The Characteristics of the Friends of Jesus Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of the Friends of Jesus. He will be in John 15: 12-16.

The reason I walk around with hope and I get up every morning saying that this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice in it is because I’ve already read the last chapter in the book of the Bible and I know that I’m on the winning side.

Well, welcome to Hope Worth Having radio broadcast today. We’re continuing our 16th year of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And today we’re going to be in John chapter 15 and we’re finishing up our series entitled The Characteristics of the Friends of Jesus.

And you know, it’s so wonderful to learn about biblical friendships and how do you define that and then how can I be that better friend that God wants me to be. So as we look at John chapter 15 verse 12 through 16, Christ is going to help us to understand that in a greater way.

So I want you to grab your Bible and let’s really start digging into the Word of God today. The Bible teaches us that love is a fruit of the Spirit. Can we be honest this morning? Is that okay? We’re in the house of God.

It’s good to be honest at church. Amen. When we assemble together and we stand before the full evaluation and examination of God’s Word this morning, that loving people is not natural for us. That just the opposite is true.

That within our flesh, there is a desire to get even and to hurt those who hurt us. You say, how do you know that Mike? Because I know myself too good. And what I have found, even though you say, yeah, we’ve noticed that about you, Mike.

Thank you. What I have noticed is that you’re no different than me and that we’re in this battle called humanity. And that loving people can be one of the most difficult things that we have to do. And so my encouragement to you, church, this morning is don’t do it in your flesh, but do it in the power of the Spirit of God.

For when we are filled with the Spirit, we will show the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. Love will cause us to clothe the naked, to visit the sick, to relieve the stranger, to supply the needs of others, to sympathize and empathize with others, to even over look the faults of others.

I had to stop there, because this is what I try to tell our new members, listen, there’s nearly 700 members here, and they’re all people, they’re all flawed, they all got issues. I can’t promise you they bring their A -game every Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night.

I’m not promising you that they’re gonna walk in the spirit every time that we assemble together or every time you see them out in the community. I’m here to tell you that as you get to know people, you get to see their strengths and their weaknesses and their faults.

And yet the Bible teaches us that through the power of loving each other, we have the capacity to not let the faults of others cause us to shrink back from loving them. There are times that our brothers and sisters need to be talked to one -on -one.

Some of you may feel like it is your job to correct every person, every thought. And every comment. Some of you spend your life responding to every comment on Facebook. I don’t know how you have this much time, okay?

But our brothers and sisters are going to make mistakes. And you know they say love is blind, right? And it is true. I love it when these couples come to me, they wanna get married. And they’re just in La La Land, and I start talking to them about conflict resolution.

They’re like, pastor, don’t worry, we never fight. I mean, I tell every young girl, don’t marry any guy until you have made him mad. I wanna see how he handles it. I wanna see how he responds to you.

I mean, just set up a date and don’t show up. Isn’t that a good advice? That is awesome. Let’s see how he processes that one. If he wants to pray with you and he wants to reschedule, we’re in good hands.

But if he… He has an emotional meltdown, and he’s verbally abusive. Kick him to the curb, amen? I mean, I love everybody, but some people need to go to the curb, right? Love will cause me to forgive.

Love causes me to forgive you. There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness. I think that’s a common knowledge, but I don’t know if we really understand it. You see, we are able to continue relationships with each other as the body of Christ, not because we are perfect, but because we are forgiving.

And we are forgiven, we forgive others, not because you are worthy of it, or that somehow Mike showed up one day and he became worthy of your forgiveness. No, we forgive one another because of the work of Christ on the cross in that he forgave us as unworthy sinners.

You see, when the motivation of your forgiveness is the cross, you’re going to be able, in the power of Christ and the Spirit, to forgive others. But when the motivation of your forgiveness is on the worthiness of the individual, you will fail to forgive and always fall short of forgiveness in your life.

Love is the proof that we are truly disciples of Christ. Love is the proof that we walk in the light of Jesus Christ. Love is the proof that we have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life. Love is the proof that you are the friend of Jesus this morning.

The characteristic of Jesus’s friends is that they love one another. Now, you may feel overwhelmed about loving, and you may really struggle with the command to love as Christ loved us. And many times people say to me, how is it, pastor, that I can love others as I should?

Well, I kind of tell them, do it like exercising. Do it like jogging. Now, you know, some people, when they’re getting ready to exercise or jogging, they go to the sporting goods store and they go there and they buy all the fancy clothing and they get the headband.

