Friends...Pt 1 of 2

Friends

Jesus is the ONLY begotten Son and is ontologically related to God the

Father unlike any other being. He is our friend. He is divine with the same

divinity as the one God and Father, and the Holy Spirit, the life-creating Spirit,

and he is also really human, like you and I in the flesh, but not by conception

and without the inherited nature given to us. He is therefore perfectly,

completely, totally divine and perfectly and totally, completely human.

Thanks be to God, that Jesus really is human, that God really became a man.

He who is divine has become now human, a truly masculine human being,

without ceasing to be divine. He is the man Jesus. He is one Person in two

natures, out of and in two natures. He is the divine Son of God who becomes

human, a real human being. Do not compromise his real humanity. The

reality of the Incarnation is a change. He who is infinite became finite. He

who is uncreated took the form of a creature. He who is boundless has

become circumscribed. He who had no flesh has become flesh. He who is

invisible has become visible. He whom we could not touch, we can now

touch, we can smell, we can taste, we can see. And from all eternity, we

might say from God’s perspective, the Son of God somehow for God

was always divine and human, because there’s no time for God. We can’t

even envision what it was before he was incarnate, even as Michael. That’s

hidden from our full understanding. But this we know…he who is our Lord

and God and Master has become, in his humanity, our Friend and our

Brother. So, we affirm again and again the real humanity of Jesus.

We want to think a little bit about this word “friend,” that God is our Friend,

and he is not our enemy. He is not hostile to us. He’s not our adversary. He

is the one who is our Friend, and the friend is the one who’s always there.

The friend is the one that we can trust. If you have a really good friend, that

friend will be your friend even when you sin against that friend, even when

you offend him. Somehow, that’s even how friendship is tested. If people are

truly friends, wisdom speaks about what a true friend is…well, a true friend

is there all the time, no matter what. A friend is one who does not betray. A

friend is the one that you can tell anything to, and it won’t break the

friendship. A friend is the one that can be perfectly trusted not to do harm,

not to retaliate, not to be vindictive, not to do vengeance, not to be offended.

a friend does not retaliate

Oh, yeah, friends get angry with each other, but they follow the scripture and

don’t sin. And truth between friends is that binding commitment to not put

loyalty above the truth. We are servants of God and servants of Christ, and

in that service we become friends. My wife, my son, my spiritual

family…these are friends. I belong to them, because friendship is a form of

mutual belonging. We belong to one another. We are members, one of another. That’s what constitutes our love, our friendship. Bound to one

another, but in freedom. And in this freedom there is the obedience to God.

Peter betrayed Christ. But Jesus tested Peter’s friendship. Study the three

verses, fifteen through seventeen of chapter twenty one of John. Research

each instance of the term love as exchanged between Jesus and Peter. Note

the times referenced refer to “love” and the times reference is made to

“friend”. So to be a friend is very important.

Jesus calls us his friend because all things that he has heard of his Father

he has made known unto us. What could admit and advance us to the dignity

of being a friend of Jesus. As to the secret will of God, there are many things

which we must be content not to know; but, as to the revealed will of God,

Jesus Christ has faithfully handed to us what he received of the Father. The

words that he speaks unto us are not of himself: but of the Father that

dwelleth in him. Jesus says that it is God that doeth the works. The relational

element to being a friend of Jesus is critical: we are Jesus’ friends who first

and foremost remain in his presence. And it is precisely this connection that

renders friendship and labor as the key to also being a servant of Christ.

the world is a "labor of love"

Understand the foundation of a godly friendship. The Father involves the Son

in the founding and sustaining of the world. What is new is the revelation

of why the Father chose to include the Son, rather than simply creating by

Himself. It was an act of love. The Father shows His love for the Son by

placing all things in his hands, beginning with the act of creation. The world

is a “labor of love” in the fullest sense of the word. Work must be something

more wonderful than we usually give it credit for, if adding to someone’s work

is an act of love. Let’s understand this deeper. The Word took on human flesh.

And then there’s an other process, human flesh was filled with God’s

spirit. Jesus did, just as we do, receive God’s Spirit through a form of birth.

