John 15
OGCCHAPTER FIFTEEN
This chapter contains one of the many rhetorical masterpieces of Jesus found in the gospels. Speakers strive for a lifetime to attain the profoundity, simplicity, beauty and practicalness expressed in the allegory of the Vine and the branches (John 15:1-11), and find that simply to quote what Jesus said is better than all their own eloquence. Had Jesus never uttered these beautiful words the world would have been much poorer in literary genius, let alone divine wisdom.
The main theme of this chapter is the Living Union of Christ and His Disciples. There are, of course, a few specific promises and instructions which apply strictly to the eleven apostles. But most of the instructions are ageless in their application and they are for the edification of all Christians. The relationship between Christ and the Christian is not organizational but organic, vivifical, living. Even the societal relationship between Christian and Christian is dependent first and foremost upon the living union between Christ and the individual Christian. There is no life, no beauty and no fruitfulness except in living union with Christ. Apart from Him, even though an organizational status be maintained, there is only withering, decay and death.
We commend every Christian who is interested in knowing and feeling the reality of a closer walk with God to this fifteenth chapter of John. To every Christian who desires joy and satisfaction and fruitfulness we say, put the teaching of this chapter to practice. To every preacher and teacher who desires to communicate more effectively we say, imitate the simplicity and earnestness of the Master in John 15:1-27!
This fifteenth chapter lends itself to excellent continuity when being outlined. We continue our outline of the third main division of the Gospel according to John: III.
The Word Manifested to The Disciples and Their Acceptance of Him. John 13:1, John 20:31
A.
Private Instructions and Encouragements, John 13:1, John 17:26 (continued)
The Living Union of Christ and His Disciples, John 15:1-27
a.
Vital Union of Vine and Branches, John 15:1-11
(1)
The Vine the source of vitality
(2)
Pruning needed to produce
(3)
Reward of the relationship
b.
Frank Union of Friends, John 15:12-17
(1)
Unlimited Love
(2)
Communion of Confidants
(3)
Access to Abundance
c.
Persevering Union of the Persecuted, John 15:18-27
(1)
Participation brings persecution
(2)
Greater revelationgreater responsibility
(3)
Comforter will come
EXPOSITORY SERMON FIFTEEN
THE LIVING UNION OF CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES
Introduction
I.
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID BEFORE LEADS UP TO THIS
A.
Chapter 14 speaks of the beginning or birth of the union between Christ and His disciples.
If they love Him and keep His word He will manifest Himself to them, John 14:21.
If they love Him and keep His commandments, He will be in them. He will dwell in them, John 14:16-17; John 14:23.
B.
He must go away, but He will return to dwell within each disciple who by faith and love keeps His word.
II.
NOW INSTRUCTIONS ARE GIVEN ON HOW THIS LIVING UNION IS MAINTAINED
A.
There is that which the disciple must do to maintain the union.
B.
There is that which the Lord does to maintain the union,
C.
In each relationship of the Lord and the disciple in this 15th chapter we find that the actions of both are necessary to maintain the union.
Discussion
I.
VITAL UNION OF VINE AND BRANCHES, John 15:1-11
A.
Pruning needed to produce, John 15:1-3.
This pruning comes from the Lord and is to the end that the branch may produce even more fruit than it is producing.
The chastening of the Lord yields peaceful fruit and assures us that we are His beloved children (cf. Hebrews 12:3-11).
The Lord does this by two different methods: He cleanses us of extraneous habits and luxuries by pricking our conscience through the Word. we put to death the deeds of the body by the leading of the Spirit in His Word; He also chastens us by His providential operations upon our lives in the events of history and nature.
IT IS OUR PART TO COUNT IT ALL JOY WHEN WE ARE TESTED (Cf. James 1:2-4, James 1:12-15). IT IS OUR PART TO LET THE TESTING BEAR FRUIT IN OUR LIVES.
B.
The Vine the source of Vitality, John 15:4-6.
Apart from the Vine is the source of Life, the branch cannot bear fruit.
a.
There is no power in our testimony unless we are preaching the power unto salvation the gospel.
b.
There is no power in our witness of life unless we are living with the personality of the Spirit in us.
c.
In Isaiah 55:10-11 the Word of God is depicted as a source of life just as the rain which comes down from heaven.
d.
In John 6:1-71, the words of Christ (John 6:63) are said to be the living bread come down out of heaven which give life. THE REASON SO MANY BRANCHES DO NOT BEAR FRUIT IS THAT THEY ARE SO LOOSELY CONNECTED TO THE VINE THEY ARE NOT RECEIVING ANY OF THE VITAL NUTRIENTS NECESSARY TO FRUIT-BEARING!
WHEN MEN AND WOMEN AND YOUNG PEOPLE EAT THE BREAD OF LIFE, AND DRINK THE WATER OF LIFE ONLY ONCE A WEEK, HOW CAN THEY BEAR FRUIT?
Apart from a living union with the vine, the branch dies.
a.
The branch not only ceases to bear fruit if it does not partake of the life that is in the Vine.
b.
It withers and dies and is cast into the fire (cf. Matthew 3:8-12; Matthew 7:19; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 25:41) see also our comments on page
c.
THERE ARE NO INACTIVE CHRISTIANS. NO FRUITLESS BRANCHES. CHRISTIANS CANNOT STAND STILL, THEY EITHER GO FORWARD AND BEAR FRUIT, OR GO BACKWARD WITHERING AND DYING AND BEING BURNED.
C.
Reward of the Relationship, John 15:7-11.
Notice that in John 15:7 Jesus tells us very plainly just how this Vine-branch relationship may be maintained: If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you.
One of the rewards is that if our wills are in harmony with Christ’s will, then we shall have an answer to every prayer we make. WHAT A POWER THERE IS IN PRAYER.
One of the rewards is that our Heavenly Father is glorified when we bear much fruit. This is our purpose. this is our calling. when we glorify Him, He will glorify us in Himself.
Another of the rewards is that we shall dwell in love. LIVING IN HIS LOVE. OVERSHADOWED BY HIS MIGHTY LOVE (cf. Romans 8:31-39).
