For now, they are still in the upper room, they will be leaving the room in a few moments to start walking to Gethsemane but this is still a personal conversation Jesus is having with his closest friends
John 14:22
Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
The question Judas or as he is called in other places, Thaddeus, is asking, “If you are the Messiah and you’re being celebrated as such (by either being crucified and rising from the dead or simply all the people shouting your name) why not just let everyone know who you are, and that should put all the controversy and problems to rest!” Wouldn’t that validate your power and authority?
This is a logical question. Why not show up and show off, really who He is and put to rest all of the lies, misconceptions, and deceit and let the whole world know God is with us?
Jesus basically did just that over the 3+ years he spent in ministry traveling through Israel and Samaria and still people including much of the leadership did not believe
John 14: 23-26
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
Obedience is key to proving that you are truly a Christ-follower. Jesus is saying tens of thousands have seen the miracles I have performed; many will say they are following me, but look at their lives. What I have shared with you is not my opinion but are the words straight from God. People who choose to believe it will; walk like this, treat one another like this, raise their children like this treat employers and employees like this.
He recognizes we can’t do it on our own so he is saying if we are true followers then the Father, Son and now even the Holy Spirit will make His home with you. Just as the Father is in Him and he in the Father so they will be with us. The Holy Spirit will make it possible for us to live in obedience to Christ, to remember the words of Jesus and to carry out the things Jesus did not by our power but His flowing through us….greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 1 John 4:4
John 14: 27-31
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. 28 Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. 29 I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.
30 “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, 31 but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.
Leaving you with “peace!” Jesus words are culminating here to help us understand. This peace is right relationship with God. This promise gives us
– calm in the storm
– healing of heart, mind, body, and soul
– comfort in the grieving
– security for our future
– light in the darkest of places
– perfect love
These and so many others are things Jesus did as we walked the earth and things He promised throughout His time on earth. He is letting them know everything that is about to happen, must happen and that He is in complete control even over what Satan is about to unleash on Him.
Then they left the upper room and began to walk and talk.
On the way to the garden, they passed olive trees and grapevines, which are ubiquitous in Jerusalem. As they did, Jesus took advantage using the grapevines as an example of what he was just teaching them
John 15:1-4
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
Jesus loved using the words remain, abide, and stay. These are words of intimate connection. Throughout scripture, the nation of Israel was considered the grapevine, but Jesus is turning that to say that He is the grapevine. We are to remain in Him in order to bear fruit.
What does it mean to remain, abide, stay in Christ?
First, we have to recognize as we talked about a few weeks ago, when we came to Christ, our legal status was changed. He justified us because of His love for us, we are no longer slaves to this world but now sons and daughters and heirs of the Kingdom of God. Not by our power but His love
Second, we have been given the right to communion with God. We have been given access to the life-giving, soul-thrilling, and joy-filling life promised to us through Christ (1 John 1:3; and as we will see in John 15:11)
Union with God without connection with Christ is joyless.
David gives us a description of a hunger for abiding in Christ
Psalm 63:1
O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.
When Jesus challenges us to remain, abide, and stay in him, three simple phrases can describe what this means. As He is in us, we must be dependent on the Holy Spirit to make this happen.
Walk by faith – daily choosing to rely on Him, His wisdom, His passion, His heart, His insight in everyday decisions and actions. We speak the Gospel to ourselves, first, so we live it out.
Spend focused time – we not only want to be made right (justified) by Him but we want to daily know that we are with Him and He with us. We know we are daily freed from sin and have Him with us because we spend time with Him
Engage in intentional actions – it is living the life of Christ through us. Choosing every moment of every day to be His light to a dark world, His salt to a world that needs flavor, and persevered. It is knowing that we are, through bringing Christ to the world, the only hope the world has
Listen, I know this is not easy but that is where the Holy Spirit comes in. He will guide us into all truth. He will give us the love, joy, peace, patience, and so on to be able to do all of this if we will just choose to make it happen.
Choosing to trust the Holy Spirit can be the hard thing. That is part of why the Father does the pruning, but we need to do some pruning of our own.
Why do we need pruned?
We begin to lose our passion and or joy for what God has given to do to build the kingdom.
Continuing to use an agrarian example, each of us are like a beautiful field full of flowers or grapes, blueberries, black raspberries…you choose in your mind.
The flowers or fruit are the passion and joy God has given us as a result of our being in communion with Him but often things pop up as weeds that try to choke out that passion and joy.
– spread ourselves too thin doing things we are not necessarily called to do but are similar to our call
– social media on a regular basis, getting caught up in some hot mess or dumpster fire on Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, or some thread on Facebook
– unrealistic demands/obligations on yourself, by your work, through your kids
– carrying baggage from the past, like clutter in your attic or basement stuff you will never use it just sits there taking up space creating low-grade anxiety
To regain the fruit in your life you need to prune! You don’t need to spend as much time on social media as you do….prune your time!
Take a look at the demands you have placed on yourself, the demands you have allowed the kids to place on you…..prune those demands
Acknowledge the baggage you are carrying from your past and how it is impacting your present time and relationships…..prune the baggage
Pruning is done so more fruit may be produced on stronger vines. As you prune your stuff, your relationship with Jesus can grow stronger and you will produce more fruit!
We will talk more about pruning next week but I wanted us to start here so we have a way to recognize that we can bear more and stronger fruit
Jesus promised peace earlier in this passage but that peace only comes as we allow God to prune, releasing the stuff that robs us of our peace and our intimacy with Him!
Today as we have begun talking about pruning….allow His joy to be restored. Recognize He is with you, in you, and for you. Let go of what you are desperately holding on to so you can walk in freedom.
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