Last week I gave two different talks, but again to not spam this site, I am only putting one up. Below is the sermon I gave on Sunday. I only found out I was giving this talk on Wednesday afternoon as my boss fell sick and I filled in. Also, this is the first talk I have written in Logos, which means I haven't quite worked out the footnoting. I have tried in places to cite some of the main ideas I stole, but I am sure there are other references I haven't included. This talk is also up on our website and now also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Introduction
The history around Valentine's Day is a little sketchy, but we remember the 14th of Feb as the day Valentine died in defiance to an Emperor. The Emperor outlawed marriage for young men as he probably correctly worked out, young men were better for his cause in the army. Valentine, a priest, believed in marriage and was willing to die for illegally marrying young men.
In our culture marriage and love may have become separated a little. In the old movies, the ones before the world had colour, the peak scene was when the guy put the ring on the woman's finger. Now the peak is if the couple would move in together. Today Valentine's day is about roses, chocolates and cards, because that is what love is, right?
My youngest son is in year 1. On Tuesday he brought home about 7 homemade cards. About 4 were from one person, and the next day he got another one. Now, these cards were not romantic, some didn’t even have words, they just a hand-drawn pictures in them. Love and romance weren’t on the cards, it was just what we might say a nice gesture or a kind thing to do.
But this, non-romantic action on Valentine's Day that took place in the year 1 classroom is closer to what type of love Jesus is talking about for us today.
In our passage, there are lots of intersecting themes, not just within our text but from this whole long discourse that Jesus is giving.
For today, in our text the main question this is answering is, do you love Jesus?
How do you know if you love Jesus? Do you have to be moved internally really really strongly, do you have to be passionate about some cause to show that you really love Jesus? There are different ways to love and in our passage, Jesus tells us how we are to know if we love Him.
We will also see that we are not alone in this take, in trying to conjure up this love for Jesus, but we have some promises to help us as well as an example for us to imitate.
<prayer>
Instruction
We see right up front in verse 15 a pretty straightforward instructionIf you love me, keep my commands. John 14:15 (NIV)Obeying Jesus is showing love for Him. And just in case we didn’t get that obedience is love, our passages says this a few more times.
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. John 14:21 (NIV)
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. John 14:23 (NIV)and the next verse is the negative
Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. John 14:24 (NIV)So what is love according to Jesus? Obedience. It is knowing Jesus' commands and then doing them. It is listening to Jesus’ teachings and obeying Him. The Christian life isn’t an IQ test, it is lived. Jesus doesn’t just want His followers knowing His teachings, but doing them.
So what are the commands we are to follow? What are the teachings Jesus has for us to do? Jesus has much to say, it can be the Great Commission, it can be turning the other cheek. Really to know what Jesus commands of us, we need to read His word to find out.
And what is important is that we don’t pick and choose. Selective obedience is just convenience. The world will see our love for Jesus if we gladly choose to follow Him when it is hard. Love when it is soft and safe doesn’t prove much[1].
But lets just think back to the last couple of weeks and the last command Jesus gives in this discourse. Back in John 13
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34–35 (NIV)The scene in Chapter 13 hasn’t changed. This is still one conversation Jesus is having with his followers when he gave them the command to love one another. He gives it three times in three sentences, so don’t miss it. Jesus had just washed their feet, He had shown them humble service, and then He tells the disciples to do the same for each other.
This command to love one another seems to have two flow-on effects. One is it's evangelical. - it will show the world the uniform of love that Jesus' followers are to have.
In a world that is about choice and gain and self-promotion. In one that believes in cancel culture and being offended, with no room for reconciliation and forgiveness - Jesus’ followers are to be humble and loving towards each other. We offer an alternative lifestyle, one of service and sacrifice, one of love. This lifestyle of love is one that is attractive to our anxious and fragmented world.
And the other effect there is about following this command, from our passage is that it shows our love for Jesus. As we love one another we are obeying Jesus and so we are loving Jesus. Do you think like that about those around us in this room, those in our Life Group? If the world was to look in on our community would it be able to tell that we love one another?
For the snippets I see in Life Groups, just in the last two weeks, I can give heaps of examples of ways we are loving each other. All our groups regularly pray for each other with our ups and downs and struggles of life. Some have ongoing chats throughout the week checking in on each other and supporting each other. One Life Group has raised money for a member in need. Another has a small team of people gathered around someone to help and assist with their struggles. In another group I know two people had a falling out, and when talking to one member after explaining how messy it is, they said, I just need to call them up and say sorry for my part and then forgive them. It is a great encouragement to me and my faith to see how people in this church do love each other.
