Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;”
The context of John 14 helps us get the fullness of what Jesus said in verse 16. It is something like this: “When I go back to My Father, I will ask Him to give you another Helper, who is the same as Me, so that He may always be with you to help you love Me, obey My commandments, love one another in My name, and thus bear fruit for the glory of God.” Can you imagine what a comfort and hope this statement produced in the disciples? Jesus answered the questions that probably all of them were asking in their minds. “How is this going to happen? How are we going to love like He loves? How are we going to believe in Jesus when our hearts are troubled? How are the works of Jesus going to be done in us? How are we going to live in the abiding place Jesus is going to prepare for us? The answer: You will not be left alone to do life in your own strength and knowledge. If Jesus asks the Father to give us a Helper just like Him, then He’s asking in the name of the Father. The Father will do it because it is the Father’s will that the Son bring us to Him. The Son is obeying the commandment of the Father to love us like the Father loves Him. He loves the Father and is keeping His Father’s commandment because the Father’s life is in Him doing the work so that He may be glorified in the Son. Today, let’s take great encouragement that Jesus has and is interceding for us according to the Father’s will. We can expect help today from the Father to love with Jesus.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
Yesterday I explained what I thought “asking in Jesus’ name” meant. I said, “To ask in His name is to ask according to what Jesus has commanded, namely, to believe in Him and to love as He has loved us so that God may be glorified in His Son. In other words, we ask for the life and love of Jesus to be manifested in our lives. That’s our new purpose for living. That’s why He saved us! Today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 14:15 confirms this idea of praying in Jesus’ name. Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” We pray for God to be glorified in His Son as His Son lives in us. We have just learned in John 14 that those who believe in Jesus have a new place, prepared by Jesus, to live or abide—in the life of Jesus. And miracles of miracles, believers have the very life of Christ dwelling in them. Because we love Him, the motive clearly stated by Jesus in this verse, we will keep Jesus’ commandments because Jesus is our life source. The love we have both for God and Jesus comes from Jesus. The faith we have in God and in Jesus, comes from His life of dwelling in us. We live in His name when we believe and love as He commanded us. All we need to do is ask for His faith and love to be manifested in our lives in this world for the glory of God. That is for sure God’s will. It will be done by Jesus. Do we love Jesus? Our prayers and our works testify to our love for Christ. Let us live to love with Jesus today.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

I’m so excited that you have joined me for today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 14:13-14.
Yesterday we were encouraged by Jesus’ call to a radical, this-changes-everything new purpose: to live to love with and in Jesus as He lives in them. A call to do the works of Christ for the glory of God. This verse confirms everything that Jesus has said from John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you” to this verse. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Let’s work backwards in this verse. First, all of what Jesus has said is about the glory of God, the Father revealed in the Son. All of the works of the Father, the Son, and believers of which Jesus has spoken is on that wonderful trajectory. Second, Jesus is the one doing the living, the work, in this world through those who believe in Him and are united with Him. Third, prayer—namely, asking in Jesus’ name—unleashes Jesus to work for the glory of the Father. This is a reminder to us that God didn’t call us to live for Jesus. We need Him to live for us. The Father can only be glorified in the Son if the Son does the work. Is asking in Jesus’ name the same as ending our prayers with, “in Jesus’ name I pray” or “I ask this is Jesus’ name”? I emphatically say, “No, it is not.” Ending our prayers with “Jesus’ name” is not what compels or moves God or Jesus to work. To ask in His name is to ask according to what Jesus has commanded, namely, to believe in Him and to love as He has loved us so that God may be glorified in His Son. In other words, we ask for the life and love of Jesus to be manifested in our lives. That’s our new purpose for living. That’s why He saved us! Today, Father, I ask that You glorify Your Son as I abide in Him and He lives to love through me. Do it also in all who pray this prayer with me today. Amen.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.
These words are stunning, important, and encouraging. Do you remember that I mentioned when we looked at the first few verses of this chapter, that the place Jesus had in mind to prepare for us was not a mansion in heaven when we die? This verse verifies that assertion. Notice that Jesus told them that because He was going to the Father (to prepare a dwelling place for them) they would do the greater works in this world than He has done. That’s why I suggest that Jesus was explaining to them how they were going to love one another even as He had loved them rather than encouraging them that they were going to have a home in heaven when they died. Don’t get me wrong. He did prepare a place for us in heaven when we die, but His going to the Father was primarily about salvation in this world, now, not salvation after we die. He who believes in Jesus as the way, truth, and the life of God has a new purpose in life—to do the works of Jesus like Jesus did the works of the Father. This is pivot point number two! Pivot point number one: Jesus and the Father are one. Pivot point number two: Believers and Jesus are one. Now when we testify about ourselves that Jesus is alive and living in us, we not only have our testimony about ourselves, but we also have the works of Jesus to testify that He lives in us and we in Him. Jesus was calling His disciples to a new purpose in life. They were to no longer live to make a name for themselves (by the way they had just been arguing about who was the greatest only minutes before) or to discover their best life or for self-actualization or even to live for Him. This is a call to a radical, this-changes-everything new purpose: to live to love with and in Jesus as He lives in them. A call to do the works of Christ for the glory of God.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
We should pivot and seek after Jesus because of two witnesses. First, the witness of Jesus’ own testimony. Second, the witness of the works He did while on the earth. If the self-testimony of Christ are denied, the source and authority of the works He did cannot be denied. Again, Jesus identified the pivot point, the seismic faith-building reality: Jesus is in God and God is in Him. They are one in essence. True faith abides or lives in this great and awesome reality. John said it this way in his first letter: 1 John 4:2-3 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” This is so foundational that John also described this union of God and man as he testified to those who are true believers. This truth is what this verse opens up for us. John wrote in 1 John 4:15-16 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” Let’s connect a couple of dots. Where is the place that Jesus went to prepare for us to live? That place is in Himself, who is in God! It’s the place He said in verse 3 that made it possible for Him to come to us so we could be where He is. He is our abiding place, our dwelling place so that we can love as He loves.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com