Your Best Friend

Intro

Question: What makes a great friend?

The best friend in my life (aside from Amanda) is a friend that I met in Bible school in upstate New York, Ryder Harling.

We got to know each other by working at summer camp driving boats. At first he was cocky, over his head and was ambitious about making an impact on everyone he met. The first time I met him he bragged about how he was going to build a lot of relationships with people and disciple them into becoming better Christians. When I heard him say that - my thought was man, I’m going to disciple you.

2 Qualities of a friendship

Both people share similar passions:

The first real conversation we had was concerning the idea of whether or not someone can actually lose their salvation and is it possible to have assurance of faith. It’s a weird and heavy first conversation for any two people but something good friendships start with is a bonding over something both people are passionate about. While Ryder did have his flaws, he was passionate about the Lord.

Friends challenge each other:

Admittedly, I was a very uninformed person throughout high school. My theology and views on God were not biblical. While I believed in Jesus and was a Christian, my faith was not grounded in good soil.

When Ryder and I had our conversation concerning whether or not someone can have assurance of salvation and whether or not they can lose their salvation, I aired on the side of the skeptic believing that anything could happen and God could change His mind if He wanted to. I thought that we could never truly be 100% sure of knowing we will make it into heaven and that since God can do whatever He wants, He can strip us of our salvation.

If any of you could go back in time to see young Noah, tell him he was a heretic!

Ryder was a Pastor’s kid and knew His Bible far better than I probably ever will. He stayed true to what he knew and used every scripture reference he knew of to support his belief that we can have assurance of faith.

I remember after that conversation, I walked away feeling challenged. I felt the need to learn and grow in my relationship with God because I realized that I do lack. But the feeling that I had was also not one of discouragement, instead I was encouraged because Ryder was helping me as much as I may have been helping him on the journey of pursuing truth.

Ryder to this day is one of my bestest friends and he’s someone that is passionate about what I’m passionate about and challenges me to be a better person.

What kinds of friends do you have? Are your best friends people that share your passions and do they challenge you to become better people?

I am the Vine (John 15:1)

Tonight we are capping off our 7th I am statement in the gospel of John and this statement I believe teaches us of the best possible friendship and relationship we could ever have in life. The friendship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Looking back briefly we learned 6 “I am” statements that Jesus said in the gospel of John concerning who He was.

I am the Bread of life (Feeding of 5,000)

I am the Light of the World (Spiritual life / leading people into life)

I am the door (Story of the sheepfold)

I am the Good Shepherd (Cont. story of the Sheepfold)

I am the Resurrection and the Life (Has power over death - Lazarus)

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (A summary to the disciples about who He is)

So finally we arrive at the 7th and final “I am” statement: I am the vine (Jn 15:1).

Go ahead and open to John 15 with me.

Jesus in ch. 13 washed the feet of the disciples and offered the bread and wine at the last supper.

Since this is likely the last interaction with His disciples prior to His death, Jesus tells the disciples of His death, what’s to come and expands on the importance of remembering His words.

In this interaction we hear the 6th I am statement “I am the way, the truth and the life” which we already covered and we also hear his 7th and final “I am statement”, “I am the vine”.

Since this passage is relatively long (verses 1-17), I am going to read verse 1 and skip down and read verses 12-17.

John 15:1 ESV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

John 15:12–17 ESV

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Question: From the selected reading, is there anything that jumps out at you?

I have 2 takeaways from Christ’s 7th I am statement,

As followers we must:

1) Abide in Christ

2) Know that Christ calls you His friend

First, we must abide in Christ. If we were to read verses 1-11 the one word that is repeated over and over is the word, ABIDE. Since I am taking greek, the greek word for abide that John uses in the original manuscripts is μένω. That word can also be translated as remain or stay - ABIDE.

Also, of all the New Testament writers, there is one author who uses the word abide more than anybody else, any guesses?

Ding ding ding… John obviously. Abide is said 11 times in these 17 verses. In his other 3 letters, John mentions abide 26 times.

John really wants to drill this word and phrase down into your memory. Abide in Christ and He will abide in you!

We must ask ourselves what then must it mean or look like to abide in Christ.

Does anyone have any ideas of what it would look like for us to abide in Christ?

For His 7th I am statement, Jesus describes Himself as the vine and the Father as the vinedresser and us (humans) as branches of the vine.

This of course has some strong implications concerning the Trinity in terms of relation because only through the Son, the mediator to the Father, we (followers) of Christ are able to bear fruit by the Spirit who is later to be spoken of in chapter 16.

So we have the 3 things to point it from Jesus’ I am statement:

Vine - Who? - Christ

Vinedresser - Who? The Father

Branches - Us?

Now that we identify the three things from this statement, what is the purpose of each thing?

We figure out right away in verse 2, the purpose of the vinedresser and the branches, John 15:2

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he (The Father/vinedresser) takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

So what does the vinedresser do?

He takes away the branches that don’t bear fruit and prunes the branches that do bear fruit.

What does the branch do?

The branches are to bear fruit and if they don’t then they are not even branches at all because the Father takes away the branches that don’t bear fruit.

Now this of course could present a problem to some people. I don’t know about you but by the sounds of it, it almost sounds like we can lose our salvation does it not?

The branches that don’t bear fruit, the father takes away? How can a branch be there on the vine if it isn’t a part of the vine already? If it’s a part of the vine then why must if be taken away if it’s bad? It all sort of seems confusing, at least to me it does if not to you.

We know that from Jesus’ 4th I am statement, I am the good shepherd, that once you are a member of the sheepfold, you will never be plucked from the hand of God. We get this from John 10:28,

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

If we looked further ahead in Acts in the event at Pentecost which we shall learn later together in a few weeks from now (teaser) Acts 2:41 says that there were about 3,000 souls saved that day.

Which I believe implies that if God declares you saved and a family member of His, then therefore it is impossible for someone who is saved to lose their citizenship in the family of God.

Going back to John 15, what is Jesus really getting it in verse 2 then?

What I think is that this is not an explanation of who is saved vs. not saved, instead it’s an explanation of the significance in your relation to the Son.

Looking at your life right now, do you abide in the person of Jesus?

DON’T ANSWER - JUST REFLECT FOR A MINUTE ON IT.

Do you bear fruit and is your relationship with Christ one that is “inseparable”? To abide in Christ is to remain in Christ. For a branch to belong to the vine, the branch must be inseparable to the vine.

The follower of Christ abides in Christ and secondly they know that they are friends of God.

To open our lesson, I asked what makes a great friend. A great friendship is one that is inseparable. If you thought about your best friend you would know that it’s hard for you to be distant from them because you want to be with them all the time.

Something Christ wants you to know from His 7th “I am” statement is that He desires an inseparable kind of relationship with you.

A few weeks ago I preached a sermon at the church on the way of the servant and how a servant finds joy in trials, asks in faith, and forfeits worldly prosperity for eternal glory.

In this passage though, Jesus is one-upping that entire message I preached specifically in verse 15.

He says,

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

What makes our relationship with Christ better knowing that we are friends and no longer servants?

Don’t think I’m canning the idea of servanthood out the door. There is significance in being a servant because that way of life is evident in the Bible.

At the end of our passage Jesus describes the relationship He has with us His followers as a friendship because unlike the relationship between a master and a servant, He has revealed everything possible to us. We are in the know and He continues to keep us in the know through His word and the Spirit.

This is the importance of abiding and knowing the relationship that He calls us to. - A beautiful and true relationship unlike any other.

My encourage to you all is to enjoy it, but the best possible way to enjoy it is by bearing fruit.

Which leads me to the perfect introduction our next study… The book of Acts!