Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00020B
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00:01 And welcome back,
00:02 we are studying the 15 Chapter 00:04 of the Gospel of John with Dr. Jon Pauline. 00:06 And Dr. Pauline, so Jesus talks about love 00:11 and now the following three verses 00:12 He is talking about friends 00:14 and why don't I go ahead and read that, 00:16 and we are in starting verse 14. 00:19 "You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. 00:22 No longer do I call you servants, 00:24 for a servant does not know what his master is doing, 00:27 but I have called you friends, 00:28 for all things that I have heard from My Father 00:31 I have made known to you." 00:33 So let me ask you a question, do you have friends? 00:38 I guess it depends on what you mean by friends. 00:41 You know, you ask a lot of people that question, 00:42 oh yeah, I got 428 friends. 00:44 You know, how do you know that you have 428-- 00:47 Well, Facebook, you know. 00:48 Facebook friends. Oh, okay. 00:50 So that's sort of virtual friends. 00:53 You know, when I was younger 00:54 we would call that imaginary friends. 00:56 But the interesting think about it, 00:59 is that these technologies actually do give us 01:04 opportunities that we would not have otherwise 01:07 and let me turn it in another way. 01:09 Because you know, 01:11 we don't have a physical relationship with Jesus. 01:15 We don't see, hear or touch Him. 01:17 So in a real sense, He comes through us in a virtual way. 01:22 And I think people who do work with Facebook, 01:25 you make fun of it and so on, especially those oldsters 01:28 who don't know how to use it that much can joke about it. 01:31 But the interesting thing is I look at the younger generation 01:34 it's real for them. 01:36 They take this very seriously, they love Facebook. 01:38 They love the way they can connect with people 01:40 and stay connected even though 01:42 they are thousands of miles apart, you see. 01:44 And they would say to you that relationship is as real 01:48 as the one's they have with faces nearby. 01:52 I'm glad Jesus didn't say, you are my Facebook friends. 01:56 But you know, it's a great analogy for today. Yeah. 01:59 Because I think--for example you and I have become friends. 02:04 You know, we didn't know each other 02:05 until fairly recently and I like that, face to face. 02:08 That's right. And fist to fist contact. 02:10 You know, that's really, really good. 02:12 But it could well be that 02:16 after we're done with the series of programs, 02:18 we may not see each other again or we may be separated 02:21 most of our lives by thousands of miles. 02:24 And the wonderful thing about Facebook is 02:26 it enables people to stay in touch. 02:29 And some people say, I don't believe in prayer 02:32 because it's like talking to the ceiling. 02:35 Yeah, but if you believe in Facebook 02:37 you better believe in prayer 02:40 because prayer is simply heaven's Facebook. 02:43 It's staying in connection with God, you see. 02:46 And so I think it's kind of given us an interesting analogy 02:51 for understanding the spiritual side that John is talking about. 02:55 That John is saying relationship can be real 02:58 even though you don't see each other, 03:00 touch each other, hear each other. 03:02 You are--that relationship is mediated through the connections 03:07 of the Bible through prayer and so on. 03:10 And that's our Facebook with God. 03:13 I never really thought about it that way but-- 03:16 Neither did I, you drew it out from me. 03:19 Well, that's good. 03:20 So what else does Jesus have to say 03:22 about social networks here? 03:23 Well, I think this is very important here in verses 13-15, 03:28 because He says here, "I no longer call you servants." 03:34 Now many people see that word servants 03:38 and they think of "Driving Miss Daisy" 03:41 or some other thing where there's a person 03:42 who's paid to be with a rich person and take care of them. 03:46 It doesn't-- yeah, it doesn't sound like a bad thing. 03:49 Most people would rather be a servant 03:51 in a rich person's house than live on the street, you know. 03:55 But that's not really the term here. 03:57 In the Greek, the term here doulos really means slave. 04:01 A person who is not willing it 04:04 and Jesus is contrasting two types of relationship with God. 04:09 There's the slave relationship with God, 04:11 where you do what you're told, because you have to 04:14 and God is this tyrant who rules over your life 04:18 and makes you do things you don't want to do. 04:20 Jesus says, that's not the kind of relationship I want with you. 04:24 I don't want you to be servants. 04:26 I call you friends. And friends are like equals. 04:31 He is honoring us by raising us up to His level. 04:34 Friendship happens when people are at the same level. 04:38 This is an incredible honor that He is giving. 04:41 And more than this, notice what it says here that, 04:45 "I have called you friends, 04:47 for everything that I learned from my Father 04:51 I have made known to you." 04:52 You see, Jesus is friends with His Father 04:56 and now He's calling us to be friends with Him. 05:00 And that means that we are friends with the Father. 05:05 I've met so many Christians that believe 05:07 they can be friends with Jesus 05:08 but the Father is kind of this Judge, you know, 05:11 who's scary and out there somewhere 05:14 and you can't really have a relationship with. 05:16 Jesus is trying to get us to completely rearrange 05:20 our understanding of God 05:22 and He says here, God is your friend. 05:24 The Father wants to be your friend 05:27 not to have you as a slave. 05:29 Now verse 14, speaking of friends, 05:31 does have a condition though, Jesus says, 05:34 "You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you." 05:38 So there is that condition of friendship 05:40 is what I understand what Jesus is saying. 05:43 You're my friends if you do what I say. 05:45 Well, as friends of course, 05:47 we're going to do the things that please each other. 05:50 We gonna get along, right? Yeah. 05:51 I'm gonna try to please you otherwise. 05:52 You see absolutely. And it isn't hard. 05:55 See, that's the difference. 05:57 Yes, there are commands in the Bible. 05:59 Of course, just like the owner of a car commands you 06:03 to change the oil every so often. 