FROM WHENCE CAME JESUS?

Jno. 16:28 ... "I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world."

      Who was Jesus Christ? This is one of the most profound questions ever considered by man. In fact, many would rephrase it, changing "was" to "is." The question of who Jesus WAS concerns the identity of the historical Jesus; who was the Man of Nazareth in the 1st Century A.D. who was called Jesus? Posed in the form, 'Who IS Jesus?," concerns His eternal existence and office.  There has been continual controversy for two millennia over both of these questions. Once He Himself posed the question to His apostles, "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets," (Mt. 16:13-14). The people, therefore, saw Jesus as extraordinary; yet, they conceded Him a status no higher than that of a mortal man. And since that day, now so long in the past, the conception of people has not changed. It is the opinion of many that Jesus was (not "is"!) a master Teacher who founded one of the major world religions; but He was nevertheless only a mortal man.

      A question closely connected to those just considered is anticipated in Jesus' statement in the initial text above. From whence did Jesus come? This question was also debated during Jesus' life on earth. In Jno. 7:40-43 it is reported that "some of the multitude, when they heard (Jesus') words, were saying, 'This certainly is the Prophet.' Others were saying, 'This is the Christ.' Still others were saying, 'Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?' So there arose a division in the multitude because of Him." Part of the Jews, marveling at the miraculous acts and superior words of Jesus, concluded that He had to be the Prophet foretold by Moses (Dt. 18:15-19) whether He came out of Galilee or not. Other Jews, however, stumbled over the apparent fact that Jesus could not be the Christ since He came from Galilee and since Mic. 5:2 required that He come from Bethlehem in Judea. They perceived another problem in that the Christ had to be of the house and lineage of David, (II Sam. 7:12-16), and seemingly this Jesus of Nazareth did not possess that ancestry.

      When the inspired writers penned the New Testament scriptures, they addressed these questions which made it difficult for the Jews to believe Jesus was the Messiah, or Christ. Matthew (in chp. 2) gave testimony that Jesus had indeed been born in Bethlehem, and in the preceding chapter produced a genealogy linking Jesus to David. Luke (in chp. 3) showed that Jesus also had a second genealogy connecting Him to David, apparently through Mary. Jesus therefore fulfilled all the Old Testament prophetical requirements about where the Christ was to come from. It was necessary that they be met to verify He was the Christ and that His coming had been planned for many centuries.

      The most important matters concerning where Jesus came from, however, were by no means His geographical or genealogical origin. The ultimate answer to the fundamental question is found in Jesus' declaration, "I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world." Except to fulfill prophecy, (certainly an essential matter!), it was irrelevant whether Jesus came from Bethlehem or Beth-horon, or whether He came from the family of David or of Daniel. God could have decreed Beth-horon and Daniel rather than Bethlehem and David, if it had so pleased Him. The matter of ultimate importance is that Jesus came forth from the Father when He entered the world. The power by which Jesus performed His great deeds, and the authority that validated His teaching, were not dependent on Bethlehem being His birthplace or David being His forefather. The requisite power and authority were invested in Him by God when "He came forth from the Father." The real reason people today want to discredit Jesus with some spurious account of a mundane origin is to escape that very power and authority inherent in His words, which define the limitations of beneficial human thought and conduct.

THE VINEYARD PARABLE

Jno. 15:2 ... "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit."

      In the first part of this chapter Jesus is painting a verbal picture of a vine, probably a grapevine, growing in someone's vineyard. From the trunk of the vine radiate out many branches, some full of life and bearing fruit, while others are stunted or dead  and void of fruit. The husbandman regularly comes to each plant and cuts off the stunted and dead branches, which he gathers into a pile outside the vineyard and burns them. He also prunes the luxuriant branches to enhance their ability to grow better and produce more. Those who heard Jesus paint this verbal picture could easily comprehend it, since vineyards were common in Palestine. Many of His disciples at some time in the past had likely worked in vineyards doing just what Jesus portrayed the husbandman doing. The picture is thus quite plain; but, since it is obvious Jesus is teaching a spiritual lesson with this physical model, what is His message?

      First, the vine is a figure for Christ, and the branches are people who are His disciples. This identification is made clear in v.5 where Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches." The idea that the branches represent divisions of the Christian church is a fallacy. Jesus had individual people in mind rather than human organizations when He spoke of branches, because in v.6 He said that "if ANYONE (a person) does not abide in Me, HE is thrown away as a branch." Since Jesus is the vine, and Christians are the branches, the vineyard is the Lord's church, since that is the body in which Christ is united with His disciples. We are told in Eph. 1:22-23 that the Father gave Christ "to be the Head over all things to the church, which is His body." The husbandman, who cuts off the barren branches and burns them, and who prunes the productive branches to enable them to bear even more fruit, is God the Father, (see v.1). This, then, is the spiritual reality modeled in the physical image. But what is the practical application in human experience? It is apparent that Jesus had two such applications in mind.

      The first is that spiritual life and productivity come only through fellowship with Christ. Jesus declared in v.4 that "as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me." Lest anyone not understand what it means to "abide in Me," Jesus expands on the concept in v.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." To abide in Christ therefore means to keep the commandments He has given us. Also, as a person stores up in his mind the knowledge of Jesus' commandments by diligently studying the New Testament, and then faithfully conducts his life by the guidelines set by these commandments, he is bringing forth the fruit the Lord expects.  One's obedience to the teachings of Christ is the fruit that He intends every branch to produce.

      The second application Jesus makes is that failure to bear fruit for Him will lead to rejection and destruction. In v.6 He declared, "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." When a person becomes a disciple of Christ by being "baptized into Christ," (Gal. 3:27), he becomes a new, tender shoot out of that Holy Vine. That person must then begin to bear fruit as he becomes involved in the activities of spiritual service commanded by Jesus. If this does not happen, or if a Christian stops doing them, the Lord will eventually cut that person off from Him and have no further fellowship with Him. Finally, He will sorrowfully (I Pet. 3:9) destroy that soul in "fire," meaning the eternal fire of hell (Gehenna). And that is the ultimate human tragedy!