Have you ever taken a minute to think about what it must be like to live in peace? Not for a minute or an hour, but as a normal mode of life – what would a life of peace feel like? Maybe it seems unrealistic because the only way we could figure out to live like that is to be superhuman (which none of us are) or to find some way to calm everything down around us. But Jesus tells His disciples that peace is a gift that He gives. Does that mean He gives it to us too?  It sure seems like that’s what Jesus meant and why John wrote these words down. In this moment, Jesus is talking about a peace that they learn how to live out over time, but one that will feel far away over the next few days for them. Launching this promise right at this moment has meaning for us too. Let’s see what we can learn from Jesus’ offer of peace.

Nobody likes to need help. We’d rather be the ones giving help than receiving it. But life has a way of putting us in the position of need more often than we’d like to admit. Can needing help be more than just an inconvenient truth? Can it be part of changing the world? Jesus seemed to think so as He talks to His disciples at the Last Supper. He gives the disciples a few promises that seemed strange and scary to them, but turned out to be the exact pathway to a having a transformational effect on their world. We need the same kind of help and it is available to us. How do we live in the power we’re offered?  There are a few simple choices we can make that let us step into the help Jesus wants to give us.

People have all kinds of ideas about God. Some think He is a distant old man sitting on a throne paying little attention to what happens in our world. Others imagine him to be an angry person ready to zap people who do the wrong thing. Still others pretend that He is a soft and warm guy who never gets upset and waves away any idea of right and wrong. All of these ideas (and more) existed when Jesus came to earth. On this night of the Last Supper, Jesus has something to tell His disciples about who God really is.  He explains it to them in a way that seems simple, but turns out to be profound and powerful. How can we really know who God is?  The answer is the same today for us as it was for them. And when we see Him, we’re ready to change the world.

Is it possible to live in such a troubled world with an untroubled heart? We hope so… we want it to be true…  but most of us either don’t know how to get there or don’t believe that we can. At the Last Supper, Jesus has some very interesting words for His disciples that leads to one of the most famous statements He makes. How does Jesus being the Way, the Truth, and the Life connect to having hearts that are at rest in the chaos of this world?  Thinking about what is about to happen after this dinner, why would Jesus say this to the disciples at this moment?  Perhaps John records these words for us so that we can know what Jesus invited the disciples to know and believe.  One way we change the world is by living with an unshakeable hope in the ups and downs of life.

Today, almost everyone agrees that love is one of the highest values that exist in human experience. The devotion of a parent to their child, the affection of a husband for his wife, the enduring connection of a friend – these are just some of the many examples in the real world of how precious we hold love. But love did not have such an elevated status when Jesus walked the earth. In fact, as he speaks with his disciples on this night, he gives them a command that seems to be both overly simplistic and almost irrelevant. With what they are about to face in the next hours, a command to love one another seemed pointless. Yet later, when they actually understood this command and lived it out, it changed the world. What if the same power is available and at work in us today?  Could God change the world through believers loving one another as Jesus loves us?

Betrayal is a wound in the soul that feels like it changes everything. You don’t know who you can trust or if you will ever be able to put your faith in someone again. All of your thoughts bend toward how you didn’t see it coming or didn’t believe what you saw.  Regret can spill into those thoughts as well and start to disable you from even trusting yourself. But in this story, we are presented with a different outcome to betrayal. We know what’s coming so we can connect the dots. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus led to the events of the cross and the empty tomb. And Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him; he actually sent Judas to do it.  What does this have to do with us? And how is this betrayal part of why this group went out and changed the world? Let’s think through that together.

Does this world need help? Perhaps it needs even more than that. Jesus’ world certainly did. Just before He died, He spent one last night with His disciples around a dinner table and talked to them about what He knew they needed to know. The result of that conversation eventually changed the world. When you think about it, those last words before Jesus suffered and died have more significance and impact because of when He said them and who He said them to. As we look at these chapters in the Gospel of John, let’s keep in mind that these ideas grounded men who were about to run away from Jesus so that one day they flipped the world upside down.

A New Year. This moment is regularly used to evaluate what we need to change and how we need to hold onto what is valuable while letting go of what is empty. As a church, we’re going to begin the year by observing Communion together and by asking ourselves what kind of church Jesus wants us to be. What should be our focus as Christians and as a church family for this New Year? This morning we’re going to propose that we work on being a responding church. What does that mean and how do we do it? Maybe we have been responding to the wrong stuff and missing the good stuff. Maybe we don’t understand how to know the difference. Join us as we figure out what it means to be a responding church.

If you could invite lonely and needy people to your Christmas table, would you? Of course, that’s a difficult question. We don’t know who is lonely unless they tell us (and we believe them). The same thing goes for those in need. But it’s likely that our hearts would WANT to include as many as possible if we truly believed we could help meet their needs. Christmas is good news because God’s heart is just like that.  He wants to include everyone possible in His goodness and grace. Christmas tells us that story because Jesus, God’s own Son, came to be born as a baby so that He could invite as many as possible into the love of the Father. But He doesn’t force anyone to accept the offer. So, if you’ve never responded to this offer with a yes, will you? And if you have accepted this offer, will you share it with as many as you can? *Please note the children’s performance will not be live-streamed for privacy purposes, but the message will be. Tune in around 10:30 to watch.

This morning, we’ll take some time to keep talking about why Christmas is good news. Jesus’ arrival tells us that God is relational. That means He wants and seeks personal relationships with people. How does the birth of Jesus tell us that?  We’re going to look at Jesus’ words at the Last Supper to see what He says about why He came and who He’s connected to. Then we’ll see that it’s also the reason behind why Jesus came – because a relationship with us meant that much to Him!