THE CROSS AND FRIENDSHIP (4 OF 4)
by Jeff Strite
Scripture: John 15:9-17
This content is part of a series.
The Cross and Friendship (4 of 4)
Series: At The Cross
Jeff Strite
John 15:9-15:17
OPENING:
* I wonder why it's such a compliment to tell a woman she looks like a breath of spring, but not to tell her she looks like the end of hard winter. Isn't it the same thing?
* I wonder why it pleases her to say time stands still when you look into her face, but not to say her face would stop a clock. Why?
* I wonder why people who punish a child for lying will tell the same child, "Just say I'm not home."
* I wonder why, when the preacher says, "In closing..." he doesn't.
* I wonder why a speaker who "needs no introduction" gets one anyway. It seems curious.
APPLICATION: Many things in this world could cause us to wonder. But one of the most striking is that God should want to call us His friends.
In John 15:14-15 Jesus said:
"You are my friends if you do what I command. 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."
"Friends." That Jesus would call us friends somehow defies imagination. One of the primary reasons that would be difficult to imagine is because of what we find written in Romans 5:6-8 "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Ephesians tells us we were His enemies).
AND YET, Bible's most potent scripture: John 3:16 tell us "For God so… what? (loved the world). That's you and me!
I. The Cross is the highest symbol of friendship.
John 15: 13 tells us "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
The symbol of the cross is so important to our relationships that God even used it for marriage:
Eph 5: ...
Series: At The Cross
Jeff Strite
John 15:9-15:17
OPENING:
* I wonder why it's such a compliment to tell a woman she looks like a breath of spring, but not to tell her she looks like the end of hard winter. Isn't it the same thing?
* I wonder why it pleases her to say time stands still when you look into her face, but not to say her face would stop a clock. Why?
* I wonder why people who punish a child for lying will tell the same child, "Just say I'm not home."
* I wonder why, when the preacher says, "In closing..." he doesn't.
* I wonder why a speaker who "needs no introduction" gets one anyway. It seems curious.
APPLICATION: Many things in this world could cause us to wonder. But one of the most striking is that God should want to call us His friends.
In John 15:14-15 Jesus said:
"You are my friends if you do what I command. 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."
"Friends." That Jesus would call us friends somehow defies imagination. One of the primary reasons that would be difficult to imagine is because of what we find written in Romans 5:6-8 "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Ephesians tells us we were His enemies).
AND YET, Bible's most potent scripture: John 3:16 tell us "For God so… what? (loved the world). That's you and me!
I. The Cross is the highest symbol of friendship.
John 15: 13 tells us "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
The symbol of the cross is so important to our relationships that God even used it for marriage:
Eph 5: ...
There are 7110 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
