The Father living in Jesus meant he was on call for Jesus every second of every day, the result of which in Jesus was a miracle-filled life that made the Father real to his disciples (John 14:8-11).
It was Jesus’ wish, then – when he left to be with his Father in John 14:28 – to be on call for his disciples to create miracle-filled lives in them that would continue to make the Father real. He put it to them in the form of a promise too: “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father,” John 14:13.
So Jesus is at the ready to do the kind of things in his disciples’ lives that make his Father real. Which is what he told his disciples in John 15:7-8, that “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
In his love for his Father, therefore, Jesus “bears much fruit” in his disciples’ lives. It’s what Jesus chose disciples for, “to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last,” knowing that “the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (16). Jesus knew his Father would be delighted in the fruit his disciples produced, and would show his delight by stamping his own guarantee on the disciples having a miracle-filled life.
Which would all come from Jesus’ disciples “showing” themselves to be his disciples (8), because that’s what the Father (as “the gardener” in verse 1) set up for the bearing of much fruit to happen. Like “branches” on a vine Jesus’ disciples could not produce any miracle-bearing fruit by themselves (4), so the Father provided them with Jesus to create the miracle-bearing fruit in them. Staying connected to Jesus, therefore, was how Jesus’ disciples would bear much fruit (5). And how we “show” we’re connected to him is by “his words remaining in us” (7) and “obeying his teaching” (14:23).
Which is why Jesus asked the Father to give his disciples the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit teaches and reminds us of what Jesus taught (14:26). That connects us with Jesus who feeds through the miracle-bearing fruit in us that his Father delights in, that the Father himself then turns into concrete proof that he’s real. We can expect miracles in our lives to happen, then, but “What kind of miracles?”….(next blog)
