‘If you love me, you will obey what I command.’ (John 14.15)

St Mary Magdalene  Cowden 25^th May 2014

Acts 17.22-31

Psalm 66.7-18

John 14.15-21

‘If you love me, you will obey what I command.’  (John 14.15)

This almost sounds like the sort of thing parents say to their children.

However, that isn't a bad place to start.

For we are the adoptive children of God, our Heavenly Father.

We are not orphans.

So, this leaves us with two questions, two very important questions. Probably two of the most important questions you will ever consider in your life.

‘If you love me’ is the first question.

The implication here is that whether we love God or not is a matter of choice.

There are those who would say that God accepts everyone and in the fullness of time everyone will be brought into His Kingdom.

I would want to argue that if heaven is a reality then hell has to be a possibility. In saying that I do not want you to have an image of heaven and hell portrayed in some of the more lurid medieval pictures.

I do not want to say much more than the presence of God being what we call heaven, and the absence of God being hell.

Love of God then becomes our very own free will choice.

We can choose to love God or we can choose not to love God.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this but of course it is worth considering just what we mean when we say ‘we love God.’

I love a good quality glass of brandy, I love running, and I love a whole host of things that bring pleasure and enjoyment into my life.

However I would say the same thing but mean something different when I say I love my wife, albeit she does bring pleasure and enjoyment into my life.

There is something far deeper and richer in this love and in English only having the one word can leave us puzzling over just what we mean when we say we love God.

Certainly love of God brings pleasure and enjoyment in life, but I hope it goes well beyond that.

Love of God is expressed in Scripture under terms of a covenant.

The analogy of marriage is helpful here, bringing to mind of course the language of ‘Song of Solomon’ and the Book of Revelation with the Church as the bride and Jesus the bridegroom.

For in a marriage covenant a binding agreement is freely entered into. One person gives themselves totally to the other despite the circumstances that may befall along the way.

I entered into such a covenant marriage with Jesus on the 1^st January 1975. On that day I invited Jesus to be the Lord of my life and resolved that year to become a Christian – a Christ One.

St Augustine wrote, ‘if Jesus is not Lord of all he is not Lord at all.’

So, let me ask some more questions…

Do you love God, and is Jesus Lord of your life?

Does your whole life revolve around Jesus?

Is God your first thought in the morning and the last prayer at night?

What part will God play in your life this coming week?

Do you know the reality of the Holy Spirit in your life?

Do you know the life giving energy that flows from being filled with the very Spirit of God so that you can say, ‘it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me?

If you love me – well do you?

And if you love me, you will keep my commandants.

I want to briefly mention two commandments that Jesus gives us.

Both are deeply, deeply challenging and we can really only hope to begin to fulfill them if we do love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul and with all of our mind – i.e. every fibre of our being. Furthermore we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

‘Love one another as I have loved you’ is the first command I want us to think about.

Winchester Diocese has just elected to bring the Rule of St Benedict into the heart of their life, to have this Rule inform everything they do.

One of those Rules is to greet and treat everybody as if they were Christ.

A few weeks ago I was on a Conference for Anglo Catholic Charismatic’s, ‘On Fire Mission.’

 

When discussing the veneration of the Host during the Eucharist I put the point that if we so venerate the sacred mysteries of Christ’s body and blood in the elements of the bread and wine, if those elements are then consumed by someone, then surely we ought to continue in the same veneration for those elements that have now become en-fleshed.

‘Greater love has no one than this that they lay down their life for their friends.’

So, loving others as Christ loves us is a tough and very demanding commandment.  I know that I fail at this on a regular basis and need to come back to God and say sorry and ask for forgiveness.  But I continue to seek, continue to strive, continue to try and be more loving and caring and seeing the Christ in the other. 

I really don’t think God asks anything more of us than a full hearts intention and a willingness to grow more and more like Christ day by day.

As we read in Ephesians 4.13

Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ

What a goal to aim for, what a Saviour to lead us on, what a powerful indwelling Holy Spirit we have available to us just for the asking and the receiving and opening ourselves up.

The second commandment I want us to consider is ‘go and make disciples of all the nations.’

What has sometimes been called the Great Commission, which in many ways has become the Great Omission!

In the passage from Acts we heard of the story of Paul at the Areopagus seeking to do just that.

This story warrants a whole study on its own and provides brilliant training material for evangelism.

This is Paul in the market place. This is Paul looking and seeing and observing the prevailing culture. This is Paul drawing attention to the things he has seen, the altar to an Unknown God, and later in addressing the crowd quoting from one of their own poets.

Now I can’t imagine many of you will find yourself in anything like the position that Paul finds himself in here.

However each and every one of us should be prepared to speak out about our faith.

1 Peter 3.15

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…

How are you doing on that one?

I was leading a training session with some young people the other week. As part of the exercise I invited them to tell the group how they became a Christian?

I would be delighted if each and every one of you came to me after this Service and told me your story, of how you became a Christian and what difference that has made in your life. How you are seeking to love others as Christ has loved you, how you know of a certainty the indwelling Holy Sprit in your life.

However it might just be that you have never given yourself fully to the Lordship of Christ in this way. Never run into the arms of the Heavenly Father, felt his kiss upon your cheek and heard the words, you are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased. You may never have experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit. 

Well rejoice, because today you have that choice laid before you.

In a moment I am going to invite you to close your eyes whilst I say a prayer. As I say this prayer, if you want to give your life to the Lord for the first time, then please echo the words in your heart.

You may also wish to echo the words if you want to rededicate your life to live under Christ just and gentle rule, under His supreme Lordship.

Living Lord Jesus I am sorry that I have been living to please myself rather than you. I acknowledge your supreme Lordship and invite you to become the first in my life, above all others and all other things. I acknowledge your sacrificial love in dying that I might be called a friend of God, a death that takes away all my wrongdoing. I ask for the Holy Spirit to come into my life, to fill my whole being, so that from today I can say, it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.

This is my hearts desire, this is my solemn oath, and this is my sacred vow, from this moment onward I will seek to serve only you, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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