I Have Called You Friends

John 15:12-17

Ephesians 1:16-18- I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

Love

Love is His command

He just commanded us to Abide in His love

Verse 9

Now the command moves from abiding in His love to loving one another

The logic:

Jesus is the vine

We are the branches

Branches who are alive will abide

Abiding branches bear fruit

The fruit is love for one another

No greater love than this

The greatest love in the world is the laying down of one’s life for a friend

He has shown the greatest love

John 10:14-18- Bible

Romans 5:8-10- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Lay your life down for love’s sake

1 John 3:16- By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

This does not mean that we also don’t lay them down for enemies

Matthew 5:43-47- You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

This is the only way that the world will see Christ in us

John 13:34-35- A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We must strive to love more deeply and more consistently

There is no excess!

Friendship

No longer slaves

Slaves do not know what their master is doing

They don’t know the reasons, plans, or heart of their master

In former days, Israel did not know much of what God was doing in redemption.

It was largely veiled to them

But He has told them all that His Father has told Him

I have called you friends

There is nothing that you have to do to be a friend of God

It is not as though you are saved but you still need to become His friend

From the moment of salvation, you have been brought into friendship with Him

Just imagine it! You are a friend of the God of the Universe by the loving grace given through His Son who died to make it possible

His friendship is anchored in who He is, not in who we are

It is not as though we call Him friend and then He becomes our friend

He always calls us friends and keeps us friends

He is no ordinary friend

He is the greatest and truest friend that you can conceive of

Do you live like it?

Some of you are still in the shackles of slavishness

Not viewing God as your friend through Christ

Working to gain His love and favor

Luke 11:46- And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Run from the bondage of slavishness

You don’t have to bear that burden

Your Master is not a slave driver, His is your tender love-pouring friend

Friends are for loving enjoyment, not legalistic exertion

Chosen for fruitfulness

We did not choose Him

It is not as though we muscled our way in

It is not as though we reasoned our way up

It is not as though we wisely chose Truth

He chose us

It was all of His grace toward us

He chose us for a purpose

We were redeemed for the purpose of Christ-glorifying works

Ephesians 2:8-10- For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Not as slaves, but as beloved friends

Ask God and He will do it

It is all of grace

He produces what He commands

He will never ask or command anything for which He does not empower

He is not a reluctant giver

He is lavish in His grace

He is abounding in steadfast love

He is abundantly able to do exceedingly more than we think in our own lives

Will you ask Him to fill you with love?

Ephesians 3:20-21- Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

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John 15:12-17

Ephesians 1:16-18- I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

My prayer for each of you today is that God will graciously do the work of this passage in your life. That God will grant for His Spirit work in you a deeper and higher knowledge of the glory of the gospel, that He will grant for the eyes of your heart to be enlightened to know more of the hope to which He has called you, and that He will give you hearts that are filled with Spirit-wrought love.

Love

From the beginning of our passage, love takes center stage. He says as straightforwardly as anywhere else in the Bible that He is giving a command, and love is His command. This might seem strange to some of you because we don’t normally think of love in terms of something that is commanded. We normally think of love as being the thing that motivates or empowers the heart to do the things that are commanded. But if you recall from last week: Jesus just commanded us to abide/remain in His love (verse 9). We are commanded to remain in the love that He gives us as a branch remains in the vine. The sap of God’s love flows to us through Jesus and now His command is that we would fix our lives squarely and unceasingly in the flow of that love.

Now the command moves from abiding in His love to loving one another. There is a particular logic in the mind of John as he writes this. Abiding, in verses 1-11, produces fruit. Jesus is the vine, believers in Jesus are the branches, branches that are alive abide in Him, branches that abide bear fruit, and the fruit of Abiding in Jesus is love for one another.

Jesus shifts to do what you might not expect. You might expect for Him to explain what this love ordinarily looks like, or perhaps even the minimum threshold for what love looks like. He doesn’t do that. He is not minimalistic like so many Christians are. No, He goes straight to speaking of the greatest love. What is it that He says is the greatest love? He says that the greatest love in the world is the laying down of one’s life for a friend. I think that there are at least two reasons for Him saying this. The first is that He is shining light on what it is that He is about to do for them. As the disciples heard Jesus speak, there is no way that they could have fully understood what He was saying, but they soon would understand. And now as we look back on the cross, we can see the awe-striking truth of what He was saying. This truth is that He has shown the greatest love. This is what we read in John 10:14-18- I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” and again in Romans 5:8-10- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. This is one of the greatest of the countless differences between Christianity and all other religions- God shows His love by coming to us and dying for sinners. If you are wondering this morning whether God really loves you, you don’t need to look at the circumstances of your life to answer that question. You need to look at the cross of Jesus. The greatest love in the world was displayed there as He died for you.

