“Jesus the Teacher: Obedience and Love”
John 7:15-18; 14:21-26
March 30, 2014
Rev. David Williams
Scripture: John 7:15-18; 14:21-28
Sermon:
Introduction
	You know, sometimes you read a scripture passage and you think, “Oh, yeah, I see what this is saying.”  Then, when you really start to look into it, when you really study it and listen to what others who have studied it have to say about it, you realize that it says so much more than you first thought!  That was my experience with these two passages in John.  When I was mapping out my series on Jesus the Teacher a couple months ago, I wanted to look at something in John about Jesus as a teacher because John’s gospel is so very different from Matthew, Mark and Luke.  I picked these two passages back then in recognition of Jesus talking about where his teaching comes from the Father. In both passages he says something to the effect of, “This teaching is not my own. It comes from the Father who sent me.”
	Then, over the past two weeks, as I have delved into these verses more deeply, I have found a wealth of important teaching in them that goes well beyond what I initially saw.  We are going to take a look at four important aspects of these verses today.  From these verses we will begin to find answers to four crucial questions for Christians: [all 1 click]
1) Most simply, “How do I show Jesus that I love him?”
2) What does it mean to be a Christian?
3) What is the primary role of the Holy Spirit?
4) Why is the Bible important?
We only have so much time today, and I promise I will try harder to keep within our time limits, so we 
will only be able to begin to answer these questions. Hopefully, though, you will be challenged in your thinking, encouraged in you walk with Christ and inspired to spend more time in your Bibles.
Context
	So let’s begin with our two texts today.  The first, John 7, takes place during the Feast of Tabernacles.  Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem halfway through the week long feast and begun to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, in particular because he did not have a formal education like every other Rabbi and teacher of the Law.  “Where did he get such learning?” they ask.
	Today, few Christians know their OT very well. Certainly we don’t know it like Jews in Jesus’ day knew it!  So there are a few things we should point out from their context to help us understand their surprise and see some of the significance of Jesus’ response.  First, Jesus teaching and behaviour was startling because it seemed to go against the law of Moses. In particular, in this case, he debates people about the fact that he healed a man on the Sabbath- what appeared to some to be a violation of Mosaic Law.
	Second, though, is an important link back to Moses himself found in Deuteronomy 18:18-19.  When Moses received the Law from God on Mount Sinai, God told him,  “I will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses] from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.  I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.”  
	Why is this significant? Because Jesus is this prophet who will speak like Moses with God’s words in his mouth. In Jesus’ day, Rabbis always referred to other Rabbis’ teaching, “Thus says So-and-so.”  Prophets says, “Thus says the LORD.”  Jesus, however, always taught, “You have heard it said... but I say...” Jesus’ answer here, that his words are not his own, but the words of the One Who Sent Him, is a reference back to this prophecy in Deuteronomy!  He is claiming to be the one who speaks for God as directly as Moses did. [Frederick Dale Bruner, John, p. 473]
	Furthermore, in case there is any confusion, the Apostle John, in his Gospel, uses the phrase, “The One Who Sent Me” as a reference to God the Father.  This would have been clear to Jesus’ listeners as well.  They understood that Jesus was saying it was God who sent him and it was God’s teaching that he was giving. [D A Carson, John, p. 312]
	Now, in John 14 we have a slightly different context. Here Jesus is just speaking with his disciples.  The verses we read are taken from the middle of a longer passage in which Jesus is telling his disciples about the Holy Spirit he will send.  In verse, 26 Jesus refers to the Spirit as the “Counsellor.”  Back in verse 15-16 Jesus first says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.  And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever.” The word “Counsellor” in Greek is the word “paraclete.”  It can be translated counsellor, advocate, champion or more famously, “comforter.”  The idea of the Paraclete is that He comes alongside.  You can think of the paraclete as a “champion.”[Godet in Bruner, p. 856] This champion, this counsellor, this comforter, is a second one. Why? Because Jesus is the first one! In 1 John 2:1-2 Jesus is referred to as our Advocate with the Father. That’s why Jesus says the Father will send another counsellor, champion, advocate, etc.  The Counsellor is “another supporter, ever within their reach, ever ready to come to their aid, at the first call, in their conflict with the world.” [Godet in Bruner, p. 856] So when Jesus speaks of sending the Holy Spirit, he is speaking of sending one who will fill the same role Jesus filled while he was on Earth, but we’ll get into that more in a minute.
