"If" 10-27-24
Overview
The Weight of an "If"
In John 15:14, Jesus says, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." That little word if lands heavy. The command itself, given just before in John 15:12-13, is no small thing: "Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." This is sacrificial love—love that abandons self to serve the other. And honestly, our flesh recoils. We don't always want to love that way; sometimes we push back against God's commands altogether.
But here is the sobering reality: no one gets to opt out of dealing with Jesus. Every world religion, every skeptic, every believer must reckon with him. As Romans 14:10-12 reminds us, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; every knee will bow, every tongue confess. The Ten Commandments lay out God's holy and perfect law, which Jesus summarizes as loving God and loving neighbor. If our friendship with Jesus rested on our own obedience, the if would shut us out—because we have intentionally and unintentionally failed.
The "If" Answered in Christ
Read on, however, and the conditional collapses under grace. In John 15:15-16, Jesus declares, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." He has made known to us everything from the Father, and most of all his own sacrificial love. Colossians 1:15-22 celebrates this Jesus—the image of the invisible God, the one in whom all things hold together, the head of the body, the church—who reconciled us, "once estranged and hostile in mind," through the blood of his cross, to present us holy and blameless before the Father.
So friendship with Jesus is not a burden we shoulder but a gift he secures. He bore the punishment for our sin. He claimed us in the waters of baptism. He cloaks us in his righteousness so that on judgment day we stand not in our failures but in his perfection. The if is not ours to fulfill—Jesus has already fulfilled it for us.
Living as Friends of Jesus
Because Jesus has made us his friends, his command to love one another becomes a shared joy rather than an impossible weight. He appoints us, as John 15:16 says, "to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last." Drawn into the one body with Christ as its head, we are knit together with brothers and sisters we are called to serve. The Spirit places people in our path so we can comfort, advocate, mentor, show kindness, and lay down our lives in small daily ways.
We don't love one another in our own strength; the same Jesus who commands also empowers. When rifts come, his grace mends them. When we fall short, his mercy covers us. The friendship is sealed—not by our performance, but by his choosing, his cross, and his Spirit—now and forever.
Transcript
If you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of John 15th chapter, if you're using a 3s
Pew edition of the Bible that can be found on page 96 in the New Testament. 10s
We're in the Gospel of John 15th chapter. 16s
This ball we have had a sermon series all about friends and learning from the biblical 21s
friendships that we find. 27s
What makes a friend? 30s
What does it mean to be a friend? 32s
We studied aspects of friendship in the advocacy that Johnathan was for David. 36s
We studied the mentoring relationship that comes in a deep friendship. 42s
We studied concern for one another last week we heard about the regular acts of kindness. 48s
As we studied friendship, we also studied what it looks like to make friends with the world. 56s
No jellyfish, please. 62s
And we found out we found out what it looks like if there's a disagreement or a rift within 64s
a friendship. 71s
Scripture has a lot to say about friends and about friendship. 73s
And today we're going to study another friendship and it's a friendship that is unlike 78s
any other. 84s
As I was processing through this study this sermon today, a few things struck me. 86s
And the first thing that stood out to me in our text for today is verse 14. 94s
Look with me, please, at verse 14 where Jesus said, you are my friends, if you do what 100s
I command you. 106s
You are my friends, if you do what I command you. 107s
That is a big F. 115s
That is rings so loudly. 119s
And as I thought through this, I was thinking, what if I don't want to do what Jesus commands? 124s
What if I don't do what Jesus commands? 134s
And what if I can't do what Jesus commands? 142s
What does Jesus command from His disciples? 150s
We find out in verses 12 and 13, look with me, please. 155s
Where Jesus said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. 159s
No one has greater love than this to lay down one's life for one's friends. 166s
You are my friends, if you do what I command you. 175s
Loving one another as Jesus has loved you. 183s
I don't want to love another as Jesus has loved me. 195s
Because the Jesus is talking about is a love that is sacrificial. 204s
A love that abandons self in order to serve the other. 210s
The second thing that struck me when I was reading through this text and processing through 218s
the friendship that we have with Jesus was the pushback that is always 227s
lurking. The pushback that says, no, I'm not going to do what you command me to do. 236s
You can't make me. And if this is the requirement to be your friend, then I just won't be your friend. 245s
And it's that sinful nature that we have we're born with, just wanting to push back at God, 256s
push back at the command to obey him, push back, not wanting to. But guess what? 269s
Even if you don't want to do as Jesus commands, even if you don't want to deal with Jesus, 280s
you don't have that option. I find it very interesting that all the world religions, 291s
all the cults of Christianity, even the atheist amongst us, not in here, but amongst us in the world, 300s
everyone has to do something with Jesus. You look at the world religions and you study, 310s
and Jesus is there, and they may not want to be friends with Jesus, and they may claim he is not 318s
the son of God, but they still have to deal with Jesus. In our Romans reading, we hear that we will 325s
stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live says the Lord, 335s
every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. So then, each of us will be 342s
countable to God. No one, whether a believer or unbeliever, a friend or an enemy of God, no one 352s
does not stand before God the Father on judgment day. No one doesn't get to deal with Jesus. 365s
You are my friends, if you do what I command you. 384s
