Abiding in His Love - John 15:9-17

Ben Miller

Abide • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

John 15:9–17

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Big Idea: Abide in the love of Christ so that it produces the primary fruit of love for his people.

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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.

We are in our sermon series, Abide… and our goal in this series is to develop a constant awareness of, connection to, and dependence on the power and presence of our loving savior.

Most of our focus for the first two weeks of this year has been on the first parts of that definition… the remaining and the constancy and the dependence…

but I don’t want us to miss the last three words: our loving Savior.

That we ABIDE IN a LOVING savior… The call to abide is a call into the love of Jesus Christ. That’s going to be our focus this morning.

So as part of this series, we’ve been doing these interviews with people in our congregation who are in different life circumstances… who face different challenges… but who are all seeking to abide in Christ…

So we’ve been doing these interviews with people in our congregation who are in different life circumstances… who face different challenges… but who are all seeking to abide in Christ…

And so turn your attention to the screen as we look at what this is like for Shelly Jackson.

[Start video]

I love how she drew out the nature of community in abiding....

I said last week that there are three types of habits that fuel our abiding in Christ: word habits, prayer habits, and community habits...

We talked about the first two last week: prayer and the word… those are the ones that I believe we think about the most when we think about “abiding in Christ”…

just me and Jesus… praying… reading his word… alone with my Bible… responsible to apply it by myself…

but we forget about that third type of habit: community…

You can think of these three types of habits like a three legged stool… if you only have one or two of these types of habits going… only two legs of the stool… you are going to fall over.

You can think of these three like a three legged stool… if you only have one or two of these types of habits going… only two legs of the stool… you are going to fall over.

The habits need to work together and they need to be aimed at developing a heart posture of abiding in Christ...

These are not three isolated habits… they need to work together toward the goal of remaining… abiding… in Christ.

And the reason that we NEED those community habits is because we are abiding in the Vine… who is Jesus… and the primary attribute of this Vine is love.

We forget that we abide in Christ together...

Love is poured out for us… it is the primary nourishment from the Vine to the branches… and then it is expressed THROUGH us… it is the primary fruit the Father is seeking.

So here’s our big idea that we are going to see unfold through John 15 today:

You see, we are all attached to the same source of life.

And the health of one branch affects the health of all the others around it...

And the primary fruit that Jesus wants to produce in us is love for one another.

And we are going to see today that it is impossible to abide in Christ all by yourself.

Here’s our big idea:

Big Idea: Embrace Christ’s love for you so that you can experience Christ’s love in you and extend Christ’s love through you to his people.

Your Bibles are open to …

Just to remind you of the context:

Jesus and his disciples have just left an upper room in a home in Jerusalem where they shared one last passover meal with one another before Jesus went to the cross...

During that meal, the disciples failed to secure a servant who would wash the feet of all the guests, and because it was such a lowly job, none of them were volunteering to do it...

So Jesus took this opportunity to teach them about his love for them… and he reached for a basin and wrapped a towel around his waste and he washed their feet… one by one…

And he said that this was an example for them… that they were to go and do likewise… they were to serve one another…

And it’s at that point that Judas… one of his close followers... was dismissed to go sell Jesus out to the religious leaders…

But after he left, Jesus just kept teaching… and the very next thing he did was to give them this new commandment that was to govern his new covenant relationship with them:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” (, ESV)

And this new commandment and this theme of love takes up a great amount of his concern throughout the rest of their evening...

Jesus talks about it in chapter 14, and then again here in chapter 15, and then in chapter 17 he prays for ALL of his followers, that we would abide in the Father’s love together and that we would be one in him...

Jesus’ primary concern as he prepared to ascend to heaven back to the Father’s right hand was this: that we would be a people marked by our love for one another.

Let’s see what he says about this in the context of the vine and the branches: Read 15:9-17

Now this idea of “love” has ironically become a controversial issue in itself in the church…

For some people, they hear this word “love” and they are like, “YES! LOVE! This means that God just wants us to be warm and fuzzy and happy and he would never tell us to do something we don’t want to do…

And they take the WORLD’S definition of love, and they assign it to God.

