John 15:9-17
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept 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. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Sermon
I’ve experienced my own successes and failures. One season I failed a lot more than normal. I was pretty messed up.
I met a pastor who said to me something like, “Especially at the beginning, what the congregation wants to know, “is will you love them and let them love you.”
It was amazing because then he began to love me. He wasn’t crazy, or weird. In my sorrow, my sadness, my anger, my frustration, all that he loved me. He would say things to me like, “I’m proud of you.” “I’m more proud of you than you are of yourself.” “I love the growth I’m seeing in you.”
When I called him with a question, he didn’t try to fix me. He wouldn’t even try to give me advice. He asked me things like, “do you want to tell me what you think you should do?”
He hugged me and prayed for me. Out loud. By name. When we were short on money, his church donated money for me.
I wrote in a card as we brought that phase of our relationship to an end, “you changed my life”.
What changed me?
One man’s love.
This is one of the effects of Easter – God really does love the world. The whole creation. Love is a real thing.
I think we all want it to be more, to be better, to be deeper than what we see in the books and movies. What’s your favorite love story?
There is no doubt that good love, great love can do amazing things.
Discover
That’s what I want to discover. We’re looking at John 15. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve been reading from this prayer for the last few weeks. This is Jesus’ prayer for what he wants the world to discover after he is gone.
And today, he promises me and you one thing: love.
Adventure/Promise
If you listen to what the apostle John writes in this section, I think you can hear him say that love isn’t just a great thing. It actually does great things for you! He says, “9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. … You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” Did you catch it?
He says, “I have loved you. You can remain in that love. You stay in that love by what …. “keeping the commands”. At the end he puts it another way, “you will bear much fruit.” Do you hear that? Love lets you do.
I want to rediscover this ancient wisdom for life. We all know, at least we should, we love people by what we do. That's right. That’s in the Bible. Love is more than just a feeling. It’s an action.
Here is the thing. Love is more. Love is actually something that pushes us along in life. It drives us.
Here are a few things the Bible says:
John put this more simply “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
Jesus to Peter, “Do you love me? … Feed my sheep.”
Love is what drives people along. If you don’t have love, what does that mean?
I know so many people don’t feel loved. I wonder how much they’re missing from their lives.
Alex Cotty – she was 11, she always felt empty and miserable — never content or connected to other children. For years, she suffered alone, filled with shame. She switched schools, but that didn't help.
"I didn't feel unloved. I just felt numb to the world.”
"I can't feel anything," Alex simply told her mother, Heather. "So she just gave me a hug, cradled me in her arms on the bed, and was like, 'Well can you feel me? Can you feel my love?'"
"A hug and kisses was the only thing that came to mind at the spur of the moment, but that was precisely what she needed to start the journey forward," Olson said. Generation at risk: America's youngest facing mental health crisis (nbcnews.com)
“We now know that love is, in actuality, the most compelling survival mechanism of the human species. Not because it induces us to mate and reproduce. We do manage to mate without love! But because love drives us to bond emotionally with a precious few others who offer us safe haven from the storms of life. Love is our bulwark, designed to provide emotional protection so we can cope with the ups and downs of existence. As Mozart noted, “Love guards the heart from the abyss.” We are relational beings. God created us for relationship with Himself and with others. We are created for connection.” (Sue Johnson, Created for Connection, 22)
That’s the kind of amazing love we need to drive life.
I love you. Hope that’s not awkward. I said to someone the other day, hey love ya man. You take care. He got all serious and said, love you too. I said woah, careful there.
I do want to love you with pastor love.
If you don’t feel it, I’m sorry. Some days I’m way too compassionate, other days I’m kind of a tough love sort of guy. No matter the inconsistency, one of the reasons I stick with pastoring is because I see the difference love makes in your life.
I want to love you. Laugh and cry, hug and shake your hands. Say, “I’m proud of you.” “I’m worried about you.” All the things that really fill us up with love.
I love to see that love drive some of your life.
I’m not trying to compete with moms. I’m glad we get to remember the moms and their love today. A mother’s love is amazing.
The other day I was fixing up the flower beds in front of our house. They’re starting to look presentable if you want to come check them out. I asked my wife, what do you want in them? She said, well, what do you think? I said, Oh no, I have no interest in this. This is totally an act of love. I wouldn’t do this if it was just me. I know you like them. If it was me I would till it all under and put some grass seed down. This is an act of love. She said something like, oh, you mean how I keep everything else going around here? I said yes, an act of love something like that.
Moms, those of you who have been moms, grandmas, your love is amazing. You love powers so much of our lives. Thank you.
There is a far greater love. Jesus tells us about this love in John 15.
Look at that love
Extrinsic – someone else’s - From Father to Son to you. Intrinsic is good. Extrinsic is good. The only problem is if the source of that love goes away.
Directing -
Profound - Leads to joy
This kind of love is so amazing that it is a friendship kind of love.
“Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)
Jesus Christ says, “Can't you see that you’re my ultimate friend because I laid down my life for you!”
What is so big about that? You say, “I’ve heard of a lot of people who have died for their friends.” Not like this. Listen. If I give up my life for you, even as your pastor, if I literally work myself to death, I haven’t really give you my life. No, I have sacrificed a few of my years, and I’ve given you a few more. I have a few less, and you have a few more.
I can’t give you my life, because my life is already forfeit. I was going to die anyway. The Bible says death is an executioner. The Bible says none of us voluntarily die. All of us have death coming to our door someday.“… the wages of sin is death …” Not one of us die voluntarily. You can give up a few years, but you can’t give up your life because your life is already on its way out.
Jesus is the only friend who didn’t have to die at all. Jesus is the only one, because he had a perfect record, and death had no claim on him. There’s not a person in this room who can possibly do that for someone else. You can lay down a few years, but you can’t lay down your life because your life is already out of there. In other words, you’re just paying your debt a little early.
Jesus is the one who said, “Because death has no claim on me, because my record is perfect, if I die for you, that just doesn’t give you a few more years. That means I pay for every sin and every debt you’ve ever had. I can vanquish death and its hold over you. I’m your substitute. And I don't do this because there is some obligation. I’m not your blood relative. I want to do this. I am your friend.
“Greater love has no one than this …” not that he lays down a few years but that he actually lays down his life.
Now listen. This is the secret. This is the secret.
Remember, friends get into each others lives. He opens up his life. He tells you about himself. This is his deepest secret, and you can’t be his friend if you don’t get this secret.
Servants just do what their master tells them. But a friend says, I get your secret. I know you.
If a friend comes up to you and they tell you their secrets. If you’re sitting at home late at night on the porch drinking a beer and they tell you what they did, do you ignore that and say, hey lets go play some cards.
No! You say, thank you for trusting me with that. I’m glad to be your friend, no matter. And the next day you tell your spouse what happened. You call up your friend and say, it was good to hang with you. Why don’t you come on over Friday? All week long then you think about your friend and their secret.
That expression of love drives your life. It powers your life.
And how can the greatest secret from the only one who ever laid down his life not do the same thing for you?
His love can power your life.