If you love me keep my word

Before I pray, let me say a word about where we are going in the preaching this summer. If the Lord wills, today and next weekend I would like to finish the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Then on June 17, I hope to address the issue of homosexuality and so-called homosexual “marriage.” Then we will have a guest on June 24, Ed Stetzer, on 1 Peter 4. And in July and August a nine-week series on 2 Timothy: “To Him Be Glory Forever and Ever”: Unashamed of Christ and Ready to Suffer: A Summer in Second Timothy.

The plan is for me to do five of those nine and when I am on vacation for other pastors to do four. Summer is for seeing and savoring and showing Christ. Keep Christ at the center. Wherever you go, don’t neglect worship with God’s people. The point of today’s sermon, and my experience in Bucharest and Geneva and Hamburg, is that Jesus Christ will be with you, and manifest himself to you wherever you are.

Enjoying the Risen Christ

I serve a risen Saviour,
   He’s in the world today;
I know that He is living,
   Whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy,
   I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him
   He’s always near.

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
   He walks with me and He talks with me
Along life’s narrow way.
   He lives, He live, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives:
   He lives within my heart.

My prayer is that when this message is over, you will be able to sing that song with more conviction and more joy and a sweeter experience of fellowship with the risen Christ than you’ve ever known before.

Disciples in Need of Encouragement

These words in John 14:15–24 were spoken just hours before the greatest event in world history — the greatest act of love in history — namely, the death of the incarnate Son of God in the place of sinners so that everyone who receives him and believes on him will be forgiven all our sins and be accepted as righteous by the creator of the universe into the never-ending joy of eternal life. What Jesus is saying here assumes that. He is, as he said in John 10:15, about to lay down his life for the sheep.

“Loving Jesus is not the same as keeping his commandments. It precedes and gives rise to keeping the commandments.”

And these sheep — these eleven precious friends, apostles — are very confused and fearful and in need of much encouragement because of what they are about to face in the loss of Jesus. And that is what Jesus does for them, and not only for them, but for you — for everyone who believes in his name.

And his message here to them, and to us, is that when he dies, he will live again, and he and the Father and the Holy Spirit will come to us and be with us forever, and never leave us, no matter where we are, or what is happening to us.

God’s Special Love for His Own

Let’s make two introductory observations about what Jesus says here. First, he makes explicit that the gifts he is promising to us here are not given to the world. Or to say it another way, the love that he promises us here is not a love that he has for the world. There is the John 3:16 love of God: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes will not perish but have eternal life.” But here there is a love — there are gifts — that God reserves for his own. Look at verses 16–17:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

And verse 19: “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.” And verse 22: “Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?’”

So it is clear from verses 17, 19, and 22 that the gift of intimacy and help and love being promised in these verses is something the world cannot see, does not know, is not given, and does not experience. What is promised here is something so personal, so intimate, so reciprocal and relational that the world cannot receive it.

That’s the first introductory observation.

His Beloved People’s Love for His Son

The second is that those who do receive these gifts — these promises, this love — are not simply called Christians or believers, they are described repeatedly — four times as those who love Jesus.

Verse 15–16: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.”

Verse 21: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father.” This is not a love God has for the world. This is a personal, intimate, relational, affectionate, committed love from the Father only for those who love Jesus.

Verse 23: “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.’” We know from Romans 5:8 that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn’t wait for us to love him before he loved us. And we know that’s what John believed too, because in 1 John 4:19 he says, “We love because he first loved us.” No doubt about it. Gloriously true.

And now here is another glorious truth. Verse 21: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father.” Or again in verse 23, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.” In other words, God’s love precedes and enables our love (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:19). And God responds to our love and loves with a unique, personal, intimate, affectionate, caring, committed love that belongs only to those who love his Son.

Those are the two introductory observations. The promises of these verses are not for the world. They can’t see them, know them, or experience them. Rather, this love is for those who love Jesus.

