John 15:1-17
Jesus Gives Us Complete Joy
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[a] 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.
Acts 17:26-28
God is Not Far from Any of Us
26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Two thousand years ago there lived a Man, if it is fair to call Him a Man, who lived up to the potential of humanity...This Man followed God completely, and always did God’s Will...Man, on the other hand, does not live up to his potential...Man was made for spirituality, yet we seek out fulfilling our own emotions and desires...Made for love with both God and neighbor, yet, we look see material things as treasures for satisfaction and happiness...Man was made to have complete joy with Jesus, yet we settle for a moment or two of pleasure each day...Made for justice, we often seek revenge...Made for fairness, man often is unforgiving and unfair...Made to seek God and His Will, we often forget that He is even near us...
But Jesus show us the potential of what man can be...He taught about God...And much of what He did was to help others...So we can learn much from these two lessons...
N. T. Wright puts it this way, “Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection...Made for joy, we settle for pleasure...Made for justice, we clamor for vengeance...Made for relationship, we insist on our own way...Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment...But new creation has already begun...The sun has begun to rise...Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world...That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God's new world, which He has thrown open before us.”...