As Jesus near the end of his time with the disciples, this passage that we’ve been studying for months now, John 13-18, it began with Jesus washing the apostles’ feet. It is his last night, the upper room discourse many would have called it. It is Jesus’ last hour with his apostles. And as we get to the end of it, you can feel the urgency rising in Jesus’ words. If you read the way that I read you can hear the emotion that he is speaking with and the love that he is speaking from. He said to them in today’s passage, “I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now.” It was important to Jesus that the apostles understand that his death was not the end. That even his resurrection and his coming ascension were not the conclusion of his work in their lives. There was more that he had to say, there was more that he had to do, but this was not the time that he was ready or able to say and do it. The question we have to ask to begin simply is, why wasn’t it time? Was it because something else had to happen? Was it because there was some divine destiny that still had to be fulfilled? Was it something on Jesus’ end, was it something on the Father’s side that was saying no not yet? The truth is the reason it wasn’t time is because their hearts couldn’t bear it. They weren’t ready to hear what Jesus was ready to say. One of the most overlooked characteristics of God’s character is His gentleness. In this week’s sermon Pastor Abie Kulynych helps us understand God’s heart that’s “So Gentle.”
“So Gentle,” John 16:12-15
