John 15:16-16:15
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
You might remember last week I cover John 15, the whole idea was remain connected to the vine…I had a lamp on stage and talked about the importance of living like this lamp that is connected to its power sours…It is only useful if it is connected to its power source…
And a iPhone…The iPhone is amazing…It does everything…But after a while…that phone is going to die.
This is the analogy I gave you was just a way to explain what Jesus meant when he said
“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.
Last week was an awesome week at church, many of you said you felt challenged to change your life…That the Holy Spirit was moving you to act like a lamp. And that is heart warming as a pastor because it is God at work and not me.
One of the reasons why I love that is I read ahead…I know what comes next…
Jesus gives this most powerful analogy, this most powerful of Jewish mashal’s because he is about to tell his disciples something very difficult.
So he has this whole sermon about remaining connected to him
Before this he reminded them of something really impotrant that will come back up
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
See Jesus is in something called the farewell discourse…He is telling his disciples about his going away and Jesus’ way of developing his disciples is through invitation into his life and then challenge
The invitation of Jesus:
If you love me…My father and I will come and make our home with you
The father will send the Advocate, the holy spirit
And the Holy Spirit will continue to teach you and remind you of everything that I have said
You don’t have to live in fear
The invitation of Jesus is to remain in him and he will help them to bear much fruit.
But then comes the challenge…You will notice this about Jesus. He will invite his disciples into his life. He will tell them I am going to be with you always then he will say something very difficult…So let’s get into today’s text.
But I want us to pay particular attention to this verse
The World
The World
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
I do not give as the world gives….
Commentators will point out that “the world’ is almost another character in John
Let me just walk you through all of this
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
So right in the very beginning of John there is this tension set up between Jesus and the world
Jesus is going to give light to the world…But the world will not recognize him
Jesus will do more than give light…When John the Baptist sees Jesus he says this
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
The world will not recognize Jesus even though he will take away the sins of the world
Then we find out in probably the most famous verse in the gospel of John that Jesus actually loves this world that hates him
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Then look at verse 17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
I think you get the picture but I am just going to rapid fire though a few more of these so that you can see, “the world” is not an isolated wording in the gospel of John, it is a character…it is the object of God’s love
and God loves that which will reject him
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
And then the core challenge…what is going to get Jesus killed is that the world is starting to like Jesus
So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
Then the Pharisees plot to kill Jesus
And one of the things that Jesus says after this…
what his death and resurrection will accomplish:
Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
The prince of this world is Satan, the one who fell from heaven. The one who rebelled in the presence of God.
His tool is death…
And he will think he has won at the death of the son of God but, instead Jesus raises again on the third day and defeats death itself. The tool of Satan…
I want you to keep this in mind because our text today will go right into Jesus talking about the World
Jesus loves the world even though it rejects him
Jesus loves the world even though it rejects him
So keep in mind as we dive into the text today Jesus just gave I am the vine and you are the branches speech
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 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. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant 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. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 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. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 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. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
You have seen the rising tension between Jesus and the world…At one point the world was going after him
And we have to remember the purpose for Jesus even coming into the world was for love …not so that the world would be condemned but so that the world would be saved
And the world has some representatives in the book of John…It is the religious leaders…
The ones who look spiritual but are willing to resort to murder, to worldly tactics in order to secure their position and power.
So it is unmistakable that Jesus loves the world…And there are elements of the world that are going to go after Jesus and follow him…But the world will ultimately kill Jesus….
now he is about to challenge his disciples….Look
Remember..>Remain in me..>Remain on the vine
So what Jesus was saying in his whole vine discourse is look…You are connected to me now…you are no longer a part of the world I am calling you out of this world
Look you know as well as I know that there is something in our world called Social Conformity.
When you conform to social norms then everything will go fine for you
Just do what everyone else is doing don’t rock the boat…
But what Jesus is practically telling his disciples with the vine discourse is look I am calling you to be attached to me and not the values of this world…And when you are attached to me the same thing that happened to me will happen to you!
