John 15, Week 3

Week 3 - Remember That the World Hated Me

John 15:18-25

1 Peter 4:12-19

Psalm 69

Questions:

Have you ever felt hated? What sparked it? What did you do about it? Was there anything you could do about it…in other words…was there ever a resolution to the problem?

Which religion do you think bears the most persecution in the world today? What events do you think cause this persecution to escalate?

Assignment: Go to www.persecution.com (Voice of the Martyrs website) and go to the “newsroom” tab. Read at least one recent news article. Be prepared to discuss what you read at our next meeting.

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In this week’s reading of John 15, Jesus’ discourse turns abruptly from instruction in how to love each other to why the world will hate them. As He prepares to send them forth in His Name, He is warning them of the conflict to come, conflict of which they have only begun to witness, and will soon scatter them and break their hearts for a time.

It seems to me that good can tolerate being in the presence of evil because of hope. However, evil cannot tolerate being in the presence of good because of the conviction of sin. As a matter of fact, most of us, if truth be told, don’t even like for our sin to be pointed out to us. Even if we are presently in great relationship with our Father, it still takes us time to process sin, to come to repentance, to turn from our sin, and to take steps to arm ourselves with the sword of truth to combat a return to it. True evil wants to murder good so it can go on doing evil. It claims its own truth. It is in competition with God.

Jesus is explaining to his disciples here in the passage that even being associated with Him, thus being associated with the Father, will bring hatred upon them. The first question in your assignment for this week asks if you have ever been hated. I have had this experience, and the only reason I could lay at its door was a conflict of spirits—and maybe envy at perceived privileges afforded me that this person did not have. The circumstances occurred at one of my places of employment, the staff was very small, and we were the only two females employed at the establishment.  It was almost as if a switch had been flipped at a certain point, and I was totally clueless as to when that moment in time occurred. One week things were fine, the next week I was the cause of everything that was wrong at work. My husband and I were facilitating a Bible study at the time, and as I have reviewed my journals, I see that some of my struggles concerned wanting to confront my accuser, with love of course. My employer wouldn’t allow it. I’m sure he felt the problems would escalate, that because the accusations were unfounded that it would do no good to try to share my faith with someone so irrational, but I was a little frustrated with only prayer as my comfort. My journals during that time speak of warfare, and include lots of written Scripture from the Psalms regarding persecution. It was a rough road for a couple of months, mostly because the tension affected my relationship with my employer which had always been a good one, and led me to leave this job that, until this happened, had been great.

I share this story to reveal some truths about persecution [Gr. dioko – relentless pursuit]. Although we as Christians can attribute some underlying reasons for it, and we can actually place a name to the spirit in which the persecution is directed, the unspiritual often have no rational awareness of the cause of their differing degrees of aversion to the Christian. From the mildest dislike of the perception of being judgmental, to hatred such as that of other religions or the non-religious towards the cause of Christ, we will experience persecution. The world will claim to love others, yet will hate us. Christ tells us in this passage that if the world hates Him, they also hate the Father. We can conclude that the world cannot claim to love the Father but not love the Son, since they are one in the same. It makes our responsibility to love as Christ loved greater. Not only do we need each other during these times of persecution, we need to pray diligently for those who are taking the cause of Christ into areas of our world where they are daily called to die for Him.

We can take comfort in knowing that Jesus Christ our Lord shared in our persecutions. He was tempted just as we are, except He had to die for us. Next week we will discuss the Comforter He provides us for these times, the One who intercedes for us, who bears witness to the truth.

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Next meeting - Saturday, July 10, Main Street Coffee, Downtown Suffolk!

John 15, Week 2

Week 2 - That Your Joy May Be Complete

John 15:9-17

Psalm 51:7-8, 12

Isaiah 61:10

Questions:

Look up the meaning of the Greek word for abide, meno. There are many key words in the definition, but what word out of all those listed stands out the most as it pertains to you.

Write a paragraph about what it means to “lay down your life.”

Much ado has been made over the word “chosen.” In this context, Jesus is talking about much more than spending eternity with Him. He is talking about fulfilling a purpose for which we were specifically designed. For what purpose do you think you were designed and chosen?

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As I read Psalm 51 and Isaiah 61 today to begin my efforts to write this week’s devotional, I am once again filled with awe at the fullness of the joy contained in these passages. The exultation in the Lord our God in Isaiah when the prophet is speaking of being decked and clothed, adorned and covered in clothes of salvation and righteousness. This is what He has done for us through Jesus the Messiah foretold here! Hallelujah!

In Psalm 51 King David knows that his joy will not return until he is forgiven and washed clean from the guilt of his sin and his iniquities are blotted out. In verse 11 we have one of the few OT references to the Holy Spirit’s constant presence in someone’s life. He wants his spirit to be renewed and right. This psalm is a perfect picture of the teachings of Christ—that sin stems from the heart, and repentance must come from the deepest recesses of the heart.

As we look to this week’s passage in John, we hear Jesus continuing His teaching on this last night with his disciples about how to love using Himself as an example. He has already warned them that He will be put to death, and although He does not stress that again here, He does talk about sacrificial love. To obey Christ is often, at least at first, to die to what we desire. It is to die for our friends…are we called to physically die? Not so much in our country. But daily we are called to die to our ourselves and to our desires because they are many. Jesus elevates those who keep His commandment to love like He loves to friendship status. This is an intimate love, which means to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, and to love dearly. Do we easily accept this love from Jesus, but not so freely give out this love to others, especially the unlovely, or those who don’t return it in the same vein? Ah, sacrifice! What is Jesus daily doing for us?