	We have one last reference to the OT that we need to keep in mind as we examine our text. In a number of places in the OT, God promises that if his people will make a sanctuary for him, he will come to dwell among them.  This was the promise behind the tabernacle and the temple. [Bruner, p. 864] For instance, consider Exodus 25:8, “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.”  It was the great Jewish hope and belief that given an appropriate sanctuary, God would dwell with his people.  We can imagine, then, that the disciples’ eyes would have lit up when Jesus spoke to them about the Father and Jesus coming to dwell with them!  This was not just a spontaneous image Jesus used, but it was at the heart of Jewish faith and longing- for God to dwell with his people!
Observations
	So, with these important background pieces coming from a Jewish context, let’s take a closer look at our two passages.  First consider our verses from John 7.  As we mentioned, Jesus’ words being from the One Who Sent Him is a significant statement. He is not being coy, he is not trying to hide where the teaching came from by being obscure. Rather, in his context, he is boldly declaring that his teaching comes directly from God!  Jesus received his teaching from the best of all masters- his heavenly Father, God Almighty! “He has been in the best of all rabbinical schools.” [Raymond Brown in Bruner, p. 479]
	Jesus then goes on to give a test for discerning whether or not he is telling the truth.  Those who want to do God’s will are the ones who will see if Jesus’ teaching comes from God or not.  The only test, the authentic test of Jesus’ teaching is to try to live it. [Bruner, p. 474] The truth of Jesus’ teaching becomes clear as we live it out. “A seeker must be fundamentally committed to doing God’s will. This is a faith commitment.” [Carson, p. 312] One cannot determine the truth of Jesus’ teaching from the outside looking in, one must dive in and test it out experientially from within.
	Now, consider Jesus’ conversation with his disciples in chapter 14.  The first thing I want you to see is that Jesus gives a formula several times, twice in the positive and once in the negative.  Look at verses 21, 23 and 24.  “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, his is the one who loves me.... If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.... He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”  To “have” Jesus’ commands means to “grasp them with our mind.” [Carson, p. 503] It doesn’t just mean to have them written down somewhere, or to have them in our Bible. It means to really hold on to them in our minds.  Three times we see the formula involving Jesus’ teaching, obedience and love.  Those who have Jesus’ commands or teaching and obey them love him, those who love him obey his commands. If you don’t love Jesus you will not obey his teaching.  In logic they call this an “if and only if” statement.  If and only if you love Jesus you will obey him.  This is how we answer our first question, “How do I show Jesus I love him?”  Obedience is how we demonstrate our love for Jesus.
	The next thing to observe is how we are to have Jesus’ commands, how we are to grasp them with our minds. If obedience to his commands is how we love Jesus, then how to we know what to obey?  This is where the Holy Spirit comes in, the champion, comforter, advocate, counsellor.  Jesus says the Counsellor “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”  One really cool thing I learned this week is that the word “and” in that sentence is not just adding to the list of things the Spirit will do. It is an explanatory “and” in Greek, meaning it explains how the Spirit is going to do it.  That is, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things by reminding you of everything I have said to you. [Bruner, p. 867]   Why is that significant?  Because it shows us that what the Spirit teaches is exactly what Jesus taught!  The Spirit teaches by pointing back to what Jesus said.
	Now let’s connect some of the dots here.  If we show Jesus we love him by obeying his commands, then we need to know his commands.  But we learn what his commands are by the Spirit teaching them to us by reminding us of what Jesus said. [Bruner, p. 845] So, the Spirit’s work in us is to remind us of what Jesus said so that we know what he commanded so that we can be obedient to those commands and show Jesus we love him. The Spirit’s work is to remind us of what Jesus said so we can love Jesus through obedience.  The Spirit working in us is necessary for us to love Christ.
