Do You Have A Friendship with Christ?
Good Morning Friends,
We can be strangers, servants or friends in our relationship with God. But somehow none of those descriptors make much initial sense when we are in the act of prayer. Along these lines of thought we prepare to ask today’s question. This morning we explore the challenge of friendship and more specifically friendship with Jesus. The problem is that it can hardly be called reciprocal. Oh I guess there is some give and take in prayer but the thing is that God is holy and we are not. We need an intermediary to come into the presence of the divine. Jesus helps because of the incarnation. Still what we are trying to define here is a relationship where one of the members is holy, with all the complexity of character that that implies, and we are in the process of being made holy. Perhaps we have been set apart for a holy purpose, but there is a risk of becoming too chummy with God. So when you pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit how would you describe the relationship you are experiencing? Do You Have A Friendship with Christ?
Scripture: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
John 15:12-17 (NRSV)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1 (NRSV)
Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham?
2 Chronicles 20:7 (NRSV)
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.
Exodus 33:11 (NRSV)
Message: There must be a balanced reverence for the comfort and conviction of prayer to sanctify us. For example today’s scripture reminded me immediately of the show tune, Getting to Know You, from the 1951 Rogers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. In the lyrics of the song Anna sings to the King’s wives and children. It gives secular perspective and application on today’s scripture from the book of John. Google the lyrics. The focus of today’s question, of course, also reminds us of the song, What a Friend we have in Jesus. In the context of these two songs and today’s scripture, I began to wonder whether or not God, the King, has a friend in us? Abraham and Moses in scripture were said to have been friends of God. Their devotion, faithfulness and intimacy with God defined the relationship. Friendship also defines the motivation for God choosing the cross, choosing us as friends in Christ so that as Paul says in Romans, there would be no condemnation before the King. Relationships are the key. Therefore it is my hope that you will have the confidence to say to a fellow Christian that you have a mutual friend… or perhaps that a Christian act of theirs reminded you of a friend. A friend named Jesus. Maybe in that way we can get to know each other a little better day by day, and that we might be able to say to Jesus, that we are getting to know a little bit of Him and His love by getting to know each other. But friends, let us not forget that the cross is the highest symbol of friendship. Here the truth is spoken in love. Here Jesus’ face says yes to us even though the world says “no.” Here we realize that we are not the only ones who fall short. Here we are forgiven for we do not know what we do. Here we hopefully realize that our opinion of Christ depends less upon what we see in Him than upon what He makes us see in ourselves. Here we realize that God chooses us out of a love that never stops choosing us. Here sacrifice, submission and salvation converge in our acts of service…love for each other. Here we realize that we are so valuable to God that He laid down His life for us. Here we rejoice in the hope that He chooses to call us friends. Here we are encouraged to call each other friends in Christ. So what are you praying about?
Is it something of reverence? I hope so for this is serious business. For we too must to must lay our life down as well. So know this from today’s scripture.
Friends of Jesus love one another, obey His commandments, understand His truths, and are chosen to bear fruit that makes a difference. We cannot do that unless we too die to self and abide in Jesus Christ praying constantly.
Pray that we find purpose in obeying God’s commands to love Him and each other. Pray that we realize that Christ must be at the center of all relationships. Pray that we console others out of love. Pray that we affirm and encourage others out of love. Pray that we realize that it is a true miracle of great wonder that God would desire us to be His friend. Pray that we learn to love like Jesus. Pray that God becomes our closest companion. Pray that we abide in Christ in relationship with Him and other believers and the world. Pray that we embrace His forgiveness, fruitfulness and friendship in our very flesh. Pray that we take time to make friends…to abide in Jesus…to love as we have been loved. Pray we can say to God that, “We get High On Loving You.”
Pray just at the point where our human arrogance needs a gentle lesson in humility from Jesus, we realize just how kind the King is to us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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