The Bible shows us pictures of friendship. In the story of David and Jonathan we get a good vision of a strong earthly friendship with God as a part of the trust between the two of them. We also see friendship exampled in the stories of Jesus and the disciples. Friendship pervades the Bible, most obviously but not only in the gospels where Jesus called his disciples friends. But true friendship was not all one way: he was influenced and changed, challenged and comforted by his friends, by Peter and John, by Joanna and the many Marys we hear of, by Joseph and Lazarus, Judas and Nathaniel.
"Love one another,"says Jesus in the Book of John, and "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's lifefor one's friends."ii These statements are part of Jesus' final commandments to his disciples on the night he was to be arrested and taken away to be crucified. So clearly we need to read into this passage Jesus' own sacrifice -- his own love for his disciples, and indeed for all of humanity, for which he was willing to lay down his own life. Yet, he also makes clear that these words are meant for his followers, and by extension for us here today: "I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Who are your friends? Do you appreciate them? Have you told them so?
What is a friend? Friends are people with whom you dare to be yourself.
One example of friendship remains with me as vividly as the moment I first heard of it as a boy. In his first seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play Major League baseball, faced venom nearly everywhere he traveled--fastballs at his head, spikings on the bases, brutal epithets from the opposing dugouts and from the crowds.
During one game in Boston, the taunts and racial slurs seemed to reach a peak. In the midst of this, another Dodger, a Southern white named Pee Wee Reese, called timeout. He walked from his position at shortstop toward Robinson at second base, put his arm around Robinson's shoulder, and stood there with him for what seemed like a long time. The gesture spoke more eloquently than the words: This man is my friend. Robinson said that Reese saved his career on that day. He was a true friend.
A small boy defined a friend as "Someone who knows all about you and likes you just the same."
Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing friends.. B. Franklin.
In a survey of more than 40,000 Americans said these qualities were most valued in a friend: 1. The ability to keep confidences 2. Loyalty 3. Warmth and affection.
I would add another key attribute – someone who prays for you!
Here is a question – what kind of friend are you? Are you loyal, do you keep confidences, are you warm and affectionate, do you pray earnestly for your friends?
Of course, when we think of friends we have the great model in Jesus, and He says He is our friend. “what a friend we have in Jesus." He is our best friend and if our relationship with him is what it ought to be, then our relationship with others is going to be growing strong each day. In fact, if your relationship with Jesus Christ is a deep, beautiful, personal, intimate relationship, you are going to want to bring your family and friends to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will provide a wonderful new dimension for their lives and He will be a friend who will never leave them nor forsake them.
Have you ever thought about what it means to be a friend in Jesus? You know, when we talk about something like friendship with Jesus it is absolutely thrilled to realize that the Son of God who is responsible for the creation and the upholding of the universe is literally a personal, intimate friend of those who are His own. It is an overwhelming thing when you really grasp that truth. This morning I want you to see what it really means to be a friend of Jesus.
We know what He did for us – He laid down His life for you. What have you done for Him? What are you doing for Him? What do you plan to do for Jesus? What kind of friend are you to Him?
Many times, we imagine the church as the family of God. And we are the family of God. But we are also a a community of friends. Into this community of friends, Jesus invites you, invites you to love the other friends of Jesus with a love that accepts, that cherishes, that challenges, that supports.
We are not all called to give our lives for one another as Jesus did for us. Yet we are all called to that difficult task of loving one another with that same passionate love that carried Jesus through the cross to the transformation of the resurrection.
Jesus opens his arms to you in friendship. Jesus opens his arms to you in sacrifice. Will you follow and do the same? Let me close with just a couple of questions.
1. Are you the friend of Jesus? 2. Are you a friend like Jesus?3. Are you willing to become His friend and a friend like Him?
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