Bible study on John 13-17.
Continuing Bible study on John 13 - 17
This brings us to John 15:1. In the previous verse (14:31) Yeshua says, Arise, let us go from here. I am inclined to believe that at that point they left the supper room, and began their walk to the Mount of Olives, but had not yet crossed to the garden, as this is plainly described in John 18:1. Picture yourself with the group, walking along with Yeshua.
15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2
"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.3
"You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.4
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.5
"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 Yeshua is the true vine, then all other vines are false.
If you are a part of a false vine then what kind of fruit can be bore? Likewise if you are a part of the true vine and unfruitfulness is apparent, it produces removal, in order that the other branches can product more fruit.
Unless you are a part of the true vine, you cannot bear true fruit. All too often we want to be our own vine, this has been the problem all the way back to the garden of Eden. In partaking of the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve attempted to be their own vine, deciding for themselves what is right and wrong. Yeshua said, without Him, we can do nothing.
6
"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.7
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.8
"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.Any branches not abiding in Messiah (Christ) are burned up, never to be grafted in, or used again. If we abide fully in Yeshua (not trying to survive from two different vines) and His words abide in us, whatever we ask and desire, it will be done.
Oh how often we ask, and nothing results. Oh how often we desire, only to be left empty. The problem is quite clear from this verse. If we ask amiss, then we ask with our own words, from our own vine. Yeshua said, if "My words abide in you". If Yeshua’s words abide in us, then our words must be His words in order for our desires to be done. The goal of all this is to glorify the Father by bearing much fruit.
9
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.10
"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.In order to abide in Yeshua’s love, you must keep His commandments; the proof of this is Yeshua abiding in the Fathers Love by keeping His commandments.
11
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.12
"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.In John 13:34 this commandment to love one another is said by Yeshua, to be a new commandment. The new part being "as I have loved you", since the command to love one another was there from the beginning. (Lev 19:18)
Yeshua immediately provides an example of this love (v. 13). Indeed Yeshua has been our friend and has laid down His life for us.
14
"You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.15
"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.16
"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.What a blessing we have in this, to be called friends of the creator.
We are chosen, not the choosers, in order to bear the appointed lasting fruit. If we are fruitful and Yeshua’s words remain in us, then whatever we ask the Father in Yeshua’s name, He will give. Asking in Yeshua’s name is not asking of our own will, but of the will of Yeshua. Not of our own desire, but that of Yeshua.
17
"These things I command you, that you love one another.In the short time there was left Yeshua drove the command into His disciples and into us as readers. Love one another (as He has loved us).
18
"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.19
"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.20
"Remember the word that I 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, they will keep yours also.21
"But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.We see plainly our position with the world. We are to come out of it, not partaking of the evils of the world. In so doing, our status with the world becomes an enemy.
Being a servant of Yeshua we can expect persecution; however, by God’s mercy, perhaps it is not unto death.
22
"If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.It seems to me, Yeshua is speaking of those who keep the Torah (Law) and have put fences around themselves to avoid sin; yet in so doing, they have omitted other matters such as mercy and love, of which Yeshua speaks so often; because of this, they (and we) have no excuse for sin.
23
"He who hates Me hates My Father also.24
"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.25
"But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’Once seeing and partaking in the wonderful works of Yeshua, sin becomes evident in our lives. I think Yeshua is referring mostly to the Jews who did not accept Yeshua as Messiah. Most of the hatred was perhaps from their jealousy and unbelief in Yeshua as Messiah.
26
"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.27
"And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.Doubt was (and is) still prevalent; we do not want to believe the words of Yeshua, we still need a witness to testify to us.
Once the Holy Spirit was received, the disciples would understand and be empowered to testify and witness about Yeshua. What was and is the witness? That He is the Son of God, that He is the Messiah, that He came and died in our stead, that He rose again on the third day, that He sits on the right hand of the Father, interceding for us as we attempt to be His servants and friends. Praise God for the love that He had, to give His only begotten Son, so that we would not get what we deserve, which is death, because we have broken the Torah (Law).