John 15:15-16 “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”
 
MOST of us have often heard and been assured, “Jesus is your friend.” “What a friend we have in Jesus” is a popular hymn as it reminds us Jesus bears all our sins and grief. The song teaches us we can take our needs to the Lord in prayer. The hymn was written to draw us into a closer, trusting relationship with the Best Friend ever!
   Thus, Jesus words here may seem to be of little impact to his disciples. “Of course. He’s our friend!” they might affirm. But in truth, for the Master to call his disciples “friends” is a significant change in the way God will relate to both his disciples in that upper room and to us forever.
   The Torah-trained disciples would have considered it blasphemy to call Yahweh – the LORD God Almighty – “friend”. They had learned God set them apart from all nations in ancient times to worship him with very specific laws and structures. The Lord God had warned and judged the Jews – even with death – against casually coming before him in a “friendly” way. God must be feared – revered, honored, respected and obeyed. Devout Jews never spoke the name of God for fear of blaspheming his name. But then Jesus, the eternal Son of the Holy God, says, “I have called you friends.” How could this be?
   Let’s understand what a friend is. Psalms 55:13 But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, 14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God.
   We understand then that God-centered friends are alike. They have similar thoughts and desires. Friends experience true fellowship as they care for each other in many ways. You can say that good friends know each other’s business.
   The Son of God now has the same relationship with his disciples. He has elevated them from servants to friends because he has taught them to know God’s business.
   Jesus came to be your friend, so you, too, will know the Father’s business. From that night on, it was the disciples’ responsibility to transact Kingdom business. This remains your task. To say, “Jesus is my friend.” means you are to be about the business of making the Father known to his world.
   For the second time, Jesus promised, “Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Remember that this refers to your prayers being as Jesus would pray. You will know what to pray when you know, “What a friend I have in Jesus.”
 

John 15:12-14 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.”
 
HERE and in the law and the prophets of the Old Testament, God connects loving him to obeying his commands. We also remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:37 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.” Do you wonder how God can command love?
   God’s will is for his people to know that love for him and for one another is a choice of active obedience. Yes, love is an emotion we have at various levels for different people. But a God-centered love is a Spirit-empowered decision to do God’s purpose on earth.
   When Jesus speaks of the Great Commandment, for example, he connects it to the Good Samaritan story to illustrate true love for God and neighbors. (See Luke 10:27-37.) James, too, encourages the church to demonstrate God’s love by caring for people in need, obeying the Lord’s commands.
   Then see in verse 13 the world’s greatest example of active love, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” This is Jesus, the Son of God, declaring he loves his disciples with the greatest love of all. His death has become an example of extraordinary love for us. Jesus didn’t come to say, “I love you.” with his emotions and then go away. He came to demonstrate, “I love you.” with God’s extraordinary sacrifice on the cross to redeem the world through God’s commands.
   Jesus loves the Lord God – his Father in heaven – with all his heart, mind, soul and strength. And he loves you. The cross tells us so. Loving the Father and loving you, Jesus acted to save you. Rejoice in his love and receive it.
   Great love focuses on God. You actively pursue his commands. You purposefully decide to obey his commands. In turn, you “lay down your life” to obey the Father’s will. Sometimes it is a physical death. Always it is to die to yourself, so you will live for Christ. Romans 15:15 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 
   Do God’s true love. Decide today to love God more than anything and anyone else in your life. You in turn will experience a growing love for all people. You will be prepared to do God’s love wherever he sends you.
 

John 15:9-11 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
 
ARE you in love with God? We don’t talk about loving God in that way, do we? It’s usually, “Do you love God?” or we might say, “I love the Lord God.” What does it mean to be in love with God?
   Picture the Garden of Eden. Everything in the perfect, holy Garden is of God’s love because God is love. Creation is good without blemish. Then God in his love added even more to the Garden. In love the Lord formed a union of love, which is the first marriage: Genesis 2:21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, the Lord God took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
   This first couple lived in the Garden in love with God. Adam and Eve fellowshipped with God. Face-to-face with their Father, the first couple were innocent of sin. They could fully savor God’s presence in the perfection of a holy union with each other and with God. In the Father’s love, all was under God’s will. Before the fall, Adam and Eve lived in a true love relationship with God. 
   We are called to be in love with God in the same way. God formed Adam and Eve to rule in the Garden in the Father’s love. Likewise, Jesus’ disciples are formed to rule on the earth in love with the Son and the Spirit as our guide. In love, God birthed Eve to be Adam’s helper. In love, God birthed a church to be God’s helpers on earth. In God’s love, Adam and Eve were formed to rule the perfect earth. In God’s love, disciples are formed to rule the imperfect earth toward God’s perfection.
   Adam and Eve did not remain in God’s love. Their shameless nakedness before God and each other became an object of their sin guilt. In love, Jesus came to restore mankind to a shame-free “nakedness” with God. In love, we receive the Lord’s commands. In love, we repent of our sins; we obey Jesus. We live in his transforming Word because we love him.
   Enter into God’s love and remain there. Love is why he’s formed you. Love is why he’s called you. Love is why he commands you. Remain in love with God and know his perfect love is for you.
 
