12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
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 remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
The Apostle John gives us five chapters that contain the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples on the night before He would willingly go to the cross to die for sinners.
In Chapter 13, Jesus, the Creator of all that is not God, assumes the role of a humble Servant and washes the disciples’ feet. The main lesson is that as His disciples, we must seek to serve rather than to be served.
In Chapter 14, Jesus comforts His disciples, who are troubled with the knowledge that He is going to die. The main lesson is that He has given us the truth about exactly who He is and with that truth we can be comforted under any circumstance of life.
In Chapter 15, Jesus reiterates the commandment that we must love one another. In a world that seeks its own gratification and pleasure at the expense of morality and truth, can we who belong to Christ show the world what it means to believe in Christ?
That, to me is the thrust of Chapter 15.
As I see the “success” of the large local churches in America, I see very little evidence of its members “abiding” in the True Vine. Where is the evidence of abiding in His Word when the focus is on entertainment that has nothing to do with the Gospel?
That is a trouble to me. But what troubles me more than the apparent superficial Christian in other churches is that many of our people are too lax in taking advantage of the opportunities to abide in the Word of God.
While the churches that have forsaken the emphasis on teaching the Bible are “successful”, this local body that remains faithful to the Gospel message struggles to stay alive.
What I am saying is not meant to scold you but only to express my heart’s desire that more of our people would be more faithful to attend every Sunday and especially come on Wednesday nights. As is often the case, I am “preaching to the choir” because the ones who really need to hear this plea are not here.
That said, let’s take up the passage before us.
If we are too casual in our reading of His words we may think that Jesus uses too much repetition. How many ways are we told by Jesus to obey His commandments? How many times are we told by Jesus that we must love one another? How often are we told by Jesus that we must bear fruit?
The reason, I believe, that Jesus repeats so many similar expressions is because most of us are slow to grasp the truth that Jesus really does expect His disciples to be good examples of genuine Christians in a hostile world.
And the world is indeed hostile to Christianity. The next few verses [18-25] after our text today deal with how the hostile world reacts to genuine Christians.
Jesus says:
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Jesus told us in 13:34-25 that He had a new commandment that we love one another. And in that mutual love the world will know that we are Christians.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
When I preached on that commandment, I said that it was the degree, or kind of love that made the commandment “new.” The Law said, “Love thy neighbor.” But this “new” commandment, as a precept, is illustrated by Jesus Himself. We are to love as He did; self-sacrificing and unceasing. Doing the work of a servant and seeking ways to serve.
And this new precept is not to be a forced love. This kind of love grows as fruit on the branches of the True Vine.
What is generally our reaction to commandments? Most of us do not enjoy being ordered about. But the genuine believer has come to the end of himself and is finished with his warfare with God. The true believer has realized that there is only one sovereign will in the universe and it is not his own will but God’s. He knows and agrees that God has the right to give him orders. A believer may struggle with obedience and find that he often fails to obey, but a believer no longer challenges God’s authority. He repents of his sin and abides in Christ.
And so when Jesus commands us to love one another we should not resent it but ask, “How Lord, do we love?”
And Jesus has told us, “As I have loved you.”
But Lord, you loved Your sheep so much that You died for them. Do You expect us to die for one another? We may not be required to literally die for one another but Paul tells us there is another way.
Philippians 2:1-4
1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,
2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
We can do this? We may even be given the opportunity to actually die for a brother or sister but until that happens let’s work on what Paul says to do. Let’s esteem others better than ourselves.
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
John wrote that Jesus loved His own who were in the world and He loved them to the uttermost. [13:1]
John also wrote in his First Letter:
1 John 3:16
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
We know that Christ died to save sinners.
What was the nature of those for whom Christ died?
Paul tells us in Romans 5.
Romans 5:6-11
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
One of the main reasons that the church rolls are so full of lost people is because so many people have been manipulated into making a “decision” for Christ before they have been convicted of sin.
If you are a Christian, how do you answer these questions?
When you became a Christian, were you told that your “free-will” had anything to do with being accepted by God?
Were you with or without strength?
When you became a Christian, did you consider yourself to be ungodly?
Let me tell you once more the definition of an ungodly person. They get out of bed and are pleasant to their family. They go to work or to school or simply do their daily chores at home. They rest and eat and pay their bills. They do not curse and chew. They watch clean shows [if there are any] on TV. They are good to their children and to their pets. All in all they are “pretty good” people. But they are ungodly. What makes them ungodly?
