What a Friend We Have in Jesus - Part B

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. And did Jesus know that Thomas was going to doubt him? Yep. And did he know that James and John would say, Lord, let me just kill these Samaritans, call down fire from heaven and smoke them? Did he knew that violence was in them? Yep.

Picked him anyway. It speaks of his affection. One of my favorite stories is a story of a huge block of marble that was cut out of a quarry in Carrara, Italy where all of the ancient statues, the marble for the statues was hewn and typically brought to the great artists for them to make something. And this stone was cut out. It was a massive block of marble.

It was taken to Florence, Italy where the masters lived. And artist after artist viewed that block of marble that sat in a churchyard week after week. And all of them rejected that block of marble. For example, Donatello, the great sculptor, looked at it and said, I don't want it because there was a crack in it. There was a flaw that ran through the marble. And one after another rejected the flawed marble until one artist came by and he smiled and he got really excited and he said, there's an angel trapped inside and I must set it free. That man was Michelangelo.

For two years he worked on that flawed block of marble and brought forth after two years on January 25th, 1504 what is called his greatest work ever, the statue of David which still adorns the courtyards of Florence, Italy. That's affection. That's how God looks at us.

God looks at your life, sees the flaw, says I know but there's something trapped in there. I'm going to release it. I'm going to work on that person.

I'm going to make them useful. So here's Jesus picking his friends. You didn't choose me, I chose you. Speaks of his position, speaks of his election, speaks of his affection. Finally, the fourth thing it does, it speaks to us of his intention, his intention. Now listen carefully. God has an intention, a purpose for your life now, a job for you to do.

I want you to look at the second important word in that sentence, verse 16. You did not choose me but I chose you and what? Appointed. Appointed. It's a very, very important word. It's the Greek word titheme. It means to select, appoint, ordain for a very special purpose. So the first part, I've chosen you, chosen you out of the world, that's salvation. The second word, ordain, that's service. First salvation and then comes service. I chose you, I ordained you. But keep going, look what it says. You didn't choose me, I chose you and appointed you that you should, what's the next word?

I want to hear it from everybody. Go. Stop there. This is so, I love this.

So good. I've chosen you and I've especially ordained you that you should go. Listen, God never selects any Christian to stop. I picked you to stop right there. Go no further.

There's motion implied here. He didn't want us to just sit around, look at each other, sing a few songs, just watch life go on. He said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

So here's the pattern and this is so important, I just don't want anybody to miss it. This is what he does. Jesus picks friends, calls them out of the world, saves them and then sends them right back in the world.

Because now they have the word with all to do something about the world they were chosen out of. I've chosen you, I've ordained you that you should go and bear forth or bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. What does he mean here by fruit?

You say skip, you've been through this already, move on. You talked about fruit last week. I did, I talked about fruit especially as the fruit of the spirit, right? Galatians 5, the characteristic of Christ. Here, the context is a little different because he's speaking of being chosen and going out into the world. I think that the fruit he is especially in particular referring to aren't the graces of Christian character, but the converts from the unbelieving world. It's people that you influence and they come to Christ, there's a spiritual harvest, the fruit is gathered in. Stay right here, you don't have to turn to it, I'm going to turn to John chapter 4.

We've been through this before but I don't know, it was like 40 years ago. This is Jesus in Samaria, right? He's in Samaria, a lot of unbelievers come to faith in him there. In chapter 4 of John's gospel, I'm reading out of verse 34, Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they already wiped for harvest. And he who reaps and he who receives wages gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

Every time you have the opportunity to lead somebody to Christ, even if you don't even make it that far, if you just say a word that will influence them later to do so, or you show an act of love in the name of Christ that will eventually add to their conversion, that is eternal fruit. And I tell you, that's the way to live. There's purpose in the Christian life. I tell you, there's one way I don't want to live.

I don't want to live my life standing around and watching the world go on just sort of meaninglessly living my life, watching things happen without influencing somebody else. I'd much rather live with the intention of I'm saved and I'm ordained to bear forth fruit and bring people to know Christ because that's eternal fruit. And by the way, did you know that every person that you influence, every fruit follows you into eternity? That your fruit would remain, Jesus said, remain. One of the passages we often share at funerals for those believers who live this kind of a life, Revelation 14 says, And blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, for they will rest from their labors and their works will follow them.

Your fruit will follow you into eternity. So Jesus picks His friends. Second great truth we see here is that Jesus helps His friends.

