Sermon 6 May 18

We carry on in the passage we began last week, Christ the true vine & we are the branches & we are to abide in Him. The text today is the second half, after the pruning, it speaks of love. As God the Father has loved Jesus, His Son, Jesus loves us, “abide in my love” He says.  Above all other commandments, and concerns of any kind, we are to love one another as He loves us.

First let us look at the love God has for His Son, because it resonates with us as well. God's love towards Jesus is demanding, full of presence and promise, rich in public displays of God's power. It prunes, cleanses, molds, forms, challenges, and supports Jesus in his ministry. If we recall a few of the experiences of Jesus we know about in His ministry. There were some very tense and difficult times, like the death of Lazarus, calming the storms, patience to teach His disciples, the constant critics, His death and resurrection, God was with Jesus. This is the love of Jesus Christ in which we are invited to abide; He in us and we in Him, through all of life. 

This all speaks of RELATIONSHIP. “I also have loved you . . . abide in My love.” Keeping commandments, abiding in love, love one another, laying down your life, being a friend, bearing fruit, asking and receiving.
This is all about the close relationship of the Father and the Son, that here includes – by grace and the response of faith - the individual follower, each of us. God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit invite people into their fellowship. It is an invitation with terms, with an instructed response to begin your relationship with the Lord, and continue that life.

So how do we abide with Jesus? Unequivocally Jesus says the road of abiding consists in keeping His commandments (John 15:10). Jesus again urges His disciples to do the same as He has kept God's commandments, and the result of such abiding was apparent in all He did.

Above all commandments−one that is emphasized - is "that you love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12). Jesus spoke of "commandments" earlier, but here he speaks of only one: love one another. He extends the deepness and scope of this love by saying the greatest expression of love is dying for one's friends. In verses 12 and 13, Jesus speaks of love between and among friends, but what about enemies & strangers? Would you go to death for love of them as well?

In speaking of relationships, Jesus' clarifies how he regards his disciples. They are not strangers, nor are they only disciples, or servants; they are, He says, friends. And the reason He calls them "friends" is because he has shared everything all the riches of all He has with them, and His relationship with God. "I have made known to you everything...everything that I  have heard from my Father" (John 15:15). Here Jesus' offer of the intimacy of friendship is overwhelming. HE has shared and given all.  To seize Jesus the Risen Lord is to be invited into friendship with God.

Friendship is a real gift. We have all had experience with it and unlike family, friendship is a choice we make to have. Jesus calls us friends today. Friendship is a choice, He has chosen us as friends.  How do we respond to His invitation?

What are the basic elements of friendship?

 “A true friend is someone who always lets you in and never lets you down.”

I think there is a recognition of who this person is and an acceptance of that person. A friendship is composed of two people who accept each other as they are.

Do we understand everything about this person; no. Do we like everything or most everything about this person, no.

Friendship is accepting the person just the way they are, and the same in return. Then we have the basis of a friendship.

How often are our friendships based on conditions?  I'll be your friend providing your financial or social status is to my liking.

I'll be your friend providing you lead a decent life.

I’ll be your friend providing we have the same shade of skin.

I'll be your friend providing we support the same political party, go to the same church denomination, or at least go to church… and so on

People may or may not say these actual words, but that is how they think.

A woman was interviewed by reporters on her 102^nd birthday. When asked about the benefits of living past the century mark, she answered, “No peer pressure!”(peer pressure both negative-positive)

Other vital elements in friendship include respect, trust and honesty. We do need to feel that we can trust each other, share our joys and sorrows, discuss our problems, confide in each other, rely on each other's loyalty and confidence and when life falls apart you know and want that friend beside you. In many cases family may fill these rolls too & I hope they do, but that is not and cannot be the case for everyone.

A British publication once offered a prize for the best definition of a friend. Among the thousands of answers received the winning definition of a friend read: "A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out." Bits & Pieces, July 1991.

How does this definition compare to the people we call friends on face book?

To be called a friend is a true gift.

Jesus called His disciples, His followers friends but He knew that Judas would betray Him. Peter would deny Him. The others forsake Him in the hour of His greatest loneliness in the garden of Gethsemane.

Surely this was a situation when Jesus needed His friends and they were not there. 

The disciples of Jesus were far from perfect. Yet Jesus said, 'I call you my friends. I accept you just the way you are.' He offers us that same friendship, regardless of who or what we are. All that matters is that we are willing to accept Jesus.

Some people find it hard to understand how God could love them if He only knew the real me.  He knows everything about us, all our secret thoughts and actions, so it would be futile to try to hide anything from Him.

 In the Gospels it seems that the people who were most uncomfortable in the presence of Jesus were not sinners but the strict moralists, those who took way too much pride in their own goodness and looked down on others.

Jesus never invaded a person's privacy or destroyed the dignity of their free will. When the rich man for example asked what I must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus replied keep my commandments and the man replied, “I have kept all of these”; what do I still lack?” Jesus said, if you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions, and give your money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for He had many possessions.”  

Now if that were the church today, wanting to bring more people in to fill the pews, we might have run after that man and said, don’t worry about that last part, come in anyway. But Jesus didn’t run after Him, He established the bar and left it. It was up to that man to make his own decision, not one could make it for him.  

The last book of the Bible pictures Jesus standing at the door, knocking, in. Rev. 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

That is the picture of the high regard Jesus has for us. He will never kick down the door of our lives. He Has done all He can, His sacrifice for us complete, He now offers His friendship and waits for us to respond.

Jesus said, 'I have told you everything the Father told me.' Jesus believed in and practised openness with His friends.

This my friends, is Christ, He comes to us when we are not even looking for Him. He is at the door, just waiting to be invited in.

Bearing fruit means making wise choices and decisions for the work of and on behalf of God. It means acting thoughtfully over a life time; discerning what thoughts, words, and actions best serve the intentions of a loving God in this world, most clearly seen in the figure of the Risen Christ.  To know the Risen Christ is to know the very heart of God. Amen.