The Gospel of John (95)Jesus, the True Vine (3) Part 1

The Third Time Returning to John 15 and the Believer’s Friendship with Christ

Today is the third occasion in which we will address this passage before us. We actually first turned to it before our little hiatus of meeting, and so that was about 11 weeks ago or so. And then two weeks ago we addressed this passage a second time, and today is the third occasion.

We had thought about moving past this passage today, which sets forth our Lord Jesus as a source of life for his disciples who are connected to him through faith, but knowing that we had somewhat of an abbreviated time, but I see we're actually ahead of time than we normally are on first Sunday of the month, thank the Lord for that, I was encouraged nevertheless to set forth this matter of the believer's friendship with Jesus Christ.

A couple of people urged me to do that in some more detail, and so we decided to continue addressing these verses once again that we addressed last time, and it's John 15, particularly 9 through 17. This is all within the context of Jesus, the true vine.

And so here our Lord Jesus was speaking to his apostles, saying to them, as the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. 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.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain 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, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

Now we've already given our attention to the love that Jesus has for his people, his disciples, and our response to that love in verses 9 and 10. We then began to consider that Jesus directed his disciples to love one another in the same way that he loved them, and this is what is set forth in verses 11 through 17.

The Lord first declared to them his motivation for having spoken to them about these matters. Again verse 11 reads, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.

Our Lord Jesus would have his disciples to have the fullness of joy in their souls. This joy flows from their knowledge of their relationship with him, and that he loves them with the same love that the Father has for him.

The Father loved his Son, who is altogether worthy of his love, and the Son loves his disciples with the same love, same degree of love, although they are altogether unworthy of his love. It's amazing.

Our Lord would have us always know and experience the joy that flows forth from the knowledge of his love for us, and we may experience this increasingly as we keep his commandments. That's what Jesus declared in this verse.

We then read our Lord's command in verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. It's a comparative clause, as I have loved you, that's the standard that he sets forth.

All of our Lord's words in this passage have in view his impending death and his cross on our behalf. He was about to be betrayed, of course. He was telling them that he was laying down his life for them because he loved them, and in the same way, they should love one another, even be willing to lay down their lives for.

One another.

Verses 13 and 14 make it clear that their love for one another should be sacrificial in nature. He's not talking about just warm, fuzzy feelings for one another. It's to be sacrificial love in what you do for others.

Sacrificial Love and the Meaning of Christ’s Friendship

Jesus said, greater love is no one than this and to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. The Lord was intimating his own sacrifice would soon take place for his friends.

He then declared what identifies and distinguishes them as his friends. So we read in verse 15, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends.

For all things that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. And so here we read of the close relationship that the Lord Jesus has with his disciples. He regards them and treats them as his friends.

Now knowledge of this relationship with our Savior is very assuring and comforting, or it should be. It speaks of how the Christian does not rejoice principally in the things that God gives to him, but rather he delights foremost in knowing his Savior in the closest and most intimate.

Way.

That is the source of our joy, or it should be. The Christian delights in the fact that he can speak of Jesus, he is my friend. Now being a friend of Jesus Christ is just one way in which the Holy Scripture depicts what is commonly referred to as a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Those are common words, but often they seem to be rather void of meaning. The fact is there are many metaphors that speak of how he relates to us and we with.

Him.

And each of these address some need or benefit that we receive from our relationship with.

Him.

And so every true Christian may think and respond in faith in the following ways. Do I need guidance? He's my shepherd who will lead me. Do I need healing? He is my physician who heals me.

Am I weary?

He is my fountain who refreshes me. Am I hungry physically or spiritually? He is my bread who feeds me. Am I enslaved to sin? He is my Savior and Lord who delivers me.

Am I ignorant?

He is my prophet who teaches me. Am I sinful and undone? He is my priest who cleanses me. Am I guilty and feel estranged from God? He is my lamb who is atoned for me. Am I alone and lonely? Do I need wisdom to know what God is doing through me and in the world about me?

He is my friend who accompanies me and converses with me. It is true of the true believer. He walks with me, he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own. As the old hymn declares. No, he doesn't do so audibly.

I'd be concerned about you if you made that claim. But he does so give understanding and confidence of knowing his will that set forth in his written word, the Bible. The Holy Spirit makes his presence known to us in various degrees, more so at various times, perhaps.

And so what is it to be a friend of Jesus Christ and to have Jesus Christ to be a friend to you? And in the following verses, verses 13, 14, and 15, we have three characteristics of friends of Jesus Christ.

Friends of Jesus Love Others as Christ Loved Them

And so first, in verse 13, Jesus said, Jesus declared that friends of Jesus love others as Christ loved them. That's characteristic of true friends of Jesus. Jesus said, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

This statement of our Lord is then followed by the command that his disciples love one another as he loved them. To what degree did our Lord love his own? He gave himself to die for them. From the disciples' vantage point, Jesus was presently teaching them the principle.

He was just completing the Last Supper with them. And of course, he would then shortly demonstrate this principle in the events that immediately followed, in which he was, of course, arrested, tried, and crucified the next day.

However, from the vantage point of the reader of the gospel, say us, we see immediately and clearly Jesus is referencing his own death on the cross on behalf of his people. That is the standard, that is the measure that we're to use in loving the Christian brothers and sisters.

By the way, in these verses, we clearly see our Lord teaching the doctrine of limited atonement. The often debated question is this, for whom did Jesus die? And of course, it is commonly believed and commonly taught by evangelicals that Christ died for everybody equally, all the people of the world, all people through human history.

And so to answer that question, whose debt for sin was paid for by the death of Christ? Did Jesus die making payment for the sins of the entire human race? Many wrongly believe so. Here he declares that he lays down his life for his friends.

That is limited atonement, that is definite atonement. He died with the intention and purpose to save his friends from their sin. He died on behalf of his people, the elect of God, the redeemed of all ages.

He died for his friends. And this is taught in numerous places in the Holy Scriptures. It's certainly taught here. Jesus said, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

And that's what Jesus did. Now, when our Lord gave this statement, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends, he was given a positive duty that he's imposed upon us as his people.

We are to love other Christians. We are to love one another. And he's placed the highest standard upon us for this love. We are to love one another as he has loved us. We are not to love the brethren less than what is set forth here.

The standard has been established. As Christ Jesus has loved us, we are to love one another. We are to love all the brethren in this manner. Our love for one another is to be self-denying and self-sacrificing.

We are to lay aside our own preferences and priorities, desire to achieve the well-being and benefit of other brothers and sisters in Christ. We don't assert ourselves as the priority. Rather, we deny ourselves and seek the betterment of others, if we're thinking rightly and doing rightly according to our Lord's words.

And so this commandment of our Lord Jesus, of course, condemns selfishness, the resistant insistence of having one's own way, the sinful resistance and resentment when our desires and our plans are thwarted.

This condemns a spirit which refuses to grant forgiveness to others that's so freely granted to his people. These kinds of things do not characterize true Christians, or they shouldn't. True Christians may fail, and they certainly do so, with respect to these things from time to time, but failure to love the Christian brethren is not the common action or true reaction of the child of God.

Christians have been taught to love one another according to the love that their Lord manifested toward them. This is characteristic of the true Christian. Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, but concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

When a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in his heart the love of God. Not just love for God, but love for God's people. And indeed, you do so toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia.

But we urge you, brethren, to love one another.