And they take the world’s definition of love and assign it to God.

But then on the other extreme, usually responding to this wrong definition of love… people think that "love” is almost a taboo word… a word we should really try to downplay in the church… because it is just misused and abused…

People like this read the title of today’s sermon “Abiding in his Love” and think, “Oh boy… this could get dangerous… I wonder where he’s going to go with this one… may be time to find a more theologically serious church.”

It’s way too touchy-feely…

They read the title of today’s sermon “Abiding in his Love” and think, “Oh, here we go… Pastor Ben is going to try to get us in touch with our emotions again…

I’ll hear people say stuff like, “Sure God is love, but he’s also a lot of other things too...” and then it’s like they try to bury his love in a pile of other attributes like holiness and righteousness and wrath until you can’t see love at all...

And so if that is you, I want to assure you… it is OK… even GOOD… even theologically NECESSARY... that we talk about God’s love… often.

Still others… and I think this is far more common… have a hard time making this idea of “love” personal…

They know theologically that God is love… they just don’t believe God loves THEM.

They have a hard time imagining that a God who is so holy… and who is so righteous… and who is so perfect… would love people who are so… not.

And so it is essential that we see where Jesus begins his discussion of love… he says in verse 9:

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (, ESV)

The first step toward abiding in Christ’s love is this:

1) Embrace God’s love for you through Jesus, the Vine. (v. 9)

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. ” (, ESV)

Explain: Don’t we so quickly jump over those words to focus on the commandments part so that we can start trying to EARN God’s favor like we think we should?

But Jesus starts this discussion of love with this categorical statement… As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Jesus is saying, “I LOVE YOU… WITH AN IMMENSE LOVE… LOVE STARTS WITH THE FATHER AND ME Love that is PERFECT. Love that is ETERNAL.”

Illustration: Here’s what this would look like if this were an equation:

Explain: Father -> Jesus love = Jesus -> disciples love.

Remember the context of what Jesus is teaching: He is using this metaphor or parable where Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. The Father is the vinedresser...

And the Father is actively tending the vine seeking MUCH fruit because he is glorified when the branches prove to be Christ’s disciples… attached to the vine.

And the primary element of spiritual fruit listed in any part of the Bible is love. It is the characteristic that holds every other virtue in it’s place.

But remember: the Father is NOT seeking fruit of the branches themselves… he is seeking the fruit that comes from the life-source of the vine.

Remember what Jesus said, “The branch cannot bear fruit by itself… Apart from me you can do nothing.”

If we are going to fulfill the words that come in the next verses about keeping his commandments and loving others, we have to remember this: apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.

Jesus is the only vine who can produce the fruit the father is seeking.

And so we learned last week that he passes nourishment... from the vine into the branches… through his words.

The words of Jesus produce life and vitality and ultimately are what cause fruit to come out of the branch.

And here is the primary nourishment that those words carry: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

The words of Jesus reveal the quality and quantity of the love of God for us.

Illustration: Here’s what this would look like if this were a math equation:

Father Jesus

----------- = -------------

______ =

Jesus Disciples

I don’t remember a lot about math class, but I do remember this: both sides of an equation are supposed to balance one another.

1/4=25/100 those balance...

This equation in v. 9 just doesn’t look like it SHOULD balance.

The Father loves the Jesus. I get that.

The Father is equal to Jesus in the amount of love they can show… totally got it.

Jesus loves his disciples. I sort of get that.

But the Jesus’ love for me is equal to the Father’s love for Jesus???

That’s where it starts to break down for me.

It’s those two little words “as” as “so” that I can’t really wrap my mind around.

AS the Father has loved me, SO I have loved you.

Like this love that binds the first person of the Godhead… the Father... and the second person of the Godhead… the Son… so that they are PERFECTLY ONE...

this love that existed since eternity past and goes until eternity future…

This love that is between two perfect entities who never disappoint one another... and never mess up… and never “aren’t feeling it”...

In , we see that the Father's love for the son means total provision

This love that is the most perfect version of love ever to be experienced....

and has given all things

In , we see that the Father’s love for the son means total openness and full disclosure…

“For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.” (, ESV)

THAT is how Jesus loves his disciples????

