Friends of the King

It doesn't really matter what your musical persuasion is. The longer we live, and the more we find ourselves having to be in touch with the realities of life in this world as it is, the more we begin to appreciate the words of the hymn we just sang. Because we find, as time goes on, that so many of the things in this world that we regarded as our friends, as time goes on, will let us down.

Things, or people, or what have you. And what a comfort to discover, again and again and again, until it finally gets through, that there is one who's always there. And he never fails.

He's always reliable. But this friendship with Jesus has two sides to it. And for it to ever amount to anything, we also have to see that Jesus is not only our friend, but he now calls us his friends.

Greater love has no man than this, the man laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants or slaves, for a slave 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it you.

This I command you, to love one another. So I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends. And when you stop and think what this means, you know that we are now called friends by him, of the one who holds the stars together.

In the book by Colson, you may have your opinion of it, maybe you think he's carried away, or maybe you don't think it's true, or it doesn't make any difference. One thing you find in this book by Charles Colson is a picture of what it was like to be close to the man at the top, and how people really were drawn in by this, and to be thought of as his friends. And so that when the man at the top, the President, one of the most powerful men on earth, is having a bad mood, all his friends have a bad mood.

And when he becomes suspicious, they become suspicious. And how much of their lives is wrapped up in him. This could be good or it could be bad.

But now if we translate this into a relationship not with the President of the United States, or the Premier of some great nation, but a king who is absolutely sheer goodness, pure glory, total lowliness, and who makes no mistakes. And that this king knows you by name and calls you his friend, this changes your outlook on everything in the world. When David, who was at that time hardly even a man, just a young strapling or whatever, comes to the camp of Israel where his brothers are soldiers to bring them food, and he finds the whole camp in disarray, and everybody's shook up, and the morale is down because the Philistines are on the other side of the valley, and they have this big giant Goliath there.

Young David just can't figure this out. Well, this is ridiculous that this giant should defy God, the armies of Israel. And the reason it looks so very different to David from the way it looks to everyone else is because David has one thing the rest of them don't have.

Out there shepherding his sheep, David had developed, and this was an act of will on his part, and it was an act of grace on God's part, an awareness that God, the God of Israel, was his friend, and that he was God's friend, so that when a bear or a lion or some beast attacked the sheep, David didn't have any qualms about it. He just goes there and grabs them by the beard and pulls them around and delivers the sheep. And now when he finds himself in this situation and this giant is swaggering around down there in the valley, the same reaction comes to David.

And he says, Today God is going to deliver Israel. And all the world is going to know that there is a God in Israel, and this assembly is going to know that God delivers not by means of sword and spear, but the battle is the Lord's. And David goes in and takes care of the situation, conscious of the fact, see, that he is on that kind of intimate relationship, those terms, with God.

Now, most of the time, we who call ourselves followers of the Lord are more likely to be like the armies of Israel. We're demoralized, we're bummed out, and we're blaming other people for our problems, and we think that God has turned his back on us and nothing's working out right, and we're terribly depressed. And the reason for this is that we're not sure of where we stand with God.

We're like the land surveyor in a novel by Kafka called The Castle, and this guy comes into the town to survey the town and the surrounding fields for the castle up on a hill, which is hidden by the clouds, you can hardly see it. And he comes into town, he goes into a tavern, and he pulls up the telephone, and he calls the castle, and sometimes he gets through, and sometimes he doesn't. And as the novel wears on, he's never sure.

Have I been employed by the castle, or haven't I? Do I really belong here, or don't I? And this is the relationship many of us seem to have with God. I don't really know where I fit. And as long as we're so unsure of whether or not we are his friends, nothing happens.

We don't have life inside our hearts that we can offer to anybody else, much less ourselves, until the blood of the lamb has removed every last vestige of guilt, and until the Spirit of God has come and made us to know that the living God has in fact drawn near to us, and that we are in fact, on intimate terms, with him who holds the stars together. 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, that you love one another.

It starts with this fantastic thing, which is so hard to get into our heads, that he chose us. He didn't choose me, I chose you. He says to each one of us that you were chosen by me.