The crowning reward is in John 15:11: WE SHALL BE FILLED WITH THE SAME JOY WHICH OUR SAVIOUR KNEW. JOY UNSPEAKABLE AND FULL OF GLORY. A JOY, NOT AS THE WORLD THINKS OF JOY, BUT JOY IN THAT WHICH IS ETERNALLY SATISFYING, BEARING FRUIT UNTO HIS KINGDOM!
II.
FRANK UNION OF FRIENDS, John 15:12-17
A.
First Jesus gives the one great basic precept: His disciples are to maintain unity among themselves on the basis of lovethe same LOVE WHICH HE HAD FOR THEM.
The world over, men recognize as the supreme evidence of love that a man will voluntarily give up his own life for the sake of his friends.
This Jesus was about to do. They would be His friends if they were willing to let their love for one another rise to such self-sacrifice and thus keep His precept.
Such a love is unlimited. It has no bounds. Such love is God like love for it loves first (cf. 1 John 4:7-12).
B.
Next Jesus promises to take His disciples into a communion that is enjoyed only by friends and confidants.
Those who believe and trust Jesus and keep His commandments find that their relationship to Him grows into one of fellowship and friendship rather than the drudgery of slavish and unintelligent oppression.
A slave is given orders and is never taken into the confidence of his master concerning the master’s plans and purposes.
But Jesus tells His friends (reveals to them) everything He can concerning the plans and purposes of the Father. Thus we know things which the Prophets did not knowthings which angels desire to look into.
But there are things which even friends cannot understand and do not need to know (cf. John 16:12; Isaiah 55:8-11). A good friend exercises reticence as well as frankness, when reticence is to the loved one’s profit. So does Jesus in our case. But, of that which we most certainly need to know, He is very frank to say, If it were not so, I would have told you.
C.
Friends have access to one another’s abundance. Jesus makes the abundant power and resources of the Heavenly Father’s storehouse.
If we ask anything according to His will we know that all the resources of Heaven will be sent to fulfill that request.
What a grand and glorious promise that is!
(cf. 1 John 5:14-15.)
GREATER THINGS FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD COULD BE WROUGHT THAN ARE BEING ACCOMPLISHED NOW. IF CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WOULD JUST BELIEVE AND AVAIL THEMSELVES OF THIS PROMISE FOR THE ONGOING OF THE KINGDOM! BUT WHAT IS THE SMALLEST SERVICE OF THE CHURCH? PRAYER MEETING! THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DOES NOT BELIEVE IN PRAYER!!! BUT GOD DOES!!
III.
PERSEVERING UNION OF THE PERSECUTED, John 15:18-27
A.
Participation with Christ in this living union will bring persecution, John 15:18 to John 21:1. If we are united with Christ and stand for what He stands
for; if we are against what He is against; if we live as He lived; WE WILL BE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD.
Much of what the Christian regards to be wrong, the world regards as right; what the Christian believes and teaches to be precious, the world regards as valueless. THE CHRISTIAN AND THE WORLD ARE DISAGREED AND IN OPPOSITION AS TO WHAT IS GOOD, VALUABLE, RIGHT!!
The righteous living of the Christian is a constant rebuke and judgment upon the unrighteous living of the worldling.
Men of the world walk by sight and not by faith. They are out of harmony with God’s will for their lives. If a man loves darkness, he will hate the light (cf. John 3:18-21).
The servant is not greater than his Lord. The world persecuted Jesus and if we live like Him, the world will persecute us (cf. 2 Timothy 3:12).
B.
Greater Revelation, Greater Responsibility, John 15:22-25.
Jesus does not mean to say that if He had not come they would not have had any sin at all.
a.
All men have sinned against some law of God. They either sin against a revealed law on tables of stone, or against a law revealed to them in nature and on their consciences (cf. Romans 1:1-32; Romans 2:1-29).
What He is saying is, compared with the sin of riot listening to His words, inasmuch as He came with sufficient proof of His Messiahship, all other sins dwindle into nothing.
a.
As black as some sins are, none are so black as rejecting the claims of Jesus, because His claims are backed and founded on overwhelmingly sufficient evidence!!
b.
The works that He did offer evidence which cannot be reasonably and rationally denied.
As light comes to man and increases, so does his responsibility to follow and live in the light (cf. Luke 12:47-48).
a.
The proof is so clear that men cannot plead ignorance.
b.
The gospel has been declared to most men so many times that they cannot plead lack of opportunity.
c.
Thus there is no excuse for their sin of rejecting Him.
The terribleness of this sin is that it is irrational, unreasonable and, as Jesus says, without cause.
a.
Who has Jesus ever injured?
b.
What law has He ever violated, what evil has He ever done?
c.
To the contrary, He and His true church has sought only the good of man, always!
d.
TO HATE JESUS IS TO HATE HIM WITHOUT CAUSE! TO REJECT JESUS AND HIS MESSAGE IS TO REJECT SOMETHING WITHOUT REASON AND CAUSE!
C.
But the Comforter will come to aid the persecuted disciples of Jesus Christ, John 15:26-27.
He will come as Helper.
In their witnessing to the world they will have the help of the Divine Personality, the Holy Spirit.
He would guide them infallibly (and us today if we will adhere to His word, the Bible).
The Holy Spirit helped the first disciples of Jesus by the miraculous works which He did through them in order to verify their message.
Conclusion
IF THEN GOD BE FOR US, IN SUCH A LIVING UNION OF FELLOWSHIP, FRIENDSHIP AND DIVINE ASSISTANCE, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US (cf. Romans 8:35-39)?
**EXAMINATION, Chapter S 13, 14, and 15
True or False?**
Jesus established foot washing as a practice to be perpetuated in the church.
Jesus was sometimes troubled.
To love one another as Jesus loved was a new commandment.
Heaven is not a place.
Those who believe in Jesus will do greater works than He did.
There is no need to keep every little thing Jesus commands, just so long as we love Him.
The dwelling of the Holy Spirit within the Christian is known only when felt.
The Holy Spirit comes to us unconditionally.
One may be a Christian and never convert anyone else.
People of the world do not hate Christians.
Who said this and Why?
Thou shalt never wash my feet.
If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
Lord, we know not whither thou goest; how know we the way?
Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
No longer do I call you servants. but I have called you friends.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin.
They hated me without a cause.
Arise, let us go hence.
