KCC April 2013 Abide, Love, Be Hated, Witness John 15 Turn to John 15 please. Our bread is not something we toast and put butter on. Our bread is a person, Jesus, the bread of life (6:35). Our water is not something we get out of cup. Our water is a person, Jesus, the living water (7:37). Our light is not something we switch on in the evening. Our light is a person, Jesus, the light of the world (1:4; 9:5) Our gate is not a frame that swings on hinges. Our gate is a person, Jesus. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved (10:8). Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life (14:6). The way means the road, the highway. Our road is not hard flat strip through the fields that we travel on. Our road is a person, Jesus. Truth is not accurate statement; truth is a person, Jesus. Our life is not a state of being, it is not something we have for a while and then lose. Our life is a person, Jesus. He said: I am the road, the truth, and the life. I am the resurrection and the life (11:25). Most of these are things we need again and again, daily things: food, water, light, truth, life. It s not like a vaccination, that you get once and you re set for life. John 3:16, the famous verse. God so loved the world that he gave is one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Whoever believes in him. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? In John s Gospel, it means he is our bread of life, he is our living water, he is our light, our road, our truth. That is believing in John, because if we don t live off the bread of life we don t get life, if we don t drink the living water we don t live, if he s not our light than we re in darkness, and so on. All these pictures show how much we need him all the time, need him just to stay alive, or we need him to do anything, like light. And in John 15, we get the same truth in one more picture, the vine and the branches. Abide in Me: the Vine and the Branches 15:1-8 15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Abide, Love, Be Hated, Witness John 15 2 The last words of John were, Come now, let us leave. The simplest explanation for what s happening here is that Jesus and his disciples left the upper room after he taught what was in John 14, where they had the Last Supper. They started walking to the place where Jesus was arrested, and they passed a vineyard, which there will have been lots of in and around Jerusalem. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. We are the branches. I have more experience with fruit trees than with grape vines, and they work the same way. Branches want to get big, impressive, have lots of leaves. The gardener wants something different, fruit. The gardener is not in the big branch business, the gardener is in the fruit business. So every single branch gets cut. The branches that do not bear any fruit get cut off, no matter what fine branches they are. The branches that do bear fruit get pruned. They get cut back, they get disappointed, they get hurt, which they don t like. BUT the gardener knows the branch will be fine, and that instead of getting to be a big impressive branch, it will be a branch that bears a lot of fruit. That s what the gardener is after. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. o branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. either can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. The overwhelming emphasis of these verses is not about pruning, it is the absolute necessity of the branch staying attached to the vine, to the trunk of the tree. 4-7 again: 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. o branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. either can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is not some superior kind of Christian life. This is the only way the branches get life. In v2 and v6, if we don t stay attached, we are cut off and thrown in the fire.
Abide, Love, Be Hated, Witness John 15 3 Abiding in Jesus, remaining in Jesus, staying attached to the vine, is the same as believing this is what believing in Jesus means in John s Gospel. This is why we began with pictures of Jesus being what we need every day: bread, water, light, a road, truth. The way branches need to stay attached to the vine is nothing new in John s Gospel Jesus has been saying this all along. Something else here to note: John 14 and 16 are all about Jesus leaving. He s going to prepare a place for us, he will come back and get us, if he goes he ll send the Spirit, it s good for us that he s going, and so on. But this vine-branches picture makes it clear that in some important way he s still here, with us. We can here, now, in this life, make him bread and water and light. You, here each one of you, he s saying this to you, today: remain in me, stay with me, abide in me, keep attached to me, you can t bear any fruit with out me, you can t stay alive without me. How do we abide, how do we remain in Jesus? Jesus left that open. Some of will assume this is private worship, devotions and prayer, that s what is commonly taught. Others will find a gathering with others for prayer and worship and enjoyment and teaching to be a better way. Probably both are a good idea. Jesus does not say. Remain in me, he says to each of us. What is the fruit? Not easy to figure out. More on this a bit later. But as Jesus explains it here, we don t need to know. What we need to do is remain in him, trust him all the time, depend on him, count on him, don t wander off. Then, he assures us, we will bear fruit. Let him worry about what the fruit will be. Love as I love you 15:9-17 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. ow remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Remain in my love. It sound a lot like remain in me, doesn t it. There are intend to sound the same. Remaining in the vine means remaining in his love. There is a lot of love in this fruit bearing, even though it involves pruning. It is surrounded by his love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love. We talked a minute ago about how to remain in Jesus. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love. Simple obedience to Jesus is a powerful way of staying attached to him, of remaining in him. Obey him.
