Jesus Abides: the Miraculous Witness of His Presence

Jesus Abides: the Miraculous Witness of His Presence

Jesus Abides: the Miraculous Witness of His Presence

Jesus abides and with the word abide being a verb ever time it means that he cam produce the real witness of his presence in our lives.

Jesus abides always reveal the witness that he is alive and real.

There was an atheist that lived in the latter part of the 19th century, a general in the United States army. Lew Wallace was very intellectual and well educated. Being an atheist, he set out to expose, debunk Christianity. He went to Europe to some of the major universities and began to develop his thesis on exposing Christianity. History tell us in his own words that at the end of the second chapter, he fell on his knees and prayed for God to save him through Jesus Christ. He had come to believe that Jesus was alive and real. When Jesus abides, he always produces a miraculous witness.

In discussing to some of his friends what had happen to him, he discovered that he knew very little about the historical facts of the man called Jesus of Nazareth. He set out to learn about Jesus. He actually spent eight years in researching and putting together something that would reveal what he had learned and experienced. At the end of eight years, he wrote the book now commonly known as Ben Hur.

In trying to prove, to illustrate, or to teach that there was a God and that Jesus abides, he chose a very powerful means to accomplish his goal. He was probably capable to write a very learned thesis, a book on theology. But he chose to write a novel in which the main character is portrayed as going through the struggles of life.

The novel started with the main character living luxuriously in a wealthy Jewish family. Everything in life seems to be flowing perfectly. As the story evolves, a childhood friend, a Roman, returns to Jerusalem from living in Rome. He comes back as the Roman Centurion. In the course of the greetings of the two old friends, the Roman soldier ask Ben Hur to reveal the Jewish zealots that were causing trouble for Rome.

Ben Hur would not reveal his fellow countrymen and an antagonistic relationship developed between the two former friends. Later, while Ben Hur and his sister were watching a Roman parade from their roof, a tile accidentally fell from the roof onto the parade. Ben Hur was subsequently arrested and sent to Rome to become a galley slave in a Roman warship.

During the long trip across the dessert to Rome, everyone was given water to drink except Ben Hur. Laying thirsty and exhausted on the ground, a stranger came up to him and offered him water to drink. He would later know that the stranger was Jesus of Nazareth.

The author of the novel has his main character becoming very angry about being arrested. He was extremely revengeful over what had happen to him. He was very bitter.

Through the course of events that occurred in his life such as saving the captain of his sinking ship, becoming a freeman in Rome, and becoming wealthy as the adopted son of the captain, Ben Hur eventually was able to return to Jerusalem to champion the Jewish cause against the Romans. He eventually meets Jesus again. He would find out that when Jesus abides it always produces a miraculous witness.

Jesus abides always counters the normal response of man to devastating circumstances in his life.

In the course of telling his story, the author portrays the life of Ben Hur turning from serenity, to anger, to bitterness, and to revenge. What is the author giving us? He is describing the physical realm being taken down and the normal response of man to devastating circumstances in his life.

Although he is now once again wealthy and perceived as a leader of the Jewish people, he knows something is still lacking. As he is approaching a crowd of people listening to Jesus preach his “Sermon on the Mount,” he kneels at a brook of water to drink. As he takes a drink of water, he thinks of Jesus giving him water in the desert. The thought crosses his mind that Jesus should have just let him die in the desert. He knew that even though he was perceived as a leader of the people, even though he had won a chariot race against his Roman antagonist that was responsible for his arrest, even though through the graciousness of his Roman benefactor he was rich, he knew as he drunk of the physical water that he still thirsted for the contented life.

Jesus abides is the only safeguard against the struggles of life.

Although he had experienced the fulfillment of his revenge, he kneels down to get a drink of water and realizes that life was still not being satisfied. All the physical things that we often desire to satisfy our life, he had experienced and yet he is still thirsty. Taken down by the circumstances of life and experiencing the failure of his respond to those circumstances, he could now finally look to Jesus as the essence of the good life.

