Of the Spirit (part 23)
Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that they could enter God’s world of love by cottoning on to what the Father’s love had provided for them in him. Because in him his disciples had everything they needed to flourish and bear fruit.
So “remain in me” Jesus told them, stick to him like glue, because he’d still be with them after his death, but this time his Father would give them the Holy Spirit to bring to life all that he’d taught them (John 14:26), because in Jesus’ teachings coming to life in them the Father would love them and open up his world to them (verse 23).
And how would he open up his world to them? Jesus comes out with the most amazing answer to that in John 15:7, that “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”
Imagine being a disciple of Jesus, then, knowing that you’re deeply loved by the Father for sticking to what Jesus taught, which now meant you could ask the Father for whatever you wished, and in his deep love for you he would grant your wish.
So what would your wish to the Father be? Well, as Jesus points out in verse 8, what the Father really glories in is seeing his Son’s disciples and best friends “bearing much fruit” in living his teachings – so we are recognizably his disciples because of the “much fruit” difference his teachings make in us.
And since his teachings are the heart and core of life in God’s world, then it’s because of Jesus’ disciples living his teachings that the door cracks open to what God’s world looks like. The means by which the Father is opening up his world, then, is by Jesus’ disciples living it.
It was of crucial importance, then, that Jesus’ disciples keep cracking that door open by obeying what Jesus taught, just as Jesus cracked it open by obeying what his Father taught him (verse 10). So isn’t that what we’d ask the Father for, the ability to live what Jesus taught so people see the difference and they get a glimpse of God’s world of love too?…(new series beginning Monday)
Buck To Basics 