Remain in Me - John 15

“I’ll take biblical foods for 100, Alex”

Where are we? The upper room - or perhaps we have just left the upper room

What discussion has taken place?

The way to the Father

Jesus reveals the Father

Another counselor promised

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Jesus’s gift of peace

Chapters 14–17 are called the Heart of Christ. Nowhere does the Master lay bare his very soul more completely than here in chapters 15 and 16, with the allegory of the Vine and the teaching concerning the Holy Spirit.

1. Pruned

John 15:1–8 CSB

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

Food in Israel:

1. Wheat: Wheat was a staple food in ancient Israel and was used to make bread, porridge, and other dishes.

2. Barley: Barley was another essential grain crop that was commonly grown in Israel and used to make bread, porridge, and beer.

3. Olives: Olive trees were abundant in Israel and produced oil that was used for cooking, lighting lamps, and anointing.

4. Figs: Figs were a sweet fruit that grew in abundance in Israel and were dried for preservation and used in cooking.

5. Dates: Dates were another sweet fruit that grew in Israel and were often used as a natural sweetener in cooking and baking.

6. Lentils: Lentils were a nutritious legume that was commonly eaten in Israel, often as a stew or soup.

7. Fish: Fish was a significant food source in Israel, especially in the region of Galilee, where the Sea of Galilee provided an abundance of fish.

8. Pomegranates: Pomegranates were a popular fruit in Israel and were used in cooking, as well as in religious ceremonies.

9. Honey: Honey was a natural sweetener that was produced in Israel from beehives and was used in cooking and baking.

Grapes:

Physical significance - wine was used in celebration (recall the wedding at Cana), and to make drinking water palatable

Spiritual significance - Prophets (Isaiah 5:1-7, Jeremiah 2:21);

Psalm 80:8-9 “8 You dug up a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. 9 You cleared a place for it; it took root and filled the land.”

Hos 10:1 “1 Israel is a lush vine; it yields fruit for itself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better they made the sacred pillars.”

Feast of tabernacles (a harvest festival); First fruits offering; Part of the passover (and the Lord’s supper)

So the disciples knew grapes. Like we would know…Subway? McDonald’s? So this was a perfect and understandable illustration for Jesus to use, just as he used many other illustrations from common life.

v.1 “I am the vine” - the imagery is a bit different than other usages

v.5 “you are the branches” - so the picture is complete

v.2 “he removes”, “he prunes” - this is just how grapes are cultivated

“does not produce fruit”? A vine with no fruit is about as worthwhile as Kudzu

reproduce?

fruit of the Sprit?

John 12–21 (1) The Mashal of the Vine and the Branches: A Portrait of Discipleship (15:1–11)

to be truly fruitful in communicating the authentic message and life to the inauthentic and hostile world

v.3 Spiritual cleansing that comes from hearing and accepting the teachings of Jesus. Have you done this? Then…you are clean!

v.4 “Remain in me” - We needed Jesus for salvation (obviously!). We also need him for sanctification.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Exposition)

Jesus meant that if His clean (i.e., saved) disciples abide in Him, He will abide in them.

This is likely not an all black or all white condition

v.5 “who remains in me and I in him” - repetition, for emphasis. We can do nothing without Christ

v.6 “if anyone does not remain in me” - not fruit, but separation; cast aside

v.7 “ask whatever you want”

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

This verse has also been a stumbling block to some sincere Christians. It appears to be a blanket promise to grant any request that any disciple may make. Really it is a blanket promise to grant any request that an abiding disciple may make. An abiding disciple will ask for only those things that are in harmony with, or subject to, God’s will—like Jesus did. The wishes of abiding disciples are the same as Jesus’ wishes. To ask anything else would make the praying believer a non-abiding disciple.

