It’s so easy to forget the ways the Lord has blessed us and provided for us. In this passage, we see Jesus provide for a skeptical group of apostles not once, but twice.
Tag: Jesus
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An empty tomb in a graveyard of false prophets
An empty tomb in a graveyard of false prophets and gurus.
In Saudi Arabia, 270 miles from Mecca is the Tomb of Mohammed where the founder of Islam is buried. It’s viewed as a sacred landmark in the Muslim world. It’s customary for Muslims to visit this tomb when they take their pilgrimage to Mecca.
When Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism died, his body was cremated and the ashes were divided among various clans. Wars were fought over relics which had belonged to the Buddha. There are temples which claim to have remains of Buddha such as strands of hair, teeth, and other bones.
There’s a shrine to Confucious in China where the philosopher is buried.
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism is buried in wester Illinois.
But there is no sacred place where we can go to in order to visit the remains of Jesus.
The founders of other religious movements lived and died. But Christianity lives and dies on the belief in a savior who lived and died and lives.
If the tomb was empty, if Jesus rose from the dead, then the gospel is true. And that means everything.
The Bible points to the resurrection as a real event in real human history, in real time and space. That it’s not some fairytale we tell ourselves. That it’s not some myth.
A risen Jesus has far-ranging implications. If Jesus rose from the dead, that means he is who he said he is and that we should have faith in him and trust in him for the forgiveness of sins that he promised.
But all of that hinges on the truth of the resurrection. It’s a razor’s edge. It happened, or it didn’t. There’s no gray area.
The late church historian Jaroslav Pelikan said “If Christ is risen, then nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters.”And really, that quote is a great summary of our passage this morning from 1 Corinthians 15.
It is the resurrection that makes Christianity, Christianity. It is the resurrection that makes the gospel the gospel.
The challenge of the resurrection
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is making a historical argument for the resurrection. In verses 3-5, Paul says:
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Jesus died, and was raised, he appeared to Cephas – that’s another name for the Apostle Peter – and then to the rest of the apostles. That these men were witnesses to the risen Jesus.
In verse 6, Paul says: Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive
Paul is defending the truth of the resurrection.
In verses 12-13, Paul says:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
So what’s going on there?
It appears that some people in Paul’s audience wanted to consider themselves Christians without believing in a bodily resurrection. But for those who wanted to undermine the possibility of a resurrection, they were professing a faith which ultimately did them no good.
If Christ is risen, then nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters.
We believe in a living savior, not simply in a moralizing teacher.
Paul will also address this idea if we move a little bit further. Down to verse 16, when he says: For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
The resurrection in a postmodern world
In our modern day, the resurrection is hard to believe. But it was also a hard thing for people to believe in the first century.
Yes, we know more about certain things than people in the first century knew. But they understood death.
Probably better than the average person today does. They were more closely connected to it. People lived shorter lives. They died where they lived, not in a hospital. Funerals were not with the deceased having been embalmed, with their hair and makeup done to look lifelike.
They were confronted with death for what it really was.
And resurrection was not the hope of the average person living in the first century Greco-Roman world.
Most people believed in a duality of body and soul. They saw the body as bad. Death was seen as the soul being freed from the body.
Jewish people comprised about 10 percent of the Roman world at this time. They generally believed in a resurrection, but their view was that this would happen at the end of time, not in the middle of history.
And so both then and now, the resurrection challenges worldviews.
Our world is postmodern. Many people like to treat faith as if it’s relative. We like to act as though whatever someone believes about God can be true, we don’t like to tell people that they’re wrong, that it’s all equally valid. We do that because we think it sounds open minded.
Even though really, it’s intellectually lazy.
But life and death are not relative. They’re absolute.
The resurrection of Jesus happened or it didn’t. It’s a fact or history or it’s a lie of history. There is no middle ground.
And so again, if people wanted to hold to the idea that no one can be raised from the dead, not even Jesus. And if you believe that, then Jesus does you no good.
Wanting to be a cultural Christian who doesn’t have faith does you no good. It’s the resurrection that matters.
A person could ask, “Couldn’t you still take Christianity for its moral teachings?”
No.
It would be like an electrical grid with wires coming from a substation, connected to lines, coming into your house, but there’s no power plant at the other end of the grid.
