loving one another thank you for proclaiming the goodness ... · loving one another john 15:12-17 -...

Loving One AnotherJohn 15:12-17 - NCBC, November 13, 2016

Main Point: God’s love for you will transform how you love others.

We love because God laid down His life for us (15:13; 1 John 3:16; 4:10-11)

We love because God’s commands are not burdensome (15:14; 1 John 5:2-3)

We love because God made us His friends (15:15; 1 John 4:7-8)

We love because God loved us first (15:16; 1 John 4:19)

Application: Abide in God’s love in order to better love others.

Opening Announcements:

Veterans Day / Military Bible Stick donation

<<Glorious Christ>>

Thank you for proclaiming the goodness of Christ in your worship this morning.

No greater sacrifice, than when Jesus Christ laid down His life for sinners like me and you. There’s nothing moreJesus could have done for our rescue – than dying so that we can live. There’s no greater love you could ever know – than the love of God towards you. So please open your copy of God’s love letter this morning to John chapter 15, verse 12.

If you don’t have a Bible with you this morning, please catch the attention of the ushers now. You are welcome to take this Bible home as our gift to you, or just simply return it after our service by placing it on the table in the back of the room.

It’s been quite a week hasn’t it? The elections are history, but how we need to continue to pray and love one another. Our nation is groaning for its final

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deliverance when Jesus Christ comes to right all wrongs, and establish His rule of peace and righteousness upon the earth. So please continue to pray for our leaders during this tumultuous season of leadership transition, and seek ways to show the world your love.

Our Lord didn’t teach us that the world would know that we are Jesus’ disciples by the way we vote… it says, the world will know that we are His disciples by the way we love one another.

So it’s very fitting today that we return to Jesus’ teaching in John 15:12-17 today.

You will find John chapter 15:12 on page 902 in the giveaway Bibles this morning.

In honor of God’s Word, I’d invite you to stand as I read starting in John 15:12, from the English Standard translation:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose youand appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

These are the Words of our Lord. You may be seated.

Let’s Pray.

Yesterday I had the wonderful privilege of being one of the referees for the first annual New Castle Student Ministries’ Turkey Bowl.

Yes, the parent minions came out on top …but not beforeI began to realize how difficult of a job it is to be a ref.


If you an umpire or referee – it’s hard to feel the love. People either love you or hate you depending on how your calls benefit their own team. If one of us refs would throw a flag – we’d hear, “Good job ref” from the other team. The team who benefited in the moment felt loved…but the team who was penalized didn’t feel loved.

And that’s kind of how relationships work in the world, isn’t it? If you scratch my back…I’ll love you back. But if your relationship with me costs me anything…or sets me back in any way…then I’ll quickly move on to greener pastures.

In our Turkey bowl scrimmage – we laugh and just have fun with it all. Everyone had a great time – and students – there’s always next year!

But think seriously with me for a moment about your own relationships with other people.

How well do you really love others? Do your relationshipswith other people of all colors, backgrounds, and political associations reflect a self-serving motivation?

Is it really love if you treat someone differently because what they do for you, or who they are?

Jesus wants to teach us how to better love others this morning. The main point of His teaching from John 15:12-17 is that,

God’s love for you will transform how you love others.

Jesus’ disciples will love one another differently because of how God has loved them. Vertical love transforms andempowers horizontal love.

God’s love for you must change how you love others. Only the Gospel is strong enough to change your will towards a costly and sacrificial love – a love that is deeper than puppy dog tails, the month of June, and a full moon.

So as we walk through this portion of Christ’s teaching this morning – think about some of your most challengingrelationships. Do you have enemies? Maybe a strained parent-child relationship? Maybe a conflict riddled relationship with a business associate? Or maybe you’d honestly admit that your most difficult relationship right now is with your spouse?

Consider honestly this morning your part in these relationships. Take 100% responsibility for your part of the relationship – and ask God to change your approach


to that relationship this morning – as you learn to love others more like how God has first loved you.

Just like last week, today’s text uses a sandwich model.

Notice verses 12 and 17 repeat Jesus’ command – to love one another. This is the same new commandment from chapter 13, verse 34. But the power and reasoning to obey this command is in verses 13-16 – where Jesus reveals four aspects of God’s love for us that transform how we love others. Verses 13-16 help explain that smallphrase at the end of verse 12, “as I have loved you.”

First, in verse 13, Jesus teaches us that

We love because God laid down His life for us (15:13; 1 John 3:16; 4:10-11)

Verse 13, Jesus says,

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You can’t go farther in your love for someone than giving your own life for their sake. We know this… that’s why we observe Memorial Day every year to pay tribute to those who died serving in our armed forces.

So do you remember how God has loved you? His side was torn open for the forgiveness of your sins. He voluntarily relinquished His divine rights and privileges asGod…to take the form of a servant, to die the death of a criminal in the place of me and you. While we were still sinners – fully undeserving of His love – Christ died for us, Romans 5:8 says.

So then this must mean that love is ultimately more aboutthe will, than about our emotions, right? If you only


define love on a spectrum of emotion, it will never be great enough to voluntarily die for another.

