to be HARD ROAD of “suffering and ill, awaiting the breaking of the veil of death for eternal rest from our labors” as some in medieval Christianity described. We are pulled by the LOVE OF CHRIST and we move in desire to please Him. We wrap ourselves in His love. We pursue His desires. How do I do that? Well, perhaps we can start by watching another who did and see if it becomes clearer…

Paul was CONTROLLED by the Love of Christ. He said so plainly:

2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Abiding in Jesus is being controlled not by legal lists, but by His vast love. His death for men is the example – giving all of Himself for other’s to be blessed with life. In that same way, we give our all and no longer live for ourselves. Abiding is emptying myself of MY desire to produce fruit on my own, and allowing His life to flow through me. It is a focus not on ME.

The love taught in the world is not God’s love. Singers sound off about LOVE, but it is often confused with physical desire and lust, or selfish interests. It is NOT about the other. Love is acting to meet the needs of another – expecting the good of the other to be the joy of your only payment. Full abiding is selfless loving.

Law Three: Branches must rely solely on the Vine’s power (15:5)

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

There is a temptation today to rely on the power of the world to do the Father’s fruit production. The modern church reaches to grasp the heart of contemporary man and struggles to get a hearing without changing their presentation. Subtly there is a pressure to change even more – the very essence of the foundational belief itself. Hell? That is so judgmental. Creation? That doesn’t all seem to line up with science. Sexual morality? How can one be rejected by God for simply fulfilling desires they were born with. On and on the reasoning goes to erode the reliance on God’s truth, honor God’s place, and wholly trust God’s Word.

Though methods of ministry can flex for the culture and time –the essential truths of our faith – palatable or not to modern mind – cannot and must not be altered to appease the modern appetite. If we do, we join the world, and they do not truly join Christ and His followers.

There is a far better preparation to powerfully re-launch the Gospel in our era than a survey of “how lost man would like church to be” when they visit. Rather, we could drop to our knees and plead before God’s Spirit for the souls of men. We could search the Scriptures for the patterns and principles of the past success of God’s outreach – and relentlessly apply love, grace and truth. We could, in short, work harder at our walk with Him than our intimate knowledge of each detail about what appeals to THEM – and the Lord would overcome our cultural weakness by His irresistible love and powerful magnetism.

It is possible that men will turn from God’s truth, and we will take it personally. We must become mature. Beloved, we must not fear times of unpopularity to face the days ahead. We cannot bow to modern pressure, for we bow only to our King who reigns above all. He knows the hearts of men – He made them. He knows what will reach them, and what will bear faithful witness to our generation. We serve Him, and not the affirmation of our apparent earthly successes.

Law Four: Branches produce solely for the Father’s honor (15:8).

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

The fact is this: branches prove their healthy connection through their fruit (15:8b). No fruit, and we are in essence a useless waste of cells. The Vine nurtures, the Vinedresser attends – but in the end the branch must PRODUCE FRUIT. Don’t be fooled by fake Christianity that makes God sound like He sits in Heaven pining for the love of men. He is intrinsic and complete. His love is a gift to us, not a need He must satisfy. We are badly mistaken if we don’t recognize that in the exchange between the potter and the clay, the clay is the beneficiary and the potter the planner and designer. We are not God’s colleagues – we are His workmanship. We have the privilege to be His – but we must understand that we are made for a purpose, and the benefits come from living out that purpose.

Great are the benefits of working for Jesus – for having His life flow through mine… I have great friends. I have rich experiences. I have unbelievable moments of being pampered, loved and affirmed in my life. I serve among deep and rich brothers in the Lord. I serve with patient and kind fellow laborers. I have a full stomach, a home that is more than equipped and comfortable, and vehicles that are much more than what is needed. I have loving parents, healthy children, as well as a wise and beautiful wife. In finance, I have brothers and sisters that are constantly concerned with my needs and give generously to my family’s support. The truth is that I do not complain – not because I am so very holy – but because I am so very well cared for. Yet, in all this, there is one concern… that I would forget WHY I labor.

Our call is to labor for the Father’s honor, and not our own. It is to make HIM comfortable, and not ourselves. It is to press ourselves for His service – not press others for our benefit. We may be affirmed, but MUST NOT hunger for fame. We may be enriched, but we must resist the insatiable appetite for fortune. We serve the King, and Him alone. We cannot take the best for ourselves – for offering the best to Him as His portion is our call and our privilege.

Honestly brothers and sisters, I fear that it appears some have professionalized ministry to be little more than another way to “make a living”. There is no sin in accepting the perks and benefits of ministry as gifts from the Lord through the hands of His servants (Paul taught that to the Corinthians). The real issue is that these benefits may become the REASON some seek to work in the field of the Lord. We must constantly renew our commitment to produce fruit for His table – and remind ourselves that is our purpose. In that purpose, there is the joy of knowing that I am what I was created to be. Branches prove their healthy connection through their fruit. They see the relationships that are growing toward God. They experience the PEACE of God amid the storm.

They don’t seek to bear fruit to prove their relationship – they seek to build their relationship and then experience growing fruit.

Law Five: Branches flourish in the JOY of the connection! (15:8, 11).

John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full.

