Jesus prayer for Himself and for his disciples teaches us some great principles about how we can live as people whose lives glorify God.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To?
Youth Intern Brendan Taylor takes a look at some of the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 - are these guys in a completely different league to us or is it possible that God could use us in surprising ways also?
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Discovering Jesus pt 39 - The Writing on the Wall
The Writing on the Wall - click for audio
One of the worst fears we have is that we may have to face trouble in life alone. At one of the lowest & loneliest points in Chris’ life, a friend wrote words of comfort on the door of his room at Bible college, reminding him that he was never alone. As Jesus prepared to leave this world, he reassured His disciples that the Holy Spirit would always be with them, and that he had overcome the world by His presence. King Belshazzar of Babylon saw words of judgement written the wall (Dan.5), but God has written words of comfort on the wall, and in His book – the Bible.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Discovering Jesus Pt 38 - John 15:6 - 16:4
As Jesus continues to build on the image of the vine and the branches, He describes what it means to live as a friend of God among people who reject Him.
Discovering Jesus in the Gospel of John pt 38
Friend or Foe?
John 15:6 – 16:4
12/6/2011
Read: John 15:1-5
Two Key Truths from John 15:1-5
1. Jesus is the True Vine, We are the Branches
a. The Jews thought they were the vine:
i. They were descended from Abraham
ii. They lived by the law of Moses
iii. They possessed the Promised Land
b. Jesus says that part of God’s chosen people was never meant to be about biological descent or external observance of the law or about geography – it is about being in right relationship with God through Jesus.
c. Living as one of God’s people is to remain in close relationship with Jesus.
2. God prunes us to make us fruitful
a. Fruitfulness is the evidence of a genuine faith relationship with Jesus.
b. The fruit we are to bear consists of godly attitudes and behaviours through which God works to impact others.
c. In order to produce godly attitudes and behaviours in our lives, God cleanses us through His word which renews our minds.
Ephesians 5:25-26
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.[1]
What do we learn here about the Church?
1. We are loved by Jesus
2. We are made holy (set apart for God’s exclusive use) and clean by His death on the cross for us – taking away our sin and guilt. This is how we may come into right relationship with Him.
3. We are also cleansed by the washing of His Word, which is the pruning/cleansing described in John 15 which makes us fruitful.
You often hear me talk about the great priority that we place on the word of God in what we do as a church. This is why. We want to be fruitful in God’s service. We want to see Christians living with increasingly Christlike attitudes and Christlike behaviour. We want to see people who don’t yet know Jesus come to know Him because they see Him in us and they hear about Him from us.
But as we spoke about last week, it’s not hearing, speaking or knowing God’s word that matters in itself – what matters is that we allow ourselves to be cleansed by it.
Read: John 15:6-8, v2a
Is it possible to lose your salvation by not being fruitful and not “remaining” in Jesus?
Remember how it is that God prunes? Through His Word.
Listen to the words of Ephesians 1:13-14
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Remember Jesus is speaking to people who are going to take His message out first to their own nation. They will be speaking to people who consider themselves to be God’s people. They will be speaking the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, but most of their people will reject it. In this way they will show that they are not really God’s people at all, because they reject God and His word. It appeared as though they were part of the vine, but in reality they have rejected life from God. They are the branches that bear no fruit. All that remains for them is judgement.
On the other hand, those who do believe are marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. This is exactly what verse 8 talks about.
Notice verse 7.
Some people teach it as if the first half isn’t even there:
“ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”
That simply isn’t true on it’s own. Most of us have found out by experience that it’s not true on it’s own. We’ve asked for things and not received them.
So let’s remember the whole verse:
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”
When we are in right relationship with Jesus, submitted to Him as our Lord and Saviour and being cleansed from selfish desires and foolish thinking by His Word, then what we ask will be in line with what He’s doing. In fact, verse 8 follows on to say that the result of our prayers will be that God is glorified by our fruitfulness that points people to Jesus. Is that what you’re praying for? Are you praying for an increase in godliness in your life? Are you praying for opportunities to love people like God does? Are you praying for the power to resist temptation? Are you praying for wisdom and boldness to share your faith? God loves to answer these prayers.
Living as a Friend of God
Read: John 15:9-17
An example of a friend of God – Abraham (Is 41:8)
(Only person in OT explicitly called a friend of God)
The Covenant of Genesis 15
- God promises to make Abram into a great nation
- Abram believes God, and God credits Abram with righteousness
The Calamity of Genesis 16
- Sarai tells Abram to sleep with her servant, which he does and the Arab nations were born.
