“You did not choose Me but I chose you…”
To begin, keep your place in John 15 and let’s go together to the 6th chapter of Luke’s Gospel and read verses 12-16.
“It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles: 14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew; 15 and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”
When men want to accomplish something in this world one of the first things they do is to gather supporters. If a man wants to mount a military operation he must first build an army. If he wants to build a large public building he usually needs the backing of the public in some way. He needs finances, permits, blueprints and so forth. When a man has an idea for an invention or some innovative measure that would in some way benefit society, he seeks the agreement and approval of those in a position to help him reach his goals.
When a person wants to learn and become proficient in a particular course of study and area of knowledge and expertise, the student would be wise to seek out the foremost authority on the topic of his or her pursuit and convince or commission that expert to be their teacher.
None of these things are true in the case of the Son of God, who needed no help, no approval, no financial backing, no human counsel for the task the Father sent Him to accomplish.
I don’t want to stay in Luke, and if you’ve already gone back to our text that’s fine, you don’t need to return to Luke. But if you were to glance over the fifth and sixth chapters of that Gospel you would observe that prior to choosing any of His apostles Jesus of Nazareth had driven out unclean spirits, healed many in Capernaum and the region of Galilee, asserted His divine authority to forgive sin, cleansed a leper (at least one), and declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath.
Christ’s choosing of the 12 out of all who were at that point following Him then, rather than meeting a need He would have for support or companionship or assistance in accomplishing His mission, was for their sake and ours more than His own.
As we come to look deeper into these verses today I believe we will find ample support for my statement.
CHOSEN NOT CHOOSERS
One thing that we must not miss in coming to this portion of Jesus’ discourse to His chosen apostles is that He is speaking to them as their Commander. We may tend to focus on the words like ‘joy’ and ‘love’ and ‘abide’ or dwell or remain depending on the translation you hold.
But in verses 9 through 17 of this chapter Jesus uses the word ‘command’ or ‘commandment’ five times, and the message is that our continuance in the joyful realization of God’s love, the fruitfulness of our walk, the fulfillment of the purpose He has in us – all of this is dependant upon following and living according to His commandment.
Now I’m not talking about the 10 Commandments here – although they are fufilled in the life of the believer as he or she walks in obedience to Christ by His Spirit – but I’m talking about this very specific command that Jesus gives to the apostles and through the inspiration of the Scriptures, to every Christ-follower. “Love one another, just as I have loved you”.
We’ll talk more of this.
For now I want the focus to be on who it is that is in charge and in control from the very beginning.
Jesus told them, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” How do you think this sounded in their ears?
First, it was the common practice that disciples chose their teacher. They wanted to pursue a particular course of study so they sought out the man purported to be most proficient in that area and they went to him to learn.
Some of these may have thought they chose Jesus as their Rabbi; that they had heard Him and made a decision to stay with Him in His travels as His students.
And on some level there has to be a decision of that sort made, doesn’t there? In any relationship there is a decision on the part of both parties to dedicate themselves, on one level or another, to each other.
In fact, it is innate in the nature of a relationship that on a daily basis the decision is made to stay with it and continue to pursue that relationship. It’s not a conscious thing always, but there is just an almost involuntary exercise of the will – sort of like blinking – to stay with it, until and unless something happens, something changes, to force one or the other to decide otherwise, whether for good or for bad.
An example of what I’m saying is demonstrated in Peter. He followed Jesus all over Galilee and the Decapolis and Judea and in Jerusalem, declaring his fealty, staying by His side, until the night it looked like being a friend of Jesus was going to prove hazardous to his health. Then he made a decision and literally ran with it.
Well, that is all true about the exercise of each person’s will in continuing a relationship. But Jesus wanted them to know that it was He who sought them, not the other way around.
He picked them out, in fact, He set them apart from their mother’s womb for the purpose He had for them in His eternal plan.
What Paul said of himself to the Galatians is true of every one of God’s elect from the very beginning.
“But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me” Gal 1:15-16a
Do you know that, believer? Are you aware that He set you apart from your mother’s womb and in the fulness of time by his grace He called you and revealed His Son in you? It’s true!
