Disturbing Presence of Christ — E.A. Johnston

The Pruning Chapter: Usefulness to God Through John 15

I have a very somber message for us this evening, friends. It deals with our usefulness to God while we are still in this world. We're gonna be camped out in John chapter 15, which I call the pruning chapter, because if you desire further usefulness to God, you will be pruned with a very sharp knife that cuts deep.

Before we begin, let me pray. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Great is your mercy toward them that fear you. Great God in heaven, you are a dynamite God who does super duper things.

Lord Jesus, you are altogether lovely. You are chief among 10 ,000. There's no one like you, Jesus. You are utterly singular and spectacular and preeminent above all things. You are the most faithful friend I've ever known.

You're always there for me. Give me the grace now, I pray, to deliver this message that is burning on my heart for your people. Saturate me with your Holy Spirit, Lord, I pray, and use this time to bring us to the very verge of eternity where we are confronted with the God of that eternity.

Come among us by your spirit and disturb, folks. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus, amen. Years ago, I was teaching the Wednesday evening revival class at the Stephen Offred Institute for Biblical Preaching in Memphis, Tennessee.

My homiletical mentor was Dr. Stephen F. Offred, and I had been the first part of that graduating class of his school of preachers. And that particular Wednesday evening at the Offred Center, I was addressing a group of pastors on the subject of revival.

There were about 20 men there that night, and I brought with me that evening to that revival lecture two men whom I had been personally discipling, and their orders were that evening to sit at the back of the room and pay no nevermind to me.

What I said was just to focus and to pray, to pray for those men during that evening. Their objective was to be entirely engaged in prayer. Why, Finney had Abel Clary and Father Nash, who were his prayer warriors during his early revivals, so I stationed those men at the back of the room because I needed help that evening as I walked up to the podium.

My text was John chapter 15, which I called the pruning chapter. And as I brought out my text, I told those men, I said, John 15 one, in the Greek states, I, in contradistinction to anyone else, am the genuine vine, and my father is the tiller of the soil, meaning Jesus was declaring that he alone was the true vine, he alone was the genuine vine.

All others were frauds and fakes. There was no one like him. He stood alone with no competition or comparison. And he makes a remarkable comment about God the Father. He says, my father is the tiller of the soil.

Isaiah's Vineyard and the Father's Care

Well, this whole aspect, friends, of the father as the vinedresser, as the tiller of the soil, is rich as it is deep, and I don't think we can fully grasp the depth of John chapter 15 without a proper understanding of Isaiah chapter five.

Let's take a look at Isaiah chapter five, where we find the parable of the vineyard and a detailed description of God as the vinedresser. We read in chapter five, beginning in verse one. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard, my well-beloved at the vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

And he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted 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.

This vineyard that God planted had the most fertile ground and choicest vine in the most favorable conditions for growth. The fallow ground was broken up and the stones were removed. All obstructions were taken away.

With loving care, the vinedresser plants this vineyard. He planted it, he maintained it, he watched over it from a nearby watchtower. He pruned it, he watered it. Just look, friends, at the father's care over that vineyard.

He planted it, he watched over it. He had great expectations for it. This whole aspect of God the father exercising great care over his children with only their best interests at heart. This is the imagery and the thoughts that must be brought to bear on John chapter 15 if we are to understand this aspect of God the father as a vinedresser, as a tiller of the soil.

Abiding in the True Vine

Jesus is declaring that he is the true vine and we are the branches. Anyone that has ever tried to live the Christian life knows what failure is like. The Christian life is an impossible life to live in the flesh.

It's often like an elevator. One day you're in the penthouse sweet, enjoying sweet fellowship with God and then incredibly the next day you're down in the basement of defeat. The average Christian has an up and down walk with God.

There's little consistency there. Well, that's why Jesus took the time here to teach his disciples about the abiding principle of the vine and the branches. There is victory here, friends. In John chapter 15, we not only have the key to a consistent walk with God by abiding in him, but we have great usefulness to God as we abide and live and serve him.

John 15 .2 states, 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. And this is the central theme of John chapter 15, which I term the pruning chapter, where God, as the tiller of the soil, takes his divine pruning knife to the life of a believer.

If you recall over in Isaiah chapter five, the vinedresser was looking with great expectation on the vineyard to produce fruit, to produce luscious grapes. But in the case of Israel, it brought forth wild grapes.

