Remain in His Love
Notes
Transcript
I want to begin this morning with an anonymous story I found online
“While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I watched a church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years. He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age.
After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gait to the podium. Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak….
“When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50-odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me… the only thing that would comfort was this verse I learned as a child…
“Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
We are weak but He is strong…
Yes, Jesus loves me… Yes, Jesus loves me… Yes, Jesus loves me…
The Bible tells me so.”
The old pastor stated, “I always noticed that it was the adults who chose the children’s hymn ‘Jesus Loves Me’ (for the children of course) during a hymn sing, and it was the adults who sang the loudest because I could see they knew it the best.”
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
So, Jesus is now moving from talking about bearing fruit to remaining in His love
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
It is almost as if Jesus is reversing what He said in:
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
We talked about how we will keep the commandments of Jesus if we remain in His love..
Meaning, keeping the commandments of Jesus is done out of a loving relationship with Him
And now, it seems almost like He is reversing what He said…
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
So, possible Jesus indicates both sides of the same coin…
Out of our love for Him, and our relationship with Him, we will keep His commands…
Because we love Him, we will keep His commands…
And here to remain in that love, keep His commands…
So, because we love God, we want to obey Him!
And, in order to continue to love God, we obey!
Jesus is pointing out two distinct features of the new covenant community…
To love God, and to obey Him!
Jesus spoke about this previously in
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So, again, we obey Jesus by loving him and others! And, consequently, people will know that we love Jesus by the way that we love others!
So, these two key principles of the kingdom are at hand…to obey and to love…
Often times in the church, we tend to separate these two and we can get into trouble when we do so…
For example, at times we tend to error on the side of obedience…
This was one of the errors of Pharisees…the were all law and little love…
For example, we have the story of the woman caught in adultery…
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
So, here they are so stuck on the law…and Jesus is about to make a point here..
They are so focused on the law, that they missed who Jesus truly is…
They were missing the fact that Jesus is the one who forgives sins…
The law is not able to forgive sins, but it points to the one who can…
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
The question is, why did they begin to walk away…
No one really knows, but I think the best thought is that Jesus is writing their sins in the dirt…
Typically in lists in Jewish tradition, they would start with the oldest and work their way down...
So, possibly Jesus begins writing their sins, oldest to youngest, and so they begin to walk away...
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus clearly is the one here who actually has the authority to condemn or to forgive…he was sinless..
So, here’s an example of the pharisees being all law and little love..
Some churches today are this way…it’s almost as if you have to be perfect in order to serve in the church…
As soon as someone messes up, they drop the axe..
On the other end we have the “it’s all about love.”
And, they lack accountability…
It’s the thought that because God is love and He loves you, you can do whatever you want…
So, sometimes there is an error on one end of the spectrum or the other…
But Jesus tells us, obedience and love should go together…
Paul reiterates this perspective in relation to the law..
3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
So, in God’s love, He sends His Son, to set us free from the law, but in order to obey Him by loving one another…
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
And how do we do that?
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
So, we have the opportunity to remain in God’s love by keeping His commands
Jesus wraps here with some good stuff
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
So, it is a bit of a simplicity, but if you want to have the joy of Jesus, remain in Him!
How often do we try to find joy in things other than Jesus?
And, how often are we let down because we don’t truly find the joy that we are looking for?
there is a story of….
Fifty-Two Invitation Illustrations (5. The Secret Was that He Knew the Shepherd)
The story is told of an outstanding actor who was asked to entertain one evening at an immense dinner party. As the great actor arose to speak the room was filled with excitement as the eager guests anticipated his message.
The star of the day said that he was going to recite the Twenty-third Psalm. This he did in a dramatic and eloquent manner. As soon as he had finished the chamber roared with applause as the audience arose in a standing ovation.
The next speaker of the evening was an elderly white-haired man who was bowed and feeble, worn by many long years of steadfast, patient labor as a missionary. A hush fell over the audience as he arose. After a moment’s silence he said humbly, “I, too, would like to recite the Shepherd’s Psalm.”
Then, lifting his face slightly toward Heaven he closed his eyes and began:
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
When the servant of the Lord finished, a pin could have been heard if one had dropped on the floor. This time there was no applause. There was no standing ovation. Not a sound was heard. Yet, throughout the room there was not a dry eye. Tears were flowing freely.
Shortly afterward, a man approached the outstanding actor and said, “I don’t understand. You both said the same thing. Your presentation was perfect in every way. Yet, when he spoke in his halting, imperfect manner, people were moved too deeply for words. What made the difference?”
The actor hesitated and then replied, “The answer is simple. I knew the Twenty-third Psalm and I knew it well, but he knows the Shepherd!”
Do you know the shepherd? If not, will you receive the Lord Jesus Christ today as your personal Saviour?
The Lord Jesus said:
“I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9).
—Billy Apostolon
The true joy of Jesus..is in knowing Him! In His great love, He went to the cross for us! So, that we can abide in the same love that He and the Father have!
Jesus said
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.