 

John 15:5-8 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
 
ONE essential fact to know about Jesus’ preaching is that he does not compromise right and wrong. I know, to many of us, this is obvious. “He’s the Lord!” But in the church and in the world, many people attempt to compromise Jesus’ truth into their own desires. Or they speak of Jesus as if he is on the same level with historical philosophers or other religion leaders.
   As he often said, “Believe me when I say….” the Son of God set a firm line on truth boundaries. God so loved the world he sent Jesus to preach God’s true, living word. To be Jesus’ disciple, then, you need to go to Jesus, and you must stay with Jesus. “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Effective disciples bear fruit in the Spirit’s power to cause Kingdom change. They are God’s agents to redeem the world as the Spirit guides them.
   But even as we know this, our nature is to walk into our own preferences. We succumb to the lie, “You can do whatever you set your mind to do.” The trouble is, our minds often change, and we can go in many unfruitful directions. How could we consider a purposeful life possible apart from Jesus? After all, he is the one who came that we may have life and have it to the full? (from John 10:10)
   To separate yourself from Jesus, you are not his disciple; you are his opponent.
   Choice by choice away from the truth, we witness a growing fracture in our discipleship relationship. “Remain in Jesus” becomes, “Refrain from Jesus”. So know this: A Jesus discipleship life is to strive toward perfect obedience. Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  This is the Master setting the standard for you. The only way to live this full life is to remain in Jesus.
   Yes, Jesus knows you’ll make mistakes. You will sin in your walk with him. Yet, the Father has planted the Seed of Life into the world. The Seed has died. The new Vine is growing. The Spirit roots us in the Vine. The Holy Trinity is tending the vineyard to root and grow you into his holiness.
   Hear Jesus’ promise. Pray for faith, hope and love for your heart, so you consistently remain in his promise. Bear to the world God’s bounteous fruit. God will be praised. His name will be lifted high in your life. Why would you want anything less?   

John 15:1-4 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
 
FRUIT is a wonderful image for our relationship with Jesus. Ripe fruit, grown with the proper nutrients and pruning is a naturally sweet, juicy, tasty and nourishing food.
   And fruit is fragile, isn’t it? For example, oranges must grow on a particular root stock to protect the native orange tree from disease that comes from the soil. Or, too much rain at the wrong time can ruin a strawberry crop. Hail will sometimes bruise and ruin fruit. And if freezing temperatures occur when fruit trees blossom, the crop is reduced and less vital. Good fruit requires good root stock, good soil nutrients and protection from disease, insects and  harmful weather. Much can go wrong!
   The vitality and bounty of “kingdom fruit”, too, can easily be reduced or even made useless. As we are tempted to attempt life “my way”, we will be cut from the True Vine’s life-giving commands. At some point, we will discover we have lost Jesus’ nourishing, protective and tender care. Oh, life can seem good for a time. Perhaps for many years we might believe a life separate from the Vine is just fine.
   But without Jesus’ true vine of God’s nourishing, protecting Word feeding your soul, you will one day discover there is no lasting flavor, no nutrition in your lifelong work. We see an example of this from Solomon, the wisdom-endowed king. But he did not remain in God. The world’s temptations cut him from a full relationship, joyful relationship with Gardener. Read Ecclesiastes to learn how Solomon viewed life “off the vine”: Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” How tragic to hear this from a man of God, and how sadly common to hear this from our world. How empty it is to feel this in our souls.
   Solomon waywardness perhaps brought him back to God: Ecclesiastes 12:13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing.
   The central theme of John 15 is Jesus’ great, nourishing love for the Father and for you. He longs to tend to your heart, so you develop a vibrant, productive spiritual life. He calls you to loving obedience, so you will know the fullness of love for him and for one another. “Remain in me,” he says because he wants you to always be nourished into a full life of meaning and purpose. Your Lord wants you to bear fruit, too, so you will nourish others to advance the Kingdom of God on earth.
          An effective disciple is one who remains securely connected with the Vine. Be good fruit. Bear good fruit for his Kingdom. Glorify the Vine and the Branch. They have planted you.

