The Notes are Good

When we read these verses in John 15 and get to the part about pruning, we probably cringe a little.  Even when it is for our own good, we don’t like pruning.  It sounds painful.

But, the message is clear, we need to do more pruning in our lives, not less.  And, the first area that we need to prune relates to time.

As hard as we may want it to be different, there are only so many hours in a day.  In those hours we fill them up with a lot of “good” activity.  We make commitments with family, friends, partners, work, organizations, and even ourselves.  We are busy, busy people.  We are busy, busy people doing “good” things.

But which of those things are bearing fruit?

Why aren’t more Christians active in their faith?  The number one reason given is that they are too busy. Of Christians in America, only 20% attend a worship service weekly.  Of those who attend worship service only 20% read the bible more than once a week.

How do we expect to bear fruit when we are not receiving nourishment?

Why do we keep participating in things that aren’t bearing fruit and taking our time away from those that do and those that nourish us?  I think the answer is in three parts.

First, we get into a rut.  We go from day to day, commitment to commitment, busy to busy, and we don’t think and assess things from a higher vantage point.  This is one reason it is so important to occasionally pull back, retreat, block out some quiet time that you do not fill up with things already on your list, but that you assess the things you are engaged in, that fill up your time, against the criteria of bearing fruit.

Second, we don’t know how to get out.  We really don’t want to disappoint other people and we get ourselves into situations where we have made a commitment and we don’t know how to end it.  But God gives us the answer to this as well, it is called seasons.  Pruning one activity so that we can begin a new one does not mean we are saying the first activity is bad or something we are rejecting.  We are saying it was great for a season and now we are entering a different season of life.  This also gives us a way of communicating effectively to those we are stepping away from.  It is a way of confirming that value of what we are a part of for the season of life we were in, but that it is now time for us, in this season of life, to move to something else. (keeping in mind that while it may not be producing fruit in our season of life, that does not mean it cannot be producing fruit for others).

Third, I think we sometimes take pride in the importance of our busy-ness.  How often have you heard the conversation, “How are things going?  Good, we are staying really, really busy.”  We get so caught up in being busy and being proud of how much we must be wanted and needed, that we get too busy to see what all this busy-ness is taking away from our lives.  How it takes away the opportunity to listen to God and what he has called us to do.  There is a big difference between working on lots of things and working on the right things, and aren’t the right things the things that produce fruit?

My Answers:

6.
With Children, at work, with family, in church

7.
It is, in the same way there can be “bible on the bookshelf” christians, who put faith in Jesus but have disconnected from Him in practice and are not living a life of faith.  James 2, faith without work is dead

8.
Focus on being healthier.  Blood numbers weren’t where they should be.  To continue to do the work God has given me, I need to stay healthy and able to perform which means I need to eat right and exercise.

I love the visual that Jesus provides of the vine and the branches.  When we are in the right path in life we are so securely connected to the Lord that we are part of the same living organism.  The nourishment that we need for eternal life comes up out of the eternal roots of the plant (from the Father), through the vine (Jesus) and into us, the branches.  The Holy Spirit is the connecting fluid flowing throughout, bringing the nourishment deep into us.

Not only that, but the illustration puts it in the right order.  We connect to Jesus, not the other way around.  Jesus isn’t something that we add to our life to make us feel whole.  We are chosen by the master gardener to be grafted on to Jesus, taking something that was weak and frail (us) and making it a part of something eternal and holy.

But the same illustration shows our propensity to sin as well.  Just like a branch, we wander, seeking out the next shiny thing to get our attention.  We don’t completely let go of Jesus, and He for sure does not let go of us, but we stretch ourselves out reaching for the lusts of temptation.  We sometimes not only reach out, but be bind ourselves around those other things.  They are always things of this earth, nothing but rocks or wooden (including things like shiny rocks such as gold and jewels and coins and paper money).  We get ourselves so wrapped around these things that, in a  storm, we pull against the direction of our vine and we can be hurt and damaged.

When this occurs, the master gardener helps prune us back, again giving us the strength and nourishment that we cannot receive in chasing after wandering ways.

