Why so much hatred?

“The Church in an Age of Trouble:

Standing Firm in Christ”

(John 16:1-4, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 29, 2009)

¹ "I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. ² They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. ³ And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. ⁴ But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.

Why does the Lord give us His Word regarding the trouble that the church will face?

A: “… to keep you from falling away.” (John 16:1)

Don’t fall away (1)

We do not live in an environment of intense persecution where a Christian knows that his life might soon be taken away by those who are against the message of Christ. There are others in this world who do face real danger. The large majority of those people are living in what people call the 10/40 window. This area extends from North Africa all the way to South East Asia, from the 10^th latitude to the 40^th latitude. It contains 60% of the world’s population and 97% of the people that are classified as “unreached,” that is, that there is almost no expression of the Christian church. I am sure there are many places in the 10/40 window where it is very safe to be a missionary, but there are other places that are not so safe. Perhaps some of the people serving in situations like that could easily relate to the dangers that the first disciples of Jesus faced. I can only imagine. My life is a very peaceful one.

That does not mean that people in our part of the world do not face pressures to fall away from the Lord. There is no place on this earth that is so safe spiritually, that people do not need to hear the words of Jesus warning us not to fall away. We all need to give some serious thought to the question of how this warning applies to our lives. In fact, the 10/40 window has this one advantage, that you are more likely to be aware of the spiritual challenges that you face in a place where the opposition to the faith may be violent. When Mackey Hooper decided to go to Rahab’s Rope in Bangalore, an organization providing Christian guidance and practical assistance to young women escaping the commercial sex trade, I am sure that there were many people that sounded all kinds of alarms about that plan. The truth is that we have to have our eyes open to the opportunities for both beauty and ugliness in every environment. In every environment there is need for us to see the beauty of the Lord every day and to stand firm in Him. In every land we need to hear the tender plea of a Savior who knows our name saying, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”

A hatred that is ready to kill (2)

In the case of the eleven remaining disciples who would be so foundational to the life of Christian community that would begin after the ascension of Christ, there would be no denying the dangers that they would face, seemingly from every direction. First, there were those within the Pharisee-dominated synagogues who were ready to dis-fellowship anyone who claimed any association with Jesus as the Messiah. This opposition would not go away after the resurrection. Then there would be the danger that would come from within the new churches that would be formed, as some former Pharisees would be even more subtle and difficult opponents of the message of grace from within the church in Jerusalem. Also, as the message would eventually go out into the larger Gentile world, it could prove threatening to the power structure of cities where life was built around the worship of Greek and Roman gods. That would be Gentile persecution. Finally, the gospel always faces its most formidable enemy in our own souls, as we continually think of reasons as to why we don’t have to listen to and follow the grace of God.

In any case, that first danger from angry Jews was very obvious. As Jesus warned, not only would strong local religious leaders want to force Christians out of the synagogues, but more than that, “the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” The whole book of Acts is part of the historical evidence that Jesus was absolutely correct about all this. In the most amazing twist in this story of persecution, one of the worst persecutors of the church, Saul of Tarsus, was found by God in the midst of traveling to Damascus to cause more trouble, and was chosen by the Lord to be a messenger of Christ to the Gentiles. That meant that for the rest of his life he was destined to face the pain of the kind of persecution he used to bring upon others. The people who wanted to kill Paul were sure they were right about many things, and there can be little doubt that they were “offering service to God,” just as Paul once thought he was doing when he was arresting and persecuting Christians.

Does this kind of murderous hatred against religious enemies make any sense to you? Does it make any sense that Jesus could tell a paralytic to take up his mat and walk, and that some people would want to kill Him because He did this on the Sabbath? Does it make any sense that the rulers of a synagogue removed a man from the synagogue to whom Jesus had given sight, a man who had been blind from birth? They wanted this man to speak against Jesus, and to call him a sinner. He said, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” But think about this contrast between this one man who could now see and the Pharisees that were looking for a way to accuse Jesus concerning this amazing miracle:

John 9:35-41 ³⁵ Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" ³⁶ He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" ³⁷ Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you." ³⁸ He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. ³⁹ Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?" ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains.

