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Today we examine… ‘Friendship with Jesus’ author Joseph C. Ludgate, (pub.1898)

1/ A friend of Jesus! Oh, what bliss, That one so weak as I
Should ever have a Friend like this, To lead me to the sky.

1. • Refrain:
     Friendship with Jesus! Fellowship divine!
     Oh, what blessed, sweet communion! Jesus is a Friend of mine.

2/ A Friend when other friendships cease, A Friend when others fail,
A Friend who gives me joy and peace, A Friend who will prevail.

3/ A Friend to lead in the dark, A Friend who knows the way,
A Friend to steer my weak frail bark, A Friend my debts to pay.

4/ A Friend when sickness lays me low, A Friend when death draws near,
A Friend as through the vale I go, A Friend to help and cheer.

5/ A Friend when life’s rough voyage is o’er, A Friend when earth is past,
A Friend to greet on Heaven’s shore, A Friend when home at last.

Have you found this FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS in your personal experience?

— Let’s start our discussion today by seeing how each verse resonates with us…

Verse 1/ Our WEAKNESS – HIS LEAD…

Verse 2/ When other friendships FAIL, HE gives us joy and peace…

Verse 3/ HE is a friend who knows the way and pays our debts…

Verse 4/ HE is a Friend to help and cheer as we go “through the VALE”…

Verse 5/ A Friend to meet on Heaven’s shore, A Friend when home at last!

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What gives us the IDEA that we can have such a FRIENDSHIP with OUR LORD, AND SAVIOR?

The answer to this is found in John 15:1-19  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  (2)  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  (3)  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.  (4)  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  (5)  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  (6)  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

— In this illustration used by Jesus…
— Q1/ Who is the vine? AND Who is the vinedresser?

Using the idea of pruning a vine…

— Q2/ What determines if we are attached to the vine?

— Q3/ And if we are not attached to the vine, what are we? (Why are we “thrown into the fire?”)

 (7)  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  (8)  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

— Q4/ What is the requirement that is written down here, as we are told “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”? (What does it mean when applied to our requests?)

 (9)  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  (10)  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  (11)  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

— Q5/ Why must we keep HIS commandments to remain in HIS LOVE?

— Q6/ What benefit is there for us if we keep ourselves living according to HIS commandments?

 (12)  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  (13)  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  (14)  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  (15)  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.

— Q7/ What is the commandment that Jesus emphasizes here?

— Q8 How did Jesus supply us with the extreme example of this friendship?

— Q9/ How can we possibly receive this promise from Jesus, “all that I have 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 abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.  (17)  These things I command you, so that you will love one another.  (18)  “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  (19)  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Going back to the analogy of ‘Pruning a vine’…

— Q10/ How are we chosen? (What is the requirement to be left attached to the vine?)

— How can we “bear fruit” for God?

Final questions… How are you to react when you follow the commandments of Jesus… and the “world hates you”?

— What comfort is there under such persecution? (Answer: We know we have Jesus as our friend.)

I invite you to close with the hymn ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’…