Hang In There // Easter Without Chocolate, Part 2

That week leading up to the very first Easter was a torrid time for Jesus.  Imagine the stress and the pressure.  So it’s interesting to see how He spent those few days.

Let me paint a scenario for a moment. You're dying and you know it and the time is drawing near, you only have a few days, perhaps just a few final hours with the people who mean the most to you. You know something; you know that when you're gone they're going to go through some really tough times, trials, fears, persecution.

In those final days and hours what would you talk to them about? I mean, you have a short time left, that’s all, you have a sense of what's about to befall them, you have the opportunity to speak to them, what would you say? It's a good question and that's exactly what we're going to look at today, in those final hours, what did Jesus say to those who were closest to him, his disciples?

So, what would you say? What would I say? I guess we'd start with the most important things, whatever we could do for them to ensure their survival. Whatever we could say to them that they would recall in the days and the weeks and the months ahead, during those trials, that would support them and comfort them but given that the time was short you'd stick to the really important stuff wouldn't you?

You wouldn't waffle around with a whole bunch of other stuff, you'd keep it simple, lay it out straight, equip them for what they were about to face. Jesus was an amazing miracle worker, people had seen his miracles, they'd heard him speak, and this guy Jesus made sense. He wasn't like the religious leaders of the day, those guys were busy making up ridiculous rules to oppress the people and to line their pockets and to enhance their positions of power.

No, not Jesus, he was so different, He spoke with authority, somehow what He said rang true and made sense and people knew this guy wasn't in it for himself, he was different, He was in it for them. He stood up for them, He reached out to them, He spent most of his time with them, they just knew.

Now, those same religious leaders, who were so threatened by him, were plotting to kill him. Within just a few days He'd be hanging lifeless, bloodied, beaten, and dead on a cross. What does He say to his disciples? Well lets tune in and have a look, if you have a Bible you can have a read of it, it's in chapter 15 of John’s Gospel. Jesus says:

I am the true vine and my Father's the gardener, he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that bears fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

"You're already clean because of the words that I've spoken to you. Remain in me and I'll remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it has to remain in the vine and you can't bear fruit unless you remain in me." Jesus said, "I am the vine, you're the branches."

If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing, if you don't remain in me you're a branch that's going to be thrown away, you'll wither, we pick those branches up and we throw them into the fire and they get burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.

This is to my Father's glory that you can bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. Just as Dad loved me so I love you. Remain in my love. If you obey my commandments you'll remain in my love just as I've obeyed my Fathers commandments and I remain in his love. I've told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

My commandment is this; love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I'm not calling you servants anymore because a servant doesn't know his masters business; instead I call you friend because everything that I learn from my Father I've made known to you.

You didn't choose me but I chose you and I appointed you. Go and bear fruit - fruit that will last and the Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name. This is my command, love one another. Now if the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me first, if you belong to the world it would love you as it's own but as it is you don't belong to the world but I've chosen you out of the world. That's why the world will hate you.

Remember the words I spoke to you, no servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me they're going to persecute you too. If they obeyed my teaching they would obey yours too, they will treat you in this way because of my name for they do not know the one who sent me, my Father. If I hadn't come and spoken to them they wouldn't be guilty of sin, now however they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well.

If I had not done among them what no one else did they would be guilty of sin but now they've seen my miracles and yet they have hated me and my Father but this is to fulfill the law where it's written ' they hated me without reason' and when the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, comes who I will send to you from the Father, this spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me and you also must tell people about me for you have been with me from the beginning.

All this I have told you so that you don't go astray. They'll put you out of the synagogue; in fact the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God, they will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I've told you this so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you.

What a beautiful discussion between Jesus and his disciples. Isn't it incredible, the things that He says in those final hours, He talks about bearing fruit, "I'm the vine, you're the branches – hang in there, hang with Me. Pruning is going to happen, whoever God loves He is going to prune but the whole point is if you hang in there with Me, hang in you'll bear fruit. And just as they're going to persecute Me, they're going to persecute you. They won't be pleased about you telling them about Me and it's not about winning here on earth but it's about your relationship with Me."

I meet so many … so many people who believe in Jesus Christ from a distance but who never draw close to them, people who want an insurance policy but never accept him as the Lord, the King of their lives. You know why? Well its right there in what Jesus said to his disciples, because when we accept him as Lord, when we obey him, when we live our life for him there’s a price to pay.

Branches who hang close in Jesus and they are part of Him are going to get pruned. That means change, that means laying down the "me, me, me, me" thing. No matter that this pruning is like cutting cancers out of our souls, no matter that after the pruning we're so much healthier and better off and bearing fruit, we don't want to be pruned and we want everyone to like us. What if they know that I'm a committed Christ follower? What will people think? No, much better to keep Jesus at a distance, a kind of eternal life insurance policy that I keep in a filing cabinet. The real Easter has nothing to do with chocolate, look again; there is a price to pay.

Father,
I've just heard Jesus speaking now and he said to abide in him, to hang in there with him. Lord I want that, I want Jesus in my life, this Jesus who in the last days before he was crucified, loved his disciples so much, I want that Jesus. Father, forgive me for all the things I've done wrong, I just turn away from them now and I want to make Jesus truly, truly the Lord of my life. My coach, my king, my leader, my first love. Father I pray that in the name of Jesus.
Amen.