06:05 I mean, that's important 06:06 if you want the car to survive, you see. 06:09 And yes, there are rules to relationship 06:13 but the rules are not there to make a relationship miserable. 06:16 The rules are there to set boundaries, 06:19 so we know where we stand within a relationship. 06:21 And as we love each other as friends, 06:23 we do the things that please the other 06:25 because we love the relationship we wanted to continue. 06:29 So the commands of God become joys. 06:33 They become delights. 06:34 He's letting us know how we can please Him 06:37 and that's the beautiful side of this. 06:39 So it's not like Jesus saying, now you want to be my friends 06:42 here, take all these, you know, commands, 06:44 follow them and then you'll be my friends. 06:45 Yeah, be slave to these commands. 06:47 It's not that way. No, no, no. 06:49 It's more of we take pleasure and enjoy 06:51 that we're actually following the commands of Jesus. 06:54 That's our pleasure to serve Him and then we become His friends. 06:57 So we always been His friends I suppose. 07:00 Some people say, commands are bad, freedom is good. 07:04 You know, they bridle at this. 07:06 But that's the key here is not commands or no commands, 07:09 the key is the attitude with which we come at it. 07:12 If we obey God as slaves, 07:16 then we're not affecting His character at all. 07:21 If we obey God as friends, 07:23 it's totally different kind of relationship. 07:25 And that brings us to the last part of the chapter 07:29 which our time is getting short, let's move quickly there. 07:33 Verses 18 to 21, this elaborates and explains this. 07:37 "If the world hates you, 07:39 you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 07:42 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. 07:46 Yet because you are not of the world, 07:48 but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you. 07:52 Remember the word that I said to you, 07:54 'A servant is not greater than his master.' 07:56 If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. 08:00 If they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. 08:04 But all these things they will do to you for My name sake, 08:09 because they do not know Him who sent Me." 08:12 So Jesus says, the world hates you. 08:15 So the question is, what does it mean by the world here. 08:18 There's a number of options. It can be the planet. 08:22 Does the planet hate us? Probably not. 08:24 It can be people, the people we engage very day. 08:28 Most of the time they don't hate us 08:29 so we wouldn't spent a lot of time with them. 08:31 Is it the systems, human systems, 08:35 that can be the world in the Bible. 08:37 Governmental systems, religious systems, 08:40 that persecute and so on. 08:42 The fourth option is the temptations of Satan. 08:45 That is the world and the things that draws away from God. 08:49 I think, when you look at the context, 08:50 world here is the systems, human systems 08:53 that persecute people of God. 08:57 Human systems are there for political gain. 08:59 Jesus is not political 09:01 and yet His faith has political implications. 09:05 When you follow Jesus, 09:06 it threatens the systems of the world 09:09 and just as they hated Him they turn to hate us as well. 09:13 So those who follow Jesus, 09:16 who take this cruciform way of life, 09:19 they end up out of step with the systems of the world. 09:22 Let's go on to the last verses, verses 22-25 09:26 because that will bring things together 09:28 I think in a powerful way. 09:30 "He who hates Me hates My Father also. 09:33 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, 09:37 they would have no sin, but now they have seen 09:41 and have also hated both Me and My Father. 09:44 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled 09:47 which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause." 09:52 Who hated Jesus? Did Pilate hate Jesus? 09:56 No. Did Herod hate Jesus? 09:59 Not the current one, 10:01 the previous one perhaps a little bit. 10:03 But really the people 10:06 that He's talking about here are religious people. 10:09 They are people who are following God. 10:12 They are hating Jesus because of his picture of God. 10:18 They would end up putting Him on a cross. 10:22 And imagine this, these are people who keep the Sabbath. 10:26 These are people who keep the commandments of God. 10:29 These are people who go to worship every week. 10:33 And God comes down to them and shows them what God is like 10:39 and they hate that picture of God and they destroy Him. 10:44 They put Him up on the cross 10:45 and they can't wait for Him to die, 10:49 so they can go home and keep the Sabbath. 10:51 That's hard to imagine 10:52 for someone who follows God yet hates His son. 10:57 But it's the picture of God that you have. 10:59 If you believe that God is eventual and judgmental 11:03 and kills and destroys everything that gets in His way, 11:07 then you will be that way as religious person. 11:10 And there have been so many religions, 11:12 we know of some even today. 11:14 There are so many religions through history 11:16 that have killed thousands, 11:19 millions of people in the name of God. 11:22 You see, you become like the God, 11:26 you worship and if your God is angry, hateful, judgmental, 11:34 if that's the view you have of God. 11:35 You will be that way to other people. 11:38 And when they came with this view of God, 11:41 they did all the right things. 11:43 They kept all the rules but when God showed up 11:46 they killed Him because He offered a picture 11:51 that didn't fit with their picture of God. 11:54 They felt perfectly justified in destroying Jesus 11:57 because that's what God would do if he were. 12:01 I'm just acting out for God 12:03 and when some of these terrorists are blowing people up 12:06 they're doing what their God would do in their place. 12:11 You become like the God you worship. 12:14 And that is why it is so important 12:16 to capture this idea of a God who wants to be our friend. 12:20 Because if we think of God as friendly and kind 12:23 and warm toward us, 12:25 we would be more likely to treat other people 12:27 in His name in the same way. 12:30 Well, Dr. Pauline, now that you and I are friends, 12:33 can I call you John? You can, you can. 12:37 Well friends, we thank you for being with us in this program, 12:40 Jesus is your true friend. 12:43 God bless you till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17