I always wonder if Paul reflecting on this teaching of Jesus when he wrote to the church in Rome
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Paul is almost reminding the church…Look you are called to be attached to the vine…Any conformity with this worlds values detaches you from the vine of Jesus…And that is your next point….
conformity with the world detaches us from the vine of Jesus
conformity with the world detaches us from the vine of Jesus
You know we all have this inate sense that we should question…And that is that we are right all the time…that our values are correct…that our politic is correct…that our decisions and our ethics are right…But maybe we should ask how much of my default thinking is simply worldly?
“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. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
So after addressing the World’s hostility to Jesus…Jesus shifts back to caring for them
Jesus reminds his disciples that when the advocate comes that they will Never be alone…That he will be with each of them though the spirit
Jesus reminds them…Hey a time is coming when people will try and kill you and then claim they are doing a service to God
We actually see this happen in the book of acts…This is the Apostle Paul’s story. he is Zealous
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
And we know the story about the way this ends…
In the book of Acts, Jesus shows up to Saul and he convicts him of his sin and what he is doing
Saul has a radical transformation and spends the rest of his life serving Jesus
Writing half of the new testament
I want to zero in on just a few verses in this section because there is a little formula that John gives here
Jesus tells us what the spirit of God will do:
When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin, righteousness, and Judgment
He says about sin, because people do not believe in me
The basic sin in the book of John is refusing to believe in Jesus …and you might read this and think this is arrogant of Jesus to say…
But he has not only proved he is God with flesh on with all the signs that he did before but he he will die and rise again and prove this all over again
The basic sin of the bible is to put anyone or anything else in the place of God
Including yourself
Remember the first commandment
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
The fundamental sin of the world is putting something—or someone—in the place of God.
The fundamental sin of the world is putting something—or someone—in the place of God.
the fundamental sin of this world is choosing another god…this is a rejection on the same level with Adam and Eve
Just listen to the way our world works…what the message of our world is…put ourselves at the center of life…Do what’s best for you…Make up your own mind…
Now listen to God’s word…Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather value others above yourself! Do not look out for your own interist but the interist of others!
We would never say we worship oursleves but when we put ourselves first then that is what we ultimatley do!
Next Jesus says the world is wrong about righteousness:
We know that the pharisees had false standards of righteousness…
Remember Jesus wad called a sinner by the pharisees
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
But Jesus said that my going to the father will prove the righteousness
Why? because he dies and then is resurrected again…Proving that he is the only human to actually overcome sin
Jesus is not merely an example of righteousness; Jesus is the standard of righteousness.
Jesus is not merely an example of righteousness; Jesus is the standard of righteousness.
What this is saying is that the Holy Spirit will show us that our standard of righteousness is actually wrong and that Jesus is the standard of righteousness
The Holy Spirit will convict the world of its false standards of righteousness.
The Holy spirit will convict the world about its judgement too. This is best understood in the same way as righteousness…
That we have false standards for judgment…
Look at how Jesus was judged and condemned with false charges…
Jesus says he knows who is behind that and it is satan and his schemes
and because of the resurrection the judgement of this world will be proven wrong and it will be clear that Jesus is the Judge
The world judged Jesus, but the resurrection revealed that Jesus is the Judge.
The world judged Jesus, but the resurrection revealed that Jesus is the Judge.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth…
And that we should expect that the God’s spirit will guide us.
This is what the next three wednesday’s will be on…Discerning God’s voice.
That we can ask for the spirit’s daily help
But before we end today I actually want to go back to the verses from last week the beginning of this text
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.
Then lets jump down to
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 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. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant 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.
When we look at this verbiage of choosing we might think of I have chosen you for salvation, you might be thinking of the idea of pre-destination…But I don’t think at all this is what Jesus is saying
I think what he is telling his disciples is I picked you so that you can bear much fruit….I picked you because you will all be persisuted
Jesus did not choose his disciples to avoid suffering, but to bear fruit through it.
