“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” (John 15:16, NIV)
INTRODUCTION
Just as a gardener carefully selects and nurtures each plant to produce its best fruits, so too has God chosen and appointed each of us as branches in His son so we can bear fruit. Today, let us explore together what it truly means to be chosen and appointed by God, and how we can bear lasting, abundant fruit that glorifies Him in every aspect of our lives.
To be chosen means, to be selected, picked, settled on or decided between, opted for, adopted, preferred, approved, elected, ear-marked. Likewise, to be appointed means to be designated, named, delegated, inducted, commissioned or authorized.
In the scripture quoted earlier and in 1 Peter 2:9-10, we discover a sense of privilege. God has decided on us as His children – He has adopted us; taken a firm decision to adopt us. He has settled on us and given His full approval to us. Isn’t this awesome?
THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING CHOSEN
You see before we were in Christ, we were in bondage to sin, self and Satan. Because of this bondage we were neither able nor free to serve God. But Christ has set us free through His finished work on the cross. It is a gift of God – Eph. 2:8-9 says that: it is by grace that you have been saved through faith – and this is not from ourselves. It is the gift of God – not by works so that none of us can boast.
By Christ’s accepting God’s offer of selecting us – we have bound ourselves to Him as His disciples. It is not we who have chosen Christ. On the contrary it is He who, in His grace, approached us by the power of His Spirit with a call and an offer made out of His love.
God’s purpose in choosing us is that our lives might be productive for Him. It’s a relational thing. God has brought us into a relationship with His Son, Christ Jesus so that we would manifest in our lives that same features of fruitfulness which the Lord showed in His life, and it is as we recognize our standing in Christ Jesus and appreciate what it means in our daily living that we are able to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, love and power.
Our lack of fruitfulness is mainly due to the fact that we have compartmentalized our lives: –We label certain things as spiritual and associate them with Christian growth and maturity. But at the same time, we leave vast areas of our lives – areas we label secular – undiagnosed, undisciplined, and totally untouched by the power of the Holy Spirit. The result is that we waste a great deal of time, we expend a great deal of energy over things that are of little importance and we fail to discipline in every area of our lives.
CHOSEN FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES
God choosing us to be fruitful is not only a great source of blessing to others: it also brings a great measure of reward to ourselves. From our reading in John 15 especially vs. 11-17, we can list a number of things from which we are chosen and to which we are called.
- JOY:We are chosen for joy and remember that JOY is a fruit of the Spirit. As sinners redeemed by grace, God has given us His joy to be our strength. It does not matter how hard the Christian way is, it still that way of joy because we are hidden in Christ and have our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- LOVE:We are chosen for love. God chose us because of His love and He thus sends us into the world to love one another. We are not in competition with one another, nor indeed in dispute, hated or quarrelling with one another. As Christians love is to be the key distinctive between us and non-Christians. We are to live in such a way that shows love to one another and even to our enemies. Jesus says in John 13:34-35 that by love for one another the whole world will know that we are His disciples.
- AMBASSADORS: We are chosen and appointed as Christ’s ambassadors – we are to represent Him and the kingdom of God throughout the world – our homes, schools, our work places, our communities and the entire world. Wherever we find ourselves we must first remember our calling. We are representatives of Christ. We are to reveal Christ by our character and then also speak about Him. All our actions must reveal who Christ us.
- ADVERTISEMENTS: Jesus has chosen us as His advertisements. We are to reveal who Christ is. No tree bears a different fruit, when you pass by a tree; the real conviction you have of that tree – especially when it’s supposed to be in the season of fruiting – is the fruit that shows on the free. The only way we can advertise Christ is to be like Him – and God has made this possible by gifting us with the Holy Spirit to indwell us and to actually teach us, guide us and help us to grow daily to be like Jesus – Phil. 2:13 says that God is at work in us giving us the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him.
To be continued!
Stay Blessed!
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