The Love of the Father

Intro/Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to One Hope

It is good to gather together

Happy Thanksgiving and there is much to be thankful for as we will see today.

gratitude is the best remedy for grief

Intro

Think about a few things before we get started:

What is something you really love? (to do?)

That’s how God loves you — that is the enjoyment he has in you.

Who is someone you really love? Best friend? Spouse? Child? Parent/Grandparent?

That is how God’s loves you — those are the feelings he has for you.

Who is someone you don’t love/like/enjoy?

God loves that person the same as you.

The Love of the Father

Today we come to the most glorious truth of the Bible:

Perhaps the central truth

God loves you.

God loves you the way God loves God.

But more than that he loves you with the same intensity that God loves God.

We love others the way God loves God.I

God loving us the way God loves God leads to us loving others the way God loved us/God.

When you experience this love, it leads to loving others that way God loves them

Massive Statements

This is the whole of the Christian Faith

It is the central call of the great commission

It is the point of all existence.

If we get this truth today, it has the power to change our entire lives.

It has the power to change our world.

The Love of God experienced is the most powerful force in the universe.

Bible

We will be in John 15:9-17 today.

continuing our Friendship with God series

walking verse by verse through John 13-17, Jesus

last teaching.

Go there in your Bibles

Follow along / underline

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us now.

Pray

Isaiah 61:1–3 (ESV)

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Text:

John 15:9–17 (ESV)

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 “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 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.

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Context

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Last week we looked at the metaphor of the Vine and Branches.

Jesus is the Vine, we are the branches, the Father is the vinedresser

We can only bear fruit by abiding in the vine.

Unpacking the reality of Union with God discussed in John 14.

I. The Truth: God Loves us as God Loves God

Now he has just talked about how the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit.

But lest we think that we are earning God’s love, Jesus goes on.

John 15:9 (ESV)

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you…

STOP!

Do you realize what Jesus just said?

We have such a propensity to just read over verses like this.

But he has just said something absoultely stunning.

“As the Father has loved me” — The way God loves God within the Trinity

Is there a stronger, more intense, more passionate level of love than the way God loves God

God loves you the way God loves God

1 John 4:8 says that God is love.

This is an Eternal Love

The love the that exists within the Trinity for all Eternity

John 17:5 (ESV)

5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

The magnitude is staggering

The implications are life changing.

The same level of intensity — is the way God loves us.

Let that sink in.

He says the same thing in John 17:23.

John 17:23 (ESV)

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

This is the foundation for our Faith, for ministry, for service, for loving one another.

If we can get this — it changes our entire lives

COMMENTARY:

John 15:9 (AYB 29A): The Father’s love for Jesus is the basis of Jesus’ love for his disciples both as to origin and intensity. The Son loves his disciples with the same divine love the Father has for him.

A. How do we get this?

1. Repent and Believe the Gospel (Mark 1:15)

Mark 1:15 (ESV)

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

John 1:12 (ESV)

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

1 Corinthians 15:3 (ESV)

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Ephesians 2:5–6 (ESV)

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We must first confess our sins and receive forgiveness

2. Ask for it

If we have believed but are not experiencing the Love of God

We can ask.

We say, Holy Spirit show me this love

Help me experience this love with which you have loved me.

Romans 5:5 (ESV)

5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

3. Jesus tells us how in what he says next.

B. Loving God as God love God

John 15:9–10 (ESV)

9 ...Abide in my love. How do I abide? - He tells us next

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

How do we abide?

He told us last week and he’s telling us now explicitly:

Keep his commandments

Notice what he is saying here though:

1. Keeping = Treasuring/obeying

Let me comment again on the word to “keep”

a Few weeks ago I said that this doesn’t simply mean to ‘obey’ — there is a greek word for that — hypoakoue

This word keep means: to guard, preserve, watch, observe, obey and even treasure.

The issue isn’t obedience for obedience’s sake

the issue is obedience that issues from love of God b/c of God’s love of us.

2. How God loves God

Notice: This is how God loves God.

Jesus loves the Father (John 14:31) he does so by keeping his commandments

Doing what he says.

John 5:19–20 (ESV)

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

John 8:28–29 (ESV)

28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

Jesus said God loves you the way he loves me

Now, love God the way I have loved Him

God loves us the way God loves God

Love God the way God loves God.

1 John 4:19 (ESV)

19 We love because he first loved us.

It’s really just the first commandment:

Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Transition:

What is the result of receiving and abiding in God’s love?

Eternal Joy

B. The Result: The Joy God has In God/Himself

John 15:11 (ESV)

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

God wants you to be joyful

Full of Joying — brimming over with joy.

That’s why he’s telling us all this.

notice again: “MY JOY”

He gives us His Peace back in John 14:27.

This was the Peace/Shaloam/wholeness he had with the Trinity

Now he gives us HIS JOY

the Joy he has with the trinity.

The joy that God has in God

Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22 (ESV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

So that we might be the most joyful of people!

Illustration: Grocery Store

If you are hungry where should you go?

The Grocery Store

It does no good to go to the mechanic or the library.

God wants to fill us — to satisfy our hunger

he is telling us how — Come to Him, listen to Him, Obey Him

If you want food, go to the grocery store — there you will recieve freely without payment.

