December 18, 2016 Passage: AM-John 15:12-17, PM-Small Group Christmas Party John 15:12-17 NIV 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one s life for one s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 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 learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. Main Point We are a friend of God! Introduction As your group time begins, use this section to introduce the topic of discussion. What are some of the most important qualities in a friend? Who is your closest friend? Take some time to pray for that person as you begin this study. During His life on earth, Jesus did not surround himself with a group of students or even a group of followers. He placed Himself in the company of friends. Close relationships are Christ like. Understanding Unpack the biblical text to discover what the Scripture says or means about a particular topic. Have a volunteer read John 15:12-17. As Jesus continues His conversation with His disciples, Jesus shows us what friendship with Him is really like. There is both comfort and cost. Jesus already told His disciples to love each other (John 13:34-35). How does His instruction in verse 12 raise the standard of our love? Have a volunteer read John 15:14-17. What are the requirements and benefits of friendship with Jesus? Is being a friend of Jesus the same as being a believer in Jesus?
Application Help your group identify how the truths from the Scripture passage apply directly to their lives. Why is it imperative that we allow Jesus to live in and work through us? What happens when Christians don t leave room for Him to work? Pray Close by praying over your group. Thank God for putting this specific group of people together at this moment. Ask Him to reveal to each person the friendship that He offers to each of us, and ask for the willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish it. Commentary The Friends of Jesus In a world awash in relativism, the Bible is unique in both its clarity and authority. Where many people see gray, God s Word speaks in terms that are black and white. The Bible is absolute, definitive, and provocative, unconcerned with political correctness and therefore unafraid to confront people with the reality of their condition. As a result, Scripture makes stark contrasts between those who are saved and those who are lost (Luke 19:10); those who are with Jesus and those who are against Him (Luke 11:23); those in the world and those not in the world (John 15:19; 17:14, 16; cf. 1 John 2:15 17); those who are children of God and those who are children of the Devil (1 John 3:10); those in the kingdom of God s beloved Son, and those in the satanic kingdom of darkness (Col. 1:13). In this passage, Jesus introduces another aspect of this contrast between those who are His friends, and those who are friends of the world. Friendship with Jesus Christ results in an intimate relationship with God and brings joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). On the other hand, friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4) and is subject to His wrath (Nah. 1:2). The Bible calls those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ by many names and titles. But friend captures a unique aspect of communion with the Lord. This brief passage reveals four characteristics of Jesus friends: They are those who love each other, obey Him, know divine truth, and have been specially chosen by the Lord Himself. THE FRIENDS OF JESUS LOVE EACH OTHER This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. (15:12 13) For the second time that evening in the upper room, Jesus gave the commandment that His followers are to love one another (cf. 13:34). Love is the fulfillment of the commandments Jesus had referred to in 15:10. Paul expressed that same principle to the Christians at Rome:
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom. 13:8 10) Only those who abide in Him have the capacity to love divinely as Jesus loved. At the new birth, the love of God [was] poured out within [their] hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to [them] (Rom. 5:5; cf. Gal. 5:22). What Paul wrote concerning the Thessalonians, Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another (1 Thess. 4:9), is true of all Christians. Love for fellow believers characterizes the redeemed, as John repeatedly emphasized in his first epistle: The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (2:9 11) By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (3:10) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (3:14 15) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (4:7 8) If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. (4:20) Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. (5:1) The daunting standard for believers love for each other is set forth in Jesus words just as I have loved you. They are to love each other as the Lord Jesus Christ loves them. That does not mean, of course, that believers can love to the limitless extent or in the perfect manner that He does. But just as Jesus loved sacrificially, so also must they. Walk in love, Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:2, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. The love believers have for each other is marked by a selfless devotion to meeting one another s needs; it is not mere sentiment, or superficial attachment. In fact, Christians love for each other is the church s most powerful apologetic to the unbelieving world (John 13:35). The Lord s death, at that point only a matter of hours away, was the supreme evidence of His love, as His statement Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends indicates. Jesus did not die for Himself, but so that others might live. In Romans 5:6 8 Paul wrote,
