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UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING OF A TEXT 40 Days in the Word – Part 5 Last week – the 4 phases of a Bible study: 1) Observation - what does it say? You write down specifically what it says. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It’s just what is it obviously saying in this passage? 2) Interpretation - what does it mean? The Bible means what it means. We’re going to talk about that more today. Interpretation. 3) Correlation - what does it say in other verses in the Bible that explain this verse? Because the best Bible commentary is the Bible itself. When you don’t understand a particular passage, you look at what other verses say to help you understand it. That’s called correlation. 4) Application - what am I going to do about it? It isn’t a Bible study until you actually do something about it. It’s not enough to just put thoughts in your mind; it must change your life. Today we’re going to look a bit more at Interpretation and Correlation. How do I know, how do I understand the meaning of a text? Last week we used Philippians 2 as a passage, and we considered five traits of a godly man as we thought about Timothy and Epaphroditus. This week we are going to look at a very powerful passage in John 15. As we read it and study it together, we will consider how to get the right meaning out of a passage… Read John 15:1-17 What I want to do today is focus primarily on this concept of fruit. I want to show you how a verse can be misinterpreted. Because this

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is one of the most misinterpreted passages in Scripture by people today. If you ignore the rules of interpretation you’re going to get it wrong. The Bible, each verse in the Bible, has one and only one meaning. It may have multiple applications but it only has one interpretation. The Bible doesn’t mean ten different things when it says something. One of the challenging verses in this passage is verse 6. Verse 6 when you first read it, sounds a little bit scary. 6: “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” What does this mean? Does it mean that if you don’t remain connected to Christ, if you don’t bear fruit - if you don’t bring people to Christ - God is going to throw you away. You’re going to lose your salvation and you’re going to burn in the fire of hell.” Is that what this verse means? Absolutely not! That is a gross misinterpretation and it totally ignores the context and the rules of interpretation of Scripture. So let’s look at some of the key ways that you interpret or understand the meaning of a text: 1. Consider the historical context. Who is this spoken to or written to and why? Until you know the Who, What, When, Where and Why you don’t know what this verse means. Long before you ever ask “what does this verse mean to me?” you need to ask the question: “what did it mean to the people God was speaking to then?”

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That’s the original meaning of the text. Not some application for today, but what did it mean to the people he was talking to then? This particular passage is right in the middle of a 4-chapter conversation that all takes place on the same evening to the same group of people. It took place the night Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and taken to be whipped and scourged before he was crucified. This is the last conversation of Jesus before he goes to the cross. Jesus has spent three and a half years with his twelve disciples, training them to take on the ministry after he dies, is resurrected and eventually goes back to heaven. He wants to spend time with them. He takes them to a very private place for a private conversation. What he’s saying here he’s not saying to the whole crowd, he’s not preaching to a big group, he’s not saying this in a church. He’s saying it to his most trusted followers. If I want to understand chapter 15, I need to check out the context, the surrounding chapters. These are the farewell instructions of Jesus. When somebody is saying their last words before they die, you listen. Jesus takes them to a private room. It’s called the Upper Room. There they observe the Passover which becomes the famous Last Supper, or becomes Communion which we practise today. Chapter 13 we have the famous scene where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. This is the first lesson he’s giving to the people closest in his life before he dies. Jesus knows they’re going to be devastated by his death. They’re going to be in grief. They’re going to be in shock. They’re going to be confused. He demonstrates to them the importance of loving and serving one another.

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Chapter 14 Jesus makes a number of promises. This is the same conversation. They’re still in the upper room. He knows they’re going to go through a lot of trouble and persecution, so he gives them some promises to encourage them. “I’m going to heaven to prepare a place for you; you can talk to me anytime in prayer; I’m going to put my Holy Spirit in you; and I’m going to give you the gift of peace so that no matter what goes on you’re going to be at peace on the inside. At the end of chapter 14, the last verse, he says: 31: “Come now; let’s leave this place.” So Jesus and the eleven disciples leave the upper room. They’re walking out of the upper room and they go down into the valley – Jerusalem is up on a hill – and up to the other side of the mountain where there is the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is going to pray and then he’s going to be arrested. As they’re walking, they’re walking through the vineyards of Jerusalem. And Jesus sees these vineyards and he decides to give them an object lesson. That’s where he starts chapter 15. “I’m the vine and my Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch that stays connected to me, it’s going to bear fruit. But if you get disconnected from me, you’re not going to bear fruit. So you’ve got to stay connected to me, guys. I’m going to be gone. I’m not going to be with you. But you’ve got to stay connected to me.” He goes on and he talks about bearing fruit by staying connected. Then at the end of that object lesson he says this in verse 11: 11: “I’ve told you this [all these things about serving, about loving, about heaven, about how you can always pray, about the Holy Spirit, about the gift of peace, and about bearing fruit – this is all one