Believing in a Jesus who didn’t raise from the dead does about as much good as flipping a light switch that has no power.
Christmas and easter
Every year at Christmas time, I see some people who decide to take on this religious crusade where they complain about people and businesses, and commercials saying “happy holidays.” They say “we need to keep Christ in Christmas.”
The bigger issue is that we need to keep the resurrection in Easter.
And as the passage continues, Paul will talk about the consequences of an unrisen Messiah.
The consequences of an unrisen Messiah
Verse 14: if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
Strong wording. If there is no resurrection, then Christianity is predicated on a lie. If Christ is not risen, we have misrepresented and misunderstood God.
Verse 15: We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
That’s no small matter. If Christ is not risen, we’ve placed our hope in the wrong savior, we’re living for the wrong salvation.
It would be like going to a different country that has different laws. And you’re familiar with American laws, but not the laws of this other country. You can try to assert your rights or how you think things should be.
But the government of that country doesn’t care what you think about their laws. Their laws are not based around your agreement with them.
They’re bigger and stronger than you are. The hope of eternal life is not whatever we say it is.
We can’t even control our own physical life, let alone our eternal life. We have limitations. We have fears. Because we know how frail and vulnerable we are. It’s why we go into our basement when there’s a tornado warning. It’s why we wear seatbelts when we’re in the car. Because we know we don’t have control.
Yet when it comes to eternal life, many want to act like they can just decree whatever they want it to be and reality will just conform to opinions.
The gospel points us to hope because it is faith in one who died and rose and who promises eternal life.
Moving to verse 17:
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
If Christ is not raised, then we’ve put the hope of the atonement of our sins in one who hasn’t done it. Jesus cannot just be a moral teacher when he said he brought forgiveness.
Sometimes a person thinks that they have something that’s really valuable.
I love the History Channel show: Pawn Stars. And sometimes you’ll see a person on that show and they think they have something that is really valuable.
And an expert comes in and examines it. And you learn that it’s really worthless.
That’s what the gospel is reduced to if Jesus didn’t raise from the dead. The resurrection is everything. And there’s no neutrality when it comes to faith in that.
It would be like throwing down your money to make a purchase and they examine the bills and tell you it’s counterfeit. You thought you had something of value, now you don’t.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 18: Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
If Christ is not risen, Christians are worthy of pity because we wasted our time for nothing.
That is the razor’s edge on which the gospel rests. It’s either the most important truth that can be known and the resurrection is the most important event in human history or it’s all meaningless.
The resurrection and meaning
What does the resurrection mean in your life?
Again, it’s easy to be a cultural Christian. You’re not an atheist, you live in America which does have a rich religious heritage, there are things about Christianity that you appreciate, and you’re a nice person, and so you check that box.
But is the resurrection your rock? Is it real to you?
Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the first Easter is not just some nice story that we tell ourselves.
The resurrection points us to meaning in life. It’s to live for Christ and to the glory of God.
The resurrection points us to hope. Because we have a savior who lives, and who has promised to make all things new, to make all things right, to one day wipe away every tear, to forgive us our sins.
The resurrection points us to life. Both to what true life is like and what eternal life is like in the presence of God.
The resurrection points us to truth. Not just to truth, but to the greatest truth that can be known. Not just to truth, but to the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.
That we live in a fallen world where there is sin and death but that we have a savior who has overcome death.
If Christ is risen, then nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters.
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Jesus and the new garden. The Lord arrested
Creation is one of the themes of the Gospel of John. Consider the opening chapters of the Bible in the Book of Genesis and its many parallels in the Gospel of John.
Genesis 1 begins with: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
John 1:1 begins with: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
Genesis 1:3: And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
In John, Jesus says “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).
And that: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (John 3:19).
Genesis 1:26 talks of the creation of man. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
John 1:4-5 talks of Jesus and says: In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In Genesis 3:8, after the fall, God walks in his world.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day
John 1:14 talks of Jesus and says: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
In Genesis 1, God speaks. In John 1, Jesus is called the Word.
John’s gospel points back to creation because Jesus brings a new creation.
When Nicodemus comes to Jesus in John chapter 3, Jesus tells him he must be born again.
