By: Dale Weckbacher
John 15:1-1-2
“I am the true
vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every
branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that
does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
(ESV)
We live in a post-Genesis
3 world and why we see so much evil and tragedy in the world. When many in the world hear the Gospel, their
objection is often why they would want to follow a God that allows such evil in
the world. Genesis
3 records the account of the fall of humanity and humanity’s separation
from God that resulted in a curse coming upon the world. Therefore, the cause and source of evil and tragedy
in the world are not God but a result of humanity’s fall. While God could have eliminated the curse by
destroying the world including humanity in the garden, he instead promised a
savior to lift the curse (Genesis
3:15). We have the benefit of
hindsight and know that the promised savior is Jesus Christ who came, died on
the cross, and resurrected from the dead to remove the curse of sin from all
who accept Him as their savior. However,
the curse on the world remains and will not go away until the return of Christ (Revelation
21:1-4).
In the interim between the first
coming of Christ to remove the curse of sin and the second coming to bring a
new heaven and earth with God dwelling on earth with humanity, the church has a
calling to spread the Gospel and make disciples (Mark
16:15; Matthew 28:19-20). During
this interim period, God’s people live as ambassadors in a foreign land (2
Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador’s
purpose when serving in a foreign land is to promote the benefits of the
culture of their native land to those in the foreign land in which they
serve. To accomplish this, the Bible
encourages Christians to demonstrate the Fruits of the Spirit in how they live
(Galatians
5:22-23).
However, the lure of the flesh can
cause believers to go back to living according to the way they once lived as natural-born
citizens of the world. Romans
12:2 reminds Christians of the need to lose conformity to the world in which
they once lived and to instead experience transformation in their thinking to
thinking and meditating on the things of God.
Christians experience this transformation as they connect regularly with
the vine, Jesus Christ, and allow the vinedresser to prune the unfruitful
branches of conformity with the world so the branches connected to the vine are
more fruitful. Connection with the vine
involves becoming a disciple through, evangelization, equipping, encouragement,
and empowerment.
1) Evangelization
– This is the beginning of the process of discipleship. Jesus told Nicodemus that unless one is born
again, they will not see the Kingdom of God (John
3:3). Nicodemus mistakenly interpreted
this to mean one experiencing physical birth once again (John
3:4) but Jesus is referring to spiritual birth (John
3:5). Since all have sinned, all
reading this need to experience this spiritual birth by confessing Jesus as
their Lord through belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (Romans
10:9-10). Those experiencing this
new birth gain citizenship in the Kingdom of God. However, we still live in the world in which
we were once citizens and retain characteristics of our citizenship in the
secular world, something the Apostle Paul alluded to in His life (Romans
7:15). After evangelization, it
crucial for Christians to experience ongoing equipping to serve effectively as
ambassadors for Christ.
2) Equipping
– This is the ongoing process of discipleship as one evangelized experiences
transformation from conformity to the world and conformity to God’s way of
thinking. This is the process of
transformation alluded to in Romans
12:2. This is the process of
connecting to the vine of Jesus who is the Word of God that became flesh and came
to be with us (John
1:14). However, this equipping
process can be painful as it not only requires a connection to the vine to
produce the fruits of the Spirit but the pruning by the vinedresser of
unfruitful branches that rob the fruitful branches of nourishment (John
15:2). Equipping Christians occurs through
the practice of the spiritual disciplines of study and meditation on the Word
of God and regular prayer or communication with God. It is also vital for Christians to have a regular
association with other believers through attendance at church or a Bible study teaching
the Bible.
3) Encouragement
– Jesus told his followers that in this world we would have trouble but that he
overcame the world (John
16:33). This statement from Jesus
was actually prophetic for at the time he said this, he had not overcome death
by resurrecting from the dead for Jesus first had to experience the tribulation
of the cross and death to overcome death.
However, our hindsight once again lets us know that Jesus did overcome
death on the cross with the encouragement that the same power of the Holy
Spirit that resurrected Christ from the dead lives in us giving life to our
mortal bodies (Romans
8:11).
4) Empowerment
– This is an often-overlooked aspect of serving Christ, but one Jesus stressed
in Acts
1:4. God’s people find themselves in
a battle, a battle requiring different weapons (Ephesians
6:10-20). Ephesians
6:18-20 concludes Paul’s teaching on the armor of God with the need to pray
for all the saints and form Paul to the Ephesians for boldness in declaring the
Gospel while imprisoned as an ambassador in chains. Peter is an example of how one afraid to admit
to being a follower of Jesus when it could have meant joining Jesus on the
cross (Matthew
26:69-75), to one boldly declaring the Gospel to an audience people that
had possibly called for Jesus’ crucifixion 50 days before (Acts
2:14-41). Disciples for Christ need
the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to skillfully use the weapons of the armor
of God and be effective in spiritual warfare (Acts
1:8).
A disciple of Christ is one that
has accepted Jesus as his or her savior and followed through on their
acceptance of Jesus by dedication to study and obey the Bible, finding regular
encouragement through association with other believers in church, and empowerment
by the Holy Spirit to declare the Gospel in how they live and what they say. If you are reading this and have not taken
the first step in discipleship by accepting Jesus as your savior, I invite you
to do so now by praying with me,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23) and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my
sin and cleanse me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe you died, spent
three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now declare you Lord
of my life.
For those that just prayed, I encourage
you to follow through in discipleship by equipping yourself through studying of
the Bible, finding encouragement through regular association with other Christians
at a local church, and asking God for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for
boldness to live for Christ in a post-Genesis
3 world. Following through in
discipleship makes a Christian a fruitful believer, something a post-Genesis
3 world needs more of. May God bless
everyone reading this post.
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