Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

I Call You Friends - Part 2

Bryan Schneider · May 4, 2024

John 15:12-17

sharonrpc.org/sermons/i-call-you-friends-part-2

Summary

Christian friendship is love made practical through caring, serving, praying, encouraging, risking, listening, and sharing life with one another.
Jesus models friendship by weeping with those who grieve, serving his disciples, praying for them, and laying down his life; the apostles reflect that same prayerful care.
Gracious friends are compassionate rather than habitually critical, and even necessary correction is spoken with the motive and manner of building another person up.
Friendship grows through genuine interest, remembering names, protecting confidences, practicing hospitality, doing ordinary things together, and sharing needs vulnerably.
Believers cultivate friendship by praying for it, assembling regularly, taking initiative, rejoicing and weeping together, and maintaining contact across distance and changing seasons.
Human friends cannot supply ultimate love, identity, security, or significance; those needs belong to Christ, whose grace creates and sustains fellowship in his church.

Whose need, grief, or joy is Christ calling me to notice and enter rather than pass by?
Do my words usually impart needed grace, or do criticism, tone, and unsolicited opinions discourage others?
Am I genuinely curious about people in the church—their names, families, work, gifts, and burdens?
Can friends safely trust me with vulnerable information, or have I allowed gossip to damage relationships?
What concrete initiative could I take this week to pray, visit, invite, serve, or reconnect?
Do I allow others to help me, or does self-sufficiency prevent reciprocal friendship?
Am I demanding from human friends the identity, security, or complete fulfillment that only Jesus can give?

Christian friendship: A reciprocal bond of affection, loyal support, shared life, and service shaped by Jesus' command and example of love.
Compassion: Heartfelt concern that enters another person's joy or grief and moves toward prayerful, practical care.
Edification: Building another believer up through words and actions suited to impart grace and strengthen life in Christ.
Hospitality: Love of the stranger expressed by welcoming others into one's home, table, time, and ordinary life.
Gossip: Disclosing or whispering about another person's life in a way that betrays trust, spreads strife, and separates friends.
Communion of saints: The shared life and mutual obligations of believers who are united to Christ and therefore united to one another.