John 15:16: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
John 15:16: You did not choose Me, but I chose you.
What does this mean? God’s SOVEREIGNTY in salvation.
What this does NOT mean?
In John’s gospel we find a strong message of God’s SOVEREIGNTY in Salvation.
John 15:19: If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 6:44: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. (Do you remember? Is God drawing you? Be careful! Today if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart!)
John 6:65: No one can come to Me unless it has been granted (enabled) to him by My Father.”
Ephesians1:4-5: Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
In John’s gospel we ALSO find a strong message of
Man’s RESPONSIBILITY (FREE WILL) in salvation.
John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:36)
John 4:13-14: Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.”
John 11:25-26: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 7:37 If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
Matthew 23:37: Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that ALL should come to REPENTANCE.
Then in John we find verses that include both same verse
John 1:12-13: But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
John 6:70-71: “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve. (Judas resisted Jesus…all the way to the end!)
“I do not believe these two truths can be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be in eternity. They are two lines that are so neatly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.” -C.H. Spurgeon
John 15:16: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should GO and bear fruit.
Mathew 28:19: GO therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
As Spirit filled believers in Jesus, do we carry a HEART for the nations of the world? We have a RESPONSIBILITY to reach the world.
- Nations Team- (Thousands of students from hundreds of nations) Ted
- Missions Team –
- West Asia
- Africa
- Cambodia
- Himalayas
- China
- Amsterdam
- India
- France- (short term)
- Mexico-(short term)
- Summer 2020 vision
Go also means in a secondary sense “as you’re going” wherever you’re going bear fruit!
John 15:16: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.
How Do We Bear Fruit? (John 15)
- Abide in Jesus (John 15:5)
- Abide in Jesus’ love (John 15:9)
- Obedient (John 15:10,14 )
- Prayer (John 15:7,16)
- Friendship with Jesus (John 15:13,14,15 )
- Staying Responsive to Jesus (John 15:16)
What Is Fruit?
- Fruit of Spirit (Galatians 5:22)
- Good works (Colossians 1:10)
- Financial giving (Philippians 4:17)
- Holiness (Romans 6:22)
- Praise, fruit of our lips (Hebrews 13:15)
- Leading others to Jesus (John 4:36, 15:16)
John 15:16: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
The only thing that is going to remain from this life is the fruit we bear!
We need to remind ourselves: In a 100 years from now, it won’t matter to us how much money we made, just how much fruit we were able to bear!
In Matthew Jesus called what’s going to remain… treasure
Matthew 6:19-20: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
The Judgement Seat Of Christ (2 Corinthians 5)
1 John 2:28: And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
1 Timothy 6:17-19: Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
John 6:44: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.
John 6:65: No one can come to Me unless it has been granted (enabled) to him by My Father.