At the Last Supper, Jesus talks of the love the disciples are called to have for each other. He calls it a new commandment. Jesus ushers in a new covenant.
John who also wrote the book of Revelation depicts the vision of heaven in Revelation 21:5. What’s he call it? It’s new heaven, and a new earth, and a new Jerusalem. And then records Jesus saying “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Jesus is making all things new. He’s making a new creation in the world and he’s making a new life in his believers.
In John 18, the creation theme is revisited when Jesus is arrested. And it should be no surprise that John calls us back to creation here because as we begin the story of Christ’s death, it will point to the newness of life that he brings.
In this passage, we’ll jump into our passage this morning and we’re going to look at five things this morning. And we’ll try to tie it together at the end.
1. The new Garden
As we talk about creation, let us recall that Genesis 2:8-9 introduces us to the Garden of Eden: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Where does John 18 begin? When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
Jesus comes into a garden. The word garden is rare in the New Testament. It’s found only eight times. In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is used one time each. In each of those instances, it is used in the parable of the mustard seed.
In John, it is used five times, all between chapters 18 and 20, and it is found nowhere else in the New Testament. At Easter time, we often refer to the place of Jesus’s arrest as the “Garden of Gethsemane,” but it is never called that in the Bible.
John calls it a garden. Matthew and Mark refer to it as Gethsemane. Luke calls it the Mount of Olives. All of those are correct. Gethsemane is on the Mount of Olives, and John chose to call it a garden for theological purposes. Technically, it’s probably more of a tree grove.
On the first Easter, when Jesus rises from the dead and Mary is at the tomb, Jesus appears to her, but she doesn’t initially recognize him.
John 20:11-15: But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
The risen Jesus says this to Mary. And again, she doesn’t know it’s him. Who does she think it is?
John 20:16: Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
So the narrative of Jesus’ arrest and the introduction of the risen Lord are book ended by the garden. And the way in which it is pointing back to creation is that in this garden, Jesus is undoing the curse of death which has been brought on by sin.
The first garden was a perfect place where humanity brought on death because of sin. In this second garden, a perfect Jesus will bring eternal life because he will suffer the consequences of sin and experience death.
The first garden was the place where humanity fell. The second garden is the place where Jesus redeems.
2. A fallen world
John 18:2-3: Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
John reminds us that Judas betrayed Jesus.
The last time Judas appeared in this gospel was in chapter 13 at the Last Supper. As that meal wound down, knowing what would happen, Jesus acknowledges that one of the disciples will betray him. The rest of the disciples don’t know who will do this and start asking questions.
As the reader, we learn that it’s Judas, but John tells us this was unbeknownst to the other disciples at the time.
John 13:27-30, referring to Judas.
27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
So Judas is entered into by Satan and makes his exit from the meal. For a moment, I want to return us to the creation theme. In Genesis, in the garden, sin entered the world because Satan spoke to Adam and Eve through a serpent.
In this garden, Satan enters a man who will betray Jesus. The story tells us that Judas knew this place where Jesus often met with his disciples. In other words, Jesus has gone to a place where he knows he can be easily found. He is not hiding. As we will see at the end of the passage, and as we’ve seen elsewhere in this gospel, Jesus is fully aware of what must happen.
Verse 3 says that Judas had procured a band of soldiers.
I think it’s easy to imagine that being a handful of soldiers. You watch a movie like “The Passion of the Christ,” and when Jesus is arrested, Judas has like 8, 10 soldiers with him.
A band is not meant to merely mean “a group” or “several.” The Greek word used is actually a technical term to refer to a Roman cohort of soldiers, which consisted of about 600 men.
Now a cohort would not always have exactly 600 men. But it is a significant group of soldiers. In is not beyond the realm of possibility that a few hundred soldiers were in the arresting party. Certainly more than the handful that we tend to imagine. It is a massive group who have come to arrest Jesus.
John also tells us that this group included some other officers from the Pharisees and the chief priests. So it is not the Pharisees and the priests who personally arrest Jesus, but they send their own officers. That is a reference to the temple guards.
The chief priests were the group who largely made up the Sanhedrin – the Jewish ruling council – who brought charges against Jesus to Pontius Pilate.