C. Summary:

Here’s what we’ve seen:

God loves you the way God loves God

We are then to love God the way God loves God

What does that result in?

Jesus tells us next:

II. The Command: Love Others as God Loves

John 15:12–13 (ESV)

12 “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.

Here is what is so important:

The Love of God preceeds our ability to love others in this way.

It is simply not possible with out a new heart

1 John 4:19 (ESV)

19 We love because he first loved us.

A. God’s Love for Us

How has God loved us?

he laid down his life for us.

This is the very center of the gospel.

Jesus gave it all for us, he gave his life for us

He endured torture for us

Where we deserved it, he took our pain, our punishment

And he gives us new life

The result is reconciliation with God

Now freindship with God

B. Love as God loved us

This then is how we are to love one another

by laying down our lives for each other.

That is radical love

that is Sermon on the Mount kind of Love

This is the kind of love that gets the world’s attention

John 13:35 (ESV)

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

1 John 3:16 (ESV)

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

GRAPHIC OF GOD’S LOVE

1. Practically speaking

Dying to yourself in any number of ways

Send that text, make that phone call - you initiate the conversation

letting the other have their way

not having to win that argument

breaking the silence

Doing the hard thing, telling the truth

Saying I’m sorry.

Listen to Paul’s description of love in 1 Cor.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (ESV)

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

How can I do that?

That’s the whole point — you can’t do that on your own

You can’t do it unless you abide in the vine

unless the Life of Christ is flowing through you.

You can only do that when you realize how loved you are by God — how secure you are in Him

Then you can suffer loss for the sake of others b/c in Christ we have everyting we need

and in the end we will gain the whole world.

By our new relationship with God

Friendship with him.

Look at what Jesus says next.

III. Friendship With God

John 15:14–15 (ESV)

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.

A. Not just servants but Friends

We are no longer just servants — we are that

many of the letters of the NT are addressed this way, “Paul a servant”

It just means we are more than or at least we can be

B. Friendship means Conversation

Friendship take time right — the are based on conversation

look what Jesus says

“all i heard from the father, I have made known to you”

Do you see what that is saying?

Jesus speaks the words of God to us

We are IN, We belong, We are included

We have been let into the inner conversation of the Trinity

We are let into the motivations and purposes of God

Not just do what I say, but let me tell you why I say this

Let me show you the father’s heart

Let me love you the way the Father loves you

That’s friendship

If you’ve ever felt excluded, outcast, shunned, abandoned

Here these words: God can be your friend

You can be included into teh most glorious relationship in all eternity.

It’s astounding.

C. The Holy Spirit

This relationship continues with the Holy Spirit.

John 16:13 (ESV)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Its the same kind of relationship.

Friendship with God includes dialogue with Him.

We are let into the inner life of the trinity — if we would enter in and spend time with God.

It’s amazing

Illustration:

Football team

We are in the huddle

Jesus is calling the plays

If you don’t come to the huddle you are going to just be wandering the field.

Jesus says come join us!

I love you! You are included.

But we are not in a game, we are in a Spiritual War

The Enemy comes to Kill, steal and destroy

Jesus comes to destroy the works of the devil and offer life abundantly

That is the fruit we bear.

This is what we have been called to.

Look what Jesus says next.

B. The Result: To Bear Eternal Fruit

John 15:16–17 (ESV)

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.

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

God chose you

Yes Jesus chose the 12 that is true, but this whole section is not just for the 12, why else do we have it?

It is for you.

You are chosen by God

To do what?

1. Eternal Fruit

Go and bear fruit that remains

that’s eternal fruit

That is going and telling other about the love of God demonstrated in Jesus

Making more friends of God for all eternity

I promise you won’t retreat that in Heaven

ESVSB: That you should go and bear fruit implies that the purpose of Christ’s choosing people is not merely that their sins be forgiven and they have eternal life but also that their lives be fruitful and productive in fulfilling God’s purposes.

2. Prayer

Again Jesus brings it back to our confersation with him

Prayer

whatever we ask the Father, in my name

C. The Call of John 13:34-35

John 15:17 (ESV)

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

John 13:34–35 (ESV)

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is the whole point

How do we love others the way God loved us?

We have to experience that magnitude of God’s love for us

Then we love God the way Jesus loved God

Then we love others the way God loved us

that greatest act of love is to share God’s love with others

Application

If you are here tonight and you haven’t experienced the love of God

if you haven’t trusted in Jesus death for you and resurecction fo you

do it now

and experience new life

If you have trusted Jesus but lack the experience, let’s ask God’s love to be poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit

Let’s abide in that love — by doing what he says

buildng that friendship with God

then hold on for the adventure.

Closing Prayer

Additional

cs Lewis “Four Loves”

Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

of Jesus

John 5:20 (ESV)

For the Father loves (phile) the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

John 15:14–15 (PNTC Jn): Although Abraham (2 Chr. 20:7; Is. 41:8; Jas. 2:23) and Moses (Ex. 33:11) are called friends of God, God is never called their friend; although

Verses

John 10:15 (ESV)

just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:18 (ESV)

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Luke 10:17 (ESV)

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”