4-26-26 - If You Love Me (Stephen Baker)

Good morning. Good morning. Well, let's pray together. Father, we come to you this morning in the name of Jesus Christ, and we come through his blood, through his work that he did for us. And we are amazed to think that he, even right now, is seated at your right hand, and he is interceding for us.

He's praying for us. He represents us. There is a man seated at the right hand of God for us. We thank you, father. Father, we pray that you would give us peace and comfort and strength because of that, that we would as we've sung and heard, read to us this morning, that we would come boldly to you.

Not on our own merits at all because we have none, but we come because of Christ. Father, there are many things, that are heavy on us this morning. We think of our nation and the crazy things that are going on. We we pray, Lord, for our president, for all of the federal, officials that you have placed over us, and we pray for them as you have called us to pray for them, to pray for all who are in authority over us, Lord. And we pray, Lord, that you would give them all humility and faith, that they would turn away from pride and and self assurance and unbelief, and that they would humble themselves and bow their knees to you, and that they would rule in such a way that honors you, that that benefits your purposes in the world and in this country and in the church.

Please have mercy, we pray. Father, I pray for this church. We pray that you would give comfort and peace here, under in difficult times with uncertainty and and all the things that come with that, father. Would you please come and remind us here that you are our shepherd and that we can trust in you. You know what you're doing.

Father, I pray for the Awana groups here and for the youth group programs that you would help everyone who leads there to be to love the young people, to love the children, to minister to them, the grace of God and the comforts and the encouragements and the requirements of your word. We pray, Lord, for the parents here that you would strengthen each one as they train their children and try hard to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Please help, father. May there be good fruit from that. We pray, lord, for the daycare, and we pray for the financial struggles there that you would, bring order and provision for them.

And that most of all, you would use this to serve the community and to serve young people and families and children. We pray that your word and your gospel would be proclaimed through that work. Father, we come to you, hungry for your word. Oh, father, make make us hungry for your word. Help us to know you through the preaching of your word, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen. When was the last time that you did anything simply because you love Jesus? That is a heart searching question, isn't it? When's the last time you did something because you love Jesus? It's a question that lays our hearts open before God himself.

It's a question that gets at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. What it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, because we can do all kinds of good looking things out of a sense of bare duty. Right? But is that the mark of a disciple? Really?

To labor under the weight of duty, to obey like a slave, to work grudgingly, simply to avoid discipline, to avoid rebuke, to stay out of trouble. You know? To see obedience to God as a burden, as a load to bear, as a toiling effort to earn the approval of a harsh task master. You can do all kinds of things like that. Is that the life of a disciple of Jesus?

Or on the other hand, is the life of a disciple of Jesus a life of indifference, of apathy? Couldn't really care less, carelessness about Jesus commands. Is it is a true disciple ho about pleasing Jesus? Lazy about following him, more in love with with this world than with him. What would it look like to love Jesus so much that obeying him was a joy, not a burden?

What would it be like to approach God's law, his law, as a delight instead of a dread? With delight instead of drudgery, with joy instead of despair, with glad hearted zeal instead of cold hearted dullness? What if none of this is a what if? But is actually what Jesus himself promises to everyone who believes in him? Because it is.

A large chunk of John's gospel, there's this we've been preaching through John back in Bloomington, and there's this big chunk. It's called the upper room discourse. It's like chapters 13 all the way through chapter 17, and it is all about that. It's about finding life. It's about the life and the power and the fullness of God himself that every Christian has.

It's what it's what it means to be a Christian. In this section of John, Jesus drenches us, okay, with promise after promise, with encouragement after encouragement about the fullness, the abundance of his power for all who believe. It's what we just read about in Ephesians chapter three. It's crazy. It's amazing.

But about what it means to be united to him by faith, about what it means to have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us to help us, to strengthen us, to comfort us in the work of obedience. John begins his gospel like this in chapter one verse 16, for from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. Grace heaped upon grace. That's what Jesus Christ gives you. It's what he gives you.

