Josh Benner

Tag: john

  • What are you seeking? Exploring John 1:35-39

    What are you seeking? Exploring John 1:35-39

    In the final sections of John chapter 1, several theological affirmations are made about Jesus. 

    In John 1:29-34, John the Baptist calls Jesus the lamb of God.

    That language will continue in the following section. John 1:35-36 says: 35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

    Understanding what that means

    In the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was instituted to show that sin needed to be atoned for. Sin required a blood sacrifice. It was a complicated and rigorous system. Sacrifices provided temporary atonement. Certain sins required certain sacrifices. 

    Sacrifices also required worthy animals. A person couldn’t just pick out an old goat that was about to die. It had to be a healthy animal without blemish. 

    All of that was meant to point to the greater sacrifice. Jesus is the perfect and spotless lamb who is the true and worthy sacrifice. 

    And so John calls Jesus the Lamb of God because he is the one who was sacrificed to atone for the sins of all who believe in him. 

    John 1:37, John the Baptist has just made this statement about Jesus and then: The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

    John the Baptist points to Jesus. His own disciples leave him to go and follow Jesus. 

    With a respected religious leader like John, that would have been unthinkable. No one wants to lose people.A teacher doesn’t want to lose students. A dentist doesn’t want to lose patients. A hair stylist doesn’t want to lose clients. 

    But John is happy to point his people to Jesus. 

    He’s happy to lose his followers to Jesus, because that’s his entire purpose. Pointing people to Jesus. 

    The text says that they followed Jesus. 

    Verse 38:

    Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” 

    Quite the question Jesus asks. It has a double meaning. 

    Yes, it’s Jesus asking the two men who are following him. But it is also a probing question for anyone who seeks to follow Jesus. 

    What are you seeking? 

    “What are you seeking?”

    What do you want from Jesus. There are many reasons why people try to find religion or turn to Jesus. But not all of them are good reasons. 

    If you’re a follower of Jesus, why are you following him? 

    Being a follower of Jesus is an end in itself. You follow Jesus because you get…Jesus. You get God. 

    That is the greatest promise that the Lord gives to us. Unworthy sinners are invited to know the God of the universe. 

    Sadly that’s not always the real heart behind a person’s desire to know Jesus. 

    What are you seeking? 

    Some people follow Jesus because they have all sorts of issues and think life will get easier. 

    And for awhile, that might be true. 

    But you’re still you. You’re still a sinful person. You still have various habits and areas of sin that aren’t productive. And life is still hard. 

    You get Jesus. 

    What about when the going gets tough? Because the going will get tough. And then where does that leave you?For some, they’re left disillusioned with faith because it didn’t give them what they wanted. 

    But the mistake was that they were looking for the wrong thing. 

    Some are led to Jesus because they’re sold a false gospel and believe that material blessing and physical health are both always the will of God for a believer. 

    It’s often called the prosperity gospel. It’s not Biblical Christianity. It turns our desires to stuff and not to God. 

    There are often blessings which result from the Christian life and living according to Biblical wisdom. But that is not meant to be the basis of being a follower of Christ. 

    Because the struggles still come. 

    If our hope is rooted in what we think Jesus will give to us, it leads to a faith that is superficial. 

    Plenty of Christians can see the flaws in prosperity theology. Yet we’re often still drawn to it. 

    Especially in America. 

    Why? 

    Because, in our heart of hearts, there’s a temptation to think that we deserve things to be good because we like to think we’re good. We pray, we serve, we give, we try to follow God. 

    We do these things and so it can be tempting to be angry with God when things don’t go the way we want them to. 

    The Bible does not promise the Christian life will be easy. It promises the opposite. 

    The Apostle James said to count it all joy, WHEN you meet trials of various kings (John 1:2). 

    In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: 

    10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

    11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)

    You can find verses on suffering in almost every book in the New Testament. 

    Most notably, it was Jesus who was unjustly tortured and executed. He told his disciples in John 15: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

    The Apostle Paul was imprisoned multiple times in his life and later executed for his faith. He said in Romans 5:3 we rejoice in our sufferings.

    Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians from jail, and was later executed. John the Baptist who’s in our passage this morning. Executed. 

    The apostles named in our passage this morning: all of them were martyrs. 

    The world hates the gospel. 

    The Christian life is hard. And life is hard. 

    What are you seeking? 

    Certainly I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with blessings. Christians oftentimes do enjoy blessings in life, because God is good and gracious. 

    Living Godly lives and living according to Biblical wisdom is the best way to live and so that often bears fruit in life. 

    But what about when it doesn’t? 

    Many faithful people follow the Lord throughout their entire lives and continue to suffer and struggle. 

    What are you seeking? I’m not saying we should desire a life of hardship of drudgery. 

    That’s not the life God wants for his people. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. But if Jesus is your everything, you can find joy even in hardship, even in suffering, even in sorrow, even in pain. 

    What are you seeking?  

    Is Jesus your chief love and the thing that matters most to you? 

    Do you want to worship Jesus as your Lord and savior or do you think he’s a genie who will grant wishes? 

    As we continue in verse 38, we see their response. Jesus had asked “what are you seeking?” 

    They respond to the question with a question 

    And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), where are you staying?”

    They don’t answer the question. 

    As they try to follow Jesus, perhaps it’s too difficult to spell out exactly what they’re seeking but they ask where he’s staying in the hopes of being with him and being able to talk to him and be in his presence. 

    He said to them, “Come and you will see.” 

    Jesus invites them in. He invites them into a relationship. He invites everyone into a relationship, into knowing him.

    “Come and you will see.” 

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe. This post is part of a series where I am looking verse by verse at the Gospel of John. 

  • Why John the Baptist’s purpose is our purpose too. Exploring John 1:29-34

    Why John the Baptist’s purpose is our purpose too. Exploring John 1:29-34

    John the Baptist came to point to Christ, to witness to Christ, to be the bridge between BC and AD. 

    In John 1:29, John the Baptist sees Jesus. 

    The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

    It’s very possible that John himself did not realize the full magnitude of what he was even saying when he uttered those words. 

    But it’s impossible for a Christian to miss the meaning. Behold, John commands. Look to Jesus. Look upon the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. A profound theological statement about Jesus and what he did.

    Sacrifice and the lamb

    Jesus is the perfect and spotless lamb who is sacrificed for sins. It’s a theme that we will see throughout John’s Gospel. 

    Many of the Old Testament sacrifices call for a lamb. Isaiah 53 has a passage of the suffering servant and talks of a perfect lamb being led to slaughter. There’s the Passover sacrifice where the Israelites scarified lambs before the Exodus and where it was an annual holy day. 

    And here Jesus is called the Lamb of God. 

    The ultimate and greater sacrifice. He’s the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. It’s not that sin is just written off or no longer matters. Just the opposite. Sin matters a great deal but it is Jesus who takes away sin, takes away the penalty for our sins. 

    He takes away the sins of the world. That’s not saying that he takes away the sins of every individual person. John talks about “the world” several times in his gospel and other writings. It is Jesus who bears the penalty for a fallen humanity and for everyone who believes in him. 

    John the Baptist continues speaking in verse 30: This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.

    This is similar to verse 15. There John said: ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 

    And what John is doing is looking back at his early prophesy, as pointing to one who was greater than him and he sees Jesus, and he says “this is that man.” John gets at his specific purpose. 

    Verse 31: I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

    Where John says he did not know Jesus, don’t get too caught up in that. The point isn’t that John the Baptist literally did not know Jesus but that he did not previously know Jesus for who he was: the promised messiah. John was called to baptize so that the savior of the world would be revealed. That’s not primarily about John, it’s about the Lord and the divine plan. 

    John’s call to repentance, John as the voice of one in the wilderness, John as a witness to Jesus, all of this was part of the divine plan for John’s ministry and purpose in the world as the forerunner to Jesus. 

    Verse 32: And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

    This is referring to when Jesus was baptized. 

    All four gospels agree that John was a witness to the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus. The Holy Spirit is another significant theme of the Gospel of John. Jesus promises to give the Holy Spirit to his believers in John chapters 14, 15, and 16. 