My Answers:

3.
We are not on our own or disconnected, we are tied to Christ, we are connected to Him and receive life through the connection in him

4.
Earlier he had washed their feet and explained they were already clean because they had received His word, and walked with Him.   Psalm 51, Create in me a pure heart, o God, and renew a right spirit in me, — If any one is thirsty let him come to me and drink John 7:37

5.
This is about where we draw strength, not whether we are or are not saved.  We often, through sin, pull away from Christ and attempt to find power in ourselves.

For most of us, there is something special about home.  It may have been the home of your childhood or the home you made with your spouse.  It could also be a home that you are looking forward to one day, here on this earth or even the home Jesus has promised believers in heaven.  There are emotions and a fullness that comes with our thoughts and our yearnings for home.  It is far more than just a house.

I think it is one way that we can understand the gift of peace that Jesus discusses.  Peace is far more than the absence of war or the absence of conflict, in the same way that light is more than the absence of darkness.  It is a real thing in and of itself.  It is the feeling we have in our heart when we dream of home.  A feeling of calm and comfort, of love.  And it is a reflection of the home we are destined to: heaven.

But, while heaven is and will be our home, as it is the home of our Father and our Brother, it is not Satan’s home.  Satan is the prince of the Earth.  He does not have a home in heaven and he has no peace.  His dominion is one of lies and unrest of conflict and fear. And, when this world ends, Satan will see his end as well in a lake of fire, but we in peace in Heaven will go on for eternity.

My Answers:

12.
“He” has no hold, not it, but He.  He comes (and even in his coming of evil he serves the purposes of the Father).  He is the devil, He has been cast out of heaven and has no home there.  He is a liar and the father of lies.  He is a brother to the sin of this world, not a child of God because he rejects God and rejects Jesus

13.
“He” has no hold, not it, but He.  He comes (and even in his coming of evil he serves the purposes of the Father).  He is the devil, He has been cast out of heaven and has no home there.  He is a liar and the father of lies.  He is a brother to the sin of this world, not a child of God because he rejects God and rejects Jesus

There may be many different interpretations of what the gospel means in John 14 related to “that day”.  I believe the time that Jesus was discussing was the day, after His ascension, that the Holy Spirit would come into the apostles.  That day was Pentecost when they were gathered together and the gift manifested itself in their professing the good news in many tongues with flames of fire.

I believe that day comes for us when we accept the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice and the Holy Spirit is given to us as a seal of the commitment of God that we are His adopted children.

But, that begs the question, if I’m filled by the Holy Spirit, why do I keep sinning?  Why do I feel so hollow at times?  Why do I fear and worry?

This is an area where not having a background in the Jewish faith puts us at a disadvantage.  Pentecost was a holy day long before the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the Apostles on that day.  It is called Shavu’ot.  49 days, 7 weeks of 7 days are counted leading up to the day of Shavu’ot from the second day of Passover.  The 50^th day is the day of celebration.  The celebration is also called the Festival of Weeks because of the counting of the weeks leading to it.  It jointly celebrates the First Fruits of the Harvest and it also celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai.

One point I thought was interesting, quoting from the website, jewfaq.org, “It is noteworthy that the holiday is called the time of the giving of the Torah, rather than the time of the receiving of the Torah.  The sages point out that we are constantly in the process of receiving the Torah, that we receive it every day, but it was first given at this time, thus it is the giving, not the receiving, that makes this holiday significant.”

Isn’t it amazing that God used this holiday as a foreshadowing of the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers in Jesus.  And, like a book, especially, like the bible, we receive Him, the Holy Spirit, day after day after day, entering into a deeper relationship and being transformed by His presence in our hearts and minds.  This illuminates why and how we have been given the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on the day we accept Jesus as our savior, yet we receive Him more and more each day.