“For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.” (, ESV)

Yes. Without condition, yes.

Is that really how Jesus loves his disciples?

Well, we just read in v. 15 - all that I have heard from the Father, I have made known to you.

John wrote in his first epistle:

Jesus loves us with a love of full disclosure: he is not hiding from us. He is telling us everything we need to know about who he is and what he has done and is doing.

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” (, ESV)

- But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (ESV)

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God [that means we put our faith in the gospel… we believe who Jesus is and what he has done… and we are united to Christ through faith]

You did not earn God’s love… he did not love you and attach you to the vine because you were lovely or awesome… you were a dead branch...

So [that’s how] we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

He loved you because of the work that Jesus, the Vine, did for you. He loved you because Jesus provided HIS life for you and it is HIS life that you now have coursing through you if you abide in him through faith.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (ESV)

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Because Jesus was crucified for your sin… and raised from the dead… you can be united to him by faith and raised to new life WITH him.

By this [by God’s love abiding in us] is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

And this union with Christ is such that when the Father sees you, he sees the work of Christ on your behalf.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” (, ESV)

And therefore the Father and the Son… in one mind and heart… can say “WE LOVED YOU AS OUR OWN CHILD.”

So here’s what Jesus says we need to do with that in verse 9: ABIDE in his love.

REMAIN in constant awareness of, connection to, and dependence on the love of Jesus Christ FOR you.

EMBRACE God’s love FOR YOU through Jesus, the Vine.

Apply: I know that there are many… many… here who have a hard time believing Christ’s love for you.

Apply: We MUST believe and be filled with his love for us. Otherwise we will try to get it out of those we are called to serve.

I have to admit that I can find myself there sometimes too in my lowest moments...

You KNOW that you don’t obey him perfectly... and you fall short of your own standards, let alone his...

You FEEL the disappointment from yourself and others...

Some of you have experienced a less than perfect love from people like your earthly father, and so you have a hard time imagining a heavenly Father would love you more than that...

And so it can be so easy to downplay the love that God demonstrates for us in Christ.

Sure he loves me… but… not that much...

Not enough to care about my concerns...

Not enough to want to use me in his kingdom...

Not enough to invite me in so that I could spend time just receiving from him in quiet and solitude rather than working for him…

Not enough for him to allow me to simply sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his teaching…

God can’t love me that much to want to actually be WITH me…

Like I said before, we sometimes try to justify this line of thinking theologically by trying to BURY love under a pile of other attributes that feel more appropriate to the way we feel about ourselves and others...

So we will focus on his wrath and justice and righteousness and holiness… to the neglect of his love and mercy and grace and compassion…

And we forget that all of his attributes shape the others… but the premiere attribute emphasized throughout the Old and New Testaments… the reason he is all the others… is that he is love.

And I’m not denying his righteousness and holiness and even wrath… I’m shaping our concept of them by the grace and love that he has shown for us in Christ Jesus.

He put all of his wrath toward sin on the head of his holy and righteous son so that he could be just... and at the same time JUSTIFY of all those dead sinners who come to faith in him… that is love.

But here’s what we need to understand: to deny God’s love, you deny the primary nourishment of the vine to produce the primary attribute of the fruit God is seeking: LOVE.

God loves you, not because of what you can do for him… not because of your performance or because of the fruit that you can produce... but because of what Christ did for you to make you perfectly holy and righteous and clean.

And he loves you because you are attached to the Vine.

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

If you deny God’s love, you deny the primary nourishment of the vine to produce the primary attribute of the fruit God is seeking: LOVE.

If you don’t embrace God’s love for you, it will actually keep you from loving others.

If you don’t embrace God’s love for you, it will actually keep you from producing the fruit the Father seeks.

Instead of loving people, you will start using people: for approval… for value… to feel good about yourself…

For example: If you try to love your kids without first experiencing the love of God, you will do things in order to make them like you instead of the things that are best for them.

Or you will TRY to love others with the type of sacrificial service that you know God desires… but because you haven’t first received HIS love… and THEIR love doesn’t satisfy your soul... YOU will run dry and you will get burnt out… and you retreat from community altogether.

