John 15:9-17 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. I'm back to the Gospel of John with me in the 15th chapter. It is good to see Spencer Hall sitting back here.

[0:16] Good to see the rest of you two. Don't get me wrong. We'll leave anybody out. John 15. Last week we covered several verses of John 15.

[0:34] This of course begins with Christ saying that He is the true vine. We need to abide in Him. He's speaking to the 11 disciples that are left because Judas has already left the scene.

[0:50] But speaking to them and by extension speaking to the rest of us. Even 2,000 years later, folks, He's still the true vine. And we still need to abide in Him.

[1:03] So don't seclude this to just those 11. Because it applies just as much to us as New Testament Christians and believers in Christ as it did to the 11.

[1:17] Christ is the true vine. He will always be the true vine. Those that abide in Him will have life. We will have eternal life. Praise God for that.

[1:29] Last week we ended with verse 8. He says, Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.

[1:41] And again, this is where we ended last week. And I said then that He says, Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. And it's not in really anything else that we do as for the words of Jesus Christ here.

[1:57] It is bearing fruit for the kingdom of God and bearing fruit for Christ, bearing fruit for good, bearing fruit in the way that He has called us to do.

[2:08] This is what glorifies God. And so many people have added things to that. They say, Well, you've got to bear fruit, but you've got to read this certain Bible.

[2:19] Or you've got to bear fruit, but you've also got to be part of this denomination. Or you've got to worship this way. Or sing this many songs. Or not sing any more than this amount of songs.

[2:31] There's so many people that have added so many silly things to glorifying God. When the Bible plainly tells us that bearing fruit is what glorifies God.

[2:42] And of course, this must be good fruit. And we learned that not only from cross teachings throughout the Gospel of John, but elsewhere in the Scripture as well.

[2:53] So herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. So shall ye be my followers, in other words. And that's where we ended last week. So we'll pick up in verse 9, John chapter 15.

[3:08] As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. This is quite a statement that Christ makes here. He says, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.

[3:24] And I must make in comparison with the love that he has for the disciples to the same love that the Father has for him. And this is something that needs to be noticed and needs to be grasped to hold of.

[3:40] I know as a Father myself, two sons, I know what a parent's love feels like. But he didn't say to these disciples that, you know, as you might love your sons, or as a mother might love her child or her baby or whatever the case is.

[4:01] He didn't make that comparison. The comparison that he's making here, the statement that he's making here, is as the Father, as God, as the one whom these disciples would be familiar with from the Old Testament Scriptures.

[4:16] He says, As he has loved me, so have I loved you. And folks, there is no greater love than that. There is no greater love than the love of God. We know from 1 John that God is love.

[4:31] There is no greater love than that which comes from the Father. So he says, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And this had to be such an encouragement to these disciples.

[4:47] Remember the setting that we're in here. Remember the context that we're in that began at the end of chapter 13 of the Gospel of John. Where the last supper, it's the last supper and Christ is telling them, or has told them, I should say, I must go away.

[5:05] I'm going away and where I'm going, you cannot follow. And the confusion and the doubt and the worry that this would have laid upon these disciples. And now here he is saying, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love.

[5:22] One encouragement that had to have given to these disciples who again would have been full of confusion and full of doubt in this. And you and I would have been too, given everything that's led up to this.

[5:37] And you all have heard me say it time and time again going through the Gospel of John, especially here in the last couple of chapters. How Christ, just three years previous to this, have been telling the disciples, Follow me, follow me, follow me.

[5:53] He told Matthew, follow me. He told Andrew, follow me. He told Peter to follow him. He told all these disciples to follow him and they had been doing so, not perfectly, no more than you and I have followed Christ perfectly.

[6:06] But they had been following. And now he's saying, I'm going away and where I'm going, you cannot come. So this had to have been so encouraging to them that the love of the Father, that the Father had showed Christ, the Father had shown the Son, He loved them with the same love.

[6:24] And folks, that applies to you and that applies to me, the same love that God had for Jesus Christ, or has for Jesus Christ. I should put that present tense. He has for me. Hallelujah.

[6:37] The Bible says, I'm the Lord and I change not. If Christ says that he loves the disciples as the Father loved him, then he loves me as a disciple, as the Father loved him.