Now just two more questions. What does it mean to love Jesus? And what are we promised if we do?

1. What does it mean to love Jesus?

Jesus tells us four times that this love is of such a nature that it results in the keeping of Jesus’s commandments, or, more generally, his word.

• Verse 15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
• Verse 21: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.”
• Verse 23: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.”
• Verse 24: “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”

The first thing to notice is that loving Jesus is not the same as keeping his commandments. It precedes and gives rise to keeping the commandments. Keeping his word is the result of loving him, not the same as loving him.

• Verse 15: “If you love me, [the result will be that] you will keep my commandments.”
• Verse 23: “If anyone loves me, [the result will be that] he will keep my word.”

So, what is this love for Jesus that gives rise to keeping the commandments of Jesus? Jesus has no defects. He has no demerit. Therefore, we cannot and dare not love him graciously, the way God loves us. We dare not love him with a love that overcomes some fault or ugliness or sin in Jesus to treat him well. No. Love for Jesus is entirely deserved. He is infinitely worthy of being loved. He is perfectly lovely. He is loved not in spite of what he is, but because of all that he is.

“Loving Jesus isn’t a matter of doing excellent things. It’s a matter of delighting in an excellent Savior.”

Which means that love for him is a response to beauty and greatness and glory. It is not a response to need or weakness or defect. Which also means that love for Jesus is pleasurable. It’s desiring him because he is infinitely desirable. It’s admiring him because he is infinitely admirable. It’s treasuring him because he is infinitely valuable. It’s enjoying him because he is infinitely enjoyable. It’s being satisfied with all that he is, because he is infinitely satisfying. It’s the reflex of the awakened and new-born human soul to all that is true and good and beautiful, embodied in Jesus.

In short, loving Jesus is not a matter of doing excellent things. It’s a matter of delighting in an excellent Savior. Jesus says doing excellent things — keeping my word — is the result of delighting in the excellent Savior. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.”

Love: Wanting, Desiring, Enjoying, Preferring

Two confirmations that we are on the right track. The word love in John’s Gospel is used like this. For example, John 3:19 says, “People loved the darkness rather than the light.” That is what they wanted. They desired it. They enjoyed it. They preferred it. They didn’t love the darkness out of duty. They loved it out of craving.

The same kind of love is in John 12:43: “They loved the glory of man more than the glory of God.” They wanted it. That’s what loving it means. They longed for it. They craved human praise. That’s how they “loved” it.

Or consider the Father’s love for the Son John 3:35: “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” Remember the words of the Father at the baptism of Jesus and at his transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

This is the only way to love the Son: to be pleased with him. To feel pleasure in him. To esteem and admire and enjoy and treasure and stand in trembling, happy awe of him.

That’s one confirmation. The word “love” is used that way. The other is to ask: What are the commandments Jesus has in mind when he says in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”?

The “Commandments” in Jesus’s Mind

When you read through the whole Gospel of John just looking for specific moral-behavior commandments, what do you find? You find about two explicit commandments that you might call moral-behavior commandments: the new commandment to love each other as Jesus loved us (John 13:34–35), and the command to Peter: “Feed my sheep” (John 21:16).

But Jesus didn’t say, “If you love me, you will keep my moral behavior commandments.” He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (verse 15). So if you read through the Gospel again, what you find is lots of commandments like: “Receive me” (John 1:12). “Follow me” (John 1:43). Get up, crippled man (John 5:8). Rise from the dead, Lazarus (John 11:43)! “Believe in the light” (John 12:36). “Believe in God” (John 14:1). “Believe me” (John 14:11). “Abide in me” (John 15:4). “Ask whatever you wish” (15:7). “Abide in my love” (John 15:9). “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). These are the commandments that are all over the Gospel of John.

Now how does that confirm the way we have understood love for Jesus in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”? Because if the commandments in the Gospel of John are overwhelmingly receive, believe, ask, abide, then it makes perfect sense that Jesus would say, “If you love me — if you desire me and delight in me and treasure me — then you will receive me, and believe me and abide in me.”

