John 14:15-21 - “Filled with the Oil of God’s Love”
Pr. Kurt A. Van Fossan – In Nomine Christi Iesu (In the Name of Christ Jesus)
Our text for today begins with Jesus saying: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Now, of course, if you ask most people if they love God they would say yes, but then they might say they love chocolate too. Since the word “love” has so many shades of meaning it helps to know that in the Greek, Jesus used a more specific word for love, the word “agape.” Agape love refers to an unselfish, unconditional, God-like love.
So right away you know that Jesus is talking about a love which does not come naturally for us. This unselfish love comes only from God, and is evident only in the lives of those who have faith in God. I say that because only the Christian knows of God’s love and promise to be with him/her and even in him/her—to provide for all our needs in this life and after this life. Only with such God given faith and confidence in God’s love and promises can a person even begin to demonstrate agape/unselfish love to others. But even then it’s not easy, is it? We need God’s continual help.
To illustrate what I’m talking about I would like to compare our faith in God’s love—in Jesus Christ—to oil, the kind of oil you put in your car. While most of us wouldn’t be able to take apart the engine of a car and put it back together again, I’m hoping most of us know how to use a dipstick. I took this one out of my car. It’s used for measuring the amount of oil in the engine. There are markers at the bottom to show when you’re low on oil. The lower you are on engine oil, the more friction in your engine (and there will always be friction in your engine) the more that friction will damage your engine. And the more damage that results in your engine the less effective your engine will be. Of course without any oil your engine would seize up and not run at all. So checking this dipstick, and adding engine oil when necessary, is important.
The same is true when it comes to your faith in God’s love. The lower you are on faith in God’s love the more friction there will be in your life, and the less effective you will be as a witness of God’s love to others. And without any faith you cease to be a child of God. Could that ever happen to a Christian? Could he or she fall completely away from saving faith? We’ve started to study that very topic in our Bible Study before the service. The quick answer is yes, it is possible for a Christian to completely fall away from saving faith.
So how can such a thing be prevented? Jesus gives us something like a dipstick in the second part of that first verse, which helps to make sure it never happens. He said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
How do you know when this agape love of God is running low in your life? Look at the dipstick—your willing obedience to God’s commands.
Our willing obedience to God’s commands is a natural part or result of true faith and love for God. If we trust in God’s love, that love will be evident in our lives through our obedience to His commands. Unfortunately most of us would have to admit that if you put it that way—if you use our obedience to God’s commandments as a dipstick to measure how much we truly love God, it’s obvious that we are running low on oil or faith.
This is the Law part of our text, and this sermon. Whenever we disobey God’s will for our lives we are saying that we don’t love God—that we don’t trust in Him.
What’s the solution? The majority of our text gives us that solution. instead of giving us a step by step plan of what we must do, Jesus said: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth...I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
This is all good news—Gospel—how God has and continues to demonstrate His love for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through His physical body and blood He suffered His judgment against our sins through His death on the cross. And now after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus continues to come to us, as He promised, through His same body and blood to create and strengthen our faith in His completed work of salvation (to fill us with the oil of His love). He does this today through His Word and through His Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion where He continues to promise the forgiveness of sins and new life in Him. These are the places, His Word and Sacraments, where the Lord fulfills His promise “I will come to you,” where He assures us of His promise that our sins are forgiven—that we will live forever with Him.
In a world which is full of so much friction—friction which can cause us to begin to wonder if God really does love us, if He is still with us—friction which saps us of our energy and willingness to fight the good fight of faith, it sure is good to know that our Lord is here to heal and sooth us, body and soul.
But what about those who are not here today? Is it because they are without faith in Christ or so low on oil/faith that they have no strength to fight all the temptations around them that seek to keep them away from what they need the most? They too rely on God to come to them with the oil of His love. And it pleases God to do that through people like you and me in whom He has just “topped up.” God doesn’t fill us up with faith and trust in His love so that we can sit in the garage—in this church building. The Lord enables us to leave today in the assurance that, as He said in our text: “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you,” so that we can live joyful lives in Christ and in service to those around us.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
