Read: John 15.1-8

I’m not going to lie to you, this passage is very difficult for me. I have a hard time it, and the last thing I desire is to misinterpret God’s Word and then post it on the inter webs for all the world to see. At the same time, I think it would be an injustice to skip over it completely. It is okay for you to see me struggle, just as it is okay to not have the answers to everything. So I am going to put what is in my heart about it, and I hope that you look at it, pray about it, study it out for yourself, and let me know what you think about it!

John 15.1-8
There is such beautiful imagery here. I think of swirling and intricate vines spreading out and taking over. These vines all come from one source... Jesus. God is the husbandman, tending to the branches and the fruit that [should] come with. Where it gets a bit “choppy” for me is verse 2. I know, I didn’t have to go far to be confused! Verse 2 states, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he take the away...” and this sentiment is repeated again in verse 6, “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.”

I’m sorry...what? Now, I have heard these verses explain in two primary ways. The first being wrong, wrong, wrong. There are people who use this verse to support the heretical idea that you can lose your salvation. Let me state where I Biblically and firmly stand on that heresy: you CANNOT LOSE YOUR SALVATION. Listen, dears, you can’t save yourself so when did anyone become powerful enough to pluck themselves out of God’s hand. Anywhom, that isn’t the dead horse I want to beat today. Main point being I clearly don’t give any thought towards that interpretation of this passage.

The second way I’ve heard it explained is that the branches that are taken off of the Vine represent people who have made a profession of faith but aren’t really saved; people who are “playing” Christian. This is probably the most common way that I have heard it interpreted, and since I don’t agree with the alternative view concerning these verses (see above so I don’t hop back on that soapbox), I just went with this view. But upon closer examination, specifically while trying to write this post the first time what feels like a year ago, I had to halt because the explanation was giving me fits and some things just weren’t clicking for me. For this passage, the idea that gave me pause was the concept of “false” Christians being a part of the Vine that is Christ. So bear with me while I try to explain how I came to this conclusion.

Verse 4a says, “Abide in me (Jesus), and I in you.” That tells me that the branches on the Vine are abiding in Christ, pretty self explanatory at this point. Here is my question, how can someone who is NOT a Christian abide in Christ, or be on the Vine in the first place? I know that God is not deceived by people who claim to be Christian but are not, so how did they manage to get on the Vine? But then I thought about passages like Romans 11.11-24. (I urge you to go read the passage for yourself, this will be waiting here for you to return.) The passage talks about how through the failure of Israel to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, salvation is come to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy and ultimately to repentance. Continuing on, it talks about some of the branches of that root/tree being broken off and us (Gentiles) as a wild olive tree, being graffed among the other branches of this tree.

I think it is important to remember that at the time Christ was speaking in John 15, he hadn’t died and resurrected yet, and His ministry was still to Israel. Everyone there during this conversation was an Old Testament Jew. Could it be then, that Jesus was talking about the branches being Israel? Because they have, since God ordained them as His chosen people long ago, abode in Christ. And if that is the case, then would it not make more sense for the branches that are broken off to represent Jewish people who rejected Jesus as the Messiah? For me, this makes more sense contextually, Biblically, and chronologically in the context of Christ’s conversation to not be aimed at Gentile Christians since that focus didn’t come until after His resurrection (think Paul, missionary to the Gentiles).

At at the end of the day, God meant what he meant no matter what any of us perceive it to be. And I do believe that we can look for practical applications of this passage as Gentile Christians, such as:

1. One of the marks of a Christian is that they bear fruit. If a person who claims to be Christian isn’t bearing fruit, maybe a good hard look at their faith is in order.
2. We may (as Christians) be purged or trimmed up to rid us of things that are distracting us or getting in the way of us bearing fruit.
3. Yes, being purged (which is not the same as a branch being taken away) will hurt, but we know that God has our best at heart.

I may may be right, I may be wrong, but I trust that God knows what it going on in the Word that He wrote. I am interested to read what you think these verses mean, leave a comment below!!!

