The Friends of Jesus: Volume 2 (Life-Changing Bible Story Series)

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So, would Jesus call you His friend? He would if you are loving others, especially those in your home and in the church. He would if you are seeking to obey His commandments. He would if you are growing to understand the truths revealed by the Holy Spirit in God’s Word. And He would if you know that He chose you to bear fruit that remains and you’re seeking to bear that fruit through prayer. And if you wonder, “How do I know if God has chosen me?” the answer is, “Have you believed in Jesus as your Savior and Lord?” If you have, that didn’t come from you! You believed in Him because in love He chose you before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). That way, He gets all the glory! Application Questions When Jesus is your friend you know you will never be excluded by your failures or shortcomings. (Rom 8:38) We can almost see Martha, when she received word that Jesus was planning to stop by; she was concerned about hospitality and generosity. She immediately went to work, beginning to prepare the meal. She sent one of her helpers to the market to get some extra food; she began to build a fire for cooking—and in the midst of the bustle of preparation, Jesus arrived. Drew And Mike – February 9, 2022 – The Drew and Mike Show". February 10, 2022 . Retrieved March 24, 2023. So, friends of Jesus love one another, just as He loved us. They obey His commandments. They understand the truths that He has made known to us from the Father. Finally, 4. Friends of Jesus are chosen by Him to bear fruit that remains as they depend upon Him through prayer (John 15:16).

But now, things have changed. Through the work of Christ, God’s people can once again be known as his friends. And Jesus notes that one element of this change is a new openness. Previously, as servants, they didn’t know what their master was doing. A servant has to get on with their tasks regardless of whether they understand them. But now, Jesus says, he will share with his followers all that God the Father reveals to him. As Paul the Apostle will later say, God has now revealed the ‘mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed’ (Ephesians 3:4-5). Friendship is characterised by openness: an honesty and transparency between friends. In the life of the Church, over the ages, “love of friendship” managed to get a foothold and secure its place, despite being often misunderstood. From a theological perspective, the mistrust of this “love of friendship” stems from its appearing to be a preferential, even exclusive, kind of affection and, thus, a contradiction of the biblical command to love all people. However, it need not be either exclusive or contradictory. The Christian understanding of “love of friendship” emerges from many biblical texts, throughout the Old Testament and the New, but in a particular way in the Fourth Gospel. Friendships are most often seasonal. We are close to people we attend school with, work with, or live nearby. Once the circumstances of life change, the friendship can fade.Here is one of the most amazing, most incredible of all the blessings that come to us through the gospel. If we are a follower of Jesus – we are one of his friends. And that friendship is characterised by love and openness. Friendship with one another

But why does Jesus mention this truth here? D. A. Carson ( The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus [Baker], p. 107) points out that “often in John’s Gospel election is introduced just at the point where human arrogance may need a gentle lesson in humility (e.g., 6:70; 13:18).” He adds, “This truth is of overwhelming importance if we hope to escape the puffy spiritual arrogance that talks almost as if Jesus has been blessed by our presence, as if we have done him a favor by choosing him.” He adds that while we are responsible to repent and believe the gospel, no one in heaven will be able to claim that he made it because he made the right choice. As Paul told the proud Corinthians, God chose them as foolish, weak, unimportant people, “so that no man may boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:29; cf. 1:26-31). If you’re a friend of Jesus, it’s because He chose you. That’s why you chose Him. B. Friends of Jesus are chosen to bear fruit that remains. Just ponder that for a moment. The Son of God, the one through whom all things were created, the one who for all eternity past has existed in relationship with the Father and the Spirit, takes on flesh, comes to earth and on the night before he’ll be brutally executed on a Roman cross for them, looks at his closest followers and says, ‘You are my friends’. It’s astounding. And what’s even more astounding is that we can trust that by extension Jesus says those words to us too. Jesus says to all of his followers: ‘You are my friends’. Jesus wants to help the disciples to understand what the greatest love is really like, and he doesn’t turn to marriage or sex, he turns to friendship. For Jesus, friendship is a relationship of deep love.Second, the cross proves his friendship. He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). He wanted his disciples to see the cross and think: I understand now: He substituted himself for me under God’s wrath, and he did it because he views me as his treasured friend. He wants us to view the cross as an affection-filled sacrifice for friends. And what will these friendships look like? I think Jesus has already shown us. Friendships are relationships of love – genuine love, expressed love, love enacted through self-sacrifice. Is that how we view friendship? Is that the sort of friendships we seek to cultivate? Often we don’t. Perhaps we think we don’t need them. Perhaps we fear we’ll be misunderstood if we love our friends too deeply. Perhaps we just don’t want the disruption. But if friendships are about the love of self-sacrifice, perhaps they should be disruptive. There’s a cost to laying down our lives for others. Real love costs something, and real love is what Jesus calls us to in friendship.