Jesus always tells the truth, but he does not only say what we want to hear, he’s faithful to tell us what we need to hear. On his last night with the apostles he spent hours showing and telling them about his love for them, the Father’s love for them and their need to live in love for each other. As we’ve already talked about many times over these last few months, Jesus washed their feet, he prepared them not only for his death but his resurrection, even for their desertion and their denial. He promised them that he would return to them, that he had prayed for them that they would be restored. Jesus told the apostles that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to live not only with them but also to live in them. That they would do greater works than they had seen from him. And that if they would abide in his love, that his word would abide in them. Jesus has spent the entire night talking about love. In fact, the last words that he said in John 15:17 before we come to our text was very simply, “love one another.” And then he said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.” Jesus is real. And he doesn’t just tell us about the things that make us feel good about ourselves. He prepares us for the reality that we have to live. He said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world.” He said, “Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Sufficient to the day is its own trouble.” The psalmist wrote, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all.” The truth is not just that we are loved, but that we will have trouble and we may even be hated. Love does not keep us or even drive trouble away from us. Love keeps us when trouble comes. Join us in this week sermon as Pastor Abie Kulynych shares how we can be different in these challenging times.
“Different” John 15:18-25