In other words, if you have been born again so that you treasure Jesus above all other treasures, and he commands you, “Receive me,” “Take me,” “Have me as your treasure,” we will. If we have been born again so that we find him supremely and wonderfully trustworthy, and he commands us, “Trust me,” “Believe me,” we will. And if we are born again so that we long to be with him, and he commands us, “Abide in me,” we will.

So my answer to the first question: What does it mean to love Jesus in John 14:15, 21, and 23 is that it means to treasure him above all others, to desire him, long for him, enjoy him, be satisfied in all that he is.

2. What are we promised if we love him?

Now the last question is what does Jesus promise such people, a few hours before he goes to die for them? The sum of the promise is: The Father, the Holy Spirit, and I will be with you forever. We will never forsake you no matter where you are. But to say that, Jesus piles up an amazing array of expressions. Let’s walk through and spot them.

Verse 16: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” When he calls him “another Helper,” he means that this Helper is not the Father and he is not me, because I am the first helper. This second Helper is the Holy Spirit (verse 26). When Jesus returns to heaven, the Father will give the Holy Spirit, another helper. He promises.

Verse 17: “Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” The Helper, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of truth. That is, he will help you by opening your mind and heart to glorious truth about Jesus. He is with you now, in my presence, and he will be in you in a new way when I pour him out after my ascension.

Verse 18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Not only will the Holy Spirit come. Jesus will come. And he will give us what orphans need: they need protection and provision and guidance. Jesus will be all that and more, now, in this life. He will not leave us without help.

Verse 19: “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” In three days I will rise from the dead. But I will not start my ministry over again on the earth before the world the way I have ministered for three years. I will appear to you. You will see me. I will assure your hearts by a bodily resurrection that you will see. And because I live, you will live.

Verse 20: “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” You will have assurance. I will give it to you — assurance that I and the Father are one. And that you and I are bound together forever, I in you and you in me. If death couldn’t sever it, nothing will sever it.

“The Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus will be with you forever. They will never forsake you no matter where you are.”

Verse 21: “And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” My Father and I have a special, close, family love for you. And in that love, I will manifest myself to you. I will show you things about me that the world cannot see or know. They are experienced by those who love me and treasure me and receive me. And keep my commandments.

Verse 23: In answer to the question why this manifestation will not be for the world, Jesus simply says again: It’s for those who love me — “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.”

Heaven on Earth

I end with this. The word “home” is used only one other time in John, namely, verse 2, “In my Father’s house are many rooms [same word as “home” in verse 23]. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” Which means: If you love me and keep my word, my Father and I will come to you and — in all your suffering and trials — give you heaven on earth.

We have prepared a dwelling for you in heaven. We are that dwelling. And if you have me and keep my word, we will come and be that dwelling for you now.

Love Him, Receive Him, Abide in Him

Therefore, love him. Keep his sweet commandments to receive him and abide in him. Overflow with his fullness for others in love. And he will come to you, and the Holy Spirit will come and the Father will come, and they will protect you and provide for you and lead you — you won’t be an orphan. And they will comfort you, and love you in a very personal way the world does not know, and they will manifest Jesus to you, and make you their home.

There are many ways that we can show love to others. Husbands and wives can show love by kissing. Friends often hug when they meet. Besides the physical displays of affection, we show love by spending time together, by listening to one another or by sending cards. These and many other signs of love let others know that we are thinking about them and that we care for them.

Another way to show love — a way that is not very romantic — is through obedience. When children obey their parents, it is an act of love. By doing what a parent asks, children show that they trust that their father and mother know what is best for them. By behaving, children show that they have respect for their parents and want to live according to the values their parents are trying to instill in them.

