Living and Loving for the Glory of God - John 14:15-24

Preached by Joshua at St John’s 17th May 2020

“Do as I say and not as I do.”

Did you ever hear this line as a child?

I can remember hearing these words.

I remember feeling frustrated by them too.

Why are these words so frustrating to us?

They grate because they reveal a deep hypocrisy. They claim to teach without example, they claim authority without involvement.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus says the opposite of these words. He says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…”

Words and actions, intention and deed are all woven together. As Christians we never get to say: “Do as I say and not as I do.” This is the burden that weighs upon every teacher and preacher of the faith. When we dare to step into the pulpit and teach the faith, we better be ready to walk the talk.

Christians have been scrutinized on this point right throughout history. We have been called upon by the world to live what we preach.

A common objection I hear frequently to the Christian faith is the accusation of hypocrisy.

Jesus knew that this is where the rubber meets the road.

In John 13 he says this:

John 13:34-35:

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Clear as day, there it is. How will people know that we are disciples of Jesus? By our love.

The disciple and writer John is obsessed by this theme and we see it recur throughout his writings.

In his letters John expands on this idea saying:

1 John 4:7–8 (ESV):

 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

According to John the love of God is supremely revealed to us in the coming of Jesus, the word made flesh, and the life and love of Jesus working in and through his disciples in the world.

How will we know God’s love according to John? The answer is this – we should see it in God’s called out community, the church.

In the covid chaos and uncertainty we find ourselves living in the midst of right now, for many people there is a persistent question brewing. It may be articulated, or it may be sitting in the back of their mind. The question is this:  

Where is God’s love to be seen right now?

Or put more plainly – where is God?

This question is much more likely to be on our lips collectively when we face crisis and hardship.

It is a common refrain in the songs of the Bible, in the psalms.

“God, where are you?”

When people articulate this question, they often do so by imagining the answer lies in some kind of direct divine intervention. Right here right now, I want a sign in the sky, give me something God!

The answer that John’s Gospel gives us is this: God’s love is seen first and foremost in Jesus. He is the word made flesh, God incarnate, when we look at Jesus we see God.

We explored this theme in last week’s reading and Lucy’s reflection.

In this week’s reading we see part two of the answer to this question “Where is God?”

The answer is this – dwelling with the disciples of Jesus. Present amongst God’s people, working in them and through them.

We see this highlighted in John 14:23 where Jesus says:

“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."

God promises to make his home with those who keep his commandments.

In verse 23 Jesus says something remarkable “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

This isn’t a new idea. In the Bible we see the theme of God’s presence with his people.

In the Old Testament God dwells with his people but in a very different way.

Exodus 25 (2;8-9) The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. … 8 Exodus 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.  

So, God dwells amongst his people in a tabernacle.

This develops later in the story of Scripture to become Temple worship.

The prophets of the Old Testament looked forward to something even greater than this Temple Worship. In Zechariah we find this:

Zechariah 2:10-11

 10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. 11 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

In the story of the Gospels, Jesus comes and gathers a community where he says God will dwell. At Pentecost, as told in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God dwells with the people.

In John’s Gospel there is some serious Trinitarian theology. That is, reflection on who God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The mystery of which Jesus doesn’t try and explain with some bad clip-art diagram.

Rather Jesus expresses everything in terms of relationship.

In verse 21 Jesus says this:

“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.”

Jesus here speaks of his relationship to the Father all through John’s Gospel. He has been sent by the Father and is to do the will of the Father.

What Jesus is getting at when he calls his disciples to keep the commandments is this: he is drawing them to share in his own obedience to the Father. He is inviting them to participate in the love of God that reaches out to the world.

The missionary and theologian Lesslie Newbigin put it this way:

“Love will be expressed – can only be expressed – in obedience. Jesus’ ‘abiding’ in his Father’s love was expressed in obedience. Jesus had no program of his own. He planned no career for himself. He sought no ‘identity’ for himself, no ‘image’. He simply responded in loving obedience to the will of his Father as it was presented to him in all the accidents, contingencies, and interruptions of daily life…so the disciple will “abide” in the love of Jesus by following him along exactly the same road…the disciple will ‘learn obedience’ by following Jesus in the same kind of moment-by moment obedience to the will of the Father as it is disclosed in the contingent happenings of daily life in the place and time where God has put him.”[1]

The point is this – Jesus draws his disciples to participate in the life of God, to commune with him in obedience and love.

