I Wanna Know What Love Is!
John 14:15-31
February 15, 2004
Intro:
A. [Levels of Love, Citation: Erwin Lutzer, "Learning to Love," Preaching Today, Tape No. 99.]
Perhaps you read the story about a woman and her husband who came to a pastor and said, "We’re going to get a divorce, but we want to come to make sure that you approve of it." There are people who come to the pastor hoping that when they say there is no feeling left in their marriage, the pastor will say, "Well, if there’s no feeling left, then, the only thing you can do is split."
Instead, the pastor says to the husband, "The Bible says you’re to love your wife as Jesus Christ loved the church."
He says, "Oh, I can’t do that."
The pastor says, "If you can’t begin at that level, then begin on a lower level. You’re supposed to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Can you at least love her as you would love a neighbor?"
The husband says, "No. That’s still too high a level."
The pastor says, "The Bible says, Love your enemies. Begin there."
B. [Universal Obedience, Citation: Peter Bulkeley, Leadership, Vol. 9, no. 1.]
If God be God over us, we must yield him universal obedience in all things. He must not be over us in one thing, and under us in another, but he must be over us in everything.
C. On this February 14 weekend, I want to look at John 14. [read John 14:15-31]
D. Jesus said in (Mark 12:30-31 NIV) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ {31} The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."
1. What is love?
2. How can love be commanded?
3. Our world tells us that love is a warm feeling that we get that causes us to do things that we normally wouldn’t do.
4. But if that is true, how can a feeling be commanded?
5. Love MUST be something else, so let’s look at this text to see what Jesus said love is, first…
I. Love of Jesus = obedience
(John 14:15 NIV) "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
(John 14:21 NIV) Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
(John 14:23-24 NIV) Jesus replied, "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. {24} He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
A. "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
1. Love = obedience to His Commandments.
4. Those are Jesus’ words.
5. That is how Jesus said He would know if we love Him or not.
B. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.
1. Many people say that they love God and they convince themselves that they love God by simply saying it.
2. But notice that is not how Jesus determines the truth.
3. Whose opinion about love is the right one?
C. "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
1. Notice what Jesus says is one of the benefits of obedience: God’s presence in their life.
2. Have you noticed that people who simply say they believe in God don’t seem to ever receive any blessings from God?
3. When the obedience is not there, God is not there.
II. Love of the Spirit = obedience
(John 14:16-17 NIV) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- {17} the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
(John 14:26-27 NIV) But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. {27} Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
A. the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you
1. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.
2. Jesus said the world has its ways and the Spirit has His ways.
3. The way we tell if we have love for the Spirit is when we are not like the world.
4. The way we tell if we have love for the Spirit is when we are being obedient to the Spirit of truth.
B. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
1. The way we tell if the Spirit is in us is when we are being obedient to the Commands of Christ that the HS is continually reminding us of.
2. Now let me ask a pertinent question: How did Jesus say we know when someone has the HS or not?
3. Did Jesus say that we will speak in tongues if we have the HS?
4. Did Jesus say that we will prophesy and do great miracles if we have the HS?
5. Of course the Bible says that speaking in tongues and other Spiritual gifts are important and will be present and will be beneficial in the church but miraculous signs are not the sign of the presence of the HS.
6. The sign of the presence of the HS is obedience to the commands of Christ.
C. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid
1. Here we see another sign of the indwelling of the HS: peace.
2. When the HS is present there is no heart troubling (or worrying).
3. When the HS is present there is no fear.
4. When the HS is present there is peace.
5. Likewise when we love through obedience, there will be peace.
6. People who Biblically love God and others have peace.
7. Love through obedience to Christ yields peace.
8. I must say that at first obedience will make you miserable.
9. But over time obedience will bring you peace.
III. Love of the Father = obedience
(John 14:23 NIV) Jesus replied, "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.
A. My Father will love him
1. How do we get God to love us?
2. Jesus said that God will love us if we love His Son by obeying Him.
3. Of course God loved us enough to send His Son to save us before we loved Him.
4. We love because He first loved us.
5. But then Jesus says that if we love Him by obeying Him, then God will love us.
6. Those are Jesus’ words.
B. we will come to him and make our home with him.
1. This is another benefit of obedience: God and Christ will make their home in us.
2. Jesus said that if we demonstrate love by being obedient to Him, then He and the Father will live within us.
IV. Jesus’ love the Father = obedience
(John 14:30-31 NIV) I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, {31} but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. "Come now; let us leave.
A. Jesus’ love for His Father was marked by obedience.
1. Jesus said the prince of this world was coming.
2. He was referring to Satan.
3. Jesus knew that the cross was ahead and that the will of the Father must be accomplished.
6. But He also knew that Satan was going to mess with Him to try to prevent Him from doing His Father’s will.
B. but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
1. Jesus said that world must learn that because He loved the Father, He would do exactly what His Father commanded.
2. And that is exactly what love should be to us as well!
3. The world must learn that because we love Christ, we will be obedient to Him.
4. The world must learn that because we love the Father, we will be obedient to Him.
5. The world must learn that because we love the Spirit, we will be obedient to Him.
6. Our spouses must learn that because we love God, we will be obedient to Him.
7. Men, our spouses must learn that because we love God, we will love our wives the way Christ loves the Church.
8. Women, your spouses must learn that because you love God, you will submit to your husbands in all things.
9. Parents, our children must learn that because we love God, we will train them up in the way they should go.
10. Employees, our bosses must learn that because we love God, we will work as though we are working for the Lord.
11. Church, the church must learn that because we love God, we will submit to one another.
12. Christ said that if we love, we will be obedient.
13. He did not say that if we love Him, we will say it.
14. He even didn’t say that if we love Him, we will worship Him.
15. Christ said that if we love Him, we will obey His commands.
16. And He has clearly lived out what He taught.
Conclusion:
A. [Commands Help Us Love, Citation: Troy Dean, Fullerton, California]
Until a few years ago, there were no laws about child safety seats and automobile restraint systems. Tragically, many young children were not safely belted in their seats, and they died in car accidents. Today, though, laws prohibit children from riding in a car without a child seat facing the right direction and properly installed. Even new mothers need to have the seat installed before talking a child home from the hospital.
Of all the expressions of human love, there is probably no more pure and beautiful love than that of a parent for a child. Yet, when a child’s safety is at stake, it seems a parent’s love is not always enough. Parents did not always do what was best for their children. Many parents needed a law or boundary to ensure that their love for their children did not fall short of perfect love.
God knows the same is true of our love and devotion toward him and other people. He knows our feelings are not enough. We needed laws and boundaries in the form of commands to aid us in loving him and other people fully.
B. [A Cross and Effect Relationship, Citation: John Howard Yoder, Christian Reader, Vol. 34.]
The relationship between the obedience of God’s people and the triumph of God’s cause is not a relationship of cause and effect but one of cross and resurrection.
C. What commitment to love do you need to make on this Valentine’s weekend?