For example: If you try to love your kids without first experiencing the love of God, you will do things in order to make them like you instead of the things that are best for them.

Or you will do things to make yourself look like a better parent in front of others instead of things that extend the love of God to them.

Another example: If you try to love others in the church by serving them in ministry without first experiencing the love of God, you will get all focused on what they want from you or someone else wants from you or even what God wants from you, rather than simply focusing on loving them.

And what will eventually happen is you will get burnt out… because you are spending all of your own energy without receiving the power of God’s love.

You must embrace God’s love for you so that you have God’s love in you before you can extend God’s love through you.

So let me ask you: do you believe God’s love for you?

I mean do you REALLY believe it???

I’ve heard so many say, “I have a hard time believing it...” and that’s an OK place to start… we have to confess that… but it’s not an OK place to stay.

If you are saying, “I don’t believe God loves me,” year after year, you need to get after this as a matter of FIRST importance.

Because it is a foundational element of the gospel that is necessary for heart transformation.

Come talk to one of the elders about going through a Soul Care process… get an accountability partner who will speak truth of God’s lov to you… do whatever it takes to strengthen your faith that God loves YOU.

I had to come to a place in the last year where I said, “This needs to change. I need to stop acting like God expects me to perform for him to earn his love or the love of others. I need to REPENT of believing untrue things about his love for me.”

So many times we think about repenting of actions… but are we willing to repent of these types of false beliefs and actually embrace God’s love?

Embracing the love of God FOR US is essential to motivate us at a heart level in the next part of abiding in Christ’s love:

Remember: repentance is changing my mind about who GOD is and what GOD has done in such a way that changes my understanding of who I AM and what I must do…

And if you don’t fully believe that God IS love for you… and that love was shown in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ… that becomes a matter of repentance.

Embracing the love of God FOR US is essential to motivate us at a heart level in the next part of abiding in Christ’s love:

Look at verses 10-11: “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.” (, ESV)

Now it may look like everything I just said contradicts those statements...

At first glance… especially to those who doubt God’s love for them or who believe it is dependent on their performance… these verses LOOK like God’s love is only given when we obey.

But remember… this conditional statement about abiding in his love comes AFTER the categorical statement of verse 9… as the Father has loved me, so I HAVE loved you.

God’s love for us in founded upon CHRIST’S WORK IN US and FOR US…

And those realities must shape our understanding of verse 10… Remember the primary command in the passage… repeated again in v. 9: “Abide.”

Remain in constant awareness of, connection to, and dependence on the power and presence of your loving Savior.

And so these verses are telling us what must as a result of embracing his love for us… we then can...

2) Experience God’s love in you through joy-filled obedience. (v. 10-11)

“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.”

Explain: Jesus is not saying, “maintain my love by keeping my commandments… if you don’t keep my commandments, I will stop loving you...”

Explain: God's love is a holy love, and obedience to his commandments grows us in our constant awareness of, connection to, and dependence on the power and presence of Jesus. We cannot obey without him and we obey because we know his commandments are for our good. Without obedience, our hearts grow dull to our need for him, and we doubt his goodness.

He is saying, “maintain your awareness of my love… your connection to my love.... your dependence on my love… by keeping my commandments.”

You see, our problem is that we tend to think about commandments as an obstacle to overcome in order to obtain love.

We tend to think about them as RESTRICTING love and holding us back from the things that will bring us true JOY.

And when we fall short, we tend to think about the CONSEQUENCES as God’s disgust with us and his tiring of our futile ability.

But that is not the way the Bible portrays the commandments of God.

We need to learn to see the commandments as the EXPRESSION of GOD’s love… not the obstacle to obtain his love.

They are not RESTRICTING us… they are FREEING US to know and live as he created us to live.

They are not holding us back from true joy… they are the gateway to true joy...

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be FULL.

Any the CONSEQUENCES then that come from disobedience are not God’s disgust with us, but rather his loving discipline to draw us back to the way that brings life.

You see, Christ’s love is a holy love… it does not cause him to hold back the truth… instead he lovingly leads us TO the truth that sets us free.

