Introduction

John 15:14 – “You are My friends if you do what I command you.”

What do we make of this statement? Is Jesus really our friend? Well – if you accept the authenticity and authority of Scripture – which I certainly do – you have to say “yes.”

But how far should we take this, accepting the fact that our society has become very informal today?

Jesus is expressing His own humility here. It does not remove His authority over us, nor does it make us His equal. We should remember He also called us children, servants, slaves, and sheep.

His calling us friends is meant as an expression of intimacy and closeness – not a basis for us to relate to Him on. This expression discloses again, His ability to love, forgive and be very patient and tolerant with us. Jesus is not “our buddy.” He is our King, Lord and God. We must never attempt to bring Him down to our level.

There is a whole part of His nature and character that is fearsome, and we must always treat Him with the utmost respect.

Our Majestic God

Isaiah 6:1-5 – “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Here we have smoke and thunder, a great throne that the Lord is seated on, angels attending Him day and night who will not look upon His face. Taking all of this in Isaiah cries out in fear for His life.

This is not just a concept for the Old Covenant – meaning that things are different now.

Here is the Apostle John when He had a vision of Christ on the Isle of Patmos.

Revelation 1:17a – “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.”

What about Peter when he first witnessed one of Christ’s miracles?

Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man (Luke 5:8).

Or how about the clearing of the temple in John 2?

John 2:14-16 – “And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”

The temple was meant to be a place of worship and honouring to God. This passage is not meant to be about not doing business on a Sunday or that business has nothing to do with God and worship.

The Roman money the pilgrims brought to Jerusalem had to be changed into the Tyrian currency (the closest thing to the old Hebrew shekel), since the annual temple tax had to be paid in that currency.

This was legitimate business, but exorbitant prices were often being charged for changing the currency. By overturning the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those selling doves, Jesus was directly challenging the authority of the high priest, because the moneychangers were there by his authorization. In John’s account Jesus drove them out with a whip made from pieces of rope. This was clearly an aggressive act of force.

The Lion of Judah

What we have here is a clear manifestation of the Lion of Judah, and despite the limitations of His being in a human body, there was something so terrifying about Him that no one resisted or stood up to Him – they ran for their lives. Remember this is just one man clearing out the whole place.

God is not a once wild animal that has been tamed for the New Covenant – He is still wild and His “wild” element manifests itself with catastrophic results. You and I walk with that Lion everyday – the same Lion and if we push His buttons, He can turn on us.

He Is The Lion Today

James 2:19 says the demons believe and shudder. What are they seeing that we miss? They see the Lion! It has always been part of His character and always will be. We need to thank God for His wonderful love, grace, mercy and compassion that draws us into a loving relationship with Him as His bride and even that we may well call Him friend – but we also need to deal with Him with the utmost respect and maintain a holy fear of Him at all times, because He is not tame – He is wild and He is not to be provoked or aroused to anger.

Jesus cannot be made to fit into our plans – the Christian Gospel demands we conform to His. God is not a tool that can be used like an appliance or a credit card.

Because all living is designed to be in Christ – and He is a holy God – we must embark on a lifelong process of transformation so that we can respond to Him as He is and not as we want Him to be

Romans 12:1-2 – “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God breaks out of every mould we try to put Him in with some degree of aggression, in the same way that Daniel 2:44 tells us He will crush every Kingdom that is set up against Him (communism is a modern-day example of this).

This Can Work for Us

The good news about this is that Jesus will express this part of His character in coming to our rescue when necessary.

Psalm 50:3, 4, 15 – “May our God come and not keep silence; Fire devours before Him, And it is very tempestuous around Him. He summons the heavens above, And the earth, to judge His people:….Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honour Me.”

A study of this Psalm reveals that the same power that can sometimes turn against us, is mostly available to come to our aid.

However, V5 makes it clear this is only available to those who have truly given their entire life to Him and who are committed to a sacrificial walk with Him.

He is not on our side as much as we need to be on His. I think this whole message is best summed up in Joshua 5:13-15 – “Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?”The captain of the LORD’S host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.”

God bless.

Bruce Billington