Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do You Fear the Future? | Rafael Nieves-Rosario | John 14

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here to grow in your faith this year. Feeling anxious about the future? Does the uncertainty of life keep you up at night? Even the disciples feared the future. Divinity student and musician Rafael Nieves-Rosario shares encouragement from John 14 for dealing with uncertainty. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Passages: John 14 Related episodes: How to Handle Uncertainty About the Future Trusting God's Promises Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Hey, we've been asking some of our friends to share with you their favorite Bible verses and why those verses are important to them. Today, I want to introduce you to one of our good friends. His name is Rafael Nieves Rosario. I hope I got that name right.

Rafael and his wife, Monica, grew up in Puerto Rico. In fact, they just moved to the States a few years. years ago. He's getting his master's of divinity from Covenant Seminary, and he's an incredible musician. Okay, here's Raphael. It is difficult for me to choose just one passage of scripture as my favorite. I can think of maybe Ephetians 1 or Romans 8 or even Psalm 103, but for some reason I tend to gravitate towards John chapter 14. Let me tell you why with a short story. I remember being in my senior year of high school, really agonizing over what major I was going to choose in college.

I don't think the fear was because of the career itself, but more about the fact that possibilities of finding a job afterwards were really not guaranteed. And that was true whatever career I chose. And because of this, I've always felt fear about the uncertainty of the future. Even now, I'd still do. And maybe you do as well. As we're starting a new year and still living in the middle of a pandemic,

we don't know what will happen in the future. future. Of course, when we feel we're not sinning against God, God doesn't take offense when we fear. It is, however, an effect of living in a fallen world. It reminds us of our limitations, right? That we don't know everything. And it finds its source, I think, in that we find it hard to trust God in the midst of uncertainty, don't we? We find that the disciples of Jesus also experienced fear because of the uncertainty of the future. They hope that Jesus was the liberator of Israel, the one who was to come and establish the kingdom of Israel once more and lead them to victory over their enemies. But in John 13, now Jesus is saying that he is leaving them, that they will seek him and will not find him.

So understandably, the disciples are confused, they don't understand. And Jesus says to them in John 14, let not your hearts be troubled. trust in God, trust also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, I will take you to myself. That where I am, you may be also. Chapters 13 through 17 of the Gospel of John are his narration of the last night of Jesus' life.

And I don't know about you, but this is incredibly interesting to me. because Jesus knows that he is about to suffer, and he's about to suffer not only a horrendous physical death, but also he will receive upon himself all of God's wrath towards sin. And yet he is the one comforting the disciples in their fear. Shouldn't it be like the other way around? Shouldn't he be the one needing comfort from his friends? Why is this happening this way?

I'm sure there are multiple answers, but this makes me think of the profound difference between Jesus and us. You see, when we talk about Jesus, we're not talking about a common person, but about the second person of the Trinity in a human body. Differently from us, Jesus knows his future. He knows the purpose for which he came into the world. He knows his eternal identity. And we can see this in John 17, verse 5, where he is praying to the Father,

and he says, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. So he knows, he has an eternal identity. And he also knows his mission, right? He says in Mark 10, for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. On the other hand, we are limited. And because of this, the temptation is to control everything, right?

to have all the answers, to build and achieve the future that we want for ourselves. The reality, though, is that we do not know our future, and every moment could be our last. In short, Jesus is God, and we're not. And this is a very good thing. We do know, however, our calling, we are called by God to live by faith, to trust in Jesus, to remove ourselves from the center of our own lives, and to seek God. God's will. And who better to entrust our uncertain future too, and to the one who controls the outcome of the whole world? Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me,

Jesus says. And then he goes on, in my father's house or many rooms. If it were not, so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. Now, at first glance, it seems like Jesus' aim is to take us away from this world, doesn't it? And we might be tempted to even want that, because the fear and uncertainty of the future causes us pain and anxiety so that we want to escape. We want to run from it all. There's this singer Haley Williams. She sings in a rock band called Paramore, which is a great band, by the way. If you've never heard it, go check it out. She wrote a song about this actually. And it's called, you guessed it,

the future. And she thinks this, she thinks, just think of the future and think of your dreams. You'll get away from here. You'll get away eventually. So just think of the future. Think of a new life. Don't get lost in the memories. Keep your eyes on a new prize. I think she's saying that it's always possible to have a new beginning and that we should not let our past, determine our future. It's a good idea, right? However, the way that she aims to do this is by erasing every memory of the past and leaving. I think Christianity paints a fuller picture. We know that the Christian hope is not a disembodied life somewhere in an immaterial heaven, but God plans to restore this world by bringing in his kingdom. Moreover, the pain that we

experience in the Christian life is not meaningless, right? But it's preparing the for us an eternal weight of glory beyond our comparison, says Paul. So when we go to Revelation 21 and we hear God saying that he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, it's not simply that the past is forgotten, but that the pain that caused those tears is redeemed. The pain behind those tears is redeemed. So when Jesus says, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may be also? He's not talking about escaping the world. Rather, he is referring to the constant presence of God with us

that is available to us now through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the helper, the comforter in the midst of our pain, the one who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, the one who knows God's inner thoughts and guides us into God's will for our future. One of my seminary professors, Scotty Smith, he wrote a book entitled Objects of His Affection.

And it he says this. Interestingly enough, the most asked question in the whole Bible, the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is, How long, O Lord, how long? And the most repeated command from God is, do not fear, do not be afraid. This is interesting indeed because that question, how long, O Lord, brings together the two things we've been

talking about. Our present pain and struggle, coupled with the uncertainty of the future. How long, Lord, right? But over that pain and uncertainty, we hear Jesus saying, let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. And so we pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance as we surrender our uncertain future to our Lord. And trust in him, knowing that in him our future is a care. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.