By Rev. Juliet Schimpf
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Broadcast Notes
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LINK to CFRA broadcast of Sunday, January 8th, 2017
Before we jump in, I'd like to salute our Sponsor for today's broadcast, Marion McGuirl. Thank you so much for your generosity to our broadcast, today!
'Have a Fruitful New Year'
THE VINE
· COMIC STRIP
· final “I AM” SAYING
· John 14 closes with, “Arise, let us go hence!” which suggests that the next two chapters in John may have been spoken on the way to the Garden.
· It is probable that Christ and His disciples were passing some vineyards, or perhaps the temple with its golden vine decorations, when Jesus gave the analogy of the vine and branches.
· Christ’s disciples were familiar with the Scriptural emphasis upon vines:
§ IN PAST, VINE was the nation of Israel (see Ps. 80:8-19; Isa. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 19:10-14; Hos. 10:1).
§ In an act of wonderful grace, God “transplanted” Israel into Canaan and gave the nation every possible benefit.
§ God asks in ISAIAH 5:4 “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?”
§ But this vine produced wild grapes! Instead of practicing justice, it practiced oppression; instead of producing righteousness, it produced unrighteousness.
§ God had to deal with the nation Israel and chasten it, but even that did not produce lasting results.
§ When God’s own Son came to the vineyard, they cast Him out and killed Him (Matt. 21:33-46)
1. A LIVING UNION—the VINE
2. A LASTING UNION—the branches
3. A LOVING UNION—the fruit
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1. A LIVING UNION [VINE]
· The key is to have a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
· Many of the images of Christ and the believer emphasize the concept of union and communion:
o the body and its members (1 Cor. 12)
o the bride and the Bridegroom (Eph. 5:23-33)
o the sheep and the Shepherd (John 10)
§ A member of the body cut off from the body would die.
§ The shepherd brings the sheep into the flock, but the sheep must follow the shepherd in order to have protection and provision.
· THE KEY WORD IS “ABIDE”
o “Abide” is used 11 times in John 15:1-11 (“continue” in John 15:9 and “remain” in John 15:11)
o What does it mean to “abide”?
o It means to keep in fellowship with Christ so that His life can work in us and through us to produce fruit.
o John 15:4 “Abide in me as I abide in you.”
- THE MESSAGE: JOHN 15:4-5 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.”
- AMPLIFIED: “Dwell in me, as I dwell in you…”
- AMPLIFIED EXPLAINS: [vitally united to]
· BANNER: “FOR IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING”
· OTTAWA CITIZEN: ASK THE EXPERTS SECTION: “WHAT IS YOUR SPIRITUAL NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?”
§ Rev. Geoffrey Kerslake (priest): “I think the challenge is to distinguish between knowing things about Jesus versus knowing Jesus Christ himself….I know a lot about the Christian faith; but that’s not the same thing as knowing Jesus Christ.”
§ 12 inches from head to heart!
NOTE:
· John 15:1 “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.”
· Key word:
o “TRUE” VINE—IMPLIES “FALSE” VINES EXIST
o WHAT FALSE VINE ARE YOU TAPPED INTO?
§ KNOWINGLY: exercise, family time
· UNKOWINGLY: television program or magazine is your weekly “fix”
John 15:4 “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you [bear fruit] unless you abide in me.”
- Key word:
- “in me” [in the person of Christ alone]…not “in Church Committees”, in the KidZone”, “in the Bromley kitchen”, “in charities”, etc.
- OUR FIRST CALL IS NOT TO SERVE CHRIST, BUT TO BE SERVED BY HIM.
- MATTHEW 20:28 SON OF MAN CAME TO SERVE, NOT TO BE SERVED
“What should we do, Juliet” = wrong question
“Whom should we be?” = right question [“BEING” VS. “DOING”]
PERRY NOBLE: “Before God wants to do something through us, He wants to do something in us.”
2. A LASTING UNION [BRANCHES]
· Thirty-eight percent set resolutions related to weight
· Thirty-four percent set resolutions related to money
Stephen Shapiro, "Interesting New Year's Resolution Statistics," Stephen Shapiro's 24/7 (stephenshapiro.com) (12-11-08)
- John 15:16 “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last…”
- Key words:
- “fruit that will last”—signifies eternal fruit—here God is interested in a quality of fruit
· only 2 things last:
o 1. relationship with God
o 2. relationship with others
NOTE
· JOHN 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches.”
o We don’t like to admit it, but we often think that we are the vines, and that Christ is the branch: we say things like, “If I do THIS or if I work hard on THAT, surely Christ will bless it—making us the Vine.”