And Jesus tells us all these things to strengthen us. So my prayer as I preach through a little tiny bit of this gold mine of encouragement is that all of us will taste and see the riches that God has for us in Jesus Christ. So we're going to read John chapter 14 verses 15 to 24. Would you please stand with me? This is God's word and it is eternally true.

John 14 verse 15. Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, 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. I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you. You get a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 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. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? 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. 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. So our Lord Jesus starts this in verse 15 with this, if you love me. And those four words should wake us up.

Right? If you love me. Because they force each one of us to ask ourselves, well, do I? Do I love Jesus? What does it even mean to love Jesus?

How would I know if I did? Let's think about that first question. What does it mean to love Jesus? Does it mean to, does it mean to admire him? To admire him?

Do we love Jesus when we admire him as a great teacher? Does it mean to respect him? Do we love Jesus when we respect him as a good man? Does it mean to pity him? This is how our love often works.

Right? Think about this. We see a pitiful creature. Right? We see a puppy or or a damsel in distress or a child with a skinned knee, and our heart goes out in love and affection.

Right? There's kind of a pity a pitiful love. Or is our love for Jesus like his love for us? Jesus' love for me is an overflowing ocean of pity. His love for me is an overflowing ocean of pity, But that's nothing like our love for him because he is the embodiment of all that is good, true, strong, perfect.

So no. To love Jesus can't mean anything like any of that. To love Jesus means to treasure him. To treasure him. It can't be to admire him as some great teacher.

It can't be just to respect him as a wonderful example. It most certainly can't mean to find him lovable like a pet, or a child, or a girlfriend. K? To love Jesus is to find in him the most supremely satisfying treasure that your heart could possibly desire. That's what it means to love him.

To love Jesus is to see his greatness and to be satisfied. To see his glory, his beauty, his goodness, his truth, his majesty, and his mercy. To see his beauty and to want nothing more than him. Nothing more. To value him above everything else, to treasure him, to honor him, to want to know him, to take delight in him.

That's what it means to love Jesus. So Jesus says, if you love me right? If you love me, what? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. So does loving Jesus mean does it equal keeping his commandments?

Is that what he's saying? No, actually. Loving Jesus results in keeping his commandments. The huge difference. That's what he says.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. He also says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. He says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. He says, whoever does not love me does not keep my words. So the love is not the obedience itself.

Obedience is the overflow and the result of love. Because remember, you can obey like a slave. You can obey like a slave. Okay? To obey like a slave is to obey outwardly with no love for your master.

It's all kinds of obedience that looks like that. Your motivation is simply to avoid punishment. Your obedience is not the unstoppable overflow of love for the most beautiful person that exists. Right? Your obedience is not fueled by love, but by fear and pride.

All kinds of outward obedience that comes from that. So the obedience itself can't be the love. Right? Real real obedience to Jesus is fueled by love for Jesus. Because we love him, we want to obey him.

Because we love him, his commandments are not burdensome. John says in first John chapter five, he says, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. What is it that makes someone's commandments not burdensome? It's your love for them.

Okay? John says in first John chapter two, by this we know that we have come to know him. Do you wanna know if you've come to know him? By this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. It's the same thing over and over again. So obedience is the result of love. It is the proof of love. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

So do you love Jesus? This is the most important question. Do you love Jesus? Search your heart. K?

Is he just a means to an end? Is he just a useful tool to get what you want? Is he just an idea? Is he just a bandwagon to jump on and ride at this cultural moment? So many are now expressing an an attraction to Christianity, but are you attracted to Christ?

If you say you do love Jesus, here's the test. Right? What's the test? Do you keep his commandments? When was the last time you did anything simply because you love Jesus?

Self consciously. The test of love, the proof of love, the fruit of love is gladly obeying Jesus from the heart. The love is the root, the obedience is the fruit. Now, what are his commandments? In one sense, you could think of all the things that Jesus commands his disciples, like in the gospel of John.

I mean, that's one way to think of his commandments. And there's a lot of them. Believe in me, that's a commandment. Follow me, that's a commandment of Jesus. Right?

Love one one another just as I have loved you. That's a commandment of Jesus. But never forget that all the commands, all the commandments of in the bible, the whole bible are the commands of Jesus, because Jesus is God. And every command of God in the whole Bible is a command of Jesus. Now, is the proof of love for Jesus perfect obedience?