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conversation. I’ve told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” That’s called the context. Who’s he talking to? Why is he saying it? To give them encouragement. Knowing this context, what do you think the odds are that Jesus means, when he is trying to give encouraging words to his disciples who he knows are going to be discouraged, “You guys, if you don’t bear fruit you’re going to be cut off from me, you’re going to lose your salvation and you’re going to burn in hell! Now, I’ve said this that your joy may be complete.” Nonsense! It makes no sense at all. The context totally disproves the idea that Jesus is talking about hell. So the first thing we do when we are trying to understand the meaning of text is we look at the context. Context is very important! 2. Define the key words. If you’re going to apply the right meaning to a Bible verse, you’ve got to make sure that you understand what the word means, not what you think it means. Just because it means something somewhere else doesn’t mean it means that in this particular verse. Words have multiple meanings. We said this about the word “pin” last week. It could mean a stiff piece of wire with a sharp point. It could mean a thin fastener to put together bones that are fractured. It could

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mean a part of a lock. It could mean a baking roller pin. It could mean a bowling pin. So when you look at a verse in the Bible and you see a word, you can’t automatically assume. Like fire – that must mean hell. Not necessarily. In this particular passage, John 15, the word “fruit” is used 9 times in 17 verses. What is fruit? If God says I am to bear fruit I need to know what fruit means. What is Jesus talking about when he says we must bear fruit in this context? That brings up a third principle of interpretation. 3. Interpret unclear verses with clear ones. In this passage as I read John 15 we find three clear characteristics of fruit. What it means to grow spiritual fruit. We find them in verse 4 and verse 8 and verse 11. 4: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” Remain means to stay, to continue, to abide, to connect, to last. It just means to be connected. A branch that’s disconnected from a tree is not going to bear any fruit. It’s got to stay connected or it won’t bear any fruit. That’s all he’s saying. Be connected to me and I’ll be connected to you. “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” So the first thing I’d write down if I’m doing a Bible study, and I’m writing down an observation, here’s what I’d write down:

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

Bearing fruit is produced by remaining in Christ.

That’s not an exaggeration. That’s not reading into the text. That’s pretty clear. You stay in me, you’re going to bear fruit. If you don’t stay in me, you’re not going to bear fruit. So the first thing we learn is that bearing fruit is produced by remaining in Christ. 

Bearing fruit brings glory to God.

8: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” How do I know that? Because that’s what that verse says. It’s very clear. I’m not making this up. I’m not misinterpreting it. It says that when I bear fruit it brings glory to God. So I would write that down. 

Bearing fruit will give me complete joy.

11: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Jesus tells us his motive for talking about bearing fruit. It’s joy. So I write this down: Bearing fruit, whatever it is, it’s produced by remaining in Christ, it brings glory to God and it’s going to give me great, complete joy. Now I’m interested. I want to know what fruit is because I want to live a joyful life of complete, complete, joy. So we learn three things about it. But we’re still stuck with the question, what’s fruit? If I’m supposed to bear it I better figure out what it is. How do I do that? You go to the fourth principle. The fourth principle of interpretation is this: 4. Look for the most obvious meaning

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This is the exact opposite of what a lot of people want to do. They want to go find some deep meaning. Some hidden meaning in the Bible. Some secret meaning in the Bible. If you go looking for some secret, hidden, mysterious, esoteric meaning you’re going to miss it, because the Bible isn’t full of secrets. What is the purpose of the Bible? To reveal God, not to conceal him. Why would God give us the Bible to tell us what he’s like and then hide it from us? That would be stupid. There are no secrets in the Bible. There’s no secret code. There’s no secret formula. There’s no hidden message. God doesn’t play games with us. He gave the Bible to reveal himself. So any time you find somebody with some secret meaning, they’re making it up. In fact if you ever read a verse of the Bible and you come up with an interpretation that nobody else has ever seen, one thing is clear: you’re wrong. Because God, for two thousand years, has been speaking to his body, the church. If it is new it is not true. Because if it’s truth, it’s been around forever and ever. And thousands of people have seen it before me and thousands of people will see it after me. Look for the obvious meaning. If you don’t do this you get into all kinds of trouble. People in prophecy will often do this. Here’s another thing: Don’t try to make every detail mean something. When there’s a story in the Bible, every detail doesn’t have a spiritual meaning. It’s just part of the story. Don’t try to make every detail mean something. A lot of Jesus’ stories are called parables; and a parable is a story with one main point to it. Not five, not ten, not twenty. It’s got one point to it.