The author of the book in using the telling of the story of Ben Hur amply gave witness of how the author’s life was changed by Christ. He attempted to prove the reality of Christ and that Jesus abides by showing what Christ could do in the life of a person. It is not our theological debates, it is not our doctrinal arguments, nor it is not how good we can present what we believe to another person that is going to be effective in the telling of our story. What is going to be conclusive, the witness, is what other people will see in our lives. It is how we respond to those events that gives us the opportunity to experience the resurrected Christ, the “Me” that God creates. Can we go through these events of life and come out of them with a manifestation of Jesus? Can we say like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that I know that God is able to deliver me but I do not know if he will or not? Regardless, when Jesus abides, we will still not bow down to anything other than our God.

Jesus abides to reveal the ultimate witness of his presence is clearly demonstrated in the writings of John.

There is a passage of Scriptures in John that actually relates to how we should be a witness of Jesus Christ. Is it because we do good deeds? Well, good deeds may be done. Is it because we can testify of what Christ has done in our life? Well, that may occur. But, what speaks as the witness that there is a Christ who lives and a Christ who controls our life is when we come through these resurrection events of life and there is, mysteriously, the witness of the good life. Our lives testify what? Not the gloom, the despair, and the agony of the event, but the peace, the joy, and the sense of righteousness even in the event. When Jesus abides, the Holy Spirit produces, mysteriously, peace, joy, and a sense of righteousness in the happenings of life.

Let’s see what Jesus himself said about this quality of life. Based upon what we have covered in the previous articles, let us reread John 15. I am sure that we have read John 15 many times, but it seems to be interpreted differently as our understanding grows deeper in the true mysteries of life. Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1).

What does God do in being the “farmer of the land?” He is the one that is responsible to till the ground. The one who is responsible to plant the seed. The one who is responsible to garden the ground, prune the vine, and even move the vine where it needs to be. Is this not what Jesus is implying when it is recorded that all things are of him, through him, and to him” (Rom. 11:36)? God, through Jesus, does produce everything.

Jesus continued, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit (John 15:2). The word purgeth means, to prune. God prunes the vine that it may bring forth more fruit. Jesus then says, “Now ye are clean [it is the same original word as purgeth] through the word which I have spoken unto you.” .

In the past, I preached this passage of Scriptures and erroneously understood that the pruning was done by the written word. Locked into a previous understanding, I would preach that how you were pruned was by this written word. Which being interpreted, it would mean that how you were pruned was by my preaching to you out of the written word telling you how to straighten out your life. But, Jesus is saying, you are clean, you are pruned through the word which he has spoken to you. It is not what I say about it as a preacher. It is not what anyone says about it. It is only as Jesus himself speaks to us individually. When Jesus abides, our lives are pruned to bring forth the fruit that it should bear by Jesus speaking directly to us.

I have tried to portray in these series of chapters, the simplicity of living the Christian life. I have tried to depict how simple it is to experience life. But, even though I have tried to portray the simplicity of the gospel, let me say here that there is no short-cut to experiencing the gospel. You cannot get around Jesus.

It does not make any difference what you have known. It does not make any difference how much you understand. It does not make any difference how long your track record is. If you do not continually hear Jesus, the quality of your life will die. No matter how good it has been in the past, you stop hearing Jesus you are going to die to the good life. You cannot get around the current need to hear Jesus, to interact with Jesus. Moreover, as powerful as hearing Jesus is you cannot live tomorrow on what you heard today.

This is the amazing power of hearing Jesus in our day-to-day life. What Jesus is trying to get across to us is that it is not what I do for him. It is even not the actual experiences he does for me. It is not the blessings he gives to me. Well, if it is not what I do for him and it is not what he does for me, what is it then? Jesus would say, as he did to his early followers (Luke 10:19-20), it is me, not what I can do.

