Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Experiencing Joy

Here Jesus speaks of joy knowing that within hours He will be in the garden seating drops of blood pleading with His Father for another way, knowing Judas will betray Peter will deny all will flee He will hang on a cross.

Here He says, I want to pass my JOY to you… This joy is a joy most of us know nothing about a joy many of us would not even be sure we are interested in (Scott Mason email quote)… This is a joy like Paul talks about in Philippians a book written on joy but written by a guy who is in jail!

It is the joy of being in and knowing you are at the exact spot in complete surrender to God, the joy of experiencing exactly what you were designed for the reason you were made (When I run I feel His pleasure)… we wnat comfort ease we will settle for happiness but we were amde for joy.

Joy langauge all over the Bible (Delight, fruit of teh Spirit is joy) What does that mean?

Its more than an obnixious smile all teh time...

“By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matt 7:20; cf.

Luke 6:43–44).

Context: v.12 you will do greater works than these...

What prompts Jesus to use this image?

His figures (shepherd, bread, water, light) all came from ancient Jewish traditions.

If Jesus left the Upper Room in 14:30, he may have stopped at the temple to teach and to pray (not entering the Kidron Valley until 18:1).

At the entrance of the Holy Place (west of the altar), steps led to a linen curtain covered with purple, scarlet, and blue flowers (Josephus, Ant.

15.394; Wars 5:207–14).

Solid gold chains hung alongside the curtain from the door beam.

Above the curtain (beneath the roof line) grew a gigantic grapevine of pure gold, representing Israel (Ant.

15.395).

Wealthy citizens could bring gifts to add to the vine (gold tendrils, grapes, or leaves), and these would be added by metal workers to the ever-growing vine (m.

Middoth 3:8).

Josephus claims that some of the grape clusters were the “height of a man.”

Burge, G. M. (2000).

John (p.

416).

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

44 sn The purpose for which the disciples were appointed (“commissioned”) is to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains.

The introduction of the idea of “going” at this point suggests that the fruit is something more than just character qualities in the disciples’ own lives, but rather involves fruit in the lives of others, i.e., Christian converts.

There is a mission involved (cf.

).

The idea that their fruit is permanent, however, relates back to vv. 7–8, as does the reference to asking the Father in Jesus’ name.

It appears that as the imagery of the vine and the branches develops, the “fruit” which the branches produce shifts in emphasis from qualities in the disciples’ own lives in , , to the idea of a mission which affects the lives of others in .

The point of transition would be the reference to fruit in 15:8.

The Vine and the Branches.

Jesus presents an extended metaphor (vv.

1–8) and explains it (vv.

9–17).

Biblical Studies Press.

(2006).

The NET Bible First Edition Notes ().

Biblical Studies Press.

READ

1.

THERE MUST BE AN ENCOUNTER… When is the last time you encountered Jesus?

I am not asking when is the last time you had your devotions, went to a Bible study, attended a service here, listened to Hillsong or some worship music on Pandora, when is the last time you encountered Jesus?

(Tell NEED) how it is easy to go through the Christian motions.. not even saying you are sinning rebelling, trying to become apathetic, but you just aren’t connecting.... THIS PASSAGE CRIES OUT, YOU MUST HAVE AN ENCOUNTER WITH GOD.

It’s not just your doctrine ,not just your ethics, not just your mercy giving not just your service… you need Him… There is a jok that Jesus is teh answer to all our Sunday school questions… WHAT IF thst is true about life?

John 15 emphasizes that neither doctrine nor ethics can alone define Christian discipleship.

It reminds us that remaining in Christ, having an interior experience of Jesus (as a branch is nourished and strengthened by a vine), is a nonnegotiable feature of following Jesus.

Many words could be used to describe this: mysticism, interiority, spiritual encounter.

But without some dimension of an interior experience of the reality of Jesus, without a transforming spirituality that creates a supernatural life, doctrine and ethics lose their value.

When Jesus employs the vineyard metaphor, he is touching one of the most-used images in Judaism to express God’s relationship with his people.

We saw that instead of describing God’s people as planted vines rooted in the soil of Israel, Jesus describes them as branches attached to himself, the one true vine.