Real branches celebrate connection. They aren’t weary of the demands of fruit bearing, they are renewed by the juices of connection. They JOY because they make Him happy. Consider our Vine. Jesus’ joy didn’t come from this world, or from His work – it came from bringing His Father HONOR AND GLORY. In The Applause of Heaven, Max Lucado said it very well. (Word Publishing, 1996, p. 6-8) He wrote a story of a certain King: “No man had more reason to be miserable than this one-yet no man was more joyful. His first home was a palace. Servants were at his finger­tips. The snap of his fingers changed the course of history. His name was known and loved. He had everything ­ wealth, power, respect. And then he had nothing. Students of the event still ponder it. Historians stumble as they attempt to explain it. How could a king lose everything in one instant? One moment he was royalty; the next he was in poverty. His bed became, at best, a borrowed pallet-and usually the hard earth. He never owned even the most basic mode of transportation and was dependent upon handouts for his income. He was sometimes so hungry he would eat raw grain or pick fruit off a tree. He knew what it was like to be rained on, to be cold. He knew what it meant to have no home. His palace grounds had been spotless; now he was exposed to filth. He had never known disease, but was now surrounded by illness. In his kingdom he had been revered; now he was ridiculed. His neighbors tried to lynch him. Some called him a lunatic. His family tried to confine him to their house. Those who didn’t ridicule him tried to use him. They wanted favors. They wanted tricks. He was a novelty. They wanted to be seen with him-that is, until being with him was out of fashion. Then they wanted to kill him. He was accused of a crime he never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. The jury was rigged. No lawyer was assigned to his defense. A judge swayed by politics handed down the death penalty. They killed him. He left as he came-penniless. He was buried in a borrowed grave, his funeral financed by compassionate friends. Though he once had everything, he died with nothing. He should have been miserable. He should have been bitter. He had every right to be a pot of boiling anger. But he wasn’t. He was joyful. Sourpusses don’t attract a following. People followed him wherever he went. Children avoid soreheads. Children scampered after this man. Crowds don’t gather to listen to the woeful. Crowds clamored to hear him. Why? He was joyful. He was joyful when he was poor. He was joyful when he was abandoned. He was joyful when he was betrayed. He was even joyful as he hung on a tool of torture, his hands pierced with six-inch Roman spikes. Jesus embodied a stubborn joy. A joy that refused to bend in the wind of hard times. A joy that held its ground against pain. A joy whose roots extended deep into the bedrock of eternity. In John 15, Jesus said He wanted that joy to be OURS as well. The connection – with its purpose and filling – should produce full joy in us.

Walking with Jesus is an intentional act of continual and deliberate surrender – with special attention to allowing Him to work through our lives to produce things that will honor His Father.

I love my children. I don’t think I am particularly unique in that. Many men could probably tell a tale like the one I am thinking about from our family’s past… I remember when my firstborn child was still snug inside her momma’s womb. I used to “talk” to her by putting my face up to my wife’s belly. I would even write my little baby girl notes in a journal that her mother and I kept for her. Each little journal entry ended with the hopeful and anxious words “Please come live with me soon!” I couldn’t wait to see that beautiful little baby. Her smile still steals my heart, years later. In fact, I have to confess that all of my children grab my heart and weaken my resolve – even when I am upset with them.

I think back, and we were so young, my wife and I. We were very naïve about what raising children would be like. We made so many inner and quiet promises to ourselves about what the lives of our children would be like. I wanted each of them to have every opportunity to grow and become their own people. I ached over how best to provide the things we could – and now I sometimes “second-guess” many of those decisions that were made in blind love and endless hope. At first I was not sure that raising children would be so challenging. I didn’t realize that if I brought no plan to a toddler – they already had one – and it included noise and destruction and mess – with only the most resistant efforts to clean up at the end. From the time they learned the word “NO!” it was a battle (some more than others). Maybe I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was, but I made many promises – to God, to myself, to my wife and to my children – to try to be a man of God, a leader and a provider. The jury is still out on how well I did.

I mention that because there came a time in the Gospel story, during the last night before the betrayal of Jesus in Gethsemane, when Jesus made some incredible promises to his beloved followers – His “spiritual children” if you will. He was walking to the place where He knew His arrest awaited. Lashes, thorns and nails were just hours ahead – and His hapless disciples were as naïve as children are to dangers. They had no clue. Yet, Jesus made promises. Maybe they couldn’t hear them well at the time – but we can hear them. We have the record. God kept it for us. Jesus promised to be THE VINE that all of us – each one of His followers of every age – could draw strength and endurance from. Here is the truth of His message that we want to look at today…

Key Principle: Mature believers both recognize and live in the promises of Jesus for us. If we forget them, we fumble around on our own. If we live counting on them – we are empowered and secure.

In our previous lesson, we talked about the “FIVE WORKS OF THE VINEDRESSER” stressing the work of the Father in Heaven in our lives. In this lesson, we move on to the work of the Vine – Jesus Himself. Let’s review exactly what He taught:

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 “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. 3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and [so] prove to be My disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full.

Jesus told a story wrapped with three intertwined players: His Heavenly Father (the Vinedresser identified in verse 1), Jesus Himself (as the Vine identified in 15:1) and a disciple or follower (as the branches identified in 15:5).

Here we find encouragement in three essential truths:

1. Our Heavenly Father is ACTIVE in our lives, fulfilling a work He long planned to do.
2. Jesus is ACTIVE at work on our behalf, flowing into our lives life that does not originate with us – but with Him, through a connection to Him.
3. We are called to be ACTIVE with a DIRECT SET OF RESPONSIBILITIES as a follower in order to live a live woven into the braid.

Let’s un-braid the strands and look only at one part of the story. Let’s focus on the PROMISES Jesus made to each of us as branches of the Vine. What did Jesus really promise to do for you and I if we follow Him?

The world has been clear about dangling tempting morsels in the face of a “would be” follower of Jesus– but I am not sure that we have made our case NEARLY SO WELL – what an incredible and powerful life we can have when surrendered to Jesus.