The fact that you have Jewish officers and Roman guards present is also meant to symbolize the world. That you have Jews and gentiles who are arresting Jesus. That representatives from the world crucified Jesus and all of humanity has sinned against Jesus.
John calls Judas the betrayer of Jesus. And he is. But we have all sinned against Jesus. And it is because of our sin, that Jesus has gone to the cross so that we can be forgiven.
At the end of verse 3, John mentions that they had torches and weapons.
Taken all together, you have this comically large arresting party who has come for Jesus, armed with weapons and torches. Now it is nighttime, but there is certainly irony that they’ve had to bring torches as they come to arrest the light of the world.
It might seem strange that so many were in the arresting party, but there had been other times when people had made attempts to arrest Jesus and been unsuccessful. At the time of Passover, it was a time of year where Roman occupied Jerusalem had heightened political tensions. Jesus had become well known. While the Romans and Jews were often at odds, this was an opportunity they had to unite against someone they both hated. So it is not so unreasonable that it would be such a large contingent.
Jesus comes forward. Again he is not hiding. While he had escaped the Pharisees and the temple guards in the past, this is now the appointed time for his death, and so he approaches them willingly.
3. A worthy savior
John 18:4: Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”
John again reminds us that Jesus knew what would happen. It was the divine plan that Jesus would die for the sins of the world.
He asks “whom do you seek?”
Verse 5: They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.
John reminds us again of Judas and reminds us again that it is he who betrayed Jesus. In verse 6, the context makes it clear that what Jesus has said and how the audience heard it has the intended force.
When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
John uses the same Greek form for “I am.” And then says that the people drew back and fell to the ground. In the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, you see these moments where a person encounters God’s glory. And it is always an awesome and terrifying sight. Perhaps the guards didn’t comprehend what they had seen. Perhaps it just didn’t change their hearts.
But for at least a moment, in reverence and fear, as the great I am, the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God discloses the truth of who he is to this throng of people, they are overwhelmed. The many are no match for the one, except for the fact that Jesus allows himself to be taken by them.
In other scenes in this gospel, crowds worship Jesus and want to try to make him a king but he doesn’t allow it. But when this crowded comes to Jesus seeking to take him to a cross, he steps forward.
Verses 7-8: So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.”
Now, the guards had just fallen down. We don’t know, maybe they’re still on the ground. Either way, it is quite the scene when Jesus has made his “I am” statement, they’ve fallen down, and Jesus goes back to the subject at hand.
Whom do you seek?
They repeat their question that they’re seeking Jesus of Nazareth. When Jesus says I told you I am he, he is again repeating in the Greek “I am.”
Jesus again shows his control of the situation when he says: So, if you seek me, let these men go.”
Again, remember the scene. You have a vast arresting party that has hunted Jesus down. But the disciples are his close associates, and yet he calls the shots and tells the guards to take Jesus and let the disciples go.
That is a picture of the gospel. To borrow an idea from James Hamilton in his commentary on John. Jesus gives himself up so that the disciples can escape the arresting party. And it’s because Jesus gives himself in our place so that we don’t have to face the judgment of an Almighty God for our sins.And on the cross, Jesus takes our place, Jesus bears our guilt, Jesus absorbs the punishment of our sins. So that we can be forgiven.
This is affirmed in verse 9: This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”
That is a pretty fascinating statement. We see verses in the New Testament when Jesus does things in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. But this isn’t the case here.
John says that this was to fulfill the word that he had spoken. In other words, it’s Jesus fulfilling his own words. Specifically, it’s a reference to John 17 where Jesus talks of having not lost one of those whom the Lord has given him.
And the reason why he has not lost one is because he gives himself up so that they can be released. Again, it’s a picture of the gospel. That’s what this passage is about. The gospel.
The gospel is the good news that Jesus saves, that he forgives, that he redeems, that he pays the price, that he releases all who come to him and believe in him.
And then in verse 10, he’s interrupted.
4. A futile attempt
Now if you’re familiar with the gospels, you know that one of the disciples has a reputation for being the most outspoken. That one of the disciples has a tendency to act first and think second.
If he was at your family dinner for Thanksgiving, he’d be the first person to bring up politics.
Peter.
Verse 10: Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
I think this verse is somewhat comical.
Jesus is knocking people down with the power of his words. Jesus is showing his control of the situation. Jesus is the one who commands that the disciples be let go.
