Sermons from Lone Rock Bible Church
Stevensville, MT
Index of LRBC Sermons: www.sermonlinks.com/Sermons/LoneRock/Sermons
September 25, 2005

Really Good Questions (Part III)
John 14-16

Let’s finish asking our basic question before taking a look at Jesus’ prayer to His father.

1. Who am I? (John 13)
2. Where is my home? (John 14:1-6)
3. Who is He? (John 14:7-15)
4. How am I helped? (John 14:16-31)
5. What is the purpose? (John 15:1-17)
6. Who are my friends? (John 15:18 - 16:4) 

The disciples of Jesus did not have a good handle on exactly what was coming on the eve of His betrayal and crucifixion. We have heard the stories, we have read the Bible, we have been to Church, Sunday school, and we kind of know what is coming. We can kind of put it together from our perspective looking back. We have that luxury, but they did not. They came from a completely different background than you and I. They had their own notions they had been taught since childhood and that their parents had been taught as well. That’s what is happening. They have to rethink it all. They used to call this a paradigm shift.

Jesus is just about to be betrayed and arrested and tried and crucified. The climax of all human history is just before them. He spends four chapters talking to the disciples about God before He talks to God about the disciples (John 17).

We have asked a number of questions and we’ll ask two final questions today, hopefully preparing you and me to listen in to what is the most intimate prayer, between the Son and the Father, recorded in Scripture. What does Jesus want? He is about to ask His Father in John 17. Prior to that, there is a thing or two we need to know.

The questions are basic and sometimes that is exactly what we need. It is so easy to be a Christian and get caught up in all kinds of peripheral issues. Sometimes we just need to get back to first things. I am finding, as years go by, that first things fascinate me more and more all the time. The basic stuff – “Who am I? Where is my home really? And who is God? How can He help me?”

5. What is the purpose? (John 15:1-17)

Our fifth question – “What is the point?” What is God about? Sometimes when we approach Christianity we may come away thinking the point of being a Christian is to get to know God and therefore I’ll get a nice life. I’ll marry well, have a nice house, nice family, things will be comfortable and I can make my way through this life with that blessing thing from God.

Or sometimes, and this has happened historically, to be a Christian, to align oneself with God, is self-imposed misery. “I’m going to be a holy man. I’m going to live on a mountaintop and I will not be touched by any effects of the world. I’m just going to contemplate.” Is that realistic? Historically, that has gripped God’s people at certain times down through the years.

Both are wrong. The purpose, the point, is to bear God’s fruit. That is why He saves us and leaves us here for a season. He wants us to bear His fruit. We may have a nice life along the way. We may have a miserable life along the way. One way or the other, it is God’s design that we bear His fruit.

John 15
¹"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
²"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

There is background here that is pretty important. The minute Jesus introduced this business about the vine, the antenna being the ears on these fellows, suddenly began to become like radar. This is familiar imagery to them. This takes us back in history to a couple places in the Bible, in the Old Testament, where God planted a vineyard and everything went south.

Psalm 80 is the backdrop against which Jesus is talking about bearing fruit, about vines and branches and things.

Psalm 80:8-15
⁸You removed a vine from Egypt;
You drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹You cleared the ground before it,
And it took deep root and filled the land.
¹⁰The mountains were covered with its shadow,
And the cedars of God with its boughs.
¹¹It was sending out its branches to the sea
And its shoots to the River.
¹²Why have You broken down its hedges,
So that all who pass that way pick its fruit?
¹³A boar from the forest eats it away
And whatever moves in the field feeds on it.
¹⁴O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You;
Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine,
¹⁵Even the shoot which Your right hand has planted,
And on the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself.

God picks a vine out of Egypt and plants it in His land -- Israel. How was the fruitbearing by Israel? Miserable.

Isaiah 5, is a fairly critical chapter in the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah has to do with the failings of God’s people. They are graphically summarized for us in the first four chapters. In chapter 5, they are likened to this vine business, and then in chapter 6, the curse is lowered, in light of their sin.

Isaiah 5:1-7
¹Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
²He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
³"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.

⁴"What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
⁵"So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
⁶"I will lay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up
I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it."
⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

We have failure in the vineyard. The only hope for the vineyard, according to the Psalmist, is that God steps in and does it over. No fruit. No product. What is God going to do? He is going to do it over. He is going to step in and he is going to have His fruit. Look at John 15. That is the backdrop against which Jesus stands and says, “I am the true vine. If fruit is what I want, I will produce it through My people.” It is a remake. We have a successful vineyard in Christ, he says, because of the Helper.

⁴"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
⁵"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Do we get the idea? This is God coming at it again, this time in Christ and He is inviting those He has chosen to trust Him and to live for Him and thereby to bear the fruit God has in mind.

What is fruit? I’ve heard it said, “That’s the fruit of the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-23) -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, gentleness, longsuffering, self-control, these types of things. We abide in Jesus and that’s what we look like. That’s true. What is it that God wanted His people to look like originally? He wanted them to look like Him. He wanted righteousness and mercy. Instead He gets bloodshed and injustice, so it’s time for a new vineyard.