Obedience is not only a sign of love between children and their parents, it is also a sign of love between believers and God. Jesus tells us in the gospel, «Whoever loves me will keep my word.» And to make sure that we understand his meaning, he tells us again, «Whoever does not love me, does not keep my word.» As children put their trust in their parents’ guidance, so we as believers put our trust in God’s will for our lives. By obeying God’s word we are affirming that he has a plan for us, and that his plan is far better than any other we could craft for ourselves. By saying «yes» to God’s word as it comes down to us in the Bible and the teaching of the Church, we acknowledge that he cares for us, and we profess that we love him enough to do what he asks of us.

Obedience can be a dirty word in today’s world. It makes us think of mean teachers who are ready to rap our knuckles with a ruler every time we get out of line. It conjures up images of a God who is ready to punish us for every sin. In today’s world, we prefer to make our own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. If a rule does not make sense to us — especially if it is a Church teaching — we are more than happy just to ignore it. It is hard for us to accept that someone can tell us what we ought to believe and how we should practice our faith. It is difficult for us to think that obedience has anything at all to do with love.

On one level, such an attitude can be a good and healthy one to have. We should not only know what the Church teaches, but we should also understand it. It is the job of the bishops along with religious, priests and teachers to help us to make sense of what the Church teaches and why. Understanding is central to being able to accept what the Church teaches and incorporate it into our daily lives.

However, the attitude which is not good and which is in fact deadly for our spiritual lives is the one that says that if we do not understand a certain teaching of the Church, then we will not follow it. When we act that way, we stay stuck in our false beliefs and misconceptions and are unable to grow in our faith. A better attitude would be to say, «I do not understand this teaching, but I am going to try to understand it and live it.» Instead of rejecting it outright, it is better to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and hearts so that we can accept the teaching in an authentic way and be able to explain it to others and even defend it when necessary.

Another reason we can find obedience distasteful is our image of the Church. Because we are exposed to a media which is constantly critical of the Church, we can often think of it as an institution of men who keep themselves busy by making up rules for us to follow. But the Church is so much more than buildings and bureaucracies. The Church is people. The Church is us. We are saints and sinners who have strived to show our love for Jesus by obedience to his word. During these two thousand years, we have accumulated much wisdom and insight into human nature and God’s plan for the world. Church teaching, whether it concern what we believe or the moral life we must lead, is nothing else but an application of the teaching of Jesus for today that is strengthened by the accumulated wisdom of centuries of believers. Church teaching is a gift to us who seek to follow Christ because it points out to us a sure way that we can follow to reach the kingdom of God.

There is no doubt that Church leaders frequently let us down and even hurt us. They are not always good examples of what it is to be a follower of Christ. Nonetheless, our faith in the Church and its teaching does not come from our confidence in its leaders. Rather it comes from our faith in the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would remain with the Church always so that it could never be led into error regarding the most important doctrines of faith and morals. The Holy Spirit works powerfully through the Church so that we can have assurance that by accepting its teaching we are on a sure course to salvation. The Holy Spirit guarantees that in the Church, despite all its weakness and failures, we will meet the Risen Lord and be transformed by his word.

If we love Jesus, we will keep his word. His word is not far from us. It is easily accessible through the Bible and through the teaching of the Church. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit which we received at our baptism and confirmation helps us to understand that word and apply it to our daily lives. If our heart is open and we are willing to obey, then we can be sure that we are on a path to the Kingdom where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father and where we may live forever in the glory of heaven.

Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C

I’m really tired of hearing people justify their disobedience to Church teachings and disciplines by saying that they are fundamentally being faithful and obedient to Christ and that they are listening to the Holy Spirit. It’s one thing to disobey and then take responsibility for your actions and decisions; it’s another thing to blame God for it. What they are suggesting is that, either the Church is not being faithful to Christ or obtuse to the promptings of the Spirit OR that Christ gives them an example of dissent and that the Spirit is leading them to “make a mess” of things? Both conclusions are not just faulty but ludicrous.

