Big Idea Of John 15: 1-11 Summary

SIM 4
Big Idea of John 15:1-11:
Jesus advises his disciples to be humble and obey God as he, himself obeys God because when they are obedient, they will bear fruit and have joy similar to the Lord.
Structure:
In verses 1-3 Jesus compares himself to a vine, and God to the one who takes care of that vine. Coming off of that vine are the saved Christians such as the disciples, whom he is talking to. The branches that are cut off are people who never believed in the Word of God. Then in verses 4-7, Jesus makes the point that once followers are compared to branches, then they are essentially one with the vine because of their necessity and connection. Specifically in verse 6, the destruction of the dead branches can be closely related with judgement
According to Carson, this metaphor comes up several times in the Synoptic Gospels all following a pattern but this specific one doesn’t. This message was part of Jesus’ farewell to his disciples telling them that since they are followers of God, they have Jesus’ entirety, of what he is and what he does, inside them. They are one with the vine. In verse 4, the imagery of abiding in the Lord is taken into examination. Quite literally, if the branch is attached to the vine, then it is necessary to be getting nutrients from the vine to be able to live and once it is cut off, the branch can no longer live. Therefore, the branch is essentially one with the vine, and the vine is one with the branch. Although the imagery has different lenses, the point is the same; ‘Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.’ Only when the disciples are part of the branch will they produce fruit. Carson describes it as ‘spiritual fruitfulness’ when the Christians depend on the vine and rely on the vine of Jesus. Lastly, this commentary looks at the idea of fruit and its relatedness to God. To be fruitful can simply be described as being obedient, faithful and glorifying God. He leaves you with one last point to remember ‘failure to honour the Son is failure to honour
It gave me the ability to decompress what I read and explore it in any aspect that my mind took me to. Although it was odd to just sit and pray that the Lord reveals something to me through what I had read, I was able to find practical use out of my studies. Even though a great goal is to crave to glorify the Lord in everything I do, it is not very practical. Instead, my smaller goal for this week is to pray before each time I study or do work for a class and ask God that my work glorifies him in what I study. This will help me come closer to the Lord as on my walk, I will be trying to incorporate him even in my studies. In a larger aspect, a community can take a very important piece from this scripture. It is vital that as a community of followers who wish to be fruitful, we understand that our hearts must conform to Christ first. It should be in our nature to love everyone just as God loved everyone. Wishing to make a fruitful vine with plenty of branches, it is a church’s job to reach out to nonbelievers and share the Word so that someday they might become a fruitful