Don’s Daily Devotions

Read John ch 16:7-11

V7: In fact, when the Holy Spirit is given, it will be better for them (and all succeeding Christians), for Jesus in His earthly life could only be in one place, and only with those in that same place – but the Spirit will be with every believer, throughout the age, and in all the world.

V8: And the work of the Spirit will be to bring conviction to the world of these 3 things …

V9: Of sin, because they do not believe in Jesus – ( see John 3:18 ). How are we to understand this work of conviction? Surely, it is twofold. For those who will believe, the Spirit shows them their sin of unbelief and opens their hearts to trust in Jesus. For those who do not, they will be convicted of this sin in the final judgement. How solemn these things are!

V10: Of Righteousness because He goes to the Father.  Again,- His Resurrection and Ascension is the proof that God has accepted His sacrifice, that He was indeed the spotless lamb of God, the righteous One. Wonder of grace, that He gives that righteousness to all who trust in Him, as He bears their sin. ( 2 Corinthians 5:21)  believers are brought to this awareness by the Spirit. The unbeliever will face the righteous Jesus as judge.

V11: Of judgement – because Satan is judged, defeated and condemned by Christ’s victory on the cross (  Colossians 2:15 ) Again, believers are convicted of this truth and know the victory, by God’s grace – unbelievers will face the same judgement. Do you know that you are saved from that judgement, because Christ has born it for you?

Read John 16:1-6

V1: The Lord is concerned to tell them that all that will happen to them is part of God’s purpose, so that it does not make them lose their faith. Nothing is out of God’s hand and purposes. This is true of our experiences too.

V2: These Jewish disciples will face excommunication from the synagogues – devastating for them, but for the awareness of these verses. They will be persecuted even to death, and those who persecute will actually think they are serving God – as did Saul of Tarsus (Acts 26:9.)

V3:But such persecution shows how such “zealous Jews” do not truly know God – neither Father nor Son. Their religion is an outward thing, with no living relationship with the God they profess to serve. This may be true of others, not only the Jews!

V4a: As we say “forewarned is forearmed”.

V4b-5: While Jesus was with them in His earthly ministry, He did not need to tell them these things, but now He prepares them – and each generation of believers – for His return to the Father. Some are puzzled by “None of you asks Me ‘where..?’ after John 14:5, but none have
asked with understanding of what His return to the Father truly means – via the cross of shame.

V6: Their sorrow is focussed on losing His physical presence. They will come to realise He remains with them in His spiritual presence ( Matthew 28:20) – our experience still, if we know the Lord.

Read John 15:22-27.

V22: It is the Word of God, the word which in its fullness Jesus brought and declared, which convicts of sin. In ch16 we will see Jesus saying this is part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry (16:8-9). Again, we are shown the Oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus does not, of course mean that people were not guilty of sin before He came, but they could evade and deny their sin. But the truth in Christ leaves no such evasion possible.

V23: Only in and through Jesus Christ can anyone truly know God. (ch 14:6 ) So, anyone who does not know and love Jesus as Saviour and Lord is outside of God’s love, and not to love Jesus is in the absolute sense to hate Him, and His Father too. (“I and my Father are One “) (John 10:30)

V24: The rejection of Jesus – God with us (Matthew 1 v23) – His unique life, ministry and works – shows their rejection of God for what it is, and leaves no cloak for their sin.

V25: There are 2 OT verses which are echoed here – Psalm 38:19 and 69:4. All that happened to Jesus, all His sufferings and rejection, was in God’s purpose of redeeming grace, and foretold in His Word. -“Their Law”, which the enemies of Jesus profess to revere and uphold!

V26: Again, He points them to the coming of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, who will bear witness to Jesus, not only in His ministry to and through these first disciples, but in the Scripture, which He opens eyes and hearts to receive and understand and through which He convicts the hearts of men. Note again, Father Son and Holy Spirit all in union in this, as in all things.

V27: And these disciples who have been with Jesus throughout His ministry, heard His teaching, seen His works, and know Him as Saviour and Lord, will also bear witness. The book of Acts records something of their witness, but the witness goes on through Christ’s people in every generation, and into all the world – Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8.