Birth is a process that occurs in the flesh. When we become truly spiritual,

we do not slough off the flesh and enter some immaterial state. Instead, we

are more perfectly born…born “from above”, into a state of union of Spirit

and flesh, like Jesus himself. Jesus says that those born from above will

come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been

done in God. Hear how this shows important ethical implications for work.

There was the woman at the well. She has direct discussion of human labor.

a well

Let’s draw deeply to taste it. We are familiar with the woman’s inability to

move from the everyday work of drawing water to Jesus’ pronouncements

on the life-giving power of his word. And we are acquainted when the crowds

repeatedly show an inability to transcend everyday concerns and address

the spiritual aspects of life. They do not see how Jesus can offer them his

body as bread. They think they know where he is from, Nazareth, but they

fail to see where he is really from: heaven; and they are equally ignorant as

to where he is going. How is this relevant for thinking about work. The story

of the woman surely tells us that physical water alone cannot confer on us

eternal life. Jesus did not come to free us from work. Remember the work

the Father handed over to the Son…Jesus made the water in the well, and

he made it good. If he then uses that water to illustrate the dynamics of the

Spirit’s work in the hearts of would-be worshippers, that could be seen as

an ennoblement of the water. This led to the woman going to the city to bring

a gathering to Jesus. She worked. And what of the fields ripened for harvest.

That this is necessary work, and the occasion for it very urgent and pressing.

Jesus’ heart was as much upon the fruits of his gospel as the hearts of others

were upon the fruits of the earth; and to this he would lead the thoughts of

his disciples. Remember, this was after the woman left her waterpot and the

disciples were concerned with Jesus being hungry. He wanted the disciples

to see the people's forwardness to hear the word as a great excitement to

work in diligence and liveliness in preaching the word of truth. This

was profitable and advantageous work, which they themselves would be

gainers by. Christ has undertaken to pay those well whom he employs in his

work. There is a present reward in our service for Christ, and doing his work

is its own wages. Those who work for Christ gain fruit. This fruit is gathered

gain fruit for Christ

unto life eternal and the worker shall both save himself and those that hear

him. If the faithful servant save his own soul, that is fruit abounding to his

account, it is fruit gathered to life eternal; and if, over and above this, he be

instrumental to save the souls of others too, there is fruit gathered. Souls

gathered to Christ are fruit, good fruit, the fruit that Christ seeks for. It is

gathered for Christ; it is gathered to life eternal. This is the comfort of faithful

workers, that their work has a tendency to the eternal salvation of precious

souls. They have joy knowing that Jesus sows and they reap and rejoice

together. Note, first, though God is to have all the glory of the success of the

work, yet faithful workers may take the comfort of it. We share in the joy of

harvest, though the profits belong to the Master. The word says we simply

enter into the labor that others began. Such as that testimony of the woman

at the well. God’s work means the comprehensive restoration or completion

of the work God had done in the beginning. Whatever work we do as Christ’s

followers is filled with the glory of God, because Christ has already worked

the fields to prepare them for us. The redemptive work of Christ after the fall

is of a kind with his creative productive work from the beginning of time.

Likewise, the redemptive work of his friends is in the same sphere typified

by their testimony, our reaping his harvest.

Sabbath work

God keeps the creation going even on the Sabbath, and therefore Jesus,

who shares the divine identity, is permitted to do the same. Jesus is almost

certainly not alone in arguing that God is at work on the Sabbath, for our

good. This in no way deduces the propriety or impropriety of our doing work

on the Sabbath. We may be doing God’s work, but we do not share the divine

identity with God as does Christ. Work that maintains and redeems the

creation and contributes to closer relationships with God and people is

appropriate for the Sabbath. Whether any particular work fulfills this

description must be discerned by the person(s) involved. As we work in faith

to restore what has been broken, we call people to remember the goodness

of the creator God. As we work in faith to develop the capacities of the

creation, we call people to reflect on the goodness of humanity’s God-given

dominion over the world. The work of redemption and the work of creation,

done in faith, both shout out our trust in the God who is, and who was, and

who is to come.