Consuming Faith Ministries: January 2009

(Making up for lost time...)

What does the word friend really mean? I hope I’m not being to presumptuous when I say that all of us have been guilty of calling many people our friends who in reality are no more close to us than the man or woman we nod at as we pass by them on a busy street. The word friend has become a word to describe anyone who we have met and pronounced a pleasant person. Our enemies are those we have met and don’t particularly agree with in fellowship.

A friend is someone that holds some sort of meaning to you. A person of interest in your life, if anything were to effect them, you would be effected in some form or fashion as a result of your connection to them.

Jesus noticed many of these types of people in his ministry. The Bible speaks of great crowds and many multitudes that would travel from afar to see Jesus in action. Many people sacrificed their time and energy to see the Lord heal the sick and raise the dead. Often time’s people would call him Master and Lord and refer to him as a great man or prophet. But these were the people who were only a part of a great crusade. They were infatuated with Jesus’ ability to speak and the miracles he performed. They loved the great excitement that could be felt through the crowd as he raised a man who had never walked from his bed and told him to walk. They clapped in great ovation unto Jesus when he said “Neither do I condemn thee…” to a woman caught in the act of adultery. They slapped each other on the back and whooped in support when Jesus drove out the money changers from the temple with a woven whip.

But they were not in love with Christ for who he was. They were only his “friends” as long as he had a show for them to attend. They were in love with the things and not with the one who made the things happen. This group was called “The multitude…”

However, among the multitude emerged another group of people. These people went beyond the normal following Jesus from town to town and from mount to mount. This group involved themselves directly in Jesus’ ministry. They helped people with infirmities come to Jesus. They went and set up the revival grounds and spread the news that Jesus was on his way. They not only applauded Christ when he divided the fish and bread, but they were the one’s that carried the baskets to the multitude and they even picked up the remains. They were the one’s who sat at the feet of Jesus wherever he was and took to heart his teaching and even implemented his teaching into their everyday lives. They weren’t just the average follower. This group was called “The Disciples…”

Among this group called the disciples was another group. If you have read much of the NT you have most likely noticed the names Peter, James and John. These three, although a part of the twelve disciples and also a part of the multitude, were in a very significant way much different than the average follower of Christ. Peter, James and John appear in the synoptics five times: at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1), in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37), at the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:37), and for the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31) and for Jesus’ “Apocalypse” (Mark 13:3). This is of great importance because there was something about the relationship between these men and Jesus that brings great revelation and insight into how our relationship with God should be.

Peter, James and John are, in a sense, NT counterparts of the OT Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the spiritual ancestry of the OT Israel, from which were born the “Twelve” tribes of Israel. Likewise Peter, James and John represented the “Twelve” disciples and became the spiritual ancestry of the NT Church.

The ironic thing about the whole idea of friendship is that we often relate friendship with a person who is of benefit to us. Such as someone we can borrow money from when we’re broke or a person who would wake up in the middle of the night to come help us change a tire on the side of the Highway. But in reality the measure of a true friend is what one is willing to do for another. Jesus called his disciples his friends but he also called Judas “friend” when he came to betray the Lord. Remember it was Jesus who said;

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

So the real question that we should ask is not what kind of friend is that person to me, rather we should stop and look in the mirror and ask ourselves, what kind of a friend am I to them?

It’s easy to be a part of the crowd and just follow. It’s not that hard to become a disciple and get more involved than the average person. But the difference is made when you step away from the crowd and separate yourself from the disciples and enter into a true friendship. When you go beyond just knowing Christ, but you actually spend time with him alone, that’s when you become a true friend of God. Peter was the one who received the keys to the kingdom. James was among the trio when Jesus spoke to them about the end. John received the great revelation of who Jesus Christ was. A friend is someone who doesn’t worry about what they receive in return, but their goal is to give what they have.

I thank God for all of you who have come into my life. I pray I will be a true friend to you and that God would bless you in this New Year and that your relationship with Him would become the strongest it has ever been. And for those I have never met, I look forward to the day I get the chance. God Bless!