#1525 John 15 Part 2 Called You Friends

 

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 “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. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 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. 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, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. John 15: 7-17 ESV

John 15: 7-17

V. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you - This is important, and it is a point that has escaped most of the evangelical church today, the very close link between Christ and the Word. He is called the Word become flesh in John 1:14. We come to know Him through the Word, we believe in by faith, and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So many skip to ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. They see Christ as a genie, a granter of wishes, a benevolent Santa Claus, but if you look at this passage it teaches something quite different.  

…2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. 4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.… James 4: 2-4

…3Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. 5Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.… Psalm 37: 3-5

Abiding in Jesus means abiding in His words, and having His words live in the disciple. “We should not overlook the importance of the reference to ‘my words’. The teaching of Christ is important and is not lightly to be passed over in the interests of promoting religious feeling.” (Morris) - e Word

V. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit - I wonder what people who are trying to glorify God are going to wish for, to ask for? In verse 6 it said that if anyone doesn't abide in Him they are cast out and burned. We pray for closeness, to abide, for evidence of this that is found in fruit. If our focus is truly on Christ, if the Holy Spirit is in us, then we cannot help but to produce fruit accordingly. Costi puts it well, that fruit follows affection, that if we love God then we are going to produce fruit, not of legalism, that says, do this, check this box, follow this program. I think it is the simplest and most sincere prayer of the Christian, to ask that we love Him more. It leads to a desire for the things that speak to us about Him, His word becomes the letter of a dearest friend, someone we are eager to please, love to work for. It spills over into the unbelieving world, we plant seeds, others water, and God is glorified because more fruit comes in through His ordained means of evangelism. 

“Or, honoured. It is the honour of the husbandman to have good, strong, vigorous vines, plentifully laden with fruit: so it is the honour of God to have strong, vigorous, holy children, entirely freed from sin, and perfectly filled with his love.” (Clarke)

iii. Real fruitfulness is only determined over an extended period of time. “Genuine conversion is not measured by the hasty decision but by long-range fruitfulness.” (Carson) This principle is displayed in the Parable of the Soils (Matthew 13). - E Word

V. 9 As the Father has loved Me, so have I love you - Too profound to try to explain, but only to acknowledge that there was no fitting example of love in all of Creation. He appeals to the infinite, eternal love of God to Himself.

V. 10 Just as I have kept My Father's commandments - Obedience is a fruit of love. Jesus set the ultimate example in that He took on human flesh, and became that which we weren't. There is a gospel appeal here, that the love of the Father is extended through the obedience of the Son to us who are being called. 

…18Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. 19So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.… John 5: 18-20

…96I have seen a limit to all perfection, but Your commandment is without limit. 97Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation. 98Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.… Psalm 119: 96-98

V. 11 That My joy may be in you - Pure, and something that cannot be taken away. 

My joy: “Not ‘joy concerning Me,’ nor ‘joy derived from Me,’ nor ‘My joy over you,’ but My joy, properly speaking…His own holy exultation, the joy of the Son in the consciousness of the love of God.” (Alford)

…4Sing to the LORD, O you His saints, and praise His holy name. 5For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning. 6In prosperity I said, “I will never be shaken.”…

…7O LORD, You favored me; You made my mountain stand strong. When You hid Your face, I was dismayed. 8To You, O LORD, I called, and I begged my Lord for mercy: 9“What gain is there in my bloodshed, in my descent to the Pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?… Psalm 30: 4-9

V. 13 That someone lay down his life for his friends - He commands that they love each other as He loved them, which reality is coming closer still in the cross. The gospel is a call to acknowledge our falleness, or else from what do we repent? This denies self in the sense of pride, of wanting to be accepted with our sin. It is a call to self denial too in that one would gladly give the thing they cannot keep, that fading life of here in the present, soiled, damaged and with the clock ever ticking. It is an unfair trade, our filthiness, our delusion, given up for the life of Christ, His life given in our place, we receiving what we were not owed. He is calling us to be baptized into this sort of higher love, joy, not for the sake of martyrdom, but daily dying to the self, and if need be, giving our life for others. It transfers over to the believer in every relationship, self denial for the glory of God, reflecting back His very character.

