day 15
Closer to Jesus
Embedded Files
📖 read JOHN 15
📖 read JOHN 15
The vine and the branches
1 ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no-one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
17 This is my command: love each other.
The world hates the disciples
18 ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
20 Remember what I told you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.
24 If I had not done among them the works no-one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
25 But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: “They hated me without reason.”
The work of the Holy Spirit
26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me.
27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Some call the Gospel of John the Gospel of belief. Have you noticed how often John mentioned Jesus’ admonishments to people to believe? Faith in Him was the only condition for eternal life. Belief and life are always connected in the Gospel of John.
Though we do not find the word “believe” in chapter 15, another strong verb carries the same meaning. This is the verb abide (remain, stay, dwell). For His farewell sermon, Jesus carefully chose one more metaphor to help His disciples understand how they had to live their lives after He had gone to the Father. He told them about the true Vine, the branches, and the Gardener, cutting off the branches that do not bear fruit and pruning the branches that bear fruit to bear even more fruit. The key to their powerful fruit-producing lives was abiding in Him, the true Vine. And abiding meant nothing more and nothing less than continuing to believe in Him and remaining in His love. They didn’t have to perform; they didn’t have to keep certain rituals and rules but to remember how He laid down His life for them and stay in this love. To help them grasp this spiritual truth, Jesus repeated the verb abide in almost every sentence.
Do not go anywhere from this love, return to it all the time. Abide, abide, abide, because nowhere else will you find such a love as the love of Jesus.
Take a few minutes to meditate on “abiding in the true Vine.” Analyze the fruit in your life. Is there some pruning going on? Remember, it is happening so that you bear even more fruit. Ask Jesus: ”What do You have in Your Word for me today?” Listen and pray
📖 INTERCESSION
"For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
🙏 PRAYER
Pray for the salvation of those who don't believe in Jesus.
Pray for your family: children, brothers, sisters, parents, and relatives.
Pray for your unsaved friends, colleagues at work, and neighbors.
Pray for them by name.
Ask the Holy Spirit to remove the spiritual barriers still hindering them from accepting God’s love.
Page updated
Report abuse