CRYSTAL THOMAS MINISTRY

REVEALING THE VOICE OF GOD TO THE NATIONS

John 15

Throughout the book of John he uses the subject matter of submission heavily. We see that Jesus entirely submits to the Father’s will to finish His purpose, which in return, we are to entirely submit to finish our purpose. John also gives an impenetrable standpoint, being, people are either “of God” or “of the world.” This gospel also holds seven “I am” statements from Jesus, which extensively explains His identity.

Recap:

Chapter 1- gives expressive description of Jesus as identical to God the Father.
Chapter 2- the miracle of water into wine.
Chapter 3- explains the main belief of the Christian faith.
Chapter 4- the official’s son is healed.
Chapter 5- healing at Bethesda pool.
Chapter 6- Feeding the 5,000, walking on water.
Chapter 7- Jesus attends Feast of Tabernacles.
Chapter 8- The story of the adulterous woman shows us the incredible forgiveness and compassion that Jesus has.
Chapter 9- healing man born blind.
Chapter 10- A true Christian will not be deceived and follow after a false prophet, because they will be well trained by the Word of God.
Chapter 11- Lazarus raised.
Chapter 12- we find the last of Jesus’ public teachings prior to the crucifixion.
Chapter 13- Last Supper. 
Chapters 14–17 of the Gospel of John are known as the Farewell Discourse given by Jesus to eleven of his disciples immediately after the conclusion of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, the night before his crucifixion.

Chapter 15: 
This is one of the few chapters collected entirely of words ascribed to Jesus Christ. Jesus is close to being arrested, tried, and crucified. He was running out of time to teach and prepare His disciples. It was a final ‘cram session.” The location of this chapter is said by some to still be inside the Upper Room, while others state him and his disciples were walking through the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. The second would make sense since in John 14:31, Jesus says, “Arise, let us go from here,” and since Jesus was using visual illustrations for his narrative to the disciples passing through a vineyard would be commonplace. 

1. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Vinedresser: G1092: a husbandman, tiller of soil, a vine dresser, i.e. a farmer/land worker

  • Grapevines were a familiar sight in the area. The verbiage would not have been lost on them. 
  • God repeatedly used -vine- as a symbol to Israel. In Ps 80 it reads: “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.” God brought Israel out of Egypt and planted it in the promise land. 
  • In this verse in John 15, Jesus is saying HE is the true vine, and we are to root in HIM. 
  • A branch is in complete submission to the vine for full vitality. 
2. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

He takes away: G142: to raise from the ground, taup, lift up, elevate, carry off, to move from it’s place, to take from among the living, either by a natural death, or by violence, cause to cease.

Prunes: G2508: to cleanse, of filth impurity, purge

  • Christ = Vine || Believer = Branch || Father = Vinedresser
  • The vinedresser knows what the branches need. Cutting off fruitless / dead branches is to make the sap flow to the fruit bearing branches. No pruning = No fruit 
  • Pruning: we don’t get to decide how the Vinedresser does the pruning. God knows what is best, every prune is designed by our Creator God to only bring us closer to Him.
  • The branch depends on the vine to fulfill His promise, and the vine expects the branch to bear fruit with the sap that has been given to it. 
3. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 
  • By this time, the disciples had already heard a great deal of Jesus’ teachings, The Word, and The Word is a cleansing agent. In Psalm 19:9, it says, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’
  • In John 13: 10-11, it says: ‘Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”’  He was referring to Judas who we know was an unfruitful branch. 
  • They were washed clean of their sins when they initially trusted Christ for their justification. But, from here on out, they needed daily cleansing throughout the ongoing sanctification process.
4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 

Abide: G3306: to remain, not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, continually

  • The disciples were already connected to him, but he is reminding them that it s a relationship, and part of their responsibility was to stay positioned in Him to be in right standing, which is you in Him and Him in you. Remember, He was about to leave, so he was expounding on the gravity of their part in this relationship. 
  • Abiding is not automatic. If you make a choice or decision that is outside of who He is you are stepping out [departing from your abiding (your responsibility in the relationship)] of this promise of Him in you. 
  • REMEMBER: Abide = not to depart, to be present
5. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 