    In the Old Testament, there were passages that talked of the Spirit being with God’s anointed one. 

    Isaiah 42:1:

    Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

    I have put my Spirit upon him;

    he will bring forth justice to the nations.

    There are others, but just to give a sense of it. John sees that moment.  We see Jesus: fully God and fully man having the Spirit descend on him. I used to think “why would Jesus need the Holy Spirit when he’s God? 

    But I was asking the wrong question. “Why wouldn’t Jesus need the Holy Spirit?”

    All three persons of the Trinity are God. All three of them work in perfect unity. They are all equal in eternity, holiness, glory, and power.Again, Jesus is both fully God and fully man, but it is because he is fully man that he needs the Spirit. 

    And just as he enjoyed fellowship with God during this ministry, because Jesus is also fully God, it makes sense that Jesus would likewise enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit during his ministry. 

    John sees this moment. He’s a witness to the Spirit descending upon Jesus. And John says in the text that He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

    The same Spirit who filled Jesus during his ministry is given to all people because of Jesus’ ministry. The Spirit equips us with gifts, convicts us of sin, sanctifies us to God. 

    Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God. 

    The Spirit bears witness to those who believe. The one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. Because we’re blessed to have more of the story. 

    We have the risen lamb.

    Believe in the lamb. Turn away from sin. Point others to him. 

    Final thought  

    John the Baptist had a ministry to do for a time in history. 

    He was not perfect. He was just a man. He lived a shorter life than Jesus. Much of his life was spent in seclusion.But he was faithful. 

    Yes, we don’t have the ministry that John the Baptist had. 

    He had a once in history ministry. He was the forerunner to Jesus. 

    But just because someone has a different ministry or a different way to serve, that doesn’t mean that the ways you can serve the Lord are insignificant. No one would know who John the Baptist was without Jesus. Jesus is the thing that gives relevance and meaning to his life. 

    But for anyone who’s a follower of Jesus, that’s the case. It’s Jesus who gives meaning. John’s ministry was to point people to Jesus. But that’s the ministry in which every follower of Jesus still shares in. 

    Pointing people to Jesus in word and deed. Following where the Lord leads. Walking in faith. Standing up for the truth of God. 

    Those things are a call which all Christians share. 

    In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus talks of John the Baptist and says: 

    I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

    No one before John was greater than he. 

    Yet Jesus says that for those who come after, the one who is least in the Kingdom of God is greater. The reason isn’t because we have anything great in ourselves. 

    It’s because we have a fuller picture of who Jesus is and a fuller picture of God’s revelation to the world. 

    John did have a once in history ministry to fulfill but he didn’t live long enough to see the fruition of Jesus’ ministry. He never heard about the resurrection or saw the risen Christ. 

    What are you doing to serve the Lord today? It can be tempting to think that we don’t have what it takes to serve God.It’s not about your own abilities and your own power. John the Baptist was an effective minister without a lot of resources. 

    You don’t have to have a lot of money to serve God faithfully. John the Baptist certainly did not have that. He came from the wilderness. Other gospels tell us that John wore a garment made of camel’s hair. 

    You don’t have to have all of the degrees and credentials. John the Baptist didn’t have that….he came. from. the wilderness. 

    You might think you’re too old. John the Baptist had a ministry that was shorter than Jesus’s. His public ministry was incredibly short lived. You don’t have to have decades of ministry to have a ministry that matters. 

    You just have to follow the Lord, to love the Lord, to serve the Lord. 

    What are you doing to serve the Lord? What are you living for? 

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this piece, please share and subscribe.

  • Not the Christ, not Elijah, not the Prophet. Who is John the Baptist? Studying John 1:19-23

    Not the Christ, not Elijah, not the Prophet. Who is John the Baptist? Studying John 1:19-23

    John the Baptist is one of the most intriguing people we meet in the gospels. He has a unique role in history as being the forerunner to Christ. In John 1, John the Baptist is being questioned about his identity. He helps clarify who he is by clarifying who he isn’t. 