John 14:28-31 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away, and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31 but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now; let us leave.”
 
HEAR Jesus’ sure commitment to his disciples.
   Jesus commits to their grief. He knows how troubled and sad they are as he speaks of leaving them. He then points to their love for him as a reason they can be glad he is going. After all, the Son of God is going home to his Father! Jesus has graciously come to befriend these men and commit to them a way to Heaven. It’s now time in the Kingdom timetable for Jesus to go home. Our grief, too, becomes joy when we truly know our loved ones have joined the Savior in the place he has prepared for them.
   Jesus commits to their faith. Telling them what will happen, Jesus demonstrates the sovereign God is at work. God prophesies. Events happen as he foretells. When God speaks of past, present or future, he tells us the truth. These 11 disciples will learn one more time the Lord does as he says: Jeremiah 40:3 And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. He promises judgment. It has and will happen. He promised resurrection. It has and will happen: Matthew 28:6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. And from 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Faithfully know the Lord is devoted to your eternal life.
    Jesus then commits to victory. “The prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me.” Our Savior is about to suffer because of evil’s savage attack on God and his creation. Yet, Jesus will rise from the suffering to win the war. Satan cannot hold the Savior. The Lord Jesus triumphs. Revelation 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. The Lord is committed to a perfect new Heaven and earth.
   Jesus also commits to the Father. Once more, John writes of Jesus’ complete, unrelenting obedience to live into the Father’s purpose. The Son does not go to the right or left of the Father’s commands. He is precisely true to the Father. The Lord Jesus has spoken his commitment to you. How will you speak to him – hesitant or committed?
 
 

John 14:25-27 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
 
SOME criticize the Bible because they do not believe the gospel writers, for example, would remember Jesus’ exact words to quote him as they do. Critics reject the notion of inspired writing – words and memory the Holy Spirit gives to God’s anointed Bible authors.
   Here, though, is proof of the Bible’s inspired author. The Holy Spirit “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” If you believe all else Jesus teaches regarding many truths of Kingdom life, would you not believe his words here?
   How essential is the truth! The Spirit teaches, so we can teach. When we read Scripture or quote Jesus, we can confidently say, “The Word of the Lord says…” “The Lord tells us …” “The Lord promises …”
   Then following this promise of God’s true teaching comes Jesus’ remarkable peace promise. God’s true Word leads to God’s true peace.
   Who needs peace? We all do. How distressing it is to listen to people who rage against one another. Is it not heart-troubling, too, to hear people criticize others or even constantly tease and diminish others? Where is peace in such language?
   And we know how upset our hearts become when we hear bad news about a loved one. Peace is also far away when arguments rage over minor incidents. Pride, too, disturbs our peace as we try to always be “right” in every argument. Impatience quickly disrupts peace. It seems the world is upset with a constant exploding volcano of anger, jealousy, unforgiveness and retribution. Who can help us?
   Of course, he is the Helper – the Counselor – the Spirit of truth. He will teach us Jesus’ words. He will transform our minds to believe in Jesus and believe Jesus. We will have a peace that transcends all conflict, pain and sorrow because we know who is Lord of all: Psalms 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells…10 “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
 
 

John 14:20-24 “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” 22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
 
“ON that day,” Jesus teaches. To what day does he refer? It can be the day of his resurrection. His disciples will see their Lord
physically returned from the grave. “That day” can be the day of Pentecost when the Spirit empowered the apostles to begin the church. They will see Jesus even more completely as their resurrected Lord. Jesus can also be using, “that day” to refer to the end of the age when he returns to form the new Heaven and earth. All on earth will know Jesus on that day. 
   On that day points to his six promises in John 14:12-19. When the disciples see their Lord alive from the grave, and he is teaching, eating, walking and ministering again on that day, they will fully believe Jesus is the eternal Son of God. Their hearts will know he has come from the Father to display God’s glory on earth.
   At Pentecost, then, the disciples will watch the Holy Spirit, the Helper, empower their ministry. He will join more people of the earth under the Father’s care that day and forever. Then on one future day, too, all people who love God will be counted as Jesus’ disciples. They will know they are alive in Jesus because they believe.
   Do you see the difference between seeing Jesus, the Son of God, and not seeing him? When you truly see Jesus you live in loving obedience to God’s commands, don’t you? When one believes on that day that Jesus is Lord, and on that day obeys Jesus’ commands, the redeemed will listen closely when Jesus says, “I tell you the truth”. (John 14:12a) Yes, on that day those who know Jesus will see the fullness of his glory. They will be joined to God in Heaven and to his universal church around the world and throughout the ages.
   Love God. Love others. Pray for others to love him, too. Begin your discipleship walk each day with, “I love you, Lord. Thank  you for the day you saved me.” Mark your life with joy – a contentment and peace that extends into all circumstances –because you know on that day of God’s choosing, you will be face to face with your Savior forevermore. 
 