Frankly, many believers look like they have been sucking green persimmons. They aren’t such a fun bunch. They grouse about the obvious moral collapse going on around us – because they are worried. They have a defensive spirit on front of the rapid defection from the Bible our country is going through – because they are being pushed into a corner. They believe in the sovereignty of God, but can’t seem to figure out what to do when our issues are being systematically overturned at the ballot box – because they are shocked at how wrong is so quickly becoming right in our land. They know God can supply, but they fear coming persecution – and they are starting to see it moving near. They worry about why God doesn’t seem to be showing up more in Washington – and forget that He was dismissed from the classrooms that trained a generation of Americans. In short, Christians just aren’t that fun to hang out with these days. We look AGAINST everything – and for a good reason. But sadly – Christianity’s attractiveness is muted by fearful and sour faces.

Let me say it clearly… we aren’t done yet! Believers in Jesus aren’t going to withdraw from the public square until they move us out. When they do – we will know what to do next… Read our history. We have done in before. Rome didn’t stop the message of Jesus. Stalin didn’t eliminate the message of salvation. Beijing couldn’t snuff out the message of redemption – and neither will this new “mouth muzzling” politically correct – “tolerate any perversion but harass and frame any believer’s thinking as thoroughly bigoted” group that is now assaulting not only our values, but even our common sense.

Brothers and sisters, we have resources in Jesus. We have power in Him. We need to access it, nurture it, and thrive in it. Let’s take a look…

Seven Works of the Vine (Jesus) to care for His followers:

1. Cleaning – or making the follower a part of the life flow!

Jesus was leaving the men soon, and he turned as they walked to Gethsemane and said: 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”

Though this line of all of 15:1-11 may seem out of place (not working within the vine analogy), it is important to recall that a primary work of Jesus in the life of a follower is the cleaning work. He stressed that in the teaching that He gave them at the washing of feet in John 13 earlier that same evening. Look at Jesus’ use of the word CLEAN earlier that night, to get the meaning in John 15:3. Go back a few pages in your Bible, and listen to His words as recorded by the same author – and see how “CLEAN” was used.

Jesus got up and began to wash the feet of His followers in the upper room. Then, John 13:6 records: “So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” 8 Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” 9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, [then wash] not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 Jesus said to him, “He who has BATHED needs only to WASH his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all [of you].” 11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

In the text, Peter objected to Jesus washing him – because he thought the exchange was about SERVANT-HOOD and VALUE – but it wasn’t. Jesus made it clear the boys wouldn’t really understand the whole symbolic value of the lesson that day – it would happen in the FUTURE. Here we sit in the future, and we can look at how Jesus made clear several things about the symbol that help us define His use of the word CLEAN:

• First, whatever He meant – the cleansing was required if Peter would be a part of the future ministry of Jesus. Clean meant IN the group and PART of the ministry of Jesus. One could not be a part of Jesus’ teaching and outreach ministry if they were not CLEAN – so CLEAN is JOINED, UNCLEAN is CUT OFF. John 13:8 makes that very clear.

• Second, Jesus made a distinction between two kinds of CLEAN – there is BIG CLEAN or the word BATH (Greek: lou-o) and there is LITTLE CLEAN – the word WASH (Greek: nipto). A BATH was a GRAND CLEANSING – while the FOOT WASH was a mere MAINTENANCE CLEANSING. The washing of feet symbolized cleansing on a smaller scale, but with some of the same effects.

Peter wanted to make sure if cleansing put him on the team – that he got the GRAND CLEANSING again. Jesus told him that was not necessary – for that had already occurred. The BIG CLEAN already happened and didn’t need to happen again. The GREAT CLEANSING of Jesus occurred when a FOLLOWER chose to make Jesus their MASTER. They became a part of His team, an extension of His family. In 13:11, the DISLOYALTY – THE REJECTION by Judas made him UNCLEAN. The cleanliness seems, then, to relate to LOYAL FOLLOWING, to true submission. Following that analogy, foot washing dealt with the “smaller disloyalties”, the “momentary rebellions” that needed to be washed away. Much later, the disciples would come to understand their need for Jesus’ ongoing cleaning work as their intercessor and advocate before the Father.

It is very important to recall that one could tell which were clean by the ACTIONS of the men, not their proximity to Jesus. Judas wasn’t clean, but he had spent a long time with Jesus. Judas wasn’t submitted to Jesus’ rule in Him, but He did lay right beside Him at the Last Supper. Being WHERE JESUS IS does not equal submitting to WHAT JESUS SAYS.

Go back to John 15:3. If they were CLEAN, how did they get that way? The text says clearly that it came “because of the Word Jesus spoke” to them.

There are two senses in which that statement is true. In that sense, He was saying, “Don’t be concerned about your loyalty – you are all loyal because I have said so.” This may be a response to the earlier shocking words: “One of you is going to betray Me.” He may have been simply saying: “Relax, it isn’t any of you who will betray Me.” If that is how we are to understand the words, Jesus was being particularly gracious, because in fleeing from Gethsemane, many of them would (in a sense) betray Jesus. Peter would do so verbally – but others would vote with their feet.

Another sense of CLEAN was this: they were SEPARATED from other men by the BINDING of His Word in John 15:3. Jesus commanded them, and they loyally followed. The action trusting and following the Words of Jesus made them CLEAN by Jesus’ definition.

Let me ask you: Did Jesus ever give to YOU a bath? Have you taken His claim to be the Savior, the Rescuer, and the Cleaner of the sin-sick man or woman – and asked Him to wash YOU? If Jesus entered this room today and looked for those who have given Him their lives, would YOU be one of the people He acknowledges because YOU have made that choice?

