John, chapter 15, verses 12 through 15, again as I like to dovetail into the passage we've read previously. I would like to pick up at verse 11 by focusing our study this morning on 12 through 15. As you know Jesus has been speaking words of comfort and encouragement to the disciples just prior to his departure as the rest is now growing ever more imminent. He has taught them that they are branches and he is the vine, that the word is to dwell richly in them just as the life-giving sap would flow from the vine to the branch and that even that would produce fruit. And so he has commanded them that even as he departs from them they are not to remain static but they are to be serving him in producing wonderful and great fruit and that there should be progress in that fruit. He brings glory to God that there would be an increase of the harvest and increasing production of fruit with each passing year and that this brings great joy to the vine grower who was God and also brings glory to him and that we are to take our joy in him. Verse 11, here for it is God who speaks to us, this is my commandment, I'm sorry, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends, you are my friends, if you do what I command you no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing but I have called you my friends, for all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. The Lord bless the reading of his word and the hearing of his people. Remember how important friendship was when you were a child? It really was everything, having a friend was to a child, one of the most important hallmarks of life. Without a friend there was depression and a real sense of aloneness, no matter how large your family was, we all wanted a best friend, girls would even often sign their letters best friends forever, guys would undertake ceremony such as pricking their thumbs and pushing them together when they bled so that they could be blood brothers, showing how close and inseparable they were in friendship. Little girls would often cry when their best friend would play with someone else on the playground, they would come home devastated because their friend chose to play with somebody else. As boys enter into the teenage years they get jealous when their best friend has a girl friend and begins to spend time with them instead of with him, not jealous in any of the wrong ways of course, jealous because they want their friend with them all the time but friendship doesn't end with childhood does it. In a day however in which we live where friends number in the hundreds online, in fact you get friendship requests from people whom you don't even know, I fear that we may have lost a sense of what a true friend actually is, in 1700s Samuel Johnston said true happiness consists not in the multitude of friends but in their worth and choice. The careful choosing of a friend is a stewardship of our own selves that we seem to pay little attention to today. Anybody that asks we pretty much click if you're online, click oh sure I'll be a friend why not? Have we lost somewhere along the way the definition of friendship however and in having a multitude of friends are we finding ourselves really more alone than we've ever been. The value of friendship Henry Adam said one friend in a lifetime is much two or many three is hardly possible. Aristotle said this what is a friend a single soul dwelling in two bodies and without friends no one would choose to live though he had all other goods. Is there any way for us to measure the true importance of genuine friendship so important is genuine friendship that a husband and a wife often consider in fact we would say all to consider one another their best friend. They who share in all things spiritual together would find in one another best friends and at the end of our life as we grow old in years we will often lose our will to live not because of the infirmities of our body but because so often we hear that our last friend has done and with the passing of friends there seems to be a passing of our own history and our own reason to be so important is friendship so when Jesus says you are my friends he's using an understandable language he's using is an example that the disciples would be able to understand he was using the metaphor yet there's a reality in it as well of friendship so that the disciples would know the nature of the relationship to which he was speaking but Jesus doesn't leave the word to their subjective interpretation even though they probably would have had a narrow definition we in our day have very broad definitions of what makes a friend if we meet somebody once often we like to claim that they're now our friend even though we know very little of them we know that some are capable of deep and lasting friendships in the scripture such David and Jonathan while others aren't able to be selfless enough even to understand that sort of relationship we have to admit that there is a limitation to the scripture's teaching on friendship there are rare examples in the scripture of the kinds of friendship that the Lord is speaking of here again I would hold Jonathan and David up but even that is not going to be a perfect example because there was a reciprocal relationship there between David and between Jonathan there are places in the scripture where God calls people his friends he calls Moses a friend he calls Abraham his friend Jesus calls the disciples his friend but did you know there is not one place in scripture not a single place where man calls God his friend not one God calls man his friend but there is no reciprocal relationship based upon the friendship metaphor that probably escapes most of us and we would include that analogy in our description of our relationship with Christ or even our relationship with God the Father but there is no peer relationship with Christ and there is no peer relationship with God the Father and so his extending a friendship to us finds in our human living an imperfect metaphor yet it's the closest we're able to come to understanding what Jesus is instructing them in here Jesus is defining