A hatred that does not know the Father or the Son (3)

If your religion makes you so mad that you want to kill someone, that’s a good sign that it is the wrong kind of religion. If your encounter with Jesus gives you the kind of humble joy that says, “I once was blind, but now I see,” that’s a good sign that you are on the right track. If your religion makes you think that you know everything and that everyone else is hated by God, that’s a good sign that you have the wrong kind of religion. If your encounter with Jesus leaves you with wonder, and makes you think that the Lord might just do some completely unexpected great things against your own advice, that’s a good sign that the real God has come near to you.

Where does this religious hatred come from both inside and outside the church? Jesus, speaking of those who would soon be mortal enemies of the disciples, says of those who will want to kill the first apostles, “They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” They know plenty about God, but they don’t know Him.

Some years ago, J. I. Packer wrote a book called, “Knowing God.” That’s a very mysterious and important topic. Can God be known? If so, how can we know Him? Listen to this word of invitation from Jesus, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” You know what is most amazing about that verse? The Jesus who speaks those words was not the pre-cross Jesus talking to His disciples about the Last Supper. He was not even the resurrection-appearance Jesus who invited some of His disciples to eat breakfast with Him on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Jesus who spoke those words is the Jesus who is ascended on high in heaven right now. Those words were written long after the Lord had gone home to heaven. He wrote them through one of these 11 remaining apostles, John, the author of this gospel, then an elderly man, who was imprisoned on an island in the 10/40 window because he was preaching the Word of God and some people hated it. It is this ascended Jesus who says to you today, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Jesus is saying, “You can know Me.” Remember what He said in John 14 to Philip, another one of the eleven, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” And the Apostle Paul, who was once a Jesus-hater himself writes these words about the Son of God in one of his letters, “He is the image of the invisible God.” But when we are filled with hatred and only want to kill, we are far from the Father and the Son. Only the Lord of glory Himself can find us and bring us home when we wander so far away into the way of hate or apathy.

Remember, and don’t fall away (4a)

Meanwhile, the world is the world. It is a place of great opportunity. There you meet amazingly kind and generous-hearted people in the most surprising places. But it is a place that needs resurrection. It has been badly hurt by sin, and only God can fix it. It is a place where you can easily hate and be hated.

Through it all, through the opportunities you experience and the disappointments you encounter, you will do well to remember the words of the man who was so near the cross in John 16. He was traveling there for you. The thing that He warns His disciples about, this dangerous hatred of the true God, this dangerous religious venom, He is just about to feel that hate in His own hands and in His own feet. His side will soon be pierced for you. He will be mocked, spit at, punched, stripped, laughed at, and generally will take all of what hell is for you. Won’t you remember His suffering for you when you face the hatred of people who hate you because they hate Jesus?

These things about which Jesus has been speaking, these evil things do come. Their hour comes. That’s why Jesus says, “I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.” When you remember His warning, also remember His cross, and remember His love. Do not despise Him, and do not fall away. Remember the Word that you have learned, remember Jesus, and stand firm in Him, and in His love.

1. How does the Word of Christ help the church in the midst of persecution?

2. Why would the enemies of Christ be moved to murder messengers of the gospel?

3. What do the enemies of Christ know about God and the faith, and where are they ignorant?

4. How is our memory of the Word of God helpful to us in an age of trouble?

Spiritually witnessing to a world that hates Jesus

Life in the Lord’s Vineyard – 4 Sermons

Part 4: “The Vineyard of the Lord in the World”

(John 15:18-27, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 22, 2009)

¹⁸ "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: 'They hated me without a cause.' ²⁶ "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ²⁷ And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

What does Christ teach us about the source of true witnessing?

A: “The Spirit of truth… will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26)

In the world but not of the world (18-19)

The disciples of Jesus Christ, Peter, James, John and the rest, were men like other men of their time and place. They were men of their world. There is no indication that they were the best of men in any sense, that they were the smartest, holiest, most resourceful, or in any other way particularly different from the others they grew up with in Galilee. The key difference between them and their friends and relatives who were not with them hearing Jesus talk to them about how He was the vine and they were the branches was only this: They were chosen by Him to be the apostles of the New Testament church. They would be the men who, after three years of witnessing the words and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, would bear witness to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah.