And, you know, you can always tell new people are just starting to exercise because they got the latest gear, all right? I mean, I noticed now people, they got these jackets that apparently are supposed to help you see them at night, okay?

And so they’re all geared up and then they jump out there and they start sprinting for as long as they can go. Certainly not even a mile, but they’re out there sprinting as hard as they can. can, and all of a sudden their body begins to cramp.

They begin to ache, and their lungs are burning as they’re trying to run as hard as they can. And before you know it, they’re exhausted and they’re trying to hitchhike home, amen? Now believe it or not, there’s a medical term for this.

You say, how do you know these things, Mike? I actually do research, okay? But it’s called anaerobic. It means to run or exercise without oxygen. And this causes your body to use up more oxygen than it can take in.

And I tell you that there are many people who try to love like this. And as a result, they cannot give what they do not have. And what I’m saying to you is that you need to kind of slowly work into this.

and that the key to loving others is for you to be under the fountain of God’s grace and love in your life and that as you are receiving his love being poured out by the Holy Spirit into your heart, Romans 5 -5, that this enables you to love others.

And so if you struggle, get back to the cross, get back to Christ, get back in your walk and continue to grow and continue to get stronger and rather than huffing and puffing for a half a mile and trying to love others, never love beyond the intake of the love that you are receiving into your life.

The second characteristic is that the friends of Jesus obey him. We look at verse 14 and we note that Jesus said, you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. That’s a heavy statement in our life, isn’t it?

Jesus says, you are my friends if you do what I’ve commanded you. By keeping God’s commands, we are proving our friendship to God. Samuel reminded the Israelites that to obey God is better than sacrifice.

Obedience does not earn us salvation, do not misunderstand me church, but obedience is the reflection and the evidence of our salvation. The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should want both. I’m not saved by my achievements, my good works. You’re not saved because you came here to church today. Did you know that? Oh, you’re not saved because you You went to Sunday school.

You’re not saved because you come to Sunday night or Wednesday night church. None of that saves you. No, it is a gift of God. It’s not of works, lest any man should boast. I was telling my Sunday school class about this that I had lunch with a man a few weeks ago and he was telling me about his mother and his brother who had passed away during the holidays.

And he said, pastor, I’ve gotta be good so I can see them in heaven again. And I said, my friend, you do not have to depend upon yourself, but you simply have to depend upon and trust in what Christ already did for you on the cross and through the resurrection, right?

We’re not relying on us. God help us if we’re relying on us. If everything is dependent upon you, then my friends, not only will you be most miserable, but you will fail miserably. And that’s true of all of us.

But yet, God calls us to manifest the evidence of salvation in our life. And the evidence is that we are obedient. Now, I want to give you a verse that’s going to knock your socks off if you wore socks today.

I mean, some people don’t wear socks to church anymore, did you note that? I’ve noticed that, too. It’s not that I’m looking at everybody’s feet, but it just stands out. 1 John 2, 3. Are you hanging in there?

Now, by this, we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. You see, I know that you sometimes feel like Mike harps on things, and he just won’t let it go, and can’t we move forward? But I tell you that the assurance of your salvation is not a prayer you prayed, a card you signed, or a hand you raised.

But it is the transformation of your life. And that the assurance that I know that I’m a child of God is because in my heart, God granted me a heart that desires to obey Him. John says we know that we know Him.

We know there’s an assurance to that. We know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. And the point is simply this, that when we practice His commandments, that we strive to be obedient to God, that this is the manifestation that we really know God, and that we are His children, and that we are His friend.

And so my friends, Jesus just articulates it very well, and succinctly, and He says, you’re my friend if you do whatsoever I command you. Now people get tripped up on this verse, and mainly because we don’t see all the nuances of the Greek language, and as a result, we get tripped up.

And some of you because of your personality, everything. Everything’s black and white. There’s no gray in your life. I mean, it’s either right or wrong. And it’s either black or white. It’s either up or down.

And I just don’t know how you handle when you put chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream together. These things complicate your life, right? But listen to me. When John tells us that we know that we know him if we keep his commandments, it is the idea that we are continually practicing the direction of our life, is that we strive to obey God.

It is not telling us that we have to be perfect before God. And that somehow if we disobey God once in our life, twice in our life, that somehow we are no longer a friend of God or a child of God. I don’t want you to walk out of here with the fear that somehow God’s up there and as soon as you disobey him, he’s ready to whack you upside.

the head and take you down. No, my friend, God is interested in the direction of your heart more than the perfection of your heart. The Psalmist said, who are we? Or who am I that you are mindful of me?

