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.
To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two
postings preceding this one.
We continue from
our previous message.
The Lord desires to make His secrets known to
mankind. In fact He volunteered it to His disciples, but the love of the
individual disciples and the depth of the attention they gave Him determined
whether they had grasped what He revealed. Imagine we were all sitting at the
Lord’s feet and He is teaching. Some are constantly aware of their privileged
position to be with Jesus. Their attention is on who sees them, what they
appear like and they really feel important in the presence of this great
teacher. Their ambition actually is to move up the ladder of status in this
privileged group. Where is their love focused? It is on themselves. How much of
the teaching (revelation) will they take in, since their attention is
everywhere but on Jesus. Another group just love to be with Jesus. When He
starts to speak, they forget about themselves and just drink in what He teaches
(reveals). They hang onto every word He speaks. To them He is just so special.
How much will they receive?
Where do we stand with regard to our love
toward Jesus? Do we love Him so much that He can trust us with His truth and
secrets or are we going to take it and proclaim it as our own ideas? When He
speaks, do we listen intently so as to understand and remember His every word?
Do we ask for clarification of things we read because we love Him so much that
we do not want to do His Word any harm? Do we actually ever hear Him speak or
are we so busy that His words fall on deaf ears?
Let us give Him our devoted love and undivided
attention. He needs us to hear, listen and do because we are His mouth, hands
and feet and there are a lot of people that need to be saved and taught to be
disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
"You
did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit -
fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my
name," (John 15:16).
When I read ‘choose’ or ‘chosen’ in the Bible I
always think of the confusion the 'predestination
doctrine' has caused in the church. In this passage Jesus is speaking to
His disciples. We all have probably read the accounts in the gospels where He
has called His Disciples, in other words chosen them. What He, however, says to
them in this passage in other words is: ‘You
have not chosen Me, so you have no authority to expect Me to do your wishes,
but since I have chosen you I have the authority to tell you to go and bear
fruit. However, if you bear fruit that comes from me (remember He
is still on the topic of the vine and branches) you will desire correctly and Father God will then give you whatever
you desire.’
Do we see a
condition again? ‘If you bear fruit
then...’ But before we continue, we must first establish where we fit in. The
disciples were physically chosen by the Lord, but we were not. However Jesus
did say: “This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, Who wants all men to be
saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth,” (1 Timothy 2:3, 4), and:
“He said to
them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever
believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned’”
(Mark 16:15, 16). Anyone who chooses to believe becomes a disciple.
Because Christ was predestined and chosen, anyone who believes is predestined
and chosen in Him. “For He chose us in
Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace,
which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the
riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding,”
(Ephesians 1:4-8).
So where do we fit
into this passage in John 15:16? This ‘chosen’ relates to chosen for particular
tasks. Since Christ has been chosen before the creation of the world, anyone
believing in Him is chosen with Him as well; and for these He has chosen
certain gifts and tasks for the purpose of bearing fruit (to be continued).
Lord, thank you for
choosing me. Show me how I can bear more fruit.
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.
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