Following Jesus Beyond Christmas

Introduction:

Good morning Chapel, My name is Chaplain Patrick Lime, and it is my privilege this morning to bring the message, “Following Jesus Beyond Christmas” or ”Following Jesus into the New Year.” But first, let me wish you a merry Christmas! I know that many of us want to extend the season into January for the full 12 days, nevertheless, many are returning off of their leave, others will follow, and soon we will undecorate the chapel, our homes and return to life as normal, though maybe a bit colder. This is a time of year when many begin to feel down, perhaps a case of the post-Christmas blues and find themselves in need a little comfort. In our text today, Jesus is doing just that. Let me describe the scene for us; He’s at the table with his disciples, having already predicted his death, after they broke bread, Jesus, hours away from his crucifixion, takes the time to impart his final teachings, much of which they will not understand until his resurrection, and comforts them. Consider that.

Jesus, fully God, though his disciples grasp of that is still foggy at best, and yet fully man, is hours away from his own violent death, which he knows all about, and he spends this time comforting his friends. He says, “I will not abandon you.” Qualifying it, however, by connecting obedience to love.

Now even in the time of Jesus Jews would gather for the New Year and give offerings for the day of atonement, and strive toward purity out of obedience. We know today that Jesus was our atonement, but what I really want to talk about are those goals, our resolutions if you will. Though we have been set free from our bondage to sin, Jesus, having fulfilled the law, much responsibility is placed on us in how we exercise it. We are told if you remember, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (), so as we prepare to close this year out and as you spend time with your loved ones, I know that many choose to reflect on their past year; their relationships, accomplishments, opportunities that were not pursued and set goals for the year to come.

Studies show, however, that only somewhere around 8% of resolutions are kept and less than 10% ever make it out of January! With odds like that, there’s no wonder why many have forsaken making them altogether—but we all do it. Maybe it's within the secrecy of your own heart or a reminder on your phone calendar; though we may call them something different, or even make them between January’s, we still have goals. So, maybe they’re not scribbled down on a piece of paper entitled “resolutions,” that is if they’re even scribbled down at all, but I wonder what yours are.

I wonder what God’s are for us? Is that a biblical thing? Does God have resolutions for us? Well not really, resolutions are entirely ours, they’re a reflection of our will; –but, it always works out best if what we resolve to do is aligned with what we’re told to do.

Transition:

So, if you’ve got your bibles open, what is it that we’re told to do? What revelation is it that Jesus chose to tell his disciples hours before his death, what is it that John chose to include in his Gospel so that generations of believers to come would have as instructions towards righteousness? It isn’t paradigm-shifting in that it’s new, rather, it’s being underscored, it’s being highlighted, circled, and followed with exclamation points!

It is that love is obedience. Our first verse, states that “If you love me, keep my commands.” It’s echoed 3 times in verses 21, 23 & 24, so out of 9 verses, it’s said 4 times. The command is obey, should you resolve to obey, we are promised something.

15“If you love me, keep my commands. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.” ()

1. Love is obedience by His Holy Spirit.

As Jesus makes these promises to his disciples, I want you to notice what he’s doing, John wants you to notice, he draws attention to it:

He draws a very clear distinction between the world and his disciples. What you are going to receive, he says, and we are included in this offer too, what we are being offered, if we are obedient, what we will receive; the world will not. This is not for everyone.

Verses 17 continues, it says, “the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” John records this, 3 times, here in verse 17, in verse 19, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” and in verse 22, your pew Bibles say “why,” but other translations say “how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” You see, the predominant understanding of messianic prophesy at this time was that the kingdom would arrive in undeniable and irresistible splendor. Judas (Not the Iscariot, he had already left the table to betray Jesus) –But Judas, he was thinking cosmologically, conceptualizing the literal, visible world. Jesus says, “I’m not showing myself to the world, I’m showing myself to you.” That’s what he means when he replies, in verse 23, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Jesus is drawing a contrast here, not between anything in the visible world, but between the Kingdom of God and that of the World. This is also where the invitation is extended to the generations, to us.

So, does God have a resolution for us? –Kind of!

Allow me to illustrate this from my own life experience, maybe a few of you can relate. But first let me confess, I have not always been very obedient. In fact, before realizing my calling to ministry, I had no intentions of going beyond high school. Though I was on several of the Dean’s lists, I never quite made THE Dean’s list. I am convinced I may have even been passed on a couple occasions so that my teachers would not have to endure another year!

Maybe you can remember a time in your life when you needed a little course correction, maybe just a nudge in the right direction, or as in my case it is possible you had to go an entirely different direction.

