Jesus Prepares the Disciples, Part 1 | Worship Service with Pastor Dan Miller

And our image of the messiah is often of the one conquering hero riding in on a white horse in victory with a lot of thunder and lightning and all kinds of glorious things. Right? But Jesus shows us what it means to walk in the way of god. And then after that, in chapter 13, Jesus predicts his betrayal, even quotes scripture about one with whom I share my bread. And then he after after forecasting that, he gives them a new commandment. You probably know what it is. Right? If this was a test you would all pass with flying colors. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you. [00:37:16] (75 seconds)  #LoveAsHeLoved

Jesus says, don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't allow yourselves to be in turmoil all the time. Reading the words on the page, they don't give us any sense of the tone of voice or or the the force or the volume that Jesus used. But he's saying to them, don't allow yourselves to be tossed to and fro by the turmoil. Life is tough, and I want you to be prepared. He knows that these things are gonna disturb them, but he wants them to have hope that get takes them through to the other side. He says, believe in god, believe also in me. That doesn't translate, like that sounds so benign. Right? But it's it's actually in the imperative, believe in god, believe in me. [00:41:39] (73 seconds)  #DoNotBeTroubled

Because, you know, it's always helpful to have a picture, right, of a place that we're going. It's always helpful to have have this picture of the goal or of the destination because when things get tough and when our emotions are down and we get discouraged, that picture helps us to maintain, to be consistent, to consistently work toward where we're going. Right? I think that's what Jesus is doing for the disciples in this passage. He's giving them a picture of the end, which is that he and the disciples will be together again on the other side. And what's amazing to me is that is Jesus is doing this for the disciples as he's leaning into his own execution. [00:45:25] (51 seconds)  #HopeInThePromise

I I'm not well, I'm gonna use it. I I feel a I have a lot of ambivalence about telling a story like this in church, but, there's this story of a of a woman who came for help. She was a drug addict. She had a little baby that she sold to men, and she came to this person asking for help. And as she was asking for help and telling her story, which is an atrocious story, the the the care the helper, the the counselor or whatever it was, got this idea and said, have you ever thought about going to a church and asking for help? And she spat out so fast. Why would I ever go to a church? I feel bad enough about myself already. They just make me feel worse. [00:49:35] (74 seconds)  #WelcomingChurch