Of Vines and Branches (Part Three)
Text: John 15:12-17
We are back in John’s Gospel this morning… John chapter 15, verses 12-17, and while you’re turning there, I’ll just let you know, today we are going to be talking about love. And the world has tried to redefine love in our day in age in ways that would have never been imagined 100 years ago.
In our world today, you might two unmarried people living together, doing everything that married people do, and even though God’s Word says that is sin, they attempt to justify their sin by saying, “But we ‘LOVE’ each other.” Pro-abortion advocates will often times say something like, “It’s because of LOVE that we provide abortion – it is loving to “help” those with unwanted pregnancies, and it is loving to “save” unborn children from a life of misery.” That’s just sick – but it’s what some of them try to say in order to justify their sin of murder.
In the name of love, lust is gratified, lies are told, murders are committed, criminals are set free, terrorists are allowed free entrance into our country…. Is any of this what Jesus has in mind when He talks about the kind of love we are to have?
Well let’s look at our text – John 15:12-17 (READ).
So the first thing I want you to notice is that Jesus didn’t just say, “Love one another.” And He didn’t even say, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Jesus is reiterating what He told them just a few moments prior… In john 13:34, right after He had washed their feet Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
So when the Beatles sang, “All you need is love” this isn’t the kind of love they were thinking of… and when Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang, “Love the one your with.” It certainly wasn’t that kind of love. Jesus is talking about the REAL meaning of love – CHRIST-LIKE-LOVE!
He says, “Love one another – AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.”
So here’s the deal – this is God’s Word… and Jesus is the Word made flesh – He is God’s Word personified… what that means is that since it is God the Son who gives us this command, He gets to define the meaning – NOT US!
So how does Jesus define this love? Well look at the text. In verse 12 He says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Then in verse 13 He says, “Greater love has no one than this – that He lay down His life for His friends.” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He laid down His life. But there’s a lot more involved in just that… Let’s think about it.
Before Jesus laid down His life, He stepped out of heaven, veiled His deity and became a man. That’s Philippians 2:5-7… let me just read that to you. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man.” In other words, in order for Jesus to lay down His life for His friends, He had to first be born in the likeness of man. He had to take on flesh. He had to put aside all that He was worthy of, and deserving of, and entitled to, and humble Himself by becoming man.
The idea here is that if we love one another as Christ loves us, then whatever we think we are deserving of, gets laid aside for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
To love as Jesus loves is to love sacrificially.
Now turn with me over to Ephesians 5:1-2 and I’ll show you how the Apostle Paul explains to us how we actually live this out. “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” So there it is again, loving like Jesus means giving yourself like Jesus. Giving yourself totally and completely. But stay there in Ephesians and look at verse 3 “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as proper among saints.”
So we love like Jesus, we give ourselves sacrificially… but stay in Ephesians there and look further at verses 4-7 (Eph. 5:4-7), “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things – the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not associate with them.”
Now are you catching this? What Paul has just done is tell us what Christ-like love is, and then he contrasts that with what it isn’t. Christ-like love is a sacrificial love, that does not demand what is owed, or what we think is owed. It is a giving, self-sacrificing love… but these other things… the things that the world says is love, are actually rooted in self-centeredness, selfishness.
And people will say, “Well I deserve to be happy.” NO – YOU DON’T. You deserve wrath. And so do I. “But I’m a good person.” NO – YOU AREN’T. There are none who are good, there are none righteous, no not one.
So, Jesus says, Love one another, as I have loved you… and this is what that looks like, you lay your life down for one another. Every aspect, every part of your life. You think of others needs before your own, you think of others more highly than yourself.” That’s Christ-like love. Now look at verse 14 in our text… “You are My friends if you do what I command you.”
Now sometimes people read this the wrong way and think that Jesus is putting a condition on us. They read this as if Jesus is saying, “You have to obey Me in order to be My friend.” That’s not what this is saying… He’s saying basically the same thing that He says in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep My commands.” He’s saying, “You are showing yourselves to be my friends because you’re doing what I’ve commanded you.”
We can say all day long that we follow Jesus… we can even sing that hymn, “I have decided to follow Jesus – no turning back, no turning back.” But if we’re not following Him, we’re not His followers. If we’re not doing what He commands, we’re not His friend… If we’re not keeping His commands, we don’t really love Him.