	 One NT scholar pointed out that these verses, written down by John in his Gospel, are a fulfilment of Jesus’ promise to the disciples made before the crucifixion.  Jesus told them the Spirit would remind them of everything he said. Then, years later, after the crucifixion and resurrection, the Apostle John sat down to write his Gospel and the Spirit inspired his writing, reminding him of everything Jesus had said while he was still with John on Earth!  The fact that these verses are written down for us is an example of the Spirit doing what Jesus said He would do- the Spirit reminded John of Jesus’ teaching! [Bruner, p. 866] I think that’s pretty cool!  It helps to answer two of our questions- What is the role of the Holy Spirit? And Why is the Bible important?  The Holy Spirit’s role is, in part, to remind us of what Jesus said so that we can obey him and show him our love.  The Spirit does that, in part, by inspiring the writers of the New Testament, reminding them of what Jesus said, so we can learn it too.  That makes the Bible a very important tool in our quest to love Jesus through obedience!
	These verse also give us further insight into the role of the Spirit.  One of the early church fathers, John Chrysostom, pointed out something else really cool about these verses.  Jesus said that the Spirit would teach the disciples everything they needed to know.  The Spirit did come and transformed these men from terrified disciples, hiding in the upper room, to bold proclaimers of the Gospel ready to face the sword, fire, imprisonment and even death.  The same Spirit also filled these uneducated disciples, many of them fishermen, into power speakers.  The Jewish leaders in Acts asked the same questions about the disciples as they had asked about Jesus- where did these uneducated men get such teaching? [Chrysostom in Bruner, p. 855]
	Another observation about the Spirit is that the Spirit is sent by the Father, in Jesus’ name.  Do you remember the importance of a name in the ancient world? It represented a person’s whole character. This means that if the Spirit is sent in Jesus’ name it is sent in Jesus’ character.  That means that the Spirit’s mission is the same as Jesus’ mission.  The Spirit is sent in order to complete Jesus’ mission on earth. [Bruner, p. 867]  Jesus came in God’s name “because he was the revelation of God to men; the Spirit is sent in Jesus’ name because he unfolds the meaning of Jesus for men.” [Raymond Brown in Bruner, p. 867]
	The Spirit brings to completion the work Jesus began, which brought to completion the promises of the Old Testament. In the OT, Jesus as the Messiah was the great promise to be looked forward to. Jesus was the fulfilment of the whole OT.  In the same way, the Holy Spirit is the great promise of the NT, sent to fulfill it.  “The same [God] that gave the Son to be our Saviour will give his Spirit to be our comforter, pursuant to the same [saving] design.” [Matthew Henry, Matthew to John, p. 1114]
Interpretation
	So what does all of this mean?  We’ve covered some pretty deep theological concepts.  We’ve started to answer some of our questions about how we show Jesus we love him, the role of the Holy Spirit and even the importance of the Bible.  But what are we to make of all this? How do we process this?
	First, if you have questions about Jesus, we find out here how to test Jesus for truth.  The way to see if what Jesus said was true is to try it.  If you want to do God’s will, if you’re wondering if there even is a God who has a will to do, the way to see if Jesus puts you on the right track is to actually try out his teaching for a while.  The way to test the truth of Jesus is practical, not theoretical- live it and see how it works. [Bruner, p. 475] The important thing in this test is to take into account all of Jesus’ teaching, especially about our own sinfulness and need for a Saviour in order to actually live out God’s will.  We can’t love or keep God’s commands without Jesus first, but that’s for another sermon some other time.
	This is also the key to living as a Christian.  It helps answer the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?”  “Jesus reveals himself more and more to those who turn in faith and love and attempt to carry out his commands.” [Bruner, p. 862] Jesus is asking those who would follow him “to want to believe in him, for it is in wanting to believe in him that we receive his Spirit, and it is in believers in his love (i.e. recipients of his love) who are moved to pass this love along to others.”  Our desire to believe in Jesus is the grounds upon which Jesus sends his Spirit to enable us to follow his commands, in particular his command to love one another.
