Jesus Loves

If you have a Bible, I invite you to open up with me to John 15. This is a wonderful passage that we have before us today. Before Lora and I got married, we sat down and did what quite a few couples do before they get married and we made a list of what chores we would be responsible for as we were starting off this new life together and while the list has gone through a number of changes over the years, the one that I believe has remained the most consistent is that I would do all of the cooking if she would handle the yard work. Now men before you judge my masculinity, I’m not asking Lora to go out and tear up stumps. Here we are closing in on 7 years of marriage and Lora still does most of the yard work and I still do most of the cooking. I love this because I’m not one that wants to spend a lot of time outdoors and I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to gardening or anything like that. Now the reason I bring this up is because the passage that we are going to look at this morning uses a lot of gardening imagery. The first 8 verses of John 15 are parabolic. I don’t have a lot of gardening knowledge so I was never really able to fully comprehend exactly what Jesus was getting at in these first few verses but after studying these chapters for the last month, I think I have enough of a spiritual green thumb to understand what Jesus is saying and convey that to you this morning. Our emphasis in this section is on Christ’s love for us and what a subject that is. It is a well that never runs dry. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Whatever one may say about the love of God in Christ Jesus there is always something more to be said.” If we were to sit down at our computer and type out the full extent of the love of God, we could spend eternities typing before we even broke out of the first chapter. I love the hymn that goes, “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.” Let’s dive into this love this morning and I want to look at love from 3 perspectives: God’s love for us, our love for each other, and the love of the world. Let’s pray and then we will dive into John 15.

God’s Love for Us (Verses 1-11)