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Let’s say someone wrote a letter and said in that letter: “I bought a red fire engine at Wal Mart for my son Joshua.” That letter was found 1000 years later by speakers of another language. These people put their best scholars on the letter to interpret its meaning, as some so-called Bible scholars do today. They tear the letter apart and get all kinds of meaning out of it that’s just not there. They read: “red fire engine”. Obvious, fire means hell. So he’s talking about hell. And red means the deepest part of hell. Engine is how you get to some place. So he’s talking about going to hell in the red fire engine. Joshua in Greek is Jesus. As a little boy Jesus wasn’t called Jesus. He was called Joshua. Obviously Joshua here is clearly a reference to Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. What does Wal Mart mean? Wal means a barrier to hold back something. Clearly he’s holding back sin. And Mart comes from an abbreviated form of the Latin word “martyr” which means he’s going to give his life. So what this verse means is the son of God the Saviour of the world is going to hold back sin by being a martyr so you don’t burn in red hell. What a deep interpretation of the letter. No! It just meant “I bought my kid a toy from the local store.” So don’t try to find every little detail. That’s what people do when they start saying ‘the branch means this and the fire means this…’

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First of all the word “fire” here is not the word in Greek for hell. It’s the word pur, which just means fire. Jesus is not talking about hell here. What is obvious about verse 6? Let’s read it again: 6: “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” Here’s the point. Remember Jesus is walking through the vineyard. A fruitless fruit tree has lost its purpose. Does that make sense? The purpose of a fruit tree is to bear fruit. If it doesn’t bear fruit, it is not fulfilling its purpose. So he says what good is a fruitless fruit tree? No good. Unless you use it for firewood. Jesus is simply saying that a fruitless fruit tree can’t fulfil its purpose. He’s not talking about going to hell. He certainly wouldn’t be talking about going to hell saying I said these things to fill you with joy. It just doesn’t fit. It’s out of context. Let the text speak for itself. When we let the text speak for itself it’s very clear what the meaning of “fruit” is. We don’t have to use any Bible dictionary or Bible Encyclopaedia or any other tools. So let’s just go back to the text. Let’s look at three things.  Answered prayer comes by remaining in Christ 15:7 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you!” Now Jesus is talking about prayer. 

Answered prayer brings glory to God.

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14:13 “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” He says when you ask for something in my name and then I give it to you it brings glory to the Father. That’s good. So when I pray and ask for things and then God gives it to me, it brings glory to God because it shows how loving God is.  Answered prayer gives me complete joy 16:24 “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete!” Did you know that over twenty times in the New Testament we are commanded to ask? “Ask and it shall be given… Seek and you’ll find… Knock and the door will be opened.” James says “You have not because you ask not.” Jesus, in his final words to his disciples says, guys, I want you to ask. I’m not going to be here with you anymore, but you can talk to me any time. And you can ask. And I want to give and when I do it’s going to produce answered prayers. When you don’t pray you don’t cheat God. You are cheating yourself. You are missing out. It’s like having a bank account that you never cash. When you don’t pray you cheat yourself of all of the fruit God wants to produce in your life. Are you seeing a little connection here? Answered prayers come by remaining in Christ. Answered prayer brings glory to God. Answered prayer gives me complete joy. AND: Bearing fruit is produced by remaining in Christ. Bearing fruit brings glory to God. Bearing fruit gives me complete joy.

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You see any connection here? So here it is. Looking at the Word, looking at the context and letting the text speak for itself you write this down: I bear fruit by asking in prayer That’s what he’s talking about. He’s not talking about losing your salvation because you didn’t win somebody to Christ. He’s talking about fruit comes through prayer. Prayer is the root of all fruit. You know what the problem is? We treat prayer like a spare tyre. The spare tyre is there when we have a flat. When you have a flat and your life goes flat and you’re in trouble you pull out prayer. In fact we say, all we can do now is pray! Then people say, has it come to that? Like it really must be bad if that’s all we can do is pray! Prayer is the last resort. No, prayer should be your first choice. God does not want prayer to be your spare tyre. He wants it to be the steering wheel for your life. It is where you get all the fruit in your life. Much prayer, much fruit. Little prayer, little fruit. No prayer, no fruit. If you are not praying you have no fruit in your life. You’re just hanging apples on a barren tree. It all comes through prayer. That’s what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying here that the way you bear fruit is by praying. A Bible study isn’t a Bible study until you get to the “what am I going to do about it” part. That’s the personal application. Prayer:

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Jesus, thank you that you love us. Thank you that you created us to bear fruit. Thank you that you do not want our lives to be barren, you do not want our relationships to be barren, you don’t want our emotions to be barren. You want our lives to bear much fruit. And thank you that you created the whole idea of prayer so that we could talk to you. What a privilege! The fact that you, the Creator of the world, would want to listen, much less answer my prayers is astounding. Thank you that you want me to be filled with joy. That’s amazing. And thank you that you said these wonderful words. Forgive us for prayerlessness. Forgive us for not praying more. Forgive us for treating prayer like the spare tyre, that we use it when we get in trouble instead of using it as a steering wheel for our lives. Thank you for this tremendous resource that you have given us in prayer. I pray for a church full of fruit bearers. Men and women who are bearing fruit in their career, bearing fruit in their lives, in their families, in every area through answered prayer. Lord, help us to pray more that we may see more fruit in our lives. If you’ve never invited Christ into your life, say Jesus Christ come into my life right now and save me and change me. I want to be a fruitful person. I want my life to not be barren. I want it to produce results. I want my life to count. Teach me to pray, to trust you and to love you. Thank you for loving me and dying on the cross for me. In your name we pray. Amen.