Bears: G5342: bringers forth [KJV]: to carry, to carry some burden, to bear with one’s self, to move by bearing, to be conveyed or borne, with the suggestion of force or speed, to bear up  i.e. uphold, to bear, endure, to endure the rigor of a thing, to bear patiently one’s conduct, bring forward

  • Your purposed responsibility, as the branch abiding in the vine, is to bear fruit. 
  • Your walk should have fruit !! When you look at a grape vine, there is no mistaking the fruit hanging from it. This should be the same with us, your fruit should be evident. If it is not… EVALUATE YOUR WALK.
  • Without the vine you can do nothing as a branch except die. You have no live source to produce fruit. Without Jesus, the vine, your source of live is voided. 
  • Attached to Jesus is the ONLY way for life. 
6. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 

He is cast: G906: to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls

Out: G1854: forth [KJV]: out of doors

Withered: G3583: to become dry, dry up

The Fire: G4442: fire [literally]

They Are Burned: G2545: consume with fire

  • WARNING FROM JESUS! Straight from His mouth. If you do not abide, you are cast out the door. [Remember: Jesus is the door.]
  • Dying branches on vines will pull nourishment from healthy vines which in return affects the Harvest. He will cut them off before damage is done. 
  • This verse warns of the greatest consequence of not abiding… thrown into the fire, and consumed with fire. 
  • To me, this verse alone finalizes the debate of Once Saved Always Saved. If you do not abide you are cast out. Remember: DEAD BRANCHES WERE ORIGINALLY CONNECTED TO THE VINE. 
  • “There is no fixed line that says the vine ends here and the branch begins there. That is why Jesus couldn’t have chosen a better illustration of the intimate bond he seeks with his followers. He wants us to identify so closely with him that others cannot tell where he leaves off and where we begin.” —Wayne Jacobson
7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 

Words: G4487: that which is or has been uttered by the living voice

  • In this verse Jesus list two forms of abiding: If you abide in me, AND my words abide in you. You must be faithful to His word!!
  • John 14:23-24, ‘Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.’  This is a powerful verse. 
  • Abiding = answered prayers. 
  • John 14:13-14, ‘If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ‘
  • “Prayer comes spontaneously from those who abide in Jesus… Prayer is the natural out-gushing of a soul in communion with Jesus.” —Spurgeon
  • ***Abiding in Him, and His abiding in you means you are living you walk with a conscious embrace of the authority of The Word [His Words] in your life. 
8. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 
  • Fruit bearing is to brings glory to God. Glory to God, not man. 
  • If you happen to be like me and have many plants, when my plants continue to grow and thrive, or sprout it brings me honor and glory. So, just imagine what our Heavenly Father feels when we bear fruit spiritually. 
9. “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 
  • Jesus intentionally loved His disciples the same way His father loved him. 
  • This shows: God is interested in a love relationship with you. 
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. 

If: G1437: a conditional particle, [a conjunction word: are words that join together other words or groups of word] from G1487 and G302

G1487: if, whether: a primary particle of conditionality
G302: whosoever: a primary particle, denoting a supposition [the idea is testable and provable]

Keep: G5083: to attend to carefully, to care of, to guard, to observe, to reserve 

