WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:07.799 Well, good morning, church. It's good to see you here. Glad you could join us, those of us who are here in person and those who are on the live stream. 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:17.420 And as we begin summer, post-Morail Day, we continue in our series in the book of John. 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:24.379 If you want to turn with me, we're going to start by reading our passage. It's in John chapter 15, starting in verse 12. 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:28.719 There are pews in the Bible if you didn't bring one. This is new and glorious. 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:35.840 So if you want to turn there with me, I did not get the page number. 00:00:35.939 --> 00:00:38.420 But you know, before the pandemic, I never knew the page number anyway. 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:45.340 So John 15, starting in verse 12, is our text. 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:54.580 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:00.840 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:04.560 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:10.040 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:17.500 But I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 00:01:18.340 --> 00:01:24.840 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:32.180 and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, 00:01:32.740 --> 00:01:34.240 he may give it to you. 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:39.300 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. 00:01:39.299 --> 00:01:41.060 Let's pray together. 00:01:42.099 --> 00:01:46.200 Lord, we, as we gather this morning, we are thankful for your word. 00:01:46.679 --> 00:01:48.899 Lord, thank you for these words of Jesus. 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:56.759 Lord, spoken to his disciples and yet spoken to us, men and women who follow him centuries later. 00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:04.459 Lord, we ask this morning that by your spirit, you would help us to understand and apply these words to our lives. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:07.079 Lord, that we would know you more. 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:14.219 And Lord, that we would be people who follow you and represent you as you call us to in this world. 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:22.500 Lord, I ask for your help this morning, that I might speak the words you want me to speak for the good of all of us, 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:26.060 and that your word would do its work in each of our hearts. 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:28.659 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:30.099 Amen. 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:30.280 Amen. 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:34.539 Love one another. 00:02:35.699 --> 00:02:36.520 It's pretty clear. 00:02:36.620 --> 00:02:39.780 Anyone who does basic Bible study, it's verse 12, it's verse 17. 00:02:39.979 --> 00:02:44.580 This is the big idea of our passage, is that Jesus is telling us to love one another. 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:47.659 This is in the context of his farewell discourse. 00:02:47.979 --> 00:02:50.340 This is the last week of his life. 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:52.680 This is probably the last night of his life. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:03:03.500 He's speaking to his disciples, reminding them and teaching them about how they're going to continue to live as followers of him after he goes away, 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:05.760 after he goes to the cross and the resurrection. 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:10.080 And so he's instructing them on what it looks like to live. 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:12.420 And he gives them this command, love one another. 00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:13.140 And it's not new. 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:15.040 We actually saw it just a few weeks ago. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:19.979 So, Jesus said this at the end of chapter 13 after he washed his disciples' feet. 00:03:20.079 --> 00:03:20.400 He said, 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:23.439 So also you should love one another the way I have. 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:27.280 So this is not a new thing, but he comes back to it here in this. 00:03:28.139 --> 00:03:31.939 And remember that this is coming right on the heels of what we saw last week. 00:03:32.299 --> 00:03:36.340 That as Jesus calls us into this mission to represent him in this world, 00:03:36.780 --> 00:03:41.620 he calls us to do so in a humble dependence on him. 00:03:41.620 --> 00:03:49.659 This is what abiding means, to stay connected, vitally connected to Jesus as we go about this passage, 00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:53.840 or as we go about this calling and this mission that Jesus has given us. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:57.099 So this is the context then that Jesus turns and he says, 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:02.599 As you abide in me, then live a life of love. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.580 And I want to ask three questions of our text this morning. 