Of Vines And Branches Part Three Series

Of Vines and Branches (Part Three)

Text: John 15:12-17

We are back in John’s Gospel this morning… John chapter 15, verses 12-17, and while you’re turning there, I’ll just let you know, today we are going to be talking about love. And the world has tried to redefine love in our day in age in ways that would have never been imagined 100 years ago.

In our world today, you might two unmarried people living together, doing everything that married people do, and even though God’s Word says that is sin, they attempt to justify their sin by saying, “But we ‘LOVE’ each other.” Pro-abortion advocates will often times say something like, “It’s because of LOVE that we provide abortion – it is loving to “help” those with unwanted pregnancies, and it is loving to “save” unborn children from a life of misery.” That’s just sick – but it’s what some of them try to say in order to justify their sin of murder.

In the name of love, lust is gratified, lies are told, murders are committed, criminals are set free, terrorists are allowed free entrance into our country…. Is any of this what Jesus has in mind when He talks about the kind of love we are to have?

Well let’s look at our text – John 15:12-17 (READ).

So the first thing I want you to notice is that Jesus didn’t just say, “Love one another.” And He didn’t even say, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

Jesus is reiterating what He told them just a few moments prior… In john 13:34, right after He had washed their feet Jesus said, “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.”

So when the Beatles sang, “All you need is love” this isn’t the kind of love they were thinking of… and when Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang, “Love the one your with.” It certainly wasn’t that kind of love. Jesus is talking about the REAL meaning of love – CHRIST-LIKE-LOVE!

He says, “Love one another – AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.”

So here’s the deal – this is God’s Word… and Jesus is the Word made flesh – He is God’s Word personified… what that means is that since it is God the Son who gives us this command, He gets to define the meaning – NOT US!

So how does Jesus define this love? Well look at the text. In verse 12 He says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Then in verse 13 He says, “Greater love has no one than this – that He lay down His life for His friends.” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He laid down His life. But there’s a lot more involved in just that… Let’s think about it.

Before Jesus laid down His life, He stepped out of heaven, veiled His deity and became a man. That’s Philippians 2:5-7… let me just read that to you. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man.” In other words, in order for Jesus to lay down His life for His friends, He had to first be born in the likeness of man. He had to take on flesh. He had to put aside all that He was worthy of, and deserving of, and entitled to, and humble Himself by becoming man.

The idea here is that if we love one another as Christ loves us, then whatever we think we are deserving of, gets laid aside for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

To love as Jesus loves is to love sacrificially.

Now turn with me over to Ephesians 5:1-2 and I’ll show you how the Apostle Paul explains to us how we actually live this out. “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” So there it is again, loving like Jesus means giving yourself like Jesus. Giving yourself totally and completely. But stay there in Ephesians and look at verse 3 “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as proper among saints.”

So we love like Jesus, we give ourselves sacrificially… but stay in Ephesians there and look further at verses 4-7 (Eph. 5:4-7), “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things – the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not associate with them.”