Multiple choice
Jesus took the basin and began to wash the disciples feet because:
a.
It was a religious rite of the church;
b.
They were arguing about their places around the table and He wanted to teach them humility;
c.
It was a custom of courtesy for the host to wash the feet of the guests.
When Jesus said to Judas, What thou doest, do quickly:
a.
No one knew why He said this to Judas;
b.
Everyone understood by this sign that Judas was the betrayer of whom Jesus had spoken;
c.
Peter and John knew, but the rest of the disciples did not know that Judas was the betrayer.
When the people of the era of Jesus and His disciples came about a table to eat they:
a.
Sat in chairs or on benches as artists have depicted the Last Supper;
b.
Sat on mats or pillows on the floor in cross-legged fashion like the Arabs do;
c.
Reclined on couches as the Romans did.
Jesus promised joy to His disciples in:
a.
Bearing fruit; keeping His commandments; glorifying the Father;
b.
Abiding in His love; being cleansed by the husbandman (the Father);
c.
None of the above;
d.
All of the above.
Jesus said:
a.
The world loves the church and wants it to prosper;
b.
The church should love the world and be as accommodating to the people of the world as possible;
c.
The church should be separate from the world and be glad to suffer persecution;
d.
The world hates the church but will not do anything to harm the church.
The Lord said of the branch that does not bear fruit:
a.
It is pruned that it may bear more fruit.
b.
It is cut off and cast into the fire.
c.
It remains on the vine but does not bear fruit.
When Jesus said He would return, after His going away, to manifest Himself to the disciples, He meant:
a,
He would return and dwell in them by the Holy Spirit;
b.
He would return and appear to all disciples at the Second Coming;
c.
He would appear to the disciples after His death (going away) at His resurrection (coming again).
Chapter 13 is an incident which took place:
a.
During the Passover and Last Supper;
b.
On another night after the Passover and Last Supper;
c.
One night before the Passover and Last Supper.
Make a List
Of five things said of the Holy Spirit in these three Chapter s.
Of three relationships which the disciples have in their union with Christ.
Of five things that result from the love which Jesus taught in these three Chapter s.
Of five ways in which Jesus spoke of His relationship to God the Father in these three Chapter s.
Of three figures of speech which Jesus used in these three Chapter s.
Quote or Paraphrase
John 15:1-11
**VITAL UNION OF VINE AND BRANCHES
Text 15:1-11
1
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
3
Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.
4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me.
5
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.
6
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples.
9
Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love.
10
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
11
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Queries**
a.
How were they cleansed through the word which He had spoken? John 15:3
b.
How are His disciples to abide in Him and He in them? John 15:5
c.
What was His joy? John 15:11
Paraphrase
I, Myself, am the Vine, the real one. My Father is the Vine-dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes and cleanses that it may yield more fruit. You have already received your initial cleansing through faith and obedience to the word which I have spoken to you. Now continue to remain in Me and let Me remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains in living union with the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in living union with Me. I, the Vine, am the life-source; you, the branches, are the agents for bearing fruit. The man that dwells in Me and in whom I dwell in this living union, this man bears much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing fruitful. If a man is not dwelling in Me in living union, he is thrown away as a branch that is withered and dead and is gathered up with the others, and thrown into the fire and burned. If you continue to abide in Me and let Me abide in you through My words, you may ask whatsoever you will for My sake, and it shall be given unto you. This is the way My Father is glorified and exaltedwhen you produce much fruit by dwelling in Me. This also is the way you continue to become My discipleswhen you continue to produce much fruit. Just as the Father loved Me and His love sustained Me, I also love you and My love for you will sustain you if you dwell in My love. If you keep My commandments you will live and dwell in My love even as I keep My Father’s commandments and live and dwell in His love. All of these things I am telling you that you may come to know the same joy that I know and that your joy may be one of fullness.
Summary
Jesus teaches that fruitfulness, adoration of the Father and discipleship is dependent upon living union with Christ, the Vine. All of this results, in turn, in a fullness of joy which Christ Himself knew.
Comment
Let us keep constantly in mind the central theme of these last fleeting hours of private instruction to the disciples: the living union between Christ and His disciples. From the opening of the Passover supper that night until He is arrested in Gethsemane, He uses many different figures of speech and different approaches to illustrate the absolute necessity of this intimate union.
The Passover celebration was always pregnant with Messianic prophecies, types and symbolism carried over from the Jewish Scriptures into the rituals of the night. Jesus had just referred to Himself as the fulfillment of the shadowy sacrifice of the Passover lamb. He had just plainly told them that He came as a ransom for the sins of many. He had referred to the fruit of the vine as a symbolic memorial of His blood. Perhaps they had gone out into the night (John 14:31, Arise, let us go hence) and on their way from the upper room to Gethsemane had passed the Temple. Now the Temple, as Herod had restored it, had a great vine made of gold entwined and hanging around the door into the Holy Place. The vine is a figure employed prolifically in the Old Testament to typify the chosen Messianic people of God:
a.
The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7).
b.
I had planted thee a noble vine. (Jeremiah 2:21).
c.
Israel is an empty vine. (Hosea 10:1).
d.
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt (Psalms 80:8).
e.
See also, Ezekiel 15:1-8; Ezekiel 19:10.
The vine had actually become the symbol of the nation of Israel. The emblem on the coins of the Maccabees was the vine. It may be that the minds of the disciples, already dwelling on their idea of the temporal Messianic kingdom, were being drawn into further materialistic meanderings as they thought of the Old Testament symbols of Israel, the Lord’s vine. They were contemplating their position in this kingdom because of their national heritage as Israelites. But Jesus would have them know that He was the Vine, the real Vine, in contrast. to the typical vine. Membership in the Messianic kingdom, and all the glorious blessings promised by the prophets, is to be found not by national inheritance but by personal faith and intimate communion in the Person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and True Vine. It is the same as all the nations of the earth being blessed in Abraham. in The Seed (singular, Galatians 3:16) of Abraham.