It is not even the specific words that you hear Jesus say. It is simply the hearing of Jesus. You do not even have to understand what he says. Because your growth does not occur from your understanding what he says, it comes from hearing what he says. In other words, you grow as you experience Jesus.

What I have come to find out in my own experiences of going through life is if I am hearing Jesus and Jesus is talking to me (I am meditating on what he says and insights are coming to me), amazingly, the circumstances of life of which I am going through just do not seem to be relevant. Oh, yes, they are real. I am experiencing them, but they do not have such an adverse affect upon me it destroys my life.

However, when I am not hearing Jesus those same circumstances affect me differently. If life gets too busy, the mechanic of just living life (getting up in the morning, getting to the job on time, and just getting through the day) gets me so busy that I am not hearing Jesus, those very same circumstances that I just flowed through without any difficulty now become major obstacles in my life. Now, I am worried about how in the world is that going to work out. How in the world am I going to get through this. They are the same circumstances but they have a totally different affect on my life when Jesus abides.

Jesus abides changing the witness of our lives.

In the same circumstances, when I am hearing Jesus, I do not hear myself say, “how in the world am I going to get through this.” There is a calm assurance that whatever the circumstance may be it is going to be okay. Jesus is in control and he will bring about what needs to happen. Moreover, when I am hearing Jesus, I not only do not know exactly how it is going to work out, but I am really not interested in getting bogged down in trying to figure it out. I only become over-anxiously concerned about circumstances when I am not hearing Jesus. Only Jesus has the power to calm the storms of my life. Truly, when Jesus abides, it does change my witness.

Listen to what Jesus said, this is a very powerful passage of Scriptures in the light of what has been discussed in the previous artiacles. Jesus said, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). I wonder if these facts of nature (trees, flowers, garden, and pruning) actually work in us as well, since we are also a created entity.

I am coming to understand that the same principles that are working in the rest of the created world work in us as well. Is this not what Jesus is saying in John 15? To whom is he referring in using the vine and the branches, the pruning and the cutting back? Is he not referring to you and I? See all the things we attempt to do to make life happen and life just happens regardless of what we do. It is what life is.

I am really coming to recognize that in these experiences of resurrection events, we do not do anything to make them happen. God is actually causing those events to occur over and over and over again. But, failing to recognized what is happening when and where they occur in our lives, we end up being taken down and there is no peace, no joy, and no sense of righteousness. Usually, all we can think about is, life is just not fair. Whereas, Jesus abides should be the foundation of our understanding.

Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:1-2). Then, he adds,

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not 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 (John 1:5:3-6).

Have you ever heard anyone say after someone said or did something to them, “This burns me up.” I wonder if this could be the “hell fire” that we read about in the New Testament. Is this not what Jesus is illustrating? In other words, if the good life is not being produced in us, we are going to get cutoff, “cast forth as a branch.” What cuts us off, when do we get cutoff, and where do we go? As was illustrated in the last article, 1 (wrong street) produces 2 , 2 (wrong influence) produces 3, and 3 (wrong control) produces 4 (wrong existence). Do we not then dwell in the garbage bin? Do we not burn in hell? Why else would we say, “this burns me up.”

We will dwell in that trash bin until we cry, “God save us.” The 1, 2 , 3, and 4, is the means by which God brings us to the end of ourselves in order that will we cry out to God.  So, again, 1, 2, 3, and 4 are less punishment as we understand punishment, than they are a part of the redemptive process for the saving of our souls. It is the process by which we come to understand that only Christ has and is life. Is this not what Jesus is saying, “If a man abide not 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 Jesus abides, we understand that most of the things of which we asked in the past are really not relevant to experiencing the good life.

Then, Jesus stated, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Is that not a great promise? He said, “if ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will . . . .” So, we think, especially in the beginning of our Christian experience, hey, if I can just get to abiding in Jesus and him in me then I can ask what I want and God is going to give it to me. Well, with that kind of thinking why would not I follow Jesus?

