 Hello. Welcome back. We've completed chapter 15. The local church as a Zion got chosen people. Let's go to chapter 16 now. The local church as the vine and the branches. The vine and the branches. John chapter 15 verse 1 to 8. We've heard numerous stories, sermons on those in this chapter. Let's read it. John chapter 15 verse 1 to 8 says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine you are the branches he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, this is very important, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. You will be my disciples. Okay, so what are some of the significant points that kind of stands out to you or what we just read? Okay, so the importance of abiding in Christ, okay, whose relationship, importance of our relationship with God, okay, that stands out. All right, what else? We've just read through eight verses, isn't it? So what stood out the most for you is what I'm asking. Thank you for quoting the one of the important instruction to us, that is to abide in him. Okay, so that stands out for you. All right, it's important to be fruitful. Okay, it's not just saying the scriptures, but if you read carefully, just not saying be fruitful, it's important to be more fruitful. Okay, yeah, and Nina has mentioned, apart from me, you can do nothing. Yeah. So is it very interesting? You see, in verse five, it says, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me. This is Jesus talking, right? He who abides in me and I in him. And then the imagery is changing. It says, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, right? You remember that scripture, I forget which one it says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And who he who keeps my commandments, will be loved by my father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him. Well, if you obey my commandments, it's simply what, if you obey my word, isn't it? If you obey my laws, if you obey my precepts, my statues, if you keep them, that means if, in other words, if you abide by them, I will manifest myself to you. I really forget which verse that is, I read it again, I told you yesterday and I forgot. Right, it starts off by saying verse one, I am the true vine, not just vine, I am the true vine. The difference between the truth and fact is, truth is unchanging. Fact can change, right? It may rain today, it may not rain today, weather forecast, isn't it? So facts can change, but the truth does not. It is constant, right? He is the unchanging one. He's the same yesterday, today and forever, right? That's why he says, I am the true vine, the unchanging one and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, takes away. Nina, are you saying something? No, no, sorry. Just that reference about manifesting, yes, they would manifest themselves if we keep the word. Thank you so much, John 21. I think so. I just have to check it. Thank you. Okay, tell me some of the things about fruits. What do you know about fruits? Fruits have seeds. Yeah, guys. Okay, fine. Fruits have seeds. Okay, really? Okay, what about, so are you saying that there are no fruits that is available throughout the year? Okay, so there we go. One characteristic of a fruit is it can be seasonal or it is continual available throughout the season. It's a very important point for us to remember. Are we expected to be seasonal, Christian, sorry? Okay. What else? What do you know about fruits? Okay, fruits come from a tree. Okay, fruits. Are fruits always sweet? That's another question. So fruits can be sweet or bitter. So it can be, what else? It can be either ripe or rotten. Yeah, raw or ripe or ripe and rotten. So it can be raw, ripe, rotten. Okay, right. So from what little do we know about fruits? It can be seasonal or continual. Bananas are available throughout the year. Apples are available through year. And what else? So many other fruits. Again, I'm not an expert in fruits. I'm just, you know, trying to think of a tomato or fruit or a vegetable. Why was it a fruit? It's a general knowledge question. Right, Nina says a tree is recognized by its fruit. Yeah, fruit shows what a tree is if it's a good tree, bad tree, whatever. A tree is recognized by its fruit. Yeah, I think there's so much to learn. I think again, if you look at from the time Bible days, they've used, Peter uses so much of the language of an architect, so to speak, like buildings, sculptures, the cornerstone, chief cornerstone. Now all of that has a significance because again, the Romans and the Greek, they gave a lot of importance to, he's talking from their context, right? And then we see parables from the language of a farmer farming in the tree and all of this, they all hold very very significant. And in this context, coming back to this now, understanding that the fruits can have all of these different characteristics. It can be raw, ripe, rotten. It can be seasonal or continual. It can be sweet or sour or bitter, whatever. So having understood all of that, when we look at this scripture in the light of that, verse seven, it says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Verse six, it says, if anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And so it is possible that you can still bear fruit outside of him, but it depends on what kind of fruit that is. It's not going to be sweet, right? It's not going to be a fruit that anybody desires to eat. It's not going to be very nice, basically, right? In other words, it talk and we'll just, as we go on in this chapter, we look at, talks about a character, you know, when we talk about the fruits of the Holy Spirit, etc. Okay. So we are designed to be fruitful and God desires us to be very fruitful. To be fruitful is to manifest or express the life of the vine. So beautiful, isn't it? To be fruitful or full of fruit. It's what any word ending with a full means, isn't it? Wonderful is full of wonder. Mercyful is full of mercy. Faithful is full of faith. Fruitful is full of fruit, right? So all of us are to manifest according to Galatians chapter 5 verse 22-23. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of those are what? Foods of the Spirit. Yeah. So it's not seasonal. It doesn't depend on, you know, as long as we abide in him and he abides in us. And that's the language of intimacy, isn't it? And according to John 14, 21, it says, if you keep my commandments, that means if you obey them, obedience is the language of intimacy. We need to realize that. We need to know that. Okay. It's, which is better than sacrifice. Is he pleased in burnt offerings? For obedience is better than sacrifice, the Bible says, isn't it? So obedience is the language of intimacy. And if you've gone through the gospel of John, time and time again, we see that Jesus saying, the Son of God, he says, my teachings are not my own. What I do are not the things that, you know, are not my own. What I say are not my, you know, is what the Father tells me to say. I go where the Father tells me to go. Jesus lived our last line of the declaration absolutely perfectly. The Son of God, he lived in absolute surrender. He could have easily said that, okay, these are my teachings. Why? Because I'm co-equal with God. I'm the Son of God. But he understood his assignment so beautifully and it's all so humility, right? In Philippians chapter two, we see that he humbled himself, made him nothing, isn't it? And so how much more should we live a life in absolute surrender? And I'm saying that in line with intimacy, right? And I would have mentioned this in first year intimacy, if you break it down, it simply stands for, yeah, into me, you see, because I show you, isn't it? And so if you have an intimate relationship with a person that you say that because I know the intimate parts of that person, the secrets that that person would not necessarily share with anybody else is willing to share with me because the person, he or she trusts me, isn't it? And so God is saying that abide in me. There are things that I want to reveal to you that which I can only show to you. And I have things in store for you. All you have to do is abide in me. And there are things that I want to show to you, things that I want to reveal to you, right? And that leads to fruitfulness, right? You guys okay? So second Peter chapter one was five to eight from your notes again, it says, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. Peter is just operating in a different level of wisdom. This is so good. He is not talking like a fisherman, isn't it? You know when Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say I am? Peter says, you are the Christ, Son of God, right? And then what does Jesus say? Flesh and blood is not revealed to you, but my Father in heaven has revealed. Okay, so he's operating in a realm of revelation from the Father, the Holy Spirit. It's just astonishing to see that, right? And just to see the series of words and the choice of words with so much wisdom, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. That means be virtuous. I will talk about a virtuous man and woman, right? What it is to be virtuous. And to virtue, add knowledge. And to knowledge, self-control, because knowledge without self-control can see what's happening to a lot of young people these days, is so much of knowledge available at your fingertips. Everybody knows everything about everything. Peter for a long time, he was like that, you know, usually if you have a gun, what do you do? You are taught to aim and fire. Peter was more like fire and aim. You know, so it's saying, okay, so true knowledge at self-control and to self-control, persevere, you know, perseverance, to perseverance, add godliness and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, add love. So for if these things are yours and bound, you will be neither barren nor, everybody's looking at that, right? You will either be neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So if, for if these things are yours and you're abound, and if you abound is what? Like overflow. I read this quote recently, very simple quote, it says, you are not full unless you're overflowing. You are not full unless you overflow, right? Why do we pray, Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit, not just to the brim of it, but just to overflow, right? The river of God flows, it just does not stay in this temple, right? And wherever the river flows, though it brought life. You know that, right? Okay. Okay. So if these things are yours and abounds, you know, you exceed expectation, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful. That means you will not be seasonal in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right. So faith, virtue simply means character. Character as pastors and as leaders are very important. And me for quoting this old thing, I'm sure you know this, your anointing will take you up, but it is your character that will keep you up there, right? So you need to remember that character is, it's very important to say the least, your anointing will take you up, it may keep you, it may take you to places where you have not dream talk or imagined, but it is your character that will keep you there. And so that's what Peter's talking about. Faith, virtue or character, a virtuous man, a virtuous woman, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Kindness. So again, the Greek was another word that was used in the Bible is do good. Do good. Yeah. Hebrews 13, it says, offers spiritual sacrifices and thanksgiving. It goes on to say, while you're doing this, do not forget to do good. Psalm 37 was three or verse four. It says, I mean, Psalm 37 was one to eight. You will see these words repeated. It says, do not be afraid, do not be afraid, or it says, do not fret, etc, etc. It's saying all of this time and time again, but in the middle it says, while you're not being afraid, trust in the Lord and do good. That means trust in the Lord, while you're trusting in the Lord, be kind. Another word for kindness is generosity as well. Another way of expressing kindness is you are being generous. And when I say generous, it's not just giving money. I mean, that's one of the things that we can