The Christophany of Genesis 18
- Abraham runs, hurries to serve well.
- God promises to give Abraham a son within a year.
- God reveals to Abraham His judgement over the cities of the plain (Sodom and Gomorrah), and listens to Abraham’s pleas to spare the righteous.
The Challenge of Genesis 22
- God has given Abraham a son, now asks Abraham to give that son up as a sacrifice.
- Abraham is prepared to do it
- God provides a different sacrifice, and again promises to bless all nations through Abraham’s offspring.
In a similar way, God shows us that we are His friends by revealing Himself and His ways to us. Like Abraham, our response as friends of God is to trust and obey.
Being a friend of God is not about being flippant or casual about our relationship with Him. He is still Lord! The Bible never calls God our friend, it calls us His friends. There’s a difference. He’s the one in charge. We are His friends if we do as He commands.
Living among enemies of God
Read: John 15:18 – 16:4
I remember sitting in my car at the lights a few months ago and the car in front of me had a bumper sticker that read “I like Jesus – it’s his followers I can’t stand!” I hear that kind of thing a lot.
There are a lot of people out there that knock the Church and say it completely misrepresents Jesus. There are plenty of teachers who like to sell a picture of Jesus that appeals to the world, claiming that it’s religion in general or the Church in particular that turns people off.
You know what?
For the most part, that’s nonsense.
I agree that many people have been turned away from Jesus because of the poor witness of those who claim to be His followers. I agree that there have been many cases of Christian institutions that have hurt people they should have been helping.
Those are tragic realities. I am personally committed to doing all I can to make sure that God’s people represent Him well.
But the Bible says that the better job we do of representing Jesus, the more the world will hate us, not love us.
Jesus is not cool.
The real Jesus does not appeal to people who want to be in charge of their own spirituality.
The Apostle Paul would warn new believers to expect to be persecuted when people saw their changed lives. Almost every book in the New Testament talks about suffering for Jesus and because of Jesus.
Jesus warns His disciples that those who think they belong to God but actually don’t; are going to think that by killing followers of Jesus they are actually serving God.
That still happens around the world today doesn’t it?
Jesus warns us to be ready for that type of animosity, yet knowing what the cost will be He still says to His disciples “you must testify”.
To be a friend of God means that we obey Him and in the process alienate ourselves from the world.
Are you prepared for that?
John 15:1 to 16:4 gives us a wonderful overview of what the Christian life is:
- Jesus died for our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and reconcile us to God. By believing in Him we are included in Him. If we reject Him we show that we do not belong to God.
- If we belong to Him we will be being purified by His word so that we will bear more and more spiritual fruit – the fruit of a changed life that testifies to others.
- Some people who see Jesus in us and hear about Him from us will come to faith and grow in faith.
- Some people will respond with animosity and will persecute us.
Do we love people enough that we will risk persecution for the sake of their salvation?
Do we love God enough that we will endure hardship for the sake of obedience?
What is God saying to you through His Word at the moment, that is preparing you to be fruitful for Him?
[1]Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. "Text edition"--Spine. (2nd ed.) (Eph 5:25-26). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Discovering Jesus Pt 37 - John 15:1-17
Discovering Jesus in the Gospel of John pt 37 - John 15:1-17
Jesus is the True Vine
5/6/2011
Introduction – Last weeks message: “Ungrateful?” – this week could be called “Unfruitful?” The aim of the message last week was to protect us or cure us of the awful condition of an ungrateful heart. This week we will aim to be cured of or protected from an unfruitful life.
Do you ever feel that your spiritual life is dry? Do you feel like your Christian life isn’t actually making much of a difference – that there’s not a lot of fruit being shown?
Are you seeing an overflow of spiritual attitudes in your life, such as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
Is your life bearing fruit in terms of building others up in their faith? Helping others to come to faith in Jesus? Is your life having the sort of impact that God designed it to have?
Are you seeing evidence of God being at work in you and through you?
That’s what this passage is all about.
It’s all about an experience of spiritual life that produces something.
I know what it’s like to be spiritually dry. I know what it’s like to work hard for Jesus, but feel distant from Jesus. I know what it’s like to feel like my efforts aren’t actually producing much fruit.
You know what that feels like too.
It’s not what we want.
It’s not what we should settle for.
If we listen to what Jesus says today and do something about it, it’s not what we will experience.
Let’s get into our passage:
John 15:1a
“I am….”
