True Friendship

Jonathan = “Jehovah has given”

True friends are a gift of God

God Provides Support for God’s Leaders

God placed Jonathan in David’s life just when he needed a true friend

2 Samuel 1:26 “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me; Your love to me was wonderful, Surpassing the love of women.”

Not an eros or phileo or even storge type love but agape love, a pure, genuine, intimate godly unconditional love (Jonathan would seek the best for David, denying his own benefit) Amex CC in Sweden

This relationship is an example of the type of love Christ has for each of us. So, what is a real friend? One person said, “A friend—a true friend—the first person who comes in when the whole world has gone out.” Another said, “A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you today just the way you are.” We ought to praise the Lord for the few, genuine friends we possess in our lives! Sermon Notebook: Old Testament

Jonathan’s Love was a Selfless Love

Jonathan gave David his own identity

1 Samuel 18:4 “And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.”

When you looked at David he would have looked like Jonathan.

Jonathan gave his all to David, his status, his protection, his weapons.

Jesus gives us His identity

His love was a picture of Christ’s in the robe of righteousness and weapons of the kingdom. A true self sacrificing love

Philippians 2:5–8 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

God’s love takes away our filthy rags and gives us a robe of righteousness

Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”

Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Jonathan’s Love for David Was Undeserved

David’s own brothers didn’t love him. He was the younger one out in the field. A nobody. Jonathan loved him just as he was. And v:1 the life of Jonathan was bound up with the life of David. There was a spiritual connection that joined them on earth like we will be in heaven. It did not grow it just was.

Grace tells us God loved us:

Not base on us or our merit Or who we are.

Not based on anything we did to deserve it

Not based on what we could do to repay it.

Jesus Love Us First

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:19 “We love Him because He first loved us.”

Jesus Loves Us Forever

Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

Jesus Loved Us On The Cross

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 4:8–9 “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

Jesus Loves Us Knowing We Can Never truly Understand or Pay It Back

1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Romans 5:6–10 “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Jonathan’s Love Was Akin To God’s Love

Not a Fairweather Friend

Imagine a beach umbrella you use it on sunny days, but when there is a storm it the first thing that gets folded up. It is useless in a storm. Fairweather friends are around when things are sunny, but at the first sign or a storm they quickly fold up and are useless.

I have a really great cell phone. Until I need it and there is no coverage. In the valleys of life you need a friend that is reliable and connected. That is the friend network that you can depend on in difficult situations.

Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.”

Proverbs 18:24 “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Proverbs 27:6 “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

Someone has said in a very succinct manner, “The only exercise some Christians get is jumping to conclusions, running down their friends, sidestepping responsibility, and pushing their luck” J. Vernon McGee

Loved As His Own Soul.

No one hates themselves .

He had a dangerous love

Taking sides with David over his father Saul

Good thing Saul was a terrible shot with the spear

But Jonathan knew somehow that David was anointed king.

1 Samuel 23:17 “And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.””

Jesus trusts us with grace to grow and share it with others. This love of Christ is dangerous! It gives us liberty. Liberty to serve and liberty to fail. The Law would disapprove of the life of liberty, of the gift of sonship by faith. The Law would put us in bondage again. But we have received the gift of unconditional love.

True Friendship takes a risk of getting hurt. Jesus was a Friend of Sinners.

Matthew 11:19 “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.””

Unconditional Love

“Knit” bound till death. Soldiers have this brotherhood. Missionaries share a bound of great faith. Christians have a brotherhood with each other because we share the same Father. Our lives are bound together in Christ. We share a destiny.

Our Brother is Christ.

Jesus lost just about all His friends after the cross. But they came back.

Romans 8:38–39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing can shake unconditional love because it is unconditional

We did nothing to earn God’s love, we can do nothing to loose it

1 Samuel 18:3 “Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.” A covenant is a promise, an agreement, in this case it is unconditional

Proverbs 22:11 “He who loves purity of heart And has grace on his lips, The king will be his friend.”