Exploring Faith - What is God like? (Part 2)

by Jeff Fry

I.       Intro

A.   Review of Exploring Faith series:

1.     What Should we do? (Luke 3:1-18)

2.     Who is this man? (Mt 8:23-28 - Jesus calms the wind and waves)

3.     How do I enter the kingdom of God (John 3:1-15 Nicodemus)

4.     What can keep me from entering the kingdom of God (Luke 8:4-15 : Parable of the Sower)

5.     What kind of person is fit for the kingdom? (Luke 15:11-32 : Parable of the Prodigal Son)

6.     what is God like - part 1 (Luke 12:22-32): God values us much more than the birds who He cares for

B.   This week we explore: What is God Like? (part 2) and look at John 15:1-8: The Vine and the Branches.

1.     Remember that we said last week that people have varied and widely different pictures of God - Santa Clause, disciplinarian, cosmic benevolent grandfather, policeman, etc..

2.     So, we need to turn to the Bible to see what God himself says about who He is.

C.   I once heard of a Christian man who was undergoing quite severe suffering in his life.  He was searching for answers and so he went to a number of pastors to see if he could make any sense out of what was going on in his life  through this suffering.

1.     pastor after pastor told him that God and the suffering he was experiencing had nothing in common

2.     yet he was determined in his search because he believed that God somehow had a purpose for it.

3.     finally he came to one pastor whose convictions were somewhat different from the other pastors. 

D.   Question: who was right? What is God really like?

E.   In light of some recent books like the NY Times bestseller by Christopher Hitchens "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything", also published in the Uk, the question is timely.

II.    God is like a father who disciplines his son/daughter for their own good.

A.   State

1.     Read the passage

2.     Review the passage

a)    Who is the vine? (v. 1)

b)    who is the vine gardener? (v. 1)

c)     who do the branches represent? (v. 5)

d)    what does the gardener do to branches that bear fruit? (v.2)

e)     Why? (v. 2)

f)      what is the goal of the branches? (v. 2, 5, 8)

g)    when a Christian bears fruit, what does that do for God? (v. 8)

(1)  Westminster Catechism says, "The chief end of man is to glorify God".

3.     In John 15:1-8 verse 2 states that God prunes (lit. cleanses) every branch that bears fruit "so that it will be even more fruitful"

4.     In a real vineyard vine branches are pruned even today for the following reason:

a)    to eliminate the less productive parts of the plant so that the remaining bit can put its energy into producing good, quality, mature fruit (rather than dissipating its energy on extra foliage).

5.     The gardener expects that a branch should bear good fruit.

a)    And it is pruned in order to get the best quality fruit

6.     In the same way God expects a believer to produce fruit.

a)    The pruning that God does in a believer's life is similar - it  has a good effect in the end.

b)    the word used for "pruning" (lit. kaqai,rw), means:

(1)  make clean by taking away an undesirable part; of a vine prune, cut back, take away some of the branches (JN 15.2)  (Friberg Lexicon)

(2)  when referring to a person in a religious sense the word means to cleanse or purify the person from sin

(3)  fruitful - a fruitful person is a person whose life is changing so as to become less sinful and more holy.

7.     in Hebrews 12:4-12 the apostle Paul says,

a)    Hebrews 12:9-10 says:

(1)  "Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it.  How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!  Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness."

8.     The result of this is that it seems that God's goal is not so much to ensure our happiness as it is to ensure our holiness!

a)    that's what all the pastors in the story I told in the beginning got wrong.  They made the mistake of believing that God exists to give us a trouble-free, suffer-free, hardship-free life!

b)    God is more interested in shaping our character so that it becomes more like His character - loving, patient, joyful, peaceful, kind, gentle, faithful, and full of self-control.

c)     C S Lewis writes, "We want, in fact, not so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in Heaven - a senile benevolence who, as they say, 'likes to see young people enjoying themselves' and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, 'a good time was had by all' (C S Lewis, "The Problem of Pain", New York, MacMillan, 1962, p35).

d)    Question: do we really want the goal of our life to be the avoidance of difficulties when God says that difficulties, hardships and even suffering can be good things.

