Jesus' final recommendations: love and the Holy Spirit
A sermon by Pastor Renathe YAO, ICC TV Montreal.
Introduction
When someone reaches the end of their journey, we take the time to listen to what they have to say. Their last words carry a message. Jesus, too, left specific words with his disciples before he left.
In his gospel, John devotes the first twelve chapters to Jesus' public ministry: the miracles, the encounters with Nathanael, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the calling of the disciples. Starting at chapter 13, he shifts register. Jesus withdraws with his own. He moves into a heart to heart. He passes on his instructions for what comes next.
And as you reread John 13, 14, 15, and 16, two words keep coming back over and over: love and the Holy Spirit. These are the two non negotiable dimensions of discipleship. Without them, you do not carry Jesus' burden. Without them, you do not make disciples.
Outline of the article
- Love, the starting point of discipleship
- Love drives you into intimacy
- Love drives you into mission: "Feed my sheep"
- The Holy Spirit, comforter and anointing
- "You will receive power": the promise of Acts 1
1. Love, the starting point of discipleship
In John 14, Jesus says it plainly: "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."
In other words: if you do not love him, you will not keep his commandments. You wonder why the Word does not stay in you? Why you read, you hear, but nothing changes? Look at your love for him.
This command is not new. When God brought his people out of Egypt, he gave them this word before any other: "You shall love the Lord your God." And he insisted: write it on your forehead, write it on your doorposts, teach it to your children, remember it morning and evening. He knew that if you did not love him, you would not keep the rest.
James says it another way: whoever hears the word but does not do it is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, walks away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. No transformation. Why? Because love is missing.
2. Love drives you into intimacy
When you do not love someone, you do not seek to be close to them. The question "why am I not in the secret place?" has a simple answer: because love is not there.
Paul picks up the same image in Ephesians 5: "A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." Earthly marriage is a picture of the marriage between Christ and his church. But a marriage without love always ends in betrayal.
That is what God shows Hosea. He asks him to marry Gomer, a prostitute. She has children, then goes back to chasing her lovers, the ones who give her grain, flour, and gifts. God tells Hosea, "Take her back." And he adds, "That is how my people treat me."
You come to God like you go to a supplier: give me this, give me that, give me more. He gives. And you leave again. Meanwhile, he is in the secret place. He is waiting for you. Where are you? You are busy. Busy chasing money. Busy looking for those who feed your soul somewhere else. Busy.
And yet, in Hosea 2:16, God opens his heart: "You will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' ... And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy." Human marriage ends at death. Marriage with Christ is forever.
It is in his presence, and only there, that you are transfigured from glory to glory into his likeness. Without intimacy, no transformation. And for you to take the time to go into the secret place, you first need to love him.
3. Love drives you into mission: "Feed my sheep"
John 21. Jesus is dead, risen, and has appeared to the disciples who had gone back to fishing. He shares a meal with them. Then he turns to Peter. Three times, he asks him the same question: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"
Three times, because Peter had denied him three times. Jesus comes to restore him. And with every answer from Peter, Jesus follows up: "Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep."
The link is clear: to carry Jesus' burden, you must love him. To feed the sheep, you must love him. Without love, you do not feed the sheep. Rising up to evangelize requires that same love.
Look honestly: how many times have you taken the initiative to go out and evangelize? How many times have you gone up to someone to talk to them about Jesus, without anyone asking you to? When a church organizes an outreach and 26 people out of a thousand show up, the question is not first a logistics question. It is a question of love.
God has poured out his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). It is already there. You need to ask for it to be activated. Because love creates compassion. Compassion makes you say, "No, people cannot go to hell."
On the natural level, God placed in a woman's body all her egg cells from birth, millions of them. Everything is already there to bring forth life. The natural is a reflection of the supernatural. The church was formed to bring forth life. Love is already deposited within it. It only waits to be activated.
And when love truly operates, obedience and submission stop being principles to apply. They become who you are. No one needs to teach you to evangelize anymore. You are no longer in "please, take some tracts" mode. You are so filled with Jesus that you are no longer afraid.
4. The Holy Spirit, comforter and anointing
This is the second dimension Jesus communicates to his disciples in John 13-16. He tells them about the comforter who is coming.
"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7). Jesus, during his earthly ministry, was with his disciples in one place at a time. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, comes to dwell in each one.
Jesus gives him a specific name: paraclete, the one called alongside. He teaches, he guides into all truth, he reminds us of the Word, he shows the way. He is also anointing: the power that clothes you for action.
Both of these dimensions must operate in you. The paraclete directs you, the anointing enables you. Without the first, you walk blind. Without the second, you try things in your own strength.
Walking by the Spirit is not just saying, "I walk by the Spirit." It is hearing the Spirit tell you what to do. If you do not hear him, go back into the secret place. Just as a wife recognizes her husband's whisper even in the middle of noise, you learn to discern his voice because you are intimate with him. And his discernment is always grounded in his Word: the more you know it, the more you distinguish his voice from all the other voices.
5. "You will receive power": the promise of Acts 1
In Acts chapter 1, Jesus shares a final meal with his disciples. He tells them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the gift the Father had promised: "John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
The disciples, for their part, move on to another question: "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus redirects them: "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:7-8).
There is the takeaway. No speculation about the timing. No calculations about what we will eat in heaven. The work here on earth is to receive the Holy Spirit and his power, and to be a witness.
Peter understood this. He was married, he had children, he had a job. When Jesus told him to wait in the upper room, he did not know it would last ten days. But he stayed. What makes you stay is love. What makes you go out with power is the Holy Spirit.
Key takeaways
- Discipleship rests on two pillars: love for Jesus and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Both, not one or the other.
- Love comes before obedience. You do not keep his commandments because you are disciplined, but because you love him.
- No intimacy without love, and no transformation without intimacy. It is in the secret place that you are changed into his image.
- "Feed my sheep" assumes "Do you love me?" You do not care for souls out of obligation. You do it out of an overflow of love.
- The Holy Spirit works in two dimensions: paraclete (he guides, teaches, comforts) and anointing (he clothes you with power for action). Seek both.
Personal application
- When was the last time you spent an extended time alone in the secret place with the Lord? What is really keeping you from it?
- If you look at how you have practiced the Word these past few months: does it stay in you, does it turn into action? What does that tell you about your love for Christ?
- How many times this year have you taken the initiative to talk about Jesus to someone who does not know him? What does that number reveal to you?
- Do you recognize the Holy Spirit's voice in your daily life? How do you know it is him speaking and not just your own thoughts?
- Is there, in your life, a "lover" taking the place that should belong to God: a job, a relationship, entertainment, a worry? Are you ready to come back to him today?
Verses cited
- John 14:15-21 · "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me."
- John 16:7 · "It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you."
- John 21:15-17 · "Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep."
- Acts 1:4-8 · "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses."
- Ephesians 5:31-32 · "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."
- Hosea 2:16-19 · "You will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.'"
- Deuteronomy 6:4-9 · "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."
- Romans 5:5 · "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
- James 1:22-25 · "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only."
- Ephesians 5:18 · "Do not get drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit."
FAQ
Do you have to "feel" love for God, or is love proven some other way?
Jesus gives a very concrete criterion in John 14:15: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Love is seen in the way his Word stays in you and translates into your choices. Feelings can vary. Faithfulness to the Word is the most reliable measure.
What is the difference between the Holy Spirit as paraclete and as anointing?
The paraclete (John 14:26; 16:13) teaches, comforts, guides into truth, reminds us of the Word. The anointing (Acts 1:8) is the power that clothes you for action, witness, and service. These are two facets of the same Spirit. You need to seek both.
How do I know if I am really intimate with God?
Intimacy is cultivated in the secret place (Matthew 6:6). It shows itself through three signs: you discern his voice more easily, your life changes as a result of contact with him, and you begin to carry his burden for others, his compassion becomes yours.
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