You, by name. He calls us by name and knows exactly who we are, and he didn't choose us because he was looking for the cream of the crop. He looked down over the world to see if he could find people who would, you know, promise some kind of success and pick us.

Come on. We all know that that's the very, you know, it's for really the very opposite reason that he chose us. Not because we're so appealing, or so promising, or so good to look at, or so wise, or so pious, but we are in such great need.

And he chose us as a manifestation of his own heart, which is mercy. That's why he chose us. Took things like us and lifted us up.

And he didn't come to us like some kind of supernatural spiritual social worker who's going to straighten us out now, or take us home as pets and put us in a cage. But he chose us to be his friends. And by this it means that he's going to share with us, now, all that he has.

And if we get that and understand what this means, or even begin to, certainly it means at least, as we see in this passage, three specific changes in our own lives. First of all, the fact that Jesus has chosen us, of all things, to be his friends, means that he has included us in his redemptive work. You didn't choose me, I chose you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth proof that will remain.

One day soon, Jesus will rule the whole world, the nations of earth, with a rod of iron. There will be no more disease, there will be no more injustice, nobody stepping on anybody else, no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow. And if we have suffered with him, then we will also reign with him at that hour.

But at this hour, our Lord is concerned about one thing, and one thing only, Jesus is here in the Spirit in order to redeem, to redeem, to save us from our sins by his blood, and save all men who will be saved, and to set them free from their bondage to Satan through their fear of death, and to anoint them with the Spirit of his Father, which is sheer mercy. That's the only reason Jesus is around right now, and he is around. He's here for one thing only, to redeem the lost, the friend of sinners.

And he doesn't do this alone by himself. And this is the fantastic thing, he includes us in this. I'm not going to do it by myself, I'm sending you.

I chose you, that you, in my name, should go forth and bring forth proof that you're going to touch lives with healing, that you're going to bring them under the influence of my blood, that through you they are going to experience the outpouring of my Spirit. Their lives are going to be changed through you. That's his promise to us.

And there's not one believer in this gathering who can say, but I have nothing to do. I'm not equipped for anything. I don't know, but my time hasn't come yet for me to begin my ministry.

Not one can say that. Every one of us right now has been called into the redemptive activity of the Son of God. And every one of us here, if we will allow ourselves to be used, will go forth and touch lives with healing in the name of the King.

And the fruit that we bear will last. It won't be six months and then it's done. But it will go on and on and on.

Granted, not all the seed that we sow is going to grow. You know, some is going to fall by the wayside and be carried away by the birds. And some is going to fall on rocks and grow off and wither.

And some is going to grow among thorns and is going to be choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. But some of the seeds that we sow and the work that we do among men will last forever. We're not building some kind of a building that's going to crumble down again.

But one that's going to stand. Because we're not building it, He is. And that fruit that we bear is going to be just as fresh on the day of His coming as it is on the day that He's first born.

Secondly, because we are His friends, Jesus has included us in His expense account. So that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. He'll give it to you because you're my friend.

And what a wonderful thing this is when we now begin to pray, not as Pharisees who think God owes me something because I'm so good. I know my scriptures so well. I grasp the theology.

I'm not like other men are. We no longer pray like that. Thank God.

It may be that we don't pray like that. And if we do, may God deliver us right now. Nor do we pray anymore as throttling slaves who have a warped and twisted view of a tyrannical God who doesn't care.

And there are many among us who have felt this way. Oh, where's God? He answers other people's prayer. He never does nothing for me.

But now we pray as friends of the King, knowing that for His sake the Father hears. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, confidence, boldness, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And that confidence and that boldness comes to us as we allow the Spirit to make clear to us that He has made us His friends. That we don't have to prove something.

We don't have to earn it. All we have to do is take off our pretensions, remove our masks, and come to the Father the way we are. And as we do this, we will find ourselves now praying for the things that are on the Lamb's heart, the things that He wants.

