Jesus and his Friends Ps 41; Prov 8 Acts 4:23-31 John 15:12-17

Reminder that this series is about the humanity of the Son of God, and today’s topic is certainly very human.

Introduction https://youtu.be/oMCJUWyMlnQ

Everyone I can think of has friends, of some sort, and we are all very familiar with the notion of a “best friend”. This isn’t a cultural peculiarity; it is a part of being human. Which makes it both strange and disturbing that very few adult believers[1] seem ever to talk freely about Jesus as a special friend[2]. Would you be able, without embarrassment, to tell the person sitting next to you, or your mate or girl friend or spouse[3], that Jesus is your first friend, because he has shown to you a type of friendship which is infinitely in excess to anything they could ever show? To speak about Jesus as a friend is a claim to know him in the very deepest way. To a certain sort of proper or serious Christian spirituality this language might seem irreligious, which to them I am sure it is, but all this demonstrates is that such folk, to quote Paul “have a form of godliness but deny its power” (2 Tim 3:5). Time for us however to turn to the words of Christ himself.

Exposition

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (vv. 12-13)

God loves those who keep his commandments. Jesus said about himself, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” (John 10:17). This must make us ask, “Does this mean God loves some people more than others?” Since “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), this is impossible, what it does mean it that the love of God is more powerfully expressed and experienced in the lives of those who obey him most fully. An old and wise friend once told me that when people sought him for counsel as to why they couldn’t sense what God was saying to them anymore, he would always ask them what the last thing they sensed from the Lord, and disobeyed. This is a fair enough observation, but it is not the main point of this passage, because the distinction Jesus draws between a servant and a friend is not between obeying and not obeying, but between not understanding and understanding.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you…. I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

From this clear word of Christ, it follows that ignorance about friendship with Jesus is a sure sign, whatever else may/may not, be true, is a sign of not feeling worthy of his friendship. To be “called” a friend of Jesus is something remarkable, this is the God “who calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17), what the Lord calls is irreversibly established. So once a friend of God you are always a friend.

As we discussed two weeks ago, God the Father gave Jesus “brothers”, but he also gave him “friends” to confide in. Whilst the Lord taught his parables to the general public, it was in private that he expounded the secret of the kingdom of God (Mark 4:10-11, 34 cf. 13:3) to his disciples.  As Jesus’ friends we are privileged insiders, whilst the rest of the population are outsiders. Most of us fail to be grasped by the enormous privilege this is. There is a deep and intimate connection between the gift of friendship with God in Christ and the gift of divine revelation. Unlike the general population[4] we are not stumbling about in the dark (Acts 17:27) with a sense that there is some sort of eternal power behind everything, nor are we like various heretical groups, Muslims, Bahais, Unity Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many others, who have some belief in revelation but think there is a more ultimate God than the one revealed in Jesus, the friends of the Lord know[5] that God is who he is in the revelation of Jesus Christ. In Jesus of Nazareth, “what you see about the divine nature is what you get”.

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing”

The Lord isn’t referring here to “my servants the prophets” (2 Ki 9:7; 17:13; Jer 7:25; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4; Ezek 38:17; Zech 1:6), who more than anyone else in Israel knew the will of God. He refers to the sort of menial servants that were well known in the ancient world. The sort of subservience spoken of by the Roman centurion, “I say…to my servant, ‘Do this,’ [without explanation as to why]and he does it” (Luke 7:8). I am not suggesting that Jesus will always give us an in-depth explanation of his commands, but he will give us a sense of his wisdom and living purposes behind and upholding all his commands.

16 “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,”

This is a powerful scripture to me, for even though I had been converted through intense reading of the Bible, I was a virtual stranger to theology. So, when I found myself in a university Bible study where the teacher was adamant[6] that before we chose to follow Jesus we had been chosen by God a few of us were incensed that this man seemed to be saying that we lacked “free will”[7] and set about through diligent examination of the scriptures to prove this man wrong and to come back next week armed with biblical evidence. Guess what happened, we all came back convinced he was right, and we were wrong. With greater understanding of following verses, all of which centre on Jesus the words of God, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold” (Isa 42:1)[8], at the transfiguration, ““This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”” (Luke 9:35); the taunting words at the cross ““He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”” (Luke 23:35)[9] are all Jesus-focussed. When was Jesus chosen by the Father to come as our Lord and Saviour? In eternity (1 Pet 1:19-20; Rev 13:8). And when were we chosen, “in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Eph 1:4). The doctrine of predestination[10] is only experienced as threatening when it is separated from the love of God in Christ. Our eternal security comes from being surrounded from eternity “past” to eternity “future”[11] in the love of God that has surrounded Jesus. Every now and then in pastoral ministry I have come across someone who were told by mum and dad that they were an unplanned “accident”, whatever mum and dad might have thought, if you belong to Jesus your existence was no more “accidental”[12] than his own.

Given this sense of proportion, what Jesus says next makes a lot more sense.  “so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (15:16b)

The key expression here is “in my name”. To ask in the “name of Jesus” isn’t to use a sure-fire formula[13], nor is it a case that when we “abide in Christ” (John 15:1-11) our minds somehow fuse with the mind of Jesus[14] so we always know what the will of God is, but that if we are united with God in his character and concerns for the coming of his kingdom our prayers will be answered. It hardly needs to be said that many of our prayers are not answered because they are more concerned with our own worldly wellbeing, or that of others, than the kingdom of God[15].

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Everything that God has ever commanded, whether in the Old Testament, by Jesus in the Gospels, or through the apostolic witness, it all serves the one great purpose of eternal divine Love[16].

Conclusion

I learned through prayer many years ago that any word connected to Jesus goes through a radical change of meaning. But always in a good sense[17]. “Friendship” is one such word. Ordinary friendship is impermanent and unreliable. Ordinary friendship can be on the basis of mutual gain or reputation. But in the case of being a friend of Jesus the benefit is all one way. Jesus has never needed friends but has always submitted as a faithful Son and real human being to the wisdom of the Father in becoming friend-dependent, even when he knew those friends would fail him[18]

Being a friend of Jesus is great news, great news  for single/divorced/lonely/poor/sick and every kind of person. And even I have long said, when it comes to getting on with weird or eccentric Christians[19], “any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine.” Our approach to whatever the Bible says about friendship must ultimately be grounded in our faith in the Word of Christ himself. The “friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Prov 18:24) has to be Jesus[20], the friendship which Abraham, Moses, Job and the prophets enjoyed with God [21] is nothing less powerful and enduring than being taken into the bond which the all-wise Father established through Jesus in the unbreakable power of the Spirit with all his sons and daughters[22].