Sermon – Sunday the 22^nd of May, 2022 – Rev. Chris Willis

John 14: 23-29

John Chapter 14 – the chapter from where our gospel reading came today, is just about the nearest to a theological sensory overload that you can ever experience. It follows on from Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus predicting his betrayal, and then would you believe it, Jesus predicting Peters denial of him, all in chapter 13. But wow, Chapter 14 – what can only be described as one mind blowing verse after another. Each one worthy of not just a sermon in its own right, but books galore. And those books have been written.

Try these verses from chapter 13 for size:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled – trust in God”

“In my father’s house are many rooms”.

“I will come back and take you to be with me”. [to occupy those very rooms].

And how about some of the very most incredible words ever spoken:

“I am the way and the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father [To God the father] except through me”. Except through Jesus

And “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”.

“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” – there is a sermon and a half!

And so, they go on. All in chapter 14 of Johns Gospel.

And then there’s our reading today: ‘Jesus said, “if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’.  

In my bible translation, the above verse begins, not ‘Jesus said’, but, ‘Jesus replied’. And that’s helpful, as it causes us to look back. To see what he was replying to, in order for him to say such remarkable words?

And when we do, we discover that Jesus was doing what I do all the time. I don’t know about you, but I do find I occasionally repeat myself!! Those who are close to me will tell me it is more than occasional…I’m sure you don’t have that problem!

But Jesus was repeating himself, not owing to poor memory and forgetfulness, but because what he was saying was crucial. Three times he says the same thing.

In verse 21 Jesus says: ‘whoever has my commands and obeys them, is the one who loves me’.

And in verse 15 Jesus had already said: ‘If you love me, you will obey what I command, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor’. This is the Trinity in glorious action: God the Son, asking God the Father to send; yes, you guessed it: God the Holy Spirit. If you ever want to see the Trinity in completion, here is one of the most amazing demonstrations ‘tri-unity’.

Now I risk getting myself into trouble here, as I’ve actually never heard this said – so it’s always a little bit unnerving to proposes something about God that isn’t mainstream. But, and feel free to shoot me down if you don’t find this in scripture: in one amazing and beautiful sense, there is a fourth person, emersed, by invitation into the trinity. That’s us, the church. Not of course as God, it does not change the tri-unity – but the trinity embraces us within. As the church. Or as the church is described elsewhere, the bride of Christ.. For in verse 20 we read: ‘I am in my Father, and you are in me’. It’s what happens in a marriage, the bride, or groom become part of another family Like a beautiful Russian doll. How lovely is that to think of being immersed in the union of the Trinity by the grace of God, to be in Jesus, who in turn is in the Father. And we can add, within us is the Holy Spirit. And sure enough, in the same verse, Jesus says, ‘I am in you’.

And all that is why we need to take todays reading so very seriously. The very words of Jesus: ‘If anyone loves me, he/she, will obey my teaching’.

Often, in our culture, we think about love as a feeling. An emotion. Often being reduced down to just being nice to someone. But in these verses Jesus makes the inseparable link between the words love and obey. Put simply, we cannot say we love Jesus unless we do what he commands. Now, that immediately causes me a problem, as I know I fail all the time to live up to Jesus’ teaching. And we’ll come back to that in a moment. Hope is on the horizon.

But before we do: there was a song I used to love listening to in my youth by one of my favourite Christian songwriters. In this song by Don Francisco, the chorus repeated the hook line: ‘love is not a feeling, it’s an act of your will’. It’s a truism isn’t it. If I say to my children, ‘I love you’, but don’t show it in my actions, what is that love worth?

Indeed, Jesus told the parable, about the two sons. Both asked by the father to help. One said yes and then didn’t bother. The other initially said no, then ‘repented’ of that attitude and did what his father asked. It was the latter we are told, that did his fathers will.

So, it is true, we can’t truly say we love Jesus, if we ignore his teaching, which is the teaching in the Bible.