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:12.140 And we'll get through this hopefully in some good times so we don't all melt. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:16.139 First, the question is, why do we need to be told this? 00:04:16.340 --> 00:04:18.860 The second question is, what does it actually look like? 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:21.480 And three, what is its purpose in the world? 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:23.780 So let's look at each of those questions. 00:04:23.960 --> 00:04:25.560 Why do we need to be told this? 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.340 Well, friends, it's pretty simple. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:29.220 It's because we're selfish. 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:35.820 By nature, we are selfish people who think of ourselves 95% of the time. 00:04:37.840 --> 00:04:43.300 There are lots of reasons why it's easy for me to not love people, right? 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:45.280 Sometimes I'm busy. 00:04:46.420 --> 00:04:52.140 And so I find my agenda, my priorities, and my work is far more important than anyone else around me. 00:04:52.139 --> 00:04:57.839 Sometimes I find it hard for me to love because I'm disappointed. 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:00.599 My self-protection kicks in. 00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:08.779 I don't want to love you because it might hurt or be difficult or cost me something that I don't want to give. 00:05:09.699 --> 00:05:11.019 Now, I need to say this clearly. 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:12.979 There is a place for proper boundaries. 00:05:13.180 --> 00:05:15.599 There is a place for avoiding abuse. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:26.720 But a loving heart is one that overcomes a selfish desire to protect in an unhealthy way. 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.780 I also find that it's hard for me to love when I'm weary. 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:36.800 Get home at the end of the day, and I'm tired, and I just want to do my thing. 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:38.560 I want to sit on my couch. 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:40.100 I want to drink my iced tea. 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:45.120 I want to look at my phone, and I want to ignore everyone else around me. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:49.519 I also find that it's hard for me to love when I am proud. 00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:53.759 When I am full of myself, when I have ambitions and goals, 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:56.899 when I think that I'm the most important person in the room, 00:05:57.100 --> 00:06:01.740 I think about myself all the time and not anyone else. 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:10.040 So I think that maybe some of you are a little bit like me in this way. 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:19.560 And that we need to be told this because we are fundamentally self-centered creatures. 00:06:21.700 --> 00:06:22.820 Stop and think for a minute. 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:23.640 What about you? 00:06:23.900 --> 00:06:26.439 How is this hard for you? 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:34.639 Are there circumstances that you can think of where you're finding it hard to love others? 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.160 Are there people in your life that you're finding it hard to love? 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:40.560 Friends, welcome to the human race. 00:06:40.660 --> 00:06:42.560 This is the way it's been from the very beginning. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:45.439 After the fall, after sin entered into the world, 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.560 Adam and Eve and their relationships were marred from the very beginning. 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:56.040 And what were meant to be life-giving relationships became selfish, contentious relationships. 00:06:56.220 --> 00:07:00.959 Think about Adam and Eve and the curse of chapter 3 or Cain and Abel in chapter 4. 00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:05.199 You see it and then throughout the whole Bible you see this over and over and over again. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:08.920 That people will think of themselves. 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:17.240 We need to be told to love one another because it is in fact not natural to love. 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:21.319 Sometimes we have the ability to do so for a little while. 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:24.960 Some of us have a greater capacity to do it naturally for a while. 00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:30.460 But in fact it is not natural because of sin and the fall in our world. 00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:32.900 And so we need to be told this. 00:07:32.899 --> 00:07:41.439 Jesus is saying, as you are followers of me, I am giving you this new commandment, this new pattern of living. 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:43.219 Well what does it look like? 