Let’s read John 15:1-11

John 15:1–11 ESV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

The Bible is no stranger to using imagery like what we just read. There are numerous examples in both Testaments that mention vines, fruit, vineyards and Jesus certainly referenced vines numerous times in His teaching ministry. What’s worth noting about that is almost anytime that Jesus mentions a vineyard or a vine, it is never in the positive unless He refers to Himself. There’s parables in Luke 13, Matthew 21, and Mark 12 where Jesus references the unfruitfulness of some vineyards and the destruction that is brought forth by those that were in the vineyards. Vines and vineyards were something that a 1st century man or woman would be quite familiar with. Yet Jesus does not want us to be content with any vine. In verse 1 He says that He is the true vine and His Father is the Vinedresser. But why is He the true vine? Why is that name so important to us? It comes down to the vine that was found in the Old Testament, it was the vine of the old covenant so to speak. You see in the Old Testament, the vine of God was always equated with Israel. The Psalmist says in Psalm 80:8-9 “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.” The issue with the Israelites being a vine is that they constantly fell short of what God had called them to be. In Isaiah 5, the Lord says that the only thing that Israel produced was wild grapes and in Ezekiel 15, Jerusalem is called a vine that is useful for nothing. Israel was planted as a vine but it didn’t produce anything of value. Israel had great potential but they wasted it. Israel was to be this nation that produced great spiritual fruit, they were to be a place that pointed to the God who established them but instead, they were only a vine that produced sour fruit and this was because they were not connected to the true vine. Derek Kidner said, “What Israel had only begun to be, Christ wholly was and is.” If you want to have a productive life, you need to make sure you are connected to the right vine. For Jesus to say that He is the true vine was for Him to say that if we want to possess or do anything of eternal significance, we must first be connected to Him. He expands upon this in verse 5 when He tells us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. We’ve established that Jesus needs to be the vine and we are to be the branches. As I was studying this passage, I was blown away by just how much the love of God can be seen in what Christ said. First off, He says that the Great Vinedresser, His Heavenly Father, prunes us so that we might bear more fruit. Now what does this have to do with God’s love for us as Christians? Pruning involves cleansing. It means to remove and cut away that which hinders the growth of the plant. How does this relate to the Christian life? It’s obviously in regards to our sanctification. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He purifies and removes things from our lives that hinder our greater good. Now pruning isn’t easy because it involves cutting things off or replanting somewhere else and if you were not familiar with what the gardener was doing, you might think, “won’t that hurt the plant?” But that isn’t the case. There are things that God is doing in our lives that on the surface may look painful but they are always necessary. Hebrews 12:7 says, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” then in Hebrews 12:11 we read, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” God does not cut things out of our lives because He loathes us, He cuts things out and disciplines because He loves us, so that we may have a greater joy and produce a greater fruit than if we were to go on with our lives unpruned. How else can we count the ways that Jesus loves us from this passage? First off look at the language that is used in these 11 verses. 10 times in these 11 verses, Christ refers to us abiding in Him. As Christians, we are not just with Him, we are in Him and He in us. One of Paul’s favorite was of describing a Christian was that they were in Christ and this shows His proximity to us and it stresses the permanence of His relationship with us. J.C. Ryle said, “To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with Him,- to be always leaning on Him, resting on Him, pouring out our hearts to Him, and using Him as our fountain of life and strength, as our chief Companion and best friend.” If Christ was simply with us, He could leave us but the fact that Christ abides in us and we in Him shows that we cannot be separated from the love of God because if Christ is in us and we are in Him and the Father loves the Son then we are ultimately loved because of our proximity to Christ. Christ emphasizes this in John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” Stop and meditate on this here. How has God the Father loved the Son? The love of God the Father for Christ the Son is a love that has no beginning and has no end. If there ever was a perfect love, it is this love. It is a love that is not distracted, it is a love that is full, it is a complete love, and it is a love that can never be diminished or removed. Jesus is going to love you forever, who else can say that? Who else can really love you forever? I have students on Wednesday night who loved someone one week and love someone the next! Who can love you forever but He that reigns forever? This is the greatest love to ever exist and it is this very love that Christ says He loves us. This means that His love for us is not based on our strengths and what we bring to the table. Jesus Christ does not love you for some version of you that doesn’t exist yet. He loves you flaws and all but obviously that doesn’t mean that we stay with those flaws. It means that even as I betrayed Him, even as I hammered the nails into His hands and feet, even as I bashed the crown of thorns into His skull, even as I stabbed His side, He has never stopped loving me and as He endured the cross, He looked at the joy that was before Him and that was that I would abide in Him and He in me. “The love of God is greater far, than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.” Christian, how can you question the love of our Savior? He has gone to the cross for you, He tasted death for you, He is mediating at this very moment on our behalf to our Heavenly Father. If it were somehow possible for God to forget His love for us, and let me stress the fact that it isn’t, but if it were possible we have Christ as our mediator and He would say to the Father, “Father, do you love me?” The Father would say, “Of course my Son!” The Son would say, “How do you love me?” And God would respond, “I love you perfectly, I love you wholly, I love you forever and always. There is no limit to my love for you!” Christ would say, “Will your love ever be separated from me?” The Father would respond, “Not for a single moment.” And Christ would say, “Thus is my love for these people. As you have loved me, so I have loved them. In the very same way, I have loved them. Father, these are mine and I am yours. I cannot forget those that I have engraved on the palms of my hand.” Do you know this love? Here is Christ’s love for you, what is your love for Him?

Our Love for Each Other (Verses 12-17)

Let’s turn to John 15:12-17. Let’s discuss how Jesus’s love for us should impact our love for others. Jesus says:

John 15:12–17 ESV

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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. 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. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

We are no longer God’s enemies, we are His friends. God has chosen us to be His friends and I think this is worth quickly stressing. You can’t choose your family, you’re stuck with them whether you like them or not. But you can choose your friends. In a way, we love family almost out of obligation but with a friend, there is this conscientious effort that goes into loving them. This means that Christ’s love for us is purposeful and intentional. In the words of Proverbs 18:24, Christ is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. How are we to love one another? Christ does not give us a new way to do it, He simply repeats what we read a few weeks ago in John 13. He says that we are to love one another as He has loved us. Now you might think, “That’s impossible!” In some ways it is because even if we do lay down our lives for a friend, our death is not an atoning death. Our love towards each other should be pure, it should be holy, it shouldn’t depend on the worthiness of the person but out of God’s love that He has shown us. How then are we to love each other? The greatest way that we can is by obedience to Christ. The greatest way that we can love each other is by doing what Christ has commanded us to do because that covers a multitude of sins! Christ has commanded us to love our neighbor, He has commanded us to spread the Gospel, He has commanded us to pursue righteousness and this is how we love each other! Our love isn’t just a sentimental love it’s an outgoing love! 1 John 3:18 says

