1. My message this morning is entitled, “Friendship with Jesus.”
2. There is an old hymn called “Friendship with Jesus.
   “Friendship with Jesus!
   Fellowship divine!
   O what blessèd, sweet communion!
   Jesus is a Friend of mine.”
3. Is Jesus your friend?
4. Another great old hymn is
   “What a Friend We have in Jesus.”
   “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
   What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
   O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
   All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

I. TERMS OF THE FRIENDSHIP (15:14).

1. There are many precious promises found in the Word of God, and many of them are found here in our text - friendship with Jesus, fruitfulness through our union with Jesus, answered prayers because of our relationship with Jesus, etc.
2. However, these promises are conditional on obedience (15:14; cf. 14:14, 15; 15:10).
3. One of our Lord’s commandments is that we love one another (John 15:12, 17).  It saddens me to say this but I have met a few Christians that were not very loving.
4. Love is the evidence of God’s grace working in the Christian’s heart.  Our Lord’s love is our standard (John 15:12, 13).
5. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it.”  This is our standard.  Christ died for us (John 3:16).
6. You may be a child of God, but are you God’s friend?
7. You cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God at the same time.  James 4:4 says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
8. This world hates the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you love the Lord, the world will hate you too (John 15:18, 19).
9. The Scofield Study Bible refers to our friendship with Jesus as “the new intimacy” (cf. John 15:15), and notes this progressive intimacy, as it is unfolded in the Gospel of John.
10. First, our relationship to Christ is similar to the relationship servants have with their master (John 13:13).
11. But now in John 15:15, our Lord says, “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.”
12. Next, Scofield points out that our Lord refers to us as “brethren.”  He said to Mary Magdalene in John 20:17, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren…”
13. Both “friends” and “brethren” emphasize intimacy.  A master will not tell his servants what his plans are, but a friend does (15:15).
14. And the conditions are obedience to the will of God.  Our Lord said in Matthew 12:50, “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
15. Many Christians struggle with knowing the will of God.  Here is what the Bible says (John 15:15).
16. We can know God’s direction, His leading, His guidance, and His blessings if we are submissive to His will and obedient to His Word.
17. What a blessing it is to be the friend of God.  I was watching the convention the other night, and I saw Senator McCain waving to some friends from the podium.  That must have been a great thrill for these friends, but consider this: are you are a friend of God?
18. God said to Moses, “I know thee by name” (Ex. 33:12).  Exodus 33:11 says, “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”
19. Abraham is called the friend of God in II Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, and James 2:23. 
20. Think about that (John 15:15).  God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.  Did God reveal His plans to worldly Lot?  No, but He did confide in godly Abraham (cf. Genesis 18:17-33).

II. FRUITFULNESS (15:16)

1. We were chosen by God to be fruitful (15:16a).
2. We have not been chosen merely to avoid hell, and enjoy the blessings of the Christian life.   We have been ordained to “go and bring forth fruit” (15:16).
3. Many people get confused over the doctrine of election.  Our Lord plainly said that He chose us so that we “should go and bring forth fruit” (15:16).  This means winning souls.
4. HA Ironside told an old story about a missionary to China, who translated the NT into Chinese.  He found an eminent scholar to assist him, and day after day they worked on this new Chinese translation.
5. The Chinese scholar was a Confucianist, but the Christian missionary never talked to him about his need for salvation.
6. Finally, after months of hard work, the translation was finally finished and the missionary thought he ought to say something to the Confucianist about his need for Christ.
7. “You have been a great help to me,” the missionary said.  “I could not have gotten along without you, and now I would like to ask, as we have finished our work, has not the beauty of Christianity appealed to you?  Wouldn’t you like to become a Christian?”
8. The Chinese scholar looked at the missionary and said, “Yes, it does appeal to me.  It is the most wonderful system of ethics and philosophy I have ever known.  I think that if I ever meet a Christian, I might be interested in converting to Christianity.”
9. “But,” said the missionary, “I am a Christian!”
10. “You,” said the scholar, “are you a Christian?  Oh, no.  Pardon me, I do not mean to offend you, but I have observed you and listened to you for quite some time now.  You are not a Christian.  If I understand correctly, a Christian is a follower of Jesus, and Jesus says, ‘A new commandment give I unto you, that you might love one another.’   But I have listened to you talk about others who were not present, saying unkind things about them.  You are not a Christian.
11. “And then I noticed too that the Bible teaches perfect trust, and I translated for you a verse that says, ‘But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,’ and you are told to trust and not be afraid, but you don’t do that.  If your support check is a little late in reaching you, you are dreadfully worried and you wonder what you are going to do.”
12. The Chinese scholar went on and on with a number of things like that, ending with, “I have to conclude that you are not a Christian.  I think if I ever meet a real Christian, I would like to be one.”
13. HA Ironside says the missionary broke down and wept, and said, “Oh, I have been so careless!”  He asked the Lord for forgiveness, and he asked the scholar for forgiveness.  The Chinese scholar went on his way, thinking that perhaps this missionary really was a Christian after all.  But he certainly wasn’t a good one!
14. Fruitfulness also has reference to Christian character - “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22, 23).
15. There are degrees of fruitfulness:

