Jesus the Real Vine

John 15 "I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit. ³You have been made clean already by the teaching I have given you. ⁴Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.
⁵"I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me. ⁶Those who do not remain in me are thrown out like a branch and dry up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. ⁸My Father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples. ⁹I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
¹¹"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. ¹³The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. ¹⁴And you are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. ¹⁷This, then, is what I command you: love one another.

The World's Hatred

¹⁸"If the world hates you, just remember that it has hated me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own. But I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it; that is why the world hates you. ²⁰Remember what I told you: 'Slaves are not greater than their master.' If people persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. ²¹But they will do all this to you because you are mine; for they do not know the one who sent me. ²²They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not come and spoken to them; as it is, they no longer have any excuse for their sin. ²³Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not done among them the things that no one else ever did; as it is, they have seen what I did, and they hate both me and my Father. ²⁵This, however, was bound to happen so that what is written in their Law may come true: 'They hated me for no reason at all.'
²⁶"The Helper will come--the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father, and he will speak about me. ²⁷And you, too, will speak about me, because you have been with me from the very beginning.
John 16 "I have told you this, so that you will not give up your faith. ²You will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time will come when those who kill you will think that by doing this they are serving God. ³People will do these things to you because they have not known either the Father or me. ⁴But I have told you this, so that when the time comes for them to do these things, you will remember what I told you.

The Revolt against Athaliah
(2 Kings 11.4 -16)

2 Chronicles 23 After waiting six years Jehoiada the priest decided that it was time to take action. He made a pact with five army officers: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri. ²They traveled to all the cities of Judah and brought back with them to Jerusalem the Levites and all the heads of the clans.
³They all gathered in the Temple, and there they made a covenant with Joash, the king's son. Jehoiada said to them, "Here is the son of the late king. He is now to be king, as the LORD promised that King David's descendants would be. ⁴This is what we will do. When the priests and Levites come on duty on the Sabbath, one third of them will guard the Temple gates, ⁵another third will guard the royal palace, and the rest will be stationed at the Foundation Gate. All the people will assemble in the Temple courtyard. ⁶No one is to enter the Temple buildings except the priests and the Levites who are on duty. They may enter, because they are consecrated, but the rest of the people must obey the LORD's instructions and stay outside. ⁷The Levites are to stand guard around the king, with their swords drawn, and are to stay with the king wherever he goes. Anyone who tries to enter the Temple is to be killed."
⁸The Levites and the people of Judah carried out Jehoiada's instructions. The men were not dismissed when they went off duty on the Sabbath, so the commanders had available both those coming on duty and those going off. ⁹Jehoiada gave the officers the spears and shields that had belonged to King David and had been kept in the Temple. ¹⁰He stationed the men with drawn swords all around the front of the Temple, to protect the king. ¹¹Then Jehoiada led Joash out, placed the crown on his head, and gave him a copy of the laws governing kingship. And so he was made king. Jehoiada the priest and his sons anointed Joash, and everyone shouted, "Long live the king!"
¹²Athaliah heard the people cheering for the king, so she hurried to the Temple, where the crowd had gathered. ¹³There she saw the new king at the Temple entrance, standing by the column reserved for kings and surrounded by the army officers and the trumpeters. All the people were shouting joyfully and blowing trumpets, and the Temple musicians with their instruments were leading the celebration. She tore her clothes in distress and shouted, "Treason! Treason!"
¹⁴Jehoiada did not want Athaliah killed in the Temple area, so he called out the army officers and said, "Take her out between the rows of guards, and kill anyone who tries to rescue her."
¹⁵They seized her, took her to the palace, and there at the Horse Gate they killed her.

Jehoiada's Reforms
(2 Kings 11.17-20)

¹⁶The priest Jehoiada had King Joash and the people join him in making a covenant that they would be the LORD's people. ¹⁷Then they all went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols there and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. ¹⁸Jehoiada put the priests and Levites in charge of the work of the Temple. They were to carry out the duties assigned to them by King David and to burn the sacrifices offered to the LORD in accordance with the Law of Moses. They were also in charge of the music and the celebrations. ¹⁹Jehoiada also put guards on duty at the Temple gates to keep out anyone who was ritually unclean.
²⁰The army officers, the leading citizens, the officials, and all the rest of the people joined Jehoiada in a procession that brought the king from the Temple to the palace. They entered by the main gate, and the king took his place on the throne. ²¹All the people were filled with happiness, and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been killed.

A Prayer for the Nation's Restoration

Psalm 80 Listen to us, O Shepherd of Israel;
hear us, leader of your flock.
Seated on your throne above the winged creatures,
²reveal yourself to the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Show us your strength;
come and save us!

³Bring us back, O God!
Show us your mercy, and we will be saved!

⁴How much longer, LORD God Almighty,
will you be angry with your people's prayers?
⁵You have given us sorrow to eat,
a large cup of tears to drink.
⁶You let the surrounding nations fight over our land;
our enemies insult us.

⁷Bring us back, Almighty God!
Show us your mercy, and we will be saved!

⁸You brought a grapevine out of Egypt;
you drove out other nations and planted it in their land.
⁹You cleared a place for it to grow;
its roots went deep, and it spread out over the whole land.
¹⁰It covered the hills with its shade;
its branches overshadowed the giant cedars.
¹¹It extended its branches to the Mediterranean Sea
and as far as the Euphrates River.
¹²Why did you break down the fences around it?
Now anyone passing by can steal its grapes;
¹³wild hogs trample it down,
and wild animals feed on it.

¹⁴Turn to us, Almighty God!
Look down from heaven at us;
come and save your people!
¹⁵Come and save this grapevine that you planted,
this young vine you made grow so strong!

¹⁶Our enemies have set it on fire and cut it down;
look at them in anger and destroy them!
¹⁷Preserve and protect the people you have chosen,
the nation you made so strong.
¹⁸We will never turn away from you again;
keep us alive, and we will praise you.

¹⁹Bring us back, LORD God Almighty.
Show us your mercy, and we will be saved.