WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS

Text: Proverbs 18:24b, “…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

John 15:15 “I no longer call you servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.”

Introduction: Have you ever considered the mystery involved with some of the hymns that we sing. Oh, to be sure, they were written and I'm convinced that they are most often sung as a result of genuine experience in faith. But, there is still a mystery.

Consider, for instance, "Oh, how I love Jesus." How is it possible to be "personally related to someone who was alive and on earth 2,000 years ago? The answer comes back with words of another song, "He Lives," "You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart." But what does that really mean, this living in one's heart?

There is another hymn that we sing often in worship that has a ring of mystery to it..."What a Friend we have in Jesus." How can someone I can't see, can't touch, and can't dialogue with be my friend? A section of the hymn goes...

All our sins and griefs to bear...

O What peace we often forfeit,

O What needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer.

It's really a song about prayer more than it is about friendship. But the point is well made in the hymn that we do have a genuine friend in Jesus. Jesus had several things to say about friends. For instance, several of his parables included the role of friends, as in the case of the parable on prayer about the "Friend at midnight," and in the parable about "The Lost Sheep" upon being found by the searching shepherd who calls his friends together to rejoice; He calls Lazarus, "Our Friend"; and three times in John 15 He mentions friendship. First He says that a Friend will lay down his life for His friends. Then, He says to His disciples, "You are my Friends." Finally, in verse 15 He says, "I have called you friends." There is no doubt, in addition to being our Lord, Master, Savior and King, Jesus also wants to be our Friend.

For the next few weeks, Lord willing, I want to preach on the theme of “Friends.” This morning I want to introduce to you a very special friend of mine…I hope he’s your friend, too!

Having Jesus as my friend has made some changes in my life. Let’s consider just a few...

I. My Friend Jesus Keeps Me From Thinking More Highly of Myself Than I Ought.

1. We all need to be reminded from time to time about our humanness. We need to remember that He is God and we are not. So often we get to enjoying our independence so that we forget that we are actually dependent upon Him...that He is the Creator and we are the creature.

2. As a friend, Jesus introduces us to God. He teaches us that God is still on His throne and is in charge of the universe. We need to remember that that is His job. By the way we worry and complain we often give the impression that we could do a better job at managing the universe than the Almighty does. Let's admit it...we can't!

Leroy Lawson tells the story that illustrates how ridiculous that effort is. This dog believed it to be his calling in life to help the jetliners land at a nearby airport. Whenever he heard one approaching, he began barking directions to the pilot, running back and forth the length of his backyard in an anxious frenzy until the plane had safely landed. Only then did he stop, his job completed, able to rest awhile until the next jet approached. The pilots not once expressed their gratitude to the dog for the superb job he was doing, but since he had taken on the assignment, not a single jet had crashed on approach to that airport. From their indifference, however, you'd almost have thought the pilots believed they could get along without him.

One of the things Jesus helps us remember is that God is competent to pilot His universe without my assistance, so I can relax and let Him be God.

3. He has also revealed through His personality and ministry what God is like. As a result from what we learn from friend Jesus, we can trust firmly in God. As George Macdonald has wisely observed, "The miracles of Jesus were the ordinary works of His father, wrought small and swift that we might take them in." In His healings, His feedings, His teachings, and His dying and rising from the dead, we behold the character and majesty of God and learn to trust His hand at the controls. Jesus said to Philip, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."

4. In addition to all of that, by reminding us that God is God and we are not, Jesus also is teaching us that we are loved by God and therefore our self esteem can be healthy. This God whom Jesus came to reveal to us made us in His image. He also loved us with such a love that He sent "His only begotten Son that whosoever..."

Jesus also brings us tremendous encouragement in the fact that even though sin has caused a great deal of ruin and alienation from God, God has provided His Son to Reconcile us back to Himself. That means that God wants to be friends with us. Though sin has broken that kind of relationship, Jesus has died for us and through that death paved the way for reconciliation to happen so that our relationship with God can be restored.

Wow! What a Friend!!

II. My Friend Jesus Has Given Me New Eyes With Which to See.

We all know that a good friend affects your point of view. Friends share. When friends get together they like to compare notes, impressions. They may not always see eye-to-eye but friends are eager to find out each other's thoughts and feelings.

Jesus, our friend, also affects us like this in several ways:

1. We can't look at the world anymore without seeing God. Spending time with Jesus affects how we feel about the world His Father has made. That old practice of separating everything into "sacred" and "secular" is gone. Along with it the old heretic ideas that only the "spiritual" is good and everything that is "material" is bad. Jesus comes along and teaches us that "This Is My Father's World." Everything in it is His. I am His. What I call my own is actually His placed in my care or stewardship to manage till He comes.

Now the world looks different. No longer is it something just to be exploited but it is to be cared for. In reality it reflects something of the glory of God. "The heavens are telling the glory of God and the earth shows forth His handiwork." Psa. 19:1

2. We can't look at God without seeing the world, either. Jesus comes and shares the Good News with us that God so loved this world "that He gave His one and only Son" for the people in it. Now because of my friend, Jesus and His teaching I know that God is not some disinterested force a long way off who just created the world and left it on its own. But, instead, He cares about His world. He's watching the lost and the least. He yearns for all of His creatures to be reconciled to Him. He delays the end in patience so that others may "come to repentance." Now when we look at God we think about His love and concern for a lost world. And as we get to know our Friend even more we begin being concerned about those who are lost like we once were.

