A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Every Christian should be looking to the Lord for something to do in the Kingdom of God, and everyone ought to be asking God to honor him with a job too big for him.
“That’s why I pity anybody who can do everything he is trying to do, who limits himself timidly to that which he knows he can do.
“What a sad thing for a Christian to say, ‘I’m going to serve the Lord, but I’m going to serve God strictly within the framework of my own ability to get the thing done.
“If we are to accomplish what God expects of us, the improbability of our task will surely drive us to our knees with the cry, ‘O God, who am I?’”
That’s the question we’re going to give one answer to today. There is more than one answer to who you are, but the characteristic we’re going to look at today can change your life.
Last week in our series “Leadership Jesus Style” we looked at leadership in humility. Today, we’re going to look at leadership in friendship, because being led by Jesus is being led by a friend.
Our main text today is going to be:
John 15:1515 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.
You are a friend of Jesus.
•“Will you be my friend?”
As we grow up, we begin to learn that we
don’t always get to decide who are friends will be. We all want to be friends with influential and socially powerful people, because we all want to know someone who can pull some strings, do us a favor. But we discover that the more influential a person is the more control they have over who they let into their inner circle of friendship. The less powerful and influential we are, the less control we have over who our friends are.
You might get to rub shoulders with such people, but to be their confidante is another matter.
The astounding truth is that Jesus, the most powerful and influential Person in the universe, has invited us to be His friend. Talk about knowing someone who can pull some strings.
John 15:7-117 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
One of most basic components of friendship is conversation. Jesus shares His thoughts and strategies with us, but this is no normal relationship. The King of Creation has invited
His servants to be His friends. And His thoughts and strategies change our thoughts and strategies. His words change us. We are changed as we abide in Him.
To abide means to comply with, obey, observe, follow, keep to, hold to, conform to, adhere to, stick to, stand by, act in accordance with, uphold, heed, accept, go along with, acknowledge, respect, defer to.
That’s why this is no normal friendship. We are always deferential to Him. So, as we abide, we can ask our friend for favors, because now our thoughts and our strategies are aligned with His wishes.
This is about pulling strings for the right reasons. The reality is this, you will lead like the person you follow. Christ led selflessly.
This promise is not about pagan ideas of getting what you wish for by rubbing the right lamp or asking the right deity in the right order of words. It’s about abiding friendship.
In the classic story of the genie and the lamp, the person who finds the lamp is given three wishes. Most of us have probably had the Genie in the lamp fantasy at some point in our lives, and if we’re honest, our wishes were
probably things like, “Make me the richest person in the world” or “make me the most talented person at something.”
The other wishes probably had to do with sex.Sometimes our deepest wishes reveal our idols. Our deepest wishes reveal who or what we love.
So, this text is not to be twisted into some kind of get-what-you-want religious charm. It’s about deferential friendship with the King. It’s about a very special friendship that has different rules than other friendships. We are the humble servants of the King who has made us His friends.
And this is why He has made us His friends:
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
God is glorified. This means He is applauded, celebrated by others. What makes others applaud God? What makes people celebrate God? What elevates God in people’s hearts and minds?
That we bear much fruit and so prove to be His disciples by our words, by our actions, by
our lives. It proves that He has invited us into the inner circle of friendship. People can tell if we’ve been with Jesus. They can tell if we’re actually friends of Jesus, because it will become clear that we think like He does and act like He does. We’ve been influenced by Him, because we are His friends.
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Matthew Henry put it beautifully: “As the Father loved Jesus, who was most worthy, Jesus loved us, who were most unworthy.”
The Father loves Jesus with a perfect love from all eternity. God expressed His love for His Son on a number of occasions by saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
It says here that Jesus has loved us in this way. Can you imagine that? Jesus saying about you, “This is my beloved friend, in whom I am well pleased?” This verse is saying that’s how Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you with a perfect love. And you can be assured He loves you because of His word.
If His word doesn’t convince you that He loves you, then you will continually look for a
subjective experience to confirm God’s love for you. And you will never find it, because first comes the word, then comes the experience.
Faith is the assurance of things not seen, but sometimes faith is the assurance of things not felt.
Abide in my love.
He wants what is best for us, so He doesn’t want us to move from His perfect love. He wants what is best for us, so He wants us to fully trust Him.
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.
There is a connection between believing Jesus and experiencing Jesus. There is a connection between believing Jesus and obeying Jesus. Believing Jesus leads to obeying Jesus which leads to experiencing Jesus.
When Jesus walked this earth there was an ongoing, unbroken fellowship between Jesus and the Father.
Obedience to God is always in our best interests. That’s what Jesus is communicating here and He can’t communicate more fully than saying the following:
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
God desires that we live joyful Christian lives. To few Christians are walking around in the joy of the Lord. Maybe we’re not full of joy because we’re doing what Tozer spoke about earlier -- we’re only doing what we know we can do. We’re not doing what we have to trust God to accomplish. There’s no greater joy than when we see God upholding us. When we don’t just understand that He is with us, but when we actually experience that He is with us.
Ephesians 3:1919 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
That’s the kind of life that is writ large, stamped with something other than self. It’s a life with the flavor of joy from another realm. He wants your joy to be full. God wants you to be full of joy, but joy doesn’t come from you getting what you want. That’s the lie.
God will burn away your hopes and dreams so that His hopes and dreams for your life can be realized.
Psalm 37:44 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
This friendship should be the most meaningful friendship of your life. Christ has invited you into the inner circle. Everything the Father has shown Him, He has shown you. He holds nothing back from you. He wants you to be filled with all the fullness of God.
Again, when you’re invited into the inner circle of a powerful and influential person, they will be sharing their thinking and their strategies with you, the very things that more than likely have made them powerful and influential. This is what will allow you to rise up to where they are, because we become like those we follow. Jesus wants you to be raised up into new resurrection life, life that walks in all the fullness of God.
Jesus did everything for the Father, but also for the interests of others. “In humility count others as more significant than yourself.”
That’s the kind of friend Jesus is and that’s why He said to us:
John 15:12-1712 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
That’s why service is an opportunity to grow. It’s an opportunity for healing. Pastor Bob shared with us yesterday that serving brings healing. It’s what you could call a healing service.
•The freedom of self-forgetfulness
Loving one another can’t be lived out in isolation. It can’t be lived out in hiding. It is most fully lived out in service.
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.
He has held nothing back from you. If you think there are Christians who know the secret to a more intimate relationship with God, well, it’s just not true. He has held nothing back from any of us. What He has shown the greatest Christians in history, He is
pleased to show me and you. Because He is the One who has initiated this friendship.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you
Proving the point yet again that the influential decide who their friends are. He chose you for a friend that His influence might flood your life, so that others might be able to fill their cups from the life of Christ in you.
and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide,
The fruit should remain. It should have a long lasting influence and that’s exactly what has happened. The influence of these friends of Jesus has gone on for centuries now. And He wants our influence to remain also. He wants us to have a lasting impact upon people’s lives.
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.
He’s inviting you into His circle of influence. He’s introducing you to the Person who can pull the strings, who can get things done that you can’t do on your own. The Father said, “I am well pleased with my Son.” And Jesus introduces you to the Father who doesn’t just
say, “Any friend of Jesus’s is a friend of mine.” But who reveals, “I sent my Son for you. And the way He loves you, I love you.”
Jesus made this introduction that we might be influential for His name’s sake. To be influential for His name’s sake is to serve. Find a place to serve where you have to depend upon God.
