What the Lord's Love Can Do for You
The Gospel of John
John 15:9-13
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - September 6, 2017
(Revised March 11, 2020)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to John 15. Most of you know that for many weeks we have been studying one night in the Lord's life. It was the night before Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And we have been studying this night for so long because God's Word talks about it all the way from John 13 to John 18:27.
*In tonight's Scripture, Jesus and His disciples have left the upper room where the Lord established the Lord's Supper, and they are walking on the road toward the Garden of Gethsemane. In these moments on the road, Jesus highlighted some of the wonderful things that the Lord's love can do in our lives. Please think about that as we read John 15:9-13.
MESSAGE:
*Probably all of us have seen truly great love in our lifetimes. We have seen husbands and wives totally devoted to each other through the worst of times. We have seen parents do any good thing they could to help their beloved children. We have seen friends who would give us the shirt off their back.
*But the greatest love of all is God's love. The greatest love of all is the Lord's love we see in the life and death of Jesus Christ. So, let's focus on what the Lord's love can do for you and me.
1. FIRST: IT CAN GIVE US A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
*The Lord's love can give us a close, personal relationship with the true and living Almighty God. And His love is the only thing that can give us a relationship with God.
*Think about the relationships in your life, how important your family and friends are to you. Rick Warren once explained their importance by saying: "I have been at the bedside of many people in their final moments, when they stand on the edge of eternity. And I have never heard anyone say, 'Bring me my diplomas! I want to look at them one more time. Or show me my awards, my medals, and that gold watch I was given.'
*When life on earth is ending, people don't surround themselves with objects. What we want around us is people. People we love and have relationships with. In our final moments, we all realize that relationships are what life is all about." (1)
*Bearing that in mind, think about what Jesus said to His followers in vs. 9, "As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. . ." Can you imagine how close God the Father is to God the Son? No relationship could possibly be closer.
*In John 10:30, Jesus said, "I and My Father are one.'' And in John 14:6-9, Jesus said:
6. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
7. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.''
8. Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.''
9. Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. . ."
*The Father and Son are one. No love could be stronger. No relationship could be closer. But again in vs. 9. Jesus said, "As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. . ."
*God wants to be just as close to us as the Father and Son are to each other! God Himself wants to be our Father and Best Friend!
*BUT HOW CAN WE GET INTO THIS RELATIONSHIP? ONLY BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, ONLY BY BELIEVING IN JESUS.
*As the Lord said in John 3:16-18:
16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
*In Romans 10:9-13, the Apostle Paul explained:
9. that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.
11. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.''
12. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
13. For "whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.''
*When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, the greatest love gives us the greatest relationship with God.
*BUT AFTER WE BELIEVE, WHAT SHOULD WE DO THEN?
*Jesus tells us in vs. 9, where He said: "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love." We must "abide in His love." Then in vs. 10, the Lord said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."
*I focused on abiding a little last time, but it's important to talk about abiding again, because this word is very important in the New Testament. The original Greek word is "meno." It's found 120 times in the New Testament, and Jesus used it 12 times in this chapter alone.
*For example, in vs. 4-5, Jesus said:
4. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
*But what does it mean to abide in the Lord? It simply means to "stay," "continue," or "remain." It shows up as "remain" in vs. 11, where Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may REMAIN in you, and that your joy may be full."
*Another translation for "meno" is "dwell," and this translation helps us understand what it means to abide in the Lord and His love. Bob Deffinbaugh explained that when we dwell in a place, we make that place our home. So "to abide in Jesus as the True Vine is to 'make our home' in Him, just as He also 'makes His home' in us. And to abide in Jesus' love is to make our home in His love.
*Think about what 'home' means to us:
-Home is where the heart is. It is where we want to be, especially during holidays.
-Home is the place to which we return, the place we are eager to get back to when we've been on vacation.
-Home is where we feel comfortable, and can really be ourselves.
-Home is a place of safety and security.
-Home is our base of operations. It is at the center of what we do.
-Home is where we bring our friends when we want to have fellowship with them.
-Home is where the people and the things we love the most are found."
*And Bob Deffinbaugh asked, "Isn't this what Jesus Christ should be for the Christian? Shouldn't He be our place of refuge and security? Shouldn't He be the source of our life and strength? Shouldn't He be where our heart is?" (2)
*Of course, the answer is yes! But we have to abide, remain, continue or dwell in His love. What good would home be if you never went home?
*God's love for us is so great that we should abide in it every day of our lives. And remember that His love is the only thing that can give us a relationship with God.
2. THE LORD'S LOVE CAN GIVE US A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD! CHURCH: IT CAN ALSO LEAD US TO REJOICE.
*The Lord's great love can give us on-going, overflowing joy! And the Lord wants us to have this joy. Jesus made this truth clear to us in vs. 11, where He said, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."
*We must not think that the Lord has no joy. We must not think that Jesus walked around all the time with a stern and sour expression. Do you think Jesus looked that way when He hugged and held those little children in Mark 10:16? Of course not. That would have scared them to death.
*Yes, Isaiah 53:3 tells us Jesus was "a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief." But Jesus also smiled; He laughed; He had great joy. Speaking of the second coming of Christ, Zephaniah 3:17 says, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." And even on the night before the cross, Jesus was able to talk about His joy: "These things I have spoken to you, that MY JOY may remain in you. . ."
*Jesus has joy, and He wants His joy to be our joy too. Yes, there is a lot of heartache in the world, and sometimes we seem to get more than our share. But Jesus wants to give us on-going, overflowing joy! God's church should frequently be a joyful place. It's okay to laugh in church.
*We've had some mistakes in our bulletins, but nothing like these bulletin bloopers from Randall Deal. Like this one: "Don't let worry kill you. Let the church help."
