DiVINE Living: Developing an Intimate Relationship with God John 15:1-17

By Dixie Craig Martin

ABIDING IN THE LORD WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! How would you describe your relationship with the Lord? Would you like for that relationship to grow deeper? If so, the verses in John 15:1""17 provide insights for improving your bond with God and reasons why it is important to increase your connection with Him. Jesus taught the lessons of this Scripture passage just hours before He was betrayed by Judas. Can you imagine? He knew what was before Him, yet He still wanted to explain all He could about life on earth before His death. The lessons of "The Vine and the Branches" were of great significance to Him. Thus, you need to learn as much as you can about their meanings. You probably already understand who the vine represents and who the branches characterize. However, do you know... ...what happens to the branches that do not produce fruit? ...what fruit the branches are supposed to produce? ...what happens to the branches that do not abide in the vine? ...what you need to do in order to abide in the vine? The answers to these questions and more can be found in this book. Included in the study are personal experiences and practical ideas that will help in understanding and applying the principles Jesus is teaching. In addition, biblical heroes whose sins were forgiven and biblical characters who committed unforgivable sins demonstrate branches that abide in the vine and branches that fall away from the vine. You do not want to be a branch that produces no fruit, and you definitely do not want to be a dead branch! There is the old saying that "ignorance is bliss." According to Jesus in the John 15 verses, ignorance is not an excuse for not producing fruit. Learn and apply His precepts. Become an abiding branch and live a bountiful life filled with God's joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645150688

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DiVINE Living

Developing an Intimate Relationship with God John 15:1-17

Dixie Craig Martin

Copyright © 2019 by Dixie Craig Martin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica. Use of either trademark requires the permission of Biblica.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Dedication

To Jehovah God, the author and finisher of all.

Acknowledgements

First and most importantly, my deepest gratitude is for my heavenly Father whose inestimable love covers all believers every day. Thank you for your still, small voice and urging from your Holy Spirit to write this book. You pushed me beyond my comfort zone and guided me through the process of developing this work for your glory. That we have access to our Lord at any time is a bountiful gift for which I am continuously grateful.

Mom, thank you for teaching me about grammar and for correcting the errors you discovered in many of the chapters in this book. I am actually more grateful for the joy you bring to my life. You have provided a Christian example for me of ways to care for those in need, how to be generous to others, and how creative projects can enhance life. I am grateful for your sense of humor and the wonderful way you raised me. You are one of my heroines!

Gail, thank you for spending countless hours reading and rereading the manuscript for this book. Your suggestions were invaluable. In fact, you deserve more than cute clothes from Chico’s! You are such a caring, intelligent, and fun aunt. I am greatly blessed to have you in my life.

Kelsi and Keri, I am so proud to call you my daughters. You have my heart forever. Thank you for allowing me to include stories about you and a couple of your children in this work. You will be surprised at which stories are incorporated. I hope you are not embarrassed! Just remember, your experiences are being used to make a godly point. I love you.

Tommy, you are the love of my life. I cannot imagine my life without you. Thank you for supporting me in projects I feel led to do. You are my earthly rock and safe place. Your selflessness and depth of love are apparent daily. I thank God for choosing the perfect partner for me. You are greatly loved.

Mary Jones, thanks to you and your staff at Christian Faith Publishing for all the work you put into my manuscript. You are obviously quite busy, yet you have been pleasant and helpful each time we have communicated. I appreciate your patience, talent, and hard work.

Chapter 1

A Feast, a Vine, a Gardener

The ceremony and reception were over. We were on our way to the first night of our honeymoon. We were excited and a little nervous about beginning our lives as husband and wife. After traveling for five hours, my husband pointed to our hotel for the night, and I wondered how we would get to it. Tommy explained the complicated course of bridges and roads we would traverse to arrive at our destination. Obviously, he was as excited and nervous as I was because we ended up going the wrong way on a one-way bridge crossing the interstate highway!

After arriving at our room for the night, I noticed a light blinking on the wall. I told Tommy that I thought the hotel was not a nice one because the blinking light had a sign that read, Ring bell for massage. My new husband hurried to the sign and gently explained that it really read, Ring bell for message! Ah, newlyweds. We were young, giddy from our momentous day, and in love.

As the years have passed, our love for one another has deepened and grown. We know how the other feels in certain situations, what the other needs, and usually how the other thinks. It has been a happy, wonderful relationship through all the ups and downs of life.

Isn’t our relationship with our Lord God supposed to develop in a similar way? When one becomes a Christian and presents that belief in a public setting, the individual feels excited. The new life found in Jesus Christ is wondrous. As we grow as a Christian, our connection with God should deepen and become more intimate.

How would you rate your relationship with the Lord now? Does He feel extremely close and always with you? Or does He feel distant and not concerned about your life experiences? Perhaps He sometimes feels near and at other times He seems far away. How can you develop a closer relationship with the Lord? How does God consider your connection with Him? The Vine and Branches passage in John 15:1–17 gives us a number of explanations about our relationship with the Lord. Studying these verses can provide assurance of God’s unconditional love for us, even in dark times. The verses also tell us how to relate more intimately with Him and why that bond is important. Reading the passage now will give you a foundation for the study.

When, Where, and Why?

When studying one of Jesus’ life lessons, it is interesting and often significant to discover when and where the teaching took place. Jesus shared the message of the Vine and Branches immediately following a feast with His disciples. The Passover meal was and is an important annual celebration for the Jewish people.

