John 15 (Two) Being Clean and in Jesus

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily word count limit. We will also return to placing a blog posting daily for the time being.

In order to follow this you ought to have read from the first posting in the series – John 14 (One).

We continue from our previous message.

 

I find it interesting that Jesus told the disciples they are already clean because of the Word He had spoken to them. The Word is the standard by which the pruning is done. Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Father God will not have any need to prune us if we live perfectly in obedience to the Word. Once we do exactly as the Word tells us to, as Jesus did, we will be clean and fruitful – instruments worthy to be used by the Lord. This does not mean that He does not use us in the meantime – He definitely uses incomplete people as we can see from many examples in the Bible.

The disciples were already clean according to Jesus and this gives us an idea of how intense their training was. The Bible does say that, in order to record all the things Jesus did, more books than the earth could contain would be needed (John 21:25), and His disciples lived that active life with Him. We see that, starting with Paul the Apostle and right through the ages, it took many years of training from the Lord to get men and women in a position of true authority. In the disciples’ case all those years were cramped into three years. No wonder they were so effective after the Holy Spirit was poured out, because the amount of Word in them, together with the Holy Spirit, is the perfect recipe for faith resulting in power. Let us saturate ourselves with the Word allowing it to clean us.

“Remain in me, and I will 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 a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing,” (John 15:4-5). Since Jesus is the vine and therefore the source of everything needed for bearing fruit, He was laying out the conditions for bearing fruit. Without that which He has to offer, there is no possibility for fruit (Verse 4B). It is almost like trying to reach a bit further with the vacuum cleaner cable, leaving the plug lying a metre or so away from the wall socket, expecting it to work. Would the vacuum cleaner produce results (fruit)? No it will not, simply because it is not plugged into its power source. It needs power from its source to fulfil its creative purpose. Our creative purpose is to glorify God and to build His Kingdom here on earth. We also cannot function without power from our source.

The central message of verses 4 and 5 is a prompting for disciples of Jesus Christ to remain in Him. How do we remain in Jesus? I can imagine Jesus’ disciples at the time trying to figure out how they would get into Him. A little humour, but I think Jesus used figurative speech meaning exactly that, however not inside His body but inside His mind and spirit. Am I confusing you?

Have you maybe attended a guided tour of some business or factory before? You possibly have read about the trade beforehand, saw some pictures and so on, but walking through the factory, seeing the actual equipment used for the purpose of the trade brings much enlightenment. They show these kinds on things on television these days. Should you be allowed enough time to study every facet of the trade in detail, and to attend the board- and department meetings of the industry, you will learn even more. If you are keen enough to spend sufficient time inside such an industry, being exposed to the most intricate details of the manufacturing and business process, you will really become equipped, especially if you are allowed to try your hand at it yourself. What would the result be should you get deep and long enough into the process? You will become capable of doing the same, producing the same results... the same fruit.

Like humans Jesus also functions in a certain manner. He also has trade secrets and success recipes in the depths of His being, which is why He bore so much fruit while He was on earth. In this passage He invites His disciples, including you and me, to enter these depths of His being and learn from Him (to be continued).

Lord, here I am to learn from you.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.