Seeing Jesus in Me - When Your World Explodes – August 14 Readings: John 15:16 – Chosen to Bear Fruit

John 14-16: When Your World Explodes

Jesus knew, the night before his death, that the disciples' world was about to be blown to pieces. He would be arrested, tried, and crucified. They'd committed themselves to Jesus and he would be gone. In this powerful message, Jesus prepared the disciples to live in peace and spiritual power when the world around them was falling apart.

We will take the next three weeks delving into this passage.

Today's Reading:  John 15:16      

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

Through the Bible Readings: Job 39-40, Romans 5, Psalm 94:13–19, Proverbs20:11–13 

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional:     

After my family returned from Taiwan in 1973, we spent a year in a missionary house in Orlando, Florida. The backyard of the home had several different citrus trees growing in it. To me, all the leaves of the trees looked the same. Perhaps an expert in "citrusology" could tell them apart, but I could not. Even when they began to show fruit, I still could not distinguish them at first. They were all small and a dark green color. 

Then, something amazing happened. The fruit on one tree began to grow large and was a dark yellowish color, even showing a pink tinge at times. I was able to identify that fruit as grapefruit. Onn another tree, the fruit stayed smaller, was a bit elongated on the ends, and turned a brighter yellow color. My expertise grew and I knew this to be lemons. The two largest trees had medium-sized fruit which gradually turned a vibrant orange color. I identified those fruit as...wait for it...oranges. 

You are impressed, aren't you? 

I was able to identify the trees according to their fruit. You could almost say, "By their fruit, you will know them." The nature of a tree is expressed in the fruit that it bears. Jesus told his disciples, in John 15:16, that he chose them, saved them, and commissioned them for the purpose of "bearing fruit." The translation I use above says "produce fruit" but that is an unfortunate translation. The branch bears the fruit that the vine produces. 

We are chosen by God to bear fruit. What does this mean? The old, standard answer is that we are supposed to faithfully witness. Bearing fruit is equated with evangelism. While evangelism is important, bearing fruit is something more. The life of the vine is expressed in the fruit. The orange trees'  essence was demonstrated in orange fruit. The "grapefruitiness" of the grapefruit tree was expressed in the fruit. Bearing fruit means that we demonstrate the life of Christ in our daily lives. In Galatians 5, Paul speaks of the Fruit of the Spirit - those character qualities that the Spirit produces in us. 

Here's the key: the seed that brings new life is found inside the fruit. It is when we are like Jesus, when his life flows through us, that people are brought to him. Evangelism works when people see Jesus in us. Jesus reproduces his life in us. We bear his fruit and when that fruit falls to the ground of this world, new life springs up!

Father, conform me to Christ so that the world can see Jesus in me. 

Think and Pray:

Does the world see the life and character of Jesus reproduced in you?