Love Fuels the Church

Read

John 14:15–24 ESV

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.

Opening Prayer

Setting the Stage

In the preceding Chapter, Jesus commands us to love one another.

You’ll remember that the obedience of a Christian is not to earn the favor of God…

But, rather, it flows from a position of being in the favor of God by Christ’s finished work on our behalf.

Earned fully by Christ.

Obeying Christ in the New Covenant is not a disobey and die, obey and live…

That’s the OC.

Obeying Christ in the NC is loving His commands and using them as a guide for living for Him.

In our passage this morning, we have three instances where Christ teaches us that love for Him produces obedience.

John tells us in his epistle…

we love God because He first loved us.

One of the great benefits of Christ is the regenerating work of the HS…

To give us a heart of flesh.

A heart that loves God and responds to Him in love.

When we read through the gospels we see such great, perfect patience displayed by Christ towards His disciples.

We admire the patience of Christ to us…

We love to think about Christ’s patience with us.

But, we are not so quick or fond of being patient towards others.

And, that shouldn’t be so.

Now, what I want to address this morning has been on my heart, nearly the entirety of Chapter 14…

—> At least since v.15.

—> So for a month or more.

As I studied this week I felt it more appropriate for this morning’s text…

Due to the break from v.24 & v.25.

But I could not shorten what I want to say so as to include it in the sermon I prepared.

So, I’ve made them into two sermons.

Either way, I’m compelled to address this because I believe it has brought great harm upon the American church.

And, I’m speaking about decent churches.

Not so called churches that have abandoned the Bible.

So, as we’ve been learning what Christ’s teaching…

—> Regarding the truth that love for Him produces obedience.

And, as we’ve seen Him command us to love one another.

I want to look at something that I believe has caused great harm to the church…

—> And, great sadness to many Christians.

I want to give, what I hope will be…

Truth for the Health of the Church

I want to speak to what is known as Spiritual Disciplines.

One of the dangers, I believe in the modern American church, leading up to the present, has been a misunderstanding and misuse of Spiritual Disciplines.

Spiritual Disciplines teaches that a Christian should:

Read their Bible every day.

Study your Bible regularly.

Have a strong, daily prayer life.

Attend Church regularly.

Fasting with regularity.

Fellowship with Believers.

Serve the Body of Christ.

IOW, this is what makes a Christian.

This is just a list of disciplines that I can remember.

The list has grown quite long over the years.

I remember years ago, maybe 5 disciplines.

Now you can easily find 14, or more.

You may say, what’s dangerous about that list?

Well, it’s not so much the list or that those exercises are bad.

I don’t know anyone that would say avoid such things.

But, what’s bad about them is how they’ve been used.

And, how they’ve been taught has influenced how they’ve been used.

Now, please listen to everything I’m going to say.

If I’m unclear in any area, forgive me, come talk to me afterward.

But, please do not make a judgment early and close your mind and heart to what I say this morning.

For some this will be a difficult sermon.

For some it will be balm to a wound.

I believe that the misuse of Spiritual Disciplines has caused great harm upon the American church:

A Misunderstanding of the Source of Power for the Christian

A Misunderstanding of the Assurance of Salvation

A Misunderstanding of Christian Maturity

A Misunderstanding of the Meaning of Christian Community

#1 - A Misunderstanding of the Source of Power

Conversion

When Spiritual Disciplines get out of place…

They are taught as if they are not only the means but the power unto salvation.

We think the right rules can change the heart.

We think the right habits can change the heart.

We think the right parameters can change the heart.

They can help keep people from certain and specific sins.

But they do not have the power to regenerate the heart.

Only the power of God expressed in the gospel applied by the HS can regenerate the heart.

And, that because of the finished work of Christ.

On this path to spiritual victory, it has been taught that Spiritual Disciplines are the power for…

Victory over Sin

They’ve been used as the power to break the habit of sin.

If you do these things, you’ll have victory over sin.

Really?

Are they the power or are they the means to take us to the One who has the power?

Subtle difference of language.

Huge difference in actual results.

When someone is struggling with sin, the answer for most Christians is:

Read your Bible more.

Pray more.

Memorize Scripture more.

And so, quite often, these spiritual disciplines…

As so often used and taught…

Steer us to rest in what we’re doing rather than what Christ has done.

They take us back to placing our hope in Christian habits rather than the finished work of Christ.

We begin resting in our ability to discipline our self in Christian benefits…

Rather than resting in the exclusive, finished work of Christ.

I’ve been in the ministry for 25 years and I have witnessed this misunderstanding repeatedly in conflict and counseling.

—> And, have fallen into this thinking myself.

Spiritual disciplines are not our Savior…

Christ is our only Savior.

#2 - A Misunderstanding of Christian Maturity

Spiritual Maturity

Spiritual Disciplines have been taught as if they are the path to guaranteed spiritual maturity.

Sorta like a quick fix to spirituality.

As if you can force God’s hand.

As if God’s enlightening you is up to your habits & demands.

God raises some up to be mighty, but not many.

It’s become a church program of set your own pace to spiritual maturity and biblical understanding.

But, there is no quick path to spiritual maturity.

Do we not see this in the lives of the Apostles?

Three years in the presence and direct instruction of Christ.

And, they’re still not understanding that He needs to die to fulfill God’s Messianic promises.

