Jesus Tells Us to Love
Sermon Recording
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Scott Strickman
Sermon Series: Faith, Hope & Love
John 14:15-31 (ESV)
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 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.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
Sermon Outline
It is crucial to know God loves us, but we underestimate the importance of loving God.
1. We Keep
v15 “if you love me, you will keep my commandments” (cf. 1 John 3:23)
a) love God and believe the Father sent Jesus
v22 “how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
v23 “if anyone loves me, he will keep my word”
v24 “the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me”
b) love one another
John 13:24 “a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another”
2. God Gives
Father – v23 “my Father will love him… and make our home with him”
Holy Spirit – v16 “another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth”
Son – vv28-30 “I am going away” “so that when it does take place you may believe”
a) v27 “my peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you”
b) v31 “so that the world may know that I love the Father”
Questions for Reflection
How can you know if you love God? What should you look for?
Jesus says that if you love him you will keep his commandments. What has he commanded?
In what ways do you find keeping commandments challenging?
How does our theology affect our experience of the world? What kinds of things do you believe about the God that you cannot see that impacts how you interpret the world and what is happening that you can see?
How can love for God, and the conviction that God is good, present, and watching over you, help you look at our world with greater hope? Are you aware of how you are interpreting the world, and is your interpretation shaped by your faith?
When you love people, do you do so with a sense that you are also loving God? How can bringing together the love of God and people help you experience greater, more coherent love? How can this help you when are called to love someone for whom you find it difficult to love?
How does Jesus show us that God’s love comes to us in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? How can this broaden how we understand the profound nature of God’s love for us?
John 14:27 “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” What do you see in this passage that helps you experience this?
Prayer of Confession
Father, Son and Holy Spirit: thank you for inviting us into your love. You give generously to us, but we often take for granted how you much of yourself you give to us. In selfishness, fear and greed, we hold ourselves back. We don’t listen to what you command, we don’t act with trust that your ways are right, and we don’t resist the temptations to do what you forbid. This evidences the weakness of our love. Your love, however, is strong. Help us, we pray, to live in your love. Fill us with your Spirit. Grant us your peace. Help us to know you are with us. Direct our lives so that the world knows that we love you. Amen.