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Abide in Christ's Love

July 7, 2024 Preacher: Jeff Griffis Series: Communion in Christ's Love

Scripture: John 15:9–17

Abide in Christ’s Love – John 15:9–17

PRAY & INTRO: Picture yourself as a submersible pump.

Think of us as having been made by God into living submersible pumps for living water, which is both our fuel and what we are supposed to be pumping. - Stay in the water to produce water. And you will know the joy and assurance of being used by God for what he designed you to do. 

The most prominent example of abiding in Christ to produce what comes from God is in the *realm* of love.

John 15:9–17 ESV

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

If I had to try to summarize this in my own words, I’d say it like this:

Remain submissively dependent on Christ to love like him, and experience the assurance and joy of God’s love for you by obediently loving like Christ.

Abide to obey, and obediently love like Christ to know the assurance and joy of abiding.

Let’s look closely at the beginning, which forms the foundation for all of this.

Understand God’s love and abide in it. (v. 9)

Let’s not talk too much of love without knowing what love is.

Love is self-giving for the good of another.

This definition applies to God, and to him supremely, for God is the wellspring, the fountainhead, of love. - God loves as a matter of his nature. God’s love is the disposition of his character to be self-giving for the good of another, the object of his love. - In the Triune Godhead, the Father freely gives himself to the Son in love, planning and acting according to what most glorifies the Son.

In Christ most predominantly is God’s love applied to us, his self-giving for our good. He condescended to become a man, and gave himself as a sacrifice for our salvation.

So here where Jesus says “Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you,” I am confident that this is a reference to the extend and quality of God’s love.

God’s love is perfect and complete.

In the context of this passage, which properly begins at chapter 13, John sets the stage for Jesus’ departure discourse with his disciples with this explanation: Jn 13:1

John 13:1 ESV

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The best translation of this final clause would likely be, “he loved them completely.”

God’s love is perfect and complete. God’s love suffers no lack. The fire of God’s love burns hot and bright; it does not wane or falter or grow cold.

God’s love accomplishes it’s purpose; his self-giving reaches its goal of the highest good of the other, the object of his love.

Knowing that love, Christ commands us to abide in it.

Abide in Christ’s love.

“Abide in my love” means to acknowledge the truth and perfection of this love, to swim deep in its waters, and to seek no other source, but to remain steadfastly where you know love is found.

Abiding in his love is to dwell in the security of his perfect love through dependent obedience to produce his love.

From our side, abide emphasizes the ongoing relationship of faith that dwells in dependent obedience. Abiding gets at both dependence and obedience. If you don’t rely on Jesus, you won’t produce his fruit. If you don’t obey him, you aren’t abiding. 

That’s how the vine imagery works: stay dependent and obedient to the vine to produce his fruit. Stay dependent and obedient to Christ’s love to produce his love.

That obedience in particular is the next emphasis.

Experience the confidence and joy of abiding through obedience. (vv. 10-11)

(v. 10)

Know that you are abiding by being obedient.

Jesus didn’t doubt the Father’s love. But while on earth, fully man as well as fully God, he too benefited from the ongoing assurance of God’s love through his obedience to the Father’s will.

Obedience gives us certainty of being in Christ’s life because his life is flowing through us.  (Like Father, like Son. Like Savior, like Saved.)

Although God’s love is gracious and undeserved, lest you should think that enjoyment of this love requires nothing of you, your assurance of abiding in this love depends, at least in part, on your obedience.

(v. 11)

Obedience gives us confidence that we are abiding, and in abiding obedience there is abundant joy.

Obedience is a drudgery when we focus on the difficulty of the task or have a desire to be doing something else. Obedience is a joy when we desire God’s pleasure (his glory) in his children, and we realize that we are accomplishing what we were made for, fulfilling what we are designed to do.

Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. God is making a people for his possession who proclaim his excellencies. That is who we are and what we do. There is no greater confidence and joy than knowing that my existence is fulfilling its intended purpose.

Namely, love others as Christ has loved you. (vv. 12-17)

Clearly, v. 12 (as well as v. 17) state and restate that the encompassing command from Jesus that we must obey is to love one another.

Christ’s encompassing command is to love each other as he loves.

Now if the one another (or each other) part of what Jesus says makes you start asking how you can limit whom you love, then you have begun asking the wrong question. This love among Christians also presumes obedience to God’s command to love him supremely and to love our neighbor as ourselves. If you are trying to figure out the limits, you will find yourself in the place of the self-justifying scribe in Luke 10 who asks, “Who is my neighbor?” In Christ’s parable reply, the merciful Samaritan is the one who shows love. Thus, our neighbor is anyone in our proximity whom we can love as God has loved us.

But the emphasis here is that… those who have come to know the love of Christ are supposed to show the love of Christ, and nowhere should this be more manifest than in the community of Christ. (The unique sacrificial nature of love for the good of others is the chief marker of Christ’s people. John 13:35)

Jesus continues that…

The supreme test of love is giving one’s own life for others.

(v. 13)

When Jesus first said this, they could not have fully understood the depth of its meaning, because he was soon to give his life, dying on a Roman cross, to atone for their sin (and ours) and thereby propitiate God’s righteous wrath against sin. This self-giving Jesus did willingly and with full knowledge of the cost to himself, and the Father did with full knowledge of the cost within the Godhead, for the highest good of the objects of his love.