In confirmation, we study the Ten Commandments. Jesus says that the whole sum of the law, 392s
the whole law can be summed up in loving God, our Father, and loving our neighbor. 400s
The Ten Commandments lay out for us, God's holy and perfect law, 408s
that if we could just live perfectly, as we have been commanded by God Himself, everything would be 414s
just fine. But we can't. We don't. And sometimes quite frankly, we won't live, 425s
according to God's command. And yet, we know from God's Word that we will stand before Him 441s
on judgment day. And that if, in that sentence that Jesus gave us, that if 457s
becomes scary, because we know that we have intentionally denied God in our lives, 471s
we know that we have intentionally not done as He has commanded. We know that we have unintentionally 484s
not obeyed. Jesus, not obeyed. God, the Father. The if, the if of this verse excludes us 492s
from a relationship and a friendship with Jesus when it depends on us 510s
to obey in our own strength, in our own power, in our own will. 519s
But praise the Lord. Our friendship with Jesus does not depend upon us. 530s
Look with me, please, adverse 15. Jesus says, I do not call you servants any longer, 538s
because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, 544s
because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. Pay attention here, 550s
you did not choose me, but I chose you. You did not choose me. Jesus says, but I chose you. 557s
Jesus has made known to you everything He has heard from the Father, everything that you need to know 571s
from God about God, about how He views you, feels about you, loves you, has been made known 579s
to you through His Word. What He has shown you is His own sacrificial love for you, what He has 588s
shown you is that He would lay down His life out of love for you, so that you may be reconciled 600s
to Him, to the Father. What has been made known to us is so beautifully laid out in collageons 613s
in the first chapter where Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He writes, 624s
He that is Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. 631s
For in Him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, 638s
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers all things have been created through Him and for Him. 644s
He himself is before all things and in Him all things hold together, He is the head of the body, 651s
the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that He might come to have 659s
first place in everything. For in Him, in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 666s
and through Him, God was pleased to reconcile Himself to Himself all things, 675s
whether on earth or in heaven by making peace through the blood of His cross, 682s
and you who were once estranged. And hostile, in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled 688s
in His fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreprutable 697s
before Him. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity went to the cross bearing the punishment for 706s
your sin for my sin and indeed for the sin of even those who reject Him. He bore that punishment, 717s
so that as you stand before the Father on judgment day, you stand cloaked in His robe of righteousness. 729s
Cloaked in His blood where you are seen through His righteousness, through His perfection, 739s
He chose you through those waters of baptism and named you as His own. 747s
As friends of Jesus, it's not a matter of having to deal with Jesus. 756s
As friends of Jesus, it's a matter of getting to deal with Jesus because Jesus has already dealt 767s
with you. And He has dealt with you with mercy, with grace, and with the full forgiveness through 778s
His sacrifice and blood shed upon the cross. And we know, we know that that victory 789s
has been claimed and has been passed to you so that there is no longer any fear in the ifs 800s
because we know that we stand with Jesus as our friend. Jesus has chosen you as His own friend 812s
and stands there with you as your advocate walks with you this side of heaven through His holy 825s
spirit as your mentor deals with you regularly in a kind and concerning manner and anytime we try to 832s
all a rift in the relationship it is mended through the grace and the love and the mercy that we have 846s
in our friend Jesus. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. 858s
You did not choose me but I chose you and I appointed you He continues in verse 16. 871s
I appointed you to go and bear fruit fruit that will last so that the father will give you whatever you 881s
ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. 888s
Through the cross Jesus has made you his friend. Through your baptism He has claimed you as his 897s
eternal friend and by His spirit He strengthens you to live this side of heaven with one another 907s
in a loving relationship with one another that we on our own and in our own strength indeed could not do. 923s
Because Jesus loves you and gave His life for you you can love one another and I think it's 934s
beautiful in collusions how we are told that Jesus was made the head of the body that is the church. 941s
There is no question that as a Christian people as friends with Jesus we are drawn 949s
by His grace into a friendship into a relationship with one another members of that same body. 958s
And so when He calls us to love one another He also empowers us to love one another. 967s
And by His spirit He puts a brother and a sister in our path that we can serve with a 974s
sacrificial love that we can comfort with a serving mercy. We are called into this one body with 983s
Christ at the head to be in communion with one another in a loving relationship with one another 996s
and by His grace and by His spirit He empowers us so that in His command to love one another as He has 1007s
loved us it is not a burden but it is a shared joy that we are allowed the opportunity to serve 1016s
our brothers and sisters in need to love our neighbor who has not yet known the love of Jesus Christ 1028s
and just serve the Lord by serving one another and loving one another by putting the other 1038s
ahead of the self the if of our relationship with Jesus the if of the friendship 1050s
that has been answered the if as a conditional has been eliminated because Jesus loves you 1062s
Jesus claims you and Jesus has sealed you in His spirit offering you choosing you 1076s
and claiming you as His friend now and forever 1090s