Anxious

Intro – John 14

Oftentimes we will come to a service like this and maybe the topic we are dealing with or the subject that we are preaching on, doesn’t necessarily apply to you…well, this one applies to everyone!

We all experience anxiety from time to time. Some are more serious than others, but it affects all of us. We all know what it is to have worries and fears…NONE of us are immune to it. NONE of us. Not even preachers and those of us who teach God’s word.

Illus. Jarrid Wilson – Perhaps you saw in the news where a young pastor, 30 years of age who had admittedly struggled with mental illness through the years took his own life.

He was on the staff at Greg Laurie’s church and had actually started a ministry called Anthem of Hope that he was about to begin running full-time. This ministry’s mission statement was to amplify hope for those “battling brokenness, depression, anxiety, self-harm, addiction and suicide.”

This married father of two precious little children…sweet wife…pastor in an incredible church had just tweeted a few hours before passing;

“Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure suicidal thoughts. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure depression. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure PTSD. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure anxiety. But that doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t offer us companionship and comfort. He ALWAYS does that…”

He tweeted this at 5:01 pm on Monday afternoon and was in the presence of Jesus at 11:45 that evening.

I highlight this at the start of this message simply to highlight the fact that no one is immune to worry, anxiety and fear…not even those that seem to be closest to Jesus.

It affects everyone and I want all of us in this message series to be VERY sensitive to this and when we come in the room each week…even though the person sitting next to you looks as if they have it all together on the outside, it could be on the inside, they are falling apart.

And if the message on a given week doesn’t necessarily apply to you, then as you take notes and listen in, commit yourself to praying for the person to your right, left, in front of you and behind you because you just never know the depths of the emotions that people may be experiencing at this very moment.

Listen…we are in this together! As Christians we are to “bear one another’s burdens” and when it comes to talking about fear and worry and anxiety, we want you as a church today to know you are not alone.

Again, even those we would consider that have a strong relationship with Jesus experience these types of emotions. This is the story of the disciples in John 14. Talk about feeling fear…knowing what it is to worry…having some anxiety?!

You remember the context of this passage. Jesus has shared his last meal with the disciples. And he has told them on a number of occasions that he is going to be arrested, tried and then put to death, but they never really could wrap their minds around what he was saying.

And so one final time, after serving what we know as the Lord’s Supper, he has a final teaching moment with the disciples and prays for them before they will go across the Kidron Valley and into the Garden of Gethesmane. And just listen to what Jesus says to them:

John 13:33, 36 – “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’… Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”

“What do you mean, where you are going we cannot come?

“What do you mean where you are going, we can’t follow?”

These men had left everything to follow Jesus. Most had left the jobs they held…left the communities in which they lived…some had left their families.

And it paid off…everywhere they went they were surrounded with people. With Jesus by their side, the religious leaders didn’t dare mess with them.

If there was a troubling circumstance like a storm, Jesus would just calm it.

If there was a danger like a demon-possessed man, Jesus would cast the demon out.

If they were starving and in need of food, Jesus could multiply what they had and fill them up.

With Jesus by their side, they could do anything…couldn’t be stopped. But now, Jesus says he is leaving them and where he is going, these men that had followed him for three years, they can’t go!

Put yourself in their position – this no doubt would have created some worry…caused some fear…created some anxiety. Jesus knows this!