We obey because we know his commandments are for our good… if you were memorizing the Fighter verse from last week, you would have noticed that… God’s commandments are FOR OUR GOOD.

We learn that we cannot obey his commandments without him… his commandments cause us to seek him all the more…

And we obey because we know his commandments are for our good.

Because without obedience, our hearts grow dull to our need for him, and we doubt his goodness.

But WITH obedience, our hearts find the FULLNESS OF JOY that comes from the presence of the Lord working in us.

Illustrate: My son Titus and I were working together on one of his Christmas presents this year… this LEGO Hulkbuster figurine...

And this process involved lots of instruction… you could say lots of commandments… he couldn’t do any of it without me...

I had to tell him what to do next… I had to show him where each piece went… I had to sometimes even move his fingers into place...

And there were times when he didn’t listen… and it set him back in the building process…

BEN

But in the end, he had a great toy to play with… And even more, we spent time together where we just ENJOYED our relationship.

DADDY

And even more, we spent time together where we just ENJOYED our relationship.

ASHER

The commandments to build the LEGO toy I was giving him were not the hindrance to relationship… they were the means of relationship.

Apply: Do you see God's commandments as a way of relating to him?

Are they a source of joy because you see them as God lovingly telling you the best way to live?

Or are they something causes you grief? Do you still see them as a hindrance to your joy?

Do you still see them as a hindrance to your joy?

If you see them as a hindrance to your joy, you need to first believe that God’s commandments are an expression of his love.

It may not FEEL like love at the time when you would rather sin than obey…

But guess what... he knows stuff that you don’t… that’s why he is God… and you can trust that he is working for his glory and your good… and those are not two separate experiences.

And then, once you see the commandments as an expression of his love, you need to ask him for his power and presence to obey.

Not just once… but in the moment where you are tempted to NOT obey… you need to go back to verse 7 that we were studying last week:

“...abide in me, and my words... in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (, ESV)

Remember his word… ask for what you need… and then walk in obedience BELIEVING that he is with you.

And what you will find is that his way actually IS better than your way...

You will start to see new desires and motivations form toward his kingdom purposes...

You will see that he is loving you and protecting you and shaping you into the person he wants you to be THROUGH the commandments he has given...

You will see him answer prayer and prove his power and presence with you...

And you will experience his love IN you through joy-filled obedience.

If you are going to abide in Christ’s love, you need to embrace God’s love FOR you so that you can experience his love IN You through obedience… and that obedience will SHOW itself in love for others.

Look at verse 12: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (, ESV)

Here is the third step to abidng in Christ’s love:

3) Express God’s love through you in sacrifice for Christ's people (v. 12-16)

Explain: So remember where we started in v. 9 - As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. (That’s the nourishment from the vine.)

That’s the nourishment from the vine.

And now Jesus shows the fruit that this produces: as I have loved you, love one another.

The primary nourishment FOR the branch… love… begins to work IN the branch as we obey and ultimately flows THROUGH the branch to bear the fruit of love.

Remember also how we abide in his love… how we experience his love from v. 10… it happens BY keeping his commandments...

And the central commandment that Jesus gives is this “love one another.”

Loving one another and bearing fruit is actually another way of experiencing God’s love in us.

In fact, Jesus is just repeating what he said back in the upper room:

The primary characteristic of the fruit that true branches of the Vine produce is this: love for one another.

And it’s not just love in general… it’s love for one another.

Love is the primary characteristice of the fruit that true branches of the Vine produce.

But notice in and in : it’s not just love in general… it’s love for one another.

There is a specific group of people involved.

When Jesus gave that command in the upper room… Judas had already left the scene… and they could now hear the words “one another” and see 10 other pairs of eyes staring them back in the face… they were responsible to love THIS group of disciples...

And then as they joined with other disciples and the church was formed, they were called to love ALL of the branches in the vine with the love that Christ had for them and was at work in them.

This is not to say that we don’t love other people in the world… it’s to say that our love for those in the local church is visibly different and mutual because we share a common life-source: the love of Jesus Christ.

There should be a visibility to our love for one another that causes the world to take notice and say, “WOW… those people LOVE each other…

they love BEING together… they love serving one another… they love sharing their burdens and praying for one another… they SHARE something special.