Anybody? No. You will not attain perfect obedience in this life. But here's the thing, listen. If you love Jesus, you will want to.

Okay? You can't use your your condition as an excuse. You know? If you love Jesus, your disobedience will break your heart. Now how in the world do we come to love Jesus like that?

Where does that come from? Do you have it in yourself to make it? How do we come to love Jesus in such a way that we want to keep his commandments? How do we come to love him so that we want to keep his word? Well, look at what he says.

This is in chapter 14. Look at verse 15 again. 15 to 17. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. These are amazing words. There's so much to see here. So much to be said. But just think about this.

Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And then he says, right after that, and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. He does not leave us hanging, helpless, powerless, empty. He does not leave leave us to conjure up our love for him. Try harder.

That's not what it is. He does not leave us to our own power to obey his commandments. He says, I will ask my father to send you another helper, and this helper is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth. It's what he calls him. Now this word helper has been translated in all kinds of different ways.

Sometimes they translate it comforter, sometimes advocate, sometimes helper. Right? The idea is someone who comes alongside you. He comes alongside you to strengthen you, helper. He comes alongside you to give you peace, comforter.

Right? He comes alongside you to support you, advocate. All those things are kinda wrapped up in this word. This word is rich. But the vital thing for us to grasp is that this helper is a person.

He's a person. Not a force, not some kind of vague influence. This is a person. This is the holy spirit of God. This is the third person of the trinity.

And speaking of the trinity, look at this. Notice how all three persons of the godhead are right here. Right? Jesus, the eternal son of God, God in the flesh, he says, I will ask my father. Okay.

Right? This is God the father almighty. And he, God the father, will send the helper, the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit who is the Lord and giver of life. The father, son, and the Holy Spirit are for you in all of this.

United for you in all of this. Power of the Godhead itself. And Jesus says the holy spirit, the helper, he says he dwells with his people forever. But not just with us, he says he is in us. In us.

So do you have the Holy Spirit in you? Do you have the Holy Spirit in you? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the dividing line, the dividing point between the wicked and the godly. That's it. Do you have the Holy Spirit?

You can have all kinds of religious talk, all kinds of religious actions. Coming to church, being baptized, taking the Lord's supper, reading the bible, being a nice person, on and on and on. You can all kinds of stuff like that. You can do a whole lot of stuff without the Holy Spirit. But Jesus says the world cannot receive him, the Holy Spirit, because he it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. Do you know the Holy Spirit? The question is not, do you know about the Holy Spirit? Can you answer right questions about the Holy Spirit? Do you know facts about the Holy Spirit?

Do you know that the Holy Spirit exists? That's a start. Do you know the Holy Spirit? In your experience, not just in your head. If you do not have the Holy Spirit in you, then you cannot begin to understand the truth of God.

The apostle Paul says in first Corinthians two, he says, the natural man, that means the man without the holy spirit. Right? The natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God for their folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. You have to have the Holy Spirit in you. You have to know the Holy Spirit to know the truth of God.

The apostle Paul says in Romans eight, he says, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. As as there's one of those ifs again. Right? If the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Do you see this? To be a Christian is to have the holy spirit of God in you. It's not just to live outwardly according to some standards and rules and cultural norms or whatever or family tradition.

Have the holy spirit of God in you, dwelling in you. To be a Christian is to have the holy spirit of God in you, giving you life. And he is the glorious provision that God the father gives to every child of God, to everyone who loves Jesus, who trusts him. He gives the Holy Spirit to help you, to comfort you, and to support you. And Jesus says that the true disciple knows the Holy Spirit.

Right? Do you know him? Not some impersonal cosmic force, but do you know him as a person? Do you talk to him? Do you call out to him?

Do you rely on his strength? Does this does this make any sense to you? You know? Jesus is saying to his disciples, I'm about to leave you. Right?

But I will not leave you alone. I will ask my father and he will send you another helper. Yeah. I've been I've been your helper all this time. That's that's kind of what he's saying.