Abide, Love, Be Hated, Witness John 15 4 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one s life for one s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. My command is that you love each other as I have loved you. There is no greater love than do lay down your life for your friends. Jesus is about to do this within 24 hours he will be cold and dead in the grave. You are my friends if you do what I command. I want to talk about radical Christianity in a minute, but first a few other details. We are not like his slaves, says Jesus, but his friends, because masters don t tell slaves what the plan is, just what they re supposed to do. But Jesus has told us everything he was told, which is a remarkable claim. It s easy to tell what he knows, according to this line, because he told us everything he learned from the Father, kept nothing back. In that way we are friends. But friends choose each other, that s how friendship works, doesn t usually work well when one person wants to be friends but the other does not want that. But it is not like that with Jesus. He chose us. We think we chose Jesus, we re glad we chose Jesus, but Jesus tells us, No, that s not how this happened. You did not choose me. I chose you. For me, at least, this is actually comforting. Jesus choose you and me to be his friends. Radical Christianity. I hear about this once in a while, what our lives would look like if we followed Jesus without reservation. This is radical Christianity here: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one s life for one s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. The problem is that this does not appeal to us. It does not feel spiritual, no sense of conquest or adventure or romance or deep experience of God. He was talking to the eleven disciples. None of them chose each other, they bickered with each other, we not even sure they liked each other. Love each other as I loved you. Lay down your life for each other. We say, but that does not meet my needs! People, he said, love as I loved you; lay down your life for each other. But, listen, what if this is the way to life, the way to real life? Jesus mixes this command with language about his love for us, and about our joy being complete. You feel sorry for yourself if you have to live this way, but he does not feel sorry for you. He thinks obeying him is the best thing that could ever happen to you.
Abide, Love, Be Hated, Witness John 15 5 Could he know something you don t know? Maybe this is the doorway to something good, incredibly good. But he s clear about our motivation loving each other this way: we do it for him, because he commanded us. Four times in vv9-17 he speaks about his command or his commands. My command: love each other as I loved you. People vary a lot about how much compassion or affection or love we might feel for someone who needs us. Some feel a lot, some not much, it doesn t matter. Jesus says, right now, for the next ten minutes, you give your life to that person, give yourself to them, to help them, to do whatever would be good for them, serve them, open your heart to them, lay down your life for them. I loved you and gave myself for you. You love them and give yourself for them. This is radical Christianity to live that way with the ordinary people in your ordinary church, and the ordinary people under your own roof. This is not what the radical Christianity people usually talk about, because it does not sell well. But there is only one new command, and this is it. Jesus is repeating here what he said at the end of John 13, still in the upper room, after Judas left: 13: 34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. This is why our church as covenant of membership, and this is why our covenant of membership reads like it does. It is mostly just expanding this one new command. We began with the vine and the branches, and how we need to remain in Jesus to bear fruit. This love for each other has to be a big part of the fruit that we bear if we remain in Jesus, because Jesus goes back and forth between bearing fruit and loving each other. In 15:8 this is to my Father s glory, that you bear much fruit. In v12 my command is this: love each other as I have loved you. V16 I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit. V17 This is my command: Love each other. V10 if you keep my commands, you will remain in my love. Loving each other is a part of how we remain in Jesus, and loving each other is also the fruit that we bear when we do remain in Jesus. We will not live with each other like this without remaining in Jesus. If the World hates you 15:18-25 I am going to spend must less time on the last two elements of this teaching, because the world s hatred is not instruction about what we need to do. It explains how all this looks to the world, and why it looks like this to the world. If the world hates you. It might not, but sooner or later it probably will, and here s why:
Abide, Love, Be Hated, Witness John 15 6 18 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: They hated me without reason. Do not be surprised if the world finds us evil and offensive, says Jesus. And take his explanation seriously. It is not about us. It is his fault. The world does not know his Father, does not want his Father, Jesus chose us out of the world and brought us to his Father. Trusting in Jesus, and being children of the Father that is enough to put the world on edge toward us. Jesus explanation here of why he was hated and crucified is not because of his unusual social views or religious views. It is because he showed them the Father, and they did not want the Father, or to be shown the Father. We don t like this, we think there must be a way to make the world like us, I can feel that in me as I read this, but Jesus was not optimistic about that. Witness 15:26-27 26 When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. The Spirit will testify to the world about Jesus. The Spirit will be out there among those who hate the Father and the Son and the believers, and the Spirit will be saying, those people are right, Jesus of Nazareth really is the truth, he really did show God the Father, you should not be opposing those people. And we, also, are to testify. That s not to preach, or even evangelize, but mostly to be known. John 12:42-43 Many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than praise from God. Let s not be like that. The Spirit goes ahead of us, the Spirit is already speaking to them. You and I will never acknowledge Jesus in front of a person who has not already been hearing from the Spirit. Don t hide in broad daylight. Don t let it be that someone knows you fairly well for a long time before finding out that you follow Jesus. We don t have to preach at them, just be yourself, be a follower of Jesus, a child of God, and say so.
Abide, Love, Be Hated, Witness John 15 7 Remain in Jesus. There is no other way to life, but to stick to the vine, put your roots deep into this Jesus, this Jesus with scars on his hands and his feet, scars because of you, and because of me. Then we will live, and bear fruit. We will love each other, all these ordinary people, as he loved us and lay down his life for us. We will do this because he loved us and because he commanded us. Amen. Lord Jesus, with the scars, we have two problems: we wander away from you, and we are selfish. We hold these words of yours up before you: have mercy on us, draw us back to yourself again and again, keep us in your love, help us to keep each other in your love, and lead us every day to lay down our life for each other in how we act toward each other. We hear your call, and we wish to do exactly what you said to us. Thank you that you have given us this road to life, to love, to joy, to you and the Father, to the things we want the most. Amen.