The Last Sermon of Christ

Auteur

Michael E. Cannon Jr. is ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as an instructor and supervisor at the U. S. Army Chaplain Center and School. He is the author of Abu Ghraib (1994), A Soldier's Catechism (1996), and The Prayer of Jesus (2010).

Texte du rabat

""Let not your hearts be troubled . . ."" The opening words from John 14 frame the balance of this sermon to the disciples. Immediately following the Passover supper and the washing of their feet, our Lord preaches one last sermon to his faithful friends and disciples--a sermon full of longing, full of promise, full of hope, and full of disclosures about their future, the work of the Holy Spirit, and key verses supporting the doctrine of the Trinity. John 14-16 presents a fascinating farewell address from Jesus to his disciples. These chapters show us the heart of our Savior and his love for his disciples in a time of anxiety--not only their anxiety but his own, as he knows that the shadow of the cross has now grown dark across him and there is no place else for him to go. No ministry remains for him now except to these disciples, and then ultimately to the cross itself. Even as he, in his own humanity, was troubled in the prospect of his suffering, he turned to minister to the disciples in their time of trouble.