• “fruit” (John 15:2).
• “more fruit” (15:2b).
• “much fruit” (15:5).

16. Our Lord said in Matthew 13:8 that the good seed “brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.”
17. If you are saved, you ought to be producing some fruit.

III. ANSWERED PRAYERS (15:7, 16b)

1. We are told over and over again in the Bible that God answers our prayers (cf. John 14:14, 15; 15:7, 16b; 16:24; I John 3:22; 5:14, 15).
2. Notice Jesus said to prayer “in His name” (John 14:14; 15:16).
3. RA Torrey said, “There is a fragrance in the name of Christ that makes acceptable to God every prayer that bears it.”
4. Dr. Torrey said, “If, for example, I should go to the First National Bank of Chicago, and present a check which I had signed for $50.00, the paying teller would say to me: ‘Why, Mr. Torrey, we cannot cash that. You have no money in this bank.’



Dr. Torrey said, “But if I should go to the First National Bank with a check for $5,000.00 made payable to me, and signed by one of the large depositors in that bank, they would not ask whether I had money in that bank or in any bank, but would honor the check at once.

“So it is when I go to the bank of heaven, when I go to God in prayer. I have nothing deposited there, I have absolutely no credit there, and if I go in my own name I will get absolutely nothing; but Jesus Christ has unlimited credit in heaven, and He has granted to me the privilege of going to the bank with His name on my checks, and when I thus go, my prayers will be honored to any extent.”



5. Some people pray in Jesus’ name, but they are not right with God.  To be our Lord’s friend you must obey His commandments (John 15:14).
6. But if you are our Lord’s friend, you can come boldly to the throne of grace, and pour your heart out to God.  How can He deny a friend?
7. In Luke 11, our Lord told the parable of the friend asking for three loaves of bread.  Our Lord said in Luke 11:8, “yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”
8. If a man will do that for a friend, what will Jesus do?
9. First John 5:14 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us.”
10. Christians sometimes wonder whether or not they are praying according to the will of God.  However, we can have the certainty that our prayers are according to the will of God.
11. First, we can know by the Word of God. God has revealed His will to us in His Word (John 15:7).
12. George Muller always read his Bible before he prayed.  He wanted to know the mind of God.  This has been the method of all great prayer warriors.
13. C.H. Spurgeon  said, “When you plead His promise, then your will is His will.”
14. God wants us to pray, and He desires our complete cooperation with Him by petitioning Him for our needs.
15. God is glorified when we pray and our prayers are answered (John 14:13).  He gives us a burden to pray for something, and we must not stop praying till that burden is lifted and the prayer is answered (Illustration: Pastor Kittrell praying for the baby.)

CONCLUSION:

1. Some prayers are answered so specifically we can be certain it is God who answered them.  It cannot be a coincidence.
2. In its early days, Dallas Theological Seminary was in critical need of $10,000 to keep the work going. During a prayer meeting, renowned Bible teacher Harry Ironside, a lecturer at the school, prayed, “Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. Please sell some of those cattle to help us meet this need.”
3. Shortly after the prayer meeting, a check for $10,000 arrived at the school, sent days earlier by a friend who had no idea of the urgent need or of Ironside's prayer. The man simply said the money came from the sale of some of his cattle!