Do We Really Love Jesus? Series

Opening Illustration: I love the story of the guy who pulled the covers over his head one Sunday morning and told his wife, he was not going to church. When she asked why, he said the people didn’t like him, he didn’t like the music, and the kids made fun of him.

His wife said, it is your Christian duty to get up out of that bed and be in God’s house. He said if you will give me three good reasons to go, I will go. She said, “OK, you need to go because:

(1) God’s Word tells you to.

(2) You need to set a good example for the kids.

(3) You’re the Pastor!” (1)

I’m not that guy by the way. But gathering together as God’s people is something we are to do.

Hebrews 10:24–25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

From the inspired word of God; we should take these things as if Jesus Himself has spoken them. Yet many ignore the very words they know they need to follow.

Next to the one who does not pay his bill, the doctor’s most annoying patient is the one who refuses to follow orders. Recently it was estimated that between 16 to 90 percent of all patients leave half-empty pill bottles, cheat on diets, continue to smoke, or never return for checkups despite careful prescriptions and cautious advice.

There is a big group of individuals who come under the category of “uncooperative patients.” Painstakingly, the physician outlines a detailed program of treatment—what medicines are to be taken and how much, a list of permitted foods, graduated exercises, the kind of baths that might be taken. But all that labor is wasted, for his patient merrily goes on eating what he pleases and taking his medicines when and if he remembers. (2)

The fact is, we are people who want to do things our way. Even when doing it our way we fully know will bring harm and not good.

The top song played at funerals at “secular” or “non-Christian” funerals, is the old Frank Sinatra song: “I Did It My Way”

There was a LGBTQA parade in our community yesterday. It was all about doing life my way. How dare God tell me I am living a sinful life! How dare we permit the Bible to contain hate speech!

We want everybody to celebrate diversity (and perversion).

I’m sure many of those same people claim to be good Jesus loving Christians.

But Jesus makes a very simple statement:

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Most good church going folk, people who claim to be Christian, are quick to say, “I love Jesus.”

But people are basically rebellious. No one wants to be told what or how to do anything. We have a church-word for it; it called our sin-nature. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.

This is well documented throughout the Bible

Exodus 32:9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!

God was ready to destroy the children of Israel as Moses led them out of Egypt. This has been the problem through Biblical history.

In the New Testament, we see right before the stoning of Stephen we see him saying to the so-called religious leaders of his day:

Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

We read last week about the command to love God and this command is reemphasized in the New Testament by Jesus:

Matthew 22:37–38 Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.

And Jesus defines the proof of that love:

John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

The word “Love” is mentioned 57 times in the Gospel of John, compared with 31 times for all the other gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke. With “Love” being a leading theme in John, we ought to pay attention to proof of our love for Jesus.

For John there is only one test of love and that is obedience. It was by his obedience that Jesus showed his love of God; and it is by our obedience that we must show our love of Jesus. (3)