No Excuse

Posted on by korgrocker

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. … They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfils what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’”
John 15:18, 22-25 NLT

The first Advent had far-reaching consequences for the Jewish nation and for the world, and are still reverberating around the world to this day. Jesus came to Planet Earth with His teaching, His miracles, and His claim to be God’s Son. But there was a problem. In John 1:10-11 we read, “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognise him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him“. And worse than rejection, Jesus was hated, and by association, every believer in Jesus has been hated as well. Isaiah could see in the Spirit what was going to happen. He wrote in Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care“. But Jesus never looked back, mourning the “what could have been”. He looked ahead to the awful day when those who had heard his teaching and had seen His miracles would be standing before Him, stuttering out some feeble excuse. Stand in the shoes for a moment of someone who was in the crowd shouting out, “Crucify Him!” What will they say before the Man on the Great White Throne? Or how about being someone who Jesus spoke to personally but they still rejected Him? Imagine their horror when Jesus said to them, “I remember you …”. Jesus will say to them that they have no excuse for their sin.

Before we pilgrims feel that we are off the hook because we weren’t around two thousand years ago, what Jesus did and said was timeless. The vivid nature of the Gospel accounts, backed up by the rest of the New Testament, eliminates any excuses we might try to offer in mitigation for our sins. But we wouldn’t want to live in our sins, would we? Our new birth into God’s Kingdom provided a remedy for our sins and put us into a place of right standing before Jesus. And the verdict from the Throne will be, “Not guilty!” 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”. 

Superficially, we could perhaps think Jesus was puzzled and perplexed by the response from His fellow Jews. In spite of everything He had done, He said that the people, “still hate me and my Father”. But He knew this would happen and he quoted a prophesy from Psalm 39, “They hated me without cause”. And so it is today. Recently the church I attend put out some evangelistic leaflets in the neighbourhood around where we meet. One hate-filled response was received via social media asking us not to put any such literature again through his door. People still hate Jesus today. There is no reason why, we think, until we are reminded that Jesus confronted the sins of mankind, but with a solution that would provide right-standing before God. However, and inexplicably, people generally prefer to live in their sins rather than be set free from their consequences. 

We pilgrims carry on spreading the Good News about God and His saving grace. God’s love is there for all to experience. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, “As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvellous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation”.  It is indeed!

Father God, there is no excuse that will mitigate our sin-laden guilt before You. But, thanks to Jesus, we have a remedy for all our sins. Thank You. Amen.

Persecuted for Jesus

Posted on by korgrocker

“Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.”
John 15:20-21 NLT

How was it that when God sent His Son, Jesus, to His own people, the Jews, that they refused to recognise Him? They had all the Old Testament prophecies. They had the expectation that the arrival of their Messiah was imminent. And yet they rejected Him, and, worse, they persecuted Him. Everywhere Jesus went, there seemed to be a group of Pharisees and religious lawyers and leaders hanging onto His every word, looking for opportunities to kill Him. In John 10:31-32, we read, “Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?””. Jesus’ claim “… Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father”” (John 10:38b) was a stumbling block for the Jews. In that culture, anyone who blasphemed God had to be stoned to death, as the Jews knew from Leviticus 10:16, “Anyone who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any native-born Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be put to death“. When Jesus claimed to be God, people started to pick up stones, because He didn’t fit the stereotype of what they thought their Messiah would be like, and therefore this “Man” was blaspheming.

Jesus’ message to His people was so counter to their culture that they couldn’t accept it, especially as they didn’t recognise the Man who was delivering it as being God’s Son. But then they had the problem of all the miracles that Jesus performed. The introduction from Nicodemus, when he came to see Jesus late one evening, was recorded in John 3:2, “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you”“. Here was a Jewish leader who knew Jesus had something special, but he was trying to reconcile in his mind his expectations from a culture steeped in the Jewish Law against what was unfolding day by day before his eyes. We’re grateful for Nicodemus, because in response to his seeking after the truth, we received Jesus’ mission-defining verse, John 3:16.

So, Jesus was persecuted by His own people. But He carried on with His mission, preaching to crowds of people as the arrival of the Cross got ever closer. But Jesus warned His disciples that they too would be persecuted, and it would be a natural thing for unbelieving people to do. Sin and wickedness is deeply rooted within human beings and was then as well. Any message that confronted man’s natural state would end up with a push back, so violent that it would sometimes lead to death. In the early days of the church it wasn’t long before the persecution of the disciples, now Apostles, started. Acts 4:3, “They arrested [Peter and John]and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.” And then in Acts 5:26a, 40b, we read, “The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, … They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go”. The disciples were indeed persecuted, as Jesus had warned them. And in these early days of the church, this was just a start.

