After Jesus explains His coming death and resurrection, the disciples all proclaim their faith in Him.
Do you believe?
Jesus’ immediate reaction was to question their faith. Talk is cheap. We can easily deceive ourselves into believing that we have a strong faith in Jesus Christ. The disciples are going to be running from Jesus and abandoning Him in just a few short moments.
Jesus maintained His relationship with the Father
Jesus was not concerned with His disciples abandoning Him for His own sake; He was concerned for their sake. Jesus was only concerned about His relationship with the Father. As long as the Father was with Him Jesus would be ok. The only thing that phased Jesus during His betrayal, arrest, trials, beatings, and crucifixion was being forsaken by His Father.
We will experience tribulation
Jesus now directs these things to His disciples. They, too, will experience betrayal, arrest, pain, suffering, and death. Their temptation is going to be to avoid all of these things. The easy way to avoid this is by conforming to the peer pressure around them. They can seek to maintain friendship with this world in order to escape tribulation. However, “friendship of the world is enmity with God.” (James 4:4)
Our relationship with Jesus Christ is all that matters
If we truly believe the Jesus is the Christ and that every idle word will be judged by Him we will be only be concerned about our relationship with Him. It is this relationship with Him that gives us peace in the midst of trials, and He alone can give us the strength to overcome this world. He is the One Who gives us victory.
Application
Do you truly believe in Jesus? Will that faith stand the tests of trials? Do you see Jesus giving you peace and helping you overcome the world?
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