What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Scripture: John 15:1 – 16:4

“John 15:1   “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. John 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. John 15:10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you. John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. John 15:17 “This I command you, that you love one another.

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. John 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. John 15:23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. John 15:25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’

John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, John 15:27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

John 16:1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. John 16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. John 16:3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. John 16:4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.” (John 15:1–16:4 NAS95)