The Evidence of Our Love
John 14:23
April 6, 2014
Evening Service
On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
How do we reveal that we really love Jesus? What is it that we do to show that our love for Christ is real?
There are a number of things that people might list here.
* Attend church services regularly
* Serve in the church and participate in ministry
* Help people in need
* Read our Bible
* Pray daily
While all of these things are good, do they prove the depth of our devotion to Christ? There is one way that Jesus told His disciples that they show their love for Him. These words of Jesus still ring true today.
If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23
The Challenge of Loving Jesus
Jesus makes it clear there is one obvious way to prove our love for Him, we must obey His teaching. At first glance, this seems to be a simple statement. Our love is shown by our willingness to obey the teaching of Jesus. The question that automatically arises is which teaching do we need to obey? The word Jesus uses here for teaching implies the whole body of His teaching. Jesus expects us to obey all of His teaching. Obedience is the first sign of our love for Christ. If we do not obey Jesus and follow His teaching, we don’t really love Him.
The issue runs even deeper when we understand the full depth of the word obey. When Jesus tells the disciples to obey His teaching, it meant to keep the teaching in their hearts, to defend it, to care for it and to share it. The implications of this are massive. Understand what Jesus expects here: He wants us to hold His teaching in our hearts so it changes our lives; He wants us to defend His teaching and to share it with others. Obedience is more than just following the teaching of Jesus, it is allowing it to change your life. If you do not open your heart to the power of Christ’s Word, you cannot possibly ever love Him.
We need to live our lives according to Christ’s teaching. The manner we live out those teachings of Jesus determines the level of our love for Him and our level of commitment.
Change
The first thing that happens when we begin to follow Jesus is a demand for change. We cannot believe that we can have an encounter with Jesus and remain the same. The process of discipleship is one of continual change. There cannot be a deeper relationship with Christ, without personal changes. One of the problems that many Christians seem to have is that they desire a deeper walk with Christ but are unwilling to change.
Commitment
Love requires commitment. There cannot be a genuine love for Jesus without a personal commitment.
Character
Character is who you are when no one is looking – Bill Hybels
Compassion
a. Loving other people
b. Forgiveness
If you hold grudges against people and are unwilling to let go of bitterness, you cannot fully love Jesus.
c. Self
Becoming more like Jesus means that more and more of our self and selfishness is surrendered to the power of Christ. The only way that we can be filled more with the presence of God is to empty ourselves of self.
* By nature we are selfish and we desire to get what we want
* Selfishness flows through our unwillingness to serve for the right reasons
* Selfishness is the nature to control people and situations around us
The Promise of God’s love and presence
The promise that Jesus proclaims here is conditional. If we will follow the teaching of Jesus and show our love for Him, two things take place. First, the Father shows His love for us. Second, God makes His presence in our lives.
God reveals His love for us
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of the love of God. There is no better way than sending Jesus for God to show us the nature of His love. God lays His love on the line for us at the cross. As we approach Easter, there should be a deeper and deeper understanding of the measure of God’s love. Jesus is communicating the fact that God was about to show His love for humanity in a practical and powerful way. It is vital for us to remember that these words of Jesus take place after the Last Supper. As Jesus speaks to the disciples, they are walking to Gethsemane and the arrest of Jesus. Jesus is going at that very moment to prove the love of God and His love for the world.
There is no greater love than that of Christ at the cross. There is no greater demonstration of love than Jesus giving His life in place of ours. If Jesus loves us that much, do we not owe to Him our obedience to His teaching. Do we not owe to Him the devotion of our heart? Do we not owe to Him the fullness of our life?
God makes His presence in our lives
Notice what Jesus says near the end of the verse: we will come to them and make our home with them. There are two things that we must understand here. The promise of God’s presence is plural and the promise is continual.
Jesus makes it clear that the presence of God is not singular but plural. There is not just one person of God residing in the life of those who believe and obey but the whole person of God resides in the life of the believer.
Father: Our relationship with God begins with the Father. The Father is the source of our relationship. Jesus died to restore the broken relationship with the Father and the Spirit comes to continue the relationship with the Father.
Son: Jesus comes to bring us life through His death on the cross. He resides within the life of the believer through the power of the resurrection. The person of Jesus lives within the life of those who believe and obey.
Holy Spirit: The Spirit comes to fill us with His divine presence to cleanse us of our carnal nature. He moves in us to give direction and guidance on a daily basis. The Spirit fills us with the presence of God.
Jesus states that God will come into the life of the believer. The understanding here is that Jesus will make Himself known through the lives of those who believe and obey. Jesus shows Himself to the world through those who willingly follow Him. Does Jesus make Himself known through your life? Can people see Jesus in the way you live? The presence of God overflows from our lives to those around us.
Jesus takes things a step further with the presence of God making His home within our lives. The word home might be better described as a dwelling place. Jesus states that God makes His dwelling place within our lives and fills our lives with his divine presence. The same understanding happened with the Holy of Holies at the center of the tabernacle and temple. God flooded that one place with His presence and now Jesus says that God desires to reside in the center of our lives. The only problem is that we often do not let Him.
The word used for home only appears twice in the entire New Testament and both references are in John 14.
"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2
Jesus speaks of our opportunity to dwell with God for eternity and to have a permanent dwelling place with God in heaven. The comparison is clear. Jesus is showing that we do not have to wait until we get to heaven to dwell with God’s presence. God will dwell in our lives and give us a taste of heaven here on earth.