Read: John 13.1-17

Passover dinner. A room of 13. Jesus’ last free moments with His disciples.

One might think that Jesus would spend this time for many other things like witnessing or ministering. Instead, one of the first things that Jesus does in these moments is to wash the feet of His disciples. These men who wholeheartedly dedicated the last three years of their lives to literally follow Christ. These men who by all means should be washing the feet of Jesus. And yet, Jesus takes the time to SERVE them, even Judas who he knew would betray Him.

There are so many things that could be unpacked from this passage, but I'd like to keep it simple. Jesus did not shy away from serving others, He didn't even think He was above serving others. He gladly served, and He should be our example.

In a world that is run by a selfish this for that system, when was the last time you served someone with no expectation of a return or even without desiring a pat on the back? It's so simple. Just a task here or there. Reaching something for someone on a high shelf, taking a meal to a family, doing something sweet for a loved one just because.

There is a way to be be like Jesus… Simply Serve.

This week, I challenge you to do something, or better yet, several somethings, for others without any expectation.

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Read John 12.10-18

From verses 10-11, we know (and have known) that the chief priests have been conspiring to kill Jesus. But verse 12 is sort of a plot twist. As Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, the people threw down palm branches to make way for the Lord and cried Hosanna to praise Him.

Jesus knew the time was coming for His death, but the people were praising Him because they thought He was coming as a literal ruler to break them from Roman rule. As per usual, the people were looking for an immediate and physical fix to their problems. Jesus was trying to point them to the eternal solution.

Unfortunately, this is how society treats Jesus today. They want Jesus to heal, fix, and give RIGHT NOW! And those Jesus can do these things and does answer prayers, it is so important for Christians to remember that the end game is saving souls from an eternity separated from God. We shouldn't let our praise to God be situational and only when we think He has done well by us and “earned” it. We should praise God continually.

Each breath is a gift, and each day is a blessing, even in impossibly hard situations. Compared to eternity, when we look back at our lives now, we will see how quick this life was even if it feels like forever now.

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Read: John 12.1-9

Many times, when doing things for God, we, as Christians, are ridiculed and mocked. Or sometimes, people criticize our deeds because they don’t understand or for many other reasons.

That must have been how Mary, Lazarus’ sister, felt at the beginning of this chapter… ridiculed and mocked. During a dinner, Mary brought in some very expensive and fragrant ointment and used it to annoint Jesus’ feet. Afterwards, she used her hair to wipe His feet off. Nowadays in orthodox Jewish culture, a woman’s hair is meant for her husband’s eyes only. The women will oftentimes wear a wig in public. I can’t say for this specific time in history, but I think that we can agree that this was a very intimate act of humility. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people at that dinner were curious and maybe a little uncomfortable at what was happening in front of them, and one person even said something out loud.

Judas, the betrayer, pipes up and exclaims that Mary should have sold that ointment for quite a bit of money and given it to the poor. You may initially agree with Judas, but he mainly vocalized this because he was the keeper of the purse, a snake, and a thief.

Notice Mary’s response.

Exactly. Nothing. She may not have known the significance of her actions. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were doing this to praise Jesus because He brought her brother, Lazarus, back to life. But when someone stood against her actions, instead of getting loud mouthed and spouting back, she just silently endured. And you know what? Jesus came to her defense. He honored her actions, knew she was sincere in her worship, surveyed what was happening, and stood up for Mary.

When God calls us to action, we may be scared of what others think, but it doesn’t really matter. Being obedient to God’s call is more important than others opinions. We can also remember that when people speak out against us for standing for God, we don’t have to worry about defending ourselves and our situation, God can do that all on His own.

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Read: John 10.15-40

As we continue in verse 15, Jesus is stating that He will lay down His life for the sheep. I love the important truth that Jesus has for us in verse 17-18, “...because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again…”

We have got to understand that Jesus was making a sacrifice for us. He knew that He must die, and He chose to die knowing that He would rise again and that we may live eternally with HIm. Moreover, He even gives us a choice as well. Jesus doesn’t force us to accept His gift no matter how much it must hurt to see people throw His sacrifice away.