Hundreds of guards have come with their swords and suddenly Peter is like “Ahhh.”
What was Peter trying to do?
One thing is clear. Alistair Begg points this out, but either Peter is a terrible swordfighter. Or. Peter is an incredible swordfighter.
Was he trying to cut the guys head off or swing for his body and he just got his ear? Then Peter is pretty bad. He almost missed the guy entirely.
Now, if he was just trying to cut off the guy’s ear, a pretty small target, and did exactly that, well, Peter is like Wesley in Princess Bride then. He’s incredible.
I lean towards Peter being pretty bad. Because I just think about what we know about Peter in the Bible. He had been a fisherman. And then he was a disciple. I just don’t know when he would have had time to acquire really good sword fighting skills.
Jesus traveled and ministered with his disciples for three years. I just don’t picture a lot of fencing tournaments between the 12.
Also, Bible translations say sword. That’s appropriate, but keep in mind it’s probably not some big King Arhtur type, medieval knight’s sword that we’re envisioning. It’s more likely a dagger or long knife.
In that event, we also see an interesting parallel to Jesus. Peter injures a servant of the high priest. Jesus is the true servant and is himself the true high priest who would have his body broken on the cross. Peter had tried to intervene, but it wasn’t necessary.
To quote from James Hamilton’s commentary: “If anyone has ever found himself trying to do the right thing for the right cause, only to do the wrong thing in the wrong way, he can identify with what Peter does here.”
We so often try to take matters into our own hands.
But Jesus doesn’t need Peter to defend him. He needs Peter to believe in what must be done.
The more I learn about the Bible, the more clear to me it becomes that the world struggles with faith because we struggle dealing with a loss of control.
Even professing Christians, so often when you talk to people and really dig down into what they believe, what they believe about God, what they believe about the reason why God loves them, is in their own goodness.
And the Bible so clearly and so often tells us that is not so. That we are not good. Jesus did not die for people who were doing fine, and who were pretty good people. He died for people who were helpless without him. We cannot save ourselves, and we cannot help Jesus save us. He saves us because of his life, his power, and his purpose in the world.
And that’s what he will tell Peter in the final verse of this passage.
5. A way to redemption
John 18:11: So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Jesus scolds Peter. Jesus willingly gives himself up to death for the sins of the world. Only he’s capable of doing that because only Jesus is without sin.
Jesus asks: shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
That points to his death. Now Jesus does not literally drink a cup here. Cup is being used symbolically. But why?
Cup
Keep in mind that the Bible was written in the ancient world. It was a very different society and that they saw the world differently. And for these points, the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery was particularly helpful.
They were not concerned with the newest car or newest cell phone. They were not concerned about projects on their houses like new floors or furniture. Just having enough to eat was what drove so much of a person’s labors.
Now for us, a cup is not very exciting. You probably have 20 of them at your house.But for weary travelers in the ancient world, it was a cup of water in a new village which conveyed hospitality, friendship and safety. For people sharing a meal together, a cup could be a symbol of fellowship and love.
A full cup meant that you had enough.In the Bible, it could be associated with blessing.
We see these ideas conveyed by the Psalmist in Psalm 23 when he says of the Lord:
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
And there are similar statements made in other Psalms.
And because there is such a positive association, the Bible also uses a cup as a symbol of judgment as well. While cups could contain nourishment, the Old Testament also uses this image to depict drinking in God’s wrath for our sin.
Isaiah 51:17: Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.
We see similar statements elsewhere in the prophets. But with Jesus, it is he who willingly takes that cup. At the Last Supper, when Jesus institutes communion, he says: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
And so in the end of this passage, it is pointing us to the death of Jesus. He will drink the cup of divine wrath so that we can take the cup of the new covenant. Jesus will taste death so that we can have eternal life. He drinks the cup of God’s wrath so that you don’t have to.
This passage is that it is really a microcosm of Genesis story where there’s creation – Jesus returns to the garden. There’s the fall, where a Satan-possessed Judas brings representatives of the whole world to unjustly arrest the Son of God, there’s man’s inability to correct the situation – as we see with Peter’s failed intervention; and there is redemption from a worthy savior who absorbs the wrath of God in our place.
