AUGUST 19, 2018
LOVE AND COMMUNION
INTRODUCTION:
1. Having comforted His disciples in Chapter fourteen, our Lord in this and the following chapter proceeded to press upon them certain instruction that in light of His going away they must heed.
2. Last week we considered the first of these important instructions. By means of the parable of the Vine and the Branches, He stressed the absolute necessity of their abiding in Him as their only source of life and fruitfulness. (Verses 1-8)
3. In the passage now before us, He presses it upon them to love one another and to keep up that communion that had been their comfort all the while that they were together, knowing that they would be tempted to grow strange one to another after He was gone from them.
I. FIRST, THEY WERE TO ABIDE IN HIS LOVE. (VERSES 9-11) The word rendered “continue” here in Verse 9 isthe same that is rendered “abide” in Verse 4.
A. NOTE THE DEPTH AND MAGNITUDE OF OUR LORD’S LOVE TO HIS PEOPLE. “AS THE FATHER HATH LOVED ME.”
1. We cannot form an adequate idea of the love of the Father toward the Son. The feeling of one eternal Person in the trinity toward another Person is too high for us.
2. Yet, such is the love of Christ toward those who believe in Him. It is a vast, wide, deep, unmeasurable love that passes knowledge, and can never be fully comprehended. (Eph. 3:17-19)
3. Jesus was, as Mediator, the Son of the Father’s love. He loved Him and gave all things into His hands.
4. When Christ was entering upon His suffering He comforted Himself with this, that His Father loved Him. Even when it pleased the Father to bruise Him, He abode in the Father’s love.
B. CONCERNING HIS OWN LOVE TO HIS DISCIPLES, THE PATTERN WAS THE FATHER’S LOVE TO HIM. “AS THE FATHER HATH LOVED ME, SO HAVE I LOVED YOU.”
1. Notice the expression of the condescending grace of Christ.
a) As the Father loved Him, who was most worthy, He loved them who were most unworthy.
b) The Father loved Him as His Son, and He loved them as His children.
c) The Father gave all things into His hands, so with Himself, He freely giveth us all things.
2. Notice also, as Mediator and the great trustee of Divine grace, which He had not for Himself, but for the benefit of those for whom He was entrusted, He transmits it to them.
a) The Father was well pleased with Him that He might also be well pleased with us in Him.
b) The Father loved Him, so that in the Beloved He might make us accepted. (Eph. 1:6)
C. IN HIS LOVE THEY ARE INSTRUCTED TO CONTINUE, THAT IS, TO ABIDE. “CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE.”
1. Before this He said, “Abide in me, and I in you.” Though it is not in our power either to be joined to Christ the True Vine, or to abide there, it is nonetheless our duty to do so.
2. Though Christ’s love is freely bestowed, and we cannot be separated from it, still it is our solemn duty to abide in His love, allowing nothing to tempt our souls away from Him.
3. The disciples were to go out in service to Christ and literally hazard their lives for His sake, but, He says, “Continue ye in my love.” We must allow nothing to quench our love for Christ. (Jude 21)
D. OBEDIENCE WILL BE THE BEST EVIDENCE OF THE CONSTANCY OF THEIR LOVE. (VERSE 10)
1. Observe here the promise: “Ye shall abide in my love.”
a) As a dwelling place;
b) As a resting place;
c) As a shelter, stronghold of safety.
2. Observe the condition of the promise: “If ye keep my commandments.”
a) They were to keep their Master’s commandments themselves.
b) They were to keep them as trustees, and deliver them to others, to teach all things that Christ had commanded. (Matt. 28:20)
3. To induce them to keep His commandments, He urges His own example. “Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
a) This statement is one which we can never fully grasp. Christ kept His Father’s commandments perfectly, while we can only keep them imperfectly.
b) In this, as in everything else, our Lord’s example is set forth as that which we must strive to follow, and not always with sensible satisfaction.
E. TO CONTINUE IN CHRIST’S LOVE IS TO CONTINUE IN HIS JOY. (VERSE 11)
1. Jesus here gives two reasons for all the things in this discourse to his disciples.
a) One was that His joy might remain (abide) in them; that they might share in their Master’s joy in their salvation and redemption.
b) The other was that their own individual joy might be filled up and perfected.
2. Two joys are named.
a) One is that special joy mentioned in Heb. 12:2, which our Lord feels in the redemption of His people.
b) The other is that joy which His people feel from a sense of Christ’s love to them.
3. It is the mark of a prosperous Christian to rejoice in those things in which Christ rejoices, and to thereby have their own inward happiness increased.
