John 15:16

John 15:16 says, Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it unto you.  Jesus was speaking to His disciples at that time.  He had chosen them, and He was leaving them expecting them to bear fruit for God.  When they were asking for things necessary for bringing forth fruit, they could ask the Father for anything.  The same is true today.  We are Jesus's followers because He has called us.  We do not suddenly just decide to follow Jesus on our own, but we do so because He is always calling people to Him. The disciples were a select group called for a particular purpose, and we as Christians are part of a select group called for a particular purpose.  The ultimate result of each calling is to bring forth fruit, to reach others with the gospel of Christ.  God will equip us to carry out that purpose.  Verse seventeen adds, These things I command you, that ye love one another.  I believe we can safely say that as followers of Christ, we are to be ruled by love for one another.  I also believe this extends to all people.  Jesus died not for some, but for all, and we are to love the same way.  Verse eighteen continues, If the world hates you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.  We should never be surprised that we, as Jesus' followers, are hated by the world, because He was crucified by the world.  We sometimes moan about how badly the world treats us, but we are certainly no greater than Jesus, and He continued to reach out to the lost world, even on the cross.  Verse nineteen concludes, If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.  We can expect nothing but opposition from the world as we share the Good News of Christ.  Still, we are to follow the example of Jesus and reach out to the world with love.

John 15:13

John 15:13 says, Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for His friends.  We will see that Jesus continued to give His disciples a commandment to love one another.  How great was that love to be?  It was to be great enough that His disciples would die for others. That commandment still applies today.  We are not called to love until it costs us something, but we are to love even if it costs us everything, including life itself.  Verse fourteen adds, Ye are My friends, if he do whatsoever I command you.  People may declare themselves friends of Jesus, but He said there is a test of that.  If we are His friends, we will do whatsoever He commands us to do, and He had just commanded them to love one another.  If we cannot comply with this most basic commandment, then we likely will not comply with the whatsoever Jesus may command us to do.  Verse fifteen continues, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.  Jesus said His disciples were not only servants, but friends.  We will always be Jesus' servants, but we are also His friends, and He laid down His life for us.  Usually, when we think of a servant, we think of someone who is totally under the dictates of their master, but Jesus said we are not just servants, but friends.  Jesus did not keep them in the dark but told them everything the Father told Him.  He tells us everything we need to know to follow Him and calls us His friends.  There can be none greater to be a friend to.  Yes, we are servants of Jesus, but even more we are His friends.

John 15:9

John 15:9 says, As the Father hath loved Me, so hath I loved you: continue ye in My love.  Jesus was going to His crucifixion, but He did not want the disciples to become hateful because of it.  We today may have people do things to us that are wrong, but as followers of Jesus, we must continue in His love.  That is a love that always puts others first.  Our love may impose conditions, but His never does. Verse ten adds, If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.  Jesus, during His earthly ministry, rested securely in the love of the heavenly Father.  He never questioned that love, and neither should we.  We should keep His commandments, not out of fear of punishment if we fail, but out of love for God, even when we do fail.  God does not stop loving us when we fail to live up to His commandments, neither should we stop loving Him.  All we can do is confess our sins, ask God's forgiveness, and accept the fact that we are still His.  We are to abide in His love and not His wrath.  We are not called to be angry at the world, but to love as Jesus loved. Verse eleven continues, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.  As followers of Christ, we should be full of joy, because we have the joy of Christ in us.  Jesus did not say when life was treating us fairly that we should be joyful, but instead as long as His joy was in us, our joy should be full.  Jesus said as long as His joy remains in us, and as His followers, that should be always, our joy should be full.  Salvation should make us joyful people.  How full of joy are we as His followers today?  We need to become a joyful people once again.  Verse twelve concludes, This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.  How are we to love?  We are to love as Jesus loved us.  Jesus again rold His disciples to love one another. 

John 15:6

John 15:6 says, If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." This is a warning to those who profess to follow Christ but are never truly rooted to Him in faith.  There are many today who will profess Christ to enhance their own standing in the world, but they not only do not bear fruit, but they also soon wither and die.  They soon die in faith and are cut off and burned.  We are not called to judge those who profess to follow Christ, but their works and the fruit they bear will judge them.  We may fool the world today, but eventually we will stand before Christ, and if we are not truly His, we will be cast out into the fire.  Verse seven adds, If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it will be done unto you.  The key is abiding in Jesus and having His word abide in us.  When this is true, we will realize that He never said I will give you everything you want.  We cannot make this promise about material things.  We are to rely on God to meet our needs, but not to satisfy our desires.  He will give us what we need, but we may not need what we desire.  Verse eight continues, Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.  This means that we live under the Lordship of Christ that the fruits of the Spirit may be manifest in us.  This always has to do with spiritually being under God's direction and never to do with material wealth or wellbeing.  We must follow the example that Jesus set.

