Well, I invite you to turn this morning, if you have your Bibles with you, to John 15. John 15. And we will be reading at verse 8. Actually, the text will be verses 12 through 17. And over the years in preaching, I have found John 15 to be one of the greatest, for me, encouragements and helps uh in in preaching through the this book of john but thinking of john 15 outside of going through the book what a glorious text and now to see it in context it comes alive all the more so i'll pick up at verse 8 and um and then we'll read through verse 17 this is the word of the lord by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what i command you no longer do i call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing but i've called you friends for all that i've heard from my father i've made known to you you did not choose me but i chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. And there we'll end of the reading of God's word. John 15, I find to be marvelous section to preach today as we come to the table. Again, I always find as I'm working through these, especially going through the book of John, almost every text is a communion text. And I think you'll see that all the more today from John chapter 15. It gives us insight into the way that Jesus helped his sheep to live this life. That's an important theme in the book of John that we're noticing here, how Jesus is now instructing his disciples in how to walk before him. He is not condemning them. He's motivating them. He's encouraging them. as he as they would be just as he was about their father's business the the works that were given to them to do beforehand that they should walk in them it's fulfilling the problem i think as you come to john 15 is that we take passages like this and read our controversies into it and drain the beauty and the life right out of the text it's really sad often i think we've done that with creation i think in every major controversy where there's ever a controversy over a text it's usually ripped out of its context and we drain the beauty and the life out of it through our controversies and that's not at all what this passage is intended to to do everyone should walk away from this passage and say wow look at the love that jesus has for us and how he is so concerned that we walk in that love that's the purpose of this he wants to to give them a way forward in his absence physical absence he's with them of course we're going to look at the work of the holy spirit soon that's in that's in chapter 16 we'll be spending time in that very soon but i want you to notice here how he's motivating the disciples in this particular passage and helping them to think about their purpose what is their purpose but but but more importantly too that they would find joy in their purpose in this life that's not always so easy is it? Why is it that whenever we are in whatever place, whatever place God has us, it's always a burden just to get through. And then we get to a new burden and look back and think that, man, I wish I would have really loved that time. We do that all the time in our life. We're always looking back, wishing we had enjoyed more and lived in joy for what we had what was given to us jesus is telling us live in joy now live in peace now that's the intention for you and that's what we're considering today jesus called for them to be about his father's commandment summarized by the principle of love we know as we considered and i want to consider that responsibility of love that he gives to motivate them to love and then the power that they have to perform that love so so you notice there was the the points there responsibility to love a motivation to love and then the power to love that's what this passage is is holding out when you come to the 15th chapter of john the disciples are facing the greatest grief in their walk with jesus that they have known so far jesus had told them now he has told them that he is going away and they can't process that they haven't even been able to process the truth of that that he's going to suffer and that he's going to die the whole way it seems that the disciples are putting that on the back burner and ignoring what jesus is saying and when pressed with it they even oppose what jesus is saying and this all comes on the heels of the kingdom in the kingdom now that he compared talked about last time that in the kingdom there's different kinds of branches some are bearing fruit and some aren't and we looked at the particular context at the beginning of john 15 it has everything to do with judas he's answering that burden of them that was distressing for them one of their own was apostatizing coinciding with the lord's supper jesus held out i am the vine and you are the branches remember when the supper was being instituted this is the speech that correlates with that in the gospels this is the language that came out of jesus's mouth i am the vine you are the branches but i want you to know that one of you is going to betray me and they said is it i lord who could do that to you who could see all of this why how could that even see it was it was distressing for them well you understand that jesus is responding to this fear and you understand what follows then in john 15 is instruction to counter this and help them forward as they're concerned about themselves he's concerned that they would know he's concerned that they would live in assurance it's beautiful so notice what he's saying here i am the vine you are the branches anyone who comes to me and believes in me receives my life and just like a tree from that vine life flows to the branches we looked at this last time we talked about pruning and and those things that are mentioned in this in this passage you see jesus knows that a fearful flock is an inactive flock. A fearful Christian isn't an active Christian. He is encouraging their dependency on the vine. He's encouraging their dependency upon him for life. So the aim of everything I want you to know in this passage is found in verse 11, where Jesus gives a summary statement of why he's saying these things to them. These things, I am