In New Testament times, Jews traveled to Jerusalem for a feast and a time of worship. The celebration was held to commemorate the miraculous story of God’s death angel passing over the homes of the Hebrews who had brushed the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. The Egyptians, who did not believe in God, lost their firstborn sons to the death angel that night. This plague resulted in Pharaoh’s decision to set the Hebrews free after about four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. What an amazing, holy reason for celebrating!

As was the Jewish practice, Jesus and His disciples gathered in Jerusalem in the upper room of a house to enjoy the celebratory Passover meal. Jesus knew this feast would be the last supper with His disciples prior to His crucifixion, though His friends did not realize the added significance of the meal. Knowing His time with close friends was limited, Jesus wanted to share some impactful life lessons with them. One lesson He conveyed as He washed his friends’ feet was the importance of serving others. Another lesson from this meaningful evening was in the Vine and Branches analogy. That lesson is the focus of this book.

Bible scholars disagree on where Jesus taught the Vine and Branches metaphorical lesson. Some think it was in the upper room following the Passover meal. Since the meal included wine, Jesus could have thought about the grapes used to make the beverage. Thus, using grapes and the grapevine in His metaphor would have been quite natural.

Other experts believe Jesus shared the message while walking with His friends to the Garden of Gethsemane. I personally like to imagine Jesus walking with His disciples through the Kidron Valley on their way to the garden. While traveling, they probably passed vines loaded with juicy grapes, which provided Jesus with a visual to teach His lesson. However, whether the group was in the upper room or walking to the garden is not of great importance. What is significant for a believer is to understand and apply the divine concepts from the lesson.

Another reason the master teacher might have chosen to use a vine and its branches to make His points in this lesson was because grapevines were quite familiar to the Jewish people. In fact, grapevines were a part of the Israelites’ history. Throughout the Old Testament, the grapevine represented the Israelites’ obedience and disobedience to God. The vine was depicted as wilted and fruitless when the nation was in disobedience. However, it was shown as healthy and fruitful when the nation was in obedience. To remind the Israelites of the vine’s meaning, artisans formed a grapevine from gold and placed it on a focal wall in the Jersalem Temple area. Upon entering the Temple, priests and worshippers saw the beautiful artwork and remembered they were to always follow God.

Grapes and grapevines were familiar to the Jewish people in others ways as well. Just as the Hebrew spies of the Old Testament learned when searching Canaan for the first time, the Promised Land was fertile and filled with produce. The spies, including Joshua and Caleb, brought fruit to Moses to show him how large the grapes grew in this land (Numbers 13:17–27). So from Moses’ time through Jesus’ day and today, grapevines have grown prolifically in Israel. The vines could be seen growing on walls, fences, and even around doorways. Thus, the grapes not only were part of the Israelites’ history and economy, but were also used decoratively.

So, Jesus’ use of the vine and branches was an illustration quite relatable to the disciples. His analogy, however, was different from the one they knew from Old Testament scrolls. Their master was not talking about the nation of Israel being the vine. He was talking about a relationship between Himself as the true vine and individuals as the branches. In this example, He explained His relationship with His disciples and, in a broader sense, defined His relationship with each one of us.

Isn’t it awe-inspiring to realize Jesus taught this lesson knowing in a few hours He would be arrested, beaten, and killed? The importance of the lesson was such that Jesus felt compelled to spend some of His last hours teaching it. If the concepts were this significant to Christ, they must be essential for us.

The True Vine

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. (John 15:1)

Don’t you love the way Jesus paints pictures with His words? His use of familiar objects (such as the vine) and people (like the gardener) provides relevant images that assist us in understanding the lessons. His parables help us visualize the setting and the actions of the story’s characters. For example, consider the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). As you read the story, can you picture the son, who had squandered all of his inheritance, taking care of pigs to earn a living? He felt homesick, dreamed of his former abundant life, and wished he had not made such poor decisions. He finally decided to ask his father if he could work as one of the farm workers and, thereby, have a decent life. As the impulsive philandering son repentantly returned home, he was surprised his father celebrated his return.

In recalling that parable, there are several lessons we can learn, such as: honor your father and mother; do not spend your money foolishly; choose God’s way for your life. However, the primary lesson is that just as the father rejoiced when his wayward son returned home, God rejoices when we return to Him after wrongdoing. With His words, Jesus provides a picture story of a father-and-son relationship which is analogous to God’s relationship with us. Jesus is truly the master teacher!

In the passage of John 15:1–17, Jesus uses a metaphor rather than a parable to create a mental image. He compares Himself to a vine, people to the branches of the vine, and God to the gardener.

In John 15:1a, Jesus states, I am the true vine. Do any of the words in this part of the verse stand out to you? For me, the words I am almost appear to be written in bold type, probably because the first I am in the Bible is so profound. In Exodus, we read how God told Moses he was chosen to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Since the people had been slaves under Egyptian rule for hundreds of years, Moses was concerned they wouldn’t accept him as their leader. So during the verbal exchange, Moses questioned God about what he was to tell the Israelites if they asked who sent him for this huge and dangerous responsibility.

God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ (Exodus 3:14)

By using the term I am with His disciples, Jesus proclaimed His deity, His part in the Godhead, and His equality with God. He is the I am in Exodus just as He is the I am in John (John 8:56–58). In fact, He is the I am prior to creation, just as He is the I am today. Interestingly, John records Jesus’ use of the I am phrase seven times, including the John 15:1 verse. Read and consider the other six quotes from our Savior.