Tonight, let’s start off by talking about the love that Jesus has for us as believers. Verses 9-11 are the first three verses we will look at that show us the very special relationship that Jesus has with believers, a relationship that delivers us from an existence that is sad without Jesus.
The first thing we look at is that Jesus has loved believers. READ v. 9. He has loved us with a very special love. Jesus makes two points here. He discusses the Father’s love for His Son, 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. 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, 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 the household and family of God. Christ loves us with an obedient love. He loves us because we believe God, because we earnestly seek God, 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. When you think about it, a believer can break fellowship with Christ, stop keeping our thoughts on Christ, walk out of love of Christ, get away from the love of Christ, turn back to the world and to our old worldly friends, give ourself back over to the lust of the sinful man.
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.
READ v. 11. Jesus’ great purpose for believers is the completion of their joy. Let’s note three quick points here:
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. Our joy as believers is the joy of Christ Himself reigning in our 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.
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. Joy doesn’t depend on circumstances or happiness. Happiness depends upon happenings, but the joy that God implants in the believers’ heart overrides all, even the most troublesome matters of life and death. Joy springs from faith. Joy of hoping for a future reward makes and keeps one faithful.
The source of a believer’s joy is several-fold. See if you don’t agree.
1. Victory over sin, death, and hell brings joy.
2. Repentance brings joy.
3. The hope of glory brings joy.
4. The Lord’s Word, the revelations, commandments, and promises which He made bring joy.
5. The commandments of Christ and the will of God bring joy. Obeying and doing a good job stirs joy with the believer’s joy.
6. Prayer brings joy.
7. The presence and fellowship of believers bring joy.
8. Conversions bring joy.
9. Giving brings joy.
What brings you joy? So far, we have looked at Jesus’ relationship to believers. Now let’s look at The Relationship of Believers to Believers
How believers relate to other believers is important. That’s because division will destroy a body of people quicker than any other single thing. Division destroys the body of Christ, the fellowship of believers, and the witness of believers.
Too many believers are known more for their grumbling, griping, complaining, and divisiveness than for anything else. Nothing cuts the heart of Jesus more than such self-centered and divisive behavior so the relationship of believers to each other is of critical importance.
READ v. 12 - 13. The supreme command of believers is to love one another. Believers are to love one another as Jesus has loved them. And Jesus is pretty clear about what He means. He loved man so much that He paid the ultimate price. He died and sacrificed His life for man. He paid the ultimate price of love by dying for His friends.
READ v. 14-15. Believers form a special bond of friends. It’s a spiritual bond founded by Christ Himself. But note two things:
1. Being a friend of Jesus is conditional. A person has to know and do His commandments in order to be a friend of His. In other words, there’s no way to be Jesus’ friend apart from knowing what He says. It’s His Word that tells us about Him. So we have to seek to learn His Word and do what He says in order to know Him and to become His friend. Friends relate and commune with each other. Friends share and respond to the word of each other. Friends rejoice when the word or conversation is that of joy.
2. The bond of friends is based upon revelation, that is, upon Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus revealed and made known exactly what God told him. So, the friends of Christ are built upon and centered on the Word of God.
READ v. 16. Our supreme purpose as believers is to go and bear fruit. We, as believers, are the chosen and appointed of Christ, and we have been given the very same purpose of Christ Himself: to go into all the world and bear fruit among men.
1. Believers are chosen and appointed by Jesus. We don’t choose Him nor do we appoint and send ourselves out to serve Him. It’s God who approaches and draws us. It’s God who appoints us to live for Him and to serve Him.
2. Believers are chosen and appointed for three very specific purposes.
a. To go forth as ambassadors for Christ, proclaiming the message of God and Jesus Christ. Believers are the ambassadors of Christ in the world. Once they have been saved, their duty—their sole reason for being appointed and left in this world—is to deliver the message of their King.
b. To bear fruit.
c. To receive the things of God.
The conclusion is forceful and it’s found in v. 17. Love each other.
There’s a popular song that most people remember entitled “We Are Family!” That is how we should look at the church. We are FOREVER FAMILY. We live in a mobile, changing, lonely society. People are looking for family. The average person can expect to have twelve different jobs/careers in a lifetime. Often rootless people have nothing left but the church. We need to learn to love everyone who comes through these doors as FOREVER FAMILY. IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE OBEYING GOD’S COMMAND. We better learn to get along with each other here because we’ll be spending eternity together there.
Jesus says, “This is my command: Love each other.” Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Christian love is learning to treat each other the same way God treats us. Love is a matter of the will, not of emotions. Jesus also said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”(v.12) How does Jesus love us? He forgives us and he is kind to us. We must choose to love.
IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE FULFILLING GOD’S LAW.
In the Old Testament God gave many laws to govern the land, to guide relationships to property and neighbors and to guide in worship. Jesus taught that love fulfills the law and covers all the important issues of life. Love doesn’t substitute for the law, but love fulfills the law. When we love each other as forever family, we meet the law’s requirements.
IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE FOLLOWING GOD’S TEACHING.
Any person can carry a Bible. Almost anyone can sing a Christian song. Anyone can attend worship services. So how do we know if a person is a real Christian? Jesus said the evidence of Christianity is this: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(John 13:35) Do we really love everyone who is here with us tonight in this service?
IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE EXPRESSING GOD’S NATURE. Time and time again, throughout the Bible we see that “God is love.” When we invite Jesus into our hearts, his Holy Spirit puts God’s nature into us. We become His children. We become children of the King.
Listen to this true story from a pastor.
“I can remember a time while I was a young and poor college student of being invited to preach at a church without a pastor. I was to preach and my wife was to sing in the morning worship service and also in the evening service. I was about eighty miles from home. After the service all of the congregation thanked me and many said, “We will see you tonight.” One young single parent came up to my wife and me and said:
“You will need to eat and to rest before tonight. I don’t have much, but please come to my apartment for the afternoon.” When she searched her cupboards all that she could find to feed us was about one half pound of cheese slices and some macaroni, from which she made a small pan of macaroni and cheese, which she served with glasses of ice water to her son, my wife, to me, and then to herself. I’ll tell you, that was one of the best meals I have ever eaten. She shared her best. She had little but love to share. My wife and I understood, because a short time before, we had some out of work and newlywed college friends, who had been living on tomato soup and crackers, over to our apartment several times for dinner. We did not have much, but God blessed them and us as we cared enough to love and to share.
How are you sharing God’s love with our congregation? Are you aware of those who are lonely? Those who are in need? Those who need a hug or a handshake, a card or a phone call. What is the old saying? “Blood is thicker than water.” The church is joined together through the blood of Jesus.
We are all different. All of us have different worship styles. Some like to raise their hands and others to sit on their hands. Some like to say amen, while some nod their heads. Some like long sermons and most want short ones. Some like the old hymns and some the new praise choruses. Was it John Wesley who said: “By all means, save some.”???
Remember Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn who pricked their fingers with a pin or a knife—Rubbed the blood together and symbolically became “blood brothers.” As Christians, we are joined together by the blood of Jesus Christ. We bear his name. (CHRISTian) We are covered by his blood. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. Blood brothers. Jesus loved us as the Father loved Him. He commands us to exhibit that same love to one another.