Biblical love – God’s kind of love – is as much a matter ofthe will as it is your emotion.

Biblical love is choosing to sacrificially lay down my own life for the eternal good of the other.

So consider this in light of the person who’s difficult for you to love this morning. Because the greatest extent of God’s love has been extended towards you – that God Himself voluntarily sacrificed Himself and laid down His own life for your eternal good… you are now commandedto go and do the same.

God isn’t commanding you to die to pay for someone’s sin – only a sinless Savior could do that. But you must understand that you’ve been loved with a sacrificial love. God loved you with a perfect and complete love – to the very end. Nothing was spared or held back in God’s lovetowards you… so why would you hang on to your own

self-protection and self-exaltation in your relationships with others?

Listen to the commentary on Jesus’ teaching here from 1 John.

Chapter 3:16,

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

And also chapter 4, verses 10-11,

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Propitiation is just a big Bible word that means “the satisfaction of God’s anger.” Jesus’ death satisfied the righteous anger of God that was against us in our sin. Jesus is called the Lamb of God – because His death


was a substitutionary sacrifice that was made in our place – all for our eternal good.

So Christian – quietly consider how much God has forgiven you…then you will find it right and good to forgive one another. Ponder the sacrifice that Jesus paidfor you while you were still committed to your sin…and you will discover the power to sacrifice your own desires and interests for the eternal good of one another.

Jesus wants us to know that we are able to live out the new commandment to love one another, when we are living in conscious awe of how has laid down His life for us.

But secondly, loved people love,

because God’s commands are not burdensome (15:14; 1John 5:2-3)

Verse 14. Jesus says,

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Now this doesn’t seem quite right does it? If I told you that you are my friend, as long as you do whatever I tell you to do… you would look at me quizzically – tell me to eat a snickers, and then say – that sounds a lot more likeslavery than friendship to me.

And notice the next verse goes on to make the point that God has entered into a true relationship of friendship withHis children – deeper than one of mere duty and obligated obedience.

So verse 14 makes the most sense when we translate the word “if” as “since.” You are my friends since you obey my words.

It’s like saying, you’re cancer is in remission if your white blood cell count gets to a certain number. The growing number of white blood cells don’t cause the cancer to go into remission – they are the evidence or proof that the cancer is in remission.

This is what verse 14 is saying. You know you are in relationship with me – you are my friends – since you obey my commands. Your life of obedience doesn’t qualify you to be my friend – but it gives every evidence and proof that you are in fact in a friendly relationship with God Himself.

Again, 1 John helped me understand this verse this weekin my study.


Verses 2-3 of chapter 5,

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.

So here again – obedience to God’s commands is living proof that we love God and His children. You can’t say you are in relationship with God if you are not listening to His commands. Verse 3,

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

Some translations say, His commandments are not grievous, or heavy. For the believer who is loved by God,God’s yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

So what is the point here?

You are my friends, since you do what I command you.

God has laid down His life for us, and given us new life. A new heart. And according to the new covenant promises of Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:27 when God saves us by faith in His substitutionary death, He puts His Spirit within our hearts, and causes us to obey His statutes and commands.

So we love one another because God’s Spirit is within us – uniting our will with our Masters – so that our obedience is not burdensome – but desirable and joyful.

The only reason God’s children have trouble loving one another is when our love for our own will becomes stronger than our love for God. Don’t miss the truth of this for you this morning. The only reason you have trouble loving others is because you’ve allowed your self-love to become more significant than God’s amazing lovefor you. Your selfishness has undermined your fellowshipwith God .

So stop and marvel at this Good News this morning – God has made us His friends!


We love because God made us His friends (15:15; 1 John 4:7-8)

When you are loved like this… it changes everything. Loved people love. We are now God’s beloved…friends!

There is now higher position that you could ever attain than knowing God. The Apostle Paul was willing to give up all of his earthly credentials and accomplishments for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ as His Lord.1 There is no greater joy or privilege than to be loved with the greatest love.

Verse 15 is profound in its joy –

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

God has made it possible for us to truly know Him. God doesn’t just desire blind, mechanical obedience. He desires worship! We can have an intimate and personal relationship of unity and fellowship together with God Himself. Only Abraham was called the friend of God in the Old Testament …and that is because in Genesis 18 God confided in Abraham about what He was going to doin destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.

And so here, God wants His disciples to know that Jesus Christ – the Word made flesh – has revealed everything necessary for life and godliness to His disciples.

1 Philippians 3:7-11

Everything that you need to believe in God and have a thriving personal relationship with Him has been revealedto you through the revelation of Jesus Christ!

This is why Christians have daily devotions. This is why true disciples read their Bibles and pray all the time. Because friends communicate! Friends talk. Friends listen. Friends share a common unity, companionship, and purpose. Friends enjoy the same things together – and that’s why true disciples are marked by their love for one another.

1 John 4 again helps us understand what it means to be made a friend of God:

Beloved – that’s a good word, isn’t it? Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

It’s self-explanatory really. Loved people love. You have been born again to love. So if you’ve lost sight of your identity in God’s love yourself, your love towards other


people will suffer. But when your heart has been set free from pride and self-reliance by the purifying love of God Himself towards you… the response of your heart will be worship, thanksgiving, praise, …and love.