his friendship as a relation of love and more than that it is a love that is the foundation of their discipleship notice that Jesus commands them to obey and then tells them that obedience is summed up in one word love love this idea this principle this precept of love is the foundation of the relationship which Jesus is now explaining to them exists for 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13 Paul lists the fruits of our union with Christ as faith hope and love but he points out that the greatest of these is love without love there is no faith and there is no hope where there is love there is faith and hope in fact in Romans 13 verse 10 he teaches that love is the fulfillment of the entire law all of the law can be summed up in this word love where there is love nothing is lacking and where there is no love nothing can be attained Jesus had already taught them in John 13 35 that love would be the evidence of discipleship it was to be their strongest testimony not their rhetoric not their apologetics not their great strength in the building up of physical structures of church but love would be their strongest testimony to the world it would be the defining characteristic that which distinguishes them from any other religious cult would be love love for one another love for Christ this is made abundantly clear in a story this told by H. A. R. Inside a great commentator and expositor of scripture he tells of a missionary to China who was working on a Chinese translation of the Bible he wanted this translation to be as nearly perfect as it could possibly be he employed a Chinese academic a linguist and this Chinese academic worked with him diligently in the translation of the scriptures they spent days and months together going versed by verse and word by word as the Chinese linguist would tell him the translation of the passage the missionary would then work to place that in the context and make sure that it was nuanced as perfectly as possible to communicate the real meaning of the text as they began to near the end the missionary began to anticipate the moment and the translation was finished when he would speak with the translator about the gospel he had held off doing so out of respect for the work that the translator was doing not wanting to offend him or not wanting to overplay his hand he was waiting so the translation was finished hoping that the word itself would have its work upon the Chinese man and that then as he simply opened himself up to share the gospel that it would flow quite naturally as the missionary and the translator finished the missionary asked him whether there was anything about Christianity that appealed to him after they had finished their work and the Chinese translator said yes in fact it does it's a wonderful system of ethics and philosophy the best probably I've ever known I think if I were to ever see a Christian I might in fact become interested the missionary protest but I am a Christian and the Chinese translator looks at him and he goes you oh no and don't be offended but I've observed and listened to you all along if I understand Jesus he gave a commandment that you were to love one another but I've listened to you talk about others that aren't present saying unkind things about them now you're not a Christian not at all but I think if I never did see a Christian I might like to be one a true story but what a testimony of that unique defining characteristic of Christianity love and how disqualifying it is when we fail to show it how disqualified is our words when our posture betrays a lack of love John 1335 by this all people will know you are my disciples a fulfillment of the law what is the law love the Lord your God with all your hearts only mine and love your neighbor as yourself now Christ identifies this love as the same as his love for them as he calls them you are my friends but we protest you don't know what folks have been doing to me you don't know what they've been saying about me you don't know what they've caused me you don't know the sleepless nights I've had because of their carrying on in the way that they do you don't know the struggles I've had you don't know the time I've had to spend explaining things because of all of the the antics of this person or this crowd or this group how terribly I am offended how disappointed I am in them Ephesians 4 1 and 2 walk in a manner worthy of the calling of which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience in here bearing one another in love how can we do that we say how how can we bear up under such belligerate action by people who are so unnerving in the way they go about carrying on like they know better we have all the excuses don't we we have all of the justification for our posturing and self-defense against those who would have sail us but yet we know from the scriptures the standard is that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us by qualifying the love of a Christian as being like the love of Christ he's commanding us to a selfless rather than a reciprocal love we don't love because people love a bowl we love because Christ loved us we don't love because they have earned it by their high standard of communication and their self-discipline and speech and control of the tongue because of their virtue and their displaying fruits of the spirit as commendable as all of those are and as healthy as they are for the body we don't love because of that we love because Christ loved us to be giving rather than gaining love is our goal and to a biblical rather than a worldly love is what we point ourselves by reflecting the love of Jesus and our love from one another love becomes the testimony of the church it becomes the testimony of the gospel so vital and central to the testimony of the gospel is love that Luther himself is confident that this will be where the devil will work his greatest crafting cunning against God's people he said that trifles can lead to such quarreling and enmity that great harm results to many the blood soon begins to boil and the devil shoots his venomous darts into the heart