In John chapter 15 and verse two, the meaning in the Greek language is, and he cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.

When the text says he cleanses it, that means by his spirit he sanctifies us, sanctifies us for further fruitfulness, sanctifies us for wider usefulness. Do you desire wider usefulness, friend? Then you must submit to the divine pruning knife.

God must take a sharp knife to your life and cut away all that stands between you and him in all further fruitfulness for God. You cannot expect to go further with God without giving him the whole of your life, lock, stock and barrel.

How can we hold anything back from him who gave his all on Calvary? In John 15 five, we read the words of Jesus. 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. We feel we're not a success unless we're running 3 ,000 on Sunday. But Jesus poured his time and life into 12 men and one of them was a devil. Jesus is saying we can't move one skinny inch apart from him and our utter reliance is on him.

Oh friends, a self-reliant church is a Laodicean church in need of nothing. And a self-sufficient Christian is an oxymoron and you're a moron if you try to live the Christian life in your own strength, it can't be done.

The only way to live the Christian life from God's perspective is to remain in a vital love relationship with Jesus. A young Billy Graham who was saved under the preach and a Mordecai Ham came to him as a mentor.

He asked Mordecai Ham, he said, brother Ham, do you have any words for this young preacher? Some advice for this young preacher? And Mordecai Ham looked him in the eye and he said, Billy, don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus.

Friends, it's our objective to stay in a vital love relationship with Jesus and that means he must have preeminence in our daily living and to get that, you'll have to submit to the divine pruning knife in your life to cut away all obstructions that inhibit that intimacy with him.

Fruit Bearing and Glory to the Father

The great truth of John chapter 15 is we were never ever meant to be fruit producers but fruit bearers. If we are a bearer, then the fruit is not ours, it is of the spirit and this is how we bring glory to the father by being fruit bearers that he can flow through as a means of blessings to others.

We see this as so friends and verse eight that states, herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit. But if you are bearing fruit, then it is apparent that you are being pruned for it is the prune branch that bears the fruit.

So we must ask ourselves the following two burning questions. Do we wanna go deeper with God and are we prepared to submit to the divine pruning knife? I recall years ago, I was standing on round top at the El Moody's grave in Northfield, Massachusetts.

And as I stood there, I was reflecting on Moody's large life for Christ and the gospel. And I recalled the story Moody told of one day he was sitting next to a British minister who remarked to him, the world has yet to see what God can do with the man wholly consecrated to him.

And Moody walked away muttering under his breath, oh God, make me that man. And God answered that prayer. And Moody did more for God than all of us put together. Well, that's the story I was thinking of as I stood atop round top that sunny day.

And as I slowly made my way down the hill toward the little birthplace home of Moody, tears streamed down my face. As I said with Moody, oh God, make me that man. Sometimes it takes 20 years for prayer to be answered but God does not forget our desperate prayers.

That day, God began to get out his pruning knife out on me and he's never put it away since. It's been an ongoing painful process, I can assure you friends. And as I related these stories in this passage from John 15 about God's divine pruning knife to that group of pastors, their faces suddenly became altered.

The Disturbing Presence of Christ

Those men were disturbed. In Job we read, therefore I am troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him for God maketh my heart soft and the almighty troubleth me. Well, those pastors were confronted with the felt presence of a disturbing Christ.

Christ in his earthly ministry was disturbing. The spiritual world was disturbed by him. Devils cried out and besought him to possess a herd of swine that ran violently into the sea. And because of that, the citizens of that coast were so disturbed they came to Christ begging him to leave them.

Everywhere Christ went, there was a disturbance. The complacency of towns and villages were disturbed by him to where the multitude thronged him. He disturbed hearts and consciences. He disturbed the woman at the well until she felt her sinfulness.

He disturbed religious traditions. He disturbed the religious leaders of his day to where they wanted to destroy him. He disturbed lives. Christ disturbed physical nature in healing the lame, the sick, and the blind.

He disturbed death in raising the dead to life. He disturbed one's entire course of life. He disturbed Saul of Tarsus by confronting him, smack dab in the middle of the road, and blinding him, changing his life's entire direction and purpose.