23But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” 24Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.… Matthew 16: 23-25

…24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,… Ephesians 5: 24-26

1Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.… Romans 12: 1-3

V. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you - This is the Doulos (Greek for slave) being elevated to friend. Modern versions substitute servant for slave, but this is not strong enough language. Slave is proper in many ways and far superior in context. It reflects many aspects of humanity:

1. You were made by the Creator, Jesus is the Creator, all things were made through Him and for Him. He is life, and you have been brought into life. The Potter has a right over the clay, and in this case He also made the clay which He is molding.
2. You are a slave to sin, that you prove out every day, and so you have to be purchased from sin, and the wages of sin, which is death. …19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6: 18-20
   

V.15 No longer do I call you slaves - In the ancient world there were slaves that chose to stay on with their master, and at that time they would stick their ear up to a post and have it punched out with something like an awl, indicating that they were happy with their position and did not want to leave. Some of these rose to a closeness with their master, who was sometimes a royal, a king, and they became his confidant. Joseph became that in Potiphar's house, trusted, loyal, but also falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. Joseph again attains this trusted status in jail, then later with Pharaoh, who puts him over Egypt. The acknowledgment here is that I would rather be a slave of Christ then of my flesh, it's twisted views of right, wrong and fair, yet in being brought to Him, I am set free from sin, and also adopted as His child. I obey what He commands in the spirit of love, of gratitude, belonging to something, this family that I could have no other way attained. I owe Him everything yet He is calling me, friend. 

“It must be active obedience, notice that. ‘Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.’ Some think it is quite sufficient if they avoid what he forbids. Abstinence from evil is a great part of righteousness, but it is not enough for friendship.” (Spurgeon) - E Word

…16He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing. 17Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food? But here I am, starving to death! 18I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.…

…19I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ 20So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’…

…22But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.… Luke 15: 16-24

V. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you - The concept is only difficult in the mind that thinks it can do some worthy good, something not esteemed as filthy rags. Many acknowledge that Jesus came to die for their sins, that this was necessary, but in their fallen ideal of the self, of righteousness, and the holiness of God, they think it unfair that God would not choose some. The Bible demonstrates this over and over again. He chooses Jacob, and says, "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated." It is a puzzle as Spurgeon points out that God chose Jacob, or any of us for that matter. There is this sort of goddess like thing that people go on about, the free will, yet is it free or is it the slave of sin? The Bible tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and must be born again, and dead men do not recognize their state, someone has to come along, and say, "Lazarus, come forth." Lazarus did not give Jesus permission to do this, and yet nothing was violated in the creature either. It is the creature who is in violation for not glorifying the One Who made him. The law was given plainly and simply, do this and you shall live, but men, in their long gone free will, a thing that I reckon only Adam and Eve to know, chose sin, the foolish idea of human autonomy, a non existent sort of existence. He chose Abram out of a pagan and lost world, and made him into Abraham, the father of many. He chose Abraham to be His friend. He chose Israel as the apple of His eye, and now he corrects any misgivings in his disciples, "don't be self deceived, I chose you, not the other way around."

…15For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”… Romans 9: 15-17

Vs. 16b-17 And appointed you that you should go and bear fruit - This flows so beautifully together. How can fallen men produce fruit, how can the spiritually dead be partakers in life, walking in the Spirit? He chose us as He did Lazarus, no less, it is the miracle of rebirth, and is guaranteed to produce fruit. If the Spirit of God resides in us, how can we not?

…25I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.… Ezekiel 36: 25-27

…8For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.… Ephesians 2: 8-10

…5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.… Galatians 4: 5-7

…19The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; 20idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.…

…22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.…

…25Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another. Galatians 5: 19-26