Fast forward to today, and we can see what is happening in the world. Persecuted Christians abound. They have committed no crime other than to believe in the Lord Jesus for their future. A visit to the website “Open Doors” will introduce the scale of the problem. But, we pilgrims have to accept that persecution is part of our mission as we share our faith with others. We must expect people to ridicule us, to ostracise us and even attack us as we go about our business of being salt and light in our communities. But we remember that there is a great reward awaiting us one day. We are in the process of storing up treasure in Heaven, and all those who attack us will one day be held to account. The scales of justice will one day have to be balanced. 

After being flogged we read, “The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41). We do not expect physical “floggings” but many in the secular societies in which we live will look for opportunities to harass us, pushing back as we share God’s words of love and grace. Some have questioned our effectiveness and missional believers if we don’t suffer any persecution, no matter how little it is. In fact, would the world around us recognise us as men and women who have been with Jesus? Hmmm…..

Father God. We have treasure inside of us that we must expose for the benefit of those round us. The Gospel is indeed Good News, as is the message about Your Son Jesus. Amen.

Hated Disciples

Posted on by korgrocker

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”
John 15:18-19 NLT

Isn’t it strange, that the disciples, who did so much in those early days and years as they went around preaching the Gospel and healing the sick, would end up being hated. Men who anxiously and diligently tried to connect people with a loving God who wanted all men to join Him. Paul wrote this to Timothy, “ …  God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. … ” (1 Timothy 2:3-6 extracted), and John 3:16-17 deserves a mention, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him“. Our God, who has given more for mankind than we can ever get our minds around, ends up being hated, and His followers as well. Men and women, who ever since, have tried to share the wonderful news about Jesus with so many but instead have been rejected, hated, and even killed. What would an alien think, looking on from outer space, at a situation where human beings hated the very One who created them, and in the process hated those who tried to reconcile them to their loving Heavenly Creator God. They would look, I’m sure, for another cause of such irrational behaviour.

Our helpful alien would perhaps find another life source that was causing the problem. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God”. Blinded minds. Minds filled with devil-inspired strange thoughts and ideologies. Minds filled with lies and wickedness. Minds reprogrammed to hate God and anyone who wants to acknowledge Him and follow Him. Minds that are even repudiating the very consequences of their God-denial, boastfully rejecting even the very concept of judgement for their sins and wickedness, a judgement that has to take place in our moral universe. And in it all the believers in God, lovingly fronting up His gracious presence, are hated, despised and even killed. History is punctuated by many Christian martyrs, murdered for the “crime” of believing in God and trying to help others to believe in Him too. 

We pilgrims must indeed face into the sober fact that we are hated by those around us, to varying degrees, and depending on where we live. We dare to be different, following a different path, refusing to bow our knees to different faiths, beliefs and ideologies. We tramp on in our life journey, taking every opportunity to live in God’s Kingdom, following His ways, and turning our backs on a world that doesn’t know Him. We are beacons of hope in a hopeless world. We season our communities by our presence and our willingness to show others a better way. Our faith will hopefully not lead to a premature death, but it will impact our standing in a worldly pecking order in our jobs and communities. We stand up against the issues of the day such as abortion, gender, conversion therapy, and similar legislation that opposes and encroaches on the sanctity of God’s order. And in the process we are arrested, hassled and hated. Not for us pilgrims the compromise adopted by some denominations to accept secular values instead of maintaining the purity of the faith.

Jesus warned His disciples about what was to come, but we read what he said in John 16:33, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”. Whatever we experience in this life will be of no consequence when we stand before Jesus and hear those words, “Well done …” What a God! What a Saviour! 

Thank You Lord, the One who made being children of God possible. Amen.

Masters and Slaves

Posted on by korgrocker

“I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:15-17 NLT

In Jesus’ day, slaves were commonplace. The richer members of His society usually had one or more slaves doing the menial jobs in a household, even to the extent of bringing up the master’s children. A slave was considered the owner’s personal property, and essentially had no rights. They could even be killed with impunity by their owners. The word “slave” can also be translated “servant” – in the Amplified version of John 15:15 we read, “I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father”. ‭‭But slave or servant, we get the picture of Jesus, the Master, and His disciples, who were His servants doing a three year apprenticeship, learning all about God and His Kingdom. And rather than have notes to refer to when they needed a prompting, they had the Holy Spirit within them. “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you” (John 14:17). In Acts 4:13 we read about how effective the Holy Spirit’s presence was in their lives, “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognised them as men who had been with Jesus“.

