I AM: Discovering the Nature of Jesus!
Saturday, April 10, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Holy Week is now drawing to an end. We have considered Jesus’ great, saving work on our behalf, and I realize that what He did is the most miraculous reality of all time. Thank You again for Jesus’ faithfulness and His willingness to be a servant even to the point of death on a cross, that I may have life today and forever. As I turn one more time to John 15:1-17, this is my prayer—empower me to abide, to remain to stay joined to Jesus! Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may not think a thought, utter a word, or carry out an action without first making certain that I am intimately connected with Jesus. All this I pray in His name and for the advancement of His glorious kingdom. Amen.
God's Word Today
John 15:1-17
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.
5“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! 8My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father.
9“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. 13And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. 14You are my friends if you obey me. 15I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17I command you to love each other.
Thoughts...Obedience, the Sign of Abiding...
Jesus tells us that the sign that we are remaining or abiding in His love is that we obey Him. This statement is so simple and yet so profoundly important. As we go about our lives as followers of Jesus, we are always looking for the “key” to being faithful, to becoming more like Jesus, to making a difference in our world in the name of Jesus. Jesus offers us the key in today’s Scripture: obedience. Jesus tells us that when we obey Him we remain or abide in His love, just as He obeyed His Heavenly Father and remained or abided in His love. What a powerful observation! Jesus’ obedience to God was perfect—since Jesus alone, of all the people who ever lived, was and is perfect. He tells us that as we obey, we reflect that we are abiding. In fact, Jesus tells us that as we remain in Him as we obey Him, something will happen that we may not expect: we will be filled with His joy and that joy will overflow! So often as followers of Jesus we look at Jesus commands as obligations to be fulfilled, rather than opportunities for joy! Do you dive into Your Bible as a great opportunity to be with Jesus? Do you look forward to every opportunity to interact with someone else as an opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus, and His great love and joy in your life? As I write these words, I’m thinking, “I miss out way too much on the blessings God has for me, simply because I don’t obey Him, or because I see obedience as an obligation rather than an opportunity.” To use an illustration, there are times in my life when Jesus tells me what to do—to go visit a person, or to speak up in a certain situation, one time in China He even told me to go and pray for a lame beggar to be healed. When Jesus speaks there is only one reasonable response for a follower—obedience. Yet in the situations where Jesus has told me to do something, or say something, I often hesitate, or even fail to follow His leading all together. We could say that fear stopped us, or we wanted to be sure that it was Jesus, but Jesus’ words today make it clear that what we are really saying—at least what I am saying in such situations is, “No, Jesus. I won’t obey.” That’s a sin. It also causes us to miss out on great blessing and joy! When we say, “Yes,” to Jesus, even when it means having others think we’re foolish, there is joy in the process that we can’t get by any worldly pursuit or endeavor.
Jesus made it clear in John 15, that the only requirement for His love to flow to us and through us to others, is that we abide in Him, remain in Him, stay joined to Him. The biggest part of abiding is obeying! It doesn’t matter whether the obedience is a small thing, like being honest in every situation, or a big thing, like a career change, or following His command to make a sacrificial gift to a ministry or person. Every step of obedience draws us closer and closer to Jesus. Without that closeness we can be sure that we are not abiding. Without that closeness we can be sure that we are not staying joined to Him. But with that closeness, we experience joy that no worldly experience can provide! As we go about this day, and as we celebrate the resurrection tomorrow in worship, let’s remember: Our disobedience put Jesus on the cross, but our obedience brings Him glory! Our love for Jesus isn’t demonstrated by our good intentions or by our plans for the future. Our love for Jesus is demonstrated by saying, “Yes,” when He calls and by doing what He tells us to do. May He be glorified today, tomorrow and every day He gives us by our demonstrating our love for Him, by obeying Him! Amen!
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