That's good, isn't it? If He picks you as His friend, you want Him to help you. You say, well, what kind of help will He give? Well, the first and most important thing is He saves you.

He'll sacrifice His life for you. Verse 13, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for His friends. We always look to the cross, do we not, as the prime greatest quintessential example of love. Jesus did that.

He loves me that much. By the way, the principle in verse 13 is a universal principle. Everybody knows it to be true.

Every culture knows it to be true. The greatest example of love, of friendship, is when a friend would give his life and sacrifice his life for another. That's the best example, highest example of love. But hear Jesus speaking of His own death. Okay, now fast forward to when John writes 1 John. And in that book, John says, By this we know love, that He lay down His life for us. We really know that He came to help us. We really know that He loves us because He was willing to lay His life down for us.

You understand the principle? Jesus doesn't just choose you to be His friends. He came to this earth and paid the bill for you to become His friends by washing away your sin, by dying on the cross. Now somebody will listen to that and go, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the one problem I have with Christianity is this whole death on the cross thing. You know, I like to think of Jesus as just a good person, a good fellow, a good example, a good teacher. And why can't we just say that Jesus came to this earth to say some nice words, do a few miraculous tricks to stun everyone, and then He just left? Isn't that good enough? Do we have to make a big deal about Him dying on a cross?

Yes, we do, and here's why. Because all of Jesus' friends are sinners. And all sinners need to be forgiven. And forgiveness comes by shed blood. The Old Testament says that only by the shedding of blood is there remission of sins, or without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.

That's number one. He came to sacrifice for us, to pay the penalty, to be our atonement. Look at verse 15, here's something else He does and helps us.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. Jesus speaks to us. Jesus reveals to us. Jesus lets us in, His friends, on the plan of God. All things that I've learned from my Father I told you. No, I don't call you servants anymore, I call you friends.

Now just think about this for a moment. When you read through the epistles like Romans, et cetera, you find that a lot of the gospel writers love to call themselves servants. It's one of Paul's favorite terms for himself. So in Romans and 2 Corinthians and Galatians and Philippians and in Titus, those five books, all five books, Paul calls himself a bond slave of Jesus. Ever heard that term, bond servant of Jesus? He loved to call himself a bond servant, a slave of Jesus.

He wasn't the only one. James in his book calls himself a slave. Peter in 2 Peter calls himself a bond servant.

Jude calls himself a bond servant. All of these authors love to call themselves servants, why? Because they knew they had a great boss. Because as the old saying goes, to be his slave is to be a king. They loved being called a servant. So then why does Jesus here make a differentiation between servants and friends? I'm not going to call you servants anymore.

I'm going to call you friends. Well then he explains it. For everything I've heard from my father, I've told you. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, we want to help you understand what real peace looks like so you can experience it in your own life. That's why we want to send you a copy of Unleashing Peace, Experiencing God's Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness by Jeremiah J. Johnston. This resource is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share solid biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Did you know in ancient times, slaves worked for their master without any explanation at all? A master never told the servant why he had to do work, just that he had to do work, just do the work. And servants would do the work, slaves would do the work, they'd do the work to get paid, just to grind it out, just to get the job done. They didn't really particularly love their master necessarily.

They could, but typically not. So often you'd have a slave who had a bad attitude anyway toward the master, just cranking it out, just doing the work, just wanting to get paid. The master would never go to a slave and say, Let me let you in on my secrets, my plans, my dreams, my hopes, my aspirations, my agenda. That was something reserved for only friends who were close confidants.

Not slaves. Servants didn't understand, friends did. Did you know that 2,000 years ago when this was written, the Roman emperor had a group of people around him in his court that were known as friends of the king? And the friends of the king were more than political advisors, they were actually close associates. They had access to the king at any time.

They could even go into his bedchamber and talk about the deepest issues of life, and the king typically would run everything by his friends of the king before he would tell anybody else. I don't call you servants. I call you friends. If I would have been a disciple, I'd have gone, Yeah, I would know what that meant. What an honor. They just got promoted.

They just got elevated. And then he tells them why, once again, For all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. In other words, we, his friends, we don't just blindly follow his orders. We know why we follow his orders. He's revealed to us the whole scope of life from the beginning of creation to the end of the consummation. We're in on the deal.

We're in on the details. Real quickly, if you don't mind, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13. There's a lot of verses of scriptures that I could use.

I just want to poke at a couple of them to let you see the meaning of this and to reinforce it. Matthew chapter 13. This is Jesus giving parables. Look at this, verse 10. And his disciples came to him and said, Why do you speak to them in parables? What's up with all these stories?