By the way, much of our maturity comes through the testing of trials.

—> And, trials are God’s business.

Listen, God’s prescribed means of grace are good for us to pursue.

But, don’t trust in a process to grow you spiritually.

Trust in the good providence of God.

Trust in the benefits of Christ.

Trust in the work of Christ on your behalf as your only hope.

#3 - A Misunderstanding of the Meaning of Christian Community

Another danger to spiritual disciplines is it has caused everyone to create their own litmus test for who is really a Christian.

Let’s say someone is really disciplined and reads their Bible every day of the year.

Well, that becomes the litmus test for who is at least a mature Christian.

Anything less is an immature Christian or no Christian at all.

And, so then the path is followed so much that the litmus test becomes…

Whether or not your Christian life looks like mine in all decisions and opinions.

And, the person thinking this way has convinced themselves that their opinion is truth…

Many times near to or more important than God’s truth.

So much so, that we begin to think the answer to everyone’s problem is merely to know and do what I do.

—> The Pharisees did this same thing.

So, the solution to everyone’s problem is to become more like me…

—> Rather than Christ.

We hear about someone struggling and our thought is…

If they knew what I know and did what I do, they’d be okay.

Yet, when we are thinking that way...

We’re not thinking about Christ.

We’re thinking about our methodology.

So, who do we think they really need? … Christ?

No. —> In reality, we think they need me.

Because we’ve allowed ourselves to think of ourselves as the standard of goodness.

This, dear friends, is prevalent in the American Church.

—> And, I’m talking about good churches.

Walking into many churches is like walking into a courtroom of your peers judging you…

Waiting to drop the gavel and declare you not a Christian because you’re not measuring up to their Litmus test.

Why are churches like this?

I think one reason is because…

They’ve been taught that success in Spiritual Disciplines are the marks of the true Christian.

This is what you look for, if people aren’t successful in these areas they’re not real Christians.

The reality is, though, that all Christians struggle in spiritual disciplines.

All Christians have seasons of struggle and a lack of fervency.

That’s why we need Jesus to leave the 99 and come after us.

Amen.

What’s the Cure?

An Understanding of True Assurance

As we think about Spiritual Disciplines…

I want us to remember a certain group of people that we have run into on numerous occasions in John’s gospel.

Let us not forget the Pharisees

Read their Bible

Memorized huge portions of Scripture

Prayed

Attended worship

Knew the Law

None of us can compare to the religious disciplines of the Pharisees.

What did that accomplish for them?

Spiritual Life? No.

Spiritual Maturity? No.

A Proper Understanding of Scripture? No.

A gracious, patient attitude towards others? No.

A zeal for Christ?

End the end, after all the biblical disciplines they made habit…

—> They still rejected Christ.

—> They nailed Him to a tree.

What Is True Assurance?

The true assurance of faith in Christ is:

A love for God’s method of exclusive salvation in JC.

A love for God to be glorified through this exclusive means of salvation.

A love for this exclusive salvation as the exclusive means of your salvation.

Having these above loves as the habit of your heart.

Loving His commands.

Pursuing obedience by grace.

Aware of your inability to keep the commands of God.

Practicing to keep grace alive by the ordained means of God’s grace through the true/prescribed worship of God.

These are the assurances we have of our own faith in Christ.

Spiritual Disciplines, as they are called, are secondary assurances.

But, through the years they’ve become first and have misplaced the true tests of assurance.

So, that sometimes, lost legalists are respected more in churches than broken, contrite weaker brothers/sisters in Christ.

So, the cure is knowing true assurance and…

Understanding that Christ is the Standard

When Christ is the standard, rather than us…

We all cry out for mercy and grace.

We all see ourselves as equally sinful.

We all see ourselves in need of the righteousness of Christ.

We all see the need for patience.

Because we all fall short of Christ.

When a Christian is struggling…

Point them back to Jesus and the benefits we have in Him.

Call them to rejoice in the beauty of forgiveness.

Call them to be in awe of a Federal Head that will never exile them.

If you were to ask the Scriptures to give you joy…

They would tell you they cannot…

But, they can take you to the One who can.

The One who is the source of all joy.

What we’ve seen repeated by Christ is…

Love produces obedience.

And, what I want us to understand on the flip side is…

Duty does not produce love.

Now, the reality is that unbelievers have no ability whatsoever to obey God.

Everything they do is in disobedience because it is never done in faith.

Love produces obedience.

Christ has repeated this three times in this Chapter alone.

(John 14:15;21;23)

So far in John’s gospel we’ve learned:

The love for God is produced by the working of the HS.

The love for God is manifested in a pursuit to obey God.

—> Not to earn, but to honor.

By all means, pursue the prescribed means of grace.

By all means, exercise the grace of God given to you through the prescribed means of grace.

But do not look to or rest in your spiritual disciplines as your assurance.

Nor should you look at your ability to do spiritual disciplines as a means of despair.

Nor should you look to the Spiritual Disciplines to convert a soul.

Only Christ can save.

Here’s your true and only hope…

Look to and rest in the person and work of Christ exclusively.

Sola fide —> Sola Christus.

We are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.

—> And, that faith is a gift.

Faith is not meritorious towards our salvation.

Christ is sufficient!

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Closing Prayer