“If You Love Me…”

 

 

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15.

 

I wonder if we love Jesus. Do I love Jesus? Do you love Jesus? Do our congregations love Jesus?

 

The Upper Room begins in love and it is completed in love. In 13:1, “…having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Then in 17:26, “…so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

 

In 14:21 Jesus says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me…” Do we love Jesus?

 

Then in 14:24, “He who does not love Me does not keep My words…”

 

Then in 15:10, “If you keep my commandments you will abide in My love…”

 

John continues this theme in his first letter; “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected…” (1 John 2:4 – 5).

 

Then, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3).

 

Jesus Christ does not give us commandments that we cannot keep, I cannot understand why we do not recognize this…unless it is that we have been taught that we cannot keep them, unless we are convinced that we cannot keep them. Is not this akin to Israel believing the negative report of the ten spies that the land that God promised could not be possessed?

 

How cruel it would be that our Father should give us commandments, in Jesus Christ, knowing full well that we cannot keep them. How mean it would be if Jesus, commanding us that we should love one another as He loves us (John 13:34 – 35), knows full well that we cannot possibly keep such as commandment.

 

Thankfully, our Father and Lord Jesus do not treat us this way, they do not give us stones for bread or serpents for meat or wormwood for water – instead they give us themselves – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit invite us to live in them and they come to live within us (John 14:16 – 17; 23). Jesus bids us to abide in Him, to draw our life from Him, so that we may bear much fruit, for without Him we can do nothing – but in Him we can do all things, including keeping and fulfilling His commandments (John 15:1 – 11). When Jesus becomes our Way, Truth, and Life, fulfilling His commandments becomes our Way of Life as we live in Him and He lives in us.

 

One of the great distinctions between the Law and the Gospel is that the Law was given to manifest our sinfulness, our need for a Savior, to drive us to Christ. We could not possibly keep the Law, we were essentially powerless. However, in Christ the Gospel through the indwelling Holy Spirit and empowering grace sets us free from the law of sin and death and condemnation and releases and empowers us, in Christ, to obey and fulfill the commandments of God.

 

It is a tragedy when professing Christians think they cannot fulfill the commandments of God in Christ, it is a repudiation of their identity in Christ, of His perfect work on the Cross and in Resurrection, a rejection of the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit – it is saying to Jesus in response to His teaching of the Vine and the branches, “Yeah but…”

 

It is allowing our experience to determine our interpretation of Scripture – something we might reject when it comes to other teachings…and I find an irony here. The irony is that believers who criticize other believers for their supposed reliance on “experience” in one area of life and thought, do the very same thing when it comes to other areas of life and thought – if not more so. I write “if not more so” because the issue of our identity in Jesus Christ and of His perfect and complete work of salvation and its outworking within us is what is at stake here – whether or not the Vine and branches is an actual present reality or some elusive ideal that we cannot experience.

 

Are we continuing to grow in Christ? Let us hope we are. Is our obedience continuing to be perfected, let us hope it is. Is conformity to our Father’s will an ongoing process and experience? Again, let us trust Him that this is so.

 

Jesus says that if we love Him that we will keep us commandments.

 

Do we love Him?

 

What Jesus commandments, He gives us the power to obey and fulfill – He “wills and works in us for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). And as we will see, the Lord willing, in our next reflection, He gives us the Holy Spirit – not just to be with us, but to live within us.

Series on Revelation

 Good morning dear friends,

My friend, Dr. David Palmer, has just started a series on Revelation at Kenwood Baptist Church in Cincinnati. I love David's passion for Jesus Christ and his devotion to Scripture. I hope you will consider watching this series and pondering how Jesus is speaking to us in our generation.

Here is a link to the Sunday service, the message begins around minute 30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhK9ClH6rkA

Here is a link if you want to know a bit more about David.

https://www.gordonconwell.edu/faculty/adjunct/david-palmer/

much love,

Bob

Asking in His Name…A Life

 

“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13 – 14.

 

Jesus encourages us to ask (see also John 15:7; 16:23 – 27). Early in His ministry Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7).

 

“Why doesn’t God answer prayer?” is one of the questions we most often ask. I still wonder why my Mom died when I was 17 and my brothers were 15 and 12. Wasn’t I praying effectively? I wonder why Martha, a mother of young twins in our congregation, died after much intercessory prayer. I wonder why I have made such selfish and stupid and sinful decisions in my life; haven’t I been praying for God’s will? (Maybe not really.)

 

What I do know, and I am more deeply certain of this as I advance in years and as I continue to know Jesus, is that God’s character is perfect, His love is perfect, His desire for us is perfect. I know that God can be absolutely trusted. God is the core of our life, the ground of our being in Jesus Christ, our Alpha and Omega.

 

While there are prayers in my life and in our marriage that God does not seem to have answered, I believe that my Father has always heard them and I know that He has always been with us. I have seen many prayers answered, and it has taken years for some of them to be fulfilled. When I look back over my life, I see God’s lovingkindness and mercies, I see answered prayer, I see His kind and loving guidance, I see His forbearance – both when I have been wise and when I have been foolish.

 

When it comes to praying for others, we should never give up. Jesus did not give up on us, and He makes intercession for us always (Heb. 7:25), and so I think that we should not give up on others in prayer and intercession.

 

I suppose, for me, questions surrounding prayer are an element of the human condition – even the redeemed human condition as sons and daughters of the Living God.

 

While we will consider prayer again, the Lord willing, in John 15:7 and 16:23ff, for the present let’s note four things:

 

1.    Jesus wants us to ask, three times in the Upper Room He speaks to His disciples about asking so that they may receive.