There is at least one other reason that He mentions this greatest love. Not only does He lay down His life for His sheep, but now they must lay their lives down for love’s sake. In fact, they will go on to do just that as they give their very lives to and for the proclamation of the gospel. And lest we think that this was only for these disciples, let me read for you what John also says in 1 John 3:16- By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. We are not excluded. This is the call to every Christian: lay down your life for the sake of gospel love.

I need to make a clarification. This does not mean that we also don’t lay our lives down for our enemies. You might think that Jesus is letting us off the hook for sacrificial love for enemies and it is only friends that we must lay down our lives for. But this is not so. Matthew 5:43-47- You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? In our passage, He is particularly speaking to the context of friendship, but it is not limited to friendship. The call of the Christian is to lay down our lives for others just as Christ laid down His life for us (Philippians 2). To put on humility and give of ourselves for the cause of Christ. And let me just be clear: this means being mistreated, taken advantage of, used, or getting scorned and made fun of. It might mean financial sacrifice, inconvenience and awkwardness, and for some of us it might even one day mean imprisonment or death.

This is the only way that the world will see Christ in us. They will not see the glory and beauty of Christ through us if we live like the rest of the world. They will see Christ only when we lay our lives down for the cause of gospel love. John said in John 13:34-35- A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” We must strive to love more deeply and more consistently. We all have progress to make here by God’s grace. It is not as though any of us have arrived and can not love to a greater degree. There is no excess! Brothers and Sisters, love one another for the glory of Christ.

Friendship

At this point, Jesus gives some clarification on how love flows to us. If we are commanded to love one another, we also need to know what the origin of truth love is. He tells us that we are no longer slaves. He means for this to be understood in a particular way, because in another sense we are profoundly bought and owned by the blood of Christ. In fact, “slave of Christ” is one of Paul’s favorite titles to give himself in his letters.

So what particular aspect of slavery is in view here? Slaves do not know what their master is doing. They are merely told what to do and when to do it. That’s all they know. They don’t know his reasons, his plans, or his heart. This is how it largely was in the former days in Israel. Much of what the disciples had been told by Jesus had been veiled to the people of God. But now He has told them all that His Father has told Him.

He says that now He has called them friends. There is nothing that you have to do to be a friend of God. It is not as though you are saved, but you still need to become His friend. From the moment of salvation, you have been brought into friendship with Him. Just imagine it! You are a friend of the God of the Universe by the loving grace given through His Son who died to make it possible. Isn’t the Good News great?!

His friendship is anchored in who He is, not in who we are. It is not as though we call Him friend and then He becomes our friend. He always calls us friends and keeps us friends. This is the best news for us because He is not fickle and sinful. He is perfect and unchanging and faithful. He is no ordinary friend. He is the greatest and truest friend that you can conceive of.

The question is: do you live as if this is true? Some of you are still in the shackles of slavishness. Perhaps you came here this morning trying so hard to please God and gain His favor, but this will never due. Or maybe you came viewing God as more of a slave driver than as a friend as if you just have to keep some rules of His in order that He won’t whip you. This kind of view of God and of life is a terrible bondage. Run from the bondage of slavishness. You don’t have to bear that burden. You can’t bear it. This is the kind of back-breaking lives that the Pharisees were leading: Luke 11:46- And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Your Master is not a slave driver, His is your tender love-pouring friend. Friends are for loving enjoyment, not legalistic exertion.

Chosen for fruitfulness

But Jesus knows that the disciples, and us by extension, face a dangerous temptation here. We can easily begin to be puffed up with pride and say “look at me; I’m a friend of Jesus.” He reminds them of something: they did not choose Him, and neither did we. It is not as though we muscled our way in. It is not as though we reasoned our way up. It is not as though we wisely chose Truth because of our great ability to discern truth from error. He freely chose us, which was all of His grace toward us.

He chose us for a specific purpose. We were redeemed for the purpose of doing Christ-glorifying works. Ephesians 2:8-10- For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This is not as slaves, but as beloved friends. Not to gain grace, but becasue of grace. And this is working for our joy and satisfaction in Jesus.

Ask God and He will do it

As we close I simply want to point you to one last statement and ask you a question. He says, as He did in last week’s passage, that whatever you ask will be given from the Father. This is whatever you ask in accordance with the fruit of love. Obedience in the Christian life is all of grace. He always produces what He commands. He will never ask or command anything for which He does not empower.

He is not a reluctant giver. He is lavish in His grace toward His friends. He is abounding in steadfast love, and can cause you to abound in love. He is abundantly able to do exceedingly more than we think in our own lives. So, will you ask Him to fill you with love?

I’m going to read Ephesians 3:20-21, and then I’ll pray, but listen to the way that Paul speaks of God, and then may you pray this way for God to fill you with gospel love. Ephesians 3:20-21- Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.