“Lovey Dovey” – John 15:9-17

Well, happy Valentine’s Day to you!  I hope you and your valentine have a great day together.  I asked Brian this morning what he got Belinda for Valentines and he said he got her a bag and a belt and I thought that was so nice.  I said, “I hope she likes them.”  He said he hoped so, too, and he hoped the vacuum cleaner worked better now as well.

Lois told me she took a nap the other day and when she woke up, she told Morris, "I just dreamt that you gave me a diamond necklace for Valentine's Day.  What do you think it means?"
"You’ll find out tonight", he said.
That evening, Morris came home with a small package and gave it to her. Delighted, she opened it. She found a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams".

I heard Janet telling Ruby the other day that the first 5 years of marriage are the hardest.  Ruby asked her how long she and David had been married.  She said, “5 years.”

In all seriousness, today is my dear parents’ 58^th wedding anniversary!  Congratulations to them!  Pop told me the other day that he and Mama were sitting at the table drinking coffee and Mom said, “I love you so much.  I don’t know how I could ever live without you.”

Pop said, “Are you talking to me or the coffee?”

She said, “I’m talking to you, my hand-picked, dark-roasted loved one!”

It’s so easy to say the words, “I love you.”  Te amo! (Spanish)  Je t'aime! (French) or Chicken fried steak! (Redneck)

However you say it, it does not prove that you actually do, does it ?  How do you prove that you love somebody ?  You prove it by what you do and for how long you do it.  Saying it is a vitally important part of the communication process but words without actions are meaningless.  You can talk until your lips fall off about how much you love someone but if you never do anything to prove it then you prove that you don’t.

I went to a restaurant the other day and there was a young couple sitting in a booth not far from me.  You’ve seen this couple before, right ?  Smoochie, smoochie, muah, muah, lovey dovey, hands all over each other.  Just stop it.  Nobody wants to see all that.  I’m trying to eat over here and they’re grossing me out.  They were far enough away that I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I could read their lips easy enough.  I love you !  Probably known each other for a week.  There’s no proof in the words.  There is no power in the words.

Just for today, I want us to look at a beautiful passage of scripture in the gospel of John that talks about love.  It talks about how love is proven and what it looks like.  In 2016 we hear the words and we see what the world calls love.  Let’s see what Jesus says about it 2000+ years ago in John 15 :9-17.  In most of the Bibles in the pew it is on page 764.

Jesus says John 15 :9-17,  “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Do you remember in math class when the teacher told you to show your work?  She wanted to know if you truly knew the answer or if you were just faking it and guessing.  Later on in higher math they actually called it, “showing your proofs”.  I was never good at math…or love, come to think of it…but thankfully Jesus is good at both and so in verse 9 when Jesus told His disciples that He loved them we know it to be true because we know He proved it.

Jesus loves us and He proved it.  We prove that we love Him – not just with words – but with our obedience and we prove our obedience by bearing fruit.  That’s what this passage is saying.  Let’s look at it closer.

Do you know that there is great power in the words, ‘Jesus loves you’?  There is power in just those words because it has been proven.  Jesus loves you so much that He took your sins and died on the cross so you wouldn’t have to die (John 3:16).  He loves you so much that He sent the Holy Spirit to live in your life to give you direction and wisdom when you gave your life to Him (John 14:26).  He loves you so much that He has gone back to Heaven to prepare a place for you to stay with Him in Heaven forever (John 14:2).  Ephesians 1:4 says that God loved you before He created the universe.  He said it and He proved it before you were born, He has proven it while you live and He will continue to prove it for eternity.

Men, there are going to be times when your wife comes home and she is upset about how her day went.  The car wouldn’t start.  She had a bad hair day.  The boss fired her.  She ‘accidently’ killed her boss with a stapler.  You know how it is.  What she needs right then is for you to just say, ‘I love you’.  Now, if you have not proven you love her then don’t say that but if your love has been proven over time then all she needs to hear is ‘I love you’…and maybe ‘I know where to hide the body’ or something like that. 

No, all she needs to hear is the proven words ‘I love you’ and she will know that those words mean it is going to be okay.  She will know that you are there for her and that you will do everything in your power to make it right.  That is exactly what we all need and what we all have in the person of Jesus Christ when we have a relationship with Him.

We will see in a minute that Jesus calls us friends in this passage.  This amazing gift comes to us because of His wonderful grace toward us: “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). We don’t have to earn His love; we simply accept it.

It may be difficult to believe Jesus loves you because of other people who have let you down in the past. However, Jesus is unlike any other person; He is God in human form (John 1:14). He was involved in creating us, He sustains our every breath, and He offers us new life now and eternal life in heaven with Him.

Another reason it may be difficult to accept the truth that Jesus loves you is that something you have done in the past troubles you. Jesus already knows your past and still offers you eternal life and forgiveness. A wonderful example of His love can be found in His last hours on the cross. One of the men crucified next to Him was being put to death for his crimes. Turning to Jesus, he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, saying, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42–43). Despite this criminal’s sins, Jesus accepted his simple and sincere act of faith and promised him eternity in heaven—even though Jesus knew the man had no time to live his life differently.  (gotquestions.org)

Jesus proved His love for us, He is proving it and he will continue to prove it.  Somebody tell me what that means to you and for you.

So, we know that Jesus loves us and that love is life-changing, or it should be.  If Jesus has proven His love for us then the question is, how do we prove our love for Him?  Jesus answers that question in verse 10.  Look at that again.  ^10 “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”  So, again, Jesus is our model.  He was obedient to the Father and we should be obedient to Him.  We should do what He says to do.