Paul started his Roman epistle with “This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News”. Peter started his second epistle with, “This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour”. The first Apostles were totally sold out to their Master, Jesus Christ. They had no agenda of their own, other than to do His will. Whatever it took. Regardless of the consequences.

Jesus, though, at the end of their apprenticeship, regarded His disciples as His friends and no longer as slaves or servants. Because He had told them everything that His Father had asked Him to tell, the disciples had finished the course. And now they were appointed to go and produce “lasting fruit”. By extension, we too are commissioned to “go” and produce lasting fruit. Fruit in our lives and also in the lives of others. Peter and John were recognised by the Jewish leaders “as men who had been with Jesus”. Would we pilgrims receive the same recognition? But whatever, we cannot claim to be Jesus’ disciples unless we too could put our commitment is a position that makes us His servants.

Father God. We confess our commitment to You, this day and every day, with a grateful heart full of love. Amen.


Love and Life

Posted on by korgrocker

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”
John 15:12-14 NLT

‭‭In an earlier chapter in John, Jesus said, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other” (John 13:34). Jesus reminds the disciples of the commandment to love one another, a repetition that emphasises the importance of love. But this is not the emotional or sentimental love that our secular societies favour. To a Christian, this is the agape love that has a cost associated with it. A love that loves the unlovely. A love that goes above and beyond even to the point of sacrificing life for another. A love that a selfish and grasping world doesn’t understand.

In Romans 5:6-8, Paul wrote, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners“.‭‭ Then we read what John wrote in 1 John 3:16, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters”. 

In the case of the early Apostles, all except for John, ended up dying a violent death. So they did literally sacrifice their lives for their fellow believers. And many of the Early Church disciples also died for their faith. We can read about Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7:59-60, “As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.” A Spirit-filled man murdered for His faith in Jesus.

But, practically, what does this mean for us pilgrims? We live in a society that would naturally prioritise its own interests before anyone else’s. There is a selfish motivation to grab the last seat on the bus before anyone else can get there. Or jump the queue at a supermarket. The common and motivation question is “What’s in it for me?”. Me, me, me all the time. But agape love is the opposite of all this.

Jesus said to His disciples, and, by extension, to us as well, that they should love others “in the same way I have loved you“. He taught much about love and when asked about which was the greatest commandment, “Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”” (Matthew 22:37-40). In everything we do, we must be motivated by the same love that Jesus has for us.

Dear Heavenly Father. You love us with a love so extravagant it takes our breaths away. Thank You. Amen.

Overflowing Joy

Posted on by korgrocker

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
John 15:9-11 NLT

Most people in our secular societies pursue happiness in hedonistic ways. Through holidays or days out. Through evenings spent with friends. Through the darker ways of alcohol, drugs or sex. But happiness isn’t joy, at least in the way Jesus meant. Jesus told us of the relationship between being obedient to His commandments and with the experience of joy. In the book of Acts we read about the enigma of Paul and Silas in a Philippian jail, backs bruised, feet in the stocks, but able to praise God full of joy because their punishment had come from the obedience of doing God’s will. We can read this story in Acts 16. No happiness there but unlimited joy.

There is an old song based on Isaiah 35:10, “Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness”. The Jewish nation went through many trials in Old Testament times and here we have a picture of the joy, everlasting joy, that would result when God’s people were restored to Jerusalem. And we remember the prophecy of the events of the first Palm Sunday, from Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt“. Joy in the Old Testament accompanied a national event that elevated the people above their circumstance and fulfilled their dreams and hopes. Their subsistence and hard way of life was still there, but joy was always there as well, although often just out of reach and only a dream.

We pilgrims read what Jesus said to His disciples about being obedient to His commandments and remaining in His love, and wonder what that means for us in our 21st Century societies. It is hard going the Jesus way, being obedient to His commands, particularly as so many of them are counter-cultural, in the extreme in some cases. What a difference it would make to world peace if everyone prayed for their enemies, rather than step up their “defence” spending. What a difference it would make if marriage vows were totally honoured until death parted a husband and wife. What would the media report on if there was no crime? But as we stay close to Jesus and keep His commands, we are in fact helping to hold back the forces of darkness and, in the process, experiencing the joy that can only come from Him.

Dear God of Joy. We worship and thank You today. Amen.

Anything?

