March 26, 2017
Scripture:
Hymn 338 - I love my Saviour, my precious Saviour
Prayer
From the time that I was nine months old until I was twenty-four, I lived with my family on Main Street in Weston. We had about an half acre lot, and on part of that was a garden. Part of the garden was vegetables, part of it was fruit, and dividing the two halves was a trellis with a grape vine on it. The only reason that we had that grape vine was for growing grapes. We didn’t use the leaves for salad, or the stems for lumber; it was strictly for grapes. The “I am” statement that we’re going to look at today talks about this.
John 15:1-8 We’ve titled this chapter “union”. A union is where two things come together. If a plumber joins two pipes together, the joint could be called a union. When two people are joined in marriage, we call that a union. Here in our chapter, we have a union between the vine and the branches.
Any branch on this vine that doesn’t bear fruit gets chopped off and destroyed. Some branches have more fruit than others. Our passage mentions some that have fruit, some that have more fruit, and others that have much fruit. So not all branches are the same.
Jesus said—using a figure of speech—that He was the vine; the true, or genuine, vine. In the Old Testament the vine represented Israel. They were the vine that God brought out of Egypt, cared for, tended, and looked for fruit from. They didn’t produce fruit, and so God has passed them by for now. Today instead we have the true vine, the Lord Jesus. As branches of that vine, we are responsible for bearing fruit.
Some people pretend to be attached to the vine. They go to church or meeting and do good deeds, but they aren’t saved. We must bear fruit, but first we have to be attached to the vine. We need to be saved, to take the Lord as our Saviour, to be “in Christ”. Once we are attached, we can then depend on Him for the strength to bear fruit.
There was a lady who lived in Winnipeg that I supplied with tracts. She used to place racks of tracts in laundromats, so that people could read them while they waited for their laundry. She called her tract ministry “Only a Branch”. She realized that Jesus was the vine, and she was only a branch; and that’s all that we are, too.
A husbandman—like the one mentioned here—was a gardener; some one who looked after grape vines. Who is the husbandman of the True Vine? God the Father is. He is the one that we bear fruit for. Jesus came down from Heaven to make it possible for us to attach ourselves to Himself, and have all that we need to bear fruit for God. Sometimes the husbandman purges, or prunes, the branches; which we might not find fun, but it is for our good, so that we can bear more fruit. To purge means to clean. We were cleaned at salvation, but Jesus explained to the disciples that you also have to be cleaned along the way as well (see John 13).
1 Thessalonians 4
We enter another section of the book as we begin the fourth chapter. Darby has the first verse starting as, “For the rest, then, brethren, we beg and exhort you…“. Paul was very earnest about the portion that he was bringing before them. Exhorting is building up. He’s telling the Thessalonians to listen up because he was saying something they needed to know. It was by the Lord Jesus though. It was not from Paul himself. There is much practical instruction in chapter five, but here he gives practical instruction for the Christian pathway.
The first verse seems to indicate obedience. It’s something we should have in mind. We can walk in a way that pleases God, or in a way that displeases Him. To please Him we must know His will. “Abounding more and more” sounds like a blessing.
From verse two it appears he had already given them some commands during his short stay with them. Today we get the will of God right from the scriptures, but they didn’t have that.
Sanctification is being set apart for God’s use and purpose. There is sanctification through salvation. But there is also a practical side where we need to behave the way we profess to be . We must act as those that are set apart. God sets us apart for His holy use. Can we be consistent to that truth? Will we practice what God has made us?
John 17:16-19
We have bed rock truth in the scriptures, and we must learn it and grow in the truth. We live in a post-Christian country. In the last while it’s been said we are also living in a time of post-truth. It is wonderful to have truth that doesn’t change.
Jesus set Himself apart from the world to be sanctified. When our eyes, thoughts, and heart are set on Him it has a sanctifying effect in our lives. It’s progressive sanctification. We need to be set apart from the iniquity of the world. Sanctification isn’t the type of thing where you can say, “I’ve finally made it”. Verse four puts the responsibility squarely on the individual. They were to know the will of God even while living among people who didn’t know God.
Darby has verse six as, “not overstepping the rights of and wronging his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, even as we also told you before, and have fully testified.” Someone is being warned not to defraud his brother.
In verse seven Paul brings the walk and path before God Himself. I know we don’t feel it when we’re rubbing shoulders with the world, but this is a holy place even though there is much defilement. In the Jews’ temple there was the Holy of Holies. No one entered there except the priest once a year. It was a very holy place. It makes us think of the glory of the Lord. There will be no sin or defilement there. It is important to know the calling of God.
Hymn 294 - Around the throne of God in heaven
Prayer