The Life of Jesus in His Body


John 15
I will be talking from John 15 but keep in mind,
I Cor. 12:27, as we continue through this teaching...
"27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."
         All of those here born of the Spirit of God are members of his body and we need to act like it...

John 15
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

This verse shows me that Jesus is the vine and the Father is the husbandman. They work together in total unity and agreement always because they are ONE God...

John 15 (cont.)
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

There are two types of fruit mentioned in the bible, the fruit of the Spirit in...
Gal. 5:22,23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
         And fruit is also others coming into the life of God...
Rom. 1:13
"13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles."

John 15 (cont.)
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

We are clean by and through his word... The word says it this way in…
Eph 5
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Also in John 8
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
         I already went into detail with these scriptures when I was speaking on John 8. So we are seeing that God cleanses by his word and he frees us by his word.

John 15 (cont.)
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Can't you just imagine it??? A branch bearing fruit without being hooked to the vine...It won't happen in the natural but it can happen in the supernatural since the word is what produces life in someone so the vitamins, and minerals and other life producing ingredients in the word of God that are in the branch can produce fruit even if the branch is NOT hooked up to the vine, so to speak. In other words a pagan knowing some of the word can speak it to someone and they can get saved because of the word NOT because of the one speaking it, he is just a vessel, even a carnal, sinful one. It is the word that is quick and powerful and it has life giving words within the word NO matter who is speaking those words.

John 15 (cont.)
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

There are two different viewpoints that we can bring out of this verse... Some say that it means that if you don't see fruit in them then they go to hell because they must not be abiding in the vine, Jesus... Possible but not necessarily true. We talked about fruit earlier and now I want to share a little different insight with you... Salvation is a FREE gift but when you accept that gift you become a NEW CREATURE, hence you want to walk right with God.
NOW in
I Cor. 3:11-15
"11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."
So in these verses we see that the branch (man) can be doing works in the flesh and not in the spirit and they (the works) will be burned up. The fire of God determines if a man's work is his work or God's work, so to speak.

John 15 (cont.)
"7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
On this verse, my mind goes to..
Psa. 37:-3-5 which says,
"3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."
Now think about this as we tie it in with John 15:7 above. Can't you see that trust, delighting and committing your ways to the Lord would be the same principle as abiding since they have the same outcome .

John 15 (cont.)
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

He didn't say that you might stay saved or anything like that, he DID say that we will be abiding in HIS LOVE... Do you notice how when you disobey your parents and the like, you are not abiding in their love. They still love you but you are doing your own thing inspite of their desire for you to do right and there is a payday for what we do some day...

John 15 (cont.)
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
         THAT YOUR "JOY" MIGHT REMAIN??? JOY AND THAT IS ALL HE IS TALKING ABOUT HERE... You will have NO JOY when you are NOT walking with Jesus Christ.

John 15 (cont.)
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

We are Jesus' friends IF we obey him...

John 15 (cont.)
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

The bible tells us that those who love the Lord, are seeking him, following in his steps will KNOW when he is about to come...

John 15 (cont.)
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

The Calvinists like this one...even though Jesus is not talking about salvation here but what is to occur in a believer's life AFTER salvation and that is that they are to bear fruit. Jesus has chosen all to come to him for salvation by his death on the cross for the sins of the world. He said in...
John 12:32 says,
"32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. "

John 15 (cont.)
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

Jesus shows us here, if we were of the world then it would love us but BECAUSE we are not of this world then it hates us. Ex. a guy on the radio the other day saying "that there hasn't been a rapture yet or the end of the world..."
         They thought Jesus was crazy and those who are his and believe in things like a rapture or end of the world are crazy along with him and need to be dealt with as he was...

John 15 (cont.)
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

Once again we see a little of the nature of God in these verses. To see Jesus is to see the Father and that doesn't mean that he is a flesh and blood man, it does mean that everything the Father is the Son is in their eternal existence.

John 15 (cont.)
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

Jesus told us at another time that he does what he sees the Father do... And since they hated and rejected Jesus, they hated and rejected the Father also.

John 15 (cont.)
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

We talked about this in detail when I was going over John 14 and the triune nature of God... How Jesus said that he is going to send another, the Holy Ghost but he also said that he was going to come and he included the Father being within his people also.

John 15 (cont.)
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

The more we get to KNOW Jesus Christ, the MORE that we will be his witness...


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John Chapter 16