Posted on by korgrocker

“But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” John 15:7-8 NLT

‭‭What did Jesus really mean when He said, “you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!”?Superficially this might be interpreted as making Jesus out as some form of cosmic vending machine, dispensing all sorts of goodies to His followers. But nothing could be further from the truth. Imagine the chaos that would result from two believers in Jesus both asking for opposing weather patterns in the same area at the same time. Mutual exclusives would be irreconcilable. But in the context of these verses, Jesus was speaking about remaining or abiding in Him, the production of fruit, and the consequences for not doing so. 

As we remain in Jesus, keeping in close fellowship with Him, listening to His voice through the Holy Spirit within us, being obedient to His teachings, and working out in our lives the intimacy of a relationship with Him, then we will produce fruit. Spiritual fruit, as we read in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” So, surely Jesus saying that we can ask for anything we want, can only apply to this fruit of the Spirit.

We perhaps also get more light from the previous chapter in John, where Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” (John 14:12-14). The important words are “in my name” and Jesus emphasised this phrase by repeating it twice. “In my name” implies a close and intimate relationship with Jesus such that we will know and understand what His will is, not ours. In our secular world, a policeman will make an arrest “in the name of the law. The name of the person or authority carries weight and influence in our society. Using the name of Jesus in the same way implies that we are acting on His behalf. Jesus went around His part of the world healing the sick, raising the dead and performing miraculous signs, all in the physical realm populated by human beings. As we follow in the Master’s footsteps, such opportunities will come our way as well. We too can do all the things that Jesus did. But I have a suspicion that the “greater works” that Jesus referred to encompass the spiritual realm as well. Perhaps the greatest “work” performed in His name is seeing a person entering the Kingdom of God, a person who has finally decided to believe in Jesus and start his journey of faith.

So we pilgrims need to be careful in asking for anything with the caveat “in His name”. In Romans 12:2, Paul wrote, “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” We cannot ask until we know what God’s will is for us, and that is then the source of the fruit that brings glory to God.

Dear Heavenly Father. We use the name of Jesus from a position of knowledge and revelation about His will for what we are doing. We know that we will not always get things right. We mess up and get things wrong. But we keep trying to do Your will in our daily lives. Please help us, we pray. Amen.

‭‭

Useless Branches

Posted on by korgrocker

“Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.”
John 15:6 NLT

In the natural woods around me, I do not have to walk far before I find a tree branch that has fallen off, and lies mouldering amongst the leaf litter and the plants present on the forest floor. If I look up at the tree from which it fell, I can perhaps see the cause of the schism. Disease or damage has cut off the flow of the nutrient-rich sap, and the branch has withered and rotted until it no longer had the strength to resist the gales, falling to the ground often with a great crash. Skilled gardeners will examine their trees and shrubs, looking for signs of disease, and if they find any, out will come the pruning devices, to remove the offending shoots and branches before they affect the whole plant. 

In Jesus’ spiritual example, He compared Himself as the Source of the life-giving “sap” so necessary for human beings to produce the fruit required of them. Some believers think that this verse, “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned”, means that salvation can be lost. They surmise that anyone, believers who once believed in Jesus and followed Him, but who then turn their back on Him and cut themselves off from His life, can fall into the category of being a “useless branch” and are in danger of hell fire. Such a belief seems logical enough, if this verse is taken in isolation, but others believe that salvation cannot be lost, quoting Scriptures such as John 10:27-28, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me“, providing an assurance of eternal salvation regardless, or so they think. Another text supporting this position is John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life“. The problem is that some Bible translations interpret the Greek text in this and other similar verses as a once for all event, instead of what was intended, the continuous present tense. As an example, and looking at John 3:16, the text, “everyone who believes in Him” should perhaps be better read as, “everyone who [goes on believing] in Him”. But we are delving rather deeply here. To me the logical situation is as we read in Hebrews 6:4-6, “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame“. Do such people become the “useless branch”Jesus was talking about? I’m sure everyone will have their own view on this.

But we pilgrims are firm believers, remaining in Jesus, feeding on the life-giving spiritual food that has only one Source. And the fruit we produce quietly grows slow and strong, on the only Vine that really matters, Jesus Himself. Yes, we will occasional feel Father God’s sharp knife cutting away the bits of us that are fruitless, but, amazingly, we grow stronger for that. And instead of being in a bonfire of “useless branches” we will instead find ourselves in a much better place one day.

Dear Master Gardener, we don’t like to be pruned but we know it’s necessary as we continue on our journey. We know we are not on our own and we than You for being with us. Amen.

