Sunday Sermon
sunday morning service 21st Sept 2008
John 14v15,23,31. Love and obedience.
What is expected of the Christian life?
Does one become a Christian and then carry on life as normal?
Or to put it differently what should we expect from a Christian?
We live in a society that looks for results, from schools to business, the important thing is the results.
For believers too the results are important. But result may not be quantifiable in the worlds terms, there are no grades or profits, but there is a lifestyle.
The Lord looks for a certain lifestyle, he looks for fruit.
What do we look for in a Christian today?
What can we expect from a Christian today?
More importantly what does the Lord look for?
But more importantly still, what comes before the results?
What is the driving force of the Christian lifestyle?
Or to put it more practically : How can we live as believers today?
Let us find out from our texts:
Context:
Last week we saw Jesus teaching some essential truths about the Holy Spirit.
This week we look at more essential truth - love and obedience!
Remember the context, Jesus is about to go to the cross.
Yet He is still interested in the lifestyle of the followers that he will leave behind.
He teaches them about love and obedience v 15, 23, 31.
1) first there is the prerequisite, the condition: “if”
“if you love me” v15 “if anyone loves me” v23
Note: Jesus does not look for fruit from just anyone!
He only looks for fruit from those who love Him.
“love” - this is the love of commitment. The love that puts Jesus first in all things.
That always asks “does this please my Lord”, “is it for His glory”?
It is the positive restating of the first commandment “you shall have no other gods besides me”.
This love says: the Lord Jesus is God and is my God.
It is not so much about how we feel or our emotions, but a love of faithful commitment to our God.
Emotions, feelings have their place, they must follow, but the important thing about this love is that it says - I follow Jesus, no matter what the cost.
It is not just a feeling, it is a worked out daily practice, between created and Creator.
So the question comes to us then: do you love Jesus?
Have you seen his glory, majesty, power, humility, gentleness, meekness, might, worth!!
Nothing will ever come of your Christianity if it does not fall down on its knees and say “worthy are you Lord Jesus.”
If fact, you are not a Christian unless you see the great glory and goodness of Jesus and then worship!
The first thing that Jesus looks for in a person then is that “love”.
If that is there then fruit will simply follow:
How are we to live as believers today? We are to love! That is give Jesus his rightful place.
2) “obey my commandments” “he will keep my word / teaching / will do what I say”
From loving Jesus as God everything else follows.
The dynamic of our Christian life as we saw last week is the indwelling of the Spirit who comes to us and is in us forever from conversion onwards.
His ministry linked to our love for the Lord is what enables our obedience.
Note, the Lord passes it on as a principle: “you will keep”!
There is no doubt - the person who loves the Lord will naturally keeps to the Lords instruction!
Jesus does not say, you will learn to keep, or after trying and failing a few times you will keep!
But “if you love me, you will keep”!
And you will keep the “commandments / teaching”.
The actual detail is not necessary.
Love never asks, what bits do we obey, or am I exempt from that teaching today!
This is not legalistic religion that Jesus is teaching! He left that to the Pharisees!
Jesus is not worried.
He knows that if the love is there everything else will work out!
The other side of this is that if we do not go on loving then we will not obey!
So if we are looking for fruit in our lives and find very little then we need to get to the heart of the matter which is this: has my love for the Lord grown cold?
Am I committing idolatry? Putting something else in the place of Jesus?
So where does all this leave us today?
We need to remind ourselves that in order to live well, we need to love well!
To produce fruit the most important thing is love!
For growth in the garden the most important thing is light:
For growth of the soul the most important thing is love.
The love that we have already defined: that says Jesus is my Lord and my God.
Which in practice means what?
It means we need to keep on loving Jesus. Keep on recommitting ourselves to him.
There is not ever going to be a moment when we will simply have reached the pinnacle of love.
In fact when Jesus says “if you love me” the force of it is “if you keep on loving me”!
Love is the issue of central importance: everything hinges on it.
The only thing that we need to focus on is loving the Lord daily, as we do that everything else will simply take care of itself!
In conclusion there is a great reward for this love: v23,
“My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him”
There is also a Great Example: v31
“I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me”
sunday evening service 21st Sept 2008
Gen 17:
This chapter starts off by telling us that years have passed since we last met.
At the end of chp16 Abram was 86, now he is 99 - 13 years have passed!
Years have passed in a flash.