[6:52] And that gives me great encouragement, great encouragement. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

[7:05] Now in verse 9, we read, as the Father loved me, so if I loved you, continue ye in my love. And here he says, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.

[7:16] He tells them, he commands them at the end of verse 9, continue ye in my love. And folks, that is a command that Jesus Christ has given here.

[7:27] And he says, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. So, Christ here is tying obedience to love much the same way they did previously in the past couple of chapters, actually.

[7:41] And we've been over that, where he's brought up this very thing and he's tied obedience to love, to love toward him. And folks, if we love God, we will strive to keep his commandments.

[7:55] No, we won't keep him perfectly. No, we aren't going to walk perfectly. No, we're not going to talk perfectly. We will not live perfectly in this life. Praise God, there's a life coming that we will.

[8:08] There's a life coming that we will. But here, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. And that is the very reason why we can look out at the world, not as their ultimate judge, but we can look out at the world that professing Christians that bear no fruit, which has already been brought up once this morning.

[8:30] And they're not keeping the commandments of God, nor do they show any regard for the commandments of God. And that's the very reason we can say we don't think that they are saved.

[8:43] That is ultimately between them and God. We are not their judge. God is their only judge. But Christ plainly says here, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.

[8:58] And those that are on the flip side of that coin, if you're not keeping the commandments of God, you won't abide in the love of Christ, nor will you have any regard for said love.

[9:10] Even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love, so He tells them what here, and He gives them the perfect example, all in the same verse here.

[9:23] The what is if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. The perfect example we have of Christ doing the will of the Father and obeying the Father's will.

[9:40] We know that it was God's will that Jesus Christ come here and bleed and die and be the propitiation for you and I, be the payment for our sin debt that we could not pay.

[9:53] We know that that was the Father's will, that that happened. And we also know that Christ fulfilled that will perfectly. Perfectly He fulfilled that will. He came here, never sinned, never had a bad thought about Him, never a bad word came out of His mouth, no bad deeds to His name.

[10:16] He lived a perfect life. He fulfilled the Father's will perfectly. So He tells them, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. And He's just told them in verse 9 that as the Father loved Him, so does He love the disciples.

[10:34] He tells them how that is to be accomplished in verse 10, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. Praise God.

[10:46] Verse 11, these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. These things have I spoken unto you, what things?

[10:58] Well really from the beginning of this chapter and even more so from the beginning of this farewell discourse that Jesus Christ is giving them here again, and I can't reiterate this enough.

[11:11] Again, Jesus Christ has retold the disciples here, I'm going away. I'm going away and He's told them this several times over three years that He must go away.

[11:24] He's told them He must be handed over in the hands of the Gentiles and of sinful men. He must be crucified but He's given the encouragement, but I will raise again come the third day.

[11:36] But He tells them here, these things have I spoken unto you not to worry you, not to cause doubt, but that my joy might remain in you.

[11:48] Now there's two things I want you to concentrate on here, I want us to concentrate on here. It says these things that I told you that my joy, Christ says my joy, not their joy, folks, our joy is superficial.

[12:04] Our joy is fleeting, our joy is temporal, we might think that we get joy out of things in this life and we might actually get some genuine joy out of little things.

[12:18] Some people get joy out of going outside on their lunch break and looking up at the sun. Me personally, I don't see how anybody can get joy out of that. I try to avoid the sun. The sun and bald heads don't get along too well.

[12:31] Some people get joy out of that. Some people get joy out of so many different things. They walk along the riverbank, go into a boardwalk, feeding the ducks.

[12:43] I get temporal joy out of things like that. But folks, it is very temporal. It is very temporal, it's not long. I don't have to leave a park or I don't have to leave something that I'm enjoying as far as the physical realm goes for very long for that joy to just go away.

[13:06] It flies somewhere. But Christ says, these things have I spoken to you. These things have I encouraged you with. All these things that I'm telling you here, and remember, he's only speaking to the 11, he couldn't have said this had Judas been present.

[13:21] He could have, but it would have applied to Judas as well. But he's speaking to the 11. He's speaking to the remaining 11. These things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain in you.

[13:35] I'm not talking about the joy of Christ, but he says it might remain in you. Folks, nothing can remain if it's not there to begin with. He says that my joy might remain in you.

[13:49] This is the joy of Jesus Christ. This is the joy of knowing that I'm saved. This is the joy of knowing that God has redeemed me regardless of how unworthy of it I was.

