Text: John 14:15-21

Theme: “Keeping the Commandments of God”

Date: April 26, 2008; Confirmation Questioning

Place: Immanuel, Altamont, IL

            It is finished! When that last question was asked of Allison, you could almost hear the collective sigh that went up from 16 young men and women. Not only did they breathe a sigh of relief, but I think their parents did too! If you want to know the truth, all along I wasn’t worried about it. These 16 young men and women are really a good bunch of kids. I told them at the beginning of the year that they would make it. I didn’t doubt that any one of them would be able to pass the written test. Nor did I think that they would mess up tonight. I was certain that they could bring to mind the very things that they learned.

            The reason I was so confident wasn’t because of my ability as a teacher. It had nothing to do with that. I was resting in the promise that Jesus had given to each one of us. It was the promise made in our gospel reading for tonight. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17 ESV) The Lord promised each of these young men and women that He would send them the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. That happened on the day of their baptism and has continued each day of their lives. Through the Spirit that is in each one of them, I knew that they would be here tonight.

            To each one of you, I say that I am very proud of you. You have lived up to the expectation that I set before you. More than that, you have lived up to the very expectation that the Lord has placed upon you. The expectation of the Lord is much different from the one I had. I wanted you to do good on the test and on the questioning. I wanted you to learn and have a foundation for your life. The Lord’s expectation is much greater than that. He wants you to have a deep and lasting love for Him that is shown in how you live. Jesus says to you, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15 ESV) And again He says, “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 in him.” (John 14:21 ESV) Each one of you are to first love the Lord and then you are to live as though you love Him.

            That is exactly what the Lord says to all of us. “Love Me.” That is the message of tonight, as they answer their questions, proclaiming what they believe. They are saying, “I love the Lord. I love Him so much that I desire to be here tonight, sitting in front of my parents, grandparents, relatives, friends and members of the congregation. I want to show my love for Christ.” Oh, I know that you feel forced into tonight. But the fact is, you are making the profession of faith at this time that says that you do love the Lord.

It is the profession that each one of us is to make in our lives. We are called upon to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to love. That is truly how we keep the commandments of God. We keep them by loving one another. It isn’t easy. There are many things that make it difficult for us to love one another. The greatest thing that makes it difficult is a thing called “sin.” We are sinful men and women. We are born with sin. We do sin daily. We fail to love. We fail to care for one another. We look out for ourselves and throw each other away.

But Christ shows the depth of love He has for each of us. He shows how much He loves us by stretching out His arms, first upon the cross and then to each one of us. Those nail-scarred hands reach out to us and say, “I love you.” They enfold us. They forgive us. They help us. They show us the depth of what love truly is. Our confirmands have shown us that very Savior as they answer question after question. They professed Christ, true God and true Man. They proclaimed how He suffered and died for us, for our guilt because we failed to keep the commandments of God. They showed us that He willingly took our place, suffering and dying in our stead in order to give us love, forgiveness and life. All that is what Christ has done for us.

Now He says to each one of us that we are to keep His commandments. We are to follow Him with our whole heart. We are to offer to Him our hearts and our lives. We are to confess our sins, turn to Him in repentance and pray that He would change us to follow after Him.

And the only way that works is when the Holy Spirit is in us. I want you to notice that Jesus doesn’t say that the Spirit dwells “with” us. He tells us that the Spirit is “in” us. It important to know that very thing. The Holy Spirit must be in us, in our hearts and lives, for only then can we live as He would have us live. It is as the Spirit fills us, changes us, and guides us that we are able to do what Jesus says to us tonight. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15 ESV)

Confirmands, hold firm to the faith that you have professed tonight. In all that you do let the Holy Spirit be in your heart and life, guiding you and helping you to face the temptations that the devil, the world and your sinful nature throws at you. Love the Lord with you whole heart and show that love by keeping His commandments.

And each one of us that are here tonight need to listen to those words as well. It is easy to think it is all about these 16 young men and women. But it isn’t. It is about us, our faith, our life and our actions. Love the Lord with your whole heart. Follow Him with all that you are. I pray that the Holy Spirit would live in your heart and life. Then you will be able to love the Lord with all your heart.

Let the love of Christ fill your heart and life and guide you in all that you. Strengthened by the Spirit, filled with love for Christ Jesus, each one of us will strive to keep His commandments. May the Lord make it possible in our hearts and in our lives from this day forward.

Amen.