Cornerstone Church GR - Heritage Hill Campus

How To Love Your Enemies

·37 min·3 clips

Pastor Alex reveals the Last Supper story focuses not on Jesus or Peter, but on John's decades-long struggle with Judas's betrayal.

Pastor Alex Fernandez opens the episode by welcoming listeners and introducing the series 'Eyes Wide Open,' which walks through the book of John to show how people's eyes were opened to Jesus. He notes they are in chapter 13, which covers the Last Supper. The host creates suspense by asking who the focus will be, then reveals it is John, not Jesus or Peter. He explains John wrote his gospel in his 80s, about 50 years after the events, giving him reflective lenses. John adds unique commentary, especially about Judas, whom he calls a devil and thief. The host asks listeners to identify their own 'Judas'—someone who has betrayed or hurt them. He analyzes John 13, where Jesus washes the disciples' feet, including Judas's, and gives the new command to love one another. The host emphasizes this love is agape, unconditional and difficult, especially toward enemies. He details how Jesus shared bread with Judas, showing love even knowing betrayal was imminent. The message contrasts John's lingering resentment with Jesus's example of forgiveness. The host redefines forgiveness as releasing pain and resentment, not forgetting. He shares personal struggles with enemies and hurt. The episode concludes with an invitation to communion, framing it as an act of remembrance and receiving God's power to love unconditionally. The host prays for listeners to release resentment and practice unconditional love.

As heard by us

A sermon that makes love feel costly at the table where betrayal is already present.

Alex Fernandez centers the sermon on the table where Jesus tells his disciples to love one another while Judas is still present, already marked by betrayal.

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Why you'd press play

When someone feels like Judas in your life, you get a harder, kinder way to practice love without pretending nothing happened.

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