My Answers:

9.
The day of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  For those in the room, it was Pentecost.  For us, it is the day we accept Jesus as our savior and we are born again

10.
to have his commands and keep them is to love Jesus.  Those who love Jesus are loved by the Father and loved in return by Jesus and Jesus will reveal himself to them/us/those he loves
It has helped me see things in a bigger light of a tapestry that was unwoven by sin, but now has been retied and rewoven

11.
teach you all things, remind you of everything Jesus has said – Both, because they go together.  I need both teaching and reminding, more in-depth education and the day-to-day drill and practice of what I know.  I know the difference between right and wrong (in most cases), but I still choose to falter and sin.  I need the reminder, the coach.

I love the message and the pictures in John 14:20-21.  It is a picture of total connection.  The image that comes to my mind is a chain.  Now, I understand that we often have a negative impression of chains: the chains of bondage and oppression and slavery.  But chains have very positive meaning as well.  They embody strength and flexibility.  They provide an accurate measure (in land surveying a chain was often used for measurement).  They also a good metaphor for the connection of us with God.  The three persons of God are perfectly interconnected.  The Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, The Holy Spirit also linked in each of them.  And the message of these verses in John 14 is an invitation, a promise, of a gift that will reconnect us into that Spiritual Chain.  We are not just outside, but linked directly to God through the Holy Spirit inside of us.

I think this is how it originally was in the Garden.  Man was not God but he was in God’s image and shared a connection that was broken when we opened our link in the chain to sin instead of Love.  But, by Jesus becoming fully man, He has restored the link.

My Answers:

6.
Advocate – One who supports and recommends on our behalf
Spirit of Truth – One who is in spirit and is inherently true and the truth
Holy Spirit – Holy, Set apart, God, Spirit is the nature, breath of God, Mist, not of the physical dimension/world but of the spiritual

7.
He is a he, He is not visible but real, He can be known, He is given by the Father and stays forever (he is eternal), we will come to them and make our home is Jesus and the H/S on equal footing, he teaches and reminds

8.
Jesus commands us to obey his teaching, through obedience we show our love for Him and the Father shows his love for us in return.  The words of Jesus we are to obey are not his alone, but also those of the Father.  Without bible study we do not know the word of God, given as a gift for us for God to reveal himself to us so we may know and repent and love Him

Can you even imagine what it was like for the Apostles win the room with Jesus?  We are taking this a week at a time, but we need to keep in mind the last few weeks have all occurred in a matter of minutes, not hours.  The confirmation that Jesus’ death was imminent, one of the men at the table would be a betrayer, Peter would deny Jesus 3 times, that Jesus was going away but would come again, that He was going to Heaven and now this – there is a third person to God that is coming.

They would have grown up with the idea of monotheistic God.  The hints were there throughout the scriptures that the promised one, the messiah would be more than just a man, that He would be Emmanuel, God with us, but now not only is this second person of God, the Son of the Father, leaving, but a third person of God is coming.  Talk about expanding their minds and transforming their thoughts.

But, at the same time, they must have felt a comfort in this as well.  They longed to have God close to themselves.  They would have grown up with the wearing of the verses from Deuteronomy on their wrist and forehead, literally, not just figuratively.  They would have worn tassels and not trimmed the corners of their beards.  They wanted a private personal connection with God, not just at the temple but every day in every part of their life.  And now, Jesus has revealed to them not only would the Spirit of Truth be sent to them but that He would live in them, connecting them from the inside with God: Father, Son and Spirit.

But Jesus also points out to them that they already know the Spirit.  You know Him, He says.  And they do.  In the same way that they know the Father by knowing Jesus, they also know the Holy Spirit.  They also know the scriptures which are breathed through the Holy Spirit and they know God in creation where the mist of the Holy Spirit was part of the forming of the physical world that we know.

My Answers:

3.
I = Jesus, the Father=Father, Advocate/Spirit of Truth=Holy Spirit.  Separate by the use of the word “another”.  Holy Spirit is a “him”

4.
You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  The H/S is alive in me, shaping me and making me holier into the image of Jesus

5.
The connectivity in love of vs 20, Jesus in the Father, me in Jesus, Jesus in me, the Holy Spirit with and in me..  It is the way we were created to be, the original relationship of Adam with God

It is hard to fathom doing greater works than the Son of God. What is it that Jesus is saying in John 14:12-14 when He says, “they will do even greater things than these”?