Much Fruit

Posted on by korgrocker

“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. 
When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”
John 15:5, 8 NLT

It sounds so simple. We only have to stay wired into Jesus, remaining in Him, and He will remain in us. The problem is that we are human, and behave in ways that are not always Jesus-friendly. Paul wrote about this dilemma in Romans 7:21-23, where he wrote, “I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me”. He then went on to write in the following verse, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” But then we have the climax in Romans 7:25-8:2, “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death“.

It is because of the power of the Holy Spirit within us that we are able to remain in Jesus, and have the potential to “produce much fruit”. But what is the fruit referred to by Jesus? We must turn to Galatians 5:22-23 to find out, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”‭‭ We notice that Paul referred to fruit, not fruits. We have one fruit with nine flavours, and the Holy Spirit grows each within us, in every passing day. 

Jesus also taught about fruit in His Sermon on the Mount, as we can read what He said in Matthew 7:15-20. He finished by saying, “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions“. Many years ago I attended a church business meeting, where the pastor’s remuneration was discussed. As a new Christian, I looked up to the people I had become acquainted with through the Sunday services, with their lofty prayers and knowledge of the Bible, their friendliness and gracious platitudes, but at the business meeting several of them behaved in ways I did not expect. They were angry, abusive, disagreeable and disrespectful. I was left disillusioned and it was only through a gracious and wise pastor that I continued my journey in the faith. Bad fruit? There’s a danger in behaving in that way, as Jesus said in Matthew 7:19, “So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire”.

But we all stumble and fall at times. Thankfully, God is gracious and kind and forgives all repentant sinners. He picks us up, dusts us down, and puts us back on the road to Glory. And the fruit continues to grow. 

Dear Patient and Loving Father. Through Jesus You know all our human frailties and help us in our times of need. Thank You. Amen.

The Grapevine

Posted on by korgrocker

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain 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 unless you remain in me.”
John 15:1-4 NLT

These are well known verses, much referred to in the early days of the charismatic renewal. I can still remember a conference sermon based on these verses and preached in 1979 or thereabouts, where the speaker lambasted the charismatic audience for producing lots of leaves but no fruit. But Jesus’ illustration was clear. He described Himself as being like a grapevine from which many branches emanated, and there are as many branches as there are believers. The grapevine has always been of great spiritual significance to the Jews. For example we read about a vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7, about how God planted it with great care but instead of producing a harvest of sweet grapes, its fruit was bitter. And Isaiah finished with, “The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence” (Isaiah 5:7). ‭So, when Jesus described Himself as the Grapevine, the people of His land would know what He meant. 

To a Christian, a true, born-again, believer in Jesus, His presence in our lives is indispensable. We cannot survive for long without Jesus’ life-giving spiritual nourishment sustaining us and providing the resources we need for our daily life and pilgrimage. Sadly, some try to live without Jesus. They will read their Bibles. They will do all the right things, singing all the hymns and saying all the prayers, following their denominational liturgies to a fault, but in reality they have been cut off from the true Grapevine. Their hope is that if they dig in and don’t do anything they shouldn’t, then they will get into Heaven. But Jesus went on to talk about fruit. Which brings around to the thought – what fruit are we pilgrims producing? 

Jesus’ analogy was that He was the Grapevine but His Father was the Gardener. The thing about a vine is that it can’t just be left year after year, in the hope that the crop of grapes will never end. It has to be pruned. Dead and unfruitful branches must be cut off. The farmer and his staff therefore, and with great skill, know exactly where to prune to maximise the return on their investment. Some parts of the vine will stop producing the sort of grapes that are required, so those branches have to go. Other parts only produce small grapes – they are no good either. And so by careful husbandry, the vine is cleaned and fruitful. In a spiritual setting, the Master Vinedresser, Father God Himself, carefully does His pruning, and by doing do He allows even more spiritual fruit to be realised. What are we doing that we shouldn’t be doing? Can we feel the secateurs starting to cut? Are we producing fruit that is bitter and sour? Cut, cut. And so the process continues day by day, through God’s careful pruning. 

Thankfully, the Master Gardener is very patient. In Luke 13:6-9 we read, “Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’ “The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”” God is in no hurry to lop off unfruitful branches but
in the end, fruitless branches are finally cut off and burned, and there is no way that they can be re-attached without repentance at the foot of the Cross. Thankfully, our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, will never reject a repentant sinner. 

Father God, the Wonderful Master Gardener, we praise and thank You today. Amen.