The disciples of Jesus will know God’s love for them by sharing in Jesus’ obedience and love and expressing this daily in their ordinary lives.

How can they do this?

How will this work if Jesus is about to leave them to it?

This is their natural question and it is a question for us too.

When we don’t have the benefit of face to face, physical relationship with Jesus, how will this work?

(16) To love like Jesus we need help…

Jesus knows that to love like him we need all the help that we can get.

There are a few Greek words for love. Agape is one of the words frequently employed by Christian writings to show the kind of love God gives.  It is used here in John 14.

Agape, which has been translated traditionally as charity. C.S. Lewis calls this kind of love “gift love.” Agape is “gift love” because it is love that is given without expectation of return or love given not based upon the merit of the beloved.

This kind of love is only expressed purely by God.

However, the form God often expresses this wonderful kind of gift love is through those who are open to God and let it flow in and through their lives.

We can’t love like Jesus without help.

Our love is always mixed and polluted by self-interest and reward – because it makes us feel good or look good.

The help that God gives is not a self-help manual, it’s a person.

John 14:16-17 says:

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.

The word translated helper here is the Greek word Parakeltos .

The Greek word Parakletos has been translated in a variety of ways. In secular Greek usage it referred to a legal assistant, or an advocate – someone who stands beside and represents. In Christian usage it also took on the idea of consoling, comforting, encouraging and helping.

The idea here is that there is a presence that will be with the disciples and also with us.

This presence will be a help and a comfort. When times are tough, and Jesus predicts that for his followers, this will be the case. The helper, will comfort and console.

Not only this, Parakletos is an advocate and will point to the truth. The Holy Spirit will constantly witness to Jesus, reminding the disciples of all that Jesus has said and done so that they can remain faithful as followers of Him.

This is a major role of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus and reminds us of his teachings.

The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus and reminds us of his death and resurrection, and the hope we have because of his sacrificial love.

The Holy Spirit, like a good lawyer in court, advocates for the truth and points us to Jesus.

The Helper is the one who acts as a constant reminder and who prompts us, guides us, and instructs us as we seek to be God’s people, sharing in God’s love in the world.

That is why we constantly are invited to ask the Holy Spirit to help us. We can call on this helper wherever we are.

The Helper is always at hand. Not for our own sakes, not as a prop to make us feel better, but always to lead us into God’s love and to send us back out again to share it.

ABIDE AND GO

Today’s reading from John is set in the context of John 13-17, what are often called the “Farewell Discourses.” This is the moment that Jesus is preparing to say goodbye to his disciples. Jesus is comforting his closest followers, his most loyal friends. He has told them that he must go, and that his hour is at hand, he is about to go to the cross to die. 

There is much confusion about this for the disciples. They have a host of questions. We hear one of the questions articulated by Judas in today’s reading.

But this section of John’s Gospel isn’t just a farewell.

It is also a commissioning.

In John 13-17 Jesus prepares his disciples for the future, and Jesus gives a pattern for what the church will one day become – a community invited to share in God’s love and to share God’s love with the world.

Perhaps we could call John 13-17 the “Mission Discourses”

New Testament scholar Michael Gorman says that in John’s Gospel we see a pattern of “Abiding and Going.”

Jesus calls us to abide in God’s love, to know God’s love in and through Him. This is the deepest joy and delight of being a Christian – worshipping our God and knowing Him, finding all of our deepest longings for love found in Him.

But the call to abide is linked with the call to go.

The world will know God’s love through God’s people going out and living it.

And so, I wonder for us, what might be the opportunities for us in Level 2 here in New Zealand to share God’s love?

Even though we can’t gather the way we would like to, we can still be the church.

We can pray with and for one another.

We can visit the lonely and those in need of some love.

There are lots of opportunities for us to be God’s SENT people, out in our community.

According to John’s writings this is the answer to the question “Where is God right now?”

Dwelling in the love of his sent people, his disciples who go out and share His love wherever they go.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit may we go boldly, Amen.

[1] Lesslie Newbigin, The Light Has Come: An Exposition of the Fourth Gospel, 200.