“WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS”
By Pastor Mark Taylor
“I have called you friends.” (John 15:15)
The whole story of the Bible is about God longing to have a personal friendship with human beings.
Facebook is a place where people can share their lives. They can talk with others, post pictures and articles they’d like people to see. And most of this sharing is done between “friends”. Most of these “friends” you will never meet. They might not even like you. For the most part they are just passing through. If you were sick in the hospital, they wouldn’t come visit you. If you needed some money to pay a bill, they wouldn’t be there for you. On Facebook they are called “friends”, but they are not people who love you or care about you.
Today, I want to tell you about a real friend named “Jesus”. He is not just a “Facebook Friend”. “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24). That Friend is Jesus. I want to tell you about a friend who loves you all the time. “A friend loves at all times...” (Proverbs 17:17). That Friend is Jesus.
The Bible is filled with stories of friendship; Moses and Jethro; David and Jonathan; Elijah and Elisha;Paul and Timothy; and Jesus and His twelve disciples.
Jesus came to this earth with one purpose in mind, laying down His life for us so that we could be His Friend. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). Our Friend, Jesus was also talking about us having a relationship with God because of His payment for our sins.
His Friendship involves forgiving our faults and shortcomings. The love of Jesus is stronger than any failure you may have committed. Jesus loves us in spite of the things that we have done. Jesus not only promises to forgive our sins but He also forgets them. He simply wipes the slate of our lives clean and then refuses to remember what we have done.
There is nothing that you can do to make Jesus love you any less. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more than He does right now. But there is a way to know if you are His friend. How can you know if you are really His friend? “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14).
What is it that Jesus wants us to do? This is my command: “Love each other” (John 15:12). The condition for friendship with Jesus is the simple fact that we follow His example. We are meant to love others as Jesus loves them and as He loves us. The only way to do this is to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
The deepest desire in the heart of Jesus is to call you His friend but the choice is up to you.
He initiates the opportunity for friendship. Jesus gives us the chance to put our faith in Him. He left heaven, became human, died for your sins, and then conquered death for you – all in an attempt to show you how interested He is in being your friend. He took the initiative!
Now the way you become a “friend” on Facebook is - one person sends out an INVITATION to someone else to be their friend. The other person can then either “CONFIRM” them as a friend or IGNORE you. If you haven’t become a Christian yet… then the question is this Will you accept his offer, or will you ignore it today.
What Jesus is telling us here is “I invited you to be my friend… you didn’t invite me.” (John 15:16) “You did not choose me, but I chose you...”
He invited US to be HIS friend, that He reached out to us because we weren’t worthy to reach out to Him - then we should be humbled that He thought WE were worth His time.
Not only is Jesus my friend, but my friendship with Jesus improves my friendship with others.Jesus said “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) It’s a repeated command, over and over again throughout the Scriptures. Why repeat such a command? Because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We don’t really know how to love until we’ve learned the love of Jesus in our lives.
“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.”
Jesus loves you today. It’s good to be loved. God created you to be loved. There’s nothing to compare with loving and being loved. And God is the source of love. You have an invitation from Heaven to become a “Friend of God”.
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