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the Ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In a marvelously concise statement only fifteen words in the Greek text Paul summarized Christ s substitutionary atonement for believers: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Peter reminded his readers that Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). Echoing the Lord s words in this passage, John wrote, We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16). Then the apostle expressed the practical implications of that truth: But whoever has the world s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth (vv. 17 18). The friends of Jesus Christ show their love for one another by humbly meeting each other s needs. THE FRIENDS OF JESUS OBEY HIM You are My friends if you do what I command you. (15:14) The essence of sin is rebellion against God s law. Samuel rebuked Saul for his failure to do what God had commanded him: Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams (1 Sam. 15:22). Samuel then equated rebellion with sin: For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry (v. 23). The New Testament also defines sin as rebellion. John wrote, Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4; cf. Matt. 7:23; 13:41;23:28;2 Cor. 6:14). Because all sin is rebellion against God, turning from sin necessarily implies obedience to God. A person cannot submit to God while at the same time openly rebelling against Him; the same life cannot be characterized both by lawlessness and obedience (1 John 3:6; 5:18). Thus, obedience and faith are closely linked throughout Scripture. Conversion takes place when those who were slaves of sin become obedient from the heart (Rom. 6:17). Acts 6:7 describes the salvation of a great many of the priests as their becoming obedient to the faith. Those who will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (2 Thess. 1:9) are those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (v.8). Peter also defined unbelievers as those who do not obey the gospel of God (1 Peter 4:17). Paul declared that the goal of his apostolic ministry was to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles (Rom. 1:5; cf. 15:18; 16:26). The heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11 demonstrated the reality of their faith by their obedience. So closely is obedience related to saving faith that Hebrews 5:9 uses it as a synonym for faith: Having been made perfect, [Jesus] became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. Peter wrote that believers were chosen to obey Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:1 2). John 3:36 also equates believing with obeying, noting that he who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. When informed that His mother and brothers were looking for Him, Jesus replied, Who are My mother and My brothers? Looking about at those who were sitting
around Him, He said, Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother (Mark 3:33 35). THE FRIENDS OF JESUS KNOW DIVINE TRUTH No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave 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. (15:15) The term slaves did not have many of the negative connotations in Jewish culture that it does today. In fact, some of the most noble figures in the Old Testament were described as slaves (Heb. èbed) of God, including Moses (Num. 12:7), Caleb (Num. 14:24), Joshua (Josh. 24:29), Job (Job 1:8), David (2 Sam. 7:5), Isaiah (Isa.20:3), and even the Messiah (Isa. 42:1). In the New Testament Paul (Rom. 1:1), James (James 1:1), Peter (2 Peter 1:1), Jude (Jude 1), and John (Rev. 1:1) similarly called themselves slaves (doulos) of Jesus Christ. The term reflected their utter submission to and dependence on their heavenly Master. This word, doulos, and the related verbdouleuō, always and only refer to slavery. Doulos is the corresponding word to kurios(lord). Jesus is Lord, believers are His slaves. Doulos is, however, usually translated servant, or bondservant. But their nearly 150 uses in the New Testament are to be understood as references to slavery. A slave was bought, owned, subjected to, provided for, and protected by his master (kurios). He lived in total submission to the will of his master. Slaves did not usually have an intimate relationship with their earthly masters; the slave would normally not know what his master was doing; that is, he was not privy to his plans. Masters did not disclose their goals and purposes to their slaves; they merely instructed them as to what they wanted them to do. While it is true that the followers of Jesus are also designated as slaves, that is not sufficient to fully convey our relationship to the Lord. Incredibly, we are also called His friends a more exalted title even than disciple. In the Old Testament only Abraham had the privilege of being named the friend of God (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23). A custom from biblical times sheds light on the great honor believers have in being the friends of Jesus Christ. William Barclay writes, This phrase is lit up by a custom practised at the courts both of the Roman emperors and of kings in the middle east. At these courts, there was a very select group called the friends of the king, or the friends of the emperor. At all times, they had access to the king; they even had the right to come to his bedchamber at the beginning of the day. He talked to them before he talked to his generals, his rulers and his statesmen. The friends of the king were those who had the closest and the most intimate connection with him. (The Gospel of John, vol. 2, The New Daily Study Bible [Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001], 207 8. Italics in original.) It is that kind of intimate access that Jesus graciously grants to His friends. Because they are His friends, Jesus promised to share with believers all things that He had heard from the Father. They will know the truth, and the truth will make [them] free (John 8:32). In John 17:6 8 Jesus prayed to the Father, I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to
them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. When the disciples asked Him, Why do You speak to them [the crowds] in parables? (Matt. 13:10), Jesus replied, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted (v. 11). In Luke 10:23 24 He told them, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them. The friends of Jesus have insight into the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith (Rom. 16:25 26). The term mystery in the New Testament refers to things hidden in the past, but now revealed by Jesus to the apostles, and through them to all believers. The New Testament reveals the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13:11), the mystery of Israel s hardening (Rom. 11:25), the mystery of the gospel (Eph. 6:19), the mystery of the rapture (1 Cor. 15:51), the mystery of God s will (Eph. 1:9), the mystery that Jews and Gentiles would be one body in Christ (Eph. 3:4 6), the mystery of the union of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32), the mystery of Christ s indwelling of believers (Col. 1:26 27), the mystery that the Messiah would be God incarnate (Col. 2:2), the mystery of lawlessness, which will be fully revealed in the person of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:7), the mystery of the faith (1 Tim. 3:9), and the mystery of godliness (1 Tim. 3:16). Their ability to understand the spiritual truths Jesus reveals to them sets His friends apart from the unredeemed, who have no such privileges: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:12 16) THE FRIENDS OF JESUS HAVE BEEN SPECIALLY CHOSEN BY HIM You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. (15:16) In a reversal of the customary Jewish practice (normally would-be disciples approached a rabbi they wanted to follow), the disciples did not choose Jesus buthe chose them. The knowledge that Jesus chose them (and by extension all believers) to salvation apart from any merit of their own (v. 19; John 6:44, 65; Acts 13:48; Rom. 8:28 30; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2:10; 1 Peter 1:1 2) eliminates any pretense of spiritual pride that Christians might otherwise feel (cf. Rom. 3:27; 4:2; 1 Cor. 1:26 31; Gal. 6:14; Eph. 2:9). Not only did Jesus choose the disciples for salvation, He also appointed them for service. The word translated appointed is a form of the verb tithēmi, which has here the connotation of being
set apart or ordained for special service (cf. its similar usage in Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 12:28; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). Having chosen and trained the disciples, Jesus commanded them to go into the world, proclaim the good news about Him, and bear fruit. The Christian life is not a spectator sport; Jesus did not choose believers to stand idly by while the world continues on its way to hell. On the contrary, His explicit command is, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19 20; cf. Luke 14:23). When believers proclaim the gospel, those who respond savingly to it become fruitthat will remain forever (cf. 4:36; Luke 16:9). That the Lord repeated the promise of verse 7 (see the exposition of that verse in chapter 13 of this volume), whatever you ask of the Father in My name He will give to you, emphasizes the essential link between prayer and evangelism (cf. Luke 10:2; 2 Thess. 3:1). The privileges that characterize the friends of Jesus Christ carry with them corresponding responsibilities. It is their nature to love one another, yet the Bible commands them to fervently love one another from the heart (1 Peter 1:22). They know divine truth, yet they must study it diligently (2 Tim. 2:15). Jesus called His friends out of the world, so they must be careful not to love it (1 John 2:15). Those who have been granted the privilege of bearing fruit must submit to the Father s pruning, so they can bear even more fruit (15:2). The Lord s promise of answered prayer demands that believers pray effectively (James 5:16) and unceasingly (1 Thess. 5:17). In short, those who have been granted the inestimable privilege of being the friends of Jesus Christ must walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which [they] have been called (Eph. 4:1).