Until the day that they died one by one, apparently at the hands of their enemies, they would live in the world. But there would be something different about them. They would have a heavenly Spirit in them, and that would make them people who, while they were still in the world, were not really of the world. Because the Lord chose them out of the world, and made them disciples, giving them this heavenly Spirit, they would be united to Him even after He was gone. There would be this mysterious union that they would have with Christ, and they would speak for Him, as normal people who were called out of the world in order to speak for God in the midst of the world. Through their witness, other people would hear, and some of them would be chosen out of the world, and they would believe and follow Jesus Christ, and they too would be given this same heavenly Spirit; they too would be united to Jesus Christ and have communion with Him.

This would not be an easy thing for the apostles, because of this one fact: Not everyone who hears the message of Christ from His apostles and from His church will embrace that message of grace as good news. Many will actually hate the messengers. This is what Jesus is preparing them for as He is about to face the vicious hatred of those who were against Him in His suffering and death. These others who would not receive and abide in the Word of God, would be those who were not only in the world, but also of the world. They would hate the disciples, and Jesus says here of the world, “It has hated me before it hated you.” The only way to make the world like you is to decide to act like you are of the world. This is what many people try to do, but if you are in Christ, this cannot really work, because of our union with the Lord. We have His team colors on, even when we try to cover them with the world’s sweatshirt.

Serving a Master who was hated without a cause (20-25)

This kind of talk about the world vs. Jesus sounds very extreme to us, and we are not sure that we like it. We also know that there are many people who proudly wore the colors of Yahweh as a bold spiritual fashion statement, claiming that they were more “of God” than God, and certainly more of God than the prostitutes and the tax-collectors, yet they were the ones that were actually ready to kill Jesus. To make this even more complicated, some of those who were Jesus-haters would very soon become Jesus-lovers after the preaching of Christ, the cross, and the resurrection by Peter and the others at Pentecost. All of this means that it is not always easy to see who is actually on what side. We have known many religious people in our own day who would not want to have anything to do even with a person who voted for a different presidential candidate than they did, let alone being willing to see the grace of God in the life of a prostitute or a thief. In fact, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you.” The church is made up of former thieves, and of former Pharisees. While it feels extreme to talk about people hating the church because they hate Jesus, we are assured by the Lord that this is what the reality is, and it will be out of this world of openly immoral law-breakers and persecuting God-haters who think that they are God’s best friends that men like the Apostle Paul and Simon the Magician will come.

If we are clear about Christ, the cross, and the resurrection, we cannot expect that everyone will love us, Him, or His message. We also cannot imagine that those who seem to reject us, Him, and His message will be neutral. Jesus is telling His disciples that they will be hated and persecuted without any just cause, because He was hated without a cause. It is a fact that out of that mass of those who hate us, Him, and His message, some will have an amazing change of heart. The way that change of heart will generally come will be through personal contact with others. It is in that exposure to the genuine community of the church, that people caught up in the middle of hating Jesus without a cause will begin to find that they love the One that they were sure that they hated, and they will hardly know what to do about that. It is within the community of the church that they will learn how to live for Him, and how to live with each other. They once did not love the Father or the Son. Some in the day of the Apostles had seen the undeniable miracles of Jesus, and they had heard the words of life that He spoke to them. They were without excuse. They were guilty of sin in their rejection of Jesus and the persecution of the church. But some of these, like Paul, would be changed, and would experience spiritual life, and spiritual growth.

The world is different than the people of faith in Christ. Here are just two examples of this difference. 1) The world has no place for confession of sin and the receiving of true forgiveness based on the work of Christ. We have come to love these things in the church. It is wonderful to confess our sins to one another. We read in James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” We love to hear this. We confess our sins to one another, and we pray for one another, because we are priests to one another. The healing we receive that way is wonderful to us. 2) The world has no real place for deeply receiving the Word of the Scriptures into our hearts as we read it over and over again. We have come to love hearing verses that we already have heard and messages that we already know. We love the fact that we start to recognize certain words and thoughts from the Bible. We are not tired of seeing Christ everywhere in the Bible, and adding new words of faith from the Bible into the storage chest of our souls.