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:44.039 Why is it new? 00:07:45.659 --> 00:07:49.839 Let's look at the passage now to look at verses 12 through 15 to see what it looks like. 00:07:50.459 --> 00:07:56.679 Jesus says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:03.259 Just think for a minute what we know from the Gospels about Jesus and his interactions with his disciples. 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:11.160 Peter, the headstrong one who never gets it right and who in the end will deny him. 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:21.540 James and John, the ambitious ones who argue for and aspire to the right hand and the left hand of ruling. 00:08:23.060 --> 00:08:24.639 Thomas, the doubting one. 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:25.540 Really, Jesus? 00:08:25.540 --> 00:08:27.800 Jesus, do I really need to trust you? 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:29.840 Do I really believe you? 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:31.900 And Judas. 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:37.379 The one that has already left their center, their group now. 00:08:38.259 --> 00:08:39.379 Jesus knowing that he… 00:08:39.379 --> 00:08:42.120 These are the people that Jesus has loved. 00:08:42.680 --> 00:08:45.680 And when he says this, they're the people that he's first speaking to. 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:47.159 How have I loved you? 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:48.320 Patiently. 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:50.100 With long suffering. 00:08:50.300 --> 00:08:50.899 With kindness. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:51.980 With persistence. 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:53.940 Teaching you goodness. 00:08:53.940 --> 00:08:56.360 Bearing with your misunderstanding. 00:08:56.360 --> 00:08:58.360 Your selfishness and your pride. 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:05.820 This is the kind of love that Jesus calls now his disciples to follow. 00:09:05.899 --> 00:09:07.759 And then he goes further in verse 13. 00:09:08.019 --> 00:09:09.659 He says, what does this look like? 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:17.320 Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friends. 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:18.580 Jesus knew. 00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:23.860 Jesus knew not only had he loved his disciples well, but he was going to love them well to 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:24.760 the very end. 00:09:25.300 --> 00:09:28.020 And in doing so, he knew that the cross was coming. 00:09:28.460 --> 00:09:29.600 In fact, it was imminent. 00:09:30.060 --> 00:09:34.080 And he was looking ahead, knowing that his love would take them there. 00:09:34.420 --> 00:09:36.220 Would take him there for them. 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:40.180 He would suffer the indignity and the scorn and the shame. 00:09:40.280 --> 00:09:43.160 He would suffer the agony of physical torture. 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:48.500 He would suffer the judgment of God on their behalf and on ours. 00:09:48.620 --> 00:09:50.639 A death that he did not deserve. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:59.299 And Jesus, looking ahead, says, this is what it looks like to even lay down your life for 00:09:59.299 --> 00:10:00.079 your friend. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:06.360 Knowing what he would be going to do. 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:12.300 Jesus says, I call you friends because this is what I'm going to do. 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:18.180 Then verse 14, and he says, and your friendship will show itself in loving one another. 00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:22.899 That is, and I want to make sure, I said this last time I preached in John, I'm going to 00:10:22.899 --> 00:10:23.340 say it again. 00:10:23.419 --> 00:10:27.360 This is another if statement that isn't a conditional the way we think of it. 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:31.860 It's not, if you obey these commands, then I'm going to be your friend. 00:10:31.860 --> 00:10:37.080 But if you are my friend, then what will flow from that is you will love one another. 00:10:37.580 --> 00:10:44.039 It will be the proof, the outworking of what it means to know my friendship, that you will 00:10:44.039 --> 00:10:45.600 love one another. 00:10:48.300 --> 00:10:54.960 Verse 15, he says, and you already are my friends, because I have told you what the Father has 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:55.560 told me. 00:10:55.560 --> 00:11:01.600 I have brought you into the inner circle, the intimate counsel of the Godhead. 00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:08.300 I have brought you in, and my Father has told me things that now I have brought you in. 00:11:08.379 --> 00:11:10.840 No longer do I call you slaves. 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:14.100 No longer, and some of this is a salvation historical move. 00:11:14.340 --> 00:11:20.340 No longer are we wondering how is God going to work out this salvation and bring us into 00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:21.180 this new family. 00:11:21.180 --> 00:11:28.680 But now, because of what Jesus is about to do on the cross, no longer are you an outsider, 00:11:28.800 --> 00:11:29.840 but you are a friend. 