Continuing the Ministry of Jesus

John 15:9–12 NLT

9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

Introduction

We cannot fulfill our mission as God intends without love—loving God and loving others.

According to the very words of Jesus we must begin with this truth:

Remain in His Love

What does this mean?

John 15:4–5 ESV

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

A branch is not a self-contained entity, and neither is the Christian disciple.

And as a branch separated from the supply of nourishment cannot produce fruit, neither can the Christian.

Fruit bearing for the disciple is totally dependent on a direct connection to Jesus.

Attachment to Jesus or abiding in him is, therefore, the sine quo non (Gerald Borchert) of Christian discipleship.

Sine quo non: An essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary.

John 15:9 ESV

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

Just as Jesus is the recipient of the Father’s love, so the disciples are the recipients of his love.

Jesus’ statement that he loved his disciples depicted His love as a complete action, denoting perhaps the entire demonstration of Jesus’ love for his disciples throughout his time with them and culminating in his death.

Jesus: Remain in fellowship with me so that you may continue to experience my love for you.

This is what the earliest believers in Jesus knew and experienced.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy

The centrality of love in the Pauline ethic is evident. Love is the goal of his teaching

1 Timothy 1:5 NLT

5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.

Filled with love is critical, essential, in this believer’s life. Without it, even the gifts of the Spirit become ineffective and problematic.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love must be the guiding principle—the main motivation—behind the exercise of all spiritual expressions because love is the only context in which spiritual gifts can truly fulfill God’s purposes.

So, we need to remain in love with Christ.

Only then can we effectively and with full desire, follow Christ.

John 15:10 ESV

10 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.

Obey His commandments

The only faith-filled response to Christ’s love is to obey his commands.

Obedience and love must always go together in our relationship with God

Remaining in the Father’s love was not for Jesus a passive thing: it involved obedience to his commands.

The same is true for Jesus’ disciples. They remain in Jesus’ love by keeping his commands.

1 John 5:2 ESV

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

What happens when we love God and obey his commands?

Our Joy Overflows to Others

While obedience is demanding, it is the pathway of true joy.

John 15:11–12 ESV

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Jesus’ joy came from doing the Father’s will, and the joy of the disciples would come from doing what Jesus commanded them.

For fellow believers, when we remain in God’s love AND through that love we obey Christ’s commands, we bring joy to the Christian community.

For those outside of faith, our love for one another reveals our true relationship with God.

John 13:35 ESV

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”