Spiritual witnesses (26-27)

Naturally when we experience forgiveness and when we love a passage that has become familiar to us, we would like to think that others might be able to enjoy this same thing. When we hint of such things around others, we may find some receptivity to genuine spiritual life. Sometimes when I give an opening to someone who I expect to have no spiritual interest, I am surprised to find that they do have interest. They may be afraid that they don’t know the right words to say, but if they are able to sense that I am not there to judge them, they may admit that they believe something, though they may not know exactly what it is that they believe. This kind of spiritual interaction between family members, friends, and neighbors has been going on for a long time. It is part of the personal interaction of the church in a world that actually hates Christ and His church, as the Father begins the sometimes lengthy process of drawing people out of that world to Himself. This kind of new creation and the spiritual growth that can follow at an unpredictable pace can only truly happen by the Holy Spirit, but He who is in us, uses us.

The Spirit of God who is within us somehow comes alongside us in our willingness to have some measured spiritual interaction with another person. The work that must be done is an internal work of the soul, and must be done by the Holy Spirit. Yet the spirits of the apostles to be, in their day, would be made willing to bear witness. We remember what God has done in the past, and we bear witness. We are aware to some degree of some things that God appears to be doing now, and we bear witness. We believe the promises of what God will do in the future, and we bear witness. This is what the apostles did; this is what the first century church did; this is what we are doing in our lives; and this witness-bearing is what the Holy Spirit uses to do His own essential work of witness-bearing.

Do not think that the way to bear witness is through fitting perfectly into the worldliness the world, or through being judgmental along with the Pharisaic self-congratulating church. Neither of these false ways of bearing witness does any spiritual good. The first sounds like it might work because we think that people will relate to us on a natural level and that somehow through our being worldlier than they expected they will be able to develop a spiritual interest. The second sounds good because we think that people will see our own obedience and they will be impressed with our law-keeping, be ashamed of their own sins, and will want to be like us. Both methods ignore the depth of the world’s natural hatred for the Lord. That hate is so deep, though hidden, that only the work of the Holy Spirit can make the change necessary to bring life and growth to those we love. The best thing that we can do is to be open to the work of this same Spirit in making us true spiritual witnesses to others. Confess your sins to one another and speak words of forgiveness to each other. Receive the Word of God over and over again in your hearts. Be open to spiritual interactions that are beyond you, where the good that may be accomplished in your presence must come from the Holy Spirit working in the lives of others, who like us, were by nature, children of wrath.

1. What is the difference between being in the world and being of the world?

2. What encouragement comes to us from considering the life of our Lord in the midst of the world?

3. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the witness-bearing of the apostles?

4. How are we to bear witness about Jesus Christ?

God Loves You... Deal with it.

Life in the Lord’s Vineyard – 4 Sermons

Part 3: “The Chosen in the Lord’s Vineyard”

(John 15:16-17, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 15, 2009)

¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

What did Jesus say about our purpose as the chosen of God?

A: “That you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” (John 15:16)

I chose you (16a)

Sometimes we loose track of how blessed we are. It is easy for you to be weighed down by concerns or disappointments and to forget that you are loved by God. Think of what it means simply to be known by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. But you are more than known by God. You are loved by Him. I know that the cross is the greatest display of the love of God for you, and the verses immediately before this are about how the Son of God laid down His life for you. For just one moment I want you not to think about the death of Christ, but think about the best husband you know of and think about his great love for his wife. Now isn’t it amazing that God says His love for His church is the love of a husband? When Candy and I got married, one of my brothers gave the wedding message at our request. I remember that he talked about his love for his wife. He spoke of the moment when he knew that they would be together, and compared it to that scene in The Sound of Music, when Maria and Captain von Trapp have that kind of sudden realization, and they sing these words, “Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.” Why? “For here you are standing there loving me.”

There is something so wonderful about the blessing of committed love, but to think that the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe loves you… not because you have done something good, but because He was entirely determined to do something good for you. It is very appropriate for us now to remember the cross, that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Yet even as we think about Christ’s death for us, there are times when we loose track of how blessed we are. I suspect that it is our surprise that throws us off course, our surprise about what life is like in God’s household, the Lord’s vineyard. We have been looking at some principles from John 15 about life in the Lord’s vineyard, where Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. So far we have noted two important ideas to remember: 1. Don’t be surprised if you suffer, and 2. Don’t be shocked that loving Christ means obeying Him. We need to add one more idea this morning: 3. Don’t fight so hard against the fact that God chose you.

Back to marriage for a moment- We are not at all surprised to hear that a husband has a particular love for his wife, and that he does not have that same affection for every woman as for the one woman he chose as his lifelong companion. If God says that you are His chosen bride as a part of His church, why should you question whether that is a good thing? When two people find each other, we have to hear their stories to see who chose whom, but when God, the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe loved you, it should not surprise you that He chose you.