And the Psalmist understood his humanity and depravity and selfishness and sinfulness. And the fact that God would be mindful of him was unbelievable. And what I’m trying to say to you is that God knows you better than you know yourself.

And he’s not asking you to be a perfect Christian. He’s not asking you to never make any mistakes and cross every T and dot every I and make sure that you live your life in perfection under this stress that you could always have to obey God in its perfection or else he’s going to zap you.

But it is this that the direction of my heart and the desire of my heart is that I am striving every day to be more like Jesus, that there are moments and times that I fail him. And there are times that I turn the wrong direction, but thank God through his grace and his mercy, he is pulling me back.

I like to compare it to the GPS. How many of you love that GPS navigation system that keeps telling you what to do? When Terry and I go to Virginia Beach to visit her family, the navigation system wants to take me right through DC.

And I’m smart enough to know that that is a death trap. Amen? That it is not only a death trap because it is flooded with, well, I’ll be kind politicians. But it’s a death trap because there’s more people that can actually live in that place.

And they’re all just sitting on the interstate like a parking lot. And I’m not going there. And so I’m going to take 81 South down to Winchester. I’m going to pick up 17 South, and then I’m going to pick up in Fredericksburg after I stop at Steak and Shake, I’m going to pick up I -95.

I mean, this doesn’t have anything to do with a sermon, but would somebody open up a Steak and Shake in Chambersburg? Amen. You see, I don’t get these kind of responses unless I talk like this. But here’s my thing, that along this journey, the GPS keeps telling me to turn around.

And that it’s got to correct my whatever direction I’m going. And I think that’s like the Holy Spirit of God in your life, that when I go the wrong direction that God is always telling me over and over again, please find a U -turn.

Please go a different direction, recalculating, right? I mean, like I don’t have enough people telling me what to do. Now I’ve got a GPS, and now when I drive the bus, I’ve got these little kids telling me I’m not going the right way, that Mr.

Henderson goes. But this is life. But in your life, you need to recognize that because you have a desire and that the direction of your heart is that you want to obey God and you are striving and that every day of your life, as you learn and as you grow, you are trying to become more like Christ.

This is a manifestation that the Spirit of God lives in you, church, but it is an identification that you are the friend of Jesus Christ. For you desire to please Him more than you want to please the world.

The third thing I want you to note in the characteristics of the friends of Jesus is that they know truth, verse 15. They know truth. Henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his Lord doeth.

But I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. I wish we could drill down deep, but I encourage you to drill down deep on your own, but let me simply say this to you, church, that Jesus is making a contrast here and that the contrast is simply that a slave or a servant of the household doesn’t know why his master is doing what he’s doing.

He doesn’t know what the plans of the master. He just knows that the master said, do this and do that and get this done and get that done. But understands not the details, but you are a friend of God.

And unlike the slave and the servant who lives in the household, you know what God is up to. And you not only know what God is up to, you know why God is up to. You understand the unique dynamics of what God is doing in this world.

Somebody said, what in the world is God doing? Well, friends, open your Bible you’re a friend of God and you can learn what he’s up to the reason I walk around with hope and I get up every morning saying that this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice in it is because I’ve already read the last chapter in the book of the Bible and I know that I’m on the winning side I know my friends no matter how messed up it gets in DC and how much it gets messed up in this world that God is in control and that he is in charge I know what God is up to Christ has come so close to us in that he now calls us his friends and because we are his friends and not just slaves or servants we can learn all that we need to know that we might have perspective that we might have purpose that we might have identity we know the truth and the truth sets us free It sets us free from the bondage of sin.

It sets us free from the hopelessness of the world. It sets us free from the chains of unforgiveness. We have been released by the truth, my friends. And because he has made known unto you his truth, then you can know Christ as your savior.

You can grow in Christ. You can serve Christ and you can, with great joy, share Christ with others. My final characteristic of the friends of Jesus are that the friends of Jesus are chosen by him. Verse 16 says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain and that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name,

he may give it to you. In the New Testament times, there were many disciples and followers of different rabbis and teachers. These followers and disciples would choose which rabbi they would follow. They would choose which teacher they would be under.

But Jesus reminds his disciples, it’s different. It’s different with me. For you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Now, if you wanna get a bunch of Christians all upset and put their life in a pretzel, start talking about being chosen in Christ.