We will find ourselves to our own amazement praying mercy on those around us, starting with our enemies, the people who are out to get us, the people who have abused us, and misconstrued our motives, and slandered us, and done all kinds of evil to us. We will pray for them that God will bless them. Not just show them how wrong they are, but, Lord, pour out Your richest blessings on them, fulfill their hearts.

And we will pray for those who are wandering and stumbling and all confused out there in the darkness, you know, with a concern that's real. And we will pray with a confidence we never had before, knowing that it will be done because we are His friends, and it's going to be done. And finally, the fact that we are friends of the King brings us into a new relationship with each other.

This I command you, that you love one another. Now we're no more able to love each other than stones are able to love each other, until we begin to experience what it means to be friends of Jesus. All kinds of pretenses in this area of love, and so much talk about love, and so little of it.

It's as if two men who are archenemies by some coincidence find themselves in the lobby of this apartment building one evening, and they look at each other, and, what are you doing here? And the guy says, what are you doing here? Well, I've come to see a friend. So have I. Quite embarrassed, they get on the elevator, and lo and behold, they both get off at the tenth floor. They both stop in front of room 1017.

And when the door opens, they are overjoyed, both of them, to see their friend. They walk in, and when those two guys walk out, the wall between them is gone. Now you could have said to them, for 50 years, you have to love each other, shake hands and make up, give each other a hug, preach to them and preach to them nothing.

But in the presence of this one whom they love, their pride melts. You know, the walls come down, and they come into unity with one another. I believe that's how it works with us.

You know, it's only in the presence of our friend, Chief, that we begin to experience anything of what it is to truly love one another. It's utterly impossible for us to do this. We can preach at each other and talk to each other, we can make resolutions, we can exchange our socks with each other and show how much we care.

None of us will do it. But when we come close to Him, we will find ourselves. And when we eat His flesh and drink His blood, the forgiveness that we receive has to flow out.

It either flows out as forgiveness or it flows in as judgment. So much talk about love, so little of it, and the only way we find it is in our friend who has made us His friends. So now there's somebody here who says, Yeah, but I don't feel like a friend of Jesus.

I've blown it all week or for the last five years, I feel miles away, nothing's real, I try to pray, nothing happens, and I know it's my fault, but I just don't feel like a friend of His. And so you remember what the prodigal said when he decided to come back. I'm going to go back and I'm going to say, Father, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Treat me as one of your hired servants. And you know what happened with Peter? You remember how ashamed he was of what he did the night of our Lord's betrayal? And even after he sees Jesus alive from the dead, he's so overjoyed to see Him, there's a barrier there, there's something there, he feels bad about this. So before Jesus takes His leave to go back to the Father, this has to be straightened out.

And he says to Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these fish, more than these other things your heart has been attached to? Do you love me? And Peter says, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you. Feed my sheep. In other words, if you love me, let's forget about the past, let's not worry about this anymore, let's just get on.

Pick yourself up and go. And if there are people among us right now who feel so bummed out over how badly they've been doing, the Lord says just the same thing. One question, do you love me more than this other stuff you've been attached to? Do you? And the minute our heart says, Lord, you know it is true that I love you first, then he says, all right, pick yourself up and let's go.

Feed my sheep. Go out there and minister. You're my friend.

I've got work for you to do. You didn't choose me. I chose you.

And ordained you that you should go, bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. This is my command for you, that you love one another. Lord Jesus, praying first of all that wherever there is in any one of our hearts a spirit of heaviness and discouragement, that by your grace, by your mercy, Lord, your word will break through and give that soul a new start.

And wherever there is in any of our hearts an attitude of self-righteousness, and where we're critical of this one and that one and everyone else, where we're so overflowing with blame for everyone but ourselves, or maybe even ourselves too, Lord, that you'd wash this away and enable us once again, right now, Lord, to receive your mercy and to so be immersed in your mercy that it will overflow and influence everything we do throughout the rest of this day and the days ahead. Make everyone here, Lord God, to know that you are with them now and what it means to be your friend and to answer your call. We ask it for your mercy's sake.

Amen.