It’s easy today to justify and believe someone when he tells you that Jesus came to teach us that love is at the heart of our Christian Faith, whereas the Law isn’t. Put it another way, Jesus broke the Law for love. The conclusion is that people who insist on following Church laws are not very loving and in fact, going against the spirit of what our Lord taught. In fact, the Spirit is often cited as the basis of disobedience, that is, disobedience is justified if you are obedient to the Spirit. On the other hand, if you are not bound by those rigid laws meant for narrow-minded people, you are being as loving as Jesus. Sounds right? Well, here’s news for you. Today’s passage shows us how terribly wrong these propositions are.

Our Lord tells us, ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words.’ Hold on a minute. Did our Lord just say that those who keep the Law actually do love Him whereas those who break His law, in all honesty, don’t?

Yes, that’s what our Lord said exactly. This is because love and obedience go together. The disciple’s personal love for the Lord should lead him to obey His commandments. Love and obedience open the door for God to dwell in the disciple. Disobedience is not evidence of one’s superior love. On the contrary, disobedience is evidence of one’s lack of love for the Lord and proof that one only loves oneself more than anything else, including God. The root of disobedience is not love, it’s pride.

Love is tied to obedience because a discipleship’s relationship to Jesus mirrors Jesus’s own relationship with the Father. Just as the Son loves the Father and obeys His will, so too must the disciple love Jesus and obey His will, which is the same as the Father’s will. To claim otherwise would be a blatant lie.

So, the next time you hear someone say that Jesus came to show us an example of being loving, believe him. But if he were to say that Jesus is the model of disobedience, the exemplary model of someone who breaks the law, call him out as a liar. We are not here to rewrite the gospel so that it can become more palatable to the masses. Our Lord said many things, but that’s one thing He never said and will never say.

What about the Holy Spirit? Today, we are introduced to the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Advocate. We will be hearing more about Him in the coming weeks leading up to Pentecost. Most people often associate the Holy Spirit with unbridled freedom, “the Spirit blows where it wills.” It is no wonder, that the Spirit is often cited as the justification for disobedience, freedom from regimented structures and protocols and rigid rules. It must be clear that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. He is sent by the Father to teach us and remind us of what our Lord has taught. He is not a spirit of innovation, to constantly teach new things in contradiction with what the Lord has taught.

Secondly, He is the Spirit which bequeaths peace. He is not a spirit which causes confusion and conflict between the members of the Body of Christ. In fact, those who cause dissension within the Church work against the mission of the Spirit and are motivated by the spirit of the world and their own pride. So, don’t push the blame on the Spirit. The Spirit helps us to love the Lord by keeping His commandments, not by breaking them. The Spirit builds and strengthens the visible bonds of communion – of belief, of worship and submission to apostolic hierarchy – and not by causing division and schism within the Church.

The first reading gives us an example of a controversy arising in the early Church which was officially resolved in the council of Jerusalem by a consensus of the apostles and elders. St Luke, the author of Acts, specifically, writes that it is not just the decision of men, but “it has been decided by the Holy Spirit.” This story provides us with a model of community discernment and decision-making: in the awareness of the Spirit, the leaders heard the facts of the case, listened to the opinions on both sides of the question put forward by experienced leaders, and then made their decision in the Spirit. Both the human and the spiritual dimension were not neglected.

Today, we acknowledge that it is easy to walk away from a discussion and take matters into our own hands, when our opinions and ideas are not accepted. We may even justify our actions by calling it fidelity to Christ and the Spirit. But the truth is that, it is pride which often makes us take our own path, no matter how well-thought out we may imagine this path to be. At the end of the day, it is not about the agenda of the leadership or that of the larger community or ours. It is about the agenda of the Lord. Our Lord has made several promises to us. He is not a liar. He is not a propagandist, He does not have any political agenda to push. The only agenda He has is the salvation of souls, our souls. He is only concerned with the Truth and the Truth is that obedience, to the Father’s will and to His commandments, is the only sure path to salvation. The bottom line is this, if you profess to love the Lord, keep His commandments.