INTRODUCTION TO
JOHN CHAPTER 15
JOHN CHAPTER 15
In chapter 14 we
learned of the importance of being humble, as shone by Jesus when He washed His
disciples feet. We saw Jesus comforting
His disciples, telling them He must leave them, promising them a helper sent by
the Father, who would bring remembrances of Jesus and His teaching. The Helper would continue to teach and guide
them. He assured them they would not be
orphaned
Chapters 15 & 16 contain the second farewell
discourse. In 15 are the themes of
fruit-bearing, and the hatred of the world for Christ’s disciples. The theme of persecution is continued in
chapter 16 along with teaching concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 15 is divided into three parts:
1.The illustration of Jesus as the vine and we being the
branches
2.The relationship His disciples must have for one another
3.The relationship of His disciples to the rest of the
world
Jesus Is the Vine
Once again Jesus uses a metaphor to describe His relationship to us and
that also of the Father
Jesus used this metaphor because His followers could easily visualize
what Jesus was telling them A branch, leaf, or fruit can not exist apart from the vine. The fruit is the end product desired here The Father cuts off branches which do not bear fruit
This metaphor is explained thusly
Jesus is the vine and provides all we need to produce good fruit
We as believers are the branches which bear the fruit.
The fruit is the salvation of others the end product of our:
Witnessing
Teaching
Prayers
Service
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. (x Rom
11:17-26)
As the vine dresser the Father will remove anyone who does not produce
fruit.
to take away The
word may mean this literally (remove as in JN11:39) and would therefore be a
reference to the physical death of fruitless Christians ( 1 COR 11:30)
The unfruitful Christian will not lose his salvation
However he will have no crowns to cast at the feet of Jesus
They are the week, sick and those who sleep
The Fruitless Christian are those who:
Fails to give good witness by word or deed
Fails to use the gifts given to him by the Holy Spirit
Teaching
Service unto the Lord
Fails to Pray for other believers who are in need and
For non believers who are in need of salvation
What does it mean to prune?
“an act of pruning a plant or something with unnecessary or unwanted
parts” [Encarter
dictionary]
Pruning for the Christian often times is a painful or unpleasant process
There may be some things in your life that are hindering your
fruitfulness
Perhaps there are gifts of mentoring, teaching, evangelizing, or talents
I music, artistic, or intellectual)
Can you think of other examples of pruning?
3 “You are
already clean because of the word which I have
spoken to you.
Jesus is telling His disciples they have already had those undesirable
parts removed, and they are clean Sin has been forgiven by their belief in the word of Christ
John 17:17 tells us they
were sanctified because of the word
In Eph
5:26 we read of the cleaning by the
washing of water with the word
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.
Abiding in Jesus depends on keeping Christ’s commandments (X 1JN 3:24)
In I John
2:6 we read “the one who
says he abides in Him [Jesus] ought himself to
walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Without our close walk with Jesus we will not bear fruit and will be
pruned
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.
The vine is the strength needed to support the growing of fruit
The vine supplies all that is needed to yield good fruit
However when the branch is no longer part of the vine…the branch will
wither and die (a physical death) and it’s us fullness will be ended. (X JN 15:5)
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.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT AS A
CHRISTIAN YOU WILL LOSE YOUR SALVATION
…they are burned. Refers to the
works of the believer. The Christian who
does not abide in Christ cannot do what pleases God;
His works will be burned at Christ’s judgment seat those that survive
the fire will remain (X 1COR 3:11-15)
He himself will remain saved along with his remaining works
7 “If you abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it
will be done for you.
If we abide in Jesus then we will be in His will and the works we
produce will survive the test of fire
The promise of all that is asked in His name will be done is given
because you are in His will
Accordingly what you ask of Him will also be in His will
There is no need for a Christian living in Christ’s to say in his pray
“if it is your will Lord”
8 “My Father is glorified by
this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to
be My disciples.
“by this” by answered prayer.
Note the progression:
The step from some fruit to more fruit involves pruning through the world of God
And the step from more fruit to much fruit involves a life of answered
prayer
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I
have also loved you; abide in My love.
As we have learned to abide is to not desert or simply to hang in there.
To abide in His love we must obey His commandments (X I John
4:12; 16 )
Love is His most important commandment
To love God with all your heart and soul and likewise love each other (X
I John
5:2;
Mat
22:37 )
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.
“Let your light shine before men…and glorify your Father in heaven”
Jesus’ commandments are the words spoken in the new testament
All the words
But the greatest of these is love (X 1COR 13:13)
If you have love for Christ and His followers you will keep his word in
your heart and not depart from it.