*And this one: "Barbara remains in the hospital, and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping, and requests tapes of Pastor Bill's sermons." (3)
*It's okay to laugh in church. In Proverbs 17:22, God said, "A merry or cheerful heart does good, like medicine. . . " God's church should be a joyful place, because Jesus wants to give us on-going, overflowing joy.
*Michael MacIntosh gave this insight: "The joy of the Lord was at the tomb when Lazarus came back to life. Joy was there when the leper returned to thank Jesus. Joy was there when the deaf heard, the blind saw, and the lame walked. Joy was there when the little children flocked to Jesus. Joy was there when dawn came, and the women realized that Jesus was risen from the dead!" (4)
*Joy was there. And Jesus wants His joy to be here too! Here in our church, and here in our hearts. Listen to the Lord again in vs. 11: "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."
3. THE LORD'S LOVE CAN LEAD US TO REJOICE. IT CAN ALSO LEAD US TO RESEMBLE OUR SAVIOR.
*God wants us to resemble our Savior. He strongly wants us to love one another the same way that He loves us. Jesus gave us the command in vs. 12 when He said, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
*Think about what was on the Lord's mind on this night before the cross. Nothing stands out more than God's kind of agape love. John 13:1 says: "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."
*Then in John 13:34-35 Jesus told His followers, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.''
*In John 14:15, Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
*In John 14:21-24, Jesus said:
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.''
22. Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?''
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.
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 listen for the focus on love here in John 15:9-12. Again, Jesus said:
9. "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
11. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
12. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
*Jesus blazed the trail of love for us when He came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross for our sins. Now He wants us to follow His example. How are we going to do that? How are we going to resemble the love we see in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
*We surely cannot do it in our own strength. We must abide in Him. We must abide in His love. James McCullen heard a story of a family cleaning their attic. They found a very old book that had not been opened for a very long time.
*In the front of the book a picture of the author and a picture of Jesus had been printed on opposite pages. But over the years, the ink of the two pictures had mixed together, so that the face of Jesus blended together with the author's picture. The two pictures had abided with each other, and had just about become one. (5)
*The more we abide in Jesus, the more we will be like Him. And the more we abide in His love, the more we will love like He loves.
4. THE LORD'S LOVE CAN LEAD US TO RESEMBLE OUR SAVIOR. AND IT CAN RESCUE US FROM OUR SIN.
*Jesus loves us so much that He died on the cross to rescue us from our sins. He didn't have to die for us, but Jesus willingly laid down His life to save everyone who will trust in Him. As the Lord said in vs. 13, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
*The love that led Jesus to the cross is the only thing that can rescue us from sin and death. Paul stressed this truth in Colossians 1:13. There he tells Christians that our Heavenly Father "has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated (or moved) us into the kingdom of His dear Son." That word "deliver" means "to rescue someone," and it has the idea of rushing to rescue someone.
*Without Jesus Christ, we are trapped by Satan in spiritual darkness and death. But Jesus came to rescue us from this darkness and death! So Hebrews 2:14-15 says:
14. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15. and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
*No matter how hard we try, there is nothing we can do to rescue ourselves from death and hell. King Duncan explained that "there are some situations from which we cannot deliver ourselves. If a large ocean liner stops in the middle of the Atlantic, the passengers can't get out, get behind the boat, and push. And if you are drowning, you can't save yourself by grabbing your hair and pulling yourself up!'"
*That almost sounds too obvious to mention. But people all over the world are trying to climb their way up to Heaven by keeping religious rules and doing good works. The rescue of salvation for us can never come from within. It must come from above. (6)
*Everyone without Jesus Christ is in the greatest danger, because all of us have sinned, and the wages of sin is everlasting death (Romans 6:23). But Christians: We can say, "God has rescued me from the power of death! And He did it through the cross of Jesus Christ."
*Pastor William Stidger told the story of a church member who served in the Navy during World War II. One night, this man was running his troop transport across the Atlantic, when he noticed the white trail of a torpedo coming toward his ship.
*His ship was manned by hundreds of soldiers. The potential loss of life would have been devastating. Nearby, a smaller ship had also seen the torpedo coming. The captain of this smaller vessel guided his ship between the transport and the torpedo. The explosion destroyed the smaller ship, and all those aboard died.
*The veteran who told this story to his pastor, and ended by saying, "Dr. Stidger, the skipper of that other ship was my best friend." Then he added, "You know, there is a verse in the Bible which has special meaning for me now. 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.'" (7)
CONCLUSION:
*By his sacrifice, that other captain was a picture of the Lord's great love for us. But Jesus' love is the greatest love of all! We must receive His love by receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then let the love of Jesus Christ begin to change us from the inside out. His love can change your life forever!
*Please think about these things as we go back to the Lord in prayer.
(1) THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE by Rick Warren - Source: SermonCentral sermon "Memorial Day - 2006" by Steve Shepherd - 2 Timothy 1:3-5
(2) SermonCentral sermon "Abiding in Christ" by Bob Deffinbaugh - John 15:1-17
(3) SermonCentral sermon "The Joyful Jesus" by Randall Deal - John 15:11 - 09/01/2002
(4) "The Tender Touch of God" by Dr. Michael MacIntosh - Source: SermonCentral sermon "The Joyful Jesus" by Randall Deal - John 15:11 - 09/01/2002
(5) Cross & Crown sermon "Christ the Instructing One - Abiding" by James McCullen - John 15:1-11
(6) Adapted from Sermons.com email illustration 02/22/2004
(7) Wayne H. Keller, "Emphasis," Nov. - Dec. 1998, pp. 41-42. Preaching - Source: "Dynamic Preaching" - May 6, 2002
