“Setting Troubled Hearts at Rest: The Key to Peace”
John 14:1
It’s time to take a little inventory. I’m going to ask you several questions. For each question answer, silently, whether your response is NEVER, SELDOM, FREQUENTLY, OR CONSISTENTLY. Here we go.
First question: ARE YOU TROUBLED BY THE EVENTS, PEOPLE, OR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR LIFE? (Do events happen that upset you, that you cannot get out of your mind, and that keep you from experiencing peace? Are there people who make you angry or cause you pain, or frustrate you? Do you remain calm in the face of the unexpected or the unexplainable? Do you harbor anger, jealousy, or envy? Are you free from conflict between what you want and what you sense God wants? Do have trouble wiping out the memories of past failures or sins?) Never, seldom, frequently, or consistently?
Second question: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE EVENTS, PEOPLE, OR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR LIFE? (Are you strained by stress, agitation, nervousness? Are you free from tension, churning stomach, tight muscles, or high blood pressure? Do you have a sense of calm? Do you have trouble sleeping at night? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about situations you cannot control or fix?) Never, seldom, frequently, or consistently?
Third question: ARE YOU FEARFUL BECAUSE OF THE EVENTS, PEOPLE OR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR LIFE? (Do your thoughts lead to negative thinking or fear-filled words or concerns? Do your thoughts about the possibilities of what might happen cause you to be over-protective or to spend an inordinate amount of time distressing? Are your relationships with others ruined by these thoughts? Are you hesitant to try new things, to step out in faith in some new venture, or to pray fervently for your desires? Do you have trouble making decisions or commitments?) Never, seldom, frequently, or consistently?
Fourth question: IS YOUR HEART AT PEACE? Never, seldom, frequently, or consistently?
My hunch is that most of us could not say ‘Never’ very often, if at all. More than likely, few answered ‘seldom’ very often. The most common answer among us was ‘frequently’ or ‘consistently.’ We are, if we’re honest, prone to being troubled, worried, and fearful. And we’re not alone. It’s common for us humans. Just look at the disciples of Jesus. Jesus did not have to take an inventory – He knew their hearts.
THE DISCIPLES WERE TROUBLED. It was a critical time for them and for Jesus. CONSIDER THEIR SITUATION. John, in writing his Gospel, very dramatically set up this night – Jesus’ final night with His disciples before His death. The first chapter of John’s Gospel introduces Jesus. Chapters 2 – 12:19 show Jesus’ ministry and share His teachings. Then, in 12:20 everything changes. When some Greeks request to see Jesus He recognizes that it is time to focus explicitly on the cross. (21-28) “Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives…Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! Father, bring glory to your name.”” From that moment on opposition to Jesus intensified. So on the night of the Passover Celebration Jesus got together with His disciples to prepare them for what was coming. Chapter 13 is filled with doom and gloom. Jesus made some disturbing, serious predictions. He said one of their tightly knit band would betray him; He repeatedly stated He’d be killed; He even predicted that strong, loyal Peter would deny Him – not once but three times! Since they had come to value Jesus’ words and truthful nature, the disciples were disturbed. Whatever Jesus meant, they knew the hours ahead would be difficult and rough, especially if they had to endure them without Jesus, their Master and Friend. Still, little did they realize the full scope of the immediate future – that their lives would totally collapse and their hopes be completely dashed.
Certainly THE DISCIPLES HAD REASON TO BE TROUBLED. The combination of fear, failure, discouragement, despair, loneliness, and abandonment is lethal. From our perspective they had every right to be agitated. Think of a washing machine. There’s that post in the middle that jerks back and forth, stirring up the clothes and the water. What’s it called? That’s right – an agitator. The emotions of this night with Jesus were the agitator that was stirring up their hearts. And they couldn’t understand it, let alone control it. They felt impotent to do anything. This dear man, Jesus, whom they believed was the Messiah, upon whom they had pinned their hopes and for whom they had left everything, was saying “good-bye.”
So take inventory again. WHAT IS IT THAT TROUBLES YOU? What are the events, people, and circumstances in the present that agitate you? What thoughts about the future worry you? What from the past still has a hold on you – your sins, failures, feelings of inadequacy? What fears block your sense of peace? Perhaps Job’s friend Eliphaz was right (5:7), “Yet man is born to trouble as surely as the sparks fly upwards.”
