E12: Your King Is Coming

E13: The Glorified Servant

With the impending suffering and death that Jesus knows He must suffer in order to complete the task that the Father has given Him, Jesus' "soul is troubled." It's hard to imagine the kind of anxiety and fear that might build within a person who is aware that death will soon be upon them, namely the kind of death that was carried out by the instrument of the cross. But in this moment, Jesus' focus is on His apostles and their well-being and state of mind - both at that moment, and the time that will follow His departure to return to the Father. If you wondered what the metaphor of "the good shepherd" from chapter 10 looks like in person, this is it, and it is only just the beginning of His loving oversight.

E14: The Way Is Going Away

Fellowship is a word that in "religious speak" has come to simply mean time that we spend with other people doing social activities (eating together, watching sports together, etc.). But to Jesus, fellowship is an offering to be joined to an eternal community of love - initially shared within God Himself (Father, Son and Spirit), but now offered to anyone who would believe in the Son, and come to Him in faithful obedience to be born again of the Father (you might say to be adopted). We find in Him our life source, which He finds because He is in the Father and because of the life giving Spirit. And once we are in Him, and a part of this fellowship which is characterized by love, we can now become fruitful to His glorification.

Tyler Crawford