[14:01] I'm saved my soul, and Christ says, I'm telling you these things. I'm encouraging you with these things. I'm helping you with these words that I've spoken here, that my joy, the joy of Jesus, might remain in you.

[14:21] Folks, what are we to joy in as per the Scripture? Paul phrases it wonderfully. I'm listening to the Lord all the way, and again I say rejoice.

[14:32] Our joys in Jesus Christ, our true joys in Jesus, like I said, we can find joy in all kinds of things. I could go out and guess what was so expensive for a four-hour drive, and you wouldn't believe how much I would enjoy that.

[14:47] But it wouldn't be long after I pulled back in the driveway. That joy would be gone. That joy would be gone. It used to be one of the most relaxing things and some of the cheapest stuff you could do to wind down.

[15:00] Or for entertainment for that matter, not anymore. But folks, we can get joy out of so many things. But the joy of Christ remains. Why is that?

[15:11] Because Christ remains. Because Christ is eternal, His joy is eternal. And He tells the disciples these things that His joy might remain in them.

[15:22] And again, nothing can remain anywhere if it wasn't there to begin with. These things about spoken to you that my joy might remain in you.

[15:33] And that your joy, that your joy might be full. So He's transitioned from talking about His joy and it remaining within the disciples that our joy might be full.

[15:46] Folks, what was the joy of Jesus Christ? The Bible tells us very plainly, very plainly it tells us in Hebrews chapter 12, it says, for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross.

[15:59] He endured the cross. He fulfilled the Father's will. He said over in John chapter 4, when the disciples come to Him and they said that, or they were talking, they had gone into town while He was with the woman at the well to bring back food.

[16:15] And He said, I have a meat master. He says, I have a meat that you know not of. My meat is to do the Father's will. That was His joy. That was His food.

[16:26] That was His sustenance. And folks, that should be every born-again child of God's food and sustenance and joy, to do the will of the Father. You want the joy of Christ to remain in you, do the things that Christ did, do the will of the Father.

[16:43] It's that simple, but do we do it? Do we do it? Not perfectly we don't. We need to strive to do these things. Verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

[16:56] These are stern words, considering the fact that He says that He's loved them as God, the Father, has loved Him. Then He says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

[17:10] We should love one another with the love of God, just as Jesus Christ loved them, loved these disciples with the love of God. Now once again, something we need to take into consideration here.

[17:22] Listen, there's a general love that God has for the entire world. Period. There's a general love that He does. You can read it in John 3.16. Everyone of us know that verse.

[17:34] You can read about it all throughout the Scriptures. There's a general love that God has for His creations, but we must remember whom He was addressing here. He was addressing the disciples.

[17:47] He says, love one another. The neighbors aren't present here. Now I ain't saying we should hate our neighbor. Absolutely not. Love your neighbor and love God. The two greatest commandments.

[17:58] And we should love our neighbors. There's general love and then there's other loves. We've talked about that before, how there's three different loves really that are brought up within the Scripture, within the Greek text, the original Greek text of the Scripture.

[18:16] But this is like me coming home to my wife and I give her flowers and I kiss her on the cheek and I tell her that I love her. But what would she do the next day if I showed up on the neighbor's porch and give her flowers and kissed her on the cheek and told her that I love her, even if I do love her neighbor and I do.

[18:39] I'm not going to do for her what I do for my wife. If I do one, I'm stupid and I'll be in trouble. Missy says, amen.

[18:50] Yes, sir. And ladies, y'all are in the same boat though. You might love your neighbors. You know, you might come home and give your husband a kiss on the cheek and tell him how much you love him.

[19:04] You might massage his feet or something. I don't know. But I promise you, if you wind up at the neighbor's house and massage your neighbor's feet, because you love him, there's going to be some questions. We don't do for some what we do for others.

[19:17] It's a different type of love and it's a different expression. I've said love. But the love of God that Christ hears commanding his disciples to show one another, we should show that love.

[19:33] I should show that love to you and you should show that love to me. But not only within the walls of this church, folks, this goes for the entire universal and global bride of Christ.

[19:46] We are to love them as Christ loved us and they are to love me as Christ loves me. There's no way around this. It's plain black and white here in the Scriptures.

[19:59] This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. And he just said to these disciples, I've loved you with the same love that God loves me with.