    Verse 19: And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

    It’s reasonable that they would want to find out who he is. I think it’s important to understand the time in which they lived. For centuries, the Old Testament had pointed forward to one sent from the Lord. 

    People had all sorts of expectations for the type of ministry that this sent one would have. 

    This was fulfilled in Jesus but people didn’t yet know Jesus. So all they had were their expectations and assumptions. What Jesus actually did was not quite what anyone expected. 

    A lot of people expected a great religious teacher. Jesus certainly was that but he was ore than that. But his purpose was to bring freedom not law. 

    A lot of people expected a great king. Jesus is that too, he’s the king of kings. But he did not have the mighty earthly kingdom that people expected. 

    Others expected a great general who would lead Israel to victory and back to a restoration of their land in the face of Roman oppression. Jesus is the one who leads his people to battle evil and leads us to Spiritual victory. 

    And people believed various ideas from those categories. 

    So you suddenly have this man who’s calling people to repent, who’s baptizing. In the other gospels, we see John calling out religious authorities.

    And so people are curious. 

    Maybe he’s connected to the promised savior. Maybe he IS the promised savior. Others might have been skeptical and thought it would lead nowhere. 

    Before Jesus, there had been people who claimed to be the promised savior of the world. 

    Who are you? 

    They ask. 

    The Christ

    John’s first response to the Jewish leaders is given in verse 20: He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

    First thing John confirms. He is not the savior. 

    One thing that’s important to understand. The word “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. It’s his title. Jesus’ parents were not Joseph and Mary Christ. Jesus is The Christ. 

    Christ comes from the Greek word “Christus” which means “anointed.” It’s the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Messiah.” They both mean the same thing: anointed. 

    The significance of that is that in the Old Testament, various divinely assigned offices such as the king and the high priest would be anointed with oil at the beginning of their term. Some of the Old Testament prophets were also anointed. 

    There are also passages in the Old Testament which were understood as pointing forward to a future deliverer who was anointed. 

    John the Baptist had an important ministry. But he was not the Lord’s anointed, he was not the Lord’s Christ, and so he’s quick to point that out. He’s not the anointed savior. 

    Elijah

    Verse 21: And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.”

    Elijah was a prophet in the Old Testament. Much of his ministry revolved around calling people to faith and proper worship of the Lord. He was obedient to the Lord in his life and ministry. 

    There are several miracles that God does during the time of Elijah’s ministry. Two more things that are noteworthy about Elijah. The Old Testament tells us that God brought Elijah directly to heaven without dying. 

    2 Kings 2:11 

    And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven

    Secondly, the book of Malachi, which is the last book found in our Old Testament concludes with these verses from Malachi 4:5:

    5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

    So God says that he will send Elijah before the great and awesome day of the Lord. 

    So some expected a literal second coming of Elijah. For those reasons, it’s a pretty reasonable question for the leaders to have asked this of John. But he tells them no. 

    John is not Elijah however it should be noted that John’s ministry is really fulfilling this prophecy about Elijah. John is not a reincarnated version of Elijah or a second coming of Elijah, but he is the one who is sent from the Lord with a divinely given ministry to call people to repentance. 

    But John confirms that he is not Elijah. So they try again: 

    The Prophet

    Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

    When they ask John if he’s THE prophet, they’re actually referring to a specific passage. Deuteronomy 18:15 tells Israel about a successor to Moses. This passage also came to be understood as pointing to a grater prophet. 

    Verse 15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

    They wonder if John is this person. In reality, that passage is ultimately pointing forward to Jesus. But once again, John answers the question in the negative. He is not the prophet. 

     So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

    John isn’t the Christ, he’s not Elijah, he’s not the prophet. 

    So then who is he? 

    He answers that in the following section.

    Who is John?

    Verse 23: He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said

    They’ve seen who John isn’t. This is who he is. He quotes the text from Isaiah 40. That passage is applied to John in all four gospels. 

    Isaiah 40 is a passage talking of a future time of deliverance for the people of God. It’s an incredibly hopeful passage. It talks of God’s faithfulness to his people in spite of their sin. It talks of God’s restoration. 