When I became a pastor evidently people thought I was supposed to know something because almost immediately I started getting asked some of the craziest questions; questions about unicorns and dinosaurs. What is Satan’s last name?  Does God really love Puerto Ricans?  What kind of question is that?  People ask all the time about deep, deep theological issues about the end times or about how the Bible was written and they go off on one version being better than another and I want to say, “Hey, let’s concentrate on being obedient to what we know first and then move on to the dispensation of Arminianism in light of the millennial Pentecostalism.”  How about that?

We should ask questions about deep things.  It is good to want to know everything there is to know but not to the neglect of obedience of what we already know and when we do that, we not only prove that we love the Lord but Jesus says in verse 11 that it will bring us joy.  ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

I love to take my dogs for a walk.  We do it every day.  As I have told you, one of my neighbors doesn’t appreciate my dogs walking through the neighborhood without leashes so as soon as we get out of the neighborhood and into the acres of no-mans-land just a block or two away, I take their leashes off and let them roam. They do really well most of the time but sometimes they wander off too far and I have to call them to come back to me.

Most of the time they do pretty good about that.  They find their way back pretty quick and all is well and we have a great long walk and see all kinds of things…as long as they are obedient and come when I call them.  But sometimes they find something to smell of that they just don’t want to leave and I’m calling and calling and calling and I can’t stand that.  I get mad and I’m ready to go home.  When they are obedient to me and come when I call them it shows that they love and respect me and in turn we go way out into the fields and find armadillos and deer and all kinds of critters.  The dogs love that and so do I.  It brings us all great joy.

Now, I have talked to some of you in the past and I have given a few of you some homework to do when I think it will benefit you like it did me.  My favorite homework question to give is this:  How do we find joy?  Well, I’m giving you the answer to your homework right here.  Do you want joy?  Do you want to be able to smile in the darkest times of your life when the world is falling down around you and everybody else is freaking out?  Obedience is the secret.

Knowing whether Santa Clause will be in Heaven or how the hypostatic union affects the law of identity does not bring joy.  It brings me a headache.  But being obedient to what you know Jesus tells you to do…brings joy!  Jesus loves us and He proved it.  We prove our love for Him by being obedient and we get joy as a by-product of that obedience.

Lastly, we prove our obedience by bearing fruit.  Look at verse 16.  ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

What does it mean to bear fruit?  My concordance says it is the visible expression of invisible power.  (Repeat)  I have a special treat for you today; actually a treat for your eyes.  I want to show you this beautiful branch from an apple tree.  (It’s actually a bare stick I found on the ground.)  Do you see the beautiful red apples all over it?  Aren’t the white petals of the flowers so pretty with their delicate yellow insides?  You see it, right?  Sure you do; and you’re calling the mental ward right now to see if they have room for me, aren’t you?

No, you don’t see all of those things because there is no fruit, no bloom, no beauty whatsoever with this stick.  This stick can say it is part of an apple tree but we don’t believe that, do we?  It could say that it is part of an orange tree or a banana tree or a muffin tree.  It can talk about blooms and fruit all day long but there is no proof of any of that.  It is a bare branch that has been separated from some kind of tree for a long time.  It is dead.  It is useless.  It is headed for the burn pile.

Jesus said He loves us and He proves it.  We prove we love Him by our obedience to Him and the proof of our obedience is when we bear fruit.  There are libraries full of books that are able to explain bearing fruit better than I can but let me give you 5 quick ways that our lives will bear fruit when we are obedient.

#1  Our character will reflect the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about in Galatians 5.  They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.  Those are characteristics that will show up in our lives as proof of our obedience.

#2  Right character will result in right conduct.  It drives me crazy when I hear people say, “Well, we all sin every day.”  Really?  Every day you choose to do something that nailed Jesus to the cross?  Every day you choose to displease the Savior and disobey the Creator?  Obedience is proven by holiness.

#3  Those who come to Christ through our witness are fruit.  When was the last time you witnessed to somebody?  When was the last time you actually broke out your Bible and led someone through what the Word says about how to be a Christian?  Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:19 to go and make disciples.  Are you doing that?

#4  We also bear fruit when we worship and this includes at church and away from church.  Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

#5  We bear fruit when we give money.  “Oh, there he goes preaching on money again!”  Let me say this again.  This church doesn’t need your money.  God doesn’t need your money.  Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Paul told the Philippians, “Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more fruit be credited to your account.” KJV - Charles Ryrie, So Great Salvation, Victor Books, 1989.

Verse 16 says that you didn’t choose Jesus.  He chose you!  As a believer, God chose you.  That ought to make you feel special and you are but it’s only by His grace and His mercy that He chose you.  It is only by His grace and His mercy that we have life and breath.  Everybody take a deep breath.  Feel that?  Do you see your chest fill up with air and your shoulders rise?  That is, by God’s grace, a visible expression of invisible power that enables you to continue bearing fruit.

When that stops then you can stop bearing fruit.  Until then, because Jesus has proven His love for us, we prove our love for Him by being obedient to what He tells us in His Word and by His Spirit and we prove that obedience by bearing fruit.

How about you?  Are you fruity?  Are you bearing fruit?  If not, there is something wrong with your relationship with the Vine.  It has either been fractured by sin or it doesn’t exist but you can fix that today.  Ask God for forgiveness today and repent – turn away from – that sin.  If you never have then today is the day of salvation and the day you truly believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life and that nobody gets to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6)