May 5, 2013 6th Sunday of Easter

John 14:23-29

23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
    25" All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
    28 "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.


 “To Love And Obey”

Saying goodbye is often difficult.  This is the setting or our text - Jesus saying goodbye.
The disciples don’t get it; so he tells them again.   They hear the words but still do not really understand, for it has not happened yet.  Only when it happens will they know.

So Jesus leaves them with a word they can hang on to - love.

Love is the most important word in the Bible and in our lives.
It is enough to say, “God is love.”
And to repeat over and over and over again, as the Psalmist does, that “his steadfast love endures forever.”

It is enough to know that I am loved.
Then I can make it through even the roughest of days!

We are to be amateurs about love.
That is, “those who do something because they love doing it.”
We are to obey Jesus words because we love doing it.
We love doing it because we have first been loved into doing it.
To obey out of love is to love obeying!