saying all of this to you for a great purpose, and I want you to understand that purpose. My purpose is that my joy, notice that, may remain in you and that your joy would be made full. What a statement from Jesus. I want you to have joy in this life. I want it full. You can sit around and fall apart over the world. You can sit around and fall apart over distress. You can sit around and fall apart over sin. or you can receive my joy that I intend for you. See, those are two very different ways. I've seen a lot of very bitter, angry people in the ministry. And I've seen a lot of people full of joy. There's a stark difference. There's a stark difference. How, Lord? How do I obtain that? I want joy. Well, he gives a great responsibility here, doesn't he? In verse 9, Jesus begins to address their fears. And notice what he says to start. How do you instill joy into somebody? How do you bring about real joy and happiness even in the midst of all of this, right? Affliction and difficulty and death and sorrow. How do you have that? Jesus begins there in verse 9. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. So he looks at them, and he says, I love you. Now, that's just not anyone saying that. I could carelessly say to my wife, I love you, and she might not believe me that day, right? Because I've been stupid or I've done something bad. This is God saying that. I love you. Let that set in for a minute. Let you understand that. And then he goes on to say, Greater love has no one than this. I'm going to go die for you. That's about as wonderful as it can be in the Gospels, isn't it? I love you, and to prove it, I'm going to go die for you. I'm going to willingly lay down my life for you. My concern, then, is for you in this. I'm concerned, says Jesus. I want you to abide, I want you to remain, I want you to stay in my love for you. Jesus was concerned that they would live knowing it, that they would live believing it, that they would live enjoying it, that there would be joy in their lives with it. This knowledge. John, 1 John, John must have been really taken by this, because if you really read 1 John 2, he's expositing John 15. And he'll go on, there's much to say. I encourage you, if you want to sit down later and read a little bit on Sunday, it would be nothing more profitable than go read 1 John 2. And listen to what he talks about love. But notice what he said in 1 John 2. And now, little children, abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he's righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. So he's taking all of this truth and saying, The intention is that when Jesus comes in judgment, you are to have joy and confidence that he's coming in favor of you. Well, how can I enjoy that love in the present? This may seem somewhat counterintuitive. It may make us recoil a little bit because of our controversies, but we shouldn't let that happen. Listen to it. Listen to it apart from the baggage of the controversies. If you keep my commandments, verse 10, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and remain in his love. This is a very important moment, I think, in the Gospels because it's a very pastoral moment of Jesus helping his disciples forward. I think one of the most pastoral for the sheep that they must, at least look at how first John dealt with it you see that it was I'm sure today because this is a struggle that even I have as a pastor I'm sure today consciences are so sensitive because of sin and struggle that they're saying yeah I don't really know at times how many pastors have visited on the deathbed of Christians who've listened to sermons their whole life and you have a confidence today when you die that you're going to enter into glory well I don't know. And then comes a list, a catalog of everything that they've done. And it's a struggle. I don't know still. I don't know. What is sin? Sin is breaking God's law. Sin is departure from God. Sin is running away from God. Now, here's what I want you to think about for a minute. What, when we sin in the course of our lives, what does it bring? What are the consequences of sin in our lives? Go through it. Guilt. Defilement. Emptiness. Isolation. It leads you right into isolation. Whatever you typically do, if it's willful sin, you're doing in private. Depression. Sorrow. I mean, I can go on and on and on. Sin destroys life. It contaminates your life. It's alienating in your life. 1 John says, listen, God's made a remedy for that. If you sin, confess your sins, and he's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Sin attacks assurance. So the first path back is confessing sins and going to the Lord and receiving a washing of that impurity that we experience, of the defilement that we experience, that cry that goes up. How could God love a wretch like me? That's what we do. That's the avenue to come back. And he helps us with that. He promises every single time, 70 times seven. By the way, if he tells you to forgive, that means because he's doing it 70 times seven, he'll forgive you. He'll wash you. Same sin. Now listen to Jesus. Listen to what he's saying. I've loved you. Do you know how you can enjoy that love with a good conscience? pay attention to my commandments. See what he's saying? Pay attention to my commandments. This is not a discussion on works-based salvation. It's not what this is. This is a help for believers to know how to go forward and to understand and live in light of the kind, confidence, and joy that he intends for us. There is in the life of sanctification nothing more fulfilling than to stop serving your sin and to love the Lord. There really is. There's nothing more fulfilling to find a joy in all that the Lord wants you to do. That's our struggle. Isn't it beautiful? I'm writing this so that you would have joy. I want you to know my intention is to have joy. Charles Spurgeon once said, obedience rendered without delight is rendering only half obedience. Jesus is calling us to find joy as he did in walking in the Lord's commands. Heidelberg says this. If anyone misses this, this is exactly what the Heidelberg says. What is the rising to life of