	Obedience is key to being a Christian. “Christ will not be an advocate for any but those that will be ruled by him” as their Lord.  Obedience to Christ by following the conduct of the Spirit is necessary if you want the comfort of the Spirit and the continued work of the Spirit in you. [Henry, in Bruner, p. 853] It is through keeping Jesus’ commands, which are taught to us by the Spirit, that disciples show their love practically to Jesus.  If we want the Spirit to work within us, we have to cooperate with Him. That is, we have to be obedient to what the Spirit teaches us about what Jesus commanded.
	The relationship between believers and Jesus begins with Jesus.  The ongoing relationship between believers and Jesus is characterized by obedience and love on our part and Jesus love in return, just as Jesus loves and obeys the Father who loves him in return! [Carson, p. 503] All of this is fuelled by the Spirit at work within us, bringing to completion the mission Jesus began.
	The work of the Spirit in teaching and reminding is also key to understanding the importance of the Bible.  The Spirit’s revelation is composed of the teachings of Jesus- bringing understanding not a new teaching of the Spirit or something already inside the believer.  The role of the Spirit in reminding believers of Jesus’ teaching means “to make contemporary,” not just to repeat Jesus’ words.  The Spirit brings understanding of the significance of Jesus’ teaching for the new situation in which the believer finds himself or herself. So there may be new application of what Jesus taught, but not new revelation or new content different from what Jesus taught.
	Let me tell you a story to illustrate why this is important.  In the 1500's during the Protestant Reformation, there were a number of radical groups that wanted to discard Scripture. [pics] They believed that the Holy Spirit would teach them what they needed to know to follow Christ and that the Bible was no longer relevant.  In one situation, a group of Anabaptists took control of the city of Munster in Germany. They kicked out the city officials, rebaptized everybody in the city and started to live out what they thought was the New Jerusalem.  Anybody who didn’t go along with them was kicked out of the city.  The city officials went to near by cities and gathered up an army to take back Munster. They laid siege to the city.  When one of the Anabaptist leaders left the city in a raid, he was killed. The remaining leader declared himself king of the city, instituted common ownership of all property, including wives! They began practising polygamy, the leader taking 16 women for himself!  All this because they thought this was what the Holy Spirit was telling them to do and they weren’t willing to check this leadings against what Jesus taught in Scripture!  
	Now, this may be an extreme example, but it serves to illustrate the vital importance of checking what we think is the Spirit’s leading to see if it conforms to what Jesus said in the Bible.  Maybe you’re not going to take over a city, but I’m sure you have many other decisions you pray about. You need to check your spiritual leading against the Bible.  And in order to do that, you need to know what’s in the Bible!  This is why the Bible is so important.  In it we have the commands of Jesus which we are to obey if we love him.  The Spirit’s work is not to teach us something new, but to teach us how to understand Jesus’ teachings in the Bible and how to apply them to our situation.
Now Apply It
	Now, let’s apply it.  We started out with four questions: How do I show Jesus I love him?  What does it mean to be a Christian?  What is the primary role of the Holy Spirit? And Why is the Bible important?
	First- We show Jesus we love him by obeying his commands.  Last week, Amy was having a bad day.  I know that one way Amy feels loved is acts of service- they show that you were thinking of her.  So, while I was out doing some banking, I got her some flowers.  When I gave them to her it told her I was thinking of her and trying to brighten her day. (Yes, I know that also falls under gift giving- work with me here.)  But I had to learn how to show Amy I love her in a way she preferred to receive love.  I had to learn her “love language.”
	What these passages teach us today is that Jesus’ love language is obedience.  He is telling us that if we want to show him we love him, the best way to do so is to obey his commands.  The primary, or simplest summary of Jesus’ commands is to love one another.  So if you want to show Jesus you love him, obey him by showing love to another person.
	This brings us to our second question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?”  If I were to ask a bunch of you to answer that questions, I suspect the answers would range among, “Believe in Jesus,” “Ask Jesus into your heart,” “Be born again,” “Say the sinner’s prayer,” and the like.  If your answer would be along those lines good, that’s a decent start.  BUT I want to challenge you to go deeper.  There are many people who said the sinners prayer but don’t live a life of obedience to Christ.  These people are in for a rude awakening when they meet Jesus!  It’s not enough to have said a prayer.  To be a Christian requires obedience.