[20:11] And if he makes this commandment, folks, we need to do it. And I do. I love every one of you here this morning. Anyway, let's move on. Verse 13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

[20:26] I've quoted this verse many times over the years. This is a wonderful verse. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And we actually brought this up when we went through the book of 1 John several months ago or a couple of years ago. I remember when we went through 1 John.

[20:46] But very similar things are brought up in that. When it says that when John is exhorting us, that brethren, you should love one another.

[20:57] And that we should be willing basically to give up our lives. But I also said then, and I'll say it here, I know that Jesus was preparing the disciples for his crucifixion when he said this.

[21:09] I understand that. And I get that. But folks, extending to you and I, except in very specific situations, it ain't going to do you a whole lot of good if I give my life for you.

[21:21] It won't do any good spiritually. If I give my life for you or you give your life for me. Now, if we love one another as Christ has loved us, we should be willing to do that.

[21:33] What was brought up in the verse previous to this. And Christ says, greater love hath no man than this. And folks, this was a big statement back in this time.

[21:44] That was the greatest expression of love. And you might say, and I might say, that's the greatest expression of love right now. The folks, there are so many other people out there in the world. And some Christians, I believe genuine Christians, that think that there is greater love than that.

[22:00] That think there is greater expressions of love than that. Well, you know, my husband, as long as he brings me home, you know, I don't know, 16 carat diamond necklace or something along those lines, that's a great expression of love.

[22:15] Even more so if he threw himself in front of a bear to protect me. And people have that mindset. But again, the very words of Christ still ring true today, regardless of what the world thinks about it, and regardless of what some Christians might think about it, there is still no greater love than that a man would lay down his life for his friends.

[22:40] That is showing the love of Christ. That is showing the love of God. And I understand people can say, and I've heard people say it, you know, there's been lost people that have given their lives for their comrades in battle or something along those lines.

[22:56] You know, people in the army and Marines have jumped on landmines, or not landmines, but grenades, and so they got to save their fellow troops, and no one knows that they were saved or not. Were they showing the love of God?

[23:08] They were showing love to their fellow human beings. Whether it was the love of God or not, whether or not they were saved, that's between them and God. I can't make that determination.

[23:19] But the greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. And again, and I said it when I was teaching first John, and I will say it now, this laying down of your life doesn't necessarily mean I understand what Christ was getting at, but folks, we also need to think of it as laying aside things in your life.

[23:40] Well, I wanted to do this this afternoon, but so-and-so called, and they're needing comfort, they're needing support, they're needing encouragement. I wanted to go fishing, or I wanted to go to the ballgame, or I wanted to do this or do that, but I'm going to lay down my life.

[23:56] I'm going to lay down what I wanted to do, and I'm going to go have prayer with them. I'm going to go sit with them. I'm going to go be an encouragement to them. That is just as much laying down our lives on behalf of a brother or sister in Christ as physically doing so.

[24:16] In fact, once again, and this time, what Christ was saying here, now remember, we need to bring it up real quick, and we'll bring it up again here in the next few verses if we get that far, in the next couple of verses.

[24:29] Christ was a rabbi to these people. He was, yes, he was Savior, and yes, he's Lord, and they referred to him as such, but he was their rabbi, he was their teacher, he was their master, and he was teaching them the things of God for a rabbi to lay down his life for his students, that was unthinkable during this time.

[25:00] The rabbi was very well respected by the students. Some of them may have laid down their lives for him before the rabbi to do so. That, that was unthinkable.

[25:11] That was unthinkable. You can get other students if one of them lays down their life, but there will only be one rabbi so-and-so, as the mindset that these folks would have had.

[25:22] Verse 14, you're my friends, if you do whatsoever, I command you. Well, just again, this is plain black and white, you're my friends, if you do whatsoever, I command you.

[25:33] But my goodness, what a statement. What a thought, what a wonderful thought that I can be the friend of Christ, and that I am the friend of Christ. But he tells us how, if you do whatsoever, I command you.

[25:50] Who does what Jesus Christ commands them, those that have been born again, those that have been reconciled, those that have been redeemed, those that have repented of their sin, and they have believed the marvelous gospel of Jesus Christ, those are the ones that follow His commandments, and those are the ones that are His friends.