Yet JESUS OFFERED THE ANTIDOTE FOR TROUBLED HEARTS. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” (vs.1) Jesus was inviting them to DEVELOP A HEART-SET. Jesus was addressing their minds, their heart attitude, and the focus of their faith. The New English Bible very accurately translates these words, “Set your troubled hearts at rest.” I like that because it points out that there is something the disciples must and can do to experience trouble-free hearts. They must set their hearts.
Jesus said something similar earlier in His ministry (Mt. 24:6): “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.” “See to it” means “to set your hearts.” Intentionally rivet your mind on God. Perhaps the disciples recalled the words of Isaiah (26:3) “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” My wife and I recently saw the film “The Kings Speech.” I was deeply moved by this true story of King George VI who had to set his mind, fix his focus, rivet his heart on overcoming his stammering so he could speak to and calm the nation during her time of war. SO he went day after day to his speech therapist, Lionel, to work on it. It was a daily chore. That’s the same thrust and emphasis as Jesus words. Set your hearts at rest.
Yet Jesus did not ignore or brush aside their feelings, nor leave them to themselves. Rather He told them to DRAW ON YOUR TRUST IN GOD. “You trust in God.” The disciples were good Jews, who believed in God, so Jesus told them to think about their trust in Him. They would recall God’s call to Abraham to father many nations; His work through the life of Joseph to save the little band of chosen people; His intervention in the birth of Moses who would lead God’s nation; His mighty plagues in Egypt that led to Israel’s deliverance from slavery; the miracles in the desert of the pillars and clouds, water from the rocks, and daily manna to eat; His provision of Joshua to lead the people into the Promised Land and His power through Joshua to tumble to walls of Jericho; His covenant promise to David. (I suggest you read Ps. 78 for a litany of such events.)They would remember the promises through the Psalmist that His angels guard them, that He was their refuge, their hiding place, their fortress and their strength. (Read Isaiah 41:8-16 for a litany of such promises.) The disciples would remember that God was all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere present; that God was loving and desirous of blessing them. The list would go on and on for the disciples. Jesus told them to draw upon that trust.
Then Jesus threw in the kicker. He said TO DETERMINE TO TRUST IN HIM. “You trust in God…” then “…trust also in me.” That was a radical statement. For any man to equate trusting in God with trusting in himself was all but blasphemy; it was a claim to be equal to God. But that’s just what Jesus did. In fact, as Max Lucado has pointed out, Jesus’ most common command emerges from ‘fear not’ genre. The Gospels list some 125 such imperatives of Jesus. 21 of these urge us to ‘not be afraid’ or ‘not fear’ or to ‘have courage’ or ‘take heart’ or ‘be of good cheer.’ He wanted the disciples to recall all He had taught and done, to remember His miracles. In fact, Jesus urged those who had trouble believing in Him (Jn. 10:37-38) “Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” I like how The Message puts these verses: “If I don't do the things my Father does, well and good; don't believe me. But if I am doing them, put aside for a moment what you hear me say about myself and just take the evidence of the actions that are right before your eyes. Then perhaps things will come together for you, and you'll see that not only are we doing the same thing, we are the same—Father and Son. He is in me; I am in him.” That’s why Jesus said to His disciples, “You trust in God; trust also in me.”
SO WE, TOO, CAN TRUST. We are familiar with troubled hearts. Every day in our nation people swallow 9 tons of sleeping pills and 15 tons of aspirin. And that doesn’t include the amount of tranquilizers. Although America has only 4% of the world’s population, we consume 96% of the world’s tranquilizers. It’s common the annual number of suicides in America to shoot up over 31,000. Thomas Lindberg once Googled the words “personal peace” and discovered that there are more than 300,000 sites that give information on that topic. We know all about troubled hearts. That’s why Jesus calls us to deepen our connection with Him. As He met the disciples at their point of pain and agitation, so JESUS IS READY TO MEET US AT OUR POINT OF AGITATION. Jesus Himself said (Jn. 6:37) “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11:28).