One more question: For those of you who can heartily say, “Yes! I have chosen Jesus, and He has cleansed me” my question is this: “How do your feet look? Are they dirty?” If your walk in the world this week has left stains, some time with Jesus and a basin is just the prescription you need. You may even need a friend to help you scrub. The Bible says we can confess our faults one to another, as we confess them to Jesus.

2. Instructing – He abides in those who choose to abide in Him through His Word!

15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. ….7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…”.

The word ABIDE is not one that we use in everyday speech, unless you are a formal writer. We don’t ask someone to marry us and say, “Come now, my love, abide with me.” That is for very old movies. The term MENO simply means, “Stick with, or remain.” The better term for us is found in the old song title: “Stand by me!”

In Luke 6, Jesus asked a very important question that measures ABIDING:

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 “But the one who has heard and has not acted [accordingly], is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Let’s be clear: Christians aren’t the people who GO TO CHURCH. Christians are people who BECOME THE CHURCH wherever they go. They aren’t the ones who simply LISTEN to the WORDS of Jesus – they are the ones who LIVE the words of Jesus.

Both the wise man and the foolish man heard the words of the Master, and both were hit by the flood. Both faced peril and problems. One acted out the words of the Master, and that foundation withstood the testing of the flood waters and held him fast to the rock foundation. Hearers don’t honor Jesus – because hearing is passive. Doers honor Jesus – because they put His words into daily life. THEY truly believe that Jesus is Lord.

Are YOU standing by the Words of Jesus? If you are, He is standing by you! If you aren’t, you have a choice…either stop calling Him Master – and give up the notion of a salvation that lets you live any way you want, or start taking your stand by His Word! You will never be the believer you were meant to be while rebellious and self-absorbed, and self-directed. Calling Him LORD is not only a theological act, but a PRACTICAL ONE – He is in charge and I will stand by His Word.

3. Enabling – He enables the branch to bear fruit!

15:4b “….As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

DO you feel like reaching people for Jesus is TOO HARD? What about STANDING FIRM by His Word in a world that is quickly framing believers as intolerant and unloving because we won’t simply endorse whatever perversion of the month people in our society want to endorse? If you feel following Jesus is TOO HARD – you are PERFECT for the job!

Jesus knew that NONE of His disciples could accomplish things in the spiritual realm without remaining in communion with Him and His constant cleansing. We are rebels to the core, and even after many years of following His Word, we can quickly retreat back to the default of rebel. We need a CONSTANT flow of His life, His Word, His stability in us. When we walk close to Him, and attach our hopes, dreams, ideas and desires to Him – our life produces fruit honoring to Him. We are able to grow into places only the Great Vine can support and supply. The words of Jesus in the end of verse 5 should echo in our minds” “…apart from Me you can do NOTHING.”

Why are these words so essential? It is because few believers, if any at all, truly grow to believe them. We won’t admit it – but we think we can DO a great many things that are important apart from Jesus. After all, we had talents before we ever came to Christ, didn’t we? We believe we are capable, and that is part of our problem. A life with Jesus is a DEPENDENT LIFE, not a “stand on my own two feet and pull this off” self-measured life. Jesus WANTS a dependent relationship – where the weight of the PLAN and PROVISION are placed on Him. If you can do it- you don’t NEED Him. That is why He makes the point – “You cannot do it!”

Are you trusting in Jesus today to chart your course in life? Are you scanning His Word to get a handle on what the path looks like this week?

4. Enlivening – His connection supplies an ever new flow of life!

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

Jesus didn’t come to fix your leaky plumbing in life – He came to tear out the whole system and replace it with HIM. He didn’t come to be added to our ways of coping – He came to replace all of them. Are we content with small and external forms of religious conformity, instead of staying VIBRANT with our daily connection to Him?

Andrew Murray wrote in The Believer’s School of Prayer, (p.130): “Is it not more and more clear to us that while we have been excusing our unanswered prayers and our impotence in prayer with an imagined submission to God’s wisdom and will, the real reason is that our own feeble life is the cause of our feeble prayers? The word of Christ – loved, lived in, abiding in us, becoming through obedience and action part of our being – makes us one with Christ and fits us spiritually for touching, for taking hold of God. Let us yield heart and life to the words of Christ, the words in which He ever gives himself, the personal living Savior.”

In his commentary on Zechariah 13.9, John Calvin observed the spiritual danger of success and comfort and ease: “It is therefore necessary that we should be subject, from first to last, to the scourges of God, in order that we may from the heart call on him; for our hearts are enfeebled by prosperity, so that we cannot make the effort to pray.”

Are you growing dry in your walk? New connection comes from a heartfelt surrender and renewed search to please Him in your life!

5. Providing – Connection to Him (through His Word) grants us access through powerful prayer!

15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Jesus didn’t tell us: “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” to pose that we press Him to exalt US, exalt OUR FLESH or feed our WRONG VALUES. Jesus qualified “whatever you wish” – by making that claim of those abiding in His Word and drawing life from His Truth. Jesus IS able to overcome any issue that will hinder you from becoming able to tell His story with your life. Here’s the problem: Jesus didn’t promise to do WHAT WE WANT to make our lives more easy and comfortable. To some generations He sent trouble, persecution and pain – because that is what purified the people of that time and place to see Him.

Go to Heaven and ask them if they agree with what He did. You will find that Heaven lacks a complaint department. When we SEE Him, when we grasp His true vast knowledge and ability, when we reckon His holiness face to face – we will not question His wisdom, nor His goodness.

ASK….What a thought. Could it be that our hopes and vision for our churches are not too great, but that our prayers are too infrequent? Maybe God is willing for more conversions and more powerful and effective discipling in our town, but He has looked within us – and He KNOWS that we do not really wish it. We are not ready for what it will cost US in time and effort.

