All for Joy.
Notes
Transcript
“Peace be with you.”
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.
Let’s Pray:
“Father may your will be done. Jesus may your word be proclaimed. Spirit may your work be accomplished in us we pray. Amen”
The passage we come to today is among the narrative of Jesus sharing in the last meal with his disciples before He goes to die. These next few chapters John writes, recites the last word and testament of Jesus to his disciples. In Jesus’ last words, there is so much to unpack. Jesus had so much to say that his disciples can only recall it all when given the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ final words are very sobering and even cause the disciples to grieve. A cloud of gloom seems to hover over all that He says because he speaks about his death and his departing. But riddled throughout this somber tone is a hope and a joy that cannot be overlooked. Jesus mentions it here in our particular passage we read today. It is found in verse 11,
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Immediately, we learn that the level of joy the disciples possess is nearly zero. Their joy account is depleted. They have not reserves. What Jesus is revealing to them is no good news, and nothing to find Joy in.
Application:
Has your joy been robbed? Have the past and present stolen your joy. Have the dark shadow of grieve and sorrow seemed to rule your life? Do you find yourself despairing, depressed, and emotionally desolate? Have some of us become like these Disciples who we are told lament, grieve, full of sorrow, are those who mourn?
Then listen to the words of Jesus and have that grieve turned into a joy that is full and overflowing.
Jesus’ Words that produce this abundant joy are these:
Our abiding (union) with Christ has made us His church.
The contrast between the covenant people who abide in Israel and the Covenant people who abide in Christ. (Song of the Vineyard Isa 5 and 27)
As the Father and The Son are one, so Christ is ours and we are His. Our abiding with Christ gives us access to experience the fullness of God.
The relationship between the Father and the Son is eternal and established. It has never been severed and both are one together. So too, are we one with Jesus. Jesus affirms that He abides in us and we abide in Him if we love him. This speaks to the relationship that all who believe in Jesus enter into. You can’t see Christ because Christ is in you and works through you. You and Jesus are one, you are one in much of the same ways the Father and the Son are one. Their union that has always existed has been shared with us in Christ. No one has experienced love until they have experienced the love shared between the Father and the Son, and you can experience it through faith in Jesus. Only those who believe and abide in Jesus experiences this love. There is no greater example of love than the love shared between the Father and the Son. Therefore, when Jesus tells us that our union with Him grants access to share in this love, it builds up Joy into our lives.
2. Our abiding (union) with Christ makes our lives fruitful.
3. Our abiding (union) with Christ makes our prayers effective.
4. Our abiding (union) with Christ offers us a reciprocal relationship with God- Where God and man are loving each other and doing things for each other.
5. Our abiding (union) with Christ offers us complete Joy.
The nature of the Relationship v.1
You have heard it said that having a relationship with Christ is everything. The idea of “relationship” is littered throughout the scriptures. To understand this union we have to Christ, it is often compared to Marriage, Family, even elements in creation that are all around like we find here.
Jesus tells us the relationship the Father and He have together (v.1). The Father determines the vines attire. His son being the vine, is particularly clothed with branches of the ones who love his Son. The Father tends to all that his son produces making it to produce as much as possible (v.2). The vine is pruned by the Word of God (v.3). The branch that remains will produce fruit as they remain upon the choice vine (v.4). There is no fruit, apart from the vine (v.5). Warning to those who are not in Christ (v.6).
B. The Promise of a successful Prayer Life (v.7)
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
Psalm 145:16 (NASB95)
16 You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Abiding in Christ promises that your actions will be fruitful. (No one likes to have their efforts and times wasted.)
Abiding in Christ promises that your actions will be directed towards God’s Will.
Abiding in Christ grants you access to God the Father from whom all blessings flow and all requests are granted.
(If anything is going to be done and any success will be had in your actions, then God the Father must grant it. And when you abide in Christ, you have, in your possession, the person who has the ear of the Father, and there is nothing that Father will withhold from his Son. If you abide in Christ and Christ abides in you, then it can be said, through Christ, God will not withhold anything from you and will grant you success in accomplishing His most good, Holy, and right will.)
C. Relationship are a two-way street. (v.9-10)
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.
Love begins with the Father, moves to the Son, and extends to us. When we are touched by that Love we are moved towards action which demonstrates the love we have for Christ, How the son has loved the Father, and how the Father has loved us. There is a flow love that goes back and forth between God and us which is display by our actions. God has acted towards us first, displaying how wide, long, and deep his love for us is and we reciprocate that love back to him by displaying a life where everything we do is for Him.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
19 We love, because He first loved us.
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.