Jesus: Forever Inspiring Love or Controversy by Kelly Durant 3-22-15
A study in John 15 concerning His relevant word to us before for His departure.
2. Did you know the Bolivians are descendants of the extraterrestrials? When one Indian meets another they do not greet each other as we do, and ask, “How are you?”, they say, “How’s the earth?” (They actually do ask that but they are referring to the quality of the dirt and farm production in the area of their fellow brother!)
Well, as Christians, we always meet, shake hands or hug and ask each other, “How are you?” but maybe we should do it with the deeper context and ask, “How is your spirit”? How is the quality of your walk with the Lord, your purity, your production for Him?
Today we will do a study on John 15 as a preparation to Easter. I love this chapter! We should read it, absorb it, live by it, and most of all learn to LOVE by it! I will comment after we read the verses. There are several concepts shared here and it is important we grasp each one.
3. John 15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Here Jesus is confirming that He is the only true connection to God, and God is the caretaker, the one who makes his vine to grow by fertilizers and additives (the spirit) and pruning (removing the dead branches, symbolic to letting go of the past and bad influences) The ultimate purpose of our lives is to be producing the maximum fruit for God! His Kingdom is forever, so why waste time with gaining so much material stuff you are going to leave behind one day?
Some times in our lives when we don’t get what we want in life and we may even get upset at God and others. But in our lean times, in our recessed times, we might take it that God might have cut us back and trimmed us. It is clear here that sometimes God will be trimming back the areas of our lives that are making us die, the deadening parts twisted up in dry pride and selfishness. It hurts us but it matures us to accept that God is in control and He shapes us how He needs us to be to serve Him best. Don’t just look at a pain or loss as undesirable, accept the fact that getting some things cut back is necessary so we produce more and have a life more like He is and less how we want to be. We don’t like changes in our lives but God permits them all our lives, so let go of the useless!
4. John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoke to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Have you ever felt dirty after being around certain people? The words, ways, and life of many people just reek of filth. Or have you ever felt dirty inside after doing something you realized was wrong? The purpose of Satan is to tempt whosoever will listen to get dirty by some sin and then He hopes to keep you separated from God after that, dominated by guilt and shame.
The solution to freedom from unclean-ness is so simple it escapes many, even Christians, that all you have to do is get refilled back up with Jesus, absorbing His Words, and everyone must pray and confess anything bothering and then you and I are able to get cleaned up. It is like taking a shower; everyone of us needs to take one daily to be clean! Many people worry about being “holy” for Holy Week with clean new suits and dresses. How vain! The outside is only flesh, what matters is being clean spiritually, and it is Jesus’ words washes us clean!
We can be clean or holy and it is His work in us, and then this makes us apt to be able to remain in Him. Only staying connected to Jesus will allow the sap of his Holy Spirit to flow to the branches keeping you alive.
5. John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
The people that love God and are in Jesus will always have good fruit as a proof of it; they will have converted friends, people who love Jesus as well near them. In another part in the parable of the sewer Jesus mentioned this, Matthew 13:23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” This implies some people over their lifetime will convert this many (100) or this few (30). Think about it, how many are have you converted so far? What is your fruit?
Verse 6 does invoke fear! He is referring to the final judgment when the ones not in Him, those who produced nothing, will be cast into the lake of fire. These are those who are withered and dried up (spiritually, due to sin). Whose fault is that? Only the one who disconnects and goes their own way without being in Jesus. It is worse for you to have had the truth of Jesus and then you separate yourself.
6. John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples”. How many of you have seen people who when they know a spiritual, righteous living leader is in the room, they prefer they pray when it is for a need of some kind? It just seems logical and natural that people know who has the connection and the power with Christ and who doesn’t.
Aren’t you as amazed as I am to hear about answered prayers! We pray, hope, and wait, but never know what God has in mind, and week after week we hear of victories and positive answers. When we prayed for someone and they got healed, we should be very thankful. Answered prayers is a blessing that others of the world do not understand that we have (They would not believe it!) how someone got a job, how someone else was freed from a problem, how if you are pleasing God He returns the favor in many ways.
Jesus is speaking to all humanity for all time in John 15 but when he says, “so you will be My disciples”, His ultimate goal is that everyone who is in Him will become a disciple, which basically is a person who loves, follows, and spreads the good news of His love, Kingdom, salvation, and eternal life to every creature.
7. John 15:9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have 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”. The greatest need of every person born is love! Babies within a few months will die without love! I think some people who get depressed and die young are very sad people who live without love. One of the main reasons I have dedicated my entire life to Jesus, to love Him and preach about Him, is because I have always been shown a great amount of love and kindness by those that love Him!
In the Salvation Army in doctrine 9 “We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ”. Basically verse 10 says this same thing! But it refers to getting love and salvation from God the Father (inferred is continuously) by staying connected to Jesus.
Jesus was, is, and forever will be pure love! If we want love from God (love from people is not eternal) then we must grasp the fact that we can only have it by going through the man of love, Jesus.
8. John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you”.
Do you see the connection? To have any happiness in life, any joy whatsoever, you have to have Jesus Word in you! What did He just speak about? Love! Now here joy is defined as a consequence of love. Love is directly connected to joy! If we are in Jesus love we will gain a continued joy which is a happiness light years beyond the momentary stimulations of excitement offered by the world.