“Time” is such a slipper subject for us to comprehend.
It never stays still long enough to be analysed. It is a problem.
But the life of faith has to work itself out “in time”.
We need to see time as precious in order to use it well.
We will never get it back again. We have one shot at life and then its over!
We can only imagine what has happened with Abram in the silence.
But how instructive the silence can be for our faith.
It is in the silence that faith is really worked out. It is in the silence that we grow and live by faith. When we rely on the promises, when we hold onto God and wait patiently for him to work.
There is no real silence now though as there was with Abram!
In these last days God has spoken to us in his Son. Abraham new God as God Almighty, we know him as Immanuel - God with us, and so much more.
But there are times of dryness; spells when our walk with the Lord is not as lively as we would like it.
Of course there are many reasons for that, the important thing is that in such times we seek the Lord, we long for more of Him.
For Abram out of the silence God suddenly speaks :
Perhaps he had been seeking the LORD all these years.
Living on the promises given and seeking their further outworking!
Whatever the case the time is now right and God again speaks.
1) First of all we will look at what God says:
V1-2,4-8v 15-16 He restates the covenant promises - descendants, land and God as their God. Renames Abram & Sarai.
V1-2 there is revelation of God. Followed by command.
V4-8 renaming - Abraham, because he would be father of many nations. The whole land of Canaan given to them.
V15-16 renaming of Sarai - Sarah. Mother of many nations, kings will come from her!
9-14 He institutes circumcision as the sign of the covenant.
Circumcision was the reminder of what God had promised and the duty of the person who wanted to be in covenant with Yahweh.
19- 21 Isaac (he laughs) will be the son of the covenant, Ishmael will be blessed too.
V22 then God leaves Abraham.
2) we note Abraham’s response
A) Abram’s response v3 - worship.
He fell with his face to the ground. A sign of reverence and awe. Showing his devotion, and giving his will to Gods will.
Lesson One - faith worships
In response to this new revelation of God Abram does the only right thing in the presence of holiness. Falls on his face. How often this is the response from those who meet God.
Today we need an encounter with the Holy One.
Perhaps more than anything else our faith need to know and meet God!
From the meeting with God we are to work out the rest of our lives.
We need to meet God daily then! Seeking fresh experiences of his Holiness.
From this meeting our faith is energised and given the ability to live for His Glory.
B) Abraham’s response v17-18 - he laughed at the promise of a son and pleads the case of Ishmael instead.
Lesson 2 - faith debates
Here we have a worshipping man debating with God!
We might be afraid of an encounter with the Holy, thinking that we will simply be paralysed by fear!
But not the case. As we meet with the Holy we realise that we can speak to Him.
Which makes up part of His holiness. His nature, as God, is such that he communicates and wants us to communicate with him.
He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit: he has always lived in constant communion, and He created us in order to have communion with Him also.
When we debate with God, when we pray, we are at our divinely ordained peak.
Prayer is “the highest activity of the human soul” DrMLJ.
And in prayer God is prevailed upon. Ishmael does receive a blessing!
However, Gods over all vision does stay the same!
Within the scope of Gods plan there is room for our impute.
His purposes will prevail but we have a very important role to play therein.
C) Abraham’s response v23 - 27 obedience to the new command of circumcision, all the males in the household Abraham and Ishmael included.
Lesson 3 - faith obeys.
Moving from worship, to prayer we have the final move to obedience.
Obedience is the test of our worship and prayer.
V23 - there was immediate obedience to the direct command to circumcise!
Needless to say would have been painful, it would have been very inconvenient - work would have had to have been stopped until healing took place!
The important thing was to obey immediately.
No waiting for a convenient time - say winter when the work would have been less.
No looking for loopholes, no excuses, simple obedience!
V26-27 not only was the obedience immediate it was full!
He included himself, his son and every male in his household.
When we talk about obedience that it the order in which it must come.
We must apply Gods word to ourselves first of all! Then those who we have responsibility over!
To do anything else is hypocrisy.
To apply to others what we don’t apply to ourselves is ruinous!
How obvious that is, yet how we struggle to practise it!
Yet obedience should be easy when it follows from worship and prayer!
It all needs to go together. Cold obedience will only produce hard legalistic hearts.
Worship and prayer without obedience will simply not satisfy.
It will become empty and soon die.
Vibrant faith needs: worship, prayer & obedience - all together and in their place.
