Bible Passage: John 15:13-15
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: May 9, 2021

Bulletin May 9, 2021

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

A number of years ago I was talking to a man who had been one of my coaches in high school.  Now, just to give you a window into the thinking of teenage high school boy who loved and lived sports, coaches are a “big deal.”  But now, as an adult, I was talking to this man.  And as our conversation ended, he called me something.  At first it startled me.  He addressed me as, “my friend.”  This man whom I admired, for whom I would have done anything as one of his players, called ME “my friend.”

Sometimes when someone calls us “friend” it can almost take our breath away.  Did that happen for you when you heard our text this morning?  In our text we hear Jesus say to his disciples:  I have called you friends. (v. 15)  What an amazing thing for Jesus to say!  What a breath-taking thing for the disciples to hear!  And he didn’t just mean those who were with him on that Maundy Thursday evening.  He means YOU, too.  Today, He Calls You “Friend”!

I have called you friends.  That little sentence deserves more attention.  Notice how Jesus speaks about this friendship.   I have called YOU friends.  There’s great meaning in saying it this way.  If our text recorded the disciples saying, “Jesus, we are calling you our friend,” such a statement wouldn’t tell us at all how Jesus feels about the friendship!  Have you ever thought someone was your friend only to find out they didn’t feel the same way?  But Jesus says, I have called you friends.  Those words tell us how Jesus feels about the friendship!  He wanted it!  He started it!

Why?  Why would he want to be friends with us?  The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote a number of things on ethics, and analyzed “friendship.”  As Aristotle broke down friendship, he found friendship typically exists for two reasons:  pleasure or usefulness.  People will form a friendship with someone who brings them pleasure or makes them happy.  Or, they form friendships with people who are somehow useful to them.  Think about your own friendships.  Do they fall into these categories?  So why would Jesus call me “friend”?   Am I such a fun guy that Jesus needs me to make him happy?  Somehow his life would be unfulfilled or lack pleasure if I were not part of it?  I have something useful that Jesus needs?  Hardly!

Here is where this friendship defies analysis!  Jesus calls you “friend” because he wants to, because he loves you.  And this is love that does not look for pleasure or usefulness in the object it loves.  It loves because it loves.  And just look how great this love is!

No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends. (v. 13)  It was part of the ancient Greek concept of friendship that a friend is one who “puts their money where their mouth is.”  They don’t just talk; they act.  They do.  They help.  That is why it was said, “A man without troubles has no need of friends.”  Friends were to be people of action, not just talk.  No one ever has done this better than Jesus!

Friends, have you ever thought about the love of God for you?  Have you ever wondered how much he loves you?  Have you ever questioned in a moment IF God loves you?  Jesus could not love you any more than he did!  No one has greater love than this…  There is no greater love!  His death on the cross for his friends is as good as it gets!  The cross of Calvary is not number 9 on the dial and somewhere out there someone has dialed in a perfect “10.”  No one has greater love than this:  that someone lay down their life for his friends.  Jesus’ love for his friends is the 10!

I don’t want to get too granular, but there is something interesting about the little preposition “for” in that phrase “for his friends.”  In the Greek, that preposition can also mean both “above” and “beyond.”  It is this spatial idea that then also gives the idea of “for the benefit of someone.”  Kind of neat to think about.  You might have a friend who will go above and beyond for you.  But no one has ever gone “above-r” or “beyonder” than Jesus.

He died for the sins of his friends.  For all those times we have acted like anything other than a friend!  We used language we know our Friend does not approve of.  We think things of which we would be ashamed for our dear Friend to know .  We do things that dishonor the name and reputation of our Friend.  In short, we often are not very good friends to Jesus.  Yet there he is, calling us “friends”!  There he is, going above and beyond what any friend has ever done for me, for you!  Taking the punishment for all sin.  Taking it all…for his friends!  All because he wants to – and it takes the breath away to say it – fill heaven with his friends!

There is another facet to Jesus calling us friends.   I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know what his master is doing.  But I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. (v. 15)  Jesus contrasts servants and friends.  A master doesn’t confide in his servant; he doesn’t sit and sip a cup of coffee with a servant and divulge his deepest secrets.  But he does confide in friends.  Jesus confides in us!  As a friend opens up to a friend, so Jesus opens up to us.  He tells us sacred secrets known only by him and the Father.

Think of the things our Friend has confided in us.  Secrets about sin and grace and forgiveness.  He tells us sacred secrets about heaven and hell.  He tells us sacred secrets about angels and demons.  He tells us sacred secrets about what the kingdom of God is like and how it spreads.  He tells us what service is and looks like in the kingdom.  He whispers secrets about the end of the world and his second coming and the resurrection of the dead.   We think of what Peter once said to Jesus.  He said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life!” (John 6:68)  His point was:  nowhere are we ever going to hear the things we hear from Jesus!  Indeed, we must be very dear friends to him for he confides in us the deep things of God!

He is such a good friend to us; let us be good friends to him.  He says in our text:  You are my friends if you continue to do the things I instruct you.  (v. 14)  The key word here is continue.   Recall that our text comes just after Jesus has spoken of himself as vine and we as branches.  He encouraged us to remain in him and his Word, and he would remain in us.  Remain (John 15:5-7).  Continue.  Jesus wants this to be a lasting friendship!

Truly it is a profound thing that Jesus calls us “friends.”  I want to conclude by reading you one more quote from long ago that someone has written about friendship: “It is certain that one cannot regard one’s prince as one’s friend. The distance that exists between rulers and subjects does not permit the formation of that union.”  The writer’s point is that you can’t be friends with your lord and master.  That is generally true…UNLESS Jesus is your Lord and Master.  For he crosses ground few would dare to cross.  He bridges a gap few would care to bridge.  Jesus crosses it with a word.  He crosses it, and calls you “friend”!

Amen.

Permission to podcast / stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-716390. All rights reserved.

If you would like to give an offering after today’s worship, click here.