🌿 John 15:5 | "I am the vine.."

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📧 In today’s email…

• 🤔 The purpose of John’s gospel

• 🍽️ Passage context: Staring death in the face

• ❤️ A short reading to prepare your heart for the week

• 🎵 A song to help you memorize this week

Let’s dig in…

 🧠 Memorize

I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

Author & Audience Context: John ✍️ 

• Author: John

• Audience: Written in Greek for people who are already familiar with the other Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke)

• Book: This gospel was written after the other three, and was one of the last books of the Bible to be written. It was most likely written between AD 85 and 90 around the same time John wrote Revelation.

• Purpose: In John 20:31, John explicitly tells us why he wrote his account of Jesus’ life…

Passage context: Proximity to death ✝️ 

The verse we’re memorizing this week is part of ‘The Farewell Discourse,’ which covers the events in John's gospel (chapters 14-17) that take place during Jesus' final meal with his disciples before being crucified.

Proximity to death tends to heighten our sense of what is most important in life.

In my experience talking to loved ones towards the end of their lives, their last words tend to have more gravity to them.

Think about it. If you knew you only had a day left to live (which Jesus knew), you would spend that time with the people you love most.

And each word you said would be precious to you and those around you.

This is the context of the passage we’re studying this week: Jesus with his closest friends, the night before he is crucified.

Try to feel the weight of setting and put yourself in that headspace as you engage with our passage this week.

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Apply & respond 🏃‍♂️ 

We’ll unpack Jesus’ vine and branch metaphor in more depth throughout the rest of the week. 🌿 

But for today, consider this truth:

Our primary responsibility is not to produce fruit. Our primary responsibility is to abide in Jesus.

Pray 🙏 

Lord, as I meditate on your Word this week, speak to me and give me ears to hear your voice.

I know that you want to bear fruit in my life. Teach me how to remain vitally connected to you. Amen.

Read 📖 

Read John 15:1-17 slowly, preparing your heart to be worked on this week.

Bonus: Read it out loud with a friend or loved one 🍽️

Listen 🎵 

Ever wonder why you can remember lyrics from a song you haven’t heard in 20 years? What if we could use that to help us memorize Scripture?

Verses is a project by a collection of musical artists that create original songs only containing Scripture in them as their lyrics.

Occasionally, we use their songs to help us soak in the verse we’re memorizing.

You can listen to John 15:5 on Spotify here to help you memorize it this week! (or click here to listen on Apple music) 

LAUGH 😂