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:31.779 You know the mind of God. 00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:34.960 Because now you are going to see the redemptive work. 00:11:36.379 --> 00:11:39.340 I have told you that I will go to the cross and die for you. 00:11:39.940 --> 00:11:41.180 And you are about to see it. 00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:48.320 And in this then, you are my friend, who I lay down my life for. 00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:54.440 Friends, this is what it looked like for Jesus to love his disciples. 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:59.640 And this is what it looked like for Jesus to love us. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:05.820 What does it look like in our life to begin to lay this? 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:10.320 Well, there are sermons upon sermons that I could preach with lots of examples. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.720 But here are four things that I see. 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:16.480 Jesus' example shows us that love is costly. 00:12:17.680 --> 00:12:19.240 It will cost you your time. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:21.140 It will cost you your finances. 00:12:21.139 --> 00:12:29.279 It will cost you the intangible but very real what we all know. 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:33.699 The weight of our heart when we love someone deeply. 00:12:34.659 --> 00:12:38.220 When we care for them through hard things. 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:42.120 Love is costly. 00:12:42.300 --> 00:12:43.840 It is also sacrificial. 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:47.700 That is, we will give up things in order to love others. 00:12:47.820 --> 00:12:49.279 We will live up comfort. 00:12:49.879 --> 00:12:50.899 We will give up comfort. 00:12:51.160 --> 00:12:54.680 We will give up control to love others. 00:12:55.980 --> 00:12:57.700 Love is also selfless. 00:12:59.180 --> 00:13:01.560 Love does not ask, what do I get in return? 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:05.859 It does not ask, have you earned this or do you deserve it? 00:13:07.979 --> 00:13:12.799 It does not say, I will love you as long as you praise me or thank me. 00:13:13.239 --> 00:13:14.599 Love is selfless. 00:13:16.119 --> 00:13:19.139 And finally, love is available and proactive. 00:13:20.139 --> 00:13:22.239 It does not wait to be asked. 00:13:22.459 --> 00:13:25.679 It does not wait to be coerced or manipulated. 00:13:26.119 --> 00:13:30.019 It does not wait, but it takes the initiative. 00:13:30.019 --> 00:13:36.139 It looks and it sees and it understands and it acts for the good of others. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:45.659 Friends, there are lots of great examples of love in this world. 00:13:46.319 --> 00:13:50.199 I've experienced it myself in this congregation as you have loved me 00:13:50.199 --> 00:13:53.500 through some hard seasons in the last 10 years. 00:13:53.899 --> 00:13:55.319 And I'm thankful for that. 00:13:55.320 --> 00:14:02.260 One of the most moving examples that I can think of of love is in the life of a guy named 00:14:02.260 --> 00:14:03.440 Robertson McQuilkin. 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:06.280 He was an older evangelical. 00:14:06.520 --> 00:14:07.879 Some of you may know him. 00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:13.720 He was the president of a place called Columbia Bible College and Seminary in South Carolina. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.400 Was a prominent evangelical leader. 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:21.539 And the prime of his career when his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. 00:14:22.959 --> 00:14:31.840 And as she slowly deteriorated in her cognitive functions, she grew in her terror that she had 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:32.860 somehow lost him. 00:14:32.959 --> 00:14:37.579 So he would go off to work and half an hour later she would become afraid and she would 00:14:37.579 --> 00:14:39.980 walk from their house to work. 00:14:39.980 --> 00:14:44.899 And she would do this sometimes four, five, six times a day because of it. 00:14:47.060 --> 00:14:52.620 Her terror of losing him was so great that it caused her this great suffering. 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:57.180 And so he, in the prime of his career, decided to step down. 00:14:58.420 --> 00:14:59.360 It's a beautiful letter. 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:00.560 You can Google it. 00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:01.519 Robertson McQuilkin. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.779 But near the end of the letter, he wrote this. 00:15:04.939 --> 00:15:10.620 Duty can be grim and stoic, but for me, I love Muriel. 00:15:11.139 --> 00:15:12.659 She is a delight to me. 00:15:13.059 --> 00:15:15.779 Her childlike dependence and confidence in me. 00:15:16.079 --> 00:15:20.980 Her warm love, occasional flashes of that wit that I used to relish so. 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:26.899 Her happy spirit and tough resilience in the face of her continual distressing frustration. 00:15:28.439 --> 00:15:30.639 I don't have to care for her. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:32.059 I get to. 00:15:32.939 --> 00:15:37.199 It is a high honor to care for so wonderful a person. 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:41.419 He spent the next ten years of his life caring for his wife. 00:15:44.620 --> 00:15:45.919 It was costly. 