Now I want you to notice that Jesus did NOT say, “This is my commandment, that you EXPECT love from one another.”

I think that’s what many people THINK Jesus said.

They focus on the love that they are NOT receiving from the other people in the church…

they sit off by themselves and expect others to come to them...

They wonder why the pastor or elders didn’t give them more direct attention...

They get mad or feel self-conscious when they think someone looks at them funny...

By the way… if that’s you… it’s a sign that you probably have not fully embraced God’s love for you… because it won’t MATTER to you what others think when you are FILLED with the love of God.

I know that from experience.

So Jesus didn’t say, “This is my commandment that you EXPECT love from one another.” He said, “This is my commandment: that YOU LOVE one another.”

I said last week that there

Apply: That should be our focus every time we get together: “How can I show love for others today because I am full of the love of Jesus in me.”

I said earlier that there are three types of habits that are like three legs in a stool: word habits, prayer habits, and community habits.

We MUST have regular habits of community in our lives if we are to abide in Christ...

Not only because of what we receive FROM community… although we will receive a lot… but because abiding in Christ’s commandments involves giving TO community… loving others.

Your love for others is the overflow of your constant dependence on Jesus Christ.

And without love for others you can’t claim an abiding relationship with him.

That’s why things like our Sunday morning gatherings and Gospel Community are such important habits in your Christian walk:

Because you need an identifiable group of people who you are called to love and practice the one another’s of scripture.

Those need to become a habit in your life.

They go on the calendar first, and everything else moves around them.

NOT because the pastor said so… NOT because we are trying to get something from you as a church…

But because they are essential to your growth as a believer in that you are called to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

And because you are called to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

We say at Oak Hill that the fellowship habits for every member should be: Sunday morning gatherings, Gospel Communities… and ministry involvement…

I think that we know what fellowship habits are: Sunday morning gatherings, Gospel Communities… maybe youth group or AROMA… accountability relationships… we talk about those things a lot… so instead of breaking it down into different habits this week, I want to spend our time giving you…

Those are the habits that we believe you need that will help you truly grow in Christ’s love for one another.

But they can’t just be habits… it’s one thing to know what the habits are… it’s another thing to actually pursue them with a focus on love.

4 Focal Points for Your Fellowship Habits: [from v. 13-17]

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (, ESV)

Here’s the first focal point for our fellowship habits:

1. Sacrifice based on his example (v. 13)

Remember… the FRUIT of love for others finds its SOURCE in the love of Jesus for us.

Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” and then he says, “Here’s HOW I love you… I’m going to lay down my life for you.”

That sets the bar pretty high, doesn’t it?

I’m going to deny my personal comfort and preferences and time and energy and resources out of LOVE for my brothers and sisters in Christ.

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (, ESV)

This moves love from an emotion or a feeling first to a choice and an activity that relies on Christ’s work in me.

I’m not EXPECTING others to show ME love first… someone ALREADY HAS… and his name is Jesus...

And he laid down his life for them too…

And so then I can lay down my life for them based on his example.

His love really is IN me if I’m united to him by faith… and it must flow THROUGH me to others.

Notice that he gave his life FOR them.

He gave his life for their benefit… ultimately so that they might find life in him.

And that should be the focus of our sacrifice… whether we are serving needs... or courageously speaking truth in love… or just spending time being present with someone...

Our goal should be that the other person would find their life in Christ.

Not so that they would thank us… or become dependent on us… or feel good about themselves… or that we would feel good about ourselves…

Our focus when we gather to fellowship must be to sacrifice for others out of he abundance of Christ’s love for us… SO THAT they would be freed and moved to a deeper love for Jesus and a deeper abiding in him…

Now if you lose that focus, you need to go back to point one of the sermon.... embrace Christ’s love for you.

Some of you serve A LOT… like way above and beyond…

And you are the type that needs to be told to slow down and receive… to make sure your ministry is coming from a place of abiding.

And you are the type that needs to be told to slow down and receive.

Remember… there is a mutuality involved in this… and some of you need to learn how to receive Christ’s love THROUGH other people.