1 John 3:18 (ESV)

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

It’s one thing for a husband to say that he loves his wife, it is another thing for him to prove it by what he does. If I say I love my wife at work but then go home and beat her, that isn’t love. If I look her in the eyes and say I love her but then go and cheat, that isn’t love. True love talks the talk and walks the walk. True love goes 2 miles when only asked to go one. Our love for each other is not just a copy and paste of Christ’s love for us but is a response towards God’s love for us. It is because He first loved us that we love each other. Jesus does more than just love us in word or talk, He first loves us in deed and truth. One of the first songs that we often teach our children has this simple but true message: Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Yes, the Bible certainly tells us so that but the Bible is more than just word because it tells us what He has done for us in history and what He is doing for us now. God’s love for us is the driving force behind our love for each other and as we love each other, we are simply doing that which Christ commanded us! Let’s turn quickly now to John 15:18-27 and then we will wrap all of this up.

The Love of the World (Verses 18-27)

John 15:18–27 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Here we see a great contrast. We have just witnessed Christ’s love for us and the love that we are to have for each other but now we see switch from love to hatred. Or to keep the theme consistent, we now see that which the world loves. The world loves sin, self, and Satan. The world doesn’t just see Christ and the Church as a nuisance, the world hates God. The world sees God as their great enemy and it is because we love God that the world hates God’s People. We are not people of the world because God has called us out of the world. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5:1-8

Ephesians 5:1–8 ESV

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

We know that all that are of the world are under the prince of Darkness but Christians are children of light. We should not be surprised that the world hates the Church because the world has always hated the things of God. The world is so deep in sin that there is no part of it that actively wants God or desires to pursue righteousness. A number of years ago, Joel Osteen said something pretty stupid, and I know that is about as vague of a statement as one could make, but he said that he wasn’t sure if people of other religions would go to hell or not because as he observed these people in their worship, it was clear to him that they love God but that is contrary to everything that the Bible teaches. They don’t love God, they hate God and we know this because they have openly rejected the One that God has sent! Paul says in Romans 3:10-18

Romans 3:10–18 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Do you hear that? No one seeks God! All have turned aside! There is no fear of God before their eyes! This verse here is why a seeker sensitive model of the church is so outlandish. R.C. Sproul used to say that if someone were to truly open up a seeker sensitive church, God would be the only person that would show up. No, the world does not seek God, the world does not love God, the world has rejected and despised the Son of God and nailed Him to a cross, and yet we are surprised that we would not be viewed positively in this world? It surprises me when Christians seem to not understand why people don’t like them and it’s pretty clear that they didn’t read the terms and conditions before pushing accept! The world will hate you because they hate Christ. The world will persecute you because they have persecuted Christ. How then can we possibly survive in this world? First off we remember that this world is not our home. We are simply passing through and our country is in Heaven. While the world may persecute us and kill us, we know to whom we belong and to where we are going. This is what we were reminded of last week at the beginning of John 14. The worst thing the world can do to us as faithful servants of Christ is expedite our arrival to the New Jerusalem. The worst thing the world can do is kill us and even this is not outside of God’s sovereign hand. The moment our lives here end, we wake up in paradise where we will behold the presence of Christ forever. What do we do until this time comes? We bear witness to the One that saved us. How can we do this? How do we go to battle with the lies of the world? By going out in the power of the Spirit of Truth, the Helper and the Holy Spirit that God provides. This world is lost and it is dead in its sin. If we are to love others the way that Christ loves us, we must go to the highways and the byways of this world and point them to the light that outshines the darkness. We must go with all boldness and without hindrance and declare the excellencies of our Savior. We must do this because it is through this fruit that the world will know that we are His disciples. It is through our outreach that the world will see that Christ is the true vine and we are His branches and He has saved us so that we may bear fruit. Yes, God really does love us. Despite our hatred of Him, despite our crucifying of His Son, He loved us anyway and He has given us the way of salvation. And He will love us to the end. Heaven and Earth may pass away but God’s Word and His love for His people will endure forever. It comes to us as we are but when the Immortal Son of God abides in us, it never leaves us as we are. How then will you respond to the love of Jesus Christ? Will you embrace it? Or will you reject it? Will it drive everything that you do? Or will you keep it to yourself? What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? In all these things we are more conquerors through Him who loved us. Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Here is the only love that lasts forever, the only love we truly need. The world is broken but we know the One that is making all things new but until that day comes, we must not hide from the world but point it to the truth. The Lord is coming soon and there is still much work to be done. Have you been made right with Him? Let’s pray.