Pentecost 5 Getting Our Spiritual Bearings

[HKHaugan]

  John 15:1-11 (Underlined for emphasis) 

 ¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will 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 a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  ⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

 

Eleven times in this passage Jesus uses the word ‘remain.’  The Greek word is ‘man-ay’ (spelled phonetically).  Different translations have it as ‘abide’, ‘dwell’, ‘be joined to’, ‘continue’ and ‘stay.’  It indicates that Jesus is underlining the need for His disciples to understand the spiritual dimension into which faith takes them because He knows that the next day He will be leaving them.  It is their faith in Him that will guarantee His presence. 

It is the Holy Spirit upon whom they will rely for Jesus’ guidance.  Thus here is a passage that gives us real insight into the Spirit.  His work is not just here and there adjusting fleeting moments in time but establishing an atmosphere of constancy that penetrates every moment. 

Let’s look at three aspects of His work,--- consciousness, connection and conditioning.

 

First, consciousness.

The Holy Spirit brings a consciousness of the presence of Jesus (Jn.14:26).  He makes the invisible visible in our minds and that which happens in the mind affects our hearts.  Again, heart consistency is His intention.  He has three goals, spiritual consciousness, consciousness of Jesus and scriptural consciousness.  First, the more we are conscious of living in a spiritual environment the more we can react spiritually instead of emotionally, reliant on God as opposed to the sinful demand of the moment and consider consequences more than self-indulging satisfaction.  Second, consciousness of Jesus gives us a personal visual example for the heart and mind.  He is not only an example but also a Savior in the midst of temptation and a Lord over circumstance.  Third, the Spirit moves us to get into the Word because that is where He operates the mind of Christ in our minds.  The more we read Scripture the more the Spirit has to work with in our mind and heart.

 

Second, connection.

The Holy Spirit connects us to God through Jesus in a conscious relationship.  He works to build our relationship with God through Jesus.  It will also be a relational experience that is no longer bound by the limitations of sin and death.

As the spiritual motivator He knows exactly where we need to grow in our relationship with Jesus.  He works through the Word to bring us closer to Jesus.  He connects us with Him both consciously and unconsciously. The more we are conscious of Jesus the more we decrease the importance of time and increase the importance of His presence.  This is important since Heaven will be the absence of time and the realization we are connected relationally both to God and ‘a great cloud of witnesses (Heb.12:1)’ in a grand eternal spiritual dimension.

 

Third, conditioning.

The Holy Spirit is conditioning us to be the presence of Jesus in the world.  Being a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, takes us out of ourselves into a spiritual awareness of people, the world and its need to be reconciled to God.  The world in which we live needs transformation and it comes only through people whose hearts have been given to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is conditioning each of us to think and act at a level of spiritual awareness that stretches us far beyond where we ever thought we would be.  That incompleteness we feel within and sense is where the Holy Spirit is pushing us to move out of ourselves and be aware of God’s will to recover others through the relationship we have with Him.  We have only to see the great patriarchs, prophets and apostles.  None of them ever had the sense that their work was done or that they had achieved personal perfection in this world.  At their best moments they knew it was God who brought them there and at their worst they relied on His mercy and grace.  Of course the perfect example was Jesus who said, only at the end on the Cross, that the work He came to do was finished.  He was always on the move, from town to town and person to person.  He sets our purpose --- keep moving to bring one heart at a time to Him.  That takes a whole lot of ‘remaining.’  Remaining in Him is what this column is all about so---stay tuned.