God will not grant the petty prayer to make me more important than He is in my life, because that request would both dishonor him and destroy me. The old hymn, “Beneath the cross of Jesus” makes the point: “I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place; I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face; Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss, My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.”

Do we really WANT life to be about HIM and HIS glory – or something else? In 1991, while sharing about his battle with cancer, Pastor Bob Thompson asked a group of Pastors, “If you got to heaven and the only thing there was God, would that be enough?” Would God actually be enough for eternity, or are we angling for something more? What do we think is MORE than Him?

6. Modeling – He is an example of obedience to the Father’s Word and loving connection to Him!

15:10b “…just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

A smart man once said: “I can either look like Jesus, or try to make Jesus look like me.” My call as a follower is to assembly my life to LOOK JUST LIKE THE PICTURE OF THE MODEL ON THE BOX.

Jesus was steady, not fickle. Jesus was happy, not overwhelmed. Jesus was in love, not in angst. He WALKED in obedience to His Father out of LOVE.

We are ROBBING ourselves if we miss this point. Jesus did not strive endlessly to figure out what would please His Father – He listened carefully to the words of His Father, did them – and all the while rested in the JOYFUL walk of delight – knowing that made His Father smile. He made it clear – He was the MODEL for us. Can it be clearer? We are to walk in His Word because of our love for His smile, not that we may earn a love that already envelops us. Delighting Him should become our strongest urge.

7. Securing – He offers us the truth that brings the assurance of full joy!

15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full.” Believers MUST grasp the purpose of God’s Words to us. They are not to bridle, break and burden – they are to fill with JOY.

• Sad believers IGNORE the dirty feet they are walking with, and keep going without Jesus’ gentle hands on them.

• Sad believers STOP THEIR EARS at the sound of the instruction of Jesus – struggling to figure out how to assemble life without pulling out the manual.

• Sad believers TOUGH IT OUT to work on their own without Jesus leading and guiding.

• Sad believers DRY OUT from long periods of disconnection from pleasing Jesus – and they look and sound dry in spirit.

• Sad believers TWIST PRAYER to try to manipulate God with words, rather than recognizing that God knows best, and my prayer should be to exalt Him.

• Sad believers don’t follow Jesus’ example – they do life their own way.

• Sad believers don’t have the ASSURANCE that they walk as God would want – so their JOY is muted, and uncertainty abounds.

When will we learn to listen? Jesus is ever faithful, and we can ABSOLUTELY RELY ON HIM: I read the story of two friends in World War I who were inseparable. They had enlisted together, trained together, were shipped overseas together, and fought side-by-side in the trenches. During an attack, one of the men was critically wounded in a field filled with barbed wire obstacles. He was unable to crawl back to his foxhole. The entire area was under enemy crossfire, and it was suicidal to try to reach him. Yet his friend decided to do just that. The sergeant told him, “It’s too late. You can’t do him any good, and you’ll only get yourself killed.” But the man went anyway. He returned a few minutes later, carrying his friend. But he himself had been mortally wounded. The sergeant was both angry and deeply moved. He blurted out, “What a waste! He’s dead and you’re dying. It just wasn’t worth it.” With almost his last breath, the dying man replied, “Oh, yes it was, Sarge. When I got to him, the only thing he said was, ’I knew you’d come, Jim.’” (A-Z Sermon Illustrations).

Mature believers both recognize and live in the promises of Jesus for us. If we forget them, we fumble around on our own. If we live counting on them – we are empowered and secure.

I hate heights. I don’t like to fly and I don’t think hanging off the side of a mountain by a string looks like fun – even when accompanied by impressive head and elbow gear. I have several friends and acquaintances that seem like otherwise perfectly normal individuals, but they insist that hanging on the side of some gargantuan cliff like a human yo-yo is a perfectly legitimate way to spend a vacation. I like them, but I think they are a few knots short of unraveling completely. I believe God made gravity, and gave us the sense not to challenge it any more than we absolutely must in order to live our lives. Flying in the modern age is necessary – hanging from cliffs for fun or sport just isn’t. I don’t think I am as much a chicken (though some would surely disagree) – I believe I just respect gravity more than some people I know. I mention this because I have one distinct memory of an experience with “sport cliff repelling” I attempted earlier in my life. We were on an adventure trip, and I remember the sick feeling of lowering myself off the side of a cliff that had a straight sixty story drop (about six hundred feet) to the bottom of a canyon. I remember terror, and attempting hopelessly to focus on the cliff in front of me in spite of the fact that there was no ground or floor immediately beneath me. I remember trying to figure out what to pray for – since I volunteered to do this and then thinking, “If I die doing this, I am really going to feel stupid entering Heaven looking like a pancake at about eight inches tall and explaining that I did this for FUN!”

When I was clinging to the cliff and thinking about how not to whimper like a baby or allow body fluids to mark my pants, I noticed something that gave me a small measure of comfort. The rope in front of me was a nylon-cotton cord that was braided together – an extremely strong bind of rope. I know it was extremely strong, not only because of my nearly superhero like perceptive abilities, and because the cord said in small letters stamped on it: “EXTREMELY STRONG”. That rope was a braided set of individual filaments. It was essentially a woven series of thin strands that has been braided together to produce extreme strength by distributing the tension over many strands equally. That thought somehow comforted me on the cliff and in a way – it still does. Braids are strong. Single strands fail, but woven into a cord – they become powerful.

