Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Gospel Lesson just read, from John 14. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- The apostle John has been dubbed the apostle of love. His Gospel and his Epistles are full of the various aspects of God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for one another. John refers to himself as “that disciple whom Jesus loved,” a very tender and close relationship of a Savior to dear child of God.
- I did not start out thinking of Christianity as being much about love. I considered it more a matter of survival and redemption, hoping that perhaps I would survive God’s judgment and perhaps have some redeeming purposes for my life. But I did not take God’s invitation to a relationship of real and genuine love very seriously – there were things that made this almost impossible.
- First, there was the matter of my sin and God’s righteousness – I hoped He might in mercy tolerate me, but doubted that He would love me. Second, the very nature of my sin made it seem very alien to love God. Besides all that, I was just an ant, a mere human being, and He is God – how is it that a relationship of love can exist when there is that much disparity.
- As I grew older and read more of John’s writings, and contemplated them, I thought that John must have been a very special and unique individual to have been loved so dearly. I thought it might be nice to be in his circumstances – to have that kind of special relationship with Jesus. But in my ignorance and insensitivity, I never would have thought that this is exactly the kind of relationship that God wants to have with each and every one of us!
- Yes, that means you – every one of you sitting here and listening to His Word! Do not be darkened and ignorant like I was – but consider the invitation of Jesus to have this kind of close and intimate relationship of love with Him. It is clear in what He says in our text that this is exactly what He wants to have with each of us. So let us carefully consider His Words and His will for our relationship with Him, so that we can see that with Jesus it is always “A MATTER OF LOVE.”
- First, we must understand that it is certain that:
I. Only Those Living In Christ’s Love Will Love Him
A. The Aim Of His Love Is Us, Our Great Blessedness And Salvation
Epistle: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.”
1 John 4:10 “God loved us and sent His Son to be the blood atonement for our sins.”
B. Our Love For Christ Is Expressed By Our Submission To His Word
Text: “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments [“entole,” instructions, not just the Ten Commandments but most importantly:].”
1. His Word that we repent of our sins, in honest confession, and genuine contrition
First Reading: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.”
Is. 66:2 “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word.”
2. His Word that we should believe the good news, the gospel of His great love for us and His free and gracious gift of forgiveness and salvation, in His suffering and death for us on the cross, and His glorious resurrection
1 John 2:2 “He is the blood atonement for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Eph. 2:13-17 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”
3. And so He wills that we should hear His Word and learn all spiritual things from Him
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
4. And for our blessedness He wills that we live in love, just as He has loved us, that we do His will
Text: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.”
1 John 5:1-4 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
B. And To Help Us In This Relationship Of Love, Christ Also Gives Us A Helper, The Holy Spirit Of Truth
Text: “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. . . . You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
Statement: The whole of Christianity, the whole of a person’s proper relationship with God is “A MATTER OF LOVE.” First, God’s great love for us, the assurance of His gracious mercy and forgiveness and salvation. Second, the love that His love creates in us, so that we also come to love Him. His loves comes to us through His Word, and so our love for Him is reflected in how we receive and respond to His Word. He wants not only to save us but also to bless us in every way – to counsel us, to teach us, to guide and direct us. And He wants us to have the blessing of true and genuine love for others, especially our fellow Christians.
Application: It is His very Word which inspires our contemplation. His Word invites us into a very deep and intimate relationship of love with Him. His love for us is guaranteed; it is really a question of just how much we are willing to love Him, how close we wish to grow to Him. But the door is wide open, and the potential unlimited, and the closer we are to Him to more blessed we are. But this “MATTER OF LOVE” is fueled by His Word, and centers in our relationship with His Word – Jesus makes that clear. And in that the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us “helps” us in moving us into God’s good and gracious will for us, He also directs us into God’s great love for us in Christ Jesus – as revealed in Christ’s Word. This is the heart and gist of true humanity, genuine human being, from our dear Creator and our dear Savior, Who loves us more than we can fully fathom!
Transition: And so in this “MATTER OF LOVE,” Jesus assures us that:
II. He Continues To Love Us
A. He Promises To Be With Us
Text: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
B. He Promises To Give Us Life, Eternal Life, In Himself
Text: “Because I live, you also will live.”
C. He Promises An Eternal Relationship Of Love And Goodness With Us
Text: “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 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.”
Statement: It cannot be said more clearly or more forcefully – our relationship with God, if it is real, is all “A MATTER OF LOVE.” This is God’s will, and it is what is best and most blessed for us.
Application: When we resist this, or find it uncomfortable, or too close, let us understand where this comes from – our sinful nature. If we find this hard to believe, let us recognize this as part of the blindness and ignorance of our sinful nature. If this frightens us, God being this close to us, let us remember that He is already this close to us, for as we heard from Paul: “Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘in Him we live and move and have our being.’” This is just Who He is, for “God is love.”
Conclusion: So there is no reason for us to flee from Him, or to pretend that He does not love as He does. And there is no reason for us not to consider why it is that we have reluctance to turn to Him and to embrace Him in love. And if we do, He will continue to gently direct us to His Word, yearning for us to show love for Him in how we “keep” His Word, His instructions. None of this is callous, cold, or perfunctory; rather it is always “A MATTER OF LOVE.” Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.