Jesus did not choose his disciples to avoid suffering, but to bear fruit through it.
and your the ones who will be able to stand for my name in the midst of it
I picked you because of your propensity to suffer! Because of your ability to remain in me!
And what is one of the greatest arguments for Christianity today?
Why didn’t the disciples recant?
Each and every disciple died a horrible death and they were given the opportunity to spare themselves if they just would have said they made it all up…But instead each one of them went to their death claiming that Jesus was God..>they saw him die and rise again
And Jesus points out to them now, years before they would all die for him…
I am going to die for you…The world will treat you the same way it treated me…But don’t worry I will be with you
The point that Jesus is making is not that these people will not suffer but when they do he will be with them
And that he has chosen them specifically because they will remain on the vine even in the middle of their worst day…
and that will bear much fruit
Ending:
Last week, we talked about the lamp and the phone.
A lamp can be beautifully designed. It can have a brand-new bulb. It can be sitting in exactly the right place. But if it is disconnected from its power source, it cannot produce light.
A phone can be expensive and incredibly powerful. It can be filled with every app you need. But if it remains disconnected from its power source, eventually the screen goes dark.
And Jesus says the same thing is true of us: “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
But now we understand that remaining connected to Jesus is not only about receiving strength for ourselves. It is also about standing with Jesus when the world pressures us to conform.
The world will tell you what to value.
The world will tell you what to believe.
The world will tell you that you must put yourself first.
And if you simply go along with it—if you do what everyone else is doing and never challenge its values—the world will gladly accept you as its own.
But Jesus says, “I have chosen you out of the world.”
That does not mean Jesus has called us to hate the world. Jesus loves the world. He entered the world, gave his life for the world, and rose again so that the world might be saved.
We are not called to hate the world; we are called to be different from it. We are called to love people without adopting every value around us. We are called to tell the truth without becoming hateful. We are called to represent Jesus even when doing so costs us something.
And Jesus never pretended that would be easy.
He told his disciples, “The world hated me first.” He warned them that opposition would come. But he also promised, “You will not face it alone. I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of Truth.”
That is the promise we need to remember.
When the world pressures you to conform, the Spirit will help you remain.
When the world confuses what is true, the Spirit will guide you into truth.
When the world calls darkness light and light darkness, the Spirit will point you back to Jesus.
When following Jesus costs you something, the Spirit will remind you that Jesus has already overcome the world.
So perhaps the question today is not simply, “Do I believe in Jesus?”
The deeper question is: “What am I connected to?”
What is shaping the way I think?
What is determining what I value?
What is defining right and wrong for me?
Am I being transformed by Jesus, or am I slowly being conformed to the world around me?
Because whatever you remain connected to will eventually shape the person you become.
Jesus chose these disciples because he knew they would remain with him. They would face rejection. They would suffer. They would be pressured to deny what they had seen. But empowered by the Holy Spirit, they would continue to testify that Jesus died, Jesus rose again, and Jesus is Lord.
And through their faithfulness, they would bear fruit that has lasted for generations.
Now Jesus has chosen us to do the same.
Not necessarily to have the easiest life.
Not always to be accepted.
Not to blend in so completely that no one can see a difference.
He has chosen us to remain in him, to testify about him, and to bear fruit that lasts.
And the way that looks is to remain connected to Jesus and not conform to the world…
So when the pressure comes, remain on the vine.
When obedience becomes costly, remain on the vine.
When the world tells you to compromise, remain on the vine.
When you feel afraid or alone, remember that the Spirit of God is with you—and remain on the vine.
Stay connected to Jesus. Let his words shape you. Let his Spirit guide you. Let his love flow through you.
Because the world does not need another church that merely reflects the values it already has.
The world needs disciples who are so deeply connected to Jesus that, even in the darkness, their lives continue to produce his light.
Remain in him—and you will bear fruit that lasts.