So Jesus tells us, “You trust in God; trust also in me.” He urges us to SET OUR HEARTS AT REST. And how do we do that? WE HOLD ON TO OUR FAITH. C. S. Lewis wrote, “Faith…is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable…That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods ‘where they get off,’ you can never be a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.” As Max Lucado wrote, “Fear may fill our world, but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts. It will always knock on the door. Just don’t invite it in for dinner, and for heaven’s sake don’t offer it a bed for the night.” There are times when we just have to believe what we cannot prove and accept what we cannot understand.
So why trust Jesus? WE CAN HOLD ON TO OUR FAITH BECAUSE JESUS IS TRUSTWORTHY. He said one of the disciples would betray Him; Judas did. He said Peter would deny Him three times; He did. He said He was going to die; He did. He said He would rise and live again; He did. He said He would go – ascend – and be with the Father; He did. He said He would send His Spirit; He did. We can hold on to our faith because Jesus is trustworthy.
WE CAN HOLD ON TO OUR FAITH BECAUSE JESUS HELD ON TO HIS. Jesus admitted to the disciples that He, too, had an agitated heart (12:27). Speaking of His impending crucifixion Jesus said, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” So later that evening Jesus went to Gethsemane. Mark tells us (14:33 NEB) “Horror…came over him.” Horror is “used of a man rendered helpless, disoriented, who is agitated and anguished by the threat of some approaching event.” Jesus, too, experienced a troubled heart; it’s part of the human life. But notice what Jesus did there – He prayed. He spoke with, pleaded with, and listened to His Father. Luke tells us Jesus was so intense that He sweat drops of blood. But He was willing to hang on to His faith. He prayed “Father, if you are willing, take this cup (of crucifixion and death, of bearing the sin of the whole world) from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” He took His troubled heart to God; He submitted Himself to God’s will.
WE ALSO HOLD ON TO OUR FAITH BY TAKING TIME TO BE STILL. (Ps. 46:10) “Be still and know that I am God.” The Hebrew for “be still” means “Enough!” Slow down and get with God. Isaiah said (26:3) “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” “Fixed” means, in Hebrew, ‘to lean.’ To set your troubled heart at rest fix your thoughts on Jesus, lean on Him. Make ‘be still appointments’ with God. Read His Word, talk with Him, sing songs to Him, and listen to Him. And make sure worship with fellow believers holds a regular reservation on your weekly schedule. By the way – do you know why so many people claim to have trouble staying awake in church? It’s not because of the sermon or the worship order or the music. It’s because for many people Sunday morning is the only time they sit down to rest – and their body wants to catch up with them. They end up giving God the leftovers of their energy and their lives. Make ‘be still appointments’ with God.
The Psalmist put it this way (116:7, 12-14 NLT). “Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me…What can I offer the LORD for all he has done for me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the LORD’s name for saving me. I will keep my promises to the LORD in the presence of all his people.” Take the time to be still and listen; make the time for worship; use all your time and all your activities to carry out the promises you have made to God. Setting our hearts at rest is not so much a mindset as a heart-set. It involves a willingness to trust even when it seems unreasonable to do so; but it also involves the intensely personal act of giving up our wills to Jesus. It means to pray, like Jesus, “…yet not my will, but yours, Father, be done.”
Philip Yancey shared about “a conference on evangelism sponsored by Billy Graham in Manila. A Cambodian man mesmerized the audience with his story of daily meditation. Under the Pol Pot regime he was held in a concentration camp like those depicted in the movie ‘Killing Fields.’ Believing he had little time to live, he wanted to spend each day with God, preparing for death. ‘Even more than deprivation of food, even more than the torture, I resented having no time to meet with God. Always guards were yelling at us, forcing us to work, work, work.’ Finally he noticed that the guards could get no one to clean out the cesspits. He volunteered for the wretched job. ‘No one ever interrupted me, and I could do my work at a leisurely pace. Even in those stinking depths, I could look up and see blue sky. I could praise God that I survived another day. I could commune with God undisturbed, and pray for my friends and relatives all around me. That became for me a glorious time of meeting with God.” He knew the key to peace.
Whatever you have to do, whatever it takes, even in the cesspits of life, set your troubled heart at rest.