There are two good references to answer this question. First, is the word itself. In Greek, the word used is Megas. It is important to note it is not Kalos. Megas is more or bigger. Kalos is better. When Jesus says we will do greater work, He isn’t saying our work will be better than His, but it will be megas, bigger, more.

The second is to look at where else in the bible this specific term is used. In this case, that is easy because it is used only in one other place, in John 5.:20. This was the story of the invalid that Jesus healed on the Sabbath and all the religious leaders could see was the sin of the man carrying his mat on the Sabbath, not that he had been healed. Jesus responds to their rebuke with, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.” It is interesting to note that the one doing the work is the Father and the one who gets to see it being done, first hand, is the Son.

As Jesus continues in John 14, “because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” He shows that the greater works are not because we have some special skill, but because He, Jesus, is going to the Father. Just as the Father did greater works that Jesus observed first hand, Jesus will do greater works that we will observe first hand. We are the many, the mirrors, the megas that reflect the light of His greater works so the whole world may be amazed.

My Answers:

11

Don’t you know me? How can you say…?

 

12.

1. The words he has said, 2. the evidence of the works. “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

 

13.

Whoever believes in me will do the works I’ve been doing and even greater works. This is because they/we have the full power of Jesus at the right hand of the Father, plus the indwelling of the Holy Spirit whom He has sent.

 

We are called to be followers of Jesus Christ. But I often find myself exactly in the same place as Thomas. I want to know where we are going!

If you think about it, it is a silly request. What am I going to do, figure out a better path to get there than the one Jesus is leading me on? Is it going to get me there better? Faster? Does Jesus need me to navigate for him?

It must be the equivalent to Jesus of someone constantly asking “are we there, yet?”

The analogy I heard the other day that puts this in perspective was a soldier discussing what it was like to walk through a field of landmines. The best approach, he said, is to step directly in the footsteps of the one who knows the true and safe path. Your focus is on the next step, the picking up and putting down, the light on the pathway. You are not concerned with or thinking about “I don’t know the path.” You are following. Your feet go in the footsteps of the one who went before you.

Sometimes we forget that this life is full of landmines and we have the one who knows the only path. He has cleared the path through His sacrifice, even laying down His life. We don’t need to know what God has in mind for us for the future, we just need to know where to put our foot so it lands where Jesus leads.

My Answers:

8.

He is the living God, the son of God, who is not simply part of history, but alive today and coming to earth again to retrieve all who believe in Him and accept His gift of salvation and eternal life in heaven.

 

9.

He saw Jesus as a separate entity from God, missing the connectivity of the Trinity. He saw Jesus as higher than man, but not equivalent to the Father.

I am blinded by my own self-reliance and plans to pray for direction and wait and listen before moving on.

 

10.

The word the means exclusivity – there is no other way to God. It is impossible to be a child of God and reject Jesus, the only son of the Father. Any other path is a false path, a path that leads not to life but to death. There are not many paths to Heaven, only one.

 

I’m sure the revelation to Peter that his conviction to Jesus was not nearly as strong as he boasted was hard. Ok, let’s face it, if it was us, we would have been swimming in an emotional stew. There is so much going on in this upper room. Jesus has been talking about death and going away and that the time is now. Peter, strong in conviction and strong in might, boldly asks the question, “Why can’t I follow you?” All he wants to do is be a follower of Jesus. All he has done for 3 years is follow and learn. He has repeatedly recognized by the power of the Holy Spirit who Jesus really is. He isn’t confused in the way of some of the others; He knows that Jesus is the Messiah that Son of the Living God. And, in his mind and every intention of his being he would be willing to lay down his life for Jesus.

But, then there is fear. Over and over again in the scriptures we are told to not be afraid. Fear is the blade that Satan attempts to use to cut our connectivity to God. It is not rational thought. It is not logic. It is not evidence or references. It is fear. When we are in the grasp of fear we grasp for things to hold onto. We run away. We lie. We do things we would normally not ever intend to do.

