During the week this devotion is being written, I have had a ring side seat on a new crop of parents who are sending their “babies” off to college. After 18 years of life at home, a new dispensation is unfolding for both student and parent. In the old dispensation, food magically appeared in the pantry and refrigerator. In the new dispensation, a meal card opens a whole new world of food options, all be it with an institutional twist. In the old regime, curfew was set by Mom and Dad. In the new, the school and the RA set the rules. Laundry, sleep patterns, hobbies, spending habits, free time … these categories and many more shift as roles and parental proximity change. It has been fun listening to the last minute instructions that have come forth from these parents — instructions lovingly delivered to help their kids navigate this important next step into adulthood.

When we gaze into the Upper Room Discourse of John 14, we are looking at Jesus’s final instructions for a group of freshmen world-changers. These 11 guys have been with Jesus for less than three years. In this short period of time, they have become completely dependent on Jesus. They have hung onto every audible word. They have learned to trust everything their Master has said. Each need they have experienced seemed to be miraculously supplied by Jesus: food, tax bills, weather-dangers, housing and coaching. Every inch of their lives has had the careful eye of the Master upon it. In a few hours, EVERYTHING in their lives will change.

As you read John 14, listen for the “parent” in Jesus. He is getting them ready for a new dispensation that does not include his audible voice nor his visible presence. The removal of the physical Jesus from their lives will bring huge doubts, massive anxiety and unrelenting persecution. It will be an epoch that will require the warmth of community, the power of the Spirit of God and the comfort of the promises of Scripture. It will require a hope in promises laid down by their trustworthy Messiah and obedience to His simple commands. Their commission to disciple every ethnic group, simple yet humanly impossible, will mark their lives as enemies of the state and a threat to Satan’s previously uncontested domain of earth (2 Corinthians 4:4, 10:3-5, Ephesians 6:10-12). All hell is about to break loose, and only one person in the room knows what this will entail.

Bear in mind, WE live in this same dispensation. We don’t have the physical Jesus with us. We can’t hear his audible voice speak into our current family or work situation. We can’t watch as the hem of His garment touches and heals a sick person. We can’t hand him our physical fish and loaves and watch them multiply by His voice of blessing. But I challenge the reader to ponder John 14 and note ALL of the resources made available to us as an extension of those Disciples in reaching the world and extending Christ’s reign on the earth. Read John 14 as a freshman world-changer being equipped with the resources and insight to do one simple thing — bring glory to the Father through a relationship with Jesus.