John 15:12-27
Notes
Transcript
I Call You Friends
I Call You Friends
“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.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
My friends are chosen
They have a different relationship
friend - a person you know well and regard with affection and trust
Servant are under orders - not privy to all the information
Friends are in the war room with Jesus. They get to hear,see and do things that no one else gets to do. They get to get personal with the Master. They also have a greater degree of trust
To produce fruit.
They are chosen to be outsiders - pulled out of the world
The standard is Love
My Friends are not liked in this world
The world will transfer its hate from Jesus to the Disciples
Even when Jesus was a child Herod wanted to kill him.
If you stay quiet you will be tolerated - speak up and you will be hated
For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.
In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you;
Remember the world is a hostile place - it loves its own then it kills its own. Scripture says men will love darkness rather than the light, because there works are evil.
It has a carnal mind but we are to have the mind of Christ
My friends are more than servants.
They have a two way communication.
They are not hirelings.
The word slave also means one who is legally owned. The ownership is mutual
Abraham was God’s friend. - He was also a man of faith and obedience
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.
They are part of His inner circle. ( Just like the disciples)
He is also like a best man
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.
Friends don’t promote themselves - God promotes them.
Friends lay there lives down for each other
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Davids friends were willing to break through enemy lines to get him a glass of water
My Friends can tap into the unlimited supply of heaven
Whatever you ask - that supports Gods Mission
What is one thing of unlimited supply in heaven - LOVE
The world naturally hates - The believer naturally loves?
My Friends will never be alone
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
The Holy Spirit refutes the world - He testifies against it.
The Holy Spirit has transforming power. He has the ability to draw the openly hostile
The conversion of Saul to Paul is a powerful reminder to us that even people on a mission to destroy the church or Christians can be transformed immediately. AMEN
The witness of the Spirit in you allows you to be His witnesses in this world.