Whatever prompted the allegory of the Vine, it is one of the most beautiful pieces of rhetoric available for man to feed his soul upon. And its purpose is to explain both the idealistic and practical sides of the vital union between Christ and all who would be His disciples. He begins with the emphatic verb-pronoun linking which translated literally means, I, Myself, am the Vine, the real Vine! The only fruitful, saving relationship is intimate communion by the disciple with the Person of his Master. He, the Vine, is the source of life for the branch. There is no other source of life for the branchapart from the Vine the branch not only does not bear fruit, it withers and dies and is burned. The Father is the Vinedresser, the Husbandman. The Greek word for husbandman is georgos, meaning farmer or vinedresser. It is the same word from which we get the proper name in English of George. Notice the twofold work of the Husbandman. Every disciple (branch) who does not produce fruit after his own kind (other disciples) is cut off completely, cast forth and burned (John 15:6). The whole idea of the allegory is that if there is any real union between the disciple and the Master, there will be some life, and if there is any life there will be some fruit. Therefore, the disciple who has no fruit has no life because he has no real union with his Master. God grant that preachers may be raised up to preach the Word of God with a fervency, purity and communicativeness which will draw all who profess to be branches into this intimate, personal union with the Vine. Preachers may organize, delegate and create a furor of activity, but there will be no real fruit until each Christian is in this life-supplying union with Christ.
The branch that does abide in the Vine and produce some fruit is cleansed by the Husbandman in order that it may produce more fruit. The vine is grown all over Palestine. It is a plant which needs a great deal of attention if the best fruit is to be produced on it. Each year the vine is drastically pruned that it may produce more and better fruit. We quote Maclaren here:
We all, in our Christian life, carry with us the two naturesour own poor miserable selves, and the better life of Jesus Christ within us. The one flourishes at the expense of the other; and it is the Husbandman’s merciful, though painful work, to cut back unsparingly the rank shoots that come from self, in order that all the force of our lives may be flung into the growing of the cluster which is acceptable to Him. let us understand the meaning of all that comes to us. The knife is sharp and the tendrils bleed, and things that seem very beautiful and precious are unsparingly shorn away, and we are left bare, and, as it seems to ourselves, impoverished. But oh! it is all sent that we may fling our force into the production of fruit unto God. And no stroke will be a stroke too many or too deep if it helps us to that.
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us, All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11).
The word cleanse comes from the Greek word catharoi from which we get the English catharsis which means to purify. This continual purification of the Christian comes when his faith is put to the test through the chastening of the Lord and tribulations. The branch which continues to draw his life from the Vine not only endures the pruning but is made stronger and more fruitful as a result. We also must be diligent to purify our souls by our obedience to the truth (1 Peter 1:23) and follow after peace with all men and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
In John 15:3 Jesus tells the disciples that they have already been cleansed (pruned) to a certain degree through the word which He had taught them. Already, through their reception of His word, certain of the rank shoots of worldliness had been cut out of their lives. Already they had accepted the call to discipleship and had sacrificed much and had borne some fruit. The same principle applies here as was stated by Jesus in John 13:10see our comments on that verse.
John 15:1 through 3 have concentrated on the pruning and cleansing of the branches in order that they might produce much fruit. Now in John 15:4 through 7 the concentration is upon the vital union of the branch in the Vine. The branch is powerless (Greek here is ou dunatai:meaning literally, no dynamic) to bear worthwhile fruit apart from the life which the Vine supplies. In the first three verses the great fundamental facts are presented (a) the Vine, (b) the branches, (c) the Vinedresser working for fruit. Upon these three great facts rests the imperative admonition, Abide in Me. All that is good and true and just and holy in word or deed coming forth from the Christian, originates not in him as branch but has its origin and motivation and power in Jesus Christ, the Vine. If anything good comes from us it is the mind of Christ in us (Philippians 2:5-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Colossians 1:27-29). Apart from the love of Christ we can do nothing pleasing to God, even though we give our body to be burned (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Matthew 7:21-23) and perform miracles.
Not only is it impossible to bear fruit apart from Christ, it is impossible to live! The assumption is that Jesus is warning these disciples who are now in Him not to sever that relationship lest they wither and die and be cast into the pyre (Greek pur; meaning fire). Being cast into the fire undoubtedly means being cast into hell (cf. Matthew 3:8-12; Matthew 7:19; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 25:41). The wood of the branch has the curious characteristic that it is good for nothing when severed from the vine. It is too soft for any use, At certain times of the year the Jews were required to bring wood offerings to use in the fires on the Temple altar (Nehemiah 10:34; Nehemiah 13:31). The commandment (Leviticus 6:8-13) was that wood of trees were to be burned upon the altar. The wood of the vine was fit for nothing (Ezekiel 15:1-5). The only thing that could be done with the wood pruned out of a vine was to make a bonfire of it and destroy it (cf. Isaiah 27:11).
Now the important question is: How may we abide in Him in the Vine-branch relationship of which He speaks? Is it completely mystical and must we wait upon a mystical revelation apart from the written revelation?
The authoritative word of Christ speaks the only answer in John 15:7 through John 15:10. Let us here quote Dr. Maclaren again:
His abiding in us is. the abiding of His words in us; or, to speak more accurately, the abiding of His words in us is. the means of His abiding in us. What is meant by Christ’s words abiding in us?. It means the whole of the conscious nature of a man being, so to speak, saturated with Christ’s words; his desires, His understanding, His affections, His will, all being steeped in these great truths which the Master spoke.
If Christ’s words are your desires then your desires will harmonize with His will, and ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Christ knows what is best for us. He loves us too much to give us our selfish desires and so the abundance of His riches is withheld until our wills are brought into conformity to His will.
To abide in His love (John 15:10) is the same as abiding in Him. And how are we to abide in His love? By keeping His commandments just as He kept the Father’s commandments. Christ in us is our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27) and He dwells in us through His word (cf. our sermon notes on the Holy Spirit).
Bearing fruit (which is a result of abiding in Him) is also one of the ways to go on abiding in Him. The word be in John 15:8 would be better translated become (from Greek ginomai) indicating that discipleship is a continuing process. We never so much are disciples as we are in the process of becoming disciples. Bearing fruit has, of course, the highest of all purposes, to bring glory and honor to God the Father. We are to let our lights shine before men in such a way that men may see our fruit and glorify the name of God (Matthew 5:16; John 3:21; 1 Peter 2:12). All of our fruit-bearing and glorifying of God is prompted by our intimate union with Him in keeping His word. Lenski says, … this is how we remain in Jesus: by receiving and permanently holding his utterances, the hremata (words) that come from his lips. He in us, and we in Him, the medium and bond of His spiritual union being His spoken Word (cf. John 15:7-10 with John 8:31).