That isn’t only true of ROPE, but also of PEOPLE. In a way, as a believer, I live in the strength of a braided life. What do I mean? I am not alone in facing the weight of life. I am a tiny strand, and I am weak. I fail, forget, get frustrated and can be unbelievably fickle. Alone, I am only one unremarkable and unreliable strand. Yet, the Bible says that I am not walking through life alone. I am connected, filled and woven together with the unstoppable power of my Heavenly Father Who tends carefully to my life to produce fruit. My life flows with the inner working of my Savior Who fills me inside and invites me to remain connected to that flow. He is feeding His life into me – and through me into others. Jesus flatly said so, but He used a different illustration than rope – He spoke of a VINE and BRANCHES in God’s carefully tended vineyard. He talked about how a weak little branch could experience the tending of a Loving Father, and the life-filling sap of a Gracious Lord. He had a point…

Key Principle: As a disciple of Jesus, I don’t live life on my own strength, or on my own terms. God tends, Jesus supplies, and I draw my strength from obediently following His directive word.

This passage is RICH. Because of that, I want to take each part of the braid and offer a message on it. Today, I want to talk about the FIVE WORKS OF VINEDRESSER in the life of the believer. In the next lessons, we will follow up with a look at the SEVEN WORKS OF THE VINE, and eventually we will share together the FIVE LAWS OF THE BRANCH. This is a three-part message.

Before we talk about the FIVE WORKS OF THE VINEDRESSER, let’s recall exactly what Jesus said:

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 “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. 3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and [so] prove to be My disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full.

Jesus told a story with three players:

His Heavenly Father (the Vinedresser identified in verse 1), Jesus Himself (as the Vine identified in 15:1) and a disciple or follower (as the branches identified in 15:5).

The passage is very familiar to Bible students, but in familiar passages there is always a danger – that we won’t see the important meaning of what we recite. You see, the exciting part of the story for us, if we look carefully at the tale of the vineyard is this: Jesus explains succinctly three essential truths:

1. Our Heavenly Father is ACTIVE in our lives, fulfilling a work He long planned to do.
2. Jesus is ACTIVE at work on our behalf, flowing into our lives life that does not originate with us – but with Him, through a connection to Him.
3. We are to be ACTIVE as followers in order to live a life “woven into the braid”.

Jesus braids our weak strand with the power of God. He explained the CONNECTION in this story that we have to and with God – and what that connection provides. He explained the importance of our connection to the true source of life that produces the highest prize – the honor for our Heavenly Father. Let me set up our exploration with a mental image:

A missionary in Africa several decades ago lived in a small hut which was electrically supplied by a quiet, small generator. The little gas powered wonder supplied current for both his home and the primitive church building beside it. Late one afternoon two African men from another much more remote village visited the Pastor in his hut, and were amazed when night fell, and he simply switched the room lights on. They were wide-eyed at the electric light bulb hanging from the ceiling of his living space. One of the visitors asked the Pastor if he could have one of the bulbs. Thinking perhaps he wanted it for a sort of trinket, the Pastor obliged and gave it to him. Months passed. On his next visit to the remote village of that same man, the Pastor stopped at the hut of the man who had previously asked for the bulb. Imagine his surprise when he saw the bulb hanging from an ordinary string. The man understood the general idea of connection, but he didn’t understand empowering. Lots of believers today are like that.

Some have come today, and truly WANT to be connected to Jesus, but there are some obstacles. Some don’t understand the GOAL as Jesus taught it. Others haven’t carefully considered how disobedience may be hindering the flow of the power in their lives. They have lived mostly disconnected from God, and disappointed that the light doesn’t seem to work on their terms…

Because some may be new to the faith, and others may be interacting with the Bible today, but not yet have a committed walk with God through Jesus – we need to stop and state that true Christians have exchanged a few important values that have become common assumptions in the world around us. Let me explain: we live in a world that has taught us a song – an anthem – to live for ourselves and accumulate affirmation, comfort and satisfaction for ourselves. We hear echoes that we “only go around once” and “should go for the gusto.” We are told we should “be all that we can be” and we should “have it our way”. We are fully convinced that life is FOR us – and we should bite the apple deeply and get as much as we can for ourselves. The problem is – that isn’t the Christian Life. That is the world’s version of the SELF LIFE. There are even some wayward Christians that teach blended philosophies of that with the teachings of Jesus – in various self-focused benefit plans of prosperity theology. Yet, if you really focus on knowing Jesus from His Word, you will see a potent conflict with that kind of thinking. It is not slight – it is a deep conflict.

The Bible says the followers of Jesus acknowledge they are not their own. Their lives are not their own. Their bodies are not their own. Even their very purpose is not wrapped up in themselves. They are created for the delight of Another. Their best day is when the please HIM, and not themselves.

The Bible says that we are born disconnected from God, since the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, and that we live, more or less, for our own pleasure, and our own good – until we come to Christ. We struggle to make it alone, disconnected from the power and purpose God made Adam, because of his rebellion. We lie, cheat and steal naturally – because we are fallen beings. Yet, encountering Jesus through His Word changes us. Following Jesus, and surrendering to Him hits a reset button on old assumed lifestyles. As believers, as disciples of Jesus, we come to new understandings about life. Our views change on our PURPOSE and the POWER to live daily life. We learn from the Word that our choice to walk in connective obedience to Jesus is the true source of both JOY and POWER in this life. That becomes obvious to any believer who strays from the Word of God – life dries up and joy fleets away. Since joy and power both have personal benefits – that part of the change in our thinking is not as difficult another alteration we make. Perhaps the harder part of the equation is this: our lives have changed their PURPOSE.

