This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Friendship With Jesus.
Jesus said,
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 (John 15:12-13).
That is a special kind of love. Does Jesus have favorites? No, with Him there is no partiality (see Acts 10:34)—but Jesus does have intimates. You can become an intimate friend of Christ
If we could just be called servants of the Lord, that would be an honor. But to think that He wants us as His friends! That does not bring Him down; it brings us up, because we did not choose Him. He chose us. (See John 15:16.)
A man is known by his friends. If you are a friend of Jesus, you are somebody.
Abraham was called the friend of God. (See James 2:23.) All of the disciples knew this. Can you imagine what must have gone through their hearts, then, when Jesus said, “You are My friends”? The honor!
Jesus sought us out. He took the initiative.
When you make a new friend, you get to meet that person’s other friends. Then his friends become yours—an ever-enlarging circle.
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12l).
Friendship with Jesus gives us so many other friends. The love that you have for Jesus and the love they have for Jesus brings you together.
Why do we love others? We are not much, but there is Somebody who loves us, and His name is Jesus. We love the Church because Jesus loves the Church.
People say, “You don’t have to go to church in order to be a good Christian.” If you have no desire to be with the saints down here, you have little hope of being with the saints up there. When you come to worship in the assembly on Sunday, you are saying two things: God is important, and my brothers and sisters are important.
Cheap friendships are not real friendships. True friendship costs, but it is worth it.
You are My friends if you do whatever I command you (John 15:14).
Friendship with Jesus is not earned by obedience, but it is shown by obedience.
We are to love one another because we love the Lord Jesus. There is no easy way to be a good friend to anyone.
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 (John 15:5).
If you are a slave, you serve because you have to. If you are employed, you serve because you need to—you need the pay! But you serve a friend because you want to. That is the highest kind of service.
As you think about the cost of friendship with Jesus, think also about compensation.
I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15b)
To be a friend of Jesus is to be brought into the inner circle. Have you ever wondered why some people seem to know so much more about the Word of God than others do, or how they are able to pray like they do? They have learned the secret of fellowship with the Lord.
Jesus prayed to His Father,
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You (John 17:6-7).
Jesus’ disciples could not understand why He used parables to teach the crowds.
He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:10-11).
It is good to be an insider. Friendship has its privileges. There are things the child of God knows that other people do not.
Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it” (Luke 10:23-24).
When we are spiritually perceptive, we become spiritually productive.
Real friendship with a good person will make you better. You will be enlarged by that friendship. “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17).
Conversely, if you have unworthy friends, they will blot your influence. They will dull you and drag you down.
If you want to be godly, get godly friends. If you want to be wise, get wise friends. That is the truth on the normal plane. How much more true it is when you become a friend of Jesus Christ!
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 (John 15:16).
Jesus is not talking to everybody in general. He is talking to His friends, His intimates. Because these people know the mind and the will of God, they can pray in Jesus’ name. To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray with His authority and approval, and for His glory.
It is not all honey and no bees. When you become a friend of Jesus, you enter into conflict with this world.
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19).
Jesus’ friends become our friends. And it is just as true that His enemies become our enemies. You cannot be a friend of Jesus without having enemies. “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
When you stand up for Christ, it will cost you. But don’t worry about it. You will simply be closer to Jesus because you have suffered with Him.
Do you know why they crucified the Lord Jesus? They said, “This man is a friend of sinners.” (See Matthew 11:19.) Where would we be if He were not! “He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance’” (Mark 2:17).
He does not love us because we are good; He loves us by His grace. He does not make us good so He can love us; He loves us so that He can make us good. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
John 15:12-25, 17:6-7; Acts 10:34; James 2:23; Matthew 11:19, 13:10-11; Luke 10:23-24; Proverbs 27:17; 2 Timothy 3:12; Mark 2:17; Romans 5:8
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? (1 John 3:16-17).
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:1-3).
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4b).
