John 15-16: Abide

We read John 15 and 16 and sit with Jesus’ call to remain in him like branches in a vine, trusting the Father’s pruning for greater fruit. We also hear Jesus promise the Advocate, warn us about hatred and trouble, and still offer joy and peace that hold up in the real world.

• the Echo Discipleship Guide as a way to go deeper in John
• John’s focus on who Jesus is and why the disciples miss it at first
• remaining in Jesus as the source of lasting fruit
• love as the central command and friendship with Jesus as our identity
• expecting opposition without losing heart
• the Advocate and Spirit of Truth strengthening our witness
• sorrow turning into joy and prayer in Jesus’ name
• peace in Jesus while we face trouble and suffering
• pruning as painful loss that leads to better growth

find your ECHO discipleship guide for John Part 2 at outloudbible.com

At outloudbible.com, you can find free resources to help you study the Bible. And while you’re there, send us a message to say hi, or start a conversation about having us at your church or event. 

If Outloud Bible has been a valuable part of your understanding of the Bible, please consider supporting the ministry by visiting outloudbible.com.

Transcript

Welcome And Helpful Resources

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome back to the Outloud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. We're reading here in the book of John, and I'd like to remind you of a resource available at OutloudBible.com. We have an Echo Discipleship Guide for John Part 2, his last week, which covers John 11 through 20. And that's available at OutloudBible.com. A great resource if you want to go through it yourself and just go a little bit deeper with what you hear here and just carve out a little bit of time to think more and respond more to what the Bible is saying. It's a great opportunity for you. It's also a great thing to do with someone. If you there's someone that you're like, I'd like to maybe pour into someone younger or someone who hasn't been as a Christian as long as you and you're not exactly sure what to do. Well, hey, listen to the podcast episodes together or separately, and then come together and and go through an echo discipleship guide and uh and kind of bat some questions back and forth. It doesn't take all that long, just get some conversations going and and kind of is a great way to center and kind of root yourself on the Word of God a little bit each day. So uh that's available at the website, outloudbible.com. Uh this is also part of a bigger presentation that we do, especially popular for obvious reasons uh around the Easter and Good Friday time. But uh this and other sections of scripture available as as live experiences at your church or event. Uh, if this is something that you would like to bring into your church or your gathering and and have them hear the word of God out loud in a in this conversational and and approachable way, and helps really people to really see themselves in the story and recognize these as real people with real emotions and reactions and real stakes and real urgency. Uh it's a powerful experience. So um you can just let us know through the website if this is something that you'd like to see, whether this he this section of John or something else, let us know. And we'd love to work with you to to uh get it to your church. And it's free, free for churches, and uh we'd love to connect with you about that. So we're reading the book of John, which is John's account. John was one of the disciples. He refers to himself as the disciple Jesus loved. I don't think it's a brag. I I see it more as a wow, I can't believe that the Son of God loves me. That's wild. It kind of blows my mind. And I think that's that's the heart behind why he's uh he refers to him that way. I think it's a more of a humility thing to not even include his name in the story, but just refer to himself as as how Jesus saw him and loved him. I think that's what John is doing here in his story. And his focus is on who Jesus is. And so Jesus talked a lot about who he was, especially here in the last week of his life, because he wanted to make very clear to his disciples and to anyone else around listening, although a lot of people wanted him dead at this point. But uh it's it's amazing to me that the disciples still really didn't understand. For the most part, they didn't understand everything he was saying as as clear as he was trying to be. But Jesus was saying it for the benefit of the future disciples after the fact, especially when the Holy Spirit would come and help them recognize what Jesus was saying all along, to help strengthen their testimony about him so that they could spread the message of Jesus around the world. And uh so Jesus is just laying the framework here. He's laying the foundation for that, his whole church, basically, in what he's saying and doing here in his last week. A very productive week for Jesus, uh doing a lot of things before he willingly lays down his life, and we're thankful for that. We still get to experience the benefits of what he has said and done here. And let's read about it today. We're in John chapter 15 and 16 in the New English Translation. I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that doesn't bear fruit in me, and he prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it'll bear more fruit. And you're clean already because of the word I've spoken to you. Remain in me, and I'll remain in you. Just as the branch can't bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I'm the vine, you are the branches, and the one who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone doesn't remain in me, he's thrown out like a branch and dries up, and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and are burned up. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it'll be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I've also loved you. Remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. My commandment is this to love one another, just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. And you're my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves because the slave doesn't understand what his master is doing, but I've called you friends because I've revealed to you everything I heard from my father. You didn't choose me. I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he'll give you. This I command you to love one another. