Last Supper: Vines and Branches
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We Have been going through the Last supper Discourse
Jesus’s last message to his disciples before his death,
He washed their feet
Then commanded them to love each other as a new commandment
Despite their own doubts, and the failings of others.
Then he explained how He is going to the father, and sending the Holy Spirit
and in his explanaition he said the He is in the Father, the Father is in him, the Spirit is in both of them, and the Spirit has come to dwell in us, so that Jesus lives within us,
and this enables us to do even greater things than jesus Ever did.
Now we turn to John 15 where Jesus continues this idea though an extended metephore.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
He is the Vine, the Father is the VineDresser, and we the church are his branches,
if we do not produce good fruit we are cut off, pruned away.
well how do we produce good fruit,
We abide in jesus
What does that mean to abide?
Spend time with him,
Pray
read the Bible - His word
Do the things that jesus would do.
Jesus is the source , without him we can do nothing.
This is a continuation of that theme from John 14, a couple weeks ago, we the Church are part of what God wants to do, so if we abide in Jesus as a church, looking to him for everything, He will provided what we need, and then some.
If we want signs to know that we are abiding in Jesus and producing good fruit look in Galatians 5:22-24
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Love Joy Peace Patience kindness goodness gentleness faithfulness and self control,
When we look at our live and our church, do we see love?
Do we see peace
do we have patience
are we kind
are we good
are we faithful
are we gentle
do we have self control?
When we abide in Jesus - we producing these things in our lives, and sacrifice our sinful and selfish desires.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Jesus says that if we abide in him we will keep his commandments
what are the commandments?
Love God with all your heart Soul Mind and Strength
Love your neighbor as yourself
Love Each other (the church) as I have loved you
But then Jesus adds a twist onto that new commandment:
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
Love Each other as I have loved you,
Greater love has no one than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Church are we willing to lay down our lives for each other?
Jesus gave himself up for us
and he calls us friends. Not servents, but friends.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ died for us despite our sin and our failings
despite being God’s enemies
Are we willing to do the same for each other.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Jesus chose us to be his followers, his servants, his friends, and he laid down his life for us.
If you are one of the 11 disciples with Jesus at this moment what is going through your mind, Is Jesus about to give up his life for us? He’s calling us his friends and saying the greatest act of love will be laying down his life for his friends
Moving On Jesus start to explain that abiding in him, being his friends is not easy.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 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 also keep yours.
Loving jesus, and loving like Jesus is going to bring the hatred of the world
With Persecution.
Church we barely understand true persecution in America, the disciples were neck deep in it.
To be fair PErsecutiton always was part of the deal with Jesus, even with the sermon on the mount.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
When you follow Jesus the people of the world will reject you. we might not face persection the way christians do in other parts of the world, we may have a decent amount of freedom here in america, but there are still people in america who Hate us for loving Jesus, and trying to follow God.
But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
Jesus speaks here primamrially about the Pharisees and Saducees and other Jewish leaders,
But it offers a key insight, there is grace for those who don’t know better,
Church we should not be suprised when sinners who do not know Jesus sin.
Some of us were talking about this at the mens breakfast,
Jesus was much harder on those who knew better, those who claimed to follow God yet still lived sinful lives.
When Jesus is revealed to you, you have a choice, and that choice is to accept him or reject him.
and that choice can only be put off so long.
but eventually it must be made.
The Religious leader’s sin in Jesus’s day is that they rejected him, and so rejected God.
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit, who helps reveal his wonders to us, and he will guide us in bearing witness to Christ.
Witness means that we have seen the glory of God in our lives,
Now im going to go just a little bit into the next chapter, becuase it summariizes this point.
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
Jesus is talking to his disciples, he telling them to be ready for persecution, but when persection come to trust in the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth, and to be ready for Jesus’s ultimate act of love,
So that when it happens they will know what is going on.
And they still didn’t get it while in the moment.
Only one of the disciples was present when jesus was being crucified.
all the others had fled.
But these same people who fled when Jesus was arrested and crucified, became the leaders that Jesus knew they could be, once the Holy Spirit arrived.
Our Goal as a church is to abide in Christ, produce good fruit, and be witnesses to him in a world that hate him, and that only comes through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit only come to those who accept Christ as their savior.
