John 15:12-25
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Christ Our Friend.
Christ Our Friend.
John Newton
“Christ a Friend”
1 One there is, above all others,
Well deserves the name of Friend;
His is love beyond a brother’s –
Costly, free, and knows no end;
They who once his kindness prove,
Find it everlasting love.
2 Which of all our friends, to save us,
Could or would have shed his blood;
But our Jesus died to have us
Reconciled in him to God.
This was boundless love indeed!
Jesus is a Friend indeed!
3 O for grace our hearts to soften!
Teach us, Lord, at length to love;
We, alas! forget too often
What a Friend we have above.
But when home our souls are brought,
We will praise thee as we ought.
John Newton was the one who penned the words of probably the most famous hymn sung in our country at least today.
He wrote Amazing Grace.
perhaps you know his story.
john Newton was a dreadfully wicked man. He was sailor, known as The Great Blasphemer, but God brought John Newton low.
John Newton was saved on a ship in the middle of the ocean thinking that he was about to lose his life. He later peened the words of amazing grace.
What is amazing to me is that a man who called himself a wretch, later in life after having been saved, can write a hymn and presumably sing about the friendship he has in Christ.
We come to a passage today that really causes us to think through the friendship we have in Christ, and how we should be living in light of his friendship to us.
Recap from last week.
Recap from last week.
We are told how to abide in his love.
We are given his example.
And its to obey his commands.
then we ask the question: Well what are his commands?
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
In light of remaining in the love of Christ, and abiding in the vine, the disciples here are going to be commanded to love each other the way the Christ has loved them.
This isn’t a new command. The Old Testament taught this as well.
In fact, Jesus has said this before.
Over in , a lawyer is questioning Jesus and asked him:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-
All these laws that these Pharisees are trying to keep are bound up into love of God and love of Neighbor.
WHat do you love with? Your heart.
if love of neighbor and love of God is what all the prophets and Law are about, then we know that God is about your heart.
What Jesus says in 40 shows us that he is about the heart of his people, not simply a checking off of a box for rules.
So this is isn’t a new commandment. This is a command that is as old as the earth itself.
All the Law and the prophets according to Jesus rest on the Love of God and Love for One Another.
But up until this point they don’t have a good reference for that.
Ever since sin entered the world, friendship and love has been marred by its presence.
We have no perfect examples of love and friendship, until Christ. Explain.. All human relationships in the OT are flawed because of the fall.
Every relationship is flawed.
Every marriage
Every friendship.
We may have several good examples but we don’t have a perfect one, until Christ.
This is why Paul says in
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
We finally in Christ have a perfect example of
Relationship
Marriage
Friendship
I love how Jesus doesn’t leave this vague here.
He grounds their obedience in His obedience.
He gives them a reference point and a measuring rod for their love for each other. THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE TO MEASURE THEM SELVES BY CHRIST
If they we want to know how we are doing when it comes to loving each other within the church, we just look at how Christ has loved us and measure our selves towards that.
Too often, we don’t love each other well because we have the wrong standard of measurement for our love.
We measure our love based upon reciprocated love. (Do they love us back?)
1. We measure our love based upon reciprocated love. (Do they love us back?)
We often measure our love based upon worldly norms. (Will I look like a fool if I keep loving this person?)(Will I look like a fool if I keep loving this person despite the fact that they do me wrong?) Fool me once…
It all boils to: We measure our love by how we’ve been loved by other sinful people.
But thats not how our love should be measured according to Christ here.
Jesus here, knows our tendency toward this. he knows the disciples’ tendency toward this, and so He grounds their love in perfect love.
And he demonstrates His love in the greatest possible way.
And He gives them the greatest possible way that anyone can love anyone.
Just a quick question:
What can you give, and once you have given it, you can literally give no more?
Yourself. Your life.
Listen to what Jesus says here:
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
Softly
The most Jesus could give was His life.
And He did.
For His friends.
We know Christ loved us for many reason but two ways i want to point out we know Christ loves us.
And We know that he loves us by how much it cost him to love us.
We know that he loves us, because we don’t deserve his love and yet He gives it so freely
And He does this “for His friends”
lay down his life for his friends
and He qualifies this in verse 14
He is going to tell us who his friends are.
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.
in other words, you prove to be friends of christ by your obedience to Christ/
It is a relationship grounded upon the love of Christ, and responded to by the obedience of His followers.
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This is why he says here that our obedience proves that we are His friends.
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.
One of the best Scriptural examples that we have of this concept is found in the person of Abraham.
If you have read the Scriptures much at all, you know what Abraham is known for.
He is known for His faith.
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
Galatians 3:
Those who are of faith today, are associated with Abraham, the patriarch.
