No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.
5 sermons cite this verse
… And this is what he tells his disciples. It's as simple as his invitation to go and fish for people. He says, this is my commandment for you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Jesus shares this commandment when they're seated together. he shares this commandment with them knowing that just moments earlier a couple of those disciples were arguing contending over which one of them was the greatest he shares this commandment of love with with these disciples knowing that one of them you know a few hours earlier had betrayed him for a fee to his death he shares this with this group of disciples this passage of love, knowing that one of them was going to deny him publicly in just a few hours, and that all of them would eventually abandon him at his actual darkest hour. And rather than writing them off, rather than separating himself from them, he draws closer to them. He humbles himself before them. He washes their feet. He gives them bread. He offers them wine. He says, this is my body. This is my blood. I am sacrificing everything for you. And then he calls them. …
… John 15, Jesus said, verse 15, no longer do I call you servants because the servant doesn't know what his master's doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I heard from my father, I made known to you. Earlier in the book of John, Jesus had explained his own ministry philosophy. He said in John five, I don't do anything of my own initiative. I don't do anything of my own initiative. What I see the father doing around me, that's what I do. In other words, even though Jesus, get this, even though Jesus was the son of God, he didn't just go around doing things by his own power. No, by the spirit, he perceived where the father was at work and he joined the father in what he was doing around him. He perceived the father already at work in somebody's life and he recognized that that was his invitation, his calling to get involved. Well, y'all, if that is true for Jesus, how much more so is it true for you and me? …
You are my friends. If you do what I command you, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. I've called you friends for all that I've heard from my father. I've made known to you. 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. Okay. I love this passage. I love it more than I've ever loved it. Just the words that he uses. It feels nothing like do and don't. It's like the natural response. That's why he says, if you love me, you'll obey what I command. So it's just like when I think about if my daughters are taken away, my natural response is to go after them. Why? Because there's love there. And that's what Jesus is saying is our obedience should be like this natural response to his love. …
… Those same two elements can be there. In fact, by the way, you see them in John 15. You notice this? when Jesus Christ, and I put this in after Ephesians 5, though we're not actually studying it, when Jesus Christ says, I'm your friends, he gives the same two elements. What makes him our friend? One is, you're not a servant, you're a friend, because I tell you my business. I tell you what's going on inside. I let you in. And secondly, I give my life for you. I don't let you down. Same two elements. Have you ever encountered somebody who gave you befriending grace in that didn't just brush you off and didn't just sort of do their duty, but were really kind. What is befriending grace? Well, I've experienced this, what it means. First of all, it's the same two things that you've got to have to be a truly spiritually kind person. There's a humility, and yet there's a confidence. On the one hand, befriending grace happens when this person I'm talking to, that there's a humility and therefore there's a transparency. …
… You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my Father, I've made known to you. And so I want us to see how he's expressing his friendship and how he expresses his friendship to us. And one of the ways he has expressed his friendship is in his sacrificial love for us. before the world ever began, Jesus Christ planned to lay down His life sacrificially for you and me. What He did is that when we were enemies to Him, He laid down His life in love for us in order to make us His friends. So that Jesus Christ is the possible friend of every single person. He desires to be the friend of every single one of us. But if I reject him and refuse a relationship with him and deny him and shut him out of my life, even though he desires to be my friend, he cannot express his friendship to the fullest. …