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:47.620 It was sacrificial. 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:49.340 It was selfless. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:53.819 And it pictures Christ to me. 00:15:55.580 --> 00:15:57.080 So how about you all? 00:15:57.080 --> 00:16:00.400 What does love look like? 00:16:00.900 --> 00:16:03.900 And you know, there's one other word that I want to bring out in this section, and that 00:16:03.900 --> 00:16:06.400 is that it's that we are to love one another. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:08.560 Now look, the Bible says lots of things. 00:16:08.620 --> 00:16:09.440 We're to love our enemies. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:10.420 We're to love our neighbors. 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:12.860 We're to love in lots of different contexts. 00:16:12.920 --> 00:16:16.700 But here specifically, Jesus says, love one another. 00:16:16.700 --> 00:16:23.480 And friends, I've been so encouraged by this church, by the love that I have seen between 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:24.440 you for one another. 00:16:24.580 --> 00:16:26.759 But I wanted to call you and challenge you. 00:16:28.060 --> 00:16:30.720 Take a new step this summer, this fall. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:37.600 Try reaching out to someone who you wouldn't normally love. 00:16:38.620 --> 00:16:41.720 Find someone who's ten years older or ten years younger than you. 00:16:42.040 --> 00:16:44.600 Find someone who's in a different stage of life than you. 00:16:44.700 --> 00:16:49.800 Come from a different ethnic background, a different educational background, a different 00:16:49.800 --> 00:16:55.080 they live in the suburbs or the city, whatever it is. 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:58.660 Find someone who you look at and you think, that person's really different from me. 00:16:58.659 --> 00:17:05.899 And learn a little bit more about what it means to love the way Jesus loves by reaching 00:17:05.899 --> 00:17:08.420 out to someone else and developing a relationship with them. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:14.859 You don't have to do it now, today, but over the next couple of weeks, over the next couple 00:17:14.859 --> 00:17:19.519 of months, let's grow as a church in loving one another. 00:17:20.159 --> 00:17:25.399 You will benefit, they will benefit, and God will be glorified as we do this. 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:33.840 So if that's what love looks like, Jesus goes on in verse 16 to tell us also that in the 00:17:33.840 --> 00:17:37.560 context of this love, there is a purpose that he has for us. 00:17:37.820 --> 00:17:39.960 And this purpose is that we would bear fruit. 00:17:40.040 --> 00:17:41.519 Look with me again at verse 16. 00:17:41.860 --> 00:17:46.600 He says, you did not choose me, but I chose you. 00:17:47.360 --> 00:17:50.800 Again, Jesus' initiative, his electing love for them. 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.919 I chose you to set my love on you. 00:17:54.180 --> 00:17:55.819 And I chose you with a purpose. 00:17:56.339 --> 00:17:59.740 A purpose that you would go and bear fruit. 00:18:00.659 --> 00:18:04.839 Pastor Nick talked last week in this image of the vine and being connected to the vine 00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:06.919 and fruit bearing, that fruit bearing can mean a lot of things. 00:18:07.019 --> 00:18:10.440 It can mean our character and being a more loving person for sure. 00:18:10.639 --> 00:18:16.379 But here, because it says go and bear fruit, I think that Jesus is particularly talking about 00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:21.340 the missional sense here, that he's going to send them out into the world as witnesses, 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:26.100 and that the fruit that they're going to bear will be the lives of other people, 00:18:26.580 --> 00:18:31.400 transformed and changed by being brought into a saving relationship with Jesus. 00:18:32.360 --> 00:18:37.180 The fruit is new believer experiencing the love of God through his people. 00:18:37.180 --> 00:18:45.700 And through our words as we proclaim him on the mission that God has called us as his people 00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:50.620 in this world, and through our relationships with one another as we love one another deeply, 00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:54.860 God intends for that to overflow and to bear fruit. 00:18:55.180 --> 00:18:58.640 John 13, a reminder of what he said there. 00:18:59.019 --> 00:19:01.440 A new commandment I give to you that you love one another. 00:19:01.560 --> 00:19:05.100 Just as I have loved you, so also are you to love one another. 00:19:05.099 --> 00:19:12.939 By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. 00:19:14.259 --> 00:19:17.319 D.A. Carson, one of the great commentators on John, says this, 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:22.299 the union of love that joins believers with Jesus can never become a comfortable, 00:19:22.919 --> 00:19:26.279 exclusivistic huddle that only they can share. 00:19:26.939 --> 00:19:30.379 Because the love that he calls for us to have with one another 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:35.100 is meant to be this overflowing fountain of love. 00:19:35.320 --> 00:19:42.680 This community of brothers and sisters that love one another in such a way that others are attracted and drawn to it. 00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:47.480 In 15 years of campus ministry, I saw this over and over and over again. 