Why did the crowds follow Jesus at the beginning? They followed him at first because that is what they thought that Jesus was going to do for them. They thought that Jesus could give them the desires of their heart regardless of how fleshly those desires may be.

When I begin to understand what abiding in Jesus and Jesus abides in me really means, however, I found out that I was not asking for those things of which I thought I would ask. I am finding out that those things of which I thought I would ask are not even relevant any longer to the good life. What I came to ask of God was simply the good life, which does not hinge upon any physical circumstance. It is just experiencing the unadulterated presence of God.

Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Jesus, then, adds, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8). This is really what worship is all about. This is how the Father is glorified. This is what experiencing the good life is all about.

When Jesus abides, the real witness of what it means to be a Christian is produced.

How is the Father glorified? Jesus said, “That ye bear much fruit.” What fruit is he talking about? Is he not talking about the rose, is he not talking about the tomato, is he not talking about the apple, is he not talking about the fruit of a human being? Just what is the fruit of a human being? In the only passage of Scriptures that attempts to identify the fruit that should be seen in Christians (Gal. 5:22-23), Paul stated, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance . . . .” With everyone of those qualities being relational terms, Paul is identifying the real fruit of a Christian as being what occurs in relationship with others. Living in relationships where love is experienced is the good life. Everything else that we might experience is then not relevant to the joy of the good life.

How is the Father glorified? It is when his life is manifested in and through us. When his life is manifested in and through us, what happen? “So, shall ye be my disciples.”

For example, what is the fruit of an apple tree? Is it apple pies? Is it apple sauce? Is it another apple tree? No, the fruit of an apple tree is an apple. Of course, apple pies, applesauce, and another apple tree can be made from the apples, but the apple tree does not and cannot produce apple pies, applesauce or another tree.

Religion has us so confused that we think we can produce “apple pies,” “applesauce,” and “young apple trees,” but, we are not the baker or the tree maker. All that God ask of us is to let his life be produced in and through us, the fruit of a Christian, and then he will do the rest as the baker and the tree maker.

Jesus stated, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” We keep trying to reverse the process. But, you cannot become a learner of Jesus through your intellectual prowess and then expect that you will experience the life of Jesus through your learning.

Listen to what Paul wrote to the Colossians: “In whom [in Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Where are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? They are hid in Christ. What we keep trying to do is to get all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge without Christ. But, they are hid in Christ which means the more Christ is alive in your life the more you understand. The more Jesus is manifested, the more wisdom is manifested. When Jesus becomes the essence of your life, true wisdom and knowledge will be manifested because they are in Christ.

Is this not a beautiful picture? These treasures are hid in Christ. If Christ can be seen in our lives what will the people around us see? Would they not see the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? Would it not be the wisdom and knowledge, by hearing Jesus, that would enable us to experience peace, joy, and rest even though the world is crumbling down around us?

Probably the greatest hells in our lives are experienced when we find ourselves in situations that we have no clue how it is going to work out. We do not know what is going to be the outcome. When we are trying to figure it out, how it is going to work out, what is going to be the outcome, and we cannot find an answer, we are miserable. When we get miserable, people around us are usually miserable as well. But, when Jesus is fresh in our lives, even in those same circumstances, amazingly, we do not experience misery. We are full of peace, and joy, and rest and the people around us have the same opportunity to experience that peace, joy, and rest coming from us.

This is how the author, Lew Wallace, tried to show to the world that there is a Christ. By the changed life of Ben Hur, the author portrayed that Jesus was real, that Jesus was powerful, and that Jesus could save. Is my life, is your life, demonstrating that Jesus is real and that he is producing peace, joy, and rest in our lives even though the world is crumbling down around everyone else?

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Dr. James Stone is the founder and President of Christian Ministries, Inc., a ministry for personal, family, and church growth. He travels extensively across America and several foreign countries sharing his experiences with Jesus. His over 40 year career in ministry has included individual counseling, family counseling, church pastor, Bible college/seminary professorships, leader of revivals, Christian growth seminars & church growth specialist.

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