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Study on the Gospel of John Chapter 15

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The upper room discourse (chapter 13-17) continues; Jesus teaches disciples, love (13), the Holy Spirit (14) and, in chapter 15, “I am the true vine.”. In chapter 15, and He commands them, “abide in me and you will bear much fruit”. To do that you,

  • love Me, which means obeying (10)
  • love one another (12-17)
  • will be persecuted (18-25)
  • with the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who bears witness of me, you will also bear witness of me (26-27)

As a result, your joy may be full which is my joy. (11)

Outline and Exposition

The Vine and the Branches (1-17)

(7) it will be done for you: see the study of chapter 14 (v. 13)

(8) Father is glorified: the Father is glorified in the work of the Son, and he is also glorified in the fruit-bearing of disciples

  • (13:31) Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him
  • (Mt 7:20) Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

(10)  If you keep my commandments: again the importance of obedience (14:15, 21, 23), and again the example of Christ (14:31)

love: obedience and love go together (14:15,21,23; 1Jn 2:5)

(13) Greater love: Christ’s love was not only in words but also in his sacrificial death

  • (Ep 5:25) Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

(15) servants … friends: a servant is simply an agent, doing what his master commands and often not understanding his master’s purpose. But Jesus takes his friends into his confidence.

all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you: from,

  • (16:12) “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”

we learn that though Jesus had let his disciples know as much as they were able to absorb of the Father’s plan, the revelation was not yet complete. The Spirit would make other things known in due course.

  • (16:13) When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

(16) I chose you …  bear fruit: disciples normally chose the particular rabbi to whom they wanted to be attached, but it was not so with Jesus’ disciples. He chose them, and for a purpose - the bearing of fruit.

  • (2) Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

We usually desire a strong prayer life in order that we may be fruitful, but here it is the other way around. Jesus enables us to bear fruit, and then the Father will hear our prayers.

The World Hates the Disciples (18-27)

(18) the world: refers to the human system that opposes God’s purpose

(21) they will do to you: because Christians do not belong to the world, persecution from the world is inevitable. The basic reason is the world’s ignorance and rejection of the Father

  • (16:3) And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

(22) no excuse: privilege and responsibility go together. The Jews had had the great privilege of having the Son of God among them - in addition to having received God’s special revelation in the OT. Those who rejected him were totally guilty and without excuse. If he had not come to them, they would still have been sinners, but they would not have been guilty of rejecting hime directly.

(23) Whoever hates me hates my Father also. : (13:20) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

(25) must be fulfilled: in the end God’s purpose is always accomplished, despite the belief of those who reject Jesus that they have successfully opposed it.

  • (Ps 35:19) Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.

(27) you also: emphatic; believers bear their testimony to Christ in the power of the Spirit.

  • (Ac 1:8) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

But it is their testimony, and they are responsible for bearing it.

from the beginning: the apostles bore the definitive testimony for they were uniquely chosen and taught by Christ and were eyewitnesses of his glory.

  • (Lk 24:48) You are witnesses of these things.
  • (Ac 10:39,41) And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

Topical

I Am the True Vine

(1) I am: Greek: Ἐγώ εἰμι (Egō eimi) and John recorded seven self-descriptions of Jesus with “I am”: (6:35) "the bread of life", (8:12, 9:5) "the light of the world", (10:7,9) "the door of the sheep", (10:11,14) "the good shepherd", (11:25) "the resurrection and the life", (14:6) "the way, and the truth, and the life", and (15:1,5) the true vine. See the study of chapter 6 for detail

the true vine: the vine is frequently used in the OT as a symbol of Israel.

  • (Ps 80:6) You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
  • (Isa 5:2) He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
  • (Her 2:21) Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?

When this imagery is used, Israel is often shown as lacking in some way. Jesus, however, is “the true vine”.

(4) Abide in me: the believer has no fruitfulness apart from union and fellowship with Christ. A branch out of contact with the vine is lifeless.

(5) apart from me you can do nothing: a living union with Christ is absolutely necessary; without it there is nothing

Thrown into the Fire (non Believers)

(2) takes away and (6) thrown into the fire, and burned:  reference to judgment

In light of such passages as,

  • (6:39) And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
  • (10:27-28) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

These branches probably do not represent true believers. Genuine salvation is evidenced by a life of fruitfulness. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

  • (2) Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 
  • (4)  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
  • (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.
  • (Hey 6:9) Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
  • (Mt 7:21) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 

The image of non-fruit-bearing branches being burned pictures eschatological judgment and eternal rejection

  • (Ezek 15:6-8) Therefore thus says the Lord God: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 7 And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them. 8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.”

Prunes (Believers)

(2) every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit: pruning produces fruitfulness. In the NT the figure of good fruit represents the product of a godly life and virtues of character:

  • (Mt 3:8) Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
  • (Mt 7:16-17) You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
  • (Gal 5:22-23) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
  • (Eph 5:9) or the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true
  • (Php 1:11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

(3) Already you are clean: believers are already clean by His words (sums up the message of Jesus),

  • (13:10) Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean

So they need to be pruned not thrown into the fire.

Joy

(11) your joy may be full: “Joy” is mentioned previously in this Gospel only in 3:29, but one of the characteristic notes of the upper room discourse.

  • (16:22) So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
  • (16:24) Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
  • (17:13) But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

The Christian way is never dreary, for Jesus desires his disciples’ joy to be complete

  • (Php 4:4) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 
  • (1Th 5:16) Rejoice always,
  • (1Jn 1:4) And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

References

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