Something important has happened here.

God’s people are defined not as people now planted in the vineyard of Israel, but as people attached to Jesus.

What does this mean for Israel’s historic attachment to the land, the geography of the Middle East between Be’er Sheva and Dan?

In his major speech in Acts 7, Stephen similarly challenges Israel’s self-definition anchored to a national political identity.

He not only challenges the sanctity of the land (as the goal of religious life) but the temple (as the sole place of access to God).

This costs him his life.

Is Jesus making the same prophetic challenge in John 15? Now the vineyard consists of one vine, and the question for God’s people is no longer, “Do I live in the vineyard?”

but instead, “Am I attached to Jesus, the vine?”

Love this below:

Jesus calls himself the true vine.

The point of that word alēthinos—true, real, genuine—is this.

It is a curious fact that the symbol of the vine is never used in the Old Testament apart from the idea of degeneration.

The point of Isaiah’s picture is that the vineyard has run wild.

Jeremiah complains that the nation has turned ‘degenerate and become a wild vine’.

It is as if Jesus said: ‘You think that because you belong to the nation of Israel you are a branch of the true vine of God.

But the nation is a degenerate vine, as all your prophets saw.

It is I who am the true vine.

The fact that you are Jews will not save you.

The only thing that can save you is to have an intimate living fellowship with me, for I am the vine of God and you must be branches joined to me.’ Jesus was laying it down that not Jewish blood but faith in him was the way to God’s salvation.

No external qualification can set us right with God; only the friendship of Jesus Christ can do that.

Barclay, W. (2001).

The Gospel of John (Vol.

2, pp.

201–202).

Louisville, KY: Edinburgh.

To be connected to the vine means that the life of Jesus is flowing through us, and this leads to fruitfulness.

Fruitfulness will be the inevitable outcome of an interior spiritual life with Jesus (cf.

Gal.

5:22–23).

Discipleship is not just a matter of acknowledging who Jesus is; it is having Jesus spiritually connected to our inner lives.

It is possible that if the text of this discourse was spoken as they walked from the upper room in Jerusalem down into the Kidron Valley and across to the Mount of Olives, they could have seen the great golden vine, the national emblem of Israel, on the front of the temple.

This symbolism has its precedent in the OT.

The key word is abide; it is used eleven times in John 15:1–11 (“continue” in John 15:9 and “remain” in John 15:11).

What does it mean to “abide”?

It means to keep in fellowship with Christ so that His life can work in and through us to produce fruit.

This certainly involves the Word of God and the confession of sin so that nothing hinders our communion with Him (John 15:3).

It also involves obeying Him because we love Him (John 15:9–10).

How can we tell when we are “abiding in Christ”?

Is there a special feeling?

No, but there are special evidences that appear and they are unmistakably clear.

For one thing, when you are abiding in Christ, you produce fruit (John 15:2).

What that “fruit” is, we will discuss later.

Also, you experience the Father’s “pruning” so that you will bear more fruit (John 15:2).

The believer who is abiding in Christ has his prayers answered (John 15:7) and experiences a deepening love for Christ and for other believers (John 15:9, 12–13).

He also experiences joy (John 15:11).

bear fruit.

One purpose of God’s sovereign election is that the disciples who have been blessed with such revelation and understanding should produce spiritual fruit.

The NT describes fruit as godly attitudes (Gal.

5:22, 23), righteous behavior (Phil.

1:11), praise (Heb.

13:15), and especially leading others to faith in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God (Rom.

1:13–16).

These statements may refer to someone who was never a genuine believer in the first place (e.g., Judas and the Jews who withdrew after Jesus’ difficult teaching in 6:66), in which case 15:6 refers to eternal judgment.

In either instance it is clear that 15:6 refers to the fires of judgment (cf.

OT imagery in Ps 80:16 and Ezek 15:1–8)

It seems most likely, therefore, that the branches who do not bear fruit and are taken away and burned are false believers, those who profess to belong to Jesus but who in reality do not belong to him.

In the Gospel of John, the primary example of this category is Judas.

In 1 John 2:18–19 the “antichrists” fall into the same category; they too may be thought of as branches that did not bear fruit.