In the beginning, God created a garden. In John 18, Jesus is in a new garden so that you can have a new life when you believe in him. That is the gospel.
That is the gospel.
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The God who calls us friends. John 15:12-17
We all have acquaintances. People we know, people we’re pleasant with. People we can have small talk with, talk about the weather, talk about sports.
That’s fine.
But it can be easy to keep people at arm’s length, control what we reveal to someone.
Friendships are a struggle for many in our society.
When comparing surveys that Gallup did in 1990 and a 2021 survey from the American Enterprise Institute, when asked how many close friends people had (not including family members), for people who said they had zero close friends, the 1990 number had quadrupled from 3 percent to 12 percent in 2021.
People who said to have fewer than two close friendships doubled from 16 percent to 32 percent.
And the number of people who said that they had 10 or more close friends fell from 33 percent in 1990 down to 13 percent in 2021.
How many people know you?
Not people to whom you can give a passing prayer request, but who actually know your fears, know your dreams, know your struggles, your heart?
There is something that is so incredibly life giving about meaningful friendships. Being known. Being known in your weaknesses and imperfections but still being loved in spite of those things. It’s a powerful thing.
True friendship can be difficult, it can be challenging, yet it is absolutely essential. It’s essential to our wellbeing.
In a 2010 review of 148 studies which – across the board – had included more than 300,000 participants, stronger friendships were linked to increased lifespan and decreases in things such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Studies also found that close friendships had similar impacts on health to quitting smoking, and that in terms of lifespan, strong friendships were a bigger indicator than strong family connections.
That’s not to say that family connections aren’t important, of course. But it is to point out how much true friendship matters. Friends, not acquaintances. People who know you well enough to love you in spite of yourself.
It matters to our health, it matters to our happiness, and it matters to our ministering to the world as Christians.
No matter how quiet, or introverted, or shy a person is, we need friends. It’s part of our human nature. Our need for friendship and connection. It’s part of how we’re created and what we’re created for.
In John 15:12-17, on the even of going to the cross, Jesus will say to the disciples you are my friends.
This passage points us to three principles on friendship.
- The friendship Jesus calls us to
John 15:12:13: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
The command to love
Love one another. Let us appreciate how close to the heart of Christ our love for one another is. It’s the command that shows that we love Jesus. Loving others is not option for the Christian.
Does it mean we like everyone? Not necessarily. Does it mean we love everything everyone does? No, especially not sin. But we are to love. To be patient and kind. To want the best for people. To be forgiving when hurt or wronged. To put differences aside. To love people who are hard to love.
To love one another as Jesus has loved us.
That’s quite the standard. Because Jesus loves us with a perfect and righteous love.
Jesus loves a world where people plotted against him, where he was crucified. He loves a group of disciples where Peter denied him, where in the moments leading up to his arrest, some fell asleep and let him down.
Jesus calls us to love one another as he has loved us.
- The friendship Jesus displays
And he points to the pinnacle of that love in verse 13: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus is at one time pointing us to the great love for us that he is going to display on the cross when he lays down his life for his friends. And he is also pointing us to an incredible standard of love that the Lord desires for us. The greatest display of love is one laying down their life for their friends.
Sacrifice
There’s something about that idea that intuitively speaks to us. The power of sacrifice. We honor those who lay down their lives.
In America, we have an entire day set aside – Memorial Day – to honor and remember those who gave their lives for our country.
Every September 11th, we remember the great sacrifices that people made. Firefighters who ran into those burning buildings. We remember the 343 firefighters who gave their lives. People who went into those buildings, with heavy gear, walking up the stairs into an inferno. They knew that it was incredibly dangerous. We remember the tremendous heroism of the people who overtook the highjackers on United 93 when they became aware of what had happened to other flights.
We honor and celebrate those stories. And that’s appropriate. It’s a powerful gesture when a person sacrifices their own life for something greater than themself.
Now for many of us, if someone we loved. A spouse, a child, a grandchild was in mortal danger, I have no doubt that many people in this room would lay down their life for the people who matter most to us without even blinking.
But there are a couple of things to keep in mind with Jesus as the example of the one who gives up his life for his friends.If I died to save someone, you’d call me a hero.
