NEED A FRIEND?
JOHN 15: 1-17
OCTOBER 13
INTRODUCTION: I am told about this newspaper in England giving a reward for the best definition of what is a friend?
Thousands answered, the winner?
"A FRIEND IS ONE THAT COMES WHEN EVERYONE ELSE GOES.”
JACKIE ROBINSON was the first African American to play baseball in the major leagues. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced hostile crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium of Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to jeer him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the crowd booed. Then, without saying a word, shortstop Pee Wee Reese went over and stood next to Jackie. He put his arm around him and faced the crowd. Suddenly the fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
TRANSITION THOUGTH: Friendship! Who can live without friendship? Today we celebrate the gift of friendship as we gather here together with our friends. Can you imagine being Jackie Robinson, sticking out like a sore thumb, as the crowd booed him? Can you imagine the loneliness, the awkwardness, and the anxiety? Then along came Pee Wee Reese! Can you imagine the relief, the peace, the warmth, and the comfort? In our text today, we hear this same story again. A group of awkward, anxious, and probably fearful disciples have just gotten the word that their leader was about to check out and they would be left alone. They had followed in the hope of a Kingdom and a Kingdom would come, but not as they thought. They needed a friend and Jesus teaches that HE truly is their friend. BUT, will they be HIS friends? The real issue of this text is not if Jesus is our friend or not, but if we will choose Friendship with Jesus! It was the same for the disciples and this is where we begin.
THESIS SENTENCE: JESUS IS OUR FRIEND!
IF JESUS IS OUR FRIEND, WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE FOR US TO BE A FRIEND TO JESUS?
I. FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS IS ABOUT STAYING IN THERE/CONNECTING (REMAIN)!
Have you ever felt like you really connected with someone? Isn’t this when a real and lasting friendship begins? I know it is! In the connecting, we understand friendship! For Jesus, Connecting is Remaining in Him!
A. Remaining is about a mutual relationship.
1. The actual GK word MENO is defined as to stay in a given place, state, relationship, or expectancy. It also bears out the idea of continuity and dwelling. 2. With that said, I am confused now, but Jesus is saying, “You hang with me and I will hang with you!”
3. Verse 4 is the key: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”
4. Now the discussion is about a vine with a branch growing from it. For the gardeners in our bunch, you might have a better grasp on what is being said.
B. Remaining is about sharing the work.
1. Have you and a friend ever accomplished some work together. Maybe you built a barn, worked on a car, organized a meeting, cleaned a basement, or whatever. Wasn’t it more fun to do it together than to have done it alone? Has a friend ever completed a task for you that you may have started but couldn’t complete? 2. This is what Jesus is talking about in verse 4. We get to work together, but we can’t do it unless we stay connected.
C. Remaining is about staying alive.
1. The reality of what Jesus is teaching is that if we don’t stay connected, we aren’t going to make it!
2. Have you ever experienced the loss of a friend’s involvement in your life? Did you feel like you would die? Did you feel helpless? Did you feel all alone? 3. Verse 6 tells us that without Jesus, we are dead wood!
4. The scariest reality is that of the fire!
D. Remaining is having HIS word on the inside.
1. This appears to be the climax, because if you have the word, “then you can ask whatever you wish (verse 7).”
2. This brings the Father Glory.
3. And reveals that we are disciples.
ILLUSTRATION: A young boy was sent to the corner store by his mother to buy a loaf of bread. He was gone much longer than it should have taken him. When he finally returned, his mother asked, “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you.”
“Well,” he answered, “there was a little boy with a broken bike who was crying. So I stopped to help him.”
“I didn’t know you knew anything about fixing bikes,” his mother said.
“I don’t,” he replied. “I just stayed there and cried with him.”
STAYING IN THERE IS BEING CONNECTED!
Not only is Friendship with Jesus about staying in there, connecting…
II. FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS IS ABOUT MAKING A DIFFERENCE (FRUIT)!
ILLUSTRATION: ["Mr. Holland’s Opus": Leaving a Legacy, Citation: Mr. Holland’s Opus, (Hollywood Pictures, 1995), rated PG, written by Patrick Sheane Duncan, directed by Stephen Herek; submitted by Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville, Illinois]
Mr. Holland’s Opus is a movie about a frustrated composer in Portland, Oregon, who takes a job as a high school band teacher in the 1960s.
Although diverted from his lifelong goal of achieving critical fame as a classical musician, Glenn Holland (played by Richard Dreyfuss) believes his school job is only temporary.
At first he maintains his determination to write an opus or a concerto by composing at his piano after putting in a full day with his students.
But, as family demands increase (including discovery that his infant son is deaf) and the pressures of his job multiply, Mr. Holland recognizes that his dream of leaving a lasting musical legacy is merely a dream.
At the end of the movie we find an aged Mr. Holland fighting in vain to keep his job. The board has decided to reduce the operating budget by cutting the music and drama program. No longer a reluctant band teacher, Mr. Holland believes in what he does and passionately defends the role of the arts in public education.
What began as a career detour became a 35-year mission, pouring his heart into the lives of young people. Mr. Holland returns to his classroom to retrieve his belongings a few days after school has let out for summer vacation. He has taught his final class. With regret and sorrow, he fills a box with artifacts that represent the tools of his trade and memories of many meaningful classes. His wife and son arrive to give him a hand. As they leave the room and walk down the hall, Mr. Holland hears some noise in the auditorium. Because school is out, he opens the door to see what the commotion is. To his amazement he sees a capacity audience of former students and teaching colleagues and a banner that reads "Goodbye, Mr. Holland."