Those who are of faith today, are associated with Abraham, the patriarch.
He is known as the Father of Faith.
But Abraham was an obedient friend of God as well.
and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
Abraham is known for His faith but he is also known for his unconditional obedience to God. Now there is some disobedince sprionkled in there as well.
Abraham obediently, goes to offer up his son.
Abraham is called from a foreign land and leaves.
Abraham obediently, goes to offer up his son.
Abraham’s life is associated with an obedience that is founded and grounded upon His faith in God.
IOW Abraham’s faith in God lead to His obedience to God
The same is true for us and Jesus is making this point here.
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.
Are you a friend of God?
Are you obedient to His commands?
There is no neutrality here.
You are either obedient or disobedient to him and you prove by your actions that you are his enemy.
Just as Abraham proved to be a friend of God, we either prove or deny friendship with God.
The right question here is: How could Abraham do this?
How could Abraham be that obedient to the plan of God?
Think about his obedience and what he did…
He went to sacrifice his own son… His obedience trumps everything
His obedience is rooted in His God and the faith he has in him.
Think about it for a minute:
God had made a promise to him that He and Sarah would have a son and God would bless that Son. And God delivered on that. Even despite Abe and Sarah being passed child bearing years and God promised to bless that son.
That son was Isaac.
And Abraham trusted God.
Turn to 7-19
So much so that hEBREWS 11:19 says that he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead because His God is faithful.
it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
Hebrews 11:
it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.
See, God had revealed His plan to him because He was his friends.
Because God reveals His plan to us, it empowers us to obey Him no matter what He may ask us to do because we know our God is the God who keeps His promises.
This happens if we are friends of God.
Look in verse 15
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
He illiustrates here as he always does:
He speaks of two different types of people with regard to a master.
A master will have slaves.
A master will have friends.
Slaves are workers. Slaves are not consulted. Slaves are not given the priviledge of know the Master’s dealing and workings and his plan.
Friends are friends. Friends are consulted. Friends are given the priviledge of knowing the Master’s plans.
Illustration: Lackeys in Seminary
These men aren’t just fans. They aren’t slaves.
These men have moved beyond the status of a slave.
These men could
They aren’t just in the house.
They are privied to the plan of the house.
Jesus in his grace his has called them friends.
As friends we are given privilege to his plan.
He gives to us the knowledge of what he is doing and what he expects from us.
But with the privilege of the plan comes the duty of his demands.
We know what Christ wants to do in the world.
As His friends, We know that he desires the Gospel be spread to the world.
As His friends, We know that God desires to save people from every nation.
As His friends, We know that God desires for our lives to be lived according to His will.
The disciples have been given privilege to all of this as well.
But he doesn’t give us his plan for us to sit back and do nothing and wait.
Well God will just do it. Ive got my ticket to Heaven, Im good.
I want you to understand, thats not obedience!!!
and that attitude is better suited for an enemy of God than for a friend.
Look what Jesus says in verse 16
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
Jesus came after them!
It wasn’t there plan to come after Jesus. jesus interrupts...
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
He came and he sought them out. Jesus chose them!
Jesus appointed them!
He has made them into His disciples.
He has placed them at his table.
Appoint means to assign one a job or a task.
What is the task?
Jesus has saved them so that they would do two things:
Go.
This is Jesus’s goal.
This should be our goal.
They are being sent.
Every Sunday, when you leave the goal is that you would do the two things Jesus mentions here.
Go.
Go be involved in your community.
Go be present with your friends.
Go be with your neighbors.
Go to foreign countries on mission trips.
Go to the homeless
Go to the orphan
But its not enough just to go. The point is what you do when you get there.
What does he say we are to do after we go?
Bear fruit.
Go and bear fruit.
vine imagery- the vine shoots off branches in all types of directions and the purpose for all the branches is to bear fruit.
Go and be a Christian.
Bear the fruit that shows that you are connected to the Vine.
This means more than just being nice. It means that, but it means more than that.
This means more than not cursing and saying what the others say. It certainly means that, but more than that.
This means being there and being actively obedient to the mission and working for the kingdom wherever you go.
What did Jesus do?
He worked to bring about His kingdom.
He took the message of Salvation to lost people regardless of creed, color, or whatever because he lved them.
Go and Bear fruit.
and bear fruit that remains- this isn’t short term fruit.
This is a life characterized by fruitfulness.
And it is a life that connected to the vine desires the things God desires.
in our fruitfulness, Our prayers are then something Christ can sign his name to and God the Father loves to answer.
We are his friends if we obey.
What are you disobedient in today?
are you obedient to Him?
Does your life obedience rooted in faith?