And then there is the really scary verse.  And it is rightly truly frightening. As Jesus added these words: ‘He [or she] who does not love me will not obey my teaching’. We should rightly have a cold chill run down our spine with that one. Jesus has set a juxtaposition between two groups of people. Those who obey his commands, and those who don’t. The first he says, love him, and the second don’t.

Quite frankly, this is getting a little hard. But there is good news. In fact, really good news. Have you noticed the verse which separates those two positions. Sandwiched between those who love Jesus and those who don’t, in verse 23. It’s the lifeline verse, the saving grace, lifting us out of what would quite frankly be a hopeless and desperate task, left to our own devises. You see, Jesus in todays reading, was, as we saw, simply repeating what he had already said moments before. And just before our reading, he had promised the Holy Spirit, who he would ask the Father to send. He had told us that he is in the father, and we are in Him, and that same Holy Spirit, when we come to Jesus and give our lives to Him, also then lives in us - even, as we read elsewhere, as a deposit pointing us forward to the promise of eternal life with Jesus. We are not left to struggle alone. It’s not – praise God - just down to us.

That song from Don Francisco has a bridge. I am please it does, or else it leaves me thinking, wow, its all down to me, and I know that I am going to get it wrong. But it’s not just down to me. It’s not just down to you or me in our own strength. In that song the bridge goes like this:

But Jesus is faithful His promise is true And the things that He asks He gives the power to do

He gives us the power, through the Holy Spirit. Who lives in every believer who trusts in Jesus Christ as Lord, to be able to obey his commands.

So the really good news, is that we’re not in it alone. Firstly, we have a loving Father God, a loving and forgiving Jesus, who forgives us ‘all our sins, and picks up, dusts us off, and sets us on our way again, when we turn to him, truly repentant. And better still, Jesus did ask the father to send the Holy Spirit, not just to be nearby, but so much better, to dwell within us. In our hearts.

So, we’ve had the really scary verse.

And we’ve had the really, really, good news, That’ we’re not in it alone.

But what about the ‘so what’. As I’ve said before, every sermon should have a ‘so what’. The how do I apply it bit?

We need to know what Jesus tells us. And we know that by reading his word – the bible. Yes, the gospels, but not just the Gospels, but all of it – It is all God’s word. All God breathed. And if you are not already a regular reader of the bible, the gospels are an excellent place to start. But as said, not just the Gospels, the psalms, the prophets, the letters and all the Old Testament. After all, Jesus himself repeatedly referred to and affirmed the Old Testament.

But we need to read the bible listening to the Holy Spirits gentle prompts. And as we read, as we pray, we begin to hear and recognise the small still voice of God. Those gentle promptings. We have a sense of assurance of what we hear, when it corresponds to the bibles teaching, and in learning to listen, we learn to obey. And that is our expression of or love for Jesus.

If you know about love languages; you know the ones: quality time, acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation, and gifts, you know that it is when we learn the other persons love language, that we learn to love them. There is little point in only overwhelming someone with gifts, if their primary love language is quality time. There is no point in doing lots of good things for someone (Acts of service), if all they long for is to spend quality time with you. Now, I know there is rightly a limit how far one takes that concept when looking to God, and considering how he loves us, or indeed, calls us to love him in return. But the thing about love languages is its about recognising what the other identifies as a loving response. Truth is, there are different loving responses to God, including acts of service, and quality time with him,  but one love language that Jesus both speaks and seeks, is one of obedience to his teaching. At the end of John 14 Jesus says: ‘The world must learn that I love the Father, and do exactly what my Father has commanded me’. And Jesus calls us to express our love for him in the same way. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching’.

So, may I encourage you from today, to make this book, a good and close friend. It is after all the greatest love story ever written, how God rescues humankind from peril, offering those who will believe eternal life with Him.

Let us express our love, to the one who gave everything for us in obedience to the Father, by in turn loving Him by obeying his commands.

Amen