Hard and Helpful
Scripture Reading: John 16:1-33
Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse is not full of pie-in-the-sky happy talk:
· One of you will betray me…
· Where I am going you cannot come…
· The rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times…
· Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid…
· The ruler of this world is coming…
· If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you…
· They will put you out of the synagogues…
· Whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God…
· You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice…
· The hour is coming when you will be scattered, each to his own home…
· In the world, you will have tribulation…
These are hard things to hear. But these hard things are helpful things. Jesus doesn’t speak these words to discourage. He says these things to prepare His disciples for what was inevitably coming. He doesn’t want them caught off guard. This is the point of John 16:1. “I have said these things to keep you from falling away.”
The hard stuff is helpful stuff. Receive the difficult words of the Lord. He speaks them to you because he loves you. He is helping you even when he hurts you.