But that is where the next verse in John comes in. John 14:1, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me.” The alternative to fear is faith. It isn’t fleeing. It isn’t faltering. It isn’t fighting (self-reliance). These sentences provide the two doors that we can pass through. We can let our hearts be troubled OR we can believe in God and believe in Jesus. Jesus calls us to take door #2.

But, what if you’ve already taken door number one? What if fear pulls you into sin? The wonderful word that Peter heard and that we are told as well, as believers, is the word: WHEN.

In Luke 22:31, the last sentence is the most important for Peter and for us. And WHEN you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. It is not IF you turn back. It is WHEN. It is always WHEN. Satan does not have the power to snatch us from the hand of our Lord. He is given the power, by God, to put us through trials. To exercise our faith. To give us all kinds of fears in our lives. But, WHEN we turn back, we have more than we have before. Through those experiences that we call fear and failure, our faith is strengthened. We have more to give to others. We are more connected with each other and with God.

We can always come back and go through Door #2!

My Answers:

6.

Instead of being willing to lay down his life, Peter would deny that he knows Jesus 3 times that night (But Jesus has prayed for him and knows that he will turn back and strengthen himself and his brothers from the experience).

 

7.

It is never up to me or my strength if I am in the will of God, Ps 118:6-7, “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies.”

 

There is a difference between Love and being In Love. It is like the difference between there being a house and being in the house, or there being a group and being in the group, a family and being in the family. It is the difference between something that is “out there” and something that you are in, connected to and with, a part of.

Too often we talk about love as an “out there” thing. Share the love. All you need is love. Love makes the world go around.

But this isn’t what Jesus discusses or what He modeled. The model He provides is His and the Father’s love. We see it throughout our verses for today.

The son of man is glorified and God is glorified IN him.

If God is glorified IN him, God will glorify the Son IN himself

This is connectivity at its pentacle. The love of the Trinity within itself of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to connected that it is impossible to distinguish where one love begins and another connects.

This is the love Jesus called His disciples to have. An “In” kind of love. He didn’t command them to love. He commanded them to “love one another”. To be connected, joined, be part of the “in” of what made them something bigger.

This is how Jesus loved them. It wasn’t just the washing of feet, the patience, or even the willingness to die for them. These were all just external manifestations of what He was really calling them to do, which is to connect “In Love.”

This is hard. This level of connection means the facades we put up around our messed up lives come down. We open up. We spend time together in thick and thin. We keep promises. We do not look only for win-win solutions, sometimes we look for win-lose solutions, were we lose to help the other person win.

But this is the difference between the way Jesus loves us by being IN us and the love we too often pass off as “doing our Christian duty.” It is being in a community, a family, a church (in the realest sense of that word) with other believers.

And, isn’t it what we long for in the deepest parts of our soul? God built us to be IN love, IN His Love, IN the Love of His Church which is the Bride of His Son, to have the Holy Spirit dwell IN us as the glue that connects us to the Father and Son and them with us and with each other.

My Answers:

3.

Glorified in this sense is a transformation from the blank slate of being a sinless man to taking on the sin of the world and bearing it on the cross, carrying it into death and, in so doing, paying the price in full for sin, rising again to human life and ascending to sit at the right hand of God. This is permanent and eternal and divine, connect the physical and spiritual worlds. In contrast man’s glory and fame are momentary recognitions of temporary accomplishments to the acclaim of other men.

 

4.
a.

Love one another as I have loved you. This is a higher than the do unto others command in that it is not just how I would like others to love me, but how did/does Jesus love me, and to bestow that love to others

b.

15. As the Father has loved Jesus and Jesus remains in the love of the Father, remain in Jesus’ love and obey and love each other. It is an interweaving, a connection or communion. As Timothy Keller says, a divine dance

2. There is no room for hatred in the brotherly and sisterly love that Christ provides. Someone who continues to hate is in darkness

3. Love with actions, be willing to lay down life (and possessions) for brothers and sisters in need. Have pity/compassion.

5.

To help me love others deeper and with more compassion, especially those brothers and sisters in need of my time and attention and compassion. Help me to be a joyful giver and not to become judgmental and/or frustrated.