Jesus says to His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” The concept of a chosen people of God is not anything new. Throughout the Old Testament we were told that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the chosen people of God. In Deuteronomy 7:6 we read this: “You are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” The Jews, the Israelites, were the chosen people of God. I have talked about the relationship of husband and wife, but God also speaks of the relationship of Father and Son referring to His particular love for His chosen people. When He was giving instructions to Moses concerning what was to be said before Pharaoh, He said in Exodus 4:22, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son.’ ” This is something we can understand. It would be unnatural not to have a special affection for your son. God has His heart set on Israel. He chose Israel. And now in one special Son, Jesus Christ, He has chosen you.

The most obvious meaning of the Lord’s words in this passage has to do with the specific disciples who were with Him at that time. These eleven disciples were chosen by Christ to be apostles in the New Testament church. He finds it necessary to emphasize His sovereignty in that choice by first saying, “You did not choose me.” But is this being chosen only for the first disciples, or is there biblical evidence that those who believe in Christ were all chosen by God? Earlier in John 6:44, Jesus said these words: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” In Matthew 22:14 Jesus speaks of the work of the church proclaiming His kingdom to many, but the divine inner call as something that comes to less than the many. He says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” In Colossians 3:12, Paul calls the church of Jews and Gentiles there, “God’s chosen ones.” In 1 Thessalonians 1:4, he says to the believers facing persecution in that place, “We know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.” Finally, Peter writes these words in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The new chosen “race” is not one race or ethnic group at all. The church comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles are the new chosen people of God. If you believe in Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection, and call upon the name of the Lord, you have been chosen by God.

This primary act of God’s will in loving you and choosing you does not change your secondary act in responding to the love of God. Just as there is much biblical evidence that in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have “been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11), there is also much evidence that when we hear the loving call of God to us, we are supposed to say to God in Christ, “I do.” Yes, He chose us. Now show forth His work in your life by responding to Him. Choose God back by following Christ and abiding in Him and His word. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” He says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” We hear His love, and we say, “Yes. I do. Here I am.”

You should bear fruit that will last (16b)

There is a purpose to our being chosen. Do you see that in Jesus’ choosing of His disciples? Do you see that in His choice of you? He chose the twelve (minus Judas) that they should be set in place as apostolic messengers for him, that they should go and bear fruit, fruit that would abide, fruit that would last beyond this life. The Lord’s vineyard expanded greatly through the ministry of these eleven men. They were chosen to bear fruit, and they did. They testified to the truth of the life, death, and resurrection of the long-expected Messiah, and many people believed.

This was the beginning of the expansion of the New Testament Kingdom of God. It started as a small mustard seed in the life of Jesus of Nazareth as He shared His life with Peter, James, John, and the others. It moved forward to Jerusalem where thousands of Jewish households came to believe that Jesus was the One. It spread to other places throughout Judea, and to many Samaritans in the northern part of what had once been the kingdom of Israel. This mustard-seed of a beginning made its way through the provinces of the Roman Empire, places like Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, Macedonia, and Achaia. It soon had reached Rome, and through Rome it began to spread throughout the entire empire. Over the course of the centuries since that time that small beginning has now expanded the vineyard of the Lord to places that had never before heard of the Law of Moses or of the temple in Jerusalem. In the last 100 years there has been an overwhelming move of this fruitfulness in places like Korea, China, and the entire continent of Africa. And we must keep asking Him for fruit even here that will abide.

The forward motion of the message of this Messiah must continue. The earthly expression of the kingdom in the church is only a part of the story. There is a place beyond this world where the reign of Christ is already supreme, that place where the fruit of those apostolic endeavors is stored in the lives of all of the redeemed who are cheering on the earthly progress of the church today. The society of heaven is happy to hear a word rising from millions of homes and churches in many languages: “The kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

One day it will be very apparent that whatever we ask the Father in the Name and will of Jesus shall be given to us. This is the kingdom of God. Its beginnings are very humble, but its conclusion is majestic and glorious. How fitting for a war that was won through the death of a husband! He must have done something good. He must have had more than a good childhood. He must have stood up to evil for us and died the death that we deserved. One day we will see it. We will say, “He must have done something good.” He loves us. He has won for us the Kingdom.

