Jesus and His disciples left the upper room and headed out to the Mount of Olives, where the garden of Gethsemane is located. They passed vineyards and Jesus used these vineyards as an analogy for God's love and our relationship with Him. Remember in John 14 that Jesus spoke of love and peace. In John 15, He will mention joy also. These are the first three fruits of the Spirit in our lives that we experience within us. When we understand God's grace and free gift of righteousness, it produces love for God, joy and peace within us.
John 15:1-3 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away (lifts up), and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word (word of grace and truth) which I have spoken to you." In the margin of my Bible, it says that the words "takes away" are actually lifts up. When we are not experiencing the first three fruits of the Spirit, love, joy and peace, God reminds us of His free gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus. As we bear the fruit of love, joy and peace, he prunes us so that we bear more fruit. The rest of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 are patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When we understand the free gift of righteousness, it produces love, joy and peace in us. Then, as we extend that same grace to others, we become patient, kind, good, faithful, and gentle and we exercise self-control in our relationships with others. If I see that God is not counting my sins against me, I will see that He is not counting other people's sins to them. I begin to treat them the way has dealt with me, by His grace. God has already made me clean on the inside because of His word of grace.
John 15:4-6 "Abide in Me (walk in My love) and I in you (His word of grace abides in me and I am born again). As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they (men, not God) gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." This is not saying that if we don't bear fruit, God casts us out and we are burned with hell fire. That is how people have interpreted it. It is saying that if we don't bear the fruit of the Spirit, men will reject us and our testimony of God's grace. It is the same thing as Matthew 5:13.
John 15:7-12 "If you abide in Me (love others as I have loved you), and My words (words of grace) abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As My Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." What is His commandment? It is not the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, yet we have ministers preaching this. We are to love one another as He loved us. He gave us grace and the free gift of righteousness. He is not counting our sins to us. That is how we are to love others. This is how our His joy will remain in us, when we know He is not counting our sins to us. This produces joy in our hearts, and joy in the hearts of others as we share this news with them.
John 15:13-17 "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another." Jesus laid down His life to pay for our sins. As we love one another by sharing the news of His love and free gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ, we bear fruit in the lives of others who receive Jesus in their hearts.
John 15:18-21 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I have said to you, "A servant is not greater than his master." If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word (word of grace), they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me." The world does not know that God is love, nor do they understand His grace and free gift of righteousness. If people are so proud of their own attempts at self-righteousness that they reject His free gift of righteousness, they will persecute us as we preach the gospel.
John 15:22-25 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause'." In verse 22 and 24, Jesus told the secret of His ministry and the pattern for our ministry. We are to speak the gospel to people. God will do the works or miracles among people as they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
John 15:26-27 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." In John chapter 14, the Holy Spirit is mentioned. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in John 14 is to us as believers, teaching us about righteousness and His love. Beginning with John 15:26, the ministry of the Holy Spirit through us to others is discussed. As we are witnesses of Jesus in sharing the gospel, the Holy Spirit will testify of Christ by confirming His Word in the hearts of people and by miracles.
Keith Oliver
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