They have spent an entire day and have not had a single thought of Jesus Christ and what He did for sinners! They are as ungodly as drunkards and child molesters! They think they can live without God!
When you became a Christian, were you a sinner?
That is a more involved question than you might think. Everyone will acknowledge that he has sinned a little. But a sinner is someone who deserves to be in hell! Do you really believe that God would be just and right if He sent you to hell?
And perhaps the hardest thing for the unsaved person to do is to assign to themselves that they are an enemy of God.
The unsaved person is not an enemy of the “god’ of his imagination. He has a god who is no real threat to his manner of living. He does as he pleases and with the exception of a few pangs of conscience now and then he just goes through life without repentance. But what about the God who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ and says such things as, “If you love Me keep my commandments”? If a person rejects the commandments of Jesus, that person is an enemy of God.
It is for those who have been convicted by the Holy Spirit that they are without strength; who are ungodly sinners, who are enemies of the only true God, that Jesus shed His precious blood. The repent and come to faith in Jesus Christ.
And now Jesus says:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
The subject of being a friend of Jesus is introduced.
There is only one person in the OT that is called the friend of God.
James 2:23
23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.
Where in the OT was Abraham called the friend of God?
2 Chronicles 20:7
7 Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?
Isaiah 41:8
8 "But you, Israel, are My servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
The descendants of Abraham My friend.
The Book of Proverbs tells us a lot about the nature of being a friend.
Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 18:24
A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 27:6
Faithful are the wounds of a friend ,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Now in the time of the NT, Jesus says that everyone that He died for are His friends.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
Then Jesus says:
14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
Jesus has limited the universe of His friends to those who obey Him. It is not too difficult to accept the notion that Jesus is a friend to anyone.
The Pharisees meant no complement when they said that Jesus was the “friend of sinners.” The Pharisees were deriding our Lord, but aren’t you glad that He is the friend of sinners?
Matthew 11:18-19
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.'
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children."
Somewhere I once read:
“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
The author of that phrase probably did not have Jesus in mind, but it is certainly true about Him. Jesus loves the unlovely. That is certainly true concerning the way that Jesus loves His people. He knows our every thought and deed. And in the purest love in the universe He instructs us and chastens us and continues to draw us closer to Himself.
There is an interesting thought in the Book of Job about being a friend. We will have more to say about this on Wednesday as we conclude our study in Job, but the point made in Job fits here in this lesson.
Job’s three friends came to comfort him after God had turned Satan loose on Job. Instead of helping Job, they became his accusers and acted like anything but a friend. But before God restored Job’s health, prosperity, and family, Job had to do something that would be very difficult unless Job was a child of God. Job had to be their friend. Job became an intercessor for his friends. Is not Jesus, right now, interceding for His friends?
Job 42:10
And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends.
Now to continue:
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Paul says that he is a bond slave of Christ. The word servant and slave is the same word in Greek. It is doulas. Paul says that we are either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ. Here Jesus makes a difference between the role of a slave and that of a friend.
A servant obeys and does not expect nor does he need to know why.
But a friend is brought into confidence as God did with Abraham before He destroyed Sodom. Jesus tells His friends everything they need to know about themselves and about the way of salvation.
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 remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
The centuries old controversy over the sovereignty of God in salvation would be ended if everyone would simply read and believe this phrase:
Who chooses whom? 
You did not choose Me, but I chose you…
The advocates of man’s so-called “free will” are quick to say, “Jesus is only referring to His disciples, and not to the special call of the elect.” Then what else in this final discourse of our Lord only applies to those eleven men? If His sovereign choice in salvation is not meant here, then we are “off the hook”, so to speak, as to obeying His commandments. And He does not mean that you and I must love one another, because He is only talking to the eleven. Surely you can see that it is God who first loves the sinner and the sinners’ love is a reflected love.
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 remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Jesus returns to the necessity that His disciples bear fruit.
It seems to me that what Jesus says here supports the interpretation that I gave on verses 2 and 6. The Father “lifts up” the branches and He “prunes” the branches so that they may bear fruit.
And this fruit remains because it is not the dead works that are to be burned up but it is the good works of the “fruit of the Spirit” that remain.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, …
And now with all of the qualifications stated, Jesus says again:
… that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
John 14:13-14
13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
John 15:7
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
It occurs to me that the reason these promises seem so out of reach for most of us is because we have not grown to the point of abiding in His words, of giving our life for others, and of keeping His commandments that we dare not ask in boldness.
I do not say these things to scold you but only to say that I am so far from meeting these basic qualifications that I am ashamed.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Amen