2.    The context of prayer is relational – we are the friends of Jesus (15:12 – 17) and are called into the koinonia and unity of the Trinity (John 17). The Father loves us! (17:23).

3.    In relation to 14:13 – 14, it follows the “greater works” statement of verse 12, what might this indicate to us?

4.    Obedience to Jesus Christ is an element of prayer (14:15; 15:7, 10). The relational element of prayer contains the element of obedient discipleship (is there any other kind?) and filial obedience to our heavenly Father.

 

Here are two passages in the Valley of Vision which have caught my attention:

 

“Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.” (page 265).

 

“Give me unwavering faith that supplications are never in vain, that if I seem not to obtain my petitions I shall have larger, richer answers, surpassing all that I ask or think.

 

“Unsought, thou hast given me the greatest gift, the person of thy Son, and in him thou wilt give me all I need.” (page 271).

 

Asking in His Name entails much more than simply verbalizing the name “Jesus.” Professing Christians can come pretty close to pagan thinking when it comes to the name Jesus – for His Name is not a code word, it is not magic – it is holy, it is sacred, and it is the Name of the One we worship and obey and who has purchased us with His blood – the Lamb of God.

 

Yes, there is power and authority in the name of Jesus – when we live under that power and authority, when we live under the lordship of Jesus Christ. We are to live in the name of Jesus in all that we do, Paul writes, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Col, 3:17). When we come to prayer again in John 15, we will see that it is linked to abiding in the Vine, living in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Asking in His Name is to be our way of life; His Name, His Nature, is to be our Way of Life. Our days and our nights are to be lived in Him, our vocations are to be devoted to Him, our marriages and families are to be rooted in Him, our friendships are to be found in Him, our recreation is to be enjoyed in Him – He is to be our All in all.

 

Life in Christ is conversing with Him throughout the day, living each day in fellowship with Him – sharing each day with Him, enjoying each day with Him, learning from Him throughout each day. When we live in Him thusly, we naturally ask in His Name – being aware of His authority and power, and being aware of living in His Nature, drawing our life from the Vine.

 

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:11).

 

Again, here is a passage from The Valley of Vision:

 

“When thou commandest me to pray for pardon, peace, brokenness, it is because thou wilt give me the thing promised, for thy glory, as well as for my good.

 

“Help me not only to desire small things but with holy boldness to desire great things for thy people, for myself, that they and I might live to show thy glory.” (Page 267).

A Mystery of Greater Works

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12.

 

I would be happy to simply do the works that Jesus did, and quite content to live life there. I would rejoice at healings and deliverances and seeing others come to the Father. I would be thankful to see others share the Gospel as a result of receiving the Gospel from Christ through me.

 

What about you?

 

Note that in verse 10 Jesus couples “words” and “works” together. “The words that I say to you I do not speak out of Myself, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” I write this to caution us about equating the “works” of verse 12 solely with miracles, healings, deliverance from the demonic, and the like. “Works” can include words.

 

On the other hand, “works” can include miracles and I see no warrant to exclude them and no reason not to desire them for the glory of God.

 

Let’s also note verse 13, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

 

Regarding healings and deliverances, I cannot imagine anything exceeding the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth when I read passages such as Mark 1:32 – 34, when virtually the entire city comes to Jesus and there are many miracles. Then we have the raising of the dead, such as Lazarus.

 

Of course we have Paul in Ephesus. “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.” (Acts 19:11). We also see both Peter and Paul raising the dead in Acts.

 

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the Word of the Gospel was surrounded by the power of the Gospel. “God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” (Hebrews 2:4).

 

When we have a discrepancies between what we ought to be and what we really are, we can either make excuses for our shortcomings or we can acknowledge them and ask our Lord Jesus Christ to help us. When we excuse our shortcomings by rationalizing them away, and especially by saying they are God’s will, we are on dangerous ground.

 

Paul writes, “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” (2 Cor. 1:20).

 

Since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), we ought to expect Him to be the same in ministry within and without His Body – His continuing Incarnation - today as yesterday; and we ought to expect that the Holy Spirit abides in us today as He does within the Body when 1 Corinthians chapters 12 – 14 were written.

 

I cannot believe that brethren who profess a high view of Scripture venture onto the dangerous ground of teaching against the present – day living and working of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s Body in accordance with 1 Corinthians 12 – 14, as well as other passages. No matter how we may want to gloss over this, no matter how we may rationalize it, this is robbing others of the promises of God and of their life in the Holy Spirit and I just don’t understand it. Have we forgotten Revelation 22:18 – 19? Ought we not to leave things alone that we don’t understand?

 

Just because we, at least in the West, are falling short of living in the fulness of our inheritance, is no warrant for any of us to add or detract from the Word of the Bible – and I suppose I should say that there are, no doubt, those on the other end of the spectrum who often add to the Word of Christ. Being demonstrative is not a sign of living in the Holy Spirit nor of spiritual worship – the Presence of Jesus Christ and His Living Word, our koinonia with Him and with one another, is what we should be seeking. As Jesus says, and as He will repeat, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15).

 

As Jesus makes clear, the distinguishing marks of Christians are to be our love for one another and our unity (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 13; 17:20 – 23). This is where we will see the glory of John14:12, this is where we will have a Biblical Gospel witness, and this is where we will all see clearly.

 

Whatever John 14:12 means, its meaning cannot be understood apart from its context, apart from John chapters 13 – 17…which of course culminate in the Holy of Holies of John 17. Its meaning must be lived in Christ and with one another and in the context of the entire Bible – I wonder if we will see this in our lifetimes?