the new self? Listen to this. Wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a love and delight to live according to the will of God by doing every kind of good work. You see that? That's the new life. That's rising to life to find wholehearted joy and happiness in what the Lord has given us to be about in this life. Well, what does that look like? Well, he emphasizes. You want to get to the heart of the matter? This commandment is that you love one another as I've loved you. Here's how you can have a good conscience. I've loved you. You are loved. Therefore, as followers of me, exemplify the same love. Greater love has no one than this than the one laid down his life for his friends. I gave myself for you, and I want you to have a good conscience going forward in my love, and I want you to receive that love and enjoy that love and have joy in that. and here's how you can have real joy in that. You can go and love. Tell me, anyone who's serving sin and serving themselves and doing what they want to do if they're happy people. Fruit of obedience is meant to be exhilarating. Let me prove this. Let me prove this. The works of the flesh are evident. Sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you live in those things, you're not going to heaven. Is anyone happy in it? Answer is no. It's never fulfilling to serve sin. It just keeps taking your life. It drains the life right out of you. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Have you seen people who practice that? What kind of people are they? Full of joy. You want to be around them. Those are the people that make the most difference. But the question is, how is Jesus motivating them to take his commandment seriously? That's what I want to explore for a minute. Look at verse 15. Verse 15 is fabulous. In John 15, verse 15, he says, No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends. For all that I've heard from my Father, I've made known to you. Understand, this is one of the most glorious passages in the Gospel of John. I want you to know something, says Jesus. Our relationship is that of one of a friend. This isn't out of the blue. You know there's a huge history to this. I remember when Abraham was justified. When he was justified and declared righteous, the first thing that was said of him that James picks up, and he was called the friend of God. Christ looks at his disciples. I want you to know you're my friends. And here's how that's going to be proven in your life. Here's the demonstration of that in your life. There's going to be real fruit from that friendship. I'm no longer calling you servants. I'm no longer calling you, I think slave is probably the word we should retain. Slave doesn't know what his master is doing. In other words, when someone's a slave, he commands him this way, and he commands him that way, and what is that relationship like? Does the slave ever have the right to ask a question, really? No. It's not a relationship of friends. And if you look at it in this way, servitude or slavery. Let me give you an example. I look over my first two jobs that I ever had going out into the world. My first job at 15 was washing cars at a car lot. And I don't even know what, they paid me way below minimum wage at that time. The guy was terrible. He was awful. If I didn't wash those cars just right, he'd come out and he would blast me. You know how many times I want to take the hose and just go like that right to them? College, I worked for a beverage distributing company, Coors. And I would deliver beer to Humboldt County. I hated that job. Because that boss, every other word was a cuss word. When you dropped one bottle, you'd be in that office. finger would be out, he would yell at you, right up in your face. I couldn't help it. They scared me to death. I actually had hatred in my heart for those guys. Think about this. Think about this. Do you think that inspired anything in me to want to do well in that work? I've told you before that my grandmother was a German immigrant. she would say that her father, she would tell me, my father never said that he loved me. That was a sign of weakness. You couldn't bring your children into submission if you treated them too kindly. He treated her roughly. Lo and behold, guess what happened to her? She rebelled. She went out and married a non-believer. And in God's mercy, the Lord saved my grandfather. What a hard life she lived for 20 years married to that man. What won her? It was a grasp and understanding of the Heavenly Father's love that won her. She would tell me about it. Do you hear Jesus here? I love you. You're my friend. So guess what? I want you to live in light of the joy that my work has won for you. You know how you can do that? You can go out and take my commandments seriously. That's a tiredly different perspective. That's an entirely different motivation. I think it warns us that Christianity is not just about outward conformity unless we produce some kind of awful servitude where the church is happy just if the rules are kept while we've got a bunch of bitter people. That's not what Jesus is after. Again, obedience half rendered without joy. It's half obedience without joy. There were two prodigal sons. Who was the one that found joy? It was the one who was amazed that he would be let back into the father's house and loved after he had treated him so terribly. But then there was that other son who never left the house. And all he knew his father was a rough man. That's how he viewed him. It was a relationship of servitude. And that man was one bitter man, wasn't he? He related to the father only legally. Because he never moved outside of outward conformity, there was no genuine love for the father. Isn't it something? He did not love because he didn't have a right relationship with his father. To the believer, justified, washed, you know, the word is no longer doulos. The word is no longer slave. The word is no longer servant. The word is friend. Abraham, you're my friend, and I want you to know, because, listen, everything I heard from my father, I made known to you. Do you know the context of that? god came to abraham