“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
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. 18
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 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.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
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, 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 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 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. 25
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,
31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
This morning, I want to walk you through some of the nuances or technical aspects of this text before getting to its main point. Jesus has already demonstrated his
love for his disciples in his washing their feet and he has already commanded them to love one another but this is the first time in the upper room that he speaks of the love the disciples were to have for him, which is how he starts verse 15.
There are five different passages in the upper room discourse, that is chapter 13-17 that speak of the Holy Spirit, twice in chapter 14 which we are looking at and
then once in 15 and twice more in 16. The Holy Spirit often gets short changed in discussions about the Trinity. It seems He is treated like the junior varsity member of the God-head, which is very unfortunate.
The Greek word is the word paraclete. That word is used only one other time in the NT and that also by John, in 1 John 2:1, and, there, in reference not to the Holy Spirit but to Jesus
Himself. As you may know from your reading of the Bible, different translations render the Greek word “paraclete” with different English words: the KJV has “Comforter,” the NASB and the ESV has “helper”, and the NEB “advocate,” and in the NIV as Counselor.
The Greek word in common usage meant “legal assistant” or “advocate”, someone who helps another in court, whether as an advocate or a witness. As one commentator puts it, “[The] NIV’s
‘Counselor’ is not wrong, so long as ‘legal counselor’ is understood, not ‘camp counselor’ or ‘marriage counselor’ and, even so, the Paraclete’s ministry extends beyond the legal sphere.” In 1 John 2:1 the NIV doesn’t use the word counselor for paraclete,
but says, “one who speaks in our defense.” Verse 26, speaks about the Holy Spirit teaching them and bringing to memory all that Jesus has said, this applies most profoundly to the disciples and the task that waits for them, but the Spirit is also the teacher
of the church and of all Christians as we know from other places in the bible.
We are going to have plenty more to say about the Holy Spirit when we get to chapter 16 but this morning we are just making a beginning.
No doubt what stood out to all of us when reading is the unqualified statement of Jesus as he connects our love for Him, to our obedience to His words. Verse 15 is pretty straight forward,
no qualifications: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Verse
21 offers us a bit more to think about: 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 them and show myself to him.”
True love for Jesus is not simply being able to get all the answers right, but living according to His words. And notice that for the one who loves Jesus, Jesus’
relationship with him or her will actually mirror the relationship HE has with the Father, a point he will develop more fully in Chapter 17. So, verse 2. “ …the one who has the commands of Jesus and keeps them, that is the one who loves Jesus. If you
say you love him but don’t obey Him, then you are a liar, which John says explicitly in his epistle. Could you imagine someone saying that to another person: “You say you love Jesus, but you don’t obey what He has said, so, you must be a liar and you don’t
really love Him”? Wow… not winning many friends with that approach!
But we are not done with verse 21, because then Jesus says that obedience to Him, means that the Father will love the obedient one as well and have Jesus reveal Himself
to that one. Again, no qualifications…It almost sounds as if our obedience…matters! Here is the point boiled down: If you want more of Jesus, to understand him better, to have Him reveal Himself to you more deeply…then obey Him.
And then verse 23 and following: “…Anyone who loves me will obey
my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone 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.
This is just the exclamation point, but the message couldn’t be any more clear: Our love for Jesus is demonstrated in our obedience to Him. Now, what are we to do
with this?
It is wise for us to not worry about applying the principle to others, but to apply it to ourselves. Are WE obeying Jesus, or to say it a different way, Do WE love
Jesus?
The Bible says that you are to make your calling and election sure, it doesn’t say that you are to run around making Mike’s or Sally’s calling and election sure.
Apply this to yourself, not to others: Do you love Jesus which is the same thing as saying, do you obey Jesus?
What Jesus is saying here is that we cannot say we love Him, if we are not going to set our life to obeying Him. And yes, it is true, we are not perfect, but that
is NEVER the question, and it is never in doubt, so we might as well stop saying it as though someone were actually asking that question. No, you are not perfect…but
are you authentic? That is the question. Are we real, do we love Jesus and so have set ourselves with joy to obeying what He has said?
The Bible always divides people into two groups. One is either righteous or not. David was righteous though he did some terrible things. Moses was righteous though
he was punished for a sin he had committed against God and others by his being refused entrance into the Promised Land. Peter was righteous though he betrayed the Lord at the worst possible moment. Paul was righteous though he absolutely despaired of the continuing
sinfulness of his heart and life.
So once and for all let’s set this straight: Obedience in the case of Christians is not perfect behavior; it is however the fundamental commitment, the authentic root
that truly describes at the bottom, the truest characteristic of a person’s life who says they love Jesus. This obedience is not a picking and choosing but an embracing and seeking in all things to be pleasing.
I think that many folks content themselves with a very dangerous game: They pick a couple of areas that they are going to keep for themselves, they know they are disobeying
God, they know they are not committed to the Lord in all of their ways…But they are in 70.5% of their ways and 70.5 is a C- and a C- is passing so all is well. But this is dangerous: The Lord doesn’t grade that way, and even if someone COULD earn a better
grade, say a 92%, they still fail because God demands perfection.
That is what the Gospel is all about. Jesus’ score, 100%, perfection, is by faith alone, our score. At least it is the score for those who love Him, and how is that
love seen, not by trying to earn a grade but by embracing the life He has won for us.
When a young man falls in love, he wants to please the young woman who has captured his heart. He asks his mother or some other woman who he thinks should know what sort of
gift he might give her and how he might please her. And so it is with a Christian. He consults God’s Word and seeks to keep it to demonstrate his love for Jesus.
True faith in and love for Christ always does this. That is why Christ can say as he does in this text that if a person does not serve the Lord with obedience then
he does not really love him or trust him. True faith in Christ always obeys – not perfectly, but really.
Brothers and sisters, true Christians know this and it never occurs to you to doubt it. For you want to obey, as do I, and our struggle is not that we HAVE to obey, no,
our struggle is that we don’t obey as completely as we want to!
Tomorrow morning, we will look at the warning in the text.
Prayer: Father, you know all things, you know I love you, but my love is weak and fickle. Strengthen my desire for obedience and my love for you will grow! I want this Father,
with all my heart I desire to love You, to obey You so that the fullness of life would be mine and the glory would be all to You! Work this through the power of Your Spirit, in Jesus name, Amen.
Song: Revive Me