Do You Love Jesus?
Notes
Transcript
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15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,
31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
Truths about the Trinity
There is one God (not three Gods)
There are three Persons in one God (meaning of Trinity) - v. 16, 26
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Each Person is distinct from the others (The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father, etc.) - “another Helper” - not the same one.
Each Person of the Trinity is God (each shares the same essential nature or being)
Each Person of the Trinity has distinct roles and activities (though there is some overlap)
The order of the Trinity is Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit (not ranked according to importance, but mutually agreed upon order from eternity past)
There is no image or analogy that adequately expresses the truth of the Trinity (water in 3 states, the egg, triangle, etc.). This is part of God’s holiness or uniqueness, and we must not try to compare him to anyone or anything else.
25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
5 “To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?
Roles and Activities of the Trinity in this passage:
Father (Referred to 10x in this passage)
Receives the prayers of the Son (16)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
Sends the Helper (Holy Spirit) to live in believers (16, 26)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Has a special love for his children (21, 23)
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Speak (& commands) through the Son (24, 31) - (see also Hebrews 1:2)
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Sent the Son (24)
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
Is greater than the Son (28)
28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
Son (Referred to 50x in this passage)
Gives the Father’s commands to his followers (John 14:15, 21, 24)
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
Is the recipient of the believer’s love (John 14:15, 21, 23, 28)
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
Intercedes for the believer (John 14:16)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
Manifests himself to those who love and obey him (John 14:21)
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Is sent by the Father (John 14:24)
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
Is the subject of the Holy Spirit’s teaching and reminding (John 14:26)
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Submits to and obeys the Father because he loves the Father (John 14:31)
31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
Holy Spirit (Referred to 11x in this passage)
Sent by the Father to live forever in believers (John 14:16-17)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Present in Christ and empowering him (John 14:17)
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Sent by the Father in the name of the Son (John 14:26)
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Teaches believers and glorifies the Son (John 14:26)
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
While each person has unique roles, there is one thing that is said about all 3 persons of the Trinity:
First of all it tells us that the Spirit lives in believers (v. 17)
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Then Jesus says that he and the Father will also make their home in believers (v. 23)
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
This means that not just the Holy Spirit, but the Trinity lives in the believer.
Notice that this is conditional - this is not something that is true of every person. These activities of the Trinity are only to your benefit if you are a true believer, someone who has come to know God, to trust in his Son Jesus Christ, to love Him, and to express your love in obedience to God. This is what the life of a true believer looks like, and this is what our Triune God does in the life of such a person.
The Cycle of the Christian Life (see image)***********************************************
1. God Supernaturally Reveals Himself to You
22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
In order for you to know God, he must reveal himself to you. If you have not experienced this, plead with God to reveal himself to you, and that’s a request he honors. And he reveals himself to us primarily in his Word. So open your Bible, read, and ask God to show himself to you.
2. You Know God
When God does reveal himself to you, you come to know him and understand who he is and what he does.
23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
3. You Trust God
When you come to know and understand what God is like and what He has done, you begin to trust him.
10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
4. You Love God
As you get to know God and trust him, you also begin to love him. This is part of the supernatural work of God, that not only does he change your thinking and behavior, but also your desires. The things in this life that you once desired are no longer important to you; instead you desire God; you long to grow in your relationship with him. You enjoy thinking about him and spending time with him in his Word and prayer and with other believers. You love Jesus Christ. You long to be with him. You’d give up anything to be closer to him. This is part of God’s work in the life of the believer.
5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
5. You Obey God
The emphasis of our passage here is on the relationship of love and obedience. Jesus says,
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
John 14:21 (ESV)
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
John also tells us this in 1 John 2:5.
5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:
Love for Jesus results in obedience to Jesus.
And Jesus says in v. 24
John 14:24 (ESV)
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.
If you do not obey Jesus, you do not love him, and if you do not love him, you do not trust him, and if you do not trust him, you do not know him, and if you do not know him, you do not have eternal life.
