The Greatest Love

Last Sunday, we shared from John 15 where Jesus was speaking about His identity as the true vine, the source of new life. Jesus was actually comparing Himself as the true vine to the false vine - the nation of Israel who produced bad fruit. Those who derived their lives from the old and saw themselves in light of that old vine. The fruit that came out of the old vine was the feeling of inadequacy, condemnation, failure, hopelessness, or else religious pride.

In a sense the old vine can refer to our old life or the world that we live in. As an apple tree bears apples and a peach tree produces peaches, our fruit will reveal the source of our life. Jesus was saying that if you want your life to produce a lot of fruit you need to be hooked up to Me. Apart from Me you can do nothing.

The purpose for abiding is so that the life of Jesus will flow through us by the Spirit of God, and that that life would blossom into a vibrant relationship with the Lord and with others. Abiding or remaining in the vine determines if we live productive or unproductive spiritual lives. One author said: “It is no cheerless, barren existence that Jesus plans for his people.” God wants us to be fruitful and to produce a lot of fruit and He wants to be joyful and to share this joy in all of our relationships.

As we will observe in this next passage in John 15, the outcome of abiding and remaining in the right kind of love will produce fruit and give us joy. We will experience spiritual growth internally, we will have healthy emotions and motivations, it will have a positive affect our relationships. So as we come to today’s passage John is speaking about God’s great love - the greatest love. Please open with me to John 15:9-17.

9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.

It is clear in this passage that Jesus wants us to:

Experience His Love

Experience His Joy

Produce Abundant Fruit

Jesus wants us to:

1. Experience His Love

Everyone longs to love and to be loved. But only when we know the Lord can we experience the greatest love because it originates with Him. Only the Lord’s love is perfect, unlimited, and eternal and only through His Word and His Spirit can we begin to comprehend the immensity and the intensity of this love.

That is why Paul prayed for the church then and in the age to come that from God’s glorious, unlimited resources, He would empower His people, empower us with inner strength through His Spirit, and that Christ would make His home in our hearts. He prayed that our roots would grow down deep into God’s love and that we would have the strength to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of His love, fully experiencing that amazing, endless love and that we would come to know practically, personally the love of Christ which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience. He prayed that we would have the richest experience of God’s presence in our lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself (Eph 3:16-19).

There are a lot of things we will do for love, a lot of miles we will travel, a lot of hardships, misunderstandings and heartbreaks we will endure because of love. We all have our particular love languages - the ways we sense we are loved and the ways we express love. Whether love is expressed through buying someone flowers, speaking kind or encouraging words, serving someone, or giving of our time, it is important that we know what makes people feel loved.