But here’s the thing. Unless Jesus comes back in my lifetime, I’m going to die. We might give up some time, some years of our life. And that’s significant. And that’s costly. But Jesus is the eternal God. He has life in himself. He would not have died a natural death.
But he gave up his life. And for whom did he do that? A fallen world.
Romans 5:6-8, Paul says: For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
He finishes the thought: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus befriends a world that was an enemy to God. Before we move on to our next point, I’ll make this point of application. While the pinnacle of love is laying down your life for another. Fortunately, there’s a good chance that none of us will ever be in that situation.
It’s easy to think of what we would do in an extreme situation.nBut what’s harder is dealing with the realities of life, the world, our own challenges and struggles.
It’s easy to say we’d be the hero when we’re not on the battlefield. We might not ever need to die for someone, but what are we living for?
Are we living to honor that command of Jesus? Are we living to love people and to honor our great God by loving the people who he loves? By loving the people he sent his son to die for?
Jesus shows that on the cross.
- The friendship Jesus invites us into
John 15:15: No longer do I call you servants, for the 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.
The eternal Christ says he does not call us servants, but he has called us friends. Like so many things that Jesus says in the gospels, if we’re not careful, it can be easy to overlook the immensity of that statement.
The Lord calls us his friends. In the Old Testament, that’s not typically the language we hear of people in their relationship to God.
We see Abrhaam referred to as God’s friend in the Old Testament. Abraham is also the patriarch from whom the Israelites would come.
Isaiah 41:8: you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
So the idea isn’t altogether absent but it’s not common in Old Testament usage. But with Jesus, he makes a sweeping declaration that he calls his servants friends.
Friendship and status
Think – for a moment – of that immense disparity of status between Jesus and us.
Do you have any close, personal friends who are movie stars? Or big time professional athletes? Or famous musicians? Or leaders of nations?
We tend to have friends who are of a similar social standing to us.
Now if you could meet someone famous who you admire. Maybe it is an athlete, or a TV personality, or a former president, and you met that person, and they actually sat down with you and talked to you for 15, maybe 20 minutes. Asked you all about yourself, your life, your family, your interests.
You’d be so taken with that person.
You’d tell everyone you knew about meeting them. How nice they really were.
Are you telling people about Jesus? Because the Lord of the universe invites us to personally know him. He calls us his friends.
He gives his life for us.
Evangelism
We’d tell people about meeting someone famous. We’d want a picture, want an autograph. But that person wouldn’t be your friend. Jesus is.
You’d tell everyone you know about meeting someone famous.
Friendship with Jesus is not meant to be something that we have just to have for ourselves. He calls us to love one another, but Jesus also values our friendship with those who do not know him, so that they too can be his friends.
No longer do I call you servants, for the 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.
This verse is showing the closeness of the relationship that we get to have with Jesus.
We are created by him, we are subservient to him, we are infinitely less than him. But through divine initiative, Jesus no longer calls us servants, and he grounds that because a servant does not know what his master is doing.
But Jesus let’s us in. He’s a personal savior. He would be within his rights to simply command us and we follow it, but he came into the world and showed us. He demonstrated who he was to us. He taught us.
Jesus reveals things about himself, and his heart for the world.
He spent time with people. He let’s us in. In other religions, they believe that God is so transcendent and above people that we cannot know him. And while the Lord is so great that we cannot fully comprehend him, Jesus is relational and personal.
Jesus came into the world and lived in total submission to the will of God, though Jesus himself is divine and in him, the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell. And as the Son has a perfect relationship with the Father, he invites us into a relationship and friendship with him.
Sin had tarnished our relationship with God, but Jesus restores that and he can do that because the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit have always had a perfect relationship with each other.
Chosen
John 15:16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Is he saying that he chose them to be disciples and that this verse only relates to the disciples?
No. This verse is true for all friends of Jesus.
You did not choose me, but I chose you
It should not be surprising. In the Old Testament, as Israel did not choose to be God’s chosen nation and as Abraham did not choose to be selected for God’s covenant, our friendship with Christ is ultimately at the sovereign initiative of Christ.
Ephesians 1:4: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
What a comfort it is that our faith does not hinge on us. I’m sure we’ve all had friendships that did not stand the test of time. We sometimes have a falling out with someone. Jesus is the friend who does not leave us. He’s the friend who is faithful.