  • You may be thinking why are you giving us an English lesson on conduction words. And the reasoning is because this if statement is connecting to a conditional responsibility on our part. You will abide in my love, IF you keep my commandments. 
  • Alignment = Obedience 
  • This verse added to the other above to me fully exposes the false ideology of Once Saved Always Saved. IF you keep, you abide. IF you don’t keep, you don’t abide. 
  • TRUE discipleship is marked by obedience to HIS commandments, and staying in the Word. 
  • Disobedience to commandments is not abiding. 
  • Continued disobedience without full repentance will result in fruitlessness. 
  • Fruitlessness results in being cut from the vine. 
  • Abiding in HIS LOVE cannot be disconnected from being keeping His commandments. 
  • Jesus connected true discipleship with obedience to His command and honoring His word. . . If we are not obedient then WE did not abide in his love. 
  • I believe we have been led astray by the incorrect usage of the two words, “UNCONDITIONAL LOVE”
  • Unconditional—adjective: not subject to any conditions. 
  • In this verse we have a promise given to us: You will abide in my love.
    The condition of that promise: If you keep my commandments. 
  • Unconditional Love is not found in scripture, none of the early Church Fathers used this term, and no other Christian author used it before the 20th century. 
  • Unconditional love was actually coined by Erich Fromm, an ATHEIST in 1934.
  • God’s nature is to love, because he is love, but to abide in His love is a conditional responsibility on our part. 
  • The love of God is a love that we cannot imagine in our finite minds. 
  • John 3:16 says,  He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him will have every lasting life. I, as a Mother of two sons, could not image doing this. 
  • Yet, to me, it still does not ring UNCONDITIONAL as the correct verbiage to describe His love, yet we have all been using it. 
  • The whosoever in John 3:16 shows a conditional responsibility for every lasting life = You must choose to believe. This is a condition. 
  • God loves you, yes, 100%, I am not saying He does not. He is love, He sent His love [son] to save us. Whether its love or anything else, if something is stated as being unconditional it is absolute and not subject to any special terms or conditions.
  • If we did not have the conditional choice to make we would have ALL people saved… no matter what. Which is the exact demonic ideology of UNIVERSALISM. 
  • Universalism is the idea that every human will eventually receive salvation in a religious or spiritual sense, a concept also referred to as universal reconciliation. Which we know to not be true because Matthew 7 says “’“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ‘ 
  • In this verse in Matthew 7 is another conjunction word, but, followed by another conditional responsibility on our part. We must do the will of the Father, aka, keep His commandments, stay in the Word. This is a condition. 
  • Matthew 25: 44-46—’And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ‘
  • God’s love does justify sin, it does not justify sinners, we are justified by faith. Faith is a conditionally responsibly on our part. This is a condition. 
  • It’s not unconditional to where all things will just work out for us because he loves us. Paul saying all things to work together for our good, is to those who love God, not to those who don’t. This is a condition. 
  • It’s not unconditional love that will just get you to Heaven, Rev 2:10 says be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. This is a condition. 
  • The merit, or the level to meet is not unconditional love but AGAPE. 
  • We can love our kids unconditionally, but do we love our kids with agape love. Are we always patient, kind, not boastful, not resentful?? At times we feel all that or some of it, at least I have, and had to repent and ask for forgiveness. 
  • Unconditional love is a mediocre love compared to agape love. 

Agape: This is the word love used through John 15: G26: affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love, love feasts, feast of charity

  • God, who is agape, loves you far beyond what we can fathom to explain, but He reigns in depth with both Mercy and Justice. Like, in the book of John, people are either “of God” or “of the world.” We have worded this wrong for years. This is not a universalism, unconditional, do whatever though wilt salvation. We have conditions to meet to abide in his love. His agape is there for the taking — it is us who has to accept the conditions, and there are repercussion to what we choose: Heaven or Hell.
  • Agape is what we should be striving for, not unconditional. 
  • Agape is how we should describe Him. 
  • To close on this verse, I will give the flip side to why others say unconditional love. 
  • Some still believe that there is an aspect of unconditional love He has for us because:
    • He chose us before the foundation of the world. 
    • He still loves us rather we meet the conditions.
      • Which, I will say, I can see this point of view. He did choose us, we didn’t choose him. He does love us, rather we love Him, but love is not abiding over us.
      • I think that is because he has a table set for us to have a love feast with Him, just we have to choose to agape. 
11. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 
  • One of the things attached to Agape is Joy. Love and Joy are from the vine. 
  • Joy is not happiness. Joy is not excitement. Joy is the byproduct of a right standing relationship with God. 
  • Joy is not something that is attached to circumstances in your life. It is not an up and down emotion depending on what happens to you during the day. 
  • Joy is to fully rest in the finished work of the cross. 
  • The joy from Jesus is a fullness. “And that your joy may be full”

may be full: G4137: to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally, to complete, to consummate, to render perfect