Many of you will know that there are 7 key “I am” statements of Jesus that we find in the Gospel of John. We’ve encountered 6 so far and we are about to discover the 7th!
Let’s quickly recap the first 6:
1. I Am the Bread of Life
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)
Remember Jesus is talking to people who had seen or heard about Him feeding over 5000 people from one boy’s lunch. They wanted Him to keep doing it. Jesus told them to stop worrying about food that only satisfies us for a short time; and to start being concerned about what would give them life for eternity. Like bread that gives life to our bodies, Jesus gives life to all who receive Him. Unlike normal bread or normal water, you don’t have to keep getting more – Jesus is enough. Once you’ve received eternal life from Him you don’t need to try get it from anyone or anything else.
2. I Am the Light of the World
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
3. I Am the Gate
I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)
4. I Am the Good Shepherd
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
5. I Am the Resurrection and the Life
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
6. I Am The Way, The Truth and The Life
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
These 6 statements emphasise for us the incredible person that Jesus is. He’s our source of life; He’s our protector and provider; He’s our access to the Father and our fellowship with the Spirit; He’s light that dispels darkness, He’s truth that overcomes lies, He’s the way that guides us out of confusion. He’s assurance that overcomes fear. He’s life that overcomes death.
Our hope never rests on anything that we can do for ourselves – it rests entirely in who Jesus is; what He has done for us and what He has promised to do for us, in us and through us.
That’s what brings us to number 7…
7. I Am the Vine
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
This is the key verse of this passage. I want you to memorise it and live by it. If there’s any verse that sums up the Christian life this is it.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Take these words with you this week and they will cure you of spiritual dryness. They will cure you of spiritual unfruitfulness. They will guide you into a satisfying and effective life where the life of Christ courses through your veins and results in all kinds of evidence being displayed.
Let’s take some time to properly understand these words so that they can have their full effect in you this week.
We’ll return to verse 1:
“I am the true vine,”
I want you to hear the emphasis of Jesus here – He starts by saying not just that He is a vine or even the vine, but the true vine.
Why does Jesus bother to include the word “true” here?
It’s because in the minds of His disciples, there was another vine that they already belonged to before they even met Jesus.
Psalm 80:8-11
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 It sent out its boughs to the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River. [1]
What’s this psalm talking about? The nation of Israel. They were the descendants that God promised Abraham. They were the chosen people God gave His laws through Moses. God brought into the promised land and established them as a nation, making them prosperous and fruitful.
Jesus’ disciples were part of this vine firstly because they were they were born into it and secondly because they observed the laws that governed it.
But Jesus is saying that He is the true vine. He is saying that God’s people are not defined by their ancestry or even by how well they live by God’s laws. God’s people are defined by their connection to Him. In Galatians chapter 3 Paul explains how this was always what God’s promises to Abraham and the laws given to Moses were all about.
Jesus was the One through whom Abraham’s descendants would outnumber the sands on the shore, we become spiritual children of Abraham because like him we trust in God. Jesus is the One that the law given to Moses was designed to drive people toward, because by ourselves none of us can keep God’s commands and qualify for His approval.
Paul finishes his discussion with these words:
Galatians 3:26-29
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Now Jesus needed to clear this up for His disciples, because He knew how important it was for them to never lose sight of where their spiritual life came from. Many people in Israel had gotten so caught up in their national identity and their laws that they had lost sight of God Himself, who founded their nation and gave them their true laws.
It’s very easy for people in churches to have the same problem. It’s easy for people to think that they are part of God’s family because they’ve grown up in church. It’s easy for people to think that they are in God’s family because they were christened as a child. It’s easy for people to think that they are in God’s family because they do their best to live by God’s rules. It’s easy for people to think they are in God’s family because they follow the traditions of their particular church. None of those things are what connects us to God.
When we read the New Testament – especially in the book of Romans from chapters 9 to 11 – we discover that God still has a very special purpose for the nation of Israel, even though they initially rejected Jesus. But they will only experience that when they realise that they need to be included with all those who have found life in Jesus. As a nation they need to realise that Jesus is the true vine, just as those first disciples of Jesus needed to understand that.
John 15:1-2
“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
OK, so Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Life flows into us through Him. We are sustained by Him. We bear fruit because we are connected to Him.
But God the Father wishes us to bear much fruit (v.5), not just a little amount of fruit and certainly not no fruit.
How do you become a person whose life is overflowing with good fruit? How do you get so spiritually healthy that you are bearing much fruit, in all it’s different forms?