Why are you doing that? Look what he says. He answered them and said, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Isn't that interesting? They're going to hear a story and go, I don't get it. That's kind of a funny little story. It was cute, but I don't get it. I don't understand. But the friends, the close associates, they'll understand the meaning that lies behind the clever little story in a deeper fashion.

Something else. Look at the Gospel of Luke chapter 10. You're going back to John.

Go two blocks to the right on the way back to John. Luke chapter 10. In verse 22 of Luke 10, All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. And then He turned to His disciples privately and said, Blessed are your 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. Jesus told them everything. Jesus told them how to get to heaven. Jesus told them a little bit about what heaven would be like. Jesus told them how to have joy, how to have peace. Jesus told them about the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus even told them about what will happen at the end of the world and how it's all going to come down sequentially in Matthew chapter 24.

So He passed that on to them. They in turn wrote it down and passed it on to us so we have what Paul called the whole counsel of God. We have what Paul called the mystery of the knowledge of His will. We have all of the sacred secrets given to us in the Bible. Now somebody's going to say, Okay, well, if it's in the Bible, then anybody can just buy a Bible and they'll have all the sacred secrets. Anybody, believer, non-believer, right?

Wrong. You know what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit. They're foolishness unto Him.

He can't know them. They're spiritually discerned. I know people who own Bibles and they don't have a clue what's written in it. They have no knowledge of spiritual truth. They own the Bible. They own the book. They've even tried to read it. They don't get it.

It's something the Holy Spirit of God must unlock and He does that to His friends. It's what I want you to walk away with on this point. We know what nobody else knows. You have the secret of the universe.

You know, I honestly don't think we really appreciate that. I really think we take it for granted how much we know. It means that the greatest philosopher, the smartest scientist, all on their quest for the truth, they're like babies in the crib compared to a simple man or woman with a Bible and the Holy Spirit of God bringing the revelation of knowledge to that heart. Everything the Father has told me, I've passed it on. So Jesus picks His friends. He helps His friends.

Third, and we close on this, we better do it quickly. He anticipates His friends. He expects His friends to do something.

One verse, look at verse 14. You are my friends. Notice there's not a period there. You didn't say, you know what, I've picked a lot of friends and you are my friends.

Notice how it goes on after the comma. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. Okay, so we've been talking about how great a friend Jesus is.

Now I have a question for you. How good of a friend of Jesus are you? Well, how can I be a good friend if you do whatever I command you?

Notice something about that. Jesus' friends actively obey Him. The word do is a positive word. He didn't say, you're my friends if you don't do this and you don't do that. And for a lot of people, their Christianity is all about negatives, what they don't do. I don't smoke, I don't chew, I don't go with girls that do.

Whoopee, what do you do that's positive? So Jesus' friends will actively obey. Not only that, Jesus' friends will repeatedly obey. You see the word do? It's a little word.

It's in the present subjunctive. It means continually, habitually, as a lifestyle do. Not you are my disciples if you do something once and then quit it forever. You are my disciples if you do what I tell you to do on Sundays, but on Monday and the rest of the week, do whatever you want. You are my disciples if you do what I tell you to do when everybody's looking, but when nobody's looking, do whatever you want. It's a continual, habitual lifestyle of obedience.

And finally, look at the word whatever. This tells me that Jesus' friends unconditionally obey him. You are my disciples if you do whatever. It's not like if you do whatever.

That's sort of the modern term. What do you gotta do? Whatever. No, it means anything he tells you to do, right? Here's the deal. You and I can never pick and choose what area of life we're gonna allow Jesus Christ into. We can't say, well, I'm gonna obey him in my business life, but I won't obey him in my marriage. I've got something else going on the side. Well, I'm gonna obey Jesus in my marriage and in my business, but I'm not gonna obey him when I file for my income tax returns. Or I'm gonna obey Jesus there, but when it comes to my vacation and my leisure, I'm gonna sort of do what I want. No.

It's a continual, habitual, and it includes whatever. Whatever. Here's what James said, James chapter four, and here's the choice everybody has to make. James said, whoever would be a friend of this world is an enemy toward God. A man or a woman must come basically to that choice, am I gonna be the world's friend or am I gonna be God's friend?

Because down the long haul, you won't be able to do both. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we wanna remind you about this month's resource that will help you experience God's shalom in life's busiest seasons.

Unleashing Peace by Jeremiah Johnston is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast your burdens on his word Make a connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.