Image: Ralph's tree farm, Nelson County, Virginia, November 2018
Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on John 15:16-27.
Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain (John 15:16a).
Note first here how Christ speaks to the apostles and tells them that he has chosen
them and not they him. We might immediately want to seize upon Christ’s words
here to apply to the election to salvation of all disciples. We might want to
lay this aside 1 John 4:19: “We love him, because he first loved us,” modifying
it to read, “We chose him, because he first chose us.”
We need to acknowledge, however, that Christ was speaking specifically
here about his election of the apostles. They were the ones “ordained” or
appointed to a special and extra-ordinary office.
To what end had Christ chosen them? That they might “go and bring
forth fruit.” Compare the Great Commission Christ gave to them in Matthew
28:19-20: “Go and make disciples of all nations….”.
His aim also was that the fruit would remain. His purpose was that
their labors would not be a flash in the pan, a one hit wonder. And they did
it. Look at the fruit they produced! We are the evidences of it!
I think we can rightly extend and apply this teaching as well to
the present disciples, beyond the apostles. This is Christ’s end or goal for
us. That we would produce fruit and that this fruit should remain.
Calvin observed: “But I extend this statement much farther, as
meaning that the Church shall last to the very end of the world; for the labor
of the apostles yields fruit even to the present day, and our preaching is not
for a single age only, but will enlarge the Church, so that the new fruit will
be seen to spring up after our death.”
The fruit of the apostles was not seen till long after their
deaths. Have you ever considered that the greatest fruit that might be produced
for the kingdom from your godly life and ministry and that of our church might
be that which happens long after we are gone?
Christ chose the apostles and he has chosen us that we might bear
fruit and that this fruit should remain. Let us then be faithful to this end.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jeff Riddle
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