II. SECONDLY, THEY WERE TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER EVEN AS CHRIST LOVED THEM. (VERSES 12-17)
A. CHRIST’S LOVE FOR THEM WAS TRULY GREAT. (VERSE 13) “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS…”
1. The greatness of His love for them is seen is that He laid down His life for them. (Verse 13; John 10:11, 17, 18; Eph. 5:25)
2. The love of Christ for His own is seen as greater still, in that, “…while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8); “…when we were enemies.” (Rom. 5:10)
3. This highest proof of love, i.e. laying down one’s own life for a friend in order to save his life, is the degree of love that He required of them. (See I John 3:16)
B. CHRIST’S LOVE FOR THEM IS SEEN IN THAT HE TOOK THEM INTO A COVENANT OF FRIENDSHIP WITH HIMSELF. (VERSES 14, 15)
1. These verses are closely connected to the preceding one: “You are my friends for whom I lay down my life, if you do whatever things I command you.”
a) We are not to assume that we are Christ’s friends if we do not habitually practice His commands. (Verse 14)
b) It is very noteworthy how frequently our Lord returns to this great principle, that obedience is the test of vital Christianity, and doing is the real mark of saving faith.
c) Those who talk a good religion while they live in disobedience to Christ’s plain commandments are deceiving themselves. (James 1:22)
2. Those who are obedient servants are admitted and advanced to the dignity and honor of Christ’s friends.
a) All of Christ’s servants are espoused as His friends. What an honor!!
b) He visits them, converses with them, bears with them, is afflicted with them in their afflictions, takes pleasure in their prosperity, pleads on their behalf, and takes care of all their interests. He is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother.
c) He does not call them servants, though they call Him Master and Lord. Let this be to us an example in humility, that we not be as lords, insisting upon all occasions on authority and superiority.
C. CHRIST’S LOVE FOR HIS DISCIPLES IS SEEN IN THAT HE FREELY COMMUNICATED HIS THOUGHTS TO THEM. (VERSE 15b) “FOR ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE HEARD OF MY FATHER, I HAVE MADE KNOWN UNTO YOU.”
1. As to the secret things of God, there are many things which we must be content not to know. (Deut. 29:29)
2. But, as to the revealed will of God, Jesus Christ has faithfully handed to us what He received of the Father. (Ch. 1:18; Matt. 11:27)
3. The great things relating to man’s redemption Christ declared to His disciples, that they might declare them to others. They were the men of His counsel. (Matt. 13:11)
D. CHRIST’S LOVE FOR HIS DISCIPLES IS SEEN IN THAT HE CHOSE AND ORDAINED THEM TO BE PRIME INSTRUMENTS OF HIS GLORY IN THE WORLD. (VERSE 16)
1. His love to them appeared in their election.
a) First in their election to salvation.
b) Second in their election to apostleship.
(1) Why were they admitted to such an intimacy with Him, employed in such an embassy for Him, and enduedwith such power from on high? It was not owing to their goodness in choosing Him for their Master, but to His favor and grace in choosing them.
(2) It is fit that Christ should have the choosing of His own ministers. Both in salvation and ministry, our choices are predicated on His first having chosen us.
(3) Our love for Christ is also because He first loved us. (John 4:19)
2. His love to them appeared in their ordination. “I have ordained you.”
a) He put them into the ministry. (I Tim. 1:12)
b) He crowned them with this high honor
c) It was a mighty confidence that He placed in them when He made them His ambassadors to negotiate the affairs of His Kingdom.
d) The treasure of the Gospel was committed to them.
(1) First, that it might be propagated, that it should go forth and bring forth fruit.
(2) Second, that it should be perpetuated – that the fruit should remain.
3. His love to them appeared in the interest they had at the Throne of Grace. “Whatsoever you shall ask of the Father, in my name He will give it you.”
a) We have a God to go to in prayer who is a Father. Jesus said, “My Father and your Father…”
b) We have a good and powerful Name in which to come to God.
c) An answer of peace if promised to us when we so come to Him.
E. THE DISCIPLES’ LOVE TO ONE ANOTHER IS ENJOINED AS AN EVIDENCE OF THEIR LOVE TO CHRIST, AND A GRATEFUL RETURN FOR HIS LOVE TO THEM. (VERSE 17)
1. We must keep His commandments, and this is His commandment, that we love one another. (Verse 12, 17)
a) It is recommended by Christ’s pattern. (Verse 12)
b) It is commanded by Christ’s precept. (Verse 17)
2. It seems that this was His most urgent commandment, a most necessary injunction.
a) In Verse 12 He says, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another.”
b) In Verse 17 He says, “these things I command you, that ye love one another,” as if everything else was for sake of this one thing.
c) Surely brotherly love must continue. (Heb. 13:1)
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