Chosen for love (17)

If you can take in the love of God for you without too much of an argument over His choice of you, then love one another. Love your parents and speak well of them. Love your children, and teach them a life of love. Love your brothers and sisters, and do not abandon them. Love your wives and husbands. Out of the strength of that grace that is common throughout the earth among all sorts of people in the bonds of family love, see something of what it means to be in the family of God, and begin to love one another in the church with a brother’s love and a husband’s love, and a father’s love. This is why you were chosen by the love of God, so that you would love one another.

It is a great blessing to be chosen by the love of God. This is a fundamental principle of life in the Lord’s vineyard. Do not hate His electing love for you just because you don’t understand it. Give in to His love, abide in His love, and bear true fruit of love that will last.

1. What did it mean for the apostles to be chosen by God? What does it mean for us to be chosen by God? Does this mean that we do not need to choose Him, or is there some way that we do choose God, but He first has chosen us?

2. What is the fruit of the apostles? Should we also bear fruit?

3. What role does asking the Father play in our bearing fruit that will abide?

4. Is there some connection between bearing fruit for the Lord and loving one another in the Lord’s vineyard?

Do you think that obedience does not matter?

Life in the Lord’s Vineyard – 4 Sermons

Part 2: “Love and Obedience in the Lord’s Vineyard”

(John 15:9-15, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 8, 2009)

⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. ¹² "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

What does the Lord teach concerning the way of love and obedience?

A: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” (John 15:10)

Abide in My Love (9-10)

Some people look at the cross, and when they read something like Isaiah 53:10, “It was the will of the LORD to crush him,” they wonder whether the Father loved the Son at all. We who have come to know the Father and the Son know that there has always been the greatest love between them. Isaiah 53:10 goes on to say the reason why the Son would die, “He has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin.” This sad fact of the cross was because of our sin. The Father and the Son had determined that the Son would be the offering for our sin. The verse goes on to give the result of that death saying, “He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.” It is very clear that it was for some very wonderful result that the Son travelled the pathway of suffering and death. It is also clear that this death was a great grief to the Father, and we know that the Father and the Son are together at this moment, and will be forever. We know that the Father loves the Son.

That it is why the opening words of today’s passage are so outrageously wonderful to anyone who knows the Father and the Son, “As the Father loves Me, so have I loved you.” Take that in for a moment. Jesus loves you as the Father loved Him when His Son was going to the cross. This is important because we have been told that in the Lord’s vineyard we should expect some pruning in order that we might be more fruitful. When we feel the pain of the clippers, we might be tempted to think that Lord does not love us. This is not the case. The suffering that we face is not evidence that God does not love us. It is evidence that the Lord has plans for us that involve pain, and an opportunity to abide in the love of the Lord in the midst of pain. That is why Jesus says, “Abide in my love.”

What does it mean to abide in the love of Jesus? While it certainly begins with His love for us, the fullest relationship of love requires the response of the one who is loved. We are loved by Christ, but we are being told here how to love Him back. I would not want to discount the place for feelings or emotions in our response of love. Our emotional selves are a part of the whole package of who we are. However, the Lord does not mention feelings in His definition of what it means to abide in His love. He tells us that, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.”

To keep commandments the way that Jesus kept commandments is to keep them perfectly. What this all means is that there must be different experiences among people of this thing that the Lord calls abiding in His love. We know that our peace with God is based entirely on the works that the Lord has perfectly done for us. That is the same for all who are His. Yet among all those who have this peace with God, it seems undeniable that some abide in His love more than others, in terms of their response to His call to perfect obedience. In fact, for any one of us, though the fact of our security in God’s love is the same forever, our response of obedience is not the same at every moment of even our own lives. There is nothing that we can do to change God’s love for us, but there is much that we can change to abide more in His love by attending to His Word.

That your joy may be full (11)

There are important emotional implications connected to this matter of obedience that can have a very significant impact on our well-being. There is an odd thing about obeying God; it may appear to be the way of pain, while the way of disobedience and idolatry promises joy, or at least distraction from pain. This is all very short-sighted. The only way that our joy will be full will be to make a settled commitment to God’s way of doing things.

