The Best Life

John 15:1-17

Many Christians are not enjoying the full benefit of a friendship with Jesus because they cannot get past the bondage of servitude that has developed out of a sense of religious obligation rather than out of a love for Christ.

Security is a hallmark of a good friendship. If you don’t feel secure you won’t have a good friendship because security it built upon a foundation of stability in knowing where you stand.

Just as much as I am a friend of God, I am also His servant, but my servitude doesn’t come out of a forced religious obligation but out of recognition that, just like Christianity itself, and all that the Kingdom of God is, the best of friendships are built on generosity.

And a true, godly friendship is not about what you can get out of it, but what you can pour into it. While my position in Christ is to be seated in heavenly places, the expression of my love for Christ is outworked in my desire to lay down my life and serve Him and do what that which pleases Him.

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Four Reasons Why Jesus Calls us Friend:

1. Servants are only in the presence of their master when their master wants something from them.

But as a friend of God you can spend time with Him, whenever you desire.

We were created to be in fellowship / relationship with God.

Christ has destroyed everything that was preventing us from fully entering into His presence. You don’t need to wait to be called, there is an open invitation all you need to do is choose to.

Jesus calls us friend because…

2. Servants don’t express their thoughts or share their heart to their master, they just follow instruction.

But friends of God can pour out their heart to Him.

Christ cares about you. Masters don’t care about the needs of the servant, because the servant is there to meet the Master’s needs.

In Matt 11.28 Jesus said come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. In effect, he was saying, if you have a need, I will meet that need

When no one else understands, God does.

Jesus calls us friend because…

3. Servants do not know the business of their master.

But friends of God can share in His business and know what He is doing.

Jesus isn’t holding anything back from us. John 15:15 – Everything Jesus has heard from His Father He makes known to us.

The sense of the graduation in the relationship is the development of your ability to know something you didn’t know before. He says you understand some things about God that you didn’t know before.

Jesus calls us friend because…

4. Servants don’t get hurt, they’re just there to do a job.

But friends can get their feelings hurt.

Friends will tell you the truth. They will try to get you out of a situation that’s not good for you. Friends will protect you from embarrassment.

Prov 27:6 – Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

If a friend hurts you, it’s for a good reason. A real friend will hurt your feelings to protect you.

Real friends, close friends can talk about the things that no one else is talking about.

And, so, here we have Jesus who calls us friend. But before he does so, he confronts the issue that people are reluctant to talk about, the thing that, if misunderstood by someone who doesn’t know where they stand, could seem inhumane and perhaps even merciless by a loving God. No body’s talking about it and no body wants to hear it, but Jesus just confronts it head on.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

Jesus said if the branch bears fruit I’m going to cut you back – one is being cut out while the other is being cut back. One is being cut to be destroyed and one is being cut to prosper.

God used your difficulty to cut you back, rather than cut you out. It’s the pruning. God will use painful situations to cut back the branch so that you might trust Him and have lasting success. The only way to obtain more is to be cut back.

The key to a lasting friendship is connection. If the connection is lost, the friendship is lost.

Jesus calls you friend because you’ve been through it all and you have remained faithful.

God says, when I see you’re not using me to manipulate me to get what you want, when things don’t go the way you expected, if you stick it out and you abide in Me then you can ask what you will and it will be given to you.