It’s people all upset. As I remind people and just recently told someone, have you ever been to where you just talk to people? so much that you don’t know who you talk to. And that’s why you gotta be careful what you talk about.

Because you might say something about somebody that you shouldn’t have and they know somebody and get you in trouble. But anyways, I was talking about this matter of being chosen in election. And I said that in the Bible, that there are two different perspectives when it comes to salvation.

There is the perspective that is revealed to us from God. And there is the perspective that is revealed to us from man. Now we learn these kind of things on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. A lot of you missed out on it.

We’d love for you to come. But we learn these kind of things. And so when we see these words, we don’t get upset, we don’t fall apart, we don’t pass out in a chair and we don’t cry and have meltdown spiritually.

We understand these things. That there are many times in the passage that we see the perspective of God. This is what Jesus is saying to us From God’s perspective you are chosen on the foreknowledge of God He knows everybody who’s coming to him.

He knows everybody That is going to be saved for anybody to stand up and say I don’t believe That God knows everything from beginning to end. Well, my friends you’re either immature or you’re a heretic You just make your choice But the point being is that God knows the beginning and the end he’s the Alpha and the Omega he began He started time God does not live in time He is above time and he sees the end and the beginning at the same time Well,

that’s enough for you to chew on and think about right, but I want you to note this Before you get all worked up is that Jesus says you are chosen by me Now whatever extent that you believe in election or being chosen All right, it does not matter relating to whether you’re truly called of God and That God is called each one of us and when Jesus uses the word ordained in this verse he is appointing us and giving us an assignment and Whether you believe that your chosen ness or your election is only related to your service Or you believe it’s salvation and service note this That all salvation begins with the call of God on everyone’s life and that we are called by God to eternal life But we are called to serve him and Jesus brings us up He says to us in verse 16 that you should go go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should what?

It should remain God has appointed you to an assignment Every one of us is on assignment by God, and that in God’s great sovereignty and his great wisdom, he has gifted you and he has shaped you that you might serve him and that you might do something great for the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 12 18 tells us that God arranged the members in the body, referring to the body of Christ, each one of them as he chose. So in God’s sovereignty, he chooses. In God’s sovereignty, he decides whether you’re going to be a nose in the body of Christ or you’re going to be a hand in the body of Christ.

He chooses whether you’re going to be in the body on the outside or on the inside, in public or in private, in front or behind the scenes. It’s God’s wisdom, not yours. He told Saul, who would later become Paul, in Acts 9 verse 15, go.

For he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel. And so God has chosen all of us. And rather than getting yourself into a pretzel and getting all worked up and all that kind of stuff, here’s what I would say.

Embrace that God has called you. Embrace that he has chosen you. Embrace that he has given you an assignment and that you are called to be on mission for him. You are not floundering in life, trying to figure out what your purpose is and which direction you should go, but you line up and sync up with God Almighty and that he has a job for you, and that job is to go and bear fruit and to bear fruit that remains.

That is his assignment to you and enjoy it church and revel in it. And remember that be humble about it, that God has chosen me, that I would be in the family of God and he has chosen me to serve him.

Who am I that he would be mindful of me? This morning church, God is offering his hand of friendship to you. And the question is, will you respond and receive his hand of friendship and be a true friend of the Lord Jesus Christ?

True friendships are built upon shared beliefs, values and goals. Jesus said, I have called you friends. That’s what he called his disciples, his followers. And the truth is we are all friends of the Lord Jesus Christ because of our faith, we’re in not only the family of God, but we are a friend to God.

Remember that Abraham, he believed God. And the Bible says he was called the friend of God. Well, this message has been designed to help us to understand what true biblical friendship is really about.

And I hope it’s been an encouragement to you. And I want to encourage you to continue to research the scriptures, learn more about biblical friendship and expand your knowledge and understanding because I know the Lord’s blessing you with friends and you wanna be that right kind of friend that honors the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you checked us out on Twitter? Yes, Hope Worth Having is on Twitter and you can type in Hope Worth Having and you’ll probably see a picture of my grandkids there. And we just want you to follow us as we’re trying to put out different tweets regularly.

And sometimes we run across some good articles that we retweet and we just wanna keep you informed and helping you to have the spiritual resources that you need for your spiritual formation as you’re growing in your faith.

And I hope that you’ll take advantage of that. This is Pastor Mike Sanders. reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.