John 15 Analysis - Part 3

 Thursday 17th June 2021 

Happy Thursday, I hope you have had a good day so far.

Here is the third and final part of the John 15 analysis I did on a word document back in April. 

My next post will probably be on temptation. I don't normally plan what I have to post, I just post what God wants me to post. I have decided on a new schedule though, which will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, unless stated otherwise.

 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.

Jesus Christ had died on the cross so that we can live. The cross can sometimes be very underrated in today's society. I read recently in a book that yes, we celebrate Jesus' death, birthday and resurrection. Which is all about Jesus, however we may not always focus on the cross and what it represents.

The cross can represent a personal sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for our sake. So he is expecting us to make sacrifices for him as well. Luke 9:23 says "Then he said to all of them, “Whoever wants to follow me must say no to themselves. They must pick up their cross every day and follow me."

A book I read recently (Becoming Like Jesus: God's Key to Abundant Living by Gbile Akanni) said that we need to take up the cross daily. Not weekly, monthly or annually, daily. The author linked this to Numbers 21 vs 4-9

I highly recommend the book by the way, it's amazing, and very insightful.

4 The Israelites travelled from Mount Hor along the way to the Red Sea. They wanted to go around Edom. But they grew tired on the way. 5 So they spoke against God and against Moses. They said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt? Do you want us to die here in the desert? We don’t have any bread! We don’t have any water! And we hate this awful food!”
6 Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the Israelites. The snakes bit them. Many of the people died. 7 The others came to Moses. They said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake. Put it up on a pole. Then anyone who is bitten can look at it and remain alive.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake. He put it up on a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake remained alive.

Those that had looked at the snake for one day thought that their problems would have been gone forever. But no, it was only for that one day. It would have come back the next day. That's why Jesus Christ said that you should take up your cross daily. So that every problem you have, as long as you take up the cross daily, will be gone every day.

If you take up the cross on the first day of a month and you expect all of your   future problems to be gone for the whole month then you're deceiving yourself. It would only be gone for the first of the month. Unless you take up the cross daily. You understand where I'm coming from? I hope you do.

 ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ I did works among them that no one else did. If I hadn’t, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen those works. And still they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ This has happened so that what is written in their Law would come true. It says, ‘They hated me without any reason.’ (Psalms 35:19; 69:4)

Psalms 35:19 Don’t let those who are my enemies without any reason

    laugh at me and make fun of me.
Don’t let those who hate me without any reason
    wink at me with an evil purpose.

And Psalms 69:4 Those who hate me without any reason
    are more than the hairs on my head.
Many people who don’t have any reason to be my enemies
    are trying to destroy me.
They force me to give back
    what I didn’t steal.

Both of these quotes have something  similar, which is the fact that David is asking God to take away the people that dislike him. In life, people will inevitably dislike you, oftentimes for no reason or before they've even met you. The harsh truth is you can't please everyone so you shouldn't try to. I had to learn this the hard way but I learnt it. Besides, you shouldn't even be focusing on pleasing people anyway. Focus on pleasing God instead.

After all, Galatians 1:10 says Am I now trying to get people to think well of me? Or do I want God to think well of me? Am I trying to please people? If I were, I would not be serving Christ.

God's opinion of you will never change but people's can. There are 7 Billion plus people in the world. There is absolutely no way on Earth that you can make every single one of them happy, especially if it is at your expense and most of the time, it is. You probably don't like everyone you encounter or know, so you shouldn't try to make everyone like you.

Did you know that making others like you could actually get them to dislike you instead? This is contrasting yet true.

Some people hated Jesus Christ for no reason - it could have been because of jealousy or because they thought that Jesus Christ was better than them. Jesus Christ wasn't trying to be better than anyone though, he was just preaching the truth. And Christians know that. Most unbelievers didn't like Jesus because they were threatened by him. 

Jesus Christ had many haters. But on top of that? He had umpteen or countless supporters too, and a lot of people loved him. Hence why Christianity was named after him: Jesus Christ. As of June 2021, there are 2.382 billion Christians out there. That's how many people love Jesus/God and their teachings.

As for verses 23-25 in John 15, here was what I analysed.

If you hate Jesus then you hate God, and if you hate God then God won’t be very happy with you. He’s done so much for you so you should do the same for him as well.

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one of them and love the other. Or you will be faithful to one and dislike the other. You can’t serve God and money at the same time.

You can't have two idols at the same time.  Even if it's not at the same time, realistically speaking you shouldn't be worshipping anyone or anything that's not of God.

I can't say that God would resent you if you do that because God doesn't resent anyone. He just wouldn't like it if you did that. Drop your idol today and focus on God. It doesn't matter what your idol is. 

It's like to this very popular quote as well.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in it. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

²⁶ “I will send the Friend to you from the Father. He is the Spirit of truth, who comes out from the Father. When the Friend comes to help you, he will be a witness about me. ²⁷ You must also be witnesses about me. That’s because you have been with me from the beginning.

Psalms 46:1 God is our place of safety. He gives us strength.
    He is always there to help us in times of trouble.

Jeremiah 29:13  When you look for me with all your heart, you will find me.
When you come into the word of God, then you know that he can help you with all your problems.

It's best for you to live a short life where you are fully focused on God and his teachings than a long life without any meaning. I have also learnt that it's not about how long you live but how well you live instead. I mean, both is great, ie Nelson Mandela lived 95 years and he was very influential. I watched a movie about his life on the 11th of this month.

Quality over quantity is important for everything, even how long you live. Strive to die empty, not with potential still inside of you. That potential is no use if you're dead, that's why I'm saying that. Come into the word of God, so that he can help you with all your problems. 

And I pray that he helps you as you do this amen.