should i tell him what we're doing world's going to be judged sodom's going to be judged and god openly talked with him as a friend i always think this is one of the most amazing testimonies of god's love to us that he tells us what he's doing and that's why worship and that's why the word is so important that's why he set this up that that that take the world today take the world today what does it know of what's happening nothing that's why that's why they're panicked that's why they're in fear don't fall into it the majority of the world does not understand at all the darkness they are in it doesn't understand for sure justification by faith alone it doesn't understand the gospel it doesn't know the the the right hand from their left and much cattle using the words of jonah they don't think about the judgment to come they don't think about sin? None of that. How much has God told you? Because you're friends. He told you everything you need to know. What do you lack in knowing? We're friends, says Jesus. I've made this openly known to you, everything you need to know. Did you notice what Jesus said to assure their confused hearts? They were confused about Judas. He explained it. They were confused about his going away. He knows they all will stumble. And what it all meant? They are really troubled and now he's instructing them, giving them a way forward, telling them how to go forward in love. And he doesn't browbeat them. He doesn't yell at them. He motivates them to this. You're my friends and I love you. Therefore, here's how you can enjoy that. You can have a good conscience. A good conscience before me. How sad it is. When God speaks like this to us, as he's doing, and still in the church you wonder would people would people be more motivated if he yelled no but still in the church some see no priority to come and listen to what the friend is telling tragic you are my friends if you do what I command but I need you to understand I'm not commanding you as those under the law but I'm commanding you those as friends keep my commandments as those who are loved and that will have a great effect on your life. That will revitalize life. It will help you. There's assurances. By your fruits, you'll know them, Jesus said. That's what Jesus said. We'll be known by our fruits. Leads us to the final brief point. But I don't want you to worry. I know that you don't have the strength to do that yourself. So, please understand that without me, you can do nothing. Verse 16, you did not choose me. Listen, to everyone who doesn't like election and fights against that, please listen to verse 16. I don't want to hear any more arguing about it. You did not choose me. I chose you. And I appointed you. And what did I appoint you to do? I appointed you to go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. Best news. The assurance here is powerful. None of you ever chose me in the first place. I want you to know that. You were chosen by me to bear fruit. You will bear fruit. I promise you, you will bear fruit as my children. Every branch, like Judas, is taken away. There are those who don't bear fruit. They are taken away. But I want you to know that anything you have is by sovereign grace. Everything is by the gracious hand that I've given this to you. grace makes your doing a reality because under grace, the if is dependent on me. See, Jesus is calling them to receive life from the vine and to fulfill the will of God for them. And he's saying, in me you have an endless store of vitality. How many of us struggle with vitality in the Christian life? How many of us struggle with strength in the Christian life? Do you rest on him? Do you talk to him in prayer? He's the source of your life. His life flows into you. And today, he's going to give you the supper, which we've always believed is by the power of the Spirit, his life, his crucified body and shed blood, giving life to us. He doesn't want them going in the path of Judas, obviously. Walking in love is a preventative measure when you think less of yourself and learn to love one another. Verse 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Doesn't that inspire a response? Doesn't that inspire a response? Doesn't that make you want to forgive your worst enemy? Doesn't that make you want to come to church whenever it's called, knowing he's treating you like this? Only the fruitless person says no thanks, and it doesn't even touch, and they will be carried away in judgment. Not for the justified believer. The whole motivation here to love is given in the language of competency and intimacy with Christ. So read it over. Three assurances were given to you today. I've loved you. You are my friends. And I've chosen you. And that fruit will remain because of it. That's the beauty of the Christian gospel. So these things I command you. Now don't you hear it fresh? To love one another. If he would go to Golgotha with that kind of love for me, then I'm going to remain in that love. And I'm going to learn more and more seriously to take the call to love as he has loved me. Because that's a way of abiding in that love. Isn't that what communion's all about right now? Life from the vine. That we, as one body, might be strengthened in faith and then to go out and love as we were called to do, as he taught us. Listen to the last words today. If you don't get anything else, listen to the last words. You are my friends. Live as one. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for such tender words spoken through your son. Let us hear it. How good you've been to us. How kind. That we can actually live a life full of joy. Change our wicked hearts for any who don't yet, have not bore any fruit or responded to the gospel. Be merciful to them. Give them a new birth and regeneration. That was said all the way back in John 3 of what is necessary for life to be implanted in the heart by your spirit. And thank you for giving us confidence today before you. One of the most wonderful passages to hear as we come to the table. Thank you for calling us friends. May we now live as friends. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.