John 15:4

John 15:4 says, Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.  Jesus left no doubt that the only way that we could produce fruit, which is to advance the kingdom of God, is if we abide in His will and the Holy Spirit abides in us.  This relationship should be so close that it is as essential as breathing.  Jesus didn't say that occasionally this should be the case, but we are to abide in Him and He in us.  That means to live in His will.  Verse five adds, I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.  I have never really spent a lot of time caring for fruit vines, but I do know that as long as the main vine is alive, the branches can bear fruit.  It takes work to maintain the vine, and it takes work to maintain our relationship with God.  That is not saying we work for or to maintain salvation, but we must make sure that we are always firmly planted in the will of God.  Only then can we bring forth any fruit for the kingdom.  It is not a one or two day abiding in the will of God.  That would not be abiding but visiting.  We cannot just go to church, but we must take the church to the world daily.  Until we do, abiding in the power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot expect to bring forth much fruit.  Without the leadership and power of the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing.  Jesus didn't say we could do very little, but that we could do nothing.  I have heard plans and programs promoted as certain ways to reach the lost.  I have been told to just decide how many people I wanted to reach, apply the program, and success was assured.  I am not saying planning is wrong, but that Jesus is the key to salvation.  We often put more faith in our plans and abilities than in God.  Remember, without Him, we can do nothing.

John 15:1

John 15:1 says, I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman."  Jesus said He is the true vine.  He compared Himself to a lowly vine.  He was a vine that is planted and not something growing up wild, because He was tended by the Father.  The vine Jesus was speaking of had a purpose, as did Jesus.  He was to do what the Father prepared Him to do.  Verse two adds, Jesus said, Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bear more fruit.  The followers of Christ are the branches.  Not all who profess to follow Christ are really firmly grafted into Him, and they will bear no fruit and will be taken away.  I believe this means more than just reaching the lost.  We must have every aspect of our lives reliant on Jesus's nurturing.  We cannot do anything outside of Him that is for the glory of God.  Those that do bear fruit will be purged.  God will remove from our lives those things that hinder us from producing fruit.  We are not called to bear fruit once and the go our own way, but to bear fruit and be purged to bear fruit continually.  Verse three, continues, Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  The only way to be spiritually clean is through belief in the word of God that Jesus is the only way to be spiritually clean.  If we are made clean by Him, then the Father will continue to purge our lives of sin.  We still have the ability to ignore His purging, but if we are to effectively bear fruit, we must submit to God's will and allow sin to continually be purged from our lives.

John 14:28

John 14:28 says, Ye have heard how I say unto you I go away and come again unto you.  If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I.  Jesus was still attempting to prepare the disciples for His upcoming crucifixion. If we are attuned to the will of God, we will not be blindly led into any situation.  God will be at work in our hearts to prepare us.  Jesus told the disciples they should rejoice at what was about to happen, because it would fulfill Jesus's purpose in coming the first time and free Him for coming again to claim His own.  He was going to the Father, Who was greater than Him because the Father had no physical restraints, nor would the Holy Spirit Who was coming to Jesus's followers. The cross should bring rejoicing, because it was the fulfillment of God's plan of salvation.  Verse twenty-nine adds. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.  Jesus said He told them beforehand so that when it came to pass, they would believe.  We can look back on the fact of the cross, and it wouldn't be long before the first disciples could also.  Even at the point when they were feeling defeated, Jesus told them that when they understood His saving act on the cross, they would know what He had told them was true.  If we are following Christ, we may not always understand why things are happening that don't make sense, but if we have been listening to God, He will have prepared us for it.  Then, when we look back, we will understand how He was at work in our lives.  Verse thirty continues, Hereafter, I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.   Jesus told them He wouldn't talk with them much more, because the prince of the world was coming and he had nothing to do with Jesus.  Satan was to be given power for a time, but it is limited.  Verse thirty-one concludes, But that the world might know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.  What Jesus was doing was for the glory of the Father, so He said, "Arise let us go hence."  So, that is what we must do today.  Arise, and be about God's work.