But if your childhood was anything like mine, you didn’t like homework. Now my approach to avoiding it wasn’t that crafty, I just didn’t do it. My parents must have thought the school system was just so progressive that I never had any. They would ask, I would lie, and the year went on and on. I got to do the fun stuff and skipped out on the not so fun stuff. There was only one problem, this year in particular, I found myself in the classroom of a teacher who cared about me. One night my teacher called my mother. You see, apparently, I was failing and she asked my parents why I wasn’t doing my homework. Of course, this exposed my disobedience. You know there’s a proverb, in fact, and it says, “whoever hates correction is stupid,” go ahead, see for yourselves.

You see, my will wasn’t aligned with the expectation my teacher had of me. I had resolved to have fun, but a resolution is not a consequence, an end state if you will; rather, a resolution is a commitment, a fulfilled commitment has a consequence, but when that commitment, or resolution, is not aligned with the will of whoever has commissioned you, you will likely not enjoy that consequence.

So look again, with this in mind at verse 16, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.” Continuing in verse 21, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them,” 23“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

This sounds transactional, doesn’t it? Keep in mind we are only responding to God’s love, God’s grace, and our obedience is to His glory, not our own; we still have done nothing. Whatever good we muster is already his, it is a reflection of he who’s image in which we were created. That’s deep, and as much as I want to dissect that, this sermon is not about that, come back next week as we start a new series on “What We Believe Matters,” led by Chaplain Wilson!

But I want to be clear, still very much applies. “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.” CORRECT, that is factual, that is what I believe, that’s what John wrote, it is true, but there is more, much, much more! But, that’s not the point here. This is an offer to have a deeper relationship, a personal one, an intimate one, a purposeful one that is not offered to the world. If we resolve to be obedient. is the only reason we’re saved, it is the “why.” Because He first loved us (). Now what? That’s what Jesus is getting at in this text. Its why John kept writing after chapter 3, it was a great chapter! But this passage is talking about, the “what,” or the what now if you will, and that what is that love is a command. The “how” is His Holy Spirit.

That’s what this text is, let's keep that perspective. Jesus is giving guidance to his disciples, he tells them that he is leaving them and they’re getting instruction for when he’s gone. It’s instruction for us too.

The other Gospels cover the Last Supper in several verses, John, however, dedicates 4 chapters to it. Jesus is headed to the cross and judging by the questions posed by the disciples, they clearly aren’t understanding the fullness of his final revelations. This is one reason if we’re following Jesus on this side of the cross, we need to trust His Holy Spirit to guide us. The Spirit, Jesus tells us, is going to help us to understand, it is described here as the Spirit of Truth, that he is a counselor and an advocate.

So, the Holy Spirit is our link to a personal relationship with God, because he’s leaving and has in fact left, and the Spirit is our Guide.

The Spirit is also our strength: Leading up to this passage, Jesus says “that those who believe in him will do greater works than he did;” and that “he will do whatever we ask in his name.” Now these works are the same as those that Jesus attributes as “works of the Father who abides in him.” In the same way, only because he who dwells in and with us can our works be greater, also because he is speaking collectively about the many followers that will effectively multiply his ministry and extend the range of his work. This really is to us, we are not simply reading a history book that describes something that happened long ago, this is an invitation, His will for you.

So, we are enabled to do God’s work by Him. It's not transactional. Because it’s not even us. It’s the Spirit within us, through love. He is God, He has chosen us already, we respond by making him our Lord, if we love him, we will keep his commands. Then we are capable of bearing fruit in keeping with our repentance. Then we are capable of “the fruit of the Spirit, [which] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” ()

Transition:

I said in the beginning that this isn’t paradigm-shifting. We’re still at the table, the Last Supper, and the last time many of his disciples will see him before he is crucified. In the last chapter, Jesus cut the new covenant in which he declared, “a new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is how he says, “that everyone will know that you are my disciples.” ()

But it isn’t new. Even before the ministry of Jesus on earth God spoke to Israel, recorded in Leviticus, (19:18) saying “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Certainly, if we are the heirs of Abraham it was said in Genesis (22) that all the nations on earth would be blessed through us. Clearly, the “newness” of the command to love isn’t in the command itself.

What is new, what we lacked in the past, ever since we gained the knowledge of good and evil, was the capacity to be obedient to his Word, to his commands. We were given a way to remain God’s people, we were given means to arbitrate our disobedience, but what IS new here, is the Spirit.

If we Love Jesus, which is the first step. We can love him and not obey, that’s where we’ve fallen short; but if we love him, and respond in obedience, we are promised the Spirit, who will then

2. Empower obedience to his Word. (The Spirit will)

This is why Jesus lived a perfect sinless life. There is an expression, and it goes, “to err is human, to forgive divine.” It doesn’t say that to err is to be human. To err is a human thing, but that’s not a summation of our existence. Jesus was fully God, but also fully human! If to err is what it means to be human, if that’s our design and God’s intent for humanity, then Jesus was something else. Jesus was a reminder of our identity. He re-commissioned us for obedience and offers us the means necessary, the Holy Spirit.

