It’s What Christians Do

Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 21, 2017

John 14:15

It’s What Christians Do

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

A man is running across a sky scrapper. He’s being chased by men in suits. There’s a helicopter. Quickly the man is trapped on the roof. Suddenly he gets a call … from his mother.

Yes, you’ve been tricked into another insurance ad. The narrator explains that moms always call at the worst times. It’s what they do. This, of course, is the pitch: switch to this company, because they'll save you money. It’s what they do.

Of course, companies can’t always save you money. And moms never call at bad times. But this idea that there are just certain things that certain creatures do because they are that way has the ring of truth. And this is nowhere more true than for Christians.

Today Jesus assures you that you love Him and this love for Him shows in how you live. You live by obeying His commands. He almost makes it sound as though He won’t save you unless you obey Him! He said,

If you love Me, you will obey what I command.

JOHN 14:15 NIV 1984

But a bit later in verse 21, He said:

Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me.

JOHN 14:21 NIV 1984

You come to know Jesus and His Father through His Word that kills the old you and bring you to new life. This is life is from His obedience and death, not ours.

⁴We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

ROMANS 6:4-8 NIV

People who are alive do things. And people who live with Jesus obey Him and do His things. What are His things?

Think back to your confession earlier in the service where we all confessed that we are sinners:

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do— this I keep on doing.

ROMANS 7:15, 18-19 NIV

Our new life in Christ is dogged by our old flesh that keeps trying to drag us back into the worship of all the different known and unknown gods of this world. But we obey none of these idols; we obey Jesus. It’s what you do. And what He wants I want. And what He doesn’t want I don’t want. But how do we know which is which?

He told us. He had Moses them down: His commandments. Do you remember them?

Say the commandments.

We obey His commandments by not doing certain things and by doing other things. For example, you will not stay mad at people who you think deserve it, but instead you will assume that their words and actions are done with good intentions. It’s what Christ does. It’s what you do.

And when we don’t, Jesus does. And He gives you His obedience to His Father as His gift to you. He was crucified for your disobedience and was raised to life to tell you that your disobedience is forgiven. And we agree with what He says. He says, “You are alive and you obey Me.” And we agree with what He says. We obey. It’s what you do for Jesus’ sake, who died and lives for you.

²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

JAMES 1:22-25 NIV

We do what Jesus says. It’s what we do. When Jesus calls on us to obey Him, He is simply describing His people and how they live in Him.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Amen.