John 15:11 is the crowning point of this whole discussion. Jesus has laid down the divine formula for finding and filling oneself with joy. It is not a joy of frivolity which the world gives and takes away. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory it is the joy which Christ Himself knows. Though He was a man of sorrows while on the earth, there was in His soul that deep and abiding joy which no tribulation could smother. It was prophecied that He would be anointed with the oil of gladness (Psalms 45:7; Hebrews 1:9). He found joy in the fact of God’s revelation to men (Luke 10:21); He found joy in saving the lost (Luke 15:1-32); but most of all His joy was in the glory that was set before Him (cf. Hebrews 12:2; John 17:3). His joy on earth was found in complete self-surrender in love (John 4:34) and this is where His disciples shall find the same joy (John 13:17).
The plain path which leads to a cup of joy that runneth over is: (a) Abide in Him, (b) bear fruit, (c) glorify the Father. Why are so many Christian people not finding joy and fulfillment in their Christianity? Why are they withered and dead? Because they have not allowed the life-giving, fruit-bearing sustenance of the Word of God and the Spirit of Christ to flow through them. Further, they do not allow the Word to flow out of them as a river of living water, quenching the thirst of the souls of the unsaved; nor are they lights unto the world; nor are they the salt of the earth. They are unfruitful. They are unhappy and bereft of the joy of Christ!
Quiz
What background probably prompted Jesus to use the allegory of the Vine and the branches?
What is the main purpose of the allegory?
What part does the husbandman play in the allegory?
Do works and busy activity always indicate fruitfulness? Why?
What good is a branch if it does not bear fruit? What happens to it?
*6.
How* do we abide in the Vine?
What is the joy of Christ and how may His disciples find the same joy?
John 15:1-17
**Butler’s Comments
Special Study
THE CHRISTIAN SYNDROME (John 15:1-17)**
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my life; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:10-11).
The word syndrome is a technical word used in the field of psychology, applied to a group of symptoms or signs that occur together and characterize a mental or physical state. The word syndrome is from two Greek words syn and dramein and literally means run together. There are three fundamental elements (symptoms) which run together and form the joyful Christian syndrome. If any of these elements is missing, the syndromatic cycle is broken and the Christian life is unstable. Interestingly enough, all three elements in the Christian syndrome were present in man’s experience in the Garden of Eden before man sinned. And the thrust of the redemptive plan of God through Christ is to restabilize man in this cycle of joy.
LibertyBefore a person can have joy, he must be free. The real hindrances to true freedom are not rules and regulations, but guilt, fear, and selfishness. The man who is free of guilt, fear, and himself is a truly liberated man no matter what his circumstances. Guilt, fear, and selfishness are the elements the devil uses to keep men in bondage (compare Hebrews 2:5-18; John 8:31-36). Psychiatrists tell us that guilt and fear and selfishness are probably the most mentally and spiritually enslaving, unbalancing elements affecting men.
The real and only cure for this bondagethe only way to be set freeis simple, complete, unreserved faith in the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ. There is no way in this world or the next for man to punish himself enough, or do enough good works, or sacrifice enough to get rid of his guilt, fear, and selfishness. There is no way for man to psyche himself into good and positive feelings each day to get rid of his bondage. The only way for man to be absolutely certain he is not guilty is to believe God. God has said in His Word that Jesus Christ died your death for you. He suffered your guilt for you. Many Christians today bring themselves into bondage by refusing to accept God’s offer of liberty, gratis. They insist on atoning for their own guilt or trying to earn their own righteousness by competing, even in the Christian ministry, for success according to a carnal or worldly standard. Before the Christian life-style or ministry can ever become a joy the Christian must be freed of the guilt that comes from a sense of failing to meet worldly standards of success.
God’s standard is faithfulness. We are going to be surprised when we get to heavenJesus says so in Matthew 25:31-46. God does not count success as the world does. He keeps a different set of statistics from those of worldly-minded, success-oriented, guilt-ridden men.
God has punished my guilt in Jesus Christ. His Word says it. I believe it. That settles it. I-’m free. I don-’t have to earn my own absolution or succeed as the world measures success. I don-’t have to get rid of my own guiltI couldn-’t if I tried! When Christ died, the guilty me died.
LoveBecause God has objectively, judicially, and propositionally freed me, I love Him. Loving Him is not something I can produce without an adequate cause. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Jesus commanded His disciples to love others as He had loved them. Perfect love has its origin in the divine Lover. Our love is a rebounda reactiona response.
God motivates love in us. Love in us is the motivating factor in the syndrome. This is where the system of situation ethics falls into a fundamental fallacy. It makes love the standard rather than the motivation of Christian conduct.
Love can never of itself be a standard to determine what is right or wrong. I might love my country with all my heart but that love itself does not tell me how to express my feelings for my country. There must be laws to tell me what taxes to pay as my share in government and what rights and privileges my neighbor and I have in relation to each other. Without such laws it is obvious that anarchy would prevail (Donald A. Nash, Situation Ethics or Social Ethics, Christian Standard, March 8, 1969).
Love moves me to want to do something. Love demands and insists that I seek an acceptable expression of the urge to do. Just doing will not satisfy lovedoing what is pleasing is the only acceptable expression of love. Who is to say what is pleasing and edifying? Ultimately God alone can say!
LawThis is where law becomes a necessity in the syndrome of joy. Law defines love. Even before man sinned, God defined how Adam was to love his Creator. God gave Adam the command that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God also gave Adam the command to till the Garden of Eden. As long as Adam believed God and remained free of the bondage of selfishness, guilt, and fear, Adam loved God. But Adam’s love did not of itself tell him how to love God. God told Adam how, by giving Adam commandments.