Verse 17: These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
This verse wraps up this section. He points back to what he has said and reminds us of the purpose for what he has said: so that you will love one another.
Let’s tie this all together.
As a reminder, in verse 16, Jesus had said:
I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
This is getting at our purpose as Jesus’ friends.
That we go…and bear fruit.
Again, I keep pointing this out but it’s important to remember that this is the night before Jesus is crucified. These are some of the final words he gives to his disciples.
And what Jesus is getting at here is his mission in the world.
His command is that the disciples love. The true disciple of Jesus observes his command. Jesus calls his disciples friends. And Jesus has appointed disciples to go and bear fruit. To go into the world and bear fruit.
To go into a world that is hostile to the gospel and share the message of Christ. To go into a world where there are enemies of God and to make friends and introduce them to our friend Jesus. We’re called to love one another and to love others with the love of Jesus.
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Abiding in Christ. Studying John 15:6
Abiding in Christ delivers us from judgment
In John 15:1-5, Jesus has told the disciples that he is the vine and he’s compared his followers to the branches. Beginning in verse 6, Jesus warns those who do not follow him.
Jesus uses powerful imagery to point to himself as the source of life. He is the true vine, referring to grapevines. And life is found on that vine. Life is found in being part of the vine, in growing on the vine, in receiving your nutrients from the vine.
In John 15:6, Jesus says: If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
At the end of the harvest, fruitless branches would be cut off of the vine and thrown away. That is what Jesus is alluding to here. And Jesus is talking about a specific type of person.
He’s talking about a person who’s within the church, within the group of believers, within the vine, but who’s not actually bearing fruit on the vine because they’re not actually alive on the vine.
And they never truly were. On the night before he went to the cross, the most obvious example of this was Judas. But while Judas might have been the first person to disingenuously follow Jesus, he was not the last.
And I talk about this because it’s an important warning to the church.
That there are frauds..
That there are people in churches who say they’re Christians, who profess to be believers but who aren’t really walking with Jesus, who don’t really know Jesus, who don’t really believe in the gospel and who have not been born again.
And while those people can fool a church, fool a pastor, fool their spouse, they will not fool the Lord.
Where is your hope?
It is the blood of Christ that cleanses us for our sins. It is his death to sin for us and his resurrection and faith in that which gives us eternal life. It is that and nothing else.
If you want to rely on yourself, if your hope is in your goodness and that is why you believe God will accept you, then your faith is not in Jesus, your faith is in yourself.
In Matthew 7, Jesus talks of the people in the community who were active participants but who were never genuine believers.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
My point isn’t to make a believer doubt. But the point of this is to make a person who doesn’t believe in the saving work of Christ, and that alone, to question where their faith, hope, and assurance are found.
For the person who abides in Christ, and for that person alone, you are delivered from God’s judgment, and the reason for that is because of Christ and what he has done.
That we are sinners, but Jesus redeems and forgives us of our sins when we have faith in him.
Kobe beef
Being a Christian in Name Only, but not actually believing in Jesus counts for nothing. It is Jesus who justifies and forgives when we come to him as Lord and savior. I was reading about Kobe beef this week. Kobe beef is the holy grail of beef. True Kobe beef has rigorous standards of quality and marbling. It’s a specific type of cow in a specific region of Japan to truly be kobe beef.
A 2016 report from Inside Edition found that there were only 8 restaurants in the entire United States that sold genuine kobe beef. And it is not sold in retail.
The upscale steakhouse McCormick and Schmicks advertised a kobe burger with beef that was not from Japan, but was from Kentucky. Class-action lawsuit. Restaurants and grocers have tried to call things kobe beef that aren’t.
And my point is this: just because you say something is something doesn’t make it so.
Just because you SAY something is kobe beef, doesn’t make it kobe beef. Again, it has to be the right type of cow, from the right region, to the right standards.
Anything else is inauthentic.
A person can say that they’re a Christian, but if they do not have faith in Jesus, if he is not the savior in whom they have placed their hope, and they don’t believe that he died for them and rose for them, then it’s not Christianity, regardless of what you call it.
But the person who believes in Jesus and who abides in Christ is delivered from God’s judgment.
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