This is lengthy, I know, but listen to these opening words of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (1:3-14)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Christians, we must abandon every man-centered doctrine that puts us supposedly in control, learning about Christ and making a decision to ‘accept Him into our heart’ or whatever other un-biblical phraseology is employed, and surrender our fallen human pride and surrender our self-aggrandizing will, and understand that solely by the glory of His grace were we chosen, predestined, called and regenerated and adopted as sons and daughters of God.
Jesus said “You did not choose Me, but I chose you”, and He wasn’t just talking about the day He passed a tax collector’s table and said, ‘Follow Me’. He wasn’t just talking about the morning He strolled along the sea side, caught the attention of a couple of fishermen and said, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men”.
He wasn’t only talking to the men before Him in this room. Jesus, the Word of God, speaking as the Divine Son and Commander of the church He was about to establish was declaring His eternal power and authority to choose, and He was saying “I chose you, each of you, specifically for the completion of a life-long mission, the objective of which is to bring glory to the Father both now and everlastingly.
Look at verse 16 again and see what He says in the same breath as this declaration that He did the choosing.
“…that whatever you may ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you”
Do you think He was promising health and wealth and happiness there?
Absolutely not!
It’s not about us, remember? It’s about God and His glory. So how do we understand this?
We understand that in the course of going and bearing much fruit in the keeping of His commandments to love one another and to spread the good news abroad, whatever we ask of the Father in regards to the continuance and completion of our mission, He will supply.
Whatever was in their heads at the moment Jesus said “But I chose you”, whatever is in our heads when the preacher says “You didn’t choose Christ but He chose you; elected you; predestined you for His glory”, we must jettison all thoughts of rebellion against the doctrine of irresistible grace and sovereign election and confess and believe that He is God and His is the glory – all of it – none of it ours.
And to hold on to any contrary doctrine that gives man a whit of the power in his salvation is to take the first step toward idolatry.
CHOSEN IN LOVE TO LOVE
Now let’s get back to this topic of love; this commandment that He has given us.
In the portion I read from Ephesians Paul said, “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will”
It is an amazing thing to me, that men in their arrogant ignorance and deliberate hateful rebellion can delude themselves that they are speaking truth concerning God, when they accuse Him falsely of unfairness or meanness in His allowance of pain and suffering and deprivation and tribulation in the lives of people.
That which was introduced into the world through sin did not originate from God and none of it is His fault.
What I see in the Bible is God loving and desiring love. In love He predestinated His chosen ones and lavished grace upon grace in making them His own.
Listen to Jesus. “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you, abide in My love” That’s verse 9 of our text. Then in verse 12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
In every case He has used the Greek word ‘agape’ or ‘agapao’, denoting an all self-sacrificing, self-giving love that is proffered without condition and even undeserved. This is the love He has for the Father and the Father for Him, it is the love He has shown us in His sacrifice for sin, and it is the love He commands of those for whom He paid the ultimate price and purchased.
In sharp contrast, in verse 19 of this chapter Jesus tells His apostles that if they were of the world the world would love them as being part of the world. The word He used there is ‘phileo’, which denotes a friendly affection; a feeling of acceptance as an equal and a friend.
He could not use the word ‘agape’ because the world cannot ‘agape’.
It is a word for the Spirit of Christ and all who have the Spirit of Christ. Do you understand, believer with the Holy Spirit in you, that He has given you a love that can only be shared in the Spirit and that He now requires you to live in that love toward God and toward one another?
It is a privilege, you know, since no one else in the world can have or know this kind of love.
Anyone who watched the movies made about the Spider-Man knows the line “With great power comes great responsibility”. Along that same line of thought, and an infinitely more pertinent application, what solemn obligation do we have as Spirit-filled believers in Christ to obey this command of His, since we are the only ones in the world who have this gift to share?
And how must it grieve the loving (agape) Spirit of Christ who indwells us, who will never leave us, when we quench that love and treat one another, live with one another as though the very best we can muster for each other or even for God is phileo – at best?
I’ll ask you a question for you to answer in the privacy of your own thoughts. And I’m not teaching eschatology here – about the last days and the rapture and the tribulation and the order of how things will happen – I’m just painting a brief scenario and asking you to weigh things according to your personal knowledge and observations.
If Jesus was to suddenly come to the earth today, right now, to the church in our society, to our state, to our town, to the very churches with which we are supposedly affiliated, would He find this kind of love in practice and in evidence?
Now I’m not going to try to list ways that we should be demonstrating agape love. Jesus didn’t do that. He didn’t say, “Love one another, and here are the things you should do to show this love”.