[26:13] The Bible says in the book of Proverbs, if a man has friends, he must show himself friendly. If we have friends, we must show ourselves friendly.

[26:24] Christ here has really and truly, he has condescended. Again, take the picture of a rabbi. Rabbi's were not friends with their students, they were their teachers, and that's all that they were.

[26:37] They were teachers to their students. He says, if you do my commandments, you are my friends. You are my friends. Christ has, he has condescended to the world to begin with, to come here and to live and to dwell amongst sinners, but he condescends that much more here, referring to sinful man as his friend, and telling us, instructing us how we can be his friend.

[27:07] And there are people out there that say, we should not refer to ourselves as friends of God or friends of Jesus Christ. I say nay to that. All day long I say nay to that because Christ here tells us if we obey his commandments, we are his friends.

[27:24] The same crowd will generally say, we shouldn't refer to Jesus Christ as our elder brother as well, even though Jesus Christ refers to us as brethren from his own words.

[27:35] Now, I understand he's Lord, and I understand he's Savior, and I understand that Christ is God, and I get that. And we should be careful with some of the words that we use to describe Christ, but there's context for all that as well.

[27:52] You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Then he goes into this next verse, and this is pretty great here in verse 15. Henceforth, that's important because he just said, if you obey my commandments, you are my friends.

[28:07] He says, henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends. For all things I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.

[28:21] He tells them that they can, tells them by extension us how we can be his friend. And then in verse 15 he says, henceforth, henceforth from this time I call you not servants.

[28:34] Folks, these disciples had been the servants of Jesus Christ. We are servants of Jesus Christ, but again there's a condescension that takes place here of being really graduated from servant level to friend level.

[28:53] He says, henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. He gives them examples here for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends.

[29:06] The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, and the greatest, well I shouldn't say the greatest, one of the greatest examples I can give you in all of scripture, this very thing is all the way over in the book of Genesis.

[29:20] And it goes all the way to the book of James. But over in Genesis in chapter 18, God is preparing to destroy Sodom.

[29:31] God knows what he is going to do. Lot has no clue that Sodom is going to be destroyed. Why was that? Because Lot was so far from fellowship with God.

[29:43] Lot was so called up in the world. Lot was a righteous man, mind you. Mind you, Lot was God's, and the Bible verifies that. But he was so far from fellowship with God, he had no clue what was going on.

[29:57] But in Genesis 18, God says, shall I have that which I do from Abraham? Why? Because Abraham obeyed God, not perfectly.

[30:09] No more than you or I obey God perfectly. But Abraham, after two proddings from God, finally got up out of his homeland. And he finally started looking for the city that God had promised, for the country that God had promised.

[30:25] He had finally believed God, that God was going to make a great nation out of him. And Abraham believed God, and all the way over in James chapter 2, he says Abraham believed God, and that was kind of to him for righteousness.

[30:38] But what did his belief in God, what did that produce? It produced obedience. Obedience. Crossed here again in verse 3, you're my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.

[30:54] If you obey me, you are my friends. Then in verse 15, henceforth I call you not servants. For the servant, though it's not, what does Lord do with? Lot had no clue what God was about to do to Sodom.

[31:08] But God led Abraham, though. And then Abraham goes and pleas on behalf of people that were in Sodom. Mainly for Lot, I'm sure, his nephew.

[31:19] But he pleas for people that were in Sodom. But either way, God made Abraham aware of what was going on. Because Abraham was God's friend.

[31:30] Abraham believed God. And that belief produced obedience. Folks, if we truly believe God, and we truly believe this Bible, and we truly believe we are redeemed, and we truly believe that there is a heaven, and we truly believe that there is a hell, we will obey the commandments of God.

[31:56] The problem is, people don't truly believe that. They might make a profession. I told a young Catholic girl just this past week, and I was at work. So I might end up in HR, but that's okay.

[32:08] She said, the important thing is we all believe in God. And I said, you know, James addresses that, and he says, I believe that there is one God that will do us well.

[32:19] The devils also believe in trouble. All kinds of people believe in God. All kinds of people believe in God. But the God that they believe in, that many of them believe in, is not the God of this Bible.

[32:34] He is a God they have made in their own mind. Verse 16, you have chosen me, but I have chosen you, my goodness. What encouragement. You have chosen me, or you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you again.

