Bent Oak Church

Jesus continued to encourage his disciples not to let their hearts grow weary. He did so by turning to a well-known Old Testament image, the vine. Jesus encouraged his followers to abide in Him, as the branches hold fast to the vine.

Jesus had instructed his fearful disciples not to let their hearts be troubled. He had given them reminders of why they could have hope even as they faced loss. But Jesus gave them far more than advice. Jesus promised that there was a helper who would soon come to their aid. He promised them the Holy Spirit. In this week's sermon, we take a look at the identity and work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and in ours. 

Jesus had informed his disciples that he was preparing to leave them and that where he was going they would not be able to go. After sacrificing so much to follow Jesus, the disciples struggled to accept or understand what Jesus was doing. Unnerved by his prediction, they were missing Jesus's point.Jesus instructed them not to let their hearts grow troubled. But he also gave them images to help do that work. In this week's message we take a look at Jesus's command and those images. 

Having concluded his public ministry, Jesus turned his attention to his closest followers. He gathered his disciples for a meal, knowing that this arrest was imminent. There was so much they must have had on their minds and wanted to discuss. But as they ate, Jesus got up and began to wash their feet.John offers us two ways of responding to Jesus's action, Judas and Peter. By their reactions, we come to recognize how difficult it can be to receive what we too are being offered.

Jesus concluded his public ministry by explaining that now was not the moment of judgment but salvation, but he also warned that the truth he had given them would one day judge them. They had seen his miracles and heard his teaching. Many believed, but there were many who, knowing who he was, still would not follow. John tells us they loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God. 

Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds showing save the king. His disciples must have felt overwhelmed by this public show of support. If ever there was a moment of glory surely it was this. But Jesus spoke of a different glory to come, a glory that could only be shown by his death.Jesus teaches us to reconsider what glory means and why God's promise to glorify himself is so important to the way we measure things in this world. 

Jesus doesn't act how we would expect, nor how others expected. Jesus fits oddly into that scene of mourners grieving the death of Lazarus. Jesus fits oddly into a world of death. For he is resurrection and life. 

In the middle of Jesus's discussion with the Jewish leaders, he decides to change his analogy. Jesus decides to describe himself as a shepherd—the good shepherd and the shepherd's gate. For us, that image seems quant and sentimental, but it was a prophetic indictment of the way in which Israel's leaders were caring for their own flock. Jesus offered the test of a truly good shepherd, he would lay down his life for his sheep.

In the previous chapter, Jesus had claimed to be the light of the world. Now, as he had healed the lame man when entering Jerusalem, he healed a man born blind as he left. It served as a kind of parable to his claim. He could give light to a man born into darkness, but the bulk of the story is not the miracle. The story is as much about the blindness of the Jewish leaders to recognize what Jesus had done and what it meant. It exposed that their blindness was worse than the man's.

Jesus shocked the crowd by claiming to be the light of the world. Many were against him, but there were some in the crowd you began to beleive. Jesus offered them three tests of faith. He described how true disciples would abide in his word, bear his word, and obey it.