Jesus continued His final briefing to His trainee apostles at the Last Supper.  Bad news can stir up our hearts with fear. Jesus had told His disciples that He would leave them, and they knew that their own lives were about to be turned upside down.  They had left everything to follow Him, but if He deserted them, what would become of them (Matthew 19:27)?

So, the Lord took command of their hearts. ‘Do not allow your hearts to be stirred into fear’, He said.  It was an instruction for them to trust in God and in Himself – a clear statement about His divinity.  To believe and trust in Him was to believe and trust in God.  And as they trusted, their fear would take second place.  After that He set their minds on the future.  Although they could not understand it at the time, the cross would not be the end of their close fellowship with Him (Luke 18:31-34).  They would see Him after the resurrection; and He also pointed them further forward to His ascension and to His second coming.
 
Jesus was teaching them how to manage their expectations of the future without Him.  As apostles, they would need to teach the church to look beyond their present circumstances to His glorious return, even though they might go through many hardships (Acts 14:22).  Jesus, although physically absent from the world, would not be ‘gone’.  He would be with His Father.  He would not be inactive or uncaring of His people, but would be preparing their eternal home with Him.  And He would return in person to welcome them into His Father’s home in heaven.  After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit brought this teaching back to them (John 16:12-15), and their teaching about the Second Coming gave great boldness to the church under persecution (1 Peter 1:3-7).  
 
Faith in God, the God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, is the only answer to fear about the future.  He does not forget His people (Isaiah 49:15).  He is actively working for our good (Romans 8:28).  He is preparing a perfect future for us, and He will personally come again to take us to be with Him for ever.  Yet Satan tells us lies which fuel our own fears and doubts.  When we listen to those deceptions, we begin to believe that God has forgotten us, that He does not care, that His apparent silence is hostility and that we have no future.  But all that is simply untrue, because Jesus said so.  Whatever your present circumstances, trust in God’s loving care and provision because you have put your trust in Jesus to save you.  Reject evil lies by believing the truth until He comes or calls.  Do not allow your heart to be stirred into fear. Hold onto Jesus because He is holding onto you.