Love

Context

Risen for Us, Living for Him. Jesus resurrection gives us new life.

Last week, our theme was “abide.” We talked about how Jesus taught us that we must abide in him branches remain connected to a vine.

This morning, our reading follows on from last Sunday. It is the day before Jesus death, an upper room With disciples.

the bread and wine his body and blood

and washed their feet, symbolizing baptism.

He teaches his disciples that to abide in him, is to share in an a divine pattern of love Which he models for them.

Text

John 15:9–17 ESV

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. “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.

Introduction

Love. More songs about love than any other topic. Poets write about it. Books on how to get it, how to maintain it, how to express it, how to recover it, how to deepen it.

So much on love because…universal experience, powerful experience, we desire and designed for love.

We can love in so many ways:

Toward a job or a hobby.

Toward a location or a possession.

toward a pet. Dog or cat.

love toward a significant other. Boyfriend or girl friend, then husband or wife?

Love for a parent. Love for a child. Love for a grandchild.

It makes one wonder, What life even be like without love?

On this last night with his disciples, Jesus talks about love. Jesus connects love to life in God and life with himself and life among his disciples.

Exegesis: I have loved you

Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

How does God the Father love the Son?

If our earthly experience points toward a heavenly reality, it means intensely.

I remember holding each of my children in my arms. Imprinting of unconditional love.

Jesus is the only begotten, the eternally begotten. God always sees the Son with that intensity.

So much that he said so, twice. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased//listen to him. When he speaks of his son, he speaks of his BELOVED son.

So much that he ordained that the blood of his precious Son was sufficient atonement for all the sinners that have ever been, are now, or will be! The Father assigned that value!

So much the world was darkened when Jesus died.

So much that he raised him from the dead

So much that he gave him the name above all other names.

An eternal love from before the foundation of the world. Infinite love from divine giver to divine recipient.

As the Father has loved me, So I HAVE LOVED YOU.

How much does Jesus love his disciples, eternally and infinitely.

I came into the world for you.

I chose you. You did not choose me. I Embraced you.

I will die for you and rise for you.

reign and intercede for you.

I have loved you with an everlasting, unbounded love. Nothing can separate not even death!

Implication 1: We are loved

Jesus loves you. True, but almost trite because of frequency….but we sharpen it today.

Jesus loves you with divine love of his heavenly father.

God the Son can love each and every one of us as if we were the ONLY begotten.

I love you so much, I live for you. Die for you. Rise again for you. Live eternally for you.

call down from heaven, your are my beloved son, daughter.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Say to each face: I love you.

Say to each other: Jesus loves you.

Exegesis 2: Obey my Commands to abide in my love.

The love to which Jesus invites his disciples gives shape to life.

If you obey my commands you will abide in my love…just as I obey the Father’s commands and abide in his love.

Jesus expressing a deeply Biblical notion of love.

Love has has an emotive quality —attraction, admiration, affection, intimacy, passion — yet love is also more than that: it is a decision of self-devotion.

Love is a decision of the heart, mind, strength, to prioritize someone or something.

The commitment is stronger than emotions alone…real love even harnesses the emotions and directs them to the commitment love has made.

power to be committed in love Jesus calls obedience.

Jesus is himself the model, speaking from experience, Garden later that night…

Part of him wanted to flee: Jesus obeyed in love: Not my will but yours be done.

His love enabled him to be obedient to God’s plan, to remain in God’s love.

DO AS I DO: obey. Determine yourself to me as I determine myself to God the Father.

If you obey my commands, you will abide in my love.

Implication 2: We are obedient in love

Marriage counseling. Why do you want to get married? We love each other. Right, but you already love each other. You don’t need marriage for that. We want to be together…right, but you have that already. We want to live together, have a child, a family…We want a commitment. Something to be obedient to.

that is all we really want in love. Spouse, children, with our friends, that they give THEMSELVES to us.

At the spiritual level true: jesus wants us to be FOR him as he is for us.

The only thing we can give Jesus that is not already his, is our choice..

He doesn’t want or need our money, our social position, our favors, the whole world and everything in it is his. The only thing we can give him is ourselves.

Through obedience to Jesus, we show that we love him.

Exegesis 3: Love one another.

Jesus command is straightforward:

My command: love one another as I have loved you.

How has Jesus loved us? self- sacrificially.

No greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.

A self-reference.

Communion — bread and wine, body and blood.

Washing their feet — baptism — I am your master but I humble myself to wash you.

A command for them.

you must love one another as I have loved you.

Not however you want to love, but as I have loved you. Self-sacrficially.

Paradox, joy comes not from fulfilling oneself, but from emptying oneself.

Jesus tells his disciples to love, commit, to self-sacrifice, not to take their joy away, but to lead them to joy.

I say these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full.

Again, Jesus the model.

It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, the joy of resurrection, not just his own but ours too.

Love one another as I have loved you…so that your joy may be complete

Implication: we love others

Example of PACE visit.

We had done work. They were so thankful. Many Lighthouse members at the table, no we are thankful! Getting to serve fills with joy.

PACE made lunch, joy to serve.

The main evidence that we are growing in Christ is not exhilarating prayer experiences, but steadily increasing, humble love for other people. — Citation: Frederica Mathewes-Green, First Fruits of Prayer

A car is made to run on petrol [gas], and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. —C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Macmillan, 1952)

we are made for love. Because we are made in gods image and God is love. We are made to serve others.

Conclusion

songs, poems, art about love. All pointers to our deepest need.

On this last night with his disciples, Jesus talks about love.

Jesus loves you.

Respond to that love by dedicating yourself to him.

Living for Christ and as Christ did, alone fills the soul.

Prayer of Intercession

We offer our prayers through Christ, who is risen from the dead, who lives and reigns forever, and prays for us in heaven.

Through Christ, we pray for the church . . .Let us be people of joy, living witnesses to the power of the resurrection and the good news of your grace and peace.

Lord, in your resurrection power, hear our prayer.

Through Christ, we pray for the earth. . . From the dust of the damaged earth, raise up your new creation, full of beauty, wonder, and glory.

Lord, in your resurrection power, hear our prayer.

Through Christ, we pray for all nations . . . Let the message of your saving power spread throughout the world: that the dominion of death is no more.

Lord, in your resurrection power, hear our prayer.

Through Christ, we pray for this community . . .Let the doors of this church be open wide as we go forth in love and service and others come in to find a home.

Lord, in your resurrection power, hear our prayer.

Through Christ, we pray for loved ones . . . Give hope to those who wait for good news. Turn their mourning into dancing, and their sorrow into joy.

Lord, in your resurrection power, hear our prayer.

God of all power and glory, receive these prayers, and continue your mighty work among us, through Jesus Christ, our living Lord. Amen.

Lord, in your resurrection power, hear our prayer.

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