    The heart of what this is getting at for John is that his purpose is to call people to repentance and preparation for the coming Messiah. And it was John’s job to point us to that messiah.

    Thanks for reading! If you like this post, please share and subscribe!

  • Abiding in Christ. Studying John 15:6

    Abiding in Christ. Studying John 15:6

    Abiding in Christ delivers us from judgment

    In John 15:1-5, Jesus has told the disciples that he is the vine and he’s compared his followers to the branches. Beginning in verse 6, Jesus warns those who do not follow him.  

    Jesus uses powerful imagery to point to himself as the source of life. He is the true vine, referring to grapevines. And life is found on that vine. Life is found in being part of the vine, in growing on the vine, in receiving your nutrients from the vine. 

    In John 15:6, Jesus says:  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

    At the end of the harvest, fruitless branches would be cut off of the vine and thrown away. That is what Jesus is alluding to here. And Jesus is talking about a specific type of person. 

    He’s talking about a person who’s within the church, within the group of believers, within the vine, but who’s not actually bearing fruit on the vine because they’re not actually alive on the vine. 

    And they never truly were. On the night before he went to the cross, the most obvious example of this was Judas. But while Judas might have been the first person to disingenuously follow Jesus, he was not the last. 

    And I talk about this because it’s an important warning to the church. 

    That there are frauds.. 

    That there are people in churches who say they’re Christians, who profess to be believers but who aren’t really walking with Jesus, who don’t really know Jesus, who don’t really believe in the gospel and who have not been born again. 

    And while those people can fool a church, fool a pastor, fool their spouse, they will not fool the Lord. 

    Where is your hope? 

    It is the blood of Christ that cleanses us for our sins. It is his death to sin for us and his resurrection and faith in that which gives us eternal life. It is that and nothing else. 

    If you want to rely on yourself, if your hope is in your goodness and that is why you believe God will accept you, then your faith is not in Jesus, your faith is in yourself. 

    In Matthew 7, Jesus talks of the people in the community who were active participants but who were never genuine believers. 

    21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 

    My point isn’t to make a believer doubt. But the point of this is to make a person who doesn’t believe in the saving work of Christ, and that alone, to question where their faith, hope, and assurance are found. 

    For the person who abides in Christ, and for that person alone, you are delivered from God’s judgment, and the reason for that is because of Christ and what he has done. 

    That we are sinners, but Jesus redeems and forgives us of our sins when we have faith in him. 

    Kobe beef

    Being a Christian in Name Only, but not actually believing in Jesus counts for nothing. It is Jesus who justifies and forgives when we come to him as Lord and savior. I was reading about Kobe beef this week. Kobe beef is the holy grail of beef. True Kobe beef has rigorous standards of quality and marbling. It’s a specific type of cow in a specific region of Japan to truly be kobe beef. 

    A 2016 report from Inside Edition found that there were only 8 restaurants in the entire United States that sold genuine kobe beef. And it is not sold in retail. 

    The upscale steakhouse McCormick and Schmicks advertised a kobe burger with beef that was not from Japan, but was from Kentucky. Class-action lawsuit. Restaurants and grocers have tried to call things kobe beef that aren’t. 

    And my point is this: just because you say something is something doesn’t make it so. 

    Just because you SAY something is kobe beef, doesn’t make it kobe beef. Again, it has to be the right type of cow, from the right region, to the right standards. 

    Anything else is inauthentic. 

    A person can say that they’re a Christian, but if they do not have faith in Jesus, if he is not the savior in whom they have placed their hope, and they don’t believe that he died for them and rose for them, then it’s not Christianity, regardless of what you call it. 

    But the person who believes in Jesus and who abides in Christ is delivered from God’s judgment. 

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe.

  • Jesus is the true vine. John 15:1-2

    Jesus is the true vine. John 15:1-2

    In John 15:1-2, Jesus compares himself to a vine.

    “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, 

    In saying that he is the true vine, he’s pointing to himself as the one who sustains his people. Jesus is the vine.  God the Father is the vinedresser or gardener. 

