John 15 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: John 15:1-8: Jesus the Vine

A. Find Out:    

1. What is Jesus and what is his Father? v.1
   • ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2. What happens to the two different branches? v.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.
3. What did Jesus tell them to do and why? v.4,5
   • 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. 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.
4. What will happen if you don’t do that? v.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.
5. If we do it what also may we do with what result? v.7
   •  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
6. What is the Father’s twofold desire? v.8
   • This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

B. Think:

1. What do you think “abiding in” or “remaining in” Jesus means?
2. What do you think “pruning” means here?
3. How is fruitfulness dependent on it?

C. Comment:

Observe these three ideas or concepts that Jesus gives us in this picture. First, of REMAINING in Jesus (older versions speak of “abiding in”). Essentially it means living in the close presence of Jesus at all times, focused on Jesus, receiving from him at all times like a branch receives strength and life from the main trunk or stem. This is to be the very nature of our lives, totally dependent on him; that is the main idea of the vine and its branches.

Second, there is the idea of PRUNING. In natural life, for a vine to flourish it needs to be cut back or pruned regularly so that it will develop new growth and subsequently fruit. Unless there is a cutting back there will not be new growth and therefore no fruit. Therefore, the Lord will trim us back, restrict us, remove bits from us, all so that we will grow more and become fruitful, yet when He does that, we probably object because we like things “as they are”!

Third, there is the idea of FRUITFULNESS. God’s intention is that we will be fruitful, producing the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22,23) or the fruits of service, and it will only come by a close walk with Jesus, only come from allowing the Father to cut back the hard, unproductive, dead parts of our lives. Will we gratefully let Him do it?

D. Application:

1. Remaining close to Jesus is the key. Reflect on what that means.
2. Being pruned produces new life. Am I producing new life?

Passage: John 15:9-17: The Command to Love

A. Find Out:

1. How is love demonstrated? v.9,10
   • As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
2. Why has Jesus told them this? v.11
   • I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
3. What did he command them to do and how? v.17,12
   • 17 This is my command: love each other. 12 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.
4. How is that demonstrated? v.13
   • Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
5. What are they now, and why? v.14,15
   • You are my friends if you do what I command.
6. Who chooses who, for what purpose, and with what result? v.16
   • You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

B. Think:

1. What two ways are we to demonstrate our love for Jesus?
2. What are to be the fruits of our relationship with him?

C. Comment:

Yesterday we saw Jesus instructing the disciples to remain close to him, and now he says stay in my love. They had seen him living out his life, remaining in the constant awareness of his Father’s love, responding to His Father, and obeying all He said. That living in His love was a specific thing; it was obeying everything Father said, giving up all his own personal desires to the desires of the Father (because Father knows best). Very well, says Jesus, I’ve demonstrated it, so you do it too, and you’ll find it brings you immense joy. There is nothing else like flowing in the Father’s love!

Look, he continues, you’ll demonstrate it by the way you love one another and lay down your lives for one another, just like you’ve seen me do it for you. Love is practical, so do it! Once you were my servants, but now you are more than that, you are my friends, because you know and understand these things now that I’ve told you them.

Don’t forget, he continues, I chose you, with a purpose, to produce fruitful lives which will affect and change the world, as you live out this life of love in closeness to me and my Father. When you do that, you will know our heart and, therefore, the things you ask us will be in accord with our desires and so we’ll give you whatever you ask, as you ask with this understanding.

D. Application:

1. Love is very practical. Are we demonstrating it?
2. Closeness of relationship brings understanding and fruitfulness.

Passage: John 15:18-21: Warning of Persecution

A. Find Out:

1. What should we remember when what happens? v.18
   •  ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
2. Why might the world hate us? v.19
   • If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
3. What had Jesus taught them? v.20a
   • Remember what I told you: “A servant is not greater than his master.”
4. So what will be the result? v.20b
   •  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
5. Why will they treat us this way? v.21
   •  They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

B. Think:

1. What subject does Jesus now turn to?
2. How does the phrase “like attracts like” apply in these verses?
3. So what may we expect as a normal part of Christian life?

C. Comment:

Having just taught the disciples how to live within the Church, Jesus now moves on to cover what they may expect from living in the world. His approach is very simple: the world has hated me so it will hate you! Let’s unpack this.

Why did “the world” hate Jesus? Well, “the world” here refers to godless, self-seeking, unrighteous humanity. When the disciples came to Christ, they ceased to be part of “the world” as it is described here. However, many people were still part of “the world” and Jesus was a threat to their self-centredness and so they crucified him. Similarly, we will be a threat to them, so they will oppose us as well. While we stay quiet and inoffensive, we will not be a threat, but as soon as we let Jesus live through us and we start confronting their godlessness, even though we do it full of his love, then the opposition will come.

Religious authorities, civil authorities and the people, all reacted against Jesus because he exposed their darkness. Therefore they sought to get rid of him. Similarly, they will seek to get rid of us when we are Jesus to them. This is a stark fact of being a Christian, it’s not a persecution complex, it’s just a hard spiritual reality that godly lives provoke persecution! (see 2 Tim 3:12)

D. Application:

1. Jesus was opposed and rejected by godless men and women.
2. When we are Jesus to them, godless men and women will reject us.

Passage: John 15:22-27: More on Persecution

A. Find Out:

1. Why, first of all, are the people guilty of sin? v.22
   • If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
2. What does hatred of Jesus also mean? v.23
   • Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.
3. Why, secondly, are the people guilty of sin? v.24
   •  If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
4. How did Jesus view this? v.25
   •  But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: “They hated me without reason.”
5. What does he say the Holy Spirit will do? v.26
   • ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me.
6. What does he say they must do? v.27
   • And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

B. Think:

1. How has the truth been presented to the people?
2. What does their rejection of it mean?
3. But what is to happen in the future?

C. Comment:

Jesus has just warned the disciples again that persecution will come to them. Because he has been rejected they will be rejected. But be quite clear about this, he continues, those who reject me are guilty. They are guilty of rejecting the truth in two ways: first they heard Jesus’ words and rejected them, and second, they saw Jesus’ miracles and rejected them. So it’s quite clear: they are guilty of sin. The Lord had warned, prophetically in the Old Testament, that this would happen. They did it then and have done it now!

But Jesus isn’t simply passive about this. He’s not going to sit back and do nothing about it, for when Father sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit will continue testifying of me, he says, and you must continue working with Him, testifying about me.

Merely because there is rejection and opposition that doesn’t mean you should give up. The Holy Spirit will be there carrying on His work, so we should simply keep on, doing that same work, testifying about Jesus. Our temptation so often, is to give up when there is opposition, but Jesus in this passage is encouraging us to push on and keep on with the work as the Holy Spirit enables, despite the rejection, despite the opposition. Keep on! Keep on!

D. Application:

1. Those who oppose the kingdom are guilty of sin.
2. The Holy Spirit will keep on despite them. So should we!