So loving Jesus entails obedience to Jesus. I mean… that’s what Jesus says. Look at John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments…”. Now look at verse 24 (John 14:24), “Whoever does not love Me, does not keep My words…”.
Real love follows and obeys Jesus. Authentic, Christ-like love does not approve of sin. It does not affirm or accept, or praise sin. The world around us tells us the exact opposite. It likes to say that to be loving is to be tolerant, and accepting, and affirming – THAT’S NOT REAL LOVE! That is a satanic, twisting of the concept of love. And really, if we get right down to it… it’s not that the people who do that love others… it’s that they love themselves WAY to much.
Think about this with me. Put yourself in the mind of the worldly.
“I don’t want to rock the boat, because it upsets my comfort zone and creates conflict. So I’m just going to affirm anything and everything. I’ll affirm people in their sin, because it allows me to remain comfortable. It allows me to keep doing what I want, and not get canceled, or labeled, or demonized.”
When we refuse to confront sin that’s primarily the reason why… because we don’t want to be uncomfortable. And that is not IN ANY WAY, Christian love… that is… idolatry of self.
Let’s go on… look at verse 16 (READ).
The term here is Monergism. Jesus saves! He doesn’t just make you savable, He is the Savior. If He doesn’t choose us, we will never choose Him. Romans tells us that there are NONE who seek God and 1 John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” And not only did Jesus choose, He appointed them to bear fruit. Now in the immediate context this is talking about their being witnesses and their fruitfulness in fulfilling the Great Commission. Going out, preaching the Gospel and making disciples.
These 11 guys along with Paul, are going to turn the world upside down. And you understand why that is right? Primarily because they are going to love as Christ loves. Remember – Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. He emptied Himself, came into this world, and died so that people would be saved… and that’s exactly what the disciples are going to end up doing. Every one of them, except John will give their lives in service to the Gospel. They would go out into the world, and call sinners to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Not just Savior, but Savior and Lord – that means we obey Him, and follow Him, and do what He commands.
See how it all ties together?
So again, Christ-like love doesn’t affirm or approve of sin – it seeks the salvation of those who are enslaved to sin. It seeks to set them free from sin. It doesn’t encourage people to rebel against God and His created order. Which, by the way… if you do that, you are bringing someone under the justly deserved wrath of God.
Christ-like love is actually seeking the eternal good and well-being of others, not condemning them under the eternal wrath of a holy and just God. And the way we do that is by telling people the truth. Speaking the truth in love… and that’s the last point.
Love is never separated from truth. Here’s what the Bible says, “God is love.” And it also says, “God cannot lie.” And make sure you understand that… God is love – love is not God. And the ultimate expressing of God’s love is found in Jesus, dying on the cross.
Do y’all remember when we looked at the death of Lazarus? In John 11…? Remember that? In John 11 Lazarus got sick, and we read it in John 11:5-6, “Now Jesus LOVED Martha and her sister, and Lazarus, so therefore, when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was.” Jesus loved them so much, He let Lazarus die – SO THAT… He could show them that He was in-fact God The Son, SO THAT… they would believe and be saved. He allowed them a moment of temporary grief and sadness, SO THAT He could bring them to eternal salvation.
Church, understand this… if you are a parent and you love your kids, you discipline them and correct them… WHY? Because you love them and don’t want them growing up to be a self-centered narcissistic monster. It’s not that we enjoy the arguments and fights, and tears that might bring – especially as they get older… but we do it, because we love them.
If you love your neighbor, you don’t affirm or approve of his sin… WHY? Because you love them and don’t want them to spend an eternity separated from Christ. It’s not that we want to be contrary, or have a martyr complex… it’s because we love them, and understand that even if it costs us, an eternal soul is at stake, and that’s so much more important than our temporary comfort.
Now I’m not saying we go out looking for fights and arguments… what I’m saying is – as we live for Christ, those things will come. The world doesn’t want to hear what God’s Word says, and we are the ones out in the world saying it… So the world is going to scorn us, and mock us, and cancel us, and persecute us as we stand and speak the truth in love. But as we do the hard work of sacrificially loving others, we will bear fruit, and our fruit will abide, and as we step into eternity, we will hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.”
CLOSING