John 14:18-19 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.”
 
JESUS’ promises abound, don’t they? John records these fourth and fifth pledges our Savior affirms to his disciples in the span of eight verses.
   What joy to know he will not leave us as orphans! Consider an orphan’s circumstances. An orphaned child is without parents and has no sure home. There is no one to model good behavior and to encourage true obedience. An orphan can be aimless, very uncertain of her place in the world. Orphans often feel unloved because they are. Easily an orphan is often victimized for another’s gain. I was talking with a neighbor here in our Tennessee town, and she told me of having to suddenly help a 12-year-old girl whose mother had died. Because her mother had been sick for a long time, the girl had received no proper parenting. The girl knew nothing about right and wrong, social manners or essential self-care. She needed a helper to teach her right living. That is the role my neighbor fulfilled for the child. As you can imagine, the child’s life was transformed when her helper taught her.
   Do you follow Christ? You need the Helper. Know he is with you. How sad it is in the church and as Christians that we often act as if God has left us to struggle on our own. We think God is “up there”, and we are down here, disconnected by time and space. Even though Jesus’ promises are clear, we reject them. So we reject the Holy Spirit’s help. Our minds cannot fully grasp the Helper is with us to move our lives toward God. Without him, we will wander aimlessly. God becomes more distant. Our lives and our churches are led into the abyss of the world’s lies because we do not pursue or trust the Spirit’s help.
   Church of Jesus Christ, be assured in Jesus’ promise. When you are his own you are never alone. The Holy Spirit makes you alive in the Lord. That’s why Jesus graciously offers his fourth promise: “You will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” Receiving Jesus as Savior, the Spirit is alive in you. You are alive in Jesus. Live in this truth. Seek the Lord’s counsel. Find purpose and strength in your Savior.
   I pray your faith is a living faith to truly know your Father in Heaven, his Son, Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit are with you always. Let the Holy Trinity guide, lead, admonish, forgive and love you constantly. Believe Jesus’ promises. His Helper is with you. You are with him. See Jesus. See the Father. Know God loves you. No Christian is an orphan.
 

John 14:15-17 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 and  I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. 17 The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
  
HERE is a third promise (Please see John 14:12-14 from previous three lessons.). It is another wonderful comfort Jesus lovingly gives to his disciples as he prepares to leave them. A new chapter in the disciples’ lives and God’s Kingdom will soon begin. The disciples must know God’s story will continue to its ultimate conclusion.
   Jesus’ mission of teaching on earth has ended. Unknown to the disciples, they are about to witness their Master die a horrible death. Profound doubt and stifling fear will crush the disciples’ spirits. Surely, they will wonder how the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:15) could allow this to happen. They will wonder, “Are Jesus’ Kingdom promises true?”
   Jesus urgently and lovingly prepares them with promises of mission, strength and support. In summary, the Lord has promised, “You’ll do much more than I have done. Evangelize, and you will lead people to faith in me. Pray into my purpose, and I will give you what you need. You will never be alone. My Helper will come to support and empower you in all I command you to do.”
   Remember, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have anointed the disciples into a working relationship with the Lord God Almighty. Their eternal life began the day Jesus said to them, “Come, follow me.” For about three years they have walked with him on earth in his presence. He has now prepared them to walk for him throughout the earth in his physical absence. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, will come from Jesus to do the Father’s will until the day the Father calls them home to be with Jesus again.
   Has Jesus said to you through the Helper, “Come follow me”? If so, rejoice and know the Lord God has anointed you to eternal life. As a citizen of Heaven, you can believe and trust the Holy Spirit is constantly with you to help you faithfully work the Lord’s will on earth. Understand deep in your soul, “Jesus is risen. He is ascended. He will come again.” Believe in your heart you are his forever.
          When you do believe, you will find fear, doubt, and loneliness will disappear. Faith will grow. Love will strengthen your footsteps. The Helper will help you tell the world, “Jesus saves.”