Following Jesus — E.A. Johnston

Following Jesus Through Persecution and Suffering

I remember my friend, William McDonald, who wrote the Believer's Bible commentary. He summed up the Christian's walk with the following words. He wrote,. We often think that it must have been a wonderful experience to travel with Jesus when he was here on earth.

We can see him and his disciples sauntering along, enjoying a continual Bible conference. But it wasn't like that. It was more of a scalding experience in which the disciples learned their own sinfulness and failure, and in which they were called to a pathway of persecution, suffering, and death.

Jesus' Teaching on the True Vine

Well, I like his comments, friends, because they reflect the deep truths of the Christian's life. We find Jesus in John chapter 15, and he has some important things to say to his men. For he knows his time with them is drawn to a close, and he wants to impart to them how to keep walking in fellowship with him after he's gone back to heaven.

And he begins his discourse to them by saying, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. In wording that's stronger in the Greek language, it states, I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the genuine vine, and my Father is the tiller of the soil, meaning, I'm the genuine article, everyone else are just fakes and frauds, and my Father is the tiller, the one exercising great care over his vineyard.

Isaiah's Vineyard and God's Care for His People

Well, our minds can't help going back to Isaiah chapter 5, which is the parable of the vineyard, where it describes God as a husbandman, exercising great care over his vineyard, meaning his people. We see his great care and concern over them in the following text,.

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein, and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

I will stop there, friends. Oh, what a tragic result! He planted it with the best soil and choicest vine. He watered it, pruned it, and exercised great care and concern over it. Why, he built a tower right in the middle of it to continually be able to watch over it.

He had high expectations for it, as he even made a winepress in the hope of a great fruitful harvest. But alas, instead of delicious, luscious grapes full of nourishment and usefulness, all he gets is the bitter harvest of disappointment.

Personal Testimony of God's Investment

Has God the Father put a lot of time and care into you, friend? I never forget a period in my life where I was wearing myself out for God. At the time, I was maintaining a full-time secular career and serving Him with every minute of my free time.

Late into the evenings, I literally was up each day at 4 .30 a .m. to spend time with Him in prayer. I was dragging myself to bed after midnight after serving Him all throughout the evening, and I was plum worn out.

One night, I'll never forget it, around 2 a .m., I felt a heaviness on my chest. I felt ill. I felt like I was dying. So I got up from bed and walked across the hallway to my study. And I plopped down at my desk in front of my open Bible, and as I was praying for God just to come and take me home.

And God's only appeared to me, friends, once in my life, and this was that time. And He showed up, and He asked me a question. What do you do for a living? And I answered, investments. And that voice came with clarity and authority, saying to me, I have an investment in you, and I will receive the dividends from that investment.

And then He was gone. Nothing more needed to be said. And I've been serving Him all these years with every ounce of me, and He keeps using me so He can collect His dividends. God is a dynamite God who does super-duper things for those who live a life of faith in Him.

Abiding in Christ Through the Vine and Branches

And when we look at Jesus over in John's Gospel, He's trying to impart some very important truths to His followers on how to maintain a close, vital walk with Him. And He uses the illustration of a vine and branches and a husbandman.

And we come to one of the key statements of Jesus on how His followers can maintain unbroken fellowship with Him. For in John 15, 4, we read, 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.

That word abide is an interesting word in the Greek, friends, for it is the word meno, and it means to stay in a given place, to remain, to dwell, to continue, to tarry, with the meaning, meaning to remain united to Him.

Joshua's Call to Cleave to God

But I never stop there in my Bible, friends. I'm always searching for a counterpart verse I can find in the Old Testament to the New. And I found my verse over yonder in Joshua chapter 22, and in verse 5, where Joshua is addressing the people of God who have made it into the promised land and took possession of it.

And he's sending them back to their tents with the following exhortation, which states, But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him.

That word cleave, friends, is my counterpart word in the Old Testament to the New Testament word abide, for it has the same meaning, only from a different angle. Cleave means to stick fast to and never let go, kind of like white on rice.

A Life of Faithful Obedience and Intimate Fellowship

Well, let me share with you, friends, how I translated this passage from my own walk with God over the last 50 plus years. So here is Joshua 22 .5 by the E .A. Johnston translation. Living for the Lord in a life of faith and obedience where the rubber meets the road, walking with God in an intimate love relationship with Him, hanging onto Him and relying upon Him like white on rice as you serve Him in the power of His Spirit, with every ounce of your heart and every inch of your soul as you bring Him glory.

The Christian Life as a Spiritual Adventure

Well, that's it, friends. I just love the word of God and I marvel at how rich a treasure it is. It's like a fathomless ocean where you can always go deeper and deeper and never touch bottom. It's exciting being a Christian and the Christian life's an adventure.

I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Well, I hope you've enjoyed our little devotional this morning and that it will ignite you to go deeper with God in a vital love relationship with Jesus as you maintain the embers on the altar of your heart all aglow for Him.