  • It reminds me of the saying from a movie where the guy tells the girl: “you complete me” but, that isn’t entirely true, the completion comes through abiding in the vine, Jesus. 
12. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 
  • This is the first fruit of the spirit. Love… Agape. It is the mark of believers across the world. 
  • Love is the guide of believers. 
  • “Love as I have loved you” — Love is telling others about Jesus. Love is sharing the gospel. Love is speaking the kingdom of God into manifest here on Earth. Love is selfless. 
  • Love is not just designated for other Christians, but all. 
  • And Jesus fully walked the walk and talked the talk. As I have loved you. 
13. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 
  • If we are loved by God, love God, and connected to the vine — then dying daily to ourselves is the most we can do for Him. 
  • His will not our own. 
  • Dying to self and living in fullness of Christ and his commandments 
14. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 
  • You are my friends IF you do whatever I command you. 
  • This coincides with earlier, and my believe on the unconditional being the wrong form of verbiage to use. 
  • The IF is a condition. . . You are His friend IF you keep His commandments. 
  • “It must be active obedience, notice that. ‘Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.’ Some think it is quite sufficient if they avoid what he forbids. Abstinence from evil is a great part of righteousness, but it is not enough for friendship.” (Spurgeon)

Friend: G5384: friend, an associate, one of the bridegroom’s friends who on his behalf asked the hand of the bride and rendered him various services in closing the marriage and celebrating the nuptials