Before I came to Jesus, life was about ME. In the Words of Jesus, I learn that it is NOT my happiness, my pleasure, or my desires that are to be the object of my life – but the pleasing of my Heavenly Father. Jesus lived that way, and I am told to live that way. Christianity’s most fundamental purpose is bringing our Heavenly Father, our Creator and our God, the honor and glory due to Him. This is the true purpose of our lives – and that truth underlines the offense of the Gospel to the world. We cannot live for God fully and still maintain our old commitment to self-love, self-advancement and self-pleasure. Attempts to do so will frustrate us and end in a failed mission. Our purpose is a foundational truth, and the purpose is fundamentally at odds with the anthem of self we learned from the choir of voices on every side of us in the lost world.

In the few moments we have together, let’s carefully unpack the three elements of the story, and then apply the truths found in it.

FIVE WORKS OF THE VINE DRESSER

Jesus made clear there are five specific works of our Heavenly Father as the Vine dresser, because God has a JOB in our lives as disciples of Jesus:

Work #1: First, God repositions connected but under-producing branches to help them bear fruit (15:2a).

Verse two begins: “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away…” The term “takes away” is a translation of a Greek verb “airo” (pronounced a-hee-ro). The word CAN mean to take away, but can equally be interpreted as LIFT UP. If you were to ask a vinedresser in Israel which was the meaning, it would be obvious. When a vine is wet on the bottom because it has grown downward to the earth, it requires a PROP to keep air flowing underneath. Since the rest of the verse is about productivity, it makes very good sense that the verse should be translated in that way – and NOT “takes away”. Taking away the branch ends it from productivity. Propping it up assists productivity. Let’s say it clearly, GOD HAS THE RIGHT TO ADJUST YOUR POSITION IN LIFE TO GET YOU TO PRODUCE WELL. In my experience, it may be moving you from a position of comfort and self-assurance, to one of uncertainty but greater trust in Him, and greater fruit than you planned! Let me explain in an illustration:

Mr. Holland’s Opus is a movie about a frustrated composer in Portland, Oregon, who takes a job as a high school band teacher in the 1960s. Although diverted from his lifelong goal of achieving critical fame as a classical musician, Glenn Holland (played by Richard Dreyfuss) believes his school job is only temporary. At first he maintains his determination to write an opus or a concerto by composing at his piano after putting in a full day with his students. But, as family demands increase (including discovery that his infant son is deaf) and the pressures of his job multiply, Mr. Holland recognizes that his dream of leaving a lasting musical legacy is merely a dream. At the end of the movie we find the now aged Mr. Holland fighting in vain to keep his job. The board has decided to reduce the operating budget by cutting the music and drama program. No longer a reluctant band teacher, Mr. Holland now believes deeply in what he does and passionately defends the role of the arts in public education. What began as a career detour became a 35-year mission, pouring his heart into the lives of young people. Mr. Holland returned to his classroom to retrieve his belongings a few days after school let out for summer vacation. He had taught his final class. With regret and sorrow, he filled a box with artifacts that represented the tools of his trade and memories of many meaningful classes. His wife and son arrived to give him a hand. As they left the room and walked down the hall, Mr. Holland heard some noise in the auditorium. Because school was out, he opened the door to see what the commotion was. To his amazement he found a capacity crowd of former students and teaching colleagues and a banner that read “Goodbye, Mr. Holland.” Those in attendance greeted Mr. Holland with a standing ovation while a band (consisting of past and present members) played songs they learned at his hand. His wife, who was in on the surprise reception, approached the podium and made small talk until the master of ceremonies, the governor of Oregon, arrived. The governor was none other than a student who Mr. Holland helped to believe in herself during his first year of teaching. As she addressed the room of well-wishers, she spoke for the hundreds who filled the auditorium: “Mr. Holland had a profound influence in my life (on a lot of lives, I know), and yet I get the feeling that he considers a great part of his life misspent. Rumor had it he was always working on this symphony of his, and this was going to make him famous and rich (probably both). But Mr. Holland isn’t rich and he isn’t famous, at least not outside our little town. So it might be easy for him to think himself a failure, but he’d be wrong. Because I think he’s achieved a success far beyond riches and fame.” Looking at her former teacher the governor gestured with a sweeping hand and continued, “Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each one of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. And we are the music of your life.” [“Mr. Holland’s Opus”: Leaving a Legacy, Citation: Mr. Holland’s Opus, (Hollywood Pictures, 1995), rated PG, written by Patrick Sheane Duncan, directed by Stephen Herek; submitted by Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville, Illinois] (*Taken from Sermon central illustrations, author unknown.)

Holland wanted to make a difference in the world – and he did. It just didn’t happen when and where he dreamed it would. As a believer, we have to be open to that reality – God may move us and reposition us for the best fruit bearing. Don’t run to the bigger venue too quickly – you might find that God has put you in the room you are in for His purposes.

Work #2: Second, God prunes fruit bearing branches (15:2b).

Verse two finished: “…and every [branch] that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” Beyond repositioning, God may need to take OUT OF OUR LIVES someone, something or some situation that is hindering our productivity from reaching the potential. This is different than just moving us or repositioning – this is painful pruning. Pruning is removal, and it isn’t DONE BY US. Grape vines, when left untended, will sprawl out and produce leafy canopies but will not yield much fruit. Pruning may seem counter-intuitive activity, but it will produce very healthy vine. The healthiest vine is not the one with the brightest green leaves for show, but the one that bears fruit. Many are the branches filled with leafy activity, growing that which will shade them and make them more comfortable. Few are those who are truly open to God’s cutting of their frenetic activity – that they would produce greater fruit. It may be the loss of a dearly loved friend that you cannot see is holding you back from truly giving all to the Lord. It may be the death of a spouse or the death of a business or even a dream. It is REMOVAL for the purpose of REPLACEMENT, and it isn’t done by US rejecting others or getting disillusioned. Here is the problem: Branches that are convinced that comfort is the objective, resent the pain of the Vinedresser’s pruning. Branches that know that fruit bearing is the POINT, see the pruning as an act of help and assistance. GOD HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE PEOPLE AND SITUATIONS OUT OF MY LIFE TO SUIT HIS PLAN. If that isn’t true, someone will need to offer a better explanation to me of the Book of Ruth – because that is EXACTLY what God did to Naomi so long ago.