On our Facebook page, just this week a car was given away, and there are still meal spots left over for a young couple who just had their second child.
And in the loving of each other, we are obeying Jesus and by extension showing that we love him.
There is also this cycle of love going on in this passage with the Father, the Son and us. There is love between the Father and the Son. And in verse 21 there seems to be a possible condition. It seems to go, If we love the Son then the Father will love us and so will the Son. This sense does sound like that, but it is just starting at a different point in a cycle. It depends on where you come into this loop of love.
Jesus does give the promised Holy Spirit to His followers, but not because they were faithful to Him. Their receiving of the promises wasn’t based on their performance.
John writes elsewhere
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 (NIV)In our OT reading from Deut, there are commands and commands and commands and Israel are to obey them. But you may not have picked up the order of events. The people of Israel were already God’s before the commands came. They were rescued out of slavery and became God’s people before these commands on how to live. We read
Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today. Deuteronomy 27:9–10 (NIV)It says you have become the people of the Lord, now obey God. The order isn’t, if you obey these commands you will be the people of God. It is: you already are, now live how God intends for you. In John 15 [:16] Jesus says it is He who actually has chosen His disciples to live in a way that produced fruit that would last. That is next week.
Relationship comes before the rules[2].
And mind you, the rules are good. He sets some commands and has some teachings as He knows best. Society works if we love one another. Family, marriages, life groups, church interactions, if governed by love, would function well. These are good commands
Love for Jesus is our motivation to obey His commands. John Calvin said:
No man [one] will actually obey God but he [the one] who loves him.We will not obey His teachings if we feel a sense of moral obligation or trying to earn His favor. And so how do you see God and His rules? Is God’s commands good? Do you think God Himself is good? When we love Jesus we believe that that He is in control and trust Him in our circumstances.
Do you do your daily SOAP reading to tick it off a list, or because you know your are having a meeting with Andrew Lubbock that day and he is going to ask. Just joking, I too will ask if you have SOAPed today if we have a meeting. For warning.
Or do you read the Bible, wanting to hear from Jesus, wanting to know more how to live, to seek His instruction, as you trust that He knows best?
If you want to conquer sin and obey Jesus you don’t just simply try harder to obey. You stoke the flame of love for Him. To obey him better you love Him more.
Now it can be hard, don’t get me wrong, to love one another. But we have a good God, one who doesn’t just tell us what to do, who doesn’t just say “there I told you” and expects us to follow through. But our God also will help us to put our faith in action. Do not be troubled. Jesus gives us peace and a great promise.
Indwelling
The Holy Spirit is to help us. He helps be with us and helps us to remember Jesus’ teachings so that we can obey, so that we can love.Jesus tells the disciples about the Holy Spirit in
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:16–20 (NIV)and in John 14:26
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 (NIV)
Jesus is introducing another advocate. That is, there already was an advocate in play, and the disciples are to get another one. Jesus is the first advocate. An advocate was someone who would be your helper, your defender, someone who was on your team arguing your case. Later in this same discourse, we see Jesus doing this. He prays to the Father for His disciples and even for us today. Jesus would present us before the Father, and in Hebrews 7:25 it tells us that Jesus intercedes for those He saves.
And here we have another advocate to help and be with us. This advocate will not go away, this advocate will be in us.
The Greek word used for “home” in verse 23, is only used twice in the New Testament. The other time was earlier in this same chapter for the word “room”. In verse 2 Jesus says His Father's house has many rooms and He is going to prepare that place for us. So in this chapter, we have Jesus going to set up our forever home, and also God is going to be at home in us, now.
While Jesus is away, we will not be homeless, or orphans. God will still be with us. And what is He going to do?
He is going to help. He is going to teach. He is going to remind us of Jesus words.
Here is how we can love Jesus by obeying Him. The Holy Spirit is going to remind and teach us what Jesus has said.