Jesus also initiated the love, in that He sought out the disciples as He seeks us. He does this for His glory, intending us to bear fruit that will last, fruit that will make its dwelling place with Him also. When He says in v.17 that He commands these things, the same Greek word for command is used in Matthew 28 in the Great Commission. They are to make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all that He had commanded. What they had witnessed with their own eyes was important, but the teachings of the Son of God would change the heart of mankind and draw man to God and to each other. Jesus boils the commandments down to two, in essence, that if observed, would enable us to abide with Him and achieve fullness of joy. If we cannot love our neighbor, we cannot love the Father—there is really no love in us—because He created each one in His image.

So to summarize this type of love that Jesus is asking us to exemplify that is like His we see:

• A love that is willing to sacrifice by obedience and dying
• An intimate love
• A love that initiates, that moves toward, that gives more than it receives
• A love that produces results through prayer

With a heart full of such love, how could our joy not be complete?

Going back to verses 9-11, Jesus is speaking about abiding in His love as He has abided in the Father’s love. One of the definitions of the word abide in the Greek is abode. How much joy we experience in our Christian walk will be directly related to where we choose to make our abode or our dwelling place. If we make it in ourselves, in our work, or in our families, we won’t have nearly the joy that we will have if we make our dwelling place in Christ. He speaks truth, He has cautioned us, and we need to take heed. We will talk more about why next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoaH0I9UwLI&feature=related

John 15, Week 1

Week 1 - The Vine and the Husbandman

John 15:1-8

Isaiah 5:1-11

Psalm 80

Questions:

Before the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, what are the comparisons in Scripture to the vine? Can you find any fruitful comparisons?

Have you ever pruned a bush or a vine? Explain the process. If you have never pruned a bush or a vine, please ask someone who has to explain the process to you, in detail. Write a paragraph about pruning, and why it is important in a plant.

Look up the meaning of the Greek word for prune or purge, kathairo. Why do you think our Father the Husbandman or the Vinedresser needs to prune us?

Devotion – Week 1

It had been an extremely tough and emotional week for Jesus and his disciples beginning with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with the Passover supper. This was an evening of teaching, Jesus’ last opportunity to impart words that would last through the turmoil of the coming days. It started with the washing of the disciples’ feet, and though they saw through the glass darkly, this teaching later resounded with them and has become some of the most comforting Words ever written.

Jesus is the vine, He provides the roots, the nutrients, and all of us (the believing branches) flow from Him. The Father is the vinedresser, husbandman, or farmer, who has the job and the divine power to judge the branches fruitful or unfruitful. Jesus is using allegorical words, but the talk is about real people and what they do and don’t do in their every day lives, and whether or not they are truly part of Him, the true Vine.

Think about his words with regard to removing the branches that are unfruitful and pruning the others to make them even more fruitful in light of what we know of the followers who were sitting with him at the table. Judas Iscariot—the unfruitful branch—followed Jesus with the twelve the entire three years, yet left the room before the end of the evening to betray the Lord. Jesus had already warned Peter (Ch. 13) that he would deny Him, and although Peter was sure he was ready to “lay down his life” for his Lord, he could not. He needed to be painfully pruned.

Let’s talk a little about this process. First and foremost, the divine Vinedresser prunes the branches for His own glory. The Greek word for prune or purge, kathairo, means to cleanse of filth, impurity, etc., metaphorically from guilt, to expiate, and in the case of trees and vines, to prune the useless shoots. The Greek word katharos expands to cleanness and purity, in the physical sense as by fire, in the levitical sense as in the use of which is not forbidden, and ethically, to free from corrupt desire, sin or guilt.

For those of us who have pruned a tree or bush and have accidently clipped our own skin in the process, it hurts! Our pruning will most likely hurt. Cleansing will also hurt if one is dirty enough. Scrubbing dirt off can be painful depending upon how muddy the skin is or how embedded dirt has become in one’s skin.

In addition, depending upon the season for pruning, there is often a lot of just plain unnecessary foliage and growth that has nothing to do with the beauty of the real vine or plant that simply needs to go. The plant’s beauty is hidden under all that busyness. The “stuff” has to go, in order for the plant to bear the “fruit” or the beauty it is meant to have.

Jesus says we are clean. This means we are justified. However, the pruning is our sanctification. When I read the words of our Lord here, I am comforted that He is the Vine, but I hear commands, words of warning, prophecy. Would He be issuing a warning and instruction to abide in Him if it were not our responsibility to cling to the vine? He is faithful to give us what we need when we fulfill our responsibility: the Holy Spirit and His gifts, including answers to prayer.

He is very specific in His instruction:

• Abide in me and you will bear fruit; apart from me you can do nothing;
• Keep my commandments as I have kept my Father’s commandments (by abiding in His love);
• Love one another, enough to lay down your life
• Go and bear fruit for the Kingdom

Yet we the branches have to remain in the vine. We must abide [Gr. meno] (remain, continue, endure, dwell) in Him or we can do nothing. We will dry up [Gr. xeraino] (pine away, wither, waste away). This means we cannot give up—not even temporarily. Ever see what happens when you buy a nice hanging basket, then go on vacation and forget to ask someone to water it, even for a week? If we don’t have our living water, we too will be parched, needy and unfruitful. We could not abide, keep one commandment, love, or bear fruit. We cannot expect to thrive without nutrients, without being firmly rooted. His Word is fertilizer to our souls.

Is your Father the Husbandman currently pruning you? Is it painful? Does it feel that in the process you could indeed be ripped right away from the vine it hurts so deeply?

What kind of plant are you? What kind of fruit are you bearing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edX2RUZo5k