It would not be long and these loved ones would understand how much they were loved, and the degree to which they were called to love.

Something we should carefully meditate on, each one of us, is… what does it look like to lay down my life, to give my life for others daily?

Like abiding, friendship with Christ is proven by obedience.

(v. 14)

Who are my friends for whom I have given my life? Those who abide in me and obey me and so prove to be my disciples. Those who love as I love prove to be my friends.

By calling them friends Jesus emphasizes the privilege of knowing his heart and purposes.

(v. 15)

Not that we aren’t still his servants and he our Master (see also v. 20), but that we are also friends bc we are now in the “know” concerning God’s means of salvation—namely, the Mediator, Jesus Christ.

Don Carson explains, “[Christ’s] friends are informed of his thinking, enjoy his confidence and learn to obey with a sense of privilege and with full understanding of their master’s heart. So also here: Jesus’ absolute right to command is in no way diminished, but he takes pains to inform his friends of his motives, plans, purposes.” -D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 523.

Calling them friends means they know why they are doing what they are doing. For his glory, and his glory is my good.

Right after explaining this privilege of friendship with him, Jesus says, (v. 16)…

By reminding that he has chosen and appointed them, Jesus emphasizes that they should remain humbly grateful, unwaveringly focused, and prayerfully dependent.

Do not become puffed up. Do not become sidetracked. Do not think we must try to do this without divine help to accomplish his own purposes. - (Again) So that we will not boast in us. So that we will not lose focus on Christ’s objective. So that we will depend on God for everything.

You did not choose me, but I chose you.

This is not your childhood PE class when you were team captain. (Choosing the fastest, strongest, most skilled… choosing your best buddy or the cute girl who is the current crush.)

Why did God choose you/me? Because he is glorified by redeeming slaves to sin (who do not deserve it) and making them a people for his own possession, to the praise of his glorious grace.

The privilege of being an insider with Jesus, saved by grace, should not puff you up but humble you.

Furthermore, with this election comes appointment, the assignment to go and bear fruit that remains. - As a point of doctrinal clarity (soundness in our understanding of Christ’s teaching), notice that choosing and commissioning are not the same thing (not to be conflated); but the point is here that you cannot claim the privilege without the corresponding responsibility.

And since the emphasis on going and bearing fruit, and on the fruit being something that will last (remain/abide), it is likely that Jesus particularly has in mind the central task of evangelism, of faithfully proclaiming Christ (that some who respond will themselves become fruit that abides).

If this is correct, Jesus references our appointment, being set apart for a task, so that we will not lose focus on the primary objective: to spread the gospel, to advance Christ’s kingdom, to make God known in the way we have come to know him.

And what’s the third reason Jesus emphasizes his choosing and appointing? If God has chosen us and appointed us for this task, he will not leave us without help. We only need to ask. - Because of Christ, our relationship to God has changed to such a degree that we can ask him directly ourselves.

Jesus’ own illustration:

Matthew 7:9–11 ESV

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Remember, God is not going to give you your whims and wishes, because those are not actually good.

Dad, can I please be on instatoktwitface? No, because I know for certain, which even your medical doctor keeps insisting, that social media is proving to be absolutely terrible for the health of adolescents and teenagers. And probably all of us.

So God is not going to give us our whims and wishes that are harmful, but he will certainly give you what is needed to please him according to his will, to grow and persevere in faithfulness to Christ, because he knows best of all that such is for his glory and our good.

Finally, Jesus repeats, (v 17)…

I repeat: Love one another.

‘I’m telling you these things so that you will love one another, by which the world will know you are my disciples (Jn 13:35), so that you will abide in my love and be productive branches (v. 8 God is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples).’

It’s interesting that in an age of constant entertainment, we think that repetition is bad or boring. When you want to learn to shoot with the skill of Steph Curry or Leonel Messi, you are foolish indeed if you think that repetition isn’t required of you. If you want to play an instrument well, you learn a little something new, and then repeat it, repeat it, repeat it.

Things are repeated in God’s word because they are the most important things, that in fact need to be emphasized again and again, and which we seem to have a harder time than we imagine getting it into our thick skulls and practicing in our daily lives.

But I digress. … Let’s end by repeating the point Jesus is driving home in this section:

Abiding in Christ (a relationship of submissive dependence) is the only way to produce his love. So too, we must obediently love the way he has loved us to have the assurance and abundant joy that we abide in the true vine and that we are pleasing God.

Here’s a final though for you this morning that I believe summarizes what we see in this text:

You will know God’s love for you best when you are loving others as Christ has loved you.

Enjoy the abundance of God’s perfect love by understanding his love for you, and then learning it truly by obedience to Christ, loving others as Christ has loved you, giving yourself for their highest good… which is that they too may gain God himself.

If you’re experiencing boredom in the Christian life, it’s because your God is too small and you’re not experiencing the amazing grace of God at work in your obedience. Commit yourself to understanding the big-God theology revealed in Scripture, and commit yourself to evangelizing your lost friends and loving those around you with the level of sacrificial love Jesus has called us to, then come back and tell me if you’re bored. (I have never understood who I am better than when I learn more of God, and I have never been so sure of what God has designed me for, and been so humbled, than when I get to be closely connected his grace at working in those around me.)

PRAY

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