In the Old Testament, basically and primarily, this was God’s design to draw those people, who did not know Him, to Him. “I will create a nation,” which He did beginning with Abraham. “I will lead them into the Promised Land,” which He did under Joshua. “I will set them up and as long as they abide in Me, I will bless them and as I bless them, they will have productive seasons, prosperity, peace, international influence for good. People will see that and say, “There really is a God. I want to know Him.” They will come, just like the queen of Sheba came from the south to visit Solomon. They will come because they will want to know the God, who is so attractive through His people.

Well, in Isaiah’s day they didn’t come, did they? The fruit, in part, is to look like God and to attract others. I have also heard it said that the fruit of a Christian is another Christian. I appreciated the Gideon’s stories about how individuals go out armed with the Word of God and they share God’s truth and the Spirit of God is moving in the heart of another person. The lights come on and conversion happens. God has used one believer as His instrument to bring about another believer.

I have to conclude then, for our purposes here, that the fruit Jesus is talking about in chapter 15, is first of all, to know God and to look and act like Him. That is the fruit of the Spirit. If the Spirit of God lives in us, He is the seal of God’s inheritance upon us until the end of time. He is the animating agent of the godhead, who comes to live within you and me. If He lives forever and He lives in me, then I live forever.

As He lives through us, we look like God. Maybe a little bit, here and there, hopefully, increasingly, over time and that looks good because God is attractive -- love, joy, peace. That is not available in the world, only in Him, and it is a draw.  We know God. We look and act like Him because His Spirit lives within us, and that ought to attract other people.

When Jesus met the disciples on the shore, of the Sea of Galilee, he told them; if they would follow Him, He would make them fishers of men. Now He has changed the setting. We have left the fishing boat and the water and now we are in agricultural country. Now, rather than being fishers of men, they are bearers of fruit. He simply transferred the concept from fishing to fruit. Fishermen catch fish. Branches bear fruit. We need to understand how that works. Some people say, “I’ll just be a good person. I’ll just look good for God. The Holy Spirit lives in me and so I exemplify love, joy, and so forth. People will see my life and they will become a Christian.” Don’t count on it.

The well-lived life is only the “music” of the gospel.  People also need to hear the words, and they are these: You have morally and spiritually offended an eternally holy God and you stand genuinely condemned before Him and there is a penalty for that. The penalty is death and eternal separation forever. What is the good news? That Jesus paid your debts on the cross. People need to be told that. Let’s not be lazy or cowardly and say, “I’ll just be nice.” Being nice gets no one to glory. Saying the words, all your trust in Jesus only, He paid the debt, surrender to Him is necessary.

Notice how Jesus wraps this up in verse 16. He is playing hardball with these guys, pulling no punches. They will appreciate that when He says, “Remember, boys, you didn’t choose Me. I chose you. You were not out there looking for Me. I went looking for you. Adam and Eve were not searching for God in the Garden of Eden. No, they sinned and were hiding from God. He went looking for them.

¹⁶"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

What is the point of bearing fruit? On the one hand, are we more and more resembling Him because we are trusting and yielding to Him or on the other hand, are we attracting and telling those who do not know? I am convinced that even in our gospel saturated culture, many, many people have never heard the gospel personally in terms they can understand. The best avenue to get that to them is through a friend whom they trust. “I have chosen and appointed you that you may go and bear fruit and that your fruit may remain.” People need a friend.

6. Who are my friends? (John 15:18 - 16:4)

Maybe it is better to ask, who aren’t my friends? That is the way Jesus approaches this, because these guys are headed into crisis. They are not going to roll out the red carpet and strike up the band for Jesus of Nazareth and His happy followers. In hours from this, perhaps less, these men are going to be in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane and they are going to be gathered there in the lower reaches of the Kidron Valley. There are no street lights. That’s why torches were brought. They hear rabble coming, mutterings, branches breaking, people coming. They know it’s a crowd. Not only are there torches, but there are clubs. That’s why Judas had to kiss Jesus-- it was so dark He would have been unrecognizable to those who did not know Him by His face. All the disciples are going to leave Him and flee and regather in an upper room, sitting around looking at one another realizing that one from their own ranks had betrayed Him. Who is next?

Who are my friends? Those I left? Those I spent time with? Who are they anyway?

John 15
18"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

Who are my friends? Of whom shall I beware or not trust? As somebody said once, “Beware who meets you at the train.” I can remember from my childhood-- a couple times we moved when I was a little kid. I can remember my mother telling me “Be wary of the first kids who want to be your buddy.” Oftentimes they are the ones who can’t find friends because they aren’t very good friends. They are a bad influence.

Jesus’ disciples are about to stand utterly alone. They will even scatter from one another.

