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I Chose You to Go and Bear Fruit That Will Last (John 15:12-17)

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. 17 This I command you: love one another. Jesus continues speaking to His disciples on the night before His death. He has already told them to remain in His love. Now He shows what that love must look like: “ love one another as I love you ” (v. 12). The measure of Christian love is Christ Himself. Christ’s love is faithful, obedient, self-giving love, shown most fully when He gives His life on the Cross. Jesus says, “ No one has greater love than this, to ...
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Remain in Christ’s Love (John 15:9-11)

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.  11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. Jesus continues speaking to His disciples after using the image of the vine and branches. The branch lives by remaining joined to the vine. The disciple lives by remaining joined to Christ. In this passage, Jesus explains this union in the language of love. Jesus says, “ As the Father loves me, so I also love you ” (v. 9). This is a profound statement. The love Jesus gives His disciples comes from the eternal love between the Father and the Son. The disciples are being drawn into the love that belongs to the life of God. Christ does not love them from a distance. He brings them into communion with Himself, so that they may share in the love He receives from the Father. Then Jesus says, “ Remain in my love ” (v....
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Jesus Said, “Without Me You Can Do Nothing” (John 15:1-8)

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. 2 He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. 3 You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. 4 Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. Jesus speaks these words during His farewell discourse, as He prepares His disciples for His death, resurrection, and r...
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Christ Reveals Himself to Those Who Keep His Word (John 14:21-26)

Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” 22 Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, [then] what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. 25 “I have told you this while I am with you. 26 The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you. Jesus continues speaking to His disciples before His Passion. He is preparing them for the time when they will no longer see Him in the same visible way, but He also teaches them that His presence among them will remain real and active. J...
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God’s People Built on Christ, the Living Stone (1 Peter 2:1-10)

Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, insincerity, envy, and all slander; 2 like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk so that through it you may grow into salvation, 3 for you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, 5 and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it says in scripture: “Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.” 7 Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall.” They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny. 9 But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy n...
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Whoever Has Seen Me Has Seen the Father (John 14:7-14)

If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. 12 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it. Jesus continues speaking to His disciples on th...
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Have Faith in Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:1-6)

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. 4 Where [I] am going you know the way.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus speaks these words during the Last Supper, shortly before His Passion. The disciples have heard that He will be leaving them. Peter has also been told that he will deny Jesus. The disciples are troubled, uncertain, and fearful. Into that fear Jesus says, “ Do not let your hearts be troubled ” (v. 1). Jesus calls His disciples to faith. They believe in God; now they must also believe in Him (v. 1). He ...
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The Son Sent by the Father Sends His Own (John 13:16-20)

Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it. 18 I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.’ 19 From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM. 20 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” Jesus speaks these words after washing the feet of His disciples. He has taken the place of a servant and given them a visible example of humble love. His action points toward the Cross, where His love will be shown fully. As He says elsewhere, “ the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many ” (Mark 10:45). When Jesus says, “ no slave is greater than his master nor any me...
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Jesus, the Light, Came to Save, Not to Judge (John 12:44-50)

Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, 45 and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. 46 I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. 47 And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. 48 Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, 49 because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.” John places these words near the end of Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus has taught, performed signs, called people to faith, and revealed the Father. Now He cries out with a final public summary of His mission. His words gather together several themes already seen...
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The Father and I Are One (John 10:22-30)

The feast of the Dedication was then taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. 23 And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.” The scene takes place in Jerusalem during the feast of the Dedication, also known as Hanukkah (v. 22). This feast recalled the restoration of the Temple after it had been desecrated in 167 B.C. by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Greek ruler wh...
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Jesus Lays Down His Life for the Sheep (John 10:11-18)

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. 13 This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” Jesus continues the image He began in John 10:1-10. He has already spoken of the gate, the sheepfold, the shepherd, the voice...
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