Message: ‘The Fullness of Love’                     Text: John 15:9-17

Introduction: In 1937 architect Frank Lloyd Wright built a house for industrialist Hibbard Johnson. One rainy evening Johnson was entertaining distinguished guests for dinner when the roof began to leak. The water seeped through directly above Johnson himself, dripping steadily onto his bald head. Irate, he called Wright in Phoenix, Arizona. “Frank,” he said, “you built this beautiful house for me and we enjoy it very much. But … the roof leaks, and right now I am with some friends and distinguished guests and it is leaking right on top of my head.” There was a pause on the line, and Frank Lloyd Wright reportedly replied: “Well, Hib, why don’t you move your chair?”

ILL: The evangelist Billy Sunday noticed this absence of joy in the lives of many people he preached to, and he observed:“If there is no joy in your religion, you’ve got a leak in your faith.”

In other words - if there’s no joy in your life - you have a problem. You’ve got a leak someplace and you need to find a way to deal with it. (Pastor Jeff Strite)

We have been looking at the questions ‘How do we live the Christian life?’  ‘How do we make it really work?’.
    •    We have found that we make it work when we allow the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in our lives that reflects the character of Jesus Christ.
    •    We have also found that we make the Christian life work when we make our home in Christ.

Jesus will give his disciples,  another answer. ‘How do we live the Christian life?’  ‘How do we make it really work?’ By focusing on the Joy of the Lord.

Transition: Turn in your Bibles to John 15:9 (pg. 824 in the Bible under the chair in front of you) Let’s see what we need to do to be joy full Christians.

1. John 15:9-10    ‘As the Father loves…so I have loved’
Read: John 15:9-10

    •    Jesus has already told his disciples about his love for them.
    •    Jesus has already told his disciples that they must obey his commands.

Now he is telling them again. Is this repetition so that they won’t forget? Yes, because they and we are prone to forget and we need to be reminded that Jesus loves us and that we have a responsibility to obey his commands. But is there something we miss because we are so familiar with this passage? I believe there is.

And often it is the small words we so quickly read over. Like the word ‘as’ in the beginning of verse 9. ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.’

Ok, we’ve already heard Jesus say that he loves the Father and the Father loves him. But think of the relationship between the Father’s love for Jesus and Jesus’ love for his disciples, then think about the word  ‘as’.

Jesus is in the shadow of the cross, a place of extreme sacrifice and devastating suffering. We know that in great love, God the Father sent Jesus the Son to suffer and sacrifice his die so that we might be forgiven and have eternal life in heaven.

However, the Apostle Paul tells us that our salvation was not the only reward for Jesus’ love and obedience to the Father when he suffered and died on the cross.

Read: Phil 2:6-11 ‘Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’

God’s love for Jesus saw past the sacrifice and suffering endured because of his obedience and saw beyond to the place of honor Jesus would receive. ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.’ Jesus knows that because of the hard choices you’ll make, because of your obedience to him, you may have to make sacrifices; you may suffer in some way.  

As or ‘in the same way as’ the Father loved Jesus, so, Jesus loves you enough to allow it to happen, because he knows what it will produce in you.

Read: Rom. 5:3-5 ‘Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.’

Our obedience may bring sacrifice and suffering on our part, but it will produce something wonderful in our lives…perseverance, character, and hope. And not only that, love…God’s love poured out in our hearts to overflowing.
    •    We will experience the love of God
    •    We will experience love for God
    •    We will experience love for one another
    •    We will experience love of ourselves

Jesus said ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you’. That’s a lot to think about. Put a mental bookmark here because we’ll be coming back to it again later.

Transition: Jesus is telling his disciples a lot…perhaps more than they can handle at this time in their lives. So he takes a break to explain why he is telling them how to live their new Christian life.

2. John 15:11    ‘Love and joy are inseparable’
Read: John 15:11

    •    Jesus is saying that living the Christian life, making it work, is worth effort.
    •    He is saying that obeying his commands is worth the sacrifice and suffering it may bring.
    •    He is saying there is joy in the journey to Christlikeness.

Remember ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you’? Jesus is talking about relationship, specifically the relationship between the members of the Godhead…God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And in that relationship there is love.

He’s now saying in that relationship there’s also joy. And Jesus wants to share with his disciples, with us, the joy he experiences as part of the Godhead….again, think about that for a moment…it’s totally awesome!

The joy of the Godhead, the joy of Jesus includes:
    •    The joy of complete victory
    •    The joy of complete obedience
    •    The joy of complete peace
    •    The joy of complete assurance
    •    The joy of complete love

All yours…Joy in it’s fullness.

Think about it, the Christian is never more miserable than when he knows he has been disobedient to God.
    •    He does not love sin enough to enjoy it, but he does not love God enough to seek holiness.
    •    She does not feel at home in the world but her memory of past sin doesn’t allow her to feel at home with the saints either.
    •    There is a leak in their Christian life and their joy is slowly draining out.

True Christian joy is not happiness. It’s not the pleasure of a life of ease.
    •    True Christian joy is the exhilaration of being right with God
    •    True Christian joy is knowing that you are intentionally obeying his commands.
    •    True Christian joy is allowing yourself to be used by God to bring him glory.
    •    True Christian joy is the assurance that God will never leave you nor forsake you.
    •    True Christian joy is knowing that you are forever and completely loved by God…no matter what.
    •    True Christian joy is knowing that you have passed from death to life…eternal life.

That is the joy Jesus gives. It too is utterly amazing.

Conclusion

This morning when you woke up,
    •    I hope that your heart was the same as mine, and that you said as the Psalmist David did, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1).
    •    I hope that you didn’t wake up this morning and say, “Oh no! It’s another Sunday morning and I have to go to church!”
    •    I hope that when you woke up this morning you said, “Yes! It’s Sunday morning and I get to go to the house of the Lord, because I get to meet with Jesus! My God is a good God, a loving God, who has great plans for my life.”

For the Christian, Joy is more than an emotion. Joy is a tool God gives us to overcome our circumstances, to empower us to rise above the sacrifices and the sorrows of this life.

Read: Heb. 12:2 ‘Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’

Jesus overcame the pain and disgrace of the cross, he rose above the horror of his crucifixion – because he didn’t focus on his present situation. Instead he focused on the joy that was waiting for him.

    •    You can plug the leak in your Christian walk.
    •    You can successfully and faithfully navigate the Christian life
    •    when your focus is on the joy of the Lord.