As we continue through the upper room discourses, we find Jesus telling His disciples again that He is going to leave them soon. He comforts them with the promise that their sorrow will turn to joy.

Jesus has just told the disciples to expect opposition, rejection, and persecution. He also gave them the hope that the Holy Spirit will come and empower them. In today’s passage, Jesus details the Holy Spirit’s help.

In John 15:1-17 we saw Jesus challenge the disciples to abide in Him. Abiding in Jesus means dependence on and faithful obedience to Jesus, which is expressed in love. Today’s passage sets the challenging context of abiding: a persecuting world.

Chapter 14 ends with the promise that the Holy Spirit will remind the disciples of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus builds on this promise in chapter 15. Although Jesus Himself will be gone, the disciples are to live just as they lived the past three years: following Jesus’ life and teaching.

Jesus told his disciples that he would be leaving them but assured them he would one day bring them to the home he was preparing. Then, he promised them a gift to take the place of his physical presence – the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 13 ends with the troubling news that Jesus will soon leave the disciples. In addition, one of their core members, Peter, will deny Jesus by the next morning. Jesus follows up this unsettling news with reasons for comfort.

The first command that Jesus gives His disciples after telling them of His departure is about how they relate to one another. It seems like an old, familiar command, but Jesus gives it an important twist.

Jesus has gathered with his closest disciples in the upper room. But amongst them there is one who will turn against Jesus’ love and choose to value something else more than Him; one who will betray Jesus’ trust and friendship.

Jesus gathered His disciples together to celebrate the Passover one more time before the cross. Jesus uses this time to teach them about their relationships with one another, starting with a lesson in radical service.

In 2019 we will examine how we are to relate to one another. The Lord uses our relationships with one another to transform us and draw the world to Him. Are your relationships in the church doing those things?