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Life in the Lord’s Vineyard – 4 Sermons

Part 3: “The Chosen in the Lord’s Vineyard”

(John 15:16-17, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 15, 2009)

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 abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

What did Jesus say about our purpose as the chosen of God?

A: “That you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” (John 15:16)

I chose you (16a)

Sometimes we loose track of how blessed we are. It is easy for you to be weighed down by concerns or disappointments and to forget that you are loved by God. Think of what it means simply to be known by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. But you are more than known by God. You are loved by Him. I know that the cross is the greatest display of the love of God for you, and the verses immediately before this are about how the Son of God laid down His life for you. For just one moment I want you not to think about the death of Christ, but think about the best husband you know of and think about his great love for his wife. Now isn’t it amazing that God says His love for His church is the love of a husband? When Candy and I got married, one of my brothers gave the wedding message at our request. I remember that he talked about his love for his wife. He spoke of the moment when he knew that they would be together, and compared it to that scene in The Sound of Music, when Maria and Captain von Trapp have that kind of sudden realization, and they sing these words, “Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.” Why? “For here you are standing there loving me.”

There is something so wonderful about the blessing of committed love, but to think that the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe loves you… not because you have done something good, but because He was entirely determined to do something good for you. It is very appropriate for us now to remember the cross, that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Yet even as we think about Christ’s death for us, there are times when we loose track of how blessed we are. I suspect that it is our surprise that throws us off course, our surprise about what life is like in God’s household, the Lord’s vineyard. We have been looking at some principles from John 15 about life in the Lord’s vineyard, where Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. So far we have noted two important ideas to remember: 1. Don’t be surprised if you suffer, and 2. Don’t be shocked that loving Christ means obeying Him. We need to add one more idea this morning: 3. Don’t fight so hard against the fact that God chose you.

Back to marriage for a moment- We are not at all surprised to hear that a husband has a particular love for his wife, and that he does not have that same affection for every woman as for the one woman he chose as his lifelong companion. If God says that you are His chosen bride as a part of His church, why should you question whether that is a good thing? When two people find each other, we have to hear their stories to see who chose whom, but when God, the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe loved you, it should not surprise you that He chose you.

Jesus says to His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” The concept of a chosen people of God is not anything new. Throughout the Old Testament we were told that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the chosen people of God. In Deuteronomy 7:6 we read this: “You are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” The Jews, the Israelites, were the chosen people of God. I have talked about the relationship of husband and wife, but God also speaks of the relationship of Father and Son referring to His particular love for His chosen people. When He was giving instructions to Moses concerning what was to be said before Pharaoh, He said in Exodus 4:22, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son.’ ” This is something we can understand. It would be unnatural not to have a special affection for your son. God has His heart set on Israel. He chose Israel. And now in one special Son, Jesus Christ, He has chosen you.

The most obvious meaning of the Lord’s words in this passage has to do with the specific disciples who were with Him at that time. These eleven disciples were chosen by Christ to be apostles in the New Testament church. He finds it necessary to emphasize His sovereignty in that choice by first saying, “You did not choose me.” But is this being chosen only for the first disciples, or is there biblical evidence that those who believe in Christ were all chosen by God? Earlier in John 6:44, Jesus said these words: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” In Matthew 22:14 Jesus speaks of the work of the church proclaiming His kingdom to many, but the divine inner call as something that comes to less than the many. He says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” In Colossians 3:12, Paul calls the church of Jews and Gentiles there, “God’s chosen ones.” In 1 Thessalonians 1:4, he says to the believers facing persecution in that place, “We know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.” Finally, Peter writes these words in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The new chosen “race” is not one race or ethnic group at all. The church comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles are the new chosen people of God. If you believe in Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection, and call upon the name of the Lord, you have been chosen by God.

This primary act of God’s will in loving you and choosing you does not change your secondary act in responding to the love of God. Just as there is much biblical evidence that in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have “been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11), there is also much evidence that when we hear the loving call of God to us, we are supposed to say to God in Christ, “I do.” Yes, He chose us. Now show forth His work in your life by responding to Him. Choose God back by following Christ and abiding in Him and His word. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” He says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” We hear His love, and we say, “Yes. I do. Here I am.”

You should bear fruit that will last (16b)

There is a purpose to our being chosen. Do you see that in Jesus’ choosing of His disciples? Do you see that in His choice of you? He chose the twelve (minus Judas) that they should be set in place as apostolic messengers for him, that they should go and bear fruit, fruit that would abide, fruit that would last beyond this life. The Lord’s vineyard expanded greatly through the ministry of these eleven men. They were chosen to bear fruit, and they did. They testified to the truth of the life, death, and resurrection of the long-expected Messiah, and many people believed.

This was the beginning of the expansion of the New Testament Kingdom of God. It started as a small mustard seed in the life of Jesus of Nazareth as He shared His life with Peter, James, John, and the others. It moved forward to Jerusalem where thousands of Jewish households came to believe that Jesus was the One. It spread to other places throughout Judea, and to many Samaritans in the northern part of what had once been the kingdom of Israel. This mustard-seed of a beginning made its way through the provinces of the Roman Empire, places like Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, Macedonia, and Achaia. It soon had reached Rome, and through Rome it began to spread throughout the entire empire. Over the course of the centuries since that time that small beginning has now expanded the vineyard of the Lord to places that had never before heard of the Law of Moses or of the temple in Jerusalem. In the last 100 years there has been an overwhelming move of this fruitfulness in places like Korea, China, and the entire continent of Africa. And we must keep asking Him for fruit even here that will abide.

The forward motion of the message of this Messiah must continue. The earthly expression of the kingdom in the church is only a part of the story. There is a place beyond this world where the reign of Christ is already supreme, that place where the fruit of those apostolic endeavors is stored in the lives of all of the redeemed who are cheering on the earthly progress of the church today. The society of heaven is happy to hear a word rising from millions of homes and churches in many languages: “The kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

One day it will be very apparent that whatever we ask the Father in the Name and will of Jesus shall be given to us. This is the kingdom of God. Its beginnings are very humble, but its conclusion is majestic and glorious. How fitting for a war that was won through the death of a husband! He must have done something good. He must have had more than a good childhood. He must have stood up to evil for us and died the death that we deserved. One day we will see it. We will say, “He must have done something good.” He loves us. He has won for us the Kingdom.

Chosen for love (17)

If you can take in the love of God for you without too much of an argument over His choice of you, then love one another. Love your parents and speak well of them. Love your children, and teach them a life of love. Love your brothers and sisters, and do not abandon them. Love your wives and husbands. Out of the strength of that grace that is common throughout the earth among all sorts of people in the bonds of family love, see something of what it means to be in the family of God, and begin to love one another in the church with a brother’s love and a husband’s love, and a father’s love. This is why you were chosen by the love of God, so that you would love one another.

It is a great blessing to be chosen by the love of God. This is a fundamental principle of life in the Lord’s vineyard. Do not hate His electing love for you just because you don’t understand it. Give in to His love, abide in His love, and bear true fruit of love that will last.

1. What did it mean for the apostles to be chosen by God? What does it mean for us to be chosen by God? Does this mean that we do not need to choose Him, or is there some way that we do choose God, but He first has chosen us?

2. What is the fruit of the apostles? Should we also bear fruit?

3. What role does asking the Father play in our bearing fruit that will abide?

4. Is there some connection between bearing fruit for the Lord and loving one another in the Lord’s vineyard?