FIRST CORINTHIANS
We do not even know how to love our fellowman properly without the divine commandments of God. Love does not indulgeit edifies. But who knows what is edifying for his fellowman? Who even knows what is edifying for himself? God, the master psychologist, knows. He made man. In Him man subsists (lives) and consists (holds together). Without Him, man comes apart. Once for all, keeping the commandments of God is not legalism! Nor is the keeping of the rules and regulations of man necessarily legalism. Legalism is an attitude. If the laws are made, or kept, with the intent that in so doing one is justified before God in the keepingthis is legalism. If, on the other hand, the commandments are made in love and kept from a motivation of lovethis is where true liberty is found!
If commandments are given from a motivation of love they will be given only to assist the one obeying to reach the fullest potential for which he was created. If commandments are obeyed from a motivation of love they will become a way, a method, a tool both pleasing and profitable (certainly, not grievous) to reach toward that highest potential for which the obeyer was created. This is truly liberating, maturing, perfecting. Now whether we make laws or keep laws in love depends on whether we are truly liberated in the grace of God. The syndrome of Christian joyliberty, love, lawone follows the other and they all run together in a never ending cycle.
John 15:12-17
**FRANK UNION OF FRIENDS
Text 15:12-17**
12
This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.
13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14
Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
15
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.
16
Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17
These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
Queries
a.
May love be commanded (John 15:12; John 15:17)?
b.
When did Christ call the apostles, servants?
c.
How would their fruit abide (John 15:16)?
Paraphrase
My one basic precept and commandment is that you continue to love one another in the same kind of love, having the same motive and purpose, with which I have loved you. The world over, men recognize as the supreme evidence of love that a man will voluntarily give up his own life for the sake of his friends. You are My friends if you are willing to let your love for one another rise to such self-sacrifice and thus keep My precepts. You have not been treated as bondslaves. The bondslave is not taken into his master’s confidence but simply receives orders and carries them out without knowing the master’s plans or purposes. But I have treated you as My friends, for all the plans and purposes which I heard from My Father I have revealed to you. Furthermore, this friendship is of My choosing and development. Our friendship is not on the basis of mutuality and reciprocity, but on the basis of My divine sovereignty and love. I chose you and appointed you as My friends that you may go and produce results from your labors that will remain forever, and that whatever you need from the Father to glorify His name in your labors and carry out His will you know He will give it to you. What I have said to you about My calling you by My divine sovereignty and not from any merit on the part of any of youand what I have said to you concerning taking you into My confidence as friendsand what I have said to you about My ultimate love for you has all been said in order that you may keep on loving one another as brothers in Me.
Summary
To prompt the disciples to love one another Jesus tells them: (a) He willingly sacrifices His life for them; (b) He takes them into His confidence as His bosom friends; (c) He does both of these by His own divine election.
Comment
May love be commanded? Can love be ordered into existence? We are sure that it cannot. As one writer has said, The two ideas of commandment and love do not go well together. You cannot pump up love to order, and if you try you generally produce. sentimental hypocrisy, hollow and unreal. Nevertheless, we are able to direct our attention to things or persons outside ourselves and we are able to do battle against self-absorption and self-love. This ability of directing the conscious thoughts and feelings away from self which is under our control may also be commanded. Therefore, if we will concentrate on and give our attention to Jesus and to others, love will be motivated. Hence we will be following His command to love one another even in the same way He loved. He counted the being on equality with God a thing not to be grasped, but emptied Himself and took the form of a servant and became obedient unto a self-sacrificing death (Philippians 2:5-10). If we follow in His steps we shall be carrying out His commandment.
There is an air of completeness and all-sufficiency about this commandment (John 15:12). It seems as if Jesus were saying, This is all that you, as a group, will need to carry out My appointment. They needed no rank or complicated organization amongst them to bear fruit for Him; they needed only to love one another with the same kind of love, having the same motive and purpose, as the love which Jesus gave to them. It is to be a brotherly love that is unfeigned and fervent (1 Peter 1:22; 1 Peter 3:8; 1 John 2:14-18; 1 John 4:7-11). This love of the brethren is the mark by which the world discerns those who are the disciples of Jesus (John 13:34-35). It is still the one all-sufficient requisite for His disciples today. The church of the living Christ is more apt to bear abundant and abiding fruit today if its members love one another from the heart fervently, than it is through all the superstructure of world-wide ecclesiastical organization. Lack of brotherly love is the symptom of an even deeper evilhate for God (1 John 4:20-21), and how is a man to bear righteous fruit for the glory of God if he hates both God and his brother?
In John 15:13 Jesus states a principle that is generally accepted among all men as the ultimate love. Man has no greater gift to offer, no greater sacrifice to make for another than his very life. It is the most here deeper than mere sacrifice of the physical life. What Jesus desires is laying down of self upon the altar of love. A man may even give his body to be burned and have not love (1 Corinthians 13:3). One may even lay down his physical life from a self-glorifying, self-gratifying motive. The love of which Jesus speaks is a love which counts others better than self, which denies self even if the physical body remain alive.
Jesus takes another of the forms of mortal love, friendship (John 15:14-15), and glorifies and exalts it by exercising it to the divine degree. Jesus glorified the estate of family love when He taught, He that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother (Mark 3:31-35). He glorified the estate of husband-wife love when He inspired the apostle to write the great dissertation on Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:22-32). But the important thing to notice here is the reciprocal nature of the friendship. First there is the divine condescension that Christ chooses to allow men to be His friends. Then there is the condition which men have to fulfill to come into this relationship of friendship-by-grace. We are His friends only on the condition that we do the things which He has commanded.
But what a friendship that is once the circle has been completed! There are no limitations in that friendship on His part. He sacrifices self (John 15:12-13). And we are taken into close fellowship with Him, we are made to become confidants of His. Those who believe and trust Jesus and keep His commandments find that their relationship to Him grows into one of friendship rather than the drudgery of slavish and unintelligent oppression. The slave is given orders and is never taken into the confidence of his master as to the master’s purposes and plans. But Jesus tells His friends everything He can concerning the plans and purposes of the Father. There is much that all of His friends cannot understand (John 16:12), for His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-11). But what we can understand He frankly and plainly tells us. And even in those things which He withholds (things which we think we would be better for knowing) He does so out of love. A friend exercises reticence as well as frankness, when reticence is to the loved one’s profit. But, of that which we most certainly need to know, He is very frank to say, If it were not so, I would have told you!