God can do that to any man. He disturbed Herod's rotten heart. He disturbed the physical laws of nature by walking on the water. He disturbed reality by multiplying the loaves and the fishes and feeding 5 ,000.

In truth, when Jesus passed through towns and villages, he disturbed things. He disturbs consciences. He disturbed religious pandering by overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple. He disturbed the Philippian jailer who cried out, what must I do to be saved?

He disturbed the Roman centurion who cried, truly, this was the son of God. He disturbed his first hearers, by stirring animosity in their hearts to want to hurl him headlong down a hillside. He disturbed the devil wherever he went for demons cried out, son of God, don't torment us before the time.

He disturbed the religious crowd who said he was possessed by a devil. He taught by parables because bare, naked truth would have been too disturbing for his hearers. He disturbed all things, from the touch of a woman's hand to his garment that disturbed the flow of her plague and healed it.

He disturbed the touch of his hand on Jairus's daughter, which disturbed death by raising her from death to life. He disturbed the very atmosphere on the Mount of Transfiguration, where he spoke with Moses and Elijah.

He disturbed reliance upon material possessions by disturbing the rich man's priorities. He disturbed blind Bartimaeus, who cried out, Jesus, thou son of God, have mercy on me. And he disturbed the darkness of his sight and made him see light.

Christ's Disturbance at Calvary and the Resurrection

On the cross, on the cross, Christ was disturbing. It was disturbing to look at him hanging there in the shame and pain of the cross, writhing beneath the burden of sin. It was disturbing to his friends to see him bleeding and suffering so.

On Calvary, he disturbed the very elements of nature. The sky darkened, the earth trembled. Rocks were torn asunder in the veil in the temple, which was 60 feet high and four inches thick, was torn right in two, like it was made of paper mache.

Christ disturbed things that day. He disturbed hell itself by reconciling sinners back to a holy God. He even disturbed the dead in the graves through reading Matthew. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints, which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and appeared unto many.

There is nothing like the disturbing presence of Christ in a day as fast approaching, friends, where Christ will come again with his mighty angels and disturb heaven and earth with a shout. In times of revival, there is a disturbing presence of Christ.

Revival, Conviction, and Serious Consecration

When Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in Enfield, Connecticut, on July 8th, 1741, an eyewitness recorded in his diary, we went over to Enfield, where we met dear Mr. Edwards of Northampton, who preached a most awakening sermon from these words in Deuteronomy.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time for the day their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. And before sermon was done, there was a great moaning and crying out through ye whole house.

Oh, what shall I do to be saved? Oh, I'm going to hell. Oh, what shall I do for Christ? To where the minister was obliged to desist from preaching, ye sheiks and cries were piercing and amazing. Well, that's the report of that revival, friends.

The disturbing presence of Christ in revival is a reality. And that night, as I was speaking to that group of pastors, I looked around that room and those pastors were visibly disturbed. God was dealing with them one-on-one.

They were squirming in their chairs like they were sitting on a hot seat. God, in his disturbing presence, was at work that night. And when I was through speaking, I closed my Bible and I stood there while those men got up and lined up to speak to me.

Oh, one by one, they grabbed my hands and hugged me and thanked me for the message that night. But at the end of the line stood one man, an old elderly black pastor who patiently waited his turn to speak to me.

And as he faced me, I noticed he had tears in his eyes. And in a determined voice, he said, I've been a pastor for 30 years, but tonight when I get home, I'm gonna get down on my knees beside my bed and I'm gonna ask the Lord to get out his pruning knife on me and my ministry.

Oh, well, that man was getting serious with God. And do you know what, friends? God gets serious with those who get serious with him. Let me ask you, friend, are you ready to get serious with God? Brother pastor, are you ready to ask God to get his pruning knife out on you and your ministry?

Are you willing to submit to the divine pruning knife on you? Oh, what cost counts and what counts costs? Go dig up a biography on a George Whitefield or a D .L. Moody or a Sam Jones and read it and see what God did with men who were wholly consecrated to him, how God shook entire cities in revival under their ministries with the disturbing presence of Christ Jesus and ask God to do that in your life.

Get down on your face before God and ask him to make you a fruit bearer where the power of God flows through you as a means of blessing to others, bearing fruit and bringing glory to God. And let your prayer be, here I am, Lord, prune me, use me, fill me, and let revival begin with me.

Let us pray.