Jesus Our Friend

Two boys, Lew Wilcox and Bobby Rorback Jr., met while riding their bikes in 1962. Both grew up in working-class, churchgoing homes. They both lived in prefabricated ranch houses, each with a side door leading into the kitchen. They spent their Saturday mornings watching cartoons together. They leaned on each other during their awkward teen years. Neither of them liked school or played sports. Instead, they cruised the local root beer stands and went to drive-in movies.

After high school, they planned to travel around the country by car, but Bobby was drafted and Lew got married. While Bobby was stationed in Germany, the two men sent reel-to-reel tapes to each other, jabbering away about what was happening in their lives. In time, both men became police officers and often talked about their cases together, releasing the tension of their jobs. Both had open heart surgery and then boasted about the matching scars on their chests. 

Lew and Bobby are now in their seventies and still best friends. The Wall Street Journal recently profiled them because lifelong friendships like theirs are rare. Four in ten Americans say they don’t have a best friend, and that’s especially true for men. According to the article, it takes 300 hours of togetherness to develop a really close friendship, and few of us have friendships that span the decades.

Just think: what would it be like to have a friend who knows all about you, always answers when you call, and sticks with you no matter what? If you’re like most people in today’s age of isolation and loneliness, you probably crave deep, lasting friendship—and that’s why I wanted to end this series by reminding you of something wonderful. Scripture tells us that Jesus is a Friend “who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). And throughout eternity, you and I will have the incredible privilege of enjoying face-to-face fellowship with Jesus our Friend (Revelation 22:4).

1. Jesus: The Subject of Eternity (Revelation 4:8)

I want to remind you that throughout the endless realms of eternity, Jesus isn’t going to be a distant and inaccessible monarch. He’s not going to sit on a faraway throne behind imposing walls or impenetrable gates. He won’t hide His royal presence from us or limit His fellowship with us. Instead, He will also forever be our dear Friend.

2. Jesus: Our Exalted King and Our Truest Friend (Ephesians 1:5-7, John 15:13)

Some Christians are hesitant to relate to Jesus as a friend, thinking that friendship with Him somehow diminishes His authority in our lives. Perhaps after hearing about how Jesus will be exalted and glorified in the end times, you think it would be presumptuous to call Him “Friend.” After all, how could the triumphant, majestic King of the universe also be our Friend?

This is the power and beauty of the gospel. One writer explained it well: “I’ve often heard the sentiment, ‘Jesus is not our friend; he’s our King.’ But we don’t have to choose, because both are true—Jesus is our exalted king and he is our truest friend. This doesn’t minimize his glory; it magnifies it—because it displays the immeasurable riches of his grace. Only grace explains the sovereign King welcoming sinners as His friends.”

If during His earthly life Jesus was called “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34), how much more will He be the Friend of His righteous, redeemed people throughout the ages to come?

If He was willing to “lay down His life for His friends” how much more will He joyfully live with those for whom He laid down His life?

If while on earth He said, “No longer do I call you slaves . . . but I have called you friends” (John 15:15), how much more will He come near to us and satisfy our deepest relational needs as we devote—not 300 hours but three hundred billion years and much more—to coming to know Jesus our Friend better and better?

3. Jesus: Friend of the Old Testament Believers

• Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8, 1 Timothy 1:17)
• Abraham (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23)
• Moses (Exodus 33:11)

4. Jesus: Friend of Those in the New Testament

• A Paralyzed Man (Luke 5:20)
• His Listeners (Luke 12:4)
• John the Baptist and Lazarus (John 3:29, John 11:11)
• His Disciples (John 15:13-14)
• Judas Iscariot (Matthew 26:50)
• Children (Matthew 19:13-14)
• After His Resurrection (Luke 24:13-27)

5. Jesus: Our Eternal Friend

I don’t know about you, but I’ve often daydreamed about being an added member to that group walking to Emmaus. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have spent the afternoon of Resurrection Day with Jesus, walking through Israel’s countryside, soaking in His words, and sensing His love?

• An Enduring Friendship 

That wonderful story in Luke 24 is, in a way, prophetic. It points to the time when we, too, will be able to walk and talk with our risen Savior. As we’ve seen, when the apostle Paul described the rapture of the church in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 he didn’t say, “And then there will be no more sickness, pain, or sorrow”—though that is true. He didn’t say, “And then we will never again die”—though that is true. He didn’t even just  say, “And so shall we be with our loved ones in Christ forever”—though that is true. He said, “. . . and so we shall always be with the Lord.” 

• An Intimate Friendship

In Philippians 3:10, Paul expressed his desire to know Christ more deeply and more intimately. His great hope was to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (v. 14), when he would finally see “face to face” and “know fully just as I also have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The last chapter of the Bible beautifully describes the intimacy we will have with Jesus our Friend in our eternal future in Revelation 22:3-4. 

6. Jesus: Your Friend Now

Of course, we don’t have to wait until eternity to enjoy our Lord’s friendship. Right now, He wants to walk with you and talk with you and tell you that you are His own. 

While I was preparing the messages of this series, I saw a report from the Surgeon General of the United States, who issued a warning that our nation is facing an “epidemic of loneliness.” Dr. Vivek Murthy said, “Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness.”

As I have pointed out previously, at no time in history have we been more connected to one another. Through social media and smart devices, we can connect instantly with anyone in the world. Yet, ironically, the same technologies that can connect us are contributing to an ever-growing sense of isolation as we replace many significant face-to-face interactions with impersonal virtual “friends.”

1. We Are Made to Be Friends with God (Hebrew 13:5)
2. Jesus Wants to Be Your Friend
3. A Simple Truth For a Chaotic World (Job 1:13-19, Job 2:7-8, Luke 12:20, James 4:14, Philippians 2:9-11)

My friends, this life is short, and a long future beckons. A day is coming when “every knee will bow . . . and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”.

When that day comes, only those who have bowed the knee and confessed with their tongues today will experience that glorious moment tomorrow.

Here’s the simple truth: no one is prepared to meet Christ in the future end times until he or she has met Christ in these present last days. Put another way, you dare not meet the subject of all life tomorrow until you have made Christ the subject of your life today.

How can you do that? Simple:

• Accept Him as Messiah, the Anointed One. 
• Believe His prophecies about your eternal future—that heaven awaits those who receive Him, and hell awaits those who reject Him.
• Trust Him as the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. 
• Celebrate Him as Conqueror who destroyed sin and death and will one day return to destroy evil. 
• Honor Him as King of your life. 
• Revere Him as the Judge who rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. 
• Worship Him as Lord who makes all things new and provides an eternal home for your forever future.
• And begin today to live with the continual awareness of His friendship with you.

Full Passage: Revelation 22:4