[Ian has already used this analogy for the Holy Spirit before, but it is a good one.] Sometimes when you are driving around Canberra at night you see Parliament House or the Mint or the Museum, and you don’t realise it, but the only reason you can see those buildings is because there is a spot light pointed at the building so you can see it at night. And when you see those buildings, you don’t ever think about the spotlight, you just think about the building. The Holy Spirit is like that spotlight, it points to Jesus. His goal is to help illuminate your view of Jesus and not of Himself.
And the Holy Spirit is what separates those who follow Jesus from the world. Throughout this passage, we see that the word doesn’t see Jesus
And here we have another advocate to help and be with us. This advocate will not go away, this advocate will be in us.
The Greek word used for “home” in verse 23, is only used twice in the New Testament. The other time was earlier in this same chapter for the word “room”. In verse 2 Jesus says His Father's house has many rooms and He is going to prepare that place for us. So in this chapter, we have Jesus going to set up our forever home, and also God is going to be at home in us, now.
While Jesus is away, we will not be homeless, or orphans. God will still be with us. And what is He going to do?
He is going to help. He is going to teach. He is going to remind us of Jesus words.
Here is how we can love Jesus by obeying Him. The Holy Spirit is going to remind and teach us what Jesus has said.
[Ian has already used this analogy for the Holy Spirit before, but it is a good one.] Sometimes when you are driving around Canberra at night you see Parliament House or the Mint or the Museum, and you don’t realise it, but the only reason you can see those buildings is because there is a spot light pointed at the building so you can see it at night. And when you see those buildings, you don’t ever think about the spotlight, you just think about the building. The Holy Spirit is like that spotlight, it points to Jesus. His goal is to help illuminate your view of Jesus and not of Himself.
And the Holy Spirit is what separates those who follow Jesus from the world. Throughout this passage, we see that the word doesn’t see Jesus
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. John 14:17 (NIV)
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. John 14:19 (NIV)The Holy Spirit helps us to see God, and the world who does not have the spirit will not see God. And in the last half of John 15, we would read that the world isn’t simply blind, and neutral. But it also hates Jesus and His followers. The opposite of loving Him and His followers, for they do not have the Spirit.
Imitation
And lastly, not only do we have the Holy Spirit who is in us to help us to love Jesus, we also have the example of Jesus so we can see that it is possible.Jesus Christ had a twofold personality: he was the Son of God revealing what God is like and Son of Man revealing what man is to be like. - Oswald ChambersJesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, which is why Jesus can say the Advocate lives with them in verse 17. When Jesus was baptized way back in chapter 1, John the Baptist says he saw the Spirit descend and remain on Jesus.
Jesus was the new temple, the place where God dwelled on earth, and He obeyed the Father. Our last verse says
I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. John 14:30–31 (NIV)The evil powers of the world are coming to take Jesus away and He plans on doing what He was sent to do. He wants the powers and the world to see that He does exactly what the Father commanded Him to do.
And we know what that is. The powers to be wanted to remove Jesus. He was upsetting their system. Jesus was healing and restoring peace and giving people freedom, and the world would not have it. So they conspired together to kill Him.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. John 3:19 (NIV)but
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV)The Father gave the Son so that we could be given eternal life. The Son obeyed the Father in doing His will, and by extension, we see that the Son loved the Father because He obeyed. And in His obedience to the Father, we are blessed. We are offered life.
The by-product of the Son’s love for the Father is that we can be saved. The plan God had was to bring us back to Him. And He had to do it, for we were all lost and in darkness.
And now, as God’s chosen people, those who have experienced this bringing in of relationship, we can act like Jesus. Jesus obeyed the Father, we can obey too. Jesus loved the Father, we can love too. And as we love God, the by-product of that love will be that others are loved too.
Now you might be thinking, this is a big ask. Be like Jesus, how can I do that?
I’ll end with this quote from William Temple who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1940s
“It’s no use giving me a play like King Lear or Hamlet, and telling me to write plays like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can’t. And it’s no use giving me the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me; then I could write plays like that. And if the spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like that.”[3]
We have the spirit of Jesus in us. This Advocate is our helper. The Spirit reminds and teaches us about Jesus and his commands so that we can obey Jesus so that we can love Jesus.
So how do you know if you love Jesus? You do what He commands.
[1] Carter, M., & Wredberg, J. (2017). Exalting Jesus in John.
[2] Bobby Jamieson, A Helper Forever (10 March 2019)
[3] The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott
The bulls-eye picture is from Borchert, G. L. (2002). John 12–21 (Vol. 25B).
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