As we discovered before, this is a different kind of relationship. A deeper one, a personal one and one much more intimate. It’s not the love offering to the world as described in chapter 3, that was the invitation, that was the atonement, the propitiation of sin, Jesus in our place. With this Love, with obedience, we are promised in verse 23 that God “will come to [us] and make [His] home with [us].” We’re talking about indwelling. In Ephesians we are told “[if we] are sealed with the Holy Spirit… it is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession...” () If you have his Spirit, your inheritance is sealed. What better news is there? That’s literally the Euangelion, the term from which we get the word “Gospel,” which is translated as “Good News."

Transition:

It wasn’t long after my intervention as a young student that I realized that being obedient really did pay off. –I wanted to have fun, but that isn’t a resolution, that’s a consequence. Instead of doing homework in the evenings when all the other kids were doing theirs, committing themselves to the will of our teacher, I missed out on the consequence, which was fun. Isn’t it ironic? Now I did enjoy the fruits of my labor—in that case not so much fun, but there was a consequence. My teacher and mother worked out a deal where I could pass, but I would truly have to commit myself to their will. I forfeited my recess the rest of the year making up all “the assignments I never had.”

Application:

When I was a young student and I encountered adversity, I just gave up. I saw, or at least I thought I saw everyone else around me doing so well and resigned to myself thinking maybe I was stupid. But that is a misuse of that particular word. Remember the Proverb says, “whoever hates correction is stupid.” That’s the appropriate use, not because it’s what the Bible says, it does, but that what it’s called when someone ignores rebuke. God disciplines us, we’re told time and time again in both the New and Old Testaments, for our good.

Another proverb, but not a Biblical one says, “The successful student is not the one who gets his work done with ease, but the one who persists in his work despite frustration and failure.” It’s about endurance through adversity. Only a fulfilled commitment has a consequence and the key to that is given to us in the Spirit if we obey him.

Will God make you do it—No! He proved that in the garden of Eden, he did not abandon Adam and Eve, but should you choose not to align your will with His, you are abandoning him—and his ways, and his decrees, and his ordinances, and desire for your life, which is salvation, grace, and fellowship, and his rest.

So, what has this got to do with us? How do we apply this to our lives today?

Application:

As you take down your Christmas decorations, make sure you don’t leave Jesus in the manger of your heart. If you leave him in the manger, he remains a babe. If our theology remains as such, we are worthy of rebuke! Paul issues such a rebuke in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 1-3 say, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly.”

Of all the lessons we learn from the life of Jesus, none is more clear and powerful than the lesson of obedience. His example teaches us not only why obedience is important, but also how we can be obedient. Jesus displayed his obedience in order that he fulfill all righteousness (), he observed the Sabbath at even a young age, captures him being both obedient to his Heavenly Father and earthly parents, saying, “[he] grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” It was clear in the garden he had reservations, having full knowledge of what was about to take place, yet he said, “not as I will, but as you will.” () Brothers and Sisters, All American Chapel, this is the work of the Spirit.

Jesus insists 3 times in this Gospel alone “I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.” (5:30; 6:38; 8:28–29) And now he says it again, in our final verse proclaiming as he heads to the cross, 24“Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Conclusion:

So, what did this last year look like for you? With any luck, it was full of obedience and spirituality, but luck doesn’t have a thing to do with it. Those who are successful in this way do it on purpose. Obedience is a commitment, it’s intentional. My hope for you is that you enjoyed some recess by aligning your priorities with God’s expectation of you.

As you make your New Year’s resolutions, and I pray we do better than 92% and by The Holy Spirit I know we can, ask yourself what you are doing in these areas. Do some soul searching and ask yourself in all honesty how you’re being obedient –at home, in your workplace; and how are you relying on the Spirit? Is your love for Jesus apparent in your life? If it’s not that’s ok, there’s time to make some changes.

Though Jesus has gone away into heaven, he has not gone away. He is with us, and he will be with us, and he will never leave us abandoned. Wherever this Ney Year takes in your career or on your travels, or in your walk with Christ, don’t forget to keep your eyes open for him, pursue him in the Scriptures, gather in fellowship with other believers –and do it often!

This would be a great time to commit to some spiritual disciplines; the book of James is a great place to start, its very short but very purposeful. But that’s what we’re really being called to in this passage today. Belief was the invitation, obedience is where the rubber meets the road, whatever you love you will peruse.

Jesus has already made his expectations clear, “if you love me, keep my commands.”