(1)  these difficulties can  make us stronger people

(2)  they can make us better people

(3)  they can make us holier people

(4)  they can make us more loving people

(5)  they can make us kinder people

(6)  they can make us more patient people

(7)  they can make us more peaceful people

B.   Illustrate

1.     Scientist Francis Collins in his book "The Language of God" writes about how his daughter's rape, while extremely difficult for him to come to terms with, was used for the good:

a)    He writes, "… never was pure evil more apparent to me than that night and never did I more passionately wish that God would have intervened somehow to stop this terrible crime.  … why is our life more a vale of tears than a garden of delight? … if God is loving and wishes the best for us, then perhaps His plan is not the same as our plan.  This is a hard concept, especially if we have been too regularly spoon-fed a version of God's benevolence that implies nothing more on His part than a desire for us to be perpetually happy…. If one is to accept God's loving-kindness, He apparently desires more of us than this.  Is that not, in fact, your own experience?  Have you learned more about yourself when things are going well, or when you were faced with challenges, frustrations, and sufferings?  …. In my case I can see, albeit dimly, that my daughter's rape was a challenge for me to try to learn the real meaning of forgiveness in a terribly wrenching circumstance.  In complete honesty I am still working on that … Indeed, my daughter would say that this experience provided her with the opportunity and motivation to counsel and comfort others who have gone through the same kind of assault". (p. 45-46).

b)    God shaping us, molding us, and refining us through difficult circumstances

C.   Apply

1.     Elizabeth Elliot Illustration

a)    Elizabeth Elliot, Christian author, writes in one of her daily devotionals: "Monday came.  The day was committed to God as always.  But I felt like the wheels of the Egyptian chariots which "drave heavily".  There were interruptions, distractions.  I could not get on as expected.  My mind was dull, confused.  At the end of the day I could not see what I had done with my time."

b)    "Tuesday was a continuation of the day before.  Where had the hours gone?  I took my normal after-lunch walk and began to talk to God about my failures, asking Him to clarify things.  When I got back home, such an unexpected source of help came to hand - a letter written to my father thirty years ago by an old missionary.  Things were not going well at that time with the paper, "THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES",of which my father was editor, and he was on the verge of what was then called a nervous breakdown.  He had asked counsel of this old veteran, E. L. Langston, in Africa:

c)     "The devil does not like that paper nor its articles, and is evidently attacking you in your inmost heart, not causing you to doubt so much as causing a spirit of discontent.  Fortunately we both know that temptation is not sin, it is yielding to temptation that causes us to sin and I feel that you must count it all joy that you are passing through these times of difficulty, for they are sure signs that the Lord is blessing you."

d)    "There is another reason, I think, for the cause of the feeling within us.  It comes from the flesh and self-introspection.  It is good for us to look at self and know how loathsome it is, but with one look at self we must take ten looks at Christ."

e)     "No one goes to church more than the devil does, and no one appears as an angel of light as he does.  We are in the thick of facing powers of darkness who are determined to rob us of Him and rob God of us, and you an I, my brother, have just got to hope in Christ, and rely on Him for His Spirit to direct our thought, our ways, and our works so that it is not us but Christ in us".

f)      Elizabeth Elliot then writes, " … for it is through the tender austerity of our very troubles that the Son of Man comes knocking.  In every event He seeks an entrance into my heart, yes, even in my most helpless, futile, fruitless moments.  The very cracks and empty crannies of my life, my perplexities and hurts and botched-up jobs, He wants to fill with Himself, His joy, His life."

2.     I bet you all have a picture of what God is like.  What is your God like?  Do you see God more as …

a)    God the partyer who just wants his people to have a good time so that at the end of the day it could be said " a good time was had by all".

b)    God the gardener who prunes His people

c)     Based on John 15:1-8 we can say that God is like a Father who disciplines his son/daughter for their good and His.

d)    Based on John 15:1-8 and other passages we can say that one aspect of God is surely like a Father who lovingly disciplines his son/daughter through hardships so that they may be more holy (and therefore give glory to Him ).

3.     Application Questions for Growth Group

a)    How does this view of God presented in John 15:1-8 change your attitude and perspective on trials, difficulties and sufferings in your life?  How will you react differently when the next trial, difficulty, or hardship comes up?

b)    How does this change your perspective on God's goal for your life? and therefore your goals for your life?

c)     Is he more like the benevolent grandfather in the sky who declares: "life is a party" and a "good time was had by all".

d)    yes, God is loving

e)     yes, God is good

f)      But what does that mean?????  could it not mean that good and loving may include a bit of suffering, hardship or troubles in order to shape our character to become more holy?

4.     If God's higher goal for us is to become more and more like Him in His holiness like John 15:8 says, then we should allow the hard, difficult times in life to have their purifying, cleansing effect they are meant to have.

a)    We should let it mould our character

b)    We should let it refine us

5.     Are you living a God-centred life or  a me-centred life?

6.     What is most important to you :

a)    your comfort? your glory? or

b)    God's glory (your holiness)?

7.     what do you need to change in your life to become more holy?  or  what needs to be pruned in your life in order for you to become more fruitful?

III.  Conclusion