What words or commands does Jesus have in mind?
There are many things that Jesus commands his disciples in the Gospels, but here in the Gospel of John the primary commands are 1). Believe 2). Come to Me 3). Love one another as I have loved you.
There’s a lot of overlap in parts 2 & 3 (know and trust) and 3 & 4 (trust and love). Biblically we can’t always distinguish knowing God from trusting him or trusting him from loving him. What we do understand from Scripture is that these things are true of every true believer.
This is an ongoing process according to this passage - it is a lifelong cycle for the believer.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
This is step 4 (love), 5 (obedience), and then 1 (God’s supernatural revelation of himself).
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
After you come to know God, you come to trust in Jesus and love him and obey him, He says that he will reveal himself to you even more. And the result of that will be knowing him more, trusting him more, loving him more, and obeying him more, and continuing through this cycle for the rest of your life.
We can easily deceive ourselves about #2 (knowledge), 3 (faith), or 5 (obedience), but #4 (love) is one of the greatest internal evidences that we have been born again. If you don’t love Jesus, you don’t know him.
The easiest self-test is love. (The word “love” is mentioned 10x in this passage - 6x referring to love for Jesus; )
At the end of the passage, Christ himself gives us the example that he commands us to follow back at the beginning of the passage:
John 14:31 (ESV)
31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Jesus says that he submits to and obeys the commands of the Father in order to demonstrate his love for the Father. And he calls us to obey his commands so that we might demonstrate our love for him. The kind of obedience that God desires isn’t just following external rules and regulations, but obeying out of a heart of love toward God and His Son.
What does love for Jesus look like?
Think about this - if you’re married or have been married, what was it like when you first began dating your spouse and fell in love?
When you’re in love with someone it means you constantly think about them, and when you think about them it makes you smile.
When you’re in love it means you plan how to spend time together and enjoy being together.
It means you find ways to communicate - writing letters, texts, emails, video chatting, or whatever it takes.
You want to know the person more, and you want your relationship to continue to grow and love each other more.
You want to do everything you can to please them.
There’s a sense in which this is the kind of love that we ought to have for Jesus, but to an even greater extent than in a dating relationship or marriage or toward a family member.
Every other person we love, we love them despite their imperfections. We look past their faults and failures and shortcomings and love them anyway.
But not so with Jesus.
Jesus has no faults; he has no imperfections or shortcomings. He is perfect. He has no flaws. He is overwhelmingly wonderful and beautiful and desirable and valuable and lovely. So we must love him. He is infinitely deserving of our love. He is worthy of our love more than anyone else.
And if we love Jesus,
Thoughts of Jesus will consume our minds; it will make us happy to think about him.
We will plan how to spend time alone with him in His Word and in prayer.
We will desire to know him better and grow in our relationship with him.
We will do everything we can to please him and honor him.
Do you love Jesus?
Love for Jesus comes from a true knowledge of him and trust in him, and it will result in obedience to his commands.
When you hear the name of Jesus does it make your heart beat a little faster?
Do thoughts of him make you happy?
What time are you giving to your relationship with him?
Do you show in the way you use money that you love him?
Do you spend time reading His Word and talking to him?
Do you seek to follow his commands? to love other believers as he has loved you, to trust him and follow him no matter what?
If you love Jesus, it’s because he first loved you. And it shows that you know him and trust him.
If you don’t love Jesus, you don’t know him, and you don’t have eternal life.
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
If that’s you today, I beg you, come to Jesus today. Do not delay. Come to Jesus and you will taste and see that the Lord is good. You will come to know him and trust him and love him. And your soul will be eternally happy.
If you do already love Jesus, you know that you don’t love him as much as he deserves - none of us can. But we must seek to know more of him, to trust him more, to love him more, and to be more faithful in following his commands, and as we do, we’ll go deeper and deeper in our relationship with him forever.