How to Show Jesus that You Love Him

(John 14:15)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
1. Last week, we saw
Jesus telling His disciples
That He was leaving
But they were not to be afraid:
He was going to prepare a place for them
In His Fathers house.

The fact that Jesus was bringing them to His Fathers house
Seemed to have made them a bit apprehensive:
What was the Father like?
Would He receive them?
Would He love them?
We may have shared the same concerns
At least at some point in our lives.

Jesus tells us we have nothing to fear:

The Father is the same as He is.
If we have seen and known Jesus
Weve also seen and known His Father.
They arent the same person,

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But they do have the same nature/character,
And so the same love and gracious purpose towards us.

Jesus brings this out even more clearly

By evoking the Jewish imagery
Of a husband returning
To his fathers house with his bride
Just as Abraham sent his servant to a foreign land
To bring a wife back for his son Isaac,
So the Father sent His Son into this world
To redeem a bride to Himself
And the Son sent His messengers into the world
To gather that bride together
That He might bring her home
To His Fathers house
Where He might love and cherish her forever.
Jesus is telling us
That just as a bride is welcomed
Into the home of her husbands father,
So we will be welcomed into His Fathers house,
Because the Father shares the same love
For us as His Son
He was the One who loved us in eternity
And chose to give us to His Son as His bride.

2. We saw Jesus also addressing another concern:

If He was leaving, how would His work continue?
The disciples might have been able
To do what needed to be done while He was here
But what would happen after He was gone?

Far from His leaving being a problem,

Jesus told them things would get better:
Not only would they do what He had done,
They would do greater things
Because He was going to the Father.
Whatever they asked in His name,
He would do:
And so they asked,
And the Lord powerfully answered.

That promise still applies to us:

Jesus says we may ask for anything
And He will answer us
As long as what we ask for in His name
Is something He wants us to have
Something that will glorify Him,
And that will glorify His Father.

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Thats what we will ask for,
If we love Him.

B. Preview.
This brings us to this mornings topic:
If we love Jesus,
Well not only use the precious privilege
He gives us in prayer
To ask for things that will glorify Him,
We will also pay attention
To what He wants us to do
In every area.

We know its important to love the Lord

Especially when we consider
Everything He is,
And all that He has done for us.
But how does He want us
To show that we love Him?
Is it enough simply to tell Him?
He loves to hear us say we do
But is that enough?
Does He simply want to look in our hearts
To see the affection we have for Him?

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To see it in our souls also pleases Him
But again, is that all He desires?

What do we like to see

From those who love us?
Is it enough that they tell us?
It is nice to hear the words,
But words can be cheap.
We would rather see expressions of this love
The evidence that it really exists
And so does Jesus.
He wants to see our love
Worked out in the way we live.

This morning,
Jesus says, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (v. 15).
II. Sermon.
A. First, lets consider what our lives say
About our love for Jesus.

Whether we love Him

Is the most important question
We can ask ourselves
Not just so well know
That Hell answer our prayers,

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But for our eternal wellbeing:
Jesus says if we dont love Him,
We dont belong to Him
Our sins have not been forgiven;
We havent been adopted into Gods family.
Jesus said to the Jews
That didnt believe in Him
In John 8:42, If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth
and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but
He sent Me.
Our love for Him
Is the evidence that we know Him.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:37,

That it isnt just a question of whether we love Him at all,
But whether we love Him most of all
He said to His disciples
Before He sent them out
To teach and preach in the towns and villages of Palestine:
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who
loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Matt. 10:37).
The kind of love He wants
And the kind He actually gives
Is the kind that puts Him first,
Over those who are the nearest and dearest to us in the world;

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And if over them,
Certainly over the things that are far less important.

It was because we loved Him

That we trusted Him in the first place
Why we embraced Him as our Lord
And our only hope of heaven.

Its why we didnt stop

Where so many do today
With merely knowing the story
Of who Jesus is and what Hes done.
We need to know these things to be saved,
But were not saved by knowing them.
There are those who know these things
Far better than we ever will
Who have devoted their lives
To the study of the Bible
But who dont know Jesus
Because they have never loved Him.