Read John 15:18-21

V18: Jesus now seeks to prepare them for living in a hostile world once He is gone from them – a world that will hate them, because it hated Him. It is still true that Christ’s people are living in a
hostile world. For some that means direct persecution, but for all believers there will be some experience of the hostility of this world, because…

V19: …those whom Christ has chosen and saved no longer are part of a world that is under Satan’s sway (1 John 5:19.) So, they will find hostility in some way because this world is no longer where they truly belong – they belong to Christ. Do we sometimes seem to be too much ” at home” in this world, rather than as distinct as we should be as Christ’s redeemed?.

V20: What was true of Jesus, our Master, is true of His followers too. We cannot expect better treatment than Him. But some did receive His Word and, by God’s grace keep it, these disciples themselves and that wider group of believers we get glimpses of in the gospels. So, surely He is saying there will be some who hear, respond to and obey the truth, by God’s grace, in their future ministries – and in ours too.

V21: All the opposition, marginalisation, mockery and persecution of any kind we face, is because they reject Him and His Father, and bearing His Name, we can expect nothing else. These verses present the NT norm of Christian experience. Perhaps we have forgotten that today.

Read John 15:13-17

V13: Jesus identifies a willingness to die for one’s friends as the greatest human love – but His love is greater by far –” While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” – (Romans 5:8)  In our sinful rebellious state, we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10 )

V14 : What a wonder of condescending grace that He, the Lord of glory, now calls His disciples His friends., but the evidence for this relationship in their – and our – lives is doing His will. Note how this runs through these verses. Jesus is LORD!

V15:  They are no longer in the relationship of mere servants – though remember how the apostle Paul normally referred to himself as a (willing) “servant – literally, bond-slave – of Jesus Christ” ( e.g. Romans 1:1). But a servant is not in their Master’s confidence, they are simply told what to do, but now Jesus has revealed to them, and to us in His Word, His Father’s will and purpose.

V16: The Lord is sovereign in calling His people, sovereign in salvation ( Ephesians 2:8.) He has chosen and called these first disciples, and all His people, and His purpose for them is that their lives should be lastingly fruitful ( See note on v.8 ) This is the living evidence of a true relationship with Him, by the grace of God alone. In this relationship, prayer will be made seeking His glory, and so God will answer.

V17: Note the slight shift here – not “I command you to love one another, but I command these thing in your lives as disciples, so that you will love one another”. His Word in us is the source of love – and fruitfulness. C.H. Spurgeon would often pray ” Lord, make me a fruitful branch.”

Read John 15:9-12:

V9 : How amazing that the perfect eternal love between God the Father and the Son is mirrored in the Lord’s love for His people And remember in His “new commandment” ( ch13 v34 ) we are to love each other as He has loved us. To “abide in His love” is to live in the assurance of Romans 8:38-39.

V10 :Obedience to our Lord is the evidence that we are abiding in His love. His total obedience to His Father’s will, even to the cross, is the evidence that He Himself abides in God’s love. Their eternally abiding love is also true of their love for believers. (Jeremiah 31:3.)

V11: Jesus wants His joy to fill His people’s hearts. His Word is the source of that joy, which does not depend on outward circumstances but on knowing Him and His redeeming love, and that all things are in God’s sovereign hand.

V12 : Again, He repeats that “new commandment “. How vital He regards it for His people and their lives and witness in this world – again He reminds them that it is to reflect His love for them – for us! Do we show this love for our brothers and sisters in Christ as we should?

Read John ch 15 v5-8.

V5: Again, Jesus is the vine – the source of spiritual life – to the branches, His disciples. Only with this living relationship with Him can Christians truly bear fruit. ‘Apart from Me you can do nothing’ – how we need to learn this at heart level. How often we do rely on our own strength, and so often fail.

V6: This has caused some Christians agonies of doubt – who are these fruitless branches who are cast out and burned? They are not true believers who find themselves weak and fallible – that is true of all of us in some way – but those who, while making some profession of faith, perhaps seeming to be part of the fellowship of a church, have no true saving faith, no living relationship with Christ.( See Matthew 7:21-23.)

V7: Again, in the intimate relationship of true faith, Christ speaks of His Words ‘abiding’ in His disciples – living in them. For us too it is the living Word of God, as by faith we receive it and seek to obey it, which works in our hearts and lives. Then, what we ask, He will answer – but just as in ch14:13, our asking must be in accordance with God’s will, and in a concern for His glory.

V8 : What a wonder of grace, that the God of eternal glory should be glorified if our lives as believers bear fruit – and this is the evidence of a true relationship with Christ as Saviour and Lord! But what is this fruit we are to bear, and how can we bear it? It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, and it makes us more and more like Christ in character ( Galatians 5:22-23) as we walk by faith in love and obedience. It is seen in lives that honour and obey our Lord, in our witness to the world,
and in our abiding relationship with Him.

