Sermon For Family And Friends Day

You Have Been Brought Near

Open your Bible to John chapter 15, beginning at verse 9. I want you to see what Jesus said to the people closest to him on the night before he died. He said, "As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love." Then he goes on, and he says in verse 12, "This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you." And then he says something that ought to stop every one of us cold. He says in verse 13, "No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends." And then, if that were not enough, he says in verse 15, "I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends."

Now hold that in John 15 and turn over to Ephesians chapter 2, and look at verse 13. Paul writes to people who had been strangers to the covenant, outsiders to the promise, far off from God. And he says, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ." He goes on in verse 19 to say, "So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God's household."

Members of God's household.

Church, that is the text. That is the territory. And on a day like today, when this sanctuary is full of faces we love and faces we are still getting to know, when family has driven in and friends have shown up and some people are sitting in a church pew for the first time in a long time, I want you to understand that what is happening in this room right now is not just a tradition. It is a theology. God has been in the business of bringing people near since before the foundation of the world.

Let me tell you what the central claim of this sermon is. The love of Christ does not merely invite people to visit. It transforms strangers into family. And the church, when it is being what God called it to be, is not a club for the comfortable. It is a household of grace where the door is always open because the blood of Jesus already paid for it.

Now let us look at this text carefully, because the preacher who rushes past the details will miss the miracle.

In John 15, Jesus is speaking in what scholars call the upper room discourse. He is hours away from Gethsemane. He is hours away from the cross. And what does he choose to talk about in his final teaching? He talks about love. He talks about friendship. He talks about abiding. He says, "Remain in my love." The word remain in the original language means to stay, to settle in, to make your home there. Jesus is not describing a casual acquaintance. He is describing a dwelling place. He is saying, my love is not a hotel you pass through. My love is a home you live in.

And then he redefines the relationship entirely. He says, I am not calling you servants. I am calling you friends. Now understand what that meant in that world. A servant did what he was told and was not trusted with the reasons. But a friend was brought into confidence. A friend was told the why behind the what. Jesus says, everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you. That means the disciples were not just workers in God's field. They were welcomed into God's family.

But notice this. He says in verse 16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." That is the word of grace right there. Nobody in this room found God on their own. Nobody stumbled into salvation by accident. The choosing was his. The initiative was his. The love came first from him. And that means nobody in this room can stand up and say, I earned my place at this table. Every seat in the household of God is a seat that grace built.

Now carry that truth over to Ephesians 2, because Paul is going to show you what that looks like when it hits the ground in a real community of people.

Paul is writing to a church in Ephesus that is made up of Jewish believers and Gentile believers, and the tension between those two groups was real. The Gentiles had been, in Paul's words, "without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world." That is a devastating description. Without hope. Without God. Far away.

But then Paul writes two of the most powerful words in all of Scripture. He says, "But now."

But now. Everything before those two words describes what we were. Everything after those two words describes what Christ has done. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Not by your effort. Not by your family name. Not by how long you have been a member of this church. By the blood of Christ.

And then Paul says in verse 14, "For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility." Jesus did not just save individuals. He created a new community. He broke down the wall. He made one new humanity out of two. And he did it through the cross.

Church, that means the church is supposed to be the most radically welcoming community on earth. Not because we are sentimental. Not because we are trying to be inclusive for the sake of appearances. But because the cross already paid the price for every person in this room and every person who has not yet walked through that door. The wall is already down. Our job is to stop trying to rebuild it.

Now let me bring this home, because this is where the rubber meets the road.

On a day like today, it is easy to celebrate the people we already love. It is easy to hug the cousin you have not seen in six months. It is easy to sit next to your best friend and enjoy the music and feel good about being here. And there is nothing wrong with that. Enjoy it. Celebrate it. But the text is pushing us further.

Paul says you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens and members of God's household. The word household in the Greek is oikos. It means a family unit, a home, a place of belonging. And Paul is saying the church is not a gathering of people who happen to share a zip code. It is a family. And families do not just celebrate the people already inside. Families make room. Families set an extra plate. Families say, you belong here.

So here is the practical word for today. Look around this room. There may be someone sitting near you who came today because somebody loved them enough to invite them. They may not know all the songs. They may not know when to stand and when to sit. They may be carrying something heavy that they have not told anyone about. And what they need from this church is not a perfect program. What they need is to feel what Paul described. They need to feel brought near.

And the way they feel brought near is when the people of God live out what Jesus commanded. Love one another as I have loved you. That is not a suggestion. Jesus said, "This is my command." The love of this community is supposed to be the evidence that Jesus is real. He said in verse 8, "My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples." The fruit he is talking about is not just personal holiness. It is the fruit of a community that loves the way Christ loves.

Now let me tell you what makes all of this possible, because I do not want anyone to leave here thinking this is just a motivational speech about being friendly.

What makes this possible is the cross. Paul says in Ephesians 2:16 that Jesus reconciled both groups to God "in one body through the cross." The cross is not just the place where sins were forgiven. The cross is the place where the dividing wall came down. The cross is the place where strangers became family. The cross is the place where far away became brought near.

And that means if you are here today and you have never personally trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, the invitation is not just to join a church. The invitation is to be brought near to God himself. Through faith in what Jesus did on that cross, through trusting that his blood was sufficient to cover everything you have ever done and everything you have ever been, you can move from far away to near. You can move from stranger to family. You can move from outside the household to a member of it.

That is the gospel. That is what today is really about.

And for those of us who have been in this house for years, the text is a reminder. Do not let familiarity make you forget what it felt like to be far away. Do not let comfort make you forget that someone loved you enough to tell you about Jesus. Do not let belonging make you blind to the person sitting three rows back who is still trying to figure out if there is a place for them here.

There is a place for them here. Jesus already made it. He laid down his life for his friends, and then he turned to the world and said, I am calling you friend too.

So today, on a day when this room is full of people we love, let us be a church that loves the way Christ loves. Sacrificially. Intentionally. Without walls. Without conditions. Let us be a household of grace where every person who walks through that door hears the same word the gospel has always spoken.

You were far away. But now, by the blood of Jesus, you have been brought near. Welcome home.

Sources Consulted

Carson, D. A. The Gospel According to John. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 1991.

Thielman, Frank. Ephesians. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Baker Academic, 2010.

Schreiner, Thomas R. New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ. Baker Academic, 2008.

Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. 2nd ed. InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Mounce, William D. Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Zondervan, 2006.