    Christians are attached to the vine and bear fruit, which refers to good works and to Spiritual growth which is the result of one’s relationship to the vine, to Christ. A vine branch cannot blossom and produce fruit apart from the vine. A vine branch cannot survive off of the vine. Neither can a Christian exist apart from Christ. 

    Jesus talks of two different types of branches in these verses.  There are the branches which do not bear fruit and the branches which do bear fruit. 

    This is a reference to two different types of people within the church. People who believe in the gospel and those who do not. The fruitless branch is someone who goes to church, they know how to speak the churchy lingo. They might say they’re a Christian. They know a little bit about the Bible. But they don’t really believe in Jesus. They don’t truly believe that he’s their Lord and savior. 

    And because they don’t really believe in Jesus, there’s no fruit. They never had fruit. It’s not that their production slowed down or that they had a bad week. It’s that they never believed in the first place. 

    In the Gospel of John, the most obvious example of someone to whom Jesus is referring here is Judas who had been one of the disciples and who had departed from Jesus at the end of chapter 13. 

    It’s not that Judas was a believer in Jesus who walked away from him. Judas never believed in Jesus in the first place. 

    every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

    God is the vinedresser who prunes the grapevine. 

    Understanding viticulture 

    Properly pruning grapevines is essential to maximizing the harvest. Without pruning vines, they can quickly become overgrown and entangled.

    Pruning requires cutting off small branches and old branches so that you can make room to support the new year’s grapevines. You wanted the vine to be cut to a certain length. Too long and it’s more susceptible to breaking. Pruning was primarily done twice a year. It would be done in the spring when they planted and again in the fall at harvest to ensure healthy vines. 

    And that is all important to the metaphor and what the passage is teaching. 

    Because for the branch the bears good fruit on the vine, God as the master vinedresser, God prunes in order to maximize the harvest. 

    That’s what a vinedresser does. They have to cut away at the vine for the good of the vine. Imagine that you’re a branch on the vine. You might have all of these other branches and shoots that look good and are about to blossom. And then the vinedresser starts cutting. 

    It’d seem cruel! 

    But a good vinedresser knows it’s necessary to get the most fruit out of the vine. 

    God brings about things in our lives sometimes for our growth that can seem painful, that can seem harsh, that can seem unfair. Yet all of it is meant for ultimate good. And God has to prune us. 

    God prunes us 

    It can be different ways in different seasons of life, but God must use the knife to cut into us. This calls to mind a passage like Hebrews 12, where God is a loving father who instills discipline in his children. 


    Hebrews 12:6: the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 

    Sometimes that’s how God prunes us. By discipline.  Sometimes it’s through the challenges we face. 

    James 1:2-4: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

    James says that we are to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds because God uses those trials to work greater results in us. 

    There’s pruning. Sometimes it can be through illnesses or life circumstances. Sometimes God takes things away from us, but for greater purposes. Sometimes it can be through setbacks. But God works through those challenges and situations. 

    In the process, he produces different results. No two branches are pruned exactly the same. But to be a Christian is to be part of the vine, and to be part of the vine is to produce fruit. And to be part of the vine is definitely to be pruned. God is a perfecting God.

    God is faithful to work in us. 

    God can prune us through relationships. People in our family, people in the church, people from work. He can use people to be transformational in our lives. Kari is getting me a pruning knife in October, Lord willing. He can prune through his word. 

    2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

    God can use his word in mighty ways in our lives. And let us remember that when we read our Bibles. That the Word should challenge us. We are sinful and imperfect. God’s Word is true and points us to holiness. It can be challenging to be confronted with the Bible. 

    You can have weeks or months of reading the Bible and nothing really stands out to you and then you come across a passage that feels like it was written with you in mind. Because God uses his word to cut us. He uses it to prune us. 

    Hebrews 4:12 says: 

    the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

    How is God pruning you? 

    Is there an area of your life where you’re not living up? Where you know you’re not honoring God? Is there an area of sin that you’re struggling with? Is there an idol that you’re holding onto? Is there a person you’re withholding forgiveness from? 

    The answer for that question will vary from person to person. But what does not change is that God is working in his people. You’re not a finished product.