Three Minute Bible

June 13, 2019June 12, 2019

Branches – John 15: 6

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

In this passage, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He is speaking Truth, with a capital “T”. This means it is also true for you and me. He has already told us that branches that bear no fruit will be cut off (Verse 2). Then he tells us in verses 4 and 5 that we must remain in Jesus to bear fruit, or even to be able to do anything at all. Now he describes what happens to people-branches who do not remain in him.

The disciples remained with Jesus even when the going got tough. When Jesus leaves them, they remain together trusting in his promises. Then Jesus sends his Holy Spirit and they remain faithful to his Word, his Spirit, and their mission.

And what is the mission God has given us? In John 13: 34 Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is easy when things are going well. When believers remain in Jesus, their hearts are soft and they reciprocate in the kind of love (agape) that Jesus is referring to. It gets more difficult when believers do not remain in Jesus. Then hearts get hard and priorities get confused.

June 12, 2019June 11, 2019

Doing Nothing – John 15: 5

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Today’s verse is a restatement of verses one and four. Whenever God repeats Himself, it is wise to pay extra attention. It is also good communication. Communication is not just making noises that sound like words, but conveying ideas. Repeating what you have said is a good way to emphasize your meaning. Jesus goes one step farther. He shakes up his words and pours out the same meaning in a different combination. That tends to make us think about what he said.

In this version of what he has said before, he promises that those who remain in him will bear much fruit. Then he adds an interesting twist: “… apart from me you can do nothing.”

June 11, 2019June 11, 2019

Remain In Me – John 15: 4

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

How do you hear this verse? We each bring our own perspective to what we read and what we hear and see. To me, it sounds like Jesus is saying, “Hey, don’t wander off!” He also alludes to a kind of duality in our relationship with him. He chooses to remain in us, while we can choose to remain or wander off. Why else would he tell his disciples this?

Then he explains why we must remain. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself. A Christian cannot bear fruit unless they remain in Jesus.

So what does this mean, to “remain” in Jesus?

Where is your head at right now? Are you in Jesus or somewhere else? Are you thinking about the day? Are you planning to do something interesting? Are you bored, tired, afraid or hungry?

There are little tell-tale signs that tell us where we are. In the Old Testament, we see stories of people like Joseph who always remembered that everything came from God. Job was accosted by every evil that can befall man and yet he remembered his God, his Redeemer. David, throughout his lifetime, turned to God for guidance on important decisions.

I think remaining in Jesus is something like that. I think it means that we remember to confess our sin to God, to ask God for his blessing and protection, and to turn to him when we are in need.

June 10, 2019June 9, 2019

Clean – John 15:3

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

This phrase in John’s gospel seems a bit of a non sequitur. Yet I have come to believe that God’s Word, the Bible, is absolutely the way he wants it to be. Just as Jesus is a “stumbling stone” for those whose pride will not let them bow to their Creator, the Word also can be a stumbling stone to those who insist that the Bible must conform to their ideas of writing structure and form. God, in His wisdom, says the book is exactly the way he wanted it.

So let’s assume that God knows what He is doing. Let’s assume that what John tells us about what Jesus said is here for a reason. If the answer to the question, “Why is this sentence here?” is that God wanted it that way, then what does it say and what does it mean?

June 9, 2019June 8, 2019

Pruning – John 15: 2

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

In verse one, Jesus tells us that he is the vine, and then he says that his Father is the gardener. In this verse, Jesus explains what the gardener does.

The vine has branches that bear fruit and some that don’t bear fruit. There are various ways of looking at this verse. Some might say Jesus is talking about Israel as a branch and believers, both Jew and Gentile as another branch. Yet Jesus speaks about “branches” in the plural, and vines tend to have many branches rather than just a few.

If we look at this verse from the perspective of a branch representing an individual person, then we can see a personal challenge here. Are we fruitful?

June 8, 2019June 8, 2019

DeVine – John 15: 1

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

Jesus has a tough job. No, not just dying for our sins on the cross, but also trying to convey the truth about what we cannot see. Heaven is a place that we talk about, but only one man has actually come from there and knows what it is like. That man is Jesus.

In trying to explain how things work Jesus resorts to allegory. Again and again, he tries to explain by using earthly things to describe spiritual realities. In today’s passage, Jesus describes himself as a grapevine, and God as the gardener. If you are blessed with an interest in growing things, you might understand this allegory. If you don’t know about green things, this might not make any sense.

June 7, 2019June 6, 2019

The Prince of This World – John 14: 30-31

I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Come now; let us leave.

As we come to the close of chapter fourteen, we transition from the last supper to the journey to the Garden of Gethsemane. Before going out into the night Jesus, once again, explains what is going to happen. This time he adds a note about “the prince of this world.”

Satan may think he has the power to kill the Son of God, but he is mistaken. He will try, but he will fail because he does not know or understand the power of Love. Devine love that is totally selfless.

June 6, 2019June 5, 2019

More Belief – John 14: 29

I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

Throughout the gospels, we see moments where the disciples are absolutely convinced of Jesus’ divinity. In John 6: 69 we see Peter affirming this when he says, “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Yet there are levels of belief and we humans are bound in a temporal world. One minute Peter says “… you are the Holy One of God,” the next we see him denying he even knows Jesus.

Jesus wants us to really believe. When we possess the kind of belief that Jesus has in store for us it is no longer possible to doubt Jesus is who he says he is. When we really believe that Jesus is Lord is when the miracles happen.

June 5, 2019June 5, 2019

Going Away – John 14: 28

You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

There are many things about this verse that we could discuss. Jesus refers to what he said a few minutes earlier in verses 2 and 3, and also in verse 12. “I am going away and I am coming back…” Jesus sounds like a parent talking to a child.

Then he says, “If you loved me…” Taken at face value it sounds like he is saying that the disciples do not really know how to love him yet. That makes sense because they do not yet have the Holy Spirit. Only after the Holy Spirit is given them do they seem to start to understand what is going on.

The third thing of interest is Jesus’ statement that, “… the Father is greater than I”. I confess that I am one who struggles with the Trinitarian perspective. Thanks to Pastor Rich’s patience and guidance, I have come to see the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit in many places in the Bible. When Jesus says “I and the Father are one,” (John 10: 30) I want to assume certain equivalencies from a human/engineering point of view. But, in God’s economy, “oneness” is not the same as “sameness” or being “equal.”

June 4, 2019June 3, 2019

Switch – John 14: 27c

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

This may be one of the toughest challenges of being a Christian that I know. As Christians, we are in the world but not of the world. The world tends to be hostile to Christians. More so today than at any time in my life. In the midst of hostility, and sometimes just the everyday challenges of getting along with others, Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled…”

How do you do that? How does one turn off the “being troubled” switch on the heart? The answer to that question has to do with faith.

Faith is all about trust. If you trust Jesus, and if you believe that he is the ultimate power in the universe, then what is there to worry about? Even short term pain and setbacks here on earth are insignificant when compared to eternity with our loving God.