  • Jesus is the bridegroom and it is His friends who will have a seat at the marriage supper. 
15. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 
  • During this time, the followers of teachers were servants. The teacher would not tell the servants his business. Jesus was letting them know, I have told you my business, because we are friends not master/servant. 
  • The friend Jesus is referencing is a more in-depth relationship. Today, we seem to throw the word friend around more carefree and casually. 
  • Friend is inner court. Secrets are shared, loyalty, love, trusted confidant
  • Abraham & Moses were the only two people (before Jesus) to be called a friend of God. 
  • ***Abraham: 2 Chronicles 20:7 — ‘Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? 
  • Moses: Exodus 33:11 — ‘So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.’
  • Proverbs 17:7 says, A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
    In Luke 7:31-34 it says —  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”
  • They called him a friend to sinners, because He was with them. Jesus himself did not call himself a friend to sinners. But by his actions of what he was doing he looked like a friend by the religious people of that time.  He was sharing the good news, He was offering the words of the Lord to them. He was being a friend to them. 
  • But according to vs 14-15, are WE being a friend to Jesus. He laid his life down for us. That is true friendship. 
  • He is a friend to us… but, for us to be a friend to HIM we have to do the same lay down our lives for Him. Making us a friend to God. Meaning he is our friend, and we are His friend. It is now a two sided relationship not just one. 
  • Luke 15:1-4 says — Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?’” — That is what a good friend does. 
  • He is the good friend. It is us who are not a friend to God by not keeping his commandments. 
  • He wants all His friends at the wedding supper with Him.. We have to follow verse 14 to be able to attend. 
16. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 
17. These things I command you, that you love one another.
  • Having a relationship with Jesus is not our creation. We did not invent this. He did. 
  • He chose His disciples. 
  • He chose You for such a time as this. 
  • You are here b/c He chose you. 
  •  “abiding” in Him, bearing fruit = God answers prayer.
  • “We are in Christ, not because we hold Him, but because He holds us.” (Meyer)
  • Anyone who has ever waited in line only to be the last chosen for a team knows the terrifying humiliation of not being wanted. When we are grafted into Christ, we never have to know that humiliation again. There is no greater assurance than knowing that Jesus has chosen you and me to be grafted into him. Yet his choosing does not exclude anyone else. On this Vine there is room for everyone. [ Wayne Jacobson ]
  • Vs 17 — the rule of repetition — Jesus once again commands his disciples to love. 
  • It is an action NOT a feeling.
18. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 
  • The world hated Jesus enough to kill Him. 
  • If they’d do that to Him, then they could do that to you. 
  • The disciples would eventually know the hate from the World. All of them died as martyrs [except John]. 
19. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 
  • We can’t be a friend of Jesus & the world at the same time. It is one or the other.
  • We are to love what God loves & hate what God hates.. we are not to be of this world but separate from it. 
  • If this world does not love God, they will not love you who is a walking ambassador of His kingdom. 
  • Fact: you are not of the world. Kingdom does not allow worldly mixture. Iron and clay do not mix. 
  • You who are born again have become infused with the life force of Heaven. Worldly measures and tinctures no longer suffice. You are outer-worldly. Hold more honor than to carry around a sinful nature. You are meant for more. 
20. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
  • Let us remember, Jesus was MOSTLY persecuted by the religious leaders of that time. [aka the church]
  • And these words are being spoken quite near the event of Him being arrested. 
  • And he is also repeating something He has previously said in John 13:6 — Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
  • His 1st point in saying this was —servants are expected to do anything their master would do. 
  • His point here — servants can’t expect to be treated better than their master. 
  • Kept my word = heard and responded 
21. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 
  • He is being raw and real with them. He is telling them straight up truth of what they could and would endure. 
  • He isn’t trying to scare them, but fully inform them. 
22. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 
  • You have no excuse once truth has been revealed. It is up to you to partner or not. But you no longer have an excuse to sin. When freedom has been offered to you and turn a blind eye to it. 
  • Privilege and responsibly go together. Who can’t have the favor without walking the walk. 
  • The people who are criticizing him were know sinning against God and the knowledge of their wrong doing. 
  • “I did not know” can no longer apply 
  • Those who persecute Christians because they act like Christ are not acting in ignorance; they are following the lead of their own sinful hearts. Jesus is not saying “anyone who has never explicitly heard the gospel is innocent of sin.” Rather, He is saying that those who hear His Word—including through His followers (Matthew 28:19)—have no excuse for persecuting and hating Christians. [BibleRef]
  • After hearing & seeing and still sinning the weightiness of the sin is greater, they had no excuse. 
23. He who hates Me hates My Father also. 
  • Jesus = God. To hate Him is to hate God. He came to do His Fathers business. 
24. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 
  • Vs 22 & 24 — these verses together show by his WORDS & His ACTIONS heh revealed sin. They heard & saw. NO EXCUSE. He hit them with the double blow. 
  • Jesus’ point here is not that anyone who has never seen His miracles is innocent of sin. His point—shown by the context of this very passage—is that those who persecute the church are not acting in ignorance. Nor are they being rational (John 15:25). They’re reacting in hatred. [BibleRef]
25. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ 
  • Ps 35:19 — ‘Let them not rejoice over me who are wrongfully my enemies; Nor let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause.’
  • Ps 69: 4 — ’Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, Being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.’
  • The world hating Jesus does not stop God’s plan — it fulfills scripture ^^
  • If David was hated for no reason, how much more God. 
26. “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 
  • Note Jesus is saying He will send the Holy Spirit, not the Father. It shows the triune God.  He is part of the God head. 
  • Want to know if something is of God.. ask the Holy Spirit, he will testify of Him
  • He is encouraging them, comforting them, knowing, He is about to be arrested. That even after He is gone, there will be another coming to walk with them and dwell inside of them. 
  • The Holy Spirit is our helper, counselor, advocate, comforter

Testify: G3140: martyreo where we get the word martyr: to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that he knows it because taught by divine revelation or inspiration, to give (not to keep back) testimony, conjure, implore, give good report

27. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.’
  • The Spirit will teach people God’s truth and point to Jesus & His followers will too.
  • Being spirit lead, a follower and believer of Jesus equips you to bear witness of Him. 
  • The Holy Spirit is fully consistent in His testimony of Jesus & we should be aligned in with this also. 

Bear witness: G3140: martyreo where we get the word martyr: to be a witness, to bear witness, i.e. to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that he knows it because taught by divine revelation or inspiration

  • Same definition as Testify in Greek 
  • Testify & Bear Witness = the same thing