00:19:47.560 --> 00:19:54.460 A friend, a roommate, a classmate, a teammate would see the way that the Christians loved one another. 00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:59.039 And they wouldn't know what it was, but they'd say, whatever that is, I want that. 00:19:59.299 --> 00:20:05.360 I want in on that because that's so much better than the craziness that I live in otherwise. 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:09.160 And they would be drawn in and they would come to understand 00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:14.940 that the love that is between believers flows from the love that comes from Christ. 00:20:14.940 --> 00:20:22.660 And they would come to faith in Christ as they are drawn in by the love that believers have for one another. 00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:26.779 Friends, this is what Jesus has called us to. 00:20:27.299 --> 00:20:35.799 To be this kind of overflowing, this beacon of light, this, I think of it as like a warm campfire that people gather around. 00:20:37.080 --> 00:20:40.980 And those in darkness, wandering, looking, see the light. 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:45.360 And they feel the warmth of the love of God's people for one another. 00:20:45.460 --> 00:20:49.700 And they are drawn in to understand Christ better. 00:20:52.059 --> 00:20:53.620 This is what he's called us to. 00:20:54.500 --> 00:20:58.700 And I'm thankful to be in a church where I can say, I believe this is real. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:05.240 To hear the call that Jesus gives us to continue to do it still more. 00:21:07.740 --> 00:21:10.480 Now, I want to close by saying this. 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:13.500 When you hear this, maybe you feel overwhelmed. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:18.079 You're sitting there thinking, I don't actually love people very well. 00:21:19.180 --> 00:21:21.319 Going back to point one, I'm actually really selfish. 00:21:21.819 --> 00:21:22.640 And I know that. 00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:24.059 And I don't like that. 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:26.039 But I don't know how to change that. 00:21:26.120 --> 00:21:27.299 I don't know how to be different. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:30.240 I want to remind you what Jesus has already told us. 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:35.279 In chapter 14, he has told us that when he goes away, he will not leave us alone. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:44.759 But he will send the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to mediate to us Christ's love so that we may know it and so that we may follow up. 00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:59.139 He has also reminded us in verse 15, in the verses right before this, that when we abide in Christ, connected to the vine, Jesus, the fountain of real love in this world, we will bear fruit. 00:21:59.140 --> 00:22:14.000 And so we don't have to produce this as much as we have to connect with Jesus, who is the producer of fruit and love in our lives, and to work at it as he works in us so that we can be loving people. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:21.539 And then finally, I want to remind you of the passage that Ophelia read earlier in 1 John. 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:27.500 We must remember that here is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. 00:22:28.900 --> 00:22:35.259 Sent his son to be the propitiation, the savior, the one who would lay down his life for us. 00:22:35.259 --> 00:22:44.079 Later on in that chapter in 1 John 4, he'll say, we love because he first loved us. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:47.359 And I imagine this is your experience as well. 00:22:47.619 --> 00:22:54.500 When I know, when I'm convinced in my mind that Jesus loves me, and when I experience it in my heart, 00:22:54.879 --> 00:23:00.740 and sometimes it's one and sometimes it's the other, it's not always the feeling, it's not always the conviction, 00:23:00.740 --> 00:23:05.779 but when I know those things are true, when that is in the forefront of my life, 00:23:05.819 --> 00:23:11.059 and in the center of my experience of a relationship, of this abiding relationship with Christ, 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:14.059 then I am freed to love others. 00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:19.960 I don't worry about my comfort and ambition and pride because Jesus loves me, 00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:23.940 and it breaks the stranglehold of those things in my heart. 00:23:23.940 --> 00:23:31.100 I'm able to see others through the light of Christ's love and see them as people worth loving, 00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:36.420 even if they're undeserved and unearned, because that's the way I've been loved. 00:23:37.140 --> 00:23:44.259 And I'm able to love sacrificially because God has poured out his love in my heart. 00:23:46.220 --> 00:23:52.180 As we know Christ's love, it is then that we are able to love one another. 00:23:52.180 --> 00:23:54.880 So friends, this is Christ calling us. 00:23:56.580 --> 00:24:00.840 To love one another as he has loved us.