by means of evil tongues and finally no one says or thinks anything good about the other person at all but this is not the way of Christ we can't give way to the devil to the world or to the flesh and becomes schismatic vindictive or loveless and even assault those who are members of Christ branches of the same vine which we claim to grow from but we are to remember not only that Jesus loved us but how Jesus loved us Christ loved the church and he gave himself up for her greater love we are taught has no man than this than he would give his own life for his friends how far we ask do I have to tolerate the insults as far as the east is from the west how many times do we turn the other cheek as many times as it is slapped how long must I remain silent before my tormentors and accusers as long as the sheep remain silent before his own slaughter how can we endure such persecution how can we hold up by loving as Christ loved selfless love not looking for reward not looking for vindication not looking to be proved right in the end but being proved as one who is able to love as Christ loved knowing that Jesus counts all who love in this way to be his friend and Jesus will never abandon us how is it that this friendship is to be defined what makes it different and why is it not reciprocal look at the last verse which we read today no longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing but I have called you my friends for all that I have heard from my father I've made known to you it's simply this there are those who are able to obey the commandments their servants they don't know the mind of the master they obey because they have to obey we find those in the Christian church who are striving and works righteous in the seeking to obey the letter of the law but never understanding the relationship of love and so they remain servants in Jesus says but you will not be my servants you are my friends and friend has had an explanation revealed why do we obey we cannot be saved by obedience so why do we obey because it's the nature of the one and dwell by the spirit of God it's the nature of a Christian to obey it's not external to us it's internal to us and we know that we obey because of the love relationship we have with one who has called us a friend why a friend because there is no better friend than one who would give his own life for the sake of the one he calls his friend that privilege belonged to Christ alone only Christ could give his life for those he calls his friends I am claiming him to be my friend cannot give my life to satisfy any debt only he as our friend is able to satisfy the debt and so therefore for his friends those he claims as his friends he satisfies their debt by his death on the cross my grandmother who has passed into glory could only bang out one song on the piano and I use the word bang quite literally she had all the chords right but that piano suffered mightily under the strength of that woman's arms she only could do one song and whenever she babysat for us I got to hear that song and I actually it was a treat it was a song written in 1855 by Joseph Scriven and I'll bet you you know it what a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer the fact Christ has called us friend has been a treasured comfort for generations of Christians a treasured comfort because it implies a closeness in proximity it implies genuine concern not as one who is elected far off in an office who will do something to benefit our lives but one who has an intimate association and an intimate concern with the realities of my life if I have a good friend my good friend knows the issues of my life that's friendship your spouse who is your friend ought to be aware of the issues of your life that's friendship perhaps it was just this sort of assurance and comfort that Carl Barth had in mind when he was asked one time what's the greatest thought you ever had Carl Barth which comes is in some quarters a bit scandalous as a theologian he had some ideas that not all agreed with but he certainly was a lover of Christ and a follower of God and he wrote a dogmatic theology more pages than I can carry much less ever read in my life I have no idea how some were able to do that so you would expect a man with this kind of mind if you were to ask him what's the most significant thought the most important thought you have ever had in all of your life through all of the pages of your dogmatic theologies and other writings and preachings and teachings what is the single thought that has so captivated you to be the most important thought and he turned around in all seriousness and he did not mean it to be trifle or ingest and all seriousness he said this Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so so I ask you consider your own life examine your own life is it characterized by love is it characterized by a love that is demonstrable not just an idea of love that you'll get to one day do you actually have in your life walk love you know where you can test yourself not with those that are easy to love but those which you have already proven that you struggle with loving those that you don't want to love but dog on it you know their believers and you have to love them you don't want to love them but while we were yet sinners Christ died for us will we diminish his love and say that the offense against us is so much greater than our offense against a holy God will we not love because Christ has commanded that we love we must love or else question our own testimony because if our testimony is to be void of love then we've lost the crown of the Christian testimony which is to be love is your life a living testimony do you love not with the love of the world but with the deep abiding love of Christ a love that can cover a multitude of sins do you know this friendship of Jesus where his love to others flows through you or are you still a servant not really understanding the mind of the Lord on this just simply seeking to obey in the ethics and the morality of the Christian religion without love we remain servants with love he calls us his friend