We have been studying Jesus as revealed in the upper room with His disciples just prior to His being taken captive, judged and crucified. He was an exemplary servant leader, but He wanted to disciple these men so they too would become servant leaders.
They at this point didn’t really know themselves that well. In John 13 you can almost feel their awkwardness as Jesus knelt and washed their feet. Peter clearly didn’t know himself well as he boldly declared that he would stand true to Jesus in the face of opposition, even to the point of death if necessary. Jesus had to help him see how weak and vulnerable he was by pointing out he would deny Him three times later that night.
When Jesus shared that one of them would betray Him, their question was, “Lord, who is it?” indicating their insecurity. And it’s abundantly clear, they didn’t know each other very well, since no one at that time had an inkling that Judas had already taken steps to betray Jesus.
Rather than being love driven they were love dependent. They were paralyzed from lovingly helping each other. They were totally dependent on the love of Jesus. They had been discipled for some time by then, but Jesus discerned they were still in need of one final review of what He had shared with them with an amplified dose of teaching on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew that without the ministry of the Holy Spirit they would fail to become all they were meant to be and they would ultimately fail in their mission.
It is important to understand what Jesus shared with them in the upper room.