And in elevating those who believe in Him from slaves to friends He also took off them the chains of their bondage to ignorance, sin and fear. His yoke is easy and the burden light (Matthew 11:25-30), but the weight of ignorance, guilt of sin and fear of death before He took us as friends was unbearable (Matthew 23:4; Acts 15:10; Hebrews 2:15).
Actually, the relationship of Master and slave is not broken when Jesus chooses us to be His friends. The slaves remain slaves of their own choice. They serve Him as freed men bringing themselves into slavery to Him of their own volition and love for Him (cf. Romans 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1; Jude 1:1).
John 15:16 makes it very plain that our relation to Him as friends is dependent first and foremost upon His divine willingness and grace. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6; Romans 5:8). We were apprehended by Him (Philippians 3:12). We were divinely elected, but that was made eons ago potentially in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14). Potentially all men are elected to be saved, but only In Christ. Man then must exercise his freedom to choose whether he desires this election or not by coming into Christ or remaining out of Him by obedience to His commandments (1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 2:27; 1 John 5:1-4, etc.). Even among these first disciples they were chosen by election but they themselves had to choose whether or not they wished that election. One (Judas Iscariot) refused the divine election. Even here they must go and bear fruit if they desire to make their calling and election sure (cf. 2 Peter 1:2-11). Yes, the Shepherd always seeks the lost sheep before the sheep seeks the Shepherd, but the sheep must hear and follow the voice of the Shepherd to realize the safety and bountifulness of the fold.
And so, the disciples were chosen and appointed (or commissioned) with special gifts of the Holy Spirit in order that they might go and bear fruit. They were to go and sow the precious seed of the Word and reap a harvest of souls. This harvest of souls and the establishment of the church of Christ on earth was to be an abiding monument to their faith in Christ. The church itself, upon its establishment, was to be henceforth eternal, made up of living stones. And so is the fruit of the labors of every evangelist and Bible teacher who has ever had any part in winning a soul to Christ or of strengthening a soul in Christ. They are laying up for themselves treasures in heaven which are eternal, they will receive an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away. And now, in summation, all that He had said to them of their election by graceHis taking them into His confidence as friendsabout His own self-sacrificing loveall this has been said to provoke them Because what they ask will be in His name, in accordance with His will and desires for man. When we make our wishes and desires Christ’S, and Christ’s desires ours, we shall be satisfied.
Quiz
How may we carry out the command to love one another?
What must a man lay down to love ultimately?
What is the condition on man’s part in friendship with Christ?
What are two differences between a slave and **a **friend according to the Scriptures?
How are men elected by God? Is man involved in this divine election?
May men today bear abiding fruit? How?
How may we have whatsoever we ask in the Father’s name?
John 15:18-27
**PERSEVERING UNION OF THE PERSECUTED
Text 15:18-27
18
If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you.
19
If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20
Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
21
But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23
He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24
If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25
But this cometh to pass, that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me:
27
and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Queries**
a.
How had Jesus chosen the disciples out of the world?
b.
How does Jesus-’ speaking to the people bring sin (John 15:22)?
c.
In what way would the Comforter bear witness of Christ?
Paraphrase
Do not be overcome with despair when the world hates you, but take courage by understanding why the world hated me before it hated you. If your nature and character were worldly, the world would love you. But because your nature is not now in harmony with the world, due to My word which is now in you and has set you apart from the world, for this very reason the world despises you. You must keep on remembering the precept which I have taught you: A servant cannot hope to enjoy a better life than his master. If the worldlings have persecuted Me, the Master, they will most certainly persecute you, the servant. If any of them have kept My word, they will keep your word also which will be the word of the Master’s appointed servants. And all of these persecutions they will bring upon you due to their hatred of Me because they do not know and love the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them the plain and final revelation of God they would not have been so acutely aware of their sinfulness. But now that I have come and they have rejected Me and My word they shall be condemned more severely, for they have no excuse whatever for their unbelief. Whoever hates Me, hates God My Father also. Moreover, if I had not proved My deity and Messiahship to the Jews through the works which I didand no other messenger of God has ever done such worksthey would not be guilty of the terrible sin of rejecting the Messiah. But now they are compelled by the miracles to recognize that the Father is with Me and so in hating Me they hate both Me and My Father. And the Father is using all this hatred to fulfill His plan of redemption in Me which He prophecied in their Scriptures, They hated me without a cause. But when the Helper comes, the Person whom I will send from the Father to be with you, I mean the Spirit of Truth, He will be a divine personality bearing witness to Me and sustaining the witness which you, who have been with Me from the beginning of My ministry, shall also make concerning Me to the world.
Summary
His disciples will be persecuted because the world hates Him. The world hates Him because of the perfect piercing revelation He made of God’s righteousness. God will use the world’s hatred to fulfill His redemptive purposes. They are not to despair in their persecution for they will have the divine Helper to sustain them in their work of witnessing. precious possession he has. And if any man will lay down his life for a friend he has loved him as fully as he is able. But there is something
Comment
The vital union between Christ and His followers results in a fellowship of fruitfulness (John 15:1-11); a fellowship of confidence and communion (John 15:12-17); this union also results in a fellowship of suffering! Because this unity binds them into one sanctified body, it separates them from all those who do not wish to participate in this holy calling. Jesus came to call men apart from the world. This naturally results in enmity on the part of the world (Matthew 10:34-39).
The if of John 15:18 does not mean there may be the possibility that the world will hate you. In the original Greek idiom it means there is no question but that the world hates you.
Why should the world hate those whose very purpose is to do good? First, those who seek to do good must seek to propagate truth. What the Christian believes and teaches to be precious, the world regards as valueless. Much of what the Christian regards to be wrong, the world regards as right. Second, the righteous life of the Christian is a constant rebuke and judgment on unrighteous living and is, therefore, in direct opposition to the worldly life. All of this is because the world is out of harmony with the will of God. Men of the world walk by sight and not by faith. Their main interest is in satisfying the desires of the flesh and the pride of life. They have no concern for the hereafter. They are only after the here. It all depends upon what a man judges to be valuableit depends on where the treasure is, for there will the heart be also. If a man loves darkness, he will hate the light (cf. our comments on John 3:18-21).