Who are my friends? Beginning in John 15:18, Jesus talks a lot about the world hating you, the world hating me, and about being in the world, but not being of the world, I chose you out of the world, and so forth. I think about that and think it’s probably not a bad idea to talk a little bit about the world because whoever my friends are not, they are of the world. Somebody out there doesn’t like me, is not in line with God’s agenda for my life. The culprit is the world. A true friend doesn’t represent the world’s agenda to me. A true friend represents God’s agenda.

Jesus says you will stand in opposition to the world. Sometimes we confuse the world and the devil and the victims of the devil. Sometimes we think if you don’t think just like me, and if you don’t prioritize just like I do, then you must be my enemy. Sometimes we look at what the world throws at us and say, “They are all my enemies.” We need to understand something. The Bible says that the devil, who is the arch foe of the God of Heaven, is the prince of the world. All the people marching to his cadence are not my enemy particularly; they are the victims of my enemy and we need to be careful about that. They are fundamentally victims.

The world will oppose me directly as the world opposed the apostles. Notice he says they will make you outcasts from the synagogue.

²"They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.
³"These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.

The apostles would face this. Church history tells us that all but one of them died a martyr’s death at the hands of those who stood in opposition to the gospel of Jesus. We believe the apostle John died of natural causes. We don’t know. The rest of them did not. There is that kind of worldly opposition. It is direct. You know who it is, where it is coming from, and what the design is all about. I think perhaps for you and me, because we live in America in the 21^st century, our enemy, the world, is more subtle. Maybe it is as described in I John 2. The apostle John is an old man as he writes these verses. He is looking back. He knows what is important now. That tends to creep up on you as you get older. He is offering his observations and exhortations to Christians.

I John 2:15-17
¹⁵Do not love the world nor the things in the world ⁽If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Literally he is saying stop loving the world, distance yourself a bit here. Don’t love the things in the world. Don’t put them first. Don’t be jerked around by their priorities.

¹⁶For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
¹⁷The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

In other words, is our perspective on this life and making it gratifying and pleasant, or is it on the next? A true friend, Jesus would argue, will prompt you and me toward eternity, not this world. A less than good friend, perhaps only an acquaintance, will keep us here, lock us in here, and confuse us with the priorities of this life and this culture.

I love the stanza in the hymn, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross”:

 Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace?
To help me on to God?

No, it is not. The world is that which would hinder me from God or redirect me away from heavenly things. Jesus is saying, “You need a friend who will take you there, not here.” That’s where He draws the line. A true friend will help me on to God. Mama used to say, “To have a friend, you have to be a friend.” To be a true friend then, am I helping someone on to God?

Probably one of the best-known stories of friendship coming to us from antiquity has to do with Pythias and Damon, 4^th century B.C. on the Island of Sicily, city-state of Syracuse. A tyrant named Dionysius, a despot, ruled the city-state. Pythias was speaking out in behalf of freedom and rights. Dionysius called him in and said, “Do you really believe this?”

Pythias said, “Yes.” Dionysius said, Recant or I will take your life.” Pythias said, If it is true I won’t recant.” Then you must die. Pythias asked to go home and set his affairs in order, say good-bye to his wife and kids. Dionysius said, “You must think I am an idiot; why would I let you do a thing like that?”

Damon, Pythias’ best friend all his life said, “I will stand in earnest for him. If he doesn’t return, I will die for him.”  Dionysius said, “Ok.”  He then gave Pythias a time frame and said that after a certain amount of time, if he was not back, Damon would hang or whatever they did. Time went by and Dionysius would come down into the cell where Damon was being held and mock him. “Where is your friend?” Days went by, a week went by, he wasn’t back.

The day of execution was fast approaching. The day actually came. Dionysius smirked and said, “You thought you had a friend. You didn’t have a friend.” As they were leading Damon to the scaffold, here came Pythias dragging in, looking kind of beat up. He had been in a shipwreck and robbed, but he made it back in time to take his place for his execution. What a friend! Tradition tells us that Dionysius was so impressed he let them both go. That’s friendship, the best friendship, but only in this world.

There is a passage of Scripture in Romans 5, that touches on this.

Romans 5
⁶For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
⁷For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
⁸But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

In John 15:13, there is an interesting twist. Jesus said to His disciples,  I have called you My disciples. Now I call you My friends.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

What is Jesus doing? He is not only taking their place, He is advancing them toward heaven where citizenship truly lies, where eternity is truly glorious, a place of unspeakable joy and peace. That’s where He is taking His friends. To be His friend, how tough is it? It is as tough as surrender, as tough as laying aside pride and placing all our trust in Him alone for this life and the next.

He is going to move from conversation with his disciples to conversation with His Father. I think it is safe to say that when Jesus prays, the Father hears. What Jesus wants, Jesus gets. Find out what Jesus wants and we will line up with Him.

For now, what we really need to know -- is He our friend? Have we put all our trust in Him alone? By virtue of His payment, are we going to glory?

"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995
by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Jim Carlson 2005, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA