Chosen
May 17, 2009
9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
John 15:9-17
Last week, I told you that whenever I have trouble coming up with a good sermon topic, I ask Molly for advice and she always tells me to preach that “God loves you.” So, last Sunday, that’s just what I did. And those of you who were here know that we had three folks come forward to join the church during the time of invitation. After the service, Donna Hoover came up to me and said, “You need to take Molly’s advice more often.”
Well, Donna is probably right. Some of you in here are wondering why it’s taken me this long to figure it out. But the fact is that no matter what topic I choose to preach on, it always comes back to that same idea anyway, the idea that God loves us. I may choose to focus on different aspects of that idea, but in the end, it’s the same message. It’s hard to go wrong preaching that “God loves you” because it is really the only sermon you can preach. Everything else is just a variation on that one theme.
We see that when we look at our text for today. This passage from the Gospel of John is remarkably similar to the one that I preached on last Sunday, which makes sense, because John wrote both of them. Remember I told you last week that the disciple John was known as the “apostle of love.” And here in John, Chapter 15, we find another good example of how he earned that nickname.
The setting is the Upper Room. In the Gospel of John, Jesus gives a long extended speech during the Last Supper, which includes this passage from Chapter 15. And the speech is meant to encourage the disciples, because Jesus knows that the cross is coming. So, before he goes to his death, Jesus reminds his disciples one last time of how much he loves them.
It’s a powerful moment, and it is a beautiful expression of God’s love for us. But this morning, I want us to focus on one particular line out of Jesus’ speech because I think it still has some interesting implications for us today. In verse 16, Jesus tells the disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” You did not choose me, but I chose you. That’s what Jesus says. And I want us to take a few moments to think about why those particular words were important enough for Jesus to share at this last intimate gathering.
You did not choose me, but I chose you. When I read these verses again this week, those words kept jumping out at me, because they seem a little bit out of place. When we say goodbye to somebody, it’s common for us to exchange words of friendship and love. And that’s what Jesus does here. But then Jesus goes on to say, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” And I think that Jesus was very intentional about leaving us with this reminder because he knew we needed to hear it. Jesus knew that once he was gone, we would have a tendency to forget that truth.
You know how I know that? Because that’s exactly what has happened. Over the last 2,000 years or so, our memories have become clouded. And now, particularly in Baptist churches like ours, whenever we talk about being in relationship with Jesus, we talk about it as if it’s up to us. Have y’all noticed that? We use phrases like “ask Jesus into your heart” and “accept him as your personal Savior.” For years, we’ve heard preachers extend the invitation by saying, “It’s time for you to make a decision for the Lord.” We even have a hymn using that kind of language—I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. I hope you noticed that with all of these statements, the emphasis is on us. We are the ones doing the choosing. And we’ve convinced ourselves that when and if we become a Christian is entirely up to us.
But do you see how that concept essentially reverses what Jesus says in verse 16 of this passage? If we are the ones doing the choosing, then how does Jesus choose us? You say, “Well, preacher, what difference does it make who chooses? You’re just splitting hairs.” But I don’t think so. I think that in our relationship with God, it makes a big difference who does the choosing. Because if it’s us, that means that God is subordinate to our personal whims. It means that we have control. If we choose God and not vice versa, then we get to dictate the terms of the relationship.
But if we are the ones who are chosen, it means that God is the initiator. It means that God is the one who acts first, and whatever comes after that from us is just a response to that first movement. That’s important because it shifts the emphasis from our individual decision to the sovereignty of God.
I can remember when I was in 5th grade, hearing a preacher at a revival. And that Monday night in 1989, during the hymn of invitation, I walked down the aisle and I made a public confession of faith. Many of you in here probably have a similar story. And in our minds, it’s easy to believe that was the instant we were saved. That trip down the aisle was the moment we chose Jesus.
And maybe we did choose Jesus on a day like that many years ago. But what about a few years later? What about that one time in high school when we shoplifted? Or what about a few years after that, when we stopped coming to church altogether? Or what about when we lied on our taxes last year? You see, you and I make the mistake of thinking that just because we chose Jesus once, that’s what saves us. But we’re wrong.
What saves us is the fact that Jesus has chosen us. Because unlike us, Jesus didn’t just choose to love us once a long time ago and leave it at that. Jesus continues to choose us, every moment of every day. Before we walked down that aisle, while we were walking down that aisle, and after we walked down that aisle, Jesus was choosing us. And in this verse when Jesus tells us that we have been chosen, it’s isn’t a one-time event. It’s an ongoing reality.
It’s true that you and I may have chosen Jesus one day a long time ago. And since that point, we may have chosen Jesus on many occasions. But all of us in here have sinned. Which means that at some point in time, there was a moment when we didn’t choose Jesus.
And that’s what makes this verse so important. If it were up to us and our choice, there’d be lots of times when we weren’t in relationship with Jesus, because all of us have days or even weeks that go by when we barely acknowledge that we know him. But here’s the good news—Even when we don’t act like we know Jesus, he knows us. Even when we've forgotten that we accepted him into our hearts, he has accepted us into his. Even when we don’t choose him, either because we’re too lazy or we’re too busy or we’re too distracted, Jesus chooses us. Being chosen means that there is never a moment when we are outside of God’s love. No matter what we may do or say, God continues to initiate a relationship with us.
That is what it means to be chosen. It is an act of grace. It means that God’s love for us is a constant presence in our lives, even though there are times when we choose not to love him in return. Jesus knew that when he was gone, his disciples would begin to question what he had taught. He knew that we would deny him and abandon him over and over again. But because we are the chosen, our faith, or lack thereof, is not the key issue. Instead, we are reminded of a God who loves us so much that he continues to give of himself even when we refuse him.
I can remember standing on the ball field next to my middle school. You may be surprised to know this, but I have not always been the strapping physical specimen you see before you today. In fact, back in those days, I was a 98 pound weakling. And it never failed that when it came time for the captains to choose teams, I was always the last one to be called. Nobody wanted the nerd on their team. And even though it has been many years, I can still remember that feeling of standing there, desperately hoping that I would be chosen next.
Being chosen is a wonderful thing. And for all those people in our world, and there are many, who feel like they have been ignored and mistreated and forgotten, the idea that God has chosen us is very comforting. The idea that God chooses us, even when we cannot or will not choose back, is what the Gospel is all about.
So, we in the church must never fall into the trap of believing that our salvation is up to us. God is the one who does the saving. But it would also be wrong to think that just because we are chosen somehow exempts us from the real life work of following Christ. There are some in the church who have made that mistake as well. They’re the ones who use the word chosen as a kind of exclusive label, as in “we” are the chosen and “you” are not. Sometimes, it’s easy for us in the church to believe that we are morally superior to the rest of the world because we’re on the inside. We’re the God squad. And if you didn’t make the team, tough luck.
But that line of thinking contradicts what Jesus says here in verse 16. If God is the one doing the choosing and not us, it means that it’s up to God to decide who the chosen are, not us. Let me make this clear--We are not the ones who get to determine the boundaries of God’s grace. We are not the ones who get to decide who’s in and who’s out. That’s up to God. And when we in the church start getting into the business of proclaiming who is and who isn’t a part of God’s kingdom, we’ve overstepped our authority. We’ve once again fooled ourselves into believing that the choice is ours instead of God’s.
But being chosen is not about being better than somebody else. Being chosen is about learning to respond to the God who first loved us. You see, just because God chooses us doesn’t mean that our own decisions are unimportant. In the second part of verse 16, Jesus goes on to say that we have been chosen in order to bear fruit. Yes, we have been loved first. But because of that love, we are now called to love others.
And I think it’s time that we began to acknowledge that. For too long, we in the church have pretended that our friendship with God gives us special privileges that nobody else can enjoy. And it’s true that being chosen is a privilege. But is it also a responsibility. If we read the Old Testament, we will find that God set aside the Jews as the chosen people, not to save them at the expense of other nations, but in order that they might become a means of salvation to the entire world. In the same way, those of us who are chosen today are set aside by God not to rest on our laurels, but to actively demonstrate God’s love through the way that we live. Being chosen is not something to take lightly. It is a precious gift from God that must be shared.
You did not choose me, but I chose you. A simple phrase passed along from Jesus to his friends. But it is one that we still need to hear today. Because many of us are still mistakenly operating under the assumption that the choosing is up to us. But it’s not. That’s the good news. We are the ones who have been chosen. And so, this morning, as we humbly respond to God’s friendship, let us go out to bear fruit. AMEN