There is an alternative! If the follower of Christ would escape the hostility of the world and become one of the world’s hail, fellow, well met children, all the Christian need do is lower his flag, cover up his badge and do as the Romans do and he will be loved by the world. As Maclaren puts it, A half-Christianized world and a more than half-secularized Church get on well together. why should the world care to hate or trouble itself about a professing Church, large parts of which are only a bit of the world under another name? When Christian people and churches become vain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, and ambition, the world will not oppose them. BUT GOD WILL!
But true disciples of Jesus are not of the world. When Jesus calls men out from the world and sanctifies them by His word, His Spirit abides in them (cf. John 17:13-19). Henceforth they seek to make their every thought and deed captive to His will. Because they have overcome the world by faith and Christ now lives in them, the world hates them and makes war upon them (cf. 2 Timothy 3:12).
There are three approaches Jesus makes to prepare and arm His little children for their trying hours ahead. First, He tells them plainly that they must expect persecution. Fore-warned is fore-armed. Had He disguised or tempered His warning it would have been the worse for them when the persecution, in all its terribleness, came upon them. He told them plainly that they would be betrayed by parents and brethren and even put to death (cf. Luke 21:12-17). Second, He tells them that whatever they may have to suffer, they can take heart in the fact that He, their Master, has suffered like persecution and hatred before them. The servant should be proud to share in tribulations with One who is so much greater than he, and regard his suffering a privilege rather than a burden (John 15:18; John 15:20). (cf. also 2 Corinthians 4:17-18; Philippians 3:10; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 4:12-16.) Third, Jesus tells these men that the world’s hatred is a necessary outcome of their being called into fellowship with Him. They may either forfeit the privileges of such a fellowship and go back to the world, or they may retain the peace, hope and love of this fellowship and suffer the tribulations that necessarily accompany such an election. When He said remember He was referring to when He first sent them out. He warned them then that they would be hated and persecuted (cf. Matthew 10:16-25).
If men are of the attitude to obey God and His Son, they will obey the words of God’s messengerswhen God’s messengers speak God’s word. The apostles were inspired and thus their messages had the inherent authority of God. Men today who are spokesmen for God may expect true followers of Christ to heed their preaching but only so long as their preaching conforms to the written Word of God, the Bible. When men do not heed the word of Christ, it shows that they have not the love of the Father in them (cf. John 5:42-43; John 8:43-47).
In John 15:22 through John 15:25 are some of the most solemn words to ever fall from the lips of the Saviour of men. He plainly declares that by both His teachings and His miraculous works He demonstrated enough proof of His Sonship, Messiahship that men who reject Him have absolutely no excuse. In comparison with the sin of not listening to His words, and being taught by His works, all other sins dwindle into nothing. Jesus does not mean to say that these men would have been clear of all sin. The Jew was condemned by the Law; the Gentile committed sins against his conscience (cf. Romans 1:1-32; Romans 2:1-29). But as black as these sins are, they are white compared with the blackness of the to love one another. He does not merely command love but with the command supplies the motive. And Christ’s friends, living close to Him, and bearing fruit will get what they ask from the Father. Why? sin of rejecting the revelation of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. The rejection of the Messiah was the crowning act of rebellion by the Jews against God which brought down the vengeance of God and caused them to become a by word among the nations. They rejected the Great Prophet (cf. Deuteronomy 18:15-16; Acts 3:22-23). How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation (cf. Hebrews 2:1-4)?
As light comes to a man and increases, so his responsibility to follow and live in the light increases (cf. Luke 12:47-48). See also our comments on John 9:35-41. The measure of the guilt is the brightness of the light. No shadows are so black as those which are cast by the brightest noonday sun and no sin is so black as the rejection of the revelation of God in His Son who was in the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.
Jesus spake as no other man had spoken; He did works which no other prophet had ever donenot even Moses. The proof is so clear that men cannot plead ignorance. To most men the gospel has been so often presented that they cannot say they have had no opportunity. There is no excuse for their sin. They do not know the time of their visitation (cf. Luke 19:41-44).
And the terribleness of this sin of hating Christ and His disciples is made even worse in that it is irrational and unreasonable. It is hatred without a cause. Jesus said that this hatred was foreknown by God and prophesied in the Old Testament. It was all within the purpose of God. It would be used by God to carry out His redemptive plan in Christ, the Lamb, the Suffering Servant. The same hatred by the enemies of God was shown to God’s king David, but the final fulfillment of the worst that such hatred could do come from God’s enemies against the One of whom David was but the shadowy type, the eternal Son of David. This prophecy is in Psalms 35:19; Psalms 69:4sometimes the entire Old Testament was called the law (including poetry, history and prophets). But Jesus had broken no law, injured no one, hated no one. To the contrary He sought only to do good to friend and enemy alike. What cause or reason had anyone for hating Jesus? What cause or reason has anyone today for hating Jesus? Some evil words and works have been done by evil men in the name of Jesus and His church, but the Word of Christ proclaimed and lived in the spirit of Christ has always sought the good of friend and enemy alike. What reason can the world give for hating true disciples of Jesus? None!
Now the climax to this section. He has poured out the deepest longings of His heart that they will persevere during the persecution that will inevitably come upon them. So now He promises again the Comforter. This is the Holy Spirit, that divine Person He promised and described in the preceding chapter. He will come as the Helper. In their witnessing to the world they will have the companionship and fellowship of this divine One. As eyewitnesses they must testify concerning Jesus (cf. Acts 1:21-22; Acts 4:19, etc.). The Holy Spirit would come to them and guide them infallibly in calling to their remembrance, without error, what they had seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears (cf. 1 John 1:1-4; 2 Peter 1:16-21) and He would guide them into all truth which Christ had not yet taught them. But more than this, the Holy Spirit would accompany the apostles and bear witness to Jesus through the miracles He wrought through them (cf. Hebrews 2:4).
If, then, God be for us, who can be against us (cf. Romans 8:35-39)!
Quiz
Why does the world hate Christ and His followers?
Name the three ways in which Jesus prepared the disciples for the persecution to come upon them?
What is indicated of men today who will not listen and obey gospel preaching?
What did Jesus mean when He said If I had not come. they had not had sin?
Why do men, who have had opportunity to hear of Christ, have no excuse for their sin?
Why is hatred of Christ irrational and unreasonable?
In what ways would the Holy Spirit bear witness to Jesus?