This is where faith enters into the specifics of your life. You need to have faith that the way that is right according to the Word of Jesus Christ is the way that will actually lead to joy. We can come up with 100 objections as to why Jesus is wrong, and why our way of drowning our lives in false substitutes and distractions is actually the only thing that could possibly work for us. All our arguments can never change some very basics facts: 1. God is God and we are not, 2. His Law is the way out of slavery and our idolatry is the way into bondage, and 3. The cross is the ultimate proof that God has our best interests at heart and can be fully trusted.

Think about these disciples again for a second. The disciples might just like to hide away for the rest of their brief lives and pretend that they never met Jesus Christ. That might seem like the best way to stay out of jail and to enjoy peace with family and friends. Nonetheless, that plan will not do, and to pursue some “Can’t-I-just-go-back-to-the-old-normal-life” story will never work, and we would lose out on such great opportunities that we have for fruitfulness in the Lord’s vineyard. They did not choose that way ultimately. They pressed forward in the kingdom of God, and they moved ahead to find the new normal of paying attention to God’s Word and following it.

If we will do this, we will move toward true joy, the joy of knowing that we have yielded our hearts and lives to God. Jesus has some joy for you. He lived as a Man of Sorrows here below, because that was what was necessary to obey the Father. Now He has the fullness of joy, and He says, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Friends of God through the love of Jesus (12-15)

So what is this obedience that the Lord is asking of His disciples and of us? He says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” That is a very big commandment. Jesus has loved us with the greatest love ever displayed among men. He laid down His life for us.

First consider what this love has accomplished. Through the love of Jesus, we are now counted as friends of God. The debt that was against us because of our sin has been paid. Today the word “friend” can be used with a very low threshold of meaning. We get a little message that says that someone wants to be a friend with us. We can either click on a box that says “Confirm” or a box that says “Ignore.” If we confirm that the person is a friend, and later we don’t want to know about their daily life, we can hide them from our view with yet another click, but they are still officially counted as one of our friends. When I go walking in our neighborhood, I don’t see very many people, but often the people that drive by wave to me. I have never spoken to any of them, and they have never spoken to me, but they wave as if we are somehow friends because that is the custom of the neighborhood. If it is the Christmas season, you can stand outside the supermarket and sing songs about Jesus, people will smile, and some of them who still use cash may actually put a dollar in a red kettle, and no one thinks that anything strange has happened. It is a friendly time, but you can’t do the same thing on July 4^th, because we don’t have that custom.

When Jesus made you His friend, it was not some kind of custom; it cost Him His blood. Your sin was placed on Him. When the wrath of God came against Him for your thoughts, words, and actions that were against the commandments, all your sin was finally and fully dealt with. Now God calls you friend, and Jesus treats you like a friend. He has a written message for you, and He treats you like the kind of closest friend that is treated like family. This can never be taken away from you. In heaven, you will be happier, and you will feel more secure, but you will not actually be more secure. You are as secure in your friendship with God through the love of Jesus Christ as you can ever be, because the love with which He has loved you, will never be taken away from you.

But now, your Friend is calling you to consider something more. He wants you to love one another as He has loved you. You cannot reach the end of that deep well of obedience. The best that you can do in this life is to grow in love. As you permit yourself to love others more like Jesus loved you, then you will share your lives with each other in very good ways. God has done this to us in Christ. Jesus said to His disciples, “All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus was giving them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

The truth was that one of the twelve was a betrayer, and that he had left to do what he would do. Very soon he would return with those who would arrest Jesus. Within just a little while Jesus would be accused, mocked, beaten, and crucified. He would die as a man who was brutally exposed as a law-breaker, though He had done nothing wrong. He would breathe His last, and He would be buried in a tomb. But within three days that tomb would be empty, because He would do what He had earlier told His friends He would do. He would rise again.

Somehow this needs to translate into a new way of life. A way of being friends that is deeper because of the cross and the resurrection. This is something of the obedience that the Lord is calling us to, this kind of life of loving service, this kind of gospel friendship that treats church like family, because our older brother Jesus did something for us that means everything to us. Our old way of our life is gone. Our lives can never be the same.

1. What is the connection between keeping Jesus’ commands and abiding in His love? Is it possible to be loved by God, and yet not really to be abiding in His love?

2. How can we experience the fullness of joy in our lives now?

3. What is the difference between being the Lord’s servant and being His friend?

4. What has Jesus made known to you?