Those in attendance greet Mr. Holland with a standing ovation while a band (consisting of past and present members) plays songs they learned at his hand.
His wife, who was in on the surprise reception, approaches the podium and makes small talk until the master of ceremonies, the governor of Oregon, arrives. The governor is none other than a student Mr. Holland helped to believe in herself his first year of teaching. As she addresses the room of well-wishers, she speaks for the hundreds who fill the auditorium: "Mr. Holland had a profound influence in my life (on a lot of lives, I know), and yet I get the feeling that he considers a great part of his life misspent. Rumor had it he was always working on this symphony of his, and this was going to make him famous and rich (probably both). But Mr. Holland isn’t rich and he isn’t famous, At least not outside our little town. So it might be easy for him to think himself a failure, but he’d be wrong. Because I think he’s achieved a success far beyond riches and fame." Looking at her former teacher the governor gestures with a sweeping hand and continues, "Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each one of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. And we are the music of your life."
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IS WHAT FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS IS ALL ABOUT. IT IS ABOUT BEARING FRUIT!
A. Bearing fruit is a gift from God.
1. To bear fruit is to be in the vine that the Gardener has developed.
2. To ever think that we bear fruit without God is to have lost all understanding. If you wonder where this idea comes from read verse 16 with me: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”
3. Not only does the fruit bearing originate with God, being more fruitful is HIS plan for our lives! That’s why HE prunes us! Verses 2 and 5 are PRIMARY here! Read text!
B. Bearing fruit is answered Prayer.
1. Yes this is about remaining in Him,
2. Yes it is a result of obedience,
3. But the fruit is in the promise…
4. “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you (verse 7).”
5. And if verse 7 isn’t enough, and just in case you forgot it, and just in case you weren’t sure if Jesus really said it, verse 16 repeats it!!
C. Bearing fruit is discipleship.
1. When we bear fruit we show ourselves to be Disciples (verse 8).
2. And moving backwards, “This is to my Father’s glory,” Jesus states. 3. The reality of it is that if we aren’t bearing fruit, we have not yet become disciples!
D. Bearing Fruit is Joy.
1. Fruit is having Jesus Joy on the inside.
2. This is not joy of our own, but the very Joy of God within us.
3. Not that we could ever top this, but a side effect of the Joy of God within us is our own joy being made complete.
4. Maybe a lot of Christians aren’t looking happy because they are not bearing fruit and thus have no Joy!
E. Bearing Fruit is Knowing.
1. Because we belong to HIM as did the disciples, Jesus informs us that we are no longer Servants, but friends.
2. The definition Jesus gives for friendship is no longer being a servant. 3. And if this isn’t enough in and of itself, Friends get to know what is going on. 4. Jesus says in verse 15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
Not only is Friendship with Jesus about staying in there: CONNECTING, and Making a Difference: bearing Fruit…
III. FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS IS ABOUT SHOWING REAL LOVE (SACRIFICE)!
A. Real Love is Agape!
1. AS if we need a reminder, Jesus is real Love, which without is not friendship! 2. The disciples had heard Jesus teach that he must die, but they had not yet seen it, experienced it, or even believed it.
3. Jesus, never the less, predicts HIS death again, “Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for his friends (verse 13).”
4. Jesus sets the example of friendship. The term for love here is Agape and we all know that this a sacrificial love, not romantic or that shared between family members. This is the Love that takes you to the cross!
B. Real Love is obedience!
1. What does this love look like reflected in our lives, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love (verse 10).”
2. Jesus once more is the example, but He calls us to follow in HIS STEPS. 3. In verse 14 He reiterates this truth for us, “You are my friends if you do what I command.”
C. Real Love is shared!
1. Now if your mind works like mine, I am totally bogged down now. I want to be Jesus’ Friend, I want to obey His commands, but there are so many, and I know I will miss one. Were you thinking the same thing as you heard this text read or reread it yourself?
2. The great news is Jesus gives us his command to obey: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (verse 12).”
3. And just in case we missed it, “This is my command: Love each other (verse 17).”
4. The great news is that Real Loved is shared. Real Friendship with Jesus is making more friends!
5. The great news is that obeying Jesus’ command is having friends!
6. Just as Jesus Shared His Great Love for us By Dying on the Cross, we too are to Show our Love for Jesus by Dying to self and loving others!!
ILLUSTRATION: I read the story of two friends in World War I who were inseparable. They had enlisted together, trained together, were shipped overseas together, and fought side-by-side in the trenches. During an attack, one of the men was critically wounded in a field filled with barbed wire obstacles. He was unable to crawl back to his foxhole. The entire area was under enemy crossfire, and it was suicidal to try to reach him. Yet his friend decided to do just that. The sergeant told him, "It’s too late. You can’t do him any good, and you’ll only get yourself killed." But the man went anyway. He returned a few minutes later, carrying his friend. But he himself had been mortally wounded. The sergeant was both angry and deeply moved. He blurted out, "What a waste! He’s dead and you’re dying. It just wasn’t worth it." With almost his last breath, the dying man replied, "Oh, yes it was, Sarge. When I got to him, the only thing he said was, ’I knew you’d come, Jim.’"
CONCLUSION: Today as we celebrate Friend Day, we have learned two truths. FIRST we have learned that Jesus has Called us friends. SECONDLY We have learned that to be friends with Jesus We must love Him and Love others! How are you doing? Are you a friend to Jesus? Are you a friend to others?
BENEDICTION: ROMANS 15: 5 & 6
