This morning we are looking at John 14:15.
In this passage, Jesus says:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV)
All of us desire love in our life. This morning you may have come in here discouraged, overwhelmed, and assuming that no one cares, or notices.
So before I even open the passage, I want to tell you that Jesus loves you and God loves you.
1 John 4:8-9 says;
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1Jn 4:8-9, ESV)
When we come to Jesus, we come to one who loves each of us and gave his life for us. We don’t come to an empty love—we come to a love and a life that is abundant.
You can find hope and love in him this morning because he loves you.
And He wants us to love him.
Jesus says to us,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV)
I want to take a few moments today to explore this sentence. Inside these 49 characters—including spaces—enough to place on your twitter account, there is truth that all of us must hear very clearly.
He says:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV)
1. If we say we love Jesus, we should be doing what he says.
This is by no means a foreign concept.
The book of James says:
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (Jm. 2:17, ESV)
If we say we love Jesus, we are to act like it.
If we love Jesus, then we will follow what he says.
That is why it is so strange to see someone pulled over for speeding with an, “I love Jesus” bumper sticker. It is inconsistent with the message.
We are a nation where churches dot our street corners. People say that they believe in God, and that they go to church, but we continue to live in disobedience.
As a nation, we are wishing away God’s command “to not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14, ESV) and our people continue to have sex out of marriage.
I was reading in the New York Times this week about how the 2010 census has found that married couples are no longer a majority,
Married couples represented just 48 percent of American households in 2010…far below the 78 percent of households occupied by married couples in 1950.
Because of cohabitation and divorce–we are tipping the scales and destroying God’s plan for purity in our nation.
In America, we explain away God’s command to
“not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Ex. 20:16, ESV)
Gossip has become such a big problem in the church that ABC wants to produce a TV show based on backstabbing and gossiping women found in our churches. While the title of the show is not fit to be uttered from the pulpit, Christianity Today states that;
“We shouldn’t be asking so much whether the show’s title is offensive but rather whether it’s true.”
We also slide pass the commands not to bow down to idols.
We have so blurred the lines that we don’t even see the idols that we worship. More and more Christians are participating in the religious practice of yoga in order to find peace, emptying their minds to themselves rather than filling their minds with the word of God.
About our idols the Bible says:
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Ex 20:5-6, ESV)
We are to keep his commandments, out of love our love for Jesus.
But, the Bible tells us that nobody, except Christ, has ever kept the Commandments. That is because we are sinners. All of us are shameful as we stand before a holy God.
Paul told the Romans:
“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rm 3:23, ESV)
And that is true—we are all guilty of sin.
James says;
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (Jm. 2:10, ESV)
We are sinners.
We are naturally bent toward sin and rebellion against God.
We need Jesus to
“…to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn 1:9, ESV)
And he will, if we confess our sins to him. And we can stand pure before God.
Are you stuck in your sin this morning?
You may have grown up in the church. You are here today, because that’s what you are supposed to do—to be a good person. You are saying to yourself—“maybe it will help.”
You need more than the church. The church cannot save you from your sin—only Jesus can.
We need to be reminded of our sin. And we need to be reminded of his love for us—and, in turn, remember why we love him so.
2. Jesus says:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV)
I love to visit the mountains.
Some people are “Beach People,” some people are “amusement park people”, but I love to go to the mountains—to be quiet, to be still, and to be refreshed.
One of my favorite images of the mountains are those that are reflected on the surface of the lake. It is breath-taking to see a snow capped mountain reflected on the stillness of water.
We are to present the same reflection to God—a reflection of himself.
It was once said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
This is demonstrated best every year at the San Diego Comic Convention, also known as the Comic-Con.
Comic-con is a comic book convention and a celebration of the popular arts.
On the Saturday night of the convention, attendees are given the opportunity to showcase their talents and creativity as they dress up to look like their favorite “Super Heroes” or movie characters.
There “imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery”.
We see this used heavily in marketing as our top celebrities are chosen to endorse products to encourage their fans to follow their lead and to “Be Like Mike”– referring to basketball great Michael Jordan.
And Jesus says,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV)
We are to be imitators of Christ.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. (Eph. 5:1, ESV)
We are to be imitators of Christ in all that we do.
He says that the greatest commandment is to:
“… love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matt 22:37, ESV)
We need to focus everything that we do on Christ and Christ alone. We need to soak up every word of scripture and to apply it to every area of our lives.
This cannot happen until we just follow his basic command to follow him, leaving our nets—our lives, our interests, our desires, our ambitions, our sins—and follow him.
Are you following him this morning?
You can do follow him today through repentance.
Repentance is simply turning from the direction that you are going, who you are following, what dreams you are chasing, what passion you are indulging in—and following Jesus.
You may ask; What’s wrong with the path you are taking?
The Bible says:
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Pr. 14:12, ESV)
Inside each of us is a nature to rebel against God and this is sin.
The payment for this sin is death and hell. Jesus died on a cross to pay that penalty in our place. We must turn from our sin and turn to Christ and accept his payment for our sin. You can not reach out to God without Christ.
Jesus said…
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (Jn 14:6, ESV)
You must have Christ to pay for your sin. You must follow Him.
3. And Jesus says,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV)
I was born in 1970. In that same year, my father bought a white Volkswagen Beetle new for $1000. Through the years, he cared for the car. The car became the car that all of my brothers and sister would drive in high school—including me, until we sold the car for my first new car in college. The car stayed in our family for about 20 years. All of the care and attention that my father placed in the car was returned as the reliability of the car extended through each year.
In the same way, as we pay more and more attention to the environment—constructing parks and protecting forests—we will have beautiful areas for future generations to enjoy the outdoors. We are so blessed to have the Petersburg National Battlefield outside our gates as well as the Pocahontas State Park so close by.
The love we put in to these areas—as well as the many other opportunities to be good stewards of the earth God has given us–will be returned to us.
In John 14:21, Jesus continues with his thought:
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.” (Jn 14:21, ESV)
When you love Jesus, your love will be returned.
In 2007, approximately 5.8 million children were involved child abuse reports and allegations.
In 1998, a study was conducted to count 3 million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.
These people, maybe someone here today, simply desire for their love to be returned. There are many that don’t know what it means to love and to see this returned to them. They only know hurt of loving and the emptiness from unreturned love.
But Jesus promises that:
“…he who loves me will be loved by my Father…” (Jn 14:21, ESV)
He will return our love.
And he already has shown his love to us:
…God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rm 5:8, ESV)
He promises to show us more and more love, as we show our love to him.
Jesus says,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15, ESV)
Do you love Jesus this morning?
Are you obeying his commands?
Have you obeyed his command to turn from your sin and follow Him?
He will always return his love for you.
This morning you have an opportunity to change the direction of your life from one of disobedience to one of love and commitment.
I invite you today to follow Jesus.
Not simply to say a prayer.
Not to join a church.
But to follow Jesus–loving him and obeying him with your love.
Jesus said,
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:20, ESV)
Is he knocking on the door of your heart this morning?
Will you let him come in?
Today may be your last chance to accept him–so follow Jesus today.
After the service, I will be right here and would love to talk to you more about your decision.
Don’t let another heart beat pass before trusting in him.
Let us pray.
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This sermon was first preached at Memorial Chapel, Fort Lee, VA 29 May 2011. All scripture marked ESV: The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001, S.
Catherine Barrett says
This is a wonderful lesson that I stumbled upon. I was in the mist of study and I had to look up a scripture reference. I put a link above about some tools pastors are using to spread the Gospel. I thought this might be something you could use as well. God bless and continue teaching the WORD.