This teaching is part of Jesus’ last will and testament for His followers. His command is new because of the Spirit’s indwelling. Now those who know God will love each another with the very same love that God has lovedthem with.

So slow down a bit and think about that person who is difficult for you to love this morning. Take your eyes off ofthem for a moment…and look into the face of the One you call Lord and Master…and hear Him call you friend.

Knowing God personally melts all bitterness and resentment away doesn’t it. Knowing God’s undeserved welcome and forgiveness humbles our pride, and powersour sacrifice.

Jesus wants His followers to live out His love. His command is clear – love one another as I have loved you.

We can love like that because God laid down His own lifefor us, and His commands are not burdensome to a changed heart. God has made us His friends after all. And then, we love one another because,

God loved us first (15:16; 1 John 4:19)

Verse 16,

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

We must not take any credit for our privileged position in Christ. We are His friends only because of His grace. We did not choose Christ…but He chose us as friends – and gave us a ministry. We did not love Christ until after He had shown His love for us while we were still in our sins.

Look carefully at the verse.

Jesus says, You did not choose me, but I chose you. Now some might say this is not teaching about God’s electing grace – but just their appointment as His followers and disciples. But if you go back to chapter 13:18, you’ll hear Jesus saying, “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen.” And then he


reveals Judas – one of His chosen followers, as the son of perdition who is lost forever. In other words, the last time Jesus used this word chosen to refer to His disciples– it was in a salvific sense – He knew there were 11 of His followers who were chosen, and 1 was not. 11 were saved. And Judas was not.

And then in John 15:19, Jesus goes on to say,

…because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Again, God’s election or choosing of His people is referring to salvation. God chooses to set His sovereign saving grace upon people so that they can be rescued and set apart from the world.

So John 15:16 is all about God’s sovereign grace. God chose to extend grace to your life – that you might believe on Jesus Christ and be saved. And then He appointed you with a ministry – just like Ephesians 2:10 says, all of God’s children are His workmanship, created and saved for the purpose of doing good works – namely– loving one another.

Love is the greatest fruit of the Spirit - the evidence of our relationship with Christ. The evidence of our abiding union with Him – is not how we say we love God – but how the Spirit produces the fruit of love in our heart towards one another.

1 John 4:19 offers very straightforward explanation of thisverse…

We love because God first loved us.

So consider this morning God’s stunning love for you. It’sall of grace. By love, you’ve been brought into a living and rich relationship with your Holy Creator. He has told you everything you need to know in order to enjoy Him, and He listens and answers your prayers whenever you talk with Him. His Spirit dwells within you, empowering your obedience, and multiplying His love. And remember, this is all possible because grace took the firstmove. Grace initiated your salvation. God laid down His life for you, even while you were still convinced that sin would deliver on all its twisted promises.

The point is clear this morning.


God’s love for you will transform how you love others.

So then why are our relationships so messy and often broken? Why is sacrificially laying down our live for the eternal good of others so difficult?

Could it be that we try to focus more on verses 12 and 17in John 15, than on verses 13-16? That we try to boot-strap and fist-clench our way into more love – trying to manufacture the obedience of love more than we seek to abide in God’s love?

I believe Jesus wants us to:

Abide in God’s love in order to better love others.

It is the vertical love from God that is a prerequisite power to all horizontal love towards others.

No wonder Jesus had just taught in verse 9 above,

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. Since you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

So practically, I must ask you a couple of questions aboutabiding in God’s love before we close this morning.

First, do you delight in the love of God towards you? Do these 4 main points of the text this morning thrill your soul and fuel a worship response of praise, thanksgiving, and awe?

Or is your response a bit nonchalant? Is your heart cold or just luke-warm to the grand vista of God’s active, pursuing, intentional, and continuous love for a sinner likeyou?


Have you lost your awe of God and His love towards you?

Dear friend – you are in a very dangerous place. Repent of your pride. Stop comparing yourself with others. Cry out that God would awaken your soul to see the goodness of God again. Ask God to grant you spiritual life – knock upon Heaven’s door by reading the story of God’s love for you over and over again, and seek the Lord today while He may yet be found.

Your spiritual deadness offers no assurance of salvation. God’s discipline is coming to lift you up… so make sure that you are abiding in Christ, and He is abiding in you.

Second, do you want to grow in your love towards others? Then abide more in God’s love for you. Preach the Gospel to yourself daily – cause His words to abide inyou richly. Saturate your mind in His good promises – sing often of the wonders of His death, resurrection, and ascension that have provided so lavishly for your friendship with God.

If you try to improve your horizontal relationships without growing intentionally in your vertical relationship with GodHimself first – you will only frustrate yourself, or peace-fake, or manipulate.

Only God’s love for you can genuinely transform how youlove others.

Let’s pray.

<<You are My King - Amazing Love>>

Let’s pray our Benediction now as we are dismissed,

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14 Amen.


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