This is good news bad news for Peter and by extension us. Satan demanded permission to sift the disciples and Jesus allows it to happen. Satan still knows who is in charge and goes to the master to get the permission he must ask. Jesus warns his disciples the crisis is coming, and they should prepare. During the minor crisis that they had already experienced they all remained faithful but now that Jesus is physically leaving them, he prays that they don’t lose their faith. They were weak but they were not wicked and so Jesus allowed them to be sifted. In going through this sifting there was a benefit for the disciples just as going though spiritual trials today still provides benefits. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

This week we look at the sad reality that at the end of Jesus’ ministry all the disciples forsook him and fled. A.B. Bruce asks the question how should they have acted? Why did they fail? They could have resisted the mob with violence, Peter actually does this with his sword, but this is not the answer. Should they suffer? Jesus says they will, but it is not at this time, at this time they should have faith. All faith comes from hearing the word of God and the same was true for them at this time they should of listened. Their weakness was in forethought, clear perceptions of truth, self-knowledge, and discipline of experience. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

A.B. Bruce does a deep dive into what we call the high priestly prayer that is found in John chapter 17. After Jesus talks to his disciples he goes to God In prayer and spends some serious time discussing his immediate followers and those that will follow based off their work. Jesus knows he is on a timeline and tells his heavenly father that the hour has come, it is time for him to go home. The plan has always been for Jesus to die to save us and on the cross Jesus says it is finished. He starts this prayer talking about the 11, these men are the hope of the future, he prays that they remain unified in the truth so they can accomplish what they are sent to do. Then Jesus speaks of us, and we must be sanctified in the truth of God and like the apostles we must remain unified in that truth. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

Jesus wraps up his farewell address with his disciples with a paradox, he tells them he must go away to be with them. In a little while all this discourse is pointing to, they are all going to be sad for a little while. The spiritual illumination that Jesus is after will be here in a little while. They are shown the light at the end of the tunnel to give them hope and this light is the Holy Spirit with all truth. They will also have unlimited influence with God via the avenue of prayer which was a brand-new concept at the time. Jesus gives them an enlarged heart with hope, and he leaves his peace with them to face all trials. He reassures them that they will have trouble but to take heart he has overcome the world. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

While Jesus is speaking of the fruit that the apostles will produce, he warns them that they will have trouble. The lesson that he wants them and by extension us to learn is we get to have trouble, it is a privilege. First Jesus says don’t be blindsided by this trouble he tells them upfront that it is coming so they can prepare now. Jesus warns them that the world hated him first and so be ready for the world to hate them to. Jesus also promises them that they will not be alone the Holy Spirit will come but Jesus must leave for that to happen. He must die be buried and then resurrected for the ministry of the Holy Spirit to begin. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

In the first part of this chapter Jesus was had a tone of comfort, but here there is a change in that tone to a more serious note. This is a dying charge to his disciples; he says I am the vine, and you are the branches. The fact that they didn’t choose him, but he was the one making the choosing and he has seen their potential. They are going to be needed soon to be spiritually fruitful and they will no longer be like children but mature. To produce fruit, they must abide in Jesus and remain unified to the same vine. Jesus has some high expectations of these men they must produce good quality and good quantity of spiritual fruit. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

Looking this week at the questions that the disciples asked Jesus during the discourse on comfort in the wake of Jesus telling his friends that he is going away. God can handle our questions we just have to have the courage and faith to ask them. First Peter asks where you are going if you tell me I will follow, and Jesus’ answer to this is will you? Thomas asks the second question how we know the way, and Jesus’ response is I am the way, the truth and the life. Philip asks the third question and tells Jesus to show us the way to the Father, and Jesus tells him that I and the Father are one if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Lastly Judas (not Iscariot) asks why are you disclosing yourself to just us and not the whole world? Jesus tells us all if we want to see Jesus, we keep the commandments. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

This two-part chapter begins with Jesus saying his last farewell to his disciples. A.B. Bruce splits this chapter into two by getting all the compiling words compiled together and then we will look at the questions that the disciples ask next week. Jesus wants them to know that he is going to die and he talks to his disciples as if they were little children facing a parent’s death. First and foremost, he tells them to love one another and calls this a new commandment. Second believe in God and believe in me and then there is a reward in it for them. Third while Jesus will be leaving physically, he said that he will be leaving his comforter with them forever. We will never be alone and if we love God, we will keep his commandments. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

We take some time this week looking at the Apostle that will betray Jesus, Judas Iscariot. Jesus as he is just instituting the Lord’s Supper and washes all of the disciple’s feet, they then recline at the table where Jesus precedes to expose and then expel the false disciple. Judas is told to go and do what you are going to do and to do it now. Judas has his free will intact and is free to make up his own mind on the matter. By all accounts he came into the twelve with good intentions, but for whatever the reason, and we speculate why, he decides to betray the Lord. Jesus did not choose him because he was or could be a traitor and we must learn from his mistake, we all have the capacity to turn from possible traitor to a traitor every time we sin. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH

This week A.B. Bruce goes into the fourth lesson on the doctrine of the cross, Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper. “Do this in remembrance of me”, Jesus tells his disciples, and it is also a way to look at the over all mission of Christ. First when we take the Lord’s supper the key is the death of Jesus. Second the Lord’s death is THE event in all of history, better the day of his death than the day of his birth. Third Jesus gave his body for us. This death started this new covenant, and it was God’s plan since before the foundation of the earth. Jesus’ blood seals or ratifies this new covenant, and we remember all of this when we partake of the supper. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: TYRTZVKJOEAFUFTH