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)
Obedience is the proof of our love for Jesus.
Generally there are Three reasons for obedience:
1. A slave obeys because he has to. There is fear of punishment or retribution if he fails to do as he is told
2. An employee obeys because he is paid to. There is promise of reward for obedience.
3. A believer obeys because he want to please his Lord. Out of love, comes obedience.
Jesus, sets the example, out of love for the Father, Jesus was obedient:
Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
So how much more so should we be obedient to Christ?
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. (John 14:21)
Our obedience is how Jesus knows we love Him.
Many claim to do the will of the God, yet in reality, they are only doing what is good in their eyes. But we have our pet sins, we continue to do things against the word the God.
Lie, steal cheat, practice immorality, etc.
1 John 2:4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But there are benefits to obeying the commandments of our Lord, the rewards are great:
And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father (John 14:21)
We will be love by God the Father, because we have shown and demonstrated our love for Jesus.
and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. (John 14:21)
Jesus will also love us and we will know this because Jesus will reveal Himself to us.
For those who feel that Jesus is distant, and feels like Jesus is not real, needs to examine themselves and see if they are really obedient to His commands.
Fellowship with God and the revelation of God are dependent on love; and love is dependent on obedience. The more we obey God, the more we understand him; and the man who walks in his way inevitably walks with him. (4)
The fact is, the greater the obedience, the greater our knowledge of Him. Paul understood this, and the more Paul knew Christ, the more He wanted to know.
Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
John 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Now Judas was confused. This Judas is obviously not the Judas that betrayed Jesus, some scholars think this may be Thaddaeus, but the fact is no one knows for sure.
But the Disciples, prior to the Jesus’ death (and this exchange was for the night before) the disciples still thought of Jesus becoming a political power, taking over the government and running out the Romans. Why is Jesus not revealing Himself to the world?
There will be that Day when Jesus returns that He will be revealed to the world. But in the meanwhile, Jesus is only revealed to those who love Him. Even after the resurrection, Jesus only revealed Himself to those who loved Him.
Jesus answered Judas in a way that he would only fully understand later:
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Keeping Jesus’ word is keeping His commands. It is being like Jesus in all our comings and goings.
But keeping Jesus’ word is for John not a legalism. It is rather adopting a profound sense of obedient servanthood modeled on the servant pattern of the Son with the Father. Loving Jesus is therefore a commitment to the “way” of Jesus. (5)
1 John 2:5–6 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
"and My Father will love him"
God loves those who love the Son, those that love the Son keeps His word.
"We will come to him and make Our home with him"
Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus and Father both will take up residence in us. We become the temple of the Holy Spirit. The word we translated home, is the Greek word mone . It is only used in two places in the NT; here and in verse John 14:2
John 14:2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. “
We know this verse and it brings much comfort to us. Jesus is preparing a home for us in heaven, but in the meanwhile, those who love Him, Jesus and the Father will make their home in us.
John 14:24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
Now the flip side of keeping and living the words of Jesus is not living the words of Jesus. Those who do not, do not love Jesus.
I didn’t say that, Jesus said that. The Word of God says that.
There will be those who claim to Love Jesus but do not:
Luke 6:46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
In fact, the word is full of people who actively reject the words of Jesus, even those who claim to His disciples:
John 6:66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
Many will reject, or worse yet, many will claim to know Jesus yet will willfully disobey His commands. They will willfully live according to what is right in their own eyes and not in accordance with the word of God.
And the word that Jesus speaks are the very words of God.
the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. (John 14:24)
Listen to the words of Jesus:
John 12:48–50 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
To refuse the words of Jesus is to refuse the very words of God. And for that matter, to reject the plain reading of Scripture, is to reject God’s words.
Obedience in trusting love leads to:
1. Ultimate safety – When Christ comes again, those who have been obedient lovers of Jesus, obedient to the will of God, will be safe in a world that will be crashing all around.
2. Obedient trusting love will lead to a fuller revelation of Jesus. A closer walk with Him, a greater understanding to the working of God and vision of just how Jesus is working in the world.
The fact remains, we cannot do it alone. The verses I left out (John 14:16-20) deals with the sending of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” He continues and says:
John 14:16–17 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Do you have the Spirit of God within you today?
The Question is, Do we really love Jesus? Or are we just living life the way we think we ought to live rather than according to the word of God.
Jesus says if you are not living by His words, His ways, you do not love Him.
What is your decision today? You cannot have it both ways.
It is all about Jesus, not about you and me.
(1) https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/god-wants-us-to-obey-bob-marcaurelle-sermon-on-growth-in-christ-83863
(2) Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 908–909.
(3) William Barclay, ed., The Gospel of John, vol. 2, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975), 166.
(4) Ibid; 169.
(5) Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 130.
All Bible references are from the NKJV