Love is why we werent satisfied

With merely believing what we know about Jesus
We needed to believe the Gospel to be saved,
But we werent saved by believing it,

Anymore than the fallen angels:

James writes, The demons also believe, and shudder (2:19).

Love is why we embraced Him as our Savior

Why we applied Him to our souls by faith
As He offered Himself to us in the Gospel
And why we received Him as our Lord
This was the kind of King we wanted.

But how can we know that was our reason

How can we know that we looked to Him in love
And not for some other reason, such as fear?
Jesus tells us in our passage:
We know because we continue to love Him through our obedience.
Jesus says, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:15).
We know because the love Jesus gives us by His Spirit
Is a transforming love: one that makes us like Him.

How do we know that Jesus loved His Father?

We know because He obeyed Him.
He says in verse 31, But so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do
exactly as the Father commanded Me.
The same will be true of us:
If we love Jesus, we will obey Him.

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If we dont obey Him,
What does that say about us?
Jesus says in verse 24, He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the
word which you hear is not Mine, but the Fathers who sent Me.
If we dont obey Him,
We dont love Him.

And if we dont love and obey Him,

What does that say about our spiritual state
And our eternal destination?
Jesus says that those who dont obey Him
Will not enter heaven.
He says in Matthew 7:21, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven
will enter (Matt. 7:21).

Obedience doesnt save us,

But it does show that we have loved and believed in
The only One who can.

B. Lets apply this for a few moments.

First, if obedience is how we can know

Whether or not we love Jesus,
We should ask ourselves whether were being obedient.
Are we keeping His commandments?
Are we living by the standard He lived by?

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The Law He kept to save us?

Is that Law in our minds
And has He written it on our hearts?
Do our lives show that it is by our following His example?
Jesus tells us that a tree is known by its fruit.
What does the fruit of our lives say about us?
Is there enough evidence
To convict us of being Christians?

Lets dive into this a bit more deeply.

If our Lords image is being formed in us,
Then we should want to obey Him
In the same way He obeyed His Father.
Is that true of us?

How much did He love His Father?

Jesus showed the strength of His love
By the thoroughness of His obedience.
Were not going to be able to match
Either the intensity of His love
Nor the precision of His obedience,
But if we love Him,
Thats what well be aiming for.

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How thoroughly did Jesus obey His Father?
He obeyed all His commands.
He didnt keep just 9 out of 10,
But 10 out of 10.
He loved what was right across the board
His obedience was universal.
If we love the Lord,
We will strive to obey Him in all areas.

Was His love merely superficial?

Jesus obeyed His Father from the heart.
He didnt just go through the motions
He did what He did out of love,
And sought His Fathers glory in everything.
We will do the same.

When and where did Jesus obey?

He obeyed His Father at all times and in all places.
He wasnt one way in public,
And then another in private.
He lived a consistently godly life.
If we love Jesus,
Well try to do the same.

How extensively did He obey?

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He applied the Law to every area of His life,

From the very beginning to the end.
Early on, we see that Jesus continued to grow
In wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.
He studied the Law to know what honored His Father
And sought to live by it:
In every thought,
In every word,
In every desire of His heart,
In every action.
He loved the Lord His God
With all His heart, mind, soul and strength,
And His neighbor as Himself.
If we love Him,
We will want to do the same.

None of us can do it perfectly like Jesus,

But that will be our goal,
And we will do what we can to reach it.

This evening,
Well see that the Lord
Promised His disciples and us
An even greater provision

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So that we might love and obey Him more.

In closing,
If you dont know this kind of love,
Or desire this kind of obedience,
Its because you havent trusted Jesus.
If you dont trust Him from the heart,
You will never see heaven.
If thats the case with you,
Then come to Jesus,
Ask Him for His mercy,
Ask Him for His Spirit,
That you might love Him
And receive His life. Amen.

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