Love One Another
John 15: 9-13 January 22, 2023
I. Introduction:
A. Jesus said some very radical things at times where you might
wonder did Jesus really say that. Did he really mean that?
1. What we are going to look at today could fit in that category
because the truth is so mind blowing you cannot help but say
“really?”
B. We are jump starting this year with a three-week series regarding
the new discipleship paradigm we are using at MVC. Pas...
Love One Another
John 15: 9-13 January 22, 2023
I. Introduction:
A. Jesus said some very radical things at times where you might
wonder did Jesus really say that. Did he really mean that?
1. What we are going to look at today could fit in that category
because the truth is so mind blowing you cannot help but say
“really?”
B. We are jump starting this year with a three-week series regarding
the new discipleship paradigm we are using at MVC. Pastor Mike
spoke of that last week as our three key lenses for looking at
discipleship is Be, Become, Do
1. Be with Jesus
2. Become like Jesus
3. Do what Jesus did
• This morning’s message we will see two of those lenses – being and
doing. Turn in your Bibles to John 15:9 where we find this truth ….
II. Being
A. Read John 15:9 –
1. Did you catch that?
a. In the exact same way that the Father loves Jesus, is the way
that Jesus loves us!
2. The words “just as” is a marker of similarity, comparison,
something being in accordance with something else,
a. Here the similarity, the comparison is in the area of
love. Jesus’ love for us as being in accordance with the
same love that the Father has for him!
b. In other words, Jesus loves each one of us in the same way
and with the same love with which the Father loves him.
c. So the kind of love which the Trinity shares with each other
is the same kind of love that Jesus shares with us!
3. Turn to John 17:26 where we see a very similar idea
expressed. Read.
a. The love with which the Father loved Jesus would be in us
as well.
b. So not only would we experience that Trinitarian love but
we would also express it back to Jesus!
4. As mind blowing as that is, and no matter how bad you feel
about yourself and what you think about God’s love for
you. This is how much Jesus loves you and me!
B. But the passage and truth does not stop there. Read 15:9c-10
1. This is the being part of the passage as we see we are to abide,
remain in Jesus love.
2. Abide means to remain. He is actually commanding us to stay
within the realm of his love. Do not step outside of that but stay
there and bask in it! Be in Jesus’ love
3. Then he tells us that the way we remain in his love is the same
way that he remains within the Father’s love – by walking in
obedience to Jesus’ commands.
C. So there is the catch – Jesus only loves me if I walk in obedience
and I have fallen way short of that. No!!
1. Note Jesus has already told us that he loves us in the same way
the Father loves him – that love precedes my obedience or
disobedience.
2. So while God’s love for us is not dependent upon our behavior
or obedience, the ongoing enjoyment of that love is dependent
upon our obedience. Read v11.
3. How many of you have been to Niagara Falls before? God’s
love is like the falls - his extravagant love lavished upon us
a. But as we move away from the Falls to the parking lot and
drive away we are no longer under the influence of that
splash or mist.
b. There are only two ways to walk away from experiencing
the joy of God’s love being lavished on us.
1. Rather than remaining in it, staying there and enjoying
Jesus’ love we try to earn it.
2. The other is blatant disobedience.
a. A little stumble or mistake or the growing pains of a
Christian learning to walk with Jesus is not what he
is referring to here.
b. But rather an intentional turning my back on and
walking away from him in disobedience.
i. Then guilt and shame take over rather than the
enjoyment of Jesus’ love for us!
• Next is the doing portion of the passage as Jesus tells us what we are
to do with this amazing love we are to remain within.
III. Do
A. Jesus takes this teaching a step further in the next verse. Listen
1. Read v 12
2. This special kind of love is not just something that is between
me and Jesus but actually is supposed to spread to one another.
a. The exact same kind of love with which the Father loves
Jesus, is the exact kind of love with which Jesus loves us and
is the exact kind of love with which we are to love one
another in the body of Christ.
b. This amazing kind of love starts with the Father to Jesus and
from Jesus to us and from us to one another!
B. We see this same truth earlier when Jesus was speaking to
them. Read John 13:34
1. The newness of the command is not to love one another that
they had heard before.
2. The newness of the command is the standard that Jesus attaches
to that love – love one another just as, in the same way that I
love you!
C. Then he finally explains what this love looks like.
1. Read v13
2. This love is a sacrificial love. A love that cost you personally in
order for you to bless/benefit someone else
3. Just like it cost the Father the sacrifice of his own Son to love us
it will cost us the sacrifice of something precious to us to love
each other in the same way that God loved Jesus and Jesus loves
us!!!!
D. So this whole section could be summarized like this “Jesus loves us
the same way the Father loves him thus we should love each other
like that as well!”
• So what do we do with all of this?
IV. Application
A. If you are struggling personally with enjoying God’s love for you –
you need to know that the ability to experience and enjoy this kind
of love is a work of the Holy Spirit deep within one’s heart which
comes about in the context of prayer.
1. Read Ephesians 3:14-19.
2. If you are personally struggling with experiencing God’s love at
the core of your being more than trying to figure it out, counsel
it out or even study it out begin to pray about the Holy Spirit
doing this supernatural work in your life.
3. Romans 5:5 tells us it is the Holy Spirit who pours out within
our hearts the very love that God has for us! Romans 5:5
B. This is a very high standard regarding the way we love one another
– the same way he loved us. That bar is set too high for me and I
have failed at that many times.
1. The capability to love like that does not come from me but it is
within me. Maybe better said than “it” is within me – “he” is
within me – the Spirit of Jesus expresses his very love through
me to others!
2. It is Christ living in me. It is Jesus expressing his love through
me. Read Galatians 2:20
3. So what I do is walk moment by moment not trying hard to love
like Jesus did but rather trusting and depending upon the one
who lives in me to express that through me.
C. A special word for MVC regarding loving others – Paul tells the
church in 1 Thessalonians 4:10 that they are loving one another
well but he wanted them to excel still the more in their love! I
believe MVC is doing it well but I also want to encourage us to
excel still the more in our love.
1. Often I hear people tell me what a welcoming and friendly place
MVC is. I think it is true! But there is a big difference
between a church that is friendly and good at loving our friends
and one where people can actually make friends that they can
build relationships with and loving those who are outside our
circles (who may have come to MVC for twenty years already)
or are new to MVC in just the last twenty days.
2. Actually the world can do that as well as we do! Listen to what
Jesus said – read Matthew 5:46-47
3. Our responsibility to love one another the same way that Jesus
loved us expands beyond just our friends and we need to be
available to love those outside our circles and those new to
MVC in a way that is more than just being friendly.
4. I can tell you from experience as a pastor who gets to know
those who are outside our clicks and those new to MVC there is
richness that comes to us when we include them in our lives and
circles.
a. Illustration of us being in missionary housing in the Amazon
(those younger not the online shopping link) coming out for
breakfast and Kim wanting to sit with these two older
women. I was too cool for the old ladies.
b. Turned out these two ladies were the ladies that followed
Elizabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint in living with and
ministering to the Acua Indians in Tonampare, Ecuador right
in the middle of the Amazon.
c. It turned out to be the most exciting and interesting breakfast
I ever had in my life as they told us story after story about
living and ministering in that place for decades!
D. Our Sabbath small groups provide an opportunity to learn how to
be with Jesus but a byproduct of that is the opportunity love others
at MVC who are new people to us that desperately long to
experience that love and connect with us; and for us to enrich our
own lives as we meet them!
1. Josh …