3. We Can't look at people without seeing New Creatures. One of the saddest commentaries on the church is when people who belong to Christ can't get along with each other. In Christ we should be able to lay aside our differences and work together with each other. We may not always see eye-to-eye but we should be able to emphasize our like relationship to Christ and work for His cause. We need to learn to look at others the way Jesus did. Jesus even helps us see potential for good even in apparently unlikely places.

a. People looked at Levi sitting at the seat of customs, tax collecting, and they despised him. Jesus saw in him the potential of an apostle. Jesus ignored the attitudes of others and called him to follow Him. Matthew later writes one of the Gospels in the New Testament.

b. Others looked at Zaccheus of Jericho and also hated him because he too was a tax collector, a publican. Jesus saw in him a potential to change. He called him out of the tree and dined in his home and the Bible says that "Salvation came to that house."

c. The Disciples saw a Samaritan woman with a jaded past but Jesus saw within her a potential for change. As a result she brought an entire village to meet Jesus.

You see, spending time with Jesus, helps us to see others with the proper perspective.

III. My Friend Jesus Has Accepted Me in Spite of My Unacceptability.

1. Here's the way the Bible says it, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8). In other words, "When I was still a sinner, when even I was aware of my sinfulness; even before I was willing to forgive myself for my sinfulness, my Friend embraced me. More than that, He forgave me!

3. There are two events in Jesus' ministry that make this unquestionably clear. One, is His own baptism. John the Immerser was dipping people in the Jordan River so penitent sinners could receive forgiveness of their sins. (Luke 3:3). When Jesus came, John considered such an act to be unnecessary for Him. With no sins to repent of, no baptism should be necessary. Yet Jesus insisted. He was determined to "fulfill all righteousness." (Matt. 3:15). So Jesus declared His solidarity with us sinners! "He became like a sinner in this act so that I through His grace could become like Him." (Leroy Lawson)

The second event was His crucifixion. This was the climax of His rescue operation for sinners. In this act my Friend and your Friend laid down His life for us. He paid the price that you and I owed for our sin. He took our place. He presented Himself as a perfect sacrifice to God in our behalf. There is no greater love!

IV. My Friend Jesus Gives Me Something to Live for.

1. People want to do more than simply exist. They want to live...actually they want something to live for. Jesus promises not only life but abundant life. Part of that element of abundancy is in the purpose to which we are called when we respond to His offer of Life.

2. This Friend of ours calls us to be fellow workers with Him in the greatest work in the world. He calls us to share in the ministry of reconciliation. He calls us to be light in a world filled with darkness. He calls us to be salt in a world that is quickly decaying morally and spiritually.

3. This world of ours has changed...not for the better but for the worse. Oh, I would agree that technologically we have made many advances. And without a doubt the geographical boundaries of our world are changing with a certain degree of encouragement. Medically we have made great strides. People are living longer and more qualitative lives.

But what about in the area of morals and spirituality. Some have suggested that we have almost gone beyond the point of no return. The moral fiber of our country has become frayed and we are not nearly as strong spiritually as we once were. Indicators are all around: crime, drugs, teenage pregnancy, the basic unit of society--the family is hurting, aides with its clamor for acceptance of "alternative lifestyles"; not to even mention the thin ice that our economic stability is sitting on and the continued cultural unrest in so many areas of our world.

We must never forget that the world condition that caused God's wrath to be revealed in the time of Noah with a mighty flood was one of sin. We read in Genesis 6:5, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually." And in verse 11, "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." That's the situation that brought the flood and that same situation with bring the end and judgement!

4. What is desperately needed is for all of us to really become reacquainted with this Friend of Friends, this Friend that "sticks closer than a brother." And then, we need to be sharing the news of that Friendship with others who need such a friend. Our world for too long has been adversely affected by friendship with a Fiend, a Devil, the Destroyer, himself. It is time to heed the warning of Scripture that friendship with the world is enmity with God. You see the Devil promises a great time and with it comes death. Jesus promises life and with it comes life that is abundant and eternal. But to receive it we must die to the things of the world.

5. This Friend of Friends calls us to discipleship which begins with learning about Him and His teachings and continues by bringing those things that we learn to bear on the way we live and how we affect life around us. The church of Jesus Christ is the only redemptive agency there is in this world of ours. It is so important that we all have a sense of call to the work of the church. The only way this world of ours will be rescued is that the church be strong and faithful to her calling.

Conclusion: One more thing. Jesus is a friend that is absolutely faithful. He will not let us down. The Bible says it this way, "He will never leave you nor forsake you." Not only did He demonstrate that by coming to earth to rescue us but He also lived a perfect, sinless life while here. He dispensed the truth of God and expressed His character perfectly. In addition to that He took upon Himself our sins and went to the cross in our place and died there for us! On the third day He arose in victory over sin and the grave. Jesus is our Friend. Have you accepted that personally? Have you responded to His call? Have you obeyed the Gospel? Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb? Are you Friends with the greatest Friend of all?