11 “These things I have spoken to you
so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may
be made full. (X JN 17:13 )
The phrase My joy is translated from the Greek word chara khar-ah‘;
cheerfulness, i.e. calm delight:--gladness, X greatly, (X be exceeding)
joy(-ful, -fully, -fulness, -ous)
We could easily substitute the word joy with the words calm delight and
see more clearly what Jesus is saying
Disciples’ Relation to Each Other
John 15: 12-17
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another, just
as I have loved you.
I doubt that we could love others to the depth that Jesus loves us
That should not mean we should stop trying
13 “Greater love has no one than
this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
We hear from time to time soldiers who sacrifice themselves for their
comrades
14 “You are My friends if you
do what I command you.
He commands us to be in His will according to the word He has given us
He commanded His disciples to love each one another
Can we do no less
He commanded us to abide in Him
Follow His teachings
15 “No longer do I call you
slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is
doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I
have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Why would Jesus refer to His followers as slaves?
This is not slaves as we know them to be from our own history, but
rather volunteered servitude (X Matthew
8:9 )
Slave refers to a person who blindly does what ever the master says to
do
Jesus had enlightened His followers and therefore were no longer blindly
doing His bidding
16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and
appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your
fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of
the Father in My name He may give to you. (X John 6:70 ; John
13:18 ; John
15:19 )
Now the Greek translated word here for appoint is tithemi (tith’-ay-mee)
which is the long form of the Greek word Theo
Theo basically means to make or ordain
So Jesus Ordained His disciples with the express purpose to begin church
planting (bear fruit)
17 “This I command you, that you
love one another.
Jesus gave them this command before in John
15:12
Therefore we can believe this to be of great importance
Because He had repeated the command again.
Disciples’
Relation to the World
JOHN 15:18-27
18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me
before it hated you.
The world will hate them because Jesus committed blasphemy in the Jewish
rulers eyes
As His disciples they would be giving affirmation by testimony of the
Gospels, that Jesus was in fact the Son of God and was God.
19 “If you were of the world, the
world would love its own; but because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
(X Jn 15:16; Mat10:22, 24:9; Jn 17:14 )
Physically we are of this world, and have carnality as part of our being
If we allow are carnality to rule our actions then we would be loved by
the world
All that is of this world will remain In this world
Our spiritual self or our heart is for Christ because He chose us to be
His children we shall live with Him forever in Paradise
20 “Remember the word that I said to you,
‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;
if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
(X Mat
10:24; Jn
13:16; I
Cor 4:12; II
Cor 4:9; II
Tim 3:12
Like birds of a feather …
Because they followed Jesus and served Him as a slave would His master,
they would be hated for that devotion
They would and still are hated by the world because of they and we chose
for follow Jesus and be devoted to Him much the same way a slave is devoted.
21 “But all these things they will
do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not
know the One who sent Me. It is better to suffer the persecution Christ rather than be persecuted
for just any other reason (X I Pet
4:14 )
Our reward for devotion is not given by this world but is awarded by
Jesus in heaven.
Persecution usually stems from ignorance
The persecution suffered by Christians is not from ignorance but rather
defiant attitude
22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they
would not have sin, but now they
have no excuse for their sin.
This raises a question is a law broken when there exists ignorance of
that law?
Our legal system says ignorance is no excuse
Now at this time the Jew was saved by keeping all the laws and
ordinances of God as handed down by Moses
However once they heard the truth and witnessed the signs of the path to
salvation they no longer were under the grace of the law. (X JN 9:41; 15:24)
Sin remains when a person knowingly
refuses Jesus (who is one with the Father); the sacrificial Lamb of God
23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.
Because Jesus and the Father are one hatred of Jesus also demonstrates
hatred of the Father
24 “If I had not done among them the
works which no one else did, they would not
have sin; but now they have both seen and
hated Me and My Father as well. (X
JN 1522 )
The sin here is the sin of denial
Denial of His works
Denial of His word
Denial of His sacrifice
Denial of His Deity
24 “If I had not
done among them the
works which no one else did, they would not
have sin; but now they have both seen and
hated Me and My Father as well.
Who was He talking about?
All those who refused to believe
At that time the Jew was saved through the law
However Jesus came not to do away with the law, but rather fulfill the
law making Himself the perfect sacrifice for sin
25 “But they have done this to
fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They
hated Me without a cause.’
In
John 9:41 Jesus points out the fact
that they have no excuse
If they were blind because He did not perform the miracles then would
have been an excuse
In John
15:21 we read the about the warning
Jesus gave to His disciples;
That they would be hated by the world because they lived witness of
Jesus
26 “When the Helper comes, whom I
will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of
truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,
We read in John
14:16 that Jesus promised the helper
when He was no longer with them
Jesus specifies in John
14:26
Tell us the Holy Spirit is the promised Helper
Who will send the Holy Spirit
The Holy spirit will testify and bring remembrance to the disciples
27 and you will testify also, because you
have been with Me from the beginning.