[32:48] We need to consider this in the context of a rabbi and his students. Students chose what rabbi they followed. The rabbi didn't go around saying, you should follow me.

[33:01] You should listen to me, some of them may have. But the students ultimately chose what rabbi they followed. They said, I follow a rabbi so and so. I follow this one, I follow that one, and they teach this and they teach that.

[33:13] Christ says, you haven't chosen me, but I have chosen you. And folks, he chose you, and he chose me if you're sitting here, and you were born again. It's because you were chosen of God.

[33:25] It's because God sought you out. I don't care how deep or how shallow you think that that choosing goes. We're not going to get into that this morning.

[33:36] Either way, though, the Bible makes it very plain that we are chosen, that we are a royal priest too. We're a peculiar people, but it makes it plain that we are chosen of God.

[33:50] But I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. Two important things here. He has chosen us just like he chose these 11, and he has ordained us just as he ordained the 11 to one, go, to go, not to stay put.

[34:13] It's hard to win souls from you living room couch. It's hard to tell people the gospel from your lazy boy. He says, go and bring forth fruit.

[34:28] We go out there and we bring forth fruit. Where is this fruit coming from? Ultimately, it's coming from God because we're abiding in the true vine.

[34:39] Are we not at the very beginning of this chapter? Christ says, I'm the true vine. And he teaches that we're to abide in him. But he says he is chosen and he is ordained and that we have not chosen, but he has done these things for two reasons, that we go and we bring forth fruit.

[35:01] We go out into the world. We go to the lost. We go out to the highways and the hedges and all these other things that we read about in the scripture. And why do we go so that we can bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain?

[35:19] Folks, any fruit that we produce for the kingdom of God, regardless of how minute it might be in our eyes, regardless of how little it might be. I said last week, Jesus teaches it himself in the Gospels and some of his parabolic accounts that some might bring forth 30 or 40, some might bring forth 50 or 60, some might bring forth 100 fold.

[35:43] But either way, they're bringing forth fruit. Either way, they're bringing forth fruit, but not only they're bringing forth fruit, but it is fruit that will remain. Why? Because it has been brought forth for Christ and for the kingdom of God and for the good of God and for the glory of God.

[36:00] And if it is brought forth for those reasons, it will remain. It will remain if it's brought forth for our own backpats, if it's brought forth for our own recognition, it won't remain.

[36:14] It'll be fleeting like we were talking about a little while ago, that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you.

[36:28] And again, we'll spend a whole lot of time here, Jesus Christ is talking about how He has chosen the disciples, they have not chosen Him, and He chose them and ordained them that they could go and they could bring forth fruit, that their fruit should remain, and then He ties that into prayer.

[36:45] He says that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you. And once again, as I've already said a couple of times, going through the last couple of chapters, this is not a blank check.

[36:57] It does not mean whatever we ask of God, that God's going to give it to us. But as I explained the last time, the closer we are to Jesus Christ, and the more in line we are with the heart of Christ, and with the will of Christ, the more our prayers are going to line up with the heart and the will of Jesus Christ.

[37:16] One more verse, these things I command you, that you love one another. All these things, beginning at verse one really, but if you want to go back further than that, beginning at the entire discourse that we've been reading about for the past couple of chapters.

[37:32] He says, these things I command you, that you love one another. I've told you these things, comma, that you love one another.

[37:43] I've told you these things to encourage you to love one another. I've told you these things to instruct you how to love one another. Christ isn't telling these just to be wasting his breath.

[37:55] He hasn't been saying these things to waste breath. He hasn't been saying these things just to have something to do while the hours are ticking by and he's going to be hanging on a cross. He's telling them for instruction.

[38:07] He says, these things I command you, these things I command you, that you love one another. So if you ever question how Christians are supposed to love one another, go back and read John 15.

[38:21] Read some of John 14. Read some of the other teachings of Jesus Christ. Flip over to the Old Testament and read the teachings of God as far as love goes. Because I promise you, they're no different.

[38:34] It's no different from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And we will wrap it up right there. We've covered this morning how from verse 19 through verse 17, how Christians are to treat one another.

[38:53] And beginning next week, through the end of that chapter, it's Christians addressing one another this morning. Through the rest of it, it's Christians in the rest of the world.

[39:05] So I'm tickled that we ended where we did this morning. Anybody got any questions or comments?