Read John ch 15:1-4

V1: The last of the 7 ” I am” sayings of Jesus in this gospel. They declare His deity – ” I am”, the Name of God as revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14 – and reveal more of what He is to and for His people. “The True Vine” – in the OT Israel is often referred to as the Lord’s vineyard, but a vineyard that failed to produce the fruit He looked for. ( see Isaiah 5:1-7 ) if they did leave the upper room at the end of ch 14, they would have seen vineyards on the hillsides around them, and the gate of the Temple was adorned with a golden vine. Jesus, in contrast to Israel is the true vine, cared for by His Father, the vinedresser.

V2: God, the Vinedresser, wants the branches to bear fruit, and fruitless ones ( lifeless ones )  are removed. and those which do bear fruit are pruned ( disciplined ) The branches are the disciples, but the fruitless ones are those who profess faith, but have no living relationship with the Lord. However, true believers will know the lord’s chastening discipline to deal with anything that prevents their fruitfulness.( Just as a human gardener will cut back anything that inhibits growth in their plants. 

V3: ‘You are clean’ – literally purged – Jesus tells the disciples, by His word to them. God’s Word is still what makes us clean, by showing us the Saviour and His redeeming death to bear our sins – this is our real cleansing, of course. as we trust in him.

V4: Branches have no independent life of their own, only as they are part of the life of the vine can they bear fruit. So disciples, then or now, can only be fruitful if they are in living union with the lord. To ‘Abide‘  is to have a place where you belong, your abode is your home; we belong to, and in Christ.

Read John 14 v25-31

V25: Jesus has told them all this before He is taken from them. As yet, they are puzzled but once the Spirit is given…

V26: He will teach them, bring back to them all Jesus has said, and give them understanding. Note again the union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in this work of grace. He still teaches and gives understanding to Christ’s people through the Word of God – are we open to His teaching?

V27: Jesus promises His peace – a peace an unbelieving world does not and cannot know, for it is found only in and through Jesus Christ, in knowing Him as Saviour and Lord. Do we know that peace, which surpasses all human understanding (Philippians 4:7) at this present time? These first disciples will soon know great sadness and fear as He is taken and crucified, but again as in v1, He calls them – and us – to trust Him and not be afraid.

V28: If they really understood what His going meant, His return to the Father and to the glory He laid aside to come into this world to save us (see Philippians 2:5-8) they would rejoice for Him (and so, John 14:9-11) How we should rejoice, that Jesus returned to His glory as our Redeemer.

V29: He has told them what will come – at first they will be full of grief and fear, but when they realise all it means, their faith will be stronger than it has ever been (All these verses, I believe, anticipate the ministry of the Holy Spirit to them, and to all believers.)

V30: His earthly ministry is almost finished now. The hour of Satan’s seeming triumph is near ( though his is a stolen, usurped rule in this fallen world ) He has no claim on Jesus, the Holy sinless Son of God, but in His great love, Jesus gave Himself up to death, to bear our sins and save us! Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

V31: And in all this, Jesus acts in full obedience to the Father, showing His love by such obedience. How amazing, that this was God’s will for His Son – to save sinners like us. (John 3:16; Romans 8:32) “Rise, let us go…” Do they leave the Upper Room at this point? Opinions differ. I think they do, and ch15 is delivered as they are on their way.

Read John 14:21-24

V21: Again, love for the Lord and obedience to His commands are linked – as they must be. Wonderfully, those who love Him are loved by His Father, and will know the abiding presence of Jesus Himself.

V22: We know little about the ‘other’ Judas (or Jude), but he is one of the 12, a true disciple. Yet like the rest, He doesn’t yet understand. This will be corrected by the Spirit’s ministry after Pentecost.

V23: The same precious truths are repeated – how often we need to hear the truth again. Obedience to the Lord we love is vital to our realisation of His, and the Father’s, love for us and abiding presence with us. When we are not walking in obedience, we lose the felt sense of this.

V24: Again, to fail to obey calls our love for Him into question. In practice, it takes away our peace and joy in the Lord as we do not honour His Words, which are first the Father’s, but it may even cast doubt on the reality of our faith and love for Him. May we be walking in obedience and love, by the grace of God.