Looking for Help and Hope--Finding Struggle

(101) The Promise of Help, Hope and Struggle

You’ve probably noticed by now, John’s Gospel has a lot more of Jesus’ teaching and dialogs. I’ve read that some people suggest this is because it’s written later, and so the Holy Spirit had longer to work on John, inspiring his understanding of what he’d seen and heard. Read John 14:26. What do you think?

So now we’ll move on to more of Jesus’ teaching, close to the time of his death (and possibly at the Last Supper), and we’ll start with a familiar verse:

Abide in me: Read John 15:4a If you started at verse 1 you’d have seen this part of the “I am the Vine” discourse—did you remember it that way? What does abiding in Him mean to you, besides being a great hymn?

I am the Vine: Read John 15:1-8

1.       Read John 15:1-3 When has God pruned you? What have you seen in your life that you want him to prune?

2.       Read John 15:4 When have you been particularly aware of something you could only do with God’s help?

3.       Read John 15:5-6 Have you ever felt like you were cast out, or known someone who felt cast out?

a.       Who throws away dead branches – the vinekeeper, or the other branches on the vine?

b.       Read Matthew 18:17. Who “burns” the bad branches – us or God? (And how were pagans treated?)

4.       Read John 15:7-8 In what sense do we “ask” and “receive”? Are there preconditions? And in what sense is God glorified – in what we ask for or in what we receive?

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you: Read John 15:9-12

1.       Is being loved by Him the same as abiding in His love?

2.       Does breaking commandments stop you being loved, or stop you from knowing you are loved?

3.       How do love, joy and law fit together?

Greater love has no one than this: Read John 15:13  Without reading on, what’s a “friend”?

I do not call you servants… I have called you friends: Read John 15:14-15 In the Greek world, friends treated each other as equals. In the Roman world, friends were political allies. Which type of friend does Jesus mean, and how is it different from a servant or an ally?

I chose you: Read John 15:16-17 Why did God choose you?

You are not of this world: Read John 15:18-19 Remembering Matthew 6:24, Luke 14:26 what would the world “hating” you look like?

This happened that the word might be fulfilled: Read John 15:20-25

1.       What’s the difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus?

2.       What’s the difference between rejecting Jesus and rejecting God (verse 22,24)

3.       How was Psalm 69 (especially Psalm 69:4,9,21) fulfilled? (And what about Psalm 69:32-33)

The Helper… the Spirit of Truth… proceeds from the Father: Read John 15:26-27

1.       Was it just the disciples who would bear witness, or does this apply to us too?

2.       If Jesus says “you will bear witness” does that mean we have to work and worry, or we have to believe it will happen?

3.       How does the Spirit “proceed from the Father and the Son” as it says it our creeds?