I have been your helper. I've been with you myself in the flesh. But I will send another helper and he will not just be with you, he will be in you. It's amazing to have God with you. It's mind blowing to have God in you.

That's what he's saying. We have it better than they did. We have God, not just with us, but in us. So what does it look like in your experience to have this helper in you? Look at what our our Lord Jesus goes on to say.

This is verse 18. He says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. That word orphan is loaded. So sweet.

He's not going away and leaving us stranded and alone. He by sending the Holy Spirit, he's giving all the provision of a family. Right? I mean, that's the opposite of an orphan. Right?

An orphan doesn't have a family, but he's I'm not leaving you as orphans. I'm giving you a family. All the comforts of himself. Do you like, is the operating system in your mind that of an orphan? What would that look like?

What it look like to, like, live, like, at the not on the surface, but deep down as an orphan? Everything's always a crisis. There's no one to take care of me. If I'm gonna get anything, I gotta get it myself. You know what I'm saying?

I'm an orphan. Right? But you're not. You're not. Verse 19.

He says, yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. By the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, we see Jesus. That's what again, it's Ephesians three. Who chose that?

Did you choose that? God. I was gonna say, I pray that God would and open the eyes of your heart so that you would know. That's what he's talking about. Right?

That you would know. You would see. We have fellowship with Jesus. And he says, because I live, you also will live life. Through the Holy Spirit, we are united to Jesus.

This is he says this. Right? I and you and you and me, and we're united to Jesus through the presence of the Holy Spirit. We we have the life of Jesus himself in us. Verse 20, he says, in that day you will know that I am in my father, and you in me, and I in you.

This is this is experience. Okay? We experience by the presence of the Holy Spirit. We experience with assurance that we are united to the Godhead. Wrap your mind around that one.

We are united with the godhead. But it's not just a cold fact, it's an experience. We know that Jesus is in the father. We're in Jesus. Jesus is in us.

We know it. Verse 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. Again, this is experience by the Holy Spirit dwelling in in us.

We experience the love of God the father. We taste it. Dare I say, we feel it. We feel it. Truly.

Paul says in Romans five, god's love listen to this. God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. When Jesus says, he who loves me will be loved by my father, he's not saying that you love God first and then God loves you back. This this is not that because we know that we love because he first loved us. Okay?

The same John says that in first John. So it's not what's going on. What he's saying is he is promising a felt communion with God the father and God the son through God the holy spirit to everyone who loves Jesus and keeps his commandments. A felt communion with God. It is a felt.

Okay? It's experienced communion and fellowship with God that is fellowship with a friend. It's fellowship with with family. It's that kind of fellowship that you feel when things are good. All of this is mind blowing.

I hope. It needs to be. If it's not you know? Like us, the disciples are having a hard time taking all this in. So look at this.

Look at verses 22 to 24. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? And 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 make our home with him. 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. Having the Holy Spirit, having the helper, having the love of God poured out into your heart by the Holy Spirit, having the Holy Spirit kindle your love for Jesus that makes you love and obey him.

All of this brings about in your life the felt sense of communion with God himself. My father will love you, and we will come to you and make our home with you. There is no greater promise than that. There is no greater experience than this. To have God the father, God the son, through the presence of God the Holy Spirit come to you, and what does he say?

Make their home with you? Intimate, warm, close, tight, real. This is what Jesus is promising to his people. This is what he's promising to you. This is what he holds out to you as normal.

Okay? If you know him, if you trust him. So again, I'll ask this question. Do you love Jesus? Do you love Jesus?

Do you keep his commandments? Gladly, freely, not as a burden, but as a joy. Do you know the Holy Spirit as a person helping you, comforting you, strengthening you for that work? Do you live in this world of love? Right?

I mean, look. God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit, and you. Now if you if you say, oh, that's girly. I'm sorry. You don't know what you're talking about.

For pity's sake. Do you find your life there? You find your is that the meaning of life for you? Do you want to? Do you want to?

Because this is not the select privilege of super saints. This is what Jesus accomplished for you if you simply lay down your pride and come to him. Will you? Let's pray together.