John 14:14 “14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

An abiding disciple will understand the principles of Rom 8:28 and also Hebrews 12:6 “6 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives.”

v.8 “My Father is glorified by this” - this is the highest motivation that we can have as believers

2. Joy

John 15:9–11 CSB

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. 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 these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

v.9 “As the Father has loved me” - do you ever think that perhaps God merely tolerates you? Consider the comparison with God’s love.

v.10 The idea is not that we can withdraw from the circle of God’s love by being disobedient. God does not stop loving His disobedient children (cf. Luke 15:11–24). It is rather that we can withdraw from the enjoyment and blessings of His love.

v.11 “that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” - does that seem like a harsh God, or like a Father who wants only our best?

3. Love

John 15:12–17 CSB

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.

v.12 This is a summary statement. Recall the earlier arguments among the disciples about who would be the greatest? This is the exact opposite attitude. It is also a command. It is also an action, not merely an emotion; it is expressed through words and action.

v.13 The pinnacle of love is self-sacrifice.

v.14-15 The hallmark of a friend - the sharing of plans.

Navigating Tough Texts: A Guide to Problem Passages in the New Testament 43: Jesus My Friend? (John 15:15)

A hymn written by Joseph Scriven (1819–1886) declares,

What a friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

But is there scriptural justification for saying “Jesus is my friend”?

In the OT, Abraham is called God’s friend (2 Chr 20:7; Isa 41:8). But this leads James to say, not that “God was called the friend of Abraham,” but that “He (Abraham) was called the friend of God” (Jas 2:23). Moses, too, is called the friend of God by implication: “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exod 33:11 NIV).

But Jesus declares in John 15:14–15, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you ‘slaves,’ because a slave does not understand what his master is doing. Rather, I have given you the name of ‘friends,’ because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” Doesn’t this clearly authorize us to claim that Jesus is our friend?

We should observe, to begin with, that Jesus is not making a blanket affirmation that all his disciples are his friends. “You are my friends, if …” Obedience to Jesus does not create his friendship, but it is a mark and proof of that friendship. Jesus’ central point is that a slave obeys his master’s orders without understanding his master’s motives and plans; he has no intimate knowledge of his master’s purposes. So then, because Jesus did disclose to his disciples a full knowledge of his Father’s counsels (John 1:18; 8:38), they could not any longer be called “slaves.” The only designation appropriate for them in this regard was “friends,” for a friend has the privilege of intimate knowledge that is denied to a slave. No doubt Jesus’ disciples would have called him their friend when introducing him to others, just as he spoke of “our friend Lazarus” (John 11:11).

But there is a radical difference between what was inevitable when Jesus was on earth—a mutual use of the term “friend”—and what is now appropriate with regard to the glorified Lord who shares God’s throne as his plenipotentiary (Rev 22:3). His present titles stress his otherness and unparalleled majesty—he is, for example, the Alpha and Omega (Rev 22:13), just as the Lord God is (Rev 1:8; 21:6), and the bright Morning Star (Rev 22:16)—so that the notion of friendship or comradeship is demeaning when applied to him. It is not that the Father or Jesus is unfriendly, but each remains a supreme Lord to be reverenced and obeyed.

A similar situation applies, I believe, with regard to whether we may call Jesus our brother. On the one hand, during his earthly life, Jesus did not hesitate to refer to his disciples as his brothers (Matt 28:10). And even now Jesus is graciously “not ashamed” to call believers his brothers and sisters (Heb 2:11–12) and be known as the firstborn of them (Rom 8:29). But on the other hand, that does not give us the right to call him our elder brother, which Scripture never does. Indeed, the apostle John describes Jesus as monogenēs (John 1:14, 18), the one and only Son, without siblings. He is the Son (huios) of God (3:18); believers are the children (tekna) of God (1:12).

v. 16 Jesus stressed that the initiative in the relationship between Him and His disciples lay with Himself, not them. God chose us, and not the reverse!

Again - repeated for emphasis:

We are appointed to produce fruit

“whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you”

“love one another”