John 15:9-17 Remain in My Love

John 15:9-17 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

9“As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. Remain in my love. 10If you hold on to my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have held on to my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you these things so that my joy would continue to be in you and that your joy would be complete.

12“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you continue to do the things I instruct you. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17These things I am instructing you, so that you love one another.

Remain in My Love

I.

They had no idea, really, about the depths of his love. It was Holy Thursday. Jesus had instituted the Lord’s Supper. He had just spoken of the vine and the branches—that was our Gospel Reading last week. He continued to tell the Eleven important things as they walked along toward the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus would spend some time in prayer before the difficult hours of his arrest, his trials, and his execution.

The disciples, of course, had no idea what was coming. I wonder if these teachings about love struck them as odd in the days that followed.

How can there be love in such an unloving time? Was the one who had left the upper room before the Lord’s Supper to finish his plot to betray Jesus showing love as he led the soldiers right to Jesus in Gethsemane? Would it show the depths of his love when he kissed Jesus’ cheek and called him Rabbi as a signal to the soldiers that this was the One on whom they should serve their arrest warrant? At the end of the Garden confrontation, was it love on display when all the rest of the disciples fled? Was it love when Peter couldn’t even summon enough courage to admit that he was Jesus’ friend and follower? The disciples didn’t really do so well in showing love—or remaining in Jesus’ love—just hours after he urged them to do just that.

II.

Today our Confirmands take an oath before God. In just a few minutes they will pledge their undying friendship and love for the Lord Jesus. All the rest of us who have been confirmed will join them in rededicating ourselves to the oath we swore at our own confirmations to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus.

That’s really easy to do right here. These walls are a safe space. Here you are surrounded by people who won’t be offended when you profess your Christian faith. These people won’t be offended when you say that what the Bible says about all the various social issues is the final word, the world’s contrary opinions and insistence notwithstanding.

It’s easy here. But then you leave this safe space. Where do you get your news these days? No matter who I’m speaking to, whether older adults who still listen to the radio or watch TV news of some kind, or younger generations who get their news from YouTube and TikTok, you will find opinions—and so-called facts—that dispute what God has to say in the Bible. Will you be tempted toward betrayal, like Judas, or denial, like Peter, or to run away from your association with Jesus, like all the rest of the disciples?

It won’t just be the news, either. Some of your friends, and maybe even some family members, walk hand in hand with what they hear on TV or TikTok. Will pressure from your family, or pressure from your peers, or pressure from society in general, tempt you to betray or deny or run away rather than show love for Jesus?

III.

There will be temptations to run away, or to deny, or even to betray. However, Jesus has not left you without a solution to the challenge. “As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. Remain in my love” (John 15:9, EHV). Jesus points to the Father’s love for his only-begotten Son. Can we even begin to understand such love? That’s love that stretches to before time began. God has loved Jesus literally forever, and will continue to love him forever. That, Jesus says, is an illustration of the love he, Jesus, has for his disciples, including you and me.

“No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, EHV). Our nation’s highest military award is the Medal of Honor. Those who are decorated with the Medal of Honor have shown uncommon bravery in battle. Some lived to tell the tale, but many of them died—literally laying down their lives for their friends—their fellow soldiers.

In confirmation classes we review the incredibly high cost of sin. Adam and Eve were the first to learn the consequences after they disobeyed God, coveting and then taking and eating the forbidden fruit. The consequences of sin in this life are high—we experience pain and sadness; there is difficulty earning a living to survive; sickness and sorrow take their toll. Eventually, each person dies.

But the ultimate consequence for every single sin is hell. Every single sin deserves punishment in hell for eternity. Sometimes we give in to the temptations, like Peter who denied Jesus or like the disciples who ran away. Every one of us has committed many, many sins. Each one of them deserves its own separate eternal punishment.

Jesus demonstrated the greatest love. To be sure, he laid down his life for his friends. His Passive Obedience to the Heavenly Father meant that he allowed himself to be put to death on the cross, even though he had done nothing to deserve capital punishment for his crimes. But while he hung there, he gave an even greater sacrifice—the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus, God himself, was abandoned by God the Father to suffer the hell every single sin deserves. He even suffered the hell of the betrayal of Judas. That is love so deep we can’t possibly understand it. It’s the love the Bible calls Agape love—love that loves even when love isn’t deserved. Jesus’ love for sinners is the greatest love ever shown.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16, EHV). The disciples would soon see their own shortcomings when they denied and ran away. You have seen and will see your own shortcomings, too. Not one of us is always the most dedicated follower of Jesus; each of us can see moments of doubt and confusion and denial and fear. In those moments it is important to remember these words of Jesus: “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”

Love that loves even when love isn’t deserved. That’s the kind of love Jesus showed for us by giving himself as the ultimate sacrifice for us when he suffered hell in our place. That’s the kind of love he showed when he chose us. The Bible describes our natural human condition as spiritually dead, spiritually blind, and enemies of God. In such a condition we could never have chosen Jesus, nor would we want to. He chose us. He chose you.

IV.

“You are my friends if you continue to do the things I instruct you. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you” (John 15:14-15, EHV). When Jesus chose you, he chose you to be his friends. Those disciples Jesus was first speaking to would need these words of comfort; soon they would fail miserably to act like Jesus’ friends. He wanted them to know he chose them in spite of everything. He wants you Confirmands to know—and all of us who have been confirmed in the faith—the same thing: he has chosen you to be his friends.

Now that we know, he has further instructions: “I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17These things I am instructing you, so that you love one another” (John 15:16-17, EHV). The world will stay the same. There will be denial of Jesus, betrayal of Jesus, running away from Jesus. Many will reject him and his love. You and I are different. We become more loving because we are Jesus’ friends. Because of your connection to Jesus—because of your friendship with Jesus, you want to share with others what you know about him. You want them to know that the love he showed toward you he has shown to all people.

“Remain in my love” (John 15:9, EHV), Jesus began today’s reading. It is a fitting exhortation for Confirmation Sunday. Remain in the love of Jesus by gladly hearing and learning his Word often. Come regularly to worship and Bible study. Do your own Bible study and devotions at home. Remain in the love of Jesus by receiving often the evidence of his love—the very body and blood he gave in sacrifice for his friends, given and poured out for you in, with, and under the bread and wine in his Supper.

Strengthened and nourished by his love for you, you will grow in your ability to show the friendship of Jesus to others as you love one another. You are his friends. Remain in him, as you are about to pledge in your Confirmation Vows, for the rest of your lives. Amen.