Ultimately, Jesus did not just lay down his life so that we could become his slaves, constantly working FOR him but receiving nothing from him… he laid down his life so that we could have relationship with him and be called his friends.

Jesus threw that little word “friend” at the end of v. 13, and he doesn’t want them to miss it.

He explains it in v. 14: “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.” (, ESV)

Love for one another means:

2. Relationship based on his word (v. 14-15)

The word “friend” describes a personal… affectionate relationship… and it is staggering that the Son of God would call his followers friends…

But he also said, “Here’s the foundation of your friendship with me: ...you do what I command you to do.”

And that may seem like kind of a weird type of friendship… it’s not the friendship we are used to… but we have to remember… just because he is our friend, doesn’t mean he stops being the Lord of all creation.

It doesn’t mean that he stops being all wise and authoritative...

It doesn’t mean that he stops knowing what is best for you.

It MEANS that Jesus is the friend that you can trust absolutely to speak truth into your life.

He doesn’t hold anything back that you need to know or do.... all that he hears from the Father he shares...

There is a complete openness to his relationship with his disciples...

So here’s what this means in the context of the commandment that we love one another: the foundation of our friendships in the church is the word of Christ…

...his commandments to us and his revelation for us… .

We aren’t primarily friends because we have some superficial affinity with each other… (like we all like potato chips and we start a potato chip club within the church or something like that)...

Our FRIENDSHIPS are founded upon the words of Jesus Christ.

Our love for one another comes from a common love for him and what he has revealed to us. We are pursuing HIM together.

When you gather together in your Gospel Communities or on a Sunday morning or in accountability, love one another by pointing one another to his word.

Care enough about your brother or sister to know what they are going through and where they are tempted and how they need to be encouraged and stirred up in their friendship with Christ.

Let that be your driving passion in relationship with other believers: pursuing friendship with Jesus through his word.

And as we pursue him together… we move forward in the work to which he has called us.

Look at v. 16: “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...” (, ESV)

The third focus of our fellowship habits should be this:

3. Partnership based on his calling. (v. 16a)

Jesus says he chose us… he appointed us.... this is a calling… a partnership in the gospel.

We are called specifically to be those who would bear fruit… who would help the world see the beauty and value of the life-giving Vine.

We have a God-given purpose for our fellowship: that the world would KNOW that we are his disciples..

Love for one another is not so that we can hoard that love… it’s so we can point the world to the only source of TRUE love: Jesus Christ.

When you come to church, think, as I gather with God’s people today, I am partnering with them as one appointed to show the beauty and wisdom and power of God through our love for one another.”

That takes “church” from an event we attend passively to a purpose we pursue actively for the glory of the one who chose us.

Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t get anything out of our fellowship.

In fact, if we are pursuing him and his purposes for us, then we will be receiving everything from him.

Look at verse 16-17 again for the last focus of our fellowship habits:

“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.” (, ESV)

Here’s the last focus of our fellowship habits:

4. Dependence based on his provision. (v. 16b-17)

As we bear his fruit together, Jesus keeps giving us what we need to keep producing more fruit.

We come together as a dependent people… and we have a God who provides everything we need to bear more fruit.

He chose us.. he appointed us… so the Father would answer our prayers.

If we are abiding in HIS love, we never have to worry that our love will run dry… because he has a limitless supply of everything we need.

When our focus is on receiving from HIM… not from others… then we are able to truly fulfill his commandment and love one another.

We can serve one another and seek his word together and partner in his calling because we are all going to the right source: Jesus Christ himself.

So this brings us back to the beginning:

Have you embraced God’s love for you through Jesus, the Vine?

It is in him that we find everything that we need.

You will not purely love others unless the love of Christ abides in you.

And then have you experienced God’s love IN You through joy-filled obedience?

Do you see his commandments as an expression of his love… or as working against his love in your life?

God’s love is experienced tangibly when we step out in faith that he knows what is best and when we take him at his word.

And the result will be God’s love expressed THROUGH you in affectionate service for Christ’s people.

The primary provision of the vine is Christ’s love for you in order to produce the primary fruit of the vine: Christ’s love through you.