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you don't belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, a slave is not greater than his master? If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they'll obey yours too, but they'll do all these things to you on account of my name because they don't know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they wouldn't be guilty of sin, but they no longer have an excuse for their sin. The one who hates me hates my father too. If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they wouldn't be guilty of sin, but now they've seen the deeds and have hated both me and my father. Now this happened to fulfill the word that's written in their law, they hated me without reason. When the advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who is gone out from the Father, he will testify about me, and you also will testify because you've been with me from the beginning. I've told you all these things so that you will not fall away. They'll put you out of the synagogue, and yet a time is coming when the one who kills you will think that he is offering service to God. And they'll do these things because they have not known the Father or me. But I've told you these things so that when their time comes you'll remember that I told you about them. I didn't tell you these things from the beginning because I was with you, but now I'm going to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking me where are you going? Instead, your hearts are filled with sadness because I've said these things to you. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I'm going away. For if I don't go away, the advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin, because they don't believe in me, concerning righteousness, because I'm going to the Father and you'll see me no longer, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been condemned. I have many more things to say to you, but you can't bear them now. But when he, that the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears and will tell you what's to come. He will glorify me because he will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine, and that's why he said the Spirit will receive from me what's mine and will tell it to you. In a little while you'll see me no longer. Again, after a little while you will see me again. Well, then some of his disciples said to one another, Wait, what what's the meaning of what he says saying, in a little while you will not see me, again after a little while you will see me? And because I'm going to the Father? So they kept on repeating, what's the meaning of what he says? In a little while? Ah, we don't understand what he's talking about. And Jesus could see that they wanted to ask him about these things. So he said to them, Are you asking each other about this? That I said, In a little while you will not see me. Again, after a little while you will see me? I tell you the solemn truth. You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will be sad, but your sadness will turn into joy. When a woman gives birth, she has distress because of her time. When a woman gives birth, she has distress because her time has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. And at that time, you will ask me nothing. I tell you the solemn truth. Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you haven't asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you'll receive it, so that your joy may be complete. I've told you these things in obscure figures of speech. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in obscure figures, but will tell you plainly about the Father. And at that time you will ask in my name, and I don't say that I will ask the Father on your behalf, not for the Father Himself loves you, and because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God, I came from the Father and entered into the world. But in turn I am leaving the world and going back to the Father. His disciples said, Look, now you're speaking plainly and not in obscure figures of speech. Okay, now we we know that you know everything and don't need anyone to ask you anything. Because of this, we believe that you have come from God. Jesus replied, Now you believe. Look, a time is coming and has come when you'll be scattered, each one to his own home, and I'll be left alone. Yet I'm not alone because my father is with me. I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage. I've conquered the world. What a great promise and reminder from the end of chapter sixteen of the Book of John. In this world you will have trouble and suffering, but take courage. I've conquered the world. It's still true today. Chapter fifteen is probably worth going back and reading again. Chapter fifteen talks about remaining in Jesus. He is the vine, we're the branches. It's our responsibility to remain attached to him, just like a branch remains attached to the vine. Some translations call this abide. That's a nice Christian term, abide or remain. Stay connected, stay attached to Jesus. Apart from him, we can't do anything good. We're not going to bear fruit. We're not going to look like his disciples. We're not going to have any real impact on the world. That's hard though. It seems easy. It seems like, all right, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I'll just kind of stay. But staying attached requires a constant going to him for the resources, the power, the life, the energy, the truth that we need to continue to survive. A lot of it also requires waiting. And he promises hey, if we bear fruit, if we're doing a good job abiding, staying connected, and bearing fruit, guess what? You'll be pruned. Being cut off is not just for the unfruitful, unfaithful people. But being cut off is part of the job for the faithful, abiding, remaining Christian. Not as a punishment, but because he knows how healthy growth works best. And he wants to see more fruit. Pruning is going to feel like pain. Pruning is going to feel like loss. But he's only cutting off the things that are taking your time, your energy, your resources, your attention, and so that you can give your devotion and resources and energy and attention toward something in your life that he sees is actually worth growing and is actually producing fruit for the kingdom that he wants to find. Pruning is part of the Christian life. It's part of abiding in him and staying attached to him. How do you feel pruned lately? You feel like God is cutting off some things in your life that are even good things, it's not even bad things, but maybe it's just not exactly the best thing or the most fruitful thing. Where do you feel like you're losing things that you once had, or you it's a loss of a good thing, and you don't really see the point? Keep remaining, keep abiding, and I promise Jesus will make it clear that the good fruit, the best fruit, is still to come. That's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. Thanks for joining me here. We'll see you next time on the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast.