John 15:9-17        How to Be a Friend to Jesus       Feb 10, 2008

       A group of Boy Scout leader was hiking in the mountains when one of the leaders became separated and lost.  Suddenly on a cliffside, the ground gave way and be plunged downward.  Part way down he grabbed a branch but he did not know how long it would hold him.  It was a long way down.  In desperation, he prayed out loud, “Is anybody up there.  Please, is anyone up there?”  Then just as he felt his strength failing, he heard a voice.  “I am here.”  “Oh, thank you God.  Please save me.”  “I will save you.  You have to trust me.  Let go of the branch.”  There was along silence as the man looked at the air and rocks below him.  Then he prayed again.  “Is there anybody else up there?” 

      This morning, we are continuing a series on the Words of Jesus.  I want to see that Jesus answers this question.  Is there anybody up there?  But much more importantly, Jesus answers the question of, “Who is the anybody up there?”  What sort of anybody is up there?  Jesus tells us that he is our friend and that he calls us to be his friends.

      Have you ever attended a goodbye party?  Marley and I have often moved away from friends whom we have made.  I remember when we were leaving Virginia; we spent a last evening with close friends who helped us pack our truck and ate pizza with us.  Those are close precious times.  Jesus spent his last supper—His goodbye party-- with his closest friends, his disciples.  He told them he had chosen them to be his friends.  He told them that they were not merely his students or disciples.  They were his friends.  And Jesus told them to be friends with one another.  Jesus says that to each of us.  He calls us to be his friends.    

      We all need friends.  One of the great joys of the Boy Scout program is how boys come together as such close friends.  Kathy Ormsby was a young woman who desperately needed some friends.  In 1986, Kathy was a Junior at North Carolina State.  She was on the Dean’s List with almost straight A’s as she prepared for Medical School.  Amazingly, she was also the track team’s star runner and that spring of 1986 she broke the world college record for the women’s 10,000 meter run.  It seemed her life was headed for great things.  But in her driven state, Kathy had few friends. She felt lonely.  And in June of 86, in the middle of a cross town race, Kathy suddenly broke away from the pack of runners, ran to the edge of a bridge and jumped ion an attempt to kill herself.  She survived the fall but was paralyzed from her waist down for life.  It was a tragic story that need never have happened if only Kathy had had some good friends to pull her back from the edge.  

        How do you choose your friends?  Usually we just drift into friendships with people whom we meet and give little thought to it.  But friendship is too important to be taken so lightly.  We should consider long and carefully who will call friend.  I do not mean mere acquaintances.  I mean a real friend.  Choosing who will be my friend is a monumental decision that will have consequences for my life.  So I choose my friends carefully, and once I have them as my friends, my loyalty is unshakable.  Jesus says to us in verse 16 that he has chosen us as his friends.  We did not choose him.  He chose us.  He knew us before we ever knew him.  He chose us to be is friends.  Do you remember as a kid playing ball and the captain would choose players.  It is a great feeling to be chosen.  It is a lonely feeling to be chosen last or not chosen at all.  We all like to be chosen.  Jesus Christ has chosen you to be his friend.    

      Not only does Christ choose us to be his friends, He wants us to be His close friends who share in what He is doing in the world today.  Who are your two best friends?  Think of their names for a moment.  Do you know them well and do you know what is important in their life?   Jesus said that we are to be his friends and that we are to know him and to know what He is about.  Jesus said, “A servant does not know what his master is doing but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”  There are many people in churches all across America who are acquaintances with Jesus Christ.  They know a little about him at a distance.  But they do not really know Him or what He is doing in the world today.  But we who are the friends of Jesus, we know Him personally and we know the mission that He is doing to subvert the present world order to bring about a new world.  

      This is a great privilege of friendship.  We are in on the secret of what Jesus Christ is doing.  He is at work to change the world and to bring about a new world.  And here is the best part.  He says that he has appointed us to go and bear fruit.  You see, we are to go out into the world—at home, at school, at work—and do the work of God.  Our lives are to be fruitful, meaningful, purposeful, and eventful.  And look.  Jesus says that the fruit will last so that whatever we ask God in the name of Jesus, God will do this for us.  When we are the friends of Jesus, we are involved as ambassadors of God to carry his word and work into the world.  When a United States Ambassador works in a foreign country at the Embassy, that Ambassador speaks and carries the full authority of the United States of America.  In a meeting with foreign representatives, that Ambassador is the United States of America.  Listen.  As the friends of Jesus, we are involved in changing the world.  And as we do this work, we carry the authority of God.  As we do this work, our prayers become powerful instruments of change.  We will see the lives of our families change, the lives of our friends change.  We will see the fruit of what we are doing in the name of Jesus and that fruit will last for all eternity. 

      Jesus Christ chose you to his friend.  He has chosen you to work alongside of Him to bring change to this world.  And finally, as you enter this work of God, you are going to be blessed with deep friendships.  Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.”  This friendship with Jesus includes friendship with all the other friends of Jesus.  Many of you have discovered this new type of friendship.  It happens on Salkehatchie trips.  It happens in cell group Bible studies.  It happens as we lead in Scout troops.  It happens in Sunday School classes.  It happens when we are mentors.  It happens when we gather together with other friends of Jesus to do the work of Jesus.  We discover deep friendships like we have never experienced before.  These are spiritual friends.  A popular Christian song of the 1980s said, “Friends are friends forever if the Lord is the Lord of them.”  If you long for friends like that, then come join the friends of Jesus.  Amen.