Jesus goes on to explain in verses 27-29 that His sheep will not perish, and get this, no man will be able to pluck His sheep out of His hand. Please hear this, if you are a Christian, a true follower of Christ, no one can take your salvation or make you unsaved.... Not even yourself.

There are a lot of religions and even “Christian” denominations out there that teach their people that you can lose your salvation. Let me ask you this, who are we to think that we are more powerful than God?

We are just men whose salvation depends on the Faithful One. Our only choice is to accept or reject His gift. Christianity is not works based because there is NOTHING we could to earn God’s favor. To think we can work or earn our way to heaven or that we could lose our salvation is to think very highly of ourselves and not very highly of God.

God is more powerful, more loving, more just than anything we could imagine. So I pray that the choice you’ve made is with our Creator, to follow Him to eternity. I also pray that as believers, we can be CONFIDENT that Christ took care of it all on the cross, and that God can handle anything we throw at Him.

Jesus goes through all of this with the crowds, which seems like great news, but to them, it was blasphemy. They actually took up stones to cast at Jesus (verse 31). The pattern never changes. Jesus is the Savior of the world, yet when He is around, most people were aiming to harm or be rid of Him. It is the same today, more so in other countries but even in our own. The presence of Jesus in our lives and our very faith cause people to “take up arms” whether that be literally (as in China or many Middle Eastern countries) or legally (like we’ve seen here in America). It is prudent that as Christians, we realize that Jesus never said following Him was going to be a cake walk filled with health, wealth, and prosperity. He said if the world hated Him, they most surely will hate us for His sake. That doesn’t mean we should walk around being hateful or ridiculous since they will do the same to us. It just means to not be surprised when people don’t respond to the cross or the faith like we think they should and don’t be offended when people are offended by the things of Christ. Do your duty as a Christ follower and let God handle everything else.

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Read: John 10.1-14

There are so many awesome things in this chapter and really noteable and well known verses such as John 10.10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and the they might have it more abundantly.” That’ll preach. But for today, there are some other things I’d like to bring our attention to.

The chapter is opened up by a comparison to sheep and how sheep know their shepherd’s voice. Now this may not have any relevant meaning to us, but i believe it is always important to look at what Jesus was saying to the people with cultural lenses on. Remember that the people to whom Jesus was speaking with would have completely understood His references because it would have been a part of everyday life for them. I have a story that I hope with clarify how literally the “sheep knowing the shepherd’s voice” parable is.

I had a college professor who was previously a missionary to Israel. He told us that while he was in Israel, he was walking down a road at the same time as a shepherd that was leading his sheep. My professor thought of this passage of scripture and decided to try out and see if sheep really knew their shepherd’s voice.

He asked the shepherd to go up the road a short distance and call the sheep to him. Sure enough, they moseyed up the road to the shepherd. He then asked the shepherd if he could try the same thing. My professor went up the road and called the sheep… lo and behold, they did not move. He tried this back and forth with the shepherd a couple of times to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. But the sheep never did follow after my professor.

I love that story because it is a reminder that Jesus was speaking on a very understandable level for the people. He didn’t come to impress people with His knowledge and PhD, He came for real people. All that to say this… only those who truly belong to Christ will follow Him. Like the beginning of the chapter lays out, others may try to come and assume the shepherd’s position or take the sheep, but only the true shepherd will be followed and protect His own. John 10.11 says, “ I (Jesus) am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” and on further in verse 14, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

Jesus knows His followers and cannot be tricked into taking those who aren’t His, just as no one can truly steal sheep from His fold. Sure, we may wander or lag behind, but we are still Christ’s and He won’t ever let us be lost to Him. Let us make sure that we are following Christ as our shepherd over all.

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