Jesus laid down His life for us on the cross, now that is a true friend! Who here has a friend that has saved your life, raise your hand? If you have a story of some friend running in front of a car to push you out of the way so they could die in your place, I want to hear your story! There are a few stories of heroism and of love in this world but not so many really! Jesus died for us and did for us what we could not do for ourselves, and that was to redeem our fallen nature back to restoration with God. So that motivates me to obey His commands as I have never had a friend like this before!
9. John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you”. Today many people and groups in the world are the ultra-secretive with hidden agendas kind, but not so with Jesus. Our government, and the rich rule over others never revealing an iota of their plans. People hate the 1% rich, the Rothchilds, The Illuminati, the 300 Group, the Bohemian Grove Group, and the world’s most powerful and rich who pull the strings of the politicians changing laws and why are these evil ones hated?
Because these people and their groups in their pride have the idea they know what is best for you! They will chose the laws for you, we the people are only the peons. They create double standards and insulate their selves from the common man so they lord over all. Political powers are all abusive, yet some more murderous than others, but it is in our God given nature to reject lordship and to be subjugated as servants by murderous greedy perverts totally corrupted by pride being full of Satan.
Also all the world’s religions (except true Christianity) exercise lordship and oblige submission to their laws and customs (often having no logical sense). Some even literally mean submission! I redundantly reject any idea that God wants me under Him by means of any oppression and slavery! Jesus liberates us, from sin and from oppression and deceivers! Satan’s subjugated oppressed followers are murderously jealous over our freedom in Christ! Jesus is our friend, not our slave master! He is the world’s first wise teacher, and only Son God, and He clarified to His followers that you and I would not be kept in the dark on agendas as some subjugated servant. All of Jesus’ preaching was an invitation to the Kingdom of God and His prophecies reveal the future, so He keeps back nothing from us!
10. John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Have you ever been to party and then the hosts say, “Okay, it’s time to dance, everybody get up!” I never learned to dance, but I always will go along with it because it is asked of me. Can you relate to this type of situation? In this verse of being chosen, basically Jesus is saying that everyone is chosen to do his will by appointment. But don’t you hate to see party poopers rudely rejecting the will of the hosts acting upset when everyone else is doing what’s requested and being happy? What is it that Jesus just did by ordaining or appointing? We just read it, to bring others to Him bearing fruit, and to get us to love each other! It is simple and direct but many will not obey this even though they were chosen. Both commands actually are somewhat sacrificial to do, both require hardships and humility, both will involve embarrassment and persistence, but His Holy Spirit gives us power to do it and we gain joy when we accept the appointment!
And once again Jesus affirms that if we are in His will, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” Getting prayers answered is the privilege that those who bear fruit get to have! But the fruit must remain, meaning we must disciple others as well, right? And a second time here we are commanded to love one another! God is love! We must love Him and others! People who never love are of Satan!
11. John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant 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. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
Look how the world is hating Christians today! Has it ever been so bad? Actually yes! From the beginning the Romans murdered in horrific manners a few million Christians! Christians have been hated and murdered ever since the beginning! Who has murdered Christians throughout history and why? When you think of motives, think of Satan’s pride and jealousy. Christ haters go into a murderous rage when a person will not bow down to them, to their ideology, to their despot self, or submit to their oppressive leader. But Christian will never stop proclaiming that they love Jesus above all things!
Consider the politics of Nero. He set fire to Rome so he could rebuild it with his own architectural plans (a personal agenda) and then he falsely blamed the Christians for doing what he actually did so he could arrest and murder them! His crimes and hypocrisy became exposed along with his extremely cruelty and supposedly entertaining way of killing innocent ones. For people like Nero, for fallen angels, along with countless Satanic others, we comprehend why God is justified in allowing the existence of a burning lake of fire hell for souls of those that deserve it. Revelation 20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Who persecutes Christians? Those who do not know God the Father (even though they may claim they do), those who refuse to honor Christ, and the result is they share the same sentiments as the murderous followers of Satan! These horrible abusers have always killed children, raped and tortured women, and done horrific crimes. But Christians will be safe in heaven one day leaving this hell and their eternal hell behind!
12. John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
Isn’t it amazing how some people actually “hate” Jesus? The basis for His rejection seems unjustifiable and illogical. Why reject a healer, a lover, a teacher, a sacrificial man? Jesus is purity, love, and freedom but His power by authority in Word and in deed shines with a scorching light of truth deep into the dark places of the human soul. It is unrepentant people who want to continue deceptions in the dark, who want to keep on benefiting by propagating lies to others, who want to manipulate followers for gain, who are stubborn in their pride and selfishness, are those who fiercely reject allowing Jesus in their lives!
Pray for each other here! You never know but some spouses give their mates hell over coming to church or doing good for others! Many divorces have happened because one mate accepts Jesus and the other one does not. But one thing is clear, once a person learns about Jesus they at that moment then have a choice, to recognize their sin and repent, or reject Him and the Father and the hate Him without a cause.
13. John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
How do Christians keep having super human strength to overcome in the world? Because Jesus left with us the Holy Spirit! It is an unexplainable force that gives Christians the ability to remain faithful to Jesus, to be able to love the unlovely people and bear fruit for God, to endure persecutions and even death.
You and I have the conviction of Jesus being real and true as our spirit connects with His spirit! He is not controversy to us and hated, Jesus instead is love and power! He created you and I to stay with Him forever, and if we can make it through the tests and trials of life with Jesus help, He has reserved for us a mansion in heaven (But that is in John 14, which is a whole additional study!) Do you need power in these trying times? Let’s pray for the “helper”, the Holy Spirit to empower you.