relate to is labor. Thank you for your generosity, as someone donated so much money to a charity, etc, etc. But I can be generous with my time. Isn't it? I can be generous with my time to you. Time is very precious, priceless, isn't it? And so when you're saying all of this, it's all coming under the fruits case of faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, Godliness, brotherly love, kindness. These are seven areas in which we need to keep on growing to be fruitful. Keep on growing, not be satisfied where we are at. There is more. I want overflow. I want a bound in love, a bound in self-control, etc, etc. All okay? So practical ways our local church can implement this. As a local church, we need to emphasize and focus on intimacy with him. That is the answer to everything. Literally every problem in life or issue that we face or every challenge that we face, we need God. The answer lies there. And it's found in him in his presence with our intimate relationship with him. As a local church, we need to check upon fruitfulness. The same way he checks upon us, we should not get busy with activity. It's a possibility, isn't it? You get too busy with ministry. We forget to check on the garden. So we forget to prune it. What's happening is everything all healthy and good, etc, etc. Okay? I'm going through the remainder of the chapter. So again, as a church, the local church, we are called to be the vine and the branches. We are called to abide in him. Anything that is outside of Jesus is not going to last long. Okay? Any doctrine, any theology that is outside of Jesus is not going to last long. In fact, according to verse 6 from John 15, says, if anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and they throw them into the fire. It's talking about judgment over there. Right? All good? Yeah, that's it. Okay. Okay, let's move on to the next chapter, chapter 17, the lamp stand. I have this small menorah at home. I wanted to bring it and I forgot. I mean, I'm sure we've all seen that. Sorry. It's a metal one. Yeah. It's a small one. Sorry. Yeah, you can't light it. It's a very small thing. Okay. So it's beautiful. Actually, my dad got it when he went to Israel. Okay. But so again, we know the lamp stand was first introduced in the Tabernacle of Moses. Tabernacle of Moses had outer quotes in the quotes, holy of holies. In the outer quotes, there were two pieces of furniture. What were they? Sofa and dining table. Alter of sacrifice and a brazen labor or bronze labor. Right? So sacrifice was performed. So as soon as you enter the Tabernacle of Moses, it had a gate. The gate was made of four different colors. Saffron white and green. The gate was made of four different colors, scarlet red, white, blue, and purple. All of that has significance. Right? And then as you enter the outer quotes, you have the altar of sacrifice or bronze altar of sacrifice. That's where the sacrifice was performed barbecue. And then there was bronze labor or like a tub, which was inside, was made up of mirrors that women used. And then it was filled with water. Okay. All of that has significance. And then you enter the holy place or the inner quotes. Inner quotes had three pieces, table of showbread, lampstand, and then the altar of incense. Okay. So outside there was natural light, sunlight. Inside there was artificial light or the light that you got from the lampstand. Okay. It was the responsibility of the priest to make sure that there was oil always there in the lampstand and the wicks was always trimmed. Yeah, it always trimmed. So if it's burning off and so they need to trim it. The point was they need to make sure that the fire was always there, that there was always light burning. It's quite amazing the responsibility. Right? And so in that light, and again, there's a replica of this, the tabernacle of Moses on YouTube, you know, like in Israel, they've actually built one the way it looks. And it's pretty dark inside without the light because again, the covering was made up of skin, right? And so it was very thick. So it's very, it's not possible for light to penetrate. And so without the light of the lampstand, priests cannot perform their duties in the inner coats, making sure that the table, you know, of showbread has bread. We all know the importance of light, isn't it? So table of showbread signifies two things, a lot of things, but communion, bread. And Jesus is the bread of life. And it was also fellowship. There were 12 loaves of bread that were kept, signifying the 12 tribes of Israel. And it was replaced every seven days. Okay, fresh loaves would be replaced. And then there was an altar of incense, which signifies intercession of prayer. And so coming down to all of this, why is the lampstand very important? It was a place of illumination. Another word for illumination is revelation. Like with illumination, you get revelation that you get to see. It's unveiling, isn't it? And so without that illumination of the lampstand, you can hardly see anything. There's no revelation of what you want to do. And so church is called to be the light. Yeah, it's called to be light, the lampstand. And so without us, without the lampstand, it's impossible to do the works of God, other works of God as well. Okay, well, let's just look at it a little bit more. The local church as a lampstand, it says, in the revelation that John receives, he sees the Lord Jesus walking in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Revelation 1, 12, 13 and 20. Let's read it. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down and the feet and girded about with a chest with a golden band, the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches. Okay, so angels or angelos means messenger. So it's the same word that is used for an angel of God and also the leader of a church, a messenger. So how do we know that in this context, it's not the angel, the heavenly angels, and it's the earthly human being, because nowhere in the scripture we see that an angel was given leadership to lead a church. When you read the whole context, we need to understand it like that. Okay, and so when he talks about the angels of the seven churches, it's talking about the, in other words, pastors or leaders or elders of that seven churches. Okay, one more scripture, Revelation 2, 1 and 5, it says, to the angel of the church of Ephesus, right, these things say, he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, remember therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works or else I will come and come to you and quickly and remove your lampstands from its place unless you repent. Okay, one more thing that we need to, if you pay attention from chapter 2 and end of chapter 3, all of these seven churches are mentioned. And to all these seven letters, Jesus starts off by saying, I have seen your works. I see your work. I see you. It's there when you read through the book of Revelation. That means he is watching what the churches are doing. Okay, and so what is the significance here that if he was watching back then, he's not stopped watching now. Okay, so he is watching, right, so and says, so the local church as a lampstand is to be the light. That's what we've been commanded the world to illuminating hearts and minds so that they can come into a place of understanding. Where is it? We all know the scripture Matthew chapter 5 was 14 and 16. You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand. It gives light to all who are in the house. Okay, so if you and I as individuals and as a collective are a lampstand, I know there's a lot of content here, but just pay attention. We'll finish pretty soon. When if I'm the light of the world and you know people who are around me, if I'm shining the light of Jesus in and through me, I'm allowing them to see that he is the bird of life, right, and I'm allowing them to see that Jesus is interceding for us. Hey with me, because it is the golden lampstand that allowed the priest to perform the other duties that the table of shoe bread and prayer intercession etc etc. And in the scriptures we see that he is the bird of life. He is the light of the world and he is our intercessor. Jesus is interceding for us and so if you and I as an individuals and as collective are the lampstand or the light called to do what he is called us to do, we allow people who don't know Jesus to say that okay he is the light of the world, he's the bird of life and he is interceding for us etc etc. All good, no? We are to walk as people of the light. Do you know that in the light? Walking in the light of the Lord. It's a great thing to praise the Lord. You know the Sunday school song, your walk talks and your talk talks, you know that? But your walk talks louder than your talk talks. Walk not in darkness as children of the night. Walk even as Jesus walked as children of the light. I heard that only once in Sixth Standard and I never forgotten it. Let's come to a conclusion here by reading Philippians 2, 14 to 15. Do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Okay practical ways the local church can implement this. Maintain our first love, intimacy so that our lampstand is burning strong in his presence. We then have the power to influence our world with his light. A local church must provide illumination for God's people so that they can be in a place of understanding God's word, place of communion, prayer and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Encourage believers to live lives and do good works that will point people to the Lord and expose waters of darkness. Okay all these points once again are very fundamental to a Christian life, to a Christian walk. Intimacy is the key of everything. Pursuing his presence is the secret, is the key. Learning to host his presence, living a life aware of his presence is simply the key and knowing that he deserves all the glory on a power and praise is fundamental. Are you all with me? So let's conclude with chapter 18. It's like a summary of everything what we've covered so far in section 2. Chapter 18 is just talking again using the example of the early church from the Book of Acts and just simply saying how that church was a body of Christ and as the body of Christ they represented Christ powerfully in their world. As a family of God they shared all things and supported one another. As a pillar of truth they stood against the pressure of opposing traditions. As the army of God they advanced forcefully and overthrew the works of darkness and released people and regions from demonic domination. As the bride of Christ they were deeply in love with their bridegroom God. As a house of prayer and worship that devoted themselves to powerful prayer, worship and intercession. As the temple of God they saw God's presence and glory manifested. As the people of God talking about Zion they lived radically different from the world around them. As the branches of the true wine they walked in intimacy and fruitfulness. As the lamp stand set by God they let their light shine in the midst of the darkness. Okay this is wonderful we are concluding section 2. We are concluding section 2. We have one blueprint 10 different perspective and as a leader, as a future leaders, senior pastors, founders, ministry or just ordinary person etc etc. One way that you can gauge if your ministry is healthy is looking through these different windows this is different perspective. It's and check okay is your ministry doing all right is the church doing all right. Where is your church in this area of praise and worship? Where is your church in the area of intercession or as a bride is their love is in the right place or etc etc. Okay all good okay so with that we'll actually stop here I think we've covered a lot of content for today Francis is saying amen and see it in his eyes I can see it in his eyes thank God bottles were falling iPads were iPads were falling everything was falling without the anointing of the Lord everything was falling in this place so it goes online I think it's safe to stop now before they start falling in class but thanks for joining in I'll see you again next week okay God bless you thank you