Tonight I just want to take a few minutes to talk about the love that Jesus has for us as believers. Three little verses are all we will look at but three verses that show us the very special relationship that Jesus has with believers, a relationship that delivers us from an existence that is barren, empty, lonely, unmeaningful and otherwise sad without Jesus.
The first thing we look at is that Jesus has loved believers. READ v. 9. Jesus has loved believers. He has loved us with a very special love. Jesus makes two points here. He discusses the Father’s love for His Son, Jesus Christ, and He talks about Christ’s love for believers.
Let’s look at the three reasons why the Father loves Christ.
1. First, Christ is His Son. His only Son. God loves Jesus because of a natural love. God naturally loves His son just as most fathers naturally love their children.
2. Secondly, God loves Christ with an obedient love. God is perfect, which means He is perfect love. So being perfect love, God is bound to love His Son. But this is a lot more than an ordinary love. Christ Himself is perfect, the Perfect Son of God. So God loves Christ with a very special love.
Imagine how much a parent would love a perfect child, a child who was always obedient: never being disrespectful, or rebellious. Most parents love their children, but it’s in special moments of obedience and caring that love swells up in the hearts of parents for their children. God’s love for Christ is a perfect love, but it’s a very special love based on the perfect obedience of Christ.
3. Thirdly, God loves Christ with a supreme love. Christ paid the supreme price of obedience. He died and sacrificed Himself in obedience to God’s will. So God’s love for His Son is very, very special in that it is a supreme love.
Now continuing in verse 1, Christ said that He loves believers with the same kind of love, the very same love that God has for Him.
That means that Christ loves us with a natural love. He loves us because we are God’s children. He loves us because we are brother so His. He loves us because we are the household and family of God.
Christ loves us with an obedient love. He loves us because we believe God. He loves us because we earnestly seek God. He loves us because we obey His commands.
Christ also loves us with a supreme love. He loves us because we pay the supreme price of obedience: we deny self, take up our cross, and die daily in order to follow Him.
READ 9b-10. Jesus has one great charge for believers—to believe or to remain in His love. “Continuing,” “abiding,” or “remaining” is conditional. When you think about it, a believer can
• Break fellowship with Christ.
• Stop keeping his thoughts on Christ.
• Walk out of love of Christ.
• Get away from the love of Christ.
• Turn back to the world and to his old worldly friends
• Give himself back over to the lust of the sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does.
Jesus said that it’s up to the believer to continue in His love. How? By doing what any person does when he wants someone to love him. The person draws near to the person his loves: he does good and tries to please the person. It’s the same with the believer. The believer continues in the love of Christ by drawing near and doing good and seeking to please Him—very simply by obeying His commandments.
Note that Christ ALWAYS loves. His love is ALWAYS there. But it’s up to each of us to walk in that love. A person can never know and experience the Lord’s love unless he walks in it.
Abiding or remaining in the love of Christ has a supreme example: it’s Christ Himself. He was perfectly obedient to God so He continued in the Father’s love. We should look at His obedience as our prime example.
Note something else. A believer has to do something if they are going to follow Jesus’ example and keep Jesus’ commandments. The believer must study and learn and remain (abide) in the Word of God, in the commandments and life of Christ. A person cannot keep a commandment unless he knows the commandment.
READ v. 11. Jesus’ great purpose for believers is the completion of their joy. Let’s note three quick points here and we’ll stop for tonight.
1. The joy is Christ’s joy. He says “My joy.” His joy and glory was doing the will of God and looking ahead to the joy and glory of eternity with His Father and His followers.
2. The joy of believers is the joy of Christ Himself reigning with their hearts.
3. The joy of believers is fulfilled as believers study His Word, the promises and commandments which He made.
Jesus later says in Jn. 17:13 – “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
Several things need to be said about the believer’s joy.
1. Joy is divine. It’s possessed and given only by God. Its roots are not in earthly or material things. It’s the joy of the Holy Spirit, a joy based in the Lord. It’s His very own joy.
2. Joy doesn’t depend on circumstances or happiness. Happiness depends upon happening, but the joy that God implants in the believers’ heart overrides all, even the most troublesome matters of life and death.
3. Joy springs from faith.
4. Joy of future reward makes and keeps one faithful.
The source of a believer’s joy is several-fold. See if you don’t agree.
1. The fellowship of the Father and His Son brings joy.
2. Victory over sin, death, and hell brings joy.
3. Repentance brings joy.
4. The hope of glory brings joy.
5. The Lord’s Word, the revelations, commandments, and promises which He made bring joy.
6. The commandments of Christ and the will of God bring joy. Obeying and doing a good job stirs joy with the believer’s joy.
7. Prayer brings joy.
8. The presence and fellowship of believers bring joy.
9. Conversions bring joy.
10. Giving brings joy.
What brings you joy?