Because God loves us, He “prunes” us. It is not discipline – it is loving HELP. Pruning truly hurts; but God is not angry, He is at work in His vineyard. Remember it is God at work! You will never see a branch pruning another branch! Just remember, when your Father is doing this, He is very close to you, and you are in His eyes.

Work #3: Third, God removes detached and dried up branches (15:6).

John 15:6 can sound very stern if you do not look carefully at the third work of God. Jesus said: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” The work of the Father also includes organizing the removal of those branches that have dried up due to the disconnection of pruning. This image has many dimensions – and many of them are not as negative as you may at first conclude. The text offers no REASON why the branch did not abide in the Vine. In fact, there are two kinds of DISCONNECTED BRANCHES in the text – those who refuse to remain connected, and those that are pruned to allow others to bear more fruit. Let me suggest the words of Jesus can be read in either way – negative or positive.

The negative way to read the text can be illustrated by the events that happened to a teen that was a part of a church that I cared deeply for. That teen was raised in a Christian home and had parents that I knew well. They LOVED their children and worked to rear them well. Their oldest son made a profession of faith to Jesus in grade school, but by High School was not walking with God at all. He may well have known Jesus, but he wasn’t living Jesus. One Saturday night, in his Senior year, he got drunk, drove into a tree and was killed on impact, with several other teens. At the funeral held in the local school gymnasium, God used his life to touch thousands of teens with the Gospel. Sadly, the testimony that could have produced fruit was used up in one instance – and the fire that burned warmed the room, but only one time. How very sad! The branch removed itself from the flow of God’s empowering, and its life withered. In that decimated state, God used his life for a purpose – but not in a continual use of fruit bearing. The fire place was a distant cry from the fruit bowl.

There is another way – a positive way – to see the story that is an equally valid observation, however. What if the vine is disconnected by the attentive pruning of God and not due to self-disconnection? God may pull them from the Vine because they are blocking other branches from flourishing. I have seen this many times. As time passes, the great preachers of yesteryear AGE OUT. If the Lord tarries, so will I someday. Our lives are brief. While these men, some of them great, remain in their ministries, those outreaches cannot flex and change. New, younger men cannot truly shine, because they are serving UNDER the older man. As we age, we get set in our ways, but God wants to reach each generation, and it may not be done the exact same way as our fathers have done it. Each generation needs to be approached with timeless truth but ever-flexing methodology to persuade them of God’s love and their need for surrender. Branches need to be PRUNED that are connected to the Vine without hindrance, because it is time for another branch to bear fruit, and it needs the direct light of the sun. Sometimes men cast a shadow, and God ages them out and removes them to allow for the next generation. At the same time, the warmth in the fire of the farmhouse is the memory of their value – the final use of the Vine dresser for the now used up branch. Some branches don’t fall away – God moves them off the vine to bring the light on others.

Work #4: Fourth, God delights in accepting honor from the abundance of fruit (15:8).

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

God is glorified by our fruit bearing. The more fruit, the more glory to God. The Heavenly choir increases in strength with each new soul brought to Jesus. The richness of our voices is enhanced with each point of surrender in our lives. The sweetness of the aroma of the Spirit’s work wafts Heaven when we are acting in obedience with a right heart, and searching for ways to be used of God.

One of my favorite passages of the Bible is found in the pivotal passage of Romans 12:1-2. I particularly love the second part of verse 2. Think about the passage for a moment:

“1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

If you examine the end of verse two, Paul says this:

(My loose paraphrase) “Be transformed with you mind being made new, and begin the journey of searching out what you can do each day to bring delight to God, and fulfill His desires in you.” The text pushes us to thing in a new way – the way that brings delight and honor to God – and not necessarily upon us. Our focus is to be upon HIS DELIGHT.

Are you going about your week thinking NOT about how to STOP OFFENDING GOD, but how to START DELIGHTING GOD? More believers need to start the journey, and more mature believers need to get intentional about doing it! GO AHEAD, MAKE HIS DAY!

Work #5: Fifth, God loves His Vine (15:9, 10b).

I don’t want to leave the five works of the Vine dresser without noting the last one carefully, found in John 15:9. The work was announced in the teaching of Jesus on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was walking from the Upper Room and He said to His disciples: “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love….”

Jesus didn’t tell the men that they should seek to “tough out” a life for God out of duty. That won’t honor Him. In fact, what He truly is looking for is this: that we will move our deeply rooted love of SELF and replace it with an ever deeper love for HIM.

Look again at verse nine. God LOVED His vine, and God worked His vineyard out of LOVE. There is no love like His. He knows what is best. Stop striving, and start loving. You will find that you never out-give or out-love the endless God.

Pastor Chris Jordan used an illustration to help us understand this: “Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at Stanford Hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liza who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her five-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, ‘Yes, I’ll do it if it will save Liza.’ “As the transfusion progressed, he lay in a bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, ‘Will I start to die right away?’ “Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give her all his blood. (Originally taken from Chicken Soup for the Soul).

Look what REAL LOVE WILL DO! It will give up it’s place for another. Will you give up the throne of YOUR HEART for another – He is waiting to take His rightful place.

As a disciple of Jesus, I don’t live life on my own strength, or on my own terms. God tends, Jesus supplies, and I draw my strength from obediently following His direction.