	Similarly, just asking Jesus into your heart is not enough either.  That is just another form of the sinner’s prayer.  Did you know that “asking Jesus into your heart” is not actually found in Scripture? The closest thing is Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in which he prays that Christ will dwell in their hearts, but realize they were already Christians!  
	What does our second text today tell us about Christ dwelling in us?  It is those who love Christ and obey him that the Father will love and that Jesus and the Father will make their home with.  You can begin the journey by asking Jesus into your heart. That’s a fantastic start! But if you don’t continue in your walk with Christ by being obedient to him, Christ is not going to dwell in you.
	So how do we obey Christ?  That’s pretty hard to do. If it was easy, we wouldn’t need a saviour.  This is where the Spirit comes in.  The Spirit teaches us how to obey Christ by reminding us of what he taught.  The Spirit does this through a variety of ways, but the most important is through Scripture.
	Think of it this way. When you are faced with temptation, when you are tempted to do something wrong, the very fact that you know it’s wrong is a sign of the Spirit working in you to teach you right from wrong.  Furthermore, how often have you found that while struggling with the decision to do something wrong you remember a verse from the Bible?  Again, that is the Spirit teaching you and reminding you of what Jesus taught. He is working in you to obey Jesus out of love for Jesus.
	So how do we know when it is the Spirit speaking?  By comparing what is being said to the Bible.  That means in order to know what the Spirit is saying we need to know our Bible!!  We cannot choose to listen to the Spirit above the Bible. We cannot live as if the Spirit replaces the Bible.  We need to let the Spirit teach us through the Bible.  The Spirit brings understanding to the Bible and helps us apply the Bible to our own situation.
	This, then, shows the importance of the Bible. If we want to obey Jesus, we need to know what he taught. That is found in the Bible.  If we want to recognize the Holy Spirit and tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and our own thoughts or desires, we need to know the Bible.  In order to know the Bible, we have to read it and seek to understand it.  “There is never any excuse in the Christian faith for the shut mind. The Christian who feels that he has nothing more to learn is the Christian who has not even begun to understand what the doctrine of the Holy Spirit means.” [William Barclay, John, p. 170]
	When we shut our minds we go astray.  Early Quakers were way off the mark. They also thought that the light of Christ was in everybody automatically. This meant they actually fought against learning from the Bible and learning how to understand it.  In the 1600's, two Quaker women went to Oxford to protest the study of Theology at Oxford University.  In protest of the studying the Bible academically, they walked through town topless!  Why? Because they thought the Spirit spoke to people directly, not through Scripture and walking topless through town was what they thought the Spirit was telling them to do.  Certainly it was not something they checked against Scripture! [Beeke and Jones, A Puritan Theology, p. 429-430]
	Similarly, another early Quaker, James Naylor, rode into the city of Bristol on a donkey, trying to re-enact Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  His followers believed he was a new Messiah!  They thought he was the new Jesus! Why? Because they believed the Spirit was speaking to them directly and that what the Spirit said directly overrode what the Bible said.  Naylor was arrested, convicted and jailed.  His theology changed after that.
	Now, I doubt any of you are going to ride into Guelph on a donkey, claiming to be Jesus.  But I do know that we all struggle at times to know God’s will. Are you struggling with some potentially unethical behaviour you see at work and wondering what to do? Are you in conflict with a family member and not sure how to proceed?  Are you concerned about how to manage your finances?  Do you fight with your neighbours and are you wondering how to reconcile?
	We all struggle at times to discern what the Spirit is saying.  We all struggle with decisions and knowing what is right.  The biggest reason we struggle is because we don’t read out Bibles!  If you don’t know your Bible, you don’t know what Jesus taught. If you don’t know what Jesus taught you won’t recognize the Spirit’s teaching because the Spirit teaches what Jesus taught!
	So the next time you want to show Jesus you love him, try obedience. If you’re not sure what that looks like, crack open your Bible.  If you want God to dwell in you, if you want Jesus in your heart, study your Bible and ask the Spirit to help you understand it and live it.  If you want to grow as a Christian, look for ways to be obedient to Christ by reading what he taught in his Word.  If you love Jesus, obey him.  And he and the Father will love you and dwell with you.  Amen.