NOTE
· Look how fast Jesus moves into the pruning:
John 15:2
o A. “He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.”
o B. “Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.”
· John 15:6 “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
The vinedresser prunes the branches in 2 ways:
1. he cuts away dead wood that can breed disease and insects, and 2. he cuts away living tissue so that the life of the vine will not be so dissipated that the quality of the crop will be jeopardized.
In fact, the vinedresser will even cut away whole bunches of grapes so that the rest of the crop will be of higher quality. God wants both quantity and quality.
ANDREW MURRAY: A believer may pass through much affliction, and yet secure very little blessing from it all. Abiding in Christ is the secret of securing all that the Father meant the chastisement to bring us.
· This involves the Word of God and the confession of sin so that nothing hinders our communion with Him:
§ JOHN 15:9-10 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
§ The Greek verb for “prune” also means “cleanse”.
· Joyce Meyer “A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't”
NOTE
· We must remember that the branches do not eat the fruit: others do.
o We are not producing fruit to please ourselves but to serve others.
o CHURCH IN THE HEART OF PERTH WITH A HEART FOR PERTH!
o We should be the kind of people who “feed” others.
o Proverbs 10:21 “The lips o the righteous feed many.”
church = deacons = strategic plan = assess= prune=
3 .A LOVING UNION [FRUIT]
· the word “FRUIT” is used 6 times!
- John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit
- Several different kinds of spiritual fruit are named in the Bible:
o Romans 1:13: we bear fruit when we win others to Christ;
o Romans 6:22: as we grow in holiness and obedience, we are bearing fruit
o Romans 15:28: Paul considered Christian giving to be fruit from a dedicated life.
o Galatians 5:22-23: the fruit of the Spirit refers to Christian character.
· John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”
· John 15:10 “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”
Fred Craddock “Membership in the people of God is not names on a list, but living branches of a living vine….Christ’s statement is the death of all purely individuality Christianity. The individual branch has its life-giving connection, not only in the personal relation with God through Christ, but in relation to all the other branches. To be connected with Christ is to be organically related to his church.
notes for church
NOTE :
· John 15:5 “[I am the vine, you are the branches.] Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”
· Nothing that lasts!
· What part of nothing don’t we understand?
· Oh….I can do a lot of things….but not necessarily of eternal value and God-glorifying value:
· JESUS ASKS OF US NOTHING THAT HE HIMSELF HAS NOT DONE FIRST ON OUR BEHALF.
o JOHN 5:19 “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.”
§ The Son of the living God, the Messiah of Israel and Saviour of the World, confessing His complete inability to do anything at all!
o JOHN 5:30: He repeats Himself in verse 30: “I can do nothing on my own.”
§ No miracles, no wisdom, no power, nothing whatsoever, apart from the prior discipline of attending to, following, and copying the will and the work of the One whom He calls Father.
o JOHN 8:28, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me…for I always do what is pleasing to Him.(verse 29)”
NOTE: JOHN 15:7: When you abide in Christ, your prayers will be answered
o John 15:7 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
o John 15:16 “[You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last] so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”
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2. JOHN 15:9, 12-13: When you abide in Christ, you will experience a deepening love for Christ and for other believers
3. JOHN 15:11 When you abide in Christ, you experience joy.
o John 15:11 “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
small group!
HAPPINESS VERSUS HOLINESS
· The word “results” is often heard in conversations among Christian workers, but this is not actually a Biblical concept: A machine can produce results, and so can a robot.
· It takes a living organism to produce “FRUIT”.
· It takes time and cultivation to produce fruit; a good crop does not come overnight.
· * Richard Foster: “The divine priority is worship first, service second….Service flows out of worship. Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry. Activity may become the enemy of adoration.”
• JEREMIAH 9:23 "Thus says the Lord, 'Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the Lord.
NASB PSALM 103:7 "He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel."
1 KINGS 19:11-13 “…but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
HOW DO WE HEAR GOD’S VOICE?
§ FIRST, WE MUST BE RELENTLESS AT ELIMINATING THE NOISE IN OUR LIVES—THE DISTRACTIONS, THE BUSYNESS, ETC.
§ WE MUST TURN TO GOD’S HOLY WORD
§ LISTENING TO OTHER VOICES WILL KILL MOMENTUM!
§ OPRAH IN MACLEAN’S
· * Isaiah 30:15 “In repentance and rest you will be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength.”
· Psalm 131
· my eyes are not haughty;
· I do not concern myself with great matters
· or things too wonderful for me.
· like a weaned child with its mother,
· like a weaned child is my soul within me.
· JOHN PIPER: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
Rev. Juliet Schimpf
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