Friends of Jesus
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Friends of Jesus
Friends of Jesus
12 This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
15 I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
“I do not call you slaves anymore.”
A slave wasn’t a high position of rank. But with God, being a slave of God carried no shame whatsoever. Moses was called the “servant of God.” And certainly, this was no rank of disgrace.
But notice what Christ said, “I do not call you slaves anymore. I have called you friends.”
It’s interesting that a king often had a select group of advisers, an inner circle of special friends. They were not merely political consultants. They were intimate friends to protect and care for the king. They were given immediate access to the king. No one was closer to him and he valued their advice more than generals or statesmen.
Jesus raised the stature of the disciples to Friends.
This is an intimate relationship with a bond of love and trust that supersedes formality or protocol. And it demonstrated a close friendship of deep affection and intimacy. He reassured them of His desire to have them that close — “I have called you friends.”
He listed a number of characteristics as His friends — beginning with Obedience.
Obedience
Obedience
“This is My Commandment.”
The first characteristic of intimate close friendship with God is obedience. It sums up the essence of friendship with Christ. In fact, as Lord — obedience is an absolute condition for friendly relationship with God.
Verse 14
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
That doesn’t mean that friendship with God is earned or attained by human effort. Obedience is an identifying mark of a friend of Jesus. Jesus explained this before.
31 Then His mother and His brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to Him and called Him.
32 A crowd was sitting around Him and told Him, “Look, Your mother, Your brothers, and Your sisters are outside asking for You.”
33 He replied to them, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”
34 And looking about at those who were sitting in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!
35 Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
This is the relationship of sheep who follow their Shepherd.
27 My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.
So, intimate friendship depends on willing obedience.
Jesus also stated His disciples would obey.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples.
Whatever metaphor Jesus used, whether sheep to a shepherd, disciple to a teacher, family, or friends, it always came back to this — obedience to God.
9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.
10 This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.
1 john
Not that we become children of God by obedience but obedience is proof of intimate relationship to Jesus Christ through faith.
Love for Believers
Love for Believers
A second characteristic of intimate friendship with Jesus is love for one another — other fellow believers.
12 This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.
12 This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:13
Friends of Jesus have a deep, sincere, and abiding love for other Christians.
This is exclusive to Christians. Unbelievers know nothing of this love, even though they hunger for it. The reason they know nothing of this love is because they don’t have the source of this love.
19 We love because He first loved us.
It’s actually the Fruit of the Spirit.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
God’s love has been “Poured out in our hearts,” according to
You cannot be a true believer — you cannot be a Christian without love for other believers.
5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
9 The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
10 The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
This doesn’t mean we fail to love one another to the fullest. We may sometimes fail to love one another as we should. But John was explaining the general pattern believers follow.
It is in the nature of the Christian to love another Christian.
9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
To not love one another is a violation of our nature in Christ. It’s to go against the nature of who we are are and choose sin instead.
And notice the bar — “As I have loved you.” We are not on the same scale as His love — He died for the sins of the world. But we can love the way He loves — sacrificially and selflessly.
Love should move us to give of ourselves — to give of our wealth, to bear burdens, to feel what others feel, to hurt with others, to comfort, to sacrifice, to instruct, to support. The quality of our love testifies of our devotion to Christ.
35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The depth of our sacrifice we are willing to make reveals the intensity of our love. Giving up one’s life has been recognized as the ultimate sacrifice. Too many who claim to know Christ are far from sacrificing — not willing to even give a few moments of time. If we’re really honest with ourselves, many times we fall short of dying for others. We haven’t even learned how to live for others.
16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.
That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?
We say we love, but do we love sacrificially?
17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?
A true friend of Jesus loves by meeting the needs of others demonstrating their love one for another.
Knowing Divine Truth
Knowing Divine Truth
15 I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.
This is interesting. A slave was only told what he should do, never why. He was a living tool. He never knew the master’s plans or goals, much less his feelings.
Did you notice what Jesus told them?
“I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.”
That’s an amazing thing if you think about it. God telling His creatures what he is doing and why.
17 Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham?
Genesis 18:17
Incidentally, Abraham was the only one in the OT who God called his friend.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples.
32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Everything the Father told Him, He passed on to them.
6 I have revealed Your name to the men You gave Me from the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
7 Now they know that all things You have given to Me are from You,
8 because the words that You gave Me, I have given them. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from You. They have believed that You sent Me.
John 17:
He taught them the mysteries of God’s plan through parables.
10 Then the disciples came up and asked Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
11 He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them.
23 Then turning to His disciples He said privately, “The eyes that see the things you see are blessed!
24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them.”
Luke
The disciples were blessed because they had special knowledge other never found.
Spiritual understanding sets Christians apart.
12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.
13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.
14 But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.
15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.
16 For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Jesus gave His disciples knowledge of where He was leading them. This was not mechanical knowing. They were friends and He revealed the truth to them.
Divine Appointment
Divine Appointment
A final characteristic of friendship with Jesus is something some people don’t like. Friendship are usually formed when two people choose to befriend one another. But friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ happens only by His initiative. Not one of the disciples were volunteers.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
The Greek word translated “appointed” has a range of meanings including ordain, to place, to lay, kneel, and prostate.This is a formal assigning of a duty. Paul used the word in
28 And God has placed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, managing, various kinds of languages.
He used it again in
11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher,
In both places, Paul is referring to being chosen to a specific service.
You’ll notice the way our Lord stated this.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
Here He, says He chose each one of them. That they did not choose Him. This refers to His sovereign choice. It’s what theologians call election. And there are, as I said, some who really don’t like this doctrine. But it’s Bible, right? Here it is. And not only here, it’s other places as well.
But here’s what I want you to see. Biblical election — whenever the doctrine of God’s sovereign choice is discussed in the Scripture it goes beyond salvation. God elects someone to save them, He also ordains them to service. The are chosen to do something.
God did not choose us to sit around and contemplate our theological navels. He called us to go. The Bible does not command the world to come to church. The Bible commands the church to go.
23 “Then the master told the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and lanes and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.
15 Then He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus chose a group of men out of the world of darkness. He saved them, loved them, taught them, and trained them. He called them as friends and sent them back into the world to tell everyone about Him.
Our lives are not meant to dwindle away in eternally meaningless activities. We are to make ripples in our world. We are to — look at the text again — “Go out and produce fruit.”
And I want you to notice what goes with this appointment — “So that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.”
Ask Him for the hearts of men. Ask Him for the opportunities to speak of Him. And what will He do? He will give you whatever you ask for in Christ’s name.
Will He really answer my prayer for men’s lives?
Remember you’re asking in Jesus’ name, right? What did Jesus come to do? Save sinners. Save the lost. Set the captives free. Open the eyes of the blind. Raise the dead.
He will answer you, because you are His friend. You are a friend of the King!
Friends of Jesus are characterized by Obedience, Love, Knowledge, and Appointment.
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that what