What He did say is ‘just as I have loved you’, and since He gave His life for us I guess that tells us what He is calling for, doesn’t it?
In the 13th chapter of this Gospel (vs 34-35) Jesus said,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus didn’t list things for us to do. We’re the ones who fall into the trap of that kind of thinking. What Jesus did call for was complete and sacrificial love with His repetition of the words ‘as I have loved you’. We can’t escape it. He won’t let us escape it.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends, if you do what I command you.” Again, what does He command? Agape. Sacrifice. Love that is Spiritual and comes from above.
So without attempting to give some sort of palpable description of what that looks like, let me get back to the main point.
WHEN THE CHURCH DOESN’T BELIEVE THE CHURCH DOESN’T LOVE
What was it about the early Christians that is different than we usually are?
Why were people saying that they were turning the world upside down? How did they stick together and gladly sacrifice for one another, and how did they have the strength and courage to sing while the flames licked up around their feet and the lions circled them getting ready to pounce?
What is it about the great Christians of history, the ones we read about because of their selfless devotion to God right up to death’s threshold?
I believe Jesus gave the answer right here in our text, in the context of His commandment to love as He has loved and to go forth and bear much fruit.
They understood that one day they woke up and began about their business as usual, giving no thought for God or eternity and ended that day having been adopted as sons by His grace and to the praise of His glory.
They understood that they did not seek Him but that He knew them. They knew that they did not choose God but that He chose them and appointed them for eternal life and gave them a mission to bear fruit for His glory.
When people understand and believe that, people who have the Spirit of Christ in them testifying to their heart of hearts that they are saved by God’s grace alone – when they truly believe that, the issue of the heart is indomitable gratitude; not license, not a sense of entitlement, as we openly criticize in athletes and celebrities but fail to recognize in ourselves, but the deep and settled conviction and profound relief that while many are passed over God has chosen them and because of His choice alone they are secure forever.
I’m glad I didn’t choose Jesus. I am a fickle human with a weak and shaky foundation, and I may have later changed my mind.
I’m glad He chose me; because He is from eternity to eternity and His counsel stands forever and the plans of His heart from generation to generation (Ps 33:11).
I’m glad I was not presented with a list of facts and given the freedom to make the choice, because I would have chosen wrongly and to my own destruction.
For there is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless.
The reason we see so little love in the church and the reason we see in our time a steady decrease in spiritual fruit – the reason we see fighting and separation and refusal to reconcile is that the church has largely gotten away from this teaching.
If a Christian believes that to any degree he is what he is because of his own fortuitous choice, then deep inside he harbors a sense of entitlement that presumes, not only upon God, but upon his fellows in the faith. Then when they cross him, pride takes hold and self-righteousness reigns and the end is division, hurt, broken relationships, ruined churches and a destructive testimony before a watching world that brings reproach on the name of Christ.
Christian, you did not choose Jesus. He chose you. He loved you with agape love that took Him to Calvary’s cross and brought Him up out of the tomb in victory. He regenerated you by His Spirit and infused you with this agape love and commands you to abide in it, to abide in Him by it, and thus to bear fruit and thereby glorify God the Father.
If you can understand and believe this and ask His Holy Spirit to empower you to walk in its truth, if we all can, if the church can, then when Jesus comes He will indeed find faith on the earth, and a bride broken free from the world and ready to go home.
Would you entertain the notion that Christ is in any way, to any degree, dependant on anyone to be clean and ready by their own power, scheme or design?
No, you can unburden yourself of that error right now. He will call up to meet Him in the air, a church that He has chosen, that He has made ready, that harbors only gratitude that she has only escaped Hell and eternal damnation by the amazing grace of God; that she is made a glorified saint fixed in Heaven forever by agape which is in and through His Spirit alone, and applied by the blood of Christ our Lord to the glory of God the Father.
My Lord, I did not choose You, For that could never be;
My heart would still refuse You, Had you not chosen me.
You took the sin that stained me, You cleansed me, made me new;
Of old You have ordained me, That I should live in You.
Unless Your grace had called me And taught my op’ning mind,
The world would have enthralled me, To heav’nly glories blind.
My heart knows none above You; For Your rich grace I thirst.
I know that if I love You, You must have loved me first.
- Josiah Conder