Certainly it’s what God does – He prunes us to make us fruitful. What does that actually look like? Pruning is not a pleasant experience – does that mean that the process is painful? It involves cutting away dead or unproductive wood – does that mean that God is going to take away things from our lives that aren’t achieving His good purposes for us?
Jesus goes on to explain it for us:
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
The word “clean” here is the same basic word for “pruned”. Jesus has said that the Father will prune or cleanse them to make them fruitful, and then He says that God has already done that through the words Jesus has spoken to them.
Remember Jesus never spoke on His own, He spoke on behalf of the Father, truly representing the Father in all that He did and said. He explained this in chapter 14.
The image of the vine that Jesus uses in chapter 15 is a way of picturing what He had already talked about in chapter 14.
In chapter 14 He was talking about the fact that the Holy Spirit would come and be an indwelling presence with all Christians so that we have a real, personal connection with God the Father and God the Son through the God the Holy Spirit. Because of the Holy Spirit, we are able to be connected to Jesus even though He has gone back to the Father.
John 14:10-12
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
A lot of times people obsess over miracles, and they think that Jesus is saying that we will do even greater miracles than He did. As Chris explained a couple of weeks ago, that is not at all what this passage is saying.
The work that Jesus has been talking about was the work of speaking words! The fact that they were not just His own words is what the miracles proved. I believe that God still affirms His word by miracles at times today to prove that people are speaking His truth. However the general test is no longer miracles; otherwise we will have the same problems Jesus encountered - people will chase miracles instead of the truth that changes lives for eternity. The general pattern that God has established is the authority of His written word as the reliable record of what He has said and what He wants us to proclaim.
Jesus has asked us to continue speaking the very words of God, so that we and those who hear us might believe and so be saved, and that we might obey and so be made fruitful.
Hearing and speaking the words of God - and obeying them – is what God has told us to do. Jesus could only teach in one place at a time – we can do even greater things than He did because we can take His word to every corner of the world.
But we need to be careful:
John 15:4
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Recently I heard some research findings from Melbourne which reported that there is not a single approach to church growth that is actually working. Contemporary churches that grew rapidly during the last decade have started to plateau, and are growing more slowly than the population of the areas they are located in. Most traditional churches are shrinking in weekly attendance.
The problem is not whether you’ve got a million dollars worth of sound and lighting gear and a rock band or whether you’ve got a pipe organ; it’s not about whether you have a guy in robes speaking or a guy in ripped jeans and a T-shirt. It’s not about style and it’s not about programmes. It’s about something deeper.
Whatever methods we use, real spiritual growth does not come from what we do or how we do it, but what God does in us and through us. We can’t bear fruit by ourselves, we must remain connected to Jesus. We must have lives marked by the cleansing of His word. We must make the proclamation of His word our work.
We recently did a series on speaking the truth in love. This is why!
Remember the theme verse?
Ephesians 4:15
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”
The metaphor is a bit different (body not vine), but the idea is the same – it’s by the cleansing of His truth that we grow up into Jesus. It’s how we become fruitful.
Colossians 3:16-17
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Is it enjoyable to receive admonishment? Not usually - It feels a bit like being pruned, there’s a sting to it! We need it sometimes. We also need the teaching and the singing together of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts to God. These things cleanse us and prepare us for fruitful living.
Sadly, some churches seem to work on the principle that knowing and being able to recite God’s words is the same as being cleansed by them. It’s not. Judas heard the words of Jesus, but he wasn’t cleansed by them (John 13:10). Our relationship with Jesus is demonstrated in our obedience to His words, not our ability to recite them.
The greatest weakness in the Australian church is not a lack of programmes or innovative methods to reach people with the gospel. Our greatest weakness is a lack of discipleship. It’s a lack of training in obedience to Jesus that produces a transformed and fruitful life. The success of the church was never meant to be found by people paying their offerings so churches could put on better shows or become more professional. Churches are successful in their mission only when their people are fruitful.
John 15:5
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
May you go out today prepared to abide in Christ and bear much fruit as a result. May godly attitudes overflow from you. May you impact the lives of those around you in ways that point people to Jesus. May you abound in good works to the praise of your Heavenly Father. May you live beyond what you can do yourself as you allow Jesus to will and to act in you according to His good purposes (Phil. 2:13).
Don’t live for yourself this week. Don’t work for God this week. Live in God, be cleansed by His Word daily and bear much fruit.
[1]All Scriptures from The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
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