{"id":1057,"date":"2010-01-06T20:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T20:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/the-gospel-of-jesus-part-thirty.html"},"modified":"2010-01-06T20:00:32","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T20:00:32","slug":"the-gospel-of-jesus-part-thirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/the-gospel-of-jesus-part-thirty.html","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel of Jesus—Part Thirty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

CHAPTER THIRTY:  <\/span>ABIDING TRUTHS<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>The
\nmeal on Wednesday evening was not elaborate, and the mood was more somber than
\ncelebratory. After two days of confrontation with authorities and some people
\nin the crowds, the disciples wondered what could be next.  <\/span>Especially prominent in their minds was
\nJesus’ parable about the workers in the vineyard and the son returning to the
\nvineyard.  <\/span>Of course ever since Isaiah
\nwrote the original parable about the vineyard, Israel had been accustomed to see
\nitself as God’s vineyard.  <\/span>And so it was
\nas if Jesus had read their minds when he sat up on the couch and began to
\ninstruct them once more saying:<\/p>\n

          <\/span>“I am the genuine vine, and my Father
\nis the vinedresser.  <\/span>He cuts off every
\nbranch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
\nprunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of
\nthe word I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I will abide in you. No branch
\ncan bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  <\/span>Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
\nin me. <\/p>\n

          <\/span>“I am the vine; you are the
\nbranches. If a person abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
\nfrom me you can do nothing.  <\/span><\/sup>If
\nanyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and
\nwithers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  <\/span>If you remain in me and my words remain in
\nyou, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s
\nglory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. <\/p>\n

“As the
\nFather has loved me, so have I loved you. Now abide in my love. If you obey my
\ncommands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands
\nand remain in his love.  <\/span>I have told you
\nthis so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command
\nis this: Love each other as I have loved you.  <\/span>Greater love has no one than this– that he
\nlay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
\nI no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s
\nbusiness.  <\/span>Instead, I have called you
\nfriends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
\nYou did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
\nfruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in
\nmy name. This is my command: Love each other.<\/p>\n

“If the world
\nhates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  <\/span>If you belonged to the world, it would love
\nyou as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you
\nout of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke
\nto you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ <\/sup>If they persecuted
\nme, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey
\nyours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not
\nknow the One who sent me. <\/p>\n

“If I had not come
\nand spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.  <\/span>Now, however, they have no excuse for their
\nsin. He who hates me hates my Father as well.  <\/span>If I had not done among them what no one else
\ndid, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles,
\nand yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is
\nwritten in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’   <\/span>When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to
\nyou from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will
\ntestify about me.  <\/span>And you also must
\ntestify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”<\/p>\n

This teaching
\nsession was less lengthy than some, and none of the disciples much felt like
\nprobing things further as they were all very tired.  <\/span>So Jesus concluded the evening with a
\nprayer.   <\/span>He looked toward heaven,
\nlifting up his hands, and prayed: “Father, the time has come.  <\/span>Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify
\nyou. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give
\neverlasting life to all those you have given him. Now this is everlasting life:
\nthat they may know you, the only true G-d, and Jesus the messiah whom you have
\nsent.  <\/span>I have brought you glory on earth
\nby completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your
\npresence with the glory I had with you before the world began.<\/p>\n

  <\/sup>        <\/span>“I have revealed you to those whom
\nyou gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they
\nhave obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes
\nfrom you.  <\/span>For I gave them the words you
\ngave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you,
\nand they believed that you sent me.  <\/span>I
\npray for them.  <\/span>I am not praying for the
\nworld, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  <\/span><\/sup>All I have is yours, and all you have is
\nmine. And glory has come to me through them.  <\/span><\/sup>I will remain in the world no longer,
\nbut they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.  <\/span>Holy Father, protect them by the power of your
\nname–the name you gave me–so that they may be one as we are one.  <\/span><\/sup>While I was with them, I protected them
\nand kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one
\ndoomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. <\/sup><\/p>\n

          <\/span><\/sup>“I am coming to you now,
\nbut I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the
\nfull measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world
\nhas hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
\nMy prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them
\nfrom the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  <\/span>Sanctify <\/sup>them by the truth; your
\nword is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
\nFor them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.<\/p>\n

“My prayer is
\nnot for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their
\nmessage, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in
\nyou. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent
\nme.  <\/span><\/sup>I have given them the
\nglory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:  <\/span><\/sup>I in them and you in me.  <\/span>May they be brought to complete unity to let
\nthe world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. <\/sup><\/p>\n

“Father, I
\nwant those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the
\nglory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
\n“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and
\nthey know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will
\ncontinue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in
\nthem and that I myself may be in them.”<\/p>\n

            <\/span>The
\nprayer was long, but heartfelt, and somehow the disciples had felt both
\ncomforted, and yet had gained an enhanced sense of foreboding after this
\nprayer.  <\/span>It seemed clear that Jesus was
\ntelling them that his ministry was coming to an end.  <\/span>But where was he going?  <\/span>And why couldn’t they come with him?  <\/span>Jesus told them as they were arising and heading
\nto where they would lie down for the night that they would celebrate the
\nPassover the following night, and that Eliezer had arranged a place for them to
\ndo so within the city walls.  <\/span>In order
\nnot to draw too much attention to themselves, an arrangement had been made that
\nthere would be a special signal and a person for them to follow so they would
\nknow where to go.  <\/span>This puzzled the
\ndisciples even more since Friday evening in this case was both Shabbat and Passover’s
\nbeginning, so why would they celebrate the meal on Thursday evening, the
\nbeginning of the Day of Preparation, the Day of the slaughtering of the
\nlambs?   <\/span>None of this seemed very clear,
\nbut Jesus was not explaining and the disciples were afraid to ask.    <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER THIRTY:  ABIDING TRUTHS               The meal on Wednesday evening was not elaborate, and the mood was more somber than celebratory. After two days of confrontation with authorities and some people in the crowds, the disciples wondered what could be next.  Especially prominent in their minds was Jesus’ parable about the workers in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Gospel of Jesus-Part Thirty - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/01\/the-gospel-of-jesus-part-